This season of SPL has been really awesome altogether, with great showings from every player and party involved. Though, most interestingly, I'm fascinated to see the metagame developments and really fun cores unfolding. In particular, I'd like to use Katy's fantastic post as groundwork for my own observations.
this pokemon gained a lot of usage over the past couple of weeks. slowly but surely it cements itself as one of the better pokemon in swsh ou.
this pokemon clicks choice band-boosted knock offs like no other, triple axel, and priority in ice shard make it a very appealing factor in spl and without many ice/dark resists in the metagame this pokemon clearly shows more and more dominance in spl altogether. its different sets all put in a lot of work wether its choice band or heavy-duty boost with swords dance both sets are a huge threat to most teams right now. its speed tier is also great with 125 it doesnt get outsped that easily. i think this pokemon sees more and more usage not only in tour environment but also on ladder.
i've talked about this pokemon before, but i cannot stress enough of how good scizor is, this pokemon shot up in usage over the past couple of weeks as well.
with teampartners like landorus-t, dragapult, and zeraora it formes a great core pressuring the opposition with volt-turn combo. scizor really cemented itself as one of the biggest threats currently and i hope it sees the ladder usage it deserves. it also profits from an amazing priority in stab bullet punch, which after a swords dance-boost, is really threatening.
had a whopping 100% winrate in week 9 of spl and it clearly shows how good of a pokemon it is. i
t's swords dance set is really terrifying after its checks in corviknight and mandibuzz are weakened. grassy glide in grassy terrain with the added boost is nothing to laugh at after a +2 with swords dance and rillaboom is a noteworthy wallbreaker. this grass buddy clearly dominated the past week of spl and i feel we will see more of it.
Weavile, Scizor, and Rillaboom are having a fantastic time in the current metagame, and the big things I've noticed regarding their usage, I bolded. I believe that these 3 Pokemon are utterly fantastic right now, especially in tandem with Zeraora and Tapu Koko which lay out a lot of pressure against threats like Corviknight, Toxapex, and Mandibuzz that can be fairly annoying for them. I think more offensively inclined teams are shining in the current metagame in such a way that doesn't feel particularly constricting, too, sporting a wide variety of offensive cores that are super customizable. There are options like Kyurem, Zeraora, Tapu Koko, Rillaboom, Weavile, Dragapult, Scizor, Garchomp, Landorus-T; frankly, that's just scratching the surface. I absolutely love the route that offenses have been taking and it's amazing to me just how many options there actually are for them in the tier. Overall, though, I seriously adore how much archetype customization that the tier's climate encourages.
As another discussion point I'd like to bring up off of this observation, I think, bluntly, that this is a
Knock Off centric metagame. Knock Off is probably the most powerful, easy, and effective way to force progress in the tier, and is viable on a wide variety of offensive and defensive Pokemon alike for its ability to instantaneously strip away vital items like HDB and Leftovers. The three quoted Pokemon are a fair symptom of that idea, with all three making solid use out of Knock Off to punish pretty much every single switch-in in the tier, too. Obviously, there are reasons for this: for one, we have incredibly powerful Knock Off abusers that are incredibly potent at making use of the move. For example, Tornadus-T is arguably a top 3 Pokemon in the tier, and despite being a Nasty Plot wallbreaker, it makes use of Knock Off to remove HDB from Tapu Koko and Zapdos which are otherwise capable of swapping into its Hurricane and coverage options with relative ease. Likewise, Rillaboom and Kartana can both also make use of Knock Off to strip switch-ins like Mandibuzz and Zapdos of their boots, and also remove Corviknight's item as well which can leave it more vulnerable to later wallbreaking. The other reason as to its power is, simply, without Mega Stones and Z-Crystals to block Knock Off's removal, it is a move that is immensely spammable and neigh impossible to switch into. I don't feel as though Knock Off is necessarily broken, but rather that its centralization is based heavily in the climate of the metagame, especially since it can be swapped into after you lose your item initially (though, that's dependent on the recipient in question). It's just an amazing move on literally any Pokemon.
Despite that, though, I think this is the best state the metagame has been in for a long time. I'm absolutely pumped to see what SPL playoffs bring to the table, and what developments we will see for the tier going forward.