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Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Just wanted to mention that I'm extending the deadline on this till the 14th, so if you wanna get any last minute submissions in please do so! Mostly doing this to give reservers time to write up the rest of their things & to write up 1 or 2 more that I wanna do.
What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?
Scizor has been during the whole SS UU metagame the most dominant force, at least every time that was actually in UU since this pokemon started in OU and took some time to drop, then later rose to OU again and just some months ago finally came back to be the King of UU.
Scizor hasn't been only a threat itself, but also has been capable to keep in check a lot of dangerous picks on the metagame, just to name a few of them, we have on the actual metagame Nihilego, Excadrill, Mamoswine, Jirachi, Hatterene, and a big etc; some of the past metagames threats that Scizor used to keep in check included Kyurem, Terrakion, Alakazam and Aegislash. Scizor with the accurate evs spread is capable to check a lot of top metagame picks. Every time Scizor has dropped to UU, the whole metagame has to adapt around it, some pokemon get their viability hindered by Scizor existence, some pokemon in order to survive adapt their movesets to deal with Scizor, examples of this are Fire Fang on Krookodile or Fire Punch Jirachi, options you would never considered otherwise if Scizor wasn't that prominent. Every time that Scizor has been UU it was at the top of the usages on both ladder and tournaments, as it provides so many valuable tools on the teambuilder paired with an excelent typing and stats.
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
Scizor is one of those pokemon that you can use as a synonym of "versatility" as it has a lot of roles. Im going to use only 252 252 evs spreads here, but take note that Scizor is capable to mix those evs depending on what the team needs and can run a big diversity of different spreads and natures, I myself do different spreads depending on what do I need as well :
This 2 sets take advantage of Scizor's excelent defensive typing, and being able to switch on a good amount of diferent picks, this sets wont force that much offensive pressure but can be a good glue on teams, as Knock Off is always a good move that removes items, U-turn to pivot into the opponent and Bullet Punch is a really good and reliable stab that allows Scizor to threat faster pokemon as well to take advantage of Technician. You don´t have to always run max max on 2 stats, you can mix in both defensive stats as you wish depending on what you need or even add a bit more of speed, tho this sets most of the time are not interested on speed and instead preffer the slower U-Turn to bring into a wallbreaker.
This set is a more offensive variation of the Bulky Pivot set, as it keeps having the same defensive values but aims to use Scizor as a wincon as well, like the last set, you can mix the bulk on scizor, or go with a more Special Defense oriented spread, your spread and nature will determinate on which pokemon you are gonna be able to set up, for example, a more Physical defensive Scizor can use Hippowdown and Zarude as a Set Up fodder, but a more Special defensive variation can use Nihilego as a set up fodder and have an easier time to set up on stuff like a Hydreigon choice locked into Dark Pulse.
This Sczior set is pretty easy to explain, a fully offensive scizor equiped with a Choice Band allows it to work as a wallbreaker and offensive pivot, having the strongest U-Turn in the metagame. This Scizor set is not planned to sweep, instead it wants to punch holes on the opposing teams so a teammate like Zarude or Lycanroc-D will have an easier time to clean up in the end game. Due to Scizor's natural bulk this set can still be used to pivot into some attacks, tho is not as consistent at doing it as other sets are.
This is the most offensive Scizor set that someone cas ask for, this set makes Scizor capable to work as a sweeper. This set is pretty much only reliable to use on Hyper Offense teams, as it pairs pretty well with those teams structures and other sweepers. This set in specific got better with the recent Aegislash ban, as it removes the need to use Knock Off, my personal favorite variation of this set is SD + Bullet Punch + Dual Wingbeat + Superpower as it invalidates 3 of the most common defensive checks to Scizor, those being Cobalion, Skarmory and Amoonguss.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
Scizor doesn't have a specific charcteristic that makes it that good, as everything that Scizor has makes it as good as it is, Steel typing, acces to instant recovery on Roost, excelent stats distribution, utility moves such as Knock Off, U-turn and Defog, capable to sweep thanks to an excelent boosting move as Sword Dance, an excellent ability that pairs amazing with a move that patches Scizor's speed ofc Im talking about Technician + Stab Bullet Punch. Scizor has the ability to punish everithing that switches into it, as with the remove of Mega Evolutions and Z moves Knock Off is a super valuable tool for every pokemon that has acces to it, everything that switchs to Scizor will lose an item, if not it can only click Stab U-turn and while dealing a good damage bring on a partner that puts the opponent into a difficult position. Scizor versatility makes it so good, as you don´t know what set it is until it clicks a move, leading to positions that can cause you to send on a check expecting an specific set and get punished due to Scizor paking another set, the easiest example that comes to my mind with this is expect a bulky pivot variant and send a check, lets say Cobalion, to just get murdered by a Choice Banded Superpower, or send Amoongus on a Sword Dance set just to take a lot of chip from a +2 U-Turn. Of course you can judge the posible set by looking the team preview, but you can't be always sure until Scizor has actually done something.
Scizor pairs amazing with other pivots like Thundurus-T, Zarude and Rotom-Wash, forming a Volt-turn core, it also pairs well with Water and Ground types such as Primarina, Swampert, Hippowdown and Slowking as they can deal with Fire types, that are only Scizor true weakness. Nihilego is one of Scizor's best pairs as it handles fire types, sets up Stealth Rocks and doesnt have issues switching into Amoongus.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in UU?
Scizor doesn't have counters, only checks.
Fire types are the most obvius way to deal with Scizor, pokemon like Rotom-H, Moltres and Chandelure force Scizor to switch out, tho non of them really enjoy to switch directly due to the risk on losing Heavy-Duty-Boots on a Knock Off.
Amoonguss is one the most common Scizor checks, as it forces it to switch out on the risk of taking a Spore (unless you are running Safety Goggles), also Amoonguss Foul Play doesn't let Scizor use it as a set up fodder.
Rotom-Wash is also an excelent Scizor check, having a x4 resist to Bullet Punch, not being completely annoyed by Stealth Rocks and force Scizor to switch due to having Will-o-Wisp to burn it. Quaqsire deserves a special mention here, due to being a complete counter to Sword Dance sets exept from U-Turn variants, threating Scizor with Scald Burns.
Flying types such as Salamence and Mandibuzz force Scizor to switch out, Salamence having acces to Flamethrower that OHKO scizor and Mandibuzz having Stab Foul Play that deals a masive damage to Scizor, tho both of them don't enjoy getting their Heavy Duty Boots removed.
Steel types such as Cobalion, Skarmory and Scizor itself can deal with opposing Scizor, resisting Bullet Punch and having a natural hight defense. Skarmory is probably the closest we have as a Scizor counter, as it can take any hit and heal up with Roost, tho is has to be careful to not be chipped by Stealth Rocks + constant U-Turn.
Scizor if it is not the most dominant pokemon that arrived to UU, it is at least tied in the 1° place with Aegislash in my opinion. Has been considered banworthy and affects the viability of other pokemon, just to look at one example, Jirachi, another steel type that was once the best pokemon in the tier, is now pretty rare to be seen as Scizor offers almost the same as Jirachi but better.
Joining UU during DLC 1, Chansey and her enormous special bulk and access to key utility moves kept a plethora of special attackers in check and served as the defensive bedrock of several team archetypes.
Some of the special attackers Chansey was the preeminent counterplay for included Choice Specs Primarina, Hydreigon, pivot Thundurus, Nihilego and Celesteela. All of these Pokemon were at various points considered highly germane in the metagame, A rank or higher in viability. While most of these Pokemon still had ways to deal with Chansey, they had to run suboptimal sets or at least make concessions towards the metagame in order to do so. Furthermore, while these Pokemon had other counters or at least hard checks, nothing was able to blanket check so many of these threats will still fulfilling key utility moves.
In particular, Teleport was the main utility move that decided what type of archetype Chansey support - if she ran Teleport, she would be used on more bulky offenses and "Chansey offenses", while if she didn't run Teleport, she fit perfectly well on very defensive and balance teams. Teleport allowed extremely safe pivoting into very powerful attackers like Conkeldurr, Zygarde, and Mamoswine that otherwise struggled to find switch in opportunities throughout the game. When forgoing Teleport, Chansey had more room to fit in other utility moves like Stealth Rock, Aromatherapy, and Wish to support the rest of a defensive team.
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
In her role on defensive teams, Chansey was used over (or in conjunction with) other special walls with utility moves simply because she was the best and covered more roles than any other wall possibly could. Without Chansey, threats like Choice Specs Primarina and even Nidoking and Nidoqueen could become potent stallbreakers. But they weren't simply because of Chansey's ubiquity on stall teams. other similar special walls like Audino simply saw nearly no usage in UU because Chansey was just so much bulkier - it's only real competition was Umbreon, which was more of a partner than competition on most stall teams. This is especially true because most Umbreon were physically defensive this generation.
In her role on more offensive teams, Chansey found more competition because there existed a large quantity of highly viable bulky pivots in UU since DLC. For example, Slowking boasted more resistances (and weaknesses) along with Regenerator and Future Sight to keep healthy and aid offensive partners. Chansey's role was that it still had unrivalved special bulk to again keep key special threats in check and it could still, if necessary, fit an additional utility move like Stealth Rock if it had to.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
While the utility moves and archetypes that Chansey enabled have been detailed above, Chansey also extracted value from a certain group of partners.
Defensively, Chansey was the cornerstone of many defensive cores: Skarm/Chansey, Quagsire/Chansey, Umbreon/Chansey, and Salamence/Chansey all helped Chansey's comparatively low physical bulk (compared that is, to her special bulk, her physical bulk was still at least average for a wall). For more stall oriented teams, the defensive core simply meshed together into 5 or 6 Pokemon "cores" that walled the vast majority of the metagame comfortable. While Chansey had access to amazing utility, it could usually only run one or two key utility moves at most - this gave room for it's partners to pick up the slack. Notably Umbreon could provide Wish support on stall and freed up Chansey's role there.
Offensively, Chansey was less picky towards her partners - she could basically enable everything. Offensive threats as disparate as Zarude and Choice Specs Primarina and Choice Band Zygarde all greatly benefitted from Chansey. It was nice to not be weak to Fighting and have physical bulk but these qualities were far from necessary to partner with Chansey because Chansey still usually had at least one defensive partner on these offenses, notably Defog Salamence.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in UU?
While Chansey was doubtless the most important aspect of stall and possibly the most important defensive Pokemon, she still had extremely hard counters and checks.
Physically offensive Fighting types could destroy Chansey and OHKO or 2HKO at worst- Conkeldurr in particular didn't mind status as it as frequently burned anyways from the Guts Flame Orb tactic.
Many of the special attackers than Chansey was reliable in checking could adapt to get around her passivity or at least heavily reduce Chansey's effectiveness: Nihilego could run Knock Off or even Meteor Beam Pain Split, Thundurus could run Nasty Plot + Focus Blast or cripple with Knock Off and Hydreigon could run Taunt as some examples.
Special attackers that could more naturally get around Chansey were uncommon but effective to the point where they were considered stallbreakers because of how important Chansey was on stall: Calm Mind Magic Bounce Hatterene could beat Chansey with Drainkng Kiss and Aegislash could beat many Chansey because she could frequently not even damage Aegislash.
Besides directly beating Chansey with other Pokemon, her effectiveness could be reduced with strong use of hazards and Knock Off as Chansey was reliant on Eviolite for bulk which meant she rarely ran Heavy-Duty-Boots.
So to be clear, we're voting for #1 first and #10 last in ascending order. This means that your vote for this week should be what you consider to be the most iconic SS UU Pokemon over the course of the generation! Here are your options
Click on the Pokemon to be brought to its respective votes. I'm vain and correct so my vote goes to Noivern! You have till Tuesday, June 21st to vote for this!
literally what highways said, mew would definitely have taken it for me but its between zera and noiv for me otherwise. voting noiv just cause while idt its defined any metagame as much as a lot of this list has its done it so consistently over so long in the gen compared to other things like zera mew and milo only defining llike shorter 3 month spaces.
