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

What has caused playstyles such as HO and TR to fall down in popularity and usage?
Hyper Offense is naturally a very inconsistent playstyle. You either know you're winning a few turns in or you know you're losing a few turns in for the most part. They can be prone to status, misses, occasionally missing rolls, etc. and when every turn an HO team has is as precious as it is you can't afford to have too many bad turns. Moreover, they can be super matchup-dependent and a lot of stuff that gives HO a decent amount of trouble (mostly Ash-Greninja, which is enough of a danger that its only truly good long-term countermeasure that fits on these teams is Mega Gyarados) is also pretty prominent in this meta. Zygarde getting banned also hurt HO a lot because Zygarde provided a lot of role compression for such teams due to its amazing coverage with just one moveslot, access to strong priority, access to several amazing setup moves, and excellent bulk with a good defensive typing that enabled so many setup opportunities. Zygarde was one of the most consistent things commonly found on this otherwise-inconsistent playstyle.

Trick Room as a whole was almost always quite bad, though. Unlike Drizzle/Sand Stream you don't have stuff that automatically sets Trick Room nor do you have items to extend it, so you almost always dedicate at least two slots on full TR teams to just stuff that sets Trick Room and you're dedicating a turn to getting hit, set up on, statused, or what have you every time you want to set Trick Room. Dedicating two near dead-weight slots to just getting it up is problematic on its own, and a lot of the stuff that abuses Trick Room - mostly Stakataka, which sets its own, and Alolan Marowak, who during its stint in OU was more commonly used for its defensive utility - has since fallen out of favor either because they have an atrocious defensive typing and can't even OHKO or even 2HKO some crucial threats or need to dedicate yet another precious Trick Room turn to setting up to truly hit as hard as possible. Offensive Trick Room Magearna is still technically viable, but that set has fallen out of favor because of how good Shift Gear sets are by comparison. The really good Trick Room setters are the ones that can abuse their own Trick Room, and even those kinds of setters are just kinda outclassed by other threats or other sets.
 
Apologies if this was already asked somewhere in the thread.
How does multiscale affect substitute? Does a substitute made from 100% hp retain multiscale, or does the mon behind the sub need to be at 100% hp for multiscale to affect the sub?
 
Apologies if this was already asked somewhere in the thread.
How does multiscale affect substitute? Does a substitute made from 100% hp retain multiscale, or does the mon behind the sub need to be at 100% hp for multiscale to affect the sub?
A 'mon needs to be at 100% for Multiscale to be in effect. Using Sub will break this effect. So yes, it needs to be at 100%, even with a Sub up.
 
Apologies if this was already asked somewhere in the thread.
How does multiscale affect substitute? Does a substitute made from 100% hp retain multiscale, or does the mon behind the sub need to be at 100% hp for multiscale to affect the sub?
Substitute breaks Multiscale, so the Substitute does not retain Multiscale.
 

Mur

If you're not first you're last
Yo random mechanics question, does the infestation trap counter drop by 1 the turn it is used in the same way that trick room loses a turn when its used?

For example, would one be able to trap something, rest, and proceed to wake up and keep them trapped by infestating (lol is this even a word) again after waking up? Or would you have to get the 5 turn trap (or use grip claw or whatever the fuck that item is called) to avoid them from escaping?

Visual example of what I'm asking for, assuming the 4 turn trap:

turn 1: mon#1 traps mon#2 with infestation (counter: 4)

turn 2: mon#1 uses rest (3)

turns 3 + 4: mon#1 burns 2 sleep turns (2, 1)

turn 5: mon#1 traps mon#2 again with infestation (counter resets)

Does this sequence work or will they be able to switch on the final sleep turn (turn 4 in the example) assuming the 4 turn trap?
 

Ruft

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Yo random mechanics question, does the infestation trap counter drop by 1 the turn it is used in the same way that trick room loses a turn when its used?

For example, would one be able to trap something, rest, and proceed to wake up and keep them trapped by infestating (lol is this even a word) again after waking up? Or would you have to get the 5 turn trap (or use grip claw or whatever the fuck that item is called) to avoid them from escaping?

Visual example of what I'm asking for, assuming the 4 turn trap:

turn 1: mon#1 traps mon#2 with infestation (counter: 4)

turn 2: mon#1 uses rest (3)

turns 3 + 4: mon#1 burns 2 sleep turns (2, 1)

turn 5: mon#1 traps mon#2 again with infestation (counter resets)

Does this sequence work or will they be able to switch on the final sleep turn (turn 4 in the example) assuming the 4 turn trap?
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7customgame-912066854

Since mon #2 gets trapped on turn 1 it is freed 4 turns later at the end of turn 5 and is thus able to switch out. The counter does not reset.
 
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Mur

If you're not first you're last
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7customgame-912066854

Since mon #2 gets trapped on turn 1 it is freed 4 turns later at the end of turn 5 and is thus able to switch out. The counter does not reset.
Ah thanks, interesting how the problem in the sequence wasn’t the trap counter, but infestation itself. Weird that it doesn’t just reset if you spam infestation though, I felt like it would work similarly to sleep talking rest in GSC where the counter just resets.

Thank you again for the clarification, and I suppose if infestation worked that way it would be kinda dumb so I guess I’m glad that it doesn’t work the way I thought lol
 
Why doesnt the breloom set on the dex outspeed timid magearna? I get the extra power but Magearna is so popular, and being able to spore it safely seems logical. If this is not where I am supposed to post this I apologize
Breloom @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Swords Dance
- Spore
 

Finchinator

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Why doesnt the breloom set on the dex outspeed timid magearna? I get the extra power but Magearna is so popular, and being able to spore it safely seems logical. If this is not where I am supposed to post this I apologize
Breloom @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Mach Punch
- Bullet Seed
- Swords Dance
- Spore
Breloom is not really used much at all, so it is not experimented enough with sufficiently. This is not really the place for Dex related inquiries, but using this set with +speed is probably similarly viable to it with +attack, if that's any consolation/reassurance for you.
 
What is the OU by technicality thingy for? And why aren't Mega TTar and Mega Chomp OU by usage despite the former being very, very good, while the latter seems to be an incredibly powerful and nice anti-meta pick?
 

Yoshi

IT'S FINK DUMBASS
What is the OU by technicality thingy for? And why aren't Mega TTar and Mega Chomp OU by usage despite the former being very, very good, while the latter seems to be an incredibly powerful and nice anti-meta pick?
I can’t answer the latter question but they are OU by technicality because their non-mega counterparts have the usage to be OU (regular Tyranitar & Garchomp).
 
mega ttar and mega chomp are 'ou by technicality' because their base forms are ou by usage while their megas forms are not, this is because megas can't be tiered below their base forms. as for why they aren't ou by usage is simply because their base forms outclass them.
Thanks for the explanation, but how does Tyranitar outclass Mega Tyranitar? (I can see why Garchomp outclasses Mega Garchomp, though.)
 
Does anyone have an opinion on running Modest Scarf Magneton over Timid Scarf Magnezone? It's one point slower and significantly less bulky in exchange for a bit more power. I'm assuming it's not worth it but can someone good confirm?
 
neither chomp nor ttar strictly outclass their mega counterparts. mixed mchomp is a pretty sick breaker (immediately, rather than chomp which needs sd up and z move to properly break) that can set rocks and has some nice defensive merit in checking stuff like tran ttar and zone. mttar's better than regular tar tbh, they're only ou by technicality bc ladder is bad (they don't use the mons enough to hit the usage% for whatever reason) and bc they can't be in a lower tier bc you have to run the base form to use the mega, and both of the base forms are ou.
for the zone question, it's not worth it, the extra spatk is pretty minimal, the 1 point less in speed is annoying for other scarf zones, and the drop in bulk sucks cause it means you can't take an unboosted sacred sword from kart or a hit from specs lele from example
 
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spatula

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mega ttar and mega chomp are 'ou by technicality' because their base forms are ou by usage while their mega forms are not
Hi, unless I'm missing something, hasn't this changed for mega tyranitar? This is the usage rate for April (tier shift month), which is above the cutoff (3.41%). Shouldn't this be updated on PS/smogdex?

| 47 | Tyranitar-Mega | 3.852% |
 
Hi, unless I'm missing something, hasn't this changed for mega tyranitar? This is the usage rate for April (tier shift month), which is above the cutoff (3.41%). Shouldn't this be updated on PS/smogdex?

| 47 | Tyranitar-Mega | 3.852% |
I'm pretty sure this month was a quickrise month, so it would need higher usage than that says.
 
Is there any defensive answers to z giga impact kartana? I got bopped by it a little too many times

Is there any way to figure out if its normalium at least? Feels like a 50/50 mix up between kartana being the scarfer/zmove user or lando being the scarfer/zmove user and its really hard to tell before being put in a bad position and losing a mon
 

MANNAT

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Is there any defensive answers to z giga impact kartana? I got bopped by it a little too many times

Is there any way to figure out if its normalium at least? Feels like a 50/50 mix up between kartana being the scarfer/zmove user or lando being the scarfer/zmove user and its really hard to tell before being put in a bad position and losing a mon
Celesteela and Mega Scizor are two strong checks to Z Giga Impact Kartana, but the best way to deal with it is usually by offensively pressuring it rather than trying to hard counter it.
 

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