For the less competitive sphere, I recently published this post on my Tumblr. To sum, weather has become the dominant force in OU, we cannot deny it. If you do not use weather, or are not prepared for weather, you will lose to the Keldeos, the Starmies, and a recent surge of Acid Armoring Hydration Vaporeons. The purpose of this post is not to vent, but to pursue a unique strategy to counter weather.
I have been battling since the conception of net.battle, and even before that on the physical copies. Needless to say, I've been around; this does not mean that I am an expert, since I do not profess math or play Pokemon every day, nor do I use just one team for long periods of time. But I will say this: I think I have some tricks up my sleeves, and I think being creative is always what makes Pokemon interesting. Using boring and rehashed strategies never gets me to come back to play more, it's always the surprises that do. I don't care that your Starmie has Psyshock over Thunderbolt, but I do care that it has Recover or Gravity over Rapid Spin. Whatever will knit my eyebrows will make me feel like playing more.
This, I propose, is the way to counter the absolutely ubiquitous eternal weather that plagues and harangues OU. That is, being creative is the way to stop it, and there may be more ways than just simply having another weather inducer. Should you bring a Pokemon, for example, that has Sandstorm or Sunny Day equipped in your team, you will nullify the effect of weather at the expense of one turn. If Politoed is already out of the way, it is, indeed, a small price to pay. Here is a scenario: Rain has been set up, and you KO their Politoed, they bring in a Vaporeon to set up a sweep (which can happen, a new phenomenon since GSC as far as I know), you your Heatran, and use Sunny Day as it uses Acid Armor, and now its Surf is weakened, and Solar Beam does not need to charge. If Heatran has Life Orb and Vaproeon lacks significant HP/Sp. Def EVs, that is quite possibly a 2HKO, and Surf will probably not take it down within that range.
Not only will the implementation of temporary weather benefit some members of your team, but it will take away the annoying eternal weather, and potentially slow down your opponent's offense - even cripple his entire team. 50% of teams, I will wager, will suffer this embarrassing counter, should it be used, and it appears to be something so obvious that I'm rather surprised no one has broached it yet. The woman at Tohjo Falls in GSC was right about the move Sandstorm - and continues to be. It does indeed take a lot of skill to use, and now even more than ever.
So will using temporary weather-inducing moves change the metagame altogether, and revolutionize our thoughts of banning Drizzle Politoed? Probably not. I don't expect this article to gain much clout, on the simple grounds of its cost - one turn, and on a lesser note, one move slot of one Pokemon. For Heatran, the Sunnybeaming set is a recognized set on Smogon, last I checked, so at least that one won't go to waste. However, even if this particular strategy does not work, I hope to see more solutions to our one-sided metagame problem, and more ways to weather the storm, other than flat out banning Rain. Pokemon battling has certainly come a long way, but what has changed most in OU play is the number of options, or at least such was the case in Gen III, which kind of took a downward spiral into less and less options later on. I hope that we can continue to make this game fun, and for everyone to bring something new to the table. I wonder if Gen VI will allow that? I truly hope so.
I have been battling since the conception of net.battle, and even before that on the physical copies. Needless to say, I've been around; this does not mean that I am an expert, since I do not profess math or play Pokemon every day, nor do I use just one team for long periods of time. But I will say this: I think I have some tricks up my sleeves, and I think being creative is always what makes Pokemon interesting. Using boring and rehashed strategies never gets me to come back to play more, it's always the surprises that do. I don't care that your Starmie has Psyshock over Thunderbolt, but I do care that it has Recover or Gravity over Rapid Spin. Whatever will knit my eyebrows will make me feel like playing more.
This, I propose, is the way to counter the absolutely ubiquitous eternal weather that plagues and harangues OU. That is, being creative is the way to stop it, and there may be more ways than just simply having another weather inducer. Should you bring a Pokemon, for example, that has Sandstorm or Sunny Day equipped in your team, you will nullify the effect of weather at the expense of one turn. If Politoed is already out of the way, it is, indeed, a small price to pay. Here is a scenario: Rain has been set up, and you KO their Politoed, they bring in a Vaporeon to set up a sweep (which can happen, a new phenomenon since GSC as far as I know), you your Heatran, and use Sunny Day as it uses Acid Armor, and now its Surf is weakened, and Solar Beam does not need to charge. If Heatran has Life Orb and Vaproeon lacks significant HP/Sp. Def EVs, that is quite possibly a 2HKO, and Surf will probably not take it down within that range.
Not only will the implementation of temporary weather benefit some members of your team, but it will take away the annoying eternal weather, and potentially slow down your opponent's offense - even cripple his entire team. 50% of teams, I will wager, will suffer this embarrassing counter, should it be used, and it appears to be something so obvious that I'm rather surprised no one has broached it yet. The woman at Tohjo Falls in GSC was right about the move Sandstorm - and continues to be. It does indeed take a lot of skill to use, and now even more than ever.
So will using temporary weather-inducing moves change the metagame altogether, and revolutionize our thoughts of banning Drizzle Politoed? Probably not. I don't expect this article to gain much clout, on the simple grounds of its cost - one turn, and on a lesser note, one move slot of one Pokemon. For Heatran, the Sunnybeaming set is a recognized set on Smogon, last I checked, so at least that one won't go to waste. However, even if this particular strategy does not work, I hope to see more solutions to our one-sided metagame problem, and more ways to weather the storm, other than flat out banning Rain. Pokemon battling has certainly come a long way, but what has changed most in OU play is the number of options, or at least such was the case in Gen III, which kind of took a downward spiral into less and less options later on. I hope that we can continue to make this game fun, and for everyone to bring something new to the table. I wonder if Gen VI will allow that? I truly hope so.
