Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion

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Can we say that Pokémon who are below UU are bad?
That isn't universally true; it's probably more fair to say those mons are niche, at best. But Paldean Tauros-Fire is RU and that mon puts in work in OU, probably the best answer to Kingambit and Chien-Pao in the tier, Scizor and Breloom as well. Blissey is RU and yeah, it's not great and pretty passive but you can still easily fit it onto your stall teams. Froslass has a niche as a lead for HO teams that blocks spins and can spread status. Ditto will also inevitably fall to RU and below at some point, but obviously it's a usable mon in OU.
 

1LDK

It's never going to get better
is a Top Team Rater
How do we know which ones are good?
By looking up the viability rankings and testing them out yourself
By playing the game and finding out firsthand, generally
these are 2 good ways, youll see people experimenting, seeing niches, and things that bring value to the table

is this pokemon worth it? in what scenario?

For example :Sylveon: who is on a C rank and in RU, Sylveon has some of the best wish support right now, it also checks chi yu to a degree, it handles almost every variant of Iron valiant, wish also helps many pokemon that need constant healing, but are afraid of running low, for example, Dondozo is a good partner for it, since Donzo can take care of phsiical treats, while sylveon just keeps him well, this is one of many examples that i can give you
 
A lot of Pokemon that are UU and below can be effective if piloted well enough by a decent player. Players like Blimax have been able to make a lot of more niche picks like Arboliva, Bellibolt, etc. on the mid - high ladder, and I have seen a lot of other Pokemon like Lowkix be used on high ladder to ok success. As other users have mentioned, picks like Paldean Tauros and Blissey can still be effective in the tier to check some key Pokemon like Chien-Pao and Scizor. Hell, I've been swept by something as benign as Tera Electric, Leftovers Frosmoth because it could setup on my defensive Pokemon quite easily (Garganacl couldn't break its sub w/ Salt Cure) and other mons like Wish Regen Alolamola have give me a hard time since they trapped and KO'd my great tusk, which wasn't something I expected at the time. Even against mons that I didn't have a hard time beating, there was some interesting tech I spotted like Hawlucha being able to ignore Gholdengo's Good as Gold with Mold Breaker Defog. Generally speaking, lower tiers are used less for a reason, but these mons still can do things that can be fun to play around with and can throw people off-guard given how infrequently they are used compared to staples like Great Tusks, which can make them harder to deal with at times.
 
Annihilape is such a fair and honest Pokemon. I love having to setup to +6 with my Gholdengo on it despite it having a super effective move only for my Shadow Ball to deal 90% to Tera Water Annihilape while it uses Rage Fist to KO me back despite Tera'ing. Definitely a positive addition to the tier that makes games more varied and fun. And it has flaws like ....uhhhh, being hazard weak and having "middling" bulk.

+2 112 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Annihilape: 372-438 (87.7 - 103.3%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Annihilape: 338-402 (79.7 - 94.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Beads of Ruin Chi-Yu Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Annihilape: 337-397 (79.4 - 93.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Seriously, its so easy to stop. Just hit it with a strong attack. Not being able to take two Iron Valiant Moonblast is such a big flaw. Oh yeah, and the likelihood of Defiant triggering when Gholdengo or Iron Valiant use Shadow Ball and Moonblast is really low so Rage fist shouldn't be KOing these mons hahaha. Having limited defensive Counterplay is whatever, stall sucks to fight so its a good thing that this mon gives those kind of teams a run for their money.

...In all seriousness, if Ape isn't on the initial QB list, I might start going monke myself (I already am tbh).
Chi-Yu/Ape are the current gatekeepers right now. Mons that shouldve been banned already but the tera suspect made people deal with them for a bit too long to the extent that its obvious they should be kicked out.
Personally I think Gholdengo should go as well but the above 2 are by far more of a problem,
 

alephgalactus

Banned deucer.
Okay how is [REDACTED] placed higher on the OU chart than on the UU chart? did I missed something regarding that forgotten Pokemon?
It’s probably solely the result of those two spammers from earlier in the thread desperately trying to make it work. You have to remember that it’s a noobtrap mon and will always get significantly more usage than it deserves.

I must say, though, if DLC brings us better Snow/Veil setters later in the gen, I could potentially see it working in, like, NU, possibly even making the VR for it. 65/110 with Wish and Ice Body ain’t bad when its Defense is tripled. Then again, this is 100% theorymonning until DLC is actually announced.
 
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Okay how is Glaceon placed higher on the OU chart than on the UU chart? did I missed something regarding that forgotten Pokemon?
This isn't true as far as I can tell, assuming you're referring to Usage stats; Glaceon doesn't appear in the OU Usage stats at all, presumably because nobody is using it...
 
Also has anyone considered Thick Fat AV Hariyama as a potential check to Chi-Yu? Because this is actually decent (and sometimes annoying to take down..) Might help to take down Chien-Pao as well.
 

Finchinator

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Also has anyone considered Thick Fat AV Hariyama as a potential check to Chi-Yu? Because this is actually decent (and sometimes annoying to take down..) Might help to take down Chien-Pao as well.
Chi-Yu can run Psychic or Tera Blast, but also it is so weak to hazards and reliant on middling defensive stats (aside from HP) that it is not a long-term response.
 
Chi-Yu/Ape are the current gatekeepers right now. Mons that shouldve been banned already but the tera suspect made people deal with them for a bit too long to the extent that its obvious they should be kicked out.
Personally I think Gholdengo should go as well but the above 2 are by far more of a problem,
I don't see GHoldengo being banworthy, it has terrible match ups that force him to use different items and can't run them all at once, the speed is bad even with choice scarf, it might block defog and spin but even then it really doesn't like to switch in against the best spinners in the tier Tusk and Treads. Also, Cinderace brings another way to remove hazards that Gholdengo can't block.
 
Also has anyone considered Thick Fat AV Hariyama as a potential check to Chi-Yu? Because this is actually decent (and sometimes annoying to take down..) Might help to take down Chien-Pao as well.
I tried Restalk one, its much better than AV because it lasts long enough, giving more potential to paralyze with Force Palm or Knock items. However, Tera Specs Fire Chi-Yu 2HKOs it with Overheat. Fares better against Chien Pao, whose moves don,t have that much power. Main problem is giving free switch-in for Annihilape, but many Mons have that problem.

With Cinderace release, I changed my mind for Chi Yu, now I do think it should be banned. There are too many breakers and too many fire breakers in OU. Chi Yu and Cinderace also form a monstrous fire core, one of them being physical and the other special. Almost everything that stops Chi-Yu can be broken by Cinderace and viceversa. As the strongest of the 2, the fish should go to Ubers, though Annihilape is an even more urgent threat to get rid of.
 
That isn't universally true; it's probably more fair to say those mons are niche, at best. But Paldean Tauros-Fire is RU and that mon puts in work in OU, probably the best answer to Kingambit and Chien-Pao in the tier, Scizor and Breloom as well. Blissey is RU and yeah, it's not great and pretty passive but you can still easily fit it onto your stall teams. Froslass has a niche as a lead for HO teams that blocks spins and can spread status. Ditto will also inevitably fall to RU and below at some point, but obviously it's a usable mon in OU.
What about Gardevoir? Can she be of any use?
 
What about Gardevoir? Can she be of any use?
Probably, but you will have to think a lot to make it work. Last Gen, my favorite SS OU Team during the best meta (aka DLC1), had a LO Gardevoir that preyed on the Regenerator + Magic Guard cores that dominated the meta, abussing LO to the fullest thanks to Trace. This Meta is a lot different, so it will be harder for the same set to work. You will have to find another niche therefore, Teleport (only she and Gallade learn the move) could be experimented with.
 
Choice Scarf Annihilape sounds like this, rather than being an tanky Bulk Up user, Annihilape can run a Choice set with either Choice Band or Choice Scarf making it an All-Out Attacker.
 

G-Luke

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On the topic of Sylveon, doesn't it have like... 18% usage in OU rn? Because Sylveon clearly doesn't belong in RU at all
18% usage? Sylveon is an extremely niche Pokémon lol. And why would RU be a strange occurrence for it? Sylveon hasn't seen mainstay UU presence since Gen 7, and it has certainly gotten worse between then and now.
 
That isn't universally true; it's probably more fair to say those mons are niche, at best. But Paldean Tauros-Fire is RU and that mon puts in work in OU, probably the best answer to Kingambit and Chien-Pao in the tier, Scizor and Breloom as well.
Paldean Tauros is a weird one. Even though it is very much a new toy itself, it feels as though i's still fallen victim to New Toy Syndrome because it's merely a regional forme. Raging Bull is fantastic, and even if it is "only" 100 base speed.. it's still got a very efficient stat distribution to go alongside it.
 

BlackKnight_Gawain

PUPL Champion
The mon that dropped to RU that surprised me is Tauros-Fire. It's not too bad in OU, and certainly very good to fly in UU but I guess it lost the slot to the other form. Much weirder drop if you ask me.

Also now that it's been a few days, how are we feeling about Cinderace in OU? Has anyone actually gotten good value from HDB Court Change sets like people were theorizing? Personally I wanna give it a crack on a sun team, but I'm more curious if it's actually doing anything on the hazard stack front.
 

1LDK

It's never going to get better
is a Top Team Rater
Has anyone actually gotten good value from HDB Court Change
I did

Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Libero
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- Gunk Shot
- Court Change
- U-turn

This was i set i used, Ace survives 2 Shadow balls from scarf gholdengo, then you can forcing out with court change or killed with pyro ball, i ditched HJK because it honestly doessnt hit anything that the combo of Pyro, gunk shot and u turn does, in my opinion, if your gonna use cinderace in sun, go for tera fire and do some offensive support, it obviouly has 4MSS, but i think Fairy garganacl is more dangerous than pex
 
The Suspense on the Suspect's result is killing me. At least with the others you could see how people already voted.

Anyway, any Idea why scream tail isn't seeing much usage? It's basically the only viable pokemon with wish, has access to dual screens, T-wave & Encore, is fast & bulky, and yet it really isn't seeing much OU usage. From my experience it's been incredibly solid, so does anyone know why?
 
Scream Tail is incredibly passive (65 Base Special Attack is PATHETIC) and invites many dangerous Pokemon in. Encore is also pretty exploitable.
 
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