Pet Mod Legends Z-A OU

[Bryyo]

Mega Absol Z is pretty amazing from just this short time I've been laddering with it.
Technician Shadow Sneak is so much better than Sucker Punch simply for removing those Sucker Punch mind games, plus hitting things like Scarf Keldeo and Speed Boosted Blaziken neutrally.
It can actually afford to run Adamant nature too, because it will still outspeed "fast" guys like Darkrai and Mega Meowstic, and speed tieing with Garchomp Z often won't matter when +2 Shadow Sneaks does 75-90%, so just a few rocks switch-ins or a spike will end up putting it in Shadow Sneak range. Coin flipping against Vacuum Wave Mega Lucario Z is just annoying to deal with anyway, so may as well just always switch out and run Adamant.
Swords Dance + Close Combat + Knock Off + Shadow Sneak is such insane coverage that hits everything in the tier neutrally, and even the few fairies that exist and resist CC+Knock don't appreciate +2 Shadow Sneak, so while Iron Tail sounds good in theory it would only be needed for Clefable, Mega Floette, and Slurpuff who just kills itself setting webs anyway, so it's just straight up not worth running Iron Tail imo.

 

[`ShadowTwo]

Why are we talking about Loaded Dice? Dice isn't allowed in this meta game.

I mentioned Loaded Dice in the list of items used by Baxcalibur in SV, simply to ask the question of whether it was really worth using his mega when his base form greatly benefits from items.

 

[Moyashi]

TSpikes are whatever and PShot unironically is worse than VSwitch on Washtom,

Parting Shot is way more spammable with a far greater upside and brings the utility of lowering foes attacking stats, which enables its own frailer teammates beyond just getting them in safely via Rotom W and its slower pivoting. Parabolic Charge is a great replacement stab that while not super strong, still brings the chip damage volt switch brought with the added benefit of recovering some HP, which can make Wash deceptively resilient at times.

 

[effluxi]

im gonna be real there's nothing stopping lucario from 'wiping the entire meta' right now. you can't fuck around with that 164 spatk i tried running spdef dozo to check it and still got clean 3hkod w/lefties off 80bp aura sphere. AV glowking is the closest thing i've found to a switchin but it's definetely pushing it

Theoretically without mega launcher things like Alolawak, Volc, Sirfetch'd can threaten to live and ohko if they can get in which some regen pivots can manage to repeat but good luck doing that in champs when it gets launcher

 

[fluff!!]

New dlc meta, havn't played much but this defensive core stood out to me.

+
these too fit together really well in this meta answering most of each other's checks. i ran max max hp def washtom and max max hp spdef mage but i am sure someone can figure out a much better spread.

Side note: ghold is insane and av krook is goated.

the silly Excadrill clicking the funny Ground move:

Anyway, I agree that Genesect should go. Also Mega Magearna (and base Magearna too tbh) will be eventually banned, it only takes one game where people face a Magearna tailored to beat their team to realize that you're never EVER gonna be ready for all of the infinite coverage this thing gets. Run the checks, try to build a team that always has a way to deal with any Shift Gear and Calm Mind and even Iron Defense Magearna reliably. Just CM/Draining Kiss/Focus Blast (or even Aura Sphere atp) beats basically everything and KOing first is so difficult with this typing and bulk. It's also faster than Excadrill and so bulky that you can run Encore over Shift Gear to ruin attempts at outboosting her. Utterly insane mon and it's only a matter of time until people see the light.

 

[Clas]

Parting Shot is way more spammable with a far greater upside and brings the utility of lowering foes attacking stats, which enables its own frailer teammates beyond just getting them in safely via Rotom W and its slower pivoting. Parabolic Charge is a great replacement stab that while not super strong, still brings the chip damage volt switch brought with the added benefit of recovering some HP, which can make Wash deceptively resilient at times.

Fair point but I still personally value and fear the immediate damage of VS more than the combo of PShot + PBCharge more, especially since you're taking up 2 moveslots instead of 1. Pain Split has always felt plenty potent enough with its low base HP but it could just be a personal thing.

 

[Dhrabb]

Just hit rank 1 on ladder with Staraptor: https://pokepast.es/88e9453de2c00ed2

Thought I'd drop some initial thoughts on the meta

Starting with the goat -mega itself, it's a pretty fun breaker. Tough claws stab CC Brave Bird and coverage in Knock is really tough to switch into, and with that typing it's a breaker that doesn't need hazard control which is really cool. Breaking capabilities aside this mon's defensive profile is kinda underrated, it lives random hits from high health and is deceptively hard to chip down given its spikes immunity and rocks neutrality. It also has pre mega utility with intimidate which is super nice. Solid mega, I doubt it's a tier staple or anything but it's super fun to use.

along with its mega is bonkers lmao. I wish this didn't get stored power cause otherwise its profile is really nice. But eh, everyone is spamming that and it can go out of hand really quickly. It can still pull of a bunch of other stuff too like spikes, specs, AV etc. Broken mon for sure, I'd ban.

For the Z megas I think the big one is . It has no business hitting ghosts with fighting stab while having that spatk and speed. Yes it has shadow ball and dark pulse but as it stands it doesn't even need to tech them in to be a demon. I've been using spdef chomp to check this which it does pretty well, I'll get to that mon later.

Speaking of chomp, -mega-z is a little confusing. I've yet to use it, and I've been spamming twave clef (physdef) and it checks mega chomp pretty much every time. It might be broken when meta settles but idk we'll see. Losing ground stab is massive. You honestly don't even need earth power, just go flame and surf.

And for the last one z is also something I've been checking with Clef. This mon is probably fine, it's also very good with that technician sneak and espeed immunity.

Mega is pretty good. Mon's strong, but lack of lefties and spikes weakness is rough. Doesn't help that the best grounds are exca and chomp, the former with mold breaker eq and the latter frequently being on spikes teams with dtail. Mega heatran is really strong tho, could see this being a staple potentially. Idt earth eater thematically fits tho.

Mega is really good with its new movepool and ability, but I don't think regenerator is an appropriate fit for this mon. That being said it's very good with it so it might as well stay.

Haven't really seen many other megas outside these. Mega is strong but idk if it's worth it over boots/band + another mega. Definitely strong tho. is kinda nice with that terrain boosted expanding force and that speed, but doesn't like the Z megas and scarf Ghold.

Now for some regular mons that are good, is pretty strong but idk if I can call it broken right away. Too many scarf gholds, tank chomps, clefs, and random scarfers and parting shot vs wisp mind games from rotom-w. BU feels like it gets too long to get going, but maybe if fatter builds rise it'll be strong. Scarf ape is kinda nice tho, or AV that I saw in Joey's video. is really funny and I've seen a couple sets like band scarf and shift gear. I haven't had TOO much trouble checking it with hazards and rotom and punishing choice locks with clef/steels, but I think this mon might be broken, I'll have to see more viewpoints on this one. is awesome, scarf is really nice but unfortunate that it's outsped by the Z megas by 2 points. NP with some resist berries I could see being cool too. I've been using Spdef and it's really fun. Checks a bunch of mons like ghold, mega luc z, mega tran, and can switch into many things while getting free spikes. with parabolic charge and parting shot is amazing, and taunt is cool too. You can still run volt and pain split too so this simply adds more depth to its game. Other stuff like and are cool too, but I don't have much else to say about them.

Glad mega Blaziken and last respects got banned but why were they even around LMFAO

 

[R.para ti]

I think there no necesity to ban magearna, Melmetal or Genesect (or any still type in this meta), as almost no one can hit rotom-heat with neutral damage, and no o e can hit with supper efective damage (unless use special rock typr moves), also rotom heat counter so much other meta pokemoms, talonflame (as defoger thst can hit gholdengo), volcanion (wall breaker and again defoger), Excadrill, Gyarados and starmie (with choice scarf), also it recibe parting shot

 

[G-Luke]

I think Parting Shot sucks because of how inefficient the move is for Rotom. Rotom has thrived with being able to condense its Electric STAB and pivoting into one slot, allowing it to afford to run two different utility moves. Whether it be Wisp + Defog, T.Wave + Pain Split, Taunt + Nasty Plot or any combination of this, Rotom always could do alot of things for a team. Splitting apart your STAB and your pivoting makes it much less effective since it has to drop one of its traditional utility options. People deciding that Parabolic Charge will be the Electric move of choice is pretty funny. I don't think it hits hard enough to justify the Draining effect unless you run Nasty Plot. Rotom just often does very pitiful damage while not having a decent way of offsetting chip damage. I don't know why people are talking about unblockable Pivoting. It's Rotom-Wash. Nothing that "blocks" Volt Switch, wants to switch in to block it, that's why it's been OU for 5 Generations!

 

[Dhrabb]

I think Parting Shot sucks because of how inefficient the move is for Rotom. Rotom has thrived with being able to condense its Electric STAB and pivoting into one slot, allowing it to afford to run two different utility moves. Whether it be Wisp + Defog, T.Wave + Pain Split, Taunt + Nasty Plot or any combination of this, Rotom always could do alot of things for a team. Splitting apart your STAB and your pivoting makes it much less effective since it has to drop one of its traditional utility options. People deciding that Parabolic Charge will be the Electric move of choice is pretty funny. I don't think it hits hard enough to justify the Draining effect unless you run Nasty Plot. Rotom just often does very pitiful damage while not having a decent way of offsetting chip damage. I don't know why people are talking about unblockable Pivoting. It's Rotom-Wash. Nothing that "blocks" Volt Switch, wants to switch in to block it, that's why it's been OU for 5 Generations!

I agree with the overall point but parting shot does have some cool upsides especially in this early meta. The -1 offense helps deal with whatever setup sweeper is in front and I've had this come up vs mega Luc-z, mega Chomp-z and especially Bax who can't be burned. As for parabolic charge, yeah in practice it doesn't do much damage without NP but in some less than common scenarios Rotom can stay in on something like Golisopod, Genesect or something similar and slug along a 1v1. I do agree that volt+pain split is overall better. Defog variants should just always have volt.

 

[Cuddly]

I personally just prefer to Unga Bunga. Use Rotom with Mega Z mons or Magearna, using Parting Shot to make sure what ever comes in can’t KO the extremely threatening sweeper.
Trust Vert.

 

[Cuddly]

Honest question, what exactly is stopping someone from running this kind of team.

/ / /
Some hazard stackers to lead off games. Your choice of which Pokemon you want to stack hazards with.

/ /
Some form of set up enabler for all your offensive threats. Parting Shot being key since a 33% damage reduction is really nice, plus you can Will-o-wisp to further reduce damage and other forms of disruption like Knock Off.

/ / / / etc.
The fast, hard hitting set up Mega. Their main drawbacks being reduced by Parting Shot and the Pokemon that threaten the pivotters, Grass/Dark/Ghost/Water, not being as threatening to the Megas, especially at -1.


The Double Dance Magearna that already has excellent bulk and can blow past nearly everything after a few Shift Gears and Calm Minds, and even heal any damage to make revenge killing harder.

/
Dragon Dancer that can tank most hits anyways, even more after a Parting Shot. Needing 1 or 2 DDs to end games or at least make significant progress.

/ / / /
Some filler Pokemon. Annihilape destroying Stall, Gholdengo helping keep your hazards up, Genesect being a strong Scarfer or Shift Gear sweeper, Hoopa blasting most things, or maybe Zeraora just to have a really fast non Mega.

You can pretty much pick and select what you want for this HO style tran to beat any other team.

This post is also a subtle reference to how Parting Shot maybe be a bit overpowered. Pivoting in general too.

 

[Hungry Hungry Hippos]

I think Genesect is a rare Pokémon here where it is allowed but feels like any set you run on it is overpowered. Has anyone else found a way to wall it consistently besides Heatran?

 

[R.para ti]

Rotom heat

I think Genesect is a rare Pokémon here where it is allowed but feels like any set you run on it is overpowered. Has anyone else found a way to wall it consistently besides Heatran?

 

[Cuteturtle2]

: “Please buff me!”

I feel that Magic Guard, while a great ability, is almost completely useless on Mega Chandelure.

Why? Because it doesn’t actually help it beat anything. Chandelure is too slow to beat a stealth rock user like Garchomp, who lives a shadow ball quite well anyways.

Due to this, Chandelure is almost always taking rocks chip before it can mega evolve, especially with the addition of Gholdemon who makes it even harder to control hazards.

My proposed solution? Give Chandelure Recover. Recover would give Chandelure the opportunity to beat mons like Clefable, Magearna, and potentially even Heatran, after a CM or two. Additionally, it would give Chandelure the ability to claim back the 25% health its going to lose to stealth rocks.

plz its so sad to see my child struggle and die

edit: draining kiss or smth would be cool too…

maybe its time for shadow tag

Recover is a move, I think you mean The regenerator ability. Also you can’t add moves to a pokemon under what seems to be the rules especially after the removal of custom abilities.

 

[Uninteleon]

Recover is a move, I think you mean The regenerator ability. Also you can’t add moves to a pokemon under what seems to be the rules especially after the removal of custom abilities.

No, I meant recover. Lopunny recieved Mach Punch and SD, so I assume Chandelure could get move buffs too. Regenerator is even worse as on top of taking hazards damage, you are also vulnerable to Poison damage and Sandstorm damage.