Resource Simple Questions & Simple Answers Thread

Hello there! I am currently making a "Ranking the Starter Pokemon of Gen 9" video and I have a few questions regarding the ones in ZU. Unlike the other tiers, I don't have any deep metagame knowledge on ZU and there is no VR to work off of.
Hi! We currently have a VR, though it is quite outdated since several of the Pokemon there have had viablilities based on previous metas (sun abusers like Leafeon and Scovillain are much more niche, Sneasel being underexplored). ZU council intends on working on a VR soon for ZUPL, however, so stay tuned for updates.
I can see that Decidueye-H is #5 in usage for the past month. I am assuming comes off of its incredible support movepool and bulk, with its natural typing working well against some common mons (Electrode-H, Kingdra, Jolteon, etc.).
Decidueye-Hisui's high usage is indeed supported by its excellent utility movepool and helpful defensive stats. The variety in its support toolkit includes Knock Off, Defog, U-turn, Roost, and even Night Shade and Taunt to back up its defenses. While its Speed is low for an offensive Pokemon, the high Attack, typing, and versatility with moves like Triple Arrows, Sucker Punch, Swords Dance, the aformentioned Knock Off + U-turn, and even moves like Grassy Glide for Grassy Terrain teams makes it a great fit for many teams, offensive and defensive alike. As it stands, Decidueye-H continues to be a prominent force in the current metagame despite gaining two new checks in Whimsicott and Grafaiai.
Charizard and Typhlosion are the cookie cutter Sun mons, but I am assuming that NU's Drought ban affects ZU, so I am also assuming both are in a bit of struggle state especially with Kingdra being #1 in usage, and other special walls like Alcremie and Snorlax also being prominent in the tier.
Charizard and Typhlosion now sit in a worse spot due to Drought's ban. Charizard has ran specially offensive and Belly Drum sets to decent success, though it fails to live up to the success it had on sun teams. Nevertheless, it still remains a decent attacker here. Typhlosion has been fairly strong thanks to its solid Speed and not being as reliant on sun to function, though unlike Charizard, it's easier to fit on teams without a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock and usually being consistent with Eruptions thanks to Boots. Kingdra has also banned as of our recent suspect. And yes, Alcremie and Snorlax continue to become elite walls and wincons in the tier; Alcremie in particular remains a focal point thanks to its typing, bulk, Recover, and Aroma Veil being very consistent and easy to set up and close out games.
Samurott is the one with the most question marks for me in how good it is in the tier.
Samurott is in a weird spot where it's not bad per se, it just faces a ton of competition with other offensive Water-types like Bruxish, Clawitzer, Qwilfish, Veluza, and even Poliwrath for a slot on teams. Its Speed is in a crowded spot where standing up to the power crept meta here requires even more standout qualities, and while I think Samurott is perfectly usable to dismantle slower builds with SD or mixed sets, the aformentioned Water-types above (esp. Bruxish) just tend to be easier to get consistent milage out of. Be it power, Speed, a secondary typing...but again, it's not bad, it's just hard for it to distinguish out of the other Water-types.
Meganium needs no explanation. lol
Meganium sits alongside memes like Regigigas and Mightyena for how outclassed it is by...literally every other Grass-type and defensive Pokemon. You're not wrong about the worst starter here, as soon as it dropped here it never saw use.
I am guessing Decid-H > Zard > Typh > Rott > Megan.
I think the comparison is going a bit on apples and oranges. In terms of viability? They fulfill different roles here, as you can't really compare Charizard's offensive prowess with say, Decidueye-H's defensive utility. But based on how well they fulfill their roles and how they fare in the meta, I'd switch around Zard and Typhlosion's placements and you'd be good to go.

Hope this helps!
 
Hello there! I am currently making a "Ranking the Starter Pokemon of Gen 9" video and I have a few questions regarding the ones in ZU. Unlike the other tiers, I don't have any deep metagame knowledge on ZU and there is no VR to work off of.

I can see that Decidueye-H is #5 in usage for the past month. I am assuming comes off of its incredible support movepool and bulk, with its natural typing working well against some common mons (Electrode-H, Kingdra, Jolteon, etc.).
Charizard and Typhlosion are the cookie cutter Sun mons, but I am assuming that NU's Drought ban affects ZU, so I am also assuming both are in a bit of struggle state especially with Kingdra being #1 in usage, and other special walls like Alcremie and Snorlax also being prominent in the tier.
Samurott is the one with the most question marks for me in how good it is in the tier.
Meganium needs no explanation. lol
I am guessing Decid-H > Zard > Typh > Rott > Megan.

Sorry for the somewhat lengthy post, but can you kind of confirm my glancing observations for each of these? I am curious in learning more about the tier.

I think you mostly have it correct. Everything about H-Decidueye is spot on.

I'd argue that Charizard and Typhlosion are either equal or Typhlosion being better. The main thing Zard has over Typh is the ability to run sets other than Choice items, but those sets are really lackluster and only have surprise factor going for them. Outside of Sun, Typh is just plain better Choicer since Eruption is 150 BP regardless of the presence of Sun while Weather Ball is worthless without it. And even with sun Choice-Zard being locked into single move means its better movepool is effectively pointless. Regardless Sun teams players tend use use both Zard and Typh anyway.
tdlr If one must be put in a higher place, it should be Typhlosion, but having an = sign there would be acceptable.

Samurott is weird because it is quite versatile offensively, but it doesn't quite have the power to really justify its use even with in the low power level of ZU.

I've never seen a single person use Meganium the entire time I've played ZU, your assessment of it as the worst is sadly spot on.
 
Hello there! I am currently making a "Ranking the Starter Pokemon of Gen 9" video and I have a few questions regarding the ones in ZU. Unlike the other tiers, I don't have any deep metagame knowledge on ZU and there is no VR to work off of.

I can see that Decidueye-H is #5 in usage for the past month. I am assuming comes off of its incredible support movepool and bulk, with its natural typing working well against some common mons (Electrode-H, Kingdra, Jolteon, etc.).
Charizard and Typhlosion are the cookie cutter Sun mons, but I am assuming that NU's Drought ban affects ZU, so I am also assuming both are in a bit of struggle state especially with Kingdra being #1 in usage, and other special walls like Alcremie and Snorlax also being prominent in the tier.
Samurott is the one with the most question marks for me in how good it is in the tier.
Meganium needs no explanation. lol
I am guessing Decid-H > Zard > Typh > Rott > Megan.

Sorry for the somewhat lengthy post, but can you kind of confirm my glancing observations for each of these? I am curious in learning more about the tier.
glad to see an interest in the tier! your assumptions were pretty much all correct, though we do have a viability list.

decid also functions as a potent and at times oppressive sweeper with its wide attacking options--stab cc, triple arrows, and leaf blade, and coverage options like knock, sucker, and u-turn--bolstered by sd. zard and typh were staples on sun, which was indeed affected by nu's ban on drought, but zard is still serviceable as a standalone attacker thanks to its useful speed tier and high special attack. it also sees play as a physical sweeper with sd, dd, and belly drum, and moves like flare blitz, eq, thunder punch, and acro. typhlosion is a bit more one-dimensional as its coverage is way more lackluster than zard's, though it boasts identical stats and a powerful stab eruption.

samurott has seen better days. it was once a scary attacker that could go physical, special, or mixed, with move options like sd, knock, and flip turn, and held items like boots, lorb, and mystic water. it was a wild card that could mow down teams if you didnt know its set. it's mostly fallen out of favor because of faster and/or stronger water-types, and often competes for your team's water-type slot with qwilfish, which provides invaluable utility. and meganium is meganium. it's got some cool new tricks like knock off and dice + bullet seed, but offensive sd sets kind of have 4mss (you want sd, stab, eq, knock, synth, maybe even tera blast rock) and just fall short in the role with other grass-type mons like the aforementioned decidueye, or ones with more immediate power like scovillain and even alolan duggy, or the insane speed of hisuian electrode, or heck even dipplin is better
 
Partially based off UU's SQSA Thread by Estarossa

Welcome to the SQSA Thread! As the name suggests, if you have a question that can be asked in one or a couple lines and/or answered in one post, please post it in this thread. When asking a question, make sure that your post is relevant to the ZeroUsed. In-game questions should be asked in Orange Islands and questions about Smogon as a whole should be asked in this thread. To avoid any ambiguity, please quote the post you are responding to when answering a question. Your answers should contain at least a brief explanation, even if it was the simplest of questions.


:wo:
[/QUO
Partially based off UU's SQSA Thread by Estarossa

Welcome to the SQSA Thread! As the name suggests, if you have a question that can be asked in one or a couple lines and/or answered in one post, please post it in this thread. When asking a question, make sure that your post is relevant to the ZeroUsed. In-game questions should be asked in Orange Islands and questions about Smogon as a whole should be asked in this thread. To avoid any ambiguity, please quote the post you are responding to when answering a question. Your answers should contain at least a brief explanation, even if it was the simplest of questions.


:wo:
How good is wugtrio
 
Is Camerupt viable in the tier? I saw it in two seperate ZUPL replays for Week 7, and it didn't seem bad. However, it's not on the VR, so is this just a new fad, or is it actually good?
 
Is Camerupt viable in the tier? I saw it in two seperate ZUPL replays for Week 7, and it didn't seem bad. However, it's not on the VR, so is this just a new fad, or is it actually good?
truthfully it’s not that great. it has high offensive stats but is pretty mediocre elsewhere. i’d guess that it saw some usage because of how prevalent hisuian electrode was, as it was a ground type that didnt drop to a leaf storm. with this threat quickbanned, we’ll probably see camerupt as an even more fringe option
 
Imo, Honchkrow just required too much support to successfully work. As a late-game sweeper, it either needed to win Sucker Punch predictions or outspeed the opponent, which were equally difficult for Honchkrow (and easier/less important for our S-tier Decid-h). If you are able to preserve something like a Regirock, Honchkrow cannot sweep, and with Moxie you don't really want to switch out and try again. Honchkrow wouldn't want to run choiced either, since flying resists and things that are willing to take dark moves (or gonna click that tera fairy) aren't uncommon.

As for Houndoom, it's always been outclassed as a low-tier special fire type with around 100 speed. It doesn't have the power/bulk of Magmortar, the speed of Pyroar (who was the better choice user when they were both PU), QD like oricorio, the scariness of Scovillain in sun, Eruption like Typhlosion, or the defensive capabilities of Charizard. It's on the slower end of these options, which adds another barrier to running NP sets that other options don't have. The only defining niche Houndoom has is being a dark type, which is nice, but not enough because it needs more coverage and moveslots to break through its resists.

They aren't unusable, and their dark typings are uncommon enough that I would at least consider Houndoom, but they are both slow enough to run into problems and outclassed by options that aren't held back by their speed.
 
Last edited:
How good is Klawf with either focus sash or weakness policy?
Bad. +3 in attack and speed sounds great, but everything about it is horrible. Has non existent bulk without sash to let it survive a bit, and if it's sash then you need to keep all hazards off, which is not easy. Also dies to ubiquitous priority, so not fun.
If you want to use a smash mon, use poltea or even tort. And as a hazard lead, even something like sudowoodo would be better.
 
How good is Klawf with either focus sash or weakness policy?
Adding on to Heatrantor's point, this klawf set is an unviable gimmick to put it simply. Avalugg-Hisui with Sturdy and Custap Berry is a better suicide lead due to its ability to keep hazards off, and weakness policy is a gimmick (like it is on most mons). Klawf does have a small niche as a bulky Regenerator Stealth Rock user though, so I'd recommend using it in that role if you wish to use Klawf.
 
Chimecho is the only legal non-LC Pokémon in the tier to learn Heal Bell. But being able to remove status apparently isn’t enough of a niche, so what gives?
 
Chimecho is the only legal non-LC Pokémon in the tier to learn Heal Bell. But being able to remove status apparently isn’t enough of a niche, so what gives?
chimecho is stat-checked by a lot of the top rated mons and is just simply outclassed by mesprit, which sports the same typing and ability, but has more set variety and coverage options
 
What would be a good kind of team to put Sableye, Porygon2, and Malamar/Pyroar on? Who would be their teammates?
Sableye and Porygon2 are great options for bulkier teams, and Pyroar can be a fine teammate for that core to offer Speed control. I think Malamar is better suited as an OTR mon on specific builds and you'd be better off trying something like the below for now maybe.
https://pokepast.es/3d95bb3d1780a864
 
Is Samurott really that bad that its unranked?
yes, due to being frail, having a below average speed tier, and not being powerful enough on either side of the spectrum, samurott just doesn’t have the stats to hold up in the current meta, despite some unique traits like access to knock off or megahorn. you’d be better off using pokemon like floatzel or qwilfish as water type attackers
 
Asking a similar question to the one that Samsuro did, why is :Electivire: unranked? Great Atk and Speed tier, good ability if you are able to predict Volt Switch from the new Rotom-Mow for example and great coverage options in my opinion (being even possible to use it as an special attakcer)
 
Back
Top