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Has there been any discussion on the possible viability of Arboliva? I was looking for something for Spore and also Last Respects, and Arboliva is naturally immune to both, also Moongeist Beam
Hi! One thing to address is that the weakness to Fire (Pdon weakness) and Fighting will always be problematic. Furthermore, it also has relatively too much weakness as a WG without much stat spread to back it up. It’s stat however, does make it usable as a slow pivot Ability Shield WG, but it’s sad how terrible its bulk is, which means it doesn’t do much against Neutralising Gas users even if they don’t have any other Flying/Fire/Fighting/Ice coverage which is unlikely. Arboliva can’t do anything against any NGas users under Magic Room or when your item gets Cgased unlike the likes of WG MAudino and Wetceus which can absorb hits and PSong back. Immunity to Spore is nice tho. For dealing with Spore, GrassCeus is better for that role.
Usually a Good as Gold or Magic Bounce mon like Slaking covers Spore and Last Respects while having the bulk.
Hope this helps!
Hey remember that team I submitted awhile back? Yea it's outdated now so I'm posting the updated version, not to submit this time but just as a showcase. Currently I really enjoy how the team plays so I don't see it changing too much in the near future. Anyways, the changes.
Kartana is unchanged and remains as the primary breaker and sweeper of the team. Same as before, really hard to stop once everything is set up.
:ss/zamazenta:
Zamazenta @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Shadow Tag
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Corrosive Gas
- Taunt
- Burning Bulwark
- Soft-Boiled
Also remains unchanged for the most part, tho it's now safety goggles as ashield was useless on it (if opp is ngas I don't need to cgas them) and tera is dark to block prank and cgas on photon.
On darkceus, I chose to replace tidy up with heal bell to lean more into support. This honestly really helps the team as it can now shrug off burns and toxic once tspikes are cleared. This also helps darkceus go from a GaG hard counter to now a bulky support mon like it really should be.
:sm/slaking:
Slaking @ Ability Shield
Ability: Wonder Guard
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Soft-Boiled
- Tidy Up
- Shed Tail
Given that I took tidy up off of darkceus, I needed to put my removal somewhere else. And given that cgas on slaking was useless, I just tossed it on slaking. Otherwise unchanged.
Now this is the main change I made with the team. While maud was good, there was one primary issue with it: it was sunsteel weak. This made the team really weak to wg kart with collision course. With ludicolo, the team now easily walls Kart and even gets a sunsteel resist. Ludicolo over grasseus to wall ng. Set is the same as before.
While most of the changes are minor, they do go a long way in making the team feel better to play, atl imo.
Gameplan remains the same, remove ashield as necessary before setting up kart/calys to sweep. In general the team is very consistent as the wgs can wall most important mons and zama's forced progress is great at pushing the battle forward. And then once kart or calys is set up, the sweep is almost impossible to stop. This team has continued to bring me great success, getting me to 10th on ladder at one point. It's overall a very consistent team that I really enjoy.
Also for the pdon matchup the plan is generally to deny it magic room as kart can ohko with HP up. I will admit it's not good, but a lot of people don't seem to realize that and get pdon killed. And then once it's revived, kart ohkos in magic room as well.
I will continue to shill kart + stag cgas and there's nothing anyone can do about it. It's honestly a very strong team style and it gets two wild card slots for free. If you dislike this team, go ahead and build another one off of that kart + stag core. I promise it will not disappoint (not legally binding).
Hey remember that team I submitted awhile back? Yea it's outdated now so I'm posting the updated version, not to submit this time but just as a showcase. Currently I really enjoy how the team plays so I don't see it changing too much in the near future. Anyways, the changes.
Kartana is unchanged and remains as the primary breaker and sweeper of the team. Same as before, really hard to stop once everything is set up.
:ss/zamazenta:
Zamazenta @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Shadow Tag
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Corrosive Gas
- Taunt
- Burning Bulwark
- Soft-Boiled
Also remains unchanged for the most part, tho it's now safety goggles as ashield was useless on it (if opp is ngas I don't need to cgas them) and tera is dark to block prank and cgas on photon.
On darkceus, I chose to replace tidy up with heal bell to lean more into support. This honestly really helps the team as it can now shrug off burns and toxic once tspikes are cleared. This also helps darkceus go from a GaG hard counter to now a bulky support mon like it really should be.
:sm/slaking:
Slaking @ Ability Shield
Ability: Wonder Guard
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Knock Off
- Soft-Boiled
- Tidy Up
- Shed Tail
Given that I took tidy up off of darkceus, I needed to put my removal somewhere else. And given that cgas on slaking was useless, I just tossed it on slaking. Otherwise unchanged.
Now this is the main change I made with the team. While maud was good, there was one primary issue with it: it was sunsteel weak. This made the team really weak to wg kart with collision course. With ludicolo, the team now easily walls Kart and even gets a sunsteel resist. Ludicolo over grasseus to wall ng. Set is the same as before.
While most of the changes are minor, they do go a long way in making the team feel better to play, atl imo.
Gameplan remains the same, remove ashield as necessary before setting up kart/calys to sweep. In general the team is very consistent as the wgs can wall most important mons and zama's forced progress is great at pushing the battle forward. And then once kart or calys is set up, the sweep is almost impossible to stop. This team has continued to bring me great success, getting me to 10th on ladder at one point. It's overall a very consistent team that I really enjoy.
Also for the pdon matchup the plan is generally to deny it magic room as kart can ohko with HP up. I will admit it's not good, but a lot of people don't seem to realize that and get pdon killed. And then once it's revived, kart ohkos in magic room as well.
I will continue to shill kart + stag cgas and there's nothing anyone can do about it. It's honestly a very strong team style and it gets two wild card slots for free. If you dislike this team, go ahead and build another one off of that kart + stag core. I promise it will not disappoint (not legally binding).
zamazenta is the fastest thing that isn't regieleki that is also bulkier than regieleki, which does help you live a little longer I suppose, but the tradeoff is that you get to lose the 1v1 to taunt regieleki 100% of the time as opposed to 50%. I'm wondering what calcs would actually make this come into play because from experience the team really thuds into taunt eleki
Ye Zama is really there for the increased bulk, which does let it tank hits much better than eleki. Honestly not the worst thing when its purpose is to come in multiple times into various wgs, some which may be offensive.
One noticeable issue here is a general lack of item removal, with the only option being pdon who doesn't really have a lot of longevity for that role (it needs to cgas and then bitter blade and it really wants to lose HP to clangorous soul and lorb). Also, the team has a really bad matchup into ngas darkceus (pot meet kettle, ik) as once it's behind a sub and victory danced up there's not a lot you can do. The hazard removal on this team is also lacking as it gets blocked by every mandatory wg, which isn't good for a bulkier team. Remember to set teras.
For more nitpicky set commentary, espeed on gigas isn't doing much, and pdon really prefers magic room over cgas. Clangorous soul is just objectively worse than shell smash as well.
I think there's decent ideas and structure here, but there's also really big flaws with this team. Good luck!
I don't like ClangSoul because of the HP cost making it really hard to click repeatedly, especially with LO, but with something like Leftovers+Victory Dance or Goggles+Shell Smash it could be very scary.
Mortal Spin isn't a great choice for hazard removal because of WGs, and Tidy Up also has the benefit of removing Sub(very important because of Shed Tail/BPass teams), so I'd consider swapping that out.
I don't know if I'd use Arceus-Ghost as your Ghost mon there over like Calyrex-Shadow, and it needs Improofed in some form or fashion, either by a MBounce/GaG Normal, a WG Arc forme, or a WG Grass like Ludicolo or Kartana.
Why did I make this? Initial Warriors found it hard to deal with Ability Shield Bounce mons. Decided to make a few changes, and instead of explaining the full team, I will only explain the key changes from Warriors 1.
Notes:
If you can’t make progress on the turn, may it be set up or hazards when they click Revival Blessing, you misplayed.
Impostor Blissey is not as good as you think.
Broken Things in the current meta (aside from NGas and Ability Shield):
Spore
Victory Dance
Power Trip
:Arceus-Water: Arceus-Water @ Ability Shield
Ability: Wonder Guard
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk
- Corrosive Gas
- Perish Song
- Revival Blessing
- Lunar Dance
Here, we have a Tera Grass Wetceus, its job is to improof Darkceus with Spore, with the addition of CGas, the Impostor will then fail to hit any WG of yours, forcing it to switch, afterwards, Impostor reverse sweeping by copying your Darkceus is no longer an issue.
:Kartana: Kartana @ Ability Shield / Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Shadow Tag
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Close Combat
- Gigaton Hammer / Sunsteel Strike
- Tidy Up / Gigaton Hammer
This mon has one purpose, by that, I mean, actually only one. Knock Off the Ability Shield from the opponent Magic Bounce mon so Darkceus can sweep without the fear of Spore bouncing back when you lose your Goggles (trust me, it got CGased many times), heavily punish Bounce MAudino or Ting Lu every time it comes in. I also made lots of things Tera Grass so I don’t lose to Spore sleep turns. So what made this meta hurt to play for me? With this addition, there isn’t any real Darkceus walls anymore (screw you for inventing it Bread Sandwich), and with careful positioning, nothing can deny a full on Darkceus sweep with the help of GAG and STAG, not to mention WG Kartana is a S tier Offensive WG (really rare in a meta like this) which can sweep games saw if opponent doesn’t run a WG that resists Sunsteel and packs Perish Song.
All that’s left right now to soft check Darkceus (tbh you can run Gigaton Hammer over Spore on it LOL) is this:
To beat this MAudino, simply run the Stag Kartana with Sunsteel Strike and Gigaton Hammer as shown above. It easily forces them to pivot out with health lost. This meta is saddening. +prunyy: curiosity killed the cat as they say Anyways love y’all for reading toward the end.
Bai :D
Ok this thread is way too dead. Stop saying we need NGas to win in this meta. It's good but definitely not REQUIRED.
TEAM LINK: Semi-stall
I have been testing yet another team because I still have hope for this meta (WHY???)
It went 13-0. Here are some replays I saved (I didn't save all) ABreadSandwich, ABreadSandwich again, Resolaris, R8Spike Beedrill-Mega @ Black Sludge
Ability: Wonder Guard
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trick
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Knock Off
Stole this set from ORAS Pure Hackmons. Most WG (except Taunt Regi) struggles into it. WG mons like Wetceus and Grassceus HATE this mon. Trick allows it to get rid of unwanted Ability Shields from WG or any mon that you struggle to beat (ex. MAudino) and forces residual damage into it, while Knock gets rid of Bounce AShield and also Knocks Calyrex-S. TSpikes is broken and most teams that lack a Poison type would struggle to get rid of it for the whole game given 3 of my mons have Taunt. Won multiple games by just Taunting and then relying on Toxic to chip them down. Arceus-Water @ Ability Shield
Ability: Wonder Guard
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Surging Strikes
- Soft-Boiled
- Perish Song
- Revival Blessing
Soft Don check and your standard AShield WG. Nothing to explain here. Arceus-Grass @ Fist Plate
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Haze
- Judgment
- Soft-Boiled
- Tidy Up
This set is a diabolical DarkCeus and GAG Arceus or Slaking hard check. Grass typing checks Spore, Fist Plate Judgment ensures it could never be Tricked by mons that "support" the Darkceus sweep. Haze can be used when they have set up way too much boosts on their GAG, Tidy Up also acts as a hazards remover. Regieleki @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Comatose
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sleep Talk
- Revival Blessing
- Magical Torque
- Blazing Torque
RevBless, I pretty much never use this because most of the times, MBee and Grassceus should be relatively healthy. This is a safety precaution in case I lose too much mons (misplay) and also acts as a safe switch if they Bounce the TSpikes. Mewtwo-Mega-X @ Ability Shield
Ability: Huge Power
Tera Type: Ice / Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard / Fusion Bolt
- Sacred Sword
- Bone Rush
- Taunt
Shard is to check NGas MRay, you can run Fusion Bolt if you're not afraid of that ig. Bone Rush is for SubPass Regi that could be annoying for this team to deal with otherwise. Taunt is to shut down WGs from Reviving mons / Tidying Up to reset progress. I thought of running Photon but without CGas, it can't do much to AShield WGs, which if I do run that, it would be hard for a semi-stall team to improof. Regieleki @ Ability Shield
Ability: No Guard
Tera Type: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Taunt
- Gastro Acid / Soft Boiled
- Spikes
- Sheer Cold
Again, Taunt shuts down many AShield WGs, I have ran Soft Boiled a lot on this asw for longevity, Gastro Acid is usually the go-to-option because the AShield WG for opponent usually either gets shut down by Taunt or the AShield has already been tricked by MBee. Setting up Spikes is relatively easier thanks to its ability to threaten OHKO to the best Bouncers in Sheer Cold (Audino-Mega, Slaking, etc.), which makes progress easier. I am tired so I apologize I didn't make much of an effort to make this thread look good. LASTLY, I EMPHASIZE, Stop saying we need NGas to win in this meta. It's good but definitely not REQUIRED.
Development for this meta is still possible. I see.
:D
Thanks for reading.
2. Grassceus should absolutely wall NGas Darkceus. Even Stag mons can't Trick Scarf/Knock its item away. Great set. Recommend 100%.
3. NGas MRay is freakin' underrated. The damage output for it is the same as NGas PDon. I would use MRay more in the current meta rn tho, it has pretty good Speed whereas Don does not. This mon also has a great MU into WG Kart Fighting Tera or Pre-Tera.
4. Wonder Guard + AShield is a must on every team, whereas some teams only need a single RevBless. Wetceus is the best user for this. As I've said this for the 18th time, if you can't progress, may it be setup, reset progress or hazards when your opponent click RevBless, then you played terrible. I also feel like every non fully offense oriented team should have a Magic Bounce Mon, that ability is broken when paired on these.
5. No Guard Taunt is UNDERRATED, Trick is UNDERRATED, Good as Gold set-up is OVERRATED. Every decent team should be able to avoid GAG from setting two Victory Dances with either straight up taking it out/Haze. No Guard Taunt is freakin' underrated. It prevents so much WGs from gaining any progress. Trick is underrated bc WG AShield removal is great. It is the best notably on MBee, mainly bc Toxic Spikes is broken and it's fast to Taunt deny set-up.
6. WG Kartana is broken and I don't have to explain. Hope this post helped. Bye.
Another post in a dead thread, this meta is fr better than oras ph
Firstly, the samples NEED to be updated, but that's not going to be the focus of this post.
Secondly, not the focus asw, but uh I went 77 Wins - 0 Losses with two versions of the same team (in a span of a month in room tours and friendlies) Ad Astra Per Aspera: V1, Ad Astra Per Aspera V2
Next, I am gonna redo the whole VR I made a month ago, because uh meta development (????)
(Every rank below is alphabetically ranked)
Just don't use anything below here, please.
B+:
:Eternatus: Regenerator (B+), Wonder Guard (B-)
:Lopunny-Mega: Neutralizing Gas (B+), Wonder Guard (B)
:Ludicolo: Wonder Guard (B+)
:Muk-Alola: Wonder Guard (B+)
:Ting-Lu: Magic Bounce (B+)
:Yveltal: Wonder Guard (B+)
:Zoroark-Hisui: Wonder Guard (B+)
B:
:Aerodactyl-Mega: Shadow Tag (B)
:Ferrothorn: Wonder Guard (B), Magic Bounce (B-)
:Sableye-Mega: Wonder Guard (B)
B-:
:Ogerpon-Hearthflame: Wonder Guard (B-)
:Ogerpon-Wellspring:
Wonder Guard (B-)
:Zacian: Shadow Tag (B-), Wonder Guard (B-)
:Zeraora: Shadow Tag (B-)
Notes: Wetceus is the best WG this game has to offer: good base WG typing with well-spread stats, allowing it to run Surging Strikes, Scald and Circle Throw to beat common sweepers, which being versatile as it could run Revival Blessing, Tidy Up, Perish Song and even hazards. TSpikes absorber is generally great as it allows your team to comfortably fit TSpikes on your team w/o worry that Bounce would use that against you. Long SV games mean that TSpikes is great for consistent chip towards your opponent. Removal of AShield is also great, which is why Trick is a great move. Hence, stuff like MBee benefited from this small meta development.
OK the samples here are a bit outdated.
Here's my thoughts:
Lag=bad sample
Team is decent. WG Kart is broken, Wetceus is the best WG, and it doesn't autolose to anything except Ray. I have a few issues with this team. Firstly, how is bounce Slak supposed to set up even more than one Victory Dance? Most strong teams should have WG Perish Song + Haze on a Bounce / WG. Hence, this team, paired up with NGas Don with only a FIRE MOVE has an awful MU into the best WG (Wetceus) if it runs SStrikes, which I believe it should most times. Solo NGas is fine, on a support mon with Knock or something that outpaces Leki with a Smash like MRay. PDon is kinda slow, hence NGas Don teams should be paired with another NGas or for the very least, run Headlong Rush for Leki. Team is relatively weak to NGas MRay and doesn't have solids checks for it spamming DAscent and Collision Course or Bitter Blade. Also Imp sucks.
Aninjadude sample
I'm loving Protective Pads MRay a lot lately for this very reason. This is another team that lose hard to the NGas MRay set if opponent pilots correctly. Not sure it's wise to use a slot to put in Regen instead of something like Bounce. Circle Throw or a Water move on Wetceus > Webs. And I seriously doubt you have that many chances of clicking Revbless until your opponent capitalizes on it and win. Decent WG core.
Aerobee sample
Imp is awful. Just run another NGas or something like Doublade/Relicanth to check MRay, as team is very weak to NGas MRay and doesn't have anything to check for it spamming DAscent. BUT I LOVE that Arceus set <3 : Trick Scarf is so seriously underrated and hence why FistGrassceus with Bounce is great. Not sure what that Kartana is trying to achieve, it's trying hard to improof although it's going to be better to just make it the WG set. If opp plays well, this team has absolutely no way of breaking any GAG Victory Dance sweeper especially if it ends up passing to NGas MRay, then it's gg. Bounce NEEDS to be Haze here. Running Ludicolo w/o a water move is a missed opportunity to nuke PDon.
Final Thoughts:
All three samples are weak to MRay. Softproof like Wetceus for Kartana is fine 99% of the time and Impostor isn't great in this meta.
Woah guess what this meta isn't completely dead despite an egregious amount of time since the last meta anything (sorry). So we're getting a VR update! Included are the primary abilities for each mon, which hopefully should provide some insight into the roles a mon plays in the tier.
S:
:Groudon-Primal::Rayquaza-Mega: - Neutralizing Gas
:Kartana: - Wonder Guard, Huge Power
:Regieleki: - Wonder Guard, No Guard, Shadow Tag
A+:
:Arceus-Water: - Wonder Guard
:Arceus-Dark: - Neutralizing Gas
:Mewtwo-Mega-X: - Huge Power, Wonder Guard, Good As Gold, Shadow Tag
:Audino-Mega: - Magic Bounce, Wonder Guard
:Arceus: - Good as Gold, Magic Bounce, Neutralizing Gas
A:
:Calyrex-Shadow: - Wonder Guard, Good As Gold
:Slaking::Regigigas: - Good As Gold, Magic Bounce
:Yveltal: - Wonder Guard
A-:
:Blissey: - Impostor
:Arceus-Fighting: - Magic Bounce, Wonder Guard
:Zamazenta: - Wonder Guard, Shadow Tag
:Giratina: - Magic Bounce
(After this rank, everything below is alphabetical and not ordered within tiers)
B+:
I had an idea the other day while eating lunch, natdex ph (ph with everything ever added to ph available and ur allowed only one Emax but ndph sounds better) and so i after sitting on it for a while and talking about it with the room and my friends decided to make it official, So this is the 1st post of natdex ph and here is a sample and challenge code +VR
Revive Rings https://pokepast.es/e30cb76625fc5c32
Basically Super buffed revive cats from ndag and it DESTROYED in the test battle as to beat it u need fast strong fairy coverage prio I consider this full stall and a strong contended for strongest singles team OAT
/challenge [user],gen9customgame@@@+all pokemon,+all abilities,+all items +eternatus-eternamax,*eternatus-eternamax,Limit One Restricted,Endless Battle Clause,HP Percentage Mod,Exact HP Mod,Full Arceus Clause,Team Type Preview,!! Max Team Size = 6,!! Max Move Count = 4,!! Max Level = 100
VR
S rank. (Best mons in the format and you need atleast one of them on ur team)
Hi!
I can completely understand the enthusiasm behind this post, however just like Aidan has said, this is not exactly the place to post something like this. I would recommend looking into the National Dex alternative metagames forum and their criteria for creating a metagame as that would be the proper place for something like this to go. However, going off the sample team, I would recommend doing a bit more playtesting and research as your current sample team has no functional way to beat neutralizing gas sweepers consistently, and no real way to make progress on even a good gen9 team. (everything your team tries to do can be blocked with substitute and taunt.)
We got the Leader's Choice ladder for this August!
You've almost certainly heard tales of a move that can horrendously extend Pure Hackmons games called Revival Blessing, especially in combination with ways to circumvent its fixed 1 PP. I'm not going to lie; we were definitely worried how long the average SV Pure Hackmons game could get as a result of this move at the beginning of Gen 9. But two sets of DLC and several metagame developments later have done their part to make these worries significantly smaller, so here is...
How to Keep Your Sanity in a Ladder With Revival Blessing
We've got 3 main classes of how to keep your sanity and have ladder games that actually might be less than 50 turns long:
Set-up Sweepers
Extremely Powerful Attacks
Taunt and Other Disruption
All example sets have been taken from earlier posts in this thread.
The theory - and it's a good one - is that the only brutally long battles involving Revival Blessing involve Pokemon alternating between Revival Blessing and another move (be it Lunar Dance or Recycle), as that Comatose mon calling Revival Blessing with Sleep Talk will eventually run out of PP. Therefore, OHKOing every mon in your path prevents such loops involving Revival Blessing from occurring, and you only need to click such OHKO attacks a mere 6 times. In practice, this needs item removal/manipulation support since even Moldy moves and Neutralizing Gas users thud into Ability Shields on Wonder Guard mons. Hopefully, that support doesn't take too long to get going...this is incidentally why set-up sweepers often have an item removal/manipulation move themselves such as Corrosive Gas or Magic Room.
Extremely Powerful Attacks :SV/Mewtwo-Mega-X:
Mewtwo-Mega-X (M) @ Ability Shield
Ability: Huge Power
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Photon Geyser
- Jet Punch
- Sacred Sword
- Stone Axe
Sick and tired of looping Revival Blessing enough times to make Last Respects hit harder than a 50-BP wet noodle? You are going to like this strategy for keeping your Pure Hackmons games relatively short! Not bothering with set-up semi-locks you into Huge Power/Pure Power, but you do get immediately powerful Moldy moves and coverage, along with quicker scouting of Wonder Guard mons with Ability Shields. The right coverage obliterates (un)suspecting Wonder Guards with Ability Shield on, especially those used to tanking a Moldy move. Make sure you have at least one improof for your coverage-reliant breaker, and be prepared to provide item removal/manipulation support.
Taunt and Other Disruption :SV/Beedrill-Mega:
Beedrill-Mega @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Wonder Guard
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trick
- Taunt
- Toxic Spikes
- Knock Off
Revival Blessing is infamously a status move, and guess what prevents it from getting used in the first place? A fast Taunt! Taunt is on a sharp rise, especially among mons that know they cannot OHKO the opposing mon in front of them. If Taunt bounces off a Magic Bounce mon, that's one more Ability Shield that doesn't need to be ripped off in order to start a game-ending sweep.
Note that Encore ends and fails if used on any move, especially Revival Blessing, with zero PP left. You're better off locking mons into Recycle or even set-up moves, which explains why Good as Gold set-up sees play (note that Good as Gold makes mons immune to Taunt, Encore, Corrosive Gas, Trick, and more).
Trick/Switcheroo with a Choice item can replicate the effects of an Encore that actually works well enough (the unfortunate mon locked into Revival Blessing is even forced to Struggle instead if you time the item swap well enough), with the added bonuses of knowing that the affected opposing mon does not have Ability Shield and that the affected mon is effectively Encored every time it comes in. Careful about trying this strategy with a non-Neutralizing Gas mon if you know your opponent has a Good as Gold mon in the back, though.
With both sv being on ladder this month, and hpl starting with lots of people getting sent to the sv ph mines, I thought I’d share some of my views on the vr. Yes I’m not considered a very good player, and likely some of my takes will be controversial, but I hope people consider them anyways.
Raises:
:Arceus-Dark:: A+ -> S
(Neutralising Gas)
Darkceus is one of the best neutralising gas sweepers, with access to a good speed tier, okay defensive typing, and STAB power trip eating through opposing pokemon. I think this mon deserves its place in S tier, as despite needing a lot of support, it has select advantages over the other two ngas sweepers (mray and pdon), mainly in its difficulty to counter reliably and very high bp attacks. The lack of fast hard-hitting bug/fighting/fairy priority makes this mon very difficult to counter once set up (at least untill I unleash my hp scarf phero sets, be prepared), although it does suffer pressure from hp mmx.
This mon, as previously mentioned, does require support in order to maximise its potential. This is most often in the form of a good as gold user clicking victory dance and taunting opposing utility mons, then passing to darkceus to sweep. Alternatively it can just click shell smash, but since most of the moves that want to hit juicy damage are physical, so victory dance pass sets are the most ideal.
Standard sweeper:
Arceus-Dark @ Mental Herb
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Tera type: Ghost / Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Power Trip
- Magic Room / Corrosive Gas
- Shell Smash / Victory Dance
- Collision Course / Filler Coverage
Sweeper passed from victory dance gag user:
Arceus-Dark @ Mental Herb
Ability: Neutralizing Gas
Tera Type: Ghost / Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Power Trip
- Collision Course / Filler Coverage
- Magic Room
- Taunt / Filler Move
:Mewtwo-Mega-Y:: UR -> A
(Wonder Guard)
Uhh guys, why isn’t this already on the vr?
Wonder guard mmy functions as a support/sweeper with a pretty nice defensive typing, that had both a very strong photon geyser and an amazing speed tier. Mmy functions very similarly to Calyrex-Shadow, however has a significant increase in offensive power, along with not being 4x weak and dying to random knock offs.
The best set I’ve found is an offensive wg with taunt. This set can reliably shut down opposing threats like wg kart, and applies serious pressure to many defensive wgs with its very fast taunt and corrosive gas. It struggles against darkceus, being immune to photon, but can cripple it with taunt. It’s main threat comes in the form of huge power users with shadow sneak and faster wonder guards like calyrex.
Not too much to say on this one, it functions very similar to normal good as gold Arceus sets, but carves a small niche with a complementary typing to Arceus-Dark that helps navigate around stuff like huge power mmx.
Good As Gold baton pass:
Arceus-Ghost @ Ability Shield
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature / Timid Nature
- Victory Dance
- Taunt
- Baton Pass
- Corrosive Gas / Moongeist Beam / Substitute
:Gyarados-Mega:: UR -> B
(Wonder Guard)
I haven’t given this one too much though but it seems good on paper as a wonder guard that resists power trip and all the moldy moves. I will try this out in some games and get back to you all.
:Anorith:: UR -> UR
This is just an excuse to bring up my bigman anorith who needs more appreciation.
Falls:
:Groudon-Primal:: S -> A+
Yeah… I honestly think this guy has fallen a bit, mainly from how common counterplay is, and it being slow enough to be easy fodder for fast taunters. It still remains a good sweeper, don’t get me wrong, but I feel that it probably needs quite a bit of support now, and it’s still at a great risk from surging strikes. This mon is significantly underpowered without support/several stat boosts, and can’t often be brought out in the middle of matches without being passed victory dance or at least a sub. Cool mon, but was so meta-defining the meta changed to beat him up.
:Kartana:: S -> A+
(Mainly Wonder Guard)
While I still think its huge power sets are really cool, this guy’s wonder guard sets hasve been a victim of the same meta changes as pdon. The prevelance of wetceus and golisopod hinder it considerably, but the main reason I don’t think it holds up as well is its slow speed tier being extremely vulnerable to taunts. I imagine running stuff like ivy cudgel to counter wetceus could make things interesting, but that’s at the price of losing spore or collision course or whatever. Furthermore, random fire and fighting coverage isn’t all too uncommon, and just goobs this guy.
I’ve run wg kart a lot and it’s just too easy to take advantage of to make s tier imo.
:Golisopod:: A+ -> A
No… surely not. This pains me to say this, as golisopod is one of my all-time favourite pokemon, but I just don’t think this guy cuts A+ tier material. While it is still a very reliable counter to kart and often pdon, my bro is just too slow. One taunt and it’s over for him. I’ve got to the point now where I’m running both fimp and surging strikes to reduce taunt vulnerability and catch darkceus off guard (and selfproofing too), which has been fun but not particularly impactful. I have to grudgingly admit that wetceus does everything better. Despite this, he’s still a mon worth running and will always hold a special place in my heart.
Arc-Water is not really a consistent answer to PDon or Kartana, because both of them can either run coverage to snipe Wetceus, or just force item removal so that a second sweeper breaks the wetceus. While Taunt might be an issue for Kartana, I've ran GaG Kartana and had it work well, and you can also just run HP 3a or 4a sets just fine.
Is this ladder only competetive in the top 10 or what is going on? I went on a 13-0 win streak and the worst outcome was a 5-0 sweep. I'm "only" at 1350 elo but this is already enough for top 80. Usually I'm not really a top level player but in my first 4 matches my opponents weren't even aware of Ability Shield and even in game 10 people still tried the Burn Up Fire type and Double Shock electric type bullshit. Is this tier destined to be 6-0 or 0-6 for semi-competetive players?
The goal of this set is to annoy and destroy stall. You can use muk-alola if you want or smth else, but I like drapion cuz it can out speed other mons with a tidy up, and Pdon without a tidy up, and other stuff without a tidy up.
Ceaseless Edge does a decent amount of damage, and it helps set up spikes which can really poke your opponent. Toxic can destroy aquaceus and stuffs (I think). Whirlwind is to get rid of any sweepers/other annoying mons, and tidy up is for substitutes/set up.
Wait i just realized its weak to ground Pdon seems like a threat now D:
Maybe poison and revive ?
The goal of this set is to annoy and destroy stall. You can use muk-alola if you want or smth else, but I like drapion cuz it can out speed other mons with a tidy up, and Pdon without a tidy up, and other stuff without a tidy up.
Ceaseless Edge does a decent amount of damage, and it helps set up spikes which can really poke your opponent. Toxic can destroy aquaceus and stuffs (I think). Whirlwind is to get rid of any sweepers/other annoying mons, and tidy up is for substitutes/set up.
Wait i just realized its weak to ground Pdon seems like a threat now D:
Maybe poison and revive ?
Stall is unviable in 9PH because of Rev Blessing. Your improofing for this would probably be a WG Steel or Poison. I don't love the set cause it's a Bounce mon that doesn't beat Darkceus, but I like the idea behind it.
), and with careful positioning, nothing can deny a full on Darkceus sweep with the help of GAG and STAG, not to mention WG Kartana is a S tier Offensive WG (really rare in a meta like this) which can sweep games saw if opponent doesn’t run a WG that resists Sunsteel and packs Perish Song.
