Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

Bisharp should absolutely be Swords Dance. If you're running Togekiss, go for Air Slash / Trick / 2 of Dazzling Gleam, Flamethrower (or Fire Blast), and Nasty Plot with the Choice Scarf.

As for your potential remaining members, I would fit a Stealth Rock setter like you mention and an Urshifu-Single. From there, you can just go with an offensive Pokemon that keeps up pressure that you feel fits best! This would make for a hyper offensive team
Bisharp should absolutely be Swords Dance. If you're running Togekiss, go for Air Slash / Trick / 2 of Dazzling Gleam, Flamethrower (or Fire Blast), and Nasty Plot with the Choice Scarf.

As for your potential remaining members, I would fit a Stealth Rock setter like you mention and an Urshifu-Single. From there, you can just go with an offensive Pokemon that keeps up pressure that you feel fits best! This would make for a hyper offensive team
Thanks for your advice. Would Draco meteor, shadow ball, fire blast, and u turn be best for a modest choice specs Dragapult?
 

Finchinator

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Thanks for your advice. Would Draco meteor, shadow ball, fire blast, and u turn be best for a modest choice specs Dragapult?
That should be fine. On some bulkier teams with status spam, they can use Hex over Fire Blast or U-turn. Other options are Flamethrower, which still kills things like Ferrothorn, over Fire Blast and Thunderbolt, which can hit Azumarill, Mandibuzz, and still some Steels like Corviknight and Skarmory.
 
That should be fine. On some bulkier teams with status spam, they can use Hex over Fire Blast or U-turn. Other options are Flamethrower, which still kills things like Ferrothorn, over Fire Blast and Thunderbolt, which can hit Azumarill, Mandibuzz, and still some Steels like Corviknight and Skarmory.
I want to use thunderbolt but a lot of people have told me why u turn is better in Dragapult. Would I be fine if I ran tbolt over u turn?
 

The Bomb

Banned deucer.
Would Silvally ground be viable in OU, since its a good check to Zeraora? Defog and Parting shot are great utility and countering Trick and Knock off is nice as well.
It wouldn't be due to no reliable forms of recovery. Plus, Grass Knot would still do alot // Special Zeraora is a thing.

But I'm not stopping you. Of course you can make it work. Perhaps with Wish support? It just can't hit back hard and most of the meta is careful from Toxic so all it's doing is defogging and Parting Shot then, ok.
 
I want to use thunderbolt but a lot of people have told me why u turn is better in Dragapult. Would I be fine if I ran tbolt over u turn?
Electric coverage doesn't hit enough notable targets to replace the immense utility of u-turn. Especially on a choice-locked mon, being able to scout what your opponents switch ins are (as well as getting switch initiative if they do switch out) is invaluable. In this case, if you want to hit a full health azumarill, you just u-turn out into something that can.

And I want to add that I don't think being choice locked into thunder on a non-rain team is ever going to be a good situation to be in. I'd strongly recommend against that move in particular.
 
Ring Target-Toxic-Steel Type Interaction

You know how Trick Clefable is the newest toy on the ladder? I was experimenting around with other items than Scarf or Sticky Barb and I found the Ring Target.
Tricking this will often time be appreciated by other members of your squad. But I wanted to have some benefit for my own Clef as well. This is why I decided to run a Toxic variant. The idea is that often times steel types like Skarm, Zone, Drill or Ferro want to come in on Clef. If you catch them once with Trick you could then theoretically toxic them the next time.
But here lies the problem: It does not work! The Bulbapedia article on Ring Target states that Powder moves on gras types will not work, but ground types can be t-waved. Shouldn't this apply to Toxic vs Steels as well?

Things I tested in Showdown so far:
Will-O-Wisp vs Fire Types: Doesn't work
T-Wave vs Electric Types: Doesn't work
Prankster moves vs Dark Types: Doesn't work

T-Wave vs Ground Types: Does work
Toxic vs Steel: Doesn't work

Unfortunately I do not have the games myself, so I can't test Toxic vs Steel ingame. Does anyone know more about this though?

(Note that this isn't just a gimmicky interaction, but could have a real competitive niche!)
 
Ring Target-Toxic-Steel Type Interaction

You know how Trick Clefable is the newest toy on the ladder? I was experimenting around with other items than Scarf or Sticky Barb and I found the Ring Target.
Tricking this will often time be appreciated by other members of your squad. But I wanted to have some benefit for my own Clef as well. This is why I decided to run a Toxic variant. The idea is that often times steel types like Skarm, Zone, Drill or Ferro want to come in on Clef. If you catch them once with Trick you could then theoretically toxic them the next time.
But here lies the problem: It does not work! The Bulbapedia article on Ring Target states that Powder moves on gras types will not work, but ground types can be t-waved. Shouldn't this apply to Toxic vs Steels as well?

Things I tested in Showdown so far:
Will-O-Wisp vs Fire Types: Doesn't work
T-Wave vs Electric Types: Doesn't work
Prankster moves vs Dark Types: Doesn't work

T-Wave vs Ground Types: Does work
Toxic vs Steel: Doesn't work

Unfortunately I do not have the games myself, so I can't test Toxic vs Steel ingame. Does anyone know more about this though?

(Note that this isn't just a gimmicky interaction, but could have a real competitive niche!)
Steels are immune to poison the same way Poisons are immune to poison or Electrics are immune to paralysis. The only reason Ring Target affects Thunder Wave is because Thunder Wave follows type effectiveness, which is uncharacteristic for a status move.
 
Steels are immune to poison the same way Poisons are immune to poison or Electrics are immune to paralysis. The only reason Ring Target affects Thunder Wave is because Thunder Wave follows type effectiveness, which is uncharacteristic for a status move.
I mean fire types + Will-O, electric types + Twave and poison types + Toxic all make sense. They aren't immune to the respective type of moves, but the status condition instead.
Ground types on the other hand are immune to all the moves of said typing, but not to the status condition. They can be paralyzed by some moves. I feel like steel should work the same way, as it grants an immunity to the whole respective typing as well.
But I'll trust you, if you say steel grants an immunity to both the moves and the status condition and ground just to the moves. How do you know this, do you have any source? I'm interested in this kind of stuff :)
It's weird how they programmed these two interactions inconsistent. A bit sad as well

Thanks for the quick clarification! :blobthumbsup:
 
I mean fire types + Will-O, electric types + Twave and poison types + Toxic all make sense. They aren't immune to the respective type of moves, but the status condition instead.
Ground types on the other hand are immune to all the moves of said typing, but not to the status condition. They can be paralyzed by some moves. I feel like steel should work the same way, as it grants an immunity to the whole respective typing as well.
But I'll trust you, if you say steel grants an immunity to both the moves and the status condition and ground just to the moves. How do you know this, do you have any source? I'm interested in this kind of stuff :)
It's weird how they programmed these two interactions inconsistent. A bit sad as well

Thanks for the quick clarification! :blobthumbsup:
Try to poison a Steel-type with Twineedle. It won't work. Try to use Glare on a Ghost-type. It will work. Have a Pokemon with Normalize use Thunder Wave on a Ghost-type. It won't work. Use Electrify on any of the moves you listed and then use that electrified move on a Ground-type. It will work.

Thunder Wave is weird.
 
EvN , and just to further beat the dead horse of the topic, I want to clairfy that these typing rules mentioned by DrPumpkinz are how the game works , so test them in game if you really want to see for yourself. These are not some typing rules that Smogon decided.
 
EvN , and just to further beat the dead horse of the topic, I want to clairfy that these typing rules mentioned by DrPumpkinz are how the game works , so test them in game if you really want to see for yourself. These are not some typing rules that Smogon decided.
Like I said before, I don't have the game. Obviously Smogon doesn't decide on these type of rules. Since Ring Target is a kind of obscure item, I was just curious if there might be small unknown interactions (Like there was with Metronome and Protect). When I asked for a source, I was curious if these things get tested ingame and then get implemented from there into the Showdown code or if such information is directly taken out of the source code from the main games.

Anyway I got the point of twave being the only status move working based on type effectiveness, and we can all move on! Thanks again for answering the question y'all :)
 
Tyranitar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 224 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Rock Blast
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder Wave
- Crunch / Earthquake / Superpower / Rest

The last move is pretty up in the air; only run Rest with a Heal Bell user. You need Wish support with a different move.
Ok so one more question: what Wish passers are trending atm? I know WishPort is out of fashion, but I was wondering if a set like this could work.
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Wish
- Moonlight
- Teleport
Running Moonlight>Protect in theory makes Clef a much better Urshifu check.
EDIT: Compatibility issue.
 
Forgive my stupidity, every once in a while I will see those info graphics that show pokemon usage for each tier. But I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw them last or know where to find them now if anyone could help that'd be awesome
 
Forgive my stupidity, every once in a while I will see those info graphics that show pokemon usage for each tier. But I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw them last or know where to find them now if anyone could help that'd be awesome
Here is the latest August usage in this thread, the info graphic is a bit below the primary post: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/usage-based-tier-update-for-august-2020.3668113/

If you follow the forum path, you can see where you can get info on this website. Alteratively, bookmarking works too. Hope this helps.
 

TPP

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Forgive my stupidity, every once in a while I will see those info graphics that show pokemon usage for each tier. But I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw them last or know where to find them now if anyone could help that'd be awesome
In order to see the usage stats threads, what you'll wanna do is click on Smogon Metagames and then scroll past the tiers until you see the threads underneath. This is where the usage threads are located. Here's the most recent one: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/usage-based-tier-update-for-september-2020.3669761/. When it says stats for September, what they mean is the usage stats by September 1st, which could also be interpreted as the usage stats for all of August.

Alternatively, I started putting the usage stats in the OU metagame discussion thread (post number is in the title, and the link to the post is in the OP of the thread). The link for the most recent one is here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...tats-in-post-258.3668322/page-11#post-8585975.
 
What's the best moveset for an all out attacker Lycanroc-D set? I'm a big fan of including Psychic Fangs
Probably something like this:

Lycanroc-Dusk @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Accelerock
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat / Drill Run
- Psychic Fangs
 
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Im running a team of Zeraora, Rillaboom, Kyurem, Blissey, and Skarmory, what would be the best mon for the 6th slot? I cannot find one that seems to last!
It's a solid core for sure. If you want another defensive wall I recommend either toxipex or clefable. Toxapex could be useful for dealing with walls and setup sweepers with haze, knock off, toxic spikes, scald, etc. clefable is nice since it can switch into dragon types and urshifu well, and can use wish to keep it and your team healthy, spread status, and just be another hard to kill special wall with blissey. If you want something more offensive, Togekiss is a good option too, as it's also a fairy type thats bulky, but it's flying type gives it some advantages. Finally, if you want a real dangerous setup sweeper, volcorona is a great choice, as while it cant switch in to much and it needs heavy duty boots, it can absolutely sweep teams with quiver dance and it's STABs. It all really depends on what your team needs and the moves you've chosen.
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
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Forgive my stupidity, every once in a while I will see those info graphics that show pokemon usage for each tier. But I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw them last or know where to find them now if anyone could help that'd be awesome
If u want the graphic specifically ik they post them on Twitter with each update. Otherwise just check the threads in the meta discussion parent forum for stats.
 

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