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Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread (read the op before posting a thread)

As mentioned on the OLT thread, Sap Sipper Drampa seems to have a niche of checking both Blacephalon and Serperior. Is this a "real" niche or is this just in response to current ladder trends? It just seems like a huge stretch to throw Drampa on any team for off chance you encounter serp clown HO, no?
its neither of them, drampas unviable and theres certainly better ways to deal with serp and blace than using such a bad mon of all things. if i was building a team and realized by the time im deciding on a last mon that both blace and serp have no counterplay id just try to adjust the team in order to fit answers to both tho tbh i dont think id ever find myself in a situation where ive completely ignored blace and serp counterplay throughout the whole team to the point where i need that role compression on a last mon
 
As mentioned on the OLT thread, Sap Sipper Drampa seems to have a niche of checking both Blacephalon and Serperior. Is this a "real" niche or is this just in response to current ladder trends? It just seems like a huge stretch to throw Drampa on any team for off chance you encounter serp clown HO, no?
Drampa should never be used in OU. In NU and PU it has usage due to Specs Draco coming from it being an absolute nuke and it's very good on Trick Room in those tiers. There's much better answers to both in the OU tier though.
 
How much do you think would a Lando's ban affect Garchomp? I mean, its often a top-tier Mon in metagames without Lando-T because of its huge competition being banned, how much better would Chomp be with the tiger banned from OU? (hypothetically of course)
 
Do Serp users at a high level try to switch it in to Defog? On the flip side, do you think about this if you want to defog? I’ve gotten some absolute bullshit wins at the mid ladder using the strategy which is probably the single most consistent method of evasion boosting.
 
Do Serp users at a high level try to switch it in to Defog? I’ve gotten some absolute bullshit wins at the mid ladder using the strategy which is probably the single most consistent method of evasion boosting.
Not necessarily, but it’s the general concept. One of the cool things about Serp is it forces things to not Defog, so if you think they’re going to click it yes you can switch in, but if not, you can get momentum from that situation by not only keeping your rocks but getting a free switch for the most part
 
In that scenario, Zygarde's usage would be sky-high even more than now. People would use Zygarde instead of Garchomp

Partly true. Garchomp's niche in OU right now and the thing that warrants it being used (don't use Scarf, you degenerates) at all is usually a Swords Dance set, and sometimes an SD+Stealth Rock set. Though Zygarde would definitely be noticeably better in a Landoless meta since Lando is a soft check to some sets, Garchomp would also improve since Lando can check it to an extent too. This is further amplified by the fact that some of Lando's rising sets in the current meta are more offensively-inclined - for instance, SD+SR Lead Lando has become incredibly prominent in light of the rise of Hyper Offense in OLT - and are more in line with what Garchomp does in this meta when it's used.

So yes, Zygarde would definitely be run more often than it is now (and that's saying a lot considering how great it is right now). But, in the hypothetical situation of Lando-T getting banned (which would never happen), Garchomp and Excadrill would likely take over many of Lando's roles barring its Bulky Choice Scarf set (which is something only Lando can really pull off). Zygarde is much better offensively given the opportunity to set up, but it still lacks Swords Dance and Stealth Rock, which are two things that Garchomp has over it but which Lando-T unfortunately does a bit better since it offers a lot more for a team than just those moves by virtue of its better typing and movepool and amazing ability.
 
Why does Toxic miss when used by a Poison-type Pokemon on a flying or underground (I mean who's using Fly/Dig/Phantom Force...) pokemon on Showdown when it doesn't miss on the official game ? Are there gameplay differences between Showdown and the cartridge game ?
 
Why does Toxic miss when used by a Poison-type Pokemon on a flying or underground (I mean who's using Fly/Dig/Phantom Force...) pokemon on Showdown when it doesn't miss on the official game ? Are there gameplay differences between Showdown and the cartridge game ?
This was recently reported to be an error on Showdown's part and should be fixed soon.

Btw, to answer your second question. The only intentional difference is the Sleep Clause which basically causes at most one mon on each side to be asleep.
 
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Btw, to answer your second question. The only intentional difference is the Sleep Clause which basically causes at most one mon on each side to be asleep.

basically true but the exact definition of it is that you can't put more than one of your opponents pokemon to sleep unless you are forced to (no move or switch options). this also means the opp can put more of their own mons to sleep via Rest for example, in which case they could have 2 sleeping mons but clause won't activate.
 
Can someone give me a list of good sets Zygardes are running nowadays? It's just so easy to innovate with it and idk which sets have fallen out of favour and which sets are criminally underrated. There's only so much one can infer from the smogon moveset usage stats.
 
Can someone give me a list of good sets Zygardes are running nowadays? It's just so easy to innovate with it and idk which sets have fallen out of favour and which sets are criminally underrated. There's only so much one can infer from the smogon moveset usage stats.
I mean, the analysis has all the really prominent ones on it, considering it was recently updated. The only one its really missing is CB + RestTalk (you run tarrows espeed and resttalk).
edit: fuck
edit 2: speaking of robopoke, he made this set too which is pretty nice for the olt meta
 
I mean, the analysis has all the really prominent ones on it, considering it was recently updated. The only one its really missing is CB + RestTalk (you run tarrows espeed and resttalk).
edit: fuck
edit 2: speaking of robopoke, he made this set too which is pretty nice for the olt meta

https://www.smogon.com/dex/sm/pokemon/zygarde/

There's other sets that are decent, such as robopoke's set that he posted here.

Thanks. I didn’t even realise the analysis was updated.
 
Stall is currently doing the best it has been in months since the Arena Trap ban, with new, interesting picks such as Moltres, Avalugg, Buzzwole, and Pyukumuku being utilized recently, but it's still a very match-up based playstyle and a lot of stalls just straight up lose to a well-played Tapu Lele (Chansey is NOT a Lele answer), and pretty much all the viable stalls rn lose to one or multiple sets of Hoopa-U, and that's not easy to fix since it simply lacks defensive counterplay.
 
How is doing stall now? I want to play some good ol' hard stall shit, but maybe semi stall would perform better.

In addition to what Felixx posted, stall still has its traditional issues in Heatran and Mega Mawile. The stall vs stall matchup is a damn headache as always. Another mon that's been seeing more use on stall is Pyukumuku but anything with Taunt and/or Sub just shits on it.

I think the basic stall build these days is Mega Sableye, Chansey, Clefable, and 3 filler mons which are usually any combination of Defog users, fat lards with Regenerator, blanket checks like Hippowdon for electrics and Jirachi for fairies, etc. Stall is something that's absolutely necessary to prep for as always, especially with it being spammed in OLT. But yeah if you have CM Lele, Hoopa-Unbound, Icium Kyurem Black, and other disgusting breakers then the stall matchup is very easy.
 
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