Been a while, everyone. I've done some occasional playtesting in between closing shifts, and there's one big thing I want to talk about. Today we gather in remembrance and celebrate the life of rain teams.
In all seriousness, though, rain can be debated to be even worse than in base SV OU currently. I already knew that having three less turns would be massive for playing against rain, but it didn't set in nearly as much until test games just how much the damp rock ban kind of shattered the playstyle.
Kingdra is now much less restricting due to it having less room to run rampid. I'd even go as far as to say it went from primary rain abuser to niche amongst even the playstyle.
You already only have effectively four turns maximum with rain abusers because Pelipper has to come in and get out, so setting up is effectively a no go now unless you won't need Swift Swim to outspeed.
On top of that, the drop in power from Weather Ball to Surf is super important as it entirely alters damage calcs. Even if you try to set up a Focus Energy, if rain runs out, you better hope the opposing Valiant/Waterpon/Hisuirott doesn't have Encore.
So we get that Kingdra is ruined. Is it really that big of a deal? Absolutely. Without as many turns to be able to outspeed pokemon such as Waterpon or Booster Val, those pokemon that already do well against rain just get even better.
What about Azumarill? Sap Sipper, resists Val's fighting stab, resists Ivy Cudgel, aaaaand it gets 2HKOd by Cudgel with Rocks up in rain.
What about Basculin? Mold Breaker seems nice, especially with Adaptability and either Reckless or Rock Head.
Well, shockingly enough, both stripes can 2HKO Waterpon... if you have Rocks, rain, Choice Band, and tera water. In the case of red stripe, you're even weakening yourself just to get some extra chip. Wouldn't be such a big deal if the Basculins didn't have only 98 base speed. They're not fast enough without Scarf, not strong enough without Band, and get folded by one hit.
There are options that can occasionally come in handy such as Hurricane on Pelipper or Sludge Bomb on one of the genies, but what typically ends up happening is you end up spending so many turns dealing with Waterpon that you don't get to abuse the rain turns.
Funnily enough, the weather that was the best at the start of the meta can now be debated as the worst. The greater they are, the harder they fall. I'm not going to claim it's an unviable playstyle, and maybe I just need to go for a more balanced style of rain, using abusers that aren't entirely reliant on constantly having rain up. For now, though, rain is in the gutter
In all seriousness, though, rain can be debated to be even worse than in base SV OU currently. I already knew that having three less turns would be massive for playing against rain, but it didn't set in nearly as much until test games just how much the damp rock ban kind of shattered the playstyle.
Kingdra is now much less restricting due to it having less room to run rampid. I'd even go as far as to say it went from primary rain abuser to niche amongst even the playstyle.
You already only have effectively four turns maximum with rain abusers because Pelipper has to come in and get out, so setting up is effectively a no go now unless you won't need Swift Swim to outspeed.
On top of that, the drop in power from Weather Ball to Surf is super important as it entirely alters damage calcs. Even if you try to set up a Focus Energy, if rain runs out, you better hope the opposing Valiant/Waterpon/Hisuirott doesn't have Encore.
So we get that Kingdra is ruined. Is it really that big of a deal? Absolutely. Without as many turns to be able to outspeed pokemon such as Waterpon or Booster Val, those pokemon that already do well against rain just get even better.
What about Azumarill? Sap Sipper, resists Val's fighting stab, resists Ivy Cudgel, aaaaand it gets 2HKOd by Cudgel with Rocks up in rain.
What about Basculin? Mold Breaker seems nice, especially with Adaptability and either Reckless or Rock Head.
Well, shockingly enough, both stripes can 2HKO Waterpon... if you have Rocks, rain, Choice Band, and tera water. In the case of red stripe, you're even weakening yourself just to get some extra chip. Wouldn't be such a big deal if the Basculins didn't have only 98 base speed. They're not fast enough without Scarf, not strong enough without Band, and get folded by one hit.
There are options that can occasionally come in handy such as Hurricane on Pelipper or Sludge Bomb on one of the genies, but what typically ends up happening is you end up spending so many turns dealing with Waterpon that you don't get to abuse the rain turns.
Funnily enough, the weather that was the best at the start of the meta can now be debated as the worst. The greater they are, the harder they fall. I'm not going to claim it's an unviable playstyle, and maybe I just need to go for a more balanced style of rain, using abusers that aren't entirely reliant on constantly having rain up. For now, though, rain is in the gutter