Done! In the future, any Smogdex related questions and concerns can be brought up here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/om-analyses-discussion-thread.3659600/
Thank you nonetheless for the reminder :)
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Resource Simple Questions & Simple Answers [ZU edition]
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Thank you nonetheless for the reminder :)
alrighty ! ty for letting me know :D
What makes kabutops so much better than drednaw at rain sweeping? At first drednaw's higher stats (bar speed) and megahorn for tangela seems so appealing
Regular Stunfisk is usable, but it competes a lot with its better-typed Galarian form. UR noms require replays and well thought out posts, so that can discourage some URs from actually getting nommed. That said, even if it were to get nommed and ranked, it wouldn't be too high. The mentions it gets as of late aren't that unique, and it's competes heavily with its Galarian forme. The differences are mostly type related as well as the niche of Static, but regular is vulnerable to Ice and Toxic + retains both passivity issues and weaknesses to Ground and Water. At least Earth Power + Discharge is a decent combo in this meta that Galarfisk can't compete with, but overall I wouldn't promote regular Stunfisk.
Drednaw and Kabutops are very similar rain sweepers, and rain teams are favoring Kabutops mostly for its Speed + Aqua Jet. This makes Kabutops better as a Swords Dance sweeper as even if rain expires, Kabutops may still be hard to deal with. Drednaw can be used instead on rain teams looking for a wallbreaker, as like you alluded to, options like Megahorn and Head Smash are devastating for most our physical walls. The difference between them is both a teambuilding preference and practicality, but most rain teams now favor Kabu's pros over Dred's.
What happened that led Clawitzer to being banned from ZU?
PU was actually the one that banned Clawitzer, so because it's now PUBL, it's banned from ZU as well. The same goes for Kingler, though we likely would have lost that in the July shifts anyway. Here is the post where the ban was announced: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...ouncements-thread.3660650/page-2#post-8826858
to add onto this: pu has pokémon that better support clawitzer & kingler alike, as offensive counterplay to those pokémon in zu can easily be managed by the better pokémon in pu.
Is there any reason why Uxie dropped to ZU?
Simple answer is it had enough usage to drop. I don't really know the PU metagame and can't really provide any detailed reasoning. That being said, I assume Mesprit is a large reason why Uxie dropped here.
I'm not planning to use it, but is there any reason why Stuff Cheeks + Belch Greedent not good?
Greedent has not been viable in ZU for months, and when it was, Stuff Cheeks sets weren't what it ran. Stuff Cheeks is too gimmicky and inconsistent to be pulled off; Greedent is slow and has very limited recovery even when considering Cheek Pouch. It ends up being overwelmed by wallbreakers, and even with offensive sets, it has limited breaking power unless its Belly Drum on Trick Room–needless to say, this set is also very gimmicky and too hard to be pulled off nowadays. Belch isn't worth it because of Greedent's very low Special Attack and Poison coverage doesn't deal with the Ghost-types or physical walls that counter Greedent. Lastly, if you wanted to try defensive boosting sets, there's way better Pokemon like Alcremie, Cofagrigus, and Spiritomb that are way better as defensive sweepers. Again, Greedent is just too slow and vulnerable to pull off any type of setup set, let alone Stuff Cheeks + Belch.
Katy
Banned deucer.
Bulk Up is also a great set for it, if you want to have Poliwrath as your setup pokemon on your team. Furthermore it can run a rather stall-ish set witha phazing attitude such as RestTalk with Scald and Circle Throw.
Stall in itself isn't the worst playstyle atm, but when you want to build a stall team, you should be careful with covering all the dangerous breakers such as Kangaskhan, Sawk, Rapidash, Rotom, Skuntank, opposing Silvallies, and Pokemon such as Ninetales, and Frosmoth.
Useful partners for the teammates in your stall-team could be Clefairy, Miltank, and Tangela.
Hope that helped :)
bulky poliwrath is far from a bad set, imo it’s pretty justifiable to use. however, it does face quite a bit of competition as both a bulky water and a bulky fighting type. gurdurr’s access to eviolite, knock off, and guts makes it generally a better bulk up user. jellicent’s ability to cripple physical breakers with wisp/sap/scald makes it a more applicable bulky water. throh is a worse bulky fighting type, but it does have knock off and guts, giving resttalk poli some competition there.
so while i think bulky wrath is good, but for me personally, specs wrath is a step above due to its unique coverage and speed tier. it’s a nice discussion though!! :>
Why is Carracosta considered so mediocre/bad this gen? It has lost Z-Moves sure but is there more to it compared to how it was in last gen PU? Back there it also had to deal with things like Tangela, Qwilfish, and Poliwrath and came out just fine. Its been called to be unranked several times in the past and has been clinging to dear life in mid C/C- for quite a while.
I'm mainly talking about the Shell Smash set. I'm guessing the Rocker set has its own problems that the on-paper role compression in Scald + Rocks + Knock Off just can't really salvage.
I'm mainly talking about the Shell Smash set. I'm guessing the Rocker set has its own problems that the on-paper role compression in Scald + Rocks + Knock Off just can't really salvage.
it mainly hates how fast the metagame is. even at +2, it’s still slower than quite a number of offensive threats (cinccino, scarf sawk, etc), meaning it has to often rely on aqua jet to get any sort of offensive mileage. it also suffers from a pretty terrible defensive typing, that makes it easy to revenge kill despite its solid bulk.
it also faces immense competition as a stealth rock setter. not being immune to volt switch is already a problem, but being weak to it is especially bad. going back to the point about carracosta being water/rock, volt-neutral setters like uxie and coalossal have far more crucial resistances/immunities.
The main reasons I think Carracosta is not very good is because of several reasons:
1. Power Creep
A lot of threats have fallen into PU, and by consequence, ZU. The multitude of fightings in PU has caused many threats, like Cinccino, Alolan Persian, and A-Dugtrio to also fall in. Several defensive answers like Tangela, Gurdurr, and Pyukumuku can stop a sweep before it even starts, and even when it eliminates a check, it can still be checked by the high amount of speed control in choice scarfers like manectric, sawk, and Gourgeist-S. Like you said, Poliwrath and Qwilfish still being common hurts its viability, as they can lessen its effectiveness through resistances and status. Grass types ranging from the versatile Tangela to the niche eldegoss are omnipresent as a result of Silvally-Ground’s dominance.
2. 4MSS
Of all the Pokemon with set syndromes, Carracosta has one of the worst cases (alongside maybe Hitmonchan) of 4-move set syndrome. It wants to run the obligatory Shell Smash + Stone Edge, which might seem okay at first… but then it wants Liquidation, Aqua Jet, Earthquake, and Superpower as well. Since it will usually struggle against Pokemon like Gurdurr and Tangela, it will also need to consider moves like Hydro Pump and Ice Beam just to deal with them...wait, Gurdurr isn’t even OHKO’ed by Hydro Pump? Unfortunate. This problem also extends to its ability, as it wants Sturdy to ensure it doesn’t get revenge killed (even though it is still hugely vulnerable to priority/fast attackers), but also Solid Rock to have a better chance against Silvally-Ground and Dugtrio (which still gets OHKOed by the plethora of grass types and Sawk). Heavy duty boots are needed to ensure sturdy isn’t broken, while white herb is needed to maintain its decent bulk.
3. Sluggishness
As hiss pointed out, even at +2, Carracosta relies on maintaining an Adamant to deal with neutral threats like Perrserker and Silvally-Dark, as Jolly compromises even more power while still being slower than Scarf Sawk, Cinccino, and A-Persian. While its defensive typing allows it to neatly check Kanga and Ninetales in a pinch, its offensive capabilities offset the nice defensive stat + typing, such pokemon often carry coverage moves like EQ and Energy Ball to deter Carracosta. Assuming A persian is healthy enough, it can easily swat away a sweep by foul playing away thanks to fur coat. Mane and cinccino can stave off an Aqua jet if they’re at full health:
+2 252+ Atk Carracosta Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Cinccino: 192-226 (65.9 - 77.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252+ Atk Carracosta Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Manectric: 192-226 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
As a side note, Crustle has been seeing more usage as a Shell Smash sweeper despite having a worse Bug/Rock typing and Rhydon gaining more stardom - its lack of a 4x weakness, crucial access to spikes, and better matchups against defoggers like Altaria and Articuno give it more incentive to being used, especially since it can also run a capable suicide lead set as such. Crustle’s higher speed allows it to actually outspeed Cinccino and Alolan Persian and actually beat them, since its STAB X-Scissor and slightly higher speed tier warrants more reliability on a game-to-game basis, even if its speed tier still leaves it to be outrun by scarf sawk and mane.
There is a lot of risk to put Carracosta in a team, and sometimes, it doesn’t offer a high reward when you compare to the plethora of other Water types and setup sweepers in the tier - it’s too slow, has too big of a set syndrome, and is just not happy with the increasing power creep.
Hope this hepls.
What all happened? I blinked and SilvallyG is banned. And Tsareena and Froslass are in a PokeaimMD ZU video.
EDIT: I WAS DRUNK. IT WAS A PU VIDEO.
EDIT: I WAS DRUNK. IT WAS A PU VIDEO.
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What holds back crustle? At least on paper,being a physical attacker/sweeper that doesn't care about tang seems very nice, since tang is the catch-all physical wall for a lot of teams. Rock is also a nice stab combo with bug since it means flying types aren't issues,and eq covers steels which otherwise walled it. It can maybe even opt for knock as last to cripple everything ever,and a good defense stat means it isn't terrified of common priority users like thwackey, and ofc shell smash is shell smash
so why is it C+?
so why is it C+?
infodump time!!! :D
i've used crustle relatively frequently, and i enjoy using it a lot. i honestly view it as a b- to b tier pokemom, as it's both a stealth rock setter that can scare out almost all defog users & a wallbreaker that rips through slower teams. i understand that there's flaws holding it back, though.
boasting shell smash is great, but even at +2 speed, its speed only raises to 414. this makes it slower than almost every scarf user in the tier, making it easy to revenge kill. not to mention, since it can't fit white herb onto its set (needs boots for sturdy set, needs sash for weak armor set), the defense drop makes it vulnerable to all priority besides kangaskhan's fake out.
i think it's a great suicide lead/offensive stealth rocker, but it faces immense competition from aurorus. while crustle also has great coverage, its access to edgequake is far from rare. on the other hand, aurorus's access to refrigerate hyper voice and freeze-dry is both rare and valuable, not to mention meteor beam being as ridiculous as it is.
Hello! Im new to ZU and i created a team and im not sure how good it is, is there a thread or somewhere i can post it for feedback and whatnot?
Also is there a discord?
Thanks in advance!
Also is there a discord?
Thanks in advance!
Hi, welcome to Smogon! Ideally, you’d put your team into a Pokepaste and ask the ZU room on Pokemon Showdown for critique.
There is a ZU discord, check out the link here:
https://discord.gg/6Nmnyym3