Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

Ruft

is a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
OU Leader
What's the reasoning behind Snorlax and Incineroar's sudden rise in SS OU viability ranks?
Snorlax is good for mainly two reasons: 1. it's a surprisingly solid win condition and 2. it's one of the few reliable checks to Kyurem.
Reasoning for the former: Great natural Special Defense and a good defensive typing allow it to find ample opportunities to set up with Curse, patching up its mediocre physical bulk and making it more threatening due to the Attack boost. Rest means it can restore its health and doesn't have to care about status too much.
Reasoning for the latter: Great natural Special Defense and Thick Fat providing it with a resistance to Ice, with recovery in Rest.

Incineroar is just a really useful (and annoying) pivot thanks to the combination of Intimidate and Parting Shot, in addition to various utility moves like Knock Off, Taunt, Will-O-Wisp, and Toxic. It also has some decent natural bulk and Heavy-Duty Boots patches up its would-be hazard weakness.
 
What's the reasoning behind Celebi's drop in the VR? It's defensive Colbur set being able to switch in on and beat Vish, Conk & Zeraora seems like it's quite valuable, I understand it's not the most reliable and can give up momentum, especially as it's u-turn bait and has to recover more than it'd like, but it has a decent amount of utility with absorbing status, T Wave, rocks (though it's a bad setter since it lets Corv in) or Earth Power to keep most steels out and it can always u-turn itself out as well. At the very least it feels like it can perform this role of checking these A and A+ threats on many teams relatively reliably, especially on teams foregoing Toad for Kommo or other water types that can't check Vish as reliably.
 
Last edited:
You guys think weak mons should have their Mega be a legit evo instead?
Because from what I've seen, a lotta mons that finally got a break with Mega....aren't really used cuz it takes a Mega slot. And it's sad too, because Pidgeot, Ampharos, Pinsir, and especially Beedrill NEEDED it
This also brings another question: Do you guys think Megas were unbalanced due to being given to already OU staples? Gengar and Salamence being notorious after they got it
 
You guys think weak mons should have their Mega be a legit evo instead?
Because from what I've seen, a lotta mons that finally got a break with Mega....aren't really used cuz it takes a Mega slot. And it's sad too, because Pidgeot, Ampharos, Pinsir, and especially Beedrill NEEDED it
This also brings another question: Do you guys think Megas were unbalanced due to being given to already OU staples? Gengar and Salamence being notorious after they got it
This isn't the place for this sort of question; there's probably a thread in the orange islands where you could ask something like that.
 

Ruft

is a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
OU Leader
What makes Chandelure and Obstagoon so good in today's SS OU and Hatterene worse in SS OU nowadays?
Chandelure is a very strong Choice Specs wallbreaker that can come in on the standard Wish + Teleport Clefable, doesn't have a lot of switch-ins, and can cripple passive Pokemon with Trick.
Obstagoon is a great balance breaker: it doesn't have to care about status (after being burnt), threatens a lot of the current metagame with Facade and Knock Off (and Close Combat), has good utility in Knock Off and Switcheroo, setup potential with Bulk Up, and good natural bulk to boot.
Additionally, wallbreakers like Chandelure and Obstagoon enjoy Clefable being able to bring them in safely with Teleport, which is as common as ever.
I think Hatterene falling off is in part due to people being prepared for Clefable. Most teams have threats like Excadrill, Aegislash or Jirachi that can be pivoted into.
What's the reasoning behind Celebi's drop in the VR? It's defensive Colbur set being able to switch in on and beat Vish, Conk & Zeraora seems like it's quite valuable, I understand it's not the most reliable and can give up momentum, especially as it's u-turn bait and has to recover more than it'd like, but it has a decent amount of utility with absorbing status, T Wave, rocks (though it's a bad setter since it lets Corv in) or Earth Power to keep most steels out and it can always u-turn itself out as well. At the very least it feels like it can perform this role of checking these A and A+ threats on many teams relatively reliably, especially on teams foregoing Toad for Kommo or other water types that can't check Vish as reliably.
For one, this Celebi set can only check Conkeldurr and Zeraora once as long as it keeps its Colbur Berry, which makes it quite unreliable. Additionally, outside of checking these specific threats, its Grass/Psychic typing is quite terrible: most of its sets can't do anything to Corviknight, which is still definitely a top 3 Pokemon, and it has some crippling weaknesses that hold it back from providing reliable defensive utility. Finally, it has close to no solid tournament results off the top of my head, which is quite telling and is often taken into account when working on the VR.
Whats the reason for salazzles bizarre 5 rank rise in vr? What does it even run?
Its ability to poison virtually everything with Toxic, including Toxapex and Steel-types, can prove to be exceptionally valuable in this balance-dominated metagame. Clefable obviously isn't a good switch-in to a Poison/Fire Pokemon either. It always runs Toxic, usually either with Heavy-Duty Boots and 3 of Sludge Wave/Venoshock, Flamethrower, Knock Off, and Nasty Plot or with Black Sludge and Substitute + Protect + Sludge Wave/Venoshock/Flamethrower.
 
For one, this Celebi set can only check Conkeldurr and Zeraora once as long as it keeps its Colbur Berry, which makes it quite unreliable. Additionally, outside of checking these specific threats, its Grass/Psychic typing is quite terrible: most of its sets can't do anything to Corviknight, which is still definitely a top 3 Pokemon, and it has some crippling weaknesses that hold it back from providing reliable defensive utility. Finally, it has close to no solid tournament results off the top of my head, which is quite telling and is often taken into account when working on the VR.
Thanks a lot for your answer, I understand that it's typing is obviously a huge weakness and I guess it makes a lot of sense that a lack of tournament results factor into it's ranking. Did just want to mention though that keeping the Colbur berry is definitely not essential at all for checking both Conk and Zera (though it is forced to recover if it takes one from Conk):

252 Atk Zeraora Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 200+ Def Celebi: 98-116 (24.2 - 28.7%) -- not a KO
252+ Atk Guts Conkeldurr Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 200+ Def Celebi: 186-220 (46 - 54.4%) -- 55.1% chance to 2HKO
 
Hey, casual lurker here, sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask this but:

Why is Rotom-W UU in S&S, while Rotom-H is OU? I'm so used to seeing Rotom-W in OU, considering he's been there ever since 4th gen, I'm actually really curious why he shifted in tiers. My only guess is that he was a necessary check to other OU threats that are no longer present in S&S
 

Ruft

is a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
OU Leader
Hey, casual lurker here, sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask this but:

Why is Rotom-W UU in S&S, while Rotom-H is OU? I'm so used to seeing Rotom-W in OU, considering he's been there ever since 4th gen, I'm actually really curious why he shifted in tiers. My only guess is that he was a necessary check to other OU threats that are no longer present in S&S
Rotom-H is a top Pokemon in the metagame because it has a great matchup against many common picks. It can check Clefable, Corviknight, Ferrothorn, Hippowdon, Zeraora, Sand Rush Excadrill (bar Rock Slide), Togekiss, Jirachi, Aegislash to an extent, and various other Pokemon. Rotom-W can only really check some of these and it doesn't provide that much in return (it's a Water-type that still gets shredded by Dracovish), and it's walled even harder than Rotom-H is by its most common check in Seismitoad, in addition to Ferrothorn. As it turns out, when equipped with Heavy-Duty Boots Fire-types provide a lot of both offensive and defensive utility to teams due to the ubiquity of Fairy- (Clefable) and Steel-types, Rotom-H especially so thanks to Levitate, Nasty Plot, and Toxic and whatnot.
 
So I noticed that Shuckle is the highest usage pokemon in OU that isn't rated on the VR. Is it that Shuckle is just used for the lulz, or does it actually have a legitimate niche and possibly should be rated?
 
  • Sad
Reactions: amg
So I noticed that Shuckle is the highest usage pokemon in OU that isn't rated on the VR. Is it that Shuckle is just used for the lulz, or does it actually have a legitimate niche and possibly should be rated?
It's mainly used as a sticky web setter, though Ribombee is a much better Sticky Web setter, which is why Shuckle isn't on the VR.
 
On the ladder I am struggling to win against HO teams if I use a BO or a Balanced team. Do you have any tips? Play more aggressive? Play with higher risks? Thanks for the advice.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: amg
On the ladder I am struggling to win against HO teams if I use a BO or a Balanced team. Do you have any tips? Play more aggressive? Play with higher risks? Thanks for the advice.
generally against HO teams, they are utilizing some sort of setup like webs or screens.
often they straight up lead with their hazard or screens setter, and you want to prevent those going up at all, or remove their setter and then remove the webs/screens, so you can "counter-lead".
obviously, it's a lot more complicated then this, but this is the one of the most basic tips against HO.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: amg
So I noticed that Shuckle is the highest usage pokemon in OU that isn't rated on the VR. Is it that Shuckle is just used for the lulz, or does it actually have a legitimate niche and possibly should be rated?
People use Shuckle because it has Stealth Rock in addition to webs, unlike Ribombee. However, Ribombee is much faster, less passive, and can even get around magic bounce with skill swap if you want. Because of this, Ribombee is a much better webs setter, but people use Shuckle because they like the role compression it provides with SR and webs (they also run Mental Herb on it). I’d imagine Shuckle isn’t ranked cuz it’s too passive and gets defogged/spin on very easily.
 
Why is it standard to run 248 hp EVs on rotom H? I get you would get 1 extra go from hazards, but
1) you are using boots anyway
2) if you get knocked off, you've taken damage so you don't get that extra go
3) even if you get knocked off and wishpass to it, chances are its gonna take some form of chip or status so the extra go doesn't matter anyway
 
  • Sad
Reactions: amg
I wanted to build a team with Incineroar and I was curious what the purpose of the EV spread for the one on talah’s team in the sample teams thread (252 HP / 96 Def / 148 SpDef / 12 Spe, Careful nature)? I know about the spread in the strategy dex, but this one looked far more interesting?
 

Goodbye & Thanks

Thrown in a fire?
How come Hippo often doesn't have SpDef investment to function as a mixed wall this generation, especially when paired alongside things like physically defensive Ferrothorn? I get that max phys Def Hippo is good but I was wondering if there's merit to sometimes using a mixed variant, and if so, if it's normally just max SpDef or if there's some lower SpDef benchmark to hit?
 
How come Hippo often doesn't have SpDef investment to function as a mixed wall this generation, especially when paired alongside things like physically defensive Ferrothorn? I get that max phys Def Hippo is good but I was wondering if there's merit to sometimes using a mixed variant, and if so, if it's normally just max SpDef or if there's some lower SpDef benchmark to hit?
Because reliably dealing with Terrakion is way more important than it has been in any previous generations.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 1)

Top