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Stealth Rock Less Ladder
- Thread starter ginganinja
- Start date
Welp, briefly nabbed first on the ladder (using an Alt, ChuckBeenTestin, and discounting a bunch of guys who lost every game until they got rid of provisional), and I can't say it was that much of a feat. Most of the players I faced seemed to think that a lack of SR meant that they were immune to all Rock-based damage, resulting in teams with 4+ weaknesses to said type (the worst offender had Yanmega, Zard AND Volcarona). Hopefully the level of play will pick up within the next few hours.
Yeah, everybody is just testing random shit right now, drunk with freedom from the tyrant
Monte Cristo
Banned deucer.
I honestly think people are bitching because it's not as easy to spam cheap HO in this meta, come on people, stop saying an SRless meta is terrible, i't barely been half a day with it
I love the metagame apart from DD Dragonite. I have to have like 2-3 checks/counters to it on my team or else I'm swept by the standard Lum Berry set with ease. I hate having to run Quagsire, Sash Mamoswine, or Scarf Kyurem-B if I want to reliably handle this thing. Landorus-T is smashed by two Outrages, so he's not a very good check to Nite either. Volcarona is fine, it's really just Nite that gives me problems.
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And I, for one, welcome our new (fire) insect overlords.
Actually I'm more concerned with Dragonite than anything else, a lot of his power was kept in check by the Stealth Rock (either have to predictably lead with him or have a dedicated spinner), but now he'll almost always get a DD upon switching in. In particular, the Lum set will be terrifying.
Actually I'm more concerned with Dragonite than anything else, a lot of his power was kept in check by the Stealth Rock (either have to predictably lead with him or have a dedicated spinner), but now he'll almost always get a DD upon switching in. In particular, the Lum set will be terrifying.
Seconded. Terrakion is almost as good (if not an equal) of an anti-meta as Mamo right now, as Sun Teams and other SR weak pokes have proliferated without
Welp, this is my chance to show off Kyurem-B and Dragonite. I'm also using a Skarmory with Spikes to break sashes that I've seen a lot. Should be fun, scared of running into Volcarona's, which is the prime reason I'm running Toxic on my Choice Scarf Heatran. Inb4 Charizard spam.
Yeah I worded that phrase wrong. I know Sash Mamoswine isn't bad, I was just using the word shit where I wasn't supposed to lol (aside from Quagsire).
I like how everyone is randomly putting tyranitar on their team just to mess up with dragonite. Have yet to see a hail team though, abomasnow probably must suck so much that its not even worth it, specially when rain and sun received such huge buffs.
Some observations.
Spikes are very useful since people aren't using rapid spin now. Custap skarmory is still very good at setting up at least 2 layers of spikes. Priority is probably the most powerful thing in the tier since every strong SR weak pokemon takes heavy or some damage from them. That makes stuff like scizor , breloom , mamoswine and dragonite almost invaluable to have on the team. The one thing I notice about this metagame is that if you bring in something like a dragonite or another powerful flying type you are going to do major damage with impunity. I think on this ladder the days of 5-0 or 6-0 sweeps are over. One team or another is gonna have some bullshit like a shedninja or something sashed that is going to ruin the day.
Spikes are very useful since people aren't using rapid spin now. Custap skarmory is still very good at setting up at least 2 layers of spikes. Priority is probably the most powerful thing in the tier since every strong SR weak pokemon takes heavy or some damage from them. That makes stuff like scizor , breloom , mamoswine and dragonite almost invaluable to have on the team. The one thing I notice about this metagame is that if you bring in something like a dragonite or another powerful flying type you are going to do major damage with impunity. I think on this ladder the days of 5-0 or 6-0 sweeps are over. One team or another is gonna have some bullshit like a shedninja or something sashed that is going to ruin the day.
jpw234
Catastrophic Event Specialist
Yeesh, SSB, give it some time perhaps? Obviously the immediate reaction to no Stealth Rock is going to be a flood of Volcarona/Dragonite, but as time goes on it will get more figured out and they will either be determined broken or new strategies will appear to counter them. Don't go claiming the meta is "so terrible" after less than a week.
Played good amount of games today on this ladder and I need to say I really like it so far. Lack of SR opened up few interesting possibilities to use. Right now I use stall team based around using Spikes / Toxic Spikes + 2 Users of Toxic + 1 user of Will-O-Wisp for Flying/Levitating Mons (also running BOTH Abomasnow and Tyranitar for Weather Wars). So far works fine, winning most matches. My Water/Grass/Fire core is Jellicent/Fully Physically Defensive Moltres/Special Defensive Abomasnow and so far works pretty well. Only Mon which gives me trouble if played well is Mamoswine, although if I predict right and somehow poison/burn him I can play around it. Focus Sashes obviously are not the case with all this status + Hail/Sandstorm damage. Especially I really damn like defensive Moltres - ability to counter Scizor, No Hidden Rock Volcarona, No Stone Edge Lucario, Most Grass Types and few other threats make this Moltres MVP of this team so far. Also using Toxic as he baits Politoad/Ninetales like no one in this business. The ability to take for example +1 Outrage from Dragonite or Garchomp is also damn nice if I need him to take crucial hit like this. I recommend it, it's pretty damn good pick and walls some nice stuff.
Why Custap Skarm, Froslass is clearly the better option since Kyu-B will be running around smashing custap skarms, also most teams have something to deal with Custap Skarm nowadays.
Hmm maybe you are right. I saw a few teams that gave me trouble with espeon. Froslass would solve that based on a speed tie. However I do like that scarm can taunt and whirlwind and lure in and kill a breloom here or there. They are probably interchangeable and have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Sun is broken simply put. Now that sun teams no longer have to waste a teamslot with a spinner and without rocks to threaten fire theres no simply no way to deal with it without a dedicated counter. Baloon tran is the main answer to them (and to dragonite too) but other stuff like defensive moltres can be used, in particular to deal with shiftry. For whatever reason rain seems to have disappeared from the ladder even though the genies were benefited by the lack of rocks. Again i have yet to see hail.
Cloyster, defensive Gyarados, and Bronzong in rain are also excellent answers to DD Dragonite, and any physically offensive Dragonite in general.
Cloyster can also revenge kill Kyurem-B after it OHKOes something with Outrage, as Rock Blast + Ice Shard does plenty of damage with an Adamant nature and 252 Atk EVs (248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def with Adamant), and Ice Shard is extremely useful for the genies as well. Not to mention that Cloyster can also support the team with Rapid Spin / Spikes / T-Spikes in the last slot.
Gyarados takes the +1 Outrage from Dragonite for ~50% damage and phazes with Dragon Tail while simultaneously breaking Multiscale.
Finally, Bronzong doesn't have the need to use Stealth Rock anymore, opening up a slot for Trick Room, acting as a great support Pokemon for the team and making it very threatening for offensive teams. It still takes hits as a boss, not even getting 3HKOed by +1 Outrage from Dragonite and 3HKOing back with Gyro Ball.
Now that you mention Physically Defensive Gyarados, I have seen quite a bit of those on the ladder today. The RestTalk set is actually quite effective, especially when most teams tend not to carry a spinner anymore. I'll have to try that out, seeing as I have been using Ferrothorn for Spikes.
Rain is pretty awesome cause no more SR for Hurricane Spam! Ive just been doing my thing with Tornadus and Rain Sweeper Nite and its easy.
Rotom-H is awesome right now, walling pretty much every special attacker that isn't Psychic, Dragon or Ghost type, spreading status, shutting down Scizor and singlehandedly destroying Sun teams. With SR setting being one less mandatory role, you get more flexibility in teambuilding, and with the increased threat of Dragonite, Kyurem-B, Breloom and Sun sweepers, I think Ditto is now worth a teamslot on some teams. Since you don't have to worry about mons setting up with anything else than Substitute, that's a lot less threats for the 5 remaining mons to cover, and Ditto itself is gold right now. Breloom? Just get Ditto in, and that's a free Sleep on your opponent, followed by a double switch reset. Dragonite? You have Multiscale, he doesn't. Kyurem-B? They better keep their steels healthy because they will eventually have to play it, and a scarfed Outrage coming from 170BST is scary. Same goes for Tornadus. Skarmory? Thank you, free layer of Spikes, and btw, you can't take advantage of this choice-locked Skarmory to set up, because Ditto. He's been my MVP so far, because it's pretty hard to keep a strong defense while making sure to keep in check the broken stuff in your own team.