GG Godly Gift

[Les2BG]

Original idea by Hot dog pizza / Banner credits to gymjack​

Premise:
The gods have found favor with your Pokemon! Pick your god of choice and have its incredible powers bestowed upon your team.

Restrictions & Bans:
Restrictions: You may have one of the following Pokemon as your 'god':

• Alomomola
• Annihilape
• Arceus (All formes)
• Baxcalibur
• Calyrex-Ice
• Chi-Yu
• Chien-Pao
• Crawdaunt
• Deoxys
• Deoxys-Speed
• Dialga
• Dialga-Origin
• Dragapult
• Espathra
• Eternatus
• Flutter Mane
• Gholdengo
• Gouging-Fire
• Giratina
• Giratina-Origin
• Gliscor
• Groudon
• Hawlucha
• Ho-Oh
• Iron Bundle
• Kingambit
• Kyogre
• Kyurem
• Kyurem-White
• Lugia
• Lunala
• Magearna
• Mewtwo
• Necrozma-Dawn-Wings
• Necrozma-Dusk-Mane
• Ogerpon-Hearthflame
• Palafin
• Palkia
• Palkia-Origin
• Raging-Bolt
• Rayquaza
• Regieleki
• Reshiram
• Serperior
• Shaymin-Sky
• Smeargle
• Spectrier
• Solgaleo
• Terapagos
• Toxapex
• Ursaluna
• Ursaluna-Bloodmoon
• Volcarona
• Zacian
• Zacian-Crowned
• Zamazenta-Crowned
• Zekrom

Bans and Clauses:

Bans and Clauses

Clauses: Species Clause, OHKO Clause, Sleep Moves Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Endless Battle Clause
Pokemon:

• Blissey
• Calyrex-Shadow
• Chansey
• Deoxys-Attack
• Koraidon
• Kyurem-Black
• Miraidon

Abilities: Arena Trap, Gale Wings, Moody, Shadow Tag, Swift Swim, Pure Power, Huge Power
Items: Bright Powder, Focus Band, King's Rock, Quick Claw
Moves: Baton Pass, Last Respects, Shed Tail

Explanation:
Here's how the Uber's stats are distributed to each team mate.

You will be able to recognize from team preview how your opponent is gifting their stats, based upon the position of their Uber.

Here's an example:

In this case, Kyogre is my restricted Pokemon and is occupying slot 2. So, because Ferrothorn is in slot 1, it will have its HP stat replaced with Kyogre's base HP of 100. Kyogre is in slot 2, so nothing receives its Atk stat. Since Clefable is in slot 3, it gets Kyogre's Def of 90. Tapu Koko in slot 4 gets Kyogre's SpA of 150. Landorus-T in slot 5 gets Kyogre's 140 SpD, and lastly, Urshifu-R in slot 6 gets Kyogres's 90 Spe. Where you place your 'God' Pokemon is extremely important in developing strong teams, so do not take this important aspect lightly.

Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when the God has a forme change?
The stats of the god prior to form change are what are used to gift to the other teammates. For example, Zacian-C's teammates will receive the regular forme's stats.

What about the Gods themselves? Do they gain any stats?
No, they don't. Since they're "gifting" to themselves, their stats remain unchanged.

What if a teammate has a forme change?
The stats will remain constant through out. For example, if Aegislash receives 100 Def then it will have 100 Def in both Shield and Blade forme.

When will X get banned?
There are certainly broken threats that may appear beyond our initial banlist thanks to the coming of a new generation, however, we don't want to ban anything outright before this has been played more. Topics on the banlist may be re-suspected but only if relevant arguments are brought up throughout discussion calling for such an action to occur. Things will be both VERY bulky and VERY strong in this meta, so you must prepare accordingly. When the time comes we can look at God bans and teammate bans, but again, please defer discussion about what needs to go until we can test it.

What if I don't have an Uber on my team?
The Pokemon in the first slot (HP slot) acts as the God Pokemon. Although this strategy isn't necessarily the most effective option, it can most certainly work to some extent thanks to Pokemon with incredibly high stats.

Is this playable anywhere?
Yes! This is playable on the main Pokemon Showdown server.

How do Zacian-C and Zamazenta-C work as Gods?
Zacian-C and Zamazenta-C are battle-only formes, similar to Zygarde-C, so they distribute the stats of their out-of-battle formes.

If you have other questions, PM Kris and I can update the FAQ.

If anyone has a suggestion on how to improve these or new ideas for other standards, please share.

Resources:
Resources hub
Viability Rankings
Speed Tiers
Role Compendium

Council:
Kris (Leader)
Fraise
Les2BG (Co-Leader)
TTTech
SammyCe123

Change Log:
Nov 24, 2022: Booster Energy, Cyclizar, and Iron Hands banned.
Dec 9, 2022: Chi-Yu, Espathra, Great Tusk, and Iron Valiant banned.
Jan 29, 2023: Swift Swim banned.
Mar 18, 2023: Walking Wake banned.
Apr 2, 2023: Kingambit and Orthworm banned.
Apr 18, 2023: Shed Tail banned. Cyclizar and Orthworm unbanned.
May 21, 2023: Toxapex and Volcarona banned.
May 29, 2023: Post-HOME initial banlist changes.
June 9, 2023: Dragapult and Zamazenta banned.
June 25, 2023: Miraidon, Bright Powder, Focus Band, King's Rock, and Quick Claw banned.
Aug 11, 2023: Terastallization unbanned.
Sep 14, 2023: Dragapult, Hoopa-Unbound, Iron Hands, Kingambit, Miraidon, Toxapex, Ursaluna, Zamazenta and Booster Energy unbanned.
Sep 24, 2023: Ursaluna restricted.
Sep 30, 2023: Ursaluna-Bloodmoon restricted.
Oct 8, 2023: Kingambit restricted.
Oct 14, 2023: Miraidon banned.
Oct 22, 2023 : Baxcalibur, Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao, Darkrai, Espathra, Flutter Mane, Landorus, Spectrier, Urshifu-S, Urshifu-R, and Volcarona become receivers, Blissey, Chansey, Kingambit, and Ursaluna become gods, Calyrex-S unbanned.
Oct 22, 2023 : Calyrex-S, Blissey, Chansey banned and Toxapex become a god.
Nov 8, 2023 : Chi-Yu restricted and Koraidon suspect.
Nov 25, 2023: Koraidon banned.
Dec 10, 2023: Gliscor and Crawdaunt restricted.
Dec 18, 2023: DLC 2 initial banlist changes.
Jan 7, 2024: Deoxys-Attack banned.
Feb 2, 2024: Deoxys-Speed and Kyurem restricted.
Feb 11, 2024: Huge Power and Pure Power unbanned, Medicham and Azumarill restricted.
Mar 2, 2024: Espathra, Flutter Mane and Hawlucha restricted.
Apr 1, 2024: Huge Power and Pure Power banned, Medicham and Azumarill unrestricted, Dragapult restricted.
May 6, 2024: Volcarona restricted.
June 21, 2024 : Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur restricted. Zacian-Crowned banned.
June 30, 2024 : Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur restricted.
August 12, 2024 : Tera stays legal.
August 25, 2024 : Serperior, Spectrier and Gholdengo restricted.
November 13, 2024 : Gouging-Fire, Raging-Bolt and Alomomola restricted.

Blacklisted Discussion Topics

None yet

Watchlist

Ogerpon-Wellspring

 

[Les2BG]

Sample Teams
(Current as of 25/09/2024)


KW Fat with Meowscarada SpA by BoingK

Lunala Fezandipiti Grassy Terrain Offense by Fraise

Arceus-Fairy BO by Les2BG

Eternatus semi Electric-Terrain Offense by Les2BG

Offensive Groudon Fat by Les2BG

Ho-Oh Sinistcha Fat by Les2BG

Kyurem-White Volcanion Offense by Les2BG

Rayquaza HO by SammyCe123

DLC2 outdated teams

22/01/2025

Calyrex-Ice Weakness Policy BO by Clas

Zacian-Crowned BO with Roar Raging-Bolt by Clas

Zekrom HO by Les2BG

Arceus HO by SammyCe123

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane Offense by SammyCe123

Zacian-Crowned Offense by SammyCe123



06/06/2024

Kyurem-White Volt-Turn Bulky Offence by Les2BG

Necrozma-DW BO by Les2BG

Zacian Fat by Fraise

Necrozma-DM Grassy Terrain Offense by TTTech

Stall by TTTech


Kyurem-B Weavile Physical Offense by Les2BG

Kyurem-W Hazard Stack by TTTech

Necrozma-DW Trick Room by longhiep341

Eternatus Balance by longhiep341

Giratina Stall by longhiep341

Ho-Oh Balance by longhiep341

DLC1 teams

Rayquaza Offense by longhiep341

Palkia Hyper Offense by Les2BG

Eternatus Bulky Offense by Les2BG

Zacian-C Bulky Offense by Les2BG

 

[UT]

Hello, guess I’ll kick things off.

Maushold needs to go, giving it a real Attack stat with a 200 BP moves is just not okay. Especially since it can also cheese with King’s Rock, avoid chip with Pads, or get more consistency with Wide Lens. Throw in better Dragon Dance, and I just don’t see it as healthy.

Second, anything that’s faster than 135 Spe (looking at you, Iron Bundle) is sitting pretty right now. We had a crowded 130 Speed tier last Gen, but 135 is looking even more crowded this gen.

Lastly, what are y’all doing for hazard control, nothing fits :sob:

 

[Ducky]

Hello, guess I’ll kick things off.

Maushold needs to go, giving it a real Attack stat with a 200 BP moves is just not okay. Especially since it can also cheese with King’s Rock, avoid chip with Pads, or get more consistency with Wide Lens. Throw in better Dragon Dance, and I just don’t see it as healthy.

Second, anything that’s faster than 135 Spe (looking at you, Iron Bundle) is sitting pretty right now. We had a crowded 130 Speed tier last Gen, but 135 is looking even more crowded this gen.

Lastly, what are y’all doing for hazard control, nothing fits :sob:

My problem with Maushold rn is that it doesn't get a ton of set-up opportunities in what to me looks like a very offensive meta. Agree that Bundle is very very strong rn, and gets even better because 50% of our gods give it a free choice Scarf.

Other than that, what are people's thoughts on Koraidon vs Miraridon? Which do you think is better and why? I personally prefer Miraidon because I find i that the Quark Drive users are better than the Protosynthesis users currently, but that could easily change once people learn to build for the new meta.

 

[April]

Other than that, what are people's thoughts on Koraidon vs Miraridon? Which do you think is better and why? I personally prefer Miraidon because I find i that the Quark Drive users are better than the Protosynthesis users currently, but that could easily change once people learn to build for the new meta.

It's hard to say what's been explored and unexplored, given we're only a few days into the meta, but it seems like Miraidon is getting so much attention that Koraidon is being a bit left in the shadow. Koraidon is an incredibly strong God in it's own right. 135 Atk, boosted 30% by Orichalcum Pulse as well as setting up the sun (which means it's fire coverage is essentially a third STAB), gives Jolly Koraidon a functional attack stat of 479 and Adamant a functional attack stat of 526. On top of being incredibly strong in it's own right, the Protosynthesis abusers aren't to be passed up either.

is already incredibly strong and fast, and now can choose to boost either speed or special attack to a ludicrous level. It can also inherit good HP or Defense stats from Koraidon, giving it very solid bulk.

does great damage, takes a lot of very strong hits, and can inherent Spdef to make itself a mixed tank.

with 405 speed is terrifying. Nothing stops it from spamming u-turn and CC, and Koraidon's sun also boosts its fire coverage.

You're also free to run your own Quark Drive mons to take advantage of how much Miraidon is on the ladder; Iron Moth and Koraidon are an insane combination, as Iron Moth directly benefits from both of the bike's abilities. Ultimately, while I do think Miraidon is better, it's not by much.

EDIT: Flutter is now a God and Tusk is banned.

 

[Tanny89k]

Some sets I've been using as of late:


Flutter Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Photosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy / Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast / Shadow Ball
- Wish
- Protect

Fantastic bulk with an HP donation, great defensive typing, a 16 PP recovery move in Wish, and a strong offensive presence with Calm Mind and STAB on Moonblast and Shadow Ball. What more could one want from a special wall?


Iron Hands @ Choice Band / Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake
- Volt Switch

With a Spe donation and Hadron Engine support from Miraidon, this thing is monstrous. Close Combat 2HKOs just about every non-resist, Wild Charge and Earthquake offer great coverage, and Volt Switch lets it pivot. Adamant and Jolly make Quark drive boost Attack and Speed respectively, Adamant is generally preferable on Scarf sets and Jolly on Band sets.


Amoonguss @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0
- Foul Play
- Giga Drain
- Toxic
- Synthesis

Plenty of physical Fighting-types, notably the aforementioned Iron Hands, mucking about right now. As such, Amoongus. Toxic immunity and Regenerator are also nice against Toxapex stall, which seems to be cropping up.

 

[Greybaum]

God Selection in Godly Gift ​

Godly Gift has a straightforward concept; pick a God, then distribute its stats to the best available recipients. In Gen 8, that was easy enough - give Tangrowth some of Ho-Oh's SpDef, and it's a Kyogre counter. Feed Victini some Groudon juice, and it's 2HKOing the whole tier. Have your Lunala share some of its lifespan with Skarmory, and it's somehow taking a hit from said supercharged Victini. But Godly Gift in Generation 9 is a bit different...


100/135/115/85/100/135

100/85/100/135/115/135
These are our Gods.

100/100/115 are pretty subpar defensive stats. They certainly are buffs; Iron Treads loves having some extra SpDef to take on Flutter Mane, and Cyclizar going from 172HP subs to 202HP subs is a notable increase, but they're nothing special.
We also don't have all that many viable bulky recipients. Toxapex is a husk of its former self, Ferrothorn and Slowking-Galar got gutted entirely, and new behemoths like Ting-Lu, Wo-Chien, and Garganacl just lack that certain oomph that previous walls had, be it Toxic, recovery options, pivoting options, Knock Off etc.
The reasoning differs for each Pokemon, but the point is: gone are the days of low-tier legends like Skarmory and Gastrodon becoming defensive staples with base 130+ stats. Our donors aren't bulky enough, and our recipients aren't versatile enough.

Offensively we're unfortunately in the same situation.
With Koraidon, Chien-Pao gets a +15 Atk increase. With Miraidon, Iron Bundle gets a +11 SpAtk increase. Dragapult benefits from both, but has to run a Choice Scarf to be fast enough to outpace any of the Booster Energy Pokemon. Maushold is the biggest exception to this rule, but is offensively checked by all the Paradox Pokemon. And... that's about it.

While 100 Def (or HP) is mediocre for a wall, it's pretty solid for Flutter Mane, a Pokemon that ordinarily drops to Ceruledge's Shadow Sneak and Kingambit's Sucker Punch. Likewise, +30 SpDef is far more attractive than +23 Atk to Iron Treads from Koraidon, and it's an outright nerf to use it in the Atk slot with Miraidon.

This brings me to my hot take numero uno; Speed is the only stat that truly matters right now, at least for the most common team archetype - offense. Flutter Mane with either Sunny Day or Booster Energy active outspeeds the whole tier barring Scarf Dragapult, or more realistically: a Choice Scarf, Protosynthesis, or Quark Drive Pokemon in the Speed slot. They all tie it. Because of this, receiving Koraidon or Miraidon's attacking stats is largely outclassed by running Flutter Wing alongside one of the following in the Speed slot:
- Houndstone @ Choice Scarf
- Slither Wing @ Choice Scarf
- Roaring Moon @ Choice Scarf
- Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
And, in particular
- Iron Hands @ Booster Energy

Houndstone and Iron Moth are fantastic late game cleaners, Slither Wing/Roaring Moon are solid offensive pivots and cleaners both, and Iron Hands in particular just... wins after a boost, with Speed ties being pretty much the only reasonable counterplay. Flutter Mane is much the same, but Assault Vest users like Iron Treads can at least keep it in check for a short while.

Banning Booster Energy ​

A lot of my games have come down to "Can they handle Flutter Mane", or "Can they handle 135 Speed Iron Hands", and the answer is usually a firm no to at least one of these. By introducing Booster Energy, Gamefreak have essentially given every Flutter Mane and Iron Hands a free +1 boost to Speed with no drawback. Banning Booster Energy brings back offensive counterplay as a viable option against both of these Pokemon, and stops the metagame warping around base 135 Speed mons just a bit by forcing these abusers into more of a situational-wincon role with stalling out turns becoming legitimate counterplay.

On a side note, if Flutter Mane gets banned from OU, which is a very real possibility considering recent metagame posts, it'll probably exacerbate the problem; by banning Flutter Mane, the only viable way of getting two 135 Spe Paradox Pokemon in Godly Gift is to run Flutter Mane as a God while using either cover legendary limits you to one. It becomes the de facto best choice for offense. Unless...?

Time for my second, even hotter take: Dragapult might be the best God right now.

By giving your Speed slot 142 base Speed and an additional Speed boost from Booster Energy, it outpaces the entire tier, and Tera practically doubles your set-up opportunities with little to no drawback. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I believe Speed is the only stat where you get a notable improvement to your stats right now, so following that logic... Dragapult is not just viable, but possibly the best God available, as the only way your opponent can match your Speed slot is to run God Dragapult themselves, or dare I suggest... God Electrode.

Here's a proof of concept I made which has served me extremely well in tests thus far:
https://pokepast.es/38769bdd5726aeed

But Dragapult isn't the only viable non-Uber God right now. Allow me to introduce...

They tried their best to kill stall, but they failed. By making HO the best archetype in the tier, stall has naturally risen up to bring balance to the force. I bring you Toxapex stall.
https://pokepast.es/a108bca8bb9d3438
This isn't perfect, but it's what I have so far. Most of the choices are self-explanatory, with Florges and Spikes shuffling being the main wincons while Brambleghast serves as a barely satisfactory spinblocker. I think this team does a good job of shutting out most of the one-and-done sweepers that plague the tier right now, and I hope I see more people expanding on this concept to find stall (and maybe even balance) builds that fit into the tier. See you in the Kickoff tour!

 

[dhelmise]

Hi! We have two more gods now:

Flutter Mane, while a fun god choice, will likely be inferior to Miraidon for the time being. Apart from a higher Special Defense stat, Miraidon offers more team utility for Quark Drive Pokemon.

Houndstone might see some fringe viability on a sand team with other frail Pokemon, similar to sets it runs in OU, especially since its stats arent awful in terms of a god, but it's going to struggle to keep up in this metagame.

We will have our first slate soon hopefully, so keep an eye out!

 

[dhelmise]

Hi! We have our first voting slate of the generation!

​	beauts​	Kris​	Lily​	longhiep341​	TPP​	UT​	Result​
Booster Energy​	Ban​	Ban​	Abstain​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	BAN (5-0-1)​
Cyclizar​	Ban​	Ban​	Abstain​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	BAN (5-0-1)​
Iron Hands​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	BAN (6-0-0)​

Booster Energy, Cyclizar, and Iron Hands are all banned from Godly Gift!

We are trying not to jump the gun with tiering for the time being because there's a good chance that anything we ban might end up just being put in Ubers anyway and get unbanned, but Booster Energy, Cyclizar, and Iron Hands all served enough pressure on the current Godly Gift metagame to the point where we decided to ban them even if OU ends up doing something about them later on down the road.

Booster Energy made almost every Paradox Pokemon more unmanageable than already because it provided them with more staying power after the sun/Electric Terrain wore off for them. We wanted to try removing this item in an attempt to mitigate the insane pressure most Paradox Pokemon put on the metagame instead of manually banning up to 12 Pokemon.


We opted to vote on Cyclizar instead of Shed Tail or even Cyclizar and Orthworm because the main things Cyclizar has over Orthworm are Regenerator and a naturally good Speed tier. Giving Cyclizar base 100 HP ensured that all of its Substitutes from Shed Tail would provide safe switches, which made other Pokemon more obnoxious to deal with due to the constant shield they were given. If Orthworm proves to be an issue even with Cyclizar gone, we might revisit this as a vote on Shed Tail instead of a vote on the individual Pokemon.


Iron Hands already having insane physical bulk with its 154 HP and 108 Defense made it very hard to break, and sporting such a high HP stat makes average Special Defense very manageable as well. These factored combined with a natural base 140 Attack allowed Iron Hands to be easily slotted into the Speed slot and get a free Choice Scarf boost from its Booster Energy. However, even with the item being separated from these sets, base 135 Speed still allows Iron Hands to run through almost the entire unboosted metagame, and access to numerous strong coverage moves and viable setup made it too much to handle.

 

[dhelmise]

Hi! Two more gods!

Okay but actually, This is pretty trash since while Palafin itself is good after it transforms, its broken Hero forme is a battle-only change, which means it transfers these subpar stats to the rest of the team. Not really a reason to use this at all unless you REALLY love Palafin-Hero.

Iron Bundle will have a niche somewhere of being able to outspeed Speed inheritors on Koraidon/Miraidon teams, and its Defense and Special Attack stats aren't bad either, so I don't doubt it will find some use somewhere. However, still little reason to use it over the box legends IMO.

 

[Plushietran]

Hello i will talk about pokémon that are probably good idk


Ting-Lu @ Leftovers ( SpD )
Ability: Vessel of Ruin
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Ruination
- Spikes / Body Press / Stealth Rock
- Protect / Spikes / Whirlwind

Spdef Ting-Lu is a good soft check to basically everything but most importantly Miraidon and Dragapult, although it doesen't love taking repeated Draco Meteors because of a lack of recovery so be careful and try to win first, Ting-Lu also gets an incredible move in spikes allowing it to support its own teammates, you can run more Def but i like max spdef to handle Miraidon.


Iron Treads @ Leftovers / Assault Vest ( SpD )
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 252 HP / 152 SpD / 104 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch / Heavy Slam

It's simillar to Ting-Lu in the fact its a ground that doesent automatically die to Miraidon's Draco Meteor so it can help play around it, although instead of spikes Iron Treads can Rapid Spin away hazards and pivot in teammates with Volt Switch, while also having access to Knock Off, these tools help it fit on more offensive squads, the speed is to outrun jolly Great Tusk.


Dragapult @ Choice Specs ( SpA )
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- U-turn
- Hydro Pump

"Ghosts do be broken" -UT, 2022
Even though it's only receiving 135 SpA unlike in gen8, Dragapult is still a major threat thanks to the spammable ghost stab and the speed tier that now crucially gets the jump on the 2 main gods. Hydro Pump last is my favorite last move for Ting-lu, Iron Treads and Garganacl but Thunderbolt and Flamethrower are probably good too, pairs well with miraidon for obvious reasons, but it likes spikes as well.


Gholdengo @ Air Balloon / Spell Tag / Leftovers ( Spe )
Ability: Good as Gold
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Recover / Make It Rain

Basically does the same thing it does in OU but now with the issue of its speed fixed, not much else to say except use it on spikes teams.


Chi-Yu @ Heavy-Duty Boots ( Spe )
Ability: Beads of Ruin
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Taunt

Incredibly dangerous wallbreaker just like in OU, but now with the added threat of speed, you could definitely run a Choice Specs set but i prefer the longevity of Boots.

That's all for now, if any of these sets lose you games feel free to call me a loser on discord

 

[dhelmise]

Slate Two! beauts has sadly stepped down as co-leader and council; thanks for the contributions! On another note, TPP has chosen to abstain from this slate.

​	Kris​	Lily​	longhiep341​	UT​	Result​
Chi-Yu	Ban	Ban	Ban	Ban	BAN (4-0-0)
Espathra	Ban	Ban	Abstain	Ban	BAN (3-0-1)
Great Tusk​	Ban​	Ban​	Ban​	DNB​	BAN (3-1-0)​
Iron Jugulis​	DNB​	DNB​	DNB​	DNB​	DNB (0-4-0)​
Iron Moth​	DNB​	DNB​	DNB​	DNB​	DNB (0-4-0)​
Iron Treads	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB (0-4-0)
Iron Valiant	Ban	Ban	DNB	Ban	BAN (3-1-0)
Roaring Moon	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB (0-4-0)
Scream Tail	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB (0-4-0)
Slither Wing	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB	DNB (0-4-0)

Chi-Yu, Espathra, Great Tusk, and Iron Valiant are all banned from Godly Gift!

OU is unlikely to have any tiering actions until after the new year, so we're starting to act on more Pokemon.

I don't have time to write paragraphs on all of the banned Pokemon because I'm taking a final soon, but the TL;DR is Chi-Yu Speed Espathra SpA Great Tusk Speed/SpD Iron Valiant Speed/Any. BYE

 

[Clas]

not much for me to do rn lol so ill do my best as a guy who never uses any of these to explain in a bit of detail why they were banned


Chi-Yu is a very simple Pokémon - it pairs well with Koraidon in the Speed slot and abuses Choice Specs or Nasty Plot sets to be an unwallable monster, or Choice Scarf to outspeed effectively everything in the metagame at the cost of not nuking everything with its STABs. The real kicker, though, is Beads of Ruin - an ability which lowers the Special Defense of all other active Pokémon, making it impossible to resort to Terastallization to realistically answer. This is excluding its own Terastallization options in Fire, Dark, Grass, and Fairy, limiting counterplay even further.


While misleadingly weak at first, Espathra can quickly become an overbearing threat thanks to a mix of Speed Boost, Stored Power, Calm Mind, Roost, and Terastallization. It differs not from OU, but the gained Special Attack along with Speed Boost increasing Stored Power's damage every turn means that is often exceedingly difficult offensively. Defensively, however, has its own counterplay issues - for one, Espathra actually has recovery on top of the universal Protect and Substitute, which can force mindgames to figure out which one it has. The second is its second attack. Espathra commonly uses either Tera Blast Fighting or Dazzling Gleam in order to deal with Dark-types, although one can handle Steel-types like Kingambit or Iron Treads while the other has a more useful typing in Fairy at the cost of needing help against some Steel-types. While it was often answerable if prepared for, it could still claim multiple KOs and restricted building to a large degree for many teams.


The physically defensive utility god was banned for its Choice Band and Bulk Up sets being rather crazy with a Speed or Special Defense boost respectively. Choice Band kept its amazing physical bulk, while having a fantastic 135 (or higher) Speed tier to outspeed most Pokémon in the metagame while being able to break every physically defensive staple with just its STABs. Bulk Up, however, abused a high Special Defense god like Flutter Mane or sometimes Koraidon, and could quickly get out of hand thanks to Protosynthesis boosting its already amazing Special Defense without taking away its Leftovers. This set often could bluff being a Rapid Spin user in order to set up a Bulk Up unexpectedly, although it often could still set one up safely due to the amount of switches it naturally forces. Paired with a defensive Tera Type like Fairy, Steel, or Grass, Great Tusk could KO most of its threats unexpectedly while not being threatened itself.


Iron Valiant is interesting because it's the only mixed attacker on the chopping block - and honestly the most flexible. Where it lacks in defenses it makes back in its incredible offenses (and movepool). The biggest issue was Quark Drive raising its Speed by 1.5x to outspeed almost everything in the metagame, but it also had a top-tier movepool. With options like Close Combat and Focus Blast, Spirit Break and Moonblast, Thunderbolt, Psyshock, Fire Punch, Knock Off, Calm Mind, and Swords Dance, it could regularly keep opponents on their toes while they try to figure out what STABs it was running on top of its coverage, limiting counterplay further. While it was the easiest to handle of the four due to it sharing consistent checks and counters, it was often still too overbearing in the builder and in practice, and hence was the final Pokémon banned.

 

[dhelmise]

New gods again!

Annihilape has decent stats all around. Its Defense and Speed leave something to be desired, but boasting the highest HP stat of all the gods and an easy slot placement in SpA means building around it is easy. Koraidon can definitely do its job better, but there will certainly be uses to this Pokemon.

Chi-Yu has been unbanned and now has a new niche as a god that benefits from opposing Koraidon teams (on top of being overpowered af obviously). While it has mediocre Speed, its Special Attack and Special Defense are the highest and second highest respectively of the gods, and none of the stats that is has are necessarily bad to pass.

Cyclizar has been unbanned as well, but now it suffers from the same issue as Houndstone of having okay stats and a good ability but being looked over by other gods that could pass the same stats but better. 121 Speed is good, but in a meta where 4 of the gods have base 135 Speed or more and attacking stats over 110, there's nothing that makes cyclizar worth using apart from Shed Tail.

 

[dhelmise]

Oh crap I forgot this in the post, welcome ponchlake to the council!

 

[pptenshii]

kinda dumb question but how do you know what pokemon in a team is the ag/uber pokemon i forgor

 

[UT]

kinda dumb question but how do you know what pokemon in a team is the ag/uber pokemon i forgor

In most cases, you just need to know what Pokemon are tiered as Uber/AG. You can get the list on PS! by doing "/ds uber | ag"

If their team does not have an Uber/AG mon, it is always the mon in the HP slot.

 

[pptenshii]

You can get the list on PS! by doing "/ds uber | ag"

may i ask where you insert this code thanks for the quick and simple answer btw!

 

[UT]

may i ask where you insert this code thanks for the quick and simple answer btw!

Any PS! chat window, including battle chat.

 

[pptenshii]

Any PS! chat window, including battle chat.
View attachment 485519

txs for info!

 

[ponchlake]

Swift Swim is a problem in the current GG meta
​

First I'll just say that this is my own personal opinion, not the council's. That said, I find Swift Swim too powerful in the current meta of GG. If you go into PS and filter for Swift Swim, you might find the results to be fairly underwhelming. However, this is a case of "don't judge a book by its cover," because even something like Lumineon can annihilate whole teams in GG. This has less to do with the fact that Lumineon (or any of the other lackluster Swift Swim user) is some sort of offensive powerhouse and more-so with the fact that Rain archetypes absolutely feast on the current team structures we see. Sure, the Swift Swim pool is fairly shallow at the moment, and the current users of it are not great by any means. However, they are just good enough to take advantage of how teams are currently built. I personally don't buy the argument that there's a lack of good Swift Swim users. I mean the whole premise of GG is to shore up your Pokemon's weaker stats with that of a legendary's. Giving a Pokemon 2x speed with a 135 offensive stat, which is further boosted by Rain, in a meta that struggles with Water types and has a cluttered base 135 speed stat sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.




Miraidon + 2 Swift Swim users make up the best Rain cores at the moment, and most teams do not have an answer to them without either being stall or spreading itself too thin and becoming weak to normal Koraidon or Miraidon teams. Swift Swim mons remove or weaken Miraidon switch-ins and vice versa. The meta is centralized around the box legendaries, Koraidon and Miraidon, and that's why Rain works so well. Your teams have to have an answer for Koraidon and Miraidon, which makes your MU into Rain worse because Rain teams are built to take advantage of that fact. Just about every team has either Iron Treads or Ting Lu for Miraidon, and those get absolutely nuked by Rain. Koraidon has more counterplay with stuff like bulky Fairy types or Pokemon like Skeledirge or Rotom-Wash that can terastallize into a Fairy type and burn Koraidon. However, they also lose to Rain and Swift Swim users.




What about Koraidon though? It resists Water and it sets up the Sun, so it should be good into Rain teams right? I honestly do not think so. Koraidon can be worn down, and Rain packs coverage for Koraidon. You can theoretically hardswitch Koraidon into a Swift Swim user on an attack, tank it, and then threaten it back. This is incredilbly high risk though for the aforementioned fact that Rain teams brings coverage for Koraidon. The solution then would be to try to safely bring in Koraidon on a pivot or something like that, which is when you run into the problem of your team not being able to do that. Off the top of my head, only Rotom-W can switch into a Rain boosted attack and then pivot out vs Rain, but that is only if Rotom-W is healthy. Even then Rain + Terastallization can allow Rain teams to break through would be resists like Toxapex or Rotom-Wash with just Water attacks. This doesn't even account for the possibility of a specific Tera Blast typings like Electric or Ground.




I guess you could run Clodsire in the builder for Rain, but then you sorta run the problem of running Clodsire just for the MU. Clodsire suffers heavily from opportunity cost in my opinion. Why run Clodsire when you can run Ting Lu or Iron Treads if you need a Ground type or hazards? If you need a Water check, why not run Toxapex or Rotom-Wash? Well you'd run it for Rain right? Well that'd work in the Rain MU, but what about a standard Koraidon or Miraidon team? Suddenly it becomes a far less attractive option. Even then your Clodsire might not be all that reliable of a check to Rain anyways. Just about everything on Rain packs Ice Beam or has some Ground coverage for Clodsire anyways.


I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this, and maybe the meta may develop in a way that Rain becomes more bearable. As it stands, I find Swift Swim restricting in the current GG meta, and tiering action might need to be considered. You'd need to look no further than OM Majors, where people are absolutely spamming Greybaum's Rain team.

 

[dhelmise]

Swift Swim is a problem in the current GG meta
​

First I'll just say that this is my own personal opinion, not the council's. That said, I find Swift Swim too powerful in the current meta of GG. If you go into PS and filter for Swift Swim, you might find the results to be fairly underwhelming. However, this is a case of "don't judge a book by its cover," because even something like Lumineon can annihilate whole teams in GG. This has less to do with the fact that Lumineon (or any of the other lackluster Swift Swim user) is some sort of offensive powerhouse and more-so with the fact that Rain archetypes absolutely feast on the current team structures we see. Sure, the Swift Swim pool is fairly shallow at the moment, and the current users of it are not great by any means. However, they are just good enough to take advantage of how teams are currently built. I personally don't buy the argument that there's a lack of good Swift Swim users. I mean the whole premise of GG is to shore up your Pokemon's weaker stats with that of a legendary's. Giving a Pokemon 2x speed with a 135 offensive stat, which is further boosted by Rain, in a meta that struggles with Water types and has a cluttered base 135 speed stat sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.




Miraidon + 2 Swift Swim users make up the best Rain cores at the moment, and most teams do not have an answer to them without either being stall or spreading itself too thin and becoming weak to normal Koraidon or Miraidon teams. Swift Swim mons remove or weaken Miraidon switch-ins and vice versa. That's why they work so well. They work almost too well because the meta is centralized around the box legendaries, Koraidon and Miraidon. We have a problem with an overall lack of viable gods at the moment + they are just incredibly powerful to boot. Your teams has to have an answer for Koraidon and Miraidon, which makes your MU into Rain worse because Rain teams are built to take advantage of that fact. Just about every team has either Iron Treads or Ting Lu for Miraidon, and those get absolutely nuked by Rain. Koraidon has more forms of counterplay than Miraidon like bulky fairy types or Pokemon like Skeledirge or Rotom-Wash that can terastallize into a fairy type and burn Koraidon. However, they also lose to Rain and Swift Swim users.




What about Koraidon though? It resists Water and it sets up the Sun, so it should be good into Rain teams right? I honestly do not think so. Koraidon can be worn down, and Rain packs coverage for Koraidon. You can theoretically hardswitch Koraidon into a Swift Swim user on an attack, tank it, and then threaten it back. This is incredilbly high risk though for the aforementioned fact that Rain teams brings coverage for Koraidon. The solution then would be to try to safely bring in Koraidon on a pivot or something like that, which is when you run into the problem of your team not being able to do that. Off the top of my head, only Rotom-W can switch into a Rain boosted attack and then pivot out vs Rain, but that is only if Rotom-W is healthy. Rain + Terastallization can allow Rain teams to break through would be resists like Toxapex or Rotom-Wash with just Water attacks. This doesn't account for the possibility of a specific Tera Blast typing like Electric or Ground.




I guess you could run Clodsire in the builder for Rain, but then you sorta run the problem of running Clodsire just for the MU. Clodsire suffers heavily from opportunity cost in my opinion. Why run Clodsire when you can run Ting Lu or Iron Treads if you need a Ground type or hazards? If you need a Water check, why not run Toxapex or Rotom-Wash? Well you'd run it for Rain right? Well that'd work in the Rain MU, but what about a standard Koraidon or Miraidon team? Suddenly it becomes a far less attractive option. Even then your Clodsire might not be all that reliable of a check to Rain anyways. Just about everything on Rain packs Ice Beam or has some Ground coverage for Clodsire anyways.


I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this, and maybe the meta may develop in a way that Rain becomes more bearable. As it stands, I find Swift Swim restricting in the current GG meta, and tiering action might need to be considered. You'd need to look no further than OM Majors, where people are absolutely spamming Greybaum's Rain team.

Swift Swim has been banned from Godly Gift!​

Unanimous ban votes, I feel like this post explains why pretty aptly so read it

 

[BoingK]

what's good in the meta rn
i dont really wanna build generic miraidon team number gazillion

 

[in the hills]

I have some unorthodox teams to share if anyone is interested.
- Annihilape God
So like a lot of people I don't really find much interest in building with the same few gods constantly, so I decided to build this first team around Annihilape, which has decent stats and is quite strong in its own right. Rotom-Wash in the HP slot is nothing groundbreaking and has been used for ages, but this gen it hasn't seen a ton of use bc the lack of good HP donators, so using Annihilape's HP is a nice refresher for it. Greninja dropping recently made me very excited to play GG again, as I loved Greninja in gen 7 gg and for this team i went with a choice band set to capitalize on annihilape's attack stat. Clodsire is a nice blanket wall that i felt could be helpful against some of the setup mons in the metagame, but I think with further testing i may or may not change it. Iron Treads is a solid pivot and with some extra spdef can switch into miraidon decently. Gholdengo is the scarfer for this team and can provide some pretty decent speed control if needed, though Proto/Quark mons and other scarfers can be annoying for it.

- Hatterene God Sun TR
If you know me you know my favorite thing to do with Godly Gift is find non-Uber gods that can utilize the metagame concept well. With no Shuckle this gen (rest in peace beloved), I had to do a little more scrambling, but Hatterene is something I had thought up back in Gen 8 when I had made my Stakataka God Trick Room. While not quite as slow as Stakataka, Hatterene passes similarly great stats for Trick Room and plays a similar role to what NDW Trick Room did last gen. Mimikyu and Slowking are the best Trick Room setters i could find to support the sweepers and Dondozo is just kinda filler/blanket check for some other mons, but the team takes flight with Specs Torkoal and Slither Wing as its breakers. Torkoal rips through just about everything and can support Slither Wing, which is a great setup sweeper as well. I think the team could really benefit from another breaker over Dondozo but I havent explored it enough fully.

That's all really, hope anyone who tries them has fun with these teams and maybe people can try to find some improvements to be made on them as well

 

[Greybaum]

what's good in the meta rn
i dont really wanna build generic miraidon team number gazillion

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/other-metagames-index-ask-questions-here.3709852/
next time use this

the honest answer is until home comes out 95% of your teams are either going to be koraidon or miraidon ft. abuser. HO gods (dragapult, iron bundle) are ok but suffer from common defensive trends and don't have good enough abusers anymore. toxapex stall can work, but is something you build the whole team around and only has a couple avenues you can take it down. i haven't used hatterene and my only ape team so far has been awful because i tried to force too many gimmicks together so i can't comment on those, but while i have no doubt the teams hills posted are good i doubt there's that much room for optimisation beyond what he's already come up with.
the saving grace godly gift has is that everything you build around is going to result in the team being fairly different, so here's a few starter cores:
(Atk) (God) (Speed) sets
i've experimented with gholdengo, charizard, and magnezone in the speed slot so far and they've all been fairly decent. you can read more about my thoughts on lokix here but the gist is strong speed control gives you a lot of breathing room, especially for fun offensive cores like heat rock koraidon & solar power specs charizard that maybe don't get as many free turns as you'd like.
(HP) (Any, Tera-Fairy) sets
spdef pex and physdef garg is a pretty splashable defensive core you can slap on a lot of teams. i favour salt cure & protect garg a lot right now, and between garg's salt cure and pex's toxic this core is pretty great at whittling down teams and winning long-term even if they aren't the most proactive.
(God, Tera-Fairy) (SpDef) sets
this one will only be legal for a bit longer but ruination & taunt chien-pao is a really funny way to open things up for koraidon. chien-pao is good at forcing defensive tera, and taunt to keep a crippled garganacl or skeledirge low can be a great way to close out games.
(Def) (SpDef) sets
spikes & a mon that is really good at forcing switches and alleviates the need to run covert cloak on your clodsire. like saltpex these guys are good for teams that want to win by not losing.
(God) (SpAtk) sets
spatk donor makes meowscarada a decently strong hit & run attacker that can spread spikes while threatening the non-clodsire ground-types switching into miraidon.

it's late here so i'm going to bed but the tl;dr is godly gift still has a lot of room for creativity even with only 2 gods a clump of flotsam. just pick a mon and don't be afraid to get creative.