Metagame NP: NU Stage 9 - Fat Bottomed Girls [Snorlax unbanned -- see post 18]

[Finchinator]

I feel like im being clowned on

I feel like Doublade is going to be hard to use ,with how common and popular mons like Guzzlord, Drapion, Bulky Talonflame and Arcanine, all of whom either wield status, spam knock off and resist one of Doublades stabs are gonna make its life hard. Its still gonna be quite annoying for teams lacking burn and or a dark type so its still gotta be watched out for.

First off, I am glad you are interested in our metagame and excited to hear what everyone thinks about the tier. With this said, it's best to avoid double posting -- you can simply edit your initial post if you have more to say before someone else posts unless there are exceptional circumstances that warrant a double post. Going to leave this as a public, general warning for now, but moving forward it is important to be mindful of this.

 

[Stories]

NU is becoming the Herptiles tier.

I've often found myself building around the lizards, turtles, and frogs of the tier, usually in conjunction with each other. I feel they've become increasingly better as the metagame develops and I'm going to explain why I feel this way.

Frill-necked Lizard

Heliolisk is an incredibly consistent Choice Scarf user, with the coverage to threaten any Volt-immune or resist on a read, ranging from Grass Knot and Surf for Ground types to Dark Pulse for the Ghost-Grasses and Focus Blast for Guzzlord, not including its power STAB Hyper Voice as a solid midground vs most of these and others like Rotom-Mow. Consistency means less dips in results although it also means less peaks in preformance, meaning that Choice Specs may be a less consistent option, I do think that the peaks this item gives far outweigh the dips. Choice Scarf Heliolisk is very obviously much weaker than Choice Specs and the reduction in power can become very apparent when playing against bulkier teams, failing to really threaten even Vaporeon with Volt Switch, and being protect scouted very often. Choice Specs can circumvent this by doing solid damage whether the attack has been scouted or not, although no speed boost can hurt against very offensive teams, which Choice Scarf does great it. Basically depending on the item, Heliolisk can have a great MU vs both balance or offense. I won't speak on Boots / Expert belt/ Life Orb because I haven't used them but they seem like they lack the upsides of the Choice items while not really offering much in return, although being able to switch moves and abuse coverage sounds great.

Sexy Lizard

I've been a HUGE Salazzle fan for the past couple weeks, building pretty much every team of November so far with one. Its ability to force progress not only for its partners but for itself with its fantastic supportive movepool in Knock Off / Toxic / Encore then use its amazing offensive STAB and stats to sweep later compares to nothing else in the tier. Salazzle is a glass cannon in terms of power although its typing allows it to pivot into some surprisingly potent threats, such as Vileplume, Sylveon, and random coverage like Fire Blast / Sludge Bomb from Goodra as an example, as well as being immune to Toxic and Wil-o-Wisp. I already explained in greater detail why I like Salazzle so much on my VR nomination post but basically the decline in Vaporeon and increased speed on Diancie are two great boons for it right now.

MI6 James Pond

Really not too much to say about this; fantastic offensive stats with access to U-Turn to bait out common resists such as Vaporeon and Mantine. Any team that lacks one of those Water-Absorbers will find that Inteleon can feasibly 2HKO the entire tier with Choice Specs, although Choice Scarf and the Crit set are "solid" as well. Inteleon can steamroll teams who opt for an offensive Grass or Dragon as their Water resist and can also force progress by giving momentum for teammates.

OG Tortoise

We all know what this thing does, I don't use it because I think its cheap and braindead no offense to anyone who uses it. I think its incredibly restricting and is still super underexplored in terms of movepool and item.

Giant Salamander

Yes its an amphibian. Quagsire is an amazing. Blanket check to many common offense threats in Tyrantrum, Salazzle, Blastoise, and Doublade, thanks to its amazing typing and ability. Unaware means teams who rely on set-up to make progress are completely unable to break past Quagsire cores. Quagsire's movepool only further allows it to be an annoying wall, most commonly using a great STAB EQ and obviously Recover, Quagsire can be seen using Toxic in combination with Protect, although Encore, Haze, Scald, Curse, and Infestation are all amazing options. Encore is my favorite move on Quagsire to punish those trying to abuse Quagsire's passivity. In this replay we can see that both Quagsire AND Salazzle put in an incredible amount of work together to shut down opposing offense and overwhelm opposing defense.

Mata Mata Turtle

I haven't used this but I think it has 2(?) uses in SCL (???) Here's a replay of it putting in work I guess, its a cool Diancie lure and Shell Smash is a broken move so even awful mons can become decent.

Poison Dart Frog

Just like Salazzle and Drapion, Toxicroak is both a phenomenal progress-maker breaker, and sweeper; with the ability to completely blank Vaporeon and set up on it, and tech to remove Vaporeon's common partners such as Mudsdale and Bronzong in Low Kick or Knock Off. Toxicroak may struggle to get a Swords Dance without an opposing Vaporeon on the field although it doesn't need a +2 to get raw OHKO's on Pokémon such as Talonflame with Gunk Shot. Toxicroak can also use Sucker Punch to faster snipe things trying to revenge it or use funny Nasty Plot sets to break through more Physically defensive Pokemon like Mudsdale and Doublade. I do think Toxicroak isn't quite as strong at the moment due to the decline in Vaporeon's and increase in Xatu, Talonflame, Quagsire, and Doublade although it is able to break through them if given the room to.

Orange Lizard

Yes, Orange Lizards are real (and cute). Again, I'm not familiar with using Scrafty, but I have both seen and been the recipient of its extremely potent setup game in both Dragon Dance and Bulk Up. There are many games where Scrafty can effectively win at preview because the opponent lacks a Fairy type or an extremely powerful super-effective attack. Shed Skin and Intimidate allow Scrafty to set up very easily, and Moxie lets it steamroll very suddenly, meaning all 3 abilities are very good. Scrafty also has the means to bypass checks utilizing Throat Chop for Sylveon Hyper Voice or Iron Head/Tail for both Sylveon and Diancie.

Shoutouts to my friend here, Justin