Metagame NP ZU Stage 18: FLOWER - Tier Shifts #28

[I'm Tapu Bulu]

zause This is gonna be my last post on this matter since it seems people do not want a floatzel retest. Because of personal and commitment issues + time zone I don't really play tournaments in general so my experience is just based on the replays I've watched, team dumps and ladder play. Besides, ladder play is like a cash game in poker. It's important too.

Maybe it's better to keep this convo in a DM, but I don't see why it's necessarily wrong to want a retest shortly after a ban, if the tiering realities have changed. It is very interesting to me how this does not go the other way around when talking about banning mons. People will continue to complain and bitch and spread misinformation hoping to get the council and dnb players to fold and ban the thing and Oricorio-F is a good example in this sense.

Everyone agrees Venu has an important impact on the metagame, and to me it seems it can tailor its evs just fine and deviate from the standard spread without losing its ability to check floatzel. Other grasses have always been there, too, they're all here since they aren't good in higher tiers and can serve as a secondary check to floatzel.

Note how both of your posts involve specifically tera water floatzel. That means you are putting a lot of faith in this mon specifically. I believe this is a massive tera hog red flag. On scald I think I exaggerated since it is rare, but my points on will o wisp and scorching sands remain tbh. Hurricane and Eruption are anything but spammable, Hurricane is the reason I don't really like using Zard anymore, while Typhlosion needs hazards gone (or use a HDB set, at which point I'd rather just use zard but that's just me).

Scald + Flip Turn Lanturn doesn't sound outrageous to me... you still have room for an electric move and a support move e.g. twave or eerie impulse. Please don't tell me you're using resttalk... maybe running physically defensive rocky helmet/HDB with volt absorb sounds ideal here.
Volt switch is not very spammable imo exactly because of Jolteon, with Sandslash also contributing. Liquid ooze swalot is much more gimmicky tbh than stacking another item instead of standard ooga bunga heavy duty boots, the most overrated item in pokemon, so imo an ability is much more fundamental on a mon than the item its running. And so using Shaymin @ Rocky Helmet as an U-Turn absorber is viable, the thing has recovery.

Back when I was laddering in the Floatzel test I initially relied on scarf passimian before reeling it in by using MethMaster4546's physically defensive Eelektross set and a *specially* defensive Mesprit, both with Knock Off. And yeah, the Mesprit had a helmet.



Braviary honestly was underexplored before suddenly jumping to NU, and I believe H-Sneasel remains just as good as ever. Not sure about choice scarf, perhaps these two in fact actually act as good revenge killers

 

[Tuthur]

Maybe it's better to keep this convo in a DM, but I don't see why it's necessarily wrong to want a retest shortly after a ban, if the tiering realities have changed. It is very interesting to me how this does not go the other way around when talking about banning mons. People will continue to complain and bitch and spread misinformation hoping to get the council and dnb players to fold and ban the thing and Oricorio-F is a good example in this sense.

Tiering realities have not changed; more on that below though. You can complain all you want about misinformation and opinion manipulation, but you just sound like conspiracist if you don't point at specific arguments / events. This even more ridiculous when you make points about Floatzel being important to combat the Scald / Scorching Sands / Will-O-Wisp epidemic, which has already been debunked by others for being a ridiculous claim (moves with barely any uses and whose users can straight up OHKO Floatzel).

Everyone agrees Venu has an important impact on the metagame, and to me it seems it can tailor its evs just fine and deviate from the standard spread without losing its ability to check floatzel. Other grasses have always been there, too, they're all here since they aren't good in higher tiers and can serve as a secondary check to floatzel.

This is nothing new; we've always had slower Grass-types that get outsped and 2HKO after very minimal set-up by Floatzel's Wave Crash. If anything Venusaur's drop has made it harder to justify using other Grass-types that had a better match-up into Floatzel like Scarf Rotom-Mow, Whimsicott, and Arboliva. Grass-types already were popular when Floatzel was allowed and this was acknowledged by ban voters.

Note how both of your posts involve specifically tera water floatzel. That means you are putting a lot of faith in this mon specifically. I believe this is a massive tera hog red flag. On scald I think I exaggerated since it is rare, but my points on will o wisp and scorching sands remain tbh. Hurricane and Eruption are anything but spammable, Hurricane is the reason I don't really like using Zard anymore, while Typhlosion needs hazards gone (or use a HDB set, at which point I'd rather just use zard but that's just me).

252 SpA Charizard Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Floatzel: 111-132 (35.6 - 42.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Charizard Scorching Sands vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Floatzel: 117-138 (37.6 - 44.3%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Typhlosion Scorching Sands vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Floatzel: 174-205 (55.9 - 65.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Floatzel has never been a Typhlosion check. It's weaker moves means Floatzel is just gonna die the next time it clicks Wave Crash / Double-Edge. As for Charizard, Floatzel can sometimes afford to switch into it, but that's exceptionnal and it's always when the Floatzel is in a bad position and is not a positive trade for them unless Zard clicks Will-O-Wisp.

Scald + Flip Turn Lanturn doesn't sound outrageous to me... you still have room for an electric move and a support move e.g. twave or eerie impulse. Please don't tell me you're using resttalk... maybe running physically defensive rocky helmet/HDB with volt absorb sounds ideal here.

Scald + Flip Turn is quite bad imo, but I get your idea. However RestTalk Lanturn has been the standard set for over a year now and while other sets are also viable, it's silly to deny its viability.

Volt switch is not very spammable imo exactly because of Jolteon, with Sandslash also contributing. Liquid ooze swalot is much more gimmicky tbh than stacking another item instead of standard ooga bunga heavy duty boots, the most overrated item in pokemon, so imo an ability is much more fundamental on a mon than the item its running. And so using Shaymin @ Rocky Helmet as an U-Turn absorber is viable, the thing has recovery.

That's a false comparison fallacy. If you wanna translate Liquid Ooze Swalot in Bellossom meta to something in Floatzel meta, then it's gotta be some shitty C-rank Pokémon like Tera Ghost Lapras. Anyway, RH is usually a bad item because Spikes are insanely good and prevalent in ZU; so you can't really afford it on anything that isn't airborne like Mesprit or Weezing. U-trun absorbers are rare and RH Shaymin is really bad in comparison to its other sets (even SD).

Back when I was laddering in the Floatzel test I initially relied on scarf passimian before reeling it in by using @MethMaster4546's physically defensive Eelektross set and a *specially* defensive Mesprit, both with Knock Off. And yeah, the Mesprit had a helmet.

SpD Mesprit with RH isn't really a sign of something being fine. Again, it's much easier to justify RH on two Levitate Pokémon, that barely lose anything from Leftovers and don't care about Boots. Nobody was saying Floatzel was impossible to check; the main argument has always been that it forced to trade important defensive pieces (emphasize on trade) or use terrible Pokémon (Poliwrath type of shit), to stand a chance.

 

[Tuthur]

New Year, new tier shifts https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/usage-based-tier-update-for-january-2026.3775727/

Rises:
Braviary moved from ZU to NU
Grafaiai moved from ZU to NU
Thwackey moved from NFE to NU
Floatzel moved from ZUBL to PU

Drops:
Brute Bonnet moved from PU to ZU

 

[lettuce]

The purpose of this post is not to doom over projected shifts, but more to look at what is seeing usage and what is underrated certain roles for anyone dooming over shifts.

but let's get this out of the way

these looked ugly without paragraphs, so I guess I'm gonna meet the wordcount. Also, I'm no missangelic, so I will be looking at these usage rates with as much math as my vegetable brain can handle (which is none. this is a no math zone. what I mean is my source for whether these stats mean anything is locked in is 'trust me bro'. I'm guesstimating.).

NU notes:

| 47   | Uxie               |  5.081% |

This is one to keep an eye on, since if NU takes Uxie then PU might take Mespr-

| 31   | Mesprit            |  6.958% |

oh...
If anyone here doesn't have NU connections and wants to know why, I've asked, and there's no explanation for this.

Well, let's see how Grafaiai and Braviary are doing on their way back:

| 28   | Braviary           |  7.222% |
| 29   | Grafaiai           |  7.148% |

not coming... I see...

PU stats time:

| 14   | Coalossal          | 12.297% |

Would be cool if it dropped since it's a C+ mon with removal in PU, but it's sitting at 12% usage. Frankly, I usually assume that anything with this much usage is never coming. The usage % on coal is scarily close to that of Forretress in RU (who is rocking a 12.322%). I don't even think it would be good here, since Regirock is on the decline.

| 24   | Snorlax            |  9.475% |

NOOOOOooooooooo........ Well, I did expect this one. PU lost their special walls last shift, and frankly with the existences of Salazzle and Chandelure I kind of expected this to happen some day. I had hope that somehow Porygon2 would be enough for them, but I guess

| 34   | Rotom-Mow          |  6.256% |
| 35   | Mismagius          |  5.764% |
| 36   | Virizion           |  5.528% |
| 37   | Porygon2           |  5.498% |
| 41   | Kingdra            |  4.816% |
| 42   | Shaymin            |  4.657% |

None of these being PU would impact the meta too much but RIP Mowtom ig, and I'm just including Mismagius since I'm not really sure if it's good in PU or if it just rose based off a sample and never came back. 'Losing' P2 means that if we wanted to resuspect it in an absence of lax, uh we can't. Especially with the way I build, I don't think the loss of these grass types would be felt much, which is why I roped them in with the ZUBL mons.

| 40   | Venusaur           |  5.309% |

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooo........ Well, this one isn't set in stone, but I really like the effect that Venusaur has on the meta. I'm hoping that nobody in PU uses the B+ mon once in the next 2 months. Frankly, if these projected shifts are anything like the actual ones, these are probably going to be the worst shifts this gen. Mesp, Lax, and Venu are the 3 most meta-defining mons right now, so I really hope that maybe everyone using them starts using Uxie, P2, and Amoonguss instead.

| 43   | Lanturn            |  4.463% |
| 44   | Passimian          |  4.416% |

These would also not be good. Lanturn is either the #2 or #3 fire-type check in the tier, depending on where you count Whiscash. They're close to the usage threshold enough for me to not actually doom about these, but if we lose Pass, who do I give the scarf to? Basculin for the 100th time??

| 45   | Skuntank           |  4.129% |
| 46   | Hitmonlee          |  3.832% |
| 49   | Toxicroak          |  3.037% |

These, however, are very very cool. Skuntank dropping and Croak not rising would be amazing for the meta, and what's left of it probably would centralize somewhat around them. Skuntank is another B+ mon in PU that I guess they want us to have a taste of just to take it back 6 months later. I guess that not having terrain being real brings Hitmonlee back down here, which is fine. I have no idea what it'll do, if anything. It doesn't 2HKO tomb.

OK, on to the fun part that we can use today. Give it up for some graphs:

Special Walls

In deciding what did or didn't count as a special wall, I basically included everything I would run SpD EV's on. This means that I did include Orthworm and Regirock, but I didn't include stuff like Magneton or Perrserker.

Snorlax and Venusaur being the top 2 was pretty expectable. Lanturn at #3, however, did surprise me. I feel like every time I mention Lanturn's name that I have to defend it and point out how good it is at its role despite its flaws. I also feel like I don't see Muk as much as it actually gets used. As for the mons below the cutoff, I'm a little surprised that Piloswine is this high, but it does have a lot of benefits, and I promise you it's usable as a Charizard check. I'm surprised to see Vespiquen so high, and Camerupt so low. I guess if you directly compared Whiscash and Camerupt's stats, you would see why Whiscash and its real defensive stats are getting so much more usage than Hoenn-stat Camerupt. I was also convinced that ladder was more in love with Carbink than this, so seeing it at a respectably low place feels correct.

I did also go through and specifically look at mons that count as Zard checks. This one is a little less pretty because I did it before the other one, but if you want to know what your team needs to beat to open up a Charizard win, here it is:View attachment 806498
I mean, they're all the same special walls mostly, but I was nice and added Dachsbun. This does highlight that the top 3 individual Zard checks are Lax, Lanturn, and Whiscash in that order, but I could've told you that. The only other interesting thing here is that I added up the rock-type usage. I thought that analyzing both Naclstack and Regirock together would be interesting since the graph somewhat depicts that they are eating each others' usage up based on what I remembered, so I had to check if that was true or not. I went to look back to the other months, since although I'm adverse to math I'm also adverse to baseless speculation. In October, they had around 10% usage, ~9% in November, and ~7% in December. If I'm not doing the easy math to see what the percentages actually are, I'm definitely not gonna figure out how to do the complicated statistics math to prove that those events are not related. Naclstack's usage was pretty constant through the 3 months while Regirock's was on the decline, so I think it's safe to say there is no relation between Naclstack and Regirock usage.

Phys Walls

If I'm doing special walls, it only makes sense that I do physical ones too:

I mean, who would've seen Mesprit being that high???/? (all of us). I think I'm surprised that Sandslash is as high as it is, considering the amount of dunking on it that's felt socially acceptable lately. It's cool to note how good our Ghosts are doing, with Froslass reaching the usage threshold and Sableye, Spiritomb, and Drifblim roughly averaging 10% each. If you were to add up all their usage, it would be 38.05% (i made google sheets do this math), which is exactly .7% behind Mesprit. It's a little crazy seeing Orthworm above Regirock, but I guess I see it with how Orthworm doesn't have to also worry about checking zard on top of its usual duties.

Removal

This is once again largely expected. Drifblim experienced a renaissance recently that may or may not have anything to do with Braviary, solidifying as the #3 removal mon by usage. Hitmontop and Sandslash at #1 and #2 should be no surprise, since they've been on top of the removal game for months at this point. Hitmontop was #2 in usage though, which is a little surprising despite its dominance. Cryogonal and Gurdurr being the next 2 most used is a little surprising since I don't think I've seen a Gurdurr since Ho3n's sample, but given the other options I see it. I think everything ranked behind Morpeko is objectively bad, and even then not including Morpeko in the bad removal feels a little wrong to me.

Phys & Special Attackers

Hopefully you can tell which is which based on which starts with Hitmontop and which with Jolteon, but if not, Physical = Orange.

Maybe I'm still riding the Toxicroak hype train, but I expected it to be higher. It and Glastrier, since I think Glast is at a relative peak right now. I don't really have much else to add about the physical attackers, since I think it largely makes sense.
I included Pa'u on the special attackers because frankly, it's laughable how low its usage is. But hey, if Haunter is that high despite not being considered viable based on the VR, I guess ladder can also have Pa'u that low. I'm also surprised at how high Typhlosion is, but with the discovery of Drifblim I think removal is in a good enough spot right now to justify that right now, for ladder at least.

Yay. Graphs. I'm tired so if the images broke, my bad. I also didn't talk about anything underrated really, but that's what having the rest of the mons on the graph is for I guess.

 

[Tuthur]

Wanna give my two cents on the tier after winning ZU Open and building for ZUCL.


Those two are completely broken. They have been for ages and somehow we just ignore them, while we ban much weaker QD users like Bellossom. The rise of tera Elec and tera Dark with Covert Cloak is the final nail in the coffing after Tera Ghost started to beat Snorlax. The most consistent way to beat Oricorio is to phaze it with Eelektross, a garbage Pokémon, or hope you're not gonna be too unlucky (see my final game against Ako or Tricho's game against Django). This Pokémon has a billion sets, you can't guess it on preview, and you can't play to prevent getting swept by any of it (see etern bringing Prankster Switcheroo + Ditto + Snorlax, and still almost losing to Tera Dark Charm Cloak Ori). This Pokémon brings nothing positive in the tier, and it's impossible to build against accordingly. It's not even fun to use, as it's really just a match-up fish and could end up being the wrong set and not doing much. I'm really flabbergasted people say it's fine as long as we have Snorlax, despite Oricorio having tons of ways to play around Lax, while not falling to other threats.


This is obviously a step below Oricorio, but still above the threshold of what we should accept in a tier. Clawitzer invalidates balance and stall on its own. The tier has no real Dragon resist, as the Steel-types are too frail to switch repetively on Dragon Pulse, get OHKOed by Aurasphere, and 2HKOed by Water Pulse, and the Fairy-types are either meme NFE like Tinkatuff and Clefairy, or OHKOed by Sludge Wave like Whimsicott. Snorlax also gets easily beaten by Aurasphere or Tera Dragon; forcing it to run Tera Fairy. Not only is Snorlax at its lowest in viability given how easily it is to abuse it, but running Tera Fairy opens you up to two of the scariest late game sweeper in the tier; Sunny Day Venusaur and Swords Dance Toxicroak, which makes running this tera very risky and is only forced by Clawitzer existing. Clawitzer has a nice defensive typing, decent bulk, and is a special attacker not scared of Will-O-Wisp, which makes it very hard to prevent from getting opportunities if playing defensive playstyles. Switchin around Clawitzer is just about not losing the guessing game, and while it's fine to lose the guessing game when you use offense as you can reposition accordingly, it can often just end the game if you're using balance / stall.

Glastrier, Mesprit, Venusaur, and Toxicroak can also feel broken at time, but I believe every archetype as enough tools to answer them. The two above Pokémon should however leave ZU asap, even if we keep Snorlax around.

 

[I'm Tapu Bulu]

I'd be open to coming out of hiatus to participate in a suspect if we announce one soon

Oricorio - Absolute DNB. The thing is... Snorlax itself can adapt around Oricorio's sets. If you run Double-Edge, you will be able to 2HKO it no matter what EVs it runs, unless it runs Tera Ghost, which to me sounds like a weak spineless Tera variant that's only meant to beat Snorlax. But importantly Lax is a much more proeminent and threatening pokemon than Ori, so this argument absolutely goes both ways. People need to stop being so scared of the +Spe Setup Sweeper + Tera combination - in my opinion, you need more alibis to become a bannable Pokemon than just those two, primarly when none of your stats go above 100. And defensive variants of Oricorio-F need to set up too many Quiver Dances to be that threatening, while even 252 SpA at +1 fails to OHKO too many relevant threats like Charizard, unless you run suboptimal stuff like Life Orb. That's right I can bring up other items besides boots, and mentioning Cloak as an alternative also brings Stealth Rock into equation.

EDIT: i just learned snorlax is leaving... yeah not sure im dnb anymore

Clawitzer on the other hand - As someone who prefers offense I'm still DNB for now but might be hopping sides and be more open to a ban here. This pokemon is extremely strong from the get-go and a nightmare to fight against defensively. We do not have many good Steel or Fairy-type Pokemon in the tier and this really shows. On the other hand, the large amount of Grass-types and being Toxicroak bait would make me reconsider a ban, but Croak can't switch into DPulse and Claw packs U-turn and Specs Ice Beam for the Venusaurs and Brute Bonnets of the tier.

 

[diegoyuhhi]

quick meta thoughts post zucl, pre big shifts


the two best mons in the meta, period. there's very little opportunity cost to running them on basically every single team, and i believe the only reason we don't see glast as much is because unlike mesprit, it often has no defined role on a team. despite that, being so consistent at tanking whatever you need it to and returning huge damage into everything means that it can let you adapt your gameplan on the fly in a way that no other mon can, and my god this mon is so good at doing what it does. that's also only considering the good set, and not even mentioning resttalk 2a or cursetalk, which are each their own different beast. unbelievably good mon, if you don't think this mon is #2 only behind god mesprit you might just be coping, i'm very glad it's staying. as for mesprit, i'm glad np is getting the recognition it has always deserved despite the opportunity cost, but please run cloak on it. helmet is still the go-to on most teams, but this is an adaptation i've started going for:
Mesprit @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 232 HP / 96 Def / 180 Spe
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic Noise
- U-turn
- Knock Off
i really do not think you need that much bulk on mesprit to be effective, and running a good amount of speed is a lot more useful in many scenarios. this set hits 241, letting you outrun adamant top, timid claw, +speed base 60s, most venus, and many other miscellaneous mons, allowing you to get the most out of your mesprit.


venu is great, but not as great as ppl think it is. the defensive set is fantastic glue, with solid customization between knock/leech/stabs/ep/synth/tox/whatever, and the offensive sets can be real menacing, both sunny day and acid spray (yes, it's a real set and a pretty damn good one at that); heck even stuff like swords dance or curse can probably work. i just find that in multiple cases, i would want my grass type (or my poison type) to be more specific in what they do, and so i tend to stay away from venu, even tho it's very good. in particular i find that a poison type that doesn't resist poison can often lead to weird pathways when finding ways to check the croak/heasel.
as for lax, i've been saying it for a while, but i do think the mon is not that good. it's a generic special sponge with decent damage output, but the tier has been adapting big time and more stuff to check it has become popular, both defensive mons that safely switch into it and offensive ones that can abuse it by exploiting its generic tanking capabilities (see below). it's not a bad mon for sure, since a lot of special attackers still struggle to break it in a vacuum, but special spam (which has been increasingly popular) can easily overwhelm it, and in general i find more specific special walls to be a lot better into the tier as a whole.


i'm still not sold man. lax stopped being a corio check the moment corio started running bulky sets, there's no reason to pretend it still is & complain it isn't. most well built teams have consistent ways to beat oricorio already embedded into them, via hitting it hard pre & post tera, pressuring it while setting up, and/or revenge killing it. if your team can't do these things against corio (especially the hitting it hard pre and post tera), you kinda deserve to lose to it ngl. corio's main (and basically only) threat is that it can pop up a random tera type to win a matchup you weren't expecting it (because yeah corio with no tera is a nothing mon) and that basically applies to every single setup sweeper that has access to tera so i really don't think that's a valid argument against corio specifically. careful building and playing will prevent this mon from ever being an issue, we just need to stop going "i'll send my catch-all special wall against the hyper-specialised setup sweeper" and complaining it doesn't check it.


similar case as above. is it a offensively threatening breaker? absolutely. is it broken? hella not. it's nothing more than a rampardos, yea you might not be able to consistently switch into it but do you care. you need to bring it in with pivots cause it has practically no defensive utility, its speed tier is below average (yes, budget, even timid) and on good teams at least 4/6 mons outspeed it and can threaten it in some way before it threatens them. it's a very good mon don't get me wrong, if your opponent is loading slow balance after slow balance this mon can just click buttons and claim (even then, if my balance team is too slow to handle claw i just pack random tera fairies on a few random mons and i never struggle with it), but against most teams this mon should at best claim 1.


we wanna talk about near impossible to switch into? very well then, these are the mons i would consider such cases. hitmontop with its combination of stab cc + practically stab taxel thanks to techni + boosted prio is a bitch to both switch into consistently and revenge kill, and as such it can find a lot of opportunities to get a spin off. it's not a spinner, it's an incredibly good breaker with the option to spin. the pads adaptation brought this mon to a whole other level of consistency throughout games; tera dark sets have emerged to be better into sableye; and the 50/50 between mach/bullet is not to be underestimated. this mon is the reason i never run below 240 speed on my mesprits, the reason my weezings are always max speed, and the reason why physdef lass (see below) feels so nice in game.
as for shaymin, Scarf Kricketune was using it a lot vs me in testing and holy shit this mon is a bitch to switch into. rocks up, one spdef drop and your adamant lax gets cleanly 2hko'd on switchin by life orb seed flare. poisons get demolished by psychic, and same goes for zard. air slash helps vs other grasses while ep deals with magneton. it also has very nice defensive utility, meaning that you can hard it in multiple times per game, especially since it can use the free turns it randomly gets throughout a game to heal up life orb recoil + hazards chip with synth. incredibly consistent wallbreaker (if you hit seed flare), would recommend it a lot more if we didn't already have 37 good grasses.
as for magneton this might come off as a weird take but i think that this mon's defensive utility is unlike any other wallbreaker in the tier, which automatically makes it a lot more threatening than many of them, since it can get a lot more opportunities to casually switch in. whiscash and lanturn aren't even safe switchins if you factor tera blast grass in, and lax just gets volted on. this is one of the premiere mons for which you need to have a plan already in the builder imo, cause if you don't a well played magneton will just get sooo much value.


yes, i know what i've just said about the previous wallbreakers, but man this mon is soooo good that it thrives even with them in the tier. regirock wishes to be half as good as naclstack is. the ironpress set can often just win games on its own in the lategame, with rock type actually being a pretty good defensive typing and tera to patch up its shortcomings if needed; and even before that, it can switch in into a wide array of threats and get guaranteed progress via salt cure. yes it doesn't like knock, yes it takes hazards, but this mon is so unbelievably good that it literally does not matter, it just clicks id + recover and it wins the videogame. please everyone, use it more and see how good it is, it's not even weird to fit at all once you get into the mindset.


random hazards mons dumped together. we used a lot of froslass during zucl, and for good reasons, this mon is unironically pretty damn good.
Froslass @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 96 HP / 252 Def / 160 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Ice Beam
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
yup, that is a lot of bulk, but it allows you to spinblock top very consistently (bullet does 40% on a max roll) while still outspeeding stuff like croak, which you also softcheck. you also don't get perma walled by lax via wisp + pain split. i hope i don't need to explain why clicking spikes is one of the best things you could be doing with your turns in this tier.
cryo is the most consistent spinner rn, and it's a shame we see so little of it. max spatk with ice beam + tera blast ground / freeze dry + tera blast fire is unironically a threat, and our spinblockers usually cannot take strong special stab moves. when tera'd you also get a lot of defensive utility thanks to your naturally high bulk, letting you check fires and jolt (if tera ground) pretty consistently. use this mon more, it deserves it all.
tinkatuff is an incredibly fun mon for balance, its typing + pickpocket lets it annoy a stupidly high number of mons in the tier, especially with access to twave + encore. rocks are invaluable and knock is knock. use it and you will not regret it.
cacturne is also a very cool mon, you get basically no defensive value from being a grass type but being a pretty strong dark type with a random switchin point on water moves and access to spikes is pretty damn cool, try it for yourself if you don't believe me.


saved the most relevant one for me for last. i had barely any croak usage before this zucl since the mon didn't naturally flow in with my normal building style, so i tried to change it, and i'm glad i did. first of all, don't use scarf on it, if you want a scarf fighter just use pass and you basically get the same value + uturn which is invaluable. second, sd is INCREDIBLY menacing if it can find the turns to setup, especially if life orb (altho it does wish that gunk wasn't such a dogshit move). sd gunk sucker should be on every set, the droppable move is cc imo if you wanna fit knock/eq (i wish i was able to make tera ground eq croak work but alas). i changed my mind on it being broken, it's often hard to find opportunities to set it up, but man when it does setup it's sooo good. i'm glad i "forced" myself to use it more.

anyway the meta is probably not the healthiest it's ever been, but i do think it's one of the most fun metas we've had in the last year or so, there's a lot of fucking around you can do as long as you keep in mind what you need to not flop. i'm sad to see some mons leaving, not so much lax and lanturn since i was barely using them (and i think they're not that great lmao) but moreso stuff like venu and shaymin which were very healthy and skill expressive (?) pieces of the tier. we'll have to see how it develops without them