Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

[Lord Xen III]

Both honestly, but it depends a lot on the pokemon and specific team.

I was looking to try out Zapdos Galar. It seems mostly outclassed by Hawlucha as a sweeper, since while it gets agility, it doesn't have a boosting atk move and agility takes up a slot. So I wanted to use it as a wallbreaker, and it also has its niche with Defiant. How do you use the Showdown Calculator calc again? My Physical atk vs physical def calculation seems to be off.

 

[Red Raven]

Is the ev spread on Amoonguss in its smogon ou page still the one used today or is there a newer one meant to accomplish something different? If it's the second, what's the newer spread?

 

[Finchinator]

Is the ev spread on Amoonguss in its smogon ou page still the one used today or is there a newer one meant to accomplish something different? If it's the second, what's the newer spread?

Keep that spread for checking Kartana, Rillaboom, and Urshifu-Rapid for now. You naturally handle Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini as is, so no need for special bulk.

 

[incorolla]

To what extent is trick room usable, and what are the best setters?

 

[Finchinator]

To what extent is trick room usable, and what are the best setters?

It's fringe, but viable. Cresselia and Uxie are good setters currently!

 

[skimmythegod]

Is choice band an viable item on landorus since i dont really see them on the ladder?

 

[Finchinator]

Is choice band an viable item on landorus since i dont really see them on the ladder?

Yes

 

[skimmythegod]

Yes

Oh thanks :D

 

[rom1x38]

Why 28 EV in defense on Alakazam?

 

[Finchinator]

Why 28 EV in defense on Alakazam?

Outdated spread. It lived Hippowdon EQ and Aqua Jet from CB Azumarill. Go with Max SAtk

 

[iceblazer]

What’s the better nature for Specs Pult, Timid or Modest?

 

[Abhi]

What’s the better nature for Specs Pult, Timid or Modest?

Timid, since Modest gets rid of its great speed tier

 

[Zneon]

What’s the better nature for Specs Pult, Timid or Modest?

To add to why Timid is better than Modest for Dragapult, Dragapult is already strong enough even without Modest to hit a vast majority of the metagame for huge damage, not to mention the fact that being able to speedtie with opposing Dragapult and outspeeding Tapu Koko is huge for its consistency at wallbreaking.

 

[UnzipsCrogre]

To what extent is trick room usable, and what are the best setters?

- - - - -
This is the TR team I've hit like 1870 elo with. I use Tbolt on porygon2 to make steel birds and toxapex respect porygon, but Recover is probably better. the EV spread on Hatterene is to survive banded surging strikes 100% of the time. Misty Explosion can be replaced with Healing Wish. Glastrier/regidrago are worse tr abusers dont use them, even Arctovish sounds better.

 

[JinLong88]

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/battle-gen8ou-1337524257-vjlqrzbnwlpdzftqlx8umsyw5riyrsypw

Hi i struggled immensely vs this Turn Spam with my screens team, perhaps I could have ordered things differently or I need to change some teammates.

Would someone please help me and suggest what I can do differently?

Thanks

 

[maxou1239]

do you think we can retry to play dracovish in Ou but without strong jaw ability ? .. in sand it will be a kind of dracozolt and in rain in will be less powerfull than before ?

 

[Finchinator]

do you think we can retry to play dracovish in Ou but without strong jaw ability ? .. in sand it will be a kind of dracozolt and in rain in will be less powerfull than before ?

No, we ban and unban individual Pokemon and elements, not combinations. If we were to unban Dracovish only without Strong Jaw, what stops us from trying to do the same with other Ubers? From there, why not do the same with Pokemon + moves or Pokemon + items? Why not try to balance every single Uber with some set of conditions and so on? It creates a very bad precedent that cannot be contained or minimized. If Dracovish is to be retested (which is unlikely right now), it would be Dracovish with no restrictions.

 

[maxou1239]

No, we ban and unban individual Pokemon and elements, not combinations. If we were to unban Dracovish only without Strong Jaw, what stops us from trying to do the same with other Ubers? From there, why not do the same with Pokemon + moves or Pokemon + items? Why not try to balance every single Uber with some set of conditions and so on? It creates a very bad precedent that cannot be contained or minimized. If Dracovish is to be retested (which is unlikely right now), it would be Dracovish with no restrictions.

ok .. who's the next to suspect for ban or unban ?

 

[Finchinator]

ok .. who's the next to suspect for ban or unban ?

We are not sure yet. It is being discussed by the council and in places like the metagame discussion thread.

We will likely know more in the coming weeks and there is a chance we will also survey the playerbase if we want their input in the future, too. Stay tuned for that!

 

[maxou1239]

We are not sure yet. It is being discussed by the council and in places like the metagame discussion thread.

We will likely know more in the coming weeks and there is a chance we will also survey the playerbase if we want their input in the future, too. Stay tuned for that!

thanks for your time man !

 

[CadmusRhodium]

do you think we can retry to play dracovish in Ou but without strong jaw ability ? .. in sand it will be a kind of dracozolt and in rain in will be less powerfull than before ?

A slightly less powerful Dracovish that outspeeds your whole team is far worse than a super strong one that only outspeeds part of it. No.

 

[Attack on Samurott]

What is the OU metagame rn?

 

[Katy]

What is the OU metagame rn?

Hello,

Tapu Lele, Bisharp and Weavile see a huge uptick in usage, same mention can be said about Melmetal and Dragonite, they all surge in usage because of different factors: Tapu leles Choice Specs set is hard to switch into, Bisharp and Weavile provide a Ghost-resist and can put offensive pressure on opposing Pokemon, first and foremost Dragpult, Melmetal is a check to the aforementioned Tapu Lele and Dragonite can deal with Grass-spam very well, aka Rillaboom + Kartana, and it also checks Volcarona, Heatran and Urshifu-R very well due to longevity in Roost. Moreover Dragapult and Landorus-T are still on top of their game. Zeraora and Tapu Koko alongside Rotom-W are great checks to Tornadus-T and the former two provide natural speed control and the latter has a great typing to sponge most hits and is a great check against the ever common Heatran. Heatran is also on plenty of teams because Volcarona sees also a surge in usage. Other Pokemon which are great are specially defensive Clefable against Dragapult, Hydreigon, and Kyurem. Other picks are Tapu Bulu, Tangrowth, Corviknight, Magnezone, Slowking, and Victini, which are worthy to mention. They all are great Pokemon at the moment.

Hope that brief explanation helped :)

 

[Attack on Samurott]

Hello,

Tapu Lele, Bisharp and Weavile see a huge uptick in usage, same mention can be said about Melmetal and Dragonite, they all surge in usage because of different factors: Tapu leles Choice Specs set is hard to switch into, Bisharp and Weavile provide a Ghost-resist and can put offensive pressure on opposing Pokemon, first and foremost Dragpult, Melmetal is a check to the aforementioned Tapu Lele and Dragonite can deal with Grass-spam very well, aka Rillaboom + Kartana, and it also checks Volcarona, Heatran and Urshifu-R very well due to longevity in Roost. Moreover Dragapult and Landorus-T are still on top of their game. Zeraora and Tapu Koko alongside Rotom-W are great checks to Tornadus-T and the former two provide natural speed control and the latter has a great typing to sponge most hits and is a great check against the ever common Heatran. Heatran is also on plenty of teams because Volcarona sees also a surge in usage. Other Pokemon which are great are specially defensive Clefable against Dragapult, Hydreigon, and Kyurem. Other picks are Tapu Bulu, Tangrowth, Corviknight, Magnezone, Slowking, and Victini, which are worthy to mention. They all are great Pokemon at the moment.

Hope that brief explanation helped :)

Thank you for the brief explanation Katy.

 

[readytolose]

Can someone lay this out for me because it has always bothered me.

OU has banned Power Construct because it gives access to Complete Form. Sure, this works because there is an alternative ability available for Zygarde 10 to use - aura break. From Bulbapedia -

• Zygarde is the only Pokémon to have two standard Abilities
• Despite having two standard abilities, it is also the only one with this trait that cannot change its ability with the Ability Capsule, instead requiring the Zygarde Cube to do so.

Where I am going with this is that an ability has been banned that is present only on a single line of Pokémon. Rather than banning Pokémon #718 entirely to prevent access to the broken ability, just the broken ability has been banned. Is there a strong difference than this and banning something like Gorilla Tactics? Before you jump to say that Power Construct is more a Pokémon than an ability, how is that demonstrably different than Zen Mode Darmanitan? In Zygarde’s case, the form 50% health change ability is broken but the non-changing ability is not. Form change ability banned. In Darm Galar’s case, the form change 50% health ability is not broken, but the non-form changing ability (gorilla tactics) is banned. Entire mon banned.

What is the differentiating principle? That Darm-G's non form changing ability is the broken one, but Zygarde's is?

Zygarde with Power Construct and Zygarde with Aura Break are tiered separately. More on that here. To try and sum it up, Zygarde with Aura Break is considered a separate forme to Zygarde with Power Construct, akin to separate Rotom formes for example, due to the way they are handled in-game and by the internal memory of the games. This is actually a decision I really disagree with, and that certain aspects of Smogon are really inconsistent in referring to. I made a post summing up my thoughts on it here.