Other OU Type Analysis Project: Week 8 - Psychic-type

[trc]

APPROVED BY HAUNTER AND SUBJECT 18

Hey guys, this is OU's Type Analysis Project! The aim of this project is to discuss and evaluate information regarding metagame trends, categorised into 18 weeks for the corresponding 18 types. After 18 weeks are over, we'll look back at the previous week of the upcoming type and compare the Pokemon of that type in terms of how they play in the metagame, what new trends have arisen, and what new sets they're commonly seen running.

Things I'd like people to discuss (and I'd like to see at least one, preferably more of these ideas featured in each post) are:

• What are the most popular Pokemon of this type seen in OU?
• What other Pokemon of this type also claim some sort of viability in OU?
• What Pokemon of this type fill a niche in OU which is sometimes worth considering in a team?
• What sorts of Pokemon does this type collectively threaten?
• What sorts of Pokemon threaten many of the members of this type?
• What sorts of metagame trends have occurred to the many Pokemon in this type?
• What Pokemon of this type are very potent offensive threats?
• What Pokemon of this type are very sturdy defensive threats?
• How do these Pokemon compare to each other in their respective roles?
• How strong do you feel this type is as a whole?

Note that I prefer for emphasis to be put on comparisons, not only between Pokemon but also between the stages of a metagame in which a Pokemon was used. How is it used now? What changed?

Week 8's type is the Psychic-type:

(Note that discussion isn't limited to the above Pokemon).

It is obvious that Psychic-types took a serious hit in the BW to XY shift, largely due to the Ghost- and Dark-type move buff, the introduction of Knock Off, and the presence of Aegislash. However, even before Aegislash was banned, how come there were a lot of viable Psychic-types? Talk about Latios vs Latias, the rise in popularity of Mega Gardevoir and Mega Medicham, and even Mew, talk about how terrible Scarf Taunt Rest Gothitelle is (I'll cp CBB's post later on), you can talk about Espeon's stallbreaker set, Starmie with Reflect Type and SDPass Celebi (as well as the other pretty nice Celebi sets going around). Jirachi and Bronzong are nice checks to Mega Gardevoir, while both get SR and the latter is a pretty good Pinsir and SR Exca (and sand in general) check.

Oh, maybe you guys could talk about Meloetta? In the 1825 stats for OU, Meloetta has OU usage, which surprised me a lot. I looked into the moveset stats, but all of these uses are largely one set (the "Moves" section has 4 moves above 90% and next was "Other", at 9%. It was apparent some team was very popular at the top of the ladder and it used SubCM Meloetta, as well as Gyarados, Conkeldurr, Gengar, Landorus, and something else x.x. Apparently this belongs to someone called "stone". If anyone knows anything about it, speak up!

 

[Nabilla Benattia]

Psychic is a bad typing wih good pokemon. Lati@s are the best offensive defoggers in the game, with Latinos providing offense and Latinas providing suppot with most of the power backing it. For me she's the better choice due to healing wish's utility, but both are excellent. The two psychic megas just lost their main counter and are frightening wall breakers, with Gardevoir providing good speed and also carrying a great support move pool. Psychic type's viability is based on how well their benifits override the typing's defensive weaknesses, which makes them unique. Defensive psychic types have to have truly massive stats to make up for the lack of resistances, and this lack is why they are relatively uncommon on stall, save slow bro occasionally. On the offensive end psychic types generally hold specific niches because of their ability(gothitelle's stall breaking for example), their massive move pool (mew or celebi) or rely on their other typing as a main stab (lati@s, Gardevoir and medicham) which shows how much of a nerf the typing really is. Lead Azelf is somewhat underrated in my opinion, as offense teams turn to find a new stealth rock lead garchomp and terrakion are being used more and more in the role, who Azelf can taunt, set it's own rocks, then either explode or hit hard with psychic, fire blast or ice beam.

 

[Lil YoshiXD]

I foresaw this would be the next type.

I'm going to talk about 3 really good psychic types at stallbreaking.

1. Espeon With max hp and physical bulk with calm mind, stored power, dazzling gleam, and moonlight can tear stall apart. Stall can't status or phaze it and usually can't do enough damage to it. Only thing it sucks vs offense.

2. Gothitelle imo has 3 great sets. Specs, scarf, CM. Specs is meant to do a large amount out of damage, but can't break chansey. Scarf usually tricks something into a useless move then proceeds to kill something and gets scarf back at end. Pretty good vs offensive teams because it revenges things. Calm mind sets up calm minds vs weak attackers and can actually proceed to sweep afterwords. Sometimes its used with scarf, but not necessary. It can beat things other sets can't like latias and heatran.

3. Stall breaker Alakazam. Lol wat? Yeah I know what your thinking, but its really good. Magic Guard prevents status and with recover it can heal off weak damage. It can be phazed, but not before doing massive damage to heatran, skarm, or hippo. Also its speed lets it be very good vs offense.

 

[Ilickchairs]

Psychic pokemon are amaze balls and it's one of my fave typings, but idk I feel like competitively its basically a massive liability under almost any circumstance. Every viable pokemon is so pretty much despite their typing; due to a combination of either good stat distribution, move pool (dem coverage options), secondary typing or ability. That's not to say the OU viable psychics are shit, of course, cause all of them are like really, really boss and fill great niches.

Ghost and dark buffs this gen were obviously a massive fu to an already poor defensive typing. Dark in particular, as although a fighting resistance is pretty nice, fighting types are nowhere near as common as they were last gen and the ones present can generally carry knockoff.

Offensively they can threaten a few top tier fighting and poison type theats -- keldeo, mega venusaur (notably one of it's few weaknesses), breloom, amoongus -- but idk most of these can be dealt with via flyspam, which is probably a little more reliable.

I'd be interested in hearing people talk about pokemon that do benefit greatly from having the typing, cause I can't think of many that wouldn't love to trade it for a different one.

 

[escarlata]

As much as I absolutely love Psychic types in general, I'd have to admit it is pretty a bad typing. Defensively Psychic types are only useful for the Fighting resist, but most defensive Psychic type rather be a Fairy type or a Poison type instead for that resist. That Knock Off and U-turn weakness are killers. Offensively, only Psychic types and Landorus actually run them, which alone speaks something about it offensively.

So what is it that makes Psychic types so largely used despite these flaws? The answer lies in their huge movepool, and their ability, good stats, or simply their dual type combination

• Psychics have some of the largest movepools in the game, many having access to Will-o-wisp, Thunder Wave, Trick, Recovery. Other than the wide myriad of support moves, Psychic types are blessed with coverage to get past their counters. Many of them have access to Focus Blast, which gets them past the awful TTar, and his fellow Dark types. Psyshock is obvious for its ability to kill special walls, and is one of the reasons to even run a Psychic typed STAB. Psychic/Extrasensory are occasionally useful for the ubiquitous Venusaur.
• Ability-wise, we have some of the best abilities, Pixilate, Pure Power, Regenerator, Shadow Tag, Magic Bounce, Magic Guard being the borderline broken ones. I kind of doubt there is another typing with access to more of borderline broken abilities than Psychic types.
• Stats wise, they either have a very good speed tier (Lati@s, Starmie, Azelf, Alakazam, Espeon), or they have all rounded good bulk (Slowbro/king, Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Bronzong, Cresselia, Uxie), or they hit crazy hard (Lati@s, Starmie, Alakazam, Gardevoir, Medicham.
• Even though I mentioned most Psychic types rather be either Fairy or Poison, the Psychic typing just happen to be on Pokemons that have a complementary secondary typing. Medicham and Gardevoir loses their Dark and U-turn weakness with their secondary typing while keeping that Fighting resistance, which is good to have. Lati@s and Starmie have that godly special movepool with Psychic providing Psyshock for their coverage. Slowbro, Celebi, Bronzong have secondary typings that allow them to wall some of the best threats in the game.

Overall, the Psychic types still has potential, especially that one of their best counters are gone.

 

[4everShaymin]

For me psychic type alone is the "a bit above medicore"-type.
While having obvious flaws - like the ones mentioned earlier - almost every psychictype have extremly good coverage.
Personally i believe their coverage comes from the psychictype itself.
The same goes for their arsenal of abillitys.
Meaning, without it they most likely wouldn't have the coverage(/abillity) they have... at least not to this extend.
So being part psychic is a curse and a blessing at once.

 

[Taliheim]

First off, I'll admit that Psychic is my favorite type. That said, I see it as a liability - and a compliment. A pokemon with a Psychic typing is basically a pokemon where Gamefreak said, "you're too powerful, let's nerf you with this type", so they'd actually be balanced (i.e. imagine M-Gard as a pure fairy).

I'll also be the first to bring up Meloetta, like the OP mentioned. Besides being my favorite pokemon, I really don't know the team that the OP is talking about. However, I do think she should be ranked above where she is right now, as she has several good sets she can run - SubCM, AV, Mixed Relic, Physical Pirouette, CM, AV Relic, etc. Meloetta-P is also scary fast at 128 speed - if it was its own pokemon and didn't need a turn to set up each time out, I'd bet money that it'd be in OU.
Oh, I almost forgot: she actually counters a lot of top threats. Focus Blast can OHKO TTar and Bisharp on the switch, Psyshock can 2HKO M-Venusaur, and countered Aegislash as hard as Mandibuzz before it got banned.