Ok DLC2 is out a few first impressions so far.
Raging Bolt @ Choice Specs / Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Hadron Engine / Surge Surfer / Earth Eater
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe (HP investment can be used as well)
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rising Voltage / Calm Mind
- Thunderclap
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse / Substitute
Pretty broken, or at the least cancer to account for in the builder. Pretty mandates random immunity stuff or RegenVest Hoodra/Swampert for balance/fat. Even the RegenVests aren't entirely secure, and I think Earth Eater Sub CM is legit because it completely flips and takes advantages of matchups like RegenVest Swampert while making it harder to revenge-kill. It doesn't lack the power even when EE Leftovers, and talking about power, Specs sets absolutely demolish many structures when it gets in given its raw power. Sub Hadron CM sets can take advantage of those trying to juggle RegenVest and a Ground and Surge Surfer can troll those who rely on offensive pressure. Even if this thing is slow, it's not THAT slow and it can reasonably bypass this through Thunderclap or utilising its immense bulk, combined with its stupid breaking power means I think it should go soon.
Keldeo @ Choice Specs / Leftovers
Ability: Tinted Lens / Primordial Sea
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump / Substitute
- Secret Sword
- Flip Turn / Calm Mind
- Surf / Vacuum Wave / Focus Blast
Once again, pretty dumb. Demolishes most of everything with its ability to hit both sides of the spectrum with its powerful STABs and mandates dual immunities or immunity + quad resist which is obviously unhealthy as hell. Specs sets can be played around but then Keldeo reveals Sub and clicks CM gg. I think PrimSea sucks ass personally but some people use it so I slashed the ability here anyway.
Iron Boulder @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Sword of Ruin / Rocky Payload (or Sharpness for once lol?)
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance / Close Combat / Earthquake / Throat Chop / X-Scissor
- Mighty Cleave
- Zen Headbutt / Psycho Cut
- Close Combat / Earthquake / Throat Chop / X-Scissor
Been seeing it spammed a bit and some complain though I don't entirely see it as that bad (to deal witha). Treated it like Ogerpon-C where it can chunk Corv for your teammates or break it after some help but a bit faster which makes it a bit more annoying. In terms of checks EE Gholdengo, Intim Corv and Deo-D stand fairly strong. EE Gholdengo actually kills it while Corv and Deo-D can come in and pivot out. Also because people hate Stone Edge so much it also means Fluffy sets can also pretty handily check it but if it becomes popular and cplay you can always gamble a bit so lol.
Ceruledge @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bitter Blade
- Poltergeist
- Close Combat
There are other sets for Ceruledge but I'll only highlight Triage here since that's the actual addition it gained from DLC (it working on Bitter Blade). Pretty powerful mon, while it retains fairly similar defensive answers like Itemless Gholdengo and some fat Mandi's and due to a lack of a boost means even softer defensive checks like RMoon/Physdef Garg can more confidently take it on, it has the special benefit of bypassing a very common way of beating it, which is out-offensing it. While Ceruledge used to serve only as a get in, break, get out, now it can force a sweep with less offensive cplay which makes teams have to put more effort into accounting for it. Pretty much like all Triage mons it's a pain in the ass in the builder and I really hope Triage gets banned.
Latios (M) @ Choice Specs / Life Orb / Soul Dew
Ability: Hadron Engine / Adaptability / Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock / Luster Purge
- Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball / Mystical Fire / Calm Mind
- Flip Turn / Shadow Ball / Mystical Fire / Roost
Pretty threatening breaker from my lands of theory. I haven't played too much with it but I have seen a few times of it clicking buttons with Draco on low-mid ladder. Very strong, Draco is one thing but can play like a Keldeo and threaten to smash your RegenVests on the other side of spectrum with a very powerful Psyshock. Not as bad cause Psychic is just a worse typing than Fighting offensively, with stuff like Hoodra and Meloetta being annoying, and also making it easier and more affordable to juggle a Regenvest and resist comparably. You can abandon the Specs and also try CM to abuse those trying to juggle as well and play around with Tinted Lens to annoy aforementioned RegenVest checks but obviously it's all a tradeoff. Could see it being problematic down the line but we'll see. Luster Purge is kind of funny for PURE POWER and RNG but I'd almost always prefer Psyshock imo but its better spammability when RegenVests get chipped so you cant get juggled is a decent upside I will admit.
Deoxys-Defense @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate / Fluffy / Regenerator / ???
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Recover
- Taunt / Knock Off
- Teleport / Knock Off
Funny defensive mon that helps us stretch a bit against the addition of new offensive monsters. Can handle the Fighters somewhat ok but it's a bit sketch with hazards up and no lefties doesn't help either but it's good enough™. Intim is for Terrak/Ogerpon while Fluffy can secure stuff like Gapdos and Iron Boulder (cause it doesn't like to run Edge) more handily. Regen also helps offset being annoyed by constant chip though no RegenVest is very sad. Decent defensive utility is helped by a bunch of utility moves like Spikes/Knock/Taunt that can be very annoying to deal with, especially when paired with a competent spinblocker. Can even TrickScarf if real... should be decent when the meta settles. A- around I reckon.
Deoxys-Speed @ Focus Sash / Light Clay
Ability: Aroma Veil
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes / Reflect
- Stealth Rock / Light Screen
- Taunt
- Teleport
Ngl I'm too lazy to list all the sets for this thing lol. Specs EForce sounds ok but I'd prefer Knock on it to more abuse RegenVests which can fairly comfortably switch in. SFLO is all theory and I've never seen it work but you could even use mixed to bait like Hoodra if you were funny. Otherwise this thing gets infinite coverage + Knock so there's that but you never feel like you have enough coverage lol. Only set I've seen used to some proper success are lead Aroma Veil sets who can pretty reliably get up two layers of hazards and potentially even more or dual screens before pivoting out or dying while denying the opponents decently. Who knows maybe we'll see Deo-S lead off wars again and stuff like TrickScarf Deo-S appears again lol. Is it banworthy? Probably not idk lol.
Gouging Fire @ Life Orb / Heavy-Duty Bots
Ability: Sword of Ruin / Magic Guard / Desolate Land
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance / Morning Sun
- Dragon Claw / Scale Shot
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
AoA sets are pretty annoying to manage in theory as it gets tons of coverage to hit all of the Fire checks in the tier. EQ smacks WBB Gholdengo while STAB Dragon Moves can smack around Zapdos. Has decent bulk to get going and a respectable attack stat, checked by stuff like Unaware Stail, Physdef Garg and random Fire immunities (or bulky neutrals who can do something back cause it's not that strong idk im being kinda lazy doing this it's late lol). You can also opt to abuse its bulk more and run MSun though I wouldn't run DDance on MSun sets as you want all yor coverage to not be a super fish. Maybe this will be broken probably not but maybeeeee?
Zoroark-Hisui @ Life Orb
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Poltergeist
- Body Slam
- Shadow Sneak
Ok lol, SFLO and MGLO are definitely better and way more consistent broken breakers on their own right but this set is funny and I was too lazy to add the others set you should know the generic sets anyway. This set is HEAT (inconsistent) and will troll cocky RegenVests who switch into you towards their mortal doom as you SD and force them to sack their RegenVest or Corv or smth idk lol. You just need to get the perfect scenario and then gamble so easy tbh. (This is serious, fear for your RegenVest switch-ins NOW)
Ok Iron Bundle isn't actually free but what we should do is free it NOW because i'm salty we didn't get to vote on it because we were oppressed by the community. (It is checked by various DesoLand + various RegenVest like Mana, Melo, Hoodra + Empoleon)
https://pokepast.es/4b194aed99782dba
Cool team I made very quickly for the DLC2 AAA roomtour that I won in case anyone was curious. So far it has been doing pretty well in tests (and obviously, the tour), despite all the batshit threats flying around, balance isn't doing so hot so Stall can do pretty decent. I was initially running Pecharunt but I was oppressed by having to follow game mechanics (wtf!!!). How it exactly functions should be pretty obvious, I'm too lazy and tired to explain it any further. There's some other cool defensive stuff returning but I dont think they're that worth talking about tbh.
Greetings everybody, now that the indigo disk is out and with the new mons+returning dexits AAA's insufferable staleness has finally been shaken up at least temporarily, i wanted to give my 2 cents about the new meta based on the few games i played so far:
this is the first problematic thing to stand out as it was featured in every single team i encountered so far (mine included oc) and for a very good reason, the giraffe is stupid broken thanks to an ability i already knew was bound to be problematic at some point, and now that miraidon's little brother stood up to claim it, it has undeniably found its (2nd) best abuser ever.
The rising voltage+hadron combo is as ridicolous as it sounds, not to metion how tinder standards meeting raikou gets an electric special sucker punch to take even more advantage of the ability while also fixing the circumstantial problem of its crappy speed, mandating a specific answer on every single team that doesnt want to autolose to it (a simple ground type isnt enough as no tusk and not even ting-lu below 85 wants to take an hadron draco meteor), that being narrowed down to a fairy/steel+electric immunity ability pretty much.
If all of these werent solid enough grounds for a qb, think about how like its neck suggests, this thing is flexible as well and has more, equally broken, viable sets on top of its insane raw power (choice scarf is the most obvious one but specs is also very much legit mainly thanks to tclap mindgames, also sub calm mind makes you hope your vabsorb corv isnt flying above anybody's car roof while u-turning), so it would be reasonable to conclude he's the one that needs to go here BUT, hear me out, again i think the real problem lies in hadron engine being legal rather than its potential abusers.
Yes i said, abusers plural cause while rb is obviously the best abuser by a long long shot, hadron engine, just like o-pulse with fires (though to a slightly lesser extent), can technically push almost any electric type over the edge and can enable cheap matchup fish situations in which if the opponent doesnt have a ground type (and even then yea sure u can switch ur regenvest swampert into h-voltorb, just know if they win the rock-paper-scissors and click energy ball/leaf storm you may as well forfeit) or electric immunity, you autowin solely thanks to the insane breaking potential an electric offensive mon with that ability can provide you. For example say youre facing an hadron jolteon without a ground type or immunity, well 252 SpA Choice Specs Hadron Engine Jolteon Rising Voltage (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Meloetta in Electric Terrain: 213-252 (52.7 - 62.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO so yea no regenvester or resist is gonna save you even from an NU mon with that ability.
Now i know that "if you dont have a single ground type in your team your doing something wrong" and all that stuff and i agree that a good ground mon is very handy to have and should be a part of every team, but it definetly shouldnt be ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY less u wanna autolose in preview to an RU/NU hadron engine mon. So i think now we have rising voltage tm, the time has come for h-engine to put some sunscreen and join its counterpart, but thats not the only issue the meta has rn, for example
freeing this absolutely doesnt increase the competitiveness of this meta in any way whatsoever, quite the opposite in fact, as it can run any immunity imaginable to great effect while you cant possibly know which one it is beforehand, and a single scounting gone wrong can autolose you the game as it snowballs with nasty plot (he singlehandedly won me 3 games this way), yea so if like me you dont like mu fish get rid of this asap, also
same thing why is this shit legal again???
Somebody must really like slot machine games ig cause if this has the right coverage you lose and theres nothing u can do about it (i swear to god if any mf mentions unaware scream tail, but am pretty sure somebody will so friendly reminder that 252+ Atk Life Orb Aerilate Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Scream Tail: 165-196 (38 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery so u better never let this get below 85 or alternatively, is it fair that every single team should run this or azelf/psychic terrain/2 separate specific checks as the only way to nullify the odds of autolosing to a dnite with the right coverage? So yea these i think are the most pressing issues this meta has rn, that aside sflo latios may be broken(?) dunno i havent got to test it yet but i know luster purge is now psychic type moonblast so
You are mistaken, only Raging Bolt gets Rising Voltage currently.
uhhhh so he's back......idk bout this
b4 this guy had a regen set on the dex but ehh it might not be as good
corv stocks going down slightly
trick room setter?
i have no idea if this is better or worse manaphy, but it gets hazard removal
ok so now this thing gets KNOCK OFF AND KEEPS FLIP TURN. manaphy is gonna be kina old now ngl
i mean...it was on the smogdex but ehhh
yaaay big water breaker
stonks will rise from the ashes. happy holidays!
