Hey everyone, the OU tiering council has decided to suspect test Pheromosa.
Pheromosa has been one of the strongest Pokemon in SS OU ever since it was released with DLC 2: Crown Tundra. It has a devastating combination of superb attacking stats and nearly unmatched speed, meaning that not many Pokemon are capable of checking and countering it. Pheromosa also has the ability Beast Boost, which means it can get even stronger or quicker upon getting a kill. Despite these impressive offensive characteristics, Pheromosa has to play the role of glass cannon due to pitiful bulk, oftentimes being unable to survive unboosted attacks. If you can get Pheromosa in safely, then it is going to deal out lots of damage with its various effective sets and practical movepool.
Pheromosa can make use of both physically and specially oriented sets, too. One of the physical sets is the hard hitting Choice Band variant, hitting very hard with STAB Close Combat and U-turn. Close Combat is capable of putting a dent into even the most durable resists whereas U-turn allows for Pheromosa to deal respectable amounts of damage while retaining momentum and not having to take a hit if the opponent survives. It is true that plenty of Pokemon are capable of resisting this combination, however, such as Toxapex, Clefable, Tapu Fini, Landorus-Therian, and Zapdos. Pheromosa has coverage options to help cover specific Pokemon such as Triple Axel for the aforementioned Flying types and Poison Jab for the aforementioned Fairy types. Both of these moves find their way onto most Choice Band Pheromosa sets with fringe options like Drill Run and Throat Chop being viable, but less common. Choice Band Pheromosa undoubtedly has some counters, like Toxapex and Buzzwole, and checks, like Clefable and Tapu Fini, that are very present in the metagame. It is worth noting that it occasionally is paired with Future Sight users like Slowbro, who can Teleport into Pheromosa and potentially lead to the above Pokemon being incapable of switching into Pheromosa. One must be particularly careful when playing around this scary combination, but it is true that Choice Band Pheromosa is reliant on support to break through these Pokemon that would otherwise handle it.
While staying on the topic of physically based sets, Pheromosa can run Heavy Duty Boots or even Protective Pads. Heavy Duty Boots allows for Pheromosa to sacrifice the power of Choice Band in order to be able to switch moves. This means it can take advantage of the Ice coverage from Triple Axel or Ice Beam while still being able to click STAB moves against Pokemon they are effective against. The same applies to the other potential coverage moves such as Poison Jab or Drill Run, hitting Fairy types like Clefable and Poison types like Toxapex respectively. It does significantly less damage, oftentimes falling short of breaking through walls the choice set would, but it is more capable of picking apart more offensive teams due to being able to switch coverage moves to hit the target. Heavy Duty Boots allows for Pheromosa to pivot in repeatedly if hazards are on the field whereas Protective Pads allows for Pheromosa to avoid getting crippled by Rocky Helmet or specific punishing abilities. Unfortunately, this Pheromosa will always fall short of breaking through walls like Toxapex, Moltres, and Buzzwole while Fairy types like Clefable and Tapu Fini can at least check it, too.
Pheromosa can also be a potent special attacker with great sweeping capabilities. One of the most powerful sets for Pheromosa is the Quiver Dance variant, which is able to make use of Life Orb boosted STAB Focus Blast with BoltBeam coverage of Ice Beam and Shock Wave. Focus Blast is able to make quick work of most Pokemon that do not resist it with a boost so long as it connects. Ice Beam is a great compliment to Focus Blast as it hits Flying types like Zapdos, Landorus-T, and Tornadus-T and specific Dragon types like Latios and Dragapult. Shock Wave may seem like a bizarre choice due to its low base power, but it allows for Pheromosa to hit would-be counters such as Toxapex, Tapu Fini, and Moltres with a boosted super effective hit, too. Bug Buzz is also a viable option, allowing you to make quicker work of Psychic types like Slowbro and Slowking while minimizing the reliance on Focus Blast, but it often takes a backseat to Shock Wave. Overall, the Quiver Dance set is strong enough to muscle past the most durable special walls in the metagame, but it is oftentimes at the mercy of Focus Blast’s accuracy and can struggle to break past Clefable or Aegislash without significant damage being done to them previously. It is challenging to conventionally revenge kill with a Quiver Dance up as well, but it is possible to not let Pheromosa get a free turn to Quiver Dance with aggressive play or take out a weakened Pheromosa with priority moves, even if they are resisted as Pheromosa is quite fragile.
Pheromosa’s Beast Boost makes it so that Pheromosa can snowball to uncontrollable levels if it is able to get a kill. For example, the Quiver Dance set getting a kill could mean another boost to special attack, which could allow for Pheromosa to muscle past a potential check, or the Choice Band set getting a kill could mean it gets a speed boost, which could make it impossible for an offensive team to revenge kill. When you couple this with the immense threat that Pheromosa already poses to teams, it becomes clear that opposing offensive teams are going to struggle to contain Pheromosa, especially if they do not have multiple forms of strong priority as trading fodder can end in being swept.
The main issues with Pheromosa is that the main checks and counters to it are seen as top tier Pokemon such as Toxapex or Clefable and that Pheromosa has lackluster bulk. It is true that these two Pokemon have good match-ups with Pheromosa, but even this is not foolproof with the rise of Shock Wave and Poison Jab as options on Pheromosa. Of course, Pheromosa can only run 1 item and 4 moves, so it is limited to what it can muscle past. Beyond the aforementioned checks, Buzzwole is a blanket counter to physical Pheromosa, other Fairy types like Tapu Fini are capable of checking Pheromosa if it is not already snowballing out of control, and less common options like Aegislash can also do very well against most Pheromosa. It can be argued that this is an insufficient amount of counterplay and that Pheromosa restricts teambuilding because of this, but it is still worth noting that there is a group of viable Pokemon that can contain Pheromosa on a consistent basis. Of course, it is still worth noting that Pheromosa’s paper thin defenses can be exploited by most neutral attacks, so if it cannot OHKO things, then it could be a struggle.
Overall, Pheromosa is a potent offensive force in the current metagame, but there is counterplay present in the metagame and some restrictions to what it can afford to do. It can be argued that Pheromosa imposes restrictions on how we construct teams and that it’s ability to snowball with Beast Boost makes it too much for the metagame to handle. However, some common options are able to minimize the impact Pheromosa has on the game. Pheromosa is a naturally strong and fast Pokemon with a movepool that allows for it to cover most things it encounters and an impressive assortment of viable sets, but it is still one of the most frail Pokemon in the metagame, thus making it support reliant. Due to the points outlined above, the OU council has deemed Pheromosa worthy of a suspect test.
- ***THIS IS NEW TO SS OU SUSPECTS*** Reading this is mandatory for participating in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 80 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 80 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 84. Also, needing more than 50 games to reach 80 GXE will suffice.
| GXE | minimum games |
| 80 | 50 |
| 80.2 | 49 |
| 80.4 | 48 |
| 80.6 | 47 |
| 80.8 | 46 |
| 81 | 45 |
| 81.2 | 44 |
| 81.4 | 43 |
| 81.6 | 42 |
| 81.8 | 41 |
| 82 | 40 |
| 82.2 | 39 |
| 82.4 | 38 |
| 82.6 | 37 |
| 82.8 | 36 |
| 83 | 35 |
| 83.2 | 34 |
| 83.4 | 33 |
| 83.6 | 32 |
| 83.8 | 31 |
| 84 | 30 |
- You must signup with a newly registered account on Pokemon Showdown! that begins with the appropriate prefix for the suspect test. For this suspect test, the prefix will be OUTB. For example, I might signup with the ladder account OUTB FINCH
- Laddering with an account that impersonates, mocks, or insults another Smogon user or breaks Pokemon Showdown! rules may be disqualified from voting and infracted. Moderator discretion will be applied here. If there is any doubt or hesitance when making the alt, just pick another name. There are infinite possibilities and we have had trouble for this repeatedly. If you wish to participate in the suspect, you should be able to exhibit decent enough judgement here. We will not be lenient.
- We will be using the regular OU ladder for this suspect test. We will not be creating a new Suspect Ladder. At the beginning of every battle, there will be an announcement denoting the ongoing suspect with a link to this thread.
- The aspect being tested, Pheromosa, will be allowed on the ladder.
- Any form of voting manipulation will result in swift and severe punishment. You are more than welcome to state your argument to as many people as you so please, but do not use any kind of underhanded tactics to get a result you desire. Bribery, blackmail, or any other type of tactic used to sway votes will be handled and sanctioned.
- Do not attempt to cheat the ladder. We will know if you did not actually achieve voting requisites, so don't do it. Harsh sanctions will be applied.
- Unlike previous tests, we will be posting the voting identification thread immediately after this thread. Your voting requisites will be confirmed by a Council member or OU moderator, to which we will edit in confirmation. Please avoid getting more games before getting confirmed.
- The suspect test will go on for two weeks, lasting until December 17th at 11:59 pm (GMT-5), and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.
- No unhelpful one liners nor uninformed posts;
- No discussion on other potential suspects;
- No discussion on the suspect process -- this includes retesting Pheromosa vs other potential suspects;
- You are required to make respectful posts;
- You are required to read this thread before posting.
- Failure to follow these simple guidelines will result in your post being deleted and infracted without any prior warning.
- Please also take a moment to read over some suggestions from the OU Council and the OU Moderation team for posting in this thread; adhering these will help out our time moderating the thread and present your arguments better and more educated.
- Do not argue because it's your favorite Pokemon. This should be common sense, but please don't do this, because we will delete posts like this.
- You do not need a boatload of experience to have an informed opinion, but please try to minimize the theorymon aspect and use your experiences watching and playing. Playing some on the ladder before posting is plenty if you're concerned about this.
- Do not flame, belittle, or be disrespectful to users in this thread. While not everyone will read this post in its entirety nor will everyone have informed opinion, please be sure not to be disrespectful. If there's an issue, bring it up to a moderater.
- Do not use the argument of broken checking broken. Should your argument rest on your opinion that banning the Pokemon or mechanic being tested in this suspect test will make a Pokemon or mechanic broken, overpowered, and/or uncompetitive; don't. If something needs to be banned because of the result this suspect, then so be it.
- This thread is not to voice complaints about the suspect process or decisions of the council. While we are more than open to hearing complaints that may arise, this isn't the place for it. I suggest you message the OU Council, PM our Tier Leaders, TDK and Eo Ut Mortus, or make a post in Senior Staff requests, should you have a badge.
Keep in mind that our suspect tests are decided by the community; anyone who achieves voting requisites is allowed to vote. The outcome is up to you. Happy posting and laddering!
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