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January is here with some lame ahh tier shifts once again! The NU-relevant ones are as follows:
Mienshao moved from NUBL to RU
Politoed moved from NUBL to RU
Porygon-Z moved from NUBL to RU
Suicune moved from NUBL to RU
Breloom moved from NU to RU
Ribombee moved from NU to RU
Torterra moved from PUBL to RU
Chansey moved from RU to NU
Reuniclus moved from RU to NU
Dudunsparce moved from PU to NU
Espeon moved from PU to NU
Goodra moved from PU to NU
Braviary moved from ZU to NU
Grafaiai moved from ZU to NU
Thwackey moved from NFE to NU
Galvantula moved from NU to PU
What lies in NU's future? Let's talk about it down below :]
I’m excited to get back into the tier finally. A lot seems to have changed over the year and a half I have been absent. However, I am a bit worried about a specific drop
Do we beat this? Our dark types cannot take special attacks (especially focus blasts) super well at all and this thing is ridiculously bulky. Magic guard and regenerator are both phenomenal abilities that give reuinclus sky high levels of staying power and attacks like psyshock ravage a lot of potential checks like florges. The shifts haven’t been applied yet, so I am a bit interested to see what comes of this, but it’s also pretty horrifying. Nasty plot uxie can probably handle it, Frosmoth has a surprisingly decent matchup, and specs chandelure likely eats this thing up, but the list of answers isn’t as large as I would’ve hoped.
Took her long enough. It might be worth blowing the dust off the table to give Chanseylugg a spin again. I’ve noticed that avalugg has fallen off quite a bit, but I wonder if the return of chansey provides some new hope to this Mon. Stall could certainly be interesting, and maybe there’s a position for these two on balance like in florges meta? The tier has gotten stronger but I’m interested.
I’m gonna come back some time soon with a better assessment once the shifts apply and I get to play some games. I’ll have to figure out what team to build until then.
Am I the only one who has felt like Reuniclus is.... fine?
I'm not really sure the best way to build around it. It's a Psychic-type in a tier already filled with many strong Psychic-types, and Magic Guard is an incredible ability that lets you skip out on boots in favor of a Defensive () or Offensive () item - perhaps it will fit best on teams lacking hazard control. There aren't many mons that it can directly wall or Counter, although Magic Guard is good at abusing passive pokemon reliant on status. Calm Mind sets aren't terribly hard to wall, with Psychic-types walling Psychic + Fighting coverage and Dark-types walling Psychic + Ghost. Maybe there will be some other catch-all move like Thunder that picks up usage, or a Tera Blast set that becomes mainstream. Reuniclus's speed is its biggest drawback, and even if it is difficult to trade into it can reliably be chunked by a breaker and revenge killed with something else. OTR seems to be the most popular set right now, as it lets you opt into 3 attacks instead of 2 while also solving its Speed issues - making it much harder to switch into. RegenVest is another cool set with access to Future Sight and Knock Off.
I think it's far too early to declare this pokemon as "broken", although the concerns it raises are legitimate. I'm eager to see how it performs in tours.
So yeah Reuniclus is fine, just like it was 18 months ago. Anyway, let's address the elephant in the room, since etern won't do anything if I'm not writing posts.
I've got 3 losses in NUCL, with Shift Gear Toxtricity being a main actor in all these games. NUCL Week 1 vs Waldorf - Toxtricity finds a set-up opportunity on Raikou and is able to trade Tera for a whole Duraludon and Tentacruel's health. Bulk invested Duraludon doesn't OHKO Toxtricity, so I needed cheap damage on it if I wanted to force him to pick between killing Duraludon and burning his tera. Eventually I threw the game, but the pressure put by Toxtricity was insane, taking 2 full Pokemon on its own. NUCL Week 7 vs loocas13 - Toxtricity finds a set-up opportunity on Slowbro, using Encore, while I can't risk my Flygon to come on a Tera Normal Boomburst. Me not having Earthquake on Copperajah means I need to sack an additional Pokemon with a priority move to kill it. Clicking Whirlwind is also not an option, as it would open for a Ribombee sweep. Letting Toxtricity take 2 halves of a Pokemon and one full. NUCL Finals vs Fc - Toxtricity sets up on Scarf Flamigo and cleans after Copperajah gets fully paralyzed as it clicked Earthquake. While it's unlucky to get fully paralyzed there. Dudunsparce hitting Copperajah with some other move could have put it in range of 2 Overdrive later on. Letting Toxtricity pick-up 4 full KOs.
I might come a little bit salty complaining about it, as if I only lost because my opponents brought a broken Pokémon. But that isn't what I meant, and I even used Toxtricity myself one week and it was just as dumb. NUCL Semifinals vs OBB - Toxtricity sets up on Klefki and nothing can stop it.
Toxtricity is quite dumb because after a Throat Spray boost it OHKOes almost everything, while being able to switch its moves. The few things it doesn't OHKO don't have recovery and are usually put in range by teammates. Toxtricity's typing lets it set-up on metagame staples, including two of the three most common Choice Scarf users, making it extremely good in hyper offense. After a Shift Gear boost, Toxtricity outspeeds every Choice Scarf users; even the memes ones like Infernape and Alolan Persian, meaning the only way to hit it is either with priority moves or those slower Pokemon we just talked about. Priority moves are usually too weak to pick-up the KO on Toxtricity if it managed to set-up on a resisted hit, and priorities in general aren't very good in NU right now. They are mostly used on niche Pokémon like Ambipom and Arcanine that are low on the VR or are resisted such as First Impression from Flygon pre-tera or Shadow Sneak from Houndstone post tera; also notable Toxtricity is immune to Twave that Klefki could fire off with Prankster; the only good priority moves to deal with Toxtricity are Aqua Jet from Tauros and Basculegion, as shown on my game against Django, even those need good positioning to work.
So now, let's talk about the defensive counterplay. Copperajah and Bronzong need Earthquake, which is hard to fit in their moveset over other options that more Pokémon, if they wanna deal with pre Tera Toxtricity. Ground-types are easily put in range of +1 Boomburst, beside SpD Rhyperior. Without bulk EVs, Goodra is OHKOed +1 Tera Normal Boomburst. Tera Normal Boomburst into +1 Tera Normal Boomburst 2HKOes Assault Vest Reuniclus. Duraludon needs bulk EVs to avoid the 2HKO, but if it does, it's not sure to OHKO Toxtricity back, as shown in my game against Django. Klefki fails to 2HKO with Foul Play even when Toxtricity is at +1 in Atk. None of these Pokémon have reliable recovery; they all rely on Leftovers or Regenerator in Reuniclus case. Gligar and Duraludon don't even have any recovery beside Wish from teammates.
There are other Pokemon with fringer viability that can beat Toxtricity, but they are relying on it having the wrong 4th move. A lot of Ghost-types if played correctly can beat Toxtricity, such as Golurk, Palossand, Decidueye, Hoopa, and Tera Ghost Volt Absorb Kilowattrel. However they all take over 80% from +1 Snarl. Drain Punch lets it beat Bastiodon and Chansey unless they burn Tera; it also helps out against Porygon2. Encore can also help creating set-up opportunities.
All in all, Toxtricity is a Pokemon that is too effective at breaking teams. The offensive counterplay is not letting it set-up, which is easier said than done, while the defensive counterplay is split between using Pokemon with no reliable recovery that are used to cover other threats and take 80%+ dealing with Toxtricity or niche Pokémon that can still lose to the wrong set. Steel overload HO has been a good playstyle for a while, and while before it was focused on using Pokemon like Scyther, Cinccino, and Scream Tail, it has evolved by making Toxtricity a central part of it. Those teams aren't impossible to beat, we can see here in Fc vs bricknermon and aerobee vs milliongatejumpguy that the use of Assault Vest on Meloetta and Swampert made Toxtricity on non-problem, though I believe the use of Assault Vest Pokemon without regen isn't something we want to entertain, as viable as Vaporeon and Sylveon are. Standard balances fall more often than not against it, tko vs big tony 2014 and Mada vs Fc.
Here are stats for NUCL, yaddi yadda. I'm not Django, so I'm not gonna pretend I care about those, but I know some of you do. Toxtricity isn't just an on paper Pokémon like some claimed Chandelure is (it's not), and it wins games. Winrates is a bad metric anw, there were many Toxtricity mirrors and also some Silk Scarf Volt Switch Toxtricity (which I don't have problem with atm). etern, you better do something about Toxtricity, if you want me to write another post like that.
) or Offensive (
) item - perhaps it will fit best on teams lacking hazard control. There aren't many mons that it can directly wall or Counter, although Magic Guard is good at abusing passive pokemon reliant on status. Calm Mind sets aren't terribly hard to wall, with Psychic-types walling Psychic + Fighting coverage and Dark-types walling Psychic + Ghost. Maybe there will be some other catch-all move like Thunder that picks up usage, or a Tera Blast set that becomes mainstream. Reuniclus's speed is its biggest drawback, and even if it is difficult to trade into it can reliably be chunked by a breaker and revenge killed with something else. OTR seems to be the most popular set right now, as it lets you opt into 3 attacks instead of 2 while also solving its Speed issues - making it much harder to switch into. RegenVest is another cool set with access to Future Sight and Knock Off.
