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General Metagame Discussion
- Thread starter Matthew
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Nah. What about defense drops? If ttar is able to get 2 he's in solid shape to KO Xatu.
Yo Xatu is an amazing pokemon and my current team would literally fall apart without it. A simple set of:
Reflect
Thunder Wave
Night Shade
Roost
Fucks over every single hazard starter, most deoxys (except for the mixed varients that carry Tbolt or Ibeam) and Tyranitar can't really do much to you either (Crunch with Reflect up does ~40%). Xatu is the best non-BP magic bounce user simply because it has bulk to it. And fucking great typing too. Psychic typing isn't bad this generation, and nor is Flying. Psychic + Flying gives you the perfect counter to things like Mienshao and even Infernape (if you're running rain that is).
So stop it with that Xatu hate, haters.
Reflect
Thunder Wave
Night Shade
Roost
Fucks over every single hazard starter, most deoxys (except for the mixed varients that carry Tbolt or Ibeam) and Tyranitar can't really do much to you either (Crunch with Reflect up does ~40%). Xatu is the best non-BP magic bounce user simply because it has bulk to it. And fucking great typing too. Psychic typing isn't bad this generation, and nor is Flying. Psychic + Flying gives you the perfect counter to things like Mienshao and even Infernape (if you're running rain that is).
So stop it with that Xatu hate, haters.
There are pokemons that can do almost the same thing (and do it better) that Xatu does. Even with reflect, Xatu must me afraid of Scizor/Tyranitar, wich are very commun in OU. Also, nowadays, it's usual Tyranitar with SR and Xatu only have a safe switch in hazards due to hes 'weak' base stats, so Xatu isn't very good in OU. And if Xatu fails to bounce SR, he will looses 25% of HP every time he appears in the match >:
And if u think i'm talking only about Tyranitar/Scizor, it's be cause it's SO usual to see it. And in rain, even a Scald + STAB hurts this little bird >: The same to drought
Ps: sorry for the bad english
And if u think i'm talking only about Tyranitar/Scizor, it's be cause it's SO usual to see it. And in rain, even a Scald + STAB hurts this little bird >: The same to drought
Ps: sorry for the bad english
um reliably keep off hazards without being totally stopped by jellicent / sableye?
name one.
Xatu and Espeon are used completely different. Espeon, on one hand, is probably a little better than Xatu on a Sun team, as Morning Sun gives sexy amounts of health, and with luck Espeon can actually beat Tyranitar with some HP Fighting, while Xatu can only hope to live with Reflect and pray for no defense drops. However, I believe that Xatu is better outside of sun unless you're going for a sweeper with stored power and shit which obviously Espeon is superior.
^ This.
Though I would say the Disable moveset to be more useful due to how many Pokemon it can shut down.
I ran Magic Coat Smeargle with Spore/Shell Smash/Baton Pass and it worked soundly versus Deoxys leads. Focus Sash is recommended in case you feel they may have Psycho Boost and you need time to think it over.
Generally works well because you sleep, smash and then pass in search for a sweep.
Generally works well because you sleep, smash and then pass in search for a sweep.
I agree, I'm using SubDisable Gengar atm and it's brilliant.
It shuts down certain things completely: choiced pokemon, and pokemon who rely mainly on ground and fighting moves. However a strong pokemon with a good secondary move can easily counter it, and/or predict the disable (landorus with EQ and Stone Edge, for example).
What d'y'all think's the best EV spread for SubDisable Gengar?
i cannot, and will not run a team without both deoxys-s and dragonite in this format. it's impossible. they are just too good - deoxys-s has guaranteed hazards and dragonite's bulk and sweeping prowess allows you to destroy teams just with deoxys-s' support. i have tried stall but it's just not as good as deoxys-s + 5 sweepers, it's almost disgusting how well it works. i've been using gengar to block hazards since gengar is a potent offensive threat able to scare off spinners (well maybe not assurance donphan). not to mention disable shuts down so many pokemon, choiced or otherwise
rain has fallen off the radar for me, probably since weather in general is being used less so there's not too much of a reason to have a weather changer anymore
also we had some fun using sub/roost/dd/dclaw nite and no other pokemon on the ladder today, pretty good when you actually manage to win with it
searching for a replacement for cb terrakion as i feel while he does have an immensely powerful close combat, he still falls pretty quickly due to his plentiful weaknesses, not to mention gliscor usage has picked up a bit
rain has fallen off the radar for me, probably since weather in general is being used less so there's not too much of a reason to have a weather changer anymore
also we had some fun using sub/roost/dd/dclaw nite and no other pokemon on the ladder today, pretty good when you actually manage to win with it
standard 252 satk/252 spd/4 hp timid, no reason to sacrifice your amazing sweeping potential just to get more disables inPsycho Cut said:
searching for a replacement for cb terrakion as i feel while he does have an immensely powerful close combat, he still falls pretty quickly due to his plentiful weaknesses, not to mention gliscor usage has picked up a bit
its a really good set imo. it bluffs choice early on, and can really catch your opponent off-guard with a well timed willowisp (for example against a scarftar switchin that expected volt switch/trick). then the one time full recovery with rest is really good because the opponents generally lax about trying to kill rotom, thinking its just wearing itself down with constant switching in and out of sr. its more reliable than pain split imo because rotom never has time for more than one healing attempt per match, at least in my experience.
While still weak to Scizor and Conkledurr, Double Dance Terrakion gets rid of a lot of CB's problems. Nothing outspeeds Terrakion after a Rock Polish, and besides Scizor and Conkledurr, very little uses Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, or Vacuum Wave, the three priority moves you actually should care about. It also can defeat Gliscor and Skarm, as if you set up a SD on the obvious switch, Stone Edge does 74-87% to a max/max Impish Gliscor and 72-85% to a max/ max Impish Skarm.
I prefer FeatherDance over Reflect. Because it is a good manner to force to switch bulky Bulk Uppers/ Dragon Dancers. I agree with you, Night Shade is a great move for Xatu, but I want to ask you, what is the purpose of having Thunder Wave?
I think it's better not to give 4 hp Ev to Gengar, because it has 261 HP with no Ev's, 4 Subs in Sand and 1 HP left.
The rest I agree with you, also Timid Nature.
Yea and it can sponge most status's and leave the opponent in a mixed emotion situation.
i said months back what dnite brings to the team was genuinely too good all around to pass up on the most competitive of teams that are built day-in, day-out. now, its even more dangerous after the suspect test ended; no disrespect to the test/results but with deoxys-s, latios, terrakion and pokemon that truely benefit so well in these teams (not to mention weather in general), they are used way too often. the ladder is just another playing field where you swap your team around to deal with the way these threats that are produced in a different way at the start of a new day.
God, I really wish SubDisable Gengar would go away. It's being used everywhere lately and it's so difficult to handle. Very few things can come in and be guaranteed to stop it without some very crafty playing. Specially Defensive Scizor works very well. Bug Bite as he Disables, Bullet Punch to victory as Focus Blast doesn't do too much.
Dude, I feel your pain. Every Gengar I see has Substitute, and it's getting quite old. I miss the days when there were actually sets without Substitute on Gengar's analysis page.
I'd like to trial a Scizor, I'll keep your Specially Defensive idea in the back of my mind.
I'd like to trial a Scizor, I'll keep your Specially Defensive idea in the back of my mind.
I think it's just your luck that everything you face is HO, but yes, a large amount of teams these days are Deo-s + 5 sweepers lately (in fact, even I'm using one). I'd say about 20% (ponies refrerence not really intentional) of teams have that strategy.
It'd be so nice to see Deoxys-S get banned...just to get a bit more diversity, but that will probably never happen :p
Oh well, at least my crappy hail team can pwn all these Dragons.
Oh well, at least my crappy hail team can pwn all these Dragons.
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