Hello there, (Ultra) Sun here, usually i don't post in thread like this, but i want to be honest to say this thread is becoming really weird lmao. My thoughts about Naganadel are the same mentioned by Finch some pages ago, this mon is broken, the fact Naganadel makes AV Tyranitar so popular, which usually was used to handle Volcarona only in specific teams in the recent months, or things like Icium Blissey (are you kidding me? rofl), SpD Ice beam Empoleon or AV Slowking used, show us that this mon centralizes teambuilding to deal with it in my opinion. Revenge kill is probably the best way to handle Naganadel with stuff like Scarf protean Greninja, and priority users such as Weavile and Mamoswine. Anyway, i believe all the relevant pro-ban arguments got mentioned before so there's no sense to repeat them here. i'll speak about some things i liked during my 100-150 games i've played on ladder.
Blacephalon, this thing is really interesting tbh, solid offensive stats with a really good offensive typing are the only pros for it, in the meantime it has a shitty coverage, but it has still a good room to wallbreak against ttar-less teams. Choiced items are the best items allowing it to be a very powerful wallbreaker, i've tried Specs Blacephalon in webs offense and is pretty fine, it hits really hard and Trick make the job easier against Chansey, hopefully, after Naga ban, we'll see less AV Tyranitar around :I Choice Scarf makes it a great revenge killer with enough firepower to hit significantly hard a chunk of the current metagame and a decent speed to handle common threats like shift gear magearna. i've tried Explosion as 4th move and i found it pretty useful to deal with Volcarona, unfortunately Volcarona isn't really common rn due Naganadel's huge impact in USM OU. Blacephalon appreciates choice specs Tapu Lele to get rid of Chansey, Tyranitar etc etc, Psychic terrain is huge for Blacephalon to get rid of priority from Bisharp or mega Mawile. I don't have much to say about the z-crystal variant but i feel like its an inferior set because it loses power and speed if compared with Choiced variants.
Mega Gyarados is really cool at this stage of the metagame, especially because it appreciates Tyranitar ad Heatran's rise in usage, DD+3 attacks and Sub+DD are always its best sets to use, Earthquake is very important for it cause assault vest magearna, which is literally one of the best Naganadel checks outside of Heatran and assault vest Tyranitar, DD makes it a fearsome sweeper after a dragon dance, and Mold breaker is really useful since it break past Mimikyu, one of the best revenge killers in Hyper offense builds, and rotom-wash. thanks to its typing, gyarados-mega can set up against ash Greninja, Bisharp and Blacephalon without much trouble and Substitute makes it really hard to deal with for defensive cores. I like also how this mon can take advantage of stall/balance teams which usually runs stuff like Toxapex, Alomomola and mega Sableye. i've tried mega mega Gyarados, and as i said for Blacephalon, it appreciates Lele support too, which is very fearsome for stuff like Venusaur-mega, mega Scizor and Zapdos.
Trick room got better and better this generation, and with the addition of "The Wall" aka Stakataka, it has another fearsome breaker in their arsenal. while it's typing is shit defensively, it has a really good offensive presence with the most powerful gyro ball in the game and it can be used as pure wallbreaker with choice band (is very powerful oml),or an OTR Rockium variant, which is better in my opinion, especially outside of full-trick room teams, like OTR Magearna. This pokemon is surely not awesome, it has a niche in OU and i think it might work very well in some kind of match ups. during my ladder run i tried it in full Trick room, and seeing a defensive Landorus-t still being 2HKO by a -1 CB Gyro ball is pretty fun to watch. This mon needs a good defensive backbone in the back to handle water types, fighting types and ground types, Assault vest Tapu Bulu and landorus therian in my opinion, are two of the best partners if you going to use Stakataka outside of Trick room-based teams from what i've seen.
Heatran, even without Naganadel around, it's one of the best pokemon in Overused since DPP era. It checks many pokemons, such as Scizor mega, assault vest Magearna, double dance boltbeam Magearna, Toxapex, HP ground-less Volcarona and the list goes on.. now with Naganadel around, is getting even more usage, the special defensive set is the most used to deal with Naganadel, in the meantime i don't agree with people who thinks SpD Heatran is getting more usage only cause Naganadel presence in the tier, Special Defensive Heatran was already a pretty decent set in SM OU, an uncommon set isn't bad, is just uncommon, especially in Heatran case. Heatran provides much role compression, and it will be always appreciated in every Overused metagame.
Fighting types such as mega Lopunny and mega Medicham are better picks for offensive team in a metagame where Heatran and Tyranitar are like everywhere and with the fall in usage of common defensive countermeasures such as Toxapex and Clefable. Mega lopunny is really good in bulky offense and Hyper offense builds while Medicham seen some usage in webs offense. Both these fighting types are very fearsome for current metagame trends and they appreciates slow pivots such as defensive Landorus-t and Assault vest Magearna to grab momentum. Not much to say about these two, y'all know what they do and how much they're good in offense buil
ds.
Tutor Defog is probably one the biggest change in USM, a lot of pokemons learns it now, removing hazards froo the field isn't that hard now, many offensive pokemons gets it, offensive pokemons such as Tapu koko, Hawlucha, Landorus-therian, Hydreigon, Tornadus-therian and more defensive-based pokemons like Rotom-w and Poison Heal Gliscor. This means we can change a lot our teambuilding process, for example, koko+kyub will not requires more anther hazard remover like Latios, more offensive builds can use defog on Hawlucha (like i did in ladder), which is interesting if you don't need Drain Punch/Roost/Pjab on it. Stall builds takes advantage of double Defog without much issues now, Gliscor is pretty decent, in the meanwhile, i found Rotom-w a little underwhelming, it is not bulky as it was in the pas gens due to z-moves and new stuff like Tapu koko, Tapu Lele and Tapu Bulu. Defog Landorus-t, i've heard some people say "this mon is broken wtf, ban it now". Defog is not really a good option outside of the Choice Scarfed set in my opinion. Lando is the best rocker in the game, there's no sense to use it as your dedicated hazard remover, that's just my opinion.
With that being said, I think I'll end here, there would be other things to say, but they would be too much. peace!
