Like most people, I've got my fair share of grievances with the current meta as it is right now; that said however, I believe it still has potential to be a really great meta. I think a good way to describe this gen of OU in comparison to the recent few would be 'pure', since the Dynamax ban there's been no gimmicks, there's no tack-on nuke Z-Moves and no convenient cover-all Hidden Power to crutch on while building, and while in one way that makes things more formulaic under certain circumstances, I think it has potential to lead to lead to more creativity in the use of lures and bait breakers/support. There's still a lot I dislike about the tier right now, and a lot of things I think are being slept on as well as trends I think could emerge or remain, I'll cover those too.
Lures, baits, and breakers:
Tapu Koko @ Choice Specs
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
- Grass Knot
Koko's around lately more as a Screens pivot for the most part I'd seen, but I think its Specs set deserves more credit than it's getting. The absence of Hidden Power hit it quite hard with its lack of ability to spam a consistent anti-Ground coverage to catch its Electric immune checks with HP Ice or to remove a particular annoying Durian with HP Fire. That said, while the aforementioned durian is still a wall for Koko, Grounds are still not as safe as they'd like to believe with Grass Knot being able to catch Hippo, Gastro, Swampert and such for the O/2HKO and Specs Gleam catching Chomp and all variants of Lando-T for the 2HKO. Losing HP Ice may make them feel more comfortable to switch in, but it is capable of dealing substantial damage to all of these checks.
Partners include the obvious Regieleki who appreciates these threats also removed. Supported on a 'heavy offence' HO structure with a series of other breakers to continue to bait and overwhelm these mons like Cinderace, Magearna, Melm, Nidoking etc make for a solid E-Spam squad. Sand teams also appreciate this set for obvious reasons, being able to chip your Sand Rush sweeper's checks is the main focus of any typical Sand BO team, but not only Exca is your main beneficiary now, but Zolt as well who struggles with these same checks (E-Terrain boosted Bolt Beaks are also terrifying).
Magnezone @ Chople Berry
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 252 Def / 116 SpA / 140 Spe
Bold Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Substitute
A potential partner to the above Specs Koko, as well as common Ferro and Corv lures like Rillaboom and Lando-T, ID Press Zone is still a mon that has great potential. While Metal birds' usages are on the vast decline, Ferro is a very solid pick in the meta to cover a lot of threats including Fini, Lando, Magearna, Melm, and others. We also play in a meta where contact chip is one of the best ways to force progress vs opposing breakers and Ferro is a phenomenal option for that. It's very safe to say that a tool specifically designed to remove the annoying durian is a boon to a lot of teams, and with so many mons, new and old, free to lure it in and pivot off of it into Zone make it very effective in its ability to do so. On heavy offence structures it also serves as a great way to force damage on things like Tran, Melm, and possibly Magearna; in spite of the fact that it will likely lose the 1v1, being able to guarantee chip on those threats could go a very long way towards cracking an opposing team.
Partners include the previously mentioned Rillaboom, Koko, and Lando for reasons mentioned before. Sand balances also appreciate its ability to remove these pesky Excadrill checks. Shift Gear Magearna also loves having its Steel walls forcibly squashed to allow for a clean sweep late game.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Crunch
- Ice Beam / Fire Blast
With the return of Lando and Chomp and the rise of Ferro, T-Tar now once again has reason to tack on its special lure. Fuck, if you're a real man then you can run full Specs and run them both plus Hydro Pump to catch Hippo too, but my balls are too small to recommend that. There's really nothing to explain here besides this should pretty much be on every T-Tar, it's a perfect bait for those mons and Sand Rush partners would absolutely love them gone or hurt.
Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam / Flamethrower / Thunderbolt
- Substitute
Nidoking's been an underrated mon for gens now, but with Hidden Power being gone people would really appreciate a cover-all breaker that just has the potential to kill everything. You don't know what you've got to answer this thing with without a lot of scouting first, and that means it puts a lot of pressure on teams that don't have a certain pink fat thing on them. It can serve as a very convenient glue breaker you can tack on to fill your offensive shortfalls.
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic
- Aura Sphere / Mystical Fire / Surf
- Roost
Latios is incredibly underrated and more people should be using it. Gaining fantastic coverage that covers for the absence of Hidden Power, it's at least as capable a breaker as it used to be. Trick Specs was my choice early meta but I've really fallen for the flexibility of Life Orb Roost, allowing for potentially greater longevity and the ability to switch up moves making it less prediction-reliant and more versatile for only a minor trade-off in power is awesome, though being able to cripple pink things with Trick is quite nice too. It works on a lot of team structures from balance to heavy offence and can deal a lot of damage to checks it lures in to allow your chosen sweeper to clean effectively.
Spectrier loves this thing with its ability to lure in T-Tar and catch it with the Aura Sphere, while also being able to do solid damage to Heatran, Ferro, and Melm similarly. Magearna and possibly CM Clef also appreciate the ability to bait and hit fat Steels. Urshifu is also a great partner given how they cover each others' checks 1v1 with the exception of Clef who they can easily overwhelm together.
Gengar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
Gengar is another mon that doesn't really have any checks. I've got Sub Plot up there as an example, but LO Plot three attacks with Sludge Wave and/or Thunderbolt is a great option too, as is Specs. It's being somewhat overlooked as the premier Ghost type right now is obviously broken Spectrier, but unlike the rejected MLP villain Gengar actually has coverage which allows it to function much better as a mid-game breaker in comparison to Spect's usefulness as a late-game sweeper. Focus Blast and T-Bolt allow it to lure and catch its checks such as T-Tar or Mandi, Sub allows it to play around with Urshifu's Sucker Punch mind games or turn Bliss into set up fodder, and if you're really feeling saucy you can try a Destiny Bond trapper set to guarantee the removal of your opponent's Ghost check, but that's more hilarious that actually practical most of the time.
Partners can include pretty much everything as, similar to Nidoking, pretty much every team values the idea of a breaker that can kill whatever you want to kill. In particular I'd like to re-emphasise Spectrier, as Gengar already has the ability to overwhelm the average Ghost check, what better to make use of that than the ultimate Ghost sweeper? Another pairing for heavy offence HO.
Melmetal @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Superpower
- Rock Slide
- Ice Punch
Melm is one of those mons that has the ability to select its checks, and while it's absolutely no longer the broken hulk it used to be in the pre-DLC meta, it's still a fantastic breaker. Rock Slide is not all that common on Melm lately, and that's kind of understandable with Heatom being almost out of the picture right now and Slide's lack of overall coverage in comparison to the Elemental Punches, but it does have a particular usefulness vs some certain Kantonian pains in the ass. Contact status birds are a cheap way of dealing with a lot of physical breakers, Melm included, so what better way to handle them than ensuring the OHKO, or at least massive damage with Rock Slide without having to risk making your Melm useless after?
This is more of a specific slot as opposed to a blanket coverage slot like the Elemental Punches would be, so most likely you'd want this to support another breaker who struggles with these birds such as Rillaboom and Kartana. These birds are also responsible for the rapid decline in U-Turn viability, which means prediction-reliance in games has gone back up compared to the DLC1 days where you could just chain 5 U-Turners and a Rocker together. That being considered, pivots like Lando-T and Cinderace who suffer greatly from the adverse affects of contact status would love their chance to start clicking U-Turn back as soon as possible.
Clefable @ Sticky Barb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Stealth Rock
- Trick
- Soft-Boiled
In a meta where Fu, Spect, Mage, and Ace are all insane low risk high reward monsters, there's very reason not to run a set which enables these things even more while offering other near mandatory supportive functions as well. Clef is already on a sickening amount of teams because it kinda has to be, so giving it the ability to force turn by turn chip on things it lures in such as Pex, Bliss, and fat Steels in order to limit their abilities to check the likes of the aforementioned broken threats is a no-brainer. No, seriously, it's pretty brain-dead.
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Power Herb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fly
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Swords Dance
This one is one that I think is a bit more ahead of its time, but I've had faith that this will eventually become a staple pick, and I still have faith that it will soon! Discount Supersonic Sky Strike functions in basically the same way as before, luring in fat Grasses and Buzzwole and taking them out, though forced to run SD to get the OHKO on Tang now.
Supporting Sand sweepers and Rillabooms on Sand BO and heavy offence will be its premier usage, and with its general raw power it'll fit great as a supportive breaker on both those archetypes. Get it while it's hot.
Sleeper picks:
I covered this above so I'll just briefly re-emphasise. This thing's dual STAB destroys most things and its last coverage slot can cover the rest, selectable by team support. It supports common breakers and sweepers on balance and BO teams as well as offering great offensive synergy on heavy offence structures. It shouldn't not be used.
Also mentioned above, due to the abundance of Ferro that need killing and Rillaboom that need supporting, Zone needs more usage. And hey, its Analytic set still has the ability to break through all of its checks over time. I think it's criminal that this mon is UU. As a supporting trapper I think it has a firm place in OU, and as the busted risk-free breakers of the tier go to Ubers jail Analytic Zone will go from being a niche pick to a top contender for offensive support very soon. Make no mistake that it's still potent now though regardless of competition.
Similar to Zone above, these things are also a potent overlooked breakers. The best checks are good predictions, on paper they probably 6-0s most of your builds. They face stiff competition from the premier threats right now but you can make them work with the right support to get them in and out safely and often and mind my words if you're ignoring them now, you won't be later.
People are starting to use Crawdaunt more and that's a good thing, this thing on Rain, on HO, on whatever will always get you mileage. People are drinking the Banded juice right now, but I'm still personally a fan of SD. SD RillaDaunt is a very potent pairing with dual priority, disgusting power, and ability to overwhelm that still holds up.
I've talked a lot about heavy offence, but Thundy-I could have a lot of merit on more Lead/Breaker/Breaker/Utility/Speed/Sweeper type HO structures as a viable T-Wave pivot. Late towards the end of DLC1, HO teams started to run Sub T-Wave Pult and with good reason, having a fast T-Waver is a great way to ensure your offence successfully outpaces opposing offensive structures and supports, a Prankster T-Waver is an awesome option to do just that. Packing Focus Blasts for the immune Darks and being able to pivot off Electric immunities to safely bring in breakers like Daunt and Rilla, potentially giving them a free set up opportunity, I think could be invaluable. I've yet to experiment with this one, but I really see merit here. Perhaps Sub Plot could be a viable fat breaker in future too with the right support, but that might be a stretch without Hidden Power.
Shit I hate:
I'm not gonna beat these dead horses. They're busted out the ass and should be suspected as soon as convenient. I have no case to make that no one else hasn't already made, I'm just adding my name to the list.
Fuck me if these things didn't turn into the most annoying turds in the tier while not actually being broken. Rocky Helmet could be added to the list at this point too cuz everyone and their mothers are throwing that on everything now. Contact chip has made pivot support more of a liability than a support now, and it's simply no longer efficient to chain together pivots to take the prediction reliance out of some games anymore, or at least it's not so simple to do so anymore. Premier U-Turners like Lando-T, Rillaboom, Urshifu, and maybe Cinderace are now typically best without the move, and I think that's a big pain to Lando in particular, I would not be surprised at all to see Protective Pads being standardised in the near future (I've seen bulky Pads Rillaboom too, but let's not go there). In one way you can say it's a good thing that brainless pivot-spam is finally being punished, but with cheap RNG based low-risk high-reward strats it feels like the pendulum swinging the other way. I don't think anything can be done about this besides Pads and caution, but I really hate these.
Trends and predictions:
I've spoken a lot about 'heavy offence' throughout this post, and I really do think its an important thing to consider in today's meta. Balance and BO is incredibly formulaic as there's only such a fine line you can walk on to try and effectively cover the main beasts of the tier both offensively and defensively. The big four of Fu, Spect, Mage, and Ace are all so potent and require very specific things to keep them in check, add to that how potent they are together and you've got a team of 50% broken shit an 50% trying to check broken shit. I feel like with these things still loose that resorting to the extremes is an appropriate option right now; either go full stall to cover them all defensively or full HO to overwhelm things offensively. I'm not big on stall simply because with the potency of Fu+Future Sight, the splashability of Magma trap Tran, Taunt CM Fini, and the like, and the rise of hazard stacking, stall is just under way too much pressure to consistently perform. HO on the other hand has a myriad of breakers and sweepers to choose from who each posses great offensive utilities and can be strung together to overwhelm common structures without too much hassle. I think now is a good time to run an offensive team if you're bored of the 20 balance teams in your builder that all look the same.
I also predict in the near future that Sand BO will make a triumphant return. The upper echelons of the viability rankings show little in the ways of Ground resists or immunities and they do have the tools needed to achieve what they want to achieve. I think the fear of Rillaboom and Rain, while legitimate, is somewhat blown out of proportion and teams can still accommodate these without too much compromise in other areas. That said, when the number of things to prep for declines after subsequent suspect tests there's gonna be little excuse not to have some Sand in your builder.
Merry Christmas.