Hello everyone! While we are on hiatus for the tourney, I thought it might be a good time to discuss the state of the meta at the moment.
Given that
scorbunnys has done a fantastic job on the vr for this mod, its a good idea to check
that out (ill link it in the OP) before this post
Haxorus is the pokemon on our watchlist right now, as we decide whether or not to take action against it. While Hax has been out for a while, its been very strong throughout the meta shifts this meta has seen, and it really eats up fat like nothing else. The standard set of Swords Dance / Scale Shot / Iron Head / (EQ/CC) can overwhelm a huge portion of the meta if it gets a free turn to set up. And finding that free turn is getting increasingly easy, since Hax, like chomp, doesnt really need its item slot. It can run boots to match up well vs spikes stack, can run lum to set up on defensive mons like Bro and Pex lacking Haze, can run Chople to set up on stuff like Zera and Torn, and can run Shuca to set up on stuff like Krook. Its fourth move slot is similarly flexible, since you can choose to run EQ to hit Dhelm or CC to hit basically every other steel. If you run it with Zone (who has admittedly fallen off a fair bit), you can run even more niche options like X Scissor for Bro, Rock Slide for Zap, or Aqua Tail for Lando. This isnt even mentioning its CB set, which hasnt seen much use but seems very strong in theory with options like First Impression. All in all, Hax is a deceptively flexible mon that hits hard, and the council will be monitoring it carefully going forward.
Dhelmise is one of those mons I did not expect to be as good as it is. With its better defensive typing, it becomes the best hazard removal for most teams, and its CB set is monstrously hard to wall (just dont run Knock Spam on the same team as it). Theres not much to say about it except that it hits hard, stays on the field for a while, and can usually force a trade at worst, all while having the very valuable Rapid Spin to support its team. Run Dhelm guys, its worth it.
Very fun mon to play with and against. It does noticeably not switch in as well into certain stuff like Urshifu anymore, but its raw power and pivoting abilities make it a very good mon. Soul Dew is probably the best item, but Specs/Scarf sound very fun as well.
Torn is a gluemon that is Very Good at its job. Its basically just vanilla Torn, but with its competition in Corv falling off, Torn is probably undisputedly the most reliable Defogger in the meta, and is a good fit onto most teams that arent stall.
I love this onion fairy so much. With Flower Veil, Celebi serves a similar purpose to Hax in that it eats up fat very well, but takes a more defensive and slow paced route to the same destination. Immunity to status and its newfound STAB Moonblast make Nasty Plot/CM sets very dangerous, as it just sets up on every bulky water in the meta except stuff like Coop. It can just straight up blank standard Pex and use it as a free turn to do whatever. Moonblast/Earth Power/Nasty Plot/Recover is probably my favorite set, although you could run a more supportive set with rocks and u turn as well. Just try Celebi out, it is very very fun to use.
See, in practise, Darmanitan is probably not as destructive as I am going to make it out to be, Im probably just building teams weak to it. Holy shit is it powerful tho. Darm has almost singlehandedly raised the viability of sun from "matchup fishy" to "somewhat matchup fishy". I cannot overstate how amazing rock nuetrality is to Darm, and I hope more people build with it. Very fun mon, just a nuke imo.
Those are all the thoughts I have for u right now. I'll probably post more after the tourney is over. Happy Theorymonning, everyone!