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Metagame Champions OU Metagame Discussion

Again, if you believe a Pokémon is broken with screens, that Pokémon is likely a problem in itself. With Staraptor it's no different. Okay, you don't wanna defog in front of Staraptor because of contrary. But screens isn't the only way to leave you into an awkward position if you do not defog, hazard stacking being the alternative.

There are anti hazard tactics which don’t rely on Defog.

Trying to move blame as “well X being broken under screens just means X was broken” when the play style nor mons were not even issued before light clay was added, just doesn’t make sense.

We also need to take into account we have now other ways to take screens down in Psychic Fangs.

Highly specific move that one pokemon viably runs.


And if screens was a problem, people would be using Aurora Veil Ninetales right now despite no Light Clay as you still have 3 turns to set up and given how fast paced the meta is, according to your post, 3 turns is a lot.

This is a very disingenuous comment, you know they mean 3 extra turns “in addition the the starting 5 screens give” is what they mean.


Also, unfortunately the philosophy of making the tier "less offensive" i think unless we ban half the tier, it won't be possible. Game freak is making sure defensive play is on the ground, never to be ressurected again, as evidenced by Gen 9 nerfs, most of which were carried over to Champions. Like it or not, the meta will be headed in a offensive way.

Defensive play style 100% exists. Please stop trying to fear monger. In gen9, all manner of defensive teams are viable just fine. People just had to figure out how to build with them. We don’t just get new offensive options, gamefreak offers defensive tools alongside them.
 
1. You don’t want to defog into staraptor, but in front of mons like staraptor you will just have to or don’t at all. You lose in both situations, staraptor gets an evasion boost, or it continues to set up and get bulkier turn by turn even if mons that should be it’s check come out. Compare this to hazards which are annoying but don’t create this lose, lose situation. I can calculate and plan around hazards anticipating the damage I’ll take to still make progress even if I cant clear them right away. Defog is the only utility option available that can clear screens.

2. Yes psychic fangs and brick break exists but it falls apart when you realize what your losing to run these moves. For starters not many of the Pokemon that currently have access to this move actually have the attack to use it offensively nor the tying to gain stab on it. Why not use it as coverage? Because those same mons will just happen to have stronger coverage options or just prefer to run their stabs over it. Take for instance ageisgalsh, cereludge, blazeikin and annihilape. All are mons with access to brick break, but have access to stronger moves in drain punch, close combat, sacred sword, all vital to their playstyle and securing kills. Not only that, some of the best screen setters in the game right now or at least when light clay was available grimmsnarl, dragapult, and ninetails A are either immune/resistant to these moves or now have a much better matchup into these mons because they are using weaker coverage. Would you want a metagame where your essentially forced to run weaker moves to deal with a specific threat to your teams every match, not even including dealing with the mons behind the screens.

3. No gamefreak is not making defensive play go to the ground, champions is meant to be a competitive VGC game which plays completely different from showdown champions OU, with its own meta. Even its 3v3 singles metagame plays different. Nothing wrong with an offensive meta either; the whole point of the game is to deal damage to your opponents Pokemon and knock them out. The light clay screens goes beyond being “offensive” and becomes absolutely necessary to win games, as winning games against teams behind 8 turns of screens is extremely difficult, and simply uncompetitive. Forcing your opponent to respond or not to respond a certain way or play a specific type of team because you lead with a light clay screens setter and now have 8 turns to swap and switch between 5 offensive setters who will abuse it is simply uncompetitive, especially in a format as fresh and champions with the item clause and a much smaller pool of Pokemon.
point 3 is so wrong btw

1) Gamefreak isnt making this game, ILCA is (Gamefreak simply provides some consulting (mega abilities) and has a director on the game, but the development is NOT in house)

2) BSS also exists

3) Are you aware that a lot of VGC stuff is also missing? The game is just horribly made and balanced as is due to a utter lack of development so that they can dripfeed content and make money from mobile.

4) also holy hell how many megas are not even remotely viable in VGC
 
1. You don’t want to defog into staraptor, but in front of mons like staraptor you will just have to or don’t at all. You lose in both situations, staraptor gets an evasion boost, or it continues to set up and get bulkier turn by turn even if mons that should be it’s check come out. Compare this to hazards which are annoying but don’t create this lose, lose situation. I can calculate and plan around hazards anticipating the damage I’ll take to still make progress even if I cant clear them right away. Defog is the only utility option available that can clear screens.
You can anticipate the damage but again, you are in an awkward position if you do not Defog. Those hazards will start chipping you, nothing really stops the opponent from just make matters worse to you by setting more hazards, and yes, you don't have the 7-in-1 anti-cleaner which is Gholdengo but you can fairly easily block the other 2 hazard removals.
2. Yes psychic fangs and brick break exists but it falls apart when you realize what your losing to run these moves. For starters not many of the Pokemon that currently have access to this move actually have the attack to use it offensively nor the tying to gain stab on it. Why not use it as coverage? Because those same mons will just happen to have stronger coverage options or just prefer to run their stabs over it. Take for instance ageisgalsh, cereludge, blazeikin and annihilape. All are mons with access to brick break, but have access to stronger moves in drain punch, close combat, sacred sword, all vital to their playstyle and securing kills. Not only that, some of the best screen setters in the game right now or at least when light clay was available grimmsnarl, dragapult, and ninetails A are either immune/resistant to these moves or now have a much better matchup into these mons because they are using weaker coverage. Would you want a metagame where your essentially forced to run weaker moves to deal with a specific threat to your teams every match, not even including dealing with the mons behind the screens.
It may be the case for Brick Break but definitely it's not for Psychic Fangs. It's 85 BP, and given the other physical attacks that Psychic has(Psycho Cut which is 70 BP, and Zen Headbutt which is 80 BP and isn't even 100% accurate) physically attacking psychic types would rather use Psychic Fangs over their other stab options. Right away i can think on Mega Metagross as a mon who would use that move.
3. No gamefreak is not making defensive play go to the ground, champions is meant to be a competitive VGC game which plays completely different from showdown champions OU, with its own meta. Even its 3v3 singles metagame plays different. Nothing wrong with an offensive meta either; the whole point of the game is to deal damage to your opponents Pokemon and knock them out. The light clay screens goes beyond being “offensive” and becomes absolutely necessary to win games, as winning games against teams behind 8 turns of screens is extremely difficult, and simply uncompetitive. Forcing your opponent to respond or not to respond a certain way or play a specific type of team because you lead with a light clay screens setter and now have 8 turns to swap and switch between 5 offensive setters who will abuse it is simply uncompetitive, especially in a format as fresh and champions with the item clause and a much smaller pool of Pokemon.
"No gamefreak is not making defensive play go to the ground" I don't think that statement is true at all when you look at Gen 9 nerfs. Those were specifically targeted on defense:
- Defog distribution was torn apart
- Scald was also removed from majority of sets
- Toxic wasn't even a TM for a good chunk of SV and a lot of mons lose acess to it
- Recovery moves had their PP halved
- Even Landorus-T lost basically every defensive/support tool he had acess.

All of it while they released the most broken, min-maxed normal Pokémon we've seen in the last decade. They were just not more min-maxed than Deoxys forms.

Most of those nerfs carried over to Champions. And given the pattern of Mega Evolutions being released, it's pretty clear the direction the meta is being headed.
 
point 3 is so wrong btw

1) Gamefreak isnt making this game, ILCA is (Gamefreak simply provides some consulting (mega abilities) and has a director on the game, but the development is NOT in house)

2) BSS also exists

3) Are you aware that a lot of VGC stuff is also missing? The game is just horribly made and balanced as is due to a utter lack of development so that they can dripfeed content and make money from mobile.

4) also holy hell how many megas are not even remotely viable in VGC
1) I never said gamefreak developed the game I was responding to a point made by someone else where they said that “gamefreak is making defensive play go to the ground”

2) I used the wrong name but the 3v3 is meant to be BSS I just goofed on the name and since it’s 3 pokemone against 3 though you have a pool of 6 to choose from.

3) yes I aware of the balancing and lack of vgc content on champions but the point I was trying to make is how champions and showdown Champions OU are two completely different things.

4) and yes I’m not sure why they would go through the effort of making champions and adding back megas just for 90% of them to be unviable.
 
1) I never said gamefreak developed the game I was responding to a point made by someone else where they said that “gamefreak is making defensive play go to the ground”

2) I used the wrong name but the 3v3 is meant to be BSS I just goofed on the name and since it’s 3 pokemone against 3 though you have a pool of 6 to choose from.

3) yes I aware of the balancing and lack of vgc content on champions but the point I was trying to make is how champions and showdown Champions OU are two completely different things.

4) and yes I’m not sure why they would go through the effort of making champions and adding back megas just for 90% of them to be unviable.
glad to see we're sorta on the same page,

but yeah the reason is because Game Freak does not care or take competitive seriously at all outside of "rouge" devs who do stuff that ends up being strong (see Heavy Duty Boots, Ceaseless etc.) thats why VGC and OU equally suffer, the difference is that VGC players are very used to "sucking it up" because all their complaining doesnt matter because they are at the leash of The Pokemon Company International while we complain a lot because are ultimately our own masters (see current suspect test)

defensive play actually kinda good rn due to mega dragalge getting everything it deserves in life, now we just need rocky helmet and sludge to be freed from MOBILE GACHA prison (also toxic orb in september TRUST), and we can play solid bulky offense if not even stall
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You can anticipate the damage but again, you are in an awkward position if you do not Defog. Those hazards will start chipping you, nothing really stops the opponent from just make matters worse to you by setting more hazards, and yes, you don't have the 7-in-1 anti-cleaner which is Gholdengo but you can fairly easily block the other 2 hazard removals.

It may be the case for Brick Break but definitely it's not for Psychic Fangs. It's 85 BP, and given the other physical attacks that Psychic has(Psycho Cut which is 70 BP, and Zen Headbutt which is 80 BP and isn't even 100% accurate) physically attacking psychic types would rather use Psychic Fangs over their other stab options. Right away i can think on Mega Metagross as a mon who would use that move.

"No gamefreak is not making defensive play go to the ground" I don't think that statement is true at all when you look at Gen 9 nerfs. Those were specifically targeted on defense:
- Defog distribution was torn apart
- Scald was also removed from majority of sets
- Toxic wasn't even a TM for a good chunk of SV and a lot of mons lose acess to it
- Recovery moves had their PP halved
- Even Landorus-T lost basically every defensive/support tool he had acess.

All of it while they released the most broken, min-maxed normal Pokémon we've seen in the last decade. They were just not more min-maxed than Deoxys forms.

Most of those nerfs carried over to Champions. And given the pattern of Mega Evolutions being released, it's pretty clear the direction the meta is being headed.
Meanwhile we got:

- Dondozo, the rebirth of Snorlax but physical
- Great Tusk being the greatest rapid spinner in the history of spinning
- Pecharunt with its 160 DEF and consistent badly poison even against magic bouncers
- Garganacl (though its nerfed now one game later)
- TING LU
- Skeledirge being a great additon the Unaware™ Gang

Please take your useless fearmongering and put it somewhere else
 
Meanwhile we got:

- Dondozo, the rebirth of Snorlax but physical
- Great Tusk being the greatest rapid spinner in the history of spinning
- Pecharunt with its 160 DEF and consistent badly poison even against magic bouncers
- Garganacl (though its nerfed now one game later)
- TING LU
- Skeledirge being a great additon the Unaware™ Gang

Please take your useless fearmongering and put it somewhere else

Not like Great Tusk isn't used by offensive teams, and Garganacl was nerfed too. As well as status conditions.

And the walls who does have reliable recovery got affected by the Healing moves nerf. Who does, because i don't recall Ting Lu and Dondozo really having reliable recovery moves. Dondozo had rest at best if i remember correctly

Edit: Double checked the dex to make sure and in fact, Ting Lu and Dondozo only had rest for Recovery. That doesn't make them unviable by any means but it definitely hurts for a wall to rely on rest to recover health, especially on a fast paced meta, giving free turns seems like a recipe to lose.
 
but yeah the reason is because Game Freak does not care or take competitive seriously at all outside of "rouge" devs who do stuff that ends up being strong (see Heavy Duty Boots, Ceaseless etc.) thats why VGC and OU equally suffer, the difference is that VGC players are very used to "sucking it up" because all their complaining doesnt matter because they are at the leash of The Pokemon Company International while we complain a lot because are ultimately our own masters (see current suspect tes

For as much as Gf rightfully gets clowned on for lower game quality at times, the idea that they don’t care at all about competitive just isn’t correct in the least. If they didn’t, VGC wouldn’t be playable in the least. It’s not that vgc players are “sucking it up because nothing can be done”, but because it’s not actually nearly as bad as you argue it is, and if you talked to those players… you’d know this. VGC has its problems no doubt about it, but it also is a very nuanced and skillful game just as singles is, and gen9 for all its quirks and questionable designs (flutter mane) still was full of awesome high skill games. Worlds 2025 finals was amazing in this.


It may be the case for Brick Break but definitely it's not for Psychic Fangs. It's 85 BP, and given the other physical attacks that Psychic has(Psycho Cut which is 70 BP, and Zen Headbutt which is 80 BP and isn't even 100% accurate) physically attacking psychic types would rather use Psychic Fangs over their other stab options. Right away i can think on Mega Metagross as a mon who would use that move.

Yeah, metagross. That’s how the list of viable users of the move starts and ends.

Again, it’s an extremely specific move that should never be expected to be run if people don’t want to lose to cheesy 8 turn screens in this tier.
"No gamefreak is not making defensive play go to the ground" I don't think that statement is true at all when you look at Gen 9 nerfs. Those were specifically targeted on defense:
- Defog distribution was torn apart
- Scald was also removed from majority of sets
- Toxic wasn't even a TM for a good chunk of SV and a lot of mons lose acess to it
- Recovery moves had their PP halved
- Even Landorus-T lost basically every defensive/support tool he had acess.

All of it while they released the most broken, min-maxed normal Pokémon we've seen in the last decade. They were just not more min-maxed than Deoxys forms.

Most of those nerfs carried over to Champions. And given the pattern of Mega Evolutions being released, it's pretty clear the direction the meta is being headed.

And yet defensive play not only was viable in gen9, but thrived anyways because we also got a ton of new defensive tools in place of those lost ones.

I respectfully encourage you to play these formats seriously before you try to make such wild claims because they’re just not correct at all.

Not like Great Tusk isn't used by offensive teams,

so was landoT? That’s what a good glue Mon is used for. On a huge range of teams because it’s so ridiculously splashable, this is a GOOD thing. I’m sorry but you’re really grasping at straws here.


Edit: Double checked the dex to make sure and in fact, Ting Lu and Dondozo only had rest for Recovery. That doesn't make them unviable by any means but it definitely hurts for a wall to rely on rest to recover health, especially on a fast paced meta, giving free turns seems like a recipe to lose.

Ting Lu is literally meta defining in gen9 OU. Again, I ask you to please properly learn these formats before talking about them.
 
For as much as Gf rightfully gets clowned on for lower game quality at times, the idea that they don’t care at all about competitive just isn’t correct in the least. If they didn’t, VGC wouldn’t be playable in the least. It’s not that vgc players are “sucking it up because nothing can be done”, but because it’s not actually nearly as bad as you argue it is, and if you talked to those players… you’d know this. VGC has its problems no doubt about it, but it also is a very nuanced and skillful game just as singles is, and gen9 for all its quirks and questionable designs (flutter mane) still was full of awesome high skill games. Worlds 2025 finals was amazing in this.




Yeah, metagross. That’s how the list of viable users of the move starts and ends.

Again, it’s an extremely specific move that should never be expected to be run if people don’t want to lose to cheesy 8 turn screens in this tier.


And yet defensive play not only was viable in gen9, but thrived anyways because we also got a ton of new defensive tools in place of those lost ones.

I respectfully encourage you to play these formats seriously before you try to make such wild claims because they’re just not correct at all.



so was landoT? That’s what a good glue Mon is used for. On a huge range of teams because it’s so ridiculously splashable, this is a GOOD thing. I’m sorry but you’re really grasping at straws here.




Ting Lu is literally meta defining in gen9 OU. Again, I ask you to please properly learn these formats before talking about them.
By sucking it up I mean beating threats out of dominance, VGC is playable and thats because a lot of formats are playable even if on surface they dont seem so. Game Freak as a whole does not consistently care about the balance and their actions show that, they do a Mega Sol here and a Shell Armor there. VGC also very smartly added OTS even past tera which makes the formats significantly more playable, I respect bo3 ots vgc a lot (but dont get me started on bo1 cts)

But yes they do “suck it up” pretty well and thats not meant as an insult really, ”sucking it up” is how threats like Calyrex Shadow that mathematically should rule, fail to win Worlds, its because their teambuilding depth is akin to Draft and chinese evs are the norm, so the metagame warps so incredibly over these threats that you still end up with something playable at the higher level. Old example too but the reason CHALK wasnt dominating all of 2015 was because people had gotten smart at hard countering it, however the players dedicated to it adapted shortly before worlds. Meanwhile OU did the smart thing and just banned Mega Kang.

Overall balance tends to mainly be for singles (see majority of megas), due to the game still primarily being a singles based rpg, DLC is where they most often design mons with vgc heavily in mind like Urshifu, Calyrex, Terapagos and Ogerpon (or OU in the case of pecharunt and galarian slowking).
 
Lets steer back to Champions OU. Are there any recent trends or underrated sets / mons y'all have liked recently?
Iceman (Abomasnow-Mega) (M) @ Abomasite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 24 HP / 10 Atk / 32 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Earth Power
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard

I saw this set on the suspect page and my god..... it actually matches up so well into rain its funny. The user who made this is a real veteran (I think his smogon account was est. 2014) and the way he talked about the suspect was like some past time to enjoy his freetime. That said, his team basically told me that COU is a format that forces innovation with restriction, and even after we ban damp rock many will compensate over such a loss.
 
wait mega abomasnow being a genuine answer to mega swampert is mad funny im glad it got to see some use cause i wanted to see how good it would be with the changes from hail to snow and that buffed up glorious 90/105 physical bulk
 
Lets steer back to Champions OU. Are there any recent trends or underrated sets / mons y'all have liked recently?
Someone mentioned a few weeks back about Tauros Paldea Aqua, and I was skeptical but I love this Mon.

Tauros-Paldea-Aqua (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 2 HP / 32 Atk / 32 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Wave Crash
- Close Combat
- Bulk Up

It’s typing and bulk + intimidate allows to switch in and check a ton of threats in the tier right now.

Hard Checks:
Hsammy
Kingbambit
mega swampert
arcanine hisui
Non-scarf hydregion
Tyranitar
Excadrill

It’s amazing against rain teams with rain boosted attacks, is good into key rain threats such as archaludon, greninja, overquill.

It’s typing makes it great against pivot teams having resistance to flip and u-turn, with strong 120 Bp stabs it can still deal decent damage even to favorable switches.

It’s also great in a pinch to weaken unboosted wall breakers and aqua jet is great for picking off low mons.

I ran raging bull when screens were everywhere but since then I’ve switched to wave crash, with leftover's the recoil is not bad as long as you manage your hp and its does pretty good damage. Leftovers is a non-negotiable in my opinion, it’s very important for switching in on moves and on top of hazards, tauros’s strong 120 BP moves threaten ko’s or massive damage so you’ll find more opportunities to heal then you would expect.

Bulk up is standard, can allow you to set up on mons you check and possibly run away with games.

special attackers are a big issue so Tauros needs a strong special wall, I play it mega-Dragaluge to switch in on electric/grass/fairy types that threaten it.

It’s not perfect, especially fast mons with its weakness such as meowscada are an instant switch, unless you want to play mind games. Especially bulky mons such as corvknight are an issue as well, especially if they are running brave bird. Ghost types such as aegislash can be a problem, dragapult 1v1’s for free resisting all your stabs and most coverage options you can think to run while OHKOing with Draco meteor, or giving you a nasty burn.
 
Lets steer back to Champions OU. Are there any recent trends or underrated sets / mons y'all have liked recently?
:sv/hippowdon:
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 7 Def / 27 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

While hardly an underrated mon at this point, Hippowdon has genuinely become a top tier pick for anything fatter than offense after dropping to UU early into M-A. Sand Stream offers decent protection against Rain and especially Archaludon, which this set is EV'd to be able to tank 2 Draco Meteors or one +1 Draco Meteor from. It also allows it to switch into a bunch of random insanely strong breakers like Life Orb mixed Garchomp or Mega Charizard Y that otherwise are insane balance breakers, on top of executing its duty as a physical sponge brilliantly, always tanking a +2 Close Combat from Adamant Sneasler and having a 82% chance of surviving a +2 Close Combat from Adamant Life Orb Blaziken while setting Rocks and piling up chip with Whirlwind. Its Earthquake is also key at threatening Glowking. The Archaludon countering niche will still be a thing in a post-Damp Rock ban. Mark my words, Arch will be a stealth broken that will show its face in tournament once and demolish an otherwise good Hippo-less Balance team.
 
Lets steer back to Champions OU. Are there any recent trends or underrated sets / mons y'all have liked recently?
One more from me, I ran this a ton in the beginning of reg M-A when scarf rotoms were super popular as leads and I’ve found some success with it even in reg M-B

Excadrill @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Mold Breaker
Level: 50
EVs: 2 HP / 32 Atk / 32 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Rock Tomb/ Rock Slide
- Rapid Spin/ Throat Chop /Brick Break

This excadrill set is deadly, more so during reg m-A but still good nonetheless.

Some popular mons that this set is really good into:

All rotom’s (except rotom mow technically, since it’s neutral)
Mega Zard Y
Mega delphox
Volcarona
Electross Mega
Mega metagross
Raichu Y

For most of these mons the standard focus sash set was already good into them, problem is your opponent will not have a difficult time breaking the sash and threatening an OHKO regardless. To fix that we forgo the sash and go for speed that allows exacdrill to beat these mons without taking a scratch.

Exacdrill’s massive 135 attack makes it impossible to ignore and incredibly difficult to switch into, zard Y and volcarona are both OKHO by rock tomb, and excadrill’s slightly better fully invested speed means with scarf it will be faster than +1 32 speed modest volcarona which is the main set listed on smogon.

Being faster than rotom with scarf means you can blow up unsuspecting rotom leads and to immediately take control of the match, thanks to scarf + moldbreaker.

You can force out mega delphox who might suspect a focus sash, but once you take damage still be brought in safely and OHKO then again thanks to scarf + moldbreaker.

You can’t OKHO metagross but you get pretty damn close, and now you get to the make the first move.

I prefer to run rocktomb over rock slide, 1. Due to the slightly better accuracy, 2. You mainly need it to check volc and zard Y, 3. I prefer the ablity to drop speed, especially against neutral/resistant mons that switch’s into excadrill to help keep control of the match and never have a wasted turn (also good in to cerelugde as they now only get a +1 speed boost and you can still outspeed them, they are forced to attack you outright or miss the kill as +2 shadow sneak won’t kill you).

As for rapid spin, I’ll usually run this exacdrill with a defoger but will use rapid spin if excadrill is low and in range for a sack but has and opportunity to clear hazzards. In reg M-B I usually run throat chop over Rapid spin to deal with bulkier ghost and psychic types. (I’ve also tried meghorn specifically to ohko H Sammy, Meowscada, and hydregion)

This is set is a ton of fun and great for mind games if you like playing them, I do think the scarf can be more valuable on other mons and makes exacdrill unable to set rocks or be a reliable spinner but it has its merits.

Edit: technically super super bulky volcarona can survive a rock tomb, but it would have to be max hp with heavy defensive investment, which would severely limit its offensive capabilities.
 
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theres one buff that i think got overlooked a fair bit overall, being agility mega medicham

medicham naturally has absolutely no issue with breaking past walls, but struggles with being revenge koed however agility patches that up in a couple ways one it obviously allows you to outspeed garchomp raichu y metagross so they cant revenge kill you as easily, but also allows you to invest heavily in bulk, with only 3 speed sps needed to outspeed adamant megapert under rain and close combat koing back, as well as the hp evs allowing you to take a life orb gchomp eq, mmeta iron head, arch draco/eshot, corv brave bird among much else (at least i think you can, someone can double check the calcs cause i find these hard to believe) giving you easy set up. while you sacrifice the ability to come in a bunch and break you can become a potent cleaner in endgames or easily wear down team for partners (lorb chomp especially sounds nice). truthfully, this is all theorycrafting atm but im gonna try this out when i have the mental stability to hop on ladder

also not sure which of ice punch/zen headbutt/fire punch the last 2 moves should be
Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 31 Atk / 3 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Fire Punch / Ice Punch
- Agility
 
Medicham-Mega @ Medichamite
Ability: Pure Power
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 29 Atk / 2 Def / 3 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Blaze Kick / Ice Punch / Bulk Up
- Agility

Outspeeds Adamant Mega Swampert outside of Rain, and survives its Wave Crash outside of Rain:
:swampert-mega: 32+ Atk Swampert-Mega Wave Crash vs. 32 HP / 2 Def Medicham-Mega: 141-166 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:garchomp: 32 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Earthquake vs. 32 HP / 2 Def Medicham-Mega: 125-148 (74.8 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
:corviknight: 0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 32 HP / 2 Def Medicham-Mega: 134-162 (80.2 - 97%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
:lopunny-mega: 32 Atk Lopunny-Mega Mega Kick vs. 32 HP / 2 Def Medicham-Mega: 118-141 (70.6 - 84.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:quaquaval: +2 32 Atk Quaquaval Aqua Step vs. 32 HP / 2 Def Medicham-Mega: 145-172 (86.8 - 102.9%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
:scizor-mega: +2 32+ Atk Technician Scizor-Mega Bullet Punch vs. 32 HP / 2 Def Medicham-Mega: 141-166 (84.4 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

:archaludon: +1 32+ SpA Archaludon Electro Shot vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 136-160 (81.4 - 95.8%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
:clefable: 0 SpA Clefable Moonblast vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 116-140 (69.4 - 83.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
:delphox-mega: 32 SpA Delphox-Mega Fire Blast vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 126-148 (75.4 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
:slowking-galar: 0 SpA Slowking-Galar Sludge Bomb vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 64-76 (38.3 - 45.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
:glimmora-mega: 32 SpA Adaptability Glimmora-Mega Sludge Wave vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 138-164 (82.6 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
:hydreigon: 32 SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 124-147 (74.2 - 88%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
:raichu-mega-y: 32 SpA Raichu-Mega-Y Zap Cannon vs. 32 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 136-162 (81.4 - 97%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 
I just wanted to share this rather unhinged corv set I've been using:

:Corviknight:
Corviknight @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 32 HP / 8 Def / 10 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Roost

It 1v1s lead glimmora. 10 spdef makes it incredibly unlikely to be 2HKOd by glim with a crit (16 guaruntees it, but feels wrong to put that much into spdef on iron-press tbh). You just click defog/roost in response to whatever they did the previous turn and make them sad when the leppa procs and you get to keep rocks off the field. Leppa is also really nice in the similar situation where you're trying to keep hazards off against an opposing corviknight switching into all your defogs. Obviously its just a standard iron press corv with a little different EVs and a leppa berry, but I've been enjoying it and its realtively unique what it can do.
 
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Here's a post with my personal VR and some thoughts on specific mons. My opinion changes daily on certain mons so naturally this list is an estimate...
My philosophy when making a VR is "How likely am I to bring these mons to an important tournament game?". You may have a different mentality when it comes to VR and that is perfectly normal; but this is mine.
Pokemon are ranked alphabetically within their tier.
I believe that the vast majority of mons that aren't in my VR can find success so just imagine that there is a C- tier containing 50 mons.​

------- S tier -------
S ::corviknight::samurott-hisui:
S-::garchomp::slowking-galar:
------- A tier -------
A+::annihilape::hippowdon::lopunny-mega::meganium-mega::volcarona:
A ::aegislash::blaziken::dragonite::kingambit::meowscarada::raichu-mega-y::scizor-mega::sneasler:
A-::araquanid::archaludon::ceruledge::charizard-mega-x::clefable::delphox-mega::dragapult::hatterene::metagross-mega::staraptor-mega::pelipper::rotom-wash::swampert-mega:
------- B tier -------
B+::alakazam-mega::charizard-mega-y::dragalge-mega::dragonite-mega::excadrill::floette-mega::glimmora::hydreigon::primarina::scizor::toxapex:
B ::clefable-mega::froslass-mega::greninja-mega::medicham-mega::mawile-mega::slowbro-mega::venusaur-mega:
B-::basculegion-f::chesnaught-mega::ditto::falinks-mega::feraligatr-mega::glimmora-mega::hydrapple::mimikyu::sinistcha::skeledirge::slowbro::tauros-paldea-aqua::tinkaton:
------- C tier -------
C ::altaria-mega::arcanine-hisui::barbaracle-mega::cofagrigus::floette-eternal::gardevoir-mega::gliscor::quaquaval::pyroar-mega::tyranitar::tyranitar-mega::umbreon::weavile::zoroark-hisui:
----------------------

------- S tier -------
S ::corviknight::samurott-hisui:
S-::garchomp::slowking-galar:
------- A tier -------
A+::annihilape::hippowdon::volcarona:
A ::aegislash::blaziken::dragonite::kingambit::meowscarada::sneasler:
A-::araquanid::archaludon::ceruledge::clefable::dragapult::hatterene::pelipper::rotom-wash:
------- B tier -------
B+::excadrill::glimmora::hydreigon::primarina::scizor::toxapex:
B :N/A
B-::basculegion-f::ditto::hydrapple::mimikyu::sinistcha::skeledirge::slowbro::tauros-paldea-aqua::tinkaton:
------- C tier -------
C ::arcanine-hisui::cofagrigus::floette-eternal::gliscor::quaquaval::tyranitar::umbreon::weavile::zoroark-hisui:
------- A tier -------
A+::lopunny-mega::meganium-mega:
A ::raichu-mega-y::scizor-mega:
A-::charizard-mega-x::delphox-mega::metagross-mega::staraptor-mega::swampert-mega:
------- B tier -------
B+::alakazam-mega::charizard-mega-y::dragalge-mega::dragonite-mega::floette-mega:
B ::clefable-mega::froslass-mega::greninja-mega::medicham-mega::mawile-mega::slowbro-mega::venusaur-mega:
B-::chesnaught-mega::falinks-mega::feraligatr-mega::glimmora-mega:
------- C tier -------
C ::altaria-mega::barbaracle-mega::gardevoir-mega::pyroar-mega::tyranitar-mega:

:corviknight::samurott-hisui::garchomp::slowking-galar: - The Big 4™: You know 'em. You can just slap them all into a team together, bring a random mega + a mon that supports it and boom, you have a competitively sound team. The only difference between S and S- is that Corviknight and Samurott-H are much, much harder to replace or justify not running than Garchomp or Slowking-G, who have good replacements (Hippowdon and Dragalge-Mega respectively). Slowking-G > Garchomp as well but I wasnt gonna make a S-- tier. Samurott-H's best set is Bulky Adamant Black Glasses. Moving on.

:lopunny-mega::meganium-mega: Mega Lopunny, Mega Meganium - Unquestionably the two best Megas. Mega Lopunny allows you to play around pretty much anything and is only held back by having a few terrible matchups like Toxapex or Volcarona that it truly hates facing. Mega Meganium is the best breaker in the tier, able to easily 2HKO Slowking-G after rocks or Spikes chip (wow, Samurott-H sets those for free!). Just like Lopunny though, it has matchups like Mega Dragalge or Volcarona that are quite unfortunate.

:annihilape: monke - How this is not more spammed is beyond me. Absolutely elite Webs abuser but does not need them and can so, so easily get out of control for anything even remotely passive. its strongest asset is how it matches up superbly against The Big 4™, forcing these kinds of teams to run a mon that can consistently beat Annihilape in the 5th slot; and those are rare, plus it can always get past them depending on its set. This mon singlehandedly removes Rapid Spin from the game.

:hippowdon: UU who? - This mon is impossible to pass up on for fat balance and stall. Great STAB, rocks, recovery, and can tank pretty much anything you need it to tank, from Blaziken to Mega Charizard Y to Archaludon to Mega Metagross. Its only terrible matchup is Mega Clefable, who is rare enough to where I don't mind it too much.

:volcarona: Matchup Moth? More like, Everything Moth - HO's second strongest soldier. This mon is turbo broken btw. Run some bulk investment and it just naturally checks stuff like Mega Lopunny or Annihilape for free. Then, it only needs one Quiver Dance to start wreaking havoc against almost anything. The only bad matchup it has is Toxapex and Toxic Mega Dragalge if you are not running Psychic or Substitute respectively. It can outlive and outboost anything else, even Mega Dragalge if you've got some hazards up which shouldn't be too complicated since no Corviknight wants to be in your vicinity. Volcarona makes Webs viable.

:pelipper::archaludon::swampert-mega: Actually, I'm more of a Solitaire guy - Rain is inevitable. Ranking Archaludon is tough because it is A+ level technically in Rain, but the rest of the Rain archetype is A- sooooooo I guess you go with your friends. Even in a post-Damp Rock ban, Rain would be viable, and once people start running Bulk Up + Liquidation Mega Swampert which is a A+ worthy set, all will be lost. For now though, we can enjoy watching Wave Crash drop everything, including Mega Swampert itself when it uses it... Still wouldn't feel confident running Rain in tournament though but it is undeniably good so I'll make an exception...​
 
Last edited:
Here's a post with my personal VR and some thoughts on specific mons. My opinion changes daily on certain mons so naturally this list is an estimate...
My philosophy when making a VR is "How likely am I to bring these mons to an important tournament game?". You may have a different mentality when it comes to VR and that is perfectly normal; but this is mine.
Pokemon are ranked alphabetically within their tier.
I believe that the vast majority of mons that aren't in my VR can find success so just imagine that there is a C- tier containing 50 mons.​

------- S tier -------
S ::corviknight::samurott-hisui:
S-::garchomp::slowking-galar:
------- A tier -------
A+::annihilape::hippowdon::lopunny-mega::meganium-mega::volcarona:
A ::aegislash::blaziken::dragonite::kingambit::meowscarada::raichu-mega-y::scizor-mega::sneasler:
A-::araquanid::archaludon::ceruledge::charizard-mega-x::clefable::delphox-mega::dragapult::hatterene::metagross-mega::staraptor-mega::pelipper::rotom-wash::swampert-mega:
------- B tier -------
B+::alakazam-mega::charizard-mega-y::dragalge-mega::dragonite-mega::excadrill::floette-mega::glimmora::hydreigon::primarina::scizor::toxapex:
B ::clefable-mega::froslass-mega::greninja-mega::medicham-mega::mawile-mega::slowbro-mega::venusaur-mega:
B-::basculegion-f::chesnaught-mega::ditto::falinks-mega::feraligatr-mega::glimmora-mega::hydrapple::mimikyu::sinistcha::skeledirge::slowbro::tauros-paldea-aqua::tinkaton:
------- C tier -------
C ::altaria-mega::arcanine-hisui::barbaracle-mega::cofagrigus::floette-eternal::gardevoir-mega::gliscor::quaquaval::pyroar-mega::tyranitar::tyranitar-mega::umbreon::weavile::zoroark-hisui:
----------------------

------- S tier -------
S ::corviknight::samurott-hisui:
S-::garchomp::slowking-galar:
------- A tier -------
A+::annihilape::hippowdon::volcarona:
A ::aegislash::blaziken::dragonite::kingambit::meowscarada::sneasler:
A-::araquanid::archaludon::ceruledge::clefable::dragapult::hatterene::pelipper::rotom-wash:
------- B tier -------
B+::excadrill::glimmora::hydreigon::primarina::scizor::toxapex:
B :N/A
B-::basculegion-f::ditto::hydrapple::mimikyu::sinistcha::skeledirge::slowbro::tauros-paldea-aqua::tinkaton:
------- C tier -------
C ::arcanine-hisui::cofagrigus::floette-eternal::gliscor::quaquaval::tyranitar::umbreon::weavile::zoroark-hisui:
------- A tier -------
A+::lopunny-mega::meganium-mega:
A ::raichu-mega-y::scizor-mega:
A-::charizard-mega-x::delphox-mega::metagross-mega::staraptor-mega::swampert-mega:
------- B tier -------
B+::alakazam-mega::charizard-mega-y::dragalge-mega::dragonite-mega::floette-mega:
B ::clefable-mega::froslass-mega::greninja-mega::medicham-mega::mawile-mega::slowbro-mega::venusaur-mega:
B-::chesnaught-mega::falinks-mega::feraligatr-mega::glimmora-mega:
------- C tier -------
C ::altaria-mega::barbaracle-mega::gardevoir-mega::pyroar-mega::tyranitar-mega:

:corviknight::samurott-hisui::garchomp::slowking-galar: - The Big 4™: You know 'em. You can just slap them all into a team together, bring a random mega + a mon that supports it and boom, you have a competitively sound team. The only difference between S and S- is that Corviknight and Samurott-H are much, much harder to replace or justify not running than Garchomp or Slowking-G, who have good replacements (Hippowdon and Dragalge-Mega respectively). Slowking-G > Garchomp as well but I wasnt gonna make a S-- tier. Samurott-H's best set is Bulky Adamant Black Glasses. Moving on.

:lopunny-mega::meganium-mega: Mega Lopunny, Mega Meganium - Unquestionably the two best Megas. Mega Lopunny allows you to play around pretty much anything and is only held back by having a few terrible matchups like Toxapex or Volcarona that it truly hates facing. Mega Meganium is the best breaker in the tier, able to easily 2HKO Slowking-G after rocks or Spikes chip (wow, Samurott-H sets those for free!). Just like Lopunny though, it has matchups like Mega Dragalge or Volcarona that are quite unfortunate.

:annihilape: monke - How this is not more spammed is beyond me. Absolutely elite Webs abuser but does not need them and can so, so easily get out of control for anything even remotely passive. its strongest asset is how it matches up superbly against The Big 4™, forcing these kinds of teams to run a mon that can consistently beat Annihilape in the 5th slot; and those are rare, plus it can always get past them depending on its set. This mon singlehandedly removes Rapid Spin from the game.

:hippowdon: UU who? - This mon is impossible to pass up on for fat balance and stall. Great STAB, rocks, recovery, and can tank pretty much anything you need it to tank, from Blaziken to Mega Charizard Y to Archaludon to Mega Metagross. Its only terrible matchup is Mega Clefable, who is rare enough to where I don't mind it too much.

:volcarona: Matchup Moth? More like, Everything Moth - HO's second strongest soldier. This mon is turbo broken btw. Run some bulk investment and it just naturally checks stuff like Mega Lopunny or Annihilape for free. Then, it only needs one Quiver Dance to start wreaking havoc against almost anything. The only bad matchup it has is Toxapex and Toxic Mega Dragalge if you are not running Psychic or Substitute respectively. It can outlive and outboost anything else, even Mega Dragalge if you've got some hazards up which shouldn't be too complicated since no Corviknight wants to be in your vicinity. Volcarona makes Webs viable.

:pelipper::archaludon::swampert-mega: Actually, I'm more of a Solitaire guy - Rain is inevitable. Ranking Archaludon is tough because it is A+ level technically in Rain, but the rest of the Rain archetype is A- sooooooo I guess you go with your friends. Even in a post-Damp Rock ban, Rain would be viable, and once people start running Bulk Up + Liquidation Mega Swampert which is a A+ worthy set, all will be lost. For now though, we can enjoy watching Wave Crash drop everything, including Mega Swampert itself when it uses it... Still wouldn't feel confident running Rain in tournament though but it is undeniably good so I'll make an exception...​
I like a lot of this, but :toxapex: too low.

Its ability to stop setup sweepers is pretty much unmatched in the tier. Somehow itemless seems to genuinely be its best item and I love using it.

:Glimmora: also seems a little low to me as well. Its *the* HO rocker.
 
Here's a post with my personal VR and some thoughts on specific mons. My opinion changes daily on certain mons so naturally this list is an estimate...
My philosophy when making a VR is "How likely am I to bring these mons to an important tournament game?". You may have a different mentality when it comes to VR and that is perfectly normal; but this is mine.
Pokemon are ranked alphabetically within their tier.
I believe that the vast majority of mons that aren't in my VR can find success so just imagine that there is a C- tier containing 50 mons.​

------- S tier -------
S ::corviknight::samurott-hisui:
S-::garchomp::slowking-galar:
------- A tier -------
A+::annihilape::hippowdon::lopunny-mega::meganium-mega::volcarona:
A ::aegislash::blaziken::dragonite::kingambit::meowscarada::raichu-mega-y::scizor-mega::sneasler:
A-::araquanid::archaludon::ceruledge::charizard-mega-x::clefable::delphox-mega::dragapult::hatterene::metagross-mega::staraptor-mega::pelipper::rotom-wash::swampert-mega:
------- B tier -------
B+::alakazam-mega::charizard-mega-y::dragalge-mega::dragonite-mega::excadrill::floette-mega::glimmora::hydreigon::primarina::scizor::toxapex:
B ::clefable-mega::froslass-mega::greninja-mega::medicham-mega::mawile-mega::slowbro-mega::venusaur-mega:
B-::basculegion-f::chesnaught-mega::ditto::falinks-mega::feraligatr-mega::glimmora-mega::hydrapple::mimikyu::sinistcha::skeledirge::slowbro::tauros-paldea-aqua::tinkaton:
------- C tier -------
C ::altaria-mega::arcanine-hisui::barbaracle-mega::cofagrigus::floette-eternal::gardevoir-mega::gliscor::quaquaval::pyroar-mega::tyranitar::tyranitar-mega::umbreon::weavile::zoroark-hisui:
----------------------

------- S tier -------
S ::corviknight::samurott-hisui:
S-::garchomp::slowking-galar:
------- A tier -------
A+::annihilape::hippowdon::volcarona:
A ::aegislash::blaziken::dragonite::kingambit::meowscarada::sneasler:
A-::araquanid::archaludon::ceruledge::clefable::dragapult::hatterene::pelipper::rotom-wash:
------- B tier -------
B+::excadrill::glimmora::hydreigon::primarina::scizor::toxapex:
B :N/A
B-::basculegion-f::ditto::hydrapple::mimikyu::sinistcha::skeledirge::slowbro::tauros-paldea-aqua::tinkaton:
------- C tier -------
C ::arcanine-hisui::cofagrigus::floette-eternal::gliscor::quaquaval::tyranitar::umbreon::weavile::zoroark-hisui:
------- A tier -------
A+::lopunny-mega::meganium-mega:
A ::raichu-mega-y::scizor-mega:
A-::charizard-mega-x::delphox-mega::metagross-mega::staraptor-mega::swampert-mega:
------- B tier -------
B+::alakazam-mega::charizard-mega-y::dragalge-mega::dragonite-mega::floette-mega:
B ::clefable-mega::froslass-mega::greninja-mega::medicham-mega::mawile-mega::slowbro-mega::venusaur-mega:
B-::chesnaught-mega::falinks-mega::feraligatr-mega::glimmora-mega:
------- C tier -------
C ::altaria-mega::barbaracle-mega::gardevoir-mega::pyroar-mega::tyranitar-mega:

:corviknight::samurott-hisui::garchomp::slowking-galar: - The Big 4™: You know 'em. You can just slap them all into a team together, bring a random mega + a mon that supports it and boom, you have a competitively sound team. The only difference between S and S- is that Corviknight and Samurott-H are much, much harder to replace or justify not running than Garchomp or Slowking-G, who have good replacements (Hippowdon and Dragalge-Mega respectively). Slowking-G > Garchomp as well but I wasnt gonna make a S-- tier. Samurott-H's best set is Bulky Adamant Black Glasses. Moving on.

:lopunny-mega::meganium-mega: Mega Lopunny, Mega Meganium - Unquestionably the two best Megas. Mega Lopunny allows you to play around pretty much anything and is only held back by having a few terrible matchups like Toxapex or Volcarona that it truly hates facing. Mega Meganium is the best breaker in the tier, able to easily 2HKO Slowking-G after rocks or Spikes chip (wow, Samurott-H sets those for free!). Just like Lopunny though, it has matchups like Mega Dragalge or Volcarona that are quite unfortunate.

:annihilape: monke - How this is not more spammed is beyond me. Absolutely elite Webs abuser but does not need them and can so, so easily get out of control for anything even remotely passive. its strongest asset is how it matches up superbly against The Big 4™, forcing these kinds of teams to run a mon that can consistently beat Annihilape in the 5th slot; and those are rare, plus it can always get past them depending on its set. This mon singlehandedly removes Rapid Spin from the game.

:hippowdon: UU who? - This mon is impossible to pass up on for fat balance and stall. Great STAB, rocks, recovery, and can tank pretty much anything you need it to tank, from Blaziken to Mega Charizard Y to Archaludon to Mega Metagross. Its only terrible matchup is Mega Clefable, who is rare enough to where I don't mind it too much.

:volcarona: Matchup Moth? More like, Everything Moth - HO's second strongest soldier. This mon is turbo broken btw. Run some bulk investment and it just naturally checks stuff like Mega Lopunny or Annihilape for free. Then, it only needs one Quiver Dance to start wreaking havoc against almost anything. The only bad matchup it has is Toxapex and Toxic Mega Dragalge if you are not running Psychic or Substitute respectively. It can outlive and outboost anything else, even Mega Dragalge if you've got some hazards up which shouldn't be too complicated since no Corviknight wants to be in your vicinity. Volcarona makes Webs viable.

:pelipper::archaludon::swampert-mega: Actually, I'm more of a Solitaire guy - Rain is inevitable. Ranking Archaludon is tough because it is A+ level technically in Rain, but the rest of the Rain archetype is A- sooooooo I guess you go with your friends. Even in a post-Damp Rock ban, Rain would be viable, and once people start running Bulk Up + Liquidation Mega Swampert which is a A+ worthy set, all will be lost. For now though, we can enjoy watching Wave Crash drop everything, including Mega Swampert itself when it uses it... Still wouldn't feel confident running Rain in tournament though but it is undeniably good so I'll make an exception...​
Is staraptor not a bit high? bro can't boost attack and gets farmed by corv. I'm actually happy to see people bring that nonsense lol, -1 mega slot.

why is floette not in the A ranks btw?
 
I have deleted way too many messages

(If ur curious the message before i edited it was my personal VR ranking but im lazy to finish it)
 
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