Metagame OU + Solgaleo Metagame Discussion

[DaddyBuzzwole]

I have posted this set before when Delibird Heart first campaigned for Solgaleo to drop to OU. Delibird Heart was saying Solgaleo would be UUBL at best 'cause of the physical Solgaleo set, which is a noobtrap and a shit set. Solgaleo should definitely go mixed if you want to have any semblance of a consistent offensive presence, and this mixed set set alone is good enough for it to be UUBL.

If running mixed Solgaleo, it should be this:

Solgaleo @ Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 16 Atk / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Earthquake
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt

Psychic is mandatory for Great Tusk, Zamazenta, Gliscor, and Iron Valiant. Thunderbolt for Corviknight and bulky waters + Tornadus-Therian. Earthquake is for Slowking-Galar, Raging Bolt, Cinderace, and Iron Crown, and Close Combat is for Ting-Lu and/or Ogerpon Wellspring if she Teras.

no sunsteel is actually a very interesting angle to take on an all-out attacker set. has the absence of that powerful "i just wanna do damage" midground option impacted the way you leverage solgaleo at all?

I was curious of solgaleo running trick room + teleport to get ursaluna in. Magearna was an excelent supporter back in the day and on theory this sounds like a pretty good idea. THis is not listed in its suggested sets but you can prob eject pack with CC or use teleport on bulkier sets to get the monster in

It takes hits pretty well and can take advantage of stuff like against corviknight, alomomola, dragonite, zapdos, and getting the pivot in can be quite devastating

Solgaleo @ Leftovers
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
- Trick Room
- Teleport

solgaleo is the trick room mon honestly. the bulk and teleport make it an incredible setter and the likely flagship of the playstyle. i really like the idea of eject pack cc specifically on solgaleo because the ability prevents it from being activated early by the opponent

 

[Tio Chico]

Solgaleo @ Mental Herb
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Steel Beam
- Psychic Fangs
- Teleport

This is my Solgaleo Trick Room setter at the moment.
Bringing Ursaluna to activate Flame Orb safely is very good, and Psychic Fangs is great against Screens.
Steel Beam is suicide but rewarding for playing aggressively.
The first day was somewhat volatile and was plenty of cheese as expected, but the fun exceeded expectations.

 

[pixelpenguin]

This is a similar set to what we were discussing, I do feel that this version has a harder time denting teams though, the lack of a psychic type moves means that tusk and pech could be problematic. Knock off does have good utility in return, although i'd still at least run a -spdef nature over -spatk so your tbolt can actually threaten mola an corv with a 2hko. It's also optimal to run 240 speed on offensive sets I feel cause there's nothing between kyurem and 322 (maybe tink?).

0- SpA Life Orb Solgaleo Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Alomomola: 309-367 (57.8 - 68.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0- SpA Life Orb Solgaleo Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Corviknight: 190-226 (47.6 - 56.6%) -- 85.2% chance to 2HKO

You actually don't need any special attack to 2HKO both Corv and Mola, though going down to 240 speed and putting that smidge into special attack does guarantee the Corv matchup.

yeah i do agree that if you're running mixed lorb solgaleo you wanna run psychic on it. being able to ohko great tusk and heavily dent zamazenta in an svou-based format is relevant in every match where one of those two is present, which is most of them. if i'm running an all-out attacker set i'm looking for as wide a spectrum of relevant coverage as possible and leaving knock off to the other guys (unless it's stab or choiced)

Psychic is a fair slash to hit Zama/Pech harder but Tusk is actually 2HKO'd by Sunsteel Strike anyway so I'd rather keep Knock to bully defensive structures and CC for Dark types. idk I'm not really a fan of spamming Psychic with my legendary and no Knock leaves you walled by Ghold.

 

[Avira]

no sunsteel is actually a very interesting angle to take on an all-out attacker set. has the absence of that powerful "i just wanna do damage" midground option impacted the way you leverage solgaleo at all?

solgaleo is the trick room mon honestly. the bulk and teleport make it an incredible setter and the likely flagship of the playstyle. i really like the idea of eject pack cc specifically on solgaleo because the ability prevents it from being activated early by the opponent

Personally, I'm not a fan of Steel-type attacks even accounting for STAB unless there's a very distinct advantage to running it like Scizor's priority Bullet Punch boosted by Technician, Gholdengo having Ghost STAB to complement MIR given Ghost is the best attacking type in the game and how strong Make It Rain is as a move, and some of the better switch-ins to Iron Defense 2 Attacks Zamazenta such as Hatterene, Clefable, Iron Valiant, and Enamorus not taking Heavy Slam well.

Yeah, Sunstreel Strike would be useful against Dnite, Hatterene, and Clefable, but if Solgaleo had one set that hits everything, it'd be an undisputable top mon in the meta rather than something many people feel would be fair in OU. I realize Sunsteel Strike is in theory a good midground move as you say, but in practice, I believe it lands with a thud against much of the meta even if it has some good use cases given Steel is far from a top attacking type.

 

[Pokemh]

Hi I played 22 games and stopped around 1200 a few hours ago. Some thoughts I had when playing was that you really can't know every move Solgaleo has no matter what structure or playstyle it is on.

"Cheese" Solg sets can also just blow through certain teams it felt like I could easily get 4 kills with Power Herb or CM sets in general. Weakness Policy Fairyblast Psychic Fire coverage was a cool set I got 6-0ed by earlier. Also just felt like Solgaleo did all the work in my games or never got to come out or died early without doing much. I haven't used any Defensive sets but when I played against them they were super passive and didn't really do much outside of clicking Fsight and Teleport + Morning sun not having Knock or being mono Knock just feels really awkward I think Mixed or Special Offensive sets or Defensive sets forgoing Tport to fit more moves will be the best. Solgaleo OU has been pretty fun so far but Offensive sets even w/o Stored Power or Psynoise feel a bit too strong especially when they can also be Defensive or Choice Band / Physical.

I think Solg is somewhat easy to pivot around or play around regardless of the set. It is really annoying to get turns wrong with it, more than most mons. Fairy Fighting and Electric seem like the best tera types for Solg to resist Sucker and Boost damage vs birds and fat waters. The ladder seems very offensive right now but when more bulkier teams get used I think they will have an easy time getting around most sets but they will always have to scout first or hope the Solg doesn't have coverage for their whole team. Solg is really cool and has a lot of viable sets to use but not certain on if it's broken, another offensive threat, or balanced yet.

https://pokepast.es/cb38deecde28069f
https://pokepast.es/3ccbd2544bc33709 mostly played with this team (bottom paste was what I used until the last game)

https://pokepast.es/21c86332e298b1bf these were other teams I was using webs might be good

some replays with the team

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510391613-dphslgiqpyny9wsq9mmrumq5od5vnuapw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510381423

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510373467

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510349291

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

Hi I played 22 games and stopped around 1200 a few hours ago. Some thoughts I had when playing was that you really can't know every move Solgaleo has no matter what structure or playstyle it is on.

i've noticed solg is hard to determine on preview too, and that's the one thing about it that gives me pause, but i suspect that might just be a symptom of day 1 meta. this mon is very new and very unoptimized, and we haven't yet figured out which solg sets are good vs which ones are dumb gimmicks that happen to win because they weren't built for, what kind of structure each of the good sets fits or doesn't fit on, what mons we should be keeping solgaleo in mind while building, etc. the vast majority of the teams are "regular ou team we built before but with a solgaleo on it" rather than "team built while also keeping in mind that solgaleo is an opposing mon you will encounter", and that will likely change pretty quickly. if the ladder keeps up enough momentum for the meta to adapt and evolve, we'll likely see the number of commonly seen solgaleo sets shrink to something like 3 or 4 that are generally seen with certain styles or partners, and then it'll be a lot easier to suss out on preview

 

[ElPachirisuDelVGC]

This probably will change with the time when people start to experiment with another sets, but honestly i think that people aren't seeing the true potential of the lion besides WP and Choice Band sets. I've decided to try a CM approach with this team and it was actually very effective thanks to the absolutely crazy bulk that it has.

https://pokepast.es/c5fb0cf2eb7e97ec

These are another sets that i think that have potential

Bulky pivot (Solgaleo) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Teleport
- Morning Sun
- Future Sight / Knock Off

Choice Band (Solgaleo) @ Choice Band
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
- Sunsteel Strike

Calm Mind (Solgaleo) @ Leftovers
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Morning Sun
- Psyshock
- Flamethrower

Meteor Beam (Solgaleo) @ Power Herb
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Meteor Beam
- Flamethrower
- Flash Cannon
- Psyshock

WP Shenanigans (Solgaleo) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flame Charge
- Close Combat
- Sunsteel Strike
- Knock Off

I've also seen Solgaleo in sun teams with Morning Sun synergy which i think that is another cool approach to build with

Another experimental set that i think that could be interesting is as a Trick Room setter, since it can use Trick Room and always pivot with negative priority thanks to Teleport

TR setter (Solgaleo) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Trick Room
- Teleport
- Sunsteel Strike
- Morning Sun

The main problem that i see with Solgaleo is that in Choice Band sets it has a horrible 4MSS problem: it wants Sunsteel Strike for STAB, Flare Blitz for Corviknight, CC for Kingambit and Ting-Lu, Psychic Fangs for Zamazenta and Great Tusk, Stone Edge for Zapdos and Moltres, EQ for Glowking and Pecharunt and Wild Charge for Mola and overall is very prediction reliant. Don't get me wrong, these sets are very threatening, but i don't think they will be absolutely insane. The main advantage as a Choice bander is that it isn't slowed down by Intimidate from Lando-T and it can potentially block Parting Shot from Pecharunt (if it doesn't eat a Foul Play in the process)

The main appeal of defensive sets is Teleport, that pairs well with Future Sight, and with reliable recovery plus its insane bulk and good defensive type i could see defensive sets being really good, but i think that it lacks some ways of doing inmediate progress like Hazards or Toxic, althought Knock Off is a cool move to have

Defensive Calm Mind sets could also be very cool considering how well it synergizes with defensive Tera and that it has built in Fire coverage to not be dependant on Tera Blast to hit steel types. These sets will be hard checked by Ting-Lu, but besides that not really very much can stop Solgaleo of setting up and just running away with the game, and i honestly think that these will be the most consistent sets that people will have to respect, specially by how it absolutely ruins Kyurem

If someone wants to ladder on this alternative OU version i recommend to spam Pecharunt since it's one of the best counters to the physical sets and that's what most people are spamming on ladder

I think that Solgaleo will be somewhere between A- and A+ depending on how the meta progresses, but as far as it is now i will give it an A because of it's versatility

 

[Moyashi]

The main problem that i see with Solgaleo is that in Choice Band sets it has a horrible 4MSS problem: it wants Sunsteel Strike for STAB, Flare Blitz for Corviknight, CC for Kingambit and Ting-Lu, Psychic Fangs for Zamazenta and Great Tusk, Stone Edge for Zapdos and Moltres, EQ for Glowking and Pecharunt and Wild Charge for Mola and overall is very prediction reliant.

Banded Sunsteel 2HKOs HP invested Tusk with a Spike up, and Zama can’t comfortably switch in either without the dauntless shield boost as without the +1, even bulky Zama is 2HKOd and can’t even threaten Solgaleo back sufficiently while offensive Zama is of course only a one time switch to Banded Sunsteel. Even Ting Lu has to be careful because any minor chip and it’s getting 2HKOd by Steel. Glowking is entry for Solgaleo and drops it with knock off (also bludgeons it with Sunsteel). The birds are the best checks to band, though of course knock into rocks complicates this.

I’m not arguing banded is broken as it’s day one and not even a full 24hrs, I’m merely contesting the claim of 4mss. Stabs+knock+flare hits all of what you listed. And yes I’d agree with prediction issues ftr.

 

[ElPachirisuDelVGC]

Banded Sunsteel 2HKOs HP invested Tusk with a Spike up, and Zama can’t comfortably switch in either without the dauntless shield boost as without the +1, even bulky Zama is 2HKOd and can’t even threaten Solgaleo back sufficiently while offensive Zama is of course only a one time switch to Banded Sunsteel. Even Ting Lu has to be careful because any minor chip and it’s getting 2HKOd by Steel. Glowking is entry for Solgaleo and drops it with knock off (also bludgeons it with Sunsteel). The birds are the best checks to band, though of course knock into rocks complicates this.

I’m not arguing banded is broken as it’s day one and not even a full 24hrs, I’m merely contesting the claim of 4mss. Stabs+knock+flare hits all of what you listed. And yes I’d agree with prediction issues ftr.

Yeah, maybe i exaggerated with the thing about 4MSS, i didn't even realized how busted CB Sunsteel Strike is. Still i think that it will want Wild Charge for Mola, Moltres and Dozo so you would probably sacrifice Psychic Fangs, and to be fair the IronPress version of Zama can actually tank it's hits decently, specially the Resto chesto variant

Also Rotom-W is a decent switch as long as it doesn't switch into a Banded CC or Psychic Fangs

 

[JackRG]

can we just quickdrop this guy now he's totally balanced, B+ mon at best

 

[Ultraman1]

I reached top 1 today. Meteor Beam + Trick Room Solgaleo is such a fun set to use as Late Game Sweeper. It also has good synergy with Kingambit.

_____
https://pokepast.es/00bf76b83c4a4fb9

 

[Delibird Heart]

These are another sets that i think that have potential

Bulky pivot (Solgaleo) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Teleport
- Morning Sun
- Future Sight / Knock Off

I think the bulky pivot set is kinda slop, even with max spdef you don't actually take hits that well because solg's typing gives it a really middling defensive profile. The problem is also that you kinda give up the usual level of threat Solgaleo has. TP might be useful to get momentum on an opposing mola switch but once they realize you're defensive they won't need to switch out of it anymore. + this is set is kinda brickwalled by opposing Solgaleos/lets them set up, especially since a lot of them tend to run WP lately. I'm not really convinced that there's a reason to use this over a defensive pivot like slowking or mola (although slowking has been noticably absent from the tier, probably because Solg does so well into it!).

Choice Band (Solgaleo) @ Choice Band
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Flare Blitz
- Sunsteel Strike

The CB set may be better than I anticipated; CC Sunsteel Flare Blitz/Heat Crash hits almost everything you want to with Tera Steel to muscle past mons like Pecha, and Knock Off still threatens mola and corv, like Moyashi accurately pointed out. It is still very prediction reliant and could lose you a lot of momentum, but it might be good on some structures. I'm excited to try and build with it soon, so far I've only really used mixed :)

The more special oriented sets (CM, Mbeam) I don't really have anything to say about so far. From my experience they can work quite well on screens, but outside of that they kinda lack immediate power compared to just physical or mixed, while also not having utility from knock off & such. They're kinda one note and cheesy imo (I've even seen full defensive Idef/CM/Morning Sun/Flash Cannon tera water ).

TR setter (Solgaleo) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Full Metal Body
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Trick Room
- Teleport
- Sunsteel Strike
- Morning Sun

This set is kinda interesting, having the guaranteed slow TP can be really good when using kinda unconventional TR sweepers that need the super safe switch (I saw Tio Chico use mixed Sheer Force rampardos to quite a bit success thanks to the support fom Solgaleo), but overall it feels like maybe it's just better to use hatt/cress? It seems unlikely that SolG will ever be healthy enough to set up TR again after taking two hits at the start of the game (although AquiIo was suggesting using Sitrus/Wiki berry to get around that and honestly I'm intrigued, seems cool!). I'd say I'm kinda interested by SolG as a solo TR sweeper though (kinda like some Hoopa-U sets), some TR+3 attacks lo set, or TR eject pack with CC!

If someone wants to ladder on this alternative OU version i recommend to spam Pecharunt since it's one of the best counters to the physical sets and that's what most people are spamming on ladder

I had pecha pegged as one of the biggest losers of this meta honestly. SolG blocks him from pivoting with parting shot thanks to full metal body, and Pecha still must fear Psychic from a LO mixed set (which near ohkoes with 0 invest) or a Special set, and doesn't take psyfangs from banded all that well either.

By the way I'm going around gathering teams from players who have been playing a lot on Day 1 to try and cobble up some "sample" teams for everyone to enjoy if they don't feel like building a brand new Solg team :)

 

[Setsu]

OU Room will be hosting a SV + Solgaleo tour this Friday at 2PM GMT-6, with the winner receiving Room Prize role for 1 week and a Player Card (see below). Hope you can join us!

 

[ElPachirisuDelVGC]

It's still too early to speculate how the meta will develop but honestly i don't think that dropping Solgaleo into OU is a good idea, specially considering that there are still things that we should discuss like Ogerpon-W or Kyurem.

My worrying with the lion is that, i wouldn't call it broken perse, but because it how enables many things with a lot of different sets it could warp the entire meta around it at an unhealthy degree. Every offensive and defensive pokemon will need to be able to deal with Solgaleo and friends, and a lot of important pokemon in the meta will be less viable, causing more balance issues with other pokemon. Specially Ghost types like Pult and Dark types like Darkrai or Kingambit will eat well thanks to the lion making less viable checks like Tyranitar and Solgaleo being itself another victim of these pokemon

But as i said, it's early to make precipitated conclusions. I might be wrong about the lion and it could be a healthy presence, and honestly i would like to be wrong

 

[olamomalo]

I'm finding solgaleo to be very overbearing, the main sets being Choice Band, 4 attacks / 3 attacks morning sun, and weakness policy (mostly physical, but also special-based). It's just WAYYY too fat for OU for how immediately threatening it can be. And if you guess the set wrong, then it gets a +2/+2 and you lost. Even if you know it's weakness policy, what do you do when it's behind screens? It can't be hit hard enough to OHKO, leaving status and phasing as the only choices since stat drops are out. The band set in particular I find pretty silly -- it's harder to chip down and has more niche switch-ins than something like band zamazenta.

Sets that have not seemed very good are the defensive pivot ones; people seem to be copy-pasting it onto existing teams in place of slowking-galar and it leaves huge holes. Still unsure about special sets. They seem like more of a lure than anything actually good.

Assault Vest is also a godly tank but I haven't seen much of that. But seriously, what the heck...
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tera Fairy Enamorus Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Solgaleo: 91-108 (19 - 22.5%) -- possible 5HKO

Other solgaleo sets I am interested in exploring further are protective pads 3-attacks, which seems like it will be amazing with hazard support, and also mirror herb on Webs as a quasi defensive stop to opposing setup. The Lion definitely stifles more traditional webs approaches, preventing the use of things like modest enamorus and adamant ogers, but I also think it is a boon for a "sloppy" webs that doesn't really care if the hazard gets bounced/court changed. TBD.

As far as pokemon it pairs well with? Well, just about anything, but to pick a few, it can form some nasty breaking cores with . This kind of pairing is very good at overloading a bird or dondozo; either can use knock off, and spikes can come from Oger. Easy endgame.

On the whole, I really do not wish for Solgaleo to be introduced into OU. It's not a true eyes-closed clicker or DD into instant win kind of pokemon, but it is only going to add another screens cheater and more reasons to run no-skill contact birds and fat t-wave gholdengo. None of those are compelling metagame factors to me.

I also "peaked" this 10 person ladder, mostly using a no-Lion Glimmora team. Due to the previously mentioned G-Slowking Substitution Fallacy, teams using pivot Solgaleo are usually very susceptible to toxic spikes and hazard stack.
https://pokepast.es/a660ca88f7578587

as an aside, SD Booster attack valiant is VERY good, both on solgaleo ladder and regular OU. Ghost sneak cleans a lot of teams with hazards and +2 CC w/ knock is unwallable.

 

[ausma]

I have no intention of speaking for the council or anything like that, but I wanted to say a couple of quick things to hopefully direct conversation in a productive way.

The best way you can make a convincing argument for others in general is to save your replays and share them. Conjecture is one thing, it’s important to see sets in context, especially for a Pokemon as seemingly versatile as Solgaleo.

As an unban candidate, you also have to consider that the burden of proof is on you to prove it would not be broken and would not be an unhealthy presence in the tier. Replays help with this, but explaining things such as how it impacts the teambuilder and how it feels to play against in practice are major points of interest.

I myself have not touched this format yet so I have no idea what to think, but I’m personally keeping an eye on things. So, please keep all of the above in mind!

 

[Finchinator]

This post is not an invitation to respond about tiering policy — I hope all future posts just go back to being about the Solgaleo ladder and experiences with it. If you have issues, PM me.

Keep in mind that this is not official, and that this ladder will not directly lead to a Solgaleo suspect test or unban in SV OU.

I just want to reaffirm this from the OP — I’m glad people are enjoying themselves and it should always be Smogon’s goal to have players enjoy their formats, but there is by no means a guarantee or even a current likelihood of a retest on Solgaleo.

I am following the thread of course, but this is by no means an official ladder or anything with direct ramification on SV OU. There also isn’t a window for a retest during SPL/OST anyway while we had little-to-no support for a retest over the last couple of months.

Finally, I do not think Palafin was banned due to threat saturation. With over 3/4 support for it to remain Ubers, Palafin was, to put it simply, broken in the eyes of the voters. Wouldn’t really bend over backwards comparing the two situations either. This isn’t an invitation to discuss this topic further here either.

 

[GrimtheImpy]

The Silly

Replay

The earlier one

These replays are less so solgaleo gaming and more so to show where I am at right now at the time of writing. But knocking off Crown, absorbing twave for the team in the gemfruit game was nice. And for the other 1 for 1 trading with the other Solgaleo.
anyways current thoughts after like a couple games of this

I think right now solgaleo is a good mon. It has many sets that suit many styles and people are finding what fits them. It's very expressive mon that I think we will cooler sets for the longer this goes on for. That said I do have 1 complaint about Solgaleo and that is it's bulk, Solgaleo has this tendency to live some pretty strong attacks even super effective ones. While it can't hit everything it wants to, I think it's real strength will be teching it to trade with certain mons or having the coverage to fry a certain array of targets(i.e lorb sets with so many possibilities that there's no real switch).Otherwise I do think it's a neat mon but I am terrified of what people could be brewing up right now because that level of flexibility is very very strong and maybe we'll have some set that makes me want to throw my phone on the wall once we find it.

 

[perplexful]

Hi I played 22 games and stopped around 1200 a few hours ago. Some thoughts I had when playing was that you really can't know every move Solgaleo has no matter what structure or playstyle it is on.

"Cheese" Solg sets can also just blow through certain teams it felt like I could easily get 4 kills with Power Herb or CM sets in general. Weakness Policy Fairyblast Psychic Fire coverage was a cool set I got 6-0ed by earlier. Also just felt like Solgaleo did all the work in my games or never got to come out or died early without doing much. I haven't used any Defensive sets but when I played against them they were super passive and didn't really do much outside of clicking Fsight and Teleport + Morning sun not having Knock or being mono Knock just feels really awkward I think Mixed or Special Offensive sets or Defensive sets forgoing Tport to fit more moves will be the best. Solgaleo OU has been pretty fun so far but Offensive sets even w/o Stored Power or Psynoise feel a bit too strong especially when they can also be Defensive or Choice Band / Physical.

I think Solg is somewhat easy to pivot around or play around regardless of the set. It is really annoying to get turns wrong with it, more than most mons. Fairy Fighting and Electric seem like the best tera types for Solg to resist Sucker and Boost damage vs birds and fat waters. The ladder seems very offensive right now but when more bulkier teams get used I think they will have an easy time getting around most sets but they will always have to scout first or hope the Solg doesn't have coverage for their whole team. Solg is really cool and has a lot of viable sets to use but not certain on if it's broken, another offensive threat, or balanced yet.

https://pokepast.es/cb38deecde28069f
https://pokepast.es/3ccbd2544bc33709 mostly played with this team (bottom paste was what I used until the last game)

https://pokepast.es/21c86332e298b1bf these were other teams I was using webs might be good

some replays with the team

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510391613-dphslgiqpyny9wsq9mmrumq5od5vnuapw

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510381423

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510373467

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ousolgaleo-2510349291

to be fair to Solgaleo, given that it’s been like a day in a half it’s unlikely you’d be familiar with anything about Solgaleo. I’m sure slowly as we see less cheese and test sets and more properly built and developed sets and dynamics (my prediction is maybe like a week to two from now) predicting on preview will become 5x easier. There’s still some clear outliers that appear more commonly (atleast from what i’ve seen) when you divide the obvious gimmick teams and the well rounded teams: Life Orb Mixed, Choice Band/Specs, Double Dance, AV, and trick room. 4/6 of those you slowly start to recognize in preview. It’s really just time dependent for it to become easier. Though i do see some of these cheese sets pulling through, but thats just SVOU for you. I think Solgaleo would be a good addition.

 

[Tio Chico]

Day 2: Trick Room is less common, Rain and Lokix are strong.
The frequency of teams without Solgaleo has also increased.

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

Day 2: Trick Room is less common, Rain and Lokix are strong.
The frequency of teams without Solgaleo has also increased.

i've also noticed that people are starting to adapt to the possibility of mixed solgaleo. day 1, people were just automatically hammering the switch button into alomomomomola or moltres or corv and getting nuked immediately by thunder. now i'm seeing people actually scout and play more prudently

 

[Ranga226]

how does one not auto lose to cosmic power weakness policy solgaleo that has max bulk investment?
Besides just using phazing on every team

 

[ElPachirisuDelVGC]

how does one not auto lose to cosmic power weakness policy solgaleo that has max bulk investment?
Besides just using phazing on every team

Using the King-Lu

 

[perplexful]

how does one not auto lose to cosmic power weakness policy solgaleo that has max bulk investment?
Besides just using phazing on every team

tried this, it can get shutdown really early. It’s nice on screens though. It just appreciates 4 moves so much more than 3. It can’t hit as many things as it’s able to with 4, in fact it can barely hit the bulkiest phazer ting-lu at all.

 

[Tio Chico]

Day 3. I tested a lot of playstyles, although most were just replacing some Pokémon on a team with Solgaleo with the set I thought was most appropriate.

Trick Room seems to be the most receptive playstyle and has a solid niche with Teleport, although that might mean giving up a Healing Wisher.
As expected, Screens with Weakness Police are less consistent and the 4ms is real. For Sun there is a solid list of better abusers that don't depend on Terastal, the same for Rain.

After a Lokix infestation yesterday, someone must have used insecticide and solved the problem. Kyurem is missing, maybe the pages of some newspaper will report the case.
Solgaleo seems to be Schrödinger's Lion at the moment: It can do everything or nothing until the moment you load a game.

Special Defense Gliscor presents itself as a good midground to discover the Solgaleo's set, followed by Hydrapple which, although it doesn't survive 2 Psychic LO, is quite bulky and has Regenerator. Special Defense Hippowdon is something that the calcs told me is another counterplay alternative, but I'm not in the mood to try it.
Dishonest Stall easily farms honest attempts of Offense testing Solgaleo.
And I need a little break and a little less screen time.