Light Clay was banned by council vote, read the discussion here.
So one of the more potent play styles (screens rofl) in the tier has been nerfed. I'm not sure how much the metagame will change, as there are still a few mons that can do so much under regular screens like Necrozma and Polteageist, but at least we've managed to make it easier not to get set up on 4 times in a game.
Nothing much to say, I feel like the core meta stays, which is clicker Volt Turn, but at least we have something going on. Would love to read discussion on the latest tier development.
So one of the more potent play styles (screens rofl) in the tier has been nerfed. I'm not sure how much the metagame will change, as there are still a few mons that can do so much under regular screens like Necrozma and Polteageist, but at least we've managed to make it easier not to get set up on 4 times in a game.
Nothing much to say, I feel like the core meta stays, which is clicker Volt Turn, but at least we have something going on. Would love to read discussion on the latest tier development.
speaking of hyper offense, teapot is awesome right now. A new tech in Strength Sap+Cursed Body allows it to beat Zarude, the bane of its existence and even Incineroar (provided misty terrain is up). beating its 2 most widely-used checks basically means that teapot is able to go fully ballistic on the rest of the meta after just one shell smash, meaning that it's giving Cloyster competition for main Shell Smasher on Hyper Offense teams now.
Lets keep the ghost type talk going, shall we? Yeah Golurk is a monster right now, dishing out ridiculous damage, courtesy of its high attack (further bolstered by items such as choice band) and fantastic STAB moves in Poltergeist and Earthquake. Even pokemon that resist its stab combo get blasted by its excellent coverage in close combat, dynamic punch, the elemental punches, or even shadow punch in case itemless shenanigans occur. However, it is held back by its poor speed, leaving it outsped and revengekilled quite easily. However, the sheer damage potential it has grants it a place on many a team.
RU has been the tier of electrics for a while now and Raikou is a major frontrunner for best electric type in the tier. it's blazing fast, only being outsped by the fast pivots (noivern, crobat and to a lesser extent, talonflame) and niche pokemon like salazzle, and hits extremely hard as well. its pivoting capabilities are quite appreciated in a volturn meta, and it can still run toxic to cripple checks like gastrodon and seismitoad, and extrasensory is now being used as well due to the presence of roserade in the tier. easily a top 5 mon currently
yeah no xurk is popping off rn because of a very different set to what it ran originally. boots xurk is a phenomenal breaker and pivot, taking advantage of the fact that most of its checks are quite slow to blast them with a coverage move, even if the user predicted wrongly. An added benefit of using Heavy Duty Boots is that it increasing xurkitree's longevity by making it immune to hazard damage, meaning it can still pull of sweeps late game provided faster mons are out of the field.
crobat has definitely gotten better over the course of the meta and is no longer just a bad noivern. With the increase in roserade usage and toxic spam, crobat functions well as fast pivot, checking roserade far better than its competition and gaining momentum with u-turn. it's also a great check to mienshao and heracross by virtue of its poison/flying typing and has truly risen up to be a great fast pivot.
but it leaving prob moreso has the effect of reducing diversity in the types used to check Kiss, necessitating Steel or Electric-type answers (and thus making it a bit harder to use an offensive Steel and still be able to safely switch into NP Kiss). Alternatively, Diancie usage could go up in its place (though Diamond Storm hits Kiss a lot less hard than Rhyperior's Stone Edge did, so it's possible for Kiss to stall it out of those).
