Other Tiers BW1 OverUsed

[Zer0]

big thanks to Finchinator for the perms, Post inspired by WilhelmTheOkay

Black And White 1 OverUsed
a Tier and Metagame remade by yours truly, Zer0

​

Pokemon Black and White 1 were released on September 18th 2010 and with it came Gen5 OU, which went on to become one of the most recognized OU Metagames in Smogon history due to how much Gen5 changed the game of competitive Pokemon thanks to many changes that were brought on about the game such as Hidden Abilities, New strong powerful Pokemon such as Terrakion and Volcarona, and of course, really huge amounts of powercreep(only rivaling Gen9's as of today's standards), among other changes such as OU's first ever Weather Wars. Such Hidden Abilities also included Drizzle Politoed and Drought NInetales in addition to other really great abilities such as Regenerator on Slowbro and Magic Bounce on both Xatu and Espeon, while many other Pokemon that were really strong were to get unbanned from Ubers such as Salamence and Latios. Black and White 1 were to get played as the main gen of OU until June 23th 2012 when Black and White 2 were finally released to the public, thus ending Black and White 1 lifespan as a playable Gen of OU and to this day, not much is left about BW1 OU other than super relic replays and the original BW OU forums. Over the last few weeks/months however, i myself, decided to go out of my way to make BW1 OU a reality again, thanks to me doing huge amounts of research as a whole, and after sometime, i have come to deliver this all in glory and tried to make this a reality once again after almost 12 years since BW2's release, even if its very long in terms of resources and such. The rest of the post below will include all the resources to the metagame, such as including: the discord link and resources, how YOU can play this metagame today, the many many changes in comparison to BW2 OU(be they drastic or small), and etc!


Discord Server and Resources
Discord Server
Resources

• How YOU can play this metagame?
  As of August 1st 2024 BW1 OU is now implemented as a permanent challengeable format on PS. So if you wanna challenge anyone now just search up the player you want to play against and challenge them to BW1 OU which can be found under B2/W2 Singles.

Bans/Unbans to this Metagame from BW2(including notable New and Old additions), and Drastic Movepool Changes:

First, the Unbans/Bans to the metagame, keep in mind that most of these changes will not be touched unless if this ends up becoming an actual ladder and if it does, then we will retouch on these:

Chlorophyll + Drought Unbanned

As the title may suguest, ChloroSun will be unbanned and freed in this metagame unlike in current BW2 where it remains banned. This in large part since Chlorophyll + Drought played a huge role in BW1 OU and it wouldnt make sense to make a BW1 metagame without including one of the most iconic team styles of the generation!

Sand Rush Unbanned

Thanks to Excadrill's Ban, Sand Rush as a whole will be Unbanned in large part due to Excadrill being banned as a whole. This will give sand an option to use Stoutland alongside other threats such as Terrakion and Landorus-Incarnate, and even tho Stoutland lacks Superpower in this Generation, can be still a potent pick due to its Choice Band set under sand despite it lacking Superpower.

Sleep Unbanned, Sleep Clause reinstated

Sleep Clause will be readded and Sleep as a whole will be unbanned, This is also in large part due to 2 insane changes that are not present in this metagame: Technician Breloom and Regenerator Amoonguss. With these 2 not having access to those hidden abilities in this Metagame due to them being only released in B2W2, Sleep is generally more managable in BW1 unlike in BW2 since those 2 completely abused sleep to the fullest with their hidden abilities, hence why it got banned long after Gen5 ended as CG and thus will not be banned in this metagame for the foreseeable future. This also means that Pokemon like Breloom, Venusaur, and even Jynx can utilize sleep to the fullest which will greatly boast their viabilities in general.

Gems Unbanned

Gem Clause will also be lifted and Gems as a whole will be unbanned, making hugely dangerous threats like Volcarona, Terrakion, and even Cloyster to be completely unforgiving in their brutality. This is due to the fact that Gems werent banned until BW2(and years after that metagame ended) so there is absolutely no reason to ban them nor is there any reason to suspect them since it would take a key aspect out of BW1 Offense. Maybe if the metagame ends up becoming a real ladder we can see them going, but for now they will be here to stay for the majority!

Cloyster Unbanned

I will be grouping this Pokémon specifically, but Cloyster has been unbanned from this metagame souly because it was not banned throughout its entire life span of existence in BW OU. This will ofc, once again, give offense a great sweeper and a beautiful way at answering Ground-types such as Gliscor and Landorus-Incarnate while also being able to beat things for offense such as Sash Alakazam and Choice Scarf Latios. Cloyster can also utilize Gems(Ice Gem and Rock Gem in particular) in this metagame while in addition to its other items continuing to thrive such as Focus Sash, Lum Berry, Never-Melt-Ice, White Herb, and even Life Orb.

Landrous-Incarnate + Deoxys-Defense both Unbanned

Landorus-Incarnate and Deoxys-Defense have also been unbanned from this metagame in large part due to them not being unbanned in BW1, among other reasons. Landorus-Incarnate does not have access to Sheer Force in this generation which makes him more manageable to deal with since hes primarily a physical attacker, but besides that he remains a massive threat and a very good asset to sand teams alongside fellow beast known as Terrakion. Deoxys-Defense has been unbanned in large part thanks to it, once again, not being banned until well into BW2 OU. Deoxys-Defense is extremely potent due to it being one of the premier spikers of offense as well as being able to be a spiker that beats most of the spinners, should it run the right coverage move. It also worth noting that Deoxys-Defense is unique in that it can also utilize life orb or some gems to good success on offensive spiking sets as well, which can really threaten most of the spinners much more greately(i:e thunder gem thunder for tentacruel and bulky starmie, or Life Orb Hp Fire to destroy Forretress. Tho Deo-D can run other gems and other items too on these sets as well).

Sand Veil Unbanned

Sand Veil has also been unbanned as well thanks to Garchomp being banned as well as Gliscor basically being the only good Pokemon that has access for the majority, At first glance people may wonder why would Sand Veil be unbanned? and this is large part due to the fact that Sand Veil wasnt banned when BW1 was the current gen and also the fact that Gliscor really is the only good user of the ability as well as the fact that Stealth Rock and Roost are only legal on non Poison Heal set. SD Flying Gem Acrobatic Gliscor also has harder counters in the form of Bronzong and PhysDef Skarm as well as having checks like Scarf Politoed among others, so there is at least some counterplay to it, and most importantly that in addition to this you give up insane defensive utility by forgoing Poison Heal if you decide to run SD Flying Gem Acrobatics Gliscor. Now why isnt Cacturne apart of this and why am i not including it? Well, its because its really not that good at all in addition to it being huge opportunity cost, so its not really worth mentioning at all despite it having Sand Veil and a decent typing into Rain Teams because its bulk is just so miserable, thus, Gliscor is basically the only viable user of this ability and even then it has some huge drawbacks, Tho when supported well, SD Flying Gem Acrobatics Gliscor can become a completely potent sweeper thats able to sweep through teams pretty well.

Arena Trap Unbanned

Arena Trap is also unbanned since Dugtrio was a crucial part of sun teams right from the start of BW OU, helping sun win the weather war against Tyranitar as well as trapping Heatran for sun threats to completely function in addition to also enabling Cresselia on Sun Stall to go berserk once Tyranitar has been eliminated. For the entirety of BW1 OU, Dugtrio wasnt banned and was only banned years after Gen5 ended so thus, it will be unbanned in this metagame.

Shadow Tag Unbanned

Finally we get to probably the last unban which is Shadow Tag, Thanks to Gothitelle not having access to Shadow Tag in BW1 Wobbufet remains as the only trapper in BW1 OU alongside Dugtrio. Its also worth mentioning that Shadow Tag did NOT get banned until much later after BW ended as CG. Thus, Shadow Tag will remained unbanned from BW1 OU since it seems more managable, but most important that it was also apart of BW1 OU.

Statpass Banned

Unlike in original BW1 OU, Statpass has been banned for the time being. This is largely due to it be being completely unplayable to play against without specific counterplay and its overall the most unfair thing to play against in general, but maybe we will have some sort of money tour with this unbanned. We might retouch on this in the future and implement the classic 3 Baton Pass Limit, but for now Statpass has been completely banned.

Garchomp and Excadrill both Banned

These two grounds shouldnt be self explanatory, Garchomp is banned because unlike Gliscor, Sand Veil is its only legal ability due to Rough Skin not being released, combined that with its insane stats(despite there being faster threats like Terrakion and Lati@s this gen) alongside that ability as well as its dangerous SubVeil set and theres no surprise that Garchomp is banned! Excadrill is similar in how its only legal ability was Sand Rush(which allows exca to outspeeds pretty much the entire metagame), and, when combined with its absurd Typing, monstrous Attack stat, Swords Dance, and Rapid Spin, theres also no surprise why Excadrill is also banned.

Keldeo, Kyurem-B, Landorus-Therian, Meloetta, and Thundurus-Therian all Banned(shocker!!!!)

it comes to nobodies surprise that these 5 Pokemon will be banned from BW1 OU due to all of them being BW2 Pokemon, nothing more i can say other since thats really it but other than the fact that a lot of Pokemon's viability will skyrocket in this metagame thanks to them being absent.

lastly, the drastic changes to the metagame.

Many drastic changes will include multiple movepool changes thanks to BW1's scarce move tutors not having many moves that other Pokemon would normally relearn later on in BW2(i:e Roost on Kyurem, Superpower on Multiscale Dragonite), Additionally certain pokemon dont have their Dreamworld abilities released yet(such as Analytic on Starmie and Sheer Force on Landorus). Below will be listing most of the relevant changes that will end up being featured on certain movepools from Pokemon that have Dreamworld Abilities(i:e Magic Guard Alakazam, Poison Heal Gliscor) as well as Pokemon that have unreleased Abilities and how it will end up affecting them in the Metagame(if they're considered anything massive), tho keep in mind that these Pokemon can use these moves when not running their hidden abilities:

Pokemon with DW Abilities:

: Signal Beam. Not a huge change, but Zam can no longer have a middle ground move to hit Psychics and Tyranitar anymore in one slot

: Aqua Tail, Ice Punch, Sleep Talk, Superpower; This is completely huge considering how good of a Sleep Talker Dragonite can be as well as how great Superpower is on Choice Band Dragonite. Dragonite will still be great despite these changes to its movepool

: Signal Beam, Trick; same as Zam(as mentioned above), but also losing Trick means that Espeon cant utilize Choice sets to the fullest if it wanted to

: Outrage, Bounce; Losing Bounce is sad since Gyarados no longer has any sort of flying-stab to hit grass-types on Moxie sets. Tho its just a small change since Intimidate is still a great ability for it, just it has to resort to coverage on Moxie sets in its 4th moveslot

: Aqua Tail, Outrage on DD Moxie Set's, Roost; all of these changes hurt mence in a way. Aqua Tail is a powerful coverage move that it sometimes runs on Rain teams to hit Gliscor and Landorus while Roost is still potent on DD/Mixed sets in this gen. But the biggest blow to Salamence is it not being able to run Outrage on DD Moxie sets which is extremely huge considering that it cant muscle through bulky Pokemon way easily anymore. Still a great Pokemon in BW1 but 100% these changes are a big blow to mence regardless.

: Knock Off, Stealth Rock; While Sandslash has a good niche on Sand teams due to it operating as a mini Excadrill, both Knock Off and Stealth Rock are illegal on it. Thus, Sandslash cant really operate in a supporting role nearly as effectively due to these movepool changes.

: Trick; same reasons as Espeon(as mentioned above)

: Drain Punch alongside Ice Punch; sadly Toxicroak cant make full use of both Drain Punch and Ice Punch on the same set together as they're illegal, meaning that it has to run Cross Chop on SD sets if it wants to run Ice Punch, which isnt terrible but it means that Toxicroak cant heal back most its HP in conjunction with Life Orb.

: Giga Drain; While Venusaur continues to remain arguably the best sun sweeper, losing Giga Drain annoys it a bit since it can no longer utilize its most consistent grass stab in conjunction with Life Orb. However, it can still utilize both energy ball and solar beam to good success so its alright.

: Heat Wave, Trick; Xatu not being able to use Heat Wave on magic bounce sets is another blow considering that it cant immediately threaten Ferro without running HP Fire(which means it also cant run HP Ice too if it wants to run it alongside fire coverage to apply pressure onto Dragonite and Gliscor). Its still a good pokemon despite this, but its still a significant change.

Gen5 Pokemon:

: Ice Punch, Thunder Punch; probably one of the most dreadful movepool changes, as now Conk is walled by Gliscor again in addition to it not having Thunder Punch for Slowbro and Skarmory which are both common in the metagame.

: Knock Off, all 3 of Leech Seed, Stealth Rock, and Spikes on the same set; Minor changes but Ferro not having knock off means that it cant punish other Ferrothorn or remove items in general, as well not being able to run leech seed alongside both spikes and rocks on the same set, meaning that it has to choose between one of the other. Still a completely fantastic Pokemon(because its Ferrothorn), but these changes are still significant.

: Aqua Tail, Low Kick, Sleep Talk, Superpower; Despite Haxorus now living life due to KyuB going on vacation, these movepool changes are still significant, as it no longer has aceess to Fighting coverage for Ferrothorn and to seriously put a charge into Skarmory which is completely unfortunate. It not also having Sleep Talk and Aqua Tail are still noticeable changes but not as dramatic as it losing Fighting coverage.

: Roost, Sleep Talk, Superpower; The main two moves that Hydra hates losing is Roost and Superpower since it no longer has reliable recovery anymore nor could it go mixed as well, respectively. Sleep Talk is still noticable too but not as much as losing Roost and Superpower.

: Earth Power, Roost, Sleep Talk; alongside conk this is also another huge dreadful movepool change since all of Roost, Earth Power, and Sleep Talk are massive for Kyurem's viability, as the former 2 means that it cant run SubRoost sets anymore as well as slam Jirachi and Heatran super effectively while the latter means it cant be a sleep absorber anymore. Kyurem is still a threat as it can run other sets, but these 3 are dreadful movepool changes that Kyurem most def hates.

: Gravity, Sleep Talk, Stealth Rock, Superpower; apart from Gravity and Stealth Rock(both are self explanatory), these arent insane movepool changes but still worth mentioning as Superpower would've given him great covreage against Ferrothorn while Sleep Talk allows Lando-I to be a decent sleep absorber, could've been worse but these are still changes worth mentioning

: Pain Split; This is a significant change as it means Ninetales has to resort to Rest as its form of Healing. This isnt all bad as Ninetales can replace this moveslot for something like Roar, Hypnosis, Ninetales, and even stuff like Disable, but its still significant change however

: Signal Beam; same reasons as Zam(as mentioned way above)

: Superpower; this was already mentioned(see above in the section of Unbanning of Sand Rush) but once again, Stoutland not having access to Superpower is very massive as it means that it cant revenge kill Terrakion in addition to being able to handle Heatran, Tyranitar, and Ferrothorn.

: Sleep Talk, Stealth Rock; while Sleep Talk isnt the most biggest movepool change, the same cannot be said for Stealth Rock as Terrakion's Rock + Taunt set is extremely good in general in current Gen5 OU and it losing Rocks in BW1 is a significant blow. But its BW1 Terrakion for god sake, making this not too big of a loss considering how insane it was in this era of Gen5 OU

: Superpower; same reasons as Landrous(as mentioned above)

: Bolt Strike, Blue Flare, Glaciate; these all hammer Victini's movepool in a way as it can no longer run Bolt Strike and instead run the weaker alternative which is Fusion Bolt(not bad at all per say as Victini can still hit water-types, but its significantly weaker). Blue Flare and Glaciate are also some small but significant movepool changes too since the former lets it run strong Fire STAB off of its special attack stat with no drawback while the latter gives it a buffed icy wind.

: Giga Drain, Roost; 2 very big movepool changes as now Volc doesnt have coverage for Waters anymore nor does it have instant reliable recovery too, meaning that bulky QD sets are not worth running. Volc is still a major threat but these two changes are completely huge.

Unreleased DW Abilities on legal Pokemon:

: Regenerator; Amoonguss not having regenerator is very huge considering that it was one of its best traits as a Pokemon in general. Thus its OU niche is smaller as a result

: Technician; Breloom still remains a significant threat in the Metagame but no technician means it cant go wild on weatherless anymore, nor could it run other items.

: Sheer Force; Doesnt matter a lot since it doesnt have many elemental punches in this gen.

: Imposter; Self explanatory, No Imporster = No Niche in OU

: Overcoat; Without Overcoat, Forretress can no longer serve as a steel-type on Hail that doesnt take Hail chip. This is crucial considering how good this is on Hail teams in current Gen5 OU, thus this is huge. But Forretress will still probably find some use on Hail once in a blue moon in BW1 OU due to its insane role compression on such team.

: Shadow Tag; Another one that is Self explanatory, No Shadow Tag = No Niche in OU.

: Moxie; not absurdly relevant or huge since if you want a Pokemon with Moxie then you go Salamence every single time and losing Guts makes Heracross lose out on its one real niche, which is to absorb status and act as one of the best Breloom checks in the entire tier. But its still worth mentioning since Heracross can no longer run Moxie on Choice Scarf sets(should you run it and use it in this tier).

: Iron Fist; Not huge considering Infernape likes running Blaze a lot, but this means it can no longer power up its punch based moves(i:e Mach Punch, Thunder Punch)

: Sheer Force; Landorus-I not having Sheer Force means that hes no longer borderline broken, and it also means that he cant run special attacks anymore meaning that physical walls do well against him. Still a dangerous Pokemon but not the terror he is with Sheer Force.

: Intimidate; Even tho Scrafty isnt that good here, its still worth mentioning that losing Intimidate means it cant really soften up Physical attackers anymore.

: Water Absorb; This is COMPLETELY huge as losing Water Absorb basically means Seismitoad loses out on any potential for a real niche in this metagame, thus Gastrodon outclasses it entirely. Basically, No Water Absorb = No Niche in OU.

Ending conclusion:
I wanna thank everyone who took the time out to read and check out this OM, this has been a long time coming and im glad i was able to do this entire project. If you like or wanna play this OM then i would consider to join the Discord or just play this with any of your friends. Many more resources will be coming soon(such as a VR and samples as well as cool artwork, to name but many more) as well as many Tournaments, so stay tuned for all of that!

 

[Cow]

wow man, this is great. i love the amount of effort you put into this and i can't wait to play this with you and some buddys too!

 

[BLJ mario]

Thank you Zer0. Playing this tier will be lots of fun, and it’s like I can go back in time to play a meta I was never able to.

 

[SOMALIA]

Brings back amazing memories, thanks for all your work on this

 

[Zer0]

Gonna post this as its kinda important, but first off i would like to thank everyone so far for the support as this means a lot to me in general! Due to some feedback, ive gone through and freed Dugtrio(once again) as well as completely put all tiering actions off to the side for now. These changes alone will now more resemble what BW1 OU was entirely and it was my mistake to put some of these restrictions/addition bans. Ill retouch on this one day if this metagame ends up becoming an actual ladder, but enjoy these changes for now.

Hope everyone has a good time checking out the metagame and as always, have a good day to everyone!

 

[mixnite]

Great work bro, I'm looking forward to spamming Cacturne sand veil cheese because it's a good reliable strategy and healthy for the whole family

 

[peng]

I think this will be interesting - BW1 was a really fun meta back in the day but it was definitely left in an "unsolved" state. This metagame isn't gonna be exactly like 2012, we've learnt so many things and invented so many new sets in BW2 that are able to be retro-fitted here.

For anyone curious how BW1 looked when we left it, here's the June 2012 usage stats:

Spoiler

+ ---- + --------------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon | Percent |
+ ---- + --------------- + ------- +
| 1 | Scizor | 27.576% |
| 2 | Dragonite | 19.902% |
| 3 | Tyranitar | 18.979% |
| 4 | Heatran | 18.918% |
| 5 | Rotom-W | 18.703% |
| 6 | Terrakion | 17.023% |
| 7 | Ferrothorn | 16.991% |
| 8 | Politoed | 16.791% |
| 9 | Gliscor | 15.728% |
| 10 | Jirachi | 15.324% |
| 11 | Latios | 13.180% |
| 12 | Starmie | 11.689% |
| 13 | Skarmory | 11.442% |
| 14 | Landorus | 11.304% |
| 15 | Salamence | 11.118% |
| 16 | Tentacruel | 9.881% |
| 17 | Forretress | 9.756% |
| 18 | Gengar | 9.461% |
| 19 | Celebi | 9.151% |
| 20 | Magnezone | 8.843% |
| 21 | Jellicent | 7.907% |
| 22 | Breloom | 7.743% |
| 23 | Gyarados | 7.551% |
| 24 | Volcarona | 7.149% |
| 25 | Ninetales | 7.141% |
| 26 | Lucario | 7.080% |
| 27 | Infernape | 6.967% |
| 28 | Haxorus | 6.620% |
| 29 | Hydreigon | 6.590% |
| 30 | Espeon | 6.328% |
| 31 | Reuniclus | 5.995% |
| 32 | Donphan | 5.974% |
| 33 | Jolteon | 5.967% |
| 34 | Blissey | 5.801% |
| 35 | Gastrodon | 5.755% |
| 36 | Tornadus | 5.605% |
| 37 | Conkeldurr | 5.582% |
| 38 | Alakazam | 5.517% |
| 39 | Cloyster | 5.425% |
| 40 | Latias | 5.395% |

Obviously this looks very very different to modern BW2, and whilst some of this is due to the absence of mons like Keldeo, Landorus-T etc, a lot of it is also down to the fact this was still quite a young metagame.

Things we underrated:
Big 3:
It hadn't yet become clear that these 3 Pokemon are heads and shoulders above the other glue Pokemon in the tier. Tyranitar sharing usage with Heatran, in particular, is kinda wild with hindsight - we just generally thought weatherless balance was better than it probably was. Likewise, we probably did not appreciate how good Spikes were in the tier, especially with the spinners being Forretress / Donphan / Starmie / Tentacruel which don't match-up too favourably into Ferrothorn. Latios is a Pokemon we learned to appreciate later with its defensive traits into Keldeo/Thundurus-T but don't get it twisted - in BW1 this Pokemon is an absolute monster that should still be top 3 in usage.

PsySpam:
We kinda worked out Reuniclus in BW1 but hadn't optimised it at all, which goes hand in hand with low Spiker usage. Alakazam, however, was completely off the radar. It was legal from September 2011 onwards but never made a real impact until several years later. It may be surprising to some, but several modern BW2 PsySpam teams are completely legal in BW1 (with the exception of Gliscor losing Stealth Rock):





Ground-types:
Ground-types, generally, were underrated. In Modern BW2, its a given that almost every single team has an electric immunity of some kind, for strong hits into Tyranitar, Thunder Wave absorption, and in a pinch, deterring Rotom-W Volt Switch. Obviously we don't have Landorus-T, Garchomp, and Excadrill here, but I still think we underappreciated the Ground-types that we did have access to. Gliscor broke the top 10 but probably should have seen more usage back then due to the insane usage of Terrakion, as well as Poison Heal Protect being a great breaker of the high usage Volt-turn teams. We hadn't worked out Specially Defensive sets, but these would have been strong with some of its best answers being BW2 additions - instead we used a lot more SubToxic. Landorus-incarnate gradually became forced more and more towards Choice Scarf sets on Volt-turn, but probably could have seen more usage as Lefties pivot (but doesn't have Rocks) or Smack Down breaker. Mamoswine was completely off the radar and didn't break top 40 usage. Hippowdon has the potential to be top 20 usage as the best Ground-type rocker in the tier. Donphan, Nidoqueen have decent utility that went underappreciated.

Things that became good as a result:
Terrakion:
2012 BW1 was Terrakion's town, due to everything above - we didn't understand how to use Reuniclus and Alakazam like we do now, we didn't appreciate Latios, we didn't utilise Gliscor and Hippowdon enough.

Volt-turn:
With lower appreciation of Spikes strategies and Ground-types, Volt-turn teams were incredibly potent. With lessons we've learnt in the time since, I doubt they would be anywhere near as strong now.

Dragonite:
Dragonite went through phases of being #1 usage for a lot of BW1, we generally considered Choice Band to be one of the best breakers in the tier and we hadn't yet adapted to it. Dragon Dance sets were the default late-game Pokemon on weatherless HOs like we have now, but were generally spinless teams. Over time, we gradually shifted away from Dragonite and into Latios as the glue Dragon breaker.

Weird frail offensive mons:
These guys were never that good in BW1 but kinda found their way onto teams because we didn't really abuse Alakazam Latios Hippowdon Gliscor etc. I wouldn't expect any of them to be that good in this BW1 revisit. These mons use LO a lot too, so got nerfed pretty bad once we started using Sand at 40% usage.

Ideas for BW1-specific teams:
A lot of BW2 teams will port over to BW1 with minor changes, but thats kinda boring, so here's some ideas for stuff you can abuse in this tier that is unique to this meta:

Sun Offense: + + +
Sun offense is incredibly powerful but a little bit fishy. Lots of directions you can go here - Xatu / u-turn / Dugtrio is really good at catching Tyranitar traps, or you can just go all in with powerful sweepers like Volcarona, Venusaur, or Sawsbuck.

Sand offense: / + +
Magnet Pull Sand isn't really a thing in BW2 but its potent in BW1 due to two specific Sand sweepers - Sand Veil SD Gliscor and Sand Rush Stoutland, which both require Skarmory removal. Round this out with some water resists and you're good to go.

 

[leoperi]

Now i can finally see true potential of Beat up dark gem weavile maybe will be good who knows... im glad with gems unban overall bc it opens up alot of creativity overall ofc some mons are notabily gonna abuse more than others but making every mon being able to use them in some way i find really cool as they can act like a one time specs/band boost. And i just miss using them even though they are broken this metagame is fun by being broken in some way alot of silly and crazy things your opponent may bring and you aswell

 

[MilkLadsForever]

Woah, this is cool. BW is a interesting metagame, and having this point in the tier's history preserved as a metagame is cool. May check it out sometime.

 

[Biz4rre]

Yo Zer0 you are the GOAT for making this.
I really hope this turns into a challengeable Meta cuz this is a really interesting metagame that im excited to play.
I like the part that Landorus-I and haxorus are viable in this metagame because they're some of my favorite mons.

 

[F-00]

awesome, i wonder ifcan actually do something in BW1

 

[Zer0]

awesome, i wonder ifcan actually do something in BW1

Yea it might since no keld and thund(meaning rain offense took a hit) in addition to no lando-t, as well as it's typing actually being quite valuable and it being a stealth rocker that can pursuit trap Alakazam and Lati@s. Tho I prolly wouldn't expect it to be that good since sun offense lurks around every corner

 

[Zer0]

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/bw1-ou-open-signups.3745159/ signups for the first BW1 OU Tournament are up!

 

[TheDuckChris]

Awesome idea, takes me back to my very first metagame I ever played. Swords Dance bulky scizor was the man back then.
Also I can't wait to challenge someone and the team ends up being this

 

[peng]

Unexpectedly important move-set losses:


Stealth Rock Grounds
The ground-fliers not getting Stealth Rock (at least for PH in Gliscor's case) ends up being pretty huge, makes finding an SR slot on a lot of Sands kinda challenging. It often ends up on Ferrothorn which makes a lot of these teams really weak to Volcarona, either that or you put it on Tyranitar and accept that you just might not get chances to click it. Hippowdon as a reliable Stealth Rocking ground, while also being a non-trappable sand setter, is super valuable.


Knock Off on Ferrothorn
Losing KO makes the Ferro mirror super degenerate, and in particular makes it really hard for Rain teams to remove opposing Ferrothorn.

What you should be building around:

I've seen people start building in this tier and immediately get pulled to some real trash stuff like Conkeldurr, Infernape, Gengar, Scrafty, Haxorus, etc. I think a generally good rule of thumb is - if its really bad in BW2, its unlikely to suddenly be great here (legality cases being obvious exceptions). Below is what I think some of the most powerful strategies are that you should be aiming to build around:

Physical Sand Offense:
supported by
Sand has access to some incredibly powerful physical sweepers which directly abuse Sandstorm. Landorus is pretty ridiculous and can do it all - Scarf, SubSmackDown, Lefties U-turn pivot, double dance sets are all incredibly good. SD LO OHKOs Slowbro in Sand! SD Terrakion is another great breaker and with Choice Scarf is a strong win condition. SD Sandslash is also decent, actually quite a lot better than Stoutland in my experience so far especially as with its ability to support teammates with Rapid Spin. Pick a couple of these Sand abusers, a setter, and round the team out with decent water resists and steels.

PsySpam:
supported by
Lifted straight from BW2, this archetype remains relevant. Take a couple of Psychics, support with Sandstorm, a Spiking Steel-type and Water-resists and you will be good to go. Incredibly strong. The challenge is in making these solid vs Dugtrio + Volcarona.

Sun Offense:
supported by
As strong as everyone predicted but people are still being drawn towards the wrong things. Volcarona and Venusaur are 10x better than any other abuser available, even Sawsbuck I think is probably not worth trying until things are more established. Dugtrio directions tend to be strongest, paired with either hazard control in Xatu (the rockers in this tier are so bad that Xatu + Dugtrio tends to beat them all without a dedicated spinner) or for a bit more solidity you can use Donphan or Forretress. Make sure you have a steel otherwise Dragonite will ruin your day - Heatran and Forretress are the best ones. Latios can be hard to fit but is really valuable for non-Dugtrio Suns as a Tyranitar lure, and Calm Mind sets are a terror for opposing Rain.
example1
example2

Rain Offense:
supported by
Rain can be quite challenging as it doesn't have the huge upside abusers it gets in BW2, and also struggles to break Ferrothorn without its own Knock Off Ferro. The best abusers are Tornadus, Starmie, and Gyarados, with some other physical waters available but again, maybe too early to try and make these work. Dugtrio + Specs Tornadus I have found to be incredibly potent, trapping and removing Tyranitar, Jirachi, and Ninetales to allow free Hurricane spam. Gyarados + Mamoswine is also a decent physical pairing that break shared checks, whilst also utility that match-up well into the other offensive threats (Gyarados setting up on Volcarona, Mamoswine revenge killing Lando, Sandslash, Gliscor, Dragonite, Venusaur). Optimisation of Rain will revolve around aiming to punish Ferrothorn better - PH Breloom and Sub Jirachi are definitely worth exploring.
example1
example2

Deo-D offense:
supporting
Deo is a crazy good lead spiker with tons of moveset flexibility to counterstyle what it wants (Gem boosted Hidden Power [Fire], Superpower, Thunder, Psycho Boost, Skill Swap for Xatu, Mental herb Taunt for faster leads, and so on), and it can support a huge variety of sweepers in the back. Unsure still what the best variations of this are.

More balance and stally stuff is harder to gauge right now because its all so volatile, but I am sure Poison Heal SD Gliscor stuff will end up being strong as it is non-spin reliant, counteracts sleep, matches up well into many of the Sand sweepers etc.

will upload with some samples as i go

 

[Heatranator]

This looks like a fun meta, and I am def going to be keeping my eye on this. Congratulations
And I am not going to laugh at the broken things people come up with because of this crazy meta

 

[Broduderman]

I ended up losing round one to Monai on my very first tour (rip) so I have some teams I made that I want to share for anyone interested. The teams are shown here from most to least consistent, in my opinion.

SD Lando Rachi Sand


This team is absolutely terrible against sun, so maybe the Ttar set should be shed shell and the skarm should probably be offensive. The idea is to get up hazards, incapacitate something with spore breloom (with nasty sub punches for extra kick), break open walls with CB Tar, and it has two win cons in the form of SD Lando and Sub CM Rachi.

Jynx Rain?!


I'm not too sure about this team, but it has the nasty one-two punch of sleep and trapping. Wobb may not be the best pokemon, but forcing one trade at worst is incredibly powerful in a tier with as much offense as there is (and no impostor ditto). Jynx uses dry skin to wall many a water type, and can potentially break huge holes with nasty plot boosted ice moves and psyshocks. It's definitely an underrated rain abuser if nothing else.

Smurf 2 : Deoxys Boogaloo



Honestly I'm even less sure about this amalgamation; the simple idea is "unga bunga use the broken setup mons" and go to town with the best offensive spike setter and the two most volatile set up sweepers in the game. Lucario+Salamence is also a great offensive core- shout out to Zer0 for making me aware of it. The Deo-D set is standard hazards with taunt and rocky helmet night shade to make spinning a miserable chore for the enemy. It probably should be a more offensive set for maximum havoc.

Bonus DragMag Team


Haxorus might not be super optimal but I wanted to give it some love since there's no Kyurem-Black to outclass it! Adjust sets to your liking.

Conclusions and Thanks
Overall, I would say this tier is very... Interesting. There's a lot of, pardon my French, absolute fucking bullshit; chloro sun, wobb, Dugtrio, Cloyster, gems, sleep, sand veil, Landorus Incarnate alone gives me a headache! However, I would still say that it's incredibly fun and rewarding of good play. In a sense, this is the most "broken checks broken" tier I've ever seen. Novelty aside, I very much hope that BW1 will be brought back again because this is the most fun I've had in BW for a long time.
Special thanks to Zer0 for getting this up and running, and a personal thank you to Chomp29 for helping me prepare and being very patient with my dumb ass.

Small edit: Salamence should replace HP ice for fire blast and or draco meteor. Max speed to tie +1 100's.

 

[TheDuckChris]

I was also eliminated today and so I'll share my ideas
standard venusaur HO with rock polish landorus and scarf magnezone. Baton pass espeon would have been fun if I faced a defensive team
Dragons + aero lead. I decided to go with scizor instead of magnezone. Unfortunately this did not match up that well into a hail team though I think I could have won if i hit a salamence speed tie. Yache berry haxorus did something!!
Hail with snow cloak. I had to edit the custom challenge text since snow cloak was missed in the list of unbans (ImZer0 this should be fixed yeah?) I think the team sucks but it was a fun idea. Probably needed another ice resist of my own instead of gliscor. Maybe rotom-w

Mamoswine is very good, super strong and only really held back by scizor and rotom-w which were huge back then.

 

[Zer0]

snow cloak was missed in the list of unbans (ImZer0 this should be fixed yeah?)

yea i fixed this, alice told me that it was missing so i decided to fix it. Unfortunately it will stay banned for the rest of the tour(unless if i decide to unban it next round) due to the fact that i dont wanna touch any other rules for the tour as of right now but i thought i had it unbanned at first and it will be unbanned for the next tours due to the fact that Sand Veil is unbanned as well. Cool team ideas tho i really like all of these a lot, especially the dragon aero team as well as the sun team. Would be quite intresting to see some snow cloak mamo teams in the future tho. Other than that tho, i hope you had fun in this tour despite being eliminated!

 

[Zer0]

welp, im out of tour as well(owing to me literally playing the last 2 games miserably, like if i was on the verge of me literally wanting to quit) but i wanted to drop a cool deo-d offense team that features Mence + Lucario that i won with and that ive been test running with for so long. I would've probably done better if i piloted way better in my last 2 games but anyways, lets start:

: this team started with both Deo-D and Gengar, with the former providing crucial entry hazards and the latter providing me spinblocking duties while also being potent offensively thanks to its stats and movepool. Deo-D can really do it all thanks to its expansive movepool and Gengar, while niche, is actually good on these teams since it synergizes well with Deo-D team a lot and well, Deo-D itself. Deo-D is running Mental Herb + Skill Swap but you can also go Helmet + Night Shade, while Gengar is running SubDisable to help against Choiced Pokemon, force switches, and beat tyranitar with Substitute and 2 blasts(should they hit). Potent core fs and its fun asf to run if you decide to make Deo-D offense considering both are versatile thanks to their movepool and attributes.

: next i went with Band Scizor and Scarf Rotom on this team and its good since the former provides amazing role compression into this team(scouting with a strong U-Turn, revenge killing hugely dangerous weakened threats such as; Dragonite, Salamence, Latios, every sun/rain sweeper with Choice Band BP, and while also giving me Pursuit to trap the Latis as well as Starmie and Alakazam) as well as giving me an Important steel-type on this team, while the latter gives me a nice water resistance as well as a solid revenge killer against Dragonite, Gyarados, Alakazam, and more, something this team wants a lot. Both form the classic VoltTurn strategy as well, and they also love the hazards Deo-D provides as well as it being able to taunt most leads thanks to Mental Herb and its decent speed.

: Lastly i went with Salamence and Lucario, together they form a great offensive parring and they can get setup on the attacks aimed at the other due to both of their synergy. Salamence is used on this team over Dragonite in the event where Deo-D cant prevent hazards from going up somehow, so multiscale will be completely useless in this scenario. So on this team, Mence can instead leverage Intimidate and its greater power + speed to make the most of out its traits that Dragonite doesn't posses. Generally a great pokemon in this metagame since it also benefits a lot from different surroundings just like Dragonite and worth running on teams like this as either a Choice Scarfer, a DDer, or a mixed wallbreaker.

Lucario, albeit while not perfect and changing a lot, is actually surprisingly better in BW1 than in BW2 thanks to different surroundings such as; some of its best checks(i:e Lando-T and Garchomp) being completely absent as well as some of its competition such as Keldeo and Technician Breloom, not existing at all. Here, Lucario can threaten many scarfers that try to revenge kill any of its team members through harmless move(such as Scarf Terrakion and Lando-I being locked into Stone Edge, Scarf Latios locked into Draco Meteor, etc) while also doing the same against basically every choiced locked pokemon on route to winning the entire game if played to its strengths. It can also play like a Techincian Breloom on this team since its hidden ability isnt released in this Metagame too, due to the fact that its basically a fighting type that can almost replicate what Loom can do, if not bring even more traits in favor of trading others that loom has(SD, Priority, Strong fighting-stab in the form of Close Combat, and actually having better bulk, typing, and speed. At the cost of losing a crucial water resist, Mach Punch, and 15 base points in Attack). Def a threat on the right team supporting its weaknesses, despite the flaws it has.


will post more teams in the future along the way of me playing this metagame for sure, so stay tuned for more heat!

 

[LHF]

I'm very much a fan of seeing "dead" metagames like this be revived(such as RS200, XY or BW1), so I appreciate all the hard work that went into making this tier possible to play!

 

[Zer0]

Hello guys, first i wanna thank everyone for the amount of support for this metagame as it means a lot to me and im glad to have given everyone the opportunity to relive such an OG metagame, i highly recommend everyone to check out the BW1 OU Ladder that is currently under RoA Showcase for the entire month since BW1 OU won the RoA Showcase of the Month. With that being said tho i will be issuing out two certain bans right here in this post, due to mostly feedback in general.

/+ StatPass have been BANNED FROM BW1 OU:

quipped quote: "kr and statpass should have been gone day 0", King's Rock/Razor Fang and Statpass have been banned entirely for the most part. These 3 were redeemed too overbearing to deal with, largely because King's Rock/Razor Fang puts games in the hands of sheer chance rather than play itself while Statpass decide's games on the Match-up(i:e dont have anti statpass answers = you lose the game entirely). King's Rock/Razor Fang is an incredible item as it gives Cloyster basically a 41% chance to flinch down opposing Pokemon with 0 drawback, combined with skill link and a shell smash boost under its belt then Cloyster basically has multiple chances of trying to flinch down its checks and win the game outright. StatPass shouldnt be obvious to explain as passing boosts like Shell Smash to something like Metagross or Nidoking basically breaks the whole game entirely as they're naturally very strong and fast after receiving a pass. This was banned a while ago but i just wanted to put this out because i didnt officially announced it yet and also since this will be the last time i touch on Statpass as a topic apart from fun tournaments in the future that can potentially feature both King's Rock and Statpass, but nothing more than that really.

Edit: Razor Fang is also banned since its the same item as King's Rock


Tbolt

 

[Zer0]

With BW1 OU Open as well as the BW1 Ladder both almost coming to a close, i will be forming VR's and Sample Sets over the next few weeks so stay tuned for that. In the meantime i created a thread that will basically all of the resources for BW1, and while it's in WIP right now, it has most of the speed tiers up right now and it will eventually have all of the resources up as a whole sometime after both BW1 OU Open and the BW1 Ladder have concluded their first run https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/bw1-resources-wip.3746898/

 

[Zer0]

Hey everyone, its been a while but after a month and a half we finally have usage stats to share for BW1 OU from both BW1 Tours and the Ladder that was up for last month. I wanna take a moment to briefly thank everyone for playing this metagame and trying it out, as without yall we would've never had these usage stats at all. Now in this post, ill be going over: the usage stats from both ladder and tour, the Pokemon that had genuinely good usage stats, and what's next for BW1 OU's future. So join me as i try to cover everything here!


Usage Stats:

Ladder Usage Stats

BW1 OU Ladder

Total battles: 3980
Avg. weight/team: 0.159
+ ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Usage %   | Raw    | %       | Real   | %       |
+ ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- +
| 1    | Scizor             | 28.58656% | 1869   | 23.480% | 1454   | 22.879% |
| 2    | Latios             | 27.59264% | 1950   | 24.497% | 1503   | 23.650% |
| 3    | Dragonite          | 22.76927% | 1221   | 15.339% | 877    | 13.800% |
| 4    | Volcarona          | 20.76189% | 1777   | 22.324% | 1280   | 20.141% |
| 5    | Dugtrio            | 19.89116% | 1772   | 22.261% | 1341   | 21.101% |
| 6    | Jirachi            | 18.36905% | 875    | 10.992% | 723    | 11.377% |
| 7    | Ninetales          | 18.28333% | 1631   | 20.490% | 1472   | 23.162% |
| 8    | Tyranitar          | 17.94701% | 1921   | 24.133% | 1701   | 26.766% |
| 9    | Gengar             | 17.29953% | 897    | 11.269% | 687    | 10.810% |
| 10   | Heatran            | 16.71134% | 1583   | 19.887% | 1289   | 20.283% |
| 11   | Starmie            | 15.89289% | 1203   | 15.113% | 943    | 14.838% |
| 12   | Rotom-Wash         | 15.81072% | 1004   | 12.613% | 871    | 13.705% |
| 13   | Deoxys-Defense     | 15.63754% | 990    | 12.437% | 938    | 14.760% |
| 14   | Ferrothorn         | 14.98052% | 1689   | 21.219% | 1467   | 23.084% |
| 15   | Landorus           | 13.84614% | 1288   | 16.181% | 997    | 15.688% |
| 16   | Venusaur           | 13.73475% | 1496   | 18.794% | 1113   | 17.513% |
| 17   | Mamoswine          | 13.23187% | 669    |  8.405% | 548    |  8.623% |
| 18   | Politoed           | 12.91432% | 813    | 10.214% | 741    | 11.660% |
| 19   | Donphan            | 12.35190% | 744    |  9.347% | 618    |  9.724% |
| 20   | Xatu               | 11.08359% | 772    |  9.698% | 631    |  9.929% |
| 21   | Alakazam           | 10.72213% | 1044   | 13.116% | 762    | 11.990% |
| 22   | Skarmory           | 10.49470% | 617    |  7.751% | 513    |  8.072% |
| 23   | Terrakion          | 10.30197% | 986    | 12.387% | 713    | 11.219% |
| 24   | Salamence          | 10.29840% | 666    |  8.367% | 523    |  8.230% |
| 25   | Breloom            |  9.98844% | 558    |  7.010% | 439    |  6.908% |
| 26   | Gliscor            |  9.23239% | 932    | 11.709% | 800    | 12.588% |
| 27   | Forretress         |  9.07675% | 710    |  8.920% | 624    |  9.819% |
| 28   | Magnezone          |  8.51404% | 685    |  8.606% | 520    |  8.182% |
| 29   | Chansey            |  8.16323% | 340    |  4.271% | 278    |  4.374% |
| 30   | Infernape          |  7.69369% | 335    |  4.209% | 272    |  4.280% |
| 31   | Tentacruel         |  7.39811% | 510    |  6.407% | 396    |  6.231% |
| 32   | Cloyster           |  7.13031% | 760    |  9.548% | 514    |  8.088% |
| 33   | Lucario            |  6.69219% | 468    |  5.879% | 343    |  5.397% |
| 34   | Reuniclus          |  6.13852% | 524    |  6.583% | 387    |  6.090% |
| 35   | Jellicent          |  6.05306% | 531    |  6.671% | 431    |  6.782% |
| 36   | Cresselia          |  4.87384% | 218    |  2.739% | 175    |  2.754% |
| 37   | Blissey            |  4.83912% | 237    |  2.977% | 195    |  3.068% |
| 38   | Victini            |  4.72269% | 222    |  2.789% | 182    |  2.864% |
| 39   | Latias             |  4.47210% | 249    |  3.128% | 203    |  3.194% |
| 40   | Bronzong           |  4.30287% | 114    |  1.432% | 84     |  1.322% |
| 41   | Espeon             |  4.19602% | 455    |  5.716% | 321    |  5.051% |
| 42   | Stoutland          |  4.14796% | 265    |  3.329% | 183    |  2.880% |
| 43   | Haxorus            |  4.08196% | 511    |  6.420% | 381    |  5.995% |
| 44   | Abomasnow          |  3.94876% | 259    |  3.254% | 240    |  3.776% |
| 45   | Aerodactyl         |  3.94388% | 149    |  1.872% | 143    |  2.250% |
| 46   | Tornadus           |  3.94381% | 333    |  4.183% | 276    |  4.343% |
| 47   | Celebi             |  3.89769% | 280    |  3.518% | 200    |  3.147% |
| 48   | Hippowdon          |  3.82074% | 260    |  3.266% | 234    |  3.682% |
| 49   | Vaporeon           |  3.11073% | 200    |  2.513% | 152    |  2.392% |
| 50   | Gyarados           |  3.06150% | 404    |  5.075% | 316    |  4.972% |

Tour Usage Stats

BW1 OU Tours

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Latios             |   98 |  47.57% |  53.06% |
| 2    | Tyranitar          |   66 |  32.04% |  45.45% |
| 3    | Scizor             |   57 |  27.67% |  50.88% |
| 4    | Dragonite          |   56 |  27.18% |  53.57% |
| 5    | Jirachi            |   46 |  22.33% |  60.87% |
| 6    | Starmie            |   45 |  21.84% |  53.33% |
| 7    | Deoxys-Defense     |   38 |  18.45% |  55.26% |
| 7    | Ferrothorn         |   38 |  18.45% |  50.00% |
| 9    | Salamence          |   37 |  17.96% |  48.65% |
| 10   | Volcarona          |   36 |  17.48% |  47.22% |
| 11   | Landorus           |   34 |  16.50% |  61.76% |
| 11   | Rotom-Wash         |   34 |  16.50% |  55.88% |
| 13   | Gliscor            |   30 |  14.56% |  40.00% |
| 13   | Dugtrio            |   30 |  14.56% |  33.33% |
| 15   | Cloyster           |   28 |  13.59% |  42.86% |
| 16   | Gengar             |   27 |  13.11% |  59.26% |
| 16   | Ninetales          |   27 |  13.11% |  33.33% |
| 18   | Alakazam           |   26 |  12.62% |  50.00% |
| 18   | Heatran            |   26 |  12.62% |  34.62% |
| 20   | Mamoswine          |   25 |  12.14% |  52.00% |
| 21   | Magnezone          |   24 |  11.65% |  58.33% |
| 22   | Politoed           |   22 |  10.68% |  54.55% |
| 22   | Skarmory           |   22 |  10.68% |  45.45% |
| 24   | Xatu               |   21 |  10.19% |  28.57% |
| 25   | Jellicent          |   20 |   9.71% |  60.00% |
| 25   | Lucario            |   20 |   9.71% |  55.00% |
| 25   | Venusaur           |   20 |   9.71% |  30.00% |
| 28   | Forretress         |   17 |   8.25% |  52.94% |
| 28   | Tentacruel         |   17 |   8.25% |  52.94% |
| 30   | Stoutland          |   16 |   7.77% |  62.50% |
| 31   | Abomasnow          |   15 |   7.28% |  33.33% |
| 32   | Hippowdon          |   14 |   6.80% |  78.57% |
| 32   | Terrakion          |   14 |   6.80% |  50.00% |
| 32   | Breloom            |   14 |   6.80% |  50.00% |
| 32   | Reuniclus          |   14 |   6.80% |  42.86% |
| 36   | Espeon             |   12 |   5.83% |  75.00% |
| 37   | Chansey            |   11 |   5.34% |  63.64% |
| 37   | Donphan            |   11 |   5.34% |  36.36% |
| 39   | Bronzong           |   10 |   4.85% |  60.00% |
| 40   | Tornadus           |    9 |   4.37% |  55.56% |
| 41   | Omastar            |    7 |   3.40% |  71.43% |
| 41   | Gyarados           |    7 |   3.40% |  42.86% |
| 43   | Hitmontop          |    6 |   2.91% |  66.67% |
| 43   | Blissey            |    6 |   2.91% |  33.33% |
| 43   | Latias             |    6 |   2.91% |  33.33% |
| 46   | Drapion            |    4 |   1.94% | 100.00% |
| 46   | Tangrowth          |    4 |   1.94% |  75.00% |
| 46   | Cresselia          |    4 |   1.94% |  50.00% |
| 46   | Haxorus            |    4 |   1.94% |  25.00% |
| 46   | Chandelure         |    4 |   1.94% |  25.00% |
| 51   | Rotom-Mow          |    3 |   1.46% | 100.00% |
| 51   | Celebi             |    3 |   1.46% |  33.33% |
| 51   | Hydreigon          |    3 |   1.46% |  33.33% |
| 51   | Zapdos             |    3 |   1.46% |   0.00% |
| 51   | Gastrodon          |    3 |   1.46% |   0.00% |
| 56   | Empoleon           |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Slowbro            |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Victreebel         |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Victini            |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Ludicolo           |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Kingdra            |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Kabutops           |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Mew                |    2 |   0.97% |  50.00% |
| 56   | Wobbuffet          |    2 |   0.97% |   0.00% |
| 56   | Lilligant          |    2 |   0.97% |   0.00% |
| 56   | Aerodactyl         |    2 |   0.97% |   0.00% |
| 56   | Darmanitan         |    2 |   0.97% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Quagsire           |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Jynx               |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Roserade           |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Mienshao           |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Smeargle           |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Gorebyss           |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Heracross          |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Tauros             |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Toxicroak          |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Feraligatr         |    1 |   0.49% | 100.00% |
| 68   | Infernape          |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Clefable           |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Froslass           |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Vaporeon           |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Kyurem             |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Weavile            |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Conkeldurr         |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |
| 68   | Sandslash          |    1 |   0.49% |   0.00% |

These usage stats were based on both BW1 OU Tours(BW1 OU Open and BW1 OU RoA) and the Ladder(primarily the 1630 usage stats) that was also out for last months RoA Spotlight. When compared to BW2 OU(usage stats from ladder can be found here under "gen5ou-1630.txt" on any of the months, and usage stats from last years BWPL can be found here in addition to the usage from last years smogon classic being here) you can really tell a huge difference in terms of usage stats, such as Ninetales having high usage once again and Dugtrio being so high in usage(compare to BW2 where its non existent) among many other. Moveset usage can be found here to anyone that wonders what move's and items certain Pokemon used on ladder

Recap

So now that we have all of the usage stats out of the way, lets go over a few mons in detail that saw great usage and success from both Tours and Ladder as well as how they shifted from BW2 over to BW1 in terms of viability and surroundings


Scizor

Scizor was arguably insanely dominant, with it becoming #1 in usage on ladder and #3 in usage in tours, when several of its best checks that exist in BW2 (Keldeo, Thundurus-T, Landorus-T, Excadrill, etc) are gone, there's no shocker as to why this ended up happening, considering it also ended BW1 being the #1 Pokemon in usage over 12 years ago. Choice Band Scizor usage has skyrocketed once again and is Scizor's most used set for very good reason, being an incredible Scouter, Pursuiter, and most importantly, one of the best revenge killers in the whole tier all in one slot, making it a very splashable Pokemon as a result of all this. Despite Scizor having a seemingly terrible match-up against sun on paper, in practice it can go two ways, as with Choice Band, it can easily revenge kill every chlorophyll sweeper in addition to it not fearing Dugtrio all that much. Outside of sun, it's still incredible in most MUs as having BP, U-turn, and Pursuit ensures Scizor is not deadweight at all due to how well it performs against most of the tier, being able to take on all of the Dragon and Psychic types in the tier as well as being a great revenge killer against Terrakion. However, CB wasn't Scizor's only used set, as bulky SD scizor has been making a resurgence as evidence by the moveset stats and how it popped up in tour a few times due to the fact that its still an incredible wincon and check to several Pokemon in the metagame, most notably Reuniclus, Gengar, and Latios in addition to Terrakion and Alakazam lacking hp fire among many others that Scizor can check. Having Roost and Leftovers on this set is also incredible as it allows Scizor to fully maximize its longevity throughout a game and not get worn down so easily when trying to check threats. One shall not forget classic Scarf and Offensive SD sets as they saw good usage throughout tour and ladder, with Offensive SD sets having really strong performances in particular as it allows Scizor to go ruthless with max attack and speed as well as either Life Orb or various Gem's such as Steel Gem or Fighting Gem. In short, Scizor is very incredible in BW1 and 100% deserves to be among one of the best Pokemon's in the metagame, with it at best tying with Latios for being the single best Pokemon in the metagame.

Dragonite

Dragonite has had incredible usage stats as of now, with it being at #3 and #4 in usage on ladder and tour, respectively. And its easy to see why, mostly coming from the fact that Lando-T is non existent (thus removing one of Dragonite's best checks) and having incredible defensive utility against Sun Offense. Dragon Dance Dragonite is still very dangerous (be it 3 Attacks DD holding Lum/Yache or SubRoost DD) and it apperciates gems being unbanned due to the fact that it's DD set can be incredibly devastating with Dragon Gem Outrage, but Choice Band Dragonite in particular is arguably one of the best breakers in the whole metagame, capable of breaking huge holes in slower teams while also being able to have great offensive utility against many faster threats such as Latios and Chlorophyll sweepers with its banded Extreme Speed, among others. In general, Dragonite is very powerful and it appreciates a few metagame changes that were brought on about BW1 in comparison to BW2, which potentially makes it even more insane as a result.

Jirachi

Jirachi had very good usage throughout the 2 tours and ladder, coming in at 5th and 6th respectively. This is largely due to the fact that the main 3 grounds of BW2 OU (Garchomp, Excadrill, and Landorus-T) aren't present in this metagame, making Jirachi a much better Pokemon as a result despite Landorus-Incarnate existing. It mostly has been running SpDef or Scarf, but with just those 2 sets it can anchor its team against the scariest pokemon in the metagame, such as against Latios, Reuniclus, and Alakazam while still being good into other Pokemon such as Gengar and Starmie. Scarf Jirachi is incredible at revenge killing faster threats that the SpDef set can struggle against, such as Salamence, Lucario, Scizor, Dragonite, and even Landorus-Incarnate lacking Scarf itself, among other notable threats. Other sets such as Mixed and various CM sets(Superrachi and SubCM most notably) are probably worth running too if they end up getting optimized.

Lucario

Lucario has had strong performances as well, including being the most used fighting-type in both BW1 Tours combined as well as having much better usage stats on Ladder in comparasion to BW2 OU, which is expected considering half of its checks from BW2 OU are completely non existent in BW1 OU, in addition to TechLoom and Keldeo not giving it competition at all due to them not existing as well. As always, Lucario's main claim to fame and what carries its success is its Swords Dance set which defines how its played in nearly every single game state and its speed tier is quite valuable too, as outspeeding Timid Heatran by one point means that it cant stop Lucario's sweep unless if it runs scarf itself. After an SD it can completely sweep and rip through teams like nothing on route to winning the game, as slower Pokemon completely get destroyed by Close Combat while faster Pokemon get cleaved by Extreme Speed. Its coverage is great too despite it having 4MSS since it can pick and choose which checks to invalidate such as Ice Punch for Gliscor, Crunch for Jellicent and Reuniclus, or Bullet Punch for Terrakion, Gengar, and Scarf Tyranitar. Having incredible typing(granting it a 4x stealth rock resistances as well as an immunity to both Sandstorm and Toxic in addition to it having so many resistances for it to take advantage of to grab setup opportunities) is generally great too and its also one of the few pokemon that can afford to run Life Orb consistently without much drawback as a result.

Heatran

Heatran has had great success, clocking in at #10 on Ladder as well as #18 in both BW1 OU Tours and its easy to see why this is the case. The influx of sun offense has made Heatran much better as a Pokemon, as it naturally counters most of their Pokemon; despite having a poor MU into Dugtrio, it can still work around this through techs like Substitute and Shed Shell. Heatran has also been seeing a lot of usage on Sun itself since it naturally is a great Pokemon on such teams thanks to multiple factors, including: giving sun a crucial steel-type to help against Latios, sun weakening water type attacks aimed at it, and it being able to run trapping sets to ruin Politoed and Tyranitar trying to change the weather. Heatran is also able to run several great items to success, Air Balloon is the standard as it provides Heatran a nice temporary ground immunity, and makes trapping it with Dugtrio a hard task; but Choice Scarf has been resurging once again as this completely allows Heatran to immediately revenge kill Dugtrio. Other items such as classic Leftovers and even Grass Gem are also fantastic as well, with leftovers providing heatran a source of longevity while Grass Gem alongside HP Grass can allow Heatran to immediate trap Politoed, thus helping win the weather war; as well as trap Pokemon like Gastrodon and Slowbro to enable physical attackers like Terrakion and Mamoswine. Because of all this and the many other excellent traits that Heatran brings to table on just about most teams, Heatran is arguably one of the best Pokemon in the metagame and it will be great to see it get more optimization and adapatation as time goes on., such as possibly SpecsTran being optimized!

Volcarona and Sun

Grouping these 2 together since they're almost tied to each other and ill go over each individually, but both volc and sun as a whole has been seeing insane success. Starting off is Volcarona, Volcarona was already a insane Pokemon but it's just downright ridiculous in this metagame because of so many factors that pushes it close (if not) to being broken in many players eyes. Perma Sun, Gems and Dugtrio support... Yea, its just entirely ridiculous. On top of this, 2 incredible checks to Volc in BW2: Garchomp and Keldeo, aren't present in BW1. So with all of this in mind and how much else Volcarona already does, there's absolutely no surprise that Volcarona is possibly considered broken in this metagame and should at least be A+/S- on the VR. Ninetales has been seeing a great deal of success unlike in BW2 and its all because of one thing: Drought. While Drought exists in BW2 already, it isn't as good there because sun as a whole is generally terrible, However, Arena Trap and Chlorosun are unbanned in this format, which makes sun way better as a whole, making it actually worth using now with these regained tools to help out. Sleep being unbanned also gives Ninetales and Venusaur the ability to abuse Gen5's Sleep Mechanics on the occasion they can fit sleep moves, giving sun even more utility as a whole.

Salamence

Salamence had a great deal of success on Ladder and in both BW1 OU Tours as it came in at #24 on ladder and #9 in both tours respectively, with its Tour usage being the most impressive. Salamence's Choice Scarf set was made even better by the lack of ScarfChomp for competition and by checks like Keldeo and Lando-T not being present in this Metagame, thus making Mence an insanely good revenge killer since it can use its decent natural bulk, good typing, and good speed to check threats like Volcarona and Gengar, among others, while being able to snowball out of control into an unstoppable late game sweeper. Of course Choice Scarf isnt Salamence's only set, Dragon Dance and MixMence have been popping up once again to amazing success as well, further giving Salamence great set variety. As a result, Salamence is very great in this metagame despite the competition with Dragonite, and it will also be great to see it get more optimization and adaptation as time goes on.


Gengar

Gengar had possibly some of the best success and usage stats than its ever seen in the last several years of Gen5 as a whole, clocking in at #9 and #16 on Ladder and in both BW1 OU Tours, respectively, which also means that it was used more times than Jellicent, considering its usage is way lower than that of Gengar's. This is largely due to the fact that Deo-D is in the tier now, which alone skyrockets Gengar's usage all the way up from where it is in BW2 OU. Deo-D teams can utilize Gengar's great offensive stats and utility to superb results, since it as an offensive spinblocker that synergizes and pairs well with Deo-D. Being very effective at blocking Rapid Spin from Forre and Donphan, due to their inability to hurt Gengar and Gengar's ability to threaten both of them back, which HO needs a lot. Gengar is also quite fast for the tier, as it most notably outspeeds Terrakion, Infernape, Volcarona, Salamence, and speed ties Lati@s, making it genuinely good vs offense. Gengar's item flexability and set variety are good too, as for items, it normally runs Black Sludge to help out against passive damage and to get some longevity, but it's also been running Ghost Gem, Life Orb, and it can run a great number of sets such as SubDisable, SubSplit, Taunt Wisp, Choice Scarf, and more!

Terrakion

Terrakion is seeing even better success. Despite not being close to Top 10 in usage, it was still the 2nd most used fighting-type in both BW1 OU Tours and the most used fighting-type on Ladder; and when your best check, Landorus-T, isnt present in the metagame, that's exactly what will end up happening. Without Lando-T around, Terrakion is arguably one of the most dangerous offensive pokemon in the metagame and perhaps might be a bit too much for the metagame thanks to basically no Intimidate, since Gyarados and Salamence are both weak to Rock. Choice Scarf Terrakion has been seeing a huge amount of success on ladder, mostly for its insane speed that lets it act as one of the best revenge killers in the Metagame, as it notably outspeeds Modest Chlorophyll Venusaur in sun and +2 Adamant Dragonite, among others such as Scarf Salamence and Scarf Landorus-Incarnate. Good ol' Choice Band Terrakion is still an incredible breaker due to its speed as well as its immense strength and the sets made even better with the fact that it doesnt have to content with Landrous-T in this metagame, allowing Terrakion to not have to worry about Intimidate as much and thus freely spam its STABs with much more ease. Terrakion also heavily appreciates Gems being unbanned as now it can run Rock Gem and Fighting Gem on Swords Dance sets again to insane results, letting it completely overwhelm its checks such as Gliscor and Hippowdon respectively, among others. Overall though, thanks to everything listed above, Terrakion is one of the best offensive Pokemon's in the metagame despite its lower usage stats and hopefully that ends up changing in the future.

Landorus-Incarnate and Deoxys-Defense

Expectations were high when these 2 ended up getting free'd, and oh boy did they succeeded hard. This is arguably perhaps the only OU metagame to have Lando-I unbanned, as it's been banned from nearly every single OU metagame, and this is also the only OU metagame to have Deo-D unbanned in a metagame without HDB's. With all of that said, both have been completely excelling on Sand teams and Weatherless teams, respectively, and it's not hard to see why this is the case, Lando-I is a complete monster of an offensive Pokemon and is the definition of why Sand Force is a busted ability in a metagame with Perma Sand, it pretty much can run whatever set (Choice Scarf, Expert Belt, Smack Down + HP Ice, Leftovers pivot, Double Dance, etc) and be insane no matter what. Deo-D is arguably the best lead in the metagame thanks to its decent speed, access to dual hazards, and multiple forms of counterplay to the Pokemon that try to thwart its hazard stacking antics, such as Skill Swap for Xatu/Espeon and Magic Coat for faster leads like Aerodactyl, it can run several items to good results as well (Mental Herb, Rocky Helmet, Colbur Berry, various Gems such as Electric and Psychic, and even Life Orb with just one hazard and 3 attacks to punish most of the spinners/hazard setters), it is generally so good that despite Deo-D teams being weatherless, they're just on par with weather teams in how effective they truly are in the metagame.

Honorable Mention

I wanna give an honorable mention to Infernape, despite not having much tour usage at all, it was at #30 in usage stats on Ladder, which overall isn't that terrible. This is mostly due to its speed and powerful STABs, backed by its good coverage, as well as being a fighting type with access to U-turn, something that most relevant fighting types in the tier lack. While mixed ape isnt gonna have a good mu into rain, it does have an alright mu into non rain(sand, sun, potientially hail, and opposing weatherless), though It mostly was using Scarf from the moveset stats, which seems reasonable considering how much of a burden life orb recoil can be for it, and Infernapes great speed can allow it to be an effecitve choice scarfer that also has access to u-turn, though ebelt/leftover sets might pop up in the future if mixed Infernape is ever optimized properly, since it can certainly have some potential against non rain teams due to its offenses and speed.


Whats Next?

Now that we got all of the usage stats, I can comfortably say that I'm going to start trying to work on getting out VRs, sample teams, and what not over the next few weeks, since we now have all of the data on what Mons were used or not and how well they performed. Outside of resources we will eventually be hosting more BW1 Tournaments in the future, we might end up hosting another tour next month or so because of how much success this format has gotten, but most importantly is the fact that we will have all of the resources up before we end up starting up a new tour and such. We kinda rushed through this quickly so I apologize if the last 2 tours were a bit off, but hopefully this doesnt happen next time. As for now in the meantime, BW1 OU is now a permanently challengeable format, so if you wanna go ahead and challenge friends to battles then feel free to do so, or if you want friendlies then feel free to join the Discord! Anyways, thats all I have for now, I wanna thank everyone for the support towards BW1 OU, I couldnt have gotten here without yall and here's hope that we continue to keep this up!