Resource Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer (NU Edition)

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what made delphox so bad?
Delphox really got worse with the drops, first with incineroar's drop and then with gigalith and diancie dropping. With sand being so common, it cant really do anything outside of revenge killing celebrate venu. Its weakness to rocks doesnt help neither. The same thing has happened to typloshion and houndoom (tho this one still survives as a scarf which traps some mons). Actually the best fire-type is magmortar with his fightnium z set imo.
 
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Finchinator

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What's the bulky pivot Incineroar set people run?
team player cat (Incineroar) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 124 Def / 136 SpD / 4 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Knock Off
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp / Earthquake

This is a fairly common variant, but you can run attack investment and go with Flare Blitz, too. Soft checking a number of things while keeping up offensive presence and momentum is pretty neat.

Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 240 HP / 248 Atk / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out / Earthquake
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- U-turn

There's also this (can run Fire Blast over Flare Blitz, but I prefer purely physical myself) if you want a more straightforward specially defensive pivot variant, too.
 

JustoonSmitts

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Hello again.

Is Comfey's standard Calm Mind set more offensive or defensive oriented? Are there other sets to reccomend or is Calm Mind Draining Kiss the best it has?
 
Delphox really got worse with the drops, first with incineroar's drop and then with gigalith and diancie dropping. With sand being so common, it cant really do anything outside of revenge killing celebrate venu. Its weakness to rocks doesnt help neither. The same thing has happened to typloshion and houndoom (tho this one still survives as a scarf which traps some mons). Actually the best fire-type is magmortar with his fightnium z set imo.
And now that Venusaur is banned, Delphox is even WORSE (it can hit Venusaur super effectively with both of its STAB moves and could tank most of Venusaur’s attacks thanks to its resistances to Venusaur’s STAB grass moves and HP Fire as well as having a high Special Defense stat of 100).
 

Yoshi

IT'S FINK DUMBASS
And now that Venusaur is banned, Delphox is even WORSE (it can hit Venusaur super effectively with both of its STAB moves and could tank most of Venusaur’s attacks thanks to its resistances to Venusaur’s STAB grass moves and HP Fire as well as having a high Special Defense stat of 100).
Not necessarily, it's not like Delphox could use it's STABs anyway 90% of the time anyway. Not to mention, sets like z-Celebrate gave Delphox huge problems anyway, so I think I'd argue that Delphox got better with the drops. Either way, it's no Pokemon, with Diancie, Incineroar, and Gigalith being popular now, although the recent dip in usage of Sneasel helps Delphox quite a bit, as now it's not forced to run just Scarf, and sets like WishTect can be used quite effectively I've found.
 
Quick question: not knowing much about this tier, I wondered why Kingler and Eelektross (excellent PUs) are not even present in VRs. Outclassed by Samurott and Slowbro's presence for the first? Competition with Vikavolt as a bulky attacker for the second?
 

Finchinator

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Quick question: not knowing much about this tier, I wondered why Kingler and Eelektross (excellent PUs) are not even present in VRs. Outclassed by Samurott and Slowbro's presence for the first? Competition with Vikavolt as a bulky attacker for the second?
Admittedly, a fair amount of PU (and lower) Pokemon are somewhat unexplored in the NU metagame. Kingler and Eelektross happen to fit that description and because nobody has tried them out yet, there’s no real basis to rank them on. However, it is also true that, in theory, Kingler seems like it may struggle to gain enough traction offensively given the presence of Pokemon like Slowbro and the up-and-coming Tangela. As for Eelektross, there are less things that really make it seem outclassed and it’s likely more the combination of not being insanely bulky while also being quite slow and walled by most dedicated special walls (Mega Audino and Type Null, for example) that makes it hard to fit or use effectively.
 
I haven't read this question in the thread yet so I hope I'm not repeating it, but why is Hitmontop so bad in the VR? I get that it has competition as a pivot from a bunch of mons like incinroar, Slowbro and Silvally S, and it has meh bulk, meh attack and really meh speed. However, the fact it resists stealth rocks, has fake out and intimidate AND rapid spin and a pretty big movepool would make it seem better than D. Even Technician seems ok on it due to the good priority it has. Just wanna know what I'm missing, Thanks!
 

JustoonSmitts

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I haven't read this question in the thread yet so I hope I'm not repeating it, but why is Hitmontop so bad in the VR? I get that it has competition as a pivot from a bunch of mons like incinroar, Slowbro and Silvally S, and it has meh bulk, meh attack and really meh speed. However, the fact it resists stealth rocks, has fake out and intimidate AND rapid spin and a pretty big movepool would make it seem better than D. Even Technician seems ok on it due to the good priority it has. Just wanna know what I'm missing, Thanks!
There's a lot of reasons why. Offensively, it's outclassed by Pokemon like Passimian, Toxicroak, and Medicham. Defensively, it's typing and defenses leave it open to common Psychic, Flying, and Fairy-types in NU like Comfey, Delphox, Medicham, Braviary, and Whimsicott. It's niche before was the combination of Foresight and Rapid Spin, which allowed it to get rid of hazards in front of Ghost-types. However, USUM introduced Defog to a lot of new Pokemon like Cryogonal, Sigilyph, and Rotom, which can get rid of hazards regardless of typing with the bonus of removing the rare Reflect and Light Screen. Blastoise dropping to NU didn't do it favors either, since it also can use Foresight and Rapid Spin and it's much better at it than Hitmontop thanks to overall better defensive stats and typing.

Long story short, Hitmontop isn't really worth using in the USUM NU meta. It MIGHT drop to PU eventually, but it's hard to say this soon. It's pretty much only used for style points.
 
Nope its 120bp (if you are running Knock Off) vs 180bp, if anything run groundium z. This last one helps you deal with common checks to it, like diancie and oposing incineroar.
ok thank you. i saw a team i think in the sample teams with darkium z incineroar and i realized there was no reason to do that so i changed it to incinium z but i just wanted to make sure i didnt make a mistake
 

Finchinator

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So how much has really changed in NU since the july tier shifts? (I havent played since pre shifts)
Quite a bit. We lost a premier win condition in Toxicroak, but gained a pair of Ghost/Grass offensive and utility presences. Incineroar is now as good as ever, too. There are also some smaller things such as Aero and Quag joining the tier, but neither standout atm. The VR recently had an update that reflects some other changes, too, if you’re interested beyond the surface.
 
Since I haven't seen this question so far, imma ask it: What are the most common scarfers in NU beside Heliolisk, Passimian, Rotom and Medicham?
 
Why is Passimian A+ rank and Sawk unranked? Both have similar stats and movepool, and while Passimian has better bulk, Sawk has access to two usable abilities in Mold Breaker and Sturdy. At a first glance, it seems as though both would compete for the same slot.
 
Why is Passimian A+ rank and Sawk unranked? Both have similar stats and movepool, and while Passimian has better bulk, Sawk has access to two usable abilities in Mold Breaker and Sturdy. At a first glance, it seems as though both would compete for the same slot.
Well, mostly because sawk just doesn't have acces to u-turn. If it did, I'm sure it would be way higher in the viability list, but since it doesn't, it's just a worse scarfer than passimian, or even a bander, because never being able to get momentum on the obvious slowbro switch in for example (which usually easily tanks 2 hits from sawk or any other fighting type anyway), is extremely big. TLDR; It is very much outclassed by the other fighting types. That being said, it's speed tier being 5 points higher does give it a (small) niche.
 
Well, mostly because sawk just doesn't have acces to u-turn. If it did, I'm sure it would be way higher in the viability list, but since it doesn't, it's just a worse scarfer than passimian, or even a bander, because never being able to get momentum on the obvious slowbro switch in for example (which usually easily tanks 2 hits from sawk or any other fighting type anyway), is extremely big. TLDR; It is very much outclassed by the other fighting types. That being said, it's speed tier being 5 points higher does give it a (small) niche.
U-turn really makes that much of a difference, uh? Thank you for your answer.
 

Kiyo

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Why is Passimian A+ rank and Sawk unranked? Both have similar stats and movepool, and while Passimian has better bulk, Sawk has access to two usable abilities in Mold Breaker and Sturdy. At a first glance, it seems as though both would compete for the same slot.
Slowbro exists so you need u turn to do anything. BAN SLOWBRO
 

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