Resource SM Simple Question, Simple Answer Thread

ausma

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This thread is dedicated to asking simple questions about SM-oriented metagames and receiving simple, concise answers in return. The kinds of questions you can ask here range from simple metagame questions to specific questions regarding sets and cores. If you have a question about the metagame and you had the goal to make a thread to ask it, it most likely belongs here instead.

When asking questions, consider the following:
  • Description. The more specific you are with your question, the more specific and likely the more accurate of an answer you'll get in return.​
  • Proximity. Avoid asking questions about other generational metagames that do not pertain to Generation 7. Chances are you're looking for a different generational subforum, which you can find on the RoA directory.
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  • Conciseness. This thread is the "Simple Question, Simple Answer" thread, and should be treated as such. Minimize conversations and use the respective discussion threads if necessary. With your questions, try to get to the point and avoid extraneous discussion.
When answering questions, consider the following:
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  • Conciseness. This thread is the "Simple Question, Simple Answer" thread, and should be treated as such. Minimize conversations and use the respective discussion threads if necessary. Be sure to keep answers as straightforward and comprehensible as possible, too.
Remember that at any point, moderators have the discretion to intervene or remove posts as necessary.
 
Is dragon dance Mega Tyranitar still a good choice? If it is, what kind of support does it require and what kind of teams does it fit on?
I personally value a utility Mega Tyranitar with Pursuit + Stealth Rocks more. It allows you to remove or wear down common Pokemons like Tornadus-T, Mega Latias, and Heatran. Dragon Dance Tyranitar is mediocre at best and you aren't running Pursuit if you are Dragon Dance, which is one of the main reasons for using Tyranitar. Here you can find a post by John W who used a Mega Tyranitar in this last SPL tiebreak where he talks about considering bringing DD mega ttar but also wanted to bring pursuit and ultimately "fused" the two ideas together.
 

Raptor

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Is dragon dance Mega Tyranitar still a good choice? If it is, what kind of support does it require and what kind of teams does it fit on?
Considering the current metagame, dragon dance tyranitar does not make progress like a pursuit set does helping other Pokémon on the team to do a better job, gliscor is the best example of this help. Honestly I prefer 4 attacks ttar but you can use dragon dance if it is perfect in your preps (use the perfect coverage)
 
Should I give my Z-Move to Gengar or Zeraora (UU tier.) I’m running a basic substitute set with Gengar and a Bulk Up set with Zeraora. If it helps decide who gets it, the rest of my team is: Mega Aggron rocks support, pivot Hydreigon, utility Tsareena, and scarf Nihilego.
 

Katy

Banned deucer.
According to its analysis page, Mega Zam uses psychic. Why is it preferred over psyshock?
Psychic hits most Pokemon more reliable than Psyshock does, and mega Alakazam has the initial power to break through most of the Pokemon in some way, be it with a strong Psychic, a Focus Blast, or any other coverage option such as Shadow Ball, Hidden Power Ice occosionally or Hidden Power Fire for Ground-types and Steel-types respectively. Alakazam Mega can also opt to run Knock Off or Calm Mind in its last slot, which both in itself gives it a way to dent through Chansey or Magearna with some prior chip damage. Also Mega Alakazams 175 SpA allows it to be threatening enough already. But if you are insecure about your stall matchup with Pokemon such as Chansey involved Psyshock can be an option. But I personally would run Mega Alakazam with Tapu Lele as a partner, to boast its Psychic due to Tapu Leles Terrain and Tapu Lele can act as a stallbreaker in itself as well, or it can use Psyshock on its Choice Specs set which does more than enough to weaken Chansey and even Assault Vest Magearna severely.
 

Clementine

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Should I give my Z-Move to Gengar or Zeraora (UU tier.) I’m running a basic substitute set with Gengar and a Bulk Up set with Zeraora. If it helps decide who gets it, the rest of my team is: Mega Aggron rocks support, pivot Hydreigon, utility Tsareena, and scarf Nihilego.
Hello! I would advise posting this kind of questions as a Rate My Team thread to get more detailed help and answers, as well as advices for the rest of your team. Alternatively, you can ask this on the Discord community server. Have a nice day!
 

Red Raven

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What are the roles for Mega Latias and Mega Scizor? What kind of teams do they fit in and what are some good teammates for them?
 

Clementine

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What are the roles for Mega Latias and Mega Scizor? What kind of teams do they fit in and what are some good teammates for them?
Mega Latias can work as a Defog user for your team, or a bulky win condition with a Calm Mind set, sometimes seen with Stored Power. It checks important Pokemon such as Kartana, Tapu Koko, Tapu Bulu, Gliscor and Landorus-Therian, and is one of the better Heatran switch ins in the tier. Latias fits on Balance teams as a Calm Mind user, and it loves the support brought by Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Toxapex which can set up Spikes and Toxic Spikes respectively.

Mega Scizor also works as a bulky win condition, and a bulky pivot. Its typing and great defensive stats allow it to act as a great Tapu Lele and Kartana switch in, while being a great Mega Latias check. It's more of a Bulky Offense Pokemon, helping these team withstand offensive threats like the aforementioned Tapu Lele and Kartana, but also Pokemon like Tapu Bulu, Mega Alakazam and offensive Magearna. Magnezone is usually a great teammate for Scizor, getting rid of Celesteela, Skarmory and Ferrothorn for it. It can also threaten Pokemon like Toxapex, which can easily check Scizor.
 

Red Raven

I COULD BE BANNED!
Why is scarf Garchomp out of favor in gen seven? And when did it start to fall out of favor? Was it in the end of last gen or was it only in gen seven?
 

Katy

Banned deucer.
Why is scarf Garchomp out of favor in gen seven? And when did it start to fall out of favor? Was it in the end of last gen or was it only in gen seven?
Scarf Garchomp isn't that great as it struggles to get past many threats. Garchomp with the TankChomp or even the Rockium Z set are the best as they are able to set Stealth Rocks reliably and moreover they can scare out a lot of Defoggers with the coverage or even a Rockium Z, which is able to hit Landorus-T, Tornadus-T, Zapdos and other Defoggers for at least neutral damage and Rockium Z guarantees that they are forced to Roost the damage up or makes in Landorus case it less reliable afterwards due to the high damage it took. Moreover you can couple it with Swords Dance which gives Garchomp also great wallbreaking potential with the so called EdgeQuake coverage.
 

Red Raven

I COULD BE BANNED!
What is the ev spread used by Mega Mawile? It keeps living moves that it should die to based on the sets that are already in the calculator

Edit:

How important is fake out on Mega Medicham? Is it preferable to run fake out over bullet punch in a set with stabs + one coverage?

And what is a good ev spread for whirlpool + nature madness Tapu Fini?
 
Last edited:

Finchinator

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What is the ev spread used by Mega Mawile? It keeps living moves that it should die to based on the sets that are already in the calculator
It really depends on the team. They tend to always be hitting 160ish speed for 0 speed Clefable, Celesteela, and Tyranitar. However, some run quicker to get the jump on 0 speed Magearna (166) or even Mega Scizor (186). This means there is a significant amount of EVs in speed and attack tends to be maxed out. So there should be some HP investment, but nowhere near max.
How important is fake out on Mega Medicham? Is it preferable to run fake out over bullet punch in a set with stabs + one coverage?
Fake Out is, more or less, a staple. Bullet Punch can be run alongside it, but is seldom ran without it. Fake Out is the more common of the two.
And what is a good ev spread for whirlpool + nature madness Tapu Fini?
Taunt / NM / Whirlpool / Moonblast or Scald and hitting 241 or 254 speed. Max out HP and the rest tends to go in SDef.
 

Katy

Banned deucer.
Is Z-Splash Mimikyu viable in Gen 7 OU?
I would not run Z Splash Mimikyu since it can run Ghostium Z or Life Orb better; the former makes yóu capable of hitting Steel-types for neutral damage such as Heatran and Celesteela, which are really relevant in the OU metagame and the latter can be used as well to dish out hefty damage with all the STABs Mimikyu offers. Z Splash makes you too reliant on the boost and furthermore you can plan on adding a Z move on another Pokemon without wasting it on Z Splash on Mimikyu and instead run Life Orb on it. I personally wouldn't recommend Z Splash Mimikyu as the aforementioned Ghostium Z / Life Orb are way better items on it without wasting anything important.
 

ausma

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What are some good type-cores in Gen 7 SM?
if you're talking in terms of literal type-cores, i'd be more pressed to search for direct pokemon-to-pokemon synergy since type cores are a bit broad considering how power crept and centralized things are around combined attributes brought to the table by specific pokemon

though to answer your question, if you really wanna look for specific type-based cores to build around, FDS (fairy-dragon-steel) is a very popular, effective one that covers quite a bit of ground both offensively and defensively and is incredibly practical in a metagame where things like magearna and heatran bring teams a ton of value, and also when we have a ton of dragon powerhouses like kyub, mega latias, and rockium chomper that make a lot of progress
 

Raptor

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When is worth to use Z rotom/heatran? I mean, I have never used a defensive mon with Z move, but I know people who do it. Never understand that
I'll use the example with rotom-wash, in some cases we don't have a z move in our team and we don't know where to put it, rotom-w is usually our knock absorb from mons like tornadus / defog gliscor and leftovers is usually a useless item in this case , gliscor can win the 1v1 to rotom with toxic and roost and waterium z kills gliscor (sp def heatran too). Volt switch Z does good damage to toxapex (65% ig) and can be a good bait when pex is in that hp range since if you revealed hydro pump, volt switch, defog and pain split it is most likely that toxapex will stay in and go recover / tspikes / scald

Bonus: waterium z + rocks can kill zam (although in this situation I recommend put some evs in spa for the 1hko on zam)

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Alakazam-Mega: 199-235 (79.2 - 93.6%) - 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Gigavolt Havoc (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gyarados-Mega: 252-296 (76.1 - 89.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 

TrRizzo09

formerly Pkmn trainer Rizzo
I'll use the example with rotom-wash, in some cases we don't have a z move in our team and we don't know where to put it, rotom-w is usually our knock absorb from mons like tornadus / defog gliscor and leftovers is usually a useless item in this case , gliscor can win the 1v1 to rotom with toxic and roost and waterium z kills gliscor (sp def heatran too). Volt switch Z does good damage to toxapex (65% ig) and can be a good bait when pex is in that hp range since if you revealed hydro pump, volt switch, defog and pain split it is most likely that toxapex will stay in and go recover / tspikes / scald

Bonus: waterium z + rocks can kill zam (although in this situation I recommend put some evs in spa for the 1hko on zam)

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Alakazam-Mega: 199-235 (79.2 - 93.6%) - 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

0 SpA Rotom-Wash Gigavolt Havoc (140 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Gyarados-Mega: 252-296 (76.1 - 89.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
got it, thanks!
 
What edge did Nidoking gain in gen 7 that allowed it to reclaim its throne as better than Nidoqueen? I think Nidoqueen is considered better in gens 5 and 6 and Nidoking everywhere else. Did the meta lose enough speed for Nidoking to viably run Modest?
 

Clementine

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What edge did Nidoking gain in gen 7 that allowed it to reclaim its throne as better than Nidoqueen? I think Nidoqueen is considered better in gens 5 and 6 and Nidoking everywhere else. Did the meta lose enough speed for Nidoking to viably run Modest?
Nidoking has a much better speed tier in the UU tier with a base 85, hitting 295 with a Timid Nature (it does not commonly run Modest, matter of fact I'm fairly sure I've never seen Modest King in SM). This allows King to outpace base 80s like Chandelure, Mamoswine, Togekiss and especially unboosted Mega Altaria. Nidoqueen has superior bulk, but Nidoking keeps the same typing and can still switch into Electric types relatively easily.
It's not much of what Nidoking received, moreso how the gen6 and gen7 UU metagames differ, making Nidoking the better option here. Nidoqueen still has an interesting niche in the UU tier and I would advise reading its UU analysis if you're interested.
 
How come Buzzwole couldn’t establish a niche in the modern USUM metagame but was able to be a solid mon in the next gen with both gens having similar mons?
 

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