Metagame [Gen 9] Modern Gen 2

[anique]

Nog Blog #13: A Complete Beginners Guide to Understanding Modern Gen 2
Hi. This thread will give you all the information, and probably much more than you would like, that you can learn about MG2. We are planning on holding a tournament hopefully sometime soon, and this is mainly a resource for new and returning players to understand the mechanics and the metagame. Most of this "nog blog" will be in relation to how the mechanics work: even the teambuilding section will outline how to build teams in relations to the mechanics of the meta. This will be broken into several sections, and I'll put a brief table of contents here if there's sections you are only interested in reading. If there is one section you read, I would suggest reading the part on the mg2 specific mechanics. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in our discord or dm me.

Table of Contents (I cannot believe I am writing a table of contents for a smogon post)
1. MG2 Resources
2. A brief introduction to Modern Gen 2
3. Important mechanics to understand in Modern Gen 2
3a. gen 2 mechanics
3b. mg2 specific mechanics (IMPORTANT)
4. The current state of the Modern Gen 2 metagame
4a. How the current mechanics play into the metagame, ways of making progress, etc.
4b. Teambuilding and team structures as a result of the mechanics
4c. Understanding the VR as a result of those mechanics. Why are those Pokemon ranked so highly/lowly?
4d. Is anything broken? Things to watch out for?
5. Conclusion

1. Modern Gen 2 Resources
Discord Link: HERE
Challenge Command: Because we are not an official metagame, we don't have a nice button to click on the main Showdown server to send challenges. This also makes teambuilding more difficult but I will go into that later. However, you can play a game of MG2 by just copy and pasting the challenge command below in a DM to your opponent.

Challenge Command

/challenge gen2customgame @@@ -Alakazite, -Baton Pass, -Fake Out, -Last Respects, -Shell Smash, -Soul Dew, -Annihilape, -Arceus, -Calyrex-Ice, -Calyrex-Shadow, -Darkrai, -Deoxys-Base, -Deoxys-Attack, -Deoxys-Speed, -Dialga, -Dragapult, -Eternatus, -Giratina, -Groudon, -Ho-oh, -Iron Bundle, -Iron Valiant, -Koraidon, -Kyogre, -Kyurem-White, -Lugia, -Lunala, -Magearna, -Manaphy, -Marshadow, -Mewtwo, -Miraidon, -Naganadel, -Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, -Necrozma-Dawn-Wings, -Palkia, -Pheromosa, -Rayquaza, -Regigigas, -Reshiram, -Slaking, -Solgaleo, -Tapu Koko, -Volcarona, -Xerneas-*, -Yveltal, -Zacian, -Zamazenta, -Zekrom, -Zeraora, -Zygarde, +Deoxys-Defense, +Zygarde 10%, -all abilities, +No Ability, Sleep Clause Mod, Evasion Clause, OHKO Clause, Endless Battle Clause, !! Max Move Count = 4, !! Max Level = 100, !! Max Team Size = 6, Obtainable Formes

Dragon Haven Link: HERE. On the Dragon Heaven side server, we do have a builder and button you can click to challenge someone.

Modern Gen 2 Unique Mechanics Google Doc: HERE.

Sample Teams:
Volcanion HO by R8 -
Slowking Balance by anique -
Talonflame Balance (OUTDATED) by Noglastica -
zap jelli by qsns -

Damage Calculator Resources:
Blank Calc Set Import - Paste this into the normal damage calc. This option is not perfect as damage as calculated slightly differently in gen 2 as it is in gen 9, so you can get marginally different results, though nothing notable. You also do need to make manual changes for move power, however, like changing fire blast from 120bp to 110. An alternative, but longer, method that will give slightly more precise results is using the Gen 2 damage calc and changing typing/base stats.

The easiest option is using HelloDex found here. This is super convenient for mg2 but also has a few issues. The worst, and most notable one, is that fairy typing just does not work. Offensive fairy moves and defensive fairy typing will just not show a result, so that needs to be done in the normal calc. A way around this is just manually removing the offending mon's fairy typing in the Hellodex calculator. Another thing to note is that some of the calcs may be wrong. They are 99% of the time correct, but I have seen it get Foul Play calcs wrong before, so I can't guarantee it's success.

2. A Brief Introduction to Modern Gen 2
Modern Generation 2 is essentially just Generation 9 National Dex played in Generation 2. The main differences are a lack of abilities, no 508 EV cap, and the physical special split. These will be discussed in the upcoming mechanics section, you can envision MG2 as a blend between Gen 2 OU and Nat Dex. There are some unique quirks that arise when important newer generation moves and items into Generation 2, but we believe these are all healthy and enjoyable aspects of the metagame.

3. Important Modern Gen 2 Mechanics
a. Generation 2 Mechanics:
If you have a solid understanding of the GSC OU Mechanics, you can skip this section and just read the important Modern Gen 2 specific mechanics. If not, welcome to your introduction of basic GSC mechanics!

An important note: any move or item that exists in GSC works the same way in Modern Gen 2. Things only get funky when they come from the later gens and get important into Gen 2.

Probably the most important thing to know about Generation 2 (GSC) is that there are no abilities! For better or worse, this makes it easier to understand every Pokemon. In Modern Gen 2, this can be good or bad. Take Tyranitar for example: it no longer has sand stream, which makes it much less useful for teams. On the other hand, something like Archeops loses its horrible ability in defeatist, making it much more viable in MG2. It's important to remember this when team building, but it's very easy to forget. If you want to use Aegislash, you need to remember it's always going to be stuck in its shield form.

The second most important thing to know about GSC is there is a physical special split. In Generation 4-9, moves can be physical or special. Flame Charge is a physical fire type attack, while Flamethrower is a special fire type attack. In Generation 1-3, this is not the case. For MG2, every single fire type is a special type attack.

Physical: Ground, Rock, Flying, Steel, Ghost, Normal, Fighting, Poison, Bug, Fairy (there is no Fairy in standard GSC)
Special: Fire, Water, Grass, Psychic, Dark, Electric, Ice, Dragon

Don't be overwhelmed! It's very easy to remember which is which. If you can remember all the eevolution types, and then add dragon, those are all special types, with fairy being the exception. If it does not have an eevolution (with dragon as the exception), then it's a physical type attack. Just like having no abilities, this makes certain Pokemon stronger or weaker. Walking Wake has a higher special attack stat, so it benefits from getting a special flip turn, rather than a physical flip turn. Weavile has a very high attack stat, but it is horrible in MG2 because both of its STAB dark and ice attacks are special.

The final very important Gen 2 mechanic is that there is no 508 EV cap. This means every Pokemon can, and should, bring 252 EVs in every stat. You don't actually have to EV your Pokemon, leaving them at 0 EVs in every stat automatically sets them to 252 when you enter battle.

Those are the main three mechanics, and if you can remember those, you're in a good spot with understanding the tier. But, I've included some others which are important below, and I have an even less important section below that if you're curious.

Other Important GSC Mechanics:
- GSC has only one layer of spikes maximum, which deals 1/8 (12.5%) of the Pokemon's health when they switch in
- Defog does not remove hazards in MG2
- 999 Stat Limit: In Generation 2, Pokemon cannot boost past the 999 stat limit. For example, Latias can boost up to +5 speed at 1113, but it cannot boost to +6 as the 1113 is past the 999 threshold.
- Sleep talk can use rest. This is one of the reasons that sleep talk is used so much in GSC OU. However, it does reset your rest counter back to 0. If you are put to sleep through a move like hypnosis or sing, and use sleep talk which pulls rest, it will work and then reset your rest counter.
- Roar and Whirlwind fail if they are not the last move used on the turn. Unlike in new generations, if two Pokemon use roar, the slower roar will actually force out the faster roar. An important thing to note is that Roar and Whirlwind have -1 priority, while later phasing moves like Dragon Tail have -6 priority, so Roar will always fail when used against a -2 or lower priority move.
- Badly poison and normal poison mechanics work differently. A poisoned Pokemon will take 1/8 damage every turn. A badly poisoned Pokemon will take 1/16 damage every turn, and then add 1/16 every following turn. However, if that Pokemon switches out and switches back in, it will become normal poison and deal damage accordingly.
- Pertaining to critical hits: If the attackers Attack / Special Attack stat is equal to or less than the opponent's Defense / Special Defense, any attack or defense boosts will be ignored on a critical hit, as well as reflect / light screen and burn. If the Attack / Special Attack stat is higher than the opponents Defense / Special Defense stat, nothing is ignored. ex. Machamp landing a +0 Crit against a Starmie behind Reflect does more damage than if Machamp was at +1 attack.
- Explosion and Self-Destruct halve their opponents defense (you can treat them as 2x power for a nearly identical damage prediction)
- Electric types can be paralyzed through Thunder Wave and secondary effects off electric moves like Thunder.
- Steel resists both ghost and dark type moves.

Less Important GSC Mechanics:
Most of these following examples, and the previous critical hit description, were taken from this thread as I am not an expert on every single GSC intricacy. However, I have organized them on most to least important, so once you get to a mechanic that you say "I don't need to know this" then feel free to move on to the MG2 mechanics as they will only get less relevant.

- Hidden Powers are physical / special based on their typing. Hidden Power fire is special, while Hidden Power rock is physical. However, because Hidden Power itself is a normal move that gets modified, so if you use counter against any special Hidden Power, it will still be countered.
- Residual damage is dealt immediately after moving, but it is not dealt if the affected Pokemon KO's the opposing Pokemon. The exception to this is sandstorm. If I have a burned Pokemon but I kill their Pokemon, I do not take burned damage. However, if I attack them while burned and do not KO them, I immediately take the burn damage before they move (assuming I am faster.) This is important because if I die to residual damage, the turn immediately ends, even if you used a recovery move or something else.
- Sandstorm does 1/8th damage per turn instead of 1/16th. It also does not give a spdf boost to rock types.
- Morning Sun restores to full HP always in sun.
- Sleep lasts from 1-6 turns, rest is two turns.
- Taunt lasts for 2 turns
- Encore lasts for 3-6 turns. Encore also does not work against sleep talk.
- Frozen Pokemon can't move on the turn they thaw out.
- You cannot use protect from behind a substitute.
- There is an overflow mechanic where if stats go over 999 they will overflow back around and give you 13 attack or something horrible. This is just something you have to worry about with Marowak (who is bad) and using reflect / light screen while boosting that defense / special defense stat (not very relevant).

Snorlax Double-Edge vs. +1 Skarmory: 36-43 (10.8 - 12.9%)
Snorlax Double-Edge vs. +1 Skarmory through Reflect: 188-222 (56.4 - 66.6%)

- IVs are instead called DVs and range from 1-15 instead of 1-31.
- Mean Look goes through Substitute
- Absorbing moves like Giga Drain and Leech seed fail against substitute.
- If you use Belly Drum below 50% HP, it will say it fails, but will still raise your Attack to +2.
- Quick Claw gives your Pokemon a 23.4375% (60 / 256) chance of ignoring Speed and going first within your speed bracket.

b. Modern Gen 2 Specific Mechanics
Well now that all the Generation 2 exclusive mechanics are out of the way, now it's time to learn what is different between Gen 2 and Modern Gen 2. The most important thing to know about Modern Gen 2 is that moves and items are imported to MG2 in their earliest form. In Generation 4, the grass move Energy Ball was introduced with 80bp. In Generation 6-9, it was increased to 90bp. However, in Modern Gen 2, it still is 80bp because that is its earliest form. If you can remember this, you know how 99% of all moves work in MG2. Moves that already exist in Gen 2 like Fire Blast are the exact same in MG2 as GSC OU.

There are a few other very important differences though. The most important difference is that Air Balloon does not pop. What?? We were shocked to find this out, but it's true! Air Balloon works the exact same as it does in the current gen, except it does not pop when hit normally. It can be knocked or stolen as normal, but there are only two other ways to remove Air Balloon. If the Pokemon with Air Balloon uses Substitute, and the Substitute is hit, then the Air Balloon will be popped. The two moves in the entire game that actually do pop Air Balloon are future sight and doom desire, though neither get STAB and both have a chance of missing. This is our weird mechanic.

My favorite mechanic of the tier is that Heavy-Duty Boots do NOT ignore spikes and toxic spikes. In my opinion, current generation boots are way too strong and getting to completely ignore all hazards completely removes an entire aspect of the game which is hazard stacking and hazard removal. In Modern Gen 2, Heavy-Duty Boots ignore rocks and webs, but still get hit by spikes and toxic spikes. Rock weak Pokemon are still viable as they can run boots, but they don't get to ignore spikes as well. Pokemon that don't care about taking rock damage (mainly steel types) benefit greatly from Balloon as they can ignore spikes, toxic spikes, and webs, while also maintaining a ground attack immunity.

These are the main two mechanics you need to know. We have a google doc with additional mechanic changes linked here. I will include a few more of the other important mechanics here.
- Choice Items do NOT work. Life Orb also does not give a damage boost, but it does still give recoil.
- Fairy type is physical, as mentioned in the GSC mechanic section. Fire types also do NOT resist fairy.
- Mega Evolutions serve as a one type boost, and are NOT visual. Stat changes work as normal, as do type changes, but if you switch out, you will lose both the stat and type changes for the rest of the battle. Megas also work under the Generation 6 mega speed mechanic.
- Everyone's favorite mechanic: scald will not burn water types! You finally have a scald switch in. Secondary effects that apply status will not work against Pokemon of the same type. Scald will not burn vs waters, flamethrower will not burn vs fire, and ice beam will not freeze vs ice.
- Everyone's least favorite mechanic: Status moves that inflict status conditions will not be blocked by Pokemon of the same type. Thunder wave will hit electric types and Wisp will hit fire types.
- Psychic Noise works as in DPP: it lasts for 5 turns where heal moves cannot be selected. It does not block rest called from sleep talk, and it does not block leftovers recovery.
- If a pivot move KO's an opponent's Pokemon, instead of having to select your Pokemon first, you actually both have to send your Pokemon out at the same time.
- Flame Charge does not give a speed boost if you KO the Pokemon with it
- Foul Play is now a special type move, so it deals damage off the opponents special attack instead of attack
- Ivy-Cudgel is always a grass type move (bad)
- First Impression can be used every turn, not just the first turn you switch in on, and it always keeps its priority.

4. Current State of the Modern Gen 2 Metagame
a. How the mechanics play into the metagame
That's quite a lot of mechanics. Now, how do these GSC and MG2 mechanics change the tier from just being NatDex with different sprites?

Well, as mentioned during the GSC section, the physical/special split makes certain Pokemon much less viable if their STABs do not match their own stats, e.g., Weavile. It also can end up changing the roles of Pokemon as well. The prime example of this is Gholdengo. Like Weavile, Gholdengo's stats do not match its typing at all. Both steel and ghost are physical, while Gholdengo has only 60atk and 133spa. Normally this would sentence Gholdengo to MG2 NU, but it is actually still very strong due to a combination of GSC and MG2 mechanics. The most important is that Air Balloon cannot be popped, meaning that it loses its ground immunity forever. It also benefits from Gen 2 steel typing mechanics where steel resists dark and ghost, making Gholdengo neutral to them. If Gholdengo still has its Air Balloon, it has 4 immunities, 9 resists, 4 neutrals, and only 1 weakness, fire. Combined with a 32 pp recovery, electric types getting hit by its thunder wave, and a max EV meta where it can run 252 HP, 252 Def, and 252 Spdf, Gholdengo goes from an incredibly powerful sweeper in SV and Gen9 ND into the best defensive wall in MG2, even if it still has a poor movepool.

The maximum EV bulk meta of Modern Gen 2, combined with its unique mechanics, ends up blending the tier into an incredibly balanced format. While you might at first think stall would be too powerful with high pp recovery moves, sleep talk pulling rests, wisp and twave hitting both fire and electric types respectively, combined with maximum EV bulk and boots no longer ignoring spikes, it might be too difficult for offensive teams to break through in a timely manner. However, offensive teams ALSO have maximum EV bulk, giving them more opportunities to set up and sweep. Teams that are too passive are unable to deal with bulky setup sweepers, or meaningfully punish offensive Pokemon. Pivot moves are also present, and maintaining constant pressure prevents fatter teams from ever getting to click their recovery moves. The prominence of explosion dealing 2x the damage also gives offensive teams an incredibly reliable way to break through stall.

The next section will talk more in depth about the different team structures and how they each seek to use the generation mechanics to their own advantage.

b. Teambuilding and Team Structures
The first issue to tackle is how to actually make a team! Lots of new players don't actually know where to build a team for MG2. The easiest way in my experience is just building in National Dex Ubers. It will automatically change your EVs to all maximum 252 when you load these teams into games. REMEMBER: THERE ARE NO ABILITIES IN MG2. In order for your team to validate, you must manually change each Pokemon's ability to "no ability." I literally played no other tier but Modern Gen 2 for two years and when I tried to play other tiers I kept instinctively changing abilities to "no ability." If you want to avoid being like me, you can also just build in a GSC builder so you don't have to manually enter "no ability." I would not suggest this because it says every move and Pokemon is illegal and you can very easily be disqualified by bringing an illegal moveset. People still make fun of me for bringing earthquake + ice beam Dragapult ONE TIME. Just build in ND Ubers.

Now, onto the actual team structures. I wrote a more in-depth guide on teambuilding several months ago so it might be a little bit dated, but for the most part its still true. You can find it here.

I won't really go into teambuilding and cores, but just give an overview of many of the same playstyles and thinks you need to watch out for with each playstyle.

Hyper Offense
None of these structures are "unique" to MG2 for the most part. Hyper Offense here is like Hyper Offense in other tiers. However, as there is no choice items or life orb to boost your power with. In fact, our only boosting items are the 1.1x items like charcoal and the 1.5x boosted Normal Gem (the other gems are banned.) Hazards are still important for Hyper Offense, as with every team. Building up chip damage combined with pivot moves is a great way to keep up momentum and eventually break through fat cores. Explosion is not a "must-bring" on hyper offense, but it is incredibly useful. Don't forget, if you use explosion on an opponent, even if you don't get to KO them that turn, they don't get to recover as the turn ends before they use their move. Setting up is also great because you're abusing the maximum EV bulk you get to give you more opportunities to set up, and make it harder for opponents to revenge you.

Notable Pokemon on Hyper Offense: Blacephalon, Iron Boulder, Shaymin-Sky.
Blacephalon: Incredibly powerful mixed attacker that has strong physical shadow ball and strong special fire blast. It also has explosion!
Iron Boulder: One of the most threatening sweepers in the tier as not much can wall it and even less can revenge it.
Shaymin-Sky: Its speed tier allows it to be one of the few Pokemon in the tier that can outspeed and revenge Iron Boulder. It also is one of the few options offense can run to more reliably deal with Walking Wake.

Fire Spam
This is another form of Hyper Offense but it's notable enough to deserve its own category. Though it's definitely fallen off, Fire Spam is by far the easiest team to build. Due to the prominence of steels who abuse air balloon and have their additional two resistances in ghost and dark, fire spam teams just look to overwhelm the fire type checks on a team and capitalize on a now fire-weak team. Just make sure you're not too weak defensively.

Notable Pokemon on Fire Spam: Heatran, Iron Moth, Volcanion
Heatran: One of the best options for fire spam as it gets to set rocks, have respectable defensive utility with its air balloon, trap a Pokemon with magma storm, and then boom.
Iron Moth: Iron Moth is incredibly powerful, and its most common set runs sunny day which gives good synergy for your teammates (Morning Sun restores to full HP in sun + Solar Beam.)
Volcanion: An explosion fire type that doesn't let rock types switch in and resist its explosion.

Bulky Offense
What used to be the most common playstyle but has now fallen out of favor a bit, bulky offense attempts to have more of a defensive core than Hyper Offense while still exerting offensive pressure. This style sacrifices usually some speed for more bulk. In matchups against more offensive teams, Bulky Offense will try to use its superior bulk to outlast and out-trade the opposing team. Against bulkier teams, bulky offense will attempt to end games earlier by breaking through cores, though usually not by using explosion in contrast to hyper offense.

Notable Pokemon on Bulky Offense: Melmetal, Slither Wing, Walking Wake
Melmetal: What I have always called the quintessential Bulky Offense mon, Melmetal combines great bulk (air balloon with rest talk) and offensive pressure (double iron bash + thunder wave).
Slither Wing: Solid bulk, good offensive STAB typing, setup potential, and priority First Impression to help revenge for slower teams.
Walking Wake: I want it to be known I am fighting the urge to put Walking Wake for every notable Pokemon. However, Wake is especially great on bulky offense because it has respectable bulk, while also providing a good speed tier and immense offensive pressure through STABs + Flip Turn.

Balance
I hear this is what all the smart and handsome people use. Balance tries to combine the best of both worlds: maintaining offensive pressure while also having an incredibly solid defensive core. I think balance is the hardest to build as you need to have a very strong defensive core using less mons than stall, while also covering all your bases offensively and ensure progress while using less mons than pure offense. Balance is where we start seeing much more status, psychic noise, hazards, and knock off. This is also where teams start caring more about hazard removal.

Notable Pokemon on Balance: Empoleon, Iron Treads, Mew
Empoleon: I know I'm going to get clowned for this because I'm one of the few Empoleon believers, but Empoleon fits the bill (pun intended (it's a penguin)) for balance. It has great defensive utility with roost, haze, roar, and knock off, while also providing some offensive presence through flip turn, hydro pump/scald, and ice beam.
Iron Treads: Another great option that provides solid defensive utility through its typing while also getting to spin. Knock + Earthquake can also be very annoying to switch into.
Mew: I said I was giong to avoid putting Wake for every teamstyle, but Mew actually can fit in every style. It's the best mon in the tier and gets almost every move, so I can't describe everything it does. That being said, its main set is Psychic Noise + Wisp for offensive pressure while also cripping physical attackers defensively, Soft-Boiled for longevity, and its last is flexible, usually using spikes as there are not that many good spikers in the tier.

Fat/Stall
What people think of when they think of GSC. Stall is good, I'm not going to lie and say it's bad, but just like in GSC OU, it's not as consistent as people think. It's strength is that there are plenty of options to build with on stall, though its weakness is that it's the most "checklist" style of building. On stall, you need both spikes and rocks, that much is non-negotiable. Rapid spin is very useful, as is spinblocking an opposing rapid spin. Applying status (wisp or poison) is important for applying some offensive pressure as well. Denying setup is needed, so something like haze or phasing is important as well (phasing still loses to lastmon scenarios.)
Notable Pokemon on Stall: Gholdengo, Gliscor, and Starmie
The glisc-mie-gho core is pretty infamous on stall as of late and I wanted to briefly mention that.
Gholdengo: As mentioned previously, this is the best defensive wall in the game. It's great against physical attackers, and you can pair it with blissey for all your special attacking needs. Its only physical weakness is getting knocked and hit by earthquake, something its teammate can deal with reliably.
Gliscor: Provides hazards and knock for more progress, while also switching into the knock + earthquakes that gholdengo can't.
Starmie: Though it has only mediocre bulk and a middling spa stat, it can spin and apply status. Its also annoying with its 32pp recover.

c. Understanding the VR
So those are the types of teams and some of the Pokemon that they have on them. Now when we look at the VR with our understanding of not only teambuilding, but also MG2 mechanics, it makes much more sense as to why certain Pokemon are being ranked where they are. I'm going to link the most recent VR 4.0 here if you want to look. This might be outdated when you're reading it, but for now it's all we got. Looking at the highest ranked Pokemon, I've already mentioned most of them during the previous team structure section, so I won't go into those. Certain Pokemon like Latios are naturally good due to their stats, but work well in MG2 because of their flexibility on sets and team composition, but also work well into some of the team comps. Latios has the option to pivot with Flip Turn, apply status in Thunder Wave, has powerful STABs and a very useful Psychic Noise to restrict fatter teams, not to mention a good speed tier.

You'll also notice lots of typing trends. There's lots of steel types who abuse air balloon, and as a result, there's lots of fire types who try to punish that. To combat that, there's lots of water types as well to protect the fires. Outside of garchomp who is present on the VR because they have spikes, the only other highly ranked ground types all have knock off in order to deal with air balloon.

d. What is Broken?
Well... the only two Pokemon that have any real discussion are Mew and Walking Wake. While Mew is better, I think Wake has the stronger argument to be banned. Very little can check it, it's 4x resist against fire + water STAB + speed tier makes it great against offensive teams. Offense's only real defensive check for it has recently been Skymin, but that is much less reliable than people think. Against fat teams, you can apply pressure and break witih knock + flip turn. This is a mon that I am actually on the fence about. Mew on the other hand, while it is better, I don't think deserves a ban. It's incredibly annoying to deal with both offensively and defensively, but there feels like more outplay. Even if on paper it's awful to deal with, in practice it gets chipped and status'd much more easily than Wake.

5. Conclusion
My main conclusion is that Massimo Ranieri is the greatest singer of all time. My other conclusion is that Modern Gen 2 is an incredibly balanced tier that YOU should play. I'll be honest, in ten minutes I'm hitting hour four of writing this, so my brain is more fried than usual. That's why section 4 was so short. I even had a section 5 planned but said nope. My real conclusion? This tier is so awesome. I'm not even kidding every other tier just feels so much worse to me now. I think it's so balanced in terms of viability and playstyle, it has its own unique mechanics that keep it different and fresh from other tiers, but its also still similar enough to other tiers that it's not that difficult to pick up. Some of the most annoying and pointless mechanics in other tiers (namely Heavy-Duty Boots and Regenerator) are no longer present. MG2 to me is the perfect blend of "old-school" oldgen mons while still having the 1000+ Pokemon that is the main appeal of the newer generations.

As a newbie to the modern generation 2 metagame, I will keep this wall of text in mind!

Current State of the Modern Gen 2 Metagame

dead

Anyways obvious facts aside, I want to share my thoughts on this metagame after the esteemed tour smpl. I will admit that this meta has gotten better after pult but there are still some issues that should be looked at (corruption, bad management and questionable council(3mm has not played a game of mg2 since ss) but that will be in another post
Removal
it’s been known by everyone who played this meta that the removal options in this tier is dogshit especially before pult was banned. Even after pult was banned people found new options for spinblocking such as ghold and sinis but mostly ghold. Spinning is nearly almost impossible in this meta with few exceptions
Let me demonstrate all the spinner options in this tier
:starmieStarmie: this mon has been fraud since pult and after pult meta, it can’t reliably spin on any ghost types and struggles to check even stuff like melmetal, gliscor and etc..
Tentacruel: same issue as Starmie, it is awful at spinning into the ghosts the only upside it has over Starmie is that it has better bulk but even then it gets withered down throughout the game with it being reliant on black sludge for recovery
Iron Treads: one of the spinners that is “decent” as it can hold its ground vs ghold, it still has its issues though firstly ghold is the only ghost that it can spin on with it needing knock off it still can’t spin past the other ghosts like sinis and grass ghost spinner guy( I forgot his name).
Eleki:
Dhelmise: This thing is awful into ghold + it’s bulk leaves more to be desired
Great tusk: same issue as treads, needs knock to spin on ghold but u still get stonewalled by the grass ghosts
Any other spinners not mentioned are considered ass/not explored
Solution
Freeing pheromosa: pheromosa would save this metagame by providing a great speed control option and pivot after pults departure while also providing utility with rapid spin. It has a lot of checks like the aforementioned ghold, moltres, zapdos and more.
TLDR: all the spinners ass free pheromosa

 

[Noglastica]

Nog Blog #14: Typing Tier List
This is the first nog blog where I begin to notice my slow, spiraling decent into madness. Key word, "notice."

That's right. I decided to finally sell-out and do one of those "tier lists" in order to get more views. I hear there's big money in MG2. This is a combination of offensive and defensive typing in MG2, mainly using the mons that have these typings to evaluate them. Yes, the tiers are also categorized with left on the best and worst of the tier being on the right.

S Tier: Broken types on every team
Steel - Probably no big surprise here, the broken typing is #1. It's stupidly good defensively. Yes there is not any good offensive steel moves to click BUT it literally does not matter. Gen 2 having steel resist ghost and dark makes steel broken, then give it a ground immunity with air balloon. Ban steel types?
Water - Really strong offensively and defensively. Its main strength does come from its ability to check broken fire (the next type), but it also takes advantage of the fact its other defensive weaknesses aren't that popular (electrics get banned and grass is bad).
Fire - Broken offensive typing, the one consistent way to hit steel types provided you don't miss fire blast. The reason it's behind water is honestly because it has less defensive value, albeit it's better offensively.
Psychic - Man I did not think I was going to put psychic in S tier but looking at the VR there's so many psychic mons on it who just like to click psychic noise. It's not so much that psychic is good, but the psychic type mons in the tier are really good (Lati twins, mew, boulder, starmie, slowbro)... and even if psychic for all of them (except Mew) is their "secondary type" it's still a pretty notable consistency. Even looking at replays, there's a shockingly high percentage of teams that have a psychic type on them, though I don't think it's intentionally saying (I want a psychic type).

A Tier: Very strong types, just less consistent, and less options
Dragon - The only thing better than Dragon in A tier is when I'm "Dragon these nuts." Dragon is a good type because it gets to check the water and fire types seen above. It is checked by the everpresent steel type, and has an additional weakness not seen in the S tier types. Dragon suffers from the physical special split where there's plenty of good physical attacking dragon types who don't get to click a physical dragon move. This is unlike steel who the majority are physical attackers anyway, while the majority of water, fire, and psychic types are all special attackers anyway, so they don't suffer from the physical special split. The good news for dragon, there's still some good special attacking dragon types.

Electric - I think this is the most annoying type in the tier in terms of balancing. At least with steel types you can hit them with fire or fighting moves (usually) but with electric your only way of hitting it super effectively is through ground, and to hit them with a ground move, you need to pop their balloon they're always running. The good electrics (koko and zera) have both been banned, because their ability to set-up rather freely. This leaves the less broken electrics (zap and raging bolt) who are still solid options but lacking the same speed/setup.

Fairy - The type that suffers the most from both MG2 mega mechanics and the physical special split. Every fairy type wants to run special moonblast, but it can't. Fairy is still a really good type as just one of two dragon resists/immunities, not to mention that fire does not resist it. If it had good mons to use it, it would be broken, but it doesn't, so it's not. Ya know what I'm sayin?

B Tier: Good types
Ground - Ground gets clowned by those who, how do I politely say, "are bad at the game." Ground is really good. Ignoring that spikes are broken (otherwise rock type would also be higher), ground is great offensively when paired with knock. The REASON it's not in A tier is because it needs to be paired with knock to be good. I believe 3 of the 4 ground types (Tusk + Gliscor + Treads) in B rank on the VR have knock, while the 4th (Garchomp) just has spikes + mega. And even then, it's probably the worst of the 4. Ground is gooooood.

Flying - Think ground but not. Flying type is the one type in the game that actually does get to ignore all hazards with boots. That's kinda it. That's why it's good. The few good flying types kinda prefer special flying moves so they suffer from the physical special split but even then, it's mainly a defensive utility type.

Ghost - It spinblocks. I'd say outside of fire and dragon, ghost has probably the most "somewhat-usable" D rank mons in the tier. Ghost can block spins. That's kinda all you need. Getting to be one of the three types to hit psychic super effectively is really nice too. There's also a reason that 2 of the roughly 7 mons banned from this tier were ghosts. That's right. MG2 type racism.

(corruption)

Fighting - Super great offensive typing. Gets to hit the steel types. That's... kinda it... BUT it technically can also hit dark, rock, normal, and ice! Four of the WORST types in the tier. But that doesn't matter, because it hits broken steel types. That's it. That's the bit.

C Tier: Mid Types/Niche Types
Dark - This is not even really the "psychic type cope" but more of a "mew cope." Dark is kinda the only answer to wisp + psychic noise. Not only do you have the option to actually rest wisp off, but you don't even need to as the only super effective type against psychic types that is special. If dark type were physical, I think it would be worse. It's still not good though. All the mons are pretty doodoo. Who at gamefreak decided to make dark a special type? And then make all the mons physical? It doesn't even make sense.

Grass - Spell grass but replace "gr" with "among." Grass is not good! It's only real benefit is being the best non-water check to Wake. And even then, they're still shaky at best. While the physical special split is kind to grass types, early generation grass moves are pretty horrible. There's a reason they've all been buffed by at least 10bp in the following generations. Also walled by steel? Comeonson.

Comeonson

Bug - If you thought grass was bad, wait until you hear about bug. Bug is also bad. Think grass but bugs instead of grass. Now you're caught up. Bug has none of the redeming defensive qualities quality of grass, BUT it does get to hit psychic types super effectively and THAT is all you need in this god forsaken tier. Also broken mon SLITHER WING my beloved is a bug type. And I will NOT be giving Slither the D.

Rock - Think bug but also bad, and instead of bug it's a rock. Now you're caught up. Rock is actually horrible. No, I am not considering stealth rocks. Thank you for asking though. The one (1) redeemable quality that rock has is that it gets to check fire while not dying to boom. That's literally all it has going for it. Unironically carried by garganacl. And when garg is your peak standard of success, it's not a good sign.

D Rank - Doodoo

Poison - Poison is bad. Doodoo even. There are no real good poison types that click poison moves. Poison might suffer from the physical special split more than any other type in the tier. The one mon that actually clicks poison moves is sneasler and he's in hell right now having to go against gliscor (checks him) starmie (checks him) and gholdengo (guess what.)

Normal - AWFUL. TRULY AWFUL. I'm not sure I've ever brought a team that had a normal type on it unless I was joking. Or running Ursaluna. So no, never on a serious team. Normal types just don't do anything. That's kinda their schtick I know, but even then, they're pretty bad. They have three good moves. The first two are explosion and self-destruct. Basically the same move. And while they're good being clicked by normal types, they're BETTER WHEN BEING CLICKED BY NON-NORMAL TYPES. The third good offensive move fits nicely in the "worst" type in the game explanation.

Ice - Think awful but then cold themed. And no, I am not talking about Wyoming. It gets hot there too. Did you know much of the land is classified as an arid desert? It's awful. NO. Ice has absolutely no good defensive utility, and it's best move is Hidden Power Ice, which isn't even ICE BECAUSE IT'S A NORMAL TYPE MOVE. YEP. I'M PULLING THAT CARD. If HP Ice was an ice type move, then why can it be countered? Curious liberals, can't wait to see you explain that one. Ice does get to click ice moves vs dragon types. I'll admit, this is GREAT because ice types are all pretty much all special attackers anyway (weavile you will not be missed.) However, it does not help when the one non-horrible ice type is Kyurem who is already slower and getting killed by Dragons. Also walled by steel?? What are we doing.

Conclusion: Steel is sooo broken. I just realized steel resists or is immune to the C-D ranks. That's not really notable though because basically every type in the game is either resisted by steel or hits it super effectively. Steel remains the most centralizing type in the game.

Conclusion the Sequel (MG2TS: JTB Reference): If you thought poison and normal were doodoo, this summarizes my thoughts on ice even better: ip grabber. I'll be honest, the ice type slander does hurt me. It used to be my favorite type, and Glaceon was always my favorite. I even wanted to be an ice type gym leader on my favorite Pixelmon server... How the days run together...

Conclusion the Threequel? What is it even called? Sequel to the sequel?

It began with the forging of the great gems. Three were given to the elves, immortal, wisest, bulkiest of all sleep talk users. Seven to the Dwarf Lords: great knock + earthquake users of the mg2 meta. And nine... nine gems were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desired will-o-wisp. For within these gems was bound the strength and the will to govern the mg2 meta. But they were all of them deceived... for another gem was made. In the land of Modern Gen 2, deep in the larping of the council chat, tier leader Noglastica forged in secret a Master Gem to control all others. And into this gem he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life. One gem to rule them all... One by one the Free lands of Modern Gen 2 fell to the power of the normal gem boosted boom.. But there were some who resisted... A last alliance of steels and rocks marched against the armies of boomspam ho. On the slopes of solopl, they fought for the freedom of Modern Gen 2. Victory was near, but the power of the normal gem could not be undone. It was in this moment... when all hope had faded, that Melmetal, balloon steel teambuilding staple, paraflinched the normal gem boomers. Noglastica, the enemy of the Free Peoples of Modern Gen 2, was defeated. The normal gem passed to Melmetal, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever. But the hearts of balloon steels are easily corrupted. And the normal gem has a will of its own. It betrayed Melmetal to his death. And some things that should not have been forgotten... were lost. Thus, a Third Meta of Modern Gen 2 began. History became legend... legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the normal gem passed out of all knowledge.

Le Finale

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/9db37897-81a7-40e9-a95f-461700592d63

 

[Charliezard7]

b-but Snorlax is the king of Gen 2 and it's a normal type :(

 

[Copen]

I dont usually do one liners but this may be the worst post I have ever read on this site. What the fuck is Fire and Water S rank and one day Noglastica will learn Sneasler is not checked by Starmie (its slower and this mon does not run fucking psychic) and it cripples one of Ghold (broke mon but cant check Sneasler really it needs its item) and Gliscor (not that good tbh).

 

[Noglastica]

I dont usually do one liners but this may be the worst post I have ever read on this site. What the fuck is Fire and Water S rank and one day Noglastica will learn Sneasler is not checked by Starmie (its slower and this mon does not run fucking psychic) and it cripples one of Ghold (broke mon but cant check Sneasler really it needs its item) and Gliscor (not that good tbh).

NOOOOOOO incredibly smart and knowledgeable MG2 player Copen is criticizing me!!! (For context, this makes me feel the same as when anique criticizes me) (for more context, anique just made a genuine post about how Pheromosa should be unbanned). If you think water and fire are not S tier then you are insane. Fire types are cracked. Water is the best check for that. And also it has Walking Wake (broken mon.) Water types are also one of the only checks for Wake. (Broken mon).

Sneasler is not checked by Starmie (its slower and this mon does not run fucking psychic) and it cripples one of Ghold (broke mon but cant check Sneasler really it needs its item) and Gliscor (not that good tbh).

Ignoring the fact that Starmie has on occasion run psychic before, and the fact it has Twave and chance to scald burn, you're right. Starmie was not a great example. I humbly apologize for a take I made on a shitpost I wrote at 12 in the morning. (Keep in mind, Copen is triggered at a post that also has a Deedee Megadoodoo reference in it and a LOTR MG2 shitpost.)

Saying Sneasler is in fact not checked by Gholdengo is absolutely insane to me. Both STABs are ignored. You have one way of hitting this mon and it's through SD + Shadow Claw (which you can't run if you want either U-Turn or Switcheroo). Even at +2

+2 Sneasler Shadow Claw vs. Gholdengo: 143-169 (37.9 - 44.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO.

And to help you save face even more here, coming after me for "fake calcs" as you tend to do, I am once again informing you that this was done in the GSC calc with corrected stats + typing. But yes! You're absolutely right Copen, Gholdengo DOES want to keep its item. Switcheroo Sneasler DOES annoying Gho. But to say that losing your air balloon makes you not check something you absolutely check is just wrong! Copen also in the discord was complaining about how "oh man I couldn't run switcheroo Sneasler because the DH wasn't working."

Unrelated, here's Copen hating on me saying "I'm fixing DH" (you know, the thing we use for our tours) because it's not needed.

Hater

As for Gliscor, not checking Sneasler

+2 Machamp Close Combat vs. Gliscor: 132-156 (37.3 - 44.1%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

And you know I get that .01% roll. But Noglastica! You can switcheroo Gliscor as well! Wow great point, If only teams occasionally ran both Gliscor and Gholdengo. And also oh no I'm being switcheroo'd! Yeah that's annoying to deal with absolutely, and especially when you consider Dire Claw can sleep as well, but why are we pretending like it still cannot be checked by Gliscor. I know petmod players are infamous for not being great at mons (which is why I play it) but let's remember: the word "check" does not mean "hard counter that you will never lose with."

Finally, I have seen plenty of worse posts on this site, so to say it's the worst post you've ever seen is rich. For one, the Snak30pra Peoples Smogoff Champion post, as well as the MG3 creation post.

But you're right Copen, after reading your discord message I will relent and submit to your objectively correct opinion. "Sneasler does not own these mons".

Thank you for your thoughts, and I would love to read your own MG2 type tier list as well.

Signing off,
Noglastica. 1x Solomodpl champion and Modern Gen 2 tier leader

 

[Copen]

didnt ask but ok

 

[teamo]

i think copen and noglastica should kiss and make up

 

[Noglastica]

Nog Blog #15: Current Meta and Tour Teams + Replay Review

Meta Thoughts
No matter how much qsns tries to convince me, I don't think this meta as of right now is too enjoyable. I like it more than when everyone kept trying to bring gliscor + gho, but there still feels like too many offensive threats to actually have great matchups with your own offense. Feels like DPP mu fish with offense v offense as of now. Running random offensive mons feels nice not because these random mons are good, but because you're less likely to get mu fished by your opponent.

Flutter is incredibly annoying to deal with with great defensive typing + cm spdf bulk. Obviously does a ton cause of its spa stat with tbolt + mystical fire. Very little feels like it can deal with it over a longer game. Main weaknesses are lack of recovery so you can hazard stack it pretty effectively, and obviously its 55 55 def. Even still, not a ton can check it. The best mons that check it are the ground/dragons but it can still run bad ice move instead of taunt which isn't a good move anyway.

I found myself bringing latios a ton for its defensive value. I think every single latios I brought with the exception of my sun team mlatios was Draco + Psychic Noise + Recover + either CM or Flip Turn depending on the team. Flip Turn is decent but I do think it's a bit overrated in terms of how strong latios is anyway. Psychic noise is an equally great click imo against most checks. Getting to slap latios on to provide speed coverage against wake is great, lets you switch in to the good ground spinners, and just having another fire resist is always good too. It's stupid to deal with. I have tried psycho shift in the past for anti-mew strats but it a) has a chance to miss and b) if you psycho shift wisp, they can wisp you again and you can't get rid of that 2nd wisp burn so.

Mew is still stupid. I'm at the point of some teams where it's just like "this team loses to mew" and "this team kinda loses to mew." I think the best way to deal with it is to force it out T1 with some dark type and to set up hazards. It's much less effective when coming in on hazards. If you don't have something that can switch into a Mew and force it out, you will lose 95% of games against Mew lead. That's another issue I have with offense. Outside of Meow or some sub/taunt whatever jank leads, offense can't really just brute force through Mew effectively without setting up and even then that's hard to do vs wisp + psychic noise mon. Wake which is one of the most threatening, if not the most threatening unboosted mon in the tier, does I think 40 on pump. I don't even have to switch out to anything. Only real form of counterplay feels like a) force out T1 with dark type and get hazards up or b) wisp + psychic noise with your own Mew. It is much less threatening when wisped as well, but fat teams with spin + heal bell can get around both strategies decently enough.

Shed tail exists. That was a sort of revelation I had pre-tour and tested a game I think with it and it won. It's more of a "shock value" thing more than anything. Your choices are orthoworm, cyclizar, and sceptile. I haven't used orthoworm though that was the one I initially tried to build around. Sceptile is less obvious of a "shed tail user" which is why I brought it in combination with sun. 100% synthesis in sun + shed tail could be decent against certain teams. I don't think shed tail is really that good though. It's just for the bulky setup mons who really want a sub but can't afford the slot like mchomp and psychic/taunt boulder which is what my team had. Cyclizar is probably the best on pure HO because you get to click another dragon move and can revenge some stuff like wake I guess. Again, I don't think any are great.

Disrespected mons: Slither I still think is good. Moth sucks for it, gho sucks for it OBVIOUSLY, but it's now taking even more of a hit because of flutter. qsns might be right, wisp could just be better than bulk up but I'm dug in and refuse to change. Empoleon is still good too. Rocks mon + wake check. That being said, less good than I would have said a few months ago. Psychic noise is so annoying. Mbro aka orangesodapop mon is still good. I think it grabbed a win or two this tour. It's incredibly bulky and even physical supereffective STABs do 50% max. Yes you're begging to be crit and can status + opposing psychic noise can be awful, as can just getting boomed on and revenged before you can heal. It's still solid as a lastmon option. Htrode is not good but it should get slightly more usage. Really difficult to switch into its STABs outside of latios and even then you can get volted on + boomed + if you can fit para that is also viable. Final mon that isn't really disrespected, if anything I was the one disrespecting it pre-tour, but tusk is really nice right now. I threw it on a ton of mons as a rare offensive boulder check outside of slither but has the benefit of actually being able to do damage to flutter which is a rare option. STABs can still be tough to switch into (shoutout latios)

Overrated mons: Treads is the main one I think is slightly overrated, and like tusk, I was "part of the problem." I think pre-flutter that treads was definitely better because when you're going up against the same gho + glisc core it did really well, but now tusk and its ability to beat flutter is just so much more valuable. I also don't even run spin on tusk anymore it feels so bad to click. Spin on treads is good but on tusk I think its just STABs + knock + whatever you want last whether its rocks or I like roar too if you have rocks. Lots of stuff likes to sub on it so you can drop defensive stats. Means you can get away with running headlong and not eq. Skymin is another slightly overrated mon. Yes its fast but I think gone are the days of using it as a wake check. Flamethrower just does too much and vs knock sets you don't really switch in that well after knock + rocks. You don't even get to punish it as you're just a momentum sink because you're forced to synthesis otherwise you don't really get to switch back in lol. I'm also running earth power on every skymin set as getting to hit non-balloon heatrans and moths is SUPER nice. Also gives you a physical option I suppose for touching a cm boosted flutter for 35-40%. What I was most wrong about though is when I said that Waiting Room by Phoebe Bridgers was not good.

Tour Team Dump
I ended up "having" to build for not only myself, but also Runo, Boomenheimer, pannu, and the goat of MG2, Lialiabeast. I'll be honest, I didn't put a ton of time into most of these teams, not even myself, as I was kinda burnt out from mons even at the beginning of the tour and building for 5 people didn't really interest me too much. I ended up building stuff for the four of them and reusing the ones I liked for some of my games. In typical NogBlog fashion, these will be way more in depth than anyone could ever want. I'll probably do a tour usage stats post later. Click mons for the pastes.

Noglastica Week 1

Replay : Wanted to build a team around mega gengar and also reflect type latias, but couldn't fit them together, then I found out mega gengar has reflect type so I just ran with that. It's super mu fish and only helps win against a few things, so boom is probably better. I played perfectly first few turns for a massive lead but my team kinda gets rolled by cm latios so if I didn't land boom on it I might've still just lost. Mamo lead is also not good, I don't think it hits anything outside of gliscor. Probs better in the back when you don't get forced out by 90% of leads. Even then, idt it would be good enough to use over something like tusk/treads.

Noglastica Week 1

Replay : I actually really liked this team and think it's really solid. It screams "Nog Team" with treads + empoleon + wake + zapdos + mew + 1. Unfortunately, I realized it's 6-0d by CM Flutter so. I knew I could only really bring it week 1 because other people started bringing flutter themselves. If flutter ever becomes so broken it gets banned (doubtful) then this team would be solid. Or you could probably make it better with tusk > treads but idk. The unique gimmick with this team was roar wake which I didn't even get to click. Idea behind roar wake is that normally you deal with wake pivots through flip turn, but I realized that you're also taking hazards and wake gets super chipped on hazards, frequently more-so than your check. So getting to stay in with lefties and roar them out, only for them to NEED to come back in otherwise risk whatever mon that gets roared in dying, can be really threatening. In practice, it's not as great because a) you are now missing a 100% water STAB move with no flip turn and b) doesn't do as much vs offensive teams that rely on skymin as a check because you're doing 0 hazard damage to a boots flying mon. Back to the team, opponent had no zapdos switch-in really. Game was pretty much over unless I got robbed but getting empoleon crit + tbolt para guaranteed a win. Daily reminder Hydro Steam does 1/2 damage in sun. It doesn't work like you think.

Lialiabeast Week 1 Games

Game 1 Replay :
Game 2 Replay : I don't have much to say on either replay. Uh this team isn't great. I experimented a bunch with Hoodra because I was lazy and could say "hey it technically checks moth and flutter and I think wake so enjoy idk." The only reason I included a flutter check on this was because it was originally built for pannu against fellow flutter abuser qsns but pannu didn't get the chance to bring it.

Runo Week 1 Games (vs Lialiabeast)

See above Game 1 for replay. I kinda like this team, interesting core, though I don't think it's that great of a team in general, could use more speed as it's a little fat for my liking. Also can rely on gho too much to check too many things. Genesect is a cool mon though. I built a similar variation pre-tour and forgot a wake check so this is the edited version. Still loses to flutter. Replay of old team pre-tour: replay.


See above Game 2 for replay. I do like this team as well. All of the teams I passed Runo were teams I had built a week or two before when playing "test" games vs qsns. Replay of that game: here. Pretty basic. Get up hazards and boom down to final mon which mmence usually can win. Or just kill mons without booming if you can. Boomspam is good because if you get 1 mon without booming you basically win as you can 1 for 1 trade down after that. Even if you CAN'T you can still force basically a 50/50 chance to win in a lastmon. You'll see the sex boom team later which refuses to lose and will only tie. This team had kinda a tough matchup I think but also wasn't played well. I'll get over it.

Pannu Week 1 Games

Replay : Funnily enough, someone who never touched this tier before almost 2-0d MG2's third best player OAT. Team is basically just like the above, boom down and hope you win an endgame. Game came down to hitting 1 hurricane and it missed so oh well. Even though it missed, this is still why you should never run hone claws mmence because you're hitting your hurricanes but you're too slow to ever get to click them. DD is imperitive. 70% of the time this team wins I guess. Fini is wake cope, melm can probably decently switch into flutter with mence 1 or 2 times so.


Replay : This game also was 100% winnable if pannu cilcked dd with ttar a second time it won. Toedscruel isn't great but you get to sleep something which, against some offensive teams, can be good. However, it is pretty mu fishy. You still have a spiker + knock + earth power user after spore which isn't bad though. Not even a horrible switch-in for non-ice treads as well. Mttar isn't that good imo but I know qsns doesn't run gholdengo so it's much more reliable if you know your opp isn't running its hard counter. Hoodra is cope mon, and then it's just pretty normal double boom + boulder stuff.

Boomenheimer Week 1 Games

Replay : Pretty much an unwinnable MU. Team isn't bad but it's like all HO where it's got some miserable matchups or some impossible to lose matchups. This game is a good example why being able to put at least 1 explosion is super valuable for offense as you can damage cores. Unable to do that with this team, this was unwinnable pretty much. It's basically just 4 good mons + toed + mchomp.


GAME 3 REPLAY : Going straight to game 3 and not showing the game 2 team because that team gets brought a bunch more so I'll probably give it it's own little section later. Spoiler alert, this set goes to a game 3. This team isn't good either but I think Boomen played this incredibly well against a not ideal matchup. Game kinda lost from builder but boomer brought it back and only lost on a full para which is kinda unlucky. Slither shows it can still do work, and gholdengo shows that it cannot run mono-physical. Again people, You pretty much need at least 1 of tbolt or night shade, both if you can afford it. Rest of the team is basic, volcanion, camel, and blacephalon pretty much just break holes for each other so the surviving one can wreck havoc. Tusk and hoodra try to provide some defensive core with slither who can also provide some offensive sweep threat.

Noglastica Week 2

Replay : We rfn'd so I didn't actually get to build anything new for this week. I built this for charliezard week 1 but didn't get to bring it. Not a horrible team but it's not great. Weak to opposing flutter. Twave latios is ok in theory (didn't click it) but not so much on this team. Maybe something with a slower breaker like victini to pair with it would make it better. Even that mon can run glaciate though. This game shows how stupid mew can be if you are unable to force it out. It only dies on turn 16 without switching and that's after getting spikes up and taking 2 with it. This is also why gliscor might genuinely be the worst lead in the game.


Replay : A decently close game but I actually misplayed dealing with Mew but so did Jump so I wasn't punished. Thought about clicking SD a second time on the second to last turn because last was unrevealed but doing so is kinda a throw against an unrevealed as I just lose if chomp hits 4 scale shots. I probably would've done it if I didn't get crit the turn before but I probably deserved to lose anyway. This was actually a 4th team built for Boomen week 1 so again, not a new team. Does decently against opposing flutter. Zapdos is weird on HO kinda as its more of a balance mon but it can probably still work. Doesn't provide a ton of defensive utility. If Jump brought wake out sooner this would've been over alot earlier I think. Skipping G3 because I brought Kyu-B team which now has its own section at the end. God bless Kyu-B team.

Lialiabeast Week 2

Replay : This is the infamous "sex boom tie bait" team. 6 boom users, if you aren't gonna win you can just boom and its a tie. That's kinda the whole thought process. Melmetal can provide enough of a defensive wall and you have some fast boomers as well to actually make it work. Obviously going against ghosts is not good, but you have enough physical attackers that aren't too afraid of flutter. Gho could be more of an issue, as could opposing blacephalon. At the end of turn 17 it was quite literally unlosable and turn 18 somehow MG2's GOAT chokes and has to play for a tie. Genius. Game 1 is a draw. Don't bring this team. Basically gets 6-0d by flamethrower Wake but was fortunate to face a stalk set.

Replay : Game 2 MG2's Finest decides to bring it again and shockingly it loses. Unironically the scald burns did actually matter because it made it so boom did 1/2 damage which obviously is important for the sex boom tie bait team. Team isn't good, not much to say after game 1.


Replay : The G1 and G2 team had a gimmick of "6 explosion users" and I wanted to follow it up with an incredibly based sequel of "6 pivot move users." Meow is mew cope, thorns is flutter cope, empoleon is wake cope, and latios is everything else cope. Tini + Wake can break enough on their own, but the rest now have turn moves too. Hazards is obviously important. Tried to fit a ghost spinblocker on here but couldn't manage. This team actually is better than I thought but I don't think it's good. Onto game 4 in a bo3. Ok just kidding lialiabeast brought the Kyu-B team so see it in the below section.

Lialiabeast Week 3 Losers
Replay : G1 yaya actually brought Kyu-B team (you know where to look) and G2 brought the turn spam team from above. Some weird sets from jking made this an easy-ish matchup and a 6-0. Funnily enough, jking and I had a test game with the exact same teams before which I'll link here.

Lialiabeast Week 4 Losers

Replay : This team sucks. I wanted to try a shed tail team because I don't think anyone brought it in this tour yet. Sceptile seemed cool for the surprise factor, and as previously mentioned in meta thoughts, 100% heal synthesis works with sun pretty well. The Mlatios set isn't bad, I got it from Copen (or at least a similar set) a few months ago and it can do some work.


Replay : Thought process for this team is just bring the good brokens, tusk and slowking can check enough of the brokens together, and dreigon is mew cope. I don't have anything else to really say, rocks dreigon isn't good as it wants more moveslots anyway but didn't want to put it on tusk. Came down to flutter being broken and having a good mu for it.


Replay : The goat just went back to the well and brought this turnspam team again. Victini had no real switch-ins on this team and fyi immediately sacking your only wake check usually does not bode well for the rest of the game. Delphox did nothing this game but that's more cause bad mu NOT because it sucks :(

Noglastica Week 4 Winners

Replay : I end up getting paired against my kryptonite who I have played in probably over a dozen tours and won exactly one set against. I did think I had a a good chance to win and this was my final round of actually building and my only real round of "prep." My prep consisted of "wow 3mm brings Mew and either tusk or treads. I proceeded to then build a very Mew weak team with skarm + latios which go well into the tusk/treads. I thought sneasler would be cool, 3mm doesn't like gho or gliscor (nog mon) so I thought I could get a decent mu, which I did. Should be shadow ball > shadow claw. I think I pulled the trigger too early on sneasler, but I didn't really do much to zoro-h anyway even if I did kill/crit the mew. I thought it was a tough mu but certainly winnable. Grimm seems kinda doodoo. I was also ready for lefties tran instead of balloon cause 3mm likes to cheat on that, and I probably would've won if he brought that as ep skymin ripped through this team.


Replay : This originally started as a CRAZY mu fish as vikavolt + mchomp webs but I kept replacing stuff and it has 0 of the original mons on it outside of Latios and Slither I think. Chien Pao is super mu fish as well, what's funny is it would've done well in the first game, so I can maybe tell myself that after seeing it's 0-3 all time or something. Got the idea from qsns pre-tour for it (it was bad in that game too) and I think geko brought that same team earlier. I didn't think 3mm was building so I thought flutter would just win, and I didn't think 3mm would bring flutter so I didn't pack a check. You can see how well that worked. This was completely unwinnable from t2, zard put in work but I think it's just a worse molt for 10 more speed but I'm not sure what that actually matters against. Another game wisp slither would've been better but again it didn't matter. Empoleon my beloved. I think we both wanted 3mm to win this game anyway because neither of us had built a 3rd team so we were hoping for a bo2.

Noglastica Week 5 Losers

Replay : I was watching football all day and didn't want to build so I just brought old teams. I built this I think week 1 or week 2 for pannu and it SUCKS. I wanted a sleep mon that wasn't spinny boy so I went with jynx cause it can do well in GSC and ADV but shockingly a Gen 8 ZU mon did not do very much this game. I thought a) it was faster b) would get psychic noise (it doesn't) c) would get freeze-dry (it doesn't.) Now a normal person would see it is slow, doesn't have psychic noise, and doesn't have freeze-dry, and would naturally not bring it, but I didn't care and built this anyway. Gameplan is to sleep and win a 5v5 after that because god knows Jynx isn't doing anything. Funnily enough, it didn't even get to click a button but it will forever be immortalized in MG2 history as a 1-0 mon. For the game itself, red card mew was actually annoying af because my plan was pump into flip into jynx but uhhh yeah that didn't work. I truly thought Jynx was minimum 100 speed so I was shocked I just got boomed on. T3 opponent has hazards up and I have done nothing but reveal 3 mons on my team and let one get boomed on. My only real consolation prize is that mew and jynx went 1 for 1 which is definitely worth even with hazards cause that mon is broken. Ibeam fini is crazy mu fish as well but whatever, I think surely my slowbro just wins here but it's taunt so I'm kinda screwed, I still might win it eventually because they do nothing to me, but I speed up the process with a crit. I actually thought I might eat htrode tbolt after that but didn't. It has less spdf than I thought. qsns kinda choked I think by sacking tusk. I know they were expecting a flip turn but still idk. I get a crit so they don't have the option of a 50/50 boom so yeah. Lucky game. Jynx 1-0.


Replay : This is a team I built for Lialiabeast in week 2 that just never got brought. Aero is a super old school lead, like early-mid Gen 8 MG2 lead but it does well against mew because you can taunt + sub and stuff. I'm not even sure you win but nothing does really so. Golisopod was kinda scary cause I didn't know if it had water move so I just subbed t1 instead of clicking anything else as that felt like the safe play. Sub fmane is pretty crazy mu fish but valid because I think I've only brought tusk for it. I'm also not going to lie, I would've 100% said aero outspeeds flutter. Power creep goes insane. Kommo pretty much just won at this point so I go into it here. It set up pretty much for free against anything but it ends up being icy wind fmane which has been discussed before but never brought. So yeah, my mon that 6-0d is now slow as balls and did literally nothing. I don't even get to touch steela because I never got the chance to drum which is bad because steela is annoying from here on out. From there on out my only real option to win is through malt. I made the mistake of mega evolving turn 1 and then not really having the option to predict the obvious boom from tran. Don't know what last was but at that point golisopod ibeam was 4x so. Chi-Yu is bad, but I don't know why I've let these morons in the tier convince me that salac > boots is real. It's so horrible. I brought it g1 and it just sucked.


Replay : I'll be completely honest I did not want to win this game at all. Obviously I tried but ended up completely throwing an 85% win chance at the end but whatever. qsns was the raid boss so beating Lialiabeast (MG2's goat) and 3MM (ehh) was super doable if I won this, but I was super burnt out at this point and ready to pack it up. Naturally, I brought a completely horrible team that sucked against Snak so surely it's good against qsns right? I did actually make two changes right before the game, which was giving boulder balloon and replacing fini with kyu-b. While that basically makes wake unwinnable, it does do better against flutter which I thought I was more likely to see. I did get another lucky crit against fini early on, and I'd have to do the calcs, but I think even at +1 I would've potentially 2HKOd after the first CM. And even if not, I get a free revenge kill with anything on my team. It doesn't happen though and they're forced to boom, so now I'm up massively T9. Qsns has to go tusk as that's their only real way to deal with Heatran at this point, so my sceptile gets a free scout and shed tail. Kyu B gets a free dd and I say gg because i literally just need to hit this one attack and I win. Oh well. I miss sedge won on the spot but if that happened to me I'd say "shoulda ran HP Rock" so I will not be complaining that much. This is where I make my first misplay at this point. It's not really a misplay because my thinking was valid but I think I could've been able to play more optimally. I go sceptile here because I just wanted to see what he was going to go into and from there I could win based on that. In hindsight, I think the best play was to go heatran. I wanted to preserve heatran so if I got it in vs htrode I could just boom and take one with me and I should be able to win against the remaining mon, especially if I kept sceptile alive. But instead, I just sack the sceptile, and here I should've gone heatran and done my strategy of booming because then I think I do win. If he stays in with trode then my plan is just SD with boulder in tusk's face, and I get to chip it into fire blast range if qsns either knocks + 2 eq, or 2 cc drops them enough as well, and then it comes down to moth fire blast. For whatever reason, I was too worried about setting up sun at this point so I could use moth to guarantee win but I also had to worry about boom so idk. I go boulder for some unknown reason and SD up in the face of leaf storm. I then misclick SD a second time while qsns miscalcs so a sahki moment for sure on both ends. I'm realizing now my heatran was lower than I thought from hazards because I was heat rock and not balloon like the original team so yeah. Tbolt would've been a roll at -0. Idk. It was definitely still winnable, especially after the qsns miscalc but whatever. Should brought hp rock ig. Pumped I didn't have to play more ngl.

The Kyu-B Team

Now we're onto the Kyu-B team section just because it got brought a bunch. This was first built for Boomenheimer week 1 and from there I just passed it to Yaya who brought it twice and I used it once myself. The team itself isn't super complicated. Azelf is one of my favorite, and one of the most underrated leads out there I think. Red card is nice because you don't really get OHKO'd by anything, but you get 2HKOd by a ton of stuff, so forcing stuff out is super nice. Basically you can just click rocks t1 always, if they click some stupid move like substitute or wisp or rocks (really good moves to click t1) then you get a free encore, then a free double OR fire blast OR explosion. So you have alot to play around with. Psychic isn't horrible as a super effective STAB but fire blast is more of a deterrent for the steels who want to eat your booms, and it hits the common ghost Gholdengo. Wake + Volcanion works really nicely together on this team and others as neither Wake nor Volcanion have a ton of checks, and most of them are overlapping, so getting to boom on them with volcanion and abuse the fact they most likely have nothing for wake. Melmetal provides SOME defensive core, albeit not a good one. I wouldn't go stalk here just because it's too much of a momentum sink and having another boom is great. Basically after your booms, your wincon is slowbro or kyurem black. Kyu-B is also not horrible into flutter and neither is melm even if you get 2HKOd at +1 I believe. Super basic team, not that great into Wake but you have enough of your own offensive pressure to make it work. Even if you don't really have a switch-in for it, azelf is a faster boom, wake is a speed tie, at +1 your kyu-b OHKOs after rocks, volcanion and melm are slower booms, and bro obviously just wins with CM. Something like Latios is probably more annoying just because it's faster, but you have melm and still some other booms. With boom, pretty much no mu is "unwinnable."

Boomenheimer Week 1 Kyu-B Debut
Replay : Azelf lead works to perfection, forced out the threat and spike setter with red card, get up rocks, and then go 1 for 1 with a lead in hazards and revealed mons. Melm T3 is probably not ideal, I think even into the meow you're better off going wake and clicking flame/draco. We see melm with his lefties treads getting punished by eq. Very lucky crit preserves alot of HP on melm here. The latios mu is alot tougher if melm can't deal with it, but now twave is MASSIVE because there's no twave absorb. Wake and Latios get boomed on, and now both your own wake and kyu-b win.

Noglastica Week 2 Game 3
Replay : I bring it in deciding G3 because nobody other than me is watching replays I'm sure and knows about it. Again, really scary lead here for me, sub + sd might just win on the spot but I say whatever and greed for rocks, and red card once again comes in clutch. I'm super paranoid about my opponent just going back to Zoroark and I know I'll do good damage vs bulu here with Fire Blast so even if I die it's a good midground play, + it lets me item scout. I'm not scared of bulu either because my entire team is either faster or doesn't care about its damage. Like I said earlier, I think wake is a pretty ideal mon to go into blind after a boom. They end up going toedscruel and spinning, and I sack the melm to sleep because I can still bluff stalk. I dodge leaf storm but idt that really mattered as it doesn't do a ton, same with the flip turn crit, but it's still very nice to get. Poltergeist actually does good damage here but still gets banished. Kyu-B gets to come in very nicely on gliscor because if there's a knock I don't care as I'm not switching out most likely, and there's no rocks up. DD is super free at this point and in comes heatran. I just need to hit 1/2 focus blasts here and it's a wrap. Unironically the spdf drop on focus blast did matter because it lets me OHKO with freeze dry which I think was a roll without the drop. I also learned this game focus blast can drop spdf. Lava plume burn wouldn't have mattered as I just click freeze dry until the end of time. Wake actually avoids the 75% OHKO from freeze-dry here but it doesn't matter because they're -2 and I can win with anything. I go mbro because I want it to show up on the wr% stats.

Yaya vs Geko Week 2 Game 4
Replay : Lialiabeast overthinks t1 and assumes there's a spike getting clicked and encore with a red card mon in. Always rock here, don't try predicting the encores. T1 I always rock and if they attack me then I can boom t2, and if they don't attack I can pretty safely click encore or fire blast depending on what they clicked and who is faster. Instead we give up a mon for just rocks which isn't ideal. T3 we go wake which is the correct play imo, and for some reason geko goes treads. Even if you end up gaining momentum, it's kinda fishy and I know he wants the spin but you're now giving up another revealed mon. Meow is definitely the right thing to go into because even if you're forced out you then can go into whatever you need to, and only then do you have 3 mons revealed. Instead, we get to see their wake check, its slowking, we now know its a balance team we're up against, and we have revealed 4 mons to 2. We go into the volcanion and immediately boom, and now we can see why they work well together. Skip a few turns and we've done some good damage, wake looks super strong here, and we end up getting a crit on gliscor though it was a roll anyway, albeit not a favorable roll for the melm. We save the melm and end up going mbro on the shifu which is nice, a nice double scald gets the meow out of the way, and forces geko to show their last which is zapdos. We boom with melm which is ehhh, I would've gone wake and seen if I could've done some more damage elsewhere first, but it ends up being a fine play as we get wake in. We miss pump which would have 100% won the game if we hit, but it's still super winnable from here on out. Getting rid of rocks actually sucks as you'll see in a second. We hit the second pump, they go zap, and we flip into slowbro which is the perfect play. Kyu-B is again the perfect play and we now wall the shit out of zapdos. I think DD here was the right play because we're slower and freeze-dry only does like 50% to zapdos, so if they keep roosting we'll eventually want to just dd and stone edge. Instead, we freeze dry here which is again, a fine play on the shifu and it lives on 2% (remember the missed pump which let them spin off the rocks?). We are slower, so we have two plays here technically. The important thing to know here is that wake does NOT beat zapdos 1 on 1 without a crit or flamethrower burn + hitting 8 straight pumps idk. However, we have two plays we can make that win unless they crit this turn. The first is to just dd here so we're faster next turn AND faster than zapdos after that and we just keep clicking freeze dry until they attack us, then depending on zapdos HP we can flamethrower or draco (still a chance to miss draco.) You can also try to stone edge the zapdos, miss, and then lose. The other option is to go hard wake on the Shifu CC which we eat, then you can literally just click anything and be winning. The best click is flip turn so you can KO shifu and avoid miss chance, then just dd with Kyu and win. Yon can also just pump into draco if they go zap or anything, it doesn't matter. Instead, we don't do any of that and lose the kyu-b and therefore the game as we don't get draco crit.

Yaya vs Jking Week 3 Game 1
Replay : T1 we actually get our red card knocked which isn't great, but we then know it's most likely not double dark move and can still stay in and boom T2. Funnily enough, clicking encore T1 this game would've actually been good. They go empoleon on wake, we don't actually have a super great empoleon answer and both sides end up flip turning out eventually. Twave on Blacephalon is HUGE because it now loses to everything on our team. Booming on blissey with volcanion is fine because it makes wake a little scarier even if they still have empoleon. It's also annoying because of twave for kyurem. For some reason Yaya freeze-dry's instead of DD against dhelm. Doesn't matter in the end as boulder is scary for us after they sack the blacephalon. At first I didn't get why they went for +4 instead of just taking the 2HKO at +2 but then they'd need a crit on wake and a crit or full para on melm to win. If they also double, the mbro still can put in some work even against dhelm as you take 41% max roll. Then we kill the dhelm and the games comes down to hitting 1 of 3 focus blasts though yaya decides to do 25% with freeze dry instead.. Even on a focus blast miss we still had melm twave + boom in the back which might be able to full para through with wake as I have seen before.

Ok. the end. i want to make out with whomever updated the preview fixture.

 

[anique]

I like how you’ve built everyone’s team in this tour because no one actually wants to play this tier

 

[Noglastica]

TOUR USAGE STATS

anyway. ill probably do another post later with more information but i mainly just need to beat 3mm's post

TOUR USAGE STATS

+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Pokemon            | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Mew                |   42 |  43.75% |  58.33% |
| 2    | Walking Wake       |   36 |  37.50% |  51.39% |
| 3    | Iron Treads        |   20 |  20.83% |  65.00% |
| 3    | Blacephalon        |   20 |  20.83% |  42.50% |
| 5    | Empoleon           |   19 |  19.79% |  68.42% |
| 5    | Gliscor            |   19 |  19.79% |  47.37% |
| 5    | Latios             |   19 |  19.79% |  31.58% |
| 5    | Iron Boulder       |   19 |  19.79% |  21.05% |
| 5    | Shaymin-Sky        |   19 |  19.79% |  18.42% |
| 10   | Iron Moth          |   18 |  18.75% |  36.11% |
| 11   | Tapu Fini          |   17 |  17.71% |  70.59% |
| 12   | Flutter Mane       |   16 |  16.67% |  75.00% |
| 12   | Melmetal           |   16 |  16.67% |  40.62% |
| 14   | Great Tusk         |   15 |  15.62% |  60.00% |
| 14   | Meowscarada        |   15 |  15.62% |  60.00% |
| 14   | Heatran            |   15 |  15.62% |  43.33% |
| 17   | Zapdos             |   13 |  13.54% |  69.23% |
| 18   | Gholdengo          |   11 |  11.46% |  45.45% |
| 18   | Volcanion          |   11 |  11.46% |  36.36% |
| 20   | Starmie            |   10 |  10.42% |  40.00% |
| 21   | Slither Wing       |    9 |   9.38% |  55.56% |
| 21   | Chi-Yu             |    9 |   9.38% |  33.33% |
| 23   | Kyurem-Black       |    8 |   8.33% |  50.00% |
| 24   | Urshifu            |    7 |   7.29% | 100.00% |
| 24   | Azelf              |    7 |   7.29% |  71.43% |
| 24   | Garchomp           |    7 |   7.29% |  71.43% |
| 24   | Electrode-Hisui    |    7 |   7.29% |  64.29% |
| 24   | Slowking           |    7 |   7.29% |  42.86% |
| 24   | Sneasler           |    7 |   7.29% |  28.57% |
| 24   | Diancie            |    7 |   7.29% |  14.29% |
| 31   | Garganacl          |    6 |   6.25% |  50.00% |
| 31   | Toedscruel         |    6 |   6.25% |  33.33% |
| 31   | Landorus-Therian   |    6 |   6.25% |  16.67% |
| 34   | Slowbro            |    5 |   5.21% |  60.00% |
| 34   | Goodra-Hisui       |    5 |   5.21% |  40.00% |
| 36   | Zoroark-Hisui      |    4 |   4.17% |  50.00% |
| 37   | Victini            |    3 |   3.12% |  66.67% |
| 37   | Iron Thorns        |    3 |   3.12% |  66.67% |
| 37   | Talonflame         |    3 |   3.12% |  66.67% |
| 37   | Dhelmise           |    3 |   3.12% |  33.33% |
| 37   | Salamence          |    3 |   3.12% |  33.33% |
| 37   | Genesect           |    3 |   3.12% |  16.67% |
| 37   | Chien-Pao          |    3 |   3.12% |   0.00% |
| 37   | Sceptile           |    3 |   3.12% |   0.00% |
| 37   | Kommo-o            |    3 |   3.12% |   0.00% |
| 37   | Delphox            |    3 |   3.12% |   0.00% |
| 47   | Hydreigon          |    2 |   2.08% | 100.00% |
| 47   | Dragonite          |    2 |   2.08% | 100.00% |
| 47   | Umbreon            |    2 |   2.08% | 100.00% |
| 47   | Hoopa-Unbound      |    2 |   2.08% |  75.00% |
| 47   | Jellicent          |    2 |   2.08% |  50.00% |
| 47   | Latias             |    2 |   2.08% |  50.00% |
| 47   | Tapu Bulu          |    2 |   2.08% |  50.00% |
| 47   | Gengar             |    2 |   2.08% |  50.00% |
| 47   | Metagross          |    2 |   2.08% |  25.00% |
| 47   | Kyurem             |    2 |   2.08% |   0.00% |
| 47   | Blissey            |    2 |   2.08% |   0.00% |
| 47   | Tyranitar          |    2 |   2.08% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Greninja           |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Primarina          |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Lucario            |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Golisopod          |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Celesteela         |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Jynx               |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Kingambit          |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Charizard          |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Grimmsnarl         |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 59   | Thundurus-Therian  |    1 |   1.04% |  50.00% |
| 59   | Aerodactyl         |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Altaria            |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Skarmory           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Clodsire           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Muk-Alola          |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Camerupt           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Tinkaton           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Landorus           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Articuno           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Cyclizar           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Mamoswine          |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 59   | Togekiss           |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |

TOUR LEAD STATS

+ ---- + ----------------------- + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| Rank | Leads                   | Use  | Usage % |  Win %  |
+ ---- + ----------------------- + ---- + ------- + ------- +
| 1    | Mew                     |   26 |  27.08% |  55.77% |
| 2    | Meowscarada             |   13 |  13.54% |  53.85% |
| 3    | Walking Wake            |    8 |   8.33% |  50.00% |
| 4    | Azelf                   |    7 |   7.29% |  71.43% |
| 5    | Gliscor                 |    6 |   6.25% |  33.33% |
| 6    | Zoroark-Hisui           |    4 |   4.17% |  50.00% |
| 6    | Heatran                 |    4 |   4.17% |   0.00% |
| 8    | Talonflame              |    3 |   3.12% |  66.67% |
| 8    | Blacephalon             |    3 |   3.12% |  33.33% |
| 8    | Sneasler                |    3 |   3.12% |  33.33% |
| 8    | Toedscruel              |    3 |   3.12% |  33.33% |
| 8    | Chien-Pao               |    3 |   3.12% |   0.00% |
| 13   | Flutter Mane            |    2 |   2.08% |  50.00% |
| 14   | Greninja                |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Slither Wing            |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Golisopod               |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Kingambit               |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Hydreigon               |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Urshifu                 |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Gholdengo               |    1 |   1.04% | 100.00% |
| 14   | Hoopa-Unbound           |    1 |   1.04% |  50.00% |
| 14   | Aerodactyl              |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 14   | Starmie                 |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |
| 14   | Mamoswine               |    1 |   1.04% |   0.00% |

TL;DR

| 59 | Jynx | 1 | 1.04% | 100.00% |

 

[3MoreMinutes]

3MM Blog #1: Typing Tier List + Tournament Team Dump

I told Nog that his type tier list sucked ass and was wrong and he told me to make one. I said I would once I lost the tour which unfortunately did not happen but I'm here regardless. This will be the final 3MM blog post, I am never doing this again.

gg

This list is ordered within tiers.

S Tier:
- Fire
The best offensive type in MG2. Fire has well distributed, powerful STAB moves on competent offensive pokemon. It beats Steel 1v1, making it better than Steel (I am only half joking, Steel is so good that Fire having a good MU vs it is a significant portion of its strength). It seems like every Fire-type has crazy base special attack (Blacephalon, Chi-Yu, Heatran, Iron Moth, etc), so it is a type which is barely harmed by the physical/special split. What makes Fire special is its association with Will-O-Wisp. While wisp is not exclusive to Fire-types and its mechanics have no relation to the Fire typing, its distribution is heavily focused towards Fire-types and I see it as the reason that they are so good. Every Fire-type with access to it can run wisp (foreshadowing to team dump), and it necessitates sturdy Fire resists on every team since they must be able to take fire moves while wisped.
- Steel
This is just the god type according to the type chart. It resists everything and has only 3 weaknesses. It also has synergy with MG2 mechanics through Air Balloon. Air Balloon obviously completely removes 1 of Steel's 3 weaknesses, but I don't find this to be too important. The main attraction is that it provides an immunity to all non Stealth Rock hazards, which along with Steel's resistance to rocks make Steel-types some of the most hazard resistant pokemon in the meta. In a tier dominated by hazards, having the best raw defensive type be also incredibly resistant to hazards is a huge win. The reason the ground immunity is somewhat insignificant to me is that the existance of Air Balloon has essentially forced every pokemon with a Ground move to also have Knock Off, and even ignoring the Ground move coming out next turn most Steels hate having to take Spikes.

A+ Tier:
- Water
Water not being S tier may be controversial, but I don't mean it as a slight to the Water type. I just feel like there are only 2 types with an argument to be the best type in the tier, and therefore Water cannot be in the same tier as them. I am more open to an argument that Water is better than Fire or Steel than I am to putting it in the S tier, because there is no criteria in which Water can be ranked above both Fire and Steel, only one or the other. Water is another great defensive type, having favourable matchups into both Fire and Steel along with an immunity to Scald which would otherwise terrorize this tier. Like Nog said it is hard to remove Water-types due to Electric and Grass-types being uncommon, but I think it is notable to say that while there aren't many Electric-types, Electric-types are good. The thing is, both Grass and Electric are special types, so with a few Calm Mind boosts Water types become very difficult to kill. This is the thing that makes Water so good.
- Psychic
Psychic used to be arguably the best type in MG2, we would spam every CM Psychic-type and win with them all. The days of this are basically over thanks to the discovery of Foul Play and then the discovery of Simply Getting Up Hazards and Putting On Pressure. In gen 9 Psychic got rescued by the introduction of Psychic Noise. Wacky MG2 mechanics make Psychic Noise last more than 2 turns here, and that makes basically every Psychic-type that gets it run it. Psychic also still has the same CM related strengths of course, Mega Slowbro is somehow still good and you can pull off random CM Mew or Latis. Latios is the only Psychic-type that feels like it is actually just straight up good apart from CM or Psychic Noise, running Latios I feel like it would be good even without Psychic Noise. The elephant in the room is obviously Mew, the best pokemon in the tier thanks to an insane movepool which seems to always include Psychic Noise. I think Mew carries this type, since its combination of bulk and speed make it fine with being neutral to stuff, and Psychic is weirdly good at being neutral since Dark is fake (details later), Bug is uncommon, and both Bug and Ghost are neutralized by Wisp. Mew would be amazing with any type in the S, A, and even B tier. Except Fire would be weirdly bad but that doesn't support my narrative.

A Tier:
- Ghost
Ghost gets absolutely fucked by the fact that it is a Physical type, so it may be weird to see it so high. I like Ghost for a few reasons. Firstly, it is the only good type that threatens Mew. Mew is broken. This makes Ghost good. Secondly, while spin isn't on every team and isn't the main focus of most games, it is still useful to at least be able to threaten to block spin, in a tier where hazards are so important. Third, I like Blacephalon. Blacephalon is the only "real" good Ghost type since it can actually run Shadow Ball in a threatening manner. Ghost also exists on broken mon Flutter Mane, which certainly cannot run a ghost move but still enjoys an immunity to spin and the other immunities/resistances it provides. My idea of an A tier type is a type that I use on a team because "I want an x-type on my team", and I often find myself wanting a Ghost-type.
- Flying
I'm a big fan of Flying in MG2, although I still don't always use it. For me, the main attraction is that Flying-types are the only pokemon which can be fully immune to hazards, with Boots for rocks and the typing granting an immunity to every other type. Along with a resistance to U-turn, this makes them very easy to switch in without momentum at low risk. Rock resists running Air Balloon achieve a similar effect, but nothing feels the same as taking 0 damage. Flying types which aren't weak to rocks are also able to run Leftovers without getting fucked by hazards which is cool. Offensively, literally nothing ever wants to run a Flying move. Flying-types always choose to run their other STAB, with the exception of my goat Salemence which sucked fat dick the 1 time I used it (yall I swear Ice Spinner treads isn't worth it stop running it).
- Electric
Electric is nice because it clicks Electric moves and they do damage and that's about it really. All the mons that abused its broken synergy with Air Balloon. Except one. That's right baby Regieleki still has no weaknesses and outspeeds the entire metagame. It has spin boom and volt switch which is all you need to make progress. Regieleki is actually even more ass than usual rn because its actual good moves are Normal and Flutter Mane blanks them, while having enough special bulk to not really care about Volt Switch. Iron Treads also walls it without the spinblocking part, and Regieleki doesn't do damage in general. Zapdos is really good though, and hurting Water-types is a big attraction to the Electric typing. Thunderbolt just feels good to click in a Balloon meta, and favourable matchups into 2 of the top 3 types is solid.
- Dragon
Great defensive typing since Fire is jesus and Water/Electric are good. Being special as a Fire resist is good because it means Wisp isn't as big of a deal. Draco Meteor is a great move. There are lots of strong Dragon types (Walking Wake, Latios, Kyurem-Black). Dragon has lots of great traits, but it is held back by the fact that it's a generally weak offensive type thanks to its lack of super-effective damage and possession of a resistance from Steel. It is still used offensively because Draco Meteor is strong enough that it is useful on neutral targets, but it is not a type you seek to have an attacker of. The defensive prowess puts it in the A-tier, but it is not complete enough to compete with the true elite.

B Tier:
- Fighting:
Fighting has bad/neutral matchups with every A tier or higher type except Steel. Its niche is that it hits Steel, doesn't care about physical/special split, and has strong mons that click Close Combat. You never really need a Fighting-type defensively, and it's not needed offensively either (if you're running a mon to beat Steels you run a Fire-type), but clicking a 100% accuracy 120bp STAB is never bad in the offense heavy hazard tier.
- Ground:
Ground is a great type in every competitive gen ever, but in this one Balloon doesn't pop so it's mid. There are a couple things that make the type still pretty decent. The first is that you can run Knock on your ground type. Pokemon like Iron Treads, Great Tusk, Gliscor, and even Landorus can do this, allowing them to not be eternally walled by every Steel-type with a Balloon. The second is that Fire-types usually prefer to run Boots since they are crippled by rocks, so they can't afford to have the Spike + Ground immunity from Balloon. Targeting the 2 best types in the game is huge, but you don't resist them and die to wisp and need to have knock and the 3rd best (water) destroys you so mediocrity it is.
- Dark:
This type is stupid and dumb but I can't justify putting it anywhere else. Being immune to Psychic Noise, being the only viable type to resist Ghost (apart from Steel which is weak to Blacephalon), and having epic move Knock Off means that Dark should be really good, but being special in combination with the fact that every good dark ever is physical means this shit sucks. I think it is realistically a C tier type, but I also find myself wanting a Dark-type on teams which was my definition of A tier, meaning I put it in the middle. I still hate dark, but it is somewhat needed in this meta. Meowscarada is a legitimately good pokemon, I have some belief in Hoopa-Unbound and Greninja as well. Chien-Pao is definitely ass and Kingambit is a bit of a meme but that's alright.

C Tier:
- Fairy:
It's probably crazy to put Fairy this low but I don't think much really takes advantage of it existing. Flutter Mane is obviously a good pokemon and Tapu Fini has had quite a bit of success at this point, but neither is made by the Fairy typing in the same way that they are in current gens. Flutter Mane is a fast Ghost-type which doesn't even use STABs, where the only thing Fairy provides is a convenient immunity to Draco Meteor. Tapu Fini likes the Fighting/Bug/Dark/Dragon resistances but the true strength is in it being a CM water. Rest talk Tapu Fini is somehow the only Moonblast user in the tier, and I would say the only "real" Fairy-type, but even then it isn't a special pokemon in any way, it does a specific job but it certainly doesn't make the type good.
- Rock:
It's hard to place such a glorious type so low but Rock isn't actually that good. It's nice offensively in that it pairs quite well with Fighting, previously in Terrakion and now in Iron Boulder. It's always been awful defensively but does resist Fire at least. It's bad into Steel and Water though, so it is never going to be a truly meta typing. Rock puts in work offensively with the right coverage, but that's about it. Notable that Balloon makes edgequake absolutely awful.
- Grass:
Grass is pretty miserably mid. It's not awful, and is one of only 2 types that threatens Water, and takes some electric moves, but it loses to basically every other good type. Fire/Steel/Flying/Dragon all resist it, Psychic-types can CM to tank Grass which is special, and Ghost is half Blacephalon which cooks Grass (Flutter Mane also runs Fire coverage). Shaymin-Sky is pretty fast at least!

D Tier:
- Poison:
Known noob Noglastica thinks this is overrating it but I don't think Poison is purely awful. It just sucks. Toxic spikes are not completely irredeemable in my eyes, MG2 always cycles between items: Balloon is better -> Rocks are better -> Boots are better -> Spikes are better -> Balloon is better, but people tend to trend towards rocks being better due to Knock and Social Pressure. This means that Toxic Spikes have some value (vs teams with no Poison or suitable spinner), which brings up the value of both Poison-types setting the Toxic Spikes and Poison-types to fend them off. Sneasler is also a good pokemon in general, Dire Claw is broken but it also somewhat enjoys the Fighting resistance and Toxic immunity from being a Poison-type. qsns also switcheroo Black Sludge'd me today which is nice and unique to poisons. Iron Moth is technically a good Poison-type but it might as well be pure Fire so I'm ignoring it.
- Bug:
Bug kinda sucks, it hits Psychic which is cool but Mew gets Will-O-Wisp which makes it Not Hit Mew. First Impression is insane in this tier of course though, and U-turn is one of the best moves in the tier thanks to hazards being crazy and there being no contact punishing. The problem is that U-turn isn't used by Bug-types and First Impression has bad distribution. Slither Wing is pretty decent though Bug has enough strengths to keep it out of the F tier.

F Tier:
- Ice
This shit ass fr, but Kyurem-Black is good at least! Ice is irredeemably awful without Freeze-Dry, because it sucks vs literally every good type except Flying which is basically only in the upper tiers because I like it. Freeze Dry means it beats Water which is cool, but it's still special so nothing unique over Electric/Grass. Kyurem uses Freeze Dry but it's not what makes it good so how much credit should Ice really get? Shit's ass.
- Normal
This is weird because Explosion is glorious in this tier and Rapid Spin is a nice asset. Unfortunately, there are 0 good normal types. The typing as a whole got a grand total of 8 uses in the tournament, half of which were Zoroark-H (which I didn't even run a Normal move on). Not a single normal type can be claimed as good. This type sucks.


I also said I would do a teamdump so I'll go through my rounds:

Round 1: 3MoreMinutes vs Boomenheimer
G1:

game link
This was my first game in ages, I knew that I was of the opinion that setup was broken in this tier because max evs means stuff is unkillable and I can just spam setup. MMence insta 6-0s except it's lefties ice spinner treads and I have refresh over eq. I win after a few boosts anyway if I hit a few hurricanes in a row but unfortunately don't and this ends up ending the long way.

G2:

game link
Made some funky offense with wisp Chi-Yu (this was the foreshadowing), got absolutely rinsed by Melmetal after it crit my Treads (probably a greedy spin), and then Kyurem-Black which would have won anyway since I never keep Latios on full there.

G3:

game link
This game showed how little clue I had about the tier. I had an amazing matchup which was exactly what I prepared for, but the Slither Wing was Bulk Up and my Gholdengo set was completely awful. Got bailed by a full para on my opponent predicting correctly. Should have lost this game.


Round 2: 3MoreMinutes vs Concept
G1:

game link
After getting cooked last week I decided to actually try to be not bad and brought Self Destruct Melmetal since I lost to it. My prep was noticing the Gliscor lead + stall team and trying to figure out how to abuse it. I landed on this wonderful Urshifu set. I noticed that they run Hex + Night Shade Gholdengo, so my idea was that I could work up on the Gliscor switch to Dengo, then sub on the Thunder Wave, and then nuke everything. Starmie was always Scald + Ice Beam so walled by Urshifu. The only real check was Mew, which was neutral to Surging Strikes so not an answer after all these plays. Technically Urshifu was supposed to also have its Substitute live Night Shade since it's base 100 HP, but I don't think that works thanks to EVS being 248 instead of 252. Them going Starmie instead of Gholdengo doesn't matter because Scald can't burn Water-types. Urshifu gets 2 kills and the game is won.

G2:

game link
This is the exact same as the Chi-Yu team from last week but this time I put Wake as the lead because of the constant lead Gliscor. Joke's on me because they lead Starmie this time and Meowscarada would have been better. I get somewhat unlucky with all the Poison Fangs from Sleep Talk but Chi Yu manages to avoid both Poisons and then flinch the Latias on the 2nd attempt. Pretty dumb way to win but I doubt the Latias would have beaten Chi-Yu anyway and spamming recovery vs flinch move is silly.


Round 4: 3MoreMinutes vs Noglastica
G1:

game link
Fortunately I got an easy mu this week so I wanted to just bring some silly stuff. I did unironically think Zoroark looked decent, Ghost STAB + Fighting coverage is nice + fast Wisp and scaring lead Mew. I got lucky with the Wisp battle keeping my Heatran to check the Skymin. Grimmsnarl was entirely awful I don't know what I was thinking, it beats CM Psychics I guess but it's so slow. I was actually trying this week btw I'm just dumb. I ran Heatran purely because I was hard prepping for Flutter Mane and it can tank a few hits, that's why I was Heavy Slam.

G2:

game link
This team is one of my greatest creations. I wanted to run Kingambit because its typing was nice defensively, but I should the old rest talk set was stupidly passive. I decided to run Knock + Rocks on mine, and slot it as a lead to get up rocks on Mew. I should have been Fighting move over Iron Head for sure but I'll pretend it was so I could 1v1 Flutter Mane. Garchomp was because I was terrified of Flutter Mane and to finish the hazard stack, and then I had some free slots in the rest of the team. I was scared of known Nog mon Slither Wing after Round 1 and always think Wisp is broken, so I put a Charizard. The only reason to run it over Moltres is for the hype, the speed does nothing and you are weaker and frailer. It was funny though, and it did the job. I added a Flutter Mane because all this building for it started to make me feel like it was broken, and then I won with Flutter Mane.


Round 6: 3MoreMinutes vs Gekokeso
G1:

game link
I have a lead Flutter Mane because it has base 135 speed how can it be a bad lead? It's psyshock because I'm hoping to snipe a lead Sneasler, and it helps vs the expected Iron Moth matchup. I don't get Sneasler but eventually do get a Moth. Unfortunately they end up going Kyurem-Black, which misses a Stone Edge and then dies to a crit Psyshock (which was maybe a roll without crit idk). This hasn't been revealed until now but I had an unrevealed Iron Boulder which ate the hit from Kyurem-Black and revenge killed.

G2:
:
game link
This team is weird but Nog suggested a Hydreigon on it which I thought was great so I ran with it. This game I actully get the lead Sneasler but it's too late for the snipe. I run into the Blacephalon I was worried about so it's good I have Hydreigon. I spend the entire game playing weird because I'm terrified of Kyurem subbing and being unkillable. Eventually I realize that Psychic Noise goes through Substitute anyway so it doesn't even matter. Now I know that it actually doesn't which is wild but whatever. I get the burn on Kyurem and the game is an easy win from there.


Round 8: 3MoreMinutes vs qsns

G1:

game link
I bring the lead Flutter Mane team again but this time it's Taunt, I am trying to have a good lead vs Explosion Mew which I am terrified of. I fish for the para vs Walking Wake but never lucky (Foreshadowing). I make stupid plays not realizing my Heatran being burned halves its Attack stat, but then play decently to get Iron Boulder a chance to deal damage. Unfortunately my hazards are gone, and when I get an SD on Boulder they go hard Wake. I win off 1 pump miss if I attack here, but I switch and the pump misses. Then when I go back into Boulder I kill Zapdos and end up in the same situation, except no SD boost. I dodge 2 more pumps and then get hit and lose.

G2:

game link
This is an HO I built for last week, but Azelf outspeeds Mew so here we are. It actually is lead Mew which is cool. I get my rocks up, and then switch out of a Blacephalon speed tie only to Flip Turn back into it, but Blacephalon Shadow Ball is a roll vs itself so I get better odds. I win the tie which puts me in a great spot, but I do slightly misplay the end game causing it to be riskier than it had to be. I should always click Shadow Ball vs the Fini since if it Scalds, I can just go Kyurem-Black and Freeze-Dry, and Lucario can clean up without having to risk a miss. Either way, as long as I hit 1/2 Mashes Kyurem-Black should have it safely.

G3:

game link
The idea here is that I haven't seen many Poison-types from qsns, although there was one in G1 in Sneasler. Greninja can set up Toxic Spikes, and nuke Iron Treads or Great Tusk trying to spin. Tspike will ruin whichever of Tapu Fini and Flutter Mane comes since there is always 1, and limit some other qsns classics like Blacephalon and Walking Wake. Greninja also doubles as a pretty decent Blacephalon switch in, since it's faster and can take its entries as chances to set up more hazards. I actually get a Blacephalon lead into the Greninja, so I get up Toxic Spikes and fend off the Tapu Fini. I run into another Sneasler which messes up my Toxic Spikes making Fini scary, but I have Sub Blacephalon here specifically because it improves the reliability of emergency Explosion. I show Substitute which almost forces Tapu Fini to stay in (switching on a Substitute loses a mon for free), and safely trade for the Fini. I get a Thunderbolt para on Chi-Yu as I sack my Flutter Mane which is fortunate, not sure if this mattered given that my Greninja is full HP. Unmon Greninja somehow closes this out and I have successfully robbed qsns.

 

[Noglastica]

NOG BLOG #16: MG2 OU VR 4.5 UPDATE

If you want to look at a VR unmarred by my comments, here's a link to the official MG2 VR!

S+ Rank:
:Powder From Arcane: Powder From Arcane was unanimously voted S+, the only mon to ever receive such a high ranking, and to do so unanimously is quite impressive. Powder From Arcane is easily the best thing to ever happen to MG2.

S Rank:
Mew: Second to only Powder from Arcane, Mew is once again the only mon in the top rank. This mon has an unofficial "I Could Be Banned" tag on it. Super broke. Wisp still has no immunities and psychic noise still blocks for 5 turns. BANNED. POWDER REMAINS #1

A+ Rank:
Latios: Holy moly. This guy keeps climbing the ranks. Though Latios does have great offensive pressure with psychic noise + flip, and outspeeding Wake is incredibly useful, it feels like one of the best defensive options in the tier as well for offensive teams. Resisting fire + water is super nice (on top of several other resistances), and you only have to worry about ghost (who clicks ghost moves), dark (they're all bad), and dragon (you're faster than most of them.)
Walking Wake: Yeah Wake is still really good. Only a few mons in the tier can reliably check it. Counterplay breaks down to usually either bringing one of those said checks or having plenty of options to revenge it and win before it does any real damage.

A Rank:
Blacephalon: Yeah Blacephalon is still really good. Who would've thought that a mixed attacker with insanely high base offensive stats would be good? Also boom.
Iron Boulder: The physical sweeper of the tier. Like wake, only so many solid defensive checks to it, but you can still build a team around mons that are not OHKO'd at +2 to deal with it as well.
Iron Moth: Part of the reason I bring Latios so much. It's still good, sunny day is no longer a surprise factor though. I expect some more u-turn sets coming.
Zapdos: Perhaps ranked higher than it should be, Zapdos is still solid as a midgame cleaner. With tbolt + coverage and options to run status or phazing, it has plenty of solid options to choose from. Its good bulk is also made even better by the fact that the ground types in the tier can't touch it.

A- Rank:
Flutter Mane: The terror of the tournament. Fmane is super fact and an incredibly scary sweeper with CM. Taunt prevents plenty of options of counterplay, or you can flex icy wind to pretty much cut its number of checks in half. 55 55 physbulk is the only real weakness.
Great Tusk: He hit things hard. Super nice to bring on offense as a boulder + fmane answer.
Iron Treads: Best spinner + best knocker in the tier. Super nice guy too.
Melmetal: Stalk set has fallen off a bit, though it's still certainly an option. Feels like treads is just better on fatter teams. Melm still can provide some defensive backbone on offense with boom.
Tapu Fini: A fini resurgence spurred on by qsns spamming CM Fini. This mon is alot less scary when you just crit it t2 every time I've discovered.

B+ Rank:
Empoleon: Nog Mon at the top of B. Clicks like 80 different moves and is the only good wake check.
Garchomp: Non-icy-wind-flutter check. Spikes is nice. Great stats as well, and don't forget it can run mega.
Heatran: Rocks + boom + fire on offense.

B Rank:
Blissey: Checks special attackers! Very good at it, especially when nobody has psychic noise.
Garganacl: Best and arguably only real Blacephalon check in the tier. Salt cure still can farm??
Gholdengo: Blissey but physical mons!
Gliscor: Knock + spikes is awesome! Also good phys check.
Kyurem-Black: Huh. 170atk mon hits hard. DD + Freeze-Dry + Stone Edge + Focus Blast. Can fiddle with the set too.
Meowscarada: Only good dark type + spikes + turn + knock + 2x crit signature move.
Shaymin-Sky: Fastmon that can run a bunch of stuff. You really just like clicking seed flare except for the fact it hits 60% of the time and you have 8 pp.
Sneasler: 50% status and also switcheroo and also uturn and also sd.
Starmie: Spin + scald

B- Rank:
Chi-Yu: Matchup Fish.
Kommo-o: Same guy, drum salac or omniboost. We did see a stalk set in the tournament though.
Raging-Bolt: Electric types are good.
Slither-Wing: The fip mon. Can run some other options like bu and wisp.
Slowbro-Mega: CM.
Volcanion: Make them go into their dragon and then you explode on it.

C+ Rank:
Azelf: Fast rocks + explosion.
Electrode-Hisui: Make them go into their dragon and then you explode on it. And also you're fast.
Greninja: Dark type with spikes and turn
Moltres: Chill defensive guy. Click wisp!

C Rank:
Celesteela: Ill be honest I totally forgot what this guy does. Seed I think but also you can run setup.
Dhelmise: Spinblocker and spinner! Except walled by the one good spinblocker.
Genesect: Uturn and boom
Hoopa-Unbound: Dark type click dark move. Can also click plot. Sub fpunch though my beloved.
Hydreigon: Dark type with recovery (rare)
Latias: Latios if it were worse BUT got reflect type :fire:
Metagross: Rocks + boom and mega set can do things
Raikou: No weaknesses. Clicks CM and roar and stuff
Skarmory: Gliscor alternative. Surely nobody in this tier preps for steels that are not weak to ground right?
Suicune: Clicks CM and gets crit.
Tyranitar: Bad as a dark type and mediocre as a mega.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike: Chi-Yu matchup fish. Nice defensive typing.
Victini: Spam Vcreate and Uturn. Super slow though vs offense.
Zoroark-Hisui: Mew lead mu fish
Toedscruel: Spore + spin + knock
Dragonite: Heal bell and other shenannigans
Aerodactyl: Suicide lead or mega which is decent.
Landorus-Incarnate: Knock + ground is good + boom for flying types!
Cyclizar: Shed Tail simulator.

C- Tier:
Archeops: No defeatist.
Camerupt-Mega: They go into their dragon type and you boom.
Diancie: Mdia is still decent provided nobody brings steel ghosts anymore? oops. Hbell + balloon on normal though can be used.
Gastrodon: Fmane check. Also spikes!
Glimmora: Suicide lead for if you don't want to get counter led by bringing mew.
Goodra-Hisui: The guy who checks the most top tiers in the game. But he sucks!
Kingambit: Dark type with rocks!
Scream Tail: Fairy type that is also fast? Can run setup too.
Sinistcha: Mu fish spinblocker and also setup option + status distributor
Slowking: Wake check that is just worse than empoleon in pretty much every way. You do check fire types though (other than the clown)
Toxapex: The uhhhhhh
Primarina: Clicks the water moves and sometimes the ice or grass move
Lucario: clicks the STABs and SD
Golisopod: FIP!

Old VR 4.0

S1
Mew

S2
Walking Wake

A1
Iron Moth

A2
Blacephalon
Iron Boulder
Latios
Melmetal
Shaymin-Sky
Iron Treads

B1
Gholdengo
Gliscor
Heatran
Great Tusk
Zapdos

B2
Blissey
Chi Yu
Empoleon
Garchomp
Kommo-o
Latias
Meowscarada
Raging Bolt
Slither Wing
Slowbro
Starmie
Suicune
Tyranitar
Volcanion

C1
Celebi
Dhelmise
Garganacl
Genesect
Hydreigon
Metagross
Raikou
Sinistcha
Slowking
Tapu Fini
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike
Victini

C2
Archaludon
Archeops
Arctozolt
Azelf
Camerupt
Celesteela
Clodsire
Diancie
Electrode-Hisui
Ferrothorn
Flutter Mane
Gastrodon
Glimmora
Goodra-Hisui
Greninja
Heracross
Hippowdon
Hoopa-Unbound
Houndoom
Infernape
Jellicent
Kingambit
Kyurem
Kyurem-Black
Moltres
Regieleki
Roaring Moon
Salamence
Samurott-Hisui
Scream Tail
Skarmory
Sneasler
Talonflame
Terrakion
Toxapex
Urshifu
Zapdos-Galar

 

[Noglastica]

IT IS WITH GREAT PRIDE AND PLEASURE THAT I CAN ANNOUNCE MEW IS BANNED.

Noglastica: BAN
qsns: BAN
3MoreMinutes: "I mean I will probably ban mew"

Why does Mew need to go?
Well, if you've played this tier for even a game or two, you'd see why Mew can be kinda ridiculous. The combination of fire types not being immune to wisp and psychic noise lasting for five turns, it makes the number of Mew switch-ins pretty limited. As a pure psychic, it's only weak to bug, ghost, and dark. The first two are physical and therefore limited heavily by the threat of wisp, and while dark is effective at dealing with Mew offensively (and being immune to psychic noise), there is a limited number of good options. In addition to wisp + psychic noise, it has recovery, great bulk and speed, hazards, and the largest movepool in the entire game if you get bored running the same sets over and over. Setup Mew has proven to be an effective option, and suicide lead (Arcane reference) Mew has proven to be as good if not better than any other suicide lead in the game. Though counterplay of course exists, it is still incredibly oppressive despite being the most prepped for mon in the tier. While yes, a status'd Mew struggles to come in once hazards have been set up, moves like rapid spin and heal bell still exist. While yes, FIP is a fantastic way of revenging Mew, you still only do around 65 max roll with Slither. The most commonly used dark type move to hit Mew is foul play which, if desired, can be made to avoid a 2HKO by reducing your special attack enough.

In conclusion, Mew is gone. Hopefully this opens up the door for more options in teambuilding. Not only is it one less mon to worry about in the tier, but it forces teams to look elsewhere, instead of just throwing a lead mew with spikes on every team.

THE REAL REASON MEW GOT BANNED