TPP's survey post said:
1) Hyper Offense
2) Bulky Offense
3) Balance
4) Stall
1. Rank the above in terms of how much you prefer the above playstyles and how effective/good they are in your opinion (1 being the best and 4 being the worst)
2. What Pokemon do you think are staples for each playstyle, or are very good for each specific playstyle?
3. What are some fun pokemon you like for each playstyle, or for some playstyles
4. Most overrated Pokemon in your opinion?
5. Most underrated Pokemon in your opinion?
6. Favorite new Generation 9 pokemon to use?
7. Favorite returning Pokemon from Gens 1-8 to use?
8. Have you tried out any of the new items? If so, are there any you like or any that are making a solid impact in OU?
9. On a scale of 1-10, how much are you enjoying SV OU, with 1 being the least and 10 being the most?
10. On a scale of 1-10, how competitive do you find SV OU, with 1 being the least competitive and 10 being the most competitive?
1)
Balance - Balance is king in this sort of meta. There are several new ways to spin it at the moment, with things like Gholdengo stack and the several new Unaware walls (Skeledirge, Clodsire, DONDOZO) helping out immensely in regards to hyper offense matchups. There are a few things that balance can struggle with, notably some of the stronger wallbreakers like Chi-Yu and the CB Fightings, but there's usually a way to tech Tera, slap a Ghost type, find obscure defensive counterplay such as Tyranitar, or find a more offensive way around these guys (such as Normal Tera DNite). Balance has some good wincons too like Garganacl and Annihilape that can slot in nicely for specific roles. Balance also has the easiest time into Glimmora leads - in most cases, you can often force 1 hazard with a strong attacker, then absorb TSpikes with Clodsire / Toxapex / Amoonguss. It's the style where fitting a Poison-type is probably easiest.
Hyper Offense - Sucks into the several new Unawares but as long as you have a good offensive adaptation for that (i.e Taunt Roaring Moon, packing one of the super hard to wall breakers like Chi-Yu, or just having different ways to break outside of setup), then you're pretty solid into the metagame as a whole. Just make sure to think outside of the HO box when trying to build around the balance matchup.
Stall - Benefits a ton from the new walls added but unlike balance, not having a solid offensive presence really makes you crumble to chip damage from the likes of Gholdengo spikestacks (with actually good Knock Off users). You also tend to lose out on a fair bit of variety compared to balance due to many of the best tanks lacking recovery, and general wishpassers / clerics in this metagame being borderline impossible to slot.
Bulky Offense - Tried building this time and time again but it often just ends up like more angular balance with a lot more matchup issues than it really should have. Dragapult is kind of a godsend for comps like this but unfortunately it's not enough to make them seem like worse balances to me. There are a notable lack of defensive pivots in this meta, and what defensive pivots do exist either tend to be without good enough defensive support like Corviknight, want to run another set like Iron Hands, or generally end up being a momentum sink into another threat like Volcarona, Chi-Yu or Dragonite. Perhaps I am wrong on this - if someone can give me a good example of BO in this meta I will happily change my mind but as for now, I don't really like it.
2)
Balance: Corviknight / Dondozo / Dragonite / Iron Hands
Corviknight is the only real pivot in this meta (and has the ability to Defog whenever possible), Dondozo is immensely fat on the physical side and practically blanks even the strongest of physical attackers, even if only for a short while, Dragonite is an excellent general utility bot that also provides an excellent check to Chi-Yu (alongside the Ground slot, usually), and Iron Hands is just a fantastic offensive presence with a great all-around defensive profile - the best tank to have on these sorts of comps.
Hyper Offense:
I don't think there are really any staples here. Perhaps Roaring Moon is about the closest I can think of, but even that has several other replacements (Dragonite, Dragapult) that do vaguely similar roles without stacking Fighting-type weaknesses. Glimmora + Gholdengo HOs are a bit overrated IMO, I'd rather try out Great Tusk leads with more scattered offensive presences.
Stall: Blissey / Gholdengo / Clodsire
Blissey is the only cleric in the game. I think there's probably a good way to make Blob-less stall, but it's probably going to have to involve something like Dragonite or SpDef Roaring Moon to really take off. Gholdengo is useful for generally making progress via Spikes + NP presence. Clodsire is a great Spiker and also provides checks to several scary threats like Iron Valiant, Chi-Yu, Volcarona, opposing Gholdengo, and several other misc special attackers I can't be bothered to list.
Bulky Offense: Corviknight / Dragapult / Iron Hands
Pretty much similar to balance except Dragapult is a bit more useful for a more pivoty comp.
3) Balance has a ton of mons you can realistically use as utility. I really do like Skeledirge balances - they provide you with a bulky Unaware to stop setup, whilst also providing you with a fairly punishing stallbreaker which can get several boosts unchecked. Do pair this with Tyranitar or SpDef Dragonite if you do though - the biggest flaw I see with Skeledirge balances is that they all tend to fold to Chi-Yu very quickly. The other thing I have yet to look into is Cyclizar balance, which might actually be more deadly than Cyclizar offense, merely due to how much easier it is to get a resisted Sub with Cyclizar + Cyclizar is a pretty good role compressor already.
I unfortunately don't have many funny mons for other playstyles as I haven't felt nearly as comfortable with them.
4) Glimmora. Once someone realizes special attackers tend to do quite well into Glimmora, the value of it goes down immensely, as it can only really get up Stealth Rock effectively. I also think you commit far too much to the hazard game if you run this, and things like 6 boots stall, Iron Treads bulky offense, and Great Tusk leads give you a hard time.
5) Iron Hands. The trading machine. This thing basically can check anything in the game at least once with the right set, and often times the more offensive ones have this kind of value too. It has several ways to be played as well - though my flavour of this week is Choice Band, you can also run things like Helmet pivot, ID BP, Booster SD (either offensive or defensive) and Lefties + Protect. AV is an unset though, sorry :<
6) See above
7) Dragonite probably - it solves so many issues in building right now and I rely on it as a bit of a crutch, not gonna lie. The moment people start running more Tera Dondozo builds is the moment I start questioning whether this mon is worth it or not, and part of me feels like that day will be never.
8) Nope! New items look fairly niche in singles, especially with Scald being axed in distribution. Maybe when Glowking / Urshifu come back I'll have a reason to use them
9) 9 - The meta is greatly centralized, but Terastal is
immensely enjoyable. Every turn lifts you up from your seat as you have to consider a lot more about what could potentially happen. Team preview time is also more important as determining Tera types is another layer on top of your average gameplanning. From my experience, Tera hasn't really been overbearing at all, even if I have been lured from time to time, I usually haven't actually lost the game if Tera gets revealed, and Tera allows you to build around particular matchups that sting you in the game, but aren't very common without crippling the rest of your build. Fun mechanic IMO, should stay for the rest of the gen.
10) 6 - Dondozo and Clodsire are both really boring not gonna lie - they feel impassable half the time, and the other half of the time they still burn tons of resources. Building in this meta is fairly constrained due to some of the powerful picks in this meta - not just defensively but offensively, mons like Chi-Yu give me a real headache, and you need to have good revenge killing methods for mons like Chien-Pao if you get shocked by Electric Tera / worn down by CB too quickly. It's still decently competitive though IMO, especially after the Palafin ban, and I don't think mons like Gholdengo are particularly annoying - in part because of punishes like Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao and Great Tusk that can come up and really mess with those comps before Gholdengo can start winning with 3 Spikes + Rocks up at all times.