Metagame Pokébilities [META POLL: Page 9 Post 216]

[alsoni]

thank you guys so much for the input!
final gambit was 100% just a filler move on basc, i'm going to replace double-edge and gambit with psychic fangs and jet now
also espathra ban when

 

[Bean Man]

thank you guys so much for the input!
final gambit was 100% just a filler move on basc, i'm going to replace double-edge and gambit with psychic fangs and jet now
also espathra ban when

For some reason the Espathra ban hasn't been announced, but it is implemented.

Anyways here's a sun team I made, it's not good, but sun doesn't have good abusers. https://pokepast.es/d8bb26c8ab0d1de8

 

[typhlosion787]

In fact options such as Ice Fang and Double-Edge are so useless that I would argue Final Gambit, as risky and situational as it is, still ends up being a notch above them, despite being still clearly overshadowed by Aqua Jet.

I can see the point for Double Edge for this standpoint, but Ice Fang is far from useless. Yes, Head Smash hits Dragonite and Mence harder already, but another huge factor is accuracy and the ability to have that extra 20 power in comparison to Wave Crash against Garchomp isn't completely obsolete as you're making it out to be. Head Smash is definitely better overall for harder smacks on Azu, Dozo, the Slowtwins, and Roaring Moon, but that doesn't mean Ice Fang doesn't have a place at all. The 1/5 chance to miss Head Smash is still huge and sometimes it's simply better to not play into numbers games, especially with a playstyle as fast as rain where one single miss can completely destroy a game. You have convinced me about Aqua Jet being an overall better move choice for Basculin, but calling Ice Fang useless on Basculin is just silly.

 

[Hyper-Go-ons]

Did you know that Ability Shield protects the Pokemon from effects that ignore Abilities such as Mold Breaker?

 

[typhlosion787]

Did you know that Ability Shield protects the Pokemon from effects that ignore Abilities such as Mold Breaker?

Yet another reason why Psychic Fangs is invaluable on Basculin

 

[typhlosion787]

Speaking of Ability Shield, quick question about it. Does the Ability Shield only protect the ability selected in the ability slot, let's say Dondozo has Water Veil as the ability and the Ability Shield, would it only protect Water Veil or would it also protect Unaware and Oblivious too

 

[Schpoonman]

I've never played this format before today (lol) but I was playing around with some initial ideas and one that I've had some success with (unless there is a clodsire) is this Kilowattrel set:

this (Kilowattrel) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Wind Power
Tera Type: Water (for anything besides Clod) / Ground (for Clod)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunder
- Air Slash
- Tera Blast

I tried tera Water initially for Garg, but that set gets completely walled by Clod, so Ground is a decent alternative but is still walled by Clod. Decent for momentum thanks to Volt Switch. I've been pairing it with mixed Pult for more momentum and a decent answer to Clod, but it's kinda risky. I've also been thinking about a rain team featuring Floatzel and Basculin as well, but I have yet to actually make that team lmao. Overall, probably not too worth using since Clod exists and is fucking broken in this format but I like Kilowattrel, so sue me.

https://pokepast.es/7120b8d9d6f16237

Basculin won hugely in this generation with the introduction of Wave Crash, and Tera Flying Kilowattrel 2HKOs Clodsire with Specs Hurricane and a layer of Spikes. Still working on this team, but at the very least Terastallization has given Drednaw a huge new lease on life (in this metagame). STAB Crunch Combat will always be horrifying.

 

[tommytt22]

Prepare to make your opponent vomit in frustration. gluttony makes berry activate at 50% and ripen makes it restore 2/3 health every time. thick fat adds a few resistances. ive never needed to tera so i left it as grass but fairy would be decent or water. apple acid flips a lot of 1v1s on their head.

Appletun @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Ripen
Tera Type: water/fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recycle
- Leech Seed
- Apple Acid
- Dragon Pulse/ tera blast/ substitute

dragon pulse can be swapped if you need to hit azumarill but you lose 1v1 anyway so i think its the best choice

 

[excitedly ava]

Fun set for an underrated mon, how quirky and unique

Honchkrow @ Scope Lens
Ability: Insomnia / Super Luck / Moxie
Tera Type: Fighting / Fairy / Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- U-turn / Night Slash
- Night Slash / Sucker Punch
- Sucker Punch / Drill Peck
- Tera Blast

Pretty damn strong and can spiral out of control (kind of) if given a free kill. It can 2-3HKO a lot of defensive mons pretty easily thanks to crits and STAB, but the problem is its lack of coverage. Fighting is preferable over Fairy since it allows it to OHKO Kingambit with a Moxie boost or with a crit. U-Turn set for versatility, whereas Sucker Punch/Drill Peck/Night Slash for sweeping capability. I've thought about Roost for longevity, but I have yet to test it out, however my first thoughts for a roost set is Night Slash/Sucker Punch, Roost, U-turn, and Brave Bird.

 

[excitedly ava]

Yet another underrated mon that is niche but serves that niche really well:

Forretress @ Covert Cloak / Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch
- Body Press
- Sand Tomb

This thing eats Basculin Wave Crashes for breakfast. Like seriously. Even without Water Tera, it takes 40% from a Blue Stripe Wave Crash. Not only that, it can trap and hit back thanks to Body Press and Sand Tomb. Additionally, this can be a great set for taking out walls like Clodsire and threats like Breloom safely and reliably. Also, hazard removal is always nice.

 

[Hyper-Go-ons]

Prepare to make your opponent vomit in frustration. gluttony makes berry activate at 50% and ripen makes it restore 2/3 health every time. thick fat adds a few resistances. ive never needed to tera so i left it as grass but fairy would be decent or water. apple acid flips a lot of 1v1s on their head.
View attachment 506740
Appletun @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Ripen
Tera Type: water/fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recycle
- Leech Seed
- Apple Acid
- Dragon Pulse/ tera blast/ substitute

dragon pulse can be swapped if you need to hit azumarill but you lose 1v1 anyway so i think its the best choice

You can run Tera Poison or Electric and Tera Blast so you can deal some real damage to Azumarill.

Also those tera types block Poison and Paralysis respectively.

 

[typhlosion787]

Tired of Psychic Terrain teams with the buffed Hawlucha? New Clodsire set that walls it.

Clodsire @ Ability Shield
Ability: Poison Point
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
- Stealth Rock/Spikes

You want some calcs? Here's some very important calcs.

252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 176 Def Clodsire: 184-217 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Mold Breaker Basculin-Blue-Striped Psychic Fangs vs. 252 HP / 176 Def Ability Shield Clodsire: 174-206 (37.5 - 44.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ Atk Supreme Overlord 1 ally fainted Kingambit Kowtow Cleave vs. 252 HP / 176 Def Clodsire: 204-241 (43.9 - 51.9%) -- 13.3% chance to 2HKO
While there is the chance of a 2HKO and that chance goes even higher with Stealth Rock,even just the chance to avoid the 2HKO is amazing

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Ice Spinner vs. 252 HP / 176 Def Clodsire: 374-442 (80.6 - 95.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Yes, there's a guaranteed 2HKO and an OHKO chance after Rocks, but being able to even take a single hit is potentially huge when it means you can potentially do something like Toxic

Clod already had good reason to run Ability Shield for Basculin, but with Hawlucha's rising meta relevancy, it gives Clod even more reason to run Ability Shield. It is definitely a sacrifice as you're sacrificing the Spikes immunity from Boots, Salt Cure and Fake Out immunity from Covert Cloak, and residual recovery and Trick dissuasion of Black Sludge, but with just how common Lucha and Basculin are, being allowed another outlet to assist in playing around the two is amazing

 

[excitedly ava]

I've been experimenting with some sets and underused mons for this format and I made this team that works pretty well:

https://pokepast.es/3d23e0077c2e529e

Hariyama is a general wallbreaker that has decent longevity thanks to Drain Punch and works well in conjunction with Tera Steel and Forretress. Overall pretty standard, although it should be noted that you could replace Knock Off with Rock Slide, although I prefer the Ghost coverage personally.

Honchkrow is a powerful sweeper. Scope Lens + Super Luck means the majority of its attacks are crits, making it double as a wallbreaker. Night Slash and Sucker Punch are strong STABs that, if they don't kill, leave your opponent's defensive cores crippled. Additionally, after it gets one or two Moxie boosts, it becomes very hard to kill without some cheese strats since Sucker Punch can OHKO most things in the metagame after rocks at +2, with a few exceptions, and excluding resists.

Basculin is Basculin, and Glim is Glim, I don't think I need to explain them.

Forretress is the main defensive pivot/stall lord of the team. It can easily take out threats like Breloom and Pex (without Recover, which is albeit rare). On top of that it gets hazard removal, which is always nice. The only problem is that it lacks recovery, and Leftovers just doesn't cut it, so it will maybe take out one threat, remove hazards, then die. It is at this point, however, that Honchkrow has a really easy time setting up and sweeping. Additionally, if you really want to be an annoying little fuck, you can use Rocky Helmet or Grip Claw for even more DoT.

I'll be honest, Meows is kinda just a filler offensive pivot. Its main perk is outspeeding Greninja and a good chunk of the metagame besides Kilowattrel and Pult. You could run Play Rough or Knock Off, however, I prefer Play Rough since it allows it to hit opposing Hariyama a lot harder.

Overall this team works really well against more defensive teams and packs a punch against faster teams as well. I've been tearing up the ladder and gone on a massive winstreak with this team, and I currently sit at around 1250 elo just by using this team. Definitely worth tearing my hair out over fighting countless Toxapex.

 

[Schpoonman]

Tired of Psychic Terrain teams with the buffed Hawlucha? New Clodsire set that walls it.

Clodsire @ Ability Shield
Ability: Poison Point
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 176 Def / 80 SpD
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
- Stealth Rock/Spikes

252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 176 Def Clodsire: 184-217 (39.6 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

Clod already had good reason to run Ability Shield for Basculin, but Hawlucha's rising meta relevancy, it gives Clod even more reason to run Ability Shield. It is definitely a sacrifice as you're sacrificing the Spikes immunity from Boots, Salt Cure and Fake Out immunity from Covert Cloak, and residual recovery and Trick dissuasion of Black Sludge, but with just how common Lucha and Basculin are, being allowed another outlet to assist in playing around the two is amazing

Edit: Tested a team with this set out and so far undefeated with it. For some more relevant matchups, one example is it only taking 26% one game against an Azu's Play Rough. And in the provided image is how it fared against a Kingambit with no boosts and one fallen teammate. From the testing, this is definitely not just a gimmick set. EV spread may seem a bit weird, but wanted to confirm Hawlucha was walled with max attack Adamant itemless Acrobatics. Ability Shield is just an amazing item for Clod in order to bypass Mold Breaker and such. If the Weezings come back through DLC, I could definitely see Ability Shield getting used far more often.View attachment 507033

Encountered my first Ability Shield Gastrodon today, that was deeply traumatic.

 

[alsoni]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9pokebilities-1842149599-z1d0m5jkjkv5o8emtabiikg0axyv33xpw
ability shield is terrorizing the masses

 

[Fracterra]

This rain team is quite good, even though it is Azumarill-less
https://pokepast.es/3c69ef07028410f9
Walking Wake And Pelliper Are musts, Tatsugiri is an offensive rapid spinner, Paldean Taurous-Aqua Is A Rain Nuke With Choice Band, Dreadnaw Is A Menace, And Kilowattrel Helps beat electric types and is stupidly hard hitting with Choice Specs.

This is my favorite team to use.
https://pokepast.es/86437d3b7dae1b3f
Basculin removes life privilidges from a lot of pokemon, Azumarill tanks and hits hard, Heracross deletes things, Perrserker spams Steely Spirit Tough Claws Iron Head, Mudsdale is an amazing defensive counter to a lot of pokemon, and Rotom Mow bullies Dondozo.

 

[foggydaugie]

probably isn't the place but i thought of how basculegion got buffed in radical red.

Basculegion-Male @ Choice Band
Ability: Reckless / Adaptability / Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Head Smash
- Crunch
- Last Respects

use this under rain, and you have something that just turns into a OHKO machine

 

[alsoni]

This is my favorite team to use.
https://pokepast.es/86437d3b7dae1b3f
Basculin removes life privilidges from a lot of pokemon, Azumarill tanks and hits hard, Heracross deletes things, Perrserker spams Steely Spirit Tough Claws Iron Head, Mudsdale is an amazing defensive counter to a lot of pokemon, and Rotom Mow bullies Dondozo.

cool team, but just a couple notes:
it might be worth it to run head smash on basc, since it offers more coverage than double-edge (with lesser accuracy, sure, but having a 150bp move with no other drawbacks is nice).
i might just not know how to use it, but why use bulldoze on azu? it seems more useful to run a move like liquidation so you have a stronger water move than aqua jet - bulldoze only really offers speed control, which aqua jet already ignores.
why run av on perrserker? it does help it tank more hits, but wouldn't band help it nuke things even harder?
i don't see anything terribly wrong with mudsdale, but i've never ran into one so i can't be sure. maybe more def evs so you don't have to rely on stamina to get good body presses off?
same problem with mow rotom as mudsdale, i just don't know much about it. expert belt seems like a strange choice, would something like life orb work better? grass/electric/ice still has you hitting 50% of pokemon for neutral, so more consistent damage is worth the health drop. plus nasty plot already makes super effective moves do massive damage
overall nice team, but a bit physical heavy - if you run into something super physically bulky, you don't want to have to sac something to bring mow rotom in.

 

[excitedly ava]

this format is lowkey dying so I'm going to try to keep it alive by spamming more random sets I make that may or may not work or sets for a format that doesn't exist, so here's a concept for if doubles was a thing

Pikachu @ Light Ball
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Discharge
- Fake Out
- Grass Knot
- Nuzzle

Pincurchin @ Terrain Extender
Ability: Electric Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Surf
- Recover
- Tera Blast

plus something like Gastrodon but I'm too lazy to make a set.
please mods make doubles om's a thing at some point that'd be sick

 

[typhlosion787]

probably isn't the place but i thought of how basculegion got buffed in radical red.

Basculegion-Male @ Choice Band
Ability: Reckless / Adaptability / Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wave Crash
- Head Smash
- Crunch
- Last Respects

use this under rain, and you have something that just turns into a OHKO machine

Good thing that when Basculegion returns, it is most likely going to be Last Respects that gets banned and Houndstone will be unbanned along with Basculegion not getting the ban hammer. Female Basculin will still be a huge threat with Adaptability+Swift Swim+Mold Breaker being able to easily spam Shadow Ball and rain boosted Surf along with Ice Beam, but the male has rather poor ghost stab options for its significantly better physical attack and it's special attack is a measly base 80, so female will definitely be better if the Last Respects prophecy comes true

 

[typhlosion787]

i might just not know how to use it, but why use bulldoze on azu? it seems more useful to run a move like liquidation so you have a stronger water move than aqua jet - bulldoze only really offers speed control, which aqua jet already ignores.

Definitely agree with your point. Ground Tera Blast is good if you want to hit all of Toxapex and Clodsire super effectively and Amoongus neutrally instead of Clod and Amoongus super effectively and Toxapex for not very effective damage

 

[typhlosion787]

So, out of all the sample teams I've given Ivy, the one that upsets me the most is the electric terrain team I built, solely because it has no pokemon except Pincurchin (and even then, it just barely actually abuses the gimmick) that use the meta gimmick. Wanted to revamp the team, so here we go.



New Electric Terrain

Immediately, the team looks much better and has pokemon that actually abuse the gimmick.

Magnezone is a slow nuke that, while it doesn't have Tera Blast, isn't reliant on terastalization to hit a good amount of steel types.
Hawlucha gets Unburden boost, ignores Unaware without Ability Shield with Mold Breaker, and can't even be slowed down by paralysis thanks to Limber. Enough base speed to outspeed max investment Timid Scarf Dragapult after Unburden. Rest was put in special defense
Pawmot is not running Revival Blessing for once, just decided to make it strictly offensive. Electric Terrain and Iron Fist boosted Double Shocks will do crazy damage and Close Combat is as great for stab as ever. Pawmot now also abuses Volt Switch with Natural Cure getting rid of status like burns.
Specs Dragapult is just a nuke. Draco is still one of the most dangerous moves, Shadow Ball has so little resistances, Flamethrower is great coverage, and U-Turn is obvious for momentum. One thing that is making Pult stocks rise in the meta is the use of Shed Tail Orthworm and dual screens Grimmsnarl being so high. This means that with Infiltrator, you simply do not care. And Sticky Webs? Intimidate on physical and mixed sets? Random drops from moves such as Energy Ball you switch into? Not a thing with Clear Body. Pult was going to be amazing no matter what, but Clear Body is really overlooked on it.
And finally Valiant. Why the low speed investment on Scarf? I wanted special attack to be boosted by Quark Drive instead of speed, so I made Valiant one speed point slower than it's special attack before the Scarf. One of the most dangerous pokemon this generation has granted and it's been really fun to use.

Wait, that's not it? But I went over all offensive pokemon. Ok, you actually wanna hear about the Pincurchin set? I guess I'll cover it.

Obviously Pincurchin is the terrain setter here. Tera Water to abuse Lightning Rod, Discharge to cover both a status move and electric stab in the same slot to not have to take up multiple moveslots, Spikes and T Spikes because I need some sort of hazard pressure and for some reason, chose not to add Rocks to the team because I'm dumb, and finally, Recover for longevity so it can set terrain multiple times and it will last longer.

Anyway, thanks for letting me amend my atrocity of that first E Terrain team I built. Hope you guys enjoy using this one

 

[alsoni]

Obviously Pincurchin is the terrain setter here. Tera Water to abuse Lightning Rod, Discharge to cover both a status move and electric stab in the same slot to not have to take up multiple moveslots, Spikes and T Spikes because I need some sort of hazard pressure and for some reason, chose not to add Rocks to the team because I'm dumb, and finally, Recover for longevity so it can set terrain multiple times and it will last longer.

pincurchin is also surprisingly good at dealing with basc!
252 Atk Choice Band Adaptability Basculin Wave Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Pincurchin: 230-272 (76.6 - 90.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Adaptability Basculin Wave Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Water Pincurchin: 115-136 (38.3 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
tera makes it so you can be at half health and still survive banded wave crash, and discharge is pretty good as well
4 SpA Pincurchin Discharge vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Basculin: 258-306 (91.4 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
even if it's only 50%, you still have a chance to ohko basc (and that always makes me feel safer)

magnezone is also amazing. analytic + magnet + eterrain + base 130spatk = nuke. sturdy guarantees an analytic boosted hit, and i haven't played too many games with this team but magnezone has carried most of them

 

[1LDK]

I have been in a few matches with a team I crafted
So far its been tons of fun, there's some things I have been noticing in my early experience

fuck this little monkey bald nerdy ass, it always outspeeds no matter what

Is it me or people are putting physical defense on clod, maybe calcs are wrong, but this thing just doesn't die

this thing in rain is so fun, especially if combined with clod to make poison status spam, it cockblocks pex out of any sort of fun. fun fact, tera fairy + dry skin actually checks walking wake lmaoooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Shed Tail: ban

is also everywhere, its slow by the meta's standard, but it works, and it's terrifying

is a fun sweeper with shell smash, run adamant tho

maybe its a skill issue, but this thing doesn't work, like the only thing it does is get a cursed body after dying

52 ATTACK GUNK SHOT PEX IS FINALLY VIABLE LADYS AND GENTLEMEN, LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'm going to drop the team that I used for my first metagame experience
https://pokepast.es/a3b7487666e5cb0e
it's based around rain and poison spam, I know this sucks, but this is my first team, give me a break (all my teams ever suck but let me cope)

This is fun, I hope this meta keeps alive so I can pump some RMT´s into this thing

 

[typhlosion787]

Is it me or people are putting physical defense on clod, maybe calcs are wrong, but this thing just doesn't die

Actually, yes, many have started using a spread with 176 defense EVs and Ability Shield.

52 ATTACK GUNK SHOT PEX IS FINALLY VIABLE LADYS AND GENTLEMEN, LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Venoshock is usually more reliable if you're planning to abuse Merciless. It doesn't poison opponents itself, but there's no chance of missing unless you use it on a steel type and the meta, with the exception of Clod and Slowking, is much more physically defensive than specially defensive