Metagame 1v1 Metagame Discussion

[zioziotrip]

Time to talk about something I'd really like to see removed from the tier.

Mimikyu
I really don't like the effect Mimikyu has on this metagame. It's such a pain in the ass to build in SS largely because of Mimikyu. While in most match up charts solely include Mimikyu's match-up spreads I think its greatest strength lies in being a partner. With partners this thing becomes an absolute menace because it can shut down anything and everything, and it will. Mimikyu can fill so many roles very well that it will usually cover the weaknesses of any other mon and when a partner also covers Mimikyu's short list of answers it becomes a hassle.

The largest issue to me is there aren't that many reliable checks to Kyu. Exca is easily the best but it's also the only one. Haxorous, slow band. Whimsi, Taunt Kyu. Speed control, white herb. I guarantee you that Kyu can beat anything it wants with the right set and to me it really doesn't trade off much to obtain a whole new list things it beats.
There are four pillars of Mimikyu sets and I'll go through what you lose changing up the set.

Life Orb/Fast Offense

Standard LO beats Dragons, Ghosts, and Darks. Aegislash is scary because it 50/50s speed control for the most part beats this archetype.

Wood Hammer

Depends on what move you're dropping but you usually would drop SD
+Rhyperior, Gastro, and whatever random bulky water. If you don't drop SD you can beat Milotic, not likely still.
-ID Mandi if you drop SD, Sub Disable Pult becomes 50/50 if you drop Sneak

Lum SD w/ Wood Hammer

A kinda niche set but it gets the job done
+Rotom-W, Milotic, Rhyp, random bulky waters
-Makes Aegi & Pult a pain and if you drop Play Rough you can't break Mandi

LO imo is slept on, it beats Sturdy stuff which runs Rock Blast for other Kyu which is LO's main appeal.

CurseKyu

This is easily the most spammed Kyu set and for good reason. Most things slower than 96 will lose. Notable exceptions are the Sturdy mons currently running Rock Blast.

White Herb

+Speed control (tomb,bulldoze, electroweb)
-N/A

Salac

+Scarf mons slower than 96
-N/A

Taunt

Over Phantom Force this one requires think sometimes although if you run Figy it makes the set much safer but Herb can occasinaly take it against the rare Taunt Whimsi.
+Mons that spam recovery, notable Milotic, Arcanine, and Gastro
-No Phantom Force means it's tougher in some matchup as you'll need for turns and w/ the Disguise damage you can only Sub once.

CurseKyu doesn't really need anything outside of three moves so the item and fourth moveslot are open to customization.

Choice Scarf

Scarf doesn't really have much variation. Moves change up and most of these are self explanatory. Protect+Toxic is something I learned about recently and it makes stall matchups way in Kyu's favor. Scarf is anti stall and has the added bonus of beating most Scarfers lower than 96 speed and speed control. This set is super good and makes building for Kyu even more of a pain in the ass.

Bulky Band

This was mostly a tech for Necro but it still has some usage. Sturdy mons don't appreciate a banded Phantom Force and assuming they don't get lucky w/ blast Kyu should win. It also makes Aegi and Pult more consistent albeit they are still 50/50s assuming opp guesses set.

Kyu is such a massive pain in the ass. I really don't like having to run a check on every team I build, sometimes multiple tailored to different sets. You have to hope that Kyu isn't the set that 3-0s your team which is incredibly unhealthly to me. This thing imposes such a massive strain on building and I think the meta would not only be healthier with it gone, but much more fun. Mimikyu's sheer diversity in sets is basically the same issue people had w/ Necrozoma, and imo it's an even worse offender. SS is in a very weird spot rn and removing Kyu would be a huge step towards making SS a more appealing meta.

 

[Bananaslamma]

Ultimate staller


Just forfiet (Shiinotic) @ Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spore
- Rain Dance
- Leech Seed
- Protect

3 sources of healing (Rain dance & rain dish, leftovers, and leech seed)and the ultimate stall move spore with a protect for backup
Of course this fails against grass types but that’s what this next guys for


I’m-pasta (Ditto) @ Lax Incense
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 30 Atk
- Transform

The reason I choose the lax incense over leftovers is because attacks missing is amazing and has single handed to win me games

 

[Mubs]

Related to tours but not related to PL, but why not?

I've made a unofficial 1v1 World Cup Census for the sake of getting a good idea of the amount of people that qualify for given specific areas, which will help in determining how many slots is feasible. Of course, nothings official, and I'll have to do this again when wc discussion thread drops, but best to get an idea earlier than later. As always, thanks and have a nice day

 

[Inkreativ]

My time to write about Mimikyu.


Its such a pain to play against, but especially to build against it, due to it being able to run 4 viable sets and some unsets. There are very few reliable counters to it and it can nearly tech every mon in the Metagame. Its just warping the entire building process around itself. Playing against it is also very annoying because you have to predict which set it is. Having to predict which set the Pokemon is an aspect i really like but not if I have to predict which of the 4 viable and many extra unsets it is.

If you want to have a more detailed post, id advise to read Zios post, he showed the different sets more detailed.

The 1v1 Metagame would not only be a better place, but also more fun without Mimikyu.

 

[DEG]

Hello my dear 1v1 community, with 1v1PL nearing to an end, I would like to echo the thoughts of my dear 1v1 partners, which go by the name of Inkreativ and ZioZiotrip. After laddering for some solid hours and spectating the games of this prestigious tournament and lurking around our generation eight teambuilding channel I would like to announce that the Pocket monster that goes by Mimikyu is in fact broken.

Firstly, the aforementioned Pokemon may run a plethora of move sets with little to no opportunity cost, for example, Choice Band, Curse, LO and more. This allows Mimikyu to picks its counters depending on its teammates, it can also force 50/50s on team preview seeing that sometimes you just can't get into your opponent head / really know what they're running which is quite problematic as it takes the most important part of our esteemed metagame. Well, as I previously stated 2 generations ago, the fact that you don't know what they run isn't for the most part problematic, it's the 1v1 metagame afterall and the element of surprise should be always present BUT when the element of surprise can run any surprise with little to no opportunity cost and can pick what it beats freely, easily, without worrying much is the problem here.

Additionally, Mimikyu restricts another important part of the so-called 1v1 metagame, which is teambuilding. Mimikyu is able to pick its counters effectively that you're only left with a little number of Pokemon that can beat it 100% naming Excadrill, Avalugg, Corvik. This wraps the whole concept known as team building around it which is extremely unhealthy.

Both of these problems are exacerbated by the fact its ability, Disguise, sponge the first hit thrown at it, making it a better Focus Sash, a banned item in the 1v1 metagame. For these reasons, I urge the leading group known as the 1v1 council to take immediate action before we lose the fun in the 1v1 metagame on Smogon University, thank you!

 

[Boat]

I'd figure I'd come in here and comment, since nobody is defending Mimikyu yet.

"Mimikyu is able to pick its counters effectively that you're only left with a little number of Pokemon that can beat it 100% naming Excadrill, Avalugg, Corvik."

I have not found this to be the case. Finding true Mimikyu counters has not been especially difficult for me after the release of Pokemon Home; Excadrill, Corviknight, Avalugg (as you mentioned), Incineroar (Band FC), Cobalion (LO Taunt), Zeraora (Taunt Bulk Up), Venusaur (technically 50/50s CurseKyu but it's still a very reliable check since they have to guess if you're Choice Specs or SubPetaya), Cinderace, Bisharp (RT Iron Head), and Pokemon with multi-hit moves like Steelix, Copperajah, and Cloyster all win against it reliably.

 

[CashKP]

I mean I thought Dnite was worse and we kept that. I may edit in a longer answer later

 

[Synonimous]

I mean I thought Dnite was worse and we kept that. I may edit in a longer answer later

That's because we were late in the meta and people didn't know/didn't about how disgusting dnite really was

 

[zxgzxg]

I'd figure I'd come in here and comment, since nobody is defending Mimikyu yet.

"Mimikyu is able to pick its counters effectively that you're only left with a little number of Pokemon that can beat it 100% naming Excadrill, Avalugg, Corvik."

I have not found this to be the case. Finding true Mimikyu counters has not been especially difficult for me after the release of Pokemon Home; Excadrill, Corviknight, Avalugg (as you mentioned), Incineroar (Band FC), Cobalion (LO Taunt), Zeraora (Taunt Bulk Up), Venusaur (technically 50/50s CurseKyu but it's still a very reliable check since they have to guess if you're Choice Specs or SubPetaya), Cinderace, Bisharp (RT Iron Head), and Pokemon with multi-hit moves like Steelix, Copperajah, and Cloyster all win against it reliably.

Also Scarf Hax with Mold Breaker

 

[Boat]

Also Scarf Hax with Mold Breaker

Iron Tail has 75% accuracy, I won't put that as a true counter. Solid check though.

 

[pqs]

A lot of "counters" that people use for Mimikyu imo are just checks that can only beat most Mimikyu sets but not all. Things like Primarina would be seen as a counter to most Mimikyu sets but it's still bopped by CB Wood Hammer. It goes down to very few "real" counters and a bunch of just blanket checks that can't beat all Mimikyus at once. As echoed from previous posts, Dragonite was also this way with it being able to run a multitude of sets with ranging viability but being good sets which got what they needed to done nonetheless, and forced a strain on teambuilding to the point where you'd need a hard counter or would have to suffer the burden of having to predict the set at team preview to choose what Pokemon to beat it if you expect it to be going out. Dragonite gives me Mimikyu vibes imo as all the above can also be applied to Mimikyu as well. Of course Dragonite wasn't banned in the end but it was a close vote, and I think Mimikyu should also be suspected come the end of PL for the better of the metagame as a whole.

 

[dogknees]

Playing the devil’s advocate on this one as I’m yet to see any well-written and concise anti-ban arguments. I want to make it clear that I am very 50/50 about this mon and for the most part agree with the reasons presented that would encourage a ban, however with a few big names advocating for the removal of mimkyu I feel as if this discussion could very easily become a landslide where people jump on the pro-ban bandwagon rather than looking for logical anti-ban arguments, as it’s always easier to agree with what somebody else has already said. So for that reason I want to present some reasons as to why mimkyu might have potential to remain in the tier when looking at the current metagame. This post is definitely going to be a hot take but I feel as if it’s an important one for the community to have in order to minimise bias and allow the community and council to best think about the options available.

To begin, I will very confidently say that there is no single set that is broken. Where mimikyu becomes menacing is in factors already mentioned by DEG, zio and Inkreativ, who all state in one way or another that mimikyu is too versatile and puts a heavy strain on teambuilding as well as forcing unhealthy 50s in battle due to having to predict sets. For the most part I agree with all these arguments but not to the extent that they’re argued. Every set loses to something and although there are only a handful of pokemon that can fully handle every set (as mentioned by boat a few posts above), all (with the exception of one, maybe two niche mons) of these options are completely viable and do not force players to resort to bottom of the barrel niche options as we saw with necrozma. Quoting boat here for the list;

"Mimikyu is able to pick its counters effectively that you're only left with a little number of Pokemon that can beat it 100% naming Excadrill, Avalugg, Corvik." (boat quoting someone else)

I have not found this to be the case. Finding true Mimikyu counters has not been especially difficult for me after the release of Pokemon Home; Excadrill, Corviknight, Avalugg (as you mentioned), Incineroar (Band FC), Cobalion (LO Taunt), Zeraora (Taunt Bulk Up), Venusaur (technically 50/50s CurseKyu but it's still a very reliable check since they have to guess if you're Choice Specs or SubPetaya), Cinderace, Bisharp (RT Iron Head), and Pokemon with multi-hit moves like Steelix, Copperajah, and Cloyster all win against it reliably.

It's important to remember that these are only the pokemon that, as of this point of the meta, can reliably take on curse, band, scarf and life orb. Outside of these options we are presented with a plentiful pool of pokemon that are capable of taking on at least three sets, including but not limited to examples such as arcanine (which is extremely solid and has capacity to beat curse, but doesn't doesn't do it 100% which is why it's here), dracovish (roseli berry which is a very good set), primarina (icy wind tech + rindo berry if you’re really spicy), darmanitan (both galarian and normal), whimsicott, togekiss (a bit shaky with rng but relatively safe), rotom-heat, aromatisse (I could be very wrong about this one, maki if you read this please confirm), rillaboom, crustle, tyranitar, durant, ferrothorn, haxorus, type: null, weezing-galar (has the capacity to beat curse but rng isn’t in favourable so it’s down here), toxapex, and probably more I’m missing but this list seems to be accurate. Does this excuse the unreliability of having to predict mimikyu sets? No, absolutely not. Does it allow for options when building to account for mimikyu without too much difficulty whilst also allowing for the significant portion of the metagame to be covered? I would say so. The better you get at building and playing, the better you get at also identifying possible sets when looking at teams and deciding what you should pick. I want to make it crystal clear that I do not think that identifying mimikyu at team preview is an easy task, though at the same time I do not think that it’s quite as bad as people say (in my experience, because these kinds of posts are opinionated!!).

So, what about the current meta and how it looks moving forward? What should be done next to deal with mimikyu, if anything?
If anything were to happen, it would have to be a suspect test because a quickban would be rather abrupt and not make much sense when you consider how long mimikyu has remained in the meta and how people have proven to adapt to its presence. A suspect ladder without mimikyu would be the ideal way to determine the future of the metagame by allowing new and creative team ideas to flourish as well as eliminating arguably unhealthy 50s based on set prediction. This would interrupt spring seasonal, but I don’t think that’s much of an issue in solo tours. There’s always very little space to ever suspect test something without a tour going on in the background; it’ll just have to be something which players have to manage. On the assumption that mimikyu is banned, we’re left with a relatively fresh meta that would encourage innovative and new ideas to sprout, but also with the possibility of bringing forward new threats that could prove to be problematic without mimikyu’s influence. Alongside this is the DLC which will be released in june and autumn, which will likely introduce new measures to dealing with mimikyu which may possibly leave potential for another test if mimikyu is banned (although this would definitely be quite far away, considering that there are already pokemon likely to get a suspect test first; necrozma and marshadow come to mind as the most obvious). The future of the metagame isn’t at the forefront of reasons as to why a pokemon should / shouldn’t be banned given that we focus on the metagame in its current state, but I believe it’s important to keep in mind when discussing potentially broken pokemon as their impact when gone is equally as relevant. This is not an argument to keep mimikyu and should not be used as such, but it’s important to keep in mind what we’ve got coming alongside what we’re dealing with now. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I look forward to further discussion :]


go and read the first paragraph of my post again before you attack me for having an opinion, ty

 

[maki]

Playing the devil’s advocate on this one as I’m yet to see any well-written and concise anti-ban arguments. I want to make it clear that I am very 50/50 about this mon and for the most part agree with the reasons presented that would encourage a ban, however with a few big names advocating for the removal of mimkyu I feel as if this discussion could very easily become a landslide where people jump on the pro-ban bandwagon rather than looking for logical anti-ban arguments, as it’s always easier to agree with what somebody else has already said. So for that reason I want to present some reasons as to why mimkyu might have potential to remain in the tier when looking at the current metagame and. This post is definitely going to be a hot take but I feel as if it’s an important one for the community to have in order to minimise bias and allow the community and council to best think about the options available.

To begin, I will very confidently say that there is no single set that is broken. Where mimikyu becomes menacing is in factors already mentioned by DEG, zio and Inkreativ, who all state in one way or another that mimikyu is too versatile and puts a heavy strain on teambuilding as well as forcing unhealthy 50s in battle due to having to predict sets. For the most part I agree with all these arguments but not to the extent that they’re argued. Every set loses to something and although there are only a handful of pokemon that can fully handle every set (as mentioned by boat a few posts above), all (with the exception of one, maybe two niche mons) of these options are completely viable and do not force players to resort to bottom of the barrel niche options as we saw with necrozma. Quoting boat here for the list;




It's important to remember that these are only the pokemon that, as of this point of the meta, can reliably take on curse, band, scarf and life orb. Outside of these options we are presented with a plentiful pool of pokemon that are capable of taking on at least three sets, including but not limited to examples such as arcanine (which is extremely solid and has capacity to beat curse, but doesn't doesn't do it 100% which is why it's here), dracovish (roseli berry which is a very good set), primarina (icy wind tech + rindo berry if you’re really spicy), darmanitan (both galarian and normal), whimsicott, togekiss (a bit shaky with rng but relatively safe), rotom-heat, aromatisse (I could be very wrong about this one, maki if you read this please confirm), rillaboom, crustle, tyranitar, durant, ferrothorn, haxorus, type: null, weezing-galar (has the capacity to beat curse but rng isn’t in favourable so it’s down here), toxapex, and probably more I’m missing but this list seems to be accurate. Does this excuse the unreliability of having to predict mimikyu sets? No, absolutely not. Does it allow for options when building to account for mimikyu without too much difficulty whilst also allowing for the significant portion of the metagame to be covered? I would say so. The better you get at building and playing, the better you get at also identifying possible sets when looking at teams and deciding what you should pick. I want to make it crystal clear that I do not think that identifying mimikyu at team preview is an easy task, though at the same time I do not think that it’s quite as bad as people say (in my experience, because these kinds of posts are opinionated!!).

So, what about the current meta and how it looks moving forward? What should be done next to deal with mimikyu, if anything?
If anything were to happen, it would have to be a suspect test because a quickban would be rather abrupt and not make much sense when you consider how long mimikyu has remained in the meta and how people have proven to adapt to its presence. A suspect ladder without mimikyu would be the ideal way to determine the future of the metagame by allowing new and creative team ideas to flourish as well as eliminating arguably unhealthy 50s based on set prediction. This would interrupt spring seasonal, but I don’t think that’s much of an issue in solo tours. There’s always very little space to ever suspect test something without a tour going on in the background; it’ll just have to be something which players have to manage. On the assumption that mimikyu is banned, we’re left with a relatively fresh meta that would encourage innovative and new ideas to sprout, but also with the possibility of bringing forward new threats that could prove to be problematic without mimikyu’s influence. Alongside this is the DLC which will be released in june and autumn, which will likely introduce new measures to dealing with mimikyu which may possibly leave potential for another test if mimikyu is banned (although this would definitely quite far away, considering that there are already pokemon likely to get a suspect test first; necrozma and marshadow come to mind as the most obvious). The future of the metagame isn’t at the forefront of reasons as to why a pokemon should / shouldn’t be banned given that we focus on the metagame in its current state, but I believe it’s important to keep in mind when discussing potentially broken pokemon as their impact when gone is equally as relevant. This is not an argument to keep mimikyu and should not be used as such, but it’s important to keep in mind what we’ve got coming alongside what we’re dealing with now. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I look forward to further discussion :]


go and read the first paragraph of my post again before you attack me for having an opinion, ty

Confirming Aromatisse does beat Mimikyu pretty reliably , but going along with the main topic. I agree in that while I do think that Mimikyu is in an extremely favorable position in the metagame, it in my opinion cannot considered completely banworthy without a suspect test. Like Dragonite during SM, each of both pokemons' sets are able to beat a different majority of the metagame. Both pokemon have a very few amount of counters and not checks (Mega-Gyarados in Dragonite's case and Excadrill in Mimikyu's). However like dogknees said previously, you must take in account that with proper experience teambuilding, you should be able to have a decent understanding in what the opposing Mimikyu set might be. Teams effectively should have ways to deal with the possible Mimikyu sets that could be ran. While you may still need to predict what the Mimikyu set is, glaring signs like losing to Togekiss or having no effective way to deal with Milotic and some other bulky pokemon should hint that the Mimikyu set is likely to be Scarf or Band and Curse respectively. Mimikyu may likely deserve a suspect test like Dragonite after PL, however it would be unreasonable to have it quickbanned. It must also be taken into consideration that after DLC comes out, Mimikyu may play a needed role for the new meta. New checks like Electroweb Magnezone and Entei will help bring down Mimikyu's overwhelming presence, while Mimikyu in return could help prevent pokemon like Garchomp become overwhelmingly powerful.

 

[Kaif]

gonna have to agree with deg and the boys that mimikyu definitely needs to be suspected after pl, teambuilding w/ kyu in play is a massive bitch and restricts you a lot. curse is good orb is good cb is good scarf is good. comparing dnite to mimikyu is definitely not the right approach as both do very different things in very different metas with different strengths. The thing abt dnite was that you can run something to cteam your check but that set is sub-optimal and narrows your matchups to all fuck. Mimikyu on the other hand can run all 4 of these sets with very little variation (pick 4 between phantomforce/shadowclaw pr sneak trick wood hammer on choice ig) while changing the matchups that it has, forcing you to run a "true counter" every game to have a viable team. its pretty annoying to have to run corvi/avalugg/exca or any of the things that "100%" beat mimikyu on every team

It must also be taken into consideration that after DLC comes out, Mimikyu may play a needed role for the new meta. New checks like Electroweb Magnezone and Entei will help bring down Mimikyu's overwhelming presence, while Mimikyu in return could help prevent pokemon like Garchomp become overwhelmingly powerful.

no we can just unban it when dlc comes out, theres no reason to think about it now to harm the metagame till it comes out

tldr suspect mimikyu and ban it

 

[Patricick]

Well, I guess that I'll be the one to break the Mimikyu talk with my normie plea for help. I played a lot of gen 7 1v1, and when gen 8 came out I moved on to other metagames. Well, I'm back now, but the only problem is that I have no clue what the meta is like, and what pokemon work together I know that Mimikyu is likely going to get banned for the second generation in a row. I can look at the tier list and get an indication what's good, but I know 1v1 too well to just use only top tiers. So, could anyone give me a rundown of some popular meta trends (for example, the fire/water/grass cores from last gen) and/or provide me a good beginner team? I would really like to get back into 1v1 as it was always my favorite meta but I don't really know how to get a good start other then this. There's the team bazaar, which has like 2 teams on it and the thread is pretty much dead. I would use my old team and work from there, but literally every single member was deleted by the Galarian border patrol. (I miss you banded Bulu, you were gone too soon.) Basically, I don't know what else to do. So if this isn't the place to post this then please tell me and I'll post this somewhere else. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Boat]

Well, I guess that I'll be the one to break the Mimikyu talk with my normie plea for help. I played a lot of gen 7 1v1, and when gen 8 came out I moved on to other metagames. Well, I'm back now, but the only problem is that I have no clue what the meta is like, and what pokemon work together I know that Mimikyu is likely going to get banned for the second generation in a row. I can look at the tier list and get an indication what's good, but I know 1v1 too well to just use only top tiers. So, could anyone give me a rundown of some popular meta trends (for example, the fire/water/grass cores from last gen) and/or provide me a good beginner team? I would really like to get back into 1v1 as it was always my favorite meta but I don't really know how to get a good start other then this. There's the team bazaar, which has like 2 teams on it and the thread is pretty much dead. I would use my old team and work from there, but literally every single member was deleted by the Galarian border patrol. (I miss you banded Bulu, you were gone too soon.) Basically, I don't know what else to do. So if this isn't the place to post this then please tell me and I'll post this somewhere else. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Dragon Fairy Steel and Fire Water Grass are still effective archetypes, so if you want to make one of those I expect you'll find a good amount of success. Good Pokemon of each type can be found on the VR, and I think if you mix and match them you might run into a good beginner team. Alternatively, here is a team I used for Premier League that is pretty straightforward https://pokepast.es/e54756202947c137

 

[IBM]

Well, I guess that I'll be the one to break the Mimikyu talk with my normie plea for help. I played a lot of gen 7 1v1, and when gen 8 came out I moved on to other metagames. Well, I'm back now, but the only problem is that I have no clue what the meta is like, and what pokemon work together I know that Mimikyu is likely going to get banned for the second generation in a row. I can look at the tier list and get an indication what's good, but I know 1v1 too well to just use only top tiers. So, could anyone give me a rundown of some popular meta trends (for example, the fire/water/grass cores from last gen) and/or provide me a good beginner team? I would really like to get back into 1v1 as it was always my favorite meta but I don't really know how to get a good start other then this. There's the team bazaar, which has like 2 teams on it and the thread is pretty much dead. I would use my old team and work from there, but literally every single member was deleted by the Galarian border patrol. (I miss you banded Bulu, you were gone too soon.) Basically, I don't know what else to do. So if this isn't the place to post this then please tell me and I'll post this somewhere else. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Use mandibuzz, steelix, and filler

Edit: Fuck, boat sniped me with Mandi lix

 

[Patricick]

Dragon Fairy Steel and Fire Water Grass are still effective archetypes, so if you want to make one of those I expect you'll find a good amount of success. Good Pokemon of each type can be found on the VR, and I think if you mix and match them you might run into a good beginner team. Alternatively, here is a team I used for Premier League that is pretty straightforward https://pokepast.es/e54756202947c137

Thanks, I'll definitely try that team out.

Use mandibuzz, steelix, and filler

I genuinely can't tell if this is a joke or not and I think that's kinda sad on my part,

 

[IBM]

I genuinely can't tell if this is a joke or not and I think that's kinda sad on my part,

It’s not a joke, Mandibuzz and Steelix is one of the best cores in the meta.
Here’s an example

Another Mandi lix

Darmanitan-Galar @ Choice Band
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Giga Impact
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Flare Blitz

Mandibuzz @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 80 SpD / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
- Iron Defense
- Roost
- Snarl
- Taunt

Steelix @ Choice Band
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 19 Spe
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Payback

 

[IBM]

that team loses to yache kommo

I think I’ll take my chances

 

[STABLE]

that team loses to yache kommo

thanks for your useless input maxy, as always with the most relevant sets, keep at it

On a more serious note, Scarf Rotom-Heat is a soft 3-0, since you need 4 rock blast hits minimum to kill it with steelix

 

[dogknees]

Unless you have something productive to say, how about you argue on discord and leave this thread open for actual relevant discussion?

 

[zioziotrip]

see above

This seems like a great opportunity to talk about SS 1v1, epic tier. I'll go over the best mons, archetypes, and some teams.
The Big 3

Mimikyu is easily the best thing in the tier. Disguise is such a stupid strong ability in 1v1 and SS depower-creep has only made this thing dumber. I made a post previously about Kyu, ban this, and there you can see its strongest sets.

Rachi is most well known for its scarf set which is fair. Not many things are past 100 speed so scarf outspeeds most of the tier and even if Rachi would usually lose you can just get lucky w/ Iron Head which is epic and not broken at all. But this thing also has really good coverage on the special side and its typing is pretty good for it. Moonblast, Energy Ball, Shadow Ball, TBolt, Aura Speare, all really good coverage options. It also has an incredibly annoying Stall set which is Amnesia/Iron Defense/Rest/Stored Power which is incredibly hard to break in addition to forcing Trick 50/50s on preview.

haha funny snowman go brrrr
Darm-G is the strongest mon in the tier and 95 speed is excellent for what it wants to do, which is make use of its outstanding 140 attack+free CB and incredible movepool. Flare Blitz, Superpower, Iron Head, Giga Impact, Stone Edge, Earthquake, and various others all help Darm-G establish itself as a massive threat. It also has a heatah Endure+Salac Zen Mode set which is for cool kids who dislike faster scarfers.

Mons are good or bad based on how they MU against these three, that isn't law there are exceptions. Excadril, for example, does a really good job of beating Mimi and Rachi and is thus pretty darn well off. The VR is where I'd recommend going to see how good mons are I've also made a video that goes more in-depth on why mons are good or bad. There is also Premier Leauge which is where a lot of good games and innovation happens, I'd recommend checking it out.

Prevalent Cores

Likely the most well known and most core and for good reason. The types are naturally complementary and while innately weak to dragon teambuilding can cover for its weaknesses. FWG is really good at covering a large part of the metagame and is pretty easy to build. I've built many a FWG which can be seen here.

This is an incredibly good core. All three are really good types and they are complementary as well. In addition, the pool of mons for FDS is very strong and home to many top mons in the meta. If you want to build a really good team really easily, look at the VR and choose a Fairy, Dragon, and Steel.

This is a weird core to build around especially w/ the limited pool of good Psychic types but nonetheless is something to consider.

Teams
As previously mentioned, the PL team dump is a pretty good place to find teams. Personally, I'm not really at the liberty to pass my teams (at least publically) until PL is over. I'd def recommend taking a team from that thread and then laddering. Once you have a good feel for the meta, I'd recommend trying to build your own team. The VR is a pretty good resource as you can see if your team is weak to good mons but the Discord and 1v1 room are pretty active and ocassinaly helpful w/ teambuilding.

Hopefully that wasn't too much of a bore, enjoy your time w/ SS 1v1!

 

[Patricick]

Thank you all for your input, I really do appreciate it. Starting a giant argument wasn't something I expected to start, but hey, it happens. I have a very strong feeling that this was bound to happen no matter what, I was just the catalyst. But regardless, thank you to everyone who gave their took their time to help me learn the meta, especially zioziotrip. On a side yet still relevant note; Can someone give me the discord link? It's about time I stop being a lil bitch and join a Smogon discord.

 

[The Official Glyx]

Redirecting the conversation back to Mimikyu, I think this Pokemon needs to go.

This might sound like a bit of a hot take, but I believe Mimikyu errs more on the side of being traditionally Uncompetitive, rather than necessarily Broken. The reason I believe this is multi-faceted: first, counters to it don't realistically exist beyond strategies as a counter, rather than inherent qualities of Pokemon as a counter; second, it can change said counters at a moment's notice with a different set, and opponents would be none the wiser until it's too late.

With regards to my first reason, consider all the most recent suspects and bans 1v1 has had: Sableye, Mew, Melmetal, Marshadow, Kyurem-Black, Necrozma in gen 8, and Dragonite and Kyurem-Black in gen 7. When considering the latter 6 of those Pokemon, they were deemed problematic because of the inherent qualities they possessed; be it good typing, stats, movepool, and/or ability, they were great because they were just naturally gifted with being strong. For the most part, they didn't really need strategies beyond just firing off whatever their strongest moves are. This kind of innate strength is what lends to a Pokemon being Broken. Countering them was a matter of having your own Pokemon that had their own type advantage or better stats or moves or whatever, and nothing more. You only ever needed the right mon in order to win.

Now, consider Sableye and Mew; they didn't necessarily have raw power, or amazing bulk, or the best typing, but what they did have was a strategy. They were able to piece together certain move combinations that let them win games (Encore/Trick + Disable for Sableye, Imprison + Transform for Mew). These strategies made it so that counterplay to them was more complex than just having a type or stat advantage. Having the right Pokemon was no longer sufficient against these Pokemon, now you needed the right strategy in order to win. They were Uncompetitive.

With this in mind, let's now look at the counters, as provided by Boat:

I have not found this to be the case. Finding true Mimikyu counters has not been especially difficult for me after the release of Pokemon Home; Excadrill, Corviknight, Avalugg (as you mentioned), Incineroar (Band FC), Cobalion (LO Taunt), Zeraora (Taunt Bulk Up), Venusaur (technically 50/50s CurseKyu but it's still a very reliable check since they have to guess if you're Choice Specs or SubPetaya), Cinderace, Bisharp (RT Iron Head), and Pokemon with multi-hit moves like Steelix, Copperajah, and Cloyster all win against it reliably.

When considering all these counters, it's worth nothing that none of them are listed as a counter by simple type or stat advantage, but instead because they utilize a particular anti-Mimikyu strategy, between the likes of Mold Breaker, Speed control, Multi-hit, or Taunt + Attack.

Let's take it a step further and include the common viable Pokemon that act as checks to multiple common sets, as well.

Jirachi: Technically reliable, but doomed if it doesn't flinch
Roseli Dracovish: Speed control
Arcanine: Attack + Recovery
Crustle: Multi-hit
Haxorus: Mold Breaker
Primarina: Speed control
Rillaboom: Speed control
Tyranitar: Speed control

I think my point is made clear by now that counterplay to Mimikyu is solely strategy based, rather than advantage based. Does this alone make a Pokemon banworthy? Absolutely not; we never banned the likes of Aron and Cottonee from gen 7 after all, nor are they even ranked that high, if at all. A majority of viable Pokemon had means of dealing with them, after all. What matters is whether or not the same can be said for Mimikyu, to which I believe it cannot.

On my second point: while versatility is a good thing to have, and is definitely something that contributes to a Pokemon being generally viable, you do also have to weigh said versatility against the opportunity cost that results from whatever set you may be using at a given point in time. What matchups does Mimikyu stand to gain when switching between sets? What does it lose? Is it gaining more matchups than it loses? Does it gain new matchups? etc. When you weigh this against things like Dragonite and Kyurem-Black, it becomes clear to see why it has an edge over them in opportunity cost; while Dragonite and Kyurem-Black were able to beat some of their biggest counters with particular sets, those sets sacrificed a LOT in order to do so, such as sacrificing nearly all of Dragonite's power to instead outspeed things with Choice Scarf or Kyurem-Black sacrificing nearly all of its Atk/Spe EVs AND an item slot in order to beat Gyarados. Mimikyu, on the other hand, is almost always beating the same things, regardless of set, with most of its biggest sacrifices only ever being a couple of Pokemon at a time, such as missing out on Fairy STAB for Mandibuzz and Grimmsnarl when using Curse sets.

At this point, it really just comes down to a matter of relativity; does Mimikyu have a sufficient number of viable checks and counters to be banned relative to other Pokemon that were suspected/banned? Do the things that do beat it beat it naturally? Or do they need to be tailored to beat Mimikyu? How easy is it to tailor Pokemon to beat Mimikyu? etc. My personal take is that, relative to gen 7, Mimikyu is most comparable to Kyurem-Black in versatility and impact upon the metagame, as Kyurem-Black similarly forced multiple Pokemon to run anti-Kyub sets, like max Def + max Spe Charizard and Gardevoir, physically defensive + Choice Specs / Fairium Primarina and Tapu Fini, physically bulky + Outrage Gyarados, etc. Kyurem-Black, however, at least had things that beat it naturally, among the likes of Magearna, Mawile, Metagross, Genesect, Mega Tyranitar, etc, whereas Mimikyu has nothing like that, hence why it should be banned.