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Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread (read the op before posting a thread)
- Thread starter Celticpride
- Start date
It's had a lot of success in many new HO teams for its incredible ability to break through any stall team with Mold Breaker and a good offensive typing.
Is there any merit to using Z-Giga Impact on Swords Dance Kartana? It pairs nicely with Magnezone support and allows you to easily elimate Charizard, Volcorona , Venusaur, Amoongus, Zapdos and Toxapex (after a SD) with a 200 BP Breakneck Blitz. At +1 it also consistently kills Defensive Landorus after SR which Leaf Blade doesn’t come close to. I’m just experimenting with the Z-Moves, I believe there was an RMT using Darkinium Z for a Zapdos and Mew but Breakneck Blitz essentially means you get two “nukes”. I know regular giga Impact is trash but I think Kartana that can lure and consistently kill Zapdos pairs extremely well with Mega Pinsir.
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coil or dd zygardes definitely up there
Outside of DD and Coil Zygarde, you have Volcarona - still fantastic even in this meta, SD Pinsir-Mega (which is mostly a breaker but is a phenomenal sweeper as well), RP Diancie-Mega and even OTR Magearna.
VinCune is still a surprisingly solid wincon even though fat grasses and things like Koko are a lot more common these days.
Please excuse me if this has been answered before/is in the wrong place, but I'm curious to as to why Blaziken is still banned. I feel like the meta has lots of answers to it (toxapex, tapu fini, landorus, salamence, other bulky waters etc). Can some of the more experienced people tell me their thoughts? Thank you!
mons like mence arent relevant to begin with, it can break its answers with moves such as fire blast and earthquake. insanely powerful stabs lol.
i was actually thinking it could be retested, but i forgot one thing: z-moves would just make it busted.
Z moves are a good point! Correct me if I'm wrong, but Blaziken (nonmega) does pretty poorly in ubers a big part because if it runs protect/swords dance + dual stabs it has a tough time choosing which of its counters to break. I feel that for example if it decided to run z thunderpunch to break toxapex/gyrados/fini/azumarill etc it would still lose to mons like latios/dragonite/landorus.
Definitely an insanely powerful pokemon, but like you said I think it could be fun to retest it to see how it fairs.
Also, if not running swords dance, I feel like it would have a tough time getting KO's in this meta.
The bulk factor between Ubers and OU is largely different and a Pokemons performance in Ubers is irrelevant to retesting it in OU as Ubers is a banlist first. Blaziken breaking a check and counter in Ubers is much different than it doing so in OU due to Ubers bulky nature of the tier and tools at people disposal to prevent a Blaziken sweep.
Let's not create hypotheticals based on what it does in Ubers since it's really never applicable.
Is there a Pokemon that counters both Mega Gyarados and Z-Bounce Gyarados? The best I can come up with is Ferrothorn. But he has a tendency to get worn down by repeated Crunches and takes a lot from Z-Bounce.
I dunno if I'm allowed to ask this here since it's theorymoning but if Gastrodon got Stealth Rocks, would it be a good user of it?
Please limit theorymonning like this to an absolute minimum, but yes, Gastrodon would definitely be a good user of Stealth Rock if it had it. It's B ranked right now for its numerous opportunities to switch in on common threats, but it's not ranked higher because it lacks any real way to take advantage of those switch-in opportunities besides firing off a scald or toxic. Stealth Rock would give it a way to support its team on the many occasions gastrodon gets to come in and would provide good role compression between providing a pivot against tapu koko, greninjas, rain sweepers, diancie, and magearna and being a hazard setter
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Thing is, I don't think it has to run a coverage move (although it can). The immediate set that comes to my mind would be something like Protect/SD/HJK/Flare Blitz with Firium Z. After one SD, you're doing stuff like:
+1 252+ Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Latios: 290-342 (96.3 - 113.6%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 216+ Def Landorus-Therian: 382-451 (100 - 118%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Blaziken Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 192 Def Toxapex: 195-231 (64.1 - 75.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Mew: 352-415 (87.1 - 102.7%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Blaziken Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 357-420 (90.6 - 106.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
These are obviously only after an SD and calcs are always a bit hypothetical, but Fire/Fighting is very good offensive presence, and you have to fear it setting up on your Steel types (unless you have a solid answer in the back) or just letting them go. Not to mention that obviously, Speed Boost is one of, if not the, best ability for an offensive mon with 120 base Atk and 110 base SpA to have. Pair this up with the fact that it also learns HP Ice / TPunch / Knock Off and this thing is an offensive monster. Combine this with hazards and it'd be a massive headache to deal with. As much as I love it, I really don't think it'd be healthy in the current OU meta.
Generally, Water/Flying is hard to switch into especially if you're also trying to account for mega in just one mon. Ferrothorn is definitely good but +1 SSSS is a threat. Unaware Clefable is the best thing I can think of, but even then you have to watch out for Taunt + Z-Bounce. There's also things like Zapdos, but yeah generally Gyarados is a nuisance.
Good points, thank you for the response.
I was reading Mimikyu analysis and I saw it can be used as a Trick Room setter, how does it work in those archetypes? I'm guessing something with Red Card and Destiny Bond, or just like offensive set with Trick Room instead Swords Dance, but I'm not sure whicl will be the standard for those teams
After Arena Trap ban in OU, I wanted to ask:
* Is this the demise of SPL stall? I assume Heatran will trap and KO at least 3 of the 'mons now
* Will Mega Charizard-Y be less problematic? Tyranitar + Dugtrio eliminated all switch-ins, but now stuff like Toxapex and maybe Heatran can some in reliably.
* Is this the demise of SPL stall? I assume Heatran will trap and KO at least 3 of the 'mons now
* Will Mega Charizard-Y be less problematic? Tyranitar + Dugtrio eliminated all switch-ins, but now stuff like Toxapex and maybe Heatran can some in reliably.
SPL Stall was on the decline long before the Arena Trap suspect but yes, this is essentially the final nail in its coffin. I've seen a few adaptations of SPL stall using things like scarf Ditto but obviously these teams are a lot easier to deal with.
All Pokemon who relied on Dugtrio to remove checks (Mega Charizard Y included) are obviously worse off for its ban. Charizard Y in particular dropped from A to B+ in the VR thread as Charizard/Dugtrio/Tyranitar teams are now much less effective and lack ways of dealing with Toxapex and Charizard Y is forced to run Focus Blast if it wants to touch Heatran and Tyranitar, meaning it can't run Hidden Power Ice for Zygarde and Garchomp anymore.
Ironically enough, Charizard X benefited hugely from the Dugtrio ban as it can now run a 3 attacks + Roost set more viably to break down many different team archetypes.
Can you (or someone) can pass me the import of those teams please?
Is Floette-Eternal ever being released?
We dont know.
From Nintendo's perspective, critical hits are actually an important part to what keeps the game engaging for young audiences, in that no matter what, there's almost always a way out of a bad situation if they believe in their Pokemon enough (critical hit, freeze, flinch, full para...). While there will almost certainly always be some element like this present in Pokemon games, Game Freak has shown interest in maintaining some sort of balance between luck and competitive skill (increasing Will-O-Wisp accuracy after a VGC multi-miss disaster, scaling Critical Hit damage back from 2x to 1.5x, etc). I don't think they'll ever be fully removed from the core games, since the ability for any hit to break past a defensively set-up Pokemon is important for the target audience. Smogon also isn't at liberty to simply say "critical hits are banned," since many people choose to play by Smogon rules on the official games, and removing luck-based elements like Ice Beam freezes or critical hits to create a more competitive game is generally out of our control. The only time we've done something like that is with Freeze Clause in gen 1, which says that 2 Pokemon can't be frozen at the same time because of how absurdly overpowered freeze is in gen 1 and assisted by the fact that not many people play RBY on cartridge.