Metagame SS OU Metagame Discussion (Usage stats in post #944)

[JTD783]

Has anyone else considered Imposter-proofing methods? I know it’s some Balanced Hackmons shit but with the lethal set-up abusers running around and the resulting high use of Ditto I think having a plan to deal with Imposter is useful.

Obviously the easiest method is to run Substitute since it blocks Imposter. Some mons can afford to do so and some can’t since they rely too much on coverage. Not much to say there.

Another option is just adding an Unaware mon to the team. We have Clef, Pyukumuku, and Quagsire, if there’s anything else then I’m not currently aware of it. They can handle most of the meta’s set up abusers.

The true Balanced Hackmons way is to have something on the team that your own mon can’t break through. For example, running a non-Power Whip Gyarados and a Rotom-Wash on the same team. May be unreliable since the anti-imposter mon has to be kept reasonably healthy.

 

[wafflecone67]

I don't quite understand what you mean. Are you implying that having many choices leads to unhealthy metas? That's just absurd. Just last gen, the meta was mostly vibrant, with new strategies being used often. Now, there were some pokemon that were unjustly banned (looking at the snake), but in all, I'd rate SM at 8/10, mostly because toxapex was a fucking stally nuisance, but it could be overcome.


So, change bad, game make us work different.
I can tell you aren't taking this seriously, but I'll entertain you still.

That's a straw man and you know it. Z moves lead to too may variations now with dynamaxing you can't even guess the pokemon that is getting maxed because everyone can do it and it has the stress factor of z moves. Therefore lowing the skill floor. Gen 7 meta was a mess because of z moves I don't know how you can honestly unironically think that the meta will be healthier with dynamax.

I acknowledge one won't be able to cover literally everything. But, that shouldn't mean you detract from the meta, nor does it mean that you and/or the meta are flawed. It means that you won't win all the time with one team. Variance is necessary, and if all you do is stick to one popular team, then everyone will adapt and defeat you. You can't cover them all, so only cover the ones that are most likely to threaten you currently.

No, we don't want it to become another matchup meta like gen7. There are no pokemon that can truly 1v1 all gyrados sets and be good enough take on the rest of the metagame. Grya punishes you hard for something you don't know and by the time you find out one of your mons can kinda switch in its too late they have done too much work. You have to straight-up ignore threats in this meta and that big problem. Yes, there were good mu's or bad mu's in other metagames but its no more prevalent than in gen 7 and currently gen 8. Sure we haven't found out every tech but the fact that DEFENSIVE PIVOTS ARE BORDERLINE USELESS should tell you that it's not a healthy mechanic to have.

Back then tauros just hyper beamed your ass if you didnt know what was good, and even then, you got beamed. And in gen 2, were there even any sweeps?
Z moves are bursts that can be used to eliminate a key part of the opponent, but they were also single use, just as dynamax is now.
Is it alright if i just overlook the "scouting" in your reply? I dont think you meant it to be in there.
And what was the foundation of competitive pokemon? It couldn't be the players, for anyone can develop skill if they practice and learn. It couldn't be the pre-battle looksie you get in the new games, because the older games didn't have that. It might just be the pokemon and how they fare against each other.

Because in those meta's you could adapt. If I saw tauros then there was a high chance it had hyperbeam. If I saw Snorlax there is a high chance it had belly drum and I had to stop it with skarm. You had answers. You weren't forced to use a mon that just straight up stomped the metagame. In current pokemon a large part of the current meta is Being aware of the sets that you can run into and having ample counterplay. With maxing, you just don't have that. With Z moves there is an opportunity cost(Albeit a small one) No item slot so your pokemon could become useless after the z move was used. Dynamax doesn't have that and all this leads me to believe that you're one of those people who believe in a broken checks broken philosophy.

 

[damien the genius]

I'd like to mention a mon that while not meta defining, is something I've been using a lot and think is underrated.

Gallade (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Zen Headbutt
- Shadow Sneak/Knock Off/Poison Jab

At face value Gallade seems a tad too slow to be a great mon, but it actually has a lot of value, emulating Mega Medicham's typing of Psychic/Fighting which gives fantastic coverage, allowing it to hit everything but psychic's neutrally across it's STAB. It also has a really nice ability to take down Ferro/Pex cores, with a guaranteed 2HKO on Pex and a roll to OHKO Ferro after rocks or any chip, both of those with full physical investment. It's last moveslot is more variable and gives it the option to draw from it's wide movepool to take on a lot of threats. Shadow Sneak is awesome against HO which is essential given it's so common because it gives you a safety net to pick off a weakened threat, which has personally saved my team more than once from sweepers, but in the long run Knock Off looks like it'll be the stronger move, giving Gallade the ability to take down defensive Mew on the predicted switch and having awesome utility of removing items, which not so many mons have now, it also gives it an awesome match-up with Corsola since it can remove eviolite. I slashed Poison Jab on there for it's ability to take down Clef, though it doesn't do a whole lot else for Gallade. The other great thing about this is it's huge number of utility moves, allowing it to run Thunder Wave, Will-o-Wisp or Toxic to cripple checks coming in or Scarf + Trick to allow it to take on Hyper Offense as well as giving it extra utility against stall, if you're feeling really gutsy you can even run screens + memento or Trick Room to enable other sweepers. However, one of the biggest benefits of Gallade is it's ability to use swords dance to give it OHKOs against a huge portion of the meta, making it so that even Corviknight has to be careful. Gallade also has some more than decent natural special bulk, meaning it can take a hit in a pinch, though most special attackers are psychic/ghost/fairy at the moment so it's not as valuable as it seems. This all makes Gallade very strong against stall and balance (even though balance isn't at all common because dynamaxing is broken) and gives it enough ability to not be dead weight against hyper offense, making it a useful member in some teams. I also haven't really mentioned dynamax potential, but Gallade can really do some damage once it dynamaxes, making it capable of breaking past most it's checks, especially after a swords dance or max knuckle.

That said, this thing does have some trouble with Hippowdon & Mimikyu, it also definitely isn't the most valuable pokemon against hyper offense, needing chip on dragapult to revenge it or an SD up to potentially kill it outright and while technically capable of defeating some Hydreigon & Excadrill, it'll take heavy damage and LO recoil doing so, plus not doing too much to Gyarados & flat out dying to Hawlucha (but what can take them at the moment?). Also this will definitely be overshadowed by Cinderace once it's HA is released. But for now, it's got a niche in psychic/fighting STAB with a wide and useful movepool including Knock Off and priority.

A couple calcs:

252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 174-211 (57.2 - 69.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 173-204 (43.2 - 51%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 296-351 (84 - 99.7%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 240 HP / 52 Def Mew: 255-302 (63.5 - 75.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Clefable: 195-231 (49.4 - 58.6%) -- 69.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 172-203 (56.5 - 66.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Gallade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragapult: 278-330 (87.6 - 104.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO

 

[Lennart]

Clangorous Soul Kommo-o is very fun to use

Kommo-o @ Throat Spray
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Clangorous Soul
- Clanging Scales
- Flash Cannon/flamethrower
- Focus Blast

Throat Spray immediately activates upon setup with Clangorous Soul, and voila you are at plus 2! This is a pure special set that can sweep once the opposing team has been worn down. It is fun to use.

Also Heavy Duty Boots are an interesting thing to use on 4x weak stealth rock weak Pokemon.

I like Cscales, Flamethrower and Flash Cannon, I neither want to be walled by fairies nor aegislash and, I feel like Focus Blast isnt a necessesity (as I have played LO 3 Attacks SR)

 

[Yung Dramps]

I still don't wanna jump the gun on Dynamax and stand by my position of waiting for it to be implemented correctly on Showdown before making any tiering decisions concerning it, but after reading through some pro-ban arguments I can sympathize a lot more with that perspective, in particular with the desire to avoid another Gen 7 situation where the metagame becomes too match-up based and hard to build for in large part due to the new mechanic. I was especially persuaded by KuraiTenshi's argument about how we're mainly arguing it is bearable rather than how it makes the meta more engaging, and truth be told I can't think of a counterpoint to that right now.

It's worth noting that if we think Dynamaxing is still too OP a few months down the line or so, there is a built-in way to nerf it of sorts. Right now Showdown is emulating Level 10 Dynamax, which doubles the user's HP. If we toned this down to the minimum level for OU specifically, it would go down to a 1.5x HP boost. While it wouldn't help the snowballing issue much, it would make revenge-killing a bit easier. Although frankly if we reach the point where we begin to consider that, perhaps it's best just to suspect/ban the mechanic as a whole.

 

[Astoria]

I still don't wanna jump the gun on Dynamax and stand by my position of waiting for it to be implemented correctly on Showdown before making any tiering decisions concerning it, but after reading through some pro-ban arguments I can sympathize a lot more with that perspective, in particular with the desire to avoid another Gen 7 situation where the metagame becomes too match-up based and hard to build for in large part due to the new mechanic. I was especially persuaded by KuraiTenshi's argument about how we're mainly arguing it is bearable rather than how it makes the meta more engaging, and truth be told I can't think of a counterpoint to that right now.

It's worth noting that if we think Dynamaxing is still too OP a few months down the line or so, there is a built-in way to nerf it of sorts. Right now Showdown is emulating Level 10 Dynamax, which doubles the user's HP. If we toned this down to the minimum level for OU specifically, it would go down to a 1.5x HP boost. While it wouldn't help the snowballing issue much, it would make revenge-killing a bit easier. Although frankly if we reach the point where we begin to consider that, perhaps it's best just to suspect/ban the mechanic as a whole.

this would also buff it tho. in some scenarios you would like to have more hp with your wall to take a hit from the opposing dynamaxed sweaper^

 

[wafflecone67]

I still don't wanna jump the gun on Dynamax and stand by my position of waiting for it to be implemented correctly on Showdown before making any tiering decisions concerning it, but after reading through some pro-ban arguments I can sympathize a lot more with that perspective, in particular with the desire to avoid another Gen 7 situation where the metagame becomes too match-up based and hard to build for in large part due to the new mechanic. I was especially persuaded by KuraiTenshi's argument about how we're mainly arguing it is bearable rather than how it makes the meta more engaging, and truth be told I can't think of a counterpoint to that right now.

It's worth noting that if we think Dynamaxing is still too OP a few months down the line or so, there is a built-in way to nerf it of sorts. Right now Showdown is emulating Level 10 Dynamax, which doubles the user's HP. If we toned this down to the minimum level for OU specifically, it would go down to a 1.5x HP boost. While it wouldn't help the snowballing issue much, it would make revenge-killing a bit easier. Although frankly if we reach the point where we begin to consider that, perhaps it's best just to suspect/ban the mechanic as a whole.

Yeah, I feel as though the first thing we should be doing in this generation is making a final decision on dynamaxing because If we try to suspect pokemon because dynamaxing is too overbearing we end up with "Oh whats the next threat broken by dynamaxing." We just create an incredibly repetitive for loop like in gen 7.

 

[Pyritie]

It's worth noting that if we think Dynamaxing is still too OP a few months down the line or so, there is a built-in way to nerf it of sorts. Right now Showdown is emulating Level 10 Dynamax, which doubles the user's HP. If we toned this down to the minimum level for OU specifically, it would go down to a 1.5x HP boost. While it wouldn't help the snowballing issue much, it would make revenge-killing a bit easier. Although frankly if we reach the point where we begin to consider that, perhaps it's best just to suspect/ban the mechanic as a whole.

I feel like the more """broken""" part of dynamaxing is the atk/spa/spe boosting, not the HP boost, so that unfortunately wouldn't solve anything.

There's probably a ton of different ways dynamaxing could be tweaked to be nice and balanced but unless it's able to be reproduced on cart, it'd fall into pet mod territory.

 

[JinLong88]

Hello everyone! With Sword and Shield finally being released, you all are free to start discussing the SWSH OU metagame here! Everything you need should be found in the data mine resources below. I will also list things in a similar manner to the role compendium to help distinguish potential roles. I'll try to keep it updated as we get more information. Enjoy!

Hi, just pointing out that regular Necrozma should be listed under Unreleased

 

[Jakerisaacs]

Correct me if I’m wrong as it may be to a tutor that is now unavailable, but slurpuff is not listed as a belly drum user but in the past was.

 

[TURBODERP]

I feel like the more """broken""" part of dynamaxing is the atk/spa/spe boosting, not the HP boost, so that unfortunately wouldn't solve anything.

Yea, plus the whole "here is 3 turns of 100% accurate, very high BP Physical or Special STAB, that doesn't require Charge time (like Bounce or Freeze Shock) and you can still benefit from a non-Choice item for those 3 turns" thing that greatly benefits mons like Gyarados (and Lando-T if it were in this game) that have lacked said high-BP one-turn STAB and benefit from all the secondary effects of Max moves.

 

[Vengeance417]

I think Oblivious may finally become a standard ability for Mamoswine this generation thanks to its newfound ability to block Intimidate, which is very helpful when something like Gyarados or fat Arcanine comes in. Plus, Oblivious blocks Taunt which is nice for Stealth Rock sets.

 

[Jordy]

Plasmaster09 Please stop making posts that are not relevant to the tier right now, or one-liners.

 

[EternalDream]

Was toying around while looking for decent spinners/defoggers outside of Exca who's literally everywhere, and there's two I particularly like.

Tsareena @ Life Orb
Ability: Queenly Majesty / Leaf Guard (*)
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Power Whip / Solar Blade (*)
- U-turn
- High Jump Kick / Play Rough / Zen Headbutt

(*) In the sun

The main drawback to Tsareena has always been her lackluster speed (she's from Aslowla after all). She has reasonable bulk, and thanks to the new Rapid Spin buff, she is actually capable of threatening some mons that would have outsped her in the past after she clears hazards on your side. Extra bonus points on sun teams where she now has a 100 accurate beatstick with 5 BP over Power Whip. Begone, random misses!

Avalugg @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Avalanche
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
- Body Press

Massive defense stat mon that gets Body Press? Y'all are sleeping on this. Absolutely destroys anything that doesn't resist it, and is even able to check Exca and G-Darm, as they cannot one-shot it (even boosted, due to Sturdy) and both get OHKO'd by Body Press. Heavy Duty Boots are preferred over the usual Rocky Helmet so it can switch into rocks and clear them at the same time without losing any health doing so, but it loses some residual damage as a result (not that it needs it, Body Press kinda does everything it needs to). Give it Aurora Veil support and Banded G-Darm can even be switched in on and killed in return, if you don't mind losing ~85% of your health, at least:

252+ Atk Choice Band Guts Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 314-370 (79.6 - 93.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Guts Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg with an ally's Aurora Veil: 157-185 (39.8 - 46.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

(Guts with poison used to simulate +50% assuming Gorilla Tactics has the same bonus as Choice Band, Darmanitan changed to Ice type)

It also works as a counter to Ferrothorn, who really does not want to be on the receiving end of Body Press. It won't OHKO by any means, but Ferro can't do much back - Gyro Ball might be SE, but it's still physical, and it's not outstalling Avalugg with Leech Seed when Avalugg has Recover.

It's still hopelessly walled by the likes of Aegislash and Corsola though, but I mean, Avalugg being walled isn't really the biggest worry you should have. It's still technically a tank first and foremost. Just one that can hurt - a lot.

 

[TURBODERP]

Massive defense stat mon that gets Body Press? Y'all are sleeping on this. Absolutely destroys anything that doesn't resist it, and is even able to check Exca and G-Darm, as they cannot one-shot it (even boosted, due to Sturdy) and both get OHKO'd by Body Press.

I haven't found the answer to this yet, but do we know how Body Press actually works (it was super bugged on Showdown, and wasn't working yesterday even)?

It's a 80BP Fighting move that uses your Defense as Attack. Does that include Defense EVs and Nature (it includes Boosts, so I'd imagine yes)? As in if you have 400 Defense due to EVs+Nature, Body Press becomes a 80 BP Fighting type move coming from 400 Attack?

Also yea Avalugg is pretty solid with Heavy Duty Boots and Body Press. Assuming that Body Press works like I'm speculating, 252/252+ Impish Avalugg has a 80 BP Fighting move coming off of 513 Attack. That's crazy, and standard Ferrothorn (which runs a lot of SpDef) is cleanly 2HKO'd and needs to be running 252/252+ Impish to not be 2HKO'd consistently after a Spike. +2 LO Adamant Bisharp has a very small chance to OHKO with Iron Head, but Body Press OHKOs it (Earthquake only 2HKO's, so this is a big upgrade). Band Tyranitar goes from being able to switch in and likely dodge the 2HKO from Earthquake to being OHKOd by Body Press as well.

 

[Badger]

I'm about to say something very controversial- why don't we ban Gothitelle over Shadow Tag? Wobbuffet has never been a real problem, and with dynamax and everything new, he sometimes doesn't live a single hit. Gothorita is forced to hold eviolite, which means it's easy to knock, it can't choice scarf trick you, and overall it's not as usefull as Gothitelle. I think it's just too long of Pokemon becomming completely unusable because people decided they don't want to deal with Shadow Tag. There are only a few Pokemon that get successfully trapped/really don't want to hold a shed shell, which is why I don't see this as a problem. Toxapex is completely fine with holding a shed shell, Corviknight has U-Turn so he doesn't have to, and Gothitelle can never hurt a dark type.

Ferrothorn hates gothitelle, but the way I see it, we lost the most successful Ferrothorn counter in Magnezone, and now you can either lose to Gothitelle OR have a choice to ignore it with shed shell as well, which is a big thing because Gothitelle can't threat anything it's not trying to trap. Clefable can run a little speed to outspeed Gothitelle, as well as try and unaware + setup its way out of it. Gothitelle also doesn't like the Hyper Offense meta that's going on right now, so I say if anything we suspect Gothitelle over Shadow Tag, because it's that one mon that is truly a problem, not the entire ability. I'll take everything back if I can see someone using Gothorita and Wobbuffet successfully and consistantly, but I don't see it happening.

 

[Tmi489]

I'm about to say something very controversial- why don't we ban Gothitelle over Shadow Tag? Wobbuffet has never been a real problem, and with dynamax and everything new, he sometimes doesn't live a single hit. Gothorita is forced to hold eviolite, which means it's easy to knock, it can't choice scarf trick you, and overall it's not as usefull as Gothitelle. I think it's just too long of Pokemon becomming completely unusable because people decided they don't want to deal with Shadow Tag. There are only a few Pokemon that get successfully trapped/really don't want to hold a shed shell, which is why I don't see this as a problem. Toxapex is completely fine with holding a shed shell, Corviknight has U-Turn so he doesn't have to, and Gothitelle can never hurt a dark type.

Ferrothorn hates gothitelle, but the way I see it, we lost the most successful Ferrothorn counter in Magnezone, and now you can either lose to Gothitelle OR have a choice to ignore it with shed shell as well, which is a big thing because Gothitelle can't threat anything it's not trying to trap. Clefable can run a little speed to outspeed Gothitelle, as well as try and unaware + setup its way out of it. Gothitelle also doesn't like the Hyper Offense meta that's going on right now, so I say if anything we suspect Gothitelle over Shadow Tag, because it's that one mon that is truly a problem, not the entire ability. I'll take everything back if I can see someone using Gothorita and Wobbuffet successfully and consistantly, but I don't see it happening.

knock has decreased distribution (aka corsola's heaven), and even then, if Gothorita traps you - youre trapped eviolite makes gothorita tech. more bulky
wobb can also encore tickle but no pursuit hurts that strat

 

[EternalDream]

I haven't found the answer to this yet, but do we know how Body Press actually works (it was super bugged on Showdown, and wasn't working yesterday even)?

It's a 80BP Fighting move that uses your Defense as Attack. Does that include Defense EVs and Nature (it includes Boosts, so I'd imagine yes)? As in if you have 400 Defense due to EVs+Nature, Body Press becomes a 80 BP Fighting type move coming from 400 Attack?

It was working yesterday on showdown, although working as in; it actually dealt the damage it felt like it should be doing - I have no idea if it's working entirely correctly under the hood, as its wording makes it a bit ambiguous between being like Foul Play (just straight using your defense, modifiers included) or some sort of modifier like Gyro Ball with Speed, but since it has 80 BP by default and not - like Gyro or Heavy Slam, I'm leaning towards the former.

Edit: That being said I could see something like Stored Power too, gaining 20 BP for every X Defense stat you have or something. I don't have cartridge to test unfortunately.

 

[TURBODERP]

It was working yesterday on showdown, although working as in; it actually dealt the damage it felt like it should be doing - I have no idea if it's working entirely correctly under the hood, as its wording makes it a bit ambiguous between being like Foul Play (just straight using your defense, modifiers included) or some sort of modifier like Gyro Ball with Speed, but since it has 80 BP by default and not - like Gyro or Heavy Slam, I'm leaning towards the former.

Might have been patched. I had a game where as Avalugg, I Body Pressed a Ice-Darmanitan, did nearly no damage, and then they Body Pressed me and brought me down to Sturdy. It was pretty hilarious.

 

[Spikenizz]

I personally think Galarian Darmanitan is nutty. His ability is basically a choice band. So if you combine that with a choice scarf. You’re getting the best of both worlds making him a crazy late game sweeper. Plus he has a good speed stat so if you want to double down and give him a choice band and give him crazy power, I can see that working.

Darmanitan-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Earthquake

This is the set I used. I hope this mon is as good as I’m making it out to be

 

[JinLong88]

Would someone please confirm if Showdown's implementation of Encore is really correct, in this situation that I faced on battle?:

1. non-Maxed Charizard uses Substitute
2. Shuckle uses Encore
3. Charizard Maxes and can choose an attacking move. Charizard picks Max Flare.
4. Charizard is locked into Max Flare until Encore wears off.

The reason why I ask if this is really correct, instead of just Encore failing to apply during Maxing, is because Encore always fails if it's used after the 'mon is already maxed and used a max move.

 

[Dreadfury]

Might have been patched. I had a game where as Avalugg, I Body Pressed a Ice-Darmanitan, did nearly no damage, and then they Body Pressed me and brought me down to Sturdy. It was pretty hilarious.

Was it being calculated off of the OPPONENT’S Defense stat in this case? That’s realistically the only explanation for why a mon with basically no defenses could OHKO a mon with 184 Defense that didn’t even scratch it in return with Body Press.

 

[Colonel M]

I'm about to say something very controversial- why don't we ban Gothitelle over Shadow Tag? Wobbuffet has never been a real problem

Wobbuffet was a significant problem in Gen 4 and 3 (to the point where in Gen 3 it created an infinite loop), and while Encore's nerf (and here absence of Tickle on it and Pursuit as a move) hurt it, it's still able to trap Pokemon and provide an arguably unfair advantage.

While the question is controversial and there is nothing wrong with the question, we ban Pokemon and abilities based on uncompetitive reasoning. Here, the ability is the problem and not necessarily the Pokemon itself. Think of it like Blaziken - Speed Boost is not necessarily a broken ability, but it pushed Blaziken over the edge.

 

[Plasmaster09]

It seems nobody is going to use Alcremie, despite its surprisingly good special stats.
I decided to develop a set for the little floof cream princess.

Alcremie @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sweet Veil
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire

Weakness coverage via Psychic and Mystical Fire, STAB via Draining Kiss and drainage via DKiss and Giga Drain.

Edit: Please don't delete this because it's not competitive-focused enough. I tried.

 

[Gravity Monkey]

I personally think Galarian Darmanitan is nutty. His ability is basically a choice band. So if you combine that with a choice scarf. You’re getting the best of both worlds making him a crazy late game sweeper. Plus he has a good speed stat so if you want to double down and give him a choice band and give him crazy power, I can see that working.

Darmanitan-Galar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Iron Head
- U-turn
- Earthquake

This is the set I used. I hope this mon is as good as I’m making it out to be

I'd personally run Flare Blitz over Iron Head as you'll have a hard time passing through Ferrothorn and Corv and you still demolish Clefable with Icicle Crash anyway.

About Galarian Darm, I think the Zen Mode form has been really overlooked. You can come in to revenge kill on something like specs Dragapult or Corv that cannot afford to stay in. Then hit sub on the switch, Belly Drum, eat a Salac Berry and you're set for a sweep. You don't have to dynamax to pull a sweep with this strat which also serve to save resources.

This set is not better than the scarf or the band set. In fact on a pokemon that would only have Zen Mode it would probably not even be viable. It's only because these other sets exists that gimmicky set can actually be threatening.

My set

Darmanitan-Galar @ Salac Berry
Ability : Zen Mode
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Substitute
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

Earthquake and Fire Punch let Darm hit both Ferro and Pex super effectively, the Ice Stab isn't that useful tbh.

P.S. If you're afraid of Ditto, you literally just need to carry a priority in your team, personally I recommend Conkeldurr.