Metagame RU Metagame Discussion Thread [January 2026 Shifts, Farewell Hippowdon :( ]

[MrAldo]

Sound argument BUT, that discussion has been had and there is no action to take on tera blast unless OU wants to do something about it cause breaking transitivity is bad. May as well get rid of porygon-z and replace it with Meloetta or something

So many offensive mons on this tier are absurdly degenerate, like when you load normal teams it is fine to play, but then the absolute stinky cheesy teams that plague the tier at the moment is just dreadful. Different types of HO, Grassy Terrain, etc. UGH. Tier is a coinflip and dont have anything really positive to share which is a shame but it is how it is.

Dont see anything worth testing besides maybe Hydreigon out of morbid curiosity, doesnt really force many solutions outside of an armarouge check (which is fine I guess), everything else is just adding more gasoline to an already existing wildfire.


Will come back with less depressing news next time, hopefully

 

[Elec-ant1234]

May as well get rid of porygon-z and replace it with Meloetta or something

You know... that's not a half-bad idea...

 

[Rarelyme]

Alright so I wanted to play a good amount before taking things more slowly with RUPL season and I'm here to share my humble view of this "new" meta.
The tier feels very polarized and people seem to give up more and more on building balanced archetypes which ends up in an overly large amount of hyper offenses and stall being used. This is probably a symptom of gen 9 as a whole but we can't deny that balance in RU has lost many of its options which makes it arguably more of a hassle to build but also more difficult to pilot. My aim here is to present some options that I think are overlooked and can help when using balanced and bulky offense teams.

Toxic Spikes
Every RU builder knows Tspikes are a reliable way to deal with HO teams and can also be an effective way to pressure stall. But despite this, very few teams actually use them. The reason for this is, in my opinion, the pool of Pokemon that can use the move. Most of them put a strain on the builder because they would rather use another hazard or they lead the teams towards the extremes I talked about above. For instance, Gligar, Mew or Forretress would rather take the slot of the classic hazard setter so as to not force the team to feature another one, Quagsire is too frail to act as a physical wall on its own in a team which leads to very fat teams... In my opinion, the best Toxic Spikes setter available to us right now is Tentacruel.


Tentacruel is a great option for BO to balanced teams because it offers a ton of support like removal, pivot or Knock Off while being a key part of a gameplan against HO and Stall. I think it has never fit the meta as well as today because it answers other problems non-polar archetypes run into at the moment. Removal has always been an issue in RU and Tentacruel is honestly a fine option. It is able to spin in the face of some common setters like Chesnaught, Empoleon or Jirachi while standing its ground against HO leads such as Lycanroc and Kleavor. Pivot has also always been a problem of mine in SV since we don't have many pivot options and most of them oftentimes need to use another move instead of turn (Noivern, Talonflame, Jirachi...) Something RU certainly does well is having effective wallbreakers, and I think Tentacruel is a great pairing for them. Since it can also soft check a surprising amount of our top tier Pokemon (like Mienshao for instance), it fits well in dynamic BO cores; my personal favorite at the moment is Tentacruel/Jirachi/Noivern but I also played with Tentacruel/Hoodra (or Regi)/Chesnaught, Tentacruel/Umbreon and some others that I'm not completely satisfied with for the moment.

I don't want to spend too much time talking about Tentacruel but I hope this is enough to at least make you want to test it.


As I said previously, removal is a tough challenge for any RU builder and using Noivern or Talonflame for it is so incredibly unsatisfying that I tried other options. Tentacruel is of course one that I felt confident enough to talk about here, the other I think could deserve more attention is Maushold.


We all know this guy as the HO goon that forces you to have a Rocky Helmet mon in every team. I went through a bunch or replays and was pretty surprised to not see it even in BO teams, so I tried to lab with it to see if it could become more than a HO bot and spoiler alert, I think it definitely can be. Maushold, like Tentacruel, greatly improves the bulkier teams' matchup against HO since against frail Pokemon it basically is a kill button. Because it puts so much pressure, it very often forces switches which let it use Tidy Up rather easily and therefore serve as a good removal. I would note however that Maushold can't easily switch in as you probably know, so using it in a team that is weak to hazards in the first place is probably not a good idea. You can improve this by using Encore or VoltTurn cores though. Maushold can also be part of the aforementioned cores itself thanks to U-Turn and in general can bring a lot of support thanks to its 4th slot (Encore, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Super Fang). The mouse pairs extremely well with meta defining Pokemon as well such as Krookodile and Mienshao which are in my opinion its best partners.


Now for less interesting inputs about the meta:
The tier has seen a resurgence of special attackers in offensive teams (Porygon-Z, Mew, Tornadus, Toxtricity...) which have made some Pokemon better. Magnezone is terribly underrated in my opinion, it has a great typing, unique offensive pressure, good pivot and is a Steel-type, use that guy. Muk-A is also a bit forgotten but is a tremendous progress maker in every game.
IronPress sets are very good in the current meta since physical pressure is still prominent in the tier. You should try IronPress Slowbro it is quite refreshing while being almost as good as the CM set. Bronzong is also a nice option and people should think about it more.
Priority moves are extremely good (they pair very well with Tspikes) and are a viable form a speed control in bulkier archetypes.
I don't think this pokemon is broken, people need time to adapt but I think we have a lot of options to deal with Porygon-Z, namely priority moves since it's so frail, faster threats since it's quite slow and Tera since the mechanic does work both ways right.
Get this mon out of D rank.
​

 

[Feliburn]

Alright so I wanted to play a good amount before taking things more slowly with RUPL season and I'm here to share my humble view of this "new" meta.
The tier feels very polarized and people seem to give up more and more on building balanced archetypes which ends up in an overly large amount of hyper offenses and stall being used. This is probably a symptom of gen 9 as a whole but we can't deny that balance in RU has lost many of its options which makes it arguably more of a hassle to build but also more difficult to pilot. My aim here is to present some options that I think are overlooked and can help when using balanced and bulky offense teams.

Toxic Spikes
Every RU builder knows Tspikes are a reliable way to deal with HO teams and can also be an effective way to pressure stall. But despite this, very few teams actually use them. The reason for this is, in my opinion, the pool of Pokemon that can use the move. Most of them put a strain on the builder because they would rather use another hazard or they lead the teams towards the extremes I talked about above. For instance, Gligar, Mew or Forretress would rather take the slot of the classic hazard setter so as to not force the team to feature another one, Quagsire is too frail to act as a physical wall on its own in a team which leads to very fat teams... In my opinion, the best Toxic Spikes setter available to us right now is Tentacruel.


Tentacruel is a great option for BO to balanced teams because it offers a ton of support like removal, pivot or Knock Off while being a key part of a gameplan against HO and Stall. I think it has never fit the meta as well as today because it answers other problems non-polar archetypes run into at the moment. Removal has always been an issue in RU and Tentacruel is honestly a fine option. It is able to spin in the face of some common setters like Chesnaught, Empoleon or Jirachi while standing its ground against HO leads such as Lycanroc and Kleavor. Pivot has also always been a problem of mine in SV since we don't have many pivot options and most of them oftentimes need to use another move instead of turn (Noivern, Talonflame, Jirachi...) Something RU certainly does well is having effective wallbreakers, and I think Tentacruel is a great pairing for them. Since it can also soft check a surprising amount of our top tier Pokemon (like Mienshao for instance), it fits well in dynamic BO cores; my personal favorite at the moment is Tentacruel/Jirachi/Noivern but I also played with Tentacruel/Hoodra (or Regi)/Chesnaught, Tentacruel/Umbreon and some others that I'm not completely satisfied with for the moment.

I don't want to spend too much time talking about Tentacruel but I hope this is enough to at least make you want to test it.


As I said previously, removal is a tough challenge for any RU builder and using Noivern or Talonflame for it is so incredibly unsatisfying that I tried other options. Tentacruel is of course one that I felt confident enough to talk about here, the other I think could deserve more attention is Maushold.


We all know this guy as the HO goon that forces you to have a Rocky Helmet mon in every team. I went through a bunch or replays and was pretty surprised to not see it even in BO teams, so I tried to lab with it to see if it could become more than a HO bot and spoiler alert, I think it definitely can be. Maushold, like Tentacruel, greatly improves the bulkier teams' matchup against HO since against frail Pokemon it basically is a kill button. Because it puts so much pressure, it very often forces switches which let it use Tidy Up rather easily and therefore serve as a good removal. I would note however that Maushold can't easily switch in as you probably know, so using it in a team that is weak to hazards in the first place is probably not a good idea. You can improve this by using Encore or VoltTurn cores though. Maushold can also be part of the aforementioned cores itself thanks to U-Turn and in general can bring a lot of support thanks to its 4th slot (Encore, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Super Fang). The mouse pairs extremely well with meta defining Pokemon as well such as Krookodile and Mienshao which are in my opinion its best partners.


Now for less interesting inputs about the meta:
The tier has seen a resurgence of special attackers in offensive teams (Porygon-Z, Mew, Tornadus, Toxtricity...) which have made some Pokemon better. Magnezone is terribly underrated in my opinion, it has a great typing, unique offensive pressure, good pivot and is a Steel-type, use that guy. Muk-A is also a bit forgotten but is a tremendous progress maker in every game.
IronPress sets are very good in the current meta since physical pressure is still prominent in the tier. You should try IronPress Slowbro it is quite refreshing while being almost as good as the CM set. Bronzong is also a nice option and people should think about it more.
Priority moves are extremely good (they pair very well with Tspikes) and are a viable form a speed control in bulkier archetypes.
I don't think this pokemon is broken, people need time to adapt but I think we have a lot of options to deal with Porygon-Z, namely priority moves since it's so frail, faster threats since it's quite slow and Tera since the mechanic does work both ways right.
Get this mon out of D rank.
​

I agree with tspikes being really good, I have always been a big advocate of tspikes as an anti HO measure when building for it in SCL, but I wouldn't call Tentacruel our best setter. I do like it a lot as a setter, and Franklin experimented with it and used it vs me in tests and it looked good.

However, and this might be outdated info since it was when we had Hippo meta, the one tspike setter I used every single time was always scarf Gengar.


Gengar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Wave
- Trick
- Toxic Spikes

I feel like this was the perfect way to include tspikes on a team without sacrificing much, as Gengar's coverage moves aren't really game changing unless you heavily rely on a lure to hit Cyclizar. Most of the time you use this set for the almost uncontested speed control of the game, but you can also get tspikes up easily, and vs HO you can almost always lead with gengar and trade tspikes for rocks, and if they lead with a setter, you threaten with the Trick. I probably spammed this gengar set in the last couple of months of last year because it just did what it needed, and rarely ever felt awkward building with, as we all know Tentacruel can feel weird.

I was more mindful when using tspikes outside of choice scarf, as non scarf you usually do a better job with like Wisp + Hex or some tera NP stuff, you can probably still use it but idk it never appealed to me.

 

[fluff!!]

Why Re-testing Hydreigon Would Be A Good Thing, Actually
​

1. It really shakes things up
Are you tired of Slowbro? Are Armarouge and Bisharp dumb as bricks? Can't switch into Krookodile? Want your attackers to not get kneecapped by HO and all adjacent cheese (Rain/Sun)? Well do I have the solution for you. Hydreigon also pretty handily tanks Shadow Balls from Scarf Gengar so you don't have to play bike when you realise that actually your team folds to Ghosts. Mimikyu is a pain in the butt but Hydreigon is faster and resists Shadow Sneak and everyone hates Mimikyu so that's a good thing. HO goons such as Torterra, Porygon-Z, Armarouge, Basculegion and others are all outsped and take either a huge chunk or are outright OHKOed, Hydreigon can tank any hit too, and it's immune to Webs so it makes the archetype much less oppressive than it is now (Especially once Talonflame rises to UU!). Hydreigon can switch into mono attacking cringe Suicune sets, outboost with NP and break through it too.

2. All my homies hate hazards
With Talonflame most likely leaving us in a month courtesy of evil UU ladder, hazards will be quite unfun to deal with. What do we need then? Easy, a top 1 mon that is resilient to them. Hydreigon can set Rocks itself, but don't run rocks on hydreigon come on what are you doing, just click dark pulse

3. Defensive utility? In my RU?
One of the reasons RU is cringe is because attackers are just dumb clickers that provide no defensive utility but still hit way too hard. With Hydreigon, you finally get a way to switch into attackers without the out being Blissey or something equally uninteresting and UNCOOL. The top 1 mon being an offensive presence that also brings defensive utility will be a breath of fresh air and allow for new player to player interactions at once.

4. It's balanced! source: trust me bro
Does Hydreigon hit too hard and has too many ins? Well, one could argue this. However, I believe its counterplay wouldn't be too different from something like Porygon-Z (who is not broken btw). You still get outsped and demolished by Mienshao and Terrakion who should be played in 100% of teams because the diversity in this tier for physical attackers is non existent outside of HO goons so you'll have a Hydreigon answer right there and then every time without thinking about it. If you want to tank Hydreigon, you always have defensive staples like Blissey, Muk-A, Wo-Chien, Umbreon, Hoodra, Klefki, or Registeel to tank a few hits and retaliate back or something idk. Taunt and NP sets sound scary at first, but the mons I cited don't really care about those (except Umbreon) since they can either directly retaliate (Body Press Registeel, Muk-A in general, hoodra) or be Blissey.

5. It actually diversifies the tier
COOL niche options like Pawmot, Kilowattrel, Tornadus, Lycanroc-D, Raikou, and many others, can also play around Hydreigon or straight up beat it to varying degrees, shooting creativity and diversity levels through the roof.

6. It's fucking rad
You know what RU needs? A cool mon being the best in the tier, and not bozo nerd number one Slowbro over there with absolutely 0 cool things about it. Hydreigon however, now that's a mon that will bring players in because everyone loves Hydreigon. People will also love unviable trash like Scale Shot Snarl Throat Spray so they (and I) can enjoy that. This will finally bring more players to the tier, something the tier absolutely needs.

B-But tournaments are happening!
Just like all other 364 days of the year. Also I don't play in tournaments and nor does ladder so that's not my (our) problem lololol

B-But RU would become the Hydreigon tier!
Name a single person who would be against that.

Free Hydreigon at once and make RU fun again.​

 

[Canard]

Why Re-testing Hydreigon Would Be A Good Thing, Actually
​

1. It really shakes things up
Are you tired of Slowbro? Are Armarouge and Bisharp dumb as bricks? Can't switch into Krookodile? Want your attackers to not get kneecapped by HO and all adjacent cheese (Rain/Sun)? Well do I have the solution for you. Hydreigon also pretty handily tanks Shadow Balls from Scarf Gengar so you don't have to play bike when you realise that actually your team folds to Ghosts. Mimikyu is a pain in the butt but Hydreigon is faster and resists Shadow Sneak and everyone hates Mimikyu so that's a good thing. HO goons such as Torterra, Porygon-Z, Armarouge, Basculegion and others are all outsped and take either a huge chunk or are outright OHKOed, Hydreigon can tank any hit too, and it's immune to Webs so it makes the archetype much less oppressive than it is now (Especially once Talonflame rises to UU!). Hydreigon can switch into mono attacking cringe Suicune sets, outboost with NP and break through it too.

2. All my homies hate hazards
With Talonflame most likely leaving us in a month courtesy of evil UU ladder, hazards will be quite unfun to deal with. What do we need then? Easy, a top 1 mon that is resilient to them. Hydreigon can set Rocks itself, but don't run rocks on hydreigon come on what are you doing, just click dark pulse

3. Defensive utility? In my RU?
One of the reasons RU is cringe is because attackers are just dumb clickers that provide no defensive utility but still hit way too hard. With Hydreigon, you finally get a way to switch into attackers without the out being Blissey or something equally uninteresting and UNCOOL. The top 1 mon being an offensive presence that also brings defensive utility will be a breath of fresh air and allow for new player to player interactions at once.

4. It's balanced! source: trust me bro
Does Hydreigon hit too hard and has too many ins? Well, one could argue this. However, I believe its counterplay wouldn't be too different from something like Porygon-Z (who is not broken btw). You still get outsped and demolished by Mienshao and Terrakion who should be played in 100% of teams because the diversity in this tier for physical attackers is non existent outside of HO goons so you'll have a Hydreigon answer right there and then every time without thinking about it. If you want to tank Hydreigon, you always have defensive staples like Blissey, Muk-A, Wo-Chien, Umbreon, Hoodra, Klefki, or Registeel to tank a few hits and retaliate back or something idk. Taunt and NP sets sound scary at first, but the mons I cited don't really care about those (except Umbreon) since they can either directly retaliate (Body Press Registeel, Muk-A in general, hoodra) or be Blissey.

5. It actually diversifies the tier
COOL niche options like Pawmot, Kilowattrel, Tornadus, Lycanroc-D, Raikou, and many others, can also play around Hydreigon or straight up beat it to varying degrees, shooting creativity and diversity levels through the roof.

6. It's fucking rad
You know what RU needs? A cool mon being the best in the tier, and not bozo nerd number one Slowbro over there with absolutely 0 cool things about it. Hydreigon however, now that's a mon that will bring players in because everyone loves Hydreigon. People will also love unviable trash like Scale Shot Snarl Throat Spray so they (and I) can enjoy that. This will finally bring more players to the tier, something the tier absolutely needs.

B-But tournaments are happening!
Just like all other 364 days of the year. Also I don't play in tournaments and nor does ladder so that's not my (our) problem lololol

B-But RU would become the Hydreigon tier!
Name a single person who would be against that.
View attachment 813480

Free Hydreigon at once and make RU fun again.​

genuinely, why get out of your way to write a full post drowning in cynicism on a tier you haven't touched for a year about a subject that isn't even really in the talks (with how unstable the tier alr is and will become, no unbans are really in the talks)? i think it would be healthier for everyone to just not

 

[Flabeauf]

genuinely, why get out of your way to write a full post drowning in cynicism on a tier you haven't touched for a year about a subject that isn't even really in the talks (with how unstable the tier alr is and will become, no unbans are really in the talks)? i think it would be healthier for everyone to just not

I think what actually bothers you isn’t “instability,” it’s the type of pressure Hydreigon would introduce.
Hydreigon isn’t just an offensive nuke. It’s an offensive Pokémon that also brings real defensive utility: useful resistances (Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ghost, Dark), a Ground immunity, and decent natural bulk. It can pivot into threats, force progress, and still maintain momentum.
That’s exactly the kind of profile that makes pure HO less comfortable.
Right now, HO benefits a lot from linear pressure: stack hazards, trade aggressively, overwhelm with things like Mimikyu, Gengar, Bisharp, etc. What Hydreigon does is compress roles, it can check certain offensive threats while also being a breaker or pivot itself. That kind of role compression is naturally annoying for hyper offense because it reduces how easily you can snowball.
So when you say retesting it would “destabilize” the tier, it feels more like you’re worried about destabilizing HO specifically. A mon that both pressures offense and doesn’t fit neatly into the “frail glass cannon” mold makes games less matchup-fishy and less auto-pilot for aggressive builds.
If anything, a Pokémon that adds defensive value while still being offensive could push the tier toward healthier interaction, not chaos.
It’s fine to prefer HO, but let’s be honest about what’s actually being threatened here.

 

[Canard]

I think what actually bothers you isn’t “instability,” it’s the type of pressure Hydreigon would introduce.
Hydreigon isn’t just an offensive nuke. It’s an offensive Pokémon that also brings real defensive utility: useful resistances (Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ghost, Dark), a Ground immunity, and decent natural bulk. It can pivot into threats, force progress, and still maintain momentum.
That’s exactly the kind of profile that makes pure HO less comfortable.
Right now, HO benefits a lot from linear pressure: stack hazards, trade aggressively, overwhelm with things like Mimikyu, Gengar, Bisharp, etc. What Hydreigon does is compress roles, it can check certain offensive threats while also being a breaker or pivot itself. That kind of role compression is naturally annoying for hyper offense because it reduces how easily you can snowball.
So when you say retesting it would “destabilize” the tier, it feels more like you’re worried about destabilizing HO specifically. A mon that both pressures offense and doesn’t fit neatly into the “frail glass cannon” mold makes games less matchup-fishy and less auto-pilot for aggressive builds.
If anything, a Pokémon that adds defensive value while still being offensive could push the tier toward healthier interaction, not chaos.
It’s fine to prefer HO, but let’s be honest about what’s actually being threatened here.

i don't really care for hydreigon i just feel like having posts drenched in cynicism against a strawman that as far as i'm aware doesn't really feel like anyone in the community, by someone who isn't really playing anymore nor active in the community isn't a healthy way of having discussions

 

[THE_CHUNGLER]

Why Re-testing Hydreigon Would Be A Good Thing, Actually
​

1. It really shakes things up
Are you tired of Slowbro? Are Armarouge and Bisharp dumb as bricks? Can't switch into Krookodile? Want your attackers to not get kneecapped by HO and all adjacent cheese (Rain/Sun)? Well do I have the solution for you. Hydreigon also pretty handily tanks Shadow Balls from Scarf Gengar so you don't have to play bike when you realise that actually your team folds to Ghosts. Mimikyu is a pain in the butt but Hydreigon is faster and resists Shadow Sneak and everyone hates Mimikyu so that's a good thing. HO goons such as Torterra, Porygon-Z, Armarouge, Basculegion and others are all outsped and take either a huge chunk or are outright OHKOed, Hydreigon can tank any hit too, and it's immune to Webs so it makes the archetype much less oppressive than it is now (Especially once Talonflame rises to UU!). Hydreigon can switch into mono attacking cringe Suicune sets, outboost with NP and break through it too.

2. All my homies hate hazards
With Talonflame most likely leaving us in a month courtesy of evil UU ladder, hazards will be quite unfun to deal with. What do we need then? Easy, a top 1 mon that is resilient to them. Hydreigon can set Rocks itself, but don't run rocks on hydreigon come on what are you doing, just click dark pulse

3. Defensive utility? In my RU?
One of the reasons RU is cringe is because attackers are just dumb clickers that provide no defensive utility but still hit way too hard. With Hydreigon, you finally get a way to switch into attackers without the out being Blissey or something equally uninteresting and UNCOOL. The top 1 mon being an offensive presence that also brings defensive utility will be a breath of fresh air and allow for new player to player interactions at once.

4. It's balanced! source: trust me bro
Does Hydreigon hit too hard and has too many ins? Well, one could argue this. However, I believe its counterplay wouldn't be too different from something like Porygon-Z (who is not broken btw). You still get outsped and demolished by Mienshao and Terrakion who should be played in 100% of teams because the diversity in this tier for physical attackers is non existent outside of HO goons so you'll have a Hydreigon answer right there and then every time without thinking about it. If you want to tank Hydreigon, you always have defensive staples like Blissey, Muk-A, Wo-Chien, Umbreon, Hoodra, Klefki, or Registeel to tank a few hits and retaliate back or something idk. Taunt and NP sets sound scary at first, but the mons I cited don't really care about those (except Umbreon) since they can either directly retaliate (Body Press Registeel, Muk-A in general, hoodra) or be Blissey.

5. It actually diversifies the tier
COOL niche options like Pawmot, Kilowattrel, Tornadus, Lycanroc-D, Raikou, and many others, can also play around Hydreigon or straight up beat it to varying degrees, shooting creativity and diversity levels through the roof.

6. It's fucking rad
You know what RU needs? A cool mon being the best in the tier, and not bozo nerd number one Slowbro over there with absolutely 0 cool things about it. Hydreigon however, now that's a mon that will bring players in because everyone loves Hydreigon. People will also love unviable trash like Scale Shot Snarl Throat Spray so they (and I) can enjoy that. This will finally bring more players to the tier, something the tier absolutely needs.

B-But tournaments are happening!
Just like all other 364 days of the year. Also I don't play in tournaments and nor does ladder so that's not my (our) problem lololol

B-But RU would become the Hydreigon tier!
Name a single person who would be against that.
View attachment 813480

Free Hydreigon at once and make RU fun again.​

This post is fairly well thought out and seems reasonable.

It’s totally possible it’s too much for the tier still though, we don’t have really any good fairy types that want to fight this thing and our steel types have sort of awkward typings with which to fight hydreigon. Jirachi and goodra are very flawed vs it and bisharp struggles to do immediate damage+is pretty frail on the special side vs super effective moves

In terms of general spdef walls that don’t take big damage, umbreon is an option though can get owned easily by substitute or taunt.

I do like that hyrdreigon doesn’t have easy access to speed boosting so it is a pure breaker/glue mon, and doesn’t have roost to break certain nasty plot sets.

 

[LBN]

So in the past like 30 minutes we had

A hydreigon unban post that, admittedly, doesn't make its points well
A random dunk with no value (seriously, this thread never gets posts why are we gatekeeping for a reason like this piss off)
A literal chatgpt reply
And then a reply to that chatgpt reply.
Thank you Normal Human Being Chungler
A reaction image (im fine w this)

Help me god. That being said, while i would probably not unban hydreigon like ever lmfao, I do think the argument of it bringing some value to the tier has merit that shouldn't be disregarded immediately. Offensive Arma check, Spikes immune breaker mon, good natural bulk and resistances. We don't have many of these, and I can see the value that these traits bring.

At the same time this thing is like, pmuch undeniably broken and warping. Hydreigon does have speed boosting in its kit, both scale shot and DD. While clunky, its possible to do this and that is exemplified by specs having no switchins and np taunt killing anything not tera fairy. It'd make the tier an offense fest of who Hydreigons better.

However, the real question is.. would this still be an improvement? That's the question you should be thinking of from fluff's post. In my opinion, probably not? But it'd be a fun experiment at the very least and I do think it's a proposal that shouldn't be shot down at the gate, because there is absolutely merit to trying the idea out in practice. Will it happen? saying this not as a council member but as a normal user, yeah no lmao. But what I don't like seeing is someone making a post with at least a decent amount of effort/thought put into it get shoved aside because of stupid reasons like "you havent played the tier in a year (speculation)" or "the post is dripping with cynicism (so what)"

 

[hedera__helix]

Hydreigon is projected to rise to UU next tier shift anyways so moot point

 

[fluff!!]

This is a post about mainly Sample Teams, but it will also touch on usage stats and tiering.

Let's get straight to the point: There is not enough sample teams. For comparison, here is the number of sample teams for the other main tiers:
OU: 17 sample teams
UU: 10 sample teams
RU: 6 sample teams
NU: 15 sample teams
PU: 7 sample teams

As you can see, with the exception of PU, RU is trailing far behind all other tiers.

Ok but why is this a problem though? I would like to point 2 reasons:

1. It reduces perceived diversity, and ladder diversity
The lesser of the two problems, this simply means that you are more likely to find the same teams on ladder, or slight variations of said teams. It also fails to convey the diversity of the tier. Of the 4 balance sample teams, Slowbro is in all 4 of them, Krookodile in 3 of them, and many 2s like Gengar, Talonflame, Jirachi, Noivern, Breloom. It doesn't sound too bad, but surely we can manage to expand our showcase a little more. Also, do Offense and Stall not exist in the tier? Of course they do, but a new player wanting to try out those archetypes will be left with good ol' nothing to try.

2. It directly impacts usage and tiering for RU and tiers below
This is the actual important problem in my opinion. I am sure you have heard of this post in policy review. I would love to take part in it but I physically can't lol so instead I'll point out how we are currently directly participating in the worsening of the problem.
And to show this, look no further than Toxtricity.

Disclaimer

There are other mons it could apply too, both today (Torterra) and before that (don't got any off the top of my head but there has to be other examples), but this would complicate things further so let's keep it simple.

Toxtricity is highly likely to rise to RU next shifts due to LBN's Webs Sample team. Here is proof of my claim:

This is Toxtricity's teammates according to February's stats.
As you can see, you have the 5 teammates of the Sample team, and a gigantic difference between Ribombee and Mimikyu. We can infer that therefore, approximately at least 60% of Toxtricity's usage in RU comes from 1 single team, without accounting for edits of the sample that might have different teammates.
Toxtricity had a 6.1% usage rate in February, remove 60% from that and you end up with Toxtricity at below 3% usage, way lower than the threshold to rise.

Whether you believe this is normal and how it should function, I will let you decide. But what I do know, is that we are going to steal Toxtricity from NU, which is such an important mon of the tier that it has just received a suspect test. All because of 1 sample team (which I do not have anything against, it's totally viable and works well as a sample), which has no competition as one of the two HO samples, and the only Webs team.

My personal opinion is that this should simply not happen, it would not happen if we had more diversity in sample teams, and this issue directly impacts NU.


So what do we do now? You could argue that I am part of the problem as I literally haven't submitted a sample team recently, and... ok you are right BUT I would like to take a look at the tournament scene. Surely, with all the tournaments happening all the time where there SHOULD be high quality teams, let's try and have tournament players submit sample teams.
Obviously you cannot force one to submit their teams, but surely someone out here cares enough to participate...

I don't see the solution to this problem except, like, begging to active players to submit teams, but then if you force people it could lower the quality of the samples and... you get the point, I haven't found the universal solution. At least you have this post as food for thought. Or maybe I'm over exaggerating again idk

 

[GoldCat]

If only "RU" (you know who you are) cared about fostering healthy competitive development instead of desperately clinging to every tiny advantage they can get their greedy little hands on. No, everything has to be done in shadows and kept behind closed doors for the lucky few.

The despair!

 

[Bice]

If only "RU" (you know who you are) cared about fostering healthy competitive development instead of desperately clinging to every tiny advantage they can get their greedy little hands on. No, everything has to be done in shadows and kept behind closed doors for the lucky few.

The despair!

 

[Quinn]

If only "RU" (you know who you are) cared about fostering healthy competitive development instead of desperately clinging to every tiny advantage they can get their greedy little hands on. No, everything has to be done in shadows and kept behind closed doors for the lucky few.

The despair!

THATS MY CAT

 

[zause]

THATS MY CAT

NO HES MINE GIVE HIM BACK