Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread (read the op before posting a thread)

[Altervisi]

Hey, Is blacephalon really considered completely unviable in ou that it got unranked? Is it really more unviable than even talonflame, nihilego, azelf, scolipede and m-altaria?

Im genuinely surprised, im pretty sure blacephalon has seen much more usage and winrates than most of these mons and its clear it has niche in ou, many sets from speed boosting to specs to sub cm, not the best mon but definitely can and does out in work

Yea sure he didnt live up to the hype of A- and B+ overall and turnt out pretty underwhelming but i dont think its that underwhelming that its not even ranked, feel like it would fit in C-/C ranks easily tbh and i feel its unrank was more of an overreaction/meme, thoughts?

OK to answer properly, the C- mons are bad but have unique niches, Altaria has unique typing and a number of sets. Scolipede and Nihilego have rare Toxic Spikes and are decent at anti-offense/is a decent scarfer with Rock STAB and SpDef. Azelf should be UR but is a good suicide lead with taunt. Talonflame is not ranked. Blacephalon is outclassed as a Scarfer, Specs user, stallbeaker, Ghost type and Fire type. It is wrecked by all hazards, is pitifully frail and not particularly fast or strong to back it up.

ignore altervisi, he has a shitty unjustified hateboner for the clown. it's absolutely viable - scarf is a decent cleaner, specs is a good wallbreaker (tears through bo if you can get it in on their defensive pivots - run hp grass to 2hko tar after rocks), and subcm is a great stall breaker (run sub cm stabs and ghost z, ive even considered fire blast over flamethrower to 2hko unaware Clefable but I haven't tried it). bare in mind it's far from perfect - it has difficulty breaking through bulky waters such as pex and mantine, its bulk is absolute garbage, its weak to rocks and despite specs having hp grass, ttar is still a pain to that set and a hard stop to all the others (patlop has mentioned a wisp trick scarf set he runs but idk how good that is - makes ttar into absolute setup fodder though).

Unjustified is stupid to say because it literally was voted to be unranked andim far from the only one who thinks it's garbage lol. Your love however, is unjustified, especially with the avi lol. Tbh hating on it is a meme for me so you're right about one thing at least .

 

[Bofo]

Super obvious question:
Can I play in the current meta with a SM cartridge as opposed to ultra, or do I need to buy Ultra?
Thanks for patience

 

[earl]

Super obvious question:
Can I play in the current meta with a SM cartridge as opposed to ultra, or do I need to buy Ultra?
Thanks for patience

Well the current format is played off of ultra, but almost all battles are played on the Pokemon Showdown! simulator so it doesn’t really matter.

 

[Bofo]

Well the current format is played off of ultra, but almost all battles are played on the Pokemon Showdown! simulator so it doesn’t really matter.

Great thanks for the answer :)

 

[curiosity]

hey Bofo, welcome back to smogon!

as leonard (from big bang theory) mentioned, playing on the university's official simulator - pokemon showdown - is probably the better option altogether. However, if you want to play on your cartrige, the meta is more suited towards being played on the ultra versions, as you now have access to important tutor moves, such as defog on a large variety of pokemon (most notably Tornadus, Landorus and Gliscor), Knock Off on Kartana, several items and lose access to pokemon such as Dusk Lycanroc, Blacephalon and Stakataka, though I should mention that the latter is the only noteworthy addition to the meta, as it is a very consistent option on trick room teams.

However, if you don't mind losing out on a few things, there's nothing wrong with playing on the original sun and moon games, as you can still get everything you require in these games, though it does mean obtaining certain pokemon slightly easier or harder, depending on what you're looking for. Although I feel obliged to mention that the ultra versions are more suited for competitive play, as the HP bar notably drops much faster, as well as the bottom screen UI being slightly easier to use. I also should mention that the music is waaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cooler in the ultra versions.

Hope I helped!

 

[Bofo]

hey Bofo, welcome back to smogon!

as leonard (from big bang theory) mentioned, playing on the university's official simulator - pokemon showdown - is probably the better option altogether. However, if you want to play on your cartrige, the meta is more suited towards being played on the ultra versions, as you now have access to important tutor moves, such as defog on a large variety of pokemon (most notably Tornadus, Landorus and Gliscor), Knock Off on Kartana, several items and lose access to pokemon such as Dusk Lycanroc, Blacephalon and Stakataka, though I should mention that the latter is the only noteworthy addition to the meta, as it is a very consistent option on trick room teams.

However, if you don't mind losing out on a few things, there's nothing wrong with playing on the original sun and moon games, as you can still get everything you require in these games, though it does mean obtaining certain pokemon slightly easier or harder, depending on what you're looking for. Although I feel obliged to mention that the ultra versions are more suited for competitive play, as the HP bar notably drops much faster, as well as the bottom screen UI being slightly easier to use. I also should mention that the music is waaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cooler in the ultra versions.

Hope I helped!

This helps a lot :) its good that the answer isn't a straight up "no" but thanks for the help on good reasons to upgrade.

I mainly ask this question so I can know whether to play OR AS or Sun until I pick up ultra, so this helps :) hello Hoenn! Lol

 

[LordHelix]

OK to answer properly, the C- mons are bad but have unique niches, Altaria has unique typing and a number of sets. Scolipede and Nihilego have rare Toxic Spikes and are decent at anti-offense/is a decent scarfer with Rock STAB and SpDef. Azelf should be UR but is a good suicide lead with taunt. Talonflame is not ranked. Blacephalon is outclassed as a Scarfer, Specs user, stallbeaker, Ghost type and Fire type. It is wrecked by all hazards, is pitifully frail and not particularly fast or strong to back it up.



Unjustified is stupid to say because it literally was voted to be unranked andim far from the only one who thinks it's garbage lol. Your love however, is unjustified, especially with the avi lol. Tbh hating on it is a meme for me so you're right about one thing at least .

I dont want to drag this any longer but just wanna say your reasons are pretty unjustified, u just listed weaknesses of blace and ignored any good qualities while doing the complete opposite for other C- mons

If mons can be ranked for being completely one dimensional (azelf, tr setters) or good against one playstyle (scolipede) or just be bad (nihilego, no offense i see nothing going for it defensively or offensively other than pressuring a few common defoggers)

Then Im sure blace can, with at least being oppressive to stall with sub cm, put pressure on offense with scarf, and pressure ttar-less and pex-less teams with specs or be annoying in general

Im not a blace fanboy (team chandy tbh) but i think its pretty weird it just got unranked randomly, doesnt help no reasoning and only reasons thrown around is its shortcomings, which all mons have and doesnt mean it has nothing going for it
Its like if staka got memed too and got unranked suddenly cause "doesnt hit hard enough and has hard time setting tr, (insert shortcomings) and yea"

Well anyways instead of complaining ill try to make an proper nom soon when i can

 

[Cfchor]

I m very new to competitive battle, and still trying to have a grasp of the meta and improve myself. Here some newbie question for u all.

While I m building my team, sometimes I found myself to need a reliable rocker. Looking upon the vr, I saw people saying clef able is the best rocker and clef is at A rank, making me believe that it should be good.

However, clef is very... underwhelming. Most of the time my clef will die to some random z moves after a bit of prior damage. I switches clef into m-gallade cc, thinking clef is one of the best counter, bt it dies to psycho cut crit next turn.i proceed being swept. Clef didn't really do anything for my team except sometimes manage to toss some rocks to them. Most of the time my clef will scramble to use softboil every turn, and die to some inevitable crits.

What I m doing wrong? How to play clef properly?

 

[I hate ninjask]

I m very new to competitive battle, and still trying to have a grasp of the meta and improve myself. Here some newbie question for u all.

While I m building my team, sometimes I found myself to need a reliable rocker. Looking upon the vr, I saw people saying clef able is the best rocker and clef is at A rank, making me believe that it should be good.

However, clef is very... underwhelming. Most of the time my clef will die to some random z moves after a bit of prior damage. I switches clef into m-gallade cc, thinking clef is one of the best counter, bt it dies to psycho cut crit next turn.i proceed being swept. Clef didn't really do anything for my team except sometimes manage to toss some rocks to them. Most of the time my clef will scramble to use softboil every turn, and die to some inevitable crits.

What I m doing wrong? How to play clef properly?

You really shouldn't be switching in a clef on mega gallade. If you had Lando you should have switched that. Clef is the best rocker, and it has many different sets. Clef does seem underwhelming, because it's not supposed to be a unbeatable wall.

 

[Leo]

I m very new to competitive battle, and still trying to have a grasp of the meta and improve myself. Here some newbie question for u all.

While I m building my team, sometimes I found myself to need a reliable rocker. Looking upon the vr, I saw people saying clef able is the best rocker and clef is at A rank, making me believe that it should be good.

However, clef is very... underwhelming. Most of the time my clef will die to some random z moves after a bit of prior damage. I switches clef into m-gallade cc, thinking clef is one of the best counter, bt it dies to psycho cut crit next turn.i proceed being swept. Clef didn't really do anything for my team except sometimes manage to toss some rocks to them. Most of the time my clef will scramble to use softboil every turn, and die to some inevitable crits.

What I m doing wrong? How to play clef properly?

Clef is a very sturdy mon in general thanks to its magic guard ability which makes it hard to wear down with hazards and residual damage. This is important cause the mons it usually switches into (stuff like zyg mlop and goons) cant really do anything to get past it and rely on lures or niche sets to beat it. That’s really all you should be doing with your clef, switching into mons it checks, healing and getting rocks vs passive mons. Don’t try to switch into strong attackers or set up sweepers it cant beat (mpinsir, sd lando etc) and dont rely on it to stop said sweepers. As for your example, I wouldnt put the blame on clef for losing to a crit considering that’s both very unlikely and not worth taking into account otherwise most defensive pivots/walls would be terrible

 

[Indigo Plateau]

I m very new to competitive battle, and still trying to have a grasp of the meta and improve myself. Here some newbie question for u all.

While I m building my team, sometimes I found myself to need a reliable rocker. Looking upon the vr, I saw people saying clef able is the best rocker and clef is at A rank, making me believe that it should be good.

However, clef is very... underwhelming. Most of the time my clef will die to some random z moves after a bit of prior damage. I switches clef into m-gallade cc, thinking clef is one of the best counter, bt it dies to psycho cut crit next turn.i proceed being swept. Clef didn't really do anything for my team except sometimes manage to toss some rocks to them. Most of the time my clef will scramble to use softboil every turn, and die to some inevitable crits.

What I m doing wrong? How to play clef properly?

Clefable shouldn’t be dying easily outside of a few very bad MU’s. It might also depend on what you’re pairing Clef with; generally, you want another one or two defensive Pokemon with good type synergy (i.e. the infamous ClefCelePex core) as well as a strong wallbreaker that can take advantage of Pokemon like Heatran that take advantage of Clef’s passivity.

In the current metagame, Clefable is a fantastic answer to Ground- type Pokemon such as Zygarde and Landorus-T as well as Fighting- types like Hawlucha and Lopunny. However, you have to be wary of strong Pokemon that can boost their stats before hitting. Like you mentioned, Clef isn’t the best Mega Gallade answer bc SD + Zen does quite a bit of damage. Clef is also really good at scouting because generally, it’s very hard to OHKO, allowing you to Softboiled on things like unboosted scarf Kartana and see what they lock themselves into. Not sure what Z moves you’re dying to, but after you play more, you’ll learn how to better scout for those.

e: on mobile, somewhat sniped lol

 

[OldAmberPlays]

In the new sample teams update, one set caught my attention:

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 96 HP / 20 Atk / 136 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Punishment
- U-turn

What Punishment is used for? And is there a reason for that EV spread?

 

[Mellow]

In the new sample teams update, one set caught my attention:

Landorus-Therian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 96 HP / 20 Atk / 136 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Punishment
- U-turn

What Punishment is used for? And is there a reason for that EV spread?

Punishment is used to stop CM Sweepers like Reuniclus and Mega Latias, as for the spread I don't know what it does but the atk might be something to do with Punishment? Not sure.

 

[Geobody]

Is there a viable AV Tornadus-T set? Or is LO a better item if I already have a defogger?

 

[earl]

Is there a viable AV Tornadus-T set? Or is LO a better item if I already have a defogger?

Flyinium Z would be the best item, then. If your Z Slot is taken, then I'd recommend Max HP/Max Speed Rocky Helmet. Also probably don't run torn-t if it isn't going to be your defogger, its main appeal is as one.

 

[MagikaripIsOP]

Is there a viable AV Tornadus-T set? Or is LO a better item if I already have a defogger?

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2018-04/moveset/gen7ou-1825.txt

AV is the second most used item. Just run timid 252 spa, 4 spdef, and 252 speed. It doesn't look like there is a specific AV ev spread. If there is, no top ladder player uses it.

 

[power]

Is there a viable AV Tornadus-T set? Or is LO a better item if I already have a defogger?

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2018-04/moveset/gen7ou-1825.txt

AV is the second most used item. Just run timid 252 spa, 4 spdef, and 252 speed. It doesn't look like there is a specific AV ev spread. If there is, no top ladder player uses it.

There is a spread; 236 HP 64 SpD 208 Spe Timid; outspeeds Scarf Tyranitar and Base 115s while living 2 Psychics from Tapu Lele. You can run more speed if you’re worried about LO zam or other Torn. AV Torn isn’t very good, but it has a small niche on certain builds.

 

[Felixx]

Does Elo decay only when you're on the ladder (top 500) or does it just do it anyways? Also does anyone know the rate of Elo decay?

 

[SrsName]

So I've been out of the loop for a while and just played a few games over the last days. Screens seems to be everywhere and I really can't figure out how to beat it (I usually play balance). If I don't use balance I'm usually doing fine but that's not really my preferred Playstyle. And tips would be appreciated.

Usually I lead with a breaker to try and get rid of Koko asap. But then when it drops it still got out screens and then my opponent usually just uses his switch advantage, sets up on me and punches holes too big for me to recover. I thought about running unaware clef over magic guard or add a haze toxapex but it's a bit annoying to do that on every team.

 

[Altervisi]

So I've been out of the loop for a while and just played a few games over the last days. Screens seems to be everywhere and I really can't figure out how to beat it (I usually play balance). If I don't use balance I'm usually doing fine but that's not really my preferred Playstyle. And tips would be appreciated.

Usually I lead with a breaker to try and get rid of Koko asap. But then when it drops it still got out screens and then my opponent usually just uses his switch advantage, sets up on me and punches holes too big for me to recover. I thought about running unaware clef over magic guard or add a haze toxapex but it's a bit annoying to do that on every team.

Defog removes screens, you can use Knock off to remove the Light Clay , Toxic prevents setup sweepers setting up too much or going to rampant. Regenerator users can pivot around attackers until screens are gone. It is by no means easy to beat but there are a few methods. The best way is to stack hazards, force switches and waste turns.

 

[astroshagger]

Does Raikou have any viability in OU with an Assault Vest set? Or is it outclassed by Koko entirely?

 

[Dakress]

Does Raikou have any viability in OU with an Assault Vest set? Or is it outclassed by Koko entirely?

Not really. While I can see it tank attacks from Scarf Lele, Lati@s, Koko and the Greninja Bros, both Lele and the Latis can bypass it with Psyshock, Raikou's best move vs the tapu is Shadow Ball and, alongside Greninja, can always U-Turn/Volt Switch to an electric counter/check.

In general, Tapu Koko has outclassed pretty much every electric offensive threat that came before it. It's as fast as Jolteon (394 speed), can do everything other electric threats like Raikou can but better (Roost+3 attacks, Defog, CM, Specs, Scarf(?), Dual Screens Lead, you name it), and while at least Zapdos has better Defensive Utility and bulk, Thundurus can go physical with a Defiant Z-Fly set and Thundurus-T has Volt Absorb, Raikou's only advantage is a stronger Hidden Power, Roar and Inner Focus.

So...unless your team really needs an electric poke that can phase out, beat Ferrothorn/Lando-T more often and/or avoid being flinched by Mega-Lopunny/Medicham, there's not much reason for use Raikou in OU (as far as I know anyway).

 

[astroshagger]

Not really. While I can see it tank attacks from Scarf Lele, Lati@s, Koko and the Greninja Bros, both Lele and the Latis can bypass it with Psyshock, Raikou's best move vs the tapu is Shadow Ball and, alongside Greninja, can always U-Turn/Volt Switch to an electric counter/check.

In general, Tapu Koko has outclassed pretty much every electric offensive threat that came before it. It's as fast as Jolteon (394 speed), can do everything other electric threats like Raikou can but better (Roost+3 attacks, Defog, CM, Specs, Scarf(?), Dual Screens Lead, you name it), and while at least Zapdos has better Defensive Utility and bulk, Thundurus can go physical with a Defiant Z-Fly set and Thundurus-T has Volt Absorb, Raikou's only advantage is a stronger Hidden Power, Roar and Inner Focus.

So...unless your team really needs an electric poke that can phase out, beat Ferrothorn/Lando-T more often and/or avoid being flinched by Mega-Lopunny/Medicham, there's not much reason for use Raikou in OU (as far as I know anyway).

Good post, thanks.

 

[Trixys]

Hope I can get some advice for this question: What's a reliable Rapid Spin user in the OU metagame? I often use my Starmie, which I know is placed in the UU category, but honestly works really well for me as a utility spinner, even in OU. With Natural Cure as its ability and Recover as another one of its moves I find it very easy to bring it in multiple times in a fight to clear out entry hazards on my side of the field. But I was wondering if there's a possible bulkier replacement for it. Not looking for a Defog user, as I like setting hazards myself, and would like it if they stayed on the field.

 

[Jordy]

Hope I can get some advice for this question: What's a reliable Rapid Spin user in the OU metagame? I often use my Starmie, which I know is placed in the UU category, but honestly works really well for me as a utility spinner, even in OU. With Natural Cure as its ability and Recover as another one of its moves I find it very easy to bring it in multiple times in a fight to clear out entry hazards on my side of the field. But I was wondering if there's a possible bulkier replacement for it. Not looking for a Defog user, as I like setting hazards myself, and would like it if they stayed on the field.

There really isn't any good Rapid Spin users in the OU metagame outside of Excadrill, which isn't really that good in itself either. And I honestly, don't know how I feel about Starmie as it doesn't appear to me that it has a valuable unique niche. But, I suppose that if it's working fine for you there shouldn't be any problem with using it. So to directly answer your question, outside of Excadrill there is no better Rapid Spin user, and even then, Excadrill doesn't directly outclass Starmie as they don't do quite the same.