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

[Dreadfury]

Don't laugh at me; this is a legitimate thing I tried out (someone in the OU Discord made it although it was probably a meme) and I'm wondering if anyone else sees even a semblance of viability in this absolute headassery of a Zygarde set:

Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 236 HP / 68 Atk / 168 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Coil / Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Thousand Waves
- Camouflage

It serves to lure in and trap Tangrowth on the switch with Thousand Waves, it Camouflages on the Tangrowth's inevitable HP Ice, removing its 4x weakness, and it starts Coil spamming (or DD if you want it to have a better matchup against offense) until it can comfortably 2HKO Tangrowth with STAB Extreme Speed and then you're staring down something that hits a lot of Steels pretty hard (it can't 3HKO Celesteela if it Leeches ever though) with its coverage while being pretty daunting for more offensive teams since ESpeed genuinely hurts anything that doesn't resist or pack an immunity to it.

I know this looks like a really, really, really bad gimmick or an unset at best but does its Tangrowth matchup without burning a Z-move pack any merit whatsoever, or is this still just a really, really, really bad gimmick and an unset?

 

[Lil Infant Tylenol]

Don't laugh at me; this is a legitimate thing I tried out (someone in the OU Discord made it although it was probably a meme) and I'm wondering if anyone else sees even a semblance of viability in this absolute headassery of a Zygarde set:

Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 236 HP / 68 Atk / 168 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Coil / Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Thousand Waves
- Camouflage

It serves to lure in and trap Tangrowth on the switch with Thousand Waves, it Camouflages on the Tangrowth's inevitable HP Ice, removing its 4x weakness, and it starts Coil spamming (or DD if you want it to have a better matchup against offense) until it can comfortably 2HKO Tangrowth with STAB Extreme Speed and then you're staring down something that hits a lot of Steels pretty hard (it can't 3HKO Celesteela if it Leeches ever though) with its coverage while being pretty daunting for more offensive teams since ESpeed genuinely hurts anything that doesn't resist or pack an immunity to it.

I know this looks like a really, really, really bad gimmick or an unset at best but does its Tangrowth matchup without burning a Z-move pack any merit whatsoever, or is this still just a really, really, really bad gimmick and an unset?

pretty sure its just a gimmick. It literally only traps av tang. what makes zygarde viable is the fact thousand arrows hits levitate and flying types. with this, it forgoes that and allows more stuff to wall it. Yes it traps tang, but clef, buzzwole, slowbro still wall it.

 

[talah]

Don't laugh at me; this is a legitimate thing I tried out (someone in the OU Discord made it although it was probably a meme) and I'm wondering if anyone else sees even a semblance of viability in this absolute headassery of a Zygarde set:

Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 236 HP / 68 Atk / 168 SpD / 36 Spe
Careful Nature
- Coil / Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Thousand Waves
- Camouflage

It serves to lure in and trap Tangrowth on the switch with Thousand Waves, it Camouflages on the Tangrowth's inevitable HP Ice, removing its 4x weakness, and it starts Coil spamming (or DD if you want it to have a better matchup against offense) until it can comfortably 2HKO Tangrowth with STAB Extreme Speed and then you're staring down something that hits a lot of Steels pretty hard (it can't 3HKO Celesteela if it Leeches ever though) with its coverage while being pretty daunting for more offensive teams since ESpeed genuinely hurts anything that doesn't resist or pack an immunity to it.

I know this looks like a really, really, really bad gimmick or an unset at best but does its Tangrowth matchup without burning a Z-move pack any merit whatsoever, or is this still just a really, really, really bad gimmick and an unset?

sets similar to this have been explored a bit, and i have to tell u from first hand experience it's only decent in theory or a very favorable matchup. before i get into specifics, i think u should watch this snake game. it features a coil camouflage zygarde against an admittedly not the best matchup doing pretty much nothing.

so, for tangrowth;

+3 68 Atk Zygarde Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 28 Def Tangrowth: 186-219 (46 - 54.2%) -- 48.4% chance to 2HKO

this isnt bad, but you'd usually rather go for the +4 to guarantee since it's gonna definitely use giga drain

+4 68 Atk Zygarde Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 28 Def Tangrowth: 223-264 (55.1 - 65.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

this leaves tang with 6 free turns; camouflage, 4 setup moves, 1 espeed.

let's assume it does hp ice the first turn; does nothing, 5 more turns. what tang does here is it knocks off

0 Atk Tangrowth Knock Off vs. 236 HP / 0 Def Zygarde: 40-48 (9.6 - 11.5%) -- possible 9HKO

into 4 giga drains

0 SpA Tangrowth Giga Drain vs. 236 HP / 168+ SpD Zygarde: 70-84 (16.8 - 20.1%) -- possible 5HKO

ur now at a very low amt of hp, and without leftovers. what happens next rly depends on the tangrowth's teammates but, it really doesn't get a good chance at sweeping. i don't want to flood this with calcs but things like minimal bulk lando can live after rocks, rotom lives, u obviously can't touch celesteela, latias lives, u have to play mindgames with mawile, hell even 0 bulk chomp lives after rocks a good amt of the time & kills u with rough skin.

and this is all in the very ideal scenario where u do trap tangrowth. now if they go into scarf lando first, or they have a bulu, or anything ur immediately stopped.

if u do want to run something like this, id suggest this set. it gives u a lot more flexibility in how u handle things due to the z and arrows allows u to actually touch rotom, steela etc while also not forcing u to camouflage to do damage. the ev spread & what not are obviously tweakable i just didnt have one in my builder. examples of how this is significantly more flexible:

+2 252+ Atk Zygarde Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 28 Def Tangrowth: 384-453 (95 - 112.1%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

+1 252+ Atk Zygarde Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 306-360 (84 - 98.9%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252+ Atk Zygarde Breakneck Blitz (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Latias-Mega: 408-480 (112 - 131.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

and of course you're not forced to camouflage due to arrows>waves.

sorry for the long response, hopefully this answered all ur questions

 

[power]

If you're interested in unironically luring Tangrowth DD Dragonium is a very mediocre set that can lure Tangrowth but is otherwise exceedingly middling at best.

If you're interested in ironically trapping Tangrowth with some meme set...

 

[Akumeoy]

What do Webs teams look like these days? I know Ribombee is the sash lead of choice, but beyond that I don't really know what's useful or common on the archetype.

 

[Finchinator]

What do Webs teams look like these days? I know Ribombee is the sash lead of choice, but beyond that I don't really know what's useful or common on the archetype.

!

 

[curiosity]

What do Webs teams look like these days? I know Ribombee is the sash lead of choice, but beyond that I don't really know what's useful or common on the archetype.

sorry about the hides, but this post was far too big for a simple answer

webs

While webs have generally become less common throughout the last few weeks, most variants will try to incorporate a Stealth Rock setter, which I won't go into for obvious reasons, but the most common is Excadrill, which provides utility in the form of Rapid Spin and commonly Rock Tomb, which provides additional speed control and punishes defoggers such as Tornadus on the switch in. Other rockers such as Landorus or even Garchomp can work, but the utility that Excadrill provides is generally regarded as invaluable, which is why it's the prefered Rocker of Choice. Other builds have utilised Greninja alongside Ribombee, but those builds generally have no rockers (see: this post) so that kinda sucks, but it is workable.

Much like any other hyper offence builds, you're going to want to utilise several wallbreakers, which should also have a good matchup versus stall, as many common stallbreakers don't really have a place on hyper offence. Some examples of these mons include:

• Serperior
• Pinsir
• Manaphy
• Tapu Lele

Click on the icons for sets and a few comments!

Much like other hyper offence variants, you'll also want to be utilising cleaners and sweepers. While both are separate, I generally classify them together simply because they're very similar and are pretty much only different through subjectivity. I'll expand on these mons a bit more since some of these are not as straightforwards as the breakers that i've listed.

• Magearna
• Zygarde
• Both forms of Gyarados

Click on the icons for sets and a few comments!

Mimikyu
Fondly enough, everyone's favourite unmon has been a fairly consistent pick on webs lately, thanks to its unique niche in the form of Disguise, which is especially valuable on teams which utilise multiple entry hazard setters, as you're going to be losing a teamslot to accomodate (what is most commonly) Excadrill. Disguise can either ease the matchup versus common threats to webs, including Ash Greninja and Lopunny, which you are able to freely attack or provide a free turn of setup thanks to the single turn of defensive utility it provides. It also blocks rapid spin, but that's not really important in most scenarios considering that the tier has no viable rapid spinners other than excadrill, but is useful versus opposing hyper offence.

Kommo-o
While this may be an odd choice, Kommo-o actually serves as an incredible pick on modern webs teams, thanks to its valuable defensive utility. Thanks to the combination of Kommo-o's unique typing and admittedly excellent bulk, it provides webs with a consistent matchup versus the aforementioned Ash Greninja, Tapu Koko and Kartana, which are incredibly threatening to many modern hyper offence builds. Kommo-o's exclusive access to an excellent Z move in Clangorous Soulblaze, which is only complemented to its access to Dragon Dance and the previously mentioned incredible bulk, which grants Kommo-o the ability to act as an incredible cleaner that is incredibly hard to stop.

Here's an example of a modern webs build, courtesy of Lopunny Kicks, which features Charizard x, which is something that I refuse to didn't mention.


Click on the icons for the importable!

If you do want to build your own webs team, you might want to look at this article, which is admittedly outdated, as it was made for the ORAS OU metagame, but the structure remains very similar. You might also want to take a look at the Role Compedium and the Viability Rankings when trying to build for webs, as it's (personally) harder to build offence, as there are quite a lot of threats to account for when building, but that may just be me.

What are some good Weavile cores, preferably hyper offense ones?

weavile

Admittedly, Weavile doesn't really have a place on Hyper Offence any more, as its not exactly a prime breaker for hyper offence, nor does it have much to offer when it comes to its cleaning capabilities, but you might want to try use it on Bulky Offence teams, because its niche of pursuit trapping is much more valuable, due to the nature of the pokemon that are generally on the playstyle.

Weavile generally works best with mons that appreciate its ability to Pursuit trap targets such as Reuniclus and Lati@s, but also those that greatly appreciate knock off support, so you're probably looking at mons such as Medicham, offensive Tapu Koko, and Tapu Lele which appreciate its ability to trap fatter psychics and dragons, while the aforementioned Tapu Lele, Gliscor and both forms of Greninja appreciate Knock Off support. You're also going to want to utilise entry hazard support from the likes of Greninja (both spikes and toxic spikes work in this scenario), Ferrothorn and Heatran (another big benefactor of both pursuit and knock off) as it appreciates the chip damage that these mons provide. Hazard control is also crucial due to its fragility and typing, so partners such as Tornadus, Kartana, Landorus and Tapu Koko make excellent partners.

I hope this helped you both!

 

[VCrakeV]

What are some effective Tyranitar lures? Mega Zam is a great pick in the meta currently, but it can't stay/come in without risking being trapped by Ttar if the opponent has it (focus blast OHKOs standard sets, but it misses often, and fails to OHKO AV and Chople berry sets). Obviously a ghost or psychic type can lure in Ttar, but I'm not sure which to pick.

 

[curiosity]

What are some effective Tyranitar lures? Mega Zam is a great pick in the meta currently, but it can't stay/come in without risking being trapped by Ttar if the opponent has it (focus blast OHKOs standard sets, but it misses often, and fails to OHKO AV and Chople berry sets). Obviously a ghost or psychic type can lure in Ttar, but I'm not sure which to pick.

Tornadus has several sets that are able to effectively remove Tyranitar, while Heatran and Kyurem-Black also have the capacity to effectively lure it, but they do not lure it in as easily as Tornadus does.

 

[LimaBean]

What's the optimal Mega Slowbro moveset? Replays?

 

[curiosity]

What's the optimal Mega Slowbro moveset? Replays?

Generally, you’d want to go with this moveset and EV spread, but if you chose to drop Psyshock or Ice Beam for options such as Fire Blast, Toxic or Thunder Wave, you can move 20 evs from its speed to SpDef to ensure that it survives a Mega Latios Deaco Meteor From full then move the remaining EVs in Def to maximise bulk.

 

[VCrakeV]

What's the optimal Mega Slowbro moveset? Replays?

I don't think there is an optimal set, as there a couple of good ones, depending on the rest of your team. That said, Mega bro doesn't see much usage in OU, so I'm not sure how it functions in the meta, so my thoughts are mostly just it in a vacuum.

It can run max defense, max hp, with calm mind, slack off, scald, and psyshock/ stored power. It functions similar to Mega latias, but relies more on its sheer bulk more, due to its low speed. It also has to worry about toxic, since it has no way of preventing or removing it by itself. Substitute could be slash with psychic stab, but it is much too slow to sub on a toxic user. You'd have to sub as they switch to a toxic user.

An alternative set is max spdef, max health, with the same moves as above but iron defense over psychic stab. This allows Mega Bro to function as an anti-setup sweeper, since it can easily keep up with physical boosts, and special boosts to a degree.

 

[Jordy]

It can run max defense, max hp, with calm mind, slack off, scald, and psyshock/ stored power.

Slowbro doesn't get Stored Power.

That said, curiosity's set is probably the best to use in the current metagame.

 

[NylaTheWolf]

sorry about the hides, but this post was far too big for a simple answer

webs

While webs have generally become less common throughout the last few weeks, most variants will try to incorporate a Stealth Rock setter, which I won't go into for obvious reasons, but the most common is Excadrill, which provides utility in the form of Rapid Spin and commonly Rock Tomb, which provides additional speed control and punishes defoggers such as Tornadus on the switch in. Other rockers such as Landorus or even Garchomp can work, but the utility that Excadrill provides is generally regarded as invaluable, which is why it's the prefered Rocker of Choice. Other builds have utilised Greninja alongside Ribombee, but those builds generally have no rockers (see: this post) so that kinda sucks, but it is workable.

Much like any other hyper offence builds, you're going to want to utilise several wallbreakers, which should also have a good matchup versus stall, as many common stallbreakers don't really have a place on hyper offence. Some examples of these mons include:

• Serperior
• Pinsir
• Manaphy
• Tapu Lele

Click on the icons for sets and a few comments!

Much like other hyper offence variants, you'll also want to be utilising cleaners and sweepers. While both are separate, I generally classify them together simply because they're very similar and are pretty much only different through subjectivity. I'll expand on these mons a bit more since some of these are not as straightforwards as the breakers that i've listed.

• Magearna
• Zygarde
• Both forms of Gyarados

Click on the icons for sets and a few comments!

Mimikyu
Fondly enough, everyone's favourite unmon has been a fairly consistent pick on webs lately, thanks to its unique niche in the form of Disguise, which is especially valuable on teams which utilise multiple entry hazard setters, as you're going to be losing a teamslot to accomodate (what is most commonly) Excadrill. Disguise can either ease the matchup versus common threats to webs, including Ash Greninja and Lopunny, which you are able to freely attack or provide a free turn of setup thanks to the single turn of defensive utility it provides. It also blocks rapid spin, but that's not really important in most scenarios considering that the tier has no viable rapid spinners other than excadrill, but is useful versus opposing hyper offence.

Kommo-o
While this may be an odd choice, Kommo-o actually serves as an incredible pick on modern webs teams, thanks to its valuable defensive utility. Thanks to the combination of Kommo-o's unique typing and admittedly excellent bulk, it provides webs with a consistent matchup versus the aforementioned Ash Greninja, Tapu Koko and Kartana, which are incredibly threatening to many modern hyper offence builds. Kommo-o's exclusive access to an excellent Z move in Clangorous Soulblaze, which is only complemented to its access to Dragon Dance and the previously mentioned incredible bulk, which grants Kommo-o the ability to act as an incredible cleaner that is incredibly hard to stop.

Here's an example of a modern webs build, courtesy of Lopunny Kicks, which features Charizard x, which is something that I refuse to didn't mention.


Click on the icons for the importable!

If you do want to build your own webs team, you might want to look at this article, which is admittedly outdated, as it was made for the ORAS OU metagame, but the structure remains very similar. You might also want to take a look at the Role Compedium and the Viability Rankings when trying to build for webs, as it's (personally) harder to build offence, as there are quite a lot of threats to account for when building, but that may just be me.

weavile

Admittedly, Weavile doesn't really have a place on Hyper Offence any more, as its not exactly a prime breaker for hyper offence, nor does it have much to offer when it comes to its cleaning capabilities, but you might want to try use it on Bulky Offence teams, because its niche of pursuit trapping is much more valuable, due to the nature of the pokemon that are generally on the playstyle.

Weavile generally works best with mons that appreciate its ability to Pursuit trap targets such as Reuniclus and Lati@s, but also those that greatly appreciate knock off support, so you're probably looking at mons such as Medicham, offensive Tapu Koko, and Tapu Lele which appreciate its ability to trap fatter psychics and dragons, while the aforementioned Tapu Lele, Gliscor and both forms of Greninja appreciate Knock Off support. You're also going to want to utilise entry hazard support from the likes of Greninja (both spikes and toxic spikes work in this scenario), Ferrothorn and Heatran (another big benefactor of both pursuit and knock off) as it appreciates the chip damage that these mons provide. Hazard control is also crucial due to its fragility and typing, so partners such as Tornadus, Kartana, Landorus and Tapu Koko make excellent partners.

I hope this helped you both!

Thank you so much!

 

[OlliKnolli]

Don´t know if this is the place to ask, but I´ve seen that Chansey, Mega Venusaur, Skarmory, Heatran, ...(sometimes Keldeo or something) Team now quite often on the ladder and heard people talking about it. Does anyone have an Importable for it?

 

[suapah]

Don´t know if this is the place to ask, but I´ve seen that Chansey, Mega Venusaur, Skarmory, Heatran, ...(sometimes Keldeo or something) Team now quite often on the ladder and heard people talking about it. Does anyone have an Importable for it?

Hey there,
That team is known as "Wish Killer" and smogon has a good article that goes in depth about the team composition that can be found over here: https://www.smogon.com/articles/a-team-dissection

Otherwise, if you just want the importable, here's the team: https://pokepast.es/3dfc1fd347cd188f

 

[OlliKnolli]

Hey there,
That team is known as "Wish Killer" and smogon has a good article that goes in depth about the team composition that can be found over here: https://www.smogon.com/articles/a-team-dissection

Otherwise, if you just want the importable, here's the team: https://pokepast.es/3dfc1fd347cd188f

thx!

 

[Silent Pixels]

How good is physically defensive tangrowth in comparison to the assault vest tangrowth? How viable in the current metagame is it?
(Asking bcuz the viability rankings for each mons' specific sets, are outdated as hell)

 

[Lil Infant Tylenol]

How good is physically defensive tangrowth in comparison to the assault vest tangrowth? How viable in the current metagame is it?

Really it dependd on what ur team needs. They are both good pivots, but AV is more popular cause of its ability to check ash gren

 

[Silent Pixels]

Really it dependd on what ur team needs. They are both good pivots, but AV is more popular cause of its ability to check ash gren

What does Tang check? Also what're some good partners for it?

 

[lydian]

What does Tang check? Also what're some good partners for it?

I assume you’re asking about AV here. For the most part, it checks Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko on the special side while still keeping the likes of Zygarde and potentially Kartana and Tapu Bulu at bay depending on the move it runs. It’s in general a great pivot as arguably the closer thing to a Zygarde counter there is, while still being a reliable pivot that stomachs some valuable hits on the special side.

As for good partners, Toxapex can form a Regenerator core with it, and handle Fire-types like Volcarona, Mega Charizard Y, and even Heatran lacking Magma Storm. Speaking of Heatran it’s also a great teammate as it can tackle Pokémon like Serperior and Tapu Lele to an extent and provide much needed offensive pressure as well as Stealth Rock. Lastly if you can’t cover Kartana and Tapu Bulu with Tangrowth getting strapped for moveslots, Tornadus-T can check those while also helping with the Mega Medicham matchup and providing once again a Regenerator core as well as Defog.

You can read more in detail about it on its analysis here.

 

[Silent Pixels]

I assume you’re asking about AV here. For the most part, it checks Ash-Greninja and Tapu Koko on the special side while still keeping the likes of Zygarde and potentially Kartana and Tapu Bulu at bay depending on the move it runs. It’s in general a great pivot as arguably the closer thing to a Zygarde counter there is, while still being a reliable pivot that stomachs some valuable hits on the special side.

As for good partners, Toxapex can form a Regenerator core with it, and handle Fire-types like Volcarona, Mega Charizard Y, and even Heatran lacking Magma Storm. Speaking of Heatran it’s also a great teammate as it can tackle Pokémon like Serperior and Tapu Lele to an extent and provide much needed offensive pressure as well as Stealth Rock. Lastly if you can’t cover Kartana and Tapu Bulu with Tangrowth getting strapped for moveslots, Tornadus-T can check those while also helping with the Mega Medicham matchup and providing once again a Regenerator core as well as Defog.

You can read more in detail about it on its analysis here.

I meant physical that's what my entire section of questions was all about

 

[Lil Infant Tylenol]

I meant physical that's what my entire section of questions was all about

It actually techinically doesnt check anything more, but physical does a way better job at checking at the physical threats. For example, phys def tang can check fight z kart way better than AV Tang. I dont have the calcs off the top of my head, but I think u get how much less it takes. That is why on phys def tang is mostly on stall teams

 

[Silent Pixels]

It actually techinically doesnt check anything more, but physical does a way better job at checking at the physical threats. For example, phys def tang can check fight z kart way better than AV Tang. I dont have the calcs off the top of my head, but I think u get how much less it takes. That is why on phys def tang is mostly on stall teams

How does each hold up against zygarde? Since that guy seems to be a bit of a nuisance for teams nowadays

 

[Lil Infant Tylenol]

How does each hold up against zygarde? Since that guy seems to be a bit of a nuisance for teams nowadays

Both AV tang and phys def can handle it as they usually dont run outrage. Alrhough AV has trouble with Z or banded if they are running outrage. Although, its relatively uncommon.