With version 1.3.0 of Scarlet and Violet out, the Cud Chew glitch has officially been fixed and so the maximum defense Kee Berry strategy will remain a hypothetical that did not come to pass.
I've liked Enamorus in the second slot. It's a bulky special attacker, slow enough to win much of the Perish Song-esque speedtest scenarios (and the occasional weather war), and it benefits from its own Delta Stream support. But this slot is a lot more flexible, and I can see running a non flier or just a strong non-Delta Stream mon doing its own thing (as long as it doesn't need tera). Any suggestions?
In my experience trying Enamorus-Turtle with a Dragonite partner at the time of the Opportunist suspect, I've liked it as well but if there's one shortcoming I feel it has, it feels short in terms of bulk with its lower HP stat which can lead to it going down faster than you may expect. As an alternative suggestion, I would say Pokestar UFO is probably a classic option in terms of balanced stats with no real weaknesses, but Ting-Lu is also just fat and a splashable partner that is sure to stick around on the battlefield, as I've personally observed in the meta lately.
Speaking of which, here are the usage stats for the month of April, marking 5 years since the
original in 2018. As the world moves ever forward, the same game of chance still continues to play on.
This month reached a battle count of
55871, lowering back to around the dipping levels of March but still pretty high.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-04/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-04/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Ting-Lu (no change)
#3: Mega Heracross (no change)
#4: Glastrier (no change)
#5: Mega Ampharos (no change)
#6: Blissey (no change)
#7: Mega Gengar (#10)
#8: Tyranitar (#11)
#9: Mega Sableye (#12)
#10: Dusclops (#8)
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the top 10 for this month have barely moved, with even the new additions stepping up a small amount from 11th and 12th. While Venusaur maintains control as the top frog of usage, it also holds onto the sole raw usage above 10000 with 15733 as the battle count falls, with even the usual contender Heracross falling short of the milestone. It's interesting that Tyranitar is making moves into the top 10 and I would be interested to hear about its tera usage, whether it's just going for classic ghost strats or making use of the influence of Flower Veil, but considering that almost half of its weighted teammates are Venusaur, I think it might be more towards the latter, though it seems Mirror Herb and Magic Bounce are most popular as general choices.
Overall everyone in the top 10 has fallen in raw usage, though Baxcalibur in 11th actually improved from March going from 2479 to 2659.There aren't that many high upsets usage-wise, but for me the dark horses of the month include Pikachu-Starter (#21/2430 appearances) with a surprising upsurge in the ranks compared to its usual showings of sub-1000 usage, and also Mega Altaria (#34/879) and Hoopa (#35/612) as such examples of lower usage mons among high competition, though they are closer to the point where they're just outperforming suboptimal casual choices like Deoxys-Defense and Mega Alakazam. As a personal note, Gigalith is now at #118/209 after I posted about it earlier, which isn't that impressive on the surface but it's a relatively large increase over being barely used in months before and in the 600s. I don't know how much of those are my games that are weighed into this, but it goes to show that there's still viable niches that could be explored beyond the optimal meta that we may not see just from these stats until they are played out in practice. As an aside, I just noticed that Tornadus-Therian is in #100 with 92 uses and is the only mon around that area with double digit uses until Cetitan at #149 with 68 uses, then followed by Darmanitan-Zen at #156 with 95 uses, and then you have to look at Gorebyss in #184 with 15 uses who still beats Meowscarada at #185 with 350 uses, so I guess either Gorebyss is a dark horse or Meowscarada is dragged down by its popularity.
Over in the moveset file, there's not much new to say with how the top 10 hasn't changed much, but we can get an update on the trends observed last month, mainly the picks of Ting-Lu. For the abilities of Ting-Lu, Unaware still holds its increasing lead, but Magic Bounce has gained a lot of ground going from 9.787% to 22.879%. Pickup has actually less weighted usage compared to last month, but is still in 3rd now because the previous choices ahead (Fluffy and Good as Gold) have fallen off a bit, with Fluffy no longer in sight. Item-wise, Weakness Policy is still in the lead but decreasing, and Mirror Herb is actually giving it some strong competition with a 48% vs 35% split compared to last month's 58% vs 19%. Flower Veil is no longer the top ability on Tyranitar, and the trend of non-Grass Flower Veil setters seems to have quickly diminished down to Monferno.
Looking to the viability ceilings (the highest GXE of all the players using a certain pokemon), the peaks are back to higher territory, starting with Mega Heracross and Dragapult tied for 81 with Heracross still having the usual sample set and Dragapult still with a lot of variety but leading with Fluffy. Next up is Ting-Lu, Mega Slowbro (mostly Unaware/WP), and Annihilape (Defiant/Good as Gold leading abilities and predominantly Choice Band for the item slot, with Relaxed surprisingly leading the natures, and interesting teammates of Ting-Lu, Alolan Muk, and Annihilape itself). Pikachu-Starter stands alone at 79 with its Imposter Light Ball set, and we chase down to the top 11 at ceiling 78 with a 6-way tie between Glastrier (Mirror Armor/Refrigerate and Mirror Herb/Choice Band/Weakness Policy all above 20%), Mega Ampharos (Competitive/Plus and Specs with some Herb), Landorus-Therian (Aerilate/Choice Band as mentioned), Diancie (Magic Bounce/Pixilate and WP), Mega Abomasnow (leading Well-Baked Body much more than Primordial Sea, and still WP as well), and the return of the underdog Alolan Muk still managing to get some high level representation in these stats despite the surface appearance of its lower usage at #83/412 (mostly running Poison Touch with some Defiant/Serene Grace in the mix, and items divided between Lum Berry/Mirror Herb/Covert Cloak). Thanks for your reading.