Resource ORAS OU Simple Questions, Simple Answers MKII (Read the OP First!) (Now with 100% more Rules!!!)

People are always mentioning how certain pokemon beat offense, certain pokemon beat Balance, and certain pokemon beat stall. How do you determine if a pokemon beats one of these playstyles?
 
People are always mentioning how certain pokemon beat offense, certain pokemon beat Balance, and certain pokemon beat stall. How do you determine if a pokemon beats one of these playstyles?
It's important to note that these 'mons aren't single-handedly going to defeat these playstyles, but rather perform disproportionately well vs. whatever playstyle (well, Manaphy can sweep pretty easily but idk).

Offense breakers typically have lots of speed or very powerful priority (examples: Weavile, Lopunny, Manectric, Talonflame) to counter offense's generally high speed while abusing their lack of a dedicated defensive backbone. Most decent Lopunny answers, for example, are momentum-killing slow 'mons that aren't commonly found on offense, like Hippowdon, phys def. Skarm, Clefable (tho Clef on bulky offense is decently common), so offense struggles to switch into its unresisted STAB combo.

Balance breakers are mostly just extremely hard hitters that excel vs. the type-synergy-heavy archetypes balance follows (Starmie/Talon/Ferro/Hippo, Chomp/Skarm/Clef/Slowbro, Skarm/M-Lati/Clef, etc.). Balance breakers and some stall breakers overlap quite a bit (Serp's the first one that comes to mind; Manaphy can do both but is set dependent), so they aren't completely different things. Stuff like Nidoking is a prime example of something that performs amazingly vs. balance, but isn't going to do well vs. stall teams as they commonly carry Chansey, Nido's hardest counter atm.

Stallbreakers excel at beating the very predictable nature of stall builds and are capable of getting past the hardest stops like phys. def Skarm and Chansey (often times via Taunt). Most "stallbreakers" aren't necessarily just gargantuan wallbreakers (though Terrakion/Heracross is pretty annoying for stall), but rather set-up sweepers or taunt users that for whatever reason pose an issue to the archetypes of stall present in the meta.

Examples of taunt-using Stallbreakers: Taunt + WoW Talonflame, Mew, Heatran, Gengar, Life Orb Tornadus-T
Examples of set-up Stallbreakers: CM Clefable, SD Gliscor, NP Togekiss, TG + RD Manaphy, Work-Up Mega Pidgeot, CM Reuni

If anyone notices something I said was incorrect/misleading, please correct me lol.
 
People are always mentioning how certain pokemon beat offense, certain pokemon beat Balance, and certain pokemon beat stall. How do you determine if a pokemon beats one of these playstyles?
The movepool is the most important who determine pokemon's role and type.

A pokemon which can toxic or burn a pokemon and taunt him it's a good stallbreaker, because stall pokemon (like chansey...) need use wish, softboiled to be effictive. So if u block this move u are a stallbreaker.

The wallbreaker it's the same, to be a good wallbreaker, nobody or very little part of metagame can switch in or u. Like Charizard Y, not of lof pokemon can come or a FB/FlameThrower on Sun.
 

MANNAT

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People are always mentioning how certain pokemon beat offense, certain pokemon beat Balance, and certain pokemon beat stall. How do you determine if a pokemon beats one of these playstyles?
Usually I determine this by testing and seeing how well it does vs certain play styles. generally from my experience fast Pokemon that can hit most of offense neutrally or super effectively like mega aerodactyl, mega lop, and mega sceptile do well vs offense. Good balance breakers are usually Pokemon that are difficult to switch into that has a reasonable speed tier like zardy, kyurem black, and Mega meta gross with the right coverage. Lastly, good stallbreakers are just mons that can easily deal with attempts to whittle them down or can just pound through stall. Mons that can deal with attempts to whittle away from them usually are taunt users that can prevent recovery moves as well as status moves like toxic, but clef able is also good at this because it is immune to indirect damage. Moms that plow through stall are usually super strong Pokemon that are virtually impossible to wall like Crawdaunt or Nasty Plot infernape. this is just from my personal experiences, so take it with a grain of salt if you find it to be incorrect. I hope I helped :)
 

Cheryl.

Celesteela is Life
Could anyone give me some good Crawdaunt cores? I really want to use it but I don't really know what to pair it up with
 
Could anyone give me some good Crawdaunt cores? I really want to use it but I don't really know what to pair it up with
Talonflame is a good partner, for one. Some of Crawdaunt's only good checks are Venu/grasses, which Talon takes advantage of well. Crawdaunt on the flipside murders the fat grounds that Talon hates while greatly threatening offensive rocks like Aerodactyl and Diancie. Craw can also scare out Slowbro for Talon which is quite nice.

All in all, pretty solid breaker + cleaner core.
 

HailFall

my cancer is sun and my leo is moon
Could anyone give me some good Crawdaunt cores? I really want to use it but I don't really know what to pair it up with
In addition to what daddy's kisses said, Mega Scizor is a great partner for its ability to pressure mega alt (probably the best crawdaunt switchin out there) as well as wear down mutual checks in keldeo and bring craw in for free with slow u-turn.
Another solid option is doing some typespam with something like Mega Gyarados/Sharpedo + Crawdaunt as they share similar switchins and stops which crawdaunt does a great job of dealing insane damage to, paving the way for a sweep later on.
I would personally run cb crawdaunt with both these cores but its up to you
 
I've battled a couple of times in the ladder vs a BP team that uses Scolipede passing speed and "Focus Energy berry" to other members of the team (I can only remember Kingdra and Doublade). Is that a "thing" now, just like that Denissss team? Does it have a RMT? Thanks.
 

MANNAT

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I've battled a couple of times in the ladder vs a BP team that uses Scolipede passing speed and "Focus Energy berry" to other members of the team (I can only remember Kingdra and Doublade). Is that a "thing" now, just like that Denissss team? Does it have a RMT? Thanks.
NJNP made and rmt on it, you'll be able to find it pretty easily, it's called "The banned chronicles" I believe
 

cityscapes

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what are some good OU checks to greninja (i know he's uber)
Pretty much anything that can take a hit from it (bonus points if it can only be hit hard by one move, making Greninja more predictable) and hit it back; priority users like Breloom also beat it easily. Reducing its speed also makes it much easier to deal with, making Thunder Wave very good against it. Faster Pokémon are also helpful, but they're less common in OU.
 
Adamant loppuny.

Just why? What this horrible set achieve?

And I even saw that in world cup!
I suppose I could answer this since I'm bored at work. I feel the opposite way, honestly - I hate Jolly Lopunny and think that it's hugely inferior to Adamant. Adamant Lopunny retains its ability to single-handedly slay offense while also turning into a poor man's wallbreaker. I'd love to explain my potentially flawed reasoning:

Let's first talk about the speed: as we know, +Spe natures are super important in crowded speed tiers - basically from 108 to 120 you are actually retarded if you're not running +Spe. As we also know, there's a lot of wiggle room for 'mons in less relevant speed tiers - Breloom, Crawdaunt, Hydreigon, Kyurem-B, etc. all prefer power-boosting natures because they really have nothing to gain otherwise.

135 is not a crowded speed tier by any means. Adamant Lopunny hits 369, and you only need 365 (to outspeed Scarftar, the closest speed benchmark to 369. At 365 (or 9), you will be outsped by Base 120's and up - relevant OU 'mons there are Alakazam, Tornadus-T, Weavile, Talonflame (which never runs max speed, btw), opposing Mega Lopunny/Manectric, and of course the faster stuff. That's only 6 'mons! Three of which are extremely common, but that's not the point. If you'll go through this list, it's very clear that all of these Pokemon are frail attackers, and almost half are SR weak as well. Fake Out + Quick Attack (which goes without saying is the must-have 4th move for addy lop) will put them into the ground. Basically, the 'mons that now outspeed you are still not safe. And let's not even talk about the huge utility QA has, which can let you bypass Breloom/Thundurus/Talonflame entirely. Jolly Lopunny could only wish to do this (lol cos qa literally does 0 with jolly and you're much better off with pup).

The only seriously inconvenient 'mons that you wish you could outspeed is Tornadus-T due to Regenerator or Alakazam because of Magic Guard, but the former player will miss Hurricane and the latter will lose because he's using regular Alakazam lol. Man, slightly off-topic, but there used to be a time in 2015 where the common Tornadus-T AV set had 216 speed ev's to hit 365 lol damn those were the days.

Anyways, as for the power increase, it's seriously noticeable. The most important kills are standard Clefable and Quagsire - they are clean 2HKO's and completely invalidates standard Clef as a Lop switch-in and you now have a 70% chance to beat Quagsire if it comes down to it. 75% chance to KO offensive Starmie after rocks which means it can't spin for the incoming dragonite/pinsir trying to come in (a common scenario against heavier offense teams); 1HKO on Gardevoir; incredibly solid chance to immediately KO an Amoonguss switching in on HJK after rocks; 75% 2HKO chance on fully defensive Skarmory after SR if it has no Leftovers (although double helm damage sucks). That's like half the stall team right there, and you already can handle Chansey + Mega Sableye.

The calcs on offensive 'mons aren't as relevant as most of them will try not to stay in, but sometimes it comes in handy because people stay in realizing they can live a Jolly attack - Latios is a KO at 80% (sr + lo); Serperior, Keldeo, and Mega Cham are basically dead at 85 and rolls go up to 95 (which is like 1 or 2 sr switchins).

You could verify all these calcs but I seriously just don't want to make this post any longer than it is. Anyways, with just some Spikes support you could make the entire metagame your bitch.

The main cons of using Adamant Lopunny is as I said, the power increase is so damn noticeable, which means if your opponent isn't retarded he will immediately begin to force you out with his Tornadus-T (and maybe Weavile if he's full and you're worn down) which is a huge momentum breaker. Also, helm Landorus-T is still everywhere, but the main problem is you are still seriously unable to do anything to Slowbro. At best, you will force it to Recover as SR + Return will put it at around 55%, which is out of crit range =(. Funnily enough, Jolly Lopunny already has 1.5 of these 3 problems (it can maybe beat Slowbro with pup/toxic/encore), but anyways a Rotom-W basically solves all of these issues so it's not really that bad. Also, I suppose you could just pair Lopunny with a hardass wallbreaker and then you won't even need any extra power but there's no fun in that.

I think in a nutshell, deciding to use adamant punny boils down to a simple question: do you want to outspeed Tornadus-T or do you want some extra reassurance against Clefable + handle stall better? I fucking hate Clefable (and stall) so I choose the latter every time (let's pretend that people are not slowly realizing that maybe they should run 232+ bold Clef).

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 20 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Fake Out
- Quick Attack

365, spd provides a tiny buffer against Clefable if you have to 1v1 it and it Moonblasts before it t waves. Go ahead, give it a try!

I will link some replays later because I am at work. Sorry for such a ridiculously long post but Adamant Lopunny is like my e-muse and I seriously have a hard-on for this 'mon.
 
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MrAldo

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Adamant Mega Lopunny IMO is pretty bad. The power is really not that notable and you could take advantage of the fatter stuff by running something on the last slot like Encore or Power Up Punch or cover it on the teambuilding phase (and trust me, is far easier to cover jolly lopunny than to cover adamant lopunny "flaws") so yeah I literally dont see any actual reason to run adamant mega lopunny unless you are running quick attack which I guess it is ok but idk, in the end I doubt a priority move is worth getting outspeed by regular alakazam, tornadus and weavile.

To each its own as we all say but personally, I think this set is useless. But eh, what do I know.

BTW, that definitely wasnt a simple answer lol.
 

HailFall

my cancer is sun and my leo is moon
What kinds of things does cobalion check? I've seen it used a bit recently and I was thinking it could be a handy glue mon in certain teams.
I know it beats darks btw, so mainly looking for the other stuff.
 
If I run both Serperior and Defog Latias on the same team, Serperior runs the Life Orb, what item should Latias hold? Leftover is also not available. Mega slot is taken. I just find myself struggle too much trying to spin with Starmie due to having to give up either Pursuit or Gengar coverage. I won't use Excadrill on this particular team because I want to try something new.

Thanks.
 
Alright I hope this is the right place to post this lol.

I've been soft resetting for about 2 days now and I've come close to that 6iv Tornadus dream but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I haven't settled for 5iv one.

But now I'm hit with a little bit of a dilemma here...

I just found a Tornadus with

Hp 151 (24-25)

Atk 135 (30-31)

Def - 81 (30-31)

SpA 145 (30-31)

SpD 100 (30-31)

Spe +143 (28-29)

See normally I'd reset over this since its only got 4/6iv's until it came to my attention that it had HP Ice. Now is it worth it to keep even with the low speed and Hit points just because it has HP Ice? Is Hp ice even worth it on tornadus? Or can I do better?
 
Alright I hope this is the right place to post this lol.

I've been soft resetting for about 2 days now and I've come close to that 6iv Tornadus dream but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I haven't settled for 5iv one.

But now I'm hit with a little bit of a dilemma here...

I just found a Tornadus with

Hp 151 (24-25)

Atk 135 (30-31)

Def - 81 (30-31)

SpA 145 (30-31)

SpD 100 (30-31)

Spe +143 (28-29)

See normally I'd reset over this since its only got 4/6iv's until it came to my attention that it had HP Ice. Now is it worth it to keep even with the low speed and Hit points just because it has HP Ice? Is Hp ice even worth it on tornadus? Or can I do better?
HP Ice is almost useless on Torn-T since Garchomp and Lando-T has 0 reasons to stay in on it anyway. Sure, you hit Thundurus and Gliscor harder but that's not really worth it. Speed is really important for Torn-T so you really want that 31 IV with a Spe-boosting nature.
 
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HP Ice is almost useless on Torn-I since Garchomp and Lando-T has 0 reasons to stay in on it anyway. Sure, you hit Thundurus and Gliscor harder but that's not really worth it. Speed is really important for Torn-T so you really want that 31 IV with a Spe-boosting nature.
Alright I take your advice! :) I was pretty much looking for a Tornadus-T so I guess that extra 2 iv's in speed is crucial. Speaking of, is there any place for Tornadus-I in the metagame or is it just a strictly worse Thunderus-I for doubles?
 

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