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

Ruft

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OU Leader
who is the best offensive partner to a bulky volcarona, which gets hard-walled by fat-fuck kings Toxapex and Heatran
Mega Alakazam, Mega Medicham, Mega Latios and Fightinium-Z Tapu Lele can take care of both of these. Offensive Ground-types like Garchomp and Landorus-T can also do it but may require a bit more finesse. A lure set like Mega Mawile with Focus Punch/Brick Break for Heatran and/or Thunder Punch for Toxapex can also be used.
 
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Saw some World cup games and something caught my attention

Good influx of sand teams featuring mega latias, toxapex and celesteela, exca and a possivle av ttar.

How this team can win? I mean, it seems like the team lacks Fire Power to break some defensivo cores.
 
Saw some World cup games and something caught my attention

Good influx of sand teams featuring mega latias, toxapex and celesteela, exca and a possivle av ttar.

How this team can win? I mean, it seems like the team lacks Fire Power to break some defensivo cores.
The strategy with CM Latias is less about direct firepower and more about getting Latias the opening it needs. These teams often do lack heavy guns outside of CB/Mega Tyranitar and Exca, but not all teams need or want all of the best and strongest mons in the game - they need a win condition, and Latias is that. Hazards, Sand, and chip damage ensure that it's counters (Ash-Gren, Heatran, Magearna, anything with Toxic) can't outlast M-Latias in the long game. Once all of the opponent's strong Latias checks and Toxic/Para spreaders are dead, then it can pretty freely boost to +6 and clean up the game. Very similar strategy to CM Reuniclus, CM Magearna, or CM Clefable - eliminate the checks by wearing them down, then boost freely and clean up. It doesn't always work because of matchup but when it does it's brilliant.
 

INSANE CARZY GUY

Banned deucer.
Is shednija still completely unviable since the baton pass ban? Saw someone talk about running hp flying on thunderous with a footnote to nail shedy teams
 

Givrix

Mad Dog
is a Top Tiering Contributor
What is the most popular Z set for Koko (Thunderbolt or Wild Charge) and how can you prove it?
According to this website, and if we consider that Wild Charge is always used with the Z move (but we can't really assure that), it should be the most used one.

Electrium Z = 16.427%
Z Wild Charge = 8.893%
Z Thunderbolt = 16.427-8.893 = 7,534%
 
rain teams are pretty good this gen, but how come no really good sand, hail, or sun teams have broken through?
There are plenty of sand teams running around in the meta actually, both offense and balance. You could check replays in both SPL and WCoP, or even MSU's team dump. You can set up sand w/ Tyranitar and Hippowdon

Hail
is the worst kind of weather, and even the hail setter Ninetales-Alola faces heavy competition from Tapu Koko as a screens setter, as Koko doesn't require Hail to be up to set up screens, so it works even against weather changers (Ttar, Pelipper, Zard Y, Torkoal), and it does provide a lot of other utility options and doesn't chip down teammates w/ hail damage. Hail offense is also pretty bad because its abusers are Beartic and Alolan Sandslash, which might work against certain matchups, but is terrible in general. You could also go the bulky route, which is Snow Cloak and Ice Body, but no relevant Pokemon in OU have these abilities. You can set up hail w/ Alolan Ninetales, Mega Abomasnow, (and unmon Aurorus)

Even though I really like sun as a niche weather playstyle, I must say it is very inconsistent. Sun offense is super reliant on matchup and it either does amazing, or you just get smashed. Zaza Bitchulia (idt he has a Smogon account) made a list of fun Pokemon that he tried with Sun and has worked decently and shared it with the OU room (so I'm assuming he's fine if I link it here). You can set up sun w/ Mega Charizard Y, Torkoal, and Ninetales

tl;dr sand teams are seen occasionally and perform well, although do not base their entire teams around sand, as a lot of rain teams do, hail teams are bad, and sun teams are not very consistent.

Edit: the pokepaste seems to have glitched out or something, because Nidoking's moves merged w/ Gallade's. It should be this:
Gallade @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Knock Off

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Substitute
instead of this:
Gallade-Mega @ Galladite
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Knock Off
- Zen Headbutt
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
- Earth Power
- Fire Blast
- Sludge Wave
- Substitute
 
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Solaros & Lunaris

Hold that faith that is made of steel
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rain teams are pretty good this gen, but how come no really good sand, hail, or sun teams have broken through?
I wouldn’t say Sand hasn’t had good teams, as they’ve been making great success in recent times. However, the other two have had minimal success. Sun’s abusers are not as threatening as Mega Swampert in the rain. If you could put Venusaur and Mega Houndoom together with added bulk, maybe sun.could be nice but as is, no. On the other hand, Hail doesn’t have anything to abuse. 100% accurate.Blizzard ain’t worth the consistency of ice Beam, and Veil < Screens. Also, both Sun and Hail have awful setters and don’t have Pelipper’squalities.
 
According to this website, and if we consider that Wild Charge is always used with the Z move (but we can't really assure that), it should be the most used one.

Electrium Z = 16.427%
Z Wild Charge = 8.893%
Z Thunderbolt = 16.427-8.893 = 7,534%
Not sure if this is the 1825 rankings or not but I heard they mostly use the 1695 rankings here
 
Why was Mimikyu ever used as a spinblocker on Webs, when there's only on viable spinner in OU, and it destroys Mimikyu with Mold Breaker Iron Head?
 

ShineeRockoo

Banned deucer.
Is shednija still completely unviable since the baton pass ban? Saw someone talk about running hp flying on thunderous with a footnote to nail shedy teams
It's still banned by Gen 7 OU, and its Baton pass is completely unavalible. You're still able to use shedninja, but you can't use baton pass on it.
 
Despite the fact that the Mega Slots aren't as tight this generation, why is Mega Tyranitar still seeing lower usage than Classic Tyranitar? (Not because the ladder is bad, don't give me that response.)
 

ShineeRockoo

Banned deucer.
Despite the fact that the Mega Slots aren't as tight this generation, why is Mega Tyranitar still seeing lower usage than Classic Tyranitar? (Not because the ladder is bad, don't give me that response.)
I don't actually know. It may be because Mega Tyranitar has more attack, defense, and other specialties.
 

DKM

Are you feeling nervous? Are you having fun?
is a Social Media Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Despite the fact that the Mega Slots aren't as tight this generation, why is Mega Tyranitar still seeing lower usage than Classic Tyranitar? (Not because the ladder is bad, don't give me that response.)
I guess the main reason is that multiple other items are useful. Choice Band is stronger, AV is bulkier, Chople berry can set stealth rock and deal with Mega Zam.

(The real answer is that ladder is bad)
 
Despite the fact that the Mega Slots aren't as tight this generation, why is Mega Tyranitar still seeing lower usage than Classic Tyranitar? (Not because the ladder is bad, don't give me that response.)
Some things that work on the ladder may not be completely applicable to tournament play; some things that succeed in tournament play may not be as effective on the ladder. Mega TTar is something that has seen a great deal of success in tournament play but on the ladder its strengths don't translate quite as well because the ladder has a greater emphasis on more offensively-inclined teams, of which only the DD variants really make a showing. As for why regular TTar is higher than Mega TTar and not so much why Mega TTar just isn't used much, that's mostly because ladder bad.
 
Is someone able to give me a brief rundown if what OU is like these days?
just look at the S-tier mons, a lot of CelePex, some random z nukes, there are a lot of playstyles around that can be viable ranging from stall to terrain strats. Steels are powerful as ever. This video by blunder
explains it good throughout and focuses on the later parts of gen 7 as well.
 
What's the difference between the tier list and the viability rankings?
uhh, with tier list do u mean like ou, uu, ru? im assuming u do. if so the tiers r defined by usage whereas viability rankings r made for one specific tier to tell what mon is better in that particular tier
 

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