★ One More Time - Custap Berry Suspect

[Felucia]

Song

Custap's back in the spotlight once again. Custap Berry had a suspect nearly two years ago where it narrowly avoided a ban. However, despite this, it's still been a very controversial element in the metagame on forums, on discord, and on the survey. Proponents of a ban on Custap Berry claim it's predominantly unhealthy forcing otherwise unnecessary adaptations such as Protect on Pokemon that would rather use more coverage or forcing people to make strange choices during games to try and play around a theoretical Custap Set, especially as more and more pokemon experiment with running a Custap Berry set. However, proponents of the status quo argue that most pokemon that run a Custap Berry set are rather predictable, focusing on synergies with moves like Reversal or abilities like Torrent, and that Custap Berry is being held to a higher standard of scrutiny that is not being applied to other items.

Here's how the 1v1 Council voted regarding a Custap Suspect:

Hide

	Custap
delemon	Do Not Suspect
Frailty	Suspect
gorilaa	Suspect
Indi01	Do Not Suspect
lost heros	Suspect
RADU	Suspect
bea	Suspect
Fancy1	Suspect
Nuxl	Suspect

delemon

I based my votes off of the survey

Frailty

I’m still undecided on whether or not I would vote to ban custap. However, most of the discussion that is anti-custap ban hinges on opportunity cost, which i don’t believe exists concerning custap and setguessing, which is unreliable at a high level of play. Quite an easy decision to suspect it in my opinion.

gorilaa

while i do not think custap is banworthy since a lot of ppl wanted a suspect i feel like it would be nice to have to consolidate thoughts

Indi01

I do not support a custap suspect, as I believe it is not an unbalanced variable in the metagame. I also think its allows for a mon's possible sets to not be too predictable before and after preview, which is essentail for a healthy meta.

lost heros

I think it's become very evident that Custap has become a problematic element in the tier; the relative opportunity cost for running Custap Berry on any pokemon is too low for the vast majority of pokemon, and the benefit of flipping the turn order has allowed for more and more pokemon to run a successful Custap berry set. Combined with other issues that Custap provides like strange choices made to play around custap and poor move slot options, I think Custap berry should be suspected then banned.

RADU

While I'm still on the dnb side of things, I've participated in custap discussion enough to see that it's a contentious element within the playerbase, and some of the points brought forward by users such as Fancy and Nuxl were valid enough for me to feel like this should be put in the hands of the community

bea

When it comes to Custap Berry, while I haven't determined what I would vote for in a suspect, it is clear that there is enough support from the community for a suspect to be warranted

Fancy1

Custap creates an imbalance in sacrifice from offensive oriented counterplay compared to its abusers. In doing so it restricts structure innovation in the builder by creating a small pool of efficient counterplay. With a small efficient pool to draw for from the metagame becomes more centralized. This effect on the builder warrants a suspect and should be prioritized before CL begins.

Nuxl

There are two main reasons for my desire to suspect custap. the first is that i find that custap berry currently elevates a gap between many of the top tiers and those under them, where i see the future of the tier having more presence of the item. this would be okay if the counterplay to the item wasn’t skewed to a theoretical 50-50 but in practice leads to a much more favorable position for the custap user.

Share your thoughts! Add what you think here in this thread!


In order to become a qualified voter, you need to achieve 2850 COIL on the 1v1 ladder. The deadline is January 15 2026 at 10:00 UTC

Alt registration process

• Make any new account on PS, there's no requirements for name prefix these days.
  • You may use an existing alt, but only if it has never been used to play Gen 9 1v1 ladder games before.
• At any point, you can use the command /linksmogon and follow the instructions to link your alt to your Smogon account
• When you've reached reqs, verify that your alt is listed on the Suspect Page and let me know if you're not.
• As per usual, do not play on the alt after reaching reqs

Let me know if you have any questions about this process.

 

[SomeRandomDoodle]

bruu went 19-0 and screwed up the final game 3 times

 

[RADU]

/rank

perhaps my most generational performance on ladder ever, after multiple accounts and two other attempts that were a game away. Not sure if it's because of the state of the ladder (elo difference was consistently so high that i was gaining like 4 coil per win) but 2850 coil is currently too difficult to achieve and many of the top players in the tier are struggling, consistently complaining and considering not getting reqs as a result; miserable experience. Whether lower coil or a different process altogether is needed we'll find out, expect some sort of policy post from me once the suspect is over.

i used a lot of teams this is the one that performed the best https://pokepast.es/b9be3c7e8783212b. kee zapdos is op, subversal valiant bails you out a ton, greninja is kinda trash but is good here bc it has strong preview pressure

re: custap I'll probably be voting do not ban. My stance on it has always been that it requests more thought of the player in any given matchup both when playing and building, which, to me, increases skill expression. The opposition has not been able to provide arguments that convinced me of the contrary so far.

 

[bo_bobson27]

I got reqs on my second try (each attempt takes a few hours).

It was more difficult this time than usual. I had to actually lock in. Activity is the biggest issue though. Getting enough games for lower gxe reqs takes way longer than it should, thus incentivizing lots of resetting to get a good enough winstreak. Right now, ladder reqs are too difficult and unreliable for this tier. I do not have a proposal for a solution. Custap post next week.

 

[crow crumbs]

https://pokepast.es/613cd356d2e6040d main team
https://pokepast.es/769eafd7b8e44496 after a whole session of cteaming
^think its fun to see the differences c:

I've said this many times before but I might as well speak on the forums for posterity. I think custaps uniquely toxic in sv since all the toptiers are unkillable stat nukes that all win by having optimized calcs and clicking attacks/coverage. Besides, spect, val, atales and corvi, this accurately describes the winplan of every single top meta mon on the vr. Spectrier is the only attacker that requires a turn of setup to win most of it's matchups and its naturally anti-custap because of wisp+hex.

Custap is traditonally terrible against stall and net neutral at best vs normal setup stuff but those just dont exist in the SV ecosystem like they do in other gens. (Even pecha is more of a toxic cheeser than something that truly aims to sit on attacks indefinitely). I largely attribute that to 2 things.

1. Hoopa being one of the best darks but hard-countering almost every fairy thanks to being the premier special blanket

The main constraint in sv building is the fact that you can't easily blanket-check threats to your ghost/psychics with your fairy type. The most consistent/flexible way to deal with it is to run ambiguous coverage (like lorb uturn zap) that makes hoopa really hard to click in practice. However, this introduces the issue of teams commonly relying on supertechd attackers that are very vulnerable to custap users, as they are both weak and often not even able to force an endure 50-50. Unlike in other gens, the majority of the custap wins in SV take advantage of natural bulk and often look like hit-attack | hit-endure | attack | game end. Custap on random attackers is positioned in the meta to abuse a structure thats necessitated by the existence of hoopa.

2. General density of huge statbomb mons that can only really handle eachother

The stats of the meta mons in sv are so well-optimized above the rest of the dex that basically every mon that can win games without clicking a status move can effectively run custap, leading to insane set ambiguity. It has seen effective usage on raging bolt (closest sv equivalent to tapu fini) and pecharunt of all things.

I think custap is a healthy element in well-balanced 1v1 metas. My ideal solution for the meta would have been to take care of these 2 root issues. (Though I do acknowledge that custap is also one of hoopas best sets). However, the end of gen won't be too long from now and at some point you just need to take action in some form. Custap is definitely problematic as it exists right now and banning it would solve issues with the metagame.

I will be voting ban.

 

[Amarion_barrett]

View attachment 798838

/rank

View attachment 798843

View attachment 798844

View attachment 798845

View attachment 798846

View attachment 798847

View attachment 798848

perhaps my most generational performance on ladder ever, after multiple accounts and two other attempts that were a game away. Not sure if it's because of the state of the ladder (elo difference was consistently so high that i was gaining like 4 coil per win) but 2850 coil is currently too difficult to achieve and many of the top players in the tier are struggling, consistently complaining and considering not getting reqs as a result; miserable experience. Whether lower coil or a different process altogether is needed we'll find out, expect some sort of policy post from me once the suspect is over.

i used a lot of teams this is the one that performed the best https://pokepast.es/b9be3c7e8783212b. kee zapdos is op, subversal valiant bails you out a ton, greninja is kinda trash but is good here bc it has strong preview pressure

re: custap I'll probably be voting do not ban. My stance on it has always been that it requests more thought of the player in any given matchup both when playing and building, which, to me, increases skill expression. The opposition has not been able to provide arguments that convinced me of the contrary so far.

Lmao

 

[Indi01]

First Attempt

(1st time doing suspect req ever, assumed i'd eventually get it if gxe > 50%, lol was i right and wrong)

Final attempt (28th try: 2883.0 Coil)

Unfortunate suspect happened right alongside 1v1 Factory, as that definitely lured a decent portion of many active 1v1 ladder players, but props to it for being successful enough to draw out people who retired from 1v1 and even got some youtubers to rage over encore/disable mechanics.

I still hold strong to the belief custap should not be banned. At this point in time, I doubt i'll be convinced to change otherwise, and similarily doubt I could change the hearts of those in favor of a ban.

Instead, some highlights from my suspect run:
- Lost to air balloon garchomp when I ran band donphan (no ice shard)
- Lost to rocky helmet avalugg with aqua jet spattack booster walking wake with flamethrower
- Lost to a Lvl 1 Sudowoodo when at 16-3 for one of my runs
- Dodged a Sheer Cold from a metronome Tinkaton
- Won vs an air balloon Lando-T
- Won with a Alolan Ninetales vs an Assault Vest Scizor with no steel-type moves
- Getting to 10-1 on an account but forgetting that im on the wrong account
- I sent out Dondozo, opp sent H-Arcanine, i assume opp would forfeit and left to do something, came back and forgot timer was on and lost due to it

Good luck to everyone else whose still trying to get req, enjoy getting walled by timezones.

 

[bern]

this is probably my best performance, out of anything sv-related, ever.
are reqs easy? well there are 15 people who have reqs right now so what does that tell you.
i can confirm that play on ladder directly affects how you play in matches, example was when i played vs longrat for b-league; i felt very confident about nearly every single click i made, and i went 4-0. i lwk think people that are getting ladder reqs know way more than people that don't, even though this sounds obvious it really isn't.

@1v1 council get reqs pleaseeeee

i'm pretty sure i made my stance very clear before so i won't dwell on custap itself too much. it's a good item that unfortunately fits the sv metagame in a toxic way due to the fact that, like bird said, every mon in sv just nukes each other, there's barely any good stall/setup outside of corvi atales ival spect and sometimes ape, this isn't the case for other metas where it's a little bit more defensive, most sv games are done in 30 seconds unless people timer stall so yeah.

burnout.

 

[bo_bobson27]

Red Dot = Could be Custap Berry
There are 31 Custap users here out of 101 Pokemon. Some of these are fake, such as Arcanine-Hisui, Landorus-Therian, and Swampert, but it won't matter for the point that I am making. Now, let's look at how Pokemon are forced to adapt to counter Custap, or are otherwise limited by it.

High Cost (9)

Zapdos runs Protect on Life Orb sets for Primarina
Landorus-Therian can run Taunt for Skeledirge. Although this does help in other matchups such as Balloon Metagross and Corviknight, moveslots are heavily contested on this Pokemon.
Iron Moth runs Endure or Protect. Specs would also rise with a Custap Ban, but SpA Booster would still be useful for Iron Valiant
Porygon-Z @ Life Orb uses Substitute for better outplay odds against Custap
Landorus runs Protect or Taunt
Greninja runs Shadow Sneak largely for Primarina and Hoopa
Sandy Shocks runs Protect for Primarina
Overqwil runs Aqua Jet I guess
Maushold runs Feint, and could otherwise use that moveslot for Tidy Up or Substitute

These are the sets that I know about, there may be more Meta sets I am not aware of, but I think this still demonstrates that the use of Protect or priority moves solely to for Custap is not nearly as common as it is made out to be.

Low Cost or No Cost (48)

Iron Valiant runs Protect on the main set
Metagross runs Bullet Punch on all sets. Like most priority moves, this helps to secure KOs and disrupts Encore Disable tactics.
Pecharunt runs stall
Skeledirge runs Custap as the main set and also commonly uses stall
Haxorus has Unnerve. It could run Mold Breaker more often with Custap banned, but that only beats like 2 Pokemon.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Commonly runs Custap itself, and has access to Aqua Jet. It does end up having a worse Hoopa and Bloodmoon matchup because of Custap.
Zapdos runs Protect with Life Orb, but it also runs stall
Spectrier runs Will-O-Wisp
Ninetales-Alola runs Protect on the main set
Raging Bolt runs Thunderclap
Corviknight runs stall
Urshifu runs Sucker Punch
Moltres-Galar runs Custap itself, as well as Sucker Punch and sometimes Taunt
Rillaboom runs Grassy Glide or SubSeed
Cresselia runs stall, or is a 2hko merchant Choiced attacker (Custap does not cause 5050s here)
Serperior runs Protect on the main set
Registeel runs Stall
Walking Wake runs Aqua Jet. This move could be more easily replaced with Custap gone, but it still helps for breaking sturdy and securing KOs against Pokemon like AV Metagross, Passho Volcarona, and Sneasler.
Sneasler runs Endure or Feint
Zarude runs Knock Off. This Pokemon is also bulky enough to tank a hit anyway from Pokemon like Ursaluna and Primarina among others that are threatened with an OHKO.
Entei runs Protect or Extreme Speed
Scizor runs Bullet Punch
Florges runs stall or cannot outplay with Scarf anyway
Dondozo is slower than my pet snail's dead grandma
Espathra runs stall
Avalugg-Hisui is usually slower, or lives with Sturdy while threatening an OHKO. I think it only matters against Rhyperior or Glastrier since they are even slower and tank a hit.
Basculegion runs Aqua Jet
Ursaluna-Bloodmoon is usually slower, or cannot play around Custap as Specs, or has Vacuum Wave. Again, priority moves have inherent value for securing KOs, especially on slower Pokemon.
Whimsicott runs Protect
Bellibolt runs Sucker Punch or is using Custap itself. It is also usually the slower Pokemon
Rhyperior is usually the slower Pokemon, but it might have to 5050 Custap Glastrier!
Zapdos-Galar runs Custap itself
Klefki runs stall
Tyranitar has Sand Stream and Knock Off
Fezandipiti runs Quick Attack for Primarina and Hoopa, but it does help in some other matchups such as against Raging Bolt, Walking Wake, Kyurem, and Iron Moth
Ting Lu is slower than most other Custap users, and loses anyway to ones that it outspeeds with the exception of maybe Rhyperior.
Suicune runs Protect or stall
Venusaur runs Custap itself or has Protect
Talonflame has Gale Wings
Clodsire runs stall
Chansey runs stall
Salazzle runs Protect on main set
Sableye runs Protect or Trick
Porygon2 runs stall
Glastrier is slower than all Custap other users
Regieleki uses Thunder Cage
Samurott-Hisui has Sucker Punch (Idk what this guy runs)
Blaziken runs Protect or Endure
Arcanine runs Extreme Speed

This list is not comprehesive either. I left out certain Pokemon like Ursaluna and Ogerpon-Wellspring that could run Protect at no cost, but only on one of theiry sets. There are also several Pokemon that are able to get a solid matchup spread even considering Custap 5050 matchups as lost. In addition to this, there are Subsitute users such as Volcarona, Primarina, Dragapult, Volcanion, Blastoise, and Torterra, which turns the Custap 5050 in their favor. Now, what about the other ~40% of the Pokemon that don't directly have an answer to Custap? In most cases, there is an option to run something like Knock Off, Taunt, Substitute, or simply to tank the Custap hit and win similarly to how you would against a Choice Scarf set. If you cannot do this, there is always the option to win the matchup with another Pokemon on the team. This does not mean that all Custap 5050s are avoidable, but it is certainly possible to reduce it to an acceptable level. I do not believe that banning Custap will significantly reduce the amount of predictions required in game, but it will make the meta much more straightforward and uninteresting.
Do Not Ban.

 

[Nunnbetter]

For the most part I used my UU sample submission, Manaphy Tar Control https://pokepast.es/431a4382e9aa921f using Tar as the occasional cteamer mostly due to Hoopa. For some reason Mana is UU.

Custap helps the worse player win more often so I'll vote ban.