
Since the ban of Zacian, Hyper Offense teams have risen to the forefront of the meta with Spectrier leading the charge. Spectrier's Ghost Typing enables it many chances to enter the battle with the intention of blocking hazard removal. While Spectrier itself isn't a new addition onto these teams, the lack of good speed control options in the tier turn its Base 130 Speed into a massive threat under these conditions. Gaining Draining Kiss during the transition to generation 9 has allowed Spectrier to threaten the Dark and Normal Types that previously attempted to stave it off, especially given its access to Terastallization. With Zacian gone, Spectrier is now able to abuse Tera Fairy more freely, granting it more opportunities. However, the horse finds itself mostly locked to the HO archetype as its rather unimpressive bulk prevents it from getting onto the field more frequently for bulkier teams. Spectrier found itself as one of the most controversial mons on the most recent survey with a 7.5 from the qualified playerbase, but only a 5.77 from the general one. As such, the council decided to put Spectrier's fate into the hands of the community.
Spectrier has risen up to be one of the strongest attackers in Ubers UU following the ban of Zacian. With its base 130 Speed, Spectrier threatens to outspeed almost the entire metagame unboosted, and is faster than everything except Iron Bundle, Regieleki, and Mewtwo holding Heavy Duty Boots under Sticky Webs. Spectrier leverages its newly found elite speed tier to put an immense amount of pressure on most team structures, using its base 145 Special Attack stat and Ghost STAB. In a tier lacking consistent Dark and Normal types since the rise of HO has pushed both Arceus-Dark and Terapagos out of their previously dominant meta positions, Spectrier's Nasty Plot boosted Shadow Balls threaten most teams' defensive backbones. Anything that doesn't fold to STAB Shadow Ball is often quickly dispatched by Spectrier's coverage of choice, Draining Kiss. While Draining Kiss is only 50 BP, its all Spectrier needs to maul defensive cores backed by Dark Types that would otherwise hinder its sweep. Boosted to 60 BP by Tera Fairy, Spectrier's Draining Kiss also serves as a way to heal off the Life Orb recoil that it ubiquitously holds. In the last move slot, Spectrier has a choice of a few moves like Taunt, Will-o-Wisp, Substitute, and Disable; with Taunt being the most preferred to prevent Defog or recovery attempts.
This isn't to say Spectrier is without any flaws. The horse is a 1-trick-pony as its set will almost always be known before a game even starts with 3 of its moves locked in immediately. While its Ghost Typing allows for multiple potential set up targets, Spectrier's aforementioned lackluster bulk makes it difficult to find safe opportunities to set up a Nasty Plot, especially versus opposing offense teams. Without Sticky Webs, this rather poor bulk leaves Spectrier very vulnerable to revenge killing attempts from opposing Scarfers as well as naturally faster Pokemon like Deoxys. The meta has also adapted around the horse's presence on these offensive teams, as many teams are opting to run Tera Normal Arceus forms, often referred to as Ekiller, as a means of staving of Spectrier. Arceus' fantastic bulk and new Normal Typing allow it to be unafraid of anything Spectrier commonly runs, bar for the rare Will-o-Wisp, and can even use Spectrier as an opportunity to set up Swords Dances if Spectrier is not carrying Taunt. Other Pokemon like Specially Defensive Terapagos and Alolan-Muk have started to pop up in attempts to hold off Spectrier defensively, while not having to sacrifice tera to do so. The lack of set diversity hurts Spectrier a lot, as it means it will almost always be checked by these Pokemon.
Given all of this, the council elected to vote on Spectrier which can be seen below:
Name | BigFatMantis | Dorron | Fc | Finchely | FishyRoads | Frito | Leo Justice | Rasche |
Spectrier | Suspect | Suspect | Suspect | Suspect | Suspect | Suspect | Abstain | Suspect |
NOTE: THIS TEST WILL BE USING A NEW SUSPECT PROCESS!
The instructions to participate in this test are as follows:
- Create a new account on PS. You do not have to follow any specific naming convention, but your suspect account must have never played a game in Ubers UU before this suspect test went up or you will not receive valid requirements (resetting W/L does not count for this - the account you use must never have played Ubers UU before the test, full stop.)
- At any point on your new account, use the command /linksmogon on Pokemon Showdown! You will receive instructions on what to do once you run this command.
- Double check that you're listed as a voter here! If you aren't listed as a voter despite having valid reqs, please contact myself or a member of staff.
- If you have any questions about this new process, feel free to PM me or post here!
The requirement to vote in this suspect test is a COIL value of 2770. For reference, the B-value for this suspect will be 3. The suspect test will go on for about 14 days, lasting until Tuesday, June 24th at 11:59 pm GMT-4.
There will be 2 suspect tours in the Unofficial Metagames room on Pokemon showdown! on the 21st and 22nd of June at 2pm GMT -4 and 8pm GMT-5 respectively, and the winner & runner up will qualify for requirements.
This thread will be open to allow all users to share their thoughts on this suspect test and discuss with one another their thoughts. Should you have any questions about the suspect test, feel free to message me or anyone else on the Ubers UU council.
Last edited: