Project RU Type Analysis

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gorex

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A Pokemon's type can make or break a Pokemon. In this thread we will discuss the effectiveness and drawbacks on each typing in Rarelyused, each being focused on for one week. After each week, a new typing will be discussed. As the thread will recycle every 18 weeks, it will be able to track trends in typings over the metagame.

A few topics that can be covered but this thread isn't limited to:
  1. What are the most popular Pokemon of this type seen in RU?
  2. What other Pokemon of this type also claim some sort of viability in RU?
  3. What Pokemon of this type fill a niche in RU which is sometimes worth considering in a team?
  4. What sorts of Pokemon does this type collectively threaten?
  5. What sorts of Pokemon threaten many of the members of this type?
  6. What sorts of metagame trends have occurred to the many Pokemon in this type?
  7. What Pokemon of this type are very potent offensive threats?
  8. What Pokemon of this type are very sturdy defensive threats?
  9. How do these Pokemon compare to each other in their respective roles?
  10. What Pokemon of this type increased in viability in the transition to the ORAS meta?
  11. Have any Pokemon of this type benefited from suspect tests and shifts from other generations/games?
  12. How strong do you feel this type is as a whole?
Do note that the best post each week will be archived, so please do make an effort for your posts. :]
 
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gorex

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The first week is Fire-typing


{do note that discussion is not limited to these few but these are the main focuses}

Fletchinder is not included this week because I want to use it for Flying-type as it is based more on it's Flying typing.

You may now begin posting. You have till 2359 Sunday (8/5) [GMT +8]
 

EonX

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Well, gorex already pictured the most common Pokemon of this type, so I'll dive into the other questions

The best Fire-type in RU is probably a tie between Mega Camerupt and Delphox. With Durant gone, Emboar loses a fair amount of its luster since its Scarf set isn't quite as good as it once was and Alomomola being as common as it is hurts wallbreaking sets. Houndoom is really hindered by Diancie as well as Alomomola to a lesser extent, but it is the only Fire-type capable of dealing with most Psychic-types. So Mega Camerupt is one of the best wallbreakers in the tier. It has a decent enough defensive typing to check Electrics and capitalize on defensive Pokemon like Registeel. It's one of the hardest Pokemon for defensive teams to handle and it usually gets at least one kill against offensive teams. Delphox is one of the tier's most underrated sweepers with a Calm Mind set, and that same set can double as a wallbreaker thanks to its solid coverage and high Special Attack. It has the Speed to sweep somewhat slower teams and it also has a Scarf set to give faster teams quite a bit of trouble.

There really aren't any other notable Fire-types aside from these four since we aren't counting Fletchinder. If you want a Fire-type, you're using one of these four. The only one of these Fire-types that's capable of going defensive is Emboar. A giant HP stat helps to cushion the subpar defenses and Emboar has a decent enough defensive typing to check quite a few threats. That said, Durant leaving caused its defensive set to take a pretty sizable hit in viability. Overall, the Fire-type is pretty strong in RU. Although there's only four viable options, all four of them fall in A rank or A- rank in Viability Rankings. This is due in part to the fact that these Fire-types generally required different checks and counters. Ironically, three of the Fire-types form a triangle of sorts due to their secondary typings. (Houndoom beating Delphox but losing to Emboar, Emboar beating Houndoom but losing to Delphox, and Delphox beats Emboar but drops to Houndoom)
 

I will not let the best fire type go unrepresented because you have some unfair bias towards it.

All jokes aside:
The popularity of Diancie, Flygon and Slowking make Houndoom and Delphox really hard to find a place on a team. Emboar is alright since it has a way to deal massive damage to pretty much every switch-in (seriously try Life Orb or Choice Band boar if you haven't that thing is a monster). Mega Camerupt for the same reason, the only really good set is max speed max special attack with Flamethrower / Earth Power / Hidden Power Ice / Toxic, and that set is extremely potent.

In terms of lower tier niche fire types, I don't think we really have much. Pyroar and Magmortar have both lost their niches (Doublade and Venomoth). I still think Charizard is a terrible Pokemon because of reasons I've stated before in the VR thread and I would only use it if I had a compelling urge to use Charizard. Combusken lost the ability to pass Swords Dance + Speed but it still interests me. Offensive sets like the one used in NU I have actually used in the past with mild success. It pairs greatly with Virizion, although this was pre-Slowking and Diancie so this core has lost a lot of attraction. A Sub pass set looks better now partnered with Virizion. None of these are really niche options but more so stuff I would use because I like them (I have the hugest Pyroar boner...)

The trio of fighting / psychic / dark makes finding things they pressure them together interesting. All three definitely pressure Alomomola, who needs a specially defensive set to beat 2 of them and a physically defensive set for Emboar. Right now, I feel on most teams physically defensive is just more effective, especially since Diancie already covers Delphox and Houndoom well. Flygon is also pressured by these bunch, but with the drop of specially defensive the only one Flygon really counters is Houndoom. Delphox 2hkos iirc and CB Emboar definitely OHKOs with Superpower. Camerupt just threatens everything. Switching views, Diancie really threatens the first two, while it can still soft check Emboar granted it doesn't Superpower or carry the ever so godly Heavy Slam.

I remember Magmortar was trending a few months ago, but right now I wouldn't really say there's a boom in any fire type's popularity. The fire typing as a whole is really offensive centered, there aren't any good defensive fire types (yes that is an attack on defensive emboar). Not to say fire types don't make use of their typing defensively, each has great resistances and in Houndoom's case the only real reason I'd ever consider it is because of what the typing in ability offer defensively. Camerupt also is a great Manectric check.

Like I said before, I think the boom of Fire types has died down. Around early ORAS, fire types were insane. I remember when Emboar first came out a few people were calling for it to be banned immediately. Houndoom during the Reuniclus meta was one of the best Pokemon in the tier. Flygon, Slowking and Diancie dropping has really made the meta more prepared to take on fire types. Overall, I feel fire types are really good offensively but still offer good defensive utility right now, but because of the above stated mons I'd give it a 6/10 in terms of strength.
 
All of these Fire-types have some other type attached to them which changes how they work, but all share the similarity of their Fire move being their main offensive move. Fire is a good typing both offensively and defensively although Water-types and Stealth Rock limit its effectiveness. All 4 of these Pokemon are able to check some random offensive threat well while being able to apply pressure of their own.

So first I'm going to talk about Fire / Ground. Fire / Ground is a strong offensive typing only resisted by Flygon and Pelipper (who gets 2HKO'd by Fire Blast without significant investment anyways). Oh and Fletchinder but that's not a Fire Blast switchin. As for defensively, Ground doesn't really do much for Fire aside from make it take neutral damage for Stealth Rock and give it an Electric immunity. However, it makes you lose a grass / ice resist while making you 4x weak to Water, so overall I'd say it's slightly less good defensively. However, this typing makes Mega Camerupt a good Manectric answer as Manectric already has to choose between HP Grass / Ice.

As for Delphox, Calm Mind Delphox is a really good answer to Sigilyph because it resists all of its common moves. Air Slash is usually only used by a Calm Mind set, and that's too weak to hurt Calm Mind Delphox significantly anyways. Psychic also gives Delphox a resistance to Fighting-type attacks, but that's only relevant for Virizion that are lacking Stone Edge, which granted is a lot of them right now. Other Fighting-types do too much damage to Delphox for Delphox to consider switching in except in really tight circumstances. However, other than some Psychics and Virizion, Fire/Psychic is worse defensively because of its crippling weakness to Pursuit which is on so many good teams right now. Offensively, Psychic is a nice way to hit the Pokemon that resist Fire-type moves, and is only resisted by Slowking and unfortunately doesn't effect Houndoom at all.

Fire / Fighting is actually really good both offensively and defensively. The problem is you don't see its utility defensively that much because Emboar's best use is doing massive wallbreaking damage which wears it down really fast with recoil. Fighting adds a Dark-type resist while making Emboar neutral to Stealth Rock, and the only downside is a less common Flying- and Psychic-type weakness. This allows Emboar to check stuff like Sneasel and Houndoom, and block Spiritomb, although again it's not recommended to rely on it to Sneasel and doomer if you don't have Choice Scarf. Meanwhile offensively Fire/Fighting is again unresisted by everything aside from Slowking and Jellicent.

As for Houndoom, Fire/Dark is nice for some Psychic-types since it's a Dark-type that is neutral to Dazzling Gleam (Drapion also shares this attribute), and it also has the added benefit of being immune to Sigilyph's Heat Wave. The standard Sigilyph sets do very little to dissuade Houndoom from coming in and either throwing out strong attacks or Pursuiting it. Dark also gives Houndoom a resistance to Dark-type attacks but that is mostly just relevant for Spiritomb. Fire/Dark is solid and only resisted by Diancie, although Dark Pulse as a STAB move is a little weak. Houndoom's Dark-typing also allows it to use Pursuit / Sucker effectively (please don't use Crunch - Dark Pulse is way better and you need Special Attack investment).
 
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The second week is Dark-typing


{do note that discussion is not limited to these few but these are the main focuses}
dark types are varied like non-other. since honchkrow just dropped make sure to emphasis how it differs from other dark types

You may now begin posting. You have till 11:59 pm Sunday (5/18) [EST]
 

MrAldo

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Dark types are cool. They are basically a pillar in teambuilding thanks to the utility pursuit provides (not every one of them has pursuit but most do), it is such a great tool to have around in order to do chip damage on a predicted switch and the most effective to trap psychic types and potentially getting rid of those. Meloetta, Sigilyph and Delphox are monsters and any way to make those less of a pain is appreciated.

People already have an idea on what most of them do, but lets go through a brief summary to cover the most relevant since I will like to cover the most niche ones. It goes as follows:

- Absol has the strongest pursuit in the tier, potent SD sweeper with extremely strong priority.
- Drapion being the one that provides the most utility thanks to its typing with moves like toxic spikes, whirlwind. Interesting scarfer, nice SD sweeper with nice coverage
- Houndoom is a notable wallbreaker having nasty plot at its disposal, really unique typing, meh pursuit trapper but pairs really well with virizion
- Honchkrow is ded
- Scrafty is a notable setup sweeper that easily take advantage of defensive builds thanks to shed skin, solid mixture between pivot and wallbreaker with a choice band and intimidate.
- Sneasel is the fastest dark type in the tier, Godly offensive typing. Fastest pursuit available. Nice coverage in low kick and iron tail.
- Spiritomb is the only one that can check fighting types virtue of being part ghost, pretty bulky, will-o-wisp is nice, sturdy pursuit trapper with sucker punch.

That wasnt much of a summary... but anyways, lets cover the most niche ones:

Liepard is pretty odd, generally outclassed by sneasel in terms of pursuit and knock off so it finds itself relegated to niche weather teams but in here it truly shines. Basically being one of the "go to" weather setters alongside volbeat or uxie since it has access to prankster rain dance and sunny day! Priority on these moves is amazing to rapidly get going. Knock off utility is always nice, solid speed tier to hit Delphox and Sigilyph. Weather teams may be really matchup oriented but this mon is essential for them so there is that.

Malamar is the TERROR of slower teams, having contrary alongside superpower which is an extremely scary combination meaning it can snowball through so many teams like they are nothing. Is so scary than defensive granbull can lost to this 1v1. One of the mons that certainly benefitted from Durant ban (one of the the few) and it is just so easy to get going is crazy.

Shiftry is another really interesting niche dark type that is more notable than other grass and dark types thank to the mixed potential it has. Sporting 100 atk and 90 SpA means it can pull off mixed sets much better than any other grass or dark type available, being pretty tricky to play around. Hurricane or Low Kick / Knock off / Sucker Punch / Leaf Storm can be extremely annoying to play around, if you think virizion and emboar are switch-ins... scout first :V Really cool mon, should see more use.

Skuntank is a big mystery in ORAS. With cresselia leaving and reuniclus getting banned, it loses the big appeal of being able to destroy +6 +6 cresselias and reuniclus while having the hazard removal utility. Defog is a trait that only shares with shiftry among the other dark types but shiftry cant really pull that off without dying the next turn skuntank has the typing and bulk to defog somewhat consistently. Sadly, Mega Steelix and other relevant ground types hinders it but a set with Defog / Dark Pulse / Sludge bomb or hidden power grass / fire blast has some interesting potential since it is actually a venusaur switch-in!. This mon has none been touched in ORAS so yeah, it would be an interesting research topic.

Cheers!
 

gorex

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: absol has been a cool mon to use, just rather that it had more speed to facilitate its viability since it has 130 atk that could definitely see it have more use if it did not have a 75 speed tier, which isn't exactly ideal in ru. its versatility in moveset is one thing that puts it above the rest of the dark types imo, because it can slightly alter its moveset to cater to what it wants to beat. it often runs sucker punch / knock off / superpower / play rough but can afford to drop play rough for iron tail to cater towards diancie.

: drapion is one i've always liked for the variety of movesets that can cater towards different purposes, namely scarf to fulfill the roles of a tspikes absorber, virizion check, grass check and helps against fast psychics namely delphox and sigilyph, sd that can be tasked to check venusaur, albeit not as reliable as lo leaf storm does >40, and with the use of lum, can help cater towards beating down defensive teams excluding mlix, and spdef tspikes that can be used to help towards a long-time fulfillment against meloetta and sigilyph and others while providing utility of tspikes to wear down the opposition for a wallbreaker / sweeper.

: sneasel is a really great mon as it's one of the best offensive checks to a lot of prominent stuff such as viri, flygon, hoopa, melo, etc as it can rk all of them and remove them as threats for the rest of the game. the fact that it has really good offensive typing in dark + ice helps it beat down commonplace threats and really only sees trouble in taking hits which should be a flaw covered by the other team-mates.

: malamar has really risen to fame with the banning of durant, and the thing with it is, it takes up the role of a bulky set-up mons that can double up to check psychics, which really helps its viability with contrary superpower and rest talk, preserving it through the entirety of the match if not risked throughout the match. only problem is it tends to have trouble against faster teams that finds ways to beat it down quickly bringing it into range of the opposing breakers.

: shiftry is a cool mon, knock + leaf storm is a really cool combination that can help it take down mola which tends to be a nuisance, and has the opportunity to run mixed sets with hurricane that don't give in to virizion, which is a really prominent threat with how it tends to be able to set up sds on bulkier mons, so the surprise value takes initiative on virizion which makes it play down to a 50/50.

overall, i feel dark type is a prominent type due to the fact it can trap psychics which are also pretty commonplace and the utility of pursuit that some of them possess puts it up against trapping threats such as melo which is often perceived to be a really good balance-breaker. referencing what aldo said, it is often leaned on as a teambuilding pillar by which it is often a teambuilding slot that has to be fulfilled.
 

Take Azelfie

More flags more fun
Instead of giving a summary on the mons given I want to go over the impact Dark-types have on the tier.

Knock Off with STAB is extremely scary to deal with since defensive switch ins get hindered by losing there item. Knock Off is pretty much where Colbur Berry started to shine and brace its impact for the lower tiers.

Pursuit has grown a lot of popularity since Hoopa arrival since being able to trap hoopa on a predicted switch or after it has been killed can be pretty priceless. Choice Scarf Hoopa has some merit being able to surprise Pursuit trappers intending to get free kill afterwords. Not going to say that that Pursuit is the main influence for Hoopa but it definitely does contribute.

Hitmontop is a spinner that could see a rise in viability since Dark types have only been getter albeat it is pretty bad when compared to Blastoise who can shake off status.

Fairies also impact Dark types a lot and can even influence move set choices like Iron Tail Absol or HP Steel Houndoom.
 

gorex

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pushing this to dragon week in light of the tyrantrum suspect ongoing.


{do note that discussion is not limited to these few but these are the main focuses}
dragon types, although little, are one of the most common types seen on ladder due to the viability of tyrantrum and flygon.

you may now post. you have until sunday 2359 gmt +8

also DTC has the best post of week 1 and MrAldo has the best post of week 2, will get down to archiving these posts whenever i have more time to do so. also, would like to apologise for the lack of interest in updating this thread, just that my real life commitments have been draining of my time on forums, hope you understand my plight
 
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