I do consider pluff anti though because of his ability to take craps on common team archetypes in this meta
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Anti-Metagame
- Thread starter TUO
- Start date
I think running any normal pokemon for OU running an Anti-Weather setup is Anti-Metagame nowadays.
Kingdra @ Lum Berry
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 112 SAtk / 144 Spd
Lonely Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Anti rain sweeper Kingdra. Only thing I can think to make it better is to drop HP Fire for either Hydro Pump or Rain Dance. Only walled by Ferrothorn due to it's exact typing and Ability, so swap to Heatran!
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Sunny Day
- SolarBeam
Sunny Day Heatran. Screws up Rain, walls Sun, Messes with Sand. But wait, there's MORE!
Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hail
Heatran loses its Balloon? Worried about Dugtrio? Run this and watch it cower in fear. Set up Hail in a Sandstorm and watch your opponent lose its Leftovers regeneration.
That's all I have for now I guess. The cool thing is that these guys not only screw up weather teams, but they also work in a non-weather setup, either bringing their own, or by just being awesome in the current metagame.
Kingdra @ Lum Berry
Trait: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 112 SAtk / 144 Spd
Lonely Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Outrage
- Hidden Power [Fire]
Anti rain sweeper Kingdra. Only thing I can think to make it better is to drop HP Fire for either Hydro Pump or Rain Dance. Only walled by Ferrothorn due to it's exact typing and Ability, so swap to Heatran!
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Sunny Day
- SolarBeam
Sunny Day Heatran. Screws up Rain, walls Sun, Messes with Sand. But wait, there's MORE!
Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Hail
Heatran loses its Balloon? Worried about Dugtrio? Run this and watch it cower in fear. Set up Hail in a Sandstorm and watch your opponent lose its Leftovers regeneration.
That's all I have for now I guess. The cool thing is that these guys not only screw up weather teams, but they also work in a non-weather setup, either bringing their own, or by just being awesome in the current metagame.
(cuz normal sprites are too mainstream, dw ftw.)
Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 HP / 252 SDef
Modest Nature
- Magma Storm
- Sunny Day
- SolarBeam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
This thing just sets up all over weathers face. It has Magma Storm to trap the enemy and to deal with Abomasnow, Solarbeam to take care of TTar and Hippowdon after Sunny day, and HP ice for coverage.
IMO, Magma Storm and Sunny Day sets are the best ways to trap weather without a weaksauce Duggy.
(set is courtesy of a random guy in my class)
Landorus @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Force
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SpD)
252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
-Gravity
-Earthquake
-Hidden Power Ice
-U-Turn
Gravity Landorus is an excellent Anti-Metagame threat that works against the metagame by destroying its usual counters (Skarmory, Bronzong, Gliscor) and negating the Ground immunities that are abused by the omnipresent Therians/Rotom-W/Gengar. Not much at all can switch into a Gravity Earthquake from a Sand Force and Life Orb-boosted base 125 attack, and the few that can get smacked by HP Ice or U-Turned into something that can take it on. This is a set that gives a lot of standard teams problems in this meta, especially with support from a Bulky Hippowdon to keep sand up.
Hey, I really wonder though, what do you think are ideal partners for this poke (aside from the obvious sand setter)? I cant really think of anything that can really switch in and kill aside from maybe sash mamo. I really wanna try the set out and i need some recommendations on what other pokes would be good for it.
Landorus @ Life Orb
Trait: Sand Force
Naive Nature (+Spe, -SpD)
252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spe
-Gravity
-Earthquake
-Hidden Power Ice
-U-Turn
Gravity Landorus is an excellent Anti-Metagame threat that works against the metagame by destroying its usual counters (Skarmory, Bronzong, Gliscor) and negating the Ground immunities that are abused by the omnipresent Therians/Rotom-W/Gengar. Not much at all can switch into a Gravity Earthquake from a Sand Force and Life Orb-boosted base 125 attack, and the few that can get smacked by HP Ice or U-Turned into something that can take it on. This is a set that gives a lot of standard teams problems in this meta, especially with support from a Bulky Hippowdon to keep sand up.
Best pokes for that particular Landorus are things that enjoy beaten Skarmory and Rotom-W. Mamoswine is the obvious one, "resisting" Ice-attacks thanks to Thick Fat, but they compound a water weakness. If used in a sand team, Sandslash is also a pretty good option, since it can usually SD up and EQ its way to victory when no levitating 'mons are around.
Anything that sets up Spikes is also good partner for this Landorus, since it forces every poke on the enemy team to take them.
Also, if not being used on a sand team, you can use the special variant with Sheer Force and EP instead of EQ.
EDIT: Make sure to pack a poke that resists Earth, because else your Gravity may backfire against other Landorus / Mamoswines
Another teammate that helps is just a super-fast scarfed revenge killer that can take ice attacks like Infernape or Keldeo or Terrakion (with sand). As great as this Landorus set is, most can deal with it just by sacking something and going into a faster pokemon with an Ice move, so getting something super fast and powerful that can switch into the forced ice move is great for your synergy
This looks pretty similar to my current Heatran, except I'm running Earth Power over HP Ice and I'm running max speed + Balloon to beat other Tran and most weather starters. It's fun to come in on Politoed and set up sun before it can get off a scald or a hydro pump, then solar beam in its face.
(cuz normal sprites are too mainstream, dw ftw.)
Heatran @ Leftovers
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 HP / 252 SDef
Modest Nature
- Magma Storm
- Sunny Day
- SolarBeam
- Hidden Power [Ice]
This thing just sets up all over weathers face. It has Magma Storm to trap the enemy and to deal with Abomasnow, Solarbeam to take care of TTar and Hippowdon after Sunny day, and HP ice for coverage.
IMO, Magma Storm and Sunny Day sets are the best ways to trap weather without a weaksauce Duggy.
(set is courtesy of a random guy in my class)
Antimeta?
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Imposter
EVs:
Hardy Nature
- Transform
Trait: Imposter
EVs:
Hardy Nature
- Transform
Toxicroak @ Life Orb | Dry Skin
Adamant | 8 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 228 Spe
Swords Dance | Drain Punch | Ice Punch | Sucker Punch
In my opinion, Toxicroak is one of the best anti-metagame Pokemon in OU. With the ubiquity of Rain teams, Toxicroak really gives you an upper hand when facing an opposing rain team. With Toxicroak's great ability negating Life Orb recoil in rain, he actually has great survivability for a Life Orb sweeper. It is very easy for Toxicroak to set-up versus an opposing Rain team. The ubiquity of Scarf Keldeo makes Toxicroak's life so easy, you can simple run sweepers that beg to be revenge killed by Scarf Keldeo such as Tornadus-T, Dragonite, etc. and then send in this bad boy to do some work. One may think that Toxicroak may not be as great due to the prevalence of Tornadus-T in rain teams, but this is false. Tornadus-T is OHKO'd by a +2 Sucker Punch after Stealth Rock meaning that it cannot even check Toxicroak. This frog also can absorb Toxic Spikes for your team, greatly helping against opposing stall. Toxicroak's best counter, Jellicent, is barely even seen now due the to Hyper Offensive nature of the current metagame, making Toxicroak's Life even easier. Bulky waters with Scald, like Tentacruel and Politoed, scream to be set-up on. Don't forget about Ferrothorn and the likes. Toxicroak really is a great Pokemon atm; I highly recommend him to anyone wanting to try out a Rain team.
I remember seeing a discussion in another one of these OU threads (can't find which) where people were discussing the potential uses of a berry resist Kyurem-B. I thought it was interesting and pieced this set together.
Kyurem-Black @ Haban Berry
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fusion Bolt
Movepool is mostly filler - the only move of importance is Outrage. The idea is simple; just bring Cube in safely and Outrage something, and when they send in a dragon faster than you to revenge kill you, survive the hit with the Haban Berry and kill it too.
I tried fiddling with the EV's a bit; a spread of 252 HP / 120 Def ensures that Kyurem-B will always survive Scizor's Choice-Banded Bullet Punch even after stealth rock, but I found that it took a lot away from his killing power, and even without many Def EV's, Cube "only" has a 64% chance of getting taken out (not great, but it'll do). Unfortunately, even with a Haban Berry, Cube can't survive Latios' Choice-Specs Draco Meteor, so keep that in mind.
The only issue I'm having with this set is finding a decent partner for it. Obviously any Pokemon who appreciates the removal of faster Dragon-types would go good with this set, but the only potential partners I've found are Choice-Scarf Salamence (who adds an additional stealth rock weakness) and Double-dance Haxorus, though I haven't tested the latter too thoroughly yet, but he still needs to watch out for Mamoswine.
Surprisingly enough, my biggest problem testing this set is I haven't ran into any dragons lately. I played 15 matches on PS! and the only dragon I ever ran into was Dragonite, who isn't likely to try and revenge kill Cube anytime soon (by the way, Parashuffle Dragonite is a bitch).
Kyurem-Black @ Haban Berry
Trait: Teravolt
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Roost
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fusion Bolt
Movepool is mostly filler - the only move of importance is Outrage. The idea is simple; just bring Cube in safely and Outrage something, and when they send in a dragon faster than you to revenge kill you, survive the hit with the Haban Berry and kill it too.
I tried fiddling with the EV's a bit; a spread of 252 HP / 120 Def ensures that Kyurem-B will always survive Scizor's Choice-Banded Bullet Punch even after stealth rock, but I found that it took a lot away from his killing power, and even without many Def EV's, Cube "only" has a 64% chance of getting taken out (not great, but it'll do). Unfortunately, even with a Haban Berry, Cube can't survive Latios' Choice-Specs Draco Meteor, so keep that in mind.
The only issue I'm having with this set is finding a decent partner for it. Obviously any Pokemon who appreciates the removal of faster Dragon-types would go good with this set, but the only potential partners I've found are Choice-Scarf Salamence (who adds an additional stealth rock weakness) and Double-dance Haxorus, though I haven't tested the latter too thoroughly yet, but he still needs to watch out for Mamoswine.
Surprisingly enough, my biggest problem testing this set is I haven't ran into any dragons lately. I played 15 matches on PS! and the only dragon I ever ran into was Dragonite, who isn't likely to try and revenge kill Cube anytime soon (by the way, Parashuffle Dragonite is a bitch).
Antimeta?
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Imposter
EVs:
Hardy Nature
- Transform
I love this guy. People for some reason don't expect him, but I've managed to grab a couple of sweeps form simply copying a pokemon's boosts with Ditto.The Unlucky One said:
As for IV's / EV's:
You want to minimize speed (so that in the event of a Ditto vs Ditto switch in, you die to struggle last) and maximize SpD (Zoroak is counted as transformed, so worst-come-to-worst, he hits you for less damage).
The type of hidden power is a lot more interesting.
From what I can tell, the best to use are Fighting / Ground / Ice / Electric / Fire / Grass
Fighting hits Ice, Steel, and Rock types hard.
Ground is the same, only it hits Electric over Ground. I find this better as there aren't that many prominent Ice types other than Mammoswine (and Kyurem).
Ice is what I use as it hits Ground, Flying and Dragon for SE .
Electric is for Flying but mostly Scarmory.
Grass is for Rain teams.
Is Sunny Day for a Sun Team? Doesn't it just boost Fortress' weakness to Fire
@jaredz99 it has no sub. jellicent can just simply burn/toxic and stall it out
Edit: not toxic lol brain fart
Edit: not toxic lol brain fart
It actually isn't that easy, because Toxicroak is a Poision type and therefore immune to Toxic (obviously). The burning damage is as high as the Dry Skin healing so Jellicent needs to attack in order to beat it. PP Stalling is also possible but Toxicroak can to the same with Swords Dance.
The Jellicents in the Smogon analysis are all OHKOed by this +6 LO Sucker Punch (burned). Even the 252/+252 dies 75% of the times. In this situation you two are pretty much equal - disregarding that Jellicent needs four hits to connect while Toxicroak only needs one.
The Jellicents in the Smogon analysis are all OHKOed by this +6 LO Sucker Punch (burned). Even the 252/+252 dies 75% of the times. In this situation you two are pretty much equal - disregarding that Jellicent needs four hits to connect while Toxicroak only needs one.
I am disappointed that nobody mentioned these (that I remember reading). Sable cripples non Conkeldurr attackers and the other trolls speedy pokemon (stun spore), set up sweepers that don't have faster priory (basically the only thing is ES),
@windwolf I can't speak for Whimiscot or Thundurus, but Sableye falls to things like Specs Politoed, CB Landorus, and other pokemon that hit hard right off the bat. Taunt will prevent set-up sweepers, but is there a solution for Choiced Pokemon? (I'm thinking of adding one to my team, so I'm curious)
This.Antimeta?
Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Imposter
EVs:
Hardy Nature
- Transform
Well, in my experience, I prefer using whimsicott if fearing choice pokes. This is because burn only affects normal attack. However, SS and the para it brings affects everything (especially scarf). And in your argument "against", sable, he can at least burn the physical ones lol.