I'm absolutely IN LOVE with this tier. Having been a pretty avid UU player during the later half of Gen 7, I was really excited to go at it again with some fresh new faces, even if it means some are gone. :<
Yesterday, I was really excited to get playing, and the team I built actually reached #1 on the ladder! It's not super impressive during such an early stage of the metagame, but nonetheless I was proud of myself.
Here's the team, along with my peak. Click on the image to see the pokepaste!!
In my experience it struggles mainly with Gengar, which I firmly believe is SUPER busted rn, especially with all the webs going around. I'm gonna talk a little bit about it and some other particularly cool or just overall good mons.
Gengar is REALLY, REALLY good! It's the best scarfer in the tier imo - a very nice niche with all the webs going around - but the real thing that makes it crazy is Dynamaxing (or Gigantamaxing) ignoring the Choice lock. Anyone who's played OU in the past few weeks knows just how problematic this is on certain mons like
AHEM GALARIAN DARMANITAN AHEM, and Gengar is no exception. I think it's actually a little bit too much for the tier right now, but I wouldn't like to see anything done considering this is still a new meta and we'll have the potential Dynamaxing ban.
There really aren't any true answers to this thing right now - most sets can be handled by Pyukumuku, I guess, but I've seen a couple Life Orb Max Lightningers going around. It can pretty much OHKO the entire tier given it has the right move, and if it doesn't, it can just Max Ooze until it can OHKO you regardless of moves. Still a really cool mon tho, can't wait to see how it evolves when the tier settles.
Obstagoon is SO MUCH FUN! I was SOOOO excited for this thing going into SWSH, with Zigzagoon and Linoone being two of my favourite mons beforehand, and this thing's design had me hooked instantly. Seeing its stat spread was initially a little disappointing - I wanted it to have more attack - but wow, was I wrong. This thing is a
monster.
STAB Facade and Knock Off are crazy this gen in general, considering so many Normal and Dark types got neutered. Having them along with a Guts boost is amazing. THEN you add on CC because, well, IT GETS CC. Obstruct is a really cool move for scouting choiced mons like Gengar (until they dmax and knuckle you anyway), getting your Flame Orb activated, and making it possible to OHKO some mons that you wouldn't be able to otherwise - Doublade, for example. It also has some really cool alternative moves, like Bulk Up, Parting Shot, Taunt and a couple of (imo inferior) coverage options like Gunk Shot, Seed Bomb (only really hits gastro which gets SMOKED by facade), and even Switcheroo or Trick for some cool utility, while also enabling you to potentially get a better item once you've activated your Flame Orb AND crippling an opponent!
I've seen so many sets for this thing, and I'm so happy that it's good! Be sure to try it if you haven't already!!
Oh, it also beats Public Enemy #1 in Polteageist, only taking around 65% from +2 Giga Drain. That's something to keep in mind!
I'm gonna stop talking about just the mons on my team after this, I promise.
Webs offense is really good rn, considering how many phenomenal Ghosts we have in the tier (Dhelmise, Gengar, Polteageist, Froslass, Doublade, Jellicent, and even a few Sableyes and Chandelures) that make spinblocking SUPER easy, and the severe lack of Defog distribution makes it really hard to get rid of them - Noivern is the only semi-consistent hazard remover I've found so far, and even that struggles with mons typically found on the archetype like Mamoswine, Weavile and Obstagoon (if it chooses to Defog).
With webs comes offensive rockers, and Mamoswine is an amazing choice rn despite getting destroyed by Galarian Weezing (which provides an insanely good defensive presence btw, really good mon!). Being able to threaten the few Defoggers and Spinners the tier has remaining (bar Hitmontop) is amazing for a mon that wants to get up hazards and start dishing out damage.
There are also other great choices for offensive rockers - Duraludon, Copperajah, Kommo-o - but imo they're better off running other things, so Mamo takes the lead rn. Not gonna go too much further in depth, just know that offense is super good, and that's largely in part due to...
Everyone's favourite mechanic, Dynamax! Of course, plenty of mons can abuse this effectively, but I believe the STAB Flying mons are the biggest culprits - Charizard and Sigilyph in particular, but also Braviary, Mantine and Rotom-F. Their incredible strength due to Solar Power / Life Orb + Max Airstream's Speed boost makes them pretty much impossible to reliably counterplay if they can set up safely, which is very, very easy due to Heavy Duty Boots / Magic Guard making them immune to hazards and the massive HP boost from Dynamax. I think these mons are very unhealthy for the tier rn and create far too many situations where they can win pretty much immediately if you get rocks up to break sashes. The lack of super bulky defensive mons in the tier unlike OU, and the lack of Ditto, makes it even more difficult to counterplay too.
That said, I still believe Charizard will be great in the tier if/when Dynamax is banned. It acts as a very strong breaker for sun teams, and with access to a new fully-accurate, 100 BP STAB move in Weather Ball, it's pretty easy to pound everything with Solar Power boosted attacks, especially thanks to Heavy-Duty Boots existing. Heliolisk also does an amazing job of breaking for sun teams now while minimising Solar Power damage thanks to Volt Switch pivoting, and Shiftry is SUPER scary by virtue of being one of the few mons remaining with STAB Knock + Sucker and a way to take down bulky waters and grounds.
I don't want this post to be TOO long, so I'll just give a list of mons I haven't mentioned yet that I think are really good rn and won't elaborate on them;
That's all from me! Really enjoying playing so far and I hope the metagame continues to be fun as it evolves, and I hope everyone else is having a good time too!! :>