Gens 3 through 5
Exploud got Hydro Pump and Terrain Pulse. Scrappy Boomburst is cool since we still have some Ghost-types in the tier (Aegislash and Dragapult), but I'm not too sure how well Exploud will do. It has good coverage and decent power, but it's a little slow and a bit prediction reliant just to get some decent mileage out of it.
Sharpedo got some interesting new moves in Flip Turn and Close Combat. Unfortunately for Sharpedo, Barraskewda also has both of those moves and a much higher Speed stat of 136. If Barraskewda isn't being used, then neither will Sharpedo.
Luxray is back and has some decent new moves. It can now use Thunder Shock, Electro Ball, Play Rough, Psychic Fangs, Rising Voltage and Agility. Play Rough is a nice coverage option, and Agility is nice to boost its lackluster Speed stat, but it pains me to say that Luxray still isn't good enough for OU. Hippowdon and Tangrowth will endless wall it and Luxray can't really do much to get past them.
Lopunny has a lot of new moves, including U-turn, Play Rough and Close Combat. This is great and all, if it could still Mega Evolve. Unfortunately it can't, and as such, it won't be good enough for OU.
Although Magnezone can no longer convenient trap Steel-types such as Ferrothorn with Hidden Power Fire, it did gain Body Press to partially make up for this. Unfortunately, having to rely on Iron Defense + Body Press to trap Steel-types like Ferrothorn makes it less consistent at taking care of them, it can still get the job done and that is very useful for a variety of Pokemon. The usefulness of the fact that it can trap Corviknight and Skarmory can also certainly not be understated. It will be interesting to see how Magnezone will adapt to the metagame with the loss and gain of some tools, and how the metagame will adapt to it in response.
Lickylicky actually has some nice stats with a lot of bulk. Unfortunately it's pretty slow and doesn't have a single turn recovery move like Recover (it has Wish). It now gets Hydro Pump, Body Press, Terrain Pulse, Steel Roller, Self-Destruct.
Tangrowth didn't really gain any new tools that are notable, but it does provide SS OU with a pretty sturdy Grass-type. It is an amazing check to Pokemon like Excadrill and Zeraora, and can be very annoying to switch into thanks to the combination of Knock Off and Sleep Power.
As I stated earlier in Porygon2's paragraph, Porygon-Z also gets Thunder Shock, Power Swap, Guard Swap, Speed Swap, Eerie Impulse. Nasty Plot let's it do some pretty decent damage, but a speed stat of 90 still limits it a decent amount.
Stoutland has Payback now. It has some nice coverage moves in general, but no way to boost its attack stat while also losing its best STAB moves in Return and Frustration make it hard to believe it'll see any usage in OU.
Scolipede didn't really gain anything noteworthy. It has Steam Roller, Cross Poison and Assurance now, none of which it'll end up using. SD sets could be cool with Aqua Tail, Poison Jab and Earthquake, but it isn't the strongest even at +2 and has no reliable way to easily break past Corviknight and Skarmory. It does provide Spikes, so that's nice.
Lilligant gained some physical moves in Solar Blade, Leaf Blade and Grassy Glide, but didn't get any new special moves. It does have Quiver Dance, but lost Hidden Power and did not get access to Weather Ball, so now it has no way to threaten Steel-types.
Krookodile gained a lot of new moves, a lot of which aren't worth using outside of Close Combat and Darkest Lariat. It's cool to have another Intimidate user and another Ground-type in the tier. However, offensively it'll struggle with Corviknight, Hippowdon and Tangrowth, and then defensively it's a bit questionable to justify using it due to Hippowdon existing.
Zoroark has Encore now, but it still has the general issues it always has and probably won't see usage in OU. Losing Z moves means it is a lot more reliant on its own stats to get surprise KO's with Illusion, and due to the bulky nature of generation 8, it won't be easy at all for Zoroark to pull it off.
For some reason, Emolga now has access to some grass moves in Energy Ball, Solarbeam and Solar Blade. While this may be cool, its offensive stats are subpar and with no way to boost its special attack, it won't be worth using offensively. Defensively it does provide Defog, but with its rather low defensive stats, it won't be tanking as many hits as it wants to.
Amoonguss did not gain any moves with notable applicabilities in Singles formats, unlike in Doubles, where Pollen Puff is a very good support move to keep teammates on the field healthy. Amoonguss fills a pretty significant void in the previous SS OU metagame as a Zeraora, Primarina, and Clefable check.
Mienshao has access to Close Combat and Blaze Kick now. Despite gaining Close Combat, it may opt to run High Jump Kick solely because it has Reckless as an ability to give it a more respectable damage output. Despite this, Mienshao won't be able to break past fighting resists like Toxapex since it lacks decent coverage options.
Druddigon got a few new moves, none of which are too helpful: Mega Punch, Body Slam, Endure, Dual Wingbeat, Scale Shot, Lash Out. It does have fairly respectable attacking power with base 120 attack and Sheer Force, and also has access to Glare and Stealth Rock.
In exchange for losing Return, Bouffalant gained Close Combat, Throat Chop, High Horsepower and Body Slam. It's surprisingly bulky and it does have access to Swords Dance. However, even at +2, it struggles to pressure Corviknight, as Close Combat after a Swords Dance only does 44-52%.
Volcarona fortunately didn't gain access to Earth Power like it was rumored to, and it didn't even really gain any notable tools besides Heavy-Duty Boots, but it is incredibly likely to do just fine with what it already has. Without Heatran, Volcarona is completely free to run Psychic so there isn't really any 4MSS to hold it back. Luckily, we still have Pokemon such as Chansey, Toxapex, Kommo-o, and Rotom-H available to check it, but will that be enough, or will Volcarona prove to be too much for SS OU? What do you think?
