Stealth Rock Less Ladder

[ginganinja]

Approved by Lord Haunter, God of all things Pokemon and forever the bitch to Bloo

As most of you are aware, Keldeo has been declared OU, and for the moment, no suspect test has been scheduled yet. With this in mind, due to the large community interest in the previous Stealth Rock discussion thread, and Haunters promise to all within the thread, I with the approval of the OU Suspect Heads, as well as the PS! programmers, have developed a ladder without Stealth Rock, so you can all judge what a metagame without Stealth Rock will be like.

Please note the following

-Firstly, this is an entirely unofficial ladder. There is no plan to suspect test Stealth Rock in this generation. The ladder is just to get an idea of what the metagame without Stealth Rock would look like, during the downtime between suspect testing periods.

-This thread exists for people to record their experiences in a Stealth Rock less metagame, NOT a thread for people to argue whether Stealth Rock should be banned / not banned. The thread will be heavily moderated, and infractions will be given out if anyone threatens to derail this threads original purpose. Likewise, do not use this thread as a launching pad to bitch about what should or should not be suspected.

The ladder will be up shortly when the server resets.

 

[termi]

inb4 Volcarona spam

E: Oh and Charizard spam lol

 

[Kingler]

A ladder without stealth rock seems interesting. I don't see it at the moment, but what I think will happen is that mons like Volcarona, Dragonite, Kyurem-B and virtually every sr weak flying type will become way more viable. Because of how hard volc can be to stop, it *can* (i'm just saying this is how good the mons will be, NOT suspecting them)become ubers(kyu b will also def. be suspected imo, but please don't think i'm saying it should, I'm not trying to derail the topic). CB scizor actually will become better and Starmie will most likely fall in usage. Bulky mons that would otherwise set up SR will now use either utility or coverage moves. Spikes setters like Skarmory, Forretress and Ferrothorn will be very important to offensive teams. I don't see the ladder atm (edit- just read the last line lol)
Also ninja'd by the guy above ;~;

 

[urdrakonis]

Scarf Terrakion on every team. Not just because it's needed to check Volcarona but it's pretty much guaranteed to get a few kills with the flood of rock-weak mons.

 

[Soul Fly]

brb, getting my DNite/Volc core oiled for action.

 

[vyomov]

SubRoost Kyurem just got a whole lot better :)

On another note, I'm going to try Agility Moltres on my new rain team: I think it will be quite terrifying

 

[Ada]

holy shit council is +6 evasion when it comes to suspecting rain

 

[haunter]

Rofl I was going to delete this post but it's too funny. Stay on topic and read the OP from now on though.

 

[Skore]

Rain team with Moltres Articuno Dragonite Volcarona spamming Hurricane plus strong fighting type to deal with Steels, gogo.

 

[Prosecutor Godot]

This is really neat, and should be a learning experience. Even as someone who started playing competitively during Gen 3, I don't remember a time where Stealth Rock didn't have a big influence on not just OU, but every single metagame from Ubers to STABmons. The majority of Spikers in OU are pretty slow to the point where a fast Taunt can come in handy. The faster ones in Froslass, Scolipede and Accelgor can only get 1 layer up on Tyranitar before the sand ruins their Focus Sash. interesting stuff.

also SF Conkeldurr can tank a +1 Outrage from Dragonite and OHKO through Multiscale with Ice Punch, use it more please.

 

[X5Dragon]

I read the OP as "Volcarona OU" ^_^

Seriously though I urge our semi competant players that when judging SR there are 3 parts to remember, how easy it is to lay down SR (distribution, quality of users, magic bouncers etc.), how much damage it does and turns of set up and how easy it is to spin them away and similar methods (taunt, magic bounce etc.)

I say this because in the new gen all of the above is subject to change especially the last criteria, with Ghosts getting a buff and what not. Just keep an open mind about this experience and whatever changes may happen next.

 

[SaberSeven]

I can definitely see sun teams getting a boost here with Rocks gone. Ninetales doesn't get rocked, Volcarona can do some damage without worry of hazards, etc. Mamoswine could also get a boost in usage due to Dragonite & its Multiscale not being able to get broken by Stealth Rocks & D-Nite's flying typing giving it an immunity to Spikes. And what about Kyurem-Black? COULD the lack of Rocks make him broken on this ladder? The Stealth Rock-less metagame could be interesting.

 

[LilOu]

Shedinja spam, shit got real.

 

[Stone RG]

Shedinja spam, shit got real.

... imma spam the **** out of rona now.

Actually, no, i can bet something we'll see at least 30%percent of the ladder trying to use zard forgetting rain exists. And this totally isnt a reference to the level of ladder play on PS.

 

[MikeDawg]

Volc isn't that obscene, with or without rocks. Especially now that it is more prevelant, it is much easier to prepare for (while also preparing for hurricane spam)

Ithink heatran will thrive in this meta (shuca or air balloon probably) to combat everything new. jirachi can do swell. mamo (scarf!), etc.

 

[Dr Ciel]

Going to grab my Moltres for some ultimate Rain destruction.

 

[Monte Cristo]

kso, grabbing my '011 sun team with dragonite, sash mons, and HP QD volcarona :L

EDIT: I am infact a dumbass, just ignore my previous edit

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Volcarona has SO many issues to deal with in this meta that i doubt this lack of rocks will change things for it. Sure you no longer need a spinner to support it, but its still frail, has bad typing and is easily revenged. Dragonite, kyurems, genies etc are entire different stories. They have very few flaws and with the main thing that keep them in check gone, i predict they wil be the ones to dominate the meta. I also hardly doubt spikes wont see any use. Since you can no longer punish floating mons from constantly switching you need at least to be able to punish the grounded ones. However im almost certain that rapid spin users will decline in usage since most teams wont care enough about spiked if at all due to the flying type buff.

 

[Monte Cristo]

Volcarona has SO many issues to deal with in this meta that i doubt this lack of rocks will change things for it. Sure you no longer need a spinner to support it, but its still frail, has bad typing and is easily revenged. Dragonite, kyurems, genies etc are entire different stories. They have very few flaws and with the main thing that keep them in check gone, i predict they wil be the ones to dominate the meta. I also hardly doubt spikes wont see any use. Since you can no longer punish floating mons from constantly switching you need at least to be able to punish the grounded ones. However im almost certain that rapid spin users will decline in usage since most teams wont care enough about spiked if at all due to the flying type buff.

So fucking wrong, have you used volcrona? volcrona is one of the best sweepers in the metagame right now with obligatory sun support, and without rocks, this just makes it so much easier to switch in, also tell me how 85/105 is bad special bulk, especially in a currently specially biased metagame, sure it can't tank fucking outrages, but that's not why you USE volcarona, that's like saying you use dragonite to counter ice types, it doesn't make sense.

also, Quiver dance HP ground volcarona shits on so much stuff, it's not even funny, rain volcarona is also a huge ass threat, hurricane + bug buzz + giga drain destroyes usual switchins like keldeo

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Yes because volcarona inabilty to tank neutral hits is totally comparable to dragonite inability to tank x4 se hits. 65 defense is dam terrible for a setup sweeper and greatly reduces the number of things it can setup on. "obligatory sun support" is not helping your case at all and just show how little has changed for volc. Did i mention that several of its counters have been hugely buffed by the lack of rocks?

 

[Kejmur]

... imma spam the **** out of rona now.

Actually, no, i can bet something we'll see at least 30%percent of the ladder trying to use zard forgetting rain exists. And this totally isnt a reference to the level of ladder play on PS.

I think I want to try defensive Charizard (probably for Sun Stall or Sandstorm Stall) especially to counter standard Lucario and Scizor sets. It's access to instant recovery in Roost and interesting defensive typing can make it an interesting pick for balanced/stall teams and his good speed for defensive Pokemon allow him to outspeed many mons (for example slow Rock types) turning his main x4 weakness to x2 one. Also x4 resistance to Bug and Grass (mostly bug, something with ability to tank those U-Turns is nice to have) is good thing as well.

 

[oSeasons]

kyurem-b's on every single team now =.=

 

[ogasian]

Eh, Volc can at least tank A lot of priority and can cripple the priority user if it goes down(sometimes). If Volc gets two QD then its basically gg.

 

[SpartanMalice]

This will be nice. Also Shedinja will still have issues as weather is everywhere i.e Sand. And well, Volcarona and Dragonite are both better threats. In dnite's case, particularly Stallnite which has annoyed me several times even with SR, with Roost+SubTwave support. I can definitely see usage of that increasing. I don't play OU as often anymore but I'll be sure to give this a try.

 

[Gary]

I doubt Volcarona will be as significantly unmanageable as something like Multiscale Dragonite, but at the same time, Volcarona will actually find itself being able to run a few more sets that it normally couldn't run successfully because of Stealth Rock. For example, without the fear of SR, Volcarona now becomes a decent revenge killer with a Choice Scarf, thanks to its great coverage, decent 100 base Speed, and above average SpA stat. On top of that, Volcarona can now run an All-Out Offensive set with as much as coverage as possible to wreck havoc on bulkier teams without the need of setup. Last but not least, I can even see a Choice Specs set becoming viable, especially on sun teams. It has instant power, a very high powered STAB Fire Blast in the sun, Giga Drain for Politoed, and Hidden Power Ground for Heatran. Of course, we can't forget its standard Quiver Dancing set, which is now a lot easier to fit on teams because of it no longer needing that annoying Rapid Spin support. It's still susceptible to being revenge killed by Scarf Terrakion, Salamence, and Keldeo in the rain, but it will be a MUCH more potent sweeper because of it no longer having to be so wary of switching into things because of SR.

But as SBB mentioned, Volcarona still has its flaws. Its non sweeping sets are still very prone to being revenge killed, and its sweeping sets are always walled by something. It's special defense stat isn't terrible, nor is its HP, but its Defense stat makes it very vulnerable to physical attackers. Don't get me wrong, QD Volcarona becomes MUCH MUCH better without Stealth Rock, but I have a feeling it's going to be a lot less unmanageable then say Dragonite. I look forward to using it.

I think I want to try defensive Charizard (probably for Sun Stall or Sandstorm Stall) especially to counter standard Lucario and Scizor sets. It's access to instant recovery in Roost and interesting defensive typing can make it an interesting pick for balanced/stall teams and his good speed for defensive Pokemon allow him to outspeed many mons (for example slow Rock types) turning his main x4 weakness to x2 one. Also x4 resistance to Bug and Grass (mostly bug, something with ability to tank those U-Turns is nice to have) is good thing as well.

If you really want to use a defensive Fire-type with reliable recovery, why don't you just use Sub Roost Moltres or something? It's got the same typing, it's much bulkier, and it's also more powerful. Oh, and it also has Pressure so you can stall out shit like Kyurem. There still isn't any reason to use Zard in OU outside of sun IMO. I seriously wouldn't use it anymore else if I were you. Moltres is MUCH better at pretty much everything else.