Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion v4

[Ctann]

Has anyone been trialing variations of rillaboom that aren’t just band or terrain extender?

I’ve brought back an older set from a different meta and it’s working really well.. mostly due to x2 resists not being enough for dealing with hammer spam.

Example replay:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454344732-v96rv96go5pchc9ndlpkhq7yvr6338npw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454371125

The set:

Rillaboom @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Swords Dance
- Drain punch / knock off / other filler move

The filler can be anything really, drain punch is for end game scenarios/healing and kingambit, knock off sounds good on paper but limited in practice (you lose to most x4 resists even with it, whilst hammer is good against x2 resists) unless this rilla is likely to come out and stay out early. You can also use taunt, u turn, etc.. basically Rillaboom will never beat its best checks, no matter what you run. That dragonite, speedy pecharunt or zapdos isn’t going to struggle switching in.

Here’s a list of what’s slower and OHKOd at +2 and with Tera grass wood hammer, ranked by usage. You can assume defensive sets unless noted otherwise. Often Tera grass isn’t needed with even the slightest chip or non-max def sets.

- [offensive] gambit
- gholdengo
- slowking-g
- [offensive] raging bolt
- Tera for most defensive mobs

Faster threats can often be taken out with grassy glide. Most of the problematic ones like Kyurem, dragapult or cinderace can be KOd from around 60-85% reliably (Kyurem needs to be offensive) Neutral slower threats like Gliscor often don’t need a +2 for the OHKO.

 

[Whaloob]

Has anyone been trialing variations of rillaboom that aren’t just band or terrain extender?

I’ve brought back an older set from a different meta and it’s working really well.. mostly due to x2 resists not being enough for dealing with hammer spam.

Example replay:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454344732-v96rv96go5pchc9ndlpkhq7yvr6338npw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454371125

The set:

Rillaboom @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Swords Dance
- Drain punch / knock off / other filler move

The filler can be anything really, drain punch is for end game scenarios/healing and kingambit, knock off sounds good on paper but limited in practice (you lose to most x4 resists even with it, whilst hammer is good against x2 resists) unless this rilla is likely to come out and stay out early. You can also use taunt, u turn, etc.. basically Rillaboom will never beat its best checks, no matter what you run. That dragonite, speedy pecharunt or zapdos isn’t going to struggle switching in.

Here’s a list of what’s slower and OHKOd at +2 and with Tera grass wood hammer, ranked by usage. You can assume defensive sets unless noted otherwise. Often Tera grass isn’t needed with even the slightest chip or non-max def sets.

- [offensive] gambit
- gholdengo
- slowking-g
- [offensive] raging bolt
- Tera for most defensive mobs

Faster threats can often be taken out with grassy glide. Most of the problematic ones like Kyurem, dragapult or cinderace can be KOd from around 60-85% reliably (Kyurem needs to be offensive) Neutral slower threats like Gliscor often don’t need a +2 for the OHKO.

SD with LO has been rising in popularity recently, same with boots 4A. Miracle seed is an interesting alternative to LO but boosting the coverage slots too is really nice and terrain offsets some LO recoil. Do with that what you will. Happy laddering!

 

[Magcargo]

Has anyone been trialing variations of rillaboom that aren’t just band or terrain extender?

I’ve brought back an older set from a different meta and it’s working really well.. mostly due to x2 resists not being enough for dealing with hammer spam.

Example replay:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454344732-v96rv96go5pchc9ndlpkhq7yvr6338npw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454371125

The set:

Rillaboom @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Swords Dance
- Drain punch / knock off / other filler move

The filler can be anything really, drain punch is for end game scenarios/healing and kingambit, knock off sounds good on paper but limited in practice (you lose to most x4 resists even with it, whilst hammer is good against x2 resists) unless this rilla is likely to come out and stay out early. You can also use taunt, u turn, etc.. basically Rillaboom will never beat its best checks, no matter what you run. That dragonite, speedy pecharunt or zapdos isn’t going to struggle switching in.

Here’s a list of what’s slower and OHKOd at +2 and with Tera grass wood hammer, ranked by usage. You can assume defensive sets unless noted otherwise. Often Tera grass isn’t needed with even the slightest chip or non-max def sets.

- [offensive] gambit
- gholdengo
- slowking-g
- [offensive] raging bolt
- Tera for most defensive mobs

Faster threats can often be taken out with grassy glide. Most of the problematic ones like Kyurem, dragapult or cinderace can be KOd from around 60-85% reliably (Kyurem needs to be offensive) Neutral slower threats like Gliscor often don’t need a +2 for the OHKO.

I ran AV for a bit. Works as an ok prim / Woger check, but it had some breaking / progress making issues against mons like Moltres, Gambit, etc (particularly bad since my Rocker doesnt beat Moltres). Swapped it for Pads Meow (lures Gambit easy with Low Kick and beats both Zapdos and Moltres with Knock Off -> Rocks + Axel on ths swap). Also helps against Regen mons a bit better.

 

[JackRG]

Has anyone been trialing variations of rillaboom that aren’t just band or terrain extender?

I’ve brought back an older set from a different meta and it’s working really well.. mostly due to x2 resists not being enough for dealing with hammer spam.

Example replay:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454344732-v96rv96go5pchc9ndlpkhq7yvr6338npw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454371125

The set:

Rillaboom @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Wood Hammer
- Swords Dance
- Drain punch / knock off / other filler move

The filler can be anything really, drain punch is for end game scenarios/healing and kingambit, knock off sounds good on paper but limited in practice (you lose to most x4 resists even with it, whilst hammer is good against x2 resists) unless th

is rilla is likely to come out and stay out early. You can also use taunt, u turn, etc.. basically Rillaboom will never beat its best checks, no matter what you run. That dragonite, speedy pecharunt or zapdos isn’t going to struggle switching in.

Here’s a list of what’s slower and OHKOd at +2 and with Tera grass wood hammer, ranked by usage. You can assume defensive sets unless noted otherwise. Often Tera grass isn’t needed with even the slightest chip or non-max def sets.

- [offensive] gambit
- gholdengo
- slowking-g
- [offensive] raging bolt
- Tera for most defensive mobs

Faster threats can often be taken out with grassy glide. Most of the problematic ones like Kyurem, dragapult or cinderace can be KOd from around 60-85% reliably (Kyurem needs to be offensive) Neutral slower threats like Gliscor often don’t need a +2 for the OHKO.

This set looks pretty good, some stuff you need to get worn down but far from unmanagable, I've been trying the bulky SD set from gen 8 a bit lately:

Rillaboom @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 56 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- High Horsepower

I originally thought this set was unviable since post nerf grassy glide is hard to justify as your only stab, but tbh in testing it actually did quite well. Switches into waterpon suprising well and is a solid win condition, especially aganist many offenses.

 

[Whaloob]

I’ve been finding a lot of these Rilla teams a bit difficult to built tbh. Molt, Zap, and Kyu give me a lot of problems with these builds.

I cannot recommend enough the starting 3 of Heatran, Rilla, and Woger (with glide if you want and if Rilla has terrain extender). Coincidentally, I started using these 3 together shortly before someone took these 3 alongside a specs tblast fairy Pult, Zong, and spin + 3A boots Tusk to #5 on ladder—it’s a great team that I feel has stood up well to meta changes since its posting (RMT here), though I prefer building around the 3 with rocks on my Heatran. The synergy centers primarily around Heatran: you put up rocks while not allowing in Tusk or Treads, who are very afraid of Magma Storm or Lava Plume, and even coming in directly on Corv or Geez and putting rocks back up. Glowking cannot scout you if you’re Magma Storm, and Ting Lu will get chipped by Magma Storm or potentially burned by Lava Plume. There is only a small handful of mons that take on Magma Storm (my preferred fire STAB despite the miss chance) with relative ease, mainly Mola and Moltres; Woger comes in freely on trapped Mola which cannot double out, and Moltres is a likely candidate for switching into Rillaboom which allows you to knock it (while having a second priority abuser if Woger is glide, so burn isn’t a death sentence to your ability to revenge kill), while Heatran keeps rocks up with ease. Rilla and Woger both check strong Water and Ground attacks for Heatran, and their priority shores up offense matchups, while Heatran and Woger are both very difficult to wall. Rilla provides both with terrain recovery and allows even offensive Heatran to take an EQ from Treads (75% of the time), Ting Lu, or unboosted Dragonite from full.

The main trouble matchups for these three are Kyurem, Dnite (esp tera flying), Zapdos, Ceruledge with CC, Glimmora, Raging Bolt, Blaziken, HJK Cinderace, and banded Pult. Which is a lot of mons, but of course it is because we’re looking at 3 mons right now. The cheatsheet for finishing out this starting 3 into a team is bulky ground + Kyurem counter + speed control; the given RMT uses Tusk, Zong, and Pult respectively in these 3 slots, and while Zapdos and Raging Bolt can both trouble Tusk, Zong, Heatran, specs Pult, and double priority shore up these matchups well enough.

 

[Ctann]

Here’s a really good demo of rillabooms place in the meta as a wall breaker. I think wood hammer is just really good right now. Personally not a life orb fan because the extra 10% power for grassy glide and hammer isn’t as important as preserving health against hazards. Miracle seed has just enough of a boost.

Here it [eventually] breaks through an x4 resist with future sight support, the first 60 turns are just fluff so you can skip through them.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2454885392-7dxp7ia7gc7h3xkl9xrcx1y984ukfkbpw

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I’d argue best teammates for Rillaboom right now are actually Glowking and others that can pressure it’s switchins.