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Project A Look Back at the First Year of SV OU
- Thread starter WilhelmTheOkay
- Start date
I'm betting on Gholdengo. I like the mon but it seems that everyone has become far too annoyed by the string cheese man.
Also, amazing post! This has been a wild year!
I find it crazy we all thought orthworm would suck even with shed tail, and it was prolly betterFebruary
Usage Stats for 1/23
View attachment 572226
https://twitter.com/SmogonU/status/1620837004698161161
Rises:
Espathra (#25, 8.922%)
Previously (#38, 4.230%)
Despite being considered one of the strongest Pokemon in the tier, Espathra only just now rose to OU. Espathra uses its fun and interactive combination of Speed Boost, Calm Mind, and Stored Power to snowball out of control. Espathra typically Teras Fairy or Fighting to mitigate its weakness to Dark types.
Orthworm (#32, 5.370%)
Previously (#54, 1.452%)
Orthworm returns to OU as the only legal Shed Tail user in the tier, riding Espathra's coattails to the top being paired alongside the ostrich over 80% of the time. While Orthworm is a solid hazard setter and physical wall, though its defensive capabilities are held back by its lack of reliable recovery and the need to stay above 50% HP in order to fulfill its primary function.
Pelipper (#30, 6.778%)
Previously (#37, 4.491%)
Pelipper becomes OU for the first time this generation after losing the utility of Scald and Defog in the generation switch. Over the last month Choice Specs saw a rise in usage leveraging Pelipper's dual STAB combination's effectiveness in Rain to squeeze an extra wallbreaker into rain teams. However, Pelipper does have some new friends such as Floatzel now buffed with Wave Crash and Iron Jugulis filling in for Zapdos as the resident Hurricane spammer.
Drops:
Iron Hands (#39, 4.017%)
Previously (#36, 5.121%)
After back-to-back months of being the last Pokemon to clear the 4.52% threshold, Iron Hands finally falls to terrorize UU. Nothing much had changed for Iron Hands, it remained a a very strong, very bulky physical attacker that suffered from low speed and a lack of recovery and utility. Iron Hands was still a solid pick but remained difficult to build around.
Pawmot (#41, 3.675%)
Previously (#35, 5.466%)
Pawmot's effectiveness improves alongside the strength of its teammates and the ban of common partners Annihilape and Chi-Yu hurt it. However, Pawmot still paired wonderfully with Kingambit as it allowed for it to hit max Supreme Overlord stacks with teammates still alive. Pawmot also found itself appearing more often on Rain structures.
Torkoal (#40, 3.683%)
Previously (#30, 6.160%)
Torkoal's relevance took a hit with the loss of Chi-Yu, the scariest wallbreaker under the Sun. Nevertheless, Sun remained a solid option with archetype staples Great Tusk, Roaring Moon, and Hatterene remaining as effective as ever alongside Ceruledge and Brute Bonnet who were recently popularized by Vert's Sun Sample Team.
Notes:
Great Tusk's hazard control and number of effective sets can make feel difficult to build without while also a bit restrictive to build against with its pool of commonly used defensive checks limited to the likes of Rotom and Corviknight.
Gholdengo continues to exert pressure on the metagame as whole in spite of the rise in usage from the likes Volcarona and Cinderace. An increase in the usage of Garganacl has been matched by in increase in the use of Covert Cloak.
Chien-Pao fills the void left by Chi-Yu as the most dangerous wallbreaker in the tier and a rise in usage from checks such as Rotom-Wash, Garganacl, Azumarill, and the Tauros forms follows suit.
Roaring Moon took a hit with the ban of Chi-Yu as Sun teams as a whole got worse. Chien-Pao fulling the void is also worse for Roaring Moon as it is generally outclassed as a Dark type attacker being both weaker, slower, and having a less useful secondary STAB.
Garganacl becomes the most used defensive mon in the metagame with its mixed bulk, recovery, and constant pressure through Salt Cure. Iron Defense/Body Press sets have become less common in favor of Rocks + Protect taking advantage of Garg's love of chip damage and leftovers.
Scizor's Bullet Punch is no longer being used as often to check offensive threats, as a whole the metagame has gotten more defensive with all three Unaware Pokemon seeing healthy usage in response to popularity of setup sweeper like Dragonite, Volcarona, and Kingambit.
Offensive Volcarona became more common over January. Instead of the physically defensive Tera Grass Giga Drain that were the standard before, there was more and more experimentation with Volcarona's offensive coverage moves and Tera types like Ground making it a more unpredictable threat.
Psyspam teams featuring Indeedee, Armarouge, Hatterene, and Polteageist became popular. These teams exploit Psychic Terrain's damage boost to Expanding Force and Stored Power as well as the immunity to priority to keep revenge killers from taking advantage of the defense drops of Weak Armor and Shell Smash. Replay
Garchomp has so far experienced very stable usage after its acquisition of Spikes this generation buffed its defensive sets. However, over the last month the standard TankChomp set was overtaken in popularity by the mixed ChainChomp set due to its ability to break through common defensive cores featuring Great Tusk and Toxapex while still retaining the ability to set hazards and keep up the pressure.
- Two more UU mons gaining traction over the last month were Hydreigon and Slowking. Hydreigon's wonderful array of coverage allowed for it to become a customizable and dangerous special breaker or sweeper. Slowking on the other hand began being appreciated more as a specially defensive pivot with Chilly Reception being almost as good as Teleport in Gen 8 and it typing allowing to check a variety of threats while also using Future Sight to threaten the many Fighting and Poison types in the tier.
- The Pokemon on the bubble was Armarouge with a 4.115% usage rate. Greninja managed a 6.880% usage rate despite only being available for less than a week.
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View attachment 572225
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5960112
Suspect Test #2: Chien-Pao
1/29/23 - 2/11/23
Original Thread
In late January, the second suspect test was announced with all eyes on the Sword of Ruin, Chien-Pao. In the most recent survey, Chien-Pao was clearly seen as the most problematic Pokemon by the community at large. Just like the last suspect test I will try to lay out the arguments on both sides.
Chien-PaoThe physical attacking Treasure of Ruin has been a consistent powerhouse ever since the game's release. Chien-Pao's ability, Sword of Ruin, lowers opponent's Def by 25% making a merely good attack stat of 120 a whole lot more dangerous. While not as hard hitting as Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao makes up for this with its 135 base speed, faster than every relevant OU Pokemon bar Dragapult and access to priority for both of its STABs. Chien-Pao's movepool is not particularly expansive, essentially only consisting of STABs, Sacred Sword, and Swords Dance but it is certainly enough to work with Dark/Ice/Fighting only being resisted by Azumarill. Though again compared to Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao lacks any high BP moves à la Overheat and Fire Blast.
Chien-Pao @ Choice Band
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Icicle Crash / Ice Spinner
- Sacred Sword
- Sucker Punch / Ice Shard
Chien-Pao @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Icicle Crash / Ice Spinner
- Sacred Sword
- Swords Dance / Sucker Punch / Ice Shard
Side Arguments
- Chien-Pao's combination of speed and strength cannot be replicated and overshadows otherwise strong offensive Pokemon like Baxcalibur and Roaring Moon.
- Chien-Pao's limited pool of defensive checks and counters restrict teambuilding into specific structures; its pool of offensive checks is even smaller due to the strength Chien-Pao's boosted priority moves.
- Chien-Pao is not broken without Tera giving it an Adaptability boost, Tera's legality is causing otherwise strong Pokemon to be unhealthy
- Chien-Pao is limited by its weakness to all forms of hazards and how it needs to use your team's Tera in order to have enough power to consistently sweep.
- There are multiple proven checks to Chien-Pao including Garganacl, Dondozo, and the Tauros forms among others.
- The current metagame has only existed for about a month and hasn't had enough time to naturally develop, it is too early to be doing suspect tests.
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Result: Ban
Final Tally
In the end, Chien-Pao was banned with a 69% majority, but that wasn't all for that particular day...
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Ostrich Sized: The Eighth Ban of SV OU
2/11/23
Original Thread
Well isn't this a surprise? Only a matter of hours after the Chien-Pao suspect test concluded, a new tiering radar post came out announcing the OU council would voting on Espathra and with a pretty cut-and-dried unanimous vote was kicked out of OU. Only a couple of weeks prior, Espathra was seen as something unhealthy but not the main concern, but after the ban of Chien-Pao seemed likely, Espathra instantly became public enemy number one. In fact, the ostrich received the highest amount support for a ban in SV OU up until that point in the most recent survey.
EspathraWhen a mono-Psychic Pokemon with a 481 BST is an Uber, you know something has gone wrong. Espathra's entire gimmick is using Speed Boost and Calm Mind to roll over teams with STAB Stored Power. Espathra's coverage is poor but it really only needs Dazzling Gleam or Fighting Tera Blast to hit Dark types as once Espathra gets going, Stored Power blasts right through resists. Espathra isn't perfect however, its defenses are absolutely pitiful, it almost always is going to want to be Tera'd, and it isn't particularly strong early on. Nonetheless, when supported by Orthworm or Indeedee, Espathra becomes the ultimate matchup fish, able to sweep teams in an instant.
Espathra @ Leftovers / Psychic Seed
Ability: Speed Boost
Tera Type: Fairy / Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stored Power
- Dazzling Gleam / Tera Blast
- Calm Mind
- Protect / Substitute / Roost
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Smogon Charity Bowl IV
2/19/23
Original Thread
On February 6th a earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Turkey and Syria leaving thousands dead and more injured. In an effort to raise funds for the relief effort, Smogon held its fourth Charity Bowl. The tournament itself was a best-of-one, single elimination bracket that took place over one day. Ox The Fox emerged victorious and a total of $2760.89 was raised. The whole event was streamed and casted by members of the OU council and you can find the VOD here.
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On February 27th, Patch 1.2 was released for Scarlet and Violet along with three new Pokemon: Walking Wake, Iron Leaves, and Zoroark-Hisui.
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Orthworm had some nice traits as a Ground-immune Steel-type with hazards and the slow pivot could be big but was always limited by its lack of recovery meaning setting up Shed Tail was something that could only reliably be done once or twice a game compared to Cyclizar's Regenerator allowing it to repeatedly threaten Shed Tail over more drawn out games. Orthworm had to be pretty protective of its Sitrus Berry because if its first Shed Tail didn't go anywhere, it really lacked a way to work its way back into a game without Wish/Healing Wish support or an opponent just mindlessly clicking Ground moves. It could click Steel Beam tho.
Also, to add on, Cyclizar's access to Knock Off, Rapid Spin, U-Turn, and Taunt was pretty important, paticularly the first two given the pretty severe cuts to Knock Off and hazard removal distribution in vanilla Scarlet and Violet. Oh and 121 speed is cool.