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After seeing some metagame development in recent tournaments, and with ORAS Underground and ZUPL team tours coming up, the council has decided to look to do something about these issues. We are looking to discuss some problematic elements in the tier, Light Clay and Huntail.
Originally, a post was made in the ZU Old Gens Hub about the council wanting to set up a vote to suspect Meowstic-M > Light Clay (the post is also helpful for explaining why we want to vote on these two things). After hearing some feedback from the community, we have decided to pivot by swapping the vote to Light Clay. Good points were brought up about potentially also losing a viable Pokémon in Meowstic-F since they are both tiered the same + other setters like Swoobat, Servine, and Carbink, being able to do a decent enough job to keep Light Clay screens overbearing. Ultimately, the screens setters (Meowstic-M, Swoobat, Carbink, Servine, etc.) and screens abusers (Scraggy, Simipour, Dragonair, Klang, etc) aren't problematic enough on their own to deserve a ban, so we are turning to Light Clay.
Huntail has been a problem in the tier whether it's on Screens Hyper Offense, or general balance/offensive teams. Its access to Shell Smash and Water Veil makes it very tough to deal with since the right set can often end games on the spot. Its great physical bulk and Water typing means it can find ways to set up without much issue. The ability to run both physical and special sets makes it very hard to prepare for in the builder. Sucker Punch helps it get past faster Choice Scarfe users after a Shell Smash boost. We believe all of these reasons are enough for it to be voted on by the community for a potential ban.
Criteria for ORAS ZU Light Clay and Huntail vote: Made finals of 2025 or 2024 ORAS Cup, or played at least three games and had one win in ZU Olympiad II or III, or played at least three games and had one win in ZUPL V or VI. Anyone that isn't on the below list, but wants to voice their thoughts on this vote, is still encouraged to share their opinion on Light Clay and Huntail in this thread, but please keep the discussion to whether or not they are broken elements in ORAS ZU.
Unsurprisingly, I support voting ban on both, here's why:
Huntail is a clear outlier in the ORAS ZU metagame. It may not seem overwhelming at first glance, but once it sets up, there are very few Pokémon that can stop it — and those that can are often only situationally effective or vulnerable to straightforward coverage. Its combination of power, priority, and set flexibility allows it to break past the tier’s standard defensive cores while also threatening offensive teams with priority and with its own capability setting up to really win the game. Even with the most common and predictable moves, Huntail consistently 2HKOes bulky Grass-types and Water-types alike, and its access to Sucker Punch gives it a safety net against most forms of revenge killing. It pressures teams in a way that severely limits teambuilding diversity, often forcing suboptimal picks or lures just to keep up. I listed some calcs below that you can see for yourself, I was gonna elaborate each of them initially but it really felt like I was saying the clear sunny day obvious.
Versus bulky Grass-types (Ice Beam):
+2 252+ SpA Huntail Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Servine
276–326 (80.5 – 95.1%) After Stealth Rock: 89.2 – 103.8% — guaranteed OHKO with minimal chip
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ SpA Huntail Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Meganium
217–256 (59.4 – 70.1%) After Stealth Rock: 65.1 – 75.7% — always 2HKO
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ SpA Huntail Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gogoat
330–390 (76 – 89.8%) After Stealth Rock: 82.6 – 96.3% — always 2HKO
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versus bulky Grass-types (Return):
+2 252+ Atk Huntail Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Servine
162-192 (47.2 - 56%) After Stealth Rock: 53.7 - 62.5% — chance to 2HKO with minor chip
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ Atk Huntail Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Meganium
162-192 (44.4 - 52.6%) After Stealth Rock: 50.1 - 59.3% — very likely 2HKO with chip + lefties recovery
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ Atk Huntail Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gogoat
260-306 (59.9 - 70.5%) After Stealth Rock: 66.5 - 77.1% — always 2HKO
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versus bulky Water-types (Hidden Power Grass)
+2 252+ SpA Huntail Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 220+ SpD Seaking: 196–232 (53.8 – 63.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO After Stealth Rock: 225–266 (61.6 – 72.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ SpA Huntail Hidden Power Grass vs. 232 HP / 0 SpD Politoed: 230–272 (60.6 – 71.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO After Stealth Rock: 264–312 (69.5 – 82.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versus bulky Water-types (Return)
252+ Atk Huntail Return vs. 232 HP / 0 Def Politoed: 133–157 (35 – 41.4%) — guaranteed 3HKO After Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery: 160–189 (42.1 – 49.8%) — still guaranteed 3HKO
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ Atk Huntail Return vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Seaking: 296–349 (81.3 – 95.8%) — 56.3% chance to OHKO After Stealth Rock: 355–418 (97.6 – 114.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versus the direct revenge killers (Scarf Electabuzz and Scarf Simisage) - With Sucker Punch and Physical Huntail
+2 252+ Atk Huntail Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Electabuzz (30 IVs)
259–305 (95.5 – 112.5%) After Stealth Rock: 103.7 – 122% — guaranteed OHKO
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +2 252+ Atk Huntail Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Simisage
237–279 (81.4 – 95.8%) After Stealth Rock: 88.1 – 100% — 68.8% chance to OHKO
I also want to highlight just how easy it is to set up with Huntail in this tier — it honestly feels like it's playing on a completely different power level. In HO builds, it's ridiculously simple to regain momentum with it after a teammate goes down, since Huntail has way too many natural entry points to freely set up a Shell Smash, due to it's natural good matchup against (usually) > 50% of the general team compositions. Oh and also can we not pretend you can build a team that completely prevents Huntail from setting up without giving up something important. People for some insane reason act like if you have Taunt in like two of your mons Huntail can never setup and that is really not true, I guess you need to play this metagame constantly to get to this conclusion as I used to have a similar vision in my first steps in it but that's just dumb.
Now regarding Light Clay
I think the growing consensus around Light Clay is that its consistency is being called into question more and more lately. But it's important to break down why it's been so effective in the first place.
First, a big part of that consistency comes from the fact that most of the common screen abusers are strong Pokémon even without screens. You’ve got examples like Scraggy, Swalot, Klang, Huntail, Sawsbuck, Swoobat, Simipour — all of which can snowball or trade extremely well once screens are up.
The second — and in my opinion, more underrated — factor is the Defog situation in this tier. Our Defoggers are not only limited in number, but they also naturally fold to most of those screen abusers. They either get overwhelmed or end up giving way too many free turns for setup, which makes it really hard to keep screens in check in a healthy way.
I've also selected some Replays of both Huntail and Screens living their best in action, check them below.
En resumen: I see both Huntail and Screens as overcentralizing forces that push the meta in very specific directions when it comes to teambuilding. The fact that you can just slap on the tools to counter or punish them within the same team that’s abusing Huntail or Screens, and you're not really loading wack by doing so says a lot.
Thanks for reading!
