Metagame OU + Solgaleo Metagame Discussion

[Avira]

I don't find Solgaleo to even be a Top 5 mon in the meta. Zamazenta, Gholdengo, Dragonite, Ogerpon-Wellspring all stand out as being immediately better mons while there are a few mons that could be argued as fifth.

I find Pecharunt usage to have dropped off the face of the earth on the Solgaleo ladder, which is something all of Zamazenta, Dragonite, and Ogerpon-Wellspring appreciate, especially Zamazenta. Slowking-Galar usage is also way down, and that is contributing to the amount of weather on this ladder.

I can see why one might argue that Solgaleo has a bad effect on the meta if Zama, Dragonite, and Ogerpon-Wellspring are better just like how the Palafin meta elevated Wellspring, Kyurem, and Raging Bolt, but it's still early to say whether that is definitively true.

As Tio Chico already said, sun teams without Solgaleo are more consistent since it doesn't have the damage multipliers other sun mons have. TR Solgaleo with Teleport is a useful niche no other mon has given it doesn't exactly fill the same niche as Porygon-2. Mixed Solgaleo remains the most consistent set from facing it on ladder since it's the least situational set and is good at making progress with the right coverage.

 

[Ranga226]

I assume petch and slowking galar would be better in a true ladder where not 80% of games have solg.

 

[MC Squared]

I assume petch and slowking galar would be better in a true ladder where not 80% of games have solg.

Damn they're both chopped in this meta?

 

[UltraSword]

Damn they're both chopped in this meta?

Glowking probably still has a good niche thanks to regenerator and chilly reception being a great pivot move in its own right but pivot Pecharunt (which is the most common and consistent set in regular OU) is beaten by basically every Solgaleo set. Even nasty plot sets are going to struggle considering Solgaleo's great bulk and mixed attacking potential (aka psychic). Honestly if Solgaleo were to be dropped to OU I wouldn't be surprised if it dropped back to UU because Solgaleo is that good of a counter.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

how does one not auto lose to cosmic power weakness policy solgaleo that has max bulk investment?
Besides just using phazing on every team

• recognize that solgaleo has the potential to be weakness policy and address this in builder with a mon that can either deal good damage to solgaleo without a supereffective hit, remove its item without activating it, or just bulk through its unboosted moves without activating the wp and out-stall it. you'll usually have something like this on a well-built ou team already
• be sure to scout solgaleo properly. until you're certain it isn't weakness policy, don't throw around moves that solgaleo is weak to unless you can immediately follow it up with a kill
• stuff out or exploit its status moves. a lot of typical stallbreaking tools can do this—taunt prevents it from using cosmic power or morning sun, encore can lock it into cosmic power permanently, tricking it a choice item removes the wp while making it unable to set up and hard to heal, psynoise can prevent it from healing so you can wear it down. since you're talking about max bulk, all you need to do is tailor your stallbreaker to hit 231 speed
• stall out its recovery over the long term by continuously applying chip damage that's independent of cosmic power. these set variants tend to be especially weak to rocky helmet, rough skin, and burn, since those all prey on physical attackers
• rain. having strong water-type breakers so you can hit solg hard without activating the wp and nerfing morning sun to 1/3 hp at the same time is very valuable against wp variants in particular
• tera water garganacl. salt cure is an extremely underutilized anti-solgaleo tech if you get the pesky steel weakness out of the way
• just run the phazing anyway. ting-lu is really fucking good, why would you limit yourself by dismissing it out of hand? gen 9 is the absolute high point for phazing in general, being both the hazards gen and the setup gen. that's part of the reason why ting is like top 5 at minimum, and some might even argue that "top 5" is an almost insultingly conservative estimate. there's no need to arbitrarily lock yourself out of a really good tactic

 

[UltraSword]

Glowking probably still has a good niche thanks to regenerator and chilly reception being a great pivot move in its own right but pivot Pecharunt (which is the most common and consistent set in regular OU) is beaten by basically every Solgaleo set. Even nasty plot sets are going to struggle considering Solgaleo's great bulk and mixed attacking potential (aka psychic). Honestly if Solgaleo were to be dropped to OU I wouldn't be surprised if it dropped back to UU because Solgaleo is that good of a counter.

Speaking of which I have thought of probably the first big issue with Solgaleo dropping to OU. Since Pecharunt is kind of bad now, Wogerpon is probably broken. Pecharunt is one of the best Wogerpon checks in the metagame thanks to its typing and great physical bulk but with Wogerpon being paired with Solgaleo to block poison type attacks Pecharunt can't do that job nearly as well. This wouldn't be that big of an issue since a lot of people want Wogerpon banned anyway but it seems counterintuitive to bring a pokemon down to OU only to send a different one to ubers soon after. Pecharunt might still be able to adapt to Solgaleo but if it can't by the end of the month, I do not think there is any way we could reasonably drop Solgaleo from Ubers. I myself have used Solgaleo and Wogerpon on my first real team (admittedly tho I am pretty bad at teambuilding so it could just not be a good team) and they seem to synergize pretty well. I will probably talk about that team later but for now that is all I really have.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

Speaking of which I have thought of probably the first potential issue with Solgaleo dropping to OU. Since Pecharunt is kind of bad now, Wogerpon is probably broken. Pecharunt is one of the best Wogerpon checks in the metagame thanks to its typing and great physical bulk but with Wogerpon being paired with Solgaleo to block poison type attacks Pecharunt can't do that job nearly as well. This wouldn't be that big of an issue since a lot of people want Wogerpon banned anyway but it seems counterintuitive to bring a pokemon down to OU only to send a different one to ubers soon after. Pecharunt might still be able to adapt to Solgaleo but if it can't by the end of the month, I do not think there is any way we could reasonably drop Solgaleo from Ubers. I myself have used Solgaleo and Wogerpon on my first real team (admittedly tho I am pretty bad at teambuilding so it could just not be a good team) and they seem to synergize pretty well. I will probably talk about that team later but for now that is all I really have.

this is a possible issue, but i do expect pecharunt to make a comeback. as the novelty of solgaleo starts to crest, the novelty of "but what if i make a team without solgaleo?" will rise. combine that with people realizing that the mon's honestly kinda mid and we'll get a surge of solgless teams. eventually i think it'll reach a stable equilibrium and pech will end up being worse off than regular ou but not to a catastrophic degree

i also think that pon should've been banned over two years ago so yeah there's that

 

[correcthorse666]

this is a possible issue, but i do expect pecharunt to make a comeback. as the novelty of solgaleo starts to crest, the novelty of "but what if i make a team without solgaleo?" will rise. combine that with people realizing that the mon's honestly kinda mid and we'll get a surge of solgless teams. eventually i think it'll reach a stable equilibrium and pech will end up being worse off than regular ou but not to a catastrophic degree

i also think that pon should've been banned over two years ago so yeah there's that

For Waterpon, it also helps that Solgaleo itself is a bit of a roadblock to its sweeping attempts. Even without bulk investment, Solgaleo avoids the 2HKO from Ivy Cudgel, so while it's not a particularly good answer because it can't threaten Waterpon back super well, in a pinch, it can take even a boosted hit and either pivot out or threaten to do 60+% depending on the set and coverage.

 

[JackRG]

Speaking of which I have thought of probably the first big issue with Solgaleo dropping to OU. Since Pecharunt is kind of bad now, Wogerpon is probably broken. Pecharunt is one of the best Wogerpon checks in the metagame thanks to its typing and great physical bulk but with Wogerpon being paired with Solgaleo to block poison type attacks Pecharunt can't do that job nearly as well. This wouldn't be that big of an issue since a lot of people want Wogerpon banned anyway but it seems counterintuitive to bring a pokemon down to OU only to send a different one to ubers soon after. Pecharunt might still be able to adapt to Solgaleo but if it can't by the end of the month, I do not think there is any way we could reasonably drop Solgaleo from Ubers. I myself have used Solgaleo and Wogerpon on my first real team (admittedly tho I am pretty bad at teambuilding so it could just not be a good team) and they seem to synergize pretty well. I will probably talk about that team later but for now that is all I really have.

Nah just run foul play pech is still good, if anything this is an indirect buff to pech cuz it forces ppl to run good sets

 

[Avira]

this is a possible issue, but i do expect pecharunt to make a comeback. as the novelty of solgaleo starts to crest, the novelty of "but what if i make a team without solgaleo?" will rise. combine that with people realizing that the mon's honestly kinda mid and we'll get a surge of solgless teams. eventually i think it'll reach a stable equilibrium and pech will end up being worse off than regular ou but not to a catastrophic degree

i also think that pon should've been banned over two years ago so yeah there's that

I don't think Solgaleo is mid at all. The mixed set and CB are both good sets that are good progress makers. It's just the passive ones that are no good.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

I don't think Solgaleo is mid at all. The mixed set and CB are both good sets that are good progress makers. It's just the passive ones that are no good.

ok probably coulda worded that better. it's mid on a lot of more passive teams and, in my opinion, even actively drags down some comps that i (and others) thought it would fit well on. aoa, band, and 3a morning sun (with proper support) are excellent sets that should be respected

as for other sets, i think weakness policy is actually super gimmicky and will fall off hard when people start scouting it right, tr setter is good but the playstyle it's pigeonholed into is too high-risk, and i still haven't seen calm mind accomplish anything at all

 

[Heatranator]

Played about 30 games on the ladder, and while my experience was um, interesting (In my first 15 games istg i got crit 3 times every game and missed every move you could, fuck meteor beam) I do wanna give my thoughts on leo.

I think people are heavily underestimating this mon, partially because yes, it can't beat every mon with a single set, but it also has so many sets and can customise its movepool to beat its counterplay. I also think that it doesn't really bring too much benefit to the meta besides a kyurem check which like, ig? Kyurem's broken days are long past it, and this is coming from a former kyurem ban lobbier. Like, dnite is beating your ass even if you use sunsteel (which is a move leo shouldn't use, I'll explain more later), screens it is a great abuser of and with mons like goltres, it doesn't even guarentee it will do well into screens, while webs is mostly middling and once again, it can abuse itself. It also breaks fat, but are we really still coping that fat is unhealthy? Fat teams are firmly just 'good'.

But anyways, I'll talk about the sets that I've tested/seen:

Teleport sets: These are bad outside of TR, where they are godly. On normal teams, this is just so mediocre and wasted potential as it is incredibly passive and just not threatening, and you need like, 6 moves to actually function. On TR teams, this is such a reliable setter, you don't even need sash ngl, since you just face tank any one hit. Specs rai dark pulse does 77% max to full spdef leo while to the same set, tusk headlong does 92% max. You won't die and thus can get off the tr and either kill yourself with steel beam while dealing decent damage, tport to the abuser safely, setup a future sight etc. The item is also pretty flexible, mental herb stops taunt, red card can phase out sweepers/attackers, a berry of some kind can allow you to live even boosted attacks etc. TR is already a pain to deal with, and IDT leo helping it by being an amazing setter is good for the meta.

Banded: This set is good, but people will use the one move you shouldn't. DO NOT USE SUNSTEEL STRIKE, IT IS ASS. Genuinelly, aside from like, hatt (which you 2hko with flare blitz and doesn't really wanna switch into leo anyways), what does it hit? Clefable is 2hko'd by psyfangs, geezing is smashed by it, garg takes 40% from psyfangs and eq/cc heavily chunks it. Kyurem hates taking psyfangs. Its just not worth. Especially since every other move hits something important. After psyfangs and knock, it feels decently customisable. I prefer flare blitz third since it hits most steels aside from heatran super effectively, hitting ghold gambit and corv is great, but cc and eq are also decent. The fourth moveslot can be any of wild charge (hits bulky waters like mola and dozo for large damage), stone edge (hits the status birds), a secondary steel move to cover the other steels you can't hit, or morning sun to keep it healthy across the game. It also is a breaker that checks kyurem and fairies, which is great. Bit difficult to fit, but its not the worst thing in the world and it more then rewards you.

Calm Mind: This I think is the best set, and its honestly pretty powerful. CM+2a with morning sun is pretty busted behind screens, as its able to trade exceedingly well at worst, while being an incredibly sweeper. The best attacking moves I think are flame+psychic move. The only mons that can beat you are ttar and ting lu. The latis have to specifically be trick to beat you, otherwise they are just setup fodder. Heatran just loses to you behind screens, even if it is taunt (you get to +2 then proc wp, which then makes sure that psyshock 2hkos while heatran does jack). Hamu has to be specifically AV, otherwise it doesn't do enough back and +3 flame 2hkos it. Hydreigon has to be NP otherwise it just loses lol, and gren just does jack to you. Ttar only beats you if its roar spdef, otherwise it literally just loses to you and ting lu isn't too hard to overwhelm by overloading it with stuff like goltres while flame does chunk it a decent amount if they proc wp (which if they wwind without proccing, then it gets chipped and potentially burned, which is ruinious). Psychic stab depends, I prefer psyshock to beat opposing cm mons while psychic can help against dozo and shit. But really, this mon just trades insanely well, at worst, 1v1 trades with something, but typically either trades 1v2 or sweeps. You can swap out flame for focus blast, which makes you a lot better against the darks, but worsens your mu into ghold and psychics while having to be focus blast.

Mixed LO: Haven't really used this, but from what i've seen, its merely alright. That being said, stop using thunder, use tbolt. You can knock av mola and the accuracy issues are not worth it. I also don't like how it lacks longevity if it wants to hit as many mons as possible, but maybe somebody makes it work better.

TLDR: Mons broken, stop using tport on non tr teams, run banded and cm, mixed LO is prob also fine.

And finally, here are the main teams which I've been using solgeleo on:
https://pokepast.es/331388a77f529d52
https://pokepast.es/936c09613c75082f
https://pokepast.es/a2043d15cac380d1

 

[ILoveGarchom]

Solgaleo @ Light Clay
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Teleport
- Knock Off

am i doing this thing correctly

 

[correcthorse666]

Mixed LO: Haven't really used this, but from what i've seen, its merely alright. That being said, stop using thunder, use tbolt. You can knock av mola and the accuracy issues are not worth it. I also don't like how it lacks longevity if it wants to hit as many mons as possible, but maybe somebody makes it work better.

Mixed LO is pretty solid. It beats any core, but not every core all at once. It's just a matter of flexing in the moves to beat the things your team needs it to beat. I like running Sunsteel + Psychic as stabs, but dropping both for Psychic Fangs and more coverage is fine if you're ok with ID Zama running over you and missing out on potential OHKOs on Great Tusk and Pecharunt. T-bolt obviously is good into Mola and non-Zapdos birds. Close Combat lets you break Ting-Lu, OHKO Kingambit, and threaten other steels and darks. Knock Off is good utility and threatens ghosts hard. Stone Edge can be flexed over t-bolt to bully the contact birds and miscellaneous fires if you've got something to deal with Mola and Corv elsewhere on your team. Flare Blitz is the strongest option against opposing Corvs, Gholds, and Solgaleos. Morning Sun can be used if you don't want to rely on teammates to help with longevity issues.

Honestly, I only expect it to get better over time. Unlike the WP sets that will likely fall off as people learn to play around them, the mixed sets are super flexible. As the meta settles and cores get more consistent, Solgaleo will have an easier time optimizing to beat them. Add in people smarter than me figuring out precise EV spreads to hit key damage thresholds, and the team structures that best support it, it's gonna get scary.

 

[JackRG]

Calm Mind: This I think is the best set, and its honestly pretty powerful. CM+2a with morning sun is pretty busted behind screens, as its able to trade exceedingly well at worst, while being an incredibly sweeper. The best attacking moves I think are flame+psychic move. The only mons that can beat you are ttar and ting lu. The latis have to specifically be trick to beat you, otherwise they are just setup fodder. Heatran just loses to you behind screens, even if it is taunt (you get to +2 then proc wp, which then makes sure that psyshock 2hkos while heatran does jack). Hamu has to be specifically AV, otherwise it doesn't do enough back and +3 flame 2hkos it. Hydreigon has to be NP otherwise it just loses lol, and gren just does jack to you. Ttar only beats you if its roar spdef, otherwise it literally just loses to you and ting lu isn't too hard to overwhelm by overloading it with stuff like goltres while flame does chunk it a decent amount if they proc wp (which if they wwind without proccing, then it gets chipped and potentially burned, which is ruinious). Psychic stab depends, I prefer psyshock to beat opposing cm mons while psychic can help against dozo and shit. But really, this mon just trades insanely well, at worst, 1v1 trades with something, but typically either trades 1v2 or sweeps. You can swap out flame for focus blast, which makes you a lot better against the darks, but worsens your mu into ghold and psychics while having to be focus blast.

TLDR: Mons broken, stop using tport on non tr teams, run banded and cm, mixed LO is prob also fine.

I want to focus on this part, since I don't think any of the other sets have a case for being broken. What exactly makes solg different from something like CM crown behind screens lmao? Yeah its bulkier but not by that much and giving up stored power is not a positive trade imo. We know screens is broken, so you should focus more on why solg is broken imo (especially because solg nerfs screens imo since its a actually viable psyfangs user)

Also: Sunsteel strike is good, band sets and most 3a morning sun sets have room for it and it provides a strong neutral hit on a ton, bypassing dnite multiscale is huge too

 

[Ranga226]

Solg only has slightly less special attack than crown and has a lot more hp (like 47 more base hp)
Solg also has stuff like flamethrower and thunderbolt while crowns coverage is just focus blast (solg still has focus blast if you really wana kill ting lu)
Also solg has options and rn people might screw up swapping in a physical wall into you and then you start calm minding up

 

[Avira]

I want to focus on this part, since I don't think any of the other sets have a case for being broken. What exactly makes solg different from something like CM crown behind screens lmao? Yeah its bulkier but not by that much and giving up stored power is not a positive trade imo. We know screens is broken, so you should focus more on why solg is broken imo (especially because solg nerfs screens imo since its a actually viable psyfangs user)

Also: Sunsteel strike is good, band sets and most 3a morning sun sets have room for it and it provides a strong neutral hit on a ton, bypassing dnite multiscale is huge too

Solgaleo is actually significantly bulkier on both sides overall, but yeah, not having Stored Power is a big net negative with regards to the CM set. I agree with you that Fire/Psychic as its only attacking moves is also nowhere near broken since it thuds hard into Ting-Lu, Heatran, and Tyranitar, which CM Solgaleo never beats. Solgaleo is not a better CM sweeper than Iron Crown, but its CB and mixed sets are also good progress makers that make it a better mon than Iron Crown IMO, so I think you undersell Solgaleo a little.

Solgaleo really doesn't need Sunsteel Strike on Choice Band. Banded Psychic Fangs already 2HKOes Clefable with a bit of chip or has a 91.8% chance of 2HKOing if you Knock Clefable's Leftovers beforehand and is a guaranteed 2HKO on standard Dragonite sets, so I still believe Sunsteel Strike is optional on Solgaleo on Choice Band rather than being a genuinely consistent choice given it is resisted by Fire, Water, Electric, and Steel-type Pokemon, which is about half of OU.

Viability-wise, Solgaleo is A-tier IMO. It's a strong mon with good strengths. It's just that a lot of players are either using bad sets or not using it properly when they actually do load a good set. Not using Sunsteel Strike makes Solgaleo much more threatening overall given how much Sunsteel Strike thuds into common mons in the meta, so my views on Solgaleo are in between Heatranator's and yours. I don't think Solgaleo is broken like Heatranator does, but I also don't believe it's a B+ mon in viability as you say.

 

[JackRG]

Solgaleo is actually significantly bulkier on both sides overall, but yeah, not having Stored Power is a big net negative with regards to the CM set. I agree with you that Fire/Psychic as its only attacking moves is also nowhere near broken since it thuds hard into Ting-Lu, Heatran, and Tyranitar, which CM Solgaleo never beats. Solgaleo is not a better CM sweeper than Iron Crown, but its CB and mixed sets are also good progress makers that make it a better mon than Iron Crown IMO, so I think you undersell Solgaleo a little.

Solgaleo really doesn't need Sunsteel Strike on Choice Band. Banded Psychic Fangs already 2HKOes Clefable with a bit of chip or has a 91.8% chance of 2HKOing if you Knock Clefable's Leftovers beforehand and is a guaranteed 2HKO on standard Dragonite sets, so I still believe Sunsteel Strike is optional on Solgaleo on Choice Band rather than being a genuinely consistent choice given it is resisted by Fire, Water, Electric, and Steel-type Pokemon, which is about half of OU.

Viability-wise, Solgaleo is A-tier IMO. It's a strong mon with good strengths. It's just that a lot of players are either using bad sets or not using it properly when they actually do load a good set. Not using Sunsteel Strike makes Solgaleo much more threatening overall given how much Sunsteel Strike thuds into common mons in the meta, so my views on Solgaleo are in between Heatranator's and yours. I don't think Solgaleo is broken like Heatranator does, but I also don't believe it's a B+ mon in viability as you say.

oh yeah I agree its a good mon, and closer to A- is probably right. Also yeah, Sunsteel Strike is likely optional, but at the same time I'm not sure what to run over it

 

[Avira]

oh yeah I agree its a good mon, and closer to A- is probably right. Also yeah, Sunsteel Strike is likely optional, but at the same time I'm not sure what to run over it

I think the best moves on Choice Band Solgaleo are Psychic Fangs, Close Combat, Knock Off/Wild Charge, and Flare Blitz/Stone Edge depending on what you want to beat. As Heatranator said, Flare Blitz 2HKOes Hatterene, so you don't really even need Sunsteel Strike. Knocking Off Zapdos's HDB leaves it 2HKOed by Psychic Fangs with SR up, so that's why Stone Edge is slashed rather than recommended. If you run Stone Edge instead of Flare Blitz, you should probably run Wild Charge for Corviknight.

 

[sg pokemon]

Solg only has slightly less special attack than crown and has a lot more hp (like 47 more base hp)
Solg also has stuff like flamethrower and thunderbolt while crowns coverage is just focus blast (solg still has focus blast if you really wana kill ting lu)
Also solg has options and rn people might screw up swapping in a physical wall into you and then you start calm minding up

And this point IMO is why I'm actually really liking meteor beam Solgaleo right now, it can use flamethrower/tbolt (or their alternatives) and it complements its psychic almost perfectly. You need to kill bulky dark types like ttar/ting lu, but otherwise it can really pop off; while also screwing over knock/poltergeist mons by no longer having an item. Meteor beam itself also lets solgaleo really demolish several would-be checks like Zapdos/every fire type mon except Heatran. It complements choice band BEAT UP Weavile almost perfectly, with the latter also being surprisingly insane, both into solg itself but also the majority of the tier; which is simply not prepared to take on a tera dark+band+all healthy mons beat up- especially with Solg itself contributing a fair bit into the move's bp.

Do I think the mon itself is broken or fine? Honestly, not sure. It does have enough lacking traits to theoretically make it fine for the tier, and yet...The exact same complaint I have about also applies to it; due to its boxart legendary bst, it has way too much bulk at its disposal, which is just waiting ripe to be abused by various forms of setup and showing off a mon's darkest side. It's a shame because it's offensive profile is pretty interesting and its movepool is surprisingly colourful and vast on both ends of the spectrum, and its ability is solid but not too remarkable (...which is why, I suppose, is why we're taking the time looking at this thing in the first place). Still...idk. More tiering action could be taken on currently existing things instead, but...at least some variety to the tier is nice for now, I suppose. And unlike it at least doesn't have toxic ass priority/pivoting/even setup off its good attacking stat.

Also reminder to use beat up weavile it just kills stuff: https://pokepast.es/10fcb21db239a4c6

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2512151247-p4f68c8wfo2l9xy446xjdhrtitqyqdgpw ignore my opponent's rating, just witness Weavile powering through a MOLA, BY ITSELF

Still just messing around with stuff, but this is as many mons as can be synergistic with weavile/solgaleo, while getting as high a beat up BP as reasonable.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

Do I think the mon itself is broken or fine? Honestly, not sure. It does have enough lacking traits to theoretically make it fine for the tier, and yet...The exact same complaint I have about also applies to it; due to its boxart legendary bst, it has way too much bulk at its disposal, which is just waiting ripe to be abused by various forms of setup and showing off a mon's darkest side.

in an ideal world, instead of unbanning zamazenta we would've been focusing on trimming down the power level of svou enough that box legendaries wouldn't have entered into the discussion at all. i'm fundamentally uncomfortable with the presence of any box legendaries in ou on principle, and i frankly think there should be a hard-and-fast rule against it to protect future iterations of ou from at least this one source of power creep. but things didn't shake out that way. we're stuck with this power level until next gen, most likely. so if we're not going to be taking steps towards a more reasonable power level, we might as well try out solgaleo and see if we can solve any problems this way

 

[Magcargo]

Haven't been playing much gen 9 but I stole some teams with Solgaleo here so I'll give some really low ladder experience with it thusfar. Not sure how useful it will be though given there's not much substance.

Initial impressions I get are that Ting-Lu is pretty common in Solgaleo meta, lot of teams are trying to run it in those Mola Gweezing comps with other high BST Pokemon like Ting-Lu, Zama, etc. which is kinda annoying. Mon is a bit of a crapshoot to fully discern, but it feels like you have a few safe pivots into some guys, namely Ting-Lu, one's own Solgaleo (though this MU is a bit shaky) and occasionally one of the birds - though again this is also a shaky MU because of Knock, Stone Edge, or Thunder. Alomomola also seems generally fine - though watch out for Thunderbolt. Its tough to switch into, but its breaking power in 1v1 scenarios isn't as crazy imo and I find it struggles to switch into handle a few key threats you would want it for such as Gweezing and Hatterene due to its vulnerability to status. Its pretty annoying to switch into - but its not too unique to other random breakers I feel that we already have. Something like Blaziken or even Great Tusk could in theory do a lot of what these Solg sets do - where they just run random coverage like Stone Edge for the birds, or Tera Electric Supercell slam / Thunderpunch for mola to make those Pokemon that normally handle it scared to safely pivot in.

Garchomp notably seems a lot better in solgaleo metagame - feel both offensive and defensive sets match up nicely into it and it can pair up with solgaleo to handle a few of its annoying MUs like Kyurem and Iron Valiant.

I think what I'm surprised by is that a lot of the sets I am seeing seem to just be offensive in nature, not at all trying to leverage the defensive profile. Life Orb 4 attacks sets feel a bit AI generated lol - with seemingly random moves like Stone Edge, Thunder, EQ, Psychic / Psychic Fangs, and more, Agility sets that feel like the most telegraphed shit ever on Veil and almost never sweep, CB sets that are good, but feel like they are just slapped onto builds, and a CM sets that are mostly sound. I know people like to cheese to prove something is broken, but I feel like a Specially defensive set - on a well built team should in theory be pretty solid with nice anti -offensive moves like Roar and a good defensive profile into a few annoying offensive Pokemon like Kyurem, Iron Valiant, and more, with Knock Off to make progress. Colbur sets to lure mons like Gambit or Darkrai. Meteor Beam sets are kind of cool - but I'm not sure how much better they are then something like Jirachi - which also has anti gambit / ghold coverage (not in one slot however unless you run TB Ground / Fire) and a few other tools like Psychic Noise to annoy walls. I'm hoping this mon gets teched a bit more with more interesting sets that actively make use of that offensive / defensive hybrid profile. Even if they aren't what gets it banned, I think leveraging the defensive attributes is what will make this mon be a consistent threat.

 

[Avira]

I think what I'm surprised by is that a lot of the sets I am seeing seem to just be offensive in nature, not at all trying to leverage the defensive profile. Life Orb 4 attacks sets feel a bit AI generated lol - with seemingly random moves like Stone Edge, Thunder, EQ, Psychic / Psychic Fangs, and more, Agility sets that feel like the most telegraphed shit ever on Veil and almost never sweep, CB sets that are good, but feel like they are just slapped onto builds, and a CM sets that are mostly sound. I know people like to cheese to prove something is broken, but I feel like a Specially defensive set - on a well built team should in theory be pretty solid with nice anti -offensive moves like Roar and a good defensive profile into a few annoying offensive Pokemon like Kyurem, Iron Valiant, and more, with Knock Off to make progress. Colbur sets to lure mons like Gambit or Darkrai. Meteor Beam sets are kind of cool - but I'm not sure how much better they are then something like Jirachi - which also has anti gambit / ghold coverage (not in one slot however unless you run TB Ground / Fire) and a few other tools like Psychic Noise to annoy walls. I'm hoping this mon gets teched a bit more with more interesting sets that actively make use of that offensive / defensive hybrid profile. Even if they aren't what gets it banned, I think leveraging the defensive attributes is what will make this mon be a consistent threat.

I don't think the defensive sets are worth it outside of TR. There's a reason people have been using them less and less, and it's because Steel/Psychic is just not the best defensive typing anymore like it was in Gen 4 when Jirachi reigned supreme. Defensive sets are really lacking in progress-making ability even if you have Knock Off and struggle breaking common defensive mons.

 

[Ultraman1]

Welp i just recently won a small tour hosted by Pokeaimmd. Although it was not much, it certainly brought me joy.


Team (take inspiration from the famous Subs Excadrill team):
_____
https://pokepast.es/e8d8b03220f8704c

Link replay:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2512341411-cfiv2tnxojqy6779jx5400b201bpas5pw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2512337813-8qwls0bbnl386w9djfughe4ap1p407epw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2512346699-810vu903dsq52u772alanlqflvysi7cpw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2512350326-6s28c34y1furqmlxgu09fy7m00jlyl0pw

 

[malahuju]

Wanted to share this set I'm using for now. It has insane bulk, I haven't prepared a list of defensive calcs but it outspeeds +0 kyu. Tera fairy lets you set up with a good defensive type and resists dark / is neutral all of Solgaleo's other weaknesses. Psyshock + CM is evil honestly. This set feels very customizable, like if you wanted to try and slot better recovery and more bulk. The coverage is godlike, tho I think you're fine without msun. Psychic hits tusk harder at +0 and you can ev more for the guaranteed ohko

16 SpA is just a dump but you could do more if you have some specific defensive benchmark that you can remove from 252 hp.
16 SpA Solgaleo Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Alomomola: 272-320 (50.9 - 59.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 16 SpA Solgaleo Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Corviknight: 248-294 (62.1 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 16 SpA Solgaleo Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gholdengo: 238-280 (62.9 - 74%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 16 SpA Solgaleo Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 230-272 (61.9 - 73.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 16 SpA Solgaleo Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Great Tusk: 230-272 (52.9 - 62.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

You could argue for tera elec to hammer dozo in the stall MU too.
16 SpA Tera Electric Solgaleo Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dondozo: 308-366 (61.1 - 72.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery