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OU RBY OU Ladder / "Jank" Discussion Thread

So a few weeks ago, I made the bold claim that if Gallade was in RBY - even if it was a Gallade with only 65 special and no EQ or Rock Slide coverage - it would still be a more viable psychic type in OU than Mr. Mime. But after I said that, I got to thinking - is that, like, true?

I can't find any information at all about Mr. Mime in OU. On the one hand, I completely understand why no one's chomping at the bit to cover Mr. Mime, but on the other hand, thanks to Ortheore, I literally have more resources on hand regarding Kadabra's utility in OU than I do Mr. Mime's. I found Ortheore's extended viability rankings earlier in the thread and saw Mr. Mime placed in E6, but no words on why it's there.

So if you were somehow forced to use Mr. Mime on the RBY OU ladder, what would you do with it?
 
XionGaTaosenai said:
So a few weeks ago, I made the bold claim that if Gallade was in RBY - even if it was a Gallade with only 65 special and no EQ or Rock Slide coverage - it would still be a more viable psychic type in OU than Mr. Mime. But after I said that, I got to thinking - is that, like, true?

I can't find any information at all about Mr. Mime in OU. On the one hand, I completely understand why no one's chomping at the bit to cover Mr. Mime, but on the other hand, thanks to Ortheore, I literally have more resources on hand regarding Kadabra's utility in OU than I do Mr. Mime's. I found Ortheore's extended viability rankings earlier in the thread and saw Mr. Mime placed in E6, but no words on why it's there.

So if you were somehow forced to use Mr. Mime on the RBY OU ladder, what would you do with it?
Click to expand...

Psychic, Tbolt, Counter, Submission.

Psychic is STAB.
Tbolt is the ONLY thing that Mime has over Zam.
Counter because its frail as fuck and opposing Normal guys sometimes will use Normal moves. Also, if someone explodes and kills some of your other Mon, you send Mime and they send a Poison type, you predict switch and Counter previous Explosion.
Submission because otherwise you have almost 0 chance to kill Chansey. Zam (who has more Attack btw, lol) doesnt need it because he has 32 PP Recover and in long games will end up winning vs Chansey with the drops, Mime doesnt have that luxury. An underrated advantage of Submission is that if you kill yourself with it, even if Chansey stays alive, it wont be able to heal that turn.

Stoss and Twave are other options, but then you are just much better using Zam.

The only good thing I can say about Mr. Mime, is that unlike many other los tier Mons it at least isnt walled by Gengar, the fun killer. Otherwise, its a terrible Mon, worse than Kadabra and almost worse than Abra, lol.
 
Yeah I didn't give a reason for where I ranked Mime bc I haven't tested it at all, and I'd be pretty open to moving it if anyone wanted to argue.

Mime's probably not terrible to use, given that it's mostly a watered down Zam without Recover. It's just that justifying its use is really fkn difficult when there are so many better psychic types. I think Eeveeto's comment that Kadabra is better than it is probably accurate tbh

I haven't seriously tried finding a niche for Mime yet, but it probably follows similar logic to Kadabra in that you're stacking it w Zam, Tbolt isn't enough to distinguish it otherwise. However, beyond that I suspect it plays completely differently. Mime's lack of recovery makes it less useful early game, whereas its better physical bulk when compared to Kadabra means that at least it isn't OHKO'd by Taur, so it's likely geared more towards lategame. That said, this is still fairly superficial theorymon
 
Literally the only thing Mime has going for it is Thunderbolt to hit Starmie, Cloyster and Slowbro, threatening a 3HKO / 2HKO / 3HKO respectively. It is not "almost worse than Abra", Mr. Mime has superior bulk + Thunderbolt with Abra's only advantage being 5 more Special. It's basically an upgraded Abra, which of course means it's nowhere near good enough in OU. Kadabra alone is certainly superior to it, and Hypno is right there if you want a non-OU slow recoverless Psychic-type. Even if Mr. Mime had over 300 HP and Recover, it would be hard to justify it over Starmie is another Psychic-type with Thunderbolt that has superior speed, bulk and movepool. Even the lack of Electric weakness isn't very meaningful when it still loses to Zapdos easily in a 1v1. Perhaps if its type was Psychic/Electric, then its Thunderbolt would be something worthwhile and would stand out as a Psychic-type that isn't Zapdos-weak.

Edit: I think if there were a niche for Mr. Mime, it'd be used alongside TBolt Starmie as a Mie/Cloy/Bro + Don counter team. While Mr. Mime is bad in a vacuum, I can imagine end game scenarios where the combined threat of Psychic + Thunderbolt + Thunder Wave could be tricky for those teams to navigate, and could let you play more aggressively with Starmie earlier on. I think for this purpose the ideal set would have Barrier as 4th move, as that changes the Rhydon matchup in a way that makes Mr. Mime favored in a 1v1 instead of losing it (also handy for gaining speed advantage in a paralyzed Mr. Mime vs. paralyzed Starmie situation):
Mr. Mime Psychic vs. Rhydon: 154-181 (37.2 - 43.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Rhydon Earthquake vs. Mr. Mime: 169-199 (59.7 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Rhydon Earthquake vs. +2 Mr. Mime: 85-100 (30 - 35.3%) -- 21.6% chance to 3HKO

Victreebel and Venusaur serve a similar purpose and should do it better most of the time, but STAB Psychic and the lack of Ice/Psychic/Flying weaknesses can help in certain situations, such as against Gengar and unparalyzed Zam/Mie. Mime is also problematic for wrappers, STAB Psychic + Thunder Wave + >80 Speed is always a problem for them.
 
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I've had success against many good players with a variation of the 4-starters team (Charizard, Venusaur, Blastoise, Raichu, Lapras, and Chansey), which very much surprised me. The issue, of course, is that this team, as it stands, could never obtain an impressive gxe. I was wondering if any professional shitty team users here could recommend any changes to boost the consistency. The fact that I can perform well with this team suggests to me that there is potential here.
 
Here are some replays of me using the four starters team.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-2249262332-ty2xjwxgxyjnaff29hb27mq8mp51fpbpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-2248345351-cbjkquczqw4ji81poazu2pe5ft9k90cpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-2247329240-8jzkpdsyb198xcgqyfh9yfydl9gbvghpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-2130590451

Beelzemon 2003 (my favorite pokemon player) is also a fan of the 4 starters team. Here he is using it.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-669283209?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-1136379254
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-1132285414

The four starters team is the poster boy of jank. It is what jank is all about, and one would expect that it just wouldn't work. That it just couldn't work. That it just SHOULDN'T work. Yet... this thing can obviously be pretty scary. I feel that we, as the jank community, should collectively band together to once and for all figure out what in the world are the optimal pokemon for the remaing two slots. Like, mathetmatically accurate and objectively optimal. Beelze uses Zam and Chansey. I use Lapras and Chansey. But I feel we haven't made the best version of this team yet.
 
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-2293809638-gyt63p86plpg5puo13rwgjkfg8l42iqpw

For a while I experimented with Moltres. This game is a pretty good display of its power. Some people talk about the accuracy of fire spin holding it back. But that doesn't matter. Fire spin is just icing on the cake. What I really remember disliking is fire blast when it missed. But I never found a better combination of moves than the standard set. Zapdos has historically been seen as the dominant bird, leaving the others in its shadow. But honestly, Moltres and Articuno are really great, and I have never felt held back when using them.

Completely unrelated question: has anyone ever figured out how to use Raichu in any viable way? I have always loved Raichu but have never figured out how to optimize a team that would allow him to shine. He doesn't feel synergistic with anything I've tried.

Edit: What I'm more focused on is synergy and less on viability. A team that makes Raichu MAKE SENSE. I play with Onix quite a bit, and yeah, he sucks, but he MAKES SENSE on the team I use him on, which uses paralysis and toxic support to take advantage of bind.
 
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Leader of the Rockets said:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-2293809638-gyt63p86plpg5puo13rwgjkfg8l42iqpw

For a while I experimented with Moltres. This game is a pretty good display of its power. Some people talk about the accuracy of fire spin holding it back. But that doesn't matter. Fire spin is just icing on the cake. What I really remember disliking is fire blast when it missed. But I never found a better combination of moves than the standard set. Zapdos has historically been seen as the dominant bird, leaving the others in its shadow. But honestly, Moltres and Articuno are really great, and I have never felt held back when using them.

Completely unrelated question: has anyone ever figured out how to use Raichu in any viable way? I have always loved Raichu but have never figured out how to optimize a team that would allow him to shine. He doesn't feel synergistic with anything I've tried.
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Last and only time I remember a Raichu in any form of high level tournament was Kenix messing around with it 4 years ago:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-594774
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-586250

The fact that I can only pull 2 replays from the memory banks probably speaks quite poorly about Raichu's overall viability, and it's a different meta now so I doubt replicating that team 1 to 1 is especially good. But maybe it can be a starting point for something at least decent
 
With Raichu, instead of dedicating the 5 other Mons to destroy Rhydon (like Jolteon and Zapdos need), you need to dedicate them to kill Exeggutor. Which on top of being harder (Exeggutor is much harder to switch into than Rhydon), isnt even enough, cause after Egg, you still have to deal with Tauros (and Persian) outspeeding you, Alakazam and Gengar still checking you hard, Chansey forcing you to suicide with Submission ( which is actually a good trade) and Snorlax taking your hits fairly well.
You don,t have the Speed + crit rate of Jolteon. Or the bulk. In fact, Jolteon too is physically AND specially bulkier than Raichu.
You don,t have the Ground immunity of Zapdos. Or the offensive power, for that matter.
You are killed by Para. Jolteon and Zapdos don,t like it either, but are viable Rest users and also are capable of doing damage when paralyzed (remember Jolteon's crit rate? It doesn,t go away).

The 2 things going for Raichu are Surf and Submission, meaning its the Electric that does most damage to both Rhydon and Chansey (at the expense of probably dying in the process of doing it, though if it happens and Chansey lives, it won,t be using Softboiled that turn).
With this in mind, probably some kind of special spam is the best idea. Gengar, Zam, Slowbro (Blizzard + no Twave) are probably good ideas. Tauros might afford not running Blizzard and use EQ + Tbolt (for Cloyster) instead.

Honestly, I think building a decent team with Electrode is easier than with Raichu, its like Jolteon or Zapdos, but explodes vs Rhydon, preventing Sub and allowing some big threat (Tauros, for example) in.
 
Leader of the Rockets said:
Completely unrelated question: has anyone ever figured out how to use Raichu in any viable way? I have always loved Raichu but have never figured out how to optimize a team that would allow him to shine. He doesn't feel synergistic with anything I've tried.
Click to expand...
Lead him. I think multiple people have played around with him but sadly tarvold is the only name that comes to mind.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-794409
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-794428
 
Soda_Eesti said:
Lead him. I think multiple people have played around with him but sadly tarvold is the only name that comes to mind.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-794409
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-794428
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, these teams are better than Kenix's. The back Raichu on those teams just seems very arbitrary. It doesn't necessarily have a clear specific purpose for being there. But, on Tarvold's teams, the lead Raichu actually has a niche all of his own. It plays a similar role as Jolteon, with the niche being that Rhydon can't hard wall it, and it scares Chansey a bit more than Jolteon. Despite whatever one has to say of the quality of lead Raichu's opening game, it is at least unique and one can work with it. So far, this is the best use of Raichu I have seen.
 
Yeah I do value it as a dedicated turn 1 t-waver lead that can't be Don-blocked like Zap and Jolt.
Obviously has it's issues. Has problems with 4 move slot syndrome and lacks the sheer destructive elements of the aforementioned (*Jolt if crits and pin-missile accuracy play ball).
In other cases Zam is usually the best t1-waver, but Raichu allows you the option to have Zam in the back.
Being a dedicated waver slower than Jynx, for me is not a very viable option. Being faster than Gar doesn't matter as much since it can often just shoot itself in the foot missing hypnosis, however being faster than Jynx is important to reduce it's freeze odds.
So the other non-Zam, non Don-blocked options are Mie and Kad, which both are going to have issues with t-waving a t1 Chansey switch, allowing opponent a comfortable sleep or to freeze fish with impunity.
For Raichu Zam-less I think you consider it mainly for the soft Zap check and electric lead check principles.
Plus probably more than any other lead it invokes an early opponent switch to Egg, so you can construct that to your advantage. A sleeper that can bust through Egg easily makes sense, think back Jynx, Lap etc.
 
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