Metagame NP ZU stage 6: HOPE - Vulpix ban #9

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Tuthur

Tuthur

-gnawty
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With the release of the new DLC, ZU was blessed with the arrival of many NFE and TM. However, three of these new additions were deemed too broken by ZU Council. Duraludon, Porygon2, and Rhydon have been quickbanned from SV ZU, tagging Kris and Marty. The power level of these threats is much higher than anything else in ZU.
:sv/duraludon::sv/porygon2::sv/rhydon:
​
:combusken: Combusken
:duosion: Duosion
:electabuzz: Electabuzz
:magmar: Magmar
:metang: Metang
:servine: Servine
:vibrava: Vibrava
Alluring Voice: :clefairy::indeedee-f::glaceon::lumineon::phione:
Double Edge: :greedent::gumshoos::oinkologne::persian::slaking:
Expanding Force: :calyrex::grumpig::rabsca:
Meteor Beam: :ampharos::glimmet:
Psychic Noise: :chimecho::golduck::grumpig::misdreavus::noctowl::oranguru::rabsca::vespiquen:
Scorching Sands: :camerupt::gabite::magcargo:
Sludge Wave: :dugtrio::seviper::swalot::victreebel::sliggoo-hisui::gastly:
Supercell Slam: :luxray::pincurchin::electabuzz:
Temper Flare: :klawf::scovillain:
Triple Axel: :leavanny::quaxwell::sneasel:
Upper Hand: :sneasel::spidops:
 
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:Luxray: @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant
- Trailblaze
- Supercell Slam
- Facade
- Ice Fang / Play Rough / X

Luxray trades Wild Charge with 100% recoil for Supercell Slam which has potential riskier recoil - which is quite unviable as a Guts user - so just click Facade..or don't miss!

Poor :Indeedee-F: didn't get Expanding Force (male did) but at least it's going to stay here.
:sneasel: with Triple Axel might raise PU?
Also :magmar: looks really cool. Flamethrower/Scorching Sands/Tera Grass/Knock Off/Wisp..
 
General thoughts on mobile:

:combusken: has felt incredibly powerful off rip, with SD/Protect/Flare Blitz/Close Combat not having much counterplay once setup outside of stuff like healthy Klawf with terastalization, normal/water priority, and Ditto (lol), getting the turn to get to +2 has never been easier as well with Terastalization being around and the tier’s various neutral hits often not being enough to kill it.

:sneasel: got Triple Axel back, so there’s basically nothing that can take its stab combination safely outside of the fire/fightings, Tinkatuff, and I guess Magcargo - all of which drop to Tera Ground. Probably getting taken by PU or NU in January, though.

:electabuzz: is an amazing electric pivot - I think it might be too strong for the tier atm but once the DLC wave hits it should fit in. This thing’s fatter than fantom with eviolite and is significantly faster, though it doesn’t bring setup opportunities.

:magmar: trades Scovillain’s secondary STAB and Chlorophyll access for improvements in basically everything else - great coverage in Psychic and Scorching Sands, the ever useful Knock Off, significantly better Speed, and the ability to run Eviolite to improve its already-better-bulk to new heights. It’s pretty good, but lack of consistent hazard removal could end up balancing it.

:servine: is the last mon I’ll talk about here, and it’s really only got a couple options after the mandatory Leaf Storm and Tera Blast (please use tera fire or ground). I’ve been running Eviolite with Knock Off and Glare, though you can pretty easily add Synthesis or Leech Seed as well. Servine can also run Scarf, though that 8 Leaf Storm PP can be quite painful - maybe you can justify Tera Stellar here, though I truly do think it’s just wholly inferior to Tera Fire/Ground due to lack of defensive utility and the fact that it only hits for neutral - you’ll find it does pretty comparable damage to Leaf Storm’s resisted damage in practice, which just doesn’t cut it when you could be running a coverage Tera instead.

As a final note - please don’t use Tera Stellar on anything not named Servine, it sucks. It provides zero defensive utility, Tera Blast lowers your own stats, and 95% of mons that can use Tera Stellar offensively would rather have both different typing and improved offensive coverage anyway. Servine’s realistically the only mon that I would even consider using Tera Stellar on, and even then it’s pretty bad overall when you compare it to potentially blowing past Servine’s checks like Swalot and Tinkatuff in one fell swoop as well as the defensive utility Tera Ground/Fire provides for Servine.
 
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Ok so I know Belly Drum magmar is always a fun meme concept and prolly not something that should be discussed here in such a formal fashion, but as I was being typically me, checking out meme strats and calced a bit for this set, I think its noteworthy if ntg else and so I want to share it over here.

:rb/Magmar: Fast fire type with about the same spa and atk stats but a noteworthy mach prio in phy pool alongwith a niche belly drum.
Magmar @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Vital Spirit
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Belly Drum
- Temper Flare
- Mach Punch
- Poison Jab

Vital spirit here is just for the sake of countering any random sleep powders/yawns and stuff
BD and Mpunch are mandatory.
Pjab is solely to hit dachsbun since it resists both fire and fighting.
Now I decided to go with temper flare over fire punch cuz just in case scenarios may lead to 150bp stab 100acc no tradeoff move.

+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Poison Jab vs. 240 HP / 252+ Def Dachsbun: 368-434 (116.8 - 137.7%)
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Mach Punch vs. 240 HP /252+ Def Tera Steel Dachsbun:276-326(87.6-103.4%) guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Mach Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Squawkabilly: 360-424 (118 - 139%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Mach Punch vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Sliggoo-Hisui: 330-390 (103.4 - 122.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Mach Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Golduck: 259-306 (86 - 101.6%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Mach Punch vs. 252 HP / 160+ Def Klawf: 296-350 (86 - 101.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Temper Flare vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Swalot: 321-378 (79.4 - 93.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Temper Flare vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 399-469 (123.1 - 144.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Temper Flare vs. 216 HP / 220 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 295-348 (93.6 - 110.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+6 252 Atk Tera Fighting Magmar Mach Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Electabuzz: 220-261 (80.8 - 95.9%) 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
So overall, only leafeon and Dedenne actually stand a chance vs it (if I am not mistaken) and even they take 60-70% from mpunch.
 
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Following the meme exploration, today I present a much forgotten hazard remover. Tbf it was never considered as even a candidate in the dept but meta moment kek.

:sv/bramblin: Imo a great Hazard remover + Removal deterrant
Bramblin @ Eviolite
Ability: Wind Rider
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 112 Def / 44 Spe
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Strength Sap
- Power Whip / Poltergeist
- Shadow Sneak / Poltergeist

The biggest problem with our main spinner Quaxwell is well spinblocking ghost types. But what if your spinner could potentially bop the opponent's spinblock with its own stab poltergeist? That is idea from where I started exploring bramblin's potential.
Ofc I have spin cuz duh and then I added geist and power whip cuz I thought it would be nice to both spin and block in one slot so lets hit the main spinner too. Now misreads/miss are a thing and I wanted to hit misdreavus so I added sneak but that left me with no recovery so fixed ssap on set.

After calcs I realised that quaxwell is 2hkod by whip and even dusknoir and misdrevus which are mons without reliable recovery cant switch in more than once cuz two whips and 1 sneak kill them both. So I decided to keep whip for recovery using quax and drop polter but in all seriousness sneak can be dropped too based on personal preferance.

Showdown Calculator says quaxwell runs spin/flip/liquidation/roost so that poses no issue for bramblin but I personally prefer brave bird over liquidation and some others run that too so I have considered that into the calcs as well to tank and also speed creep it.
Another noteworthy point is it abuses Noctowl. Tell me if I am wrong but from what I understand, owl's sole move hurricane is a wind move and bramblin's wind rider ability provides it an immunity to all wind moves. Not just that but it also raises its attack stat which can be troublesome.

252 Atk Bramblin Poltergeist vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 180-212 (61.2 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Bramblin Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 97-115 (32.9 - 39.1%)
252 Atk Bramblin Shadow Sneak vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Dusknoir: 66-80 (22.4 - 27.2%)
252 Atk Bramblin Poltergeist vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 234-276 (72.2 - 85.1%)
252 Atk Bramblin Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 127-150 (39.1 - 46.2%)
252 Atk Bramblin Shadow Sneak vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Misdreavus: 84-102 (25.9 - 31.4%)
252 Atk Bramblin Power Whip vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Quaxwell: 158-188 (46 - 54.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
8 Atk Quaxwell Brave Bird vs. 100 HP / 112+ Def Eviolite Bramblin: 176-208 (71.5 - 84.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
 
So take the following with a grain of salt because a) a lot of this comes from derping around more than serious attempts at laddering and b) I’m very rusty given that my last real stab at competitive was…Gen 5? Yeah, it’s been a while.

Anyway, Trick Room Lampent has been actually somewhat fun and hasn’t been that bad in a number of battles for me.

1703423050796.png
@ Eviolite
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Trick Room
- Energy Ball

Obviously one of the fun parts behind Lampent is that between its ability and typing, it’s basically the counter behind all the standard SD Combuskens running around lately. However, I’ve found that a lot of teams really aren’t prepared for Trick Room whatsoever, so between that and Lampent’s STAB coverage, it’s actually pretty decent at picking up kills here and there, particularly once things have been softened up. There’s probably a few viable options for the fourth slot, but I’ve generally had success with Energy Ball because people seem to like switching in things like Klawf hoping that they can take a hit and knock out Lampent. Tera Grass is useful for ensuring those Energy Ball kills while helping it take things like Sucker Punches, Knock Offs, and Earthquakes trying to take advantage of its typing.
 
damn glooms pretty solid, i didn’t expect to be that way because we haven’t heard much about in like, forever

Gloom @ Eviolite
Ability: Stench
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Acid Spray
- Strength Sap/moonlight
- Stun Spore
- Leech Seed/toxic

gloom offers a lot to teams and i have been cooking with it recently, its utility movepool is good between strength sap, reliable recovery, leech seed to heal up teammates in a pinch or heal and hurt, stun spore to spread paralysis, acid spray to wear down pokes by minimising their special bulk and toxic for stalling,

it also has a solid typing with resistances to water, grass and electric, its poison typing means toxic never misses and that it can absorb swalots toxics and lets not underestimate its bulk which is why it gets so many opportunities to spread status and set up leech seed

252 Atk Sneasel Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gloom: 134-162 (41.3 - 50%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Gabite Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gloom: 76-91 (23.4 - 28%) -- 89.5% chance to 4HKO

252 Atk Choice Band Stonjourner Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gloom: 144-169 (44.4 - 52.1%) -- 15.2% chance to 2HKO

so gloom makes to be a legitimately viable pokemon in the format that softens up the enemy team and can even provide unqiue and great defensive utility, if only it had a useful ability
 
Tier shifts happened!

:glaceon: Glaceon moved from ZU to PU

:carbink: Carbink moved from PU to ZU
:dugtrio-alola: Dugtrio-Alola moved from PU to ZU
:golem: Golem moved from PU to ZU
:golem-alola: Golem-Alola moved from PU to ZU
:haunter: Haunter moved from PU to ZU
:honchkrow: Honchkrow moved from PU to ZU
:houndoom: Houndoom moved from PU to ZU
:naclstack: Naclstack moved from PU to ZU
:sableye: Sableye moved from PU to ZU
:tauros-paldea-combat: Tauros-Paldea-Combat moved from PU to ZU
:whiscash: Whiscash moved from PU to ZU
 
At long last, the zeroused tier has been cleansed,
cleansed of the burning drought that plagued and baked their homeland and something resembling peace was in its place,some cheered as they were free of its hypnosis and others stepped out from hiding, no longer horrified by the idea of leaving their bunkers for otherwise usual activity, all was good and all was fine,
even sneasel came for reasons that weren’t violent,
surely nobody would ever wish for it to return and crush those who provided no value to the sun and others for not even those who ruled under the red sun wanted it to rise once more,



yet someone did, one who called themselves the ender of droughts, the one who at times stood between the sun fueled demons and their targets and spent hours rallying against vulpix‘s influence,now wanted it back so they weren’t forgotten,


the “melter of sun” was all they were and with no sun to melt,
they would disappear without a trace, somebody prayed for its return to remain even a small part of ZU ever since november

carkol

carkol on his way back to being mid in NFE
IMG_2394.jpeg

I QUIT (Carkol) @ Eviolite
Ability: Steam Engine
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Fire Blast
- Power Gem
- Tera Blast
offensive carkol, pretty odd set right?

well it techically worked because of its solid stab combo and the fact that it could get its speed maxed out by fire blast from houndoom and scovillain and then take out at least 2 pokemon, often times it devastated those no skill teams, oh and the time of writing, vulpix’s ban has been added to the builder yet so sweep some sun teams and use carkol without losing while you can
 
From SV OU, moves that cause Sleep are now banned from SV ZU as well. These include:
  • Hypnosis
  • Lovely Kiss
  • Sing
  • Sleep Powder
  • Spore
  • Yawn
Moves like Relic Song and Rest are still legal. Effect Spore is also still allowed since it does not strictly force sleep and is based on RNG.
 
UNFORTUNATELY jumpluffs role on certain teams did rely on sleep, wether it was purely utility or to give itself opportunities,

as far as i know the good old sleep powder+sash set has been replaced with whatever this is
IMG_2426.png

Burger flipper (Jumpluff) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stun Spore
- Swords Dance
- Strength Sap
- Acrobatics
Without sleep the almighty pluff has to rely on a coin flip which heavily disfavours it in order to do what it once did with ease

it is advised to use sets that weren’t forced to heavily adapt after the death of amoonguss, or don’t use jumpluff at all because he isn’t making it out of untiered
 
I didn’t expect to see an actually viable spidops build in the team contest since its seemly disappeared with carkol, buts the surprise factor not in games but the long term is always there, maybe spidops has one more in him

not to mention stonjourner has been struggling over the last month and will have to adapt its gameplan or go the way that cardops once did

full on wall stonjourner

Stonjourner @ Leftovers
Ability: Power Spot
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake/ iron defense
- Body Press

i have seen iron press stone before (pretty sure it has an analysis at one point) but this time those physical wall sets may become stonjourners standard because it must adapt to the upcoming shifts set to bring ZU to new destructive heights or fall like sudowoodo once did

speed evs can be used but it must be noted that stonjourners main pull to other walls is its over the top physical bulk

it checks most honchkrow sets without struggle but sets running special attacks will take it out with ease, it also counters alolan golem, shrugging off earthquakes and threatening it with its own eqs
 
The tier shifts are coming within mere hours and are seemly destined to make the devastation of the november 2023 shifts look merciful

the disappearance of golem, honchkrow, stonjourner and the returning glaceon are inevitable and nothing will stop that now

but not all hope is lost

The oppster (Spidops) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Circle Throw
- Knock Off
- Spikes
- Pain Split
spidops was given a more consistent form of recovery in pain split, leech life was rather unreliable on defensive sets without stakeout boosts and leftovers protect would cost red card or sash and give spidops a weakness to stealth rock, pain split spidops lets it stick around to check threats, stack hazards and remove important items far easily, maybe this was what spidops needs to make its comeback

Ampharos @ Leftovers
Ability: Plus
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magnetic Flux
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
its been a long, a sunny day since i’ve seen any mention of crit me not ampharos, since the november incident the GOAT of zu has stuck to assault vest and wallbreaker sets, with the occasional fully defensive static but none the less, this set is more than a gimmick and can batter weakened teams with ruthless efficiency, don’t expect him to fall out the meta, you can’t keep a good mon down
 
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