Metagame RU Stage 1 - Begin Again (Welcome to gen 9!)

[Reduxion]

Am i tripping or did cloyster lose rapid spin?

 

[BlackKnight_Gawain]

Am i tripping or did cloyster lose rapid spin?

Playing draft was how I found out too. Honestly bizarre cut and there's quite a few ones.

 

[ausma]

random sets/mons i found that r cool

Bellibolt @ Leftovers
Ability: Electromorphosis
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 92 SpA / 164 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Parabolic Charge
- Volt Switch
- Muddy Water / Soak
- Slack Off

bellibolt is rly good. it's rly durable and esp w/ tera is a super resilient tank with shockingly good power w/ electromorphosis u can just throw onto a team. set mayb could be modified (like specking into bulk for example) but it doesn't really need much else. probably one of the most unique tanks i've seen in a while

Revavroom @ Leftovers
Ability: Filter
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spin Out
- Toxic Spikes
- Parting Shot
- Body Slam

utility revavroom is pretty cool. access to decent speed, parting shot, and tspikes makes it a pretty nice utility option. body slam is to spread status into steels and is an easy click for the most part. can do black sludge but trick isn't rly common outside of gardevoir and in case you need to tera revavroom you'd rather not shiv your longevity. setup is pretty solid too

Primeape @ Eviolite
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 16 SpD / 240 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Rage Fist
- Taunt

primeape is good, wouldn't call it haxorus tier at all but it's a pretty great fat buster and is a nice way to disrupt defog which is rly your only reliable option for removal in the tier. the speed tier over oricorio and base 90s like venomoth is super good. into offensive structures it can fall a bit flat since knock off can destroy its natural bulk and it's a lot easier to overwhelm as opposed to annihilape since the lack of auto STAB on rage fist makes it hard for it to pick up kos it needs to avoid being wiped out sometimes.

Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf / Choice Band
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Dark / Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Night Slash
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn

god honcher is here and he has u-turn now. super cool and strong scarfer, cleans with ease, but it despises the lack of consistent and fluid removal in the tier. strong af though with the right support

 

[Fragmented]

Am i tripping or did cloyster lose rapid spin?

Apparently, Rapid Spin got removed from Shellder's egg moves since gen 8, but it does get Rapid Spin from BDSP.

Personal thoughts:
Use this instead of Veluza. Better speed, stronger STABS (Wave Crash and Strong Jaw Psychic Fangs), doesn't need to cut its health in half to do work. Choice Band is decent.

Third fastest Knock Off user, offers good role compression with Stealth Rocks and Taunt, suffers from 4MSS cos it also wants to run U-turn and Roost. Bulky sets live more hits than expected.

This thing is a menace as long as you get rid off any Steel-types on the opposing side. Can Taunt and Shift Gear with Tera Flying, or TSpikes and Parting Shot. I almost forgot that it has 119 Atk.

Thing's busted. Tera Steel is probably the best Tera-type for DD sets to resist priority, has near zero switch-ins. Slowbro can tank a hit, but the most it can do back is Fire Blast (if it even runs it).

The only thing keeping me from getting swept by Cloyster. I prefer Choice Scarf right now to check all the offensive threats running around (Haxorus, Cloyster, Venomoth, Primeape to an extent). Magic Bounce is also nice since hazard control is kind of bad rn.

Speaking of hazard control, Altaria is probably the best defensive defogger atm. Still kind of passive, still has to hit Hurricanes, kind of annoying to deal with, especially if they get the confusion.

What no Scald no Toxic does to a mfer. Yawn can help to stop set-up sweepers from snowballing. Future Sight is nice and all, but sometimes you just want to whack the monkey in front of you with a Psychic.

What Tera Normal does to a mfer. You can play the Tera mindgame with Bronzong and win. Blissey gets Drain Punch'd. Trace Gardevoir can somewhat switch in, but the potential Sludge Wave always lurks in the corner, watching silently and patiently for the metagame to settle only to rear its ugly head.

As someone I met on the ladder once said, "I am very upset that this thing is in this shit tier" or something to that effect. I'm not sure if it was even Specs, I just assumed that it nukes everything it touches.

I have mixed opinions on this. It's bulky, it's surprisingly powerful, and it's friend-shaped. On the other hand, it allows Haxorus and Toxtricity to set up.

 

[Mugenman88]

Let's go over a few mons that seem to stand out from playing around on day 1....

example set

Flamigo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Scrappy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Brave Bird
- Throat Chop
- U-turn

This is easily one of the most powerful and splashable offensive mons, capable of using any of band, scarf, or sd, and can easily clean up games on it's own

example set

Altaria @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
Tera Type: Fairy/Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Roost
- Defog
- Brave Bird

Wack, with newfound access to wisp this can shut down and sit on a good chunk of physical attackers while also being the best defogger around, hard to go wrong with this, outside of being just a bit passive.

example set

Toxtricity @ Throat Spray
Ability: Punk Rock
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Boomburst
- Overdrive
- Thunderbolt
- Shift Gear

Boomburst really is just a ridiculous move to deal with, there's very little that deals with it that isn't the pink blobs or ghosts. Also works well with both specs and scarf.

:sv/tauros_paldea_fire:

example set

Tauros-Paldea-Fire (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Flying/Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Raging Bull
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Overall an excellent glue mon, and another great stop to physical attackers. Tauros is also fully able to go offensive on it's own with scarf or bulk up, I've just been seeing some wild shenanigans from defensive sets

example set

Tatsugiri @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Nasty Plot
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump

Tatsugiri is a great spinner, even without a nasty plot it's stabs hit extremely hard and with a speed boost from rapid spin you could easily turn a spin into a full sweep

example set

Lycanroc-Dusk @ Life Orb
Ability: Tough Claws
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Close Combat
- Drill Run/Play Rough
- Accelerock

Another excellent HO mon, there's not a lot of pokemon that can keep up with this without a scarf and it can just easily clean house as Flamigo

 

[TH1N3 H4MM3R]

Who's allowed in the tier and looks like it's going to theaten the entire tier? Because I'm excited for the first iteration of SV RU

glaceon ofc, DUH

 

[EviGaro]

Its a bit hard to give definitive thoughts in a few hours, but doubly so because we're waiting on the tera suspect to get a clearer idea of what the month is going to look like, so some early thoughts that could have nothing to do with the tier in a few days:

- Naclstack is ridiculous. Like sure it has zero standard offensive output, and its heavily item reliant, and 8 pp recover is a bit mid. But those attributes overall are just disgusting, ghost resist makes it so resilient to the typing even if you tera into ghost, and makes it an absurdly good spin blocker because Avalugg just doesn't hit it. Then you have salt cure, an extremely silly move, and you cannot get status'd, also very silly. Also abuse the lack of knock off in general, the opposite issues with having fewer pp in recovery, and well the mon imo is almost essential if you start moving away from offence (tera options: ghost is top, obviously, but fairy also has legit potential considering the big broken in the tier and the dark resist is very nice. Water is also interesting due to good resists, particularly vs Weavile / Cetitan, but it has a less interesting profile than Garganacl gets in OU imo)

- Haxorus is dummy silly, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, and is most likely the one thing I cannot wait to get out. The influx of Avalugg is largely caused by this, and even then Avalugg isn't THAT amazing vs it because of tera and CC being really awkward to switch into. Haxorus has multiple sets that are just superb, and if you don't have a Avalugg or a Slowbro or a faster than +1 scarfer that can reliably kill it, chances are you will lose. (Tera options: more versatile, imo poison is extremely solid because of the fairy weakness and Pjab becoming stronger than a Pjab has any right to be, but ghost has potential vs Slowbro / Palossand / gets another DD vs Press Avalugg. Dragon for CB seems good, as does Fighting, Dark stops Sableye fully, look the mon is broken what do you want me to do)

- Bombirdier is interesting, I swear! Look find me another knocker with rocks that has actually nice resists and maybe ill stop talking about it. Stone Edge clips Avalugg with Rocky Payload as well, but realistically you are just gonna knock that and come back later. Its speed tier is quite nice, above Medicham and Gardevoir - returning friends of the show - is super nice, and also has uturn. Its significantly weaker than Honchkrow, but comes with plenty of interesting things, don't sleep! (Tera options: please don't)

- Our steels are TERRIBLE, so you are most likely gonna keep that spot for tera, however... I think Revavroom is plenty interesting. Its a funny pivot, but the typing is super awkward defensively as it doesn't do a great job of checking specs Garde, which is quite annoying for a steel. No rocks is also mid, but... Toxic Spikes are pretty epic. Steels in general being mid also makes shift gear surprisingly potent, and I have had decent success with a bulky setup that also carries tspikes, as its really annoying to palossand and slowbro without their boots (tera option: steel is actually not bad, makes Iron Head strong and benefits filter quite a bit. However, if you do that and have recovery, make it leftovers and not black sludge unlike.... yeah ok I did it)

- There's a few returning faces from SM which is super funny, Honchkrow has been talked about. Florges is also back and seems nice but I also think its super exploitable because its a bad Haxorus counter in this economy. Bruxish is very fun now that it has Wave Crash, its way less exploitable by dark types now that it just steamrolls past Umbreon. CB seems like its the set for me there, as well aswater tera, so jet can pickup easier kos if you need them. Salazzle I have not seen at all, which is a bit of a shame, I think its on paper very good but like being walled by Naclstack was not it tonight. It does have knock though, and got tspikes, something like np + tera also could have potential. Gardevoir... how do you counter that? Thank frick its slow. Lycanroc-Dusk, imo, is the other mon I'm looking at. Amazing power potential, great vs offence as well, and tera options make the few counters to it a bit of a joke ( 252 Atk Life Orb Tough Claws Tera Dark Lycanroc-Dusk Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 281-330 (71.3 - 83.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO ). I'm not sure its viable to stay here long term, but we will see.

- Speaking of Slowbro, oh so essential and oh so close to not doing it. Weird mon, I think good things of Future Sight + Yawn + Regen, but its a lot to commit to in your moveslots. Kinda wants body press, kinda wants surf, not enough recovery. But not having it on balance teams seems so ew.

- Weavile and Blissey, the how the frick did you get here category. Weavile seems very good idc what people are saying. Its way faster and stronger than the typical RU mon, and sure it lost Knock but its basically BW UU Weavile with a better ice stab that can also change its typing, and Weavile is broken in BW UU, I'm really not convinced of its downfall yet. Blissey however lost significant assets and is immensely passive, sure it still has twave but a block of salt in front of it makes it run, and even twave is not stopping it from losing to qd mons or cm mons, it needs CM, but still loses to taunt then, but without CM how does it beat those mons. Awkward spot for it, though its immensely fat and a massive boon to stall or bulkier balances. Oh, we finally got Krook. It sucks LOL ok no but like this mon has next to no niche except being a decently strong scarfer than can outspeed something like Lilligant or Heracross or Venomoth but not Haxorus so at that point you're wondering why you are using that set, and as a dark breaker its just not it compared to Honchkrow or the goat Bombirdier (might be capping here) That being said, it is a fast ground, and it does cover SD Lycanroc nicely with scarf. There's worse, there's just.... a lot more impressive mons.

- RU always gets way too many fighters, this did not change. Medicham seems good but its a bit slow, yes I know trailblaze but ur not getting kills with trailblaze, and tera can punish a fighting click hella bad. Also has the same medicham problem of having zero defensive utility. Heracross seems more promising with it actually, given the better resists and speed making Guts at + 1 a higher threat. I want to see more of Flamigo Passimian and Toxicroak, all of which I think are interesting. And Tauros-Fire is fun defensively but being absolutely owned by Slowbro is so tragic. (Also Crabominable in trick room seems crazy as well just saying)

- Finally (?), Venomoth... I hate that mon, I think its gonna inevitably go, but its surprisingly not THAT silly yet. Check back in three days where I ask for an immediate ban. But really, Naclstack completely stuffing it is really big, as is the general demand for more speed because of all the insane breakers we got. Nice priority users also make its fairly fraily physical side pop out more, but really the fact that we got defensive options that don't care at all about sleep is a game changer for it, imo.

 

[PrincessGardevoir]

Early thoughts since laddering to 1288

This thing is exactly as aids as I knew it'd be once UU didn't keep it (somehow.) As someone who's still in 1600 for UU, please for the love of g o d make sure you have a Normal resist/immunity that can't be worn down easily and an Electric resist/immunity. Specs Boomburst remains one of the dumbest buttons to press, and if you can't OHKO it, DO. NOT. SET. UP. ON. IT. It is not worth it to lose your mon. Shift Gear is probably also terrifying, but at least for the early stages having one of the best wallbreakers in the tier with its most directly offensive set is a monster.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Punk Rock Tera Normal Toxtricity Boomburst vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tera Steel Haxorus: 297-349 (101.3 - 119.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Punk Rock Tera Normal Toxtricity Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Blissey: 343-405 (48 - 56.7%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Punk Rock Tera Normal Toxtricity Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Naclstack: 211-249 (65.1 - 76.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Punk Rock Tera Normal Toxtricity Boomburst vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Punk Rock Toxtricity: 297-349 (102 - 119.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Remains the coolest Rotom form (ironic pun not intended.) Tera Grass remains as excellent an option as it was in UU, notably with no defense investment tanking a Cloyster +2 Rock Blast, a neutral Haxorus Outrage, so on. Nasty Plot + 3 Attacks gives you excellent coverage, utility in the form of nice resistances, and reasonable speed to pivot out of most bad matchups at least once. Being forced into running Boots sucks, as does a lack of Pain Split. Will-o's also probably more useful than Tera Blast, although I just love the clean Grass hit too much.

Same thing as it was in UU. No reason for this thing to be so effective of a physical check, and with fewer answers to its dual STABs after two tiers, it's also a better offensive mon. Physically bulky Body Press variants have been the go-to for early ladder players, and while I'm presently running Scarf, the phys def set is just way too good.

Still sad this thing lost Knock Off, but a set of Taunt-Stealth Rock-Rock Slide-Earthquake still hits a fair bunch of the metagame, and Taunt means you stop slower Dragon Dancers, Quiver Dancers, and Swords Dancers like Haxorus, Venomoth, Rotoms, SG Toxtricity, etc. Its speed tier is just enough where I think it's genuinely great right now! Taunt in general is incredibly effective at early tier formation, since people are trying to abuse as many of hazards/setup/webs/screens.



I look forward to seeing how RU forms, and whether it takes the same path UU did or differently! and I pray y'all don't get an Espathra situation where a mon gets banned 38 minutes into the next month lmfao

 

[bogglywoods]

Playing draft was how I found out too. Honestly bizarre cut and there's quite a few ones.

Gen 9 might honestly be one of the absolute worst gens in terms of move cuts. Almost everything that got removed from a moveset felt like there was 0 reason for it to have been removed at all, it's very frustrating.

 

[Holzbuch]

Actually Tera Normal Zangoose seems pretty crazy. Except for Sableye and Spiritomb nothing switches into Facade, CC, Night Slash and Quick Attack. Maybe Bronzong lives two, but if thats the problem just Run Tera Dark/Ghost.

 

[Miyami~~~]

Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Leaf Storm
- Trick

I really just want to talk about this because scarf mowtwom feels awesome right now. Because our selection of ground types is... lacking at best, a lot of teams I've seen (granted: day 1) just forgo an electric immunity entirely, letting all the rotoms and broken toxtricity just click volt with ease. Of all the Rotoms, I think Mow is by far the best scarfer since it's not weak to rocks like the others on top of having generally the best secondary STAB in case you run into like, Krookodile or Mudsdale or something. Tera Electric might not be super optimal I'm sure, but the free adaptability boost and also having no weaknesses is cute this early on. Trick is also really fun because it lets you cripple some of the things that actually do switch in on you, such as Blissey, Arboliva, or Bellibolt. Lastly, levitate and a rocks neutrality is super nice right now given what our hazard removal looks like. Most of the things that actually want to switch in on it carry leftovers, so in the right situations it has a surprising amount of longevity to it too.

I know this is like the most standard set ever and probably isn't worth two whole paragraphs but I really do want to emphasize how strong this is despite being a scarf mon, just because most teams have to commit to pretty awkward or subpar options for electric immunities. I've had quite a few games where this just cleans through 2-3 weakened pokemon at the end after pivoting on them all game. It really gets away with a lot and I think you could argue (again: day 1) it's the best scarfer in the tier currently. One balance core I've enjoyed so far is this with Slowbro and Klawf, giving you a regen core, hazards, and a scarfer all in three slots with plenty of room for customization in the other three.

tldr now I know how swsh nu players felt

edit: bonus shortlist of obvious brokens because why not:

 

[5camp]

Woop woop made #2 on ladder, time to drop some wild early takes.

Murder Dog is the best mon in the tier imo. Just a really useful catch all breaker, revenge killer and sweeper all in one. It really shouldn't be in the tier but hey ho. I've been half tempted to run scarf as a way to surprise as the silly Haxorus players who think they can tera steel on it.

Speaking of which, yeah Haxorus is strong. I will say that every team I faced above a certain level were packing countermeasures to it since it's so prominent. But the mark of a good mon is it can beat its counters, which Haxorus can with the right moves, tera, team support or item.

Hey kid, looking for a way for your breaker to beat Blissey? Shift gear + drain punch is an old tech from gen 8 OU that shits on the big pink blob. Run throat spray so you still blow shit up on the special side and you have maybe the most unwallable mon in the tier.

Unironically good versus a whole heap of the physical attackers in the tier. You might need to burn tera versus some of them unfortunately, but it's worth it to stop an otherwise out of control Hax or Cloyster.

This thing is fantastic. EQ weakness is annoying as a physical attacker, but wisp is a god send. Actual good offensive output too. The Tauros forms are honestly good in UU and even OU but ladder as a fear of them so please don't let it keep dropping.

How?

Not "how is this in RU".

But how is it still not that good even down here???

Both Tauros forms shit on it, as does Avalugg. Even fucking Daschbun walls it! Can't even revenge Hax since it will always just tera steel in your face. You ain't doing shit to smash Cloyster. Same with scarf Flamigo going tera fighting. You can't even switch to tera ghost since Flamigo has scrappy. There will be legends told of Weavile's fall from grace

 

[MasterPlayer]

I've been toying with Glaceon a it, and I discovered that very few can safely switch into Glaceon once it gets 2 Calm Minds off. I had some decent success on a max Defense set that keeps the Modest Nature and with Leftovers this thing is surprisingly bulky under snow, but I'm experimenting with Weakness Policy right now as well

 

[Athyestic]

Dragalge @ Choice Specs
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Toxic
252+ SpA Choice Specs Adaptability Tera Dragon Dragalge Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Blissey: 331-391 (46.3 - 54.7%) -- 61.3% chance to 2HKO
Need I say more?
More seriously though, I haven't gotten a chance to ladder with dragon alge yet but in theory nothing comfortably switches into Specs Draco/Sludge Bomb. The prevalence of tera steel on everything would hurt it, but Dragalge is so powerful that much of the offensive tera steelers don't comfortably take draco anyway. (252+ SpA Choice Specs Adaptability Tera Dragon Dragalge Draco Meteor vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tera Steel Haxorus: 285-336 (97.2 - 114.6%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO lol)

Ofc, this is all theory, I haven't actually used it in practice and it might need too much support to work. The spdef utility sets are cool too I guess but it lost Flip Turn which really sucks for both sets.

 

[Low-Key]

allow me to showcase an underlooked pokemon


Palossand @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Compaction
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shore Up
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock / Tera Blast
- Shadow Ball

this thing actually goes hard. sits on the top threats of RU so far (toxtricity and flamigo,) easily blocks rapid spin while it can easily set up hazards, and if somebody tries to switch in tatsugiri, if you're running tera blast click tera fairy and kill it. it even gets a recovery move in shore up to use if its HP ever gets low. BEHOLD THE ULTIMATE COUNTER TO THE TOP POKEMON, BOW BEFORE THE SANDCASTLE BEFORE YOU MEET YOUR DOOM. only downside is that it is slow but you do speed tie with unboosted naclstack so you can click earth power. honestly this could be a huge pokemon in the early RU metagame simply for the roles it has in switching into the top tiers.

 

[MellowBusiness]

Can't believe Weavile went from S tier meta defining threat only two months ago to "Chien Pao at Home"

I shudder to think what PU is gonna look like. Are we seriously going to have to make ANOTHER (unofficial) tier?

 

[Boybobka]

So one Pokemon that has potential in RU is potentially Drednaw because of shell smash, and I decided to make a moveset around it, I don't think Drednaw is going to top the charts tbh, its water/rock typing is excellent offensively as its type combo is unresisted in the tier, mediocre defensively since its a rock.

Drednaw @ White Herb/Loaded Dice
Ability: Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Dark/Flying/Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Liquidation
- Rock Blast/Stone Edge
- Crunch

Drednaw should in RU use Strong Jaw over swift swim due to the lack of rain setters, and to make crunch pack more of a punch, especially terastalized. The items are either White Herb, a staple for Shell Smash mons, or Loaded Dice if you want to ensure you get 4 to 5 hits with rock blast. (don't use it with Stone Edge, always run White Herb with Stone Edge) Dark tera type is for extra damage with Crunch, you could also potentially use Flying in order to avoid super effective damage from fighting types and grass types, but you lose extra damage for Crunch, Water would also let Liquidation deal more damage.

Rock Blast has more accuracy than Stone Edge but it should be noted that Rock Blast has the potential to deal less damage, you could run Loaded Dice to deal more damage, but lose out on the higher crit chance. Stone Edge on the otherhand, is a powerful option that has shaky accuracy, but constantly deals 100 BP and has a high crit chance, if you run Stone Edge NEVER run dice because dice is for rock blast.

Overall I think that Drednaw might be pretty scary in RU as a mid to late game cleaner, but this is just my overall opinion, it does compete with cloyster as a shell smasher, which has a much better defense for taking a hit and Skill Link, but Drednaw could be a good alternative.

 

[Oathkeeper]

Can't believe Weavile went from S tier meta defining threat only two months ago to "Chien Pao at Home"

I shudder to think what PU is gonna look like. Are we seriously going to have to make ANOTHER (unofficial) tier?

Speaking of "Home", this is pre-HOME mons after all. There's a good possibility that all of these mons that lost certain moves will get them back once HOME is updated in the Spring and stuff, PL: Arceus mons will be allowed in, etc. I honestly don't believe it was GameFreak's intention to make it so only 1 line of mons got Heal Bell, 1 mon alone got Scald, etc. Give it time!

 

[Critaquil]

Speaking of "Home", this is pre-HOME mons after all. There's a good possibility that all of these mons that lost certain moves will get them back once HOME is updated in the Spring and stuff, PL: Arceus mons will be allowed in, etc. I honestly don't believe it was GameFreak's intention to make it so only 1 line of mons got Heal Bell, 1 mon alone got Scald, etc. Give it time!

while there is still a chance, I'd say its more likely transfer moves aren't coming back given there's no way to lock them out of being legal in vgc this time around and gamefreak seems to want to make it so you only need the current games to be able to compete without needing any events or transfers (hence why only mons within the dex are legal in vgc even if some that aren't in the dex are obtainable in game), of course, they could just allow transfer moves anyway, but that would contradict other decisions they've made and thus I highly doubt it's happening

 

[G-Luke]

I've been toying with Glaceon a it, and I discovered that very few can safely switch into Glaceon once it gets 2 Calm Minds off. I had some decent success on a max Defense set that keeps the Modest Nature and with Leftovers this thing is surprisingly bulky under snow, but I'm experimenting with Weakness Policy right now as well

Bro is going to type this paragraph all the way to PU GADDAMN

 

[G-Luke]

Speaking of "Home", this is pre-HOME mons after all. There's a good possibility that all of these mons that lost certain moves will get them back once HOME is updated in the Spring and stuff, PL: Arceus mons will be allowed in, etc. I honestly don't believe it was GameFreak's intention to make it so only 1 line of mons got Heal Bell, 1 mon alone got Scald, etc. Give it time!

Idk about Heal Bell, but the Scald ax is blatantly deliberate, from the removal from everything except a Fire Water type to Gamefreak designing an inferior replacement and mass distributing it to everything that ever learnt Scald + Ice Water types. As for transfers itself, I am coping hard, but Gamefreak seems especially determined to end transfer moves forever, which is not something I am totally against (just give us better removal please).

 

[Low-Key]

I've been toying with Glaceon a it, and I discovered that very few can safely switch into Glaceon once it gets 2 Calm Minds off. I had some decent success on a max Defense set that keeps the Modest Nature and with Leftovers this thing is surprisingly bulky under snow, but I'm experimenting with Weakness Policy right now as well

we are not doing this again

 

[Keem]

I guess its time to give my thoughts on the current state of alpha since everyone seems to be doing the same and to start of lets start with the notable mons:

Ill start with the big boy everyone is talking about. Anyone with any knowledge of mons can probably agree weavile probably shouldn't be here however with fire tauros being down here it keeps it in check for now and with tera still being a thing theres probably some cool counterplay, but yeah mon is strong but wouldnt say broken to point where its crumbling RU like a ball of paper thanks to fire tauros.


This mon is amazing,holy i mean basically hard walling weavile and having the ability to be a incredible wallbreaker and just general good offensive glue is just woah. I havnt tried the BU set but its probally just as good if not better than scarf.

Example set thats works well

Tauros-Paldea-Fire (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge/Stone Edge
- Earthquake

Probably the best steel we got right now,dont have much to say but uhhh haxorus and magnezone dragmag anyone?


Great choice band user and a goat mon to spam on HO due to its incredible speed and honestly in my whole hearted opinion its better than weavile as of right now.


Nasty plot set breaks through anything that isnt tera water florges,blissey,chansey or trace gardevoir (traces storm drain) which ill get into later.


Chansey is better.


This mon is so good right now because it's the only kind of viable option for walling fire tauros, but it's also just generally defensively good with SV giving it the trade of will-o-the-wisp over toxic, which isn't the best, but it's also not the worst. Overall great defensive defogger.

OK now we going to the underrated mons section/mons that arnt getting a lot of attention it seems:


Walls the fuck out of tatsugiri with trace after tracing storm drain (LITERALLY THE ONLY VIABLE TATSU ABILITY) not only does it wall tatsu but it is overall great it seems as of right now,scarf healing wish etc.


They gave this mon quiver dance and it scares the shit out of me but lycanroc dusk with accelrock probably keeps it in check for the time being a but i mainly want to see how this mon does post tera since it can tera fairy (or fire for steels i guess?) and just deny any and all dark types.


WHOS A GOOD BOY? I Think when weavile hopefully leaves when beta comes around this could MAYBE be the premiere dark type along side bombardier due to it being the only good dark type stakeout user we have + goated stab and attack stat.


Snow is strong right now esp with auroveil + Cetitan,it can either belly drum or life orb and just steam roll the game, though the current steels arnt that good i think they do an ok job dealing with snow (not really) but yeah this weather is insanely strong is is for sure the #1 weather as of right now.

Thanks for reading my post and enjoy this image of good boy

 

[1LDK]

Sylveon @ Leftovers
Ability: Pixilate
Tera Type: Steel/Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Hyper Voice
- Shadow Ball/Tera Blast/Yawn

the fact that Sylveon is RU is a fucking crime, if she can handle Iron Valiant in OU and semi check Chi-Yu, she totally can handle whatever is down here, since Heal Bell is no longer an option, you can use this last slot to do what you want, wheter is bait, lure, counter, support, and Hyper Voice is still a crazy strong attack

 

[What should by name be?]

Hi this is a family of egg ladies crossing just ignore them

Also HOW DO I REMOVE HAZARDS?!?1

Kids named Drifblim, Frosmoth, Lurantis, Oricorio, Cryogonal, Tatsugiri, Coalossal, Avalugg, and Altaria: