Well, with more and more teasers for the next movie hinting at a "new pokemon", keldeo's position in the pokedex and all the posters featuring the other musketeers, it's pretty obvious this little pony is gonna be released fairly soon. I thought I'd rebump this thread to start some discussion going about Keldeo's probable place in the current metagame, especially since his very idiosyncratic movepool, stats, and typing I think will obviously end up having an influence on the usage and movesets of a lot of other pokemon in the metagame.
To start off, obviously he'll fit quite comfortably within OU, especially with the large number of prominent pokemon that resist both of his STABs (Dragonite, Starmie, Lati@s, Celebi, Jellicent, Tentacruel, Gyarados, Venasaur and Toxicroak in OU alone). This is topped off with the fact that he doesn't get Ice Beam, like every other water type, drastically limiting the coverage of choice sets without doing some stupid redundant shit. On the other hand, he still has both ridiculous speed and power, and his movepool is just enough to allow for a bunch of random small tweaks to the standard calm mind set that can surprise the wrong opponent. Scald is an intriguing option on the standard calm mind set over surf or hydro pump to possibly give him better defensive coverage, and Taunt of course is a killer move especially on something with speed like his.
I guess to start off discussion, I'd like to pose a couple of questions to the community at large.
1. Obviously, Hidden Power will probably be the most common last move, but looking at the list of pokemon that resist his stabs it seems pretty evenly split in terms of coverage between Ghost, Electric and Ice. Which do you think will be more popular? Which do you think will be better?
2. One of the biggest advantages of Calm Mind as a boosting move is its simultaneous offensive and defensive utility. Do you think offensive sets with Life Orb or defensive sets with Leftovers (or maybe some other item I'm not thinking of?) will end up predominating?
3. Is Aqua Jet viable at all on something with this bad attack and this good speed?
4. What is used in DW that might he won't need to deal with when he comes out in a couple months, assuming we still have our current list of selections then, for better or for worse?
5. Is friendship magic?
1.Hidden Power Ghost will almost always be the superior option. Out of the list you mentioned it hits Starmie, Celebi, Lat@s, Jellicent and Slowbro for super effective damage. Most of these targets are very important because they can hurt Keldeo back badly if it does not ohko them.
For example Slowbro either paralyzes you, poisons you or kills you with Psyshock, Celebi 2hkoes you with his grass move of choice(or even 3hkoes or 4hkoes if defensive Celebi but it doesn't matter because Keldeo can't to anything in return if it lacks HP Ghost), Starmie 2hkoes with Tbolt, and Jellicent stalls you out with WoW since you can't touch it.
Out of the pokes that don't get hit super effectively by HP Ghost, most of the times it doesn't even matter.
For example Timid Keldeo with LO in Rain at +1 using Hydro Pump against offensive Gyara :82.31 - 97.1%. You kill this thing with a resisted move at +1!
Dragonite is in the same boat but i will take a max HP variant just to show Keldeo's power. The same attack(Hydro Pump) vs max HP Dragonite does 73.57 - 86.78%. A huge chance of ohko after SR!
Tentacruel doesn't even matter since it is complete setup bait.
Toxciroak loses 64.6% - 76.3% from a +1 HP Ghost so it is 2hkoed. Against Toxicroak there is no other HP that could hit it for better damage anyway.
So the only poke that remains is Venusaur.
HP Electric is the second best option if you don't want to use Keldeo in rain(which you should) hitting Gyarados, Starmie, Tentacruel, Slowbro and Jellicent but that's it really. Without HP Electric Celebi laughs at you,and so does Lati@s,which you had a chance of beating with HP Ghost.
I don't even consider HP Ice a primary choice for the CM set. It should be used if your team is desperately in need of a dragon check but that's it.
tl;dr HP Ghost is easily the most useful HP on Keldeo!
2.Life Orb will be the most useful item since when used correctly, meaning faster mons are gone it will be raining and his few counters are gone or weakened, because it simple destroys anything. Leftovers is an option but Keldeo prefers much more the added power to ohko dangerous pokes than need LO to be kod. For example Dragonite and Gyarados, get ohkoed after SR as i showed, while they just go at +1/+1 if you have Leftovers (if you don't have the right HP) and kill you after with Bounce and Outrage respectively.
3.Aqua Jet is a must on a physical set...! If you have the guts to use one of 'course. It could be an ok sweeper under rain if you manage to get a Justified boost and a Swords Dance(which won't be hard since the only poke that you can get a Justified boost from in OU is Ttar which easily gets forced out). Very unreliable set but could work under the right circumstances.
4.I am not sure.
5.Yes it is!
