Gonna be fr with y’all. I’m starting to hate Gen 9 OU.
This is the most balanced this gen has ever gotten but it still feels awful to play. I know my opinion isn’t gonna matter much since I’m washed, but there’s a couple things that 100% need to be looked at in the near future. I haven’t been posting much lately cause I simply don’t have the passion to play or talk about SV OU anymore.
My biggest issue with the tier is that winning feels less about being the better player and more about finding a way to cheese the opponent. It makes laddering in this tier incredibly frustrating.
I sympathize with this sentiment and want to actually explain, for once, why I don't like Scarlet/Violet OU beyond short terms or broad concepts.
This post will be all opinions with zero attempt to be "impartial". This post will not address what I think needs to be done with the tier, it will give my perspective.
1. The Fence Sitters
People often tackle power creep as a concept from the perspective of variety or Pokemon viability. As in, their problem with power creep is simply that new Pokemon replace old ones, usually at a massive scale.
ie. if Pokemon 1 is better than Pokemon 2 which is better than Pokemon 3 and 4, not only does Pokemon 1 knock Pokemon 2 out of the meta, but the scale in how power-crept 3 and 4 become is even greater. This much is obvious, but it's not really why I specifically hate power creep.
In fact, I don't really mind if new generations are devoid of old faces. Get rid of all the staples and that doesn't necessarily mean I'll dislike the tier. What I dislike about Scarlet/Violet's power creep is the form it takes, which is mainly in the form of abilities and moves
that I fucking despise.
If you remember, during DLC1 and DLC2 I was an extreme hater of this Pokemon. That much has not changed.
Why do I hate it? The stats, while good, aren't very special in this generation. The type is good, but Grounds are everywhere, and it isn't that hard to target its weaknesses. Even if it Teras, it's not fast enough to make that immensely threatening outside of Stall.
My problem is Good as Gold. Not just because of Defog, but that's the main reason: How limiting it is in your counterplay. Status is such an important part of the game and even Magic Guard can still be Thunder Wave'd in moderngen. Magic Bounce is the closest equivalent, but to put it simply, almost every Magic Guard Pokemon is ass, and the ones that aren't are easy to take out.
Xatu and Espeon notably have reliable recovery, but neither is actually good stat or type wise. Hatterene isn't bad, it's OU for a reason, but it's also not a Pokemon you can send out to attacks repeatedly and stick through it. Fairy-Type is good, but the benefits of resisting Dark are lost by the Psychic-Type, and a new weakness to Ghost is absolutely not worth the quadruple Fighting resistance.
Hatterene is not a bad Pokemon, do not get me wrong, but it's a busted ability on a Pokemon with major restrictions. Its HP stat is fundamentally a core resource, a stopgap, and its low Speed means that to stay in on threats (such as Setters) means it has to stay in several turns. This severely limits its longevity in most matchups.
Gholdengo has Recover and a good Defensive typing.
Resistant to: Flying, Rock, Bug, Steel, Grass, Psychic, Ice, Dragon and Fairy.
Immunities to: Normal, Fighting, Poison.
Now, it isn't unkillable. I said as much earlier, "The type is good, but Grounds are everywhere, and it isn't hard to target its weaknesses." This is what makes Gholdengo not broken in a traditional sense. What I dislike about Gholdengo is
how limiting it is. Now you have a Pokemon that resists 2/3rds of the type chart, can't be status'd outside of move procs, and has the tools to Recover reliably, Nasty Plot, status for opposing Pokemon, etc.
... And you can't Defog, which is what really solidifies my distaste for this ability and Pokemon. Not only was all of that above already pretty good, but the fact it blocks all status moves makes it a game-changing utility for most offensive teams, now crucially limiting your recourse against hazards.
To deal with Gholdengo for any playstyle slower than Bulky Offense becomes really fucking annoying. Not impossible, not that you can't, but it's just one of the most common annoyances I find when I play this metagame. I still think anyone who says "even without Gholdengo there wouldn't be good hazard control" is fucking coping because you don't want to get rid of this thing. I find this Pokemon to be incredibly warping in the teambuilder and in matches.
And what really makes it sad is that, honestly, I prefer its sort of statline for the game than shit like Roaring Moon. Outside of the Special Attack being sky high, it's relatively balanced and flexible, which I think makes it more fun to teambuild with. Outside of its ability, I think Gholdengo is actually an extremely ideal design for a new generation Pokemon, very solid traits that make it fun to work with while not inherently limiting; then you get its ability.
Garganacl is not broken in my opinion, and I do not think it'll ever be. It's not even a real problem in the metagame. Its role seems to be that the metagame throws on a few checks to it when it gets popular, then Garganacl disappears for a while, then it comes back up in waves.
Without Tera, this shit is going to McDonalds anyways, so a lot of this really only applies to this generation. That is all to say, I don't really have a problem with this Pokemon nearly as much as anything else I'll talk about here, but I think it'd be wrong of me to mention Gholdengo's ability, which I think is bullshit, while I also think this Purifying Salt (and Salt Cure) is also fucking stupid.
Resisting status is a major part of any Defensive Pokemon being able to stand up to other walls, as in forcing them out while staying in, or being able to pivot on their status. These immunities are usually soft immunities and usually type based. A wall being Poison-Type will often be great not just for the resistive qualities, but also because you're immune to Toxic, keeping it consistent. Thunder Wave immunities with Ground, Grass-Types versus a lot of Status (including Leech Seed, which isn't really in the same category but notable), Fire-Types immune to born.
Duh.
So why the fuck does this Pokemon get to be immune to every status with those stats? Yes, it's a Rock-Type, no that doesn't bring much solace in the game design department or in a world with Tera. Because this, again, isn't that hard to get rid of: Rock-Type sucks ass, Tera hogging is negative, and even post-Tera you can deal with it. What makes me hate it is that it limits your options in countering it in the builder and in-game.
Still, it's not the worst that it's immune to every status, sure. Magic Guard is practically immune to Wisp, Toxic/Poison, only having to care about Paralysis, Freeze and Sleep (which is banned, of course). And most of them are not terribly worse off post-paralysis.
So of course they give it a free resistance to Ghost and then they give it a move that basically automatically forces most Pokemon to pivot out. I don't get who thought this would be an interesting or fun Pokemon to fight against,
which matters!
Salt Cure basically necessitates stalling out its PP. Early in the generation I was swapping between a Slowking-Galar and Whirlwinding the Curse Out with my Tera Ghost Whirlwind Ting-Lu, fun times. See, even there though, it's not that dealing with this thing is impossible; did it just fine. It's just really fucking annoying. Outside of the Tera cost, this Pokemon is practically a one-man StallLord that requires being overwhelmed and JoJo Memed in order to get it out.
It's just another indication of the general design trend of Generation 9. Make everything immune to everything or give it a free Band / Speed boost.
Fuck this guy in particular.
Sharpness is an ability that I kinda think is boring, free Band boost on the Pokemon that get it pretty much, but fine. Kleavor gets it which is also bad design IMO with its signature but whatever it's a Bug/Rock-Type let it have it. So, yeah, it's fine whatever. It's pretty much only on two Pokemon that need it except oh wait they gave it to this fucker.
Samurott-Hisui is not only deceptively annoying to tank outside of contact punishing, it also gets progress even when you succeed at that. Terrible fucking design. It's not even like it's a one-trick-Pokemon, it has pivoting, Sucker Punch (we'll get to this later), and can even run other techs if you need. Knock Off also means that once it's gotten its Spikes up, it's going to make sure you're taking them.
Again, this Pokemon is nowhere near unstoppable. It's still a Samurott at its core. Doesn't mean it's not an annoying fucker, though.
To wrap this section up, I'm going to make how I feel about this game's design language very simple. Garganacl excluded (that Pokemon is almost certainly fine), a lot of the top tiers in this metagame are fence sitters. They push and prod at the norms of Pokemon design and stay at the edge of borderline, and I fucking hate them.
I hate Spikes Man and Defog Cheese, but I know they're never getting banned. These are the types of Pokemon that make this metagame a chore to sit through to me.
2. How To Check Shit
I hate the flow of battles in this metagame.
I've said it a few times in Discords before, but this is a metagame where both players Cuck Each Other and battles are sometimes (not always) decided by which side uses their Denial tools better rather than which ones poke and prod at the opposing team before they find their line.
One-Time Zamazenta Defense Boost.
One Time Tera.
One Time Booster Energy.
One Time Status Mon That Only Switches in Once.
Probably forgetting some things, but a lot of SV OU matches I see in SPL at the worst of times (usually HO v HO) feel like it's literally just which team uses less of these before the opponent. You use your Booster Energy mon to get a Pokemon, they send out their Booster Energy to revenge/force them out, etc. with Tera usage being the main differentiation, ie. "Can this Tera remove two of these tools rather than once, keeping me ahead?"
Now, this isn't necessarily uncompetitive, but I do think it's not interesting gameplay wise and I just don't care for it myself. With the influx of Bulky Offense v Bulky Offense mirrors, games feel like this less so, but those matchups aren't immune to this kind of pacing.
One thing I hate is that Encore is everywhere. Now, I've had this rant a few times and people always tell me "well Encore is just a good move you'd run it anyways", but you can't convince me that Tera is not a big reason why it's gone from "nice bonus" to massive utility that keeps your team ahead in consistency.
Simply put, Encore is one of the few ways you can get around Tera. Whereas just attacking a Pokemon means you're opening up the Schrodinger's Box of if they're going to Tera this turn, and if you have the coverage maybe that, Encore (if you're faster) lets you disarm the threat and force them out, usually a Booster Energy Pokemon.
That's competitively sound,
but I don't like it. I don't like how this metagame seems so focused on getting around things like this, rather than I don't know, being able to wall things consistently, like most tiers before.
In terms of Defensive Pokemon ways of dealing with the setup-Tera nature of the tier, there's some ways. Ting-Lu Whirlwind is a big one, and I don't like that Pokemon either! Feels like a slog to play against, but sure, it's great that we have something in this Hellscape of a tier.
Game Freak arbitrarily killed Toxapex so one of our pivots is gone, Slowking-Galar is a common target to be Tera'd on by the Pokemon it does check, Alomomola can do a fairly good job. The tier isn't impossible to switch into things, but it's a massive stat check because typing alone isn't enough: You can't just resist the moves, you need to have the stats to not give a shit even if you can't resist things. Again, restricting the nature of the tier IMO.
Fence Sitter Ass Generation.
Terastilization is a mechanic I vehemently defended when the generation was new, and when I was a fucking idiot (still am, of course, but 1% less so). This is because I thought of Tera like a mix of "custom Regional Forms / Mega Evolutions", but over time I not only realized how that isn't really how it worked, and also the fact that the people who
did like Tera liked it for, in my opinion, very lame reasons.
Regardless, it's become a catch-all one-time check to anything in the game, and I think that's generally lame, and I hate it as a mechanic. It's a momentum reverser, in the most simple of terms: Fighting games as a quick example, will often have mechanics tied to meters which let you reverse interactions. A quick, Pokemon-related example is Pokken, you pop your special and it pushes the enemy back and you can time a new attack. Fairly basic stuff.
Tera feels like that but in a turn-based competitive game which I fucking hate. Because, to me, competitive Pokemon
should be about closing out the opposing team's opportunities through skillful play and good understanding of your wincons and losecons. Instead, Tera feels like it's an instant "fuck your gameplan". While that doesn't actually necessarily mean the endgame doesn't happen, because a good gameplan in this tier needs to account for a Tera pop anyways so at least they got rid of it, that also matters which Tera Type, what set the Tera'd Pokemon is using, and if it's on the right piece on your side of the board.
Everyone's already said their piece on Tera forever at this point, but I've rarely actually given my own opinionated reasoning as to why I dislike it, so there it is. It fits into the broader pattern of this Generation feeling like you're slapping Flex Seal onto what's in front of you rather than actually interacting with each other.
Shit, I even forgot until right now- we can add Red Card shenanigans into the list of "This tier feels more about disruption and phasing rather than actually checking Pokemon directly," which some may like, I don't.
Lastly for this point, this tier has significantly more priority usage than practically any other tier I've played, and I don't think that's a coincidence or fun. I don't have a problem with priority moves, but again, I generally prefer a meta where you don't need to just outspeed Pokemon in order to Not Fucking Die.
Besides, a lot of the priority moves in this tier are also really cringe on a micro-play level: Sucker Punch / Thunder Clap shenanigans, anyone?! Aren't those our favorites?!
Hold on though, want to actually check things defensively consistently? Well there is a solution,
Run one of the several terribly unfun Pokemon to face such as Clodsire, Skeledirge or Dondozo. All of which have major problems, not broken, (fence sitter generation), but also very much power-crept compared to prior gen Unaware Pokemon, while also being checked easily by Offense anyways. Skeledirge sent down to UU for Tera Reliance, Clodsire has a more exploitable typing, Dondozo is weak on the Special side. These Pokemon are solid, but I don't like the fact that these are, again, some of the main checks.
"Wow, all of these means of counterplay and you hate all of them? So picky!" Yes.
Let me switch into Pokemon without bullshit abilities or needing to just out-offense things.
3. Additional Brokens, and (arguable) Fence Sitters
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
These two are both broken and I will not be convinced otherwise. These two honestly should have been booted long ago, and I swear to God if neither of these are banned by Generation 10 OU then we need to talk about this tiering system LOL.
Ogerpon-Wellspring is just "I cook Balance" and then you have people be like "B-but how would Offense not immediately cook Balance without it!" and Kyurem is 500 Sets in a trench coat.
Overall:
Generation 9 Overused is a tier that I can't exactly say is "stupidly broken" anymore, and that itself is a miracle in a tier this power-crept with Tera. But that doesn't make it even remotely enjoyable to me, or a tier that I think is balanced, which is why I continue to bitch about the tier anyways lol.
This tier feels like the Torment Nexus spawned into real life where every match is about stacking and using your one-time checks slightly better than the opponent. Even when you predict Tera, it doesn't feel good to face (in my opinion) and using it doesn't feel particularly good either.
Now, if you have fun in the tier, don't let me stop you, it's truly good (and interesting, in a grander sense) that we can enjoy such different things. But as someone that, before this generation, was one of those CGOU-only people, this is a tier that has truly forced me to branch out lest I just stop enjoying competitive Pokemon for the potentially 4 years until Generation 10.
I wanted to give this explanation of why, on a mechanical micro level, I don't like the tier because I've seen plenty of people say similar sort of things but not have people totally get it. A lot of the time, when people complain about things feeling like shit, people just assume it's a skill issue. In a way, yes I do have one, in that I don't play this tier very much at all- I'm sure most of you are better than me at this tier by a lot! But that's also because, when I do play it (and I do give this tier a chance semi-often), I end up hating it and not wanting to grind the ladder. More than that, I don't feel like this tier's threats are actually extremely hard to deal with anyways; it's just that the tools you use to deal with them aren't fun to me, interactions feel like Schrodinger's Boxes and even when I win it's usually a "finally it's over" rather than "that was fun".
Fence Sitter Ass Generation fr though.
Hated Gliscor since DLC1. I got a couple replays to support my hatred for this flying scorpion, vampire thing.
