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US Midwest just won the World Cup of Pokemon 2024! In honor of their victory I'll post some of my favorite SV OU games from the tournament here. You can catch all of the replays here!
[Spain] Trosko vs Lily [Europe] — great showcase of Cinderace as a Poison-type.
[Canada] Potatochan vs Conflict [Germany] — crazy showcase of Deoxys-D/Weezing-Galar fat against Conflict, who amusingly did !dt neutralizing gas before the game started.
[Bangladesh] SKC44 vs Trogba Trogba [United Kingdom] — incredibly heat team from SKC44 featuring a Maushold and a Hydrapple.
[US Northeast] INSULT vs SoulWind [Spain] — Kingambit haters DNI, INSULT gets super ballsy with his Tera Ghost Gambit down 4-1. Hard Kowtow on turn 27, absolutely fearless.
[US West] Meru vs Niko [Italy] — a drunk, sleepy Niko plays at 2am his time against Meru's three UUs. Hilarity ensues.
[India] myjava vs oldspicemike [US Midwest] — myjava plays out a nail-biting endgame precisely to prevent a Scizor sweep.
[India] vk vs kythr [US Midwest] — as a certified clicker I love rain, and vk's got some nice rain here featuring Overqwil and what looks like Specs Tornadus-T.
[Europe] Eeveeto vs oldspicemike [US Midwest] — if you know the name Eeveeto you know he's achieved success with some of the wackiest teams out there, and this time he's got three UU birds all right next to each other in the builder.
[US Midwest] DripLegend vs Kebab mlml [Italy] — Iron Boulder makes its court-mandated one good appearance per tournament as DripLegend clutches a crucial game for Midwest.
What good does another wallbreaker bring to the tier though. Not many people are complaining about Gking and Garg right now. One of the main complaints about the tier is oversaturation of offensive threats. Lando-I will make that worse.
Please no more offense, like, why? That's the name of this gen, and honestly other playstyles are barely hanging on my comparison. I know you can get to 1900 or whatever with stall, but you need to dig through a mountain of offense first.
Paging Morkal . I dunno if you take requests, but Hitmontop looks like it can do things in this gen with an AV. Technician gives it many flavors of priority, Intimidate isn't common and very welcome (though Technician seems to actually give it power), and all this in a Sp.defensive spinner!
Not expecting anything big but if anyone can whip up something zesty it's the one what make a post about friggin Morpeko of all things.
Please no more offense, like, why? That's the name of this gen, and honestly other playstyles are barely hanging on my comparison. I know you can get to 1900 or whatever with stall, but you need to dig through a mountain of offense first.
Paging Morkal . I dunno if you take requests, but Hitmontop looks like it can do things in this gen with an AV. Technician gives it many flavors of priority, Intimidate isn't common and very welcome (though Technician seems to actually give it power), and all this in a Sp.defensive spinner!
Not expecting anything big but if anyone can whip up something zesty it's the one what make a post about friggin Morpeko of all things.
I won't make a detailled post at 1 am, will explain the set when I wake up but I am, actually, hyped to share that set lol : Untitled 490 (pokepast.es)
Hitmontop @ Assault Vest
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 112 HP / 212 Atk / 84 SpD / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Triple Axel
- Bullet Punch
- Rapid Spin
- Triple Kick
I think it does well paired w clef wish passer and something that beat ghold. Or even Mirror Coat Alom.
edit: Meow + Alom (not Mirror Coat) + Dnite definitely looks good w it, pair it with sr, lando or scor maybe https://pokepast.es/1d61a5f247e4c90c doesn't this look hot, can u guys complete or change the team when I wake up ? (I'm leaning toward Sr scor + spikes meow)
And yeah let’s not talk about dropping any ubers beside palafin since it’s the only seriously discussed one.
Also Lando-I should never drop. And dropping Lugia into a tera meta is a massive mistake, plus its gonna take another gen or two of powercreep to make lugia a reasonable drop as it is still a little too bulky.
(Still think lugia will be freed proper within the next few gens considering how damage calcs are starting to catch up to Lugia’s shortcomings, just not this gen since powercreep has a ways to go before that.)
As tpp said, let’s quell the dropping ubers discussion for now.
On principal midleki must be included in any drop discussion since the OU court erred in banning it with its ability having been wrong on showdown.
We can't eat chicky wings, touch grass and ignire this injustice forever. Midlekis conviction must be overturned.
I'm running a hazard stack team the last few days. It's funny that stall has forfeited on preview twice- as that's always how I feel when I see them while playing offense (though I never forfeit in pokemon as long as victory is still possible).
I wanted to quickly share some sets that I've been working with during my play in OU as of late - there's one Pokemon I'll be leaving out of this post because I plan on writing a full analysis on it (hopefully sooner rather than later)!
I've had trouble finding the best ways to utilize Slither Wing that didn't feel like I was aping the roles of other existing Pokemon, but after a while of testing things out and reworking the sets after getting advice (also 1LDK helping to improve my mediocre teambuilding as well) - I've found that Slither Wing is one of the few bulky Pokemon with both Will-O-Wisp and a phasing move that isn't a Fire-type. The only competition Slither Wing in this role is Zoroark-Hisui and Shiftry (who cannot run this set due to lack of bulk), Mew (Mew's mono-Psychic defensive typing and much lower attack are both detriments that negatively outweigh the potential boons of its higher bulk and speed), Altaria (I'll explain OU Altaria later in this post), and Houndstone (I'll also explain Houndstone later in this post). Smack Kingambit around with your moth foot or scorch whatever Pokemon Kingambit switches out to, then phase for additional hazard damage + easily keep yourself healthy with Morning Sun. Tera type is Steel-type so that Slither Wing can gain immunity to being poisoned along with Poison-type moves and additionally gain crucial resistances to Flying, Psychic, Dragon, Rock, and Ice-type moves. Slither Wing also has a small unintended benefit of having the specific phase combination of Will-O-Wisp and Whirlwind (Only shared with Shiftry) which means that it can still force out Soundproof Kommo-o, unlike Will-O-Wisp + Roar.
Brute Bonnet hits a lot harder than people give him credit for with a wonderful base 127 Attack stat, meaning that Brute Bonnet 252+ Adamant reaches 388. Additionally, Brute Bonnet has a nice base Grass/Dark-type combination that affords him a unique and powerful set of resistances to Dark, Electric, Ghost, Grass, Ground, and Water-type attacks along with Psychic-type immunity or you could do Fighting to boost Close Combat and maintain its resistance to Dark-type and gain a new resistance to Bug (formerly 4x super effective, so it can be used to bait Bug-type attacks with terastallization as well). Tera Fairy can also be used to gain new resistances to Fighting and Bug-type moves while additionally being granted an incredibly handy Dragon-type immunity. The combination of Close Combat along with Synthesis to keep itself healthy and STAB Sucker Punch means that Brute Bonnet can threaten Blissey, Darkrai, Deoxys-Speed, Dragapult, Gholdengo, Iron Crown, Iron Treads, Kingambit (additionally, Brute Bonnet naturally outspeeds most bulky Kingambit sets without any speed investment), Kyurem, Roaring Moon, Samurott-Hisui, Slowking-Galar, and Weavile.
The last moveslot is your choice depending on what your team needs since the main three moves are your bread and butter, but here are some options that I've tooled around with; Clear Smog is good for stopping set-up sweepers from trying to muscle past Brute Bonnet and being able to completely ignore Taunt from faster Pokemon. Trailblaze gives a slightly weaker way for Brute Bonnet to use its STAB Grass-typing while also patching up its speed (Brute Bonnet is tied with Blissey at base 55 speed). Outrage is a phenomenal way to smack Pokemon like Raging Bolt around reliably and pairs exceptionally well with Tera-Fairy as your terastallization choice to further shut down Raging Bolt. Taunt is exceptional for shutting down slower threats on Stall teams and protecting itself from crippling Burn status along with stopping hazards. Additionally, sometimes people just want another reliable STAB attack, so Crunch and Seed Bomb are phenomenal options.
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 560-660 (85.8 - 101.2%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darkrai: 310-366 (110.3 - 130.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Deoxys-Speed: 270-320 (112 - 132.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 314-372 (99 - 117.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 360-424 (113.5 - 133.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Multiscale Dragonite: 147-174 (45.5 - 53.8%) -- 45.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dragonite: 294-348 (91 - 107.7%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 52 Def Garganacl: 216-256 (53.4 - 63.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 258-306 (81.9 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 196+ Def Gholdengo: 194-230 (51.3 - 60.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Crown: 248-294 (77.2 - 91.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 484-572 (122.8 - 145.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem: 310-366 (79.2 - 93.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kyurem: 310-366 (79.2 - 93.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 64 HP / 28 Def Raging Bolt: 296-350 (72.7 - 85.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 374-442 (106.5 - 125.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Roaring Moon: 374-442 (106.5 - 125.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Samurott-Hisui: 340-402 (105.9 - 125.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Slowking-Galar: 294-348 (74.6 - 88.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Ting-Lu: 234-276 (45.5 - 53.6%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Outrage vs. 12 HP / 0 Def Walking Wake: 306-362 (89.4 - 105.8%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Brute Bonnet Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 804-948 (286.1 - 337.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(Side Note: I love how Brute Bonnet is basically just Amoonguss in his emo phase, underrated design-wise too)
Fun situational stopgap niche focused on being able to naturally take a hit courtesy of solid defensive stats with less investment than you would expect while additionally being able to bait in and 2HKO various threats with Moonblast like Darkrai, Weavile, Raging Bolt (when Terastallized), Kyurem, Samurott-Hisui, and get a clean OHKO on Iron Valiant. Altaria's Dragon/Flying typing allows it plenty of opportunities to switch in, can cure itself of any status on switching out thanks to Natural Cure, stop set-up sweepers with Haze, and boost its base speed from 200 to 400 with 16 EVs (along with providing speed boosts to your other teammates). Heavy-Duty Boots is for hazard immunity; Altaria may not pack a lot of firepower, but it has just the right amount of tools and defensive prowess to be a bulky self-sustaining attacker that keeps itself healthy with reliable recovery.
Unique Ghost-type phaser with a wonderful ability in Fluffy, a great Fighting-type immunity, and solid defensive stats. Body Press (STAB when terastallized) allows it to bait in Kingambit and OHKO it (with the added benefit of naturally outpacing all common bulky Kingambit variants with no Speed investment.
252+ Def Tera Fighting Houndstone Body Press vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Kingambit: 408-484 (103.5 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Additionally, Houndstone can phase out and rack up hazard damage against less-than-favorable matchups in addition to getting them burns with Will-O-Wisp. The last slot is between Disable to shut down specific Pokemon, Pain Split for situational recovery, or Night Shade for fixed damage and to keep the fully defensive set from being unable to hit Ghost-types.
If you want to run a more offensively inclined Houdnstone variant that's still focused on physical bulk, phasing, and baiting Kingambit, I'd recommend the second set instead. STAB Shadow Sneak is always useful while STAB Poltergeist is a strong option, even with minimal investment. For the last slot on the second set, I'd recommend either Will-O-Wisp for Burn ability or Destiny Bond for mind games + to take a potential sweeper down with you.
I wanted to quickly share some sets that I've been working with during my play in OU as of late - there's one Pokemon I'll be leaving out of this post because I plan on writing a full analysis on it (hopefully sooner rather than later)!
I've had trouble finding the best ways to utilize Slither Wing that didn't feel like I was aping the roles of other existing Pokemon, but after a while of testing things out and reworking the sets after getting advice (also 1LDK helping to improve my mediocre teambuilding as well) - I've found that Slither Wing is one of the few bulky Pokemon with both Will-O-Wisp and a phasing move that isn't a Fire-type. The only competition Slither Wing in this role is Zoroark-Hisui and Shiftry (who cannot run this set due to lack of bulk), Mew (Mew's mono-Psychic defensive typing and much lower attack are both detriments that negatively outweigh the potential boons of its higher bulk and speed), Altaria (I'll explain OU Altaria later in this post), and Houndstone (I'll also explain Houndstone later in this post). Smack Kingambit around with your moth foot or scorch whatever Pokemon Kingambit switches out to, then phase for additional hazard damage + easily keep yourself healthy with Morning Sun. Tera type is Steel-type so that Slither Wing can gain immunity to being poisoned along with Poison-type moves and additionally gain crucial resistances to Flying, Psychic, Dragon, Rock, and Ice-type moves. Slither Wing also has a small unintended benefit of having the specific phase combination of Will-O-Wisp and Whirlwind (Only shared with Shiftry) which means that it can still force out Soundproof Kommo-o, unlike Will-O-Wisp + Roar.
This might be a hot take but i think that Landorus Incarnate should be tested in OU.
The thing with lando is that is stupidly strong with the life orb sheer force set. It destroys balance and has all the coverage it wants, not to mention it can tera now.
However i think that its fearly easy to check lando in many ways.
First: its not fast at all. 101 base speed is simply mid in gen 9. Sure you outspeed common mons like kyurem, tusk and gholdengo, but you are not doing anything in a more offensive enviroment. It has lost rock polish this gen so sweeping with it its not an option and there is a plethora of pokemon that easily outspeed lando and force it to switch or tera at the risk or getting koed: enamorus, wogerpon, moth, valiant, serperior, cinderace, meow, darkrai, weavile, zama and pult; all of them can outspeed lando easily and threaten it with a ko or big damage. So yeah, offensively lando is very easily checked and honestly it can fell like death weight against many HO playstyles.
Its also very difficult to get any defensive utility out lando. It can take a neutral hit but this thing is not healing and with rocks its put in range really quickly. Even against defensive teams it cant switch into anything since mons like garg or gliscor which seem like same safe points of entry can cripple lando really hard with salt cure and knock or toxic.
On the deffensive side is a bit more complicated since this thing gets nasty plot now and it can be completily nuclear, however there are many mons that can switch into lando. Gliscor is the main one since now lando cant hp ice it, but there is also corv, moltres, lando-t, blissey, ting-lu and skarmory. None of them are truly counters but they can cripple lando with status or pivot to another faster mon that threaten lando. There is also no knock off for landorus this gen so progress is not guaranted when facing some of the mons above, lando has to have the right coverage to deal with its check or its simply walled.
Many can argue that lando would put too much preassure when facing balance, but there is already mons that do that like darkrai and wogerpon wich are already controversial and thats because they are too strong and versatile for how fast they are and almost nothing can switch into them safely. Lando doesnt have this, its speed isnt good enough if it wants to be a consistent threat and its coverage is good, but not perfect.
I think there is enought arguments for a lando test in OU, and i think it would help against certain mons that are quite difficult to deal with like garga, gking or raging bolt.
If I may ask, what is your ELO? Looking at these sets, they seem to require top tier play to get the most out of. Hard to use, great rewards. I say this because I've used Alo (max Sp.Def, no AV) way back when, and it scored some.very saucy kills when Rotom was a thing (murders Gholdengo on the switch) but found the playstyle too demanding for my level of skill at the time.
I've been wondering the type of gameplay that goes on at the higher tiers. I'm not expecting to use Vileplume in the 2000s or anything like that, but how creative are the sets at high level play?
i'm only recreationally around low 1700s, lower if i autopilot. ill say this gen punishes reactive play a lot more than gen 8, and rewards proactive play / clutch picks a lot more - creativity helps, but consistent offense that forces uncomfortable situations is better. (Unless you're building stall.) For ladder, there's also common patterns to exploit as builders copy from each other - like using Volcanion to flip the script on Sun or Hoopa-U to punish lazy Glowking BOs.
Can check out some of the tournament replays uptread. Good tour teams aren't always good ladder teams, but it's a good sensing of "pro play". They aren't necessarily banking on creative gimmicks alone, just building with trends in mind and forcing through common meta patterns.
It is just so naturally powerful it doesn't even really need NP. As someone mentioned: Earth Power, Focus Blast and Gravity absolutely tears most of the meta's defensive options apart.
Calculations assuming Lando used Gravity on the switch:
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 244 HP / 16 SpD Gliscor: 285-335 (80.9 - 95.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Poison Heal
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 244 HP / 16 SpD Gliscor: 285-335 (80.9 - 95.1%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 252-299 (49 - 58.1%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery. Under Gravity the move is perfectly accurate.
Last slot can either be Psychic to hit Tera Poison or Nasty Plot in case the team preview shows no target that you want to use Gravity on. This Pokemon is just straight outta the bat insane.
I already said that lando is crazy strong but i stand by what i said. Tell me which defensive team doesnt collapse once wogerpon gets a +2 boost. In theory there is not much counterplay for stall against wogerpon but it is manegeable for the offensive side of the metagame. Same with lando, you are not walling it anytime soon but then again, neither are you walling wogerpon. Plus i there its fearly easy to revenge kill lando and its literally useless against HO besides checking raging bolt.
I might be crazy for thinking this but i honestly believe that lando isnt too far from wogerpon or darkrai in terms of brokeness. Im not saying that is an obvious ou case but i think there is some arguement about it other than ¨lando is broken, it hits so hard¨. Gen 9 has already made the unthinkeable unbanning deo-s and darkrai so i dont think im saying any stupidity, but i get if yall desagree.
I already said that lando is crazy strong but i stand by what i said. Tell me which defensive team doesnt collapse once wogerpon gets a +2 boost. In theory there is not much counterplay for stall against wogerpon but it is manegeable for the offensive side of the metagame. Same with lando, you are not walling it anytime soon but then again, neither are you walling wogerpon. Plus i there its fearly easy to revenge kill lando and its literally useless against HO besides checking raging bolt.
I might be crazy for thinking this but i honestly believe that lando isnt too far from wogerpon or darkrai in terms of brokeness. Im not saying that is an obvious ou case but i think there is some arguement about it other than ¨lando is broken, it hits so hard¨. Gen 9 has already made the unthinkeable unbanning deo-s and darkrai so i dont think im saying any stupidity, but i get if yall desagree.
Wogerpon with +2 is at least hypothetically completely wallable by stall with tera grass/dragon dondozo (depending on play rough vs uturn). Not even tera will save you from +2 Landorus. You can tera ghost blissey or whatever to live focus blasts or get lucky and dodge enough of the 8 PP, but Blissey is super easy to chip into range of being 2HKOd by Earth Powers, as it has no leftovers and has to switch into and take 10% from half the tier. It is disastrous if Blissey has to use its 8PP soft boiled on every switchin to stay perfectly healthy to maintain itself as a Landorus wall.
Obviously "wallable by standard stall" isn't the full measure of defensive counterplay, but things like Ursaluna and Hoopa-U have very clear weaknesses to compensate for their insane wallbreaking ability. In particular, the Hoopa-U comparison is not great, as Hoopa has the worst defensive typing possible while Lando-I is spikes immune and immune to 2 common attacking types.
> Two relatively solid sets posted for my Fuzzy Moth son that could have genuine discussion.
> People still posting about Lando-T's Ubersona 3 days later.
I already said that lando is crazy strong but i stand by what i said. Tell me which defensive team doesnt collapse once wogerpon gets a +2 boost. In theory there is not much counterplay for stall against wogerpon but it is manegeable for the offensive side of the metagame. Same with lando, you are not walling it anytime soon but then again, neither are you walling wogerpon.
They’re not comparable. At all. There are many things that can switch into Waterpon and force progress against it. Dragonite, Pult, Zama, Raging Bolt, Sinistcha, Kyurem, Rillaboom. Coverage can deal with some of these but not all. On stall you have Tera Dozo as a reliable wall
There is nothing that can switch into Lando I or wall it. Blissey needs Tera Dark for Psyshock users. Spdef Gliscor is taking 70% from a +2 Psychic. Everything else gets OHKO’d at +2 and most faster mons getting OHKO’d at +0.
This is also ignoring that Waterpon has a significant Achilles heel in that it’s restricted to a single tera and always gets chipped by grounded hazards. Neither of which apply to Lando I. Spikes immunity plus any Tera in the book, making it much harder to revenge kill.
With Lando I in the tier, there will only be two viable archetypes. Lando I BO and anti-Lando I HO. Any other bulky structure is fucked. Why the hell would we put the tier through this when offensive threat oversaturation is already a complaint right now?
On a more general level, I take issue at these flawed comparisons that inevitably come up as Uber unban arguments. “X mon is doing okay in the tier, so we should unban Y”. Almost always the two mons in question have significant differences that people just throw under the rug.
“Hey guys you know the Uber that has been banned for its entire existence and got buffed this gen? Let’s talk about bringing it down to ou for 7 pages even though it has 0 counters and literally gets a kill every single time it comes in no matter what”
They’re not comparable. At all. There are many things that can switch into Waterpon and force progress against it. Dragonite, Pult, Zama, Raging Bolt, Sinistcha, Kyurem, Rillaboom. Coverage can deal with some of these but not all. On stall you have Tera Dozo as a reliable wall
There is nothing that can switch into Lando I or wall it. Blissey needs Tera Dark for Psyshock users. Spdef Gliscor is taking 70% from a +2 Psychic. Everything else gets OHKO’d at +2 and most faster mons getting OHKO’d at +0.
This is also ignoring that Waterpon has a significant Achilles heel in that it’s restricted to a single tera and always gets chipped by grounded hazards. Neither of which apply to Lando I. Spikes immunity plus any Tera in the book, making it much harder to revenge kill.
With Lando I in the tier, there will only be two viable archetypes. Lando I BO and anti-Lando I HO. Any other bulky structure is fucked. Why the hell would we put the tier through this when offensive threat oversaturation is already a complaint right now?
On a more general level, I take issue at these flawed comparisons that inevitably come up as Uber unban arguments. “X mon is doing okay in the tier, so we should unban Y”. Almost always the two mons in question have significant differences that people just throw under the rug.
to steer away from the discussion, I will bring back Slither Wing into discussion. Is there a legit niche for it to become a setup sweeper? Will-o-Wisp, Bulk Up and Leech Life can make it outstall physical attackers pretty well, and its naturally high Sp. Def can come into play.
to steer away from the discussion, I will bring back Slither Wing into discussion. Is there a legit niche for it to become a setup sweeper? Will-o-Wisp, Bulk Up and Leech Life can make it outstall physical attackers pretty well, and its naturally high Sp. Def can come into play.
Along with Gambit, these 3 Pokemon decide what is viable and what is not. Losing to one of them can be excused, but losing to 3 is too much. Apart from that, Moltres, Iron Moth, Iron Valiant, Zapdos... lots of Mons wall such a set. I guess you can slap Flare Blitz to delete Gholdengo or Wild Charge to have a shot vs Dozo and Zapdos, but you can,t beat them all.
Really, Slither Wing has 2 niches:
1. Band Wallbreaker in Sun that can also RK stuff with First Impression.
2. Bulky pivot.
Its a good Mon and best looking legendary of the Generation, but if you want to set-up with it, you should go to UU.
> Two relatively solid sets posted for my Fuzzy Moth son that could have genuine discussion.
> People still posting about Lando-T's Ubersona 3 days later.
funny enough, lando-t's ubersona is lando-t. incarnate has less than 1% usage and d rank on the vr, while lando-t is a- tier in ubers (despite actually being uubers by usage). even in uubers, where lando-i is a-, lando-t is a+. this of course isn't a defense of a lando-i drop—lando-i belongs in ubers because defensive answers to it literally do not exist. it's not even one of those mons like chi-yu where there's technically a defensive answer to it but it just happens to be dachsbun, lando-i has literally no defensive answers at all, even when you factor in tera. it doesn't have defensive answers in ubers either, it's just bad in ubers because "having no defensive answers" is the bare minimum for an offensive mon in ubers; most of its competition also has no defensive answers and is way faster. the reason lando-t remains good in uubers and ubers is because intimidate makes it good into physical attackers literally anywhere. it's a fantastic example of how extreme consistency can put you higher on the vr than straight-up brokenness
The only worthwhile Ubers comment at this point is:
Ubers is OU minus the rule against over-centralization.
On a more worthwhile note, welcome back Lokix, good to see you again. I wonder how many sub-OU mons would be possible to include in a team and still get near the top of the ladder?
While we are talking about the evils that are the Lando forms, let me just remind everybody how cracked Ground/Flying STAB coverage truly is. Yes, Lando can get this now because of Tera Blast. A Flying Tera Blast will be like an Adaptability move because Lando is already Flying type. The only type combinations that can resist both Ground and Flying type moves are Flying/Steel, Flying/Rock, and Flying/Electric. So basically, just the metal birds and maybe Zapados. There are no Flying/Rock types anywhere close to OU. So, 3 mons? And at least one person here wants to add Sheer Force damage to this? Why?
Even if we count Levitate mons, only Bronzong and the Rotom forms have even slight justification. And hose are niche at best. Nobody has ever seen Elektross anywhere near gen 9 OU. All of these 3-6 (being generous) mons could be countered by Gravity or Magnezone to counter the Steel types and a neutral coverage move to hit the rest. Etc. This idea is dumb.
As it is, the only reason why Lando-T isn't also a problem in gen 9 OU, with that STAB coverage off of base 145 attack, is because it has no good way to boost its speed after they took away Rock Polish. This makes it just a pivot and not something you generally have to guess the set with too much. But in certain past gens, T was a lot worse to deal with in OU due to better set variety and less outright power creep. Fortunately, there was no Tera or Flying coverage outside of Power Herb Fly.
But Lando-I doesn't have quite the same speed issue. It has a higher base speed than the T. It also has the possibility to be a scarfer with more damage potential due to Sheer Force buffing the damage from most moves anyways. Although Tera Blast in particular would be less powerful without LO, it's still an Adaptability level boost with Tera Flying. Having to scout for scarf would make NP variants more scary, too.
I think ting-Lu is one of the most OP Pokémon in OU. There is virtually nothing you can do to stop red card ting-Lu from getting 2 layers of hazards and a pile of chip through ruination and cycling.
I think ting-Lu is one of the most OP Pokémon in OU. There is virtually nothing you can do to stop red card ting-Lu from getting 2 layers of hazards and a pile of chip through ruination and cycling. I find it to be wayyyy too effective at this job and prob a top3 restrictive Pokémon in the tier.
You can already roleplay as Landorus-I with . Equally hard to wall if you’re doing these magical calcs where it’s at +2 with every coverage it gets. the game isn’t always just switching in the type resist.
But yeah don’t unban . It’s too bulky and immune to t-wave.
Anyways, I want to talk about
I think ting-Lu is one of the most OP Pokémon in OU. There is virtually nothing you can do to stop red card ting-Lu from getting 2 layers of hazards and a pile of chip through ruination and cycling. I find it to be wayyyy too effective at this job and prob a top3 restrictive Pokémon in the tier.
I anticipate lots of ting + woger webs teams to take over ladder. Red card mitigates the sole weakness of webs — ribomber getting setup on. Rain will be the lone offensive offset to this style (though webs also runs bolt), with stall farming the rain. That will be the OLT triad, in my opinion.
Switch in my favorite Gen 9 mon, Maushold. You can Encore the big fatty into more spikes, then you can click Tidy Up to both remove its hazards progress and set up, and if Ting Lu dares to stay in, +2 Population Bomb is an OHKO and +1 does a minimum of ~80%.
It also does fairly well into Ogerpon-W once webs are down, since it can outspeed and kill with Population Bomb, offering more utility in the matchup. You can even anti-lead Ribombee, if you want to go for the prediction, killing instantly with Population Bomb and forcing in something fast and strong to preserve the hazards against a Tidy Up.
. Equally hard to wall if you’re doing these magical calcs where it’s at +2 with every coverage it gets. the game isn’t always just switching in the type resist.