Recent content by Alternator

I'll contribute 2900, assuming I get at last one Like from this post.

My beloved shitmon is Maushold, because it has a shocking number of OHKO and 2HKO rolls. 252 Atk Technician Maushold Population Bomb (10 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 240-280 (47.6 - 55.5%) -- approx. 85.2% chance to 2HKO Leftovers sets are a guaranteed 2HKO if there's any hazards on...

Full snow team, with veil support, and it's just unbreakable on the physical side - the problem is, so are many other bulky mons with veil support. 145 Attack looks promising, but you're shackled to an 85 BP, 90% accuracy STAB move in Icicle Crash. Strong coverage? Close Combat is good, but...

Setting aside whether banning Tera Blast meets policy standards - I believe ausma made the case that Tera Blast is similar to Baton Pass, where the move is problematic on enough users to justify being nuked - I believe Tera Blast is also a net negative on the tier because it is a major...

The defining trait of a problematic mon is that it warps the tier around it, usually in very obvious ways: 1) Counters get dragged up from lower tiers, such as Dracovish pulling Seismitoad into OU in Gen 8, or Kyurem pulling Tinkaton up recently in Gen 9. If the usage spike is brief, or if the...

The combination of synergy with other good Aurora Veil threats, and just being extremely threatening if it has a chance to set up, which Veil enables. It's probably not going to remain in OU for long due to Veil teams falling off, but it'll always hang around in the 'just waiting for a...

The hypothetical case is actually very straightforward, and touches into an ill-defined topic on Smogon: when, exactly, do distinct forms count as different mons for tiering purposes? Right now it's a bit of a kludge job; currently Smogon mostly uses Pokedex numbers, but there are exceptions...

VCG doesn't have open team sheets because of terastalization, they have open team sheets because the game doesn't readily allow locking into a specific team for tournaments, and thus open sheets prevents cheating. It also has the side benefit of reducing scouting from an absolute necessity to a...

This is entirely, 100% a vibes-based statement, but Roaring Moon really seems like a mon feasting on a favorable metagame, and its strength will drop back down to a more normal 'good mon' level in a few weeks - the same few weeks that a suspect test would require. It wouldn't be dominating by...

NormalSpam has surprisingly good offensive presence: Maushold - the difficulties in coming in do not negate that STAB Technician Population Bomb is an effective 450 BP move. Raw bulk will not save the target; counting the miss chance, it's almost exactly a 50-50 to 2HKO a 252/252+ Dondozo...

I know it's not strictly SV-OU-relevant and so I'll not belabor the point, but this makes a great case for adjusting the tournament schedule in Gen 10. You need to get known, yes - nobody is going to pick you up unless they're familiar with your play. The best way to get known is just to put...

If you aren't Tera Dark, you don't beat (healthy) offensive Gholdengo. If you aren't Tera Ghost, you lose to ID/BP everything, though you can Encore if they go for the ID and double switch. If you aren't Tera Fire, then Moltres and Talonflame beat you. I'm a lousy builder, but I've been...

Another Maushold heat tera choice is Grass, to beat Sinistcha. Pop tera Grass on the Strength Sap, Encore it, and snag another boost on the switch out. It has no other purpose, but Maushold tera is always either "sweep and win" or "kill a shared counter", so it's just picking another option.

On the flip side, Knock Off is a splashable move because it gives progress into anything except a Booster Energy mon or a dedicated Knock absorber, and it cannibalizes itself - the first use it's a great move, but after that it's weak and accomplishes nothing. Swapping out Knock Off on Great...

Yes, but no. Expert Belt is a great item when it works, but whether it works is heavily reliant on the set, so it all but requires three attacks and massively benefits from an all out attacker set. You want to specifically be going for super effective coverage rather than neutral coverage, so...