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

[MasterPlayer]

Which Eeveelutions can work with Leftovers besides Sylveon? Because Specially Defensive Sylveon looks promising, and Calm Mind on Sylveon could make the set even better. Also I once got screwed up by a Tatsugiri with LIfe Orb (seriously Hydro Pump on this thing hits like a freight train)

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Which Eeveelutions can work with Leftovers besides Sylveon? Because Specially Defensive Sylveon looks promising, and Calm Mind on Sylveon could make the set even better. Also I once got screwed up by a Tatsugiri with LIfe Orb (seriously Hydro Pump on this thing hits like a freight train)

Umbreon and Vaporeon also seem quite viable. We don't have many bulky Waters and Vaporeon has the nice special bulk and Water immunity to take on things like Tatsu. Umbreon is just generally fat and even with all the Fighting-types really around its not too too hard to places checks to them on your team.

 

[Zmonke]

As we know, somehow, the gods have graced us with not one... but two pink blobs in ru!

One of 2 mons that reliaby check Toxtricity. Extremely bulky. But requires substantial support against Knock Off and hazards.

The GOAT. Everything you could ever ask for in a special wall unless your looking for a Toxtricity check:
Resident toxtricity hard counter and overall a extremely annoying pokemon between the sludge bomb poisons, defense boosting and attack dropping with chilling water. Use Tera water (for cloysters thinking they have a free turn) and max spdef for best results.


Look at them, so gracefully blob like, if only we could find a steel type hazard remover to complement them... oh wait

Steel Tera Avalug. There's not much to say, bring it in on anything that isn't a supereffective stab, Iron Defense once and nullify any possible combination of physical attackers available in RU. Sets up and prevents hazards on cc lead Lycanrock and Krookodile just to name a few. Likes to be paired with:
Phys Def wisp, for the fighting types or banded grounds that may, once in a blue moon... dream of threatening Avalug.

I may or may not regret making this post. Ofc nothing here is original, nonetheless seeing this on the ladder scares me... what was that phrase again? "With thicc power comes thicc responsibility" at least I think it went something like that.

 

[MasterPlayer]

That's interesting to see. Also I've ran into a few Snow teams on the ladder yesterday and umm... yeah Blissey, Lycanroc-Dusk, Belly Drum Cetitan and Tatasugiri are gonna probably be meta-defining for a while

EDIT: Forgot that Flamigo was in the tier. This thing hits very hard with CC

 

[fluff!!]

- Bombirdier is interesting, I swear! Look find me another knocker with rocks that has actually nice resists and maybe ill stop talking about it.

hi

Strong and Tuff (Tinkatuff) @ Eviolite
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD
Bold Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Thunder Wave
- Encore

EVs are random :)
Blanket checks what feels like half the (non-broken) meta thanks to the very balanced Steel/Fairy defensive typing, can set up rocks on Espeon's face, Knock Off is Knock Off, paralysis is very valuable because it can stop dangerous threats in their track so Twave is very interesting, Encore makes every slow Bulk Up/Calm Mind user irrelevant and makes setup sweepers that can't taunt or outright KO Tuff without boosts think twice before pressing buttons. It does feel like Wish support is necessary though.

 

[ZeraoraTheKnight]

Gotta love the goofy ahh RU. Personally having a lot of success with Klawf as a lead.

Klawf @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 224 HP / 4 Atk / 248 Def / 32 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide / Endeavor
- High Horsepower

Regenerator lets it consistently move around and get back health, and Rocky Helmet punishes contact moves. Very bulky on the physical side, and has decent enough attack to dish out strong HH and Knocks, especially against other rockers like Lycanroc. Tera Fairy helps it get some good defenses and HH covers the weaknesses of Poison and Steel. Still iffy on that 3rd slot, trying to get something useful out of it. Endeavor could work but I dunno.

Cloyster's also back, shell smash just invalidates things that don't out speed or resist. Even if they Tera to resist they still end up wasting it if you have the rest of your team. But idk, I'm probably not the best person to ask for competitive advice here.

 

[leonhartarkada]

What are people's opinions on rotom-heat as a nasty plot user? I've run it as a nasty plot build with 252 HP, 252 SpA, 4 Speed. I'm not sure if the EVs are right though.

 

[lolbro]

Heracross @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trailblaze
- Close Combat
- Facade
- Swords Dance

this doesn't seem balanced. I got pwned on the ladder by this thing and immediately made like three teams with it and did the same to others. forces a ton of switches on some of the common offensive and defensive mons. guts only at +1 speed is already ridiculous but at +2/+1 it just kills everything while sitting at a good speed tier allowing it to outspeed lots of scarfers.

Arboliva @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Seed Sower
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Hyper Voice
- Strength Sap
- Earth Power

this thing seems ok. can 1v1 most grounds/rocks/waters perfectly fine and can soft-check things like haxorus. It's a fat grass that double dips on healing with lefties+terrain/sap+terrain/terrain+leech.

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf / Specs
Ability: Trace
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Teleport / Trick
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Focus Blast / Aura Sphere / Whatever

This thing looks bonkerz. Specs nukes the whole tier and scarf uses it's excellent offensive stats to act as an amazing revenge killer

 

[SarcTechie]

Slapped on a team last night at 3am while being half asleep and have had moderate to decent success. Looking for suggestions how to get better, mainly struggling with primape and fire Tauros. Tried to build a balance team:

Morgrem (M) @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Parting Shot
- Play Rough

The lead usually and honestly the one I want to take out of the team the most. Turns out having a dedicated lead on a balance team is not a good idea. Who would have thought?

Haxorus @ Life Orb
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Iron Head
- First Impression
- Outrage

After a DD it is basically killing everything that is not Avalugg or Fire Tauros. Might wanna switch iron head to Earthquake if that fire bull doesn't stop annoying me.

Venomoth @ Leftovers
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Quiver Dance
- Sludge Bomb
- Bug Buzz

The amount of time I get a free sub and get to +6 on this thing is actually insane. So many set-up opportunities, especially with Blissey being common. EVs currently are just standard.

Avalugg @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
- Avalanche

Physical wall. Fighting tera to get STAB body press.

Altaria @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Natural Cure
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Defog
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flamethrower

Special wall. Honestly not super sure about the moves on it, just went with flamethrower.


Camerupt @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Lava Plume
- Earth Power
- Tera Blast

Rocks setter and decent hit taker with Max HP. Can dish out solid damage too, also a backup wisp absorber in case Altaria were to go down.

 

[BigFatMantis]

I managed to screw around on the ladder well enough to get #3 overall, and I did it using a team like this:



Venomoth and Haxorus are insanely good/broken atm - Venomoth can even beat Blissey if a 3 turn Sleep happens, and tera Bug w/ Tinted Lens means it hits everything with Bug Buzz for basically SE damage even if it's a resist. Haxorus I don't think is the most broken thing in the tier, but it's definitely very good, and with tera Steel it just gets by almost anything. Cloyster is also very good atm and a Tera Grass helps it get through Slowbro easily, meaning only Bronzong can really stop it.

Toxt is also very dangerous as you're not sure if it will Shift Gear or if it's a Scarf. Guessing wrong before it's known can cost you the fight early, as a Shift Gear set w/ Throat Spray can get through most of the tier as well. Bombirdier I think is the best Knocker in the tier since Krook can't Knock anymore, and Knock + Rocks gives so much value here.

Farigiraf is really funny. I've been using an Agility + Calm Mind set and it's easily won me the most games. I think it's probably the best pokemon on this team actually - but that's probably because everyone forgets it's priority immune.

Anyways, not sure how much more laddering I'll do with holiday break over and some upcoming other Smog obligations (plus I need to get back into UU more), so I'll share the team here:

https://pokepast.es/b36c7c079628a08d

Hope this is enjoyable for some people and hope it helps develop the early alpha metagame a bit.

 

[_delriooo]

I´m using Bombirdier, and I think it´s good for RU.

@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rocky payload
Tera type: Flying/ Dark /Rock
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EVs: 252 Spe/252 ATK/ 4 HP
- Brave Bird
- Stone Edge
- Sucker punch/ Knock off
- U-turn/ Drill run

This set uses Bombirdier´s 103 base attack at max investment to be a revenge killer. The three stabs thanks to rocky payload make it more versatile against some pokemon. If you use drill run can face some cheks like Toxtricity (not boosted with shift gear), Coalossal, Revavroom or Bellibolt. U-turn instead gives you the chance to swap bombirdier and control the battle better . Sucker punch or Knock off depends on the situation, having priority with stab it´s always good, considering Bombirdier´s middle speed of 82.
The main issues: Weavile, Cetitan (in snow + Slush rush), Lycanroc and Scarf Flamigo can break easily Bombirdier.
I think Mudsdale, Magnezone, Tauros-Paldea-Fire and Slowbro are good teammates for this Bombirdier.

 

[gigi44t44]

I´m using Bombirdier, and I think it´s good for RU.
View attachment 480245
Bombirdier @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rocky payload
Tera type: Flying/ Dark /Rock
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EVs: 252 Spe/252 ATK/ 4 HP
- Brave Bird
- Stone Edge
- Sucker punch/ Knock off
- U-turn/ Drill run

This set uses Bombirdier´s 103 base attack at max investment to be a revenge killer. The three stabs thanks to rocky payload make it more versatile against some pokemon. If you use drill run can face some cheks like Toxtricity (not boosted with shift gear), Coalossal, Revavroom or Bellibolt. U-turn instead gives you the chance to swap bombirdier and control the battle better . Sucker punch or Knock off depends on the situation, having priority with stab it´s always good, considering Bombirdier´s middle speed of 82.
The main issues: Weavile, Cetitan (in snow + Slush rush), Lycanroc and Scarf Flamigo can break easily Bombirdier.
I think Mudsdale, Magnezone, Tauros-Paldea-Fire and Slowbro are good teammates for this Bombirdier.

how do people upload pic of pokemon
also im using
cetitan Sitrus berry
tera ghost
adamant 252 252def 4 spdef
bellydrum
iceshard
eq
liquidation
basically turning into ghost allos you to become immune to closecombat and rapid spin immune

 

[chimp]

how do people upload pic of pokemon
also im using
cetitan Sitrus berry
tera ghost
adamant 252 252def 4 spdef
bellydrum
iceshard
eq
liquidation
basically turning into ghost allos you to become immune to closecombat and rapid spin immune

Use the name of the Pokemon in between two colons, like :pokemon:.
You can also use a / for certain gens, like :gs/pokemon:.

 

[gigi44t44]

Use the name of the Pokemon in between two colons, like :pokemon:.
You can also use a / for certain gens, like :gs/pokemon:.

thanks so much

 

[Garance]

Hi ! So the tier is new but there is obviously some pokemon who are annoying right now.

These are the two main pokemon I would love to see quickbanned in February.

It seems to be one of the biggest threats. The only counters are:

,

& Soundproof Tera Steel

(don't play this thing it's a joke)

For now, the only check I see is

(Steel and Dragon Resist) but Mold Breaker and Earthquake...

Here some cool mons, scary but less than the two other one.

&

are two really scary Shell Smash users, with a good Tera, they can be both impossible to check.

,

,

&

are all really threatening flying types who can spam Brave Bird easily.

&

are the only good Adaptability users (Rip Gumshoos), and I think they can be pretty cool.

can't be forgotten with No Retreat, Defiant and the Tera typing.

,

,

,

,

,

,

&

are the Quiver Dancers. Lilligant have Sleep Powder, Forsmoth Ice Scales, the Oriocorio's take advantage of their typings and Revelation Dance, Venomoth have Tinted Lens and Vivillon Compound Eyes + Sleep Powder + Hurricane. The only one missing is Masquerain (Would be better as a Sticky Web user than Quiver Dance user).

with Pure Power and Close Combat, you can now easily "won" vs Ghost swith-ins, or the Eons with Wish Protect (No crash recoil).

got Revival Blessing, it's still useful.

Obviously, there are a lot more good pokemons, like SD or NP users, such as

,

,

... or just good mons such as

&

...

Which one will you want to try first ? Are some others mons than Toxtricity and Haxorus who seems quickbanworthy for you ? Maybe you found some pokemon to counter/check them a bit better ?

 

[chimp]

For now, the only counter I see is

(Levitate, Steel and Dragon Resist)

Mold Breaker lets Haxorus hit through Levitate, so it’s not that great of a counter unfortunately!

 

[Critaquil]

For now, the only counter I see is

Maybe you found some pokemon to counter/check them a bit better ?

ahem,


introducing The Lugg.
The Lugg (Avalugg) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Avalanche
- Body Press
- Recover

I'm shocked I haven't seen more people talking about this thing more, checks nearly every physical attacker in the tier. weavile, haxorus, lycanroc if you tera, krookadile, cloyster, basculin, dreadnaw, it checks all of them and more, also provides rapid spin for hazard control and body press can legitimately contribute to a teams offense, it generally will only fit on balance or stall, as bo needs its blanket checks to actually be a blanket and ho doesn't plan on switching into things anyway, but on the playstyles it does fit on it is fantastic, give this mon a try!

 

[SarcTechie]

ahem,


introducing The Lugg.
The Lugg (Avalugg) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Avalanche
- Body Press
- Recover

I'm shocked I haven't seen more people talking about this thing more, checks nearly every physical attacker in the tier. weavile, haxorus, lycanroc if you tera, krookadile, cloyster, basculin, dreadnaw, it checks all of them and more, also provides rapid spin for hazard control and body press can legitimately contribute to a teams offense, it generally will only fit on balance or stall, as bo needs its blanket checks to actually be a blanket and ho doesn't plan on switching into things anyway, but on the playstyles it does fit on it is fantastic, give this mon a try!

been using this exact set and it’s hilariously good. Just keep it away from special moves.

 

[Garance]

Mold Breaker lets Haxorus hit through Levitate, so it’s not that great of a counter unfortunately!

Ohhh yes I totally forgot about it !! I'm gonna edit ahahaha

ahem,


introducing The Lugg.
The Lugg (Avalugg) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Avalanche
- Body Press
- Recover

I'm shocked I haven't seen more people talking about this thing more, checks nearly every physical attacker in the tier. weavile, haxorus, lycanroc if you tera, krookadile, cloyster, basculin, dreadnaw, it checks all of them and more, also provides rapid spin for hazard control and body press can legitimately contribute to a teams offense, it generally will only fit on balance or stall, as bo needs its blanket checks to actually be a blanket and ho doesn't plan on switching into things anyway, but on the playstyles it does fit on it is fantastic, give this mon a try!

So, that's the unic real counter to Haxorus ?

 

[Athyestic]

&

are the only good Adaptability users (Rip Gumshoos), and I think they can be pretty cool.

On the topic of dragalge, its specs set (I made a post about it here I think) has like, 0 switchins lol. Spdef Bronzong takes like 50 from Tera Dragon Draco Meteor, and no fairy comfortably takes sludge bomb besides Tinkatuff. It’s slow and hax weak, but with aggressive play and pivots it can find its way onto the field p easily and from there it tends to claim a KO.

 

[Suppletangerine]

I don't really post on here often and I mostly battle casually with friends but I've been super excited to use these two sets since it was revealed the Eeveelutions all got Calm Mind in Legends Arceus. I'm sure they're pretty HEAT but I love defensive double dance and of these Eeveelutions these seem like the only two to really utilize it outside of Sylveon on which Calm Mind sets have always been pretty viable.


Vaporeon @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Acid Armor
- Stored Power/Surf
- Rest

Chose Tera Dragon to flip its weaknesses to resistances. Wasn't sure between Stored Power and Surf, but feel like Stored Power would probably be better for its high damage output after some boosts.


Umbreon @ Leftovers/Chesto Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Snarl
- Stored Power
- Moonlight/Rest

Chose Tera Poison to also flip the switch on its weaknesses. Umbreon would take much longer to have damage output but it has higher defenses and reliable recovery. Not having a boost to defense kinda sucks (wish it got Cosmic Power or something), but this gives it the benefit of adding in Snarl which is decent utility.

They each kinda have something the other wants (defense boost vs. reliable recovery) and again I haven't tested this much so I don't know how actually good it is but it could be a nice wincon in the right matchup.

Wondering how Calm Mind Jolteon or Glaceon would do as well. Maybe not for RU but I could see Tera Ice being a possibility for Jolteon in a lower tier assuming Tera doesn't get banned (maybe Calm Mind-Thunderbolt-Terablast-Stored Power?). It has a bit of special bulk so after calm mind it might be able to set up on a slower special attacker.

Eeveelutions are my favorite so I love when they get new sets to play with. Again I don't really play competitive but thought these might be interesting to try.

 

[Bionicbanana35]

A random set that i've been having a bunch of fun and success with in RU (and honestly higher tiers as well) is a Cud Chew Farigiraf with stored power.
(Farigiraf) @ Ganlon Berry
Ability: Cud Chew
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 72 HP / 148 Def / 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- Stored Power
- Protect
Ganlon Berry is there to get Farigiraf insanely bulky in combo with a few calm minds, stored power one shots pretty much any mon at that point who isnt a tank that resists psychic, and wish/protect is just some cheese to safely get to low enough health to trigger Ganlon. Once Ganlon activates just always protect next turn for cud chew. This seems to surprise a lot of people as most probably expect Armor Tail rather than Cud Chew, and is a surprisingly good tank buster if I can get safe swap in. Gets walled completely by dark type mons, but most people expect dazzling gleam on it so once I have a few boost up people seem hesitant to swap in dark types. Definitely niche and cheesy but I've had a lot of fun with it

 

[Bionicbanana35]

A random set that i've been having a bunch of fun and success with in RU (and honestly higher tiers as well) is a Cud Chew Farigiraf with stored power.
(Farigiraf) @ Ganlon Berry
Ability: Cud Chew
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 72 HP / 148 Def / 4 SpA / 252 SpD / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Wish
- Stored Power
- Protect
Ganlon Berry is there to get Farigiraf insanely bulky in combo with a few calm minds, stored power one shots pretty much any mon at that point who isnt a tank that resists psychic, and wish/protect is just some cheese to safely get to low enough health to trigger Ganlon. Once Ganlon activates just always protect next turn for cud chew. This seems to surprise a lot of people as most probably expect Armor Tail rather than Cud Chew, and is a surprisingly good tank buster if I can get safe swap in. Gets walled completely by dark type mons, but most people expect dazzling gleam on it so once I have a few boost up people seem hesitant to swap in dark types. Definitely niche and cheesy but I've had a lot of fun with it

Also haven't actually done any calculations so the EV's are pretty arbitrary and could probably be optimized more for this set. Definitely open to suggestions.

 

[IvyFlowers]

View attachment 480057Resident toxtricity hard counter and overall a extremely annoying pokemon between the sludge bomb poisons, defense boosting and attack dropping with chilling water. Use Tera water (for cloysters thinking they have a free turn) and max spdef for best results.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Punk Rock Toxtricity Snarl vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Palossand: 204-242 (54.5 - 64.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[G-Luke]

Which Eeveelutions can work with Leftovers besides Sylveon? Because Specially Defensive Sylveon looks promising, and Calm Mind on Sylveon could make the set even better. Also I once got screwed up by a Tatsugiri with LIfe Orb (seriously Hydro Pump on this thing hits like a freight train)

Vaporeon and Umbreon