Data Usage-Based Tier Update for January 2018 (Feb @ #263) (Mar @ #696)

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Stakataka has been rewarding, but it kinda struggles with Gliscor and Infernape being so common on my team. Nevertheless, my first 6 UU matches with it all resulted in my opponents forfeiting... Some forfeited instantly, others because I got SR up so they forfeited turn 1, and one lasted 5 turns and then forfeited because Fire Blast missed against Serperior (I didn't even use Staka or Alolawak in that match, the guy's team was begging to be swept with 4 Grass weaknesses and only 1 resistance in Scarf Infernape)
 
Some hints for using TR in UU:

1)DON'T use Stakataka as your only TR setter. Its weaknesses are easily exploitable against threats like Giscor, Lucario, and Infernape. I use Reuniclus as a secondary setter with more longevity.
2)If possible, use a mon that can work outside of TR as well. If you can't set up TR at all, you aren't as helpless anymore. I use Serperior for this, and occasionally it appreciates a last turn of TR too against scarfers or Mega Aerodactyl/Beedrill/Sceptile.
3) Go play OU and use Rotom-W in every match so that shit doesn't return.
 
Sorry for the lack of tier update last month. The Ultra SuMo release exposed a bunch of flaws in the usage stats scripts that took a while to resolve.

I finally have everything sorted though, so here are your new tiers!

Weighting is the standard 20-3-1 Dec-Nov-Oct. Please VM/PM me if anything looks weird.
when is showdown updating?
 
I'm pretty sure Lycanroc will be NU at best. It can't stay in RU because Aerodactyl outclasses it.
It and Aerodactyl will surely compete, bur each has some unique traits. Aerodactyl has more actual speed, slightly higher bulk and a better support movepool (notably including Pursuit, Torment, Smack Down and Tailwind;both have Taunt and Roar), while Lycanroc has a higher damage output, better offensive movepool, two setup moves rather than one (Swords Dance and Rock Polish, Aero only has RP) and a unique STAB priority move. They will face hefty competition from each other, but neither totally outclasses the other.
 
Aerodactyl can learn earthquake and an ice attack, and Lycanroc can learn neither.and hone claws.
Forgot about Hone Claws, but overall I'd say it's worse than SD unless you're the unluckiest guy in the world. TC Drill Run is stronger than EQ. Lacking an Ice attack hurts indeed though, as it will be unable to seriously damage Gligar without boosts, but Aerodactyl isn't much better in that regard since Ice Fang has a disappointingly low base power.
 
why did this thread became a debate on whether lando T is broken or not. can we move this somewhere else or something a keep in topic?
Frankly, I am sorry for the inconvenience.
If you are curious, I want lando-t banned not because it's broken (i'm not sure if it is) because I'm concerned that it will shrink the amount of viable Pokemon in OU (i,e, gengar becoming UU)
 
Frankly, I am sorry for the inconvenience.
If you are curious, I want lando-t banned not because it's broken (i'm not sure if it is) because I'm concerned that it will shrink the amount of viable Pokemon in OU (i,e, gengar becoming UU)
But there is practically no correlation between Landorus-T and Gengar losing viability. In fact the main reason Gengar is less viable is that it has been actively nerfed.
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
To be frank, even if it had Levitate still, Gengar would've fallen off anyway.

Let's take a look at some OU Ground types.
-Garchomp can fuck it up with Dragon STAB
-Excadrill has Mold Breaker
-Mega Swampert just one-shots in rain via use of Waterfall
-Zygarde has Thousand Arrows
-Lando can take it out with Stone Edge, Supersonic Skystrike or Knock Off
-Mamoswine easily KOes with Icicle Crash + Ice Shard
-Gliscor has Knock Off
 
To be frank, even if it had Levitate still, Gengar would've fallen off anyway.

Let's take a look at some OU Ground types.
-Garchomp can fuck it up with Dragon STAB
-Excadrill has Mold Breaker
-Mega Swampert just one-shots in rain via use of Waterfall
-Zygarde has Thousand Arrows
-Lando can take it out with Stone Edge, Supersonic Skystrike or Knock Off
-Mamoswine easily KOes with Icicle Crash + Ice Shard
-Gliscor has Knock Off
And being outclassed by Blacephalon, which isn’t even that great too begin with. Gengar just really has a hard time doing it’s job as a wallbreaker. It loses to Toxapex unless it is running Life taunt, which in that case it isn’t extremly easy to wear down. Ghostium Z doesn’t really have a place on a team anymore with how important the z Crystal slot is. Gengars speed isn’t that good anymore and is easily pressured by offense. Gengar isn’t terrible Pokémon, it’s just really hard to justify using right now over other wallbreakers.
 
And being outclassed by Blacephalon, which isn’t even that great too begin with. Gengar just really has a hard time doing it’s job as a wallbreaker. It loses to Toxapex unless it is running Life taunt, which in that case it isn’t extremly easy to wear down. Ghostium Z doesn’t really have a place on a team anymore with how important the z Crystal slot is. Gengars speed isn’t that good anymore and is easily pressured by offense. Gengar isn’t terrible Pokémon, it’s just really hard to justify using right now over other wallbreakers.
Hmm how is Blacephalon not that great? It's A- in the VR from what I see so clearly it has merit on a team
 
And being outclassed by Blacephalon, which isn’t even that great too begin with. Gengar just really has a hard time doing it’s job as a wallbreaker. It loses to Toxapex unless it is running Life taunt, which in that case it isn’t extremly easy to wear down. Ghostium Z doesn’t really have a place on a team anymore with how important the z Crystal slot is. Gengars speed isn’t that good anymore and is easily pressured by offense. Gengar isn’t terrible Pokémon, it’s just really hard to justify using right now over other wallbreakers.
I have noticed that while Gengar is less powerful than Blachephalon, it's faster and bulkier.
 
I'm not sure if there's much I can say regarding Landorus-T that hasn't been said already, but I'll throw this out there: it seems like every pro-ban argument boils down to one of two reasons: 1) how often it's used, and 2) the variety of different roles it can fill on a team. Here are my thoughts on each of them:

1 - People have mentioned how Donphan is constantly used in RU despite being lousy in that tier, so I think it's safe to say usage doesn't necessarily reflect a Pokemon's viability. And there are other examples besides that. Remember back in Gen V Ubers when the ladder was riddled with players using crap like Charizard and Espeon? Granted, I doubt any of these has seen more than 50% usage in their respective tiers, but the point still stands - the usage a Pokemon gets is a very minimal indicator of how "broken" a Pokemon is. Even if Lando-T had 100% usage, it still wouldn't make a difference in terms of its viability or value to a team than if it had 10% usage instead.

2 - None of the sets Lando-T runs are particularly overpowered or require specific Pokemon to counter. With Naganadel, for example, you would need to run something like Weavile or Assault Vest Tyranitar just to avoid losing to it, and would only run them for the sake of beating Naganadel. With Lando-T, you have both versions of Greninja, Kyurem-B, Keldeo, Alolan Ninetales, and Rotom-W, to name a few. All of these are either OU or OU-viable Pokemon that fulfill other roles on the team and also happen to be able to beat most, if not all Lando-T sets. Hell, you could just slap HP Ice on Tapu Koko and beat it that way. So it's not like you have to run specific Pokemon or specific sets to beat it at all.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that if Lando-T were to be banned, it would only be a matter of time before a "ban Toxapex" bandwagon came along?
 

alephgalactus

Banned deucer.
I'm not sure if there's much I can say regarding Landorus-T that hasn't been said already, but I'll throw this out there: it seems like every pro-ban argument boils down to one of two reasons: 1) how often it's used, and 2) the variety of different roles it can fill on a team. Here are my thoughts on each of them:

1 - People have mentioned how Donphan is constantly used in RU despite being lousy in that tier, so I think it's safe to say usage doesn't necessarily reflect a Pokemon's viability. And there are other examples besides that. Remember back in Gen V Ubers when the ladder was riddled with players using crap like Charizard and Espeon? Granted, I doubt any of these has seen more than 50% usage in their respective tiers, but the point still stands - the usage a Pokemon gets is a very minimal indicator of how "broken" a Pokemon is. Even if Lando-T had 100% usage, it still wouldn't make a difference in terms of its viability or value to a team than if it had 10% usage instead.

2 - None of the sets Lando-T runs are particularly overpowered or require specific Pokemon to counter. With Naganadel, for example, you would need to run something like Weavile or Assault Vest Tyranitar just to avoid losing to it, and would only run them for the sake of beating Naganadel. With Lando-T, you have both versions of Greninja, Kyurem-B, Keldeo, Alolan Ninetales, and Rotom-W, to name a few. All of these are either OU or OU-viable Pokemon that fulfill other roles on the team and also happen to be able to beat most, if not all Lando-T sets. Hell, you could just slap HP Ice on Tapu Koko and beat it that way. So it's not like you have to run specific Pokemon or specific sets to beat it at all.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that if Lando-T were to be banned, it would only be a matter of time before a "ban Toxapex" bandwagon came along?
The "ban Toxapex" bandwagon has been here before Sun and Moon even came out. I don't personally think anything would become problematic because of a Landorus ban, and besides, "it holds the meta together" isn't a good argument for not banning something anyway. As for Donphan, its usage in RU is because of bad players thinking it's good, and it's nowhere near as used as Lando in OU. And if you really wouldn't see any problem whatsoever with a Pokémon having 100% usage in a tier as big as OU, then I don't have anything more to say to you; you're beyond the point where I could convince you of anything. As for your second point, that's a fair argument and I do see where you're coming from, but there were things like Salamence in ORAS UU that weren't specifically broken or required specific counters but played a huge number of roles really well which caused them to have few reliable counters and were banned because of it. If you wanted to reliably beat every Lando set that's out there, you wouldn't have much room left to prepare for other things. And even with Specs, HP-Ice from Koko isn't a guaranteed OHKO on defensive Lando-T.
 
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The "ban Toxapex" bandwagon has been here before Sun and Moon even came out. I don't personally think anything would become problematic because of a Landorus ban, and besides, "it holds the meta together" isn't a good argument for not banning something anyway. As for Donphan, its usage in RU is because of bad players thinking it's good, and it's nowhere near as used as Lando in OU. And if you really wouldn't see any problem whatsoever with a Pokémon having 100% usage in a tier as big as OU, then I don't have anything more to say to you; you're beyond the point where I could convince you of anything. As for your second point, that's a fair argument and I do see where you're coming from, but there were things like Salamence in ORAS UU that weren't specifically broken or required specific counters but played a huge number of roles really well which caused them to have few reliable counters and were banned because of it. If you wanted to reliably beat every Lando set that's out there, you wouldn't have much room left to prepare for other things. And even with Specs, HP-Ice from Koko isn't a guaranteed OHKO on defensive Lando-T.
But Landorus does have a number of reliable counters, as listed a number of times in even just this thread. Also HP Ice is a 60BP move and Koko has only 95 base SpAtk, and it still has an 81.3% chance to KO.

Also ban Toxapex has been around since before Sun and Moon? Whut?
 
The "ban Toxapex" bandwagon has been here before Sun and Moon even came out. I don't personally think anything would become problematic because of a Landorus ban, and besides, "it holds the meta together" isn't a good argument for not banning something anyway. As for Donphan, its usage in RU is because of bad players thinking it's good, and it's nowhere near as used as Lando in OU. And if you really wouldn't see any problem whatsoever with a Pokémon having 100% usage in a tier as big as OU, then I don't have anything more to say to you; you're beyond the point where I could convince you of anything. As for your second point, that's a fair argument and I do see where you're coming from, but there were things like Salamence in ORAS UU that weren't specifically broken or required specific counters but played a huge number of roles really well which caused them to have few reliable counters and were banned because of it. If you wanted to reliably beat every Lando set that's out there, you wouldn't have much room left to prepare for other things. And even with Specs, HP-Ice from Koko isn't a guaranteed OHKO on defensive Lando-T.
You constantly ignore the fact that usage doesn’t mean something is broken. And no, Landorus therians checks are pretty universal. Landorus therians offensive sets can beat its checks, but it is still very easy for even bulkier teams to offensively check. Even stall can potentially check the offensive sets, with skarmorys counter, or baiting the z move, because then Lando can’t break past Clefable it Quagsire. All of landos sets are also very easy to check, any faster special attacker, which is often included without taking lando into account when building. The one set that isn’t, scarf, is very easy to defensively check, as getting locked into earthquakes is extremly easy to take advanatage of for even offensive teams. If you are serious about lando being broken, you need better arguments than usage. Name one Pokémon that was banned for its high usage.
 
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