Official Smogon University Simulator Statistics — August 2012

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Ouro said:
Tornadus-T can not be solely responsible for keeping Keldeo's usage down ~_~
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Actually, yeah it can. Most average players consider Keldeo a waste nowadays, especially on a rain team, because of the perceived prevalence of Tornadus-T, who is generally an exceptional check to Keldeo. When you take a closer look at the usage stats, you'll see that Tornadus-T is ranked a lowly #19, used on less than a tenth of OU teams. However, he mere thought of Tornadus-T is so threatening that the average player will refuse to use it on the ladder.

I do not believe Tornadus-T's presence is actually enough to make Keldeo not worth using. Keldeo, especially when paired with Terrakion, can be an absolutely devastating Pokemon, with the ability to even bust through your everyday special attacker's greatest fear, Chansey/Blissey. This makes it a fantastic Calm Mind user when combined with its great base Speed and decent bulk. Keldeo can singlehandedly clean through entire teams, and it is a huge threat to the metagame that should not go ignored.
 
To those looking at Politoed at #1 and thinking rain is dominating the tier, I'd like to point out the numbers NEXT to its positioning is only 19%. That's down 3% from last month. Rain isn't getting more popular; it's getting LESS. Not to mention as far as top Pokemon goes, 19% is pretty low. Scizor had 27% in June. The ratio of weatherless teams to weather teams has shifted by less than one percent since June as well. While rain has increased in usage by roughly 5%, this has come at the expense of Sand Teams and hardly lines up with the perception that every other team you encounter is rain.

You can't get high on the ladder by countering rain teams specifically because they only make up 1/5th of teams.

As for the others in OU, Nothing here is really too surprising other than Metagross seeing so much usage; that just goes to show how inexperienced players tend to skew statistics. Can't really comment on the other metagames since I don't really play them.
 
Lavos Spawn said:
Actually, yeah it can. Most average players consider Keldeo a waste nowadays, especially on a rain team, because of the perceived prevalence of Tornadus-T, who is generally an exceptional check to Keldeo. When you take a closer look at the usage stats, you'll see that Tornadus-T is ranked a lowly #19, used on less than a tenth of OU teams. However, he mere thought of Tornadus-T is so threatening that the average player will refuse to use it on the ladder.

I do not believe Tornadus-T's presence is actually enough to make Keldeo not worth using. Keldeo, especially when paired with Terrakion, can be an absolutely devastating Pokemon, with the ability to even bust through your everyday special attacker's greatest fear, Chansey/Blissey. This makes it a fantastic Calm Mind user when combined with its great base Speed and decent bulk. Keldeo can singlehandedly clean through entire teams, and it is a huge threat to the metagame that should not go ignored.
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I still refuse to believe that Tornadus-T is in #19 rank and that Keldeo is at an even worse rank. Sure, Tornadus-T is a great check to Keldeo, but as the name says it's a check. Tornadus-T instantly dies if it switchs on Hydro Pump or even Surf with Stealth Rock on field! Both of them deserve much more usage than that (and this applies to Thundurus-T wich is slightly below Tornadus-T).

Keldeo is such a threat that it shouldn't be on that position, especially considering that it's below Metagross! Isn't this list wrong? Or the ladder is actually full of BAD players (and I say BAD because even an average player need to admit how powerful Keldeo is) that think that Keldeo is worthless?
 
Oh man, how LR zapdos will change everything for the better. It's already plenty bulky enough on its own, and with another immunity under its belt it will become truly brilliant. Look what happened to Gastrodon! Zapdos would stop volt-turn cold.
 
I'm honestly mystified myself at Keldeo's low usage. I've been using it on a heavy offense team paired up with Thundurus-T, and they are fantastic duo that troll the ever-popular genesect to no end, since Thundurus is immune to Thunder/Thunderbolt, and Keldeo laughs at Genesects other attacks. That's to say nothing of his raw power - he's a special sweeper who destroys Blissey and Chansey! What's not to like? And as for Tornadus being a check? Scarf Thundurus-T also is a convenient answer to Tornadus. Honestly, try Keldeo+Thundurus-T. It's a fantastic combination.
 
Heracross number 1 is kinda surprising to me. It's mostly a stand alone pokemon. Most teams use it as a late game sweeper (as evidenced by the moveset stats)
Heracross | +----------------------------------------+ | Abilties | | Moxie 58.458% +----------------------------------------+ | Items | | Choice Scarf 64.115%
with Scarf and Moxie. There are better revenge killers in the meta and base 85 speed is quite average for scarf. It can be more of a team player if the CB set is widely used, but there are so many common ghost pokemon, qwilfish, and the fact that it is locked into a move that can enable a free switch-in.

roserade is a team player and it absolutely destroys bulky waters with the combination of great spdef and natural cure preventing scald burns from being too effective.

The fact that their combined usage hits around 40% and Gothitelle's release is really surprising. Both are very vulnerable to psyshock, but I guess Heracross is more capable of handling it, seeing as it can ohko with megahorn and doesnt need to lock itself into CC early game.
 
Jimera0 said:
To those looking at Politoed at #1 and thinking rain is dominating the tier, I'd like to point out the numbers NEXT to its positioning is only 19%. That's down 3% from last month. Rain isn't getting more popular; it's getting LESS. Not to mention as far as top Pokemon goes, 19% is pretty low. Scizor had 27% in June. The ratio of weatherless teams to weather teams has shifted by less than one percent since June as well. While rain has increased in usage by roughly 5%, this has come at the expense of Sand Teams and hardly lines up with the perception that every other team you encounter is rain.

You can't get high on the ladder by countering rain teams specifically because they only make up 1/5th of teams.
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Yeah, so the metagame is becoming more spread in terms of usage. Rain IS getting more popular..

"You can't get high on the ladder by countering rain teams specifically because they only make up 1/5th of teams." - What makes you so sure the good teams (which you need to verse to be high on the ladder) don't use rain more often as a %'ge than other teams.

Believe me rain is more popular, you talk about inexperienced players skewing stats and ignore this factor when considering rain.

You also have to consider the fact that people are building/experimenting with non-rain teams to beat rain (because it is so common). When you consider that you can give a whole rain team trouble with 1 or 2 specific pokemon (say amoonguss getting a free stun spore or spore on anyone in a rain team by checking politoed). Rain is common and becoming increasingly popular, it's not something you can just ignore. Keldeo and Tornadus did make rain more popular..

In general though, there are an increasing amount of ways teams can deal with rain, ie the aforementioned amoonguss, genesect, etc.

Personally I am surprised Virizion is that low. I'd guess on 1337 stats it'd be pretty high, it's too useful against weather teams.. and when you have tyranitar + virizion (to trap starmie/latios/latias/espeon/alakazam) you can open massive holes in weather teams.
 
Thanks for the stats as always Antar! Before I comment on anything, I'm saying this now. Next month is really going to give us a lot more insight about the direction of the OU metagame as nothing is set to be released in the middle of the month (like Genesect was this past month)

Anyway, on to what I noticed in the tiers I typically play First is OU:

No surprise seeing Politoed at #1. It's generally the most useful weather inducer atm as Ttar gets screwed by most rain threats and even Sun teams typically have a way of luring it out and trapping it (Victini and/or Genesct + Dugtrio) or at least defending against it.

Tales up to #16 shows that Sun is really starting to catch on despite the fact Heatran is still solidly in the top 5. The advent of Genesect helps as it's pretty easy to force out Heatran and then trap it with Dugtrio.

Interesting to see Gliscor up so high since most rain and sun threats hit from the special side. Even Sand teams can run the likes of Genesect or Landorus-I to take it out.

Infernape, Volcarona, and Venusaur shows that Sun definitely has a presence in the metagame. Venusaur threatens Toed and Ttar, Volca can also work in rain, and Infernape is a great Scarfer on Sun teams for the stuff it can revenge.

Really surprised Celebi is so low right now. It's a great answer to Breloom and Keldeo and can easily lure out the likes of Genesect and Heatran, only to destroy them with respective 4x super effective coverage moves. Latias being even lower is also saddening. Both are really good choices still despite Genesect's presence.

Now to RU:
Quite surprised Cofagrigus is still holding down #1. I would've thought Nidoqueen would've taken that over this month. It's one of the main reasons full stall is pretty much impossible in RU.

Honestly, why the hell are people still using Sandslash? Sure, Kabutops is used more, but even Cryogonal is a better spinner since it can actually wall some special attackers and has a recovery move. Just, stop using Sandslash people. Throw Kabutops, or even Cryogonal, onto your team and you'll realize how bad Sandslash is.

Rotom-Mow(C), Escavalier, and Mesprit need more love. All 3 are great Pokes right now. Mesprit's a good offensive answer to Nidoqueen, Escavalier just breaks almost every wall in the tier, and Rotom-C cuts up the most common answer to Electric types, Lanturn. Also smashes Nidoqueen for heavy damage.

Interesting to see Druddigon in the top 20. Underrated mon for sure and the lack of defensive Steels in RU really helps it.

Roselia dropping to NU is just a matter of time unless Goth gets banned from RU. With Goth around, almost every defensive Spiker in RU is a bad choice. Roselia is just hurt the most by this since it NEEDS Eviolite to give her the bulk she desperately needs. At least Qwilfish and Scolipede can afford to run Shed Shell as they aren't as dependent on their items. If Goth isn't banned from NU, then Roselia will be bad there too.
 
Well, looks like the Amoonguss hype is finally dying down. Well, to be fair, I do think that thing was pretty overhyped. It's good (resists Breloom's/Keldeo's STABs and stuff) but I wouldn't call it amazing. I also don't find the low Keldeo usage particularly surprising; From my experience, Keldeo really isn't all that good with things like Tornadus-T and Latios running around.

Also, I don't get why people are still using Ambipom in UU. The only thing it really has is STAB Technician Fake Out I guess, but in no way is Fake Out a good move.
 
What's the deal with Alakazam? It made a jump from 39 to 29 this month. I know he's an awesome revenge killer, but I wonder what caused such a jump? You would think that Tornadus-T speed trolling him would push him down a few spots but instead he jumps up 10. Sure he can revenge the likes of Keldeo, but Keldeo is all the way down at 46. There must be some other explanation.

I never imagined at the start of BW that Alakazam would be higher than Reuniclus in usage, let alone 20 spots higher.
 
LucaroarkZ said:
Well, looks like the Amoonguss hype is finally dying down. Well, to be fair, I do think that thing was pretty overhyped. It's good (resists Breloom's/Keldeo's STABs and stuff) but I wouldn't call it amazing. I also don't find the low Keldeo usage particularly surprising; From my experience, Keldeo really isn't all that good with things like Tornadus-T and Latios running around.

Also, I don't get why people are still using Ambipom in UU. The only thing it really has is STAB Technician Fake Out I guess, but in no way is Fake Out a good move.
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Also, from what I understand, Cinccino is better than Ambipom in pretty much every way now that it has Skill Link. Stuff like Ambipom remain popular solely because of bad players.
 
Yeah not only is Cinccino better than Ambipom, but dedicated leads are pretty much obsolete now. I guess Ambipom was an okay anti-lead in UU last gen (Even then if I really wanted something with Fake Out I was using Kangaskhan because I found Ambipom to be complete Spiritomb bait), but now that no one uses dedicated leads.... What does Ambipom do? Please, just use Cinccino. Trust me, it's 100% better in everything including cuteness.
 
pokemon0078 said:
| 63 | Aron | 809 | 1.477% | 670 | 1.528% |

This in Ubers. What person is using Aron that much? Just wow.
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Haha, this was totally me. I used Aron in all of my uber battles last month (~540) and managed to get to #10 on the ladder with him, haha. With sand support, he can OHKO Mewtwo, Palkia, Lugia, Ho-oh, Blaziken, Deoxys (all formes), Latias, Latios, Blissey, Manaphy, Tentacruel, Salamence, Chansey, 13 of the 17 Arceus formes...

| 118 | Cottonee | 203 | 0.371% | 185 | 0.422% |

This is also a pretty viable lead in ubers, thanks to Prankster.
 
| 54 | Abomasnow | 17862 | 3.320% | 15924 | 3.656% |
| 65 | Kyurem | 11158 | 2.074% | 8279 | 1.901% |

Wait wut, isnt the only reason to use hail kyurem? Maybe thats just me, ive never used hail in my life.

| 46 | Keldeo | 27190 | 5.054% | 20558 | 4.719% |

Are you fuc**ng kidding me, Scarf Keldeo in rain is easily the best late game cleaner in OU with SR and a layer of Spikes support. Specs Hydro Pump 2HKOs everything bar the pink blobs, which aren't that high either.

| 14 | Genesect | 56245 | 10.455% | 49204 | 11.295% |

WTF, the thing was released 3 weeks ago guys, where did all the ''99 base speed troll'' go? Thats a massive ''Fuck off scizor'', if you ask me.

Now to UU:

| 13 | Mienshao | 14567 | 12.603% | 12345 | 12.881% |

I dont know you but im surprised as hell, the thing has ONE viable wall in UU (Tangrowth and Gligar get their shit wrecked by LO HP Ice, at least Gligar, and Tangrowth is RU)

| 1 | Heracross | 23333 | 20.186% | 18451 | 19.252% |

Am i the only one that is worried of this boss getting tested (again)? Stop spamming it guys, please.

And finally ubers:

| 63 | Aron | 809 | 1.477% | 670 | 1.528% |

This thing is more used than 1/3 of the Arceus formes da fuq, nothing to say here.
 
I'm astonished that Keldeo's usage is THAT low, even below Metagross. While the threat of Tornadus-T does hinder Keldeo's usability, there's no way that's the sole reason for such low usage. Breloom gets owned by Tornadus-T too but that doesn't stop it from being #9 in usage.

Alakazam at #29 is pretty surprising too. A few months ago it was lingering near UU status but now it's much higher than Reuniclus. Any idea on what caused such a jump? I would think that Tornadus-T would have made it drop in usage, not rise.
 
Reviewing the stats, I'm surprised to find that weatherless teams are more common than any one type of weather. Didn't see that coming.
 
Keldeo is so low... Hey, if it dropped(unlikely) UU would be dominated by rain. Tornadus-I+Kingdra+Keldeo would destroy. On anothr note, why are people still using Ambipom? It's complete bait for any Ghost-Type, and with Cofagrigus possibly joining the ranks of UU, it will suck even more. Speaking of Cofa, it's a great check to Heracross, even nullifying Moxie/Guts with Mummy. And now it has Pain Split!
 
I don't think Smogon is going to let Keldeo fall into UU. If, by some unlikely sequence of events, Keldeo found itself in a lower tier, my assumption is that the tiering leaders would have it banned from said tier. It's too powerful for UU - heck, at times it can seem overpowered in OU as well.
 
Alakazam : High Speed, Free Life Orb, Nice coverage .. Perfect pokemon !

Keldeo : I love that Shit ... Icy Wind is a solid 2HKO against Tornadus on the switch

Genesect is likle a BAWS

And Heracross is too good for UU ... I just start to play UU again, and sometimes, he just does 5-0 by himself
 
Alakazam's high usage surprises me because of the troll-speed of Tornadus-T, but hey, it is very powerful and fast. However, more poeple need to realise the potential value of Trick Room Reuniclus, especially with so many fast threats running around. Keldeo, Tornadus-T, Breloom, Starmie and Alakazam are all outsped and OHKOed by the appropriate move from the LO Trick Room sweeper, while Specially-defensive Ferrothorn and Rain-sweeper Dragonite are 2HKOed; plus, while Ferrothorn can outspeed it in Trick Room, its Gyro Ball woudl deal pathetic damage and Reuniclus is immune to Leech Seed. In fact, Genesect and Scizor the only common rain-team pokemon that usually threaten it out in a Trick Room, and they are fairly easy to check using things like Zapdos or Volcarona.

Speaking of Zapdos, I think LR Zapdos will become a staple on many rain / anti-rain teams once released, since it checks many of the most common pokemon on rain teams while simultaneously having the potential to be a very powerful bulky rain sweeper.
 
Trick Room Reuniclus can do some serious work in the current metagame, no doubt. However, it has two huge issues to contend with: Scizor and Genesect, who are #2 and #14 in usage, respectively. Unless the usage of these two die down, I doubt OTRank will ever see a lot of usage. Besides, remember that before Reuniclus can start to sweep, it has to set up TR, a feat in itself considering all the hard-hitting threats running around these days. I think Reun's reign as one of the premier late-game cleaners in OU is coming to an end.
 
Keldeo is not going to UU anytime soon. Even if it's true that Keldeo's usage is that low, people aren't too dumb to not reconigze it's potential. It's overpowered sometimes even for OU as some user said above. It has potential to OHKO or 2HKO even things that resist it's attacks, even outside rain (I know this because I use Keldeo on a sand team and even without rain it can 2HKO things like for example, Slowbro, without HP Ghost or Electric!).

Really, Keldeo is peharps the most underrated Pokémon that I've seen.
 
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