Hi! Nice to meet you all!
I’m here to talk about my thoughts about the current meta in OU currently, and why I believe that some of us might be frustrated on some things that are present on it.
Gen 8 introduced us to a lot of new things, with some of them being broken from the getgo (Dynamax being the most outrageous example). A few things are kinda cool conceptually and do give us a breath of fresh air into the meta - namely the new Teleport mechanic from Let’s Go and Heavy Duty Boots.
These, coupled with other things (namely Future Sight), end up creating a whole new experience that feels like it negates possible outcomes related to
counteplay of some gameplay elements. And I will talk about how Heavy Duty Boots, Teleport and Future Sight did that, in my
personal view:
Heavy Duty Boots:
VoltTurn teams are not new, being present ever since Gen 5. It is a healthy and valid playstyle that forces you to be proactive if you want to swing momentum back to your side.
One of the common weakness to teams that rely to VoltTurn entirely was entry hazards, especially hazard stacking. You could punish the switch ins via hazards and heavily pressure the spinner/defogger once you laid your Stealth Rock and/or Spikes. However:
Heavy Duty Boots negates this aspect somewhat. The risk of using VoltTurn is lessened, since a good deal of Pokémon that partake in VoltTurn teams have Heavy Duty Boots as their item of choice.
(relevant) Volt Switch users in OU:
Tapu Koko, Zeraora, Magnezone, Zapdos.
Of these, three of them have Heavy Duty Boots as their prime item of choice. Rotom-H is the only one not in OU by usage that, if used, will favor Heavy Duty Boots most of the time while having Volt Switch in its moveset.
(relevant) U-Turn users in OU:
Tapu Koko, Dragapult, Corviknight, Landorus-T, Tornadus-T, Rillaboom, Urshifu-RS, Zapdos-G, Scizor, Victini
Here we have a more varied pool of Pokémon. Not all of them run Heavy Duty Boots, though.
Corviknight doesn’t need it since it acts as a Defogger and uses U Turn after doing standard Corviknight things to gain a little momentum. Rillaboom negates a bit of hazard damage via Grass Terrain, Urshifu-S resists Stealth Rock.
Zapdos-G and Dragapult are still mostly used with their Choice items of choice, but Heavy Duty Boots on them are getting popular, due on how easily they force switchs and keep momentum to their side. Landorus-T is not a Heavy Duty Boots user, almost always using Leftovers if bulky, or another item if suicide lead or Swords Dance.
Tapu Koko, Scizor, Victini and Tornadus-T are the ones that will most likely have Heavy Duty Boots as their items.
Other (relevant) Heavy Duty Boots users in OU:
Blissey, Kyurem, Volcarona, Dragonite, Mandibuzz, Slowbro/Slowking, Buzzwole, Weavile
Outside Buzzwole, who uses Leftovers/Rocky Helmet as item choices in equal viability, and Kyurem, who can also rip apart teams with Choice Specs most of the time, all of them favor Heavy Duty Boots as an item choice due to it negating some of their major weakness.
Blissey is used do stomach special hits and Teleport afterwards, swinging momentum back to its team. Same with Slowbro/Slowking, but better, because of Regenerator (and Future Sight).
Mandibuzz is a Defogger. Volcarona now does not give a damn about Stealth Rock and can come and go as it pleases to set up in your face. Same with Dragonite, keeping its Multiscale intact is way easier than before.
Weavile is a powerhouse that can also come and go without any drawbacks at all, especially if you slow pivot it via Teleport/VoltTurn. You enter safely regardless of Stealth Rock being present, and either you setup a Swords Dance or heavily damage/kill the switch in. With Future Sight in play, it is even easier (more on that later).
Is Heavy Duty Boots a broken item?
If we analyze Heavy Duty Boots by itself, without taking other things into consideration,
most likely not.
It may be something that makes VoltTurn teams even better (which I agree wholeheartedly) because it negates the entry hazard weakness that such teams do have.
However, as annoying it may be facing a VoltTurn team with +2 Heavy Duty Boots user (especially the fatter you are), the game is far from decided at the team preview. You don’t autolose because you saw that your opponent has Tapu Koko+Zeraora, for example (unless your team is directly weak to them). If you play a fatter team, it just takes (way) longer to make progress.
The biggest deal is, however, the fact that Heavy Duty Boots negate a significant weakness on strong Pokémon (Volcarona, Weavile, Dragonite), making using them almost low risk, with their usual good reward. You can ignore hazards most of the time if you have their Heavy Duty Boots intact.
Teleport:
Let’s Go brought to us a welcome change in Teleport, acting like a dry pass. Its distributcion is way more restricted than Baton pass, however.
Regarding the Pokémon that do learn it, Teleport brings their usability to a level unimaginable before Gen 8/Gen7Let's Go - due enabling them to swing momentum to their side.
(relevant) Teleport users in OU:
Clefable, Slowbro, Slowking, Blissey, Magnezone.
Teleport Magnezone is a niche option on some sets that work well if your team supports it.
Clefable not only can use Teleport for momentum, but also to safely recover a teammate via Wish.
Blissey is something that no one imagined that would gain traction, but here we are.
Blissey is now a staple outside stall teams, and for good reason. You enter into something that you can take a hit, and you most likely Teleport to bring momentum back to your side. And Chansey/Blissey were the premier Pokémon known as the momentum sink. Heavy Duty Boots, of course, is a huge factor for this - enabling Blissey to repeteaedly ignore hazards. While Chansey is still a better pink blob due her higher tankiness, Blissey is now popular and more effective because it now brings momentum instead of losing it in a switch in, plus ignoring hazards, making it a better general fit to the metagame.
Slowbro and Slowking... I’ll talk more about them below when adressing Future Sight.
Is Teleport a broken move?
In my opinion, no. It is like U Turn, but for fatter Pokémon in general. What makes it a little bit obnoxious, however, is Teleport when coupled with other things, namely... Future Sight and/or Regenerator (which only Slowbro and Slowking can both learn).
Future Sight:
And we have Future Sight.
I do believe that Future Sight, of all of the elements of the current metagame, is the one that, at the very minimum, is kinda unfun to be on the receiving end.
Why?
Because it negates some portion of counterplay, especially switch ins to a check/counter. So you have something to stomach a hit from a Rillaboom and threaten it out? Either you’ll take Future Sight damage, being either KOd by it + being hit by the opposing Pokémon, or being heavily damaged - thus unable to come for a second time, unless you sac something else.
Future Sight was a 120 base power move since Gen 6. No one paid attention to it, despite being a somewhat cheesy move. What makes Future Sight a threat now?
Future Sight being “discovered” is a likely byproduct of Heavy Duty Boots being introduced.
Remember: Heavy Duty Boots negates hazard damage, one common way to do chip damage against the opponent, and keeping dangerous Pokémon at bay. In a need of being able to do some chip damage, Future Sight came and fulfilled that part.
And that’s where Slowbro/Slowking shines. They are the premium Future Sight users for a good number of reasons:
Slowbro/Slowking both have Regenerator, plus Heavy Duty Boots, making the process almost risk-free. They enter, use Future Sight, Teleport out while recovering some of the damage taken in the process.
While they are not the only Pokémon that can use Future Sight, they're the premium users due on how easy is to pilot them
Future Sight becomes even more scary when you construct solid cores based solely on that.
It is especially deadly on offensive Dark and Fighting types, since Future Sight will either hit for super-effective on their most common answers or you’ll hit them for super-effective damage if they send a Psychic/Dark/Steel to take the Future Sight hit.
And, of course, VoltTurn users. You can simply retreat, chipping them down without much risky.
Good Future Sight cores are really scary for these factors. For example, let's take some common Urshifu-RS answers that can actually switch on it:
Paired with Future Sight support, Toxapex, Kommo-o and Buzzwole are KOed if they switch in. Tangrowh is also KOed if chipped a bit prior or if U-Turn is used. Tapu Fini is heavily damaged and lacks reliable recovery, so it can't really switch more than once.
And it is not the only case. You can pretty much support every Pokémon with Future Sight to good results.
Is Future Sight a broken move?
I really do not know.
Most likely no. At least, by itself.
What I know, at least, is that Future Sight is one the the things that can really dictate a match if played well. Especially when paired with some Pokémon that used Future Sight to KO its checks/counters.
And, like I pointed above, we have the holy combo of Heavy Duty Boots + Regenerator + Teleport, on Slowbro/Slowking. that makes clicking Future Sight almost risk-free with decent payoff at very worst, and winning you the game at the very best.
While there’s zero urgency at the moment regarding anything (which is a good thing!), I do believe that, at the very minimum, we can analyze these points to actually know and understand the beast that is the Gen 8 metagame, and how different it is compared to the previous ones. I also trust the OU Council to make the right call if there is need for one.
Sorry for the long ass wall of text. I just wanted to share my views about what I believe to be a very interesting metagame, despite its flaws.
Thank you!
