Metagame National Dex Metagame Discussion

so.. on the topic of a dry tier, what are some innovations that you think could work in NDOU?

:ss/samurott_hisui: :ss/kartana:
these two as an offensive pair have worked exceptionally well in testing, especially when paired with big breakers like mmedi
hsam sets spikes using its STAB on defoggers like corv, while also chipping down lando and ferro and pressuring heatran
kart appreciates the spikes hsam sets up, alongside chipping down its checks and generally becoming a bigger threat as a late game cleaner

:ss/rillaboom: :ss/gouging_fire:
IRONM0NK3Y808 put me on this one, proving itself to be one of the scariest breaking cores.
rillaboom is good cleaner and breaker, often chipping down landos with gglide and uturn alongside setting grassy terrain
gouging really likes the extra recovery to fully utilize its excellent defensive stats, and the weakened eq allows dragonium z sets to 1v1 its most effective check in landorus, alongside stantrum naturally threatening many steels in the tier that s/i into rilla like corv tran and msciz, and dragonium being able to break thru checks like pex and alo

:ss/urshifu_rapid_strike: :ss/slowking_galar:
i never really learned how to use this core and i dont think it particularly shines rn, but im interested in cc+fs lately and tried to make it work yesterday(it didnt). nevertheless i think it has potential
:sv/medicham-mega: :sv/tapu-lele:

Basically a more offensive version of the Urshifu + Slowking-G core you suggested, but these two are extremely good at wallbreaking. Mega Medicham's Close Combat combined with Tapu Lele's Future Sight is great at dismantling cores that rely on Poison-types like Toxapex or Slowking-G, while Tapu Lele can assist Mega Medicham by acting as speed control with Choice Scarf, and boosting the power of Zen Headbutt, while Mega Medicham is great at scaring away Iron Crown and Mega Tyranitar which Tapu Lele doesn't like dealing with.
 
so.. on the topic of a dry tier, what are some innovations that you think could work in NDOU?

:ss/samurott_hisui: :ss/kartana:
these two as an offensive pair have worked exceptionally well in testing, especially when paired with big breakers like mmedi
hsam sets spikes using its STAB on defoggers like corv, while also chipping down lando and ferro and pressuring heatran
kart appreciates the spikes hsam sets up, alongside chipping down its checks and generally becoming a bigger threat as a late game cleaner

:ss/rillaboom: :ss/gouging_fire:
IRONM0NK3Y808 put me on this one, proving itself to be one of the scariest breaking cores.
rillaboom is good cleaner and breaker, often chipping down landos with gglide and uturn alongside setting grassy terrain
gouging really likes the extra recovery to fully utilize its excellent defensive stats, and the weakened eq allows dragonium z sets to 1v1 its most effective check in landorus, alongside stantrum naturally threatening many steels in the tier that s/i into rilla like corv tran and msciz, and dragonium being able to break thru checks like pex and alo

:ss/urshifu_rapid_strike: :ss/slowking_galar:
i never really learned how to use this core and i dont think it particularly shines rn, but im interested in cc+fs lately and tried to make it work yesterday(it didnt). nevertheless i think it has potential
I have personally never tried the second one, I don’t remember properly but I think I have used the other 2
However I know for a fact I’ve never used the 2nd core, ima try it out soon. Ngl I haven’t used a glowking team in a good while
Never the less I’ve never been able to make kartana work personally, it always barely misses out on kills and I know a lot of that also depends on my opponents mons and sets, but yeah, still. As well I don’t think I’ve used a single h-samurott team ever since indigo disk came out.
 
:sv/chandelure:
Very interesting mon, I’m loving scarf sets rn, sometimes I really wish poltergeist was like photon geyser, it’s category depends on which of the user’s attacking stat is higher cuz shadow ball is below average base power. Energy ball for coverage ig and flamethrower/fire blast for powerful stab. Tera fighting Tera blast gives it perfect coverage with stab shadow ball. Good partners I’m finding for :chandelure: are :landorus-therian: and :urshifu-rapid-strike:. Lando to remove hazards and urshifu to be a powerful complimentary scarfer to have as a teammate!
But then chandelure is RU for a reason, it’s kinda niche, stealth rock weak and it gets outspeed and killed without scarf, same problem with xurkitree too tbh, I might as well make another post about my love hate relationship with xurkitree and why I never make teams using it.
If you’re bored maybe try a chandelure team because so far I’ve used it and have been loving it (I’m not planning on sharing my chandelure team anytime soon btw)
 
iirc waterpon overshadows it hard and currently rapid shifu is one of the faces of speed control rn and rockpon fears it. I agree rockpon is decent but imo it's only good as a lead and there are so many better leads
Nah Sd sets are very good with cudgel, power whip/horn leech, super power. I have found success with using grasspon on a grass spam team alongside rilla. Unlike kart (especially without z) which can struggle getting past stuff like Zapdos or corviknight rock pon muscles past them quite easily. Lead sets even on HO are meh HO even favors sd and sturdy gives it a chance to be good vs other offenses as well.
 
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IMO rockpon is the best pon on HO, being a very powerful mon that doesn’t eat tera or Z is absolutely insane and it’s a monster offensive threat. Even if lando checks it, being able to get significant chip on lando is enough to win a game on for those teams which tend to love stuff like DDZ nite/goug.
 
I've only gotten back into this over the last couple of days but here's some things that I've noticed.

There is a distressing amount of complacency regarding what's viable in this meta. I came in trying to build fat and immediately heard that the only thing that is remotely viable is offense and that it likely won't change. Well, of course it won't change, if you aren't trying to buck this trend and try out some new things. Metas can absolutely change even if the mons themselves don't, it's just up to us to continue trying new things out. I haven't been doing this for very long but I'm not giving into this resolved way of thinking and will continue to try out "new" stuff. I've been building fatter stuff for the last couple of days, and here's some interesting mons that I've tried out.

:ss/tangrowth:

This thing has a cool defensive profile, checking the Pons, Urshifu-RS, Mega Lopunny, and Scarf Lando are all invaluable, and you apply big chip onto most physical attackers with Helmet which I've noticed really matters in this meta, especially if its paired with one of many broken cleaners that we have right now. Regenerator cores still can stick around for a while, and paired with solid hazard support you have something that can be really irritating to a lot of common physical attackers. Run Earthquake so u aren't completely free setup for Gouging or Bolt and Sleep Powder to annoy Idef Crown.

:ss/garchomp-mega:

Mixed Rocker Mega Chomp is low-key almost impossible for a lot of teams to switch into, this thing eats non-Mola and Glisc teams for breakfast and even they take a little more than they can comfortably handle from Draco Meteor. It's challenging to actually remove the hazards if it's still in front of hazard removers as well, and it still checks Heatran and Volcarona in a pinch which is nice. Also its speed tier is actually more acceptable than it has been previously, outrunning Gouging, Bolt, and Hisuirott means you have more teams you can comfortably Mega evolve vs without gimping your ability to outrun these large threats. Pair it with Wish and a nice slow pivot for some real crazy stuff.

Also both of these are broken with Hisuirott who is just broken in general.

I will return with more innovation and will continue to build non-offense no matter what y'all say. Good to be back.
 
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I will say that Tang/MChomp fit those BO squads as well, but the line between BO and Balance can get blurry. ChainChomp is awesome though, needs to be used more. And I really fux with the Tang MChomp SamuH idea... Thanks for the inspiration. Good to have you back!
 
Also its speed tier is actually more acceptable than it has been previously, outrunning Gouging, Bolt, and Hisuirott

It's actually something I want to touch on that I find interesting (and overall a good thing), is with the bans of pokemon like Dragapult, Zamazenta, Darkrai (and the super brokens that were banned at the start of the gen), the overall average speed feels a lot more comfortable in prepping for. There's only a handful of pokemon that are extremely fast (Koko/MLop) and they are pokemon that are strong but more than possible to answer. Because of this, it feels like there is at least more room to experiment with slower pokemon that would've really struggled to get use and success because of the previous blitz fast speed tiers. That's one thing I do appreciate.

And because it's more comfortable to use slower pokemon now, it also feels like new possibilities for already strong but slow pokemon open up. (for example I've used and seen a couple CB Samurott-H, which have a great amount of breaking power and progress forcing potential). I'm honestly looking forward to seeing if people can bring out potential of rare pokemon. I've said that I have issues with the tier, and I do, but I also really love that players are still trying to push what's possible with teambuilding in spite of those issues. It's awesome and I love seeing the creativity this tier can produce.

On the subject of underused or underexplored mons,

ursaluna.png

Ursaluna is usually seen for its wallbreaking power, and understandably so, but after it was banned from regular SV UU for its Bulk Up set, I have started to wonder how effective it could be here as well.

Ursaluna @ Leftovers
Level: 100
Adamant Nature
Tera Type: Fairy
Ability: Guts
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Atk / 84 SpD / 140 Spe
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Return / Drain Punch
- Bulk Up

This is just the EV spread for the showdown calculator but I imagine there's different spreads you could run, tweaking them as you need to. The main thing I think is interesting about BU Luna is its more longevity focused approach, offering a soft check to some stuff like Koko and a pivot into leftovers Raging Bolt, and even MDiancie in a pinch. Obviously not a super long answer though back up Wish support from Mola could patch that issue up (and a prime switch into Scarf Shifu). I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has tried it recently. And for that matter, what other underexplored mons that people think should get more use.
 
I love the fact that people are finally staring to see how good tang is, always been a huge fan of it. Rocky helm sets fuck up a lot of mons like shifu/lando/mega lop/rilla with helmet chip, and it formes insanely good core with other regenator mons like :slowking-galar: , :toxapex: , :alomomola: and is also very good as a defensive core along side glowking/pex and lando/glisc. Just make sure u have a switchin into the bulky special attackers like :heatran: , :zapdos: and so on, but outside of that, hella good mon. It can also counter waterpon pretty good, if u dont mind the skaky accuracy of power whip
 
Is Vaporeon secretly the new centralising meta Mon? Also someone tell me why lokix isn't good in this meta(could be overly reliance on band for dmg but needs 10-figures of hazard control)
I don't actually think lokix is an awful pokemon. Especially when the meta is so offense oriented lokix can actually function really well. I think it's issue is that to be able to prey on the offense teams that it matches up well into it really needs to be able to ohko everything with first impression so that it isn't forced to take a hit itself. If you look in other tiers where lokix is used to great extent like SVUU, it's a tier where lokix is able to revenge and OHKO pretty much every offensive threat in the meta. Compare that to OU where we have heatran, corviknight, great tusk, gouging fire and so on and lokix struggles to get the kills it needs and just barely falls short due to it's relatively low attack stat.
 
ok you guys tell me if i burnt down the kitchen or not

I honestly think people are using Zard-Y wrong. I see so many people stacking Proto mons, maybe a H-Lilligant, maybe a Torkoal, but I don't think that's Zard-Y's best playstyle cause its basically just a worse Robot team. Think about it; the mons in Robot teams are so much more viable than whatever proto stack teams can cook up. After about a year or so of testing I figured that zard-y's best partners are Iron Treads, Raging Bolt, Hatterene, Heatran, and some form of Ogerpon. Bolt, Tran, and Hat are pretty self explanatory, but Treads and Oger may need some justification, especially over other more popular zard teammates like Tusk or Rilla.

Treads helps a TON with the Robot matchup. it compresses both Spin and Rocks into one teamslot, and since Hat already helps with deterring hazards, Treads doesn't have a lot of pressure. I usually play it as a pseudo lead-then-disrupt mon with a Sash and Tera Ghost (ghost was more helpful in the Zama days but now im thinking abt other teras). The notable move on treads it Volt Switch, allowing it to pivot out of Moltres and other mons that it doesn't want to deal with. In particular, vswitch Treads tends to bait in a lot of mons that Bolt like to prey on, mostly Waters and Flyings. Tread's speed also makes it much more better into neutral matchups compared to Tusk, and its access to VS is another benefit

For Ogerpon, I've seen the most success with Ogerpon CS but Teal has a lot of potential. It's basically the fast endgame sweeper, which is why Teal is experimented with: a fast mon. Both mons are great in the Sand matchup as well, with CS helping with revenge killing thanks to sturdy and Teal punishing Defog. The speed is the reason Oger is used over Rilla; oger corner has an even more visible advantage thanks to its effortless shredding of moltres, a huge zardy nuisance.

As for Zard itself, its main role is to find opportunities to switch in thanks to Tread's Volt Switch and (when I feel like it) CB Ogerpon-Teal U-Turn and AV Raging bolt Volt Switch. The tech move on Zard is HP Electric; most Rain teams don't expect Zard to have a method to deal with Pelipper, and a singular HP electric suddenly makes the Rain matchup infinitely more easier. Other moves are standard (WBall, SBeam, Sands)

Honestly with how people are talking about the Offense takeover this Balance structure isn't that bad in testing
 
With ND Invitational coming to an end, would like to highlight some observations with usage statistics

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The Good

:samurott-hisui: | 16 | Samurott-Hisui | 31 | 10.84% | 61.29% |
Hazard stacking offense has risen to the forefront of recent offensive developments, and these usually favor HSam as opposed to the more BO-focused Ferrothorn or the terrible Ogerpons with spikes people still want to be good. Naturally dismantling LandoCrown in opposing offenses is appreciated as well, and HSam should rise to further into the spotlight so long as offense continues to be great

:medicham-mega: | 36 | Medicham | 17 | 5.94% | 70.59% |
Medi does medi things, absolutely demolishing any defensive countermeasures with ease. A solid speed tier, allowing to to absolutely thrash LandoCrown with good play, while dismantling any signs of balance while proceeding to Fake Out ur volcarona to death is a recipe for one of the top breakers to slot naturally into offense/bo

:landorus-therian: | 1 | Landorus-Therian | 138 | 48.25% | 52.17% |
Not much to be said here, Landorus-T is the undisputed king of the tier. Taunt sets have come to define offense as the meta's most dominant structure, while Toxic sets, although more uncommon, remain a solid choice on BO. Scarf has also been integral for holding together balances across the globe. For some perspective, you could take away half of LandoT's usages, and it would still be the most used in the tier.

:iron-moth:
| 21 | Iron Moth | 24 | 8.39% | 58.33% |
As the tour waned and offense's dominance continued to grow, Iron Moth was realized as an absolutely incredible piece to many offensive structures and sported a solid 58^ WR to show this. From sun, to firespam offenses with Z Gouging, Iron Moth brings solid defensive utility as well as being a terrific late game threat with its trusty TB Ground

:ferrothorn:
| 4 | Ferrothorn | 53 | 18.53% | 58.49% |
Ferrothorn secured its spot as a top 2 steel very convincingly in the tour, with heatran falling out of favor a bit, id imagine due to the prevalence of Dragonite offense and waterpon builder cope. Most offenses have opted to go for Iron Crown as their steel of choice, but dont get it twisted, Ferrothorn is elite on just about anything else.

:garchomp:
| 15 | Garchomp | 32 | 11.19% | 65.62% |
ChompBros...we're alive and kicking! Despite landoT's dominance of the meta, Garchomp still separates itself as a quality ground with the incredibly effective Loaded Dice + Scale Shot/sd rocks z sets, or defensive with toxtect spdef serving as an effective sponge for many BOs. A 65% WR is particularly impressive, showing chomp can still hang with the top dogs over in natdexlandia

:urshifu:
| 5 | Urshifu | 51 | 17.83% | 60.78% |
Yeah id lead scarf shifu here. Despite the numerous adaptations offense has taken to stop the bear, shifu will inevitably force you into some very uncomfortable scenarios with one of the most unstoppable uturns in the current metagame. SD sets with trailblaze and tera Grass/Steel always can threaten to steel a game away, especially when an opponent tries to midground what they think is a scarf shifu before getting blown away by SD. Shifu stocks will continue to rise rapidly

:zapdos:
| 31 | Zapdos | 18 | 6.29% | 61.11% |
With the smear campaign against Hurricane Zapdos subsiding, it has established itself as an incredible pdef mon, serving as perhaps the most reliable scarf shifu check out there, with hurricane always threatening to hax your ground then volting on anything else out there. With Gliscor notably falling out of favor due to the potency of Taunt landoT shutting it down on the common offenses, Zapdos is actually surprisingly effective at dominating these crown offenses due to landoT's health being so crucial making the bolt/crown switch-ins rather telegraphed, as taking a Hurricane on your LandoT meant to check a million other things is often detrimental. This also lets zapdos be a surprisingly effective defogger so long as you ev to outspeed lando.

:volcarona:
| 27 | Volcarona | 23 | 8.04% | 60.87% |
Despite its cooler robotic sibling gaining popularity, the original matchup moth remains as potent as ever. with the qd/flame/hpground/roost or coverage sets often with tera steel/ground becoming incredibly effective game-enders as it always does. With Dragonite offense being as common as ever though, volc may struggle to find its footing in those games, often relegated to breaking multiscale for a teammate like ogerpon to have a better shot lategame.

:garganacl: | 38 | Garganacl | 16 | 5.59% | 75.00% |
Garg just wins, not much else to it. All throughout the gen garg has remained insanely high wr whenever its used but stays relatively low for some reason. #FREEGARG


The Bad

:Lopunny-mega: | 21 | Lopunny | 24 | 8.39% | 37.50% |
You'd think as the meta becomes more and more offensive, mlop would be to go-to offense killer, but it just doesnt seem to be the case, with mlop often struggling to break the often bulkier offenses with stuff like bolt + helm lando holding it off for an eventual booster energy onslaught in the endgame that lop can only hope to outlast with fake out.

:archaludon:
| 46 | Archaludon | 10 | 3.50% | 40.00% |
Despite people direly wanting Rain to be broken....unfortunately it just does not seem to be the case. I will attribute this to the Ferrothorn tax and move on.

:kartana:
| 20 | Kartana | 25 | 8.74% | 40.00% |
In a metagame infested with fatass dragons, kartana does not seem to be that guy at the moment.

:kyurem:
| 30 | Kyurem | 19 | 6.64% | 36.84% |
Kyurem absolutely stunk it up, but ill hold out hope that its full potential hasnt been realized yet. (DD Tb ground)

:alomomola: | 31 | Alomomola | 18 | 6.29% | 38.89% |
Yeah...not a great showing for everyone's favorite or least favorite fish. But i still think he has potential!!!

:gouging-fire: | 8 | Gouging Fire | 44 | 15.38% | 43.18% |
Quite a pedestrian showing from Gouging in the WR department, although it doesnt detract much, as it is still one of the most effective sweepers out there along with solid defensive utility in the short term even with the Z sets.

:ogerpon-wellspring:
| 8 | Ogerpon-Wellspring | 44 | 15.38% | 43.18% |
Quite the mediocre performance from everyone's favorite brokemon as well, but this is likely the meta adapting to become very centralized around pon with bolt/dnite being nearly integral on just about all offenses, with ferro often enlisted to stop it on BO/Balance with some more niche dragons like Mega Latias shoring it up for balance/fat. Pon had a mid performance, but it is still extremely dangerous and will shatter teams that disrespect it, but the problem is pon being so linear that players are disincentivized to bring it because its counter just straight up counter it, with not a ton of room to manuever in how you actually play it.

:iron-valiant:
| 8 | Iron Valiant | 44 | 15.38% | 43.18% |
Mr/Ms Versatile also is part of the 43.18% WR but I swear im actually good club. Both moths are pretty annoying for it, but mixed encore booster sets are a solid adaptation for checking Dnite/gouging in a pinch with most dnites opting to drop espeed rn, with SD and tera elec cm also being good options. Specs is undeniably the top dog as it stands though, with Gking bos actually falling out of favor for its more aggressive counterpart in Iron Crown.

----------

This tour developed the meta a ton, was very fun to spectate/steal ideas from. Hope to see some of these guys continuing their dominance in NDPL or defeat the washed allegations respectively!
 
Hey guys I have questions about the vr.
Why did weave and tealpon drop and treads and serp rise?
weavile is really hard to slot on teams, and hates z gouging being really common, since it takes minimal damage from its stabs while using it as setup fodder. Tealpon is just kinda bad, decent enough attack with a solid movepool but being mono grass in this metagame is not kind to it. the other formes outclass it most times due to mask boosts as well as bonus STAB options from their secondary typings.
treads honestly i got no fucking clue about imo that mon sucks mega balls and should be in c tier. ig it's a decent enough bolt check on rain? still feel like you'd rather have ferro tho.
serp rose because its just fucking annoying™. it's a good sweeper since it can just luck its way though mons that should normally check it, and it's able to revenge kill wellspring decent enough since it's faster and resists both its stabs. also pairs well with sweepers like gouging since it can remove lando for it + para stuff for better odds later down the line
 
Weavile definitely has consistency issues on its own without factoring in outside forces. It’s kinda also a chip damage magnet. As abg stated gouging-fire is already enough to scare weavile users out their socks. Also I wanna shout out tang that Mon has been putting in real work. Especially since it’s good into quite a few physical attackers like urshifu, kart, and ogerpon.
 
Hey guys I have questions about the vr.
Why did weave and tealpon drop and treads and serp rise?

In addition to what others said, you can look at this doc to see if there were reasons given by council members for something being voted to drop/rise. It can always be found on the VR thread. Might not always have a very descriptive reason, but it’s usually a good place to start.
 
Random late night thoughts go! (also how is it September already where is the time going)

:Iron-Valiant:
For a while this mon felt like it was both good but also inconsistent. And I was struggling to think of a reason why this was (other than Glowking teams which gave it a lot of grief). But in playing around with it more and using other sets it has, I think I have an idea why (again, outside Glowking). When most people think of Valiant, the immediate thought is "Booster Energy" because it makes it such a good cleaner as it's fast and non choice locked (and it can wallbreak). But due to Booster's one time nature, if Valiant gets drawn in too early and is unable to make significant progress, it's much easier to play around as it's now lacking an item.

Booster sets are still good (SD+Encore is really useful for emergency checking dangerous set up threats), but in playing with it more after just ignoring it for a long time, I really agree that Specs Val feels like THE set right now. The more instant power makes it threatening for longer, and its wide movepool gives it some flexibility. Personally I think Trick is the best 4th slot for Specs atm, as while addition coverage is nice the ability to ruin defensive answers and enable itself, and its teammates, is really appealing. Beyond that, it's nice that Val has some good defensive value for such an offensively leaning mon (sometimes switch into annoying moves like knock off from MTar or C-Edge from Hamurott), and can if necessary be used as a pivot into Z Bolt's Devastating Drake if timed well. Despite it not having a great ND Invitation winrate, I really like Val right now.

:Garchomp:
Nice to see Chomp making a comeback. It was never really "bad", but I don't know if it was seen quite as much before. Rocks with SD+Z are good, scale shot is good, and beyond that I honestly have really enjoyed Toxic+Protect Chomp. SpDef investment makes it a useful check to ZardY, Volcarona and Iron Moth and it's good at putting physical walls on a timer.

:Ogerpon-Wellspring:
Don't let the lower winrate fool anyone. This mon is still extremely stupid and doesn't have a lot of reliable answers especially with Zamazenta out the of the picture. Low Mega Lati twin usage, Kyurem is not a good answer at all, Raging Bolt dies to +2 Superpower once it hits 75% (which is not hard given hazards and how easily Bolt is pulled into battle to check things), and no good natural Grasses to check it (the best being Tangrowth which while not horrible, is difficult to fit). Standard SD+Stabs+Superpower is still very polarizing and this is one of the hardest mons to answer reliably for defensive teams.

:Garganacl:
This mon just feels really important for defense right now outside just being great in general, and its ability to keep progress going with Salt Cure is invaluable especially for slowing down offensive threats. It's a mystery how this mon remains low on ladder usage. Also good general Stealth Rocker since it beats most common removal options long term.

:Great Tusk:
This one has less to do with any developments and more of a curiosity. But, what are opinions on this mon at this point? It's kinda quietly chilled in the background for a while now as far as metagame relevance goes, not really being prominent like in standard SV OU and while I see it still a fair bit on ladder, I don't hear people talk about it much anymore. Do people find it mediocre? Is it just okay?
 
This one has less to do with any developments and more of a curiosity. But, what are opinions on this mon at this point? It's kinda quietly chilled in the background for a while now as far as metagame relevance goes, not really being prominent like in standard SV OU and while I see it still a fair bit on ladder, I don't hear people talk about it much anymore. Do people find it mediocre? Is it just okay?
Kinda falling out of ou in general for a bit but imo tusk is mid considering lando is polarizing with it's usual set of eq+turn+rocks and your last slot being whatever you want(defog, taunt etc.) on offense. A lot more mons have removal in ndou and really I only heard of z ice spinner tusk(I don't rlly recall what it was for but it's still niche). Also the meta doesn't favour it rn soo
 
Random late night thoughts go! (also how is it September already where is the time going)

:Iron-Valiant:
For a while this mon felt like it was both good but also inconsistent. And I was struggling to think of a reason why this was (other than Glowking teams which gave it a lot of grief). But in playing around with it more and using other sets it has, I think I have an idea why (again, outside Glowking). When most people think of Valiant, the immediate thought is "Booster Energy" because it makes it such a good cleaner as it's fast and non choice locked (and it can wallbreak). But due to Booster's one time nature, if Valiant gets drawn in too early and is unable to make significant progress, it's much easier to play around as it's now lacking an item.

Booster sets are still good (SD+Encore is really useful for emergency checking dangerous set up threats), but in playing with it more after just ignoring it for a long time, I really agree that Specs Val feels like THE set right now. The more instant power makes it threatening for longer, and its wide movepool gives it some flexibility. Personally I think Trick is the best 4th slot for Specs atm, as while addition coverage is nice the ability to ruin defensive answers and enable itself, and its teammates, is really appealing. Beyond that, it's nice that Val has some good defensive value for such an offensively leaning mon (sometimes switch into annoying moves like knock off from MTar or C-Edge from Hamurott), and can if necessary be used as a pivot into Z Bolt's Devastating Drake if timed well. Despite it not having a great ND Invitation winrate, I really like Val right now.

:Garchomp:
Nice to see Chomp making a comeback. It was never really "bad", but I don't know if it was seen quite as much before. Rocks with SD+Z are good, scale shot is good, and beyond that I honestly have really enjoyed Toxic+Protect Chomp. SpDef investment makes it a useful check to ZardY, Volcarona and Iron Moth and it's good at putting physical walls on a timer.

:Ogerpon-Wellspring:
Don't let the lower winrate fool anyone. This mon is still extremely stupid and doesn't have a lot of reliable answers especially with Zamazenta out the of the picture. Low Mega Lati twin usage, Kyurem is not a good answer at all, Raging Bolt dies to +2 Superpower once it hits 75% (which is not hard given hazards and how easily Bolt is pulled into battle to check things), and no good natural Grasses to check it (the best being Tangrowth which while not horrible, is difficult to fit). Standard SD+Stabs+Superpower is still very polarizing and this is one of the hardest mons to answer reliably for defensive teams.

:Garganacl:
This mon just feels really important for defense right now outside just being great in general, and its ability to keep progress going with Salt Cure is invaluable especially for slowing down offensive threats. It's a mystery how this mon remains low on ladder usage. Also good general Stealth Rocker since it beats most common removal options long term.

:Great Tusk:
This one has less to do with any developments and more of a curiosity. But, what are opinions on this mon at this point? It's kinda quietly chilled in the background for a while now as far as metagame relevance goes, not really being prominent like in standard SV OU and while I see it still a fair bit on ladder, I don't hear people talk about it much anymore. Do people find it mediocre? Is it just okay?
tusk right now imo is actually on an uprise in viability and can very much be considered for a raise out of B+.
offensive sets are okay at best, but they are pretty hard to switch into because of mamo coverage+cc unless you have a neutral tank like alo. it can also rocks on this set but its usually not preferable
defensive is trash lmao dont run it
defensive bu is amazing. bu allows it to boost its defenses alongside foes like sd msciz and sd lando, while also becoming a threatening wincon that has coverage into lando/crown structures and naturally is good into koko, one of the premier speed control options for offense. it also has the very small niche of checking z gouging fire, which it can live +1 dragonium with a dece amount of chip. alongside tera, which on teams this should be the main tera mon, it can actually pick up large sweeps, being able to rapid spin and gain speed against foes like tapu lele, ogerpon, shifu, and kyurem which otherwise would stop it with its wide arrangement of teras(steel poison water fairy dragon)
offensive bu is incredibly scary and hard to stop. combining all the points above and instead of going defensive, offensive bu sets aim to go full turbo and usually use a booster energy to gain attack/speed. keep in mind tusk has 131 base attack, and with protosynthesis this gets boosted to ~500 attack on switch in. bu once takes it to 700. near nothing in the tier can switch into it, and with tera tusk just gains momentum into you instead.
all sets also have the niche of one sided removal, which in a hazardstack meta(as seen with rocks taunt lando and hsam's rise in the vr) it is incredibly important for non offense teams to have consistent removal, in which tusk does this by being one of the only usably rapid spin mons, being able to removes rocks/spikes while keeping ur own on their field

Kinda falling out of ou in general for a bit but imo tusk is mid considering lando is polarizing with it's usual set of eq+turn+rocks and your last slot being whatever you want(defog, taunt etc.) on offense. A lot more mons have removal in ndou and really I only heard of z ice spinner tusk(I don't rlly recall what it was for but it's still niche). Also the meta doesn't favour it rn soo
sorry i tend to disagree
lando cannot do anything to it besides taunt. taunt rocks fast lando is becoming the norm as of late, and taunting its bu once doesnt stop tusk from rapid spinning in order to pick up a sweep or just ice spinnering to take a huge chunk out of lando's health.
yes, a lot more mons have removal, like the defoggers we have, but thats field removal, removing every hazard on the field, which sometimes, when you have rocks and spikes up, isn't preferable. instead, tusk offers you rapid spin, which only clears hazards for your side- super important.
z ice spinner tusk is a ladder thing and imo is pretty mediocre but sniping zapdos is cool ig
what do you mean by "the meta isnt friendly into it?" i think the meta is actually pretty propped up for tusk right now, being able to bully landocrown with bulk up and its stabs alongside setup on msciz and hsam, with tera in its belt to pick up surprise kos on special attackers like lele and val.

in conclusion, tusk should raise to A-
 
I think tusk archetypes of the past don't really feel that good since we've gone full MediKokoLuchaMoth again with O-WS, Gouging, Bolt, not to mention Iron Valiant and now another speed tier check Iron Crown the literal goat. then you're also looking at quite a few offensive mega scizors packing dual wingbeat, Dragonium Z this and that, scarf urshifu lele, etc.. for older archetypes. take for example zard Y Sun offense. Proto spam has been non existent since probably walking wake ban?

that said, I'm still a believer in speed boosting/scarf every now and then but mostly just Poison or Steel bulky-bulk up, rarely defensive tusk if you've got more than one legit steel guy or fairy resist. Tera Ice / Z Ice Spinner is still good but it doesn't do much into the likes of MediKoko HO, Woger, nor would it fair a lot better vs a close combat vs skarm or corv if I'm guessing correctly BUT it still snipes chomp/lando and even opposing tusk so it's not all bad. It has a ton of niche coverage moves to pair with terrains or maybe even temper flare to help get sun usage up. head smash and smack down could definitely be explored more.

tuskothy remains impressively annoying for it being this long into the metagame. it forces progress with knock and packs rapid spin, plus it can set rocks all of which contribute to it being a great hazard stacking offense enabler. problem is you'll hit an aforementioned problematic MU nearly every game. but i don't think this invalidates tusk, rather, you just have to use it differently.
 
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