Metagame NP: ZU Stage 1: Begin Again - Squawkabilly quickban #99

[Tuthur]

This is not an April Fool. SV ZU is real. Enjoy.

ZU Legal Mons

| 46 | Leafeon | 4.427% |
| 47 | Slaking | 4.221% |
| 48 | Swalot | 4.122% |
| 49 | Flareon | 3.815% |
| 50 | Vigoroth | 3.760% |
| 51 | Eiscue | 3.751% |
| 52 | Persian | 3.610% |
| 53 | Scovillain | 3.608% |
| 54 | Sneasel | 3.352% |
| 55 | Fraxure | 3.196% |
| 56 | Pincurchin | 3.054% |
| 57 | Girafarig | 2.908% |
| 58 | Dunsparce | 2.897% |
| 59 | Luxray | 2.823% |
| 60 | Sudowoodo | 2.796% |
| 61 | Kricketune | 2.759% |
| 62 | Beartic | 2.578% |
| 63 | Wigglytuff | 2.490% |
| 64 | Toedscool | 2.344% |
| 65 | Murkrow | 2.262% |
| 66 | Tropius | 2.262% |
| 67 | Jumpluff | 2.124% |
| 68 | Delibird | 1.871% |
| 69 | Fletchinder | 1.540% |
| 70 | Lumineon | 1.521% |
| 71 | Greedent | 1.357% |
| 72 | Zweilous | 1.350% |
| 73 | Oinkologne-F | 1.317% |
| 74 | Seviper | 1.285% |
| 75 | Shroodle | 1.261% |
| 76 | Hypno | 1.154% |
| 77 | Gumshoos | 1.150% |
| 78 | Sliggoo | 1.129% |
| 79 | Meditite | 1.124% |
| 80 | Oranguru | 1.097% |
| 81 | Hippopotas | 1.084% |
| 82 | Stantler | 1.058% |
| 83 | Mareanie | 1.008% |
| 84 | Gothitelle | 0.987% |
| 85 | Pawniard | 0.987% |
| 86 | Dedenne | 0.958% |
| 87 | Morgrem | 0.932% |
| 88 | Pikachu | 0.889% |
| 89 | Krokorok | 0.796% |
| 90 | Pachirisu | 0.759% |
| 91 | Eelektrik | 0.753% |
| 92 | Corvisquire | 0.709% |
| 93 | Pupitar | 0.705% |
| 94 | Mudbray | 0.679% |
| 95 | Bronzor | 0.612% |
| 96 | Sinistea | 0.593% |
| 97 | Oinkologne | 0.590% |
| 98 | Glalie | 0.565% |
| 99 | Snover | 0.505% |
| 100 | Mankey | 0.457% |
| 101 | Flittle | 0.403% |
| 102 | Bramblin | 0.400% |
| 103 | Floragato | 0.397% |
| 104 | Sandygast | 0.394% |
| 105 | Zorua-Hisui | 0.316% |
| 106 | Foongus | 0.302% |
| 107 | Floette | 0.283% |
| 108 | Sunflora | 0.265% |
| 109 | Shelgon | 0.260% |
| 110 | Tarountula | 0.247% |
| 111 | Arctibax | 0.220% |
| 112 | Riolu | 0.181% |
| 113 | Numel | 0.173% |
| 114 | Greavard | 0.132% |
| 115 | Rufflet | 0.129% |
| 116 | Shellos | 0.128% |
| 117 | Marill | 0.126% |
| 118 | Pineco | 0.117% |
| 119 | Kricketot | 0.108% |
| 120 | Charmeleon | 0.107% |
| 121 | Happiny | 0.101% |
+ ---- + ------------------ + ------- +

I would like to remind to not post one liners in this thread. If you have a question that is more akin to a one liner (such as "What is the best set for Swalot?") then please use the SQSA thread.

Happy Posting!

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Scovillain @ Choice Specs
Ability: Chlorophyll
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Tera Blast

Immediately this guy came to mind as being potentially really good. Its our only non-NFE Fire-type and most of our Fire resists get cooked by either Grass STAB or Tera Blast Fairy. Manual Sun with this guy + Leafeon (maybe even Charmeleon too) sounds good cause Shroodle and Murkrow are decent enough weather setters. Though Specs I feel is its best set outside of Sun, reminds me a bit of Kanto Eggy in late Gen 8 ZU. In it though, replacing Tera Blast or Giga Drain with Growth could work.

Also yeah, is dumb. Just putting it out there before anyone else says it.

 

[Yoshikitty64]

Fraxure looks busted. Eviolite makes it good defensively and with a Dragon Dance set up it outspeeds almost everything and has 499 attack with a jolly nature

 

[SwordIsBored]

Slaking looks bannable, Sandyghast rise up.

 

[TTK]

April Fools going so well that they made the ZU community believe that Skuntank, a top 5 PU mon by usage is suddenly ZU, they got us well.

 

[Sopi]

The weird feeling of me thinking of using Tropius because ice dog is dead.

 

[chemicalmines]

Some things that stood out to me from the teambuilder:

no idea its 3d sprite looked this odd
Fraxure @ Eviolite
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Iron Head
- Stomping Tantrum

dd fraxure looks pretty damn good ngl, a 117 base atk dragon is wild for a tier as small as this. it also has iron head for the 2 fairies should they switch into dragon claw

Gastly @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam

gastly does the same things its older bro haunter did back in PU, hit things fast and hard. gastly dies to a light breeze but it has all the coverage it needs for the tier.

Kricketune @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sticky Web
- Taunt
- Leech Life
- Night Slash

your only sticky webber, unless u wanna run surskit or something. ghost tera is toedscool spinning protection.

Toedscool @ Eviolite
Ability: Mycelium Might
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Toxic

speen

Dewott @ Eviolite
Ability: Torrent
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Liquidation
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet

this could be ok as a water attacker???

 

[Tuthur]

I would like to remind to not post one liners in this forum. I know we all are very hyped about this very new metagame, but the quality of the posts should remain up to standards. I will delete future one liners in this thread.

 

[AstilCodex]

Hi am new to this tier, you haven't see me here before, if you think so, you lying. With that said I wanna do some:

!!!!!!!

- Webs seems like a good start to get around the tier and see whats going on. Decent abusers and terrible hazard control means your webs are prob gonna stay on the field.

- These 3 are big threats in the tier rn. Luxray forces you to have a sturdy Normal resist which are hard to find and rather niche, and access to Crunch, QA, Volt Switch. Its very powerful. Girafarig with access to Eviolite now can fulfill a variety of sets which are all scary, including NP + 3 atks. CM Rest, Double dance Stored Power. Vigoroth does a similar role from the side of Bulk Up and its amazing natural Bulk paired with reliable recovery in Slack Off, with the lack of ghost in the tier it founds itself easy to setup and very hard to punish.

- Boi Swalot learns everything lmao. AA + Body press. Tspikes, even SD. it has monstrous Bulk for the tier and can function in many of them cuz of its variety in movepool, good around stats and compression. I think this is a top mon.

- Powerful sweeper for Snow now with access to CC and defense boost given by Snow itself. (Or in rain if you wanna do that) I think making semi-weather based teams are viable since Beartic is powerful enough to justify it.

/ + other chloro/fire type idrc - Sun has good viability with the addition of Scovillain to the tier and other abusers like Jumpluff or Leafeon, definitely a playstyle to consider to play with and against when building.

Removal section :(((

yea kinda
unfort no
actually ok
pls burn smth and die
??
??????????

Other mons I want to highlight here cuz they are or can perform good.

and more

Also stop using this

Thats all for day 1. Ty for reading ^^

 

[plznostep]

IT'S HERE!!!!

Hey ZU Enthusiasts :3

I have come to preach my preferences on a few cool mons that i have been using here in the tier, so without further ado, here we go!


(click on Pokemon for set)

This Pokemon is actually rather good. Firstly, it has some great MU's into the likes of Lumineon, Pawniard and Sneasel, some Pokemon i've noticed have been popping up a lot lately, and also has the rare and covetted Knock Off at its disposal, not to mention Swords Dance and a priority move? This thing surprised me at how useful it was, and i urge you to give it a try sometime.


(click on Pokemon for set)

Another cool mon here, Sudowoodo gained Spikes this gen, allowing to function quite nicely as a double hazard lead. It also packs Taunt to stop Pokemon such as Pincurchin and Wigglytuff from setting up hazards infront of you, and most hazard control does not want to take a Head Smash from this, apart from one Pokemon in Toedscool, which is why you must go Tera Ghost, or you will not have any hazards at all. Of course though, you could also run the Pokemon i'll be talking about next...


(click on Pokemon for set)

So, turns out giving Jumpluff actual coverage makes it rather good. It can now hit Steels, Electrics and Rocks with Acrobatics with Tera, amazing for Pokemon such as Pawniard, Luxray and Sudowoodo. Furthermore, Jumpluff is able to switch in for free on Pokemon such as Toedscool, and its incredibly fast for the tier too, at 110 speed. Top that off with a high power STAB Acrobatics, Swords Dance, and Sleep Powder and you have an overall amazing Pokemon which im sure will be meta defining in the tier.


(click on the Pokemon for set)

So, you may be wondering; what can Hypno do that the other Psychics cannot? Well, Draining Kiss is the only thing i found really, so here we go! Draining Kiss is great coverage for Hypno, being able to hit Dark Type Pokemon such as Zweilous and Murkrow while also having Focus Blast for Pawniard. And not only that, you get quite a lot of HP back when using it, especially when terastallized due to the base power of Draining Kiss being buffed to 60, and then gaining a 1.5 STAB bonus. Seems really interesting, and I hope people experiment with this in the future.


(click on the Pokemon for set)

This Pokemon got some really great buffs in Eviolite, making its bulk incredibly solid while it remains pretty offensively threatening as well. Intimidate + Eviolite bulk gives Stantler the ability to check dangerous physical attackers nicely, and the ability to go Physical or Special is always nice. Scarf sets also seem quite nice, with a decent speed tier at 85 and Double Edge as STAB, pretty strong.

That's all for Day 1 of ZU People, I await to see what rises from the depths to strangle the Meta ;3​

 

[Wayward]

I will not shut up about this mon he goes extremely hard

Glalie @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Tera Type: Ground
252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spikes
- Ice Spinner
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard

Have u enjoyed utilizing Mamoswine? This is the same guy. Ice/Ground coverage is bonkers here, and he's a spiker that forces out hazard removal while also just putting in insane amounts of work by throwing out strong attacks with good natural bulk. The amount of mons this asshole can 1v1, especially as a Ground type, is just sinister. I don't think this thing is anywhere near the level of guys like Giraf, but for a hazard setter, the amount of offensive pressure this mon can apply is ridiculous. Maybe it's just me but in my ladder games today, any game where I terastalized Glalie, this thing picked up like 2-4 kills on its own, sometimes it didn't even need to get up spikes because it just kept killing shit lmao. Slap him on a team with some knock support (Toedscool & Dewott r both good) to maximize the impact of spikes and watch him put up ridiculous numbers for no reason.

 

[Kerrigann]

Some things I noticed:

KEEP ABUSING HAZARD STACK. Terastallization makes anything a spinblocker and our removal is even worse than PU.

Normal types are pretty insane, with Girafarig Vigoroth and Dunsparce leading the charge. Fighting types are an endangered species, so this was not a surprise. Girafarig with evioilte is another beast with calm mind, nasty plot, agility and stored power sets. We might need to look at these 3, not sure yet. Hot take; SLAKING IS NOT THAT GOOD. Truant once again comes to bite it in the ass, as it struggles to 2hko tera ghost dunsparce even while banded, and it cant even 2hko anything because of truant. There are also some wish tect mons that easily neuter it as well. Persian is tied for the fastest mon in the tier, and can function really well as a revenger on hazard stack teams because of its technician fake out+covet/double edge combo.

Sun looks scary, it was good enough in PU, and we have worse mons to deal with it. Scovillain and Leafeon are taking names, and outside of a really bulky tera dragon mon that can utilize eviolite, and my secret tech tera bug flareon, its a challenge.

Now some mons I really liked that I havent mentioned already or wanna go more in-depth

is good at so much, it has acid armor/curse, body press, elemental punches, with nice utility in clear smog for vigoroth, encore to cripple setup sweepers and hazard setters, yawn twave dbond you name it, and a clean ability in Liquid Ooze to stop jumpluff(completely DIES to strength sap btw)/toedscool recovery. I like this mon alot and can't wait to experiment with it more

is a good sun answer, tera bug resists grass ground and flash fire makes it immune to fire. Tera flying is another option to be immune to ground and not be weak to jumpluff along with the other boons, but you are now weak to ice and electric, so its up to you. Leafeon double edge is kinda scary for it though, so watch out for that.

is pretty much unresisted, CB first impression/outrage/stomping tantrum has no switchins if you get the predict right, and tera bug makes it an even deadlier revenger.

is top tier breaker, only answered by bulky normal resists, except it also has crunch for tera ghosters.

 

[Chilln0]

This is probably gimmicky but its a pretty cool gimmick

Flareon @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Trailblaze
- Facade
- Flare Blitz
- Quick Attack

Tera Normal lets Flareon use Flame Orb with Guts, combined with STAB Facade. It has a higher attack than Luxray which is the main thing it has going for it, as well as the surprise factor (you can also run both lmao, there!s barely any answers to lux as is). It does require you to burn your tera on it though or else its basically useless

 

[Toxin Boost]

is my biggest day one impression.

Vigoroth @ Eviolite
Ability: Vital Spirit
Tera Type: Normal /Ghost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Slam
- Throat Chop / Earthquake / Drain Punch
- Bulk Up
- Slack Off

With this simple set it can setup very easily and be very hard to punish due to it's great speed and bulk.

After a single bulk up it's hard to hurt this thing due to the lack of strong special attackers and fighting types.

Tera normal Makes it even easier to clean and tera ghost can help beat other normal types, spinblock or soak a fighting attack.

Throat chop is the best coverage move because it hit ghost's and psychics.

Earthquake is a good move to hit rocks and steels like sudowoodo and drain punch helps massively vs other normal like dunsparce or stantler.

I Wouldn't be surprised if this guy ends up becoming the best or even gets banned.

 

[Toxin Boost]

Some things I noticed:

KEEP ABUSING HAZARD STACK. Terastallization makes anything a spinblocker and our removal is even worse than PU.

Normal types are pretty insane, with Girafarig Vigoroth and Dunsparce leading the charge. Fighting types are an endangered species, so this was not a surprise. Girafarig with evioilte is another beast with calm mind, nasty plot, agility and stored power sets. We might need to look at these 3, not sure yet. Hot take; SLAKING IS NOT THAT GOOD. Truant once again comes to bite it in the ass, as it struggles to 2hko tera ghost dunsparce even while banded, and it cant even 2hko anything because of truant. There are also some wish tect mons that easily neuter it as well. Persian is tied for the fastest mon in the tier, and can function really well as a revenger on hazard stack teams because of its technician fake out+covet/double edge combo.

Sun looks scary, it was good enough in PU, and we have worse mons to deal with it. Scovillain and Leafeon are taking names, and outside of a really bulky tera dragon mon that can utilize eviolite, and my secret tech tera bug flareon, its a challenge.

Now some mons I really liked that I havent mentioned already or wanna go more in-depth

is good at so much, it has acid armor/curse, body press, elemental punches, with nice utility in clear smog for vigoroth, encore to cripple setup sweepers and hazard setters, yawn twave dbond you name it, and a clean ability in Liquid Ooze to stop jumpluff(completely DIES to strength sap btw)/toedscool recovery. I like this mon alot and can't wait to experiment with it more

is a good sun answer, tera bug resists grass ground and flash fire makes it immune to fire. Tera flying is another option to be immune to ground and not be weak to jumpluff along with the other boons, but you are now weak to ice and electric, so its up to you. Leafeon double edge is kinda scary for it though, so watch out for that.

is pretty much unresisted, CB first impression/outrage/stomping tantrum has no switchins if you get the predict right, and tera bug makes it an even deadlier revenger.

is top tier breaker, only answered by bulky normal resists, except it also has superpower or crunch for tera ghosters.

Unfortunately Luxray no longer has superpower but it's still very threatening without it.

 

[I am New]

(click on the Pokemon for set)

So, you may be wondering; what can Hypno do that the other Psychics cannot? Well, Draining Kiss is the only thing i found really, so here we go! Draining Kiss is great coverage for Hypno, being able to hit Dark Type Pokemon such as Zweilous and Murkrow while also having Focus Blast for Pawniard. And not only that, you get quite a lot of HP back when using it, especially when terastallized due to the base power of Draining Kiss being buffed to 60, and then gaining a 1.5 STAB bonus. Seems really interesting, and I hope people experiment with this in the future.


​

Why not something like np gothitelle??? Its way stronger has better bulk punishes defog from fletch and drifloon. Does crucially more damage to toedscool fits much better on spikes and hazard stacking teams...

 

[Perla]

Taunt Lead

Krokorok @ Eviolite/Focus Sash
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Crunch

I really like Krokorok as a Stealth Rock lead with Taunt, so you can shut down the SR and Spikes Sudowoodo , while having two supereffective STAB attacks against the tree (EQ for Rock and Crunch for Tera-Ghost). If you don't encounter a Wood Hammer Sudowoodo and you are able to preserve the crocodile, an Intimidate and ground mon can be useful to weaken some physical attackers and to prevent volt switch spam.


This pair...

Hail

Snover @ Icy Rock
Ability: Snow Warning
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Leech Seed
- Chilling Water
- Giga Drain

Beartic @ Life Orb
Ability: Slush Rush
Tera Type: Ground/Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Close Combat
- Crunch

This tier lacks fully-evolved Ground and Fighting types, but what if you used tera to turn a mon with 130 base atk and doubleable speed into one of them, so you have a spammable EQ or CC, you preserve the Ice Stab against flying types and you are not weak to Stealth Rock anymore?
That's what makes Beartic dangerous in my opinion

Moreover, thanks to the new Snow defense buff, Snover can even afford the Icy Rock because its physical bulk becomes acceptable, so you can exploit maximum turns for Beartic

 

[plznostep]

Why not something like np gothitelle??? Its way stronger has better bulk punishes defog from fletch and drifloon. Does crucially more damage to toedscool fits much better on spikes and hazard stacking teams...

I think i'll use this post to highlight one of my favourite dynamics of Early SV ZU!

The Psychics!
Choose your fighter!


(click on Pokemon for sets)


I think i'll start with Hypno, My set has changed since I first started using Hypno and i've gone for a more Offensive set with Taunt alongside. I didn't mention this in my previous post either but Hypno also has Insomnia, making it have a better MU into sleep users, like Toedscool and Jumpluffs. Hypno greatly benefits from offensive investment, outpacing a lot of the base 65's in the tier such as Gothitelle, Seviper, Flareon, Kricketune, and Oinkologne. I also just cannot understate how underrated Draining Kiss is. Like i said in my previous post, you get recovery for attacking, and that recovery is 75% of all damage dealt. Just for comparison, other recovery moves such as Giga Drain only restore 50%, and when you boost Draining Kiss's power with Tera, you will basically go back to full if you kill something with it, making it very strong on Hypno and gives it a legitmate use over Gothitelle and the other Psychics, who do not have Draining Kiss. It's also just great coverage for the many darks here, Pawniard is literally OHKO'd at +2 with Draining Kiss, restoring 55.6 when hit, Sneasel is destroyed and when you hit it, you restore more damage then it does with Icicle Crash (252 Atk Sneasel Icicle Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Fairy Hypno: 151-178 (48.5 - 57.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO, you restore (60.4 - 60.4% recovered). The main flaw with Hypno is that you are a bit weak at base, so you need to get a boost off, but your solid bulk allows you to do this well. So yea, don't sleep on Hypno.

Gothitelle is next. This is probably the second most used Psychic here, behind Girafarig. It's main claim to fame? Notably higher SpA then Hypno and better physical bulk, while also packing a great ability in Competitive to stop defoggers such as Fletchinder and Corvisquire. There isn't really that much else to say, Gothitelle has a pretty nice offensive and defensive movepool, choice sets are probably possible due to Switcheroo as well and it has amazing coverage, a trait it shares with almost all psychics here. It's just overall pretty solid,

At first glance, Oranguru also looks like an inferior Girafarig. But, Oranguru's lower speed can be to its advantage with the power of OTR (offensive trick room), meaning that Oranguru can underspeed Pokemon such as Cufant, Swalot, and Sudowoodo, which can be really important if you are trying to clean up lategame. That is Oranguru's niche, it also benefits from Tera Blast's properties before Terastallization really nicely, and Tera Fairy also flips all its Weaknesses on their head, so overall, really solid niche in the tier imo. It also shares the trait that Girafarig has of not being scared of Ghost type moves from Pokemon such as Gastly, although the other two can Tera out of their Ghost Weakness as well. There are also minor advantages Oranguru has as well, like not needing to Tera to hit Steel-types with Focus Blast, but overall in any other role, Giraffe is much better.

Speaking of Girafarig, here it is! Oh boy. This guy is probably the best out of the four, with solid bulk with Eviolite, a great speed tier at 85, and great offensive coverage, utilizing Tera Blast's properties before Terastallization again, and when it needs to hit Steel-types, it can Terastallize into a Fighting-type and hit them hard with Tera Blast [Fighting]. Not only that, its great bulk with moves like Agility and Nasty Plot can make Girafarig an excellent sweeper, utilizing its great bulk to get these moves off and sweep entire teams with Stored Power, and maybe Terastallizing to get rid of Pokemon such as Pawniard.

There we go, that's all the Psychics i wanted to talk about! There are some other minor Psychic types in the tier but personally, i don't think they are as relevant these four.

Have a good time Laddering!
​

 

[lettuce]

There isn't a SQSA thread yet, but is OTR own trick room? Part of me wants to think it's out of trick room.

Also, here's the tier's new premiere fighting type:


Meditite (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Pure Power
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Poison Jab

I loved this in PU, so it's probably going to be goated here. You have to run scarf to have any resemblance of speed, but having that 358 atk and 360 speed is worth it. Additionally, you don't need to tera in order to deal STAB, but obviously it helps.

The only move worth clicking on this set is CC. I picked it over HJK because I'd rather not miss and die. Bullet punch should probably be swapped for one of the elemental punches.

 

[Jett]

Excellent song choice in the OP, I wonder who picked that one... (Yes this is my way of not making it a one liner as got no Jett post atm)

There isn't a SQSA thread yet, but is OTR own trick room? Part of me wants to think it's out of trick room.

OTR stands for Offensive Trick Room. Usually a term used to define Pokemon that self setup Trick Room and then pose as a dangerous threat there after. And the good news is that a SQSA thread will be up shortly!

Edit: The thread is now up. Link here.

 

[Cobalt Pink]

Hey hey! I played some of the ladder and some tour games and made myself a picture. I also just reached top 25 on ladder which isnt saying anything especially this early on but this team gave me a winning streak of 7:0 so I think my team is relieable enough for people to try.

https://pokepast.es/08db5f13fca10fb0

This team builds around Scovillian and Fraxure especially, thus it tends to go more on the offense.

This is the usual Lead I pick. I either gets up rocks or it gets rid of other leads like Glalie. Nothing really switches into either both Woodhammer and Headsmash. With sucker punch you can revenge pick up opposing low health mons or threaten switches which get you opportunity to double swicth to faster teammates to get more progress going instead of relying on predictions. With its rocky helmet it help to deal withthe Guts-boosting threats like Luxray and Flareon. Combined with Sucker punch you put them in kill ranges of Lumineon to abuse. I triedusing some rock polish sets but it turned out that its not that easy and its hard to find opportunities, so I decided to put rocks (yes Ive been playing without hazards but who needs those when you have...

..thebiggest thread in the tier. I could send 4 replays in which it got one turn of set up and won. I dont want to do that because 3 of those times I playe against the same person and Idont want to harm anyones feelings. Just play that mon on yourself and youll get similar results. That mon is an offensive powerhouse and wont last long in this tier for sure. It usually needs one turn of set up and can either get multiple kills or it just sweeps on the spot. Igave it first Impression so it can revenge kill too.

Next up is Dedenne. This is the glue of this team. It spreads paralysis, thus helping out against other potential dangerous sweepers, brings in teammates with voltswitch and it does good amount of damage with dazzling gleam. I gave it tera grass and grass knot so I wont be walled by groundtypes and also having a good midground on watersso you dont have to predict that heavily. Theres a lot ofoptimasation you could do with this mon and I really should try out Tbolt on it as well.

This is the revenge kiler on this team. Having a scarfer in this meta is great and Lumineon is quiet good at this job. With U turn it can also bring in other teammates which is really apprecheated. I saw some nonscarf sets with encore and Im a huge fan of that one, you gotta try it out aswell.

Scovillain is one of the main offensive presenses on this team and it provides the team with a lot of needed preassure. It is walled by some fire types so Id recomend trying out some tera rock sets but I rather want to stick with Lumineon and Sudo with that job. Theres not much to say besides that.You just try to get situations in which you can get up sun, maybe a growth boost and then proceed to deal a lot of damage. It also forces a lot of switches intoopposing flareon which is really good for sudowoodoo to throw off its strong attacks. I like the synergies that mon brings to the team.

This is the antihazard support on this team. It helps checking dangerous stuff like opposing Scovilain and handles physical attackers with its burn options. It keeps itself healthy with roost and even without evio its quiet bulky fot the tier standarts.

This team isnt that easy to use thanks to lumineon being really annoying for this team. Your only switch into that is your own with lumineon and your offensive countermeassures are limited to Denenne and speed boosted Scovillain and Frax. Opposing Dedenne might be nnoying too but its quiet frail so you should be able to deal with it especially with the help of Teras and maybe the sacrivice of Scovillains speedstat.

Feel free to use the team and optimize it to your favour. In terms of the rest of the meta I think its quiet weird for now (probobly because i usually dont play zu) but it looks like a fun little meta so far.

PS.: ban Frax :)
PS2: I hope that at least 1 person gets the reference to the names. Its not hard especially when you look at the teamname

 

[serperiorr]

Day 1 personal VR, my thoughts on meta

Yo, been playing for a bit, reached the 1300s which is top 10 and here is what I think about ZU

best mon imo, can do pretty much anything, specs is insane, scarf (my fave set) is also really good, subseed seems good too, sun growth is also good ofc. always run chlorophyll to cteam sun

also debatably best mon, can do even more stuff like bulky cm, wishtect, rest. the best set imo is NP + agility since it always has value and isnt matchup dependent. banworthy

6-0s depending on tera, counterplay is hoping that it isn't the set that 6-0s your team. banworthy.

best rocker, 0 switchins, pretty bulky and has decent utility

got nerfed but still good here due to having great offensive stats and being insanely fast.

insane glue mon that fits on most teams, can tech pretty much anything for your team. prankster haze is also great to cteam HO

best removal, beats scovillain, but kinda passive and you need to dedicate tera (steel) to defog in front of sudo. still really good in certain MUs

Some teams just cannot break through this mon, otherwise pretty passive.

overrated! it's very slow (outsped by scarfers) and frail, so in practice this mon doesnt outright sweep. Still good at securing 1-2 kills and CB is a monster to switch into.

i thought snow would be broken, turns out dedicating a slot for a shitmon snover doesnt justify using beartic as much. Still good, also cteams sun, but not as good as i thought

lead set is good, But i prefer offensive with spikes and even been messing around with CB.

this mon has 0 switchins, but allows opponent to punish your turn of truant. Fortunately, there arent many mons that can punish the truant turn immediately, since slaking is still insanely fast and bulky and will probably OHKO you the next turn if you don't just immediately attack it. Decent mon, not as bad as I thought

worse slaking, slow as balls

webs sucks

couldnt find these mons in the tierlist maker for some reason, would put marill in C, and floette in B-. both punish fraxure, but marill is MU-heavy and floette doesnt pose an immediate threat.

 

[Wayward]

Given the prominence of boots and the dearth of knock users in this tier (RIP Banette and Dartrix), I figured I'd put you all onto this set rq:

Persian @ Normal Gem
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Normal / Ghost / Whatever (you probably don't wanna tera this guy)
252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Covet
- U-Turn
- Taunt / Bite / Thunder Wave

Real ones know that this guy is a menace in BW ZU, and I've even seen this set used there, though it seems silly to me since it gets knock. However, I think it works pretty damn well in this tier: Normal Gem Fake Out is already really good to help with revenge killing shit like Chlorophyll mons and DD Frax once they're weakened, and against non-boosted mons you can just click Covet raw for a stronger boosted STAB. On top of this, you yoink their item once the gem is gone. This is really key vs mons whose bulk hinges on HDB or Eviolite, of which there are many such cases. This Persian set lets you permanently cripple any one Mon on the opponent's team, and if you steal something like boots or a choice item, you can also gain some added utility on your Persian once you click Covet. It's not amazing but it's still tied for the fastest Mon in the tier, which imo gives it pretty great utility in the first place.

Edit: forgot to mention that Persian gets access to Thief and Switcheroo as well, meaning that you can also steal items from ghost types if need be. Thief can actually hit Ghosts for a decent chunk, but Switcheroo is kinda funny bc if you steal an Eviolite (which is useless on Persian) you can later Switcheroo the Eviolite onto one of your opponent's FE mons, effectively stealing 2 items.

 

[BossCampers]

Yo yo here to spread Greedent Slander!

General Greedent (Greedent) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Cheek Pouch
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trailblaze
- Belly Drum
- Body Slam
- Earthquake

Greedent is BY FAR the best belly drum user. With its thick cheeks, it can hide TWO sitrus berries allowing it to get all the way back to full. With its solid bulk it can easily take 2 none super effective hits even with no evs in defense.

But that’s not all, Greedent, can go fast. With trailblaze this thing can not only boost its speed it also as grass stab. And it also gets earthquake for steel types, which is why I recommend Tera ground. It also has Ice fang, wild charge, crunch, physic fangs, fire fang, the list goes on!

So join me comrades in making Greedent great again

 

[Wayward]

Greedent is BY FAR the best belly drum user. With its thick cheeks, it can hide TWO sitrus berries allowing it to get all the way back to full. With its solid bulk it can easily take 2 none super effective hits even with no evs in defense.

I think a bulky set like this might be more apt for Belly Drum Greedent, since it fails to outspeed even Adamant Luxray at +1, which is not known for being very fast lol.

Greedent @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Cheek Pouch
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Belly Drum
- Facade
- Earthquake
- Crunch

I did 0 Spe Brave bc it could be p funny as a breaker on Trick Room teams