Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion v4

> Immediately shed a light on sleep after getting introduced to the tier and caused it to finally get banned after years of making us play a modded game to keep it around

> Its presence in the tier caused unprecedented adaptation, allowing for cool Pokémon like Tinkaton and Fezandipiti to gain viability without pushing anything out of the tier

> Has been a huge thorn in the side of Gliscor, a previously banned and still contentious Pokémon this generation

Darkrai has been one of the sickest additions to the tier and I’m tired of pretending otherwise.
darkrai was not the main reason sleep got banned, iron valliant was the worst offender by far
 
I think it would be nice and more productive if people tried to argue against the best apposing argument instead of the worst, which seems to be popping up a lot. For example,

Immediately shed a light on sleep after getting introduced to the tier and caused it to finally get banned after years of making us play a modded game to keep it around

TheTraininator never claimed that Darkrai was the main reason sleep got banned, just that it made people realize in general was broken/uncompetitive. Furthermore, and I might be wrong, the chief part of their argument seems to be less about the current state of Darkrai and more about the effect it has had on the tier. Personally, I wouldn't mind a Darkrai ban, but I think it has had a positive effect on the tier as well, especially in getting sleep banned.

It can be true both that adding it to the tier was the right choice at the time and that later suspecting it and/or banning it is or will be right too. Darkrai did have a lasting positive effect on this generation whether or not it gets banned at some later date.
 
I think it would be nice and more productive if people tried to argue against the best apposing argument instead of the worst, which seems to be popping up a lot. For example,



TheTraininator never claimed that Darkrai was the main reason sleep got banned, just that it made people realize in general was broken/uncompetitive. Furthermore, and I might be wrong, the chief part of their argument seems to be less about the current state of Darkrai and more about the effect it has had on the tier. Personally, I wouldn't mind a Darkrai ban, but I think it has had a positive effect on the tier as well, especially in getting sleep banned.

It can be true both that adding it to the tier was the right choice at the time and that later suspecting it and/or banning it is or will be right too. Darkrai did have a lasting positive effect on this generation whether or not it gets banned at some later date.
I'm honestly not sure whether darkrai should get the boot or not but there are much bigger priorities rn imo
 
So I had been screwing around a little, and I realized that Roaring Moon could potentially run a Tera Dragon Outrage set kind of like Gouging Fire does. In the process, I made a few interesting observations. First, Moon is actually more powerful. Even a Jolly Roaring Moon can have more attack than an Adamant Gouging Fire. So under the same items and maybe field conditions, the raw power would be a bit in favor RM. Second, Iron Head coverage could potentially be used to deal with Fairies that would resist Outrage and Knock Off. I don't know if this is optimal, but it is interesting. The third observation is that Outrage is not an expected use, giving it a decent surprise factor. I have not done all the calcs on every wall or check, but I think many could be chunked hard based on Gouging's calcs and Moon's superior raw power.

Gouging Fire obviously has advantages with bulk and Burn immunity. Moon is much easier to RK with priority. I would say that RM is more bulky than some realize, particularly on the special side. Obviously, it isn't the same. The speed tier is much better, though, making you only need 1 DD against most teams to outspeed everything that isn't priority.

In the right team concept, it seems possible that this kind of RM set could thrive. Create a team that destroys Fairy types. Maybe have a trapping Heatran set. I really want to play around with it.

It's a possibility and even something like this could work in a Sun team

https://pokepast.es/70a6c6a433354f94
 
got reqs will save my thoughts on impaling blaze for the suspect thread just wanted to post team I used
Thunderbug's Terrible Terrain (pokepast.es)

I get Heatran is kinda down bad at the moment but people talk about it like its complete dogass mostly because Magma Storm is bad (which it is) and the 8 fucking ground types of the tier. I find spdef wisp is actually a gigantic pain for the tier to switch in on early game and if you just don't run shitty magma storm you don't have to get sad when it misses. Its not the monster its been in the past but on the right teams it just straight up doesn't die in some matchups with the sheer volume of entry it actually gets and even in bad matchups can create opportunities on burnt threats for the squad or pivoting around threats. Also if you run up on Fire/Dragon coverage stabbing inferno it can just sit on it with natural typing and tera grass just invalidates eq variants for however long that matchup is still relevant. I run 40 speed for the oversized chess piece and anyone else who goes for that speed

Band Rilla still a stall destroyer and nice cleaner/revenger, LO bolt gets that extra kick and not reliant on booster to break so it can come in/out a bit more willingly, Hat helps controls hazards and wins some games off the jump, encore tera electric lucha for twaves/thunderclap or sucker prediction game/make it rain ghold/locking in people to moves that give you extra SDs, and booster tusk because it can be a one time run out of goring cinders/removal/just general monster once it starts bulking up and it accidentally wins, knock over spinner to help remove helmets/boots for lucha/rilla and not my own terrain plus it make balloon ghold big mad.


Why yes my Kyurem and Primarina matchups are terrible thank you for noticing thankfully when laddering for reqs I didn't see them a ton and players better then me could probably fix that
 
I'm surprised the obviously broken mons don't get abused more by low ladder players, cause most of the top mons have relatively low usage low ladder, like I've barely seen :kyurem: where i am on the ladder even though it is kinda insane, or :gouging fire: for that matter. Also I swear you see the dumbest strats ever down there, if I see scale shot :gliscor: without a toxic orb one more time I am gonna lose it. (can you tell im barely still low ladder rn?)
Gouging Fire and Kyurem are used on high ladder and not low ladder because if you have more than 30 IQ, you can climb the ladder pretty easily with those mons.
 
I'm surprised the obviously broken mons don't get abused more by low ladder players, cause most of the top mons have relatively low usage low ladder, like I've barely seen :kyurem: where i am on the ladder even though it is kinda insane, or :gouging fire: for that matter. Also I swear you see the dumbest strats ever down there, if I see scale shot :gliscor: without a toxic orb one more time I am gonna lose it. (can you tell im barely still low ladder rn?)

Gouging Fire, especially, isn't an engine of destruction without the Proto boost. It's weak to Stealth Rock, so it'll accumulate significant chip switching in and out; 115 Attack is no longer anything special, so it can't wallbreak nearly as well; and given that lacking power and accumulated chip, the number of answers goes way up.

Low ladder tends to tunnel vision into dealing with the current situation, and skimp on long term planning. A low ladder player is more likely to waste the Booster Energy, and thus get much less out of Gouging Fire.

Kyurem is somewhat similar, with the severe hazard weakness and being less effective after the initial usage, though with Kyurem it's because the set is likely identified.
 
Gouging Fire, especially, isn't an engine of destruction without the Proto boost. It's weak to Stealth Rock, so it'll accumulate significant chip switching in and out; 115 Attack is no longer anything special, so it can't wallbreak nearly as well; and given that lacking power and accumulated chip, the number of answers goes way up.

Low ladder tends to tunnel vision into dealing with the current situation, and skimp on long term planning. A low ladder player is more likely to waste the Booster Energy, and thus get much less out of Gouging Fire.

Kyurem is somewhat similar, with the severe hazard weakness and being less effective after the initial usage, though with Kyurem it's because the set is likely identified.

I feel like with :kyurem: low ladder also just doesnt abuse subtect, which makes it a lot worse at what :kyurem: does, since there less sets to guess, and its applying less pressure.
 
I've become an assault vest Ursaluna believer. Attack and SpD EVs with adamant and guts. Thanks to the people who suggested it ages ago in this thread.

It is an absolute nightmare for Hex users as it switches into basically any progress move they might click. It's bulky enough to shrug off mixed dragon darts and strong enough to trade with draco meteor or make it rain.

It also switches in on glowking freely. Immune to thunder wave, resists sludge bomb and doesn't mind being poisoned. And gets to click a big headlong rush or body slam to make progress. I had one trick a choice scarf, but that just meant they couldn't chilly reception anymore with their new vest and I now outsped their gambit.

For boots Darkrai it shrugs off basically anything, including focus blast and crushes with drain punch. Life orb and expert belt are tougher if they get their prediction right but still a good spot for you. Ursaluna also isn't the easiest to predict as a SpD switch in.

Kyurem you obviously have to Tera, but tera fighting drain punch outheals anything except specs, tera ice, ice beam.

For Primarina your headlong rush is a coin flip to ohko. Moonblast on the switch in and a follow-up surf always fails to kill.

Raging Bolt and Iron Crown are also both easily switched in and favourably trade on.

Pair it with any bulky water to make ice beam, surf and make it rain harder to click for your opponent, then flip turn into Ursaluna. I personally use Mola. It also lets you flip turn on turn 1 Glimmora lead and poison your Ursaluna if you like. Glimmora can't hurt him in the slightest.

Headlong Rush and Drain Punch are mandatory. I like body slam as 30% para chance gives a good progress move to click. Last move I had fire punch for the steel birds, but a lot of them are Iron/Press and will crush you anyway. I'm on ice punch now because Lando-T is the most common switch in and it lets you threaten Sinischa and Zapdos.
 
I've become an assault vest Ursaluna believer. Attack and SpD EVs with adamant and guts. Thanks to the people who suggested it ages ago in this thread.

It is an absolute nightmare for Hex users as it switches into basically any progress move they might click. It's bulky enough to shrug off mixed dragon darts and strong enough to trade with draco meteor or make it rain.

It also switches in on glowking freely. Immune to thunder wave, resists sludge bomb and doesn't mind being poisoned. And gets to click a big headlong rush or body slam to make progress. I had one trick a choice scarf, but that just meant they couldn't chilly reception anymore with their new vest and I now outsped their gambit.

For boots Darkrai it shrugs off basically anything, including focus blast and crushes with drain punch. Life orb and expert belt are tougher if they get their prediction right but still a good spot for you. Ursaluna also isn't the easiest to predict as a SpD switch in.

Kyurem you obviously have to Tera, but tera fighting drain punch outheals anything except specs, tera ice, ice beam.

For Primarina your headlong rush is a coin flip to ohko. Moonblast on the switch in and a follow-up surf always fails to kill.

Raging Bolt and Iron Crown are also both easily switched in and favourably trade on.

Pair it with any bulky water to make ice beam, surf and make it rain harder to click for your opponent, then flip turn into Ursaluna. I personally use Mola. It also lets you flip turn on turn 1 Glimmora lead and poison your Ursaluna if you like. Glimmora can't hurt him in the slightest.

Headlong Rush and Drain Punch are mandatory. I like body slam as 30% para chance gives a good progress move to click. Last move I had fire punch for the steel birds, but a lot of them are Iron/Press and will crush you anyway. I'm on ice punch now because Lando-T is the most common switch in and it lets you threaten Sinischa and Zapdos.
A gentleman and a scholar.

I personally prefer Earthquake, but the raw power of HR may actually be superior. I'm not a fan of my defensive mons lowering their defenses, but you can't be hit back if they're dead.

I also dropped Drain Punch for a combo of Fire/Ice Punch , along with Body Slam. Nothing gets to switch in for free. With Alo, she handles healing, but Drain will allow self sustainablity of course. I simply wasn't clicking it enough for my taste, but I can always punish Ghold with Fire, no matter how many balloons it holds. And Corv. And Skar.
 
Lost to a Tera Bug Terablast Gouging today that one shotted my Ting Lu today. I think we might be inching towards the end.

I've become an assault vest Ursaluna believer. Attack and SpD EVs with adamant and guts. Thanks to the people who suggested it ages ago in this thread.
ANOTHER TO THE CAUSE. :boi: :boi: :boi:

I've experimented with it and have tried variations of the set Sims mentioned above^ you can drop Drain Punch for Fire/Ice punches if you want more coverage, but with Mola healing (or Grassy terrain) it absolutely rips for long periods of times. Pults become free switches or trades favorably, Glowkings have to immediately switch. Absolutely nothing wants to switch into a Guts boosted Headlong, Punches, or even Body Slam. 30% Parachance on something that bulky makes it very, very good at trading anytime its on the field.

I've been a big fan of Pecharunt and/or Sini paired with it. Very good results off and on, I sadly haven't had as much time to grind and refine lately...

EDIT: Before I forget, as one more piece of forbidden tech I've found Tera Dark with TB to also be very good at dealing with some team comps. I haven't tested it enough, but being able to utterly demolish ghost switches and resist Sucker still is a very fun thing. I need to try it thoroughly.
 
A gentleman and a scholar.

I personally prefer Earthquake, but the raw power of HR may actually be superior. I'm not a fan of my defensive mons lowering their defenses, but you can't be hit back if they're dead.

I also dropped Drain Punch for a combo of Fire/Ice Punch , along with Body Slam. Nothing gets to switch in for free. With Alo, she handles healing, but Drain will allow self sustainablity of course. I simply wasn't clicking it enough for my taste, but I can always punish Ghold with Fire, no matter how many balloons it holds. And Corv. And Skar.

I find assault vest users (without regenerator) aren't really traditional defensive mons. You don't really wall things and then recover, even with Alomomola. You will be quickly chipped down and then no longer check your target. The only thing they care about is their attack as the opponent switches out. I think maximising this is important, hence adamant headlong rush. Ursaluna is also pretty trivial to revenge kill whether your defense is dropped or not.

I hadn't considered dropping drain punch since it seems like your best tool against Kyurem. If they sub on your switch in, having the recovery is nice. Although admittedly a direct switch in is awkward pre-tera anyway.

Fire punch vs balloon Gholdengo only really seems useful when they nasty plot on your switch in. Any other move and you have a spare turn to ice punch the balloon. Maybe I should give it another chance anyway.
 
EDIT: Before I forget, as one more piece of forbidden tech I've found Tera Dark with TB to also be very good at dealing with some team comps. I haven't tested it enough, but being able to utterly demolish ghost switches and resist Sucker still is a very fun thing. I need to try it thoroughly.
One minor tidbit, Ursaluna learns Crunch and Throat Chop for moves with secondary effects and the same BP as Tera Blast, because I can see the value in Dark Coverage and this doesn't require Tera to deal it (given how hard Luna can hit, it might be enough). Niche benefits on Throat Chop maybe stopping a stray Psychic Noise Primarina or a snowballing Skeledirge (since it also can't burn you and 252 SpD AV eats Torch Song while 2HKOing with Neutral STAB).

I always like "Trade Mons" because I have a bad habit of building teams that are "good except when THIS GUY shows up", so a mon that's versatile enough to go down taking THAT GUY out is always convenient and satisfying
 
One minor tidbit, Ursaluna learns Crunch and Throat Chop for moves with secondary effects and the same BP as Tera Blast, because I can see the value in Dark Coverage and this doesn't require Tera to deal it (given how hard Luna can hit, it might be enough). Niche benefits on Throat Chop maybe stopping a stray Psychic Noise Primarina or a snowballing Skeledirge (since it also can't burn you and 252 SpD AV eats Torch Song while 2HKOing with Neutral STAB).

I always like "Trade Mons" because I have a bad habit of building teams that are "good except when THIS GUY shows up", so a mon that's versatile enough to go down taking THAT GUY out is always convenient and satisfying
Extremely embarrassing that despite using this guy forever now I have failed to realize he has access to fucking Crunch. I've experimented with Throat Chop off and on, back when Dirge was more popular it absolutely demolished the average sets it used to massive success. I'll have to experiment with Crunch instead and forgo Tera Dark for Fighting or so on; Dark/Fighting coverage is awesome to have in a meta volatile as this.

A large part of the reason I've played with various Ursaluna sets is due to the fact it works as a perfect inbetween answer of "I need something to check a certain type of Guy". It works against my Valiant weak teams, it works vs many flavors of Darkrai, etc. It's served me well!
 
I find assault vest users (without regenerator) aren't really traditional defensive mons. You don't really wall things and then recover, even with Alomomola. You will be quickly chipped down and then no longer check your target. The only thing they care about is their attack as the opponent switches out. I think maximising this is important, hence adamant headlong rush. Ursaluna is also pretty trivial to revenge kill whether your defense is dropped or not.

I hadn't considered dropping drain punch since it seems like your best tool against Kyurem. If they sub on your switch in, having the recovery is nice. Although admittedly a direct switch in is awkward pre-tera anyway.

Fire punch vs balloon Gholdengo only really seems useful when they nasty plot on your switch in. Any other move and you have a spare turn to ice punch the balloon. Maybe I should give it another chance anyway.

You aren't wrong at all. I'm flip flopping between EQ and HR because with the bear's raw power, EQ still tends to 2hko, and I do enjoy having at least one non contact option. Headlong wasn't leading to enough direct kos when needed, but really, even when it doesnt kill, doing 80% is better for my team than 60%. Fire Punch is more for the flying metal birds, smacking Ghold is a major bonus, but as you stated, Ice Punch HR combo wipes it out.

I... completely forgot about Sub Kyu. You're right, that may very well make Drain Punch the go to choice, that and Darkai.

One thing about the BEAR is that a lot of its moves has very sexy side effects. The amount of matches I've cheesed with a lucky Freeze, and Corviknight is my most frequent burn victim. You've already mentioned Body Slam's 30% para chance. I'm not saying "use Fire Punch for the 1 outta 10 chance per game to maybe probably burn", but...it exists!
 
A large part of the reason I've played with various Ursaluna sets is due to the fact it works as a perfect inbetween answer of "I need something to check a certain type of Guy". It works against my Valiant weak teams, it works vs many flavors of Darkrai, etc. It's served me well!
Exactly! And these discussions really shines light on it's very expansive movepool. It has enough raw power that even Body Slam chunks Great Tusk on the switch, it's ground moves hurt no matter what you decide to use (even Dig is useful, if you ever need to tank your own elo), so the rest is literal coverage. No, it's "how would you like your bear today"?

I remember my non AV set. Basically max Speed and Attack. Win Rilla boom's help, Trailblaze made it a beast.
 
I knew Gouging Fire was going to be broken as soon as I saw it’s not only Fire/Dragon, but also a Fire-type Protosynthesis mon. Fire/Dragon is really the main offender here. Steels have always been the Dragon counter pretty much. So Fire STAB for that is crazy. Not to mention its STABs are 120 BP (woah!). Paired with so much bulk you’d think it has Multiscale when it DDs, and its perfect speed stat, you have a true curse.
 
I have been momentarily distracted from my usual testing agenda by band Pult. It allows me to get around two things I don't believe in: Boots spam and Lando-T.

Let me elaborate:

Clear Body stat drops from ignores webs and Intimidate, giving you a physical attacker that doesn't really care as much about conditions on the field. Combining Pult with one decent priority mon means you can get away with kinda ignoring webs. Add a grounded Poison like Glowking, and suddenly you don't need to worry about T-spikes. So that leaves just rocks and Spikes.

As long as you don't introduce any hazard weak mons, you don't really need to focus on hazard clear much if at all. This got me thinking about team structures with both no hazard clear or boots whatsoever. I have tried a couple and they seem to work ok, so long as you are using a faster paced style like HO.

Then there is Dragon Darts. This move doesn't care about most non-Fairy sash or sub abusers. It's also only resisted by two types. I used to be wary of focusing too much on Dragon STAB (outside of a stray Draco or three) because of how common Fairy and Tera Fairy is. Back before the Fairy type was introduced, Dragon spam used to be very strong. But there are maybe ways around this. The recent development of Tera Dragon Outrage Gouging Fire has had me look deeper into other possible Dragon spammers like Moon and Pult. I think you can do it with the right teams.

As an anti-lead, Pult has good matchups into mons like Hamurott, Glimmora, Rillaboom, and Lando-T. Although the speed tier isn't good enough to outrun a possible scarf Hamurott or Glimm, you can live a hit from scarf sets. Tera Dragon takes away the Dark weakness from a potential scarf Ceaseless Edge or Sucker Punch, while you KO it back with darts or chunk it with U-turn. Maybe even U-turn into a helmet mon. Against Glimm, you naturally resist Poison STAB, so the highest damaging move it could do in 1 turn is Power Gem for about 52.3-62.8%. It can't be anything like herb Meteor Beam because that wouldn't outspeed you in turn 1. And you an use your grounded Poison mon to deal with any T-spikes from your physical attacks. What this means is you have a pretty good chance to minimize hazards from most suicide leads.

There are a few notable downsides. First, Pult's speed tier is only great. It isn't enough to outrun a lot of scarf or +1 mons unboosted. Second, the coverage is pretty lacking, particularly on the physical side. Third, Pult's typing is a mixed bag against priority. It excels against GG, E-speed, and Thunderclap while losing to Ice Shard, Sucker Punch, Lokix First Impression, and probably Bullet Punch. This means you may need to hard switch a lot, which can prohibit you from spamming this mon as much as you might otherwise like.

Another downside of Tera Dragon is that you don't really have a good physical Ghost move. Most physical Pult sets run Tera Blast as the Ghost move. But I didn't like this. So I put Phantom Force. While it isn't ideal, it can be useful when used sparingly. Like 99% of the time, I am clicking Dragon Darts or U-turn anyways. So it is really just about filling out the set. Let the team deal with Steel and Fairy types.

For the 4th move slot, I have been messing around with Curse. I know, I know. Choice Band Curse probably seems like a meme. How often do you get into a situation where there is this one mon that is preventing you from tearing through the opposing team with something on your team? Or how often is the last mon on your opposing team a bad matchups for the mons you have left? Curse gives you another way to possibly force progress or guarantee a close out. I simply find this more useful than whatever else I would put in the 4th slot. Just don't try to use it after clicking Tera Dragon.

Other options include Tera Fire, which allows you to avoid Burn and hit Steel types, Tera Fighting to beat Gambit, or a priority move like Quick Attack. But so far, I haven't preferred these things.
 
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I find assault vest users (without regenerator) aren't really traditional defensive mons. You don't really wall things and then recover, even with Alomomola. You will be quickly chipped down and then no longer check your target. The only thing they care about is their attack as the opponent switches out. I think maximising this is important, hence adamant headlong rush. Ursaluna is also pretty trivial to revenge kill whether your defense is dropped or not.

I hadn't considered dropping drain punch since it seems like your best tool against Kyurem. If they sub on your switch in, having the recovery is nice. Although admittedly a direct switch in is awkward pre-tera anyway.

Fire punch vs balloon Gholdengo only really seems useful when they nasty plot on your switch in. Any other move and you have a spare turn to ice punch the balloon. Maybe I should give it another chance anyway.
I don't think AV ursaluna is supposed to be a defensive mon lol, moreso a bulky attacker than can take hits and threaten big damage
 
I have been momentarily distracted from my usual testing agenda by band Pult. It allows me to get around two things I don't believe in: Boots spam and Lando-T.

Let me elaborate:

Clear Body stat drops from ignores webs and Intimidate, giving you a physical attacker that doesn't really care as much about conditions on the field. Combining Pult with one decent priority mon means you can get away with kinda ignoring webs. Add a grounded Poison like Glowking, and suddenly you don't need to worry about T-spikes. So that leaves just rocks and Spikes.

As long as you don't introduce any hazard weak mons, you don't really need to focus on hazard clear much if at all. This got me thinking about team structures with both no hazard clear or boots whatsoever. I have tried a couple and they seem to work ok, so long as you are using a faster paced style like HO.

Then there is Dragon Darts. This move doesn't care about most non-Fairy sash or sub abusers. It's also only resisted by two types. I used to be wary of focusing too much on Dragon STAB (outside of a stray Draco or three) because of how common Fairy and Tera Fairy is. Back before the Fairy type was introduced, Dragon spam used to be very strong. But there are maybe ways around this. The recent development of Tera Dragon Outrage Gouging Fire has had me look deeper into other possible Dragon spammers like Moon and Pult. I think you can do it with the right teams.

As an anti-lead, Pult has good matchups into mons like Hamurott, Glimmora, Rillaboom, and Lando-T. Although the speed tier isn't good enough to outrun a possible scarf Hamurott or Glimm, you can live a hit from scarf sets. Tera Dragon takes away the Dark weakness from a potential scarf Ceaseless Edge or Sucker Punch, while you KO it back with darts or chunk it with U-turn. Maybe even U-turn into a helmet mon. Against Glimm, you naturally resist Poison STAB, so the highest damaging move it could do in 1 turn is Power Gem for about 52.3-62.8%. It can't be anything like herb Meteor Beam because that wouldn't outspeed you in turn 1. And you an use your grounded Poison mon to deal with any T-spikes from your physical attacks. What this means is you have a pretty good chance to minimize hazards from most suicide leads.

There are a few notable downsides. First, Pult's speed tier is only great. It isn't enough to outrun a lot of scarf or +1 mons unboosted. Second, the coverage is pretty lacking, particularly on the physical side. Third, Pult's typing is a mixed bag against priority. It excels against GG, E-speed, and Thunderclap while losing to Ice Shard, Sucker Punch, Lokix First Impression, and probably Bullet Punch. This means you may need to hard switch a lot, which can prohibit you from spamming this mon as much as you might otherwise like.

Another downside of Tera Dragon is that you don't really have a good physical Ghost move. Most physical Pult sets run Tera Blast as the Ghost move. But I didn't like this. So I put Phantom Force. While it isn't ideal, it can be useful when used sparingly. Like 99% of the time, I am clicking Dragon Darts or U-turn anyways. So it is really just about filling out the set. Let the team deal with Steel and Fairy types.

For the 4th move slot, I have been messing around with Curse. I know, I know. Choice Band Curse probably seems like a meme. How often do you get into a situation where there is this one mon that is preventing you from tearing through the opposing team with something on your team? Or how often is the last mon on your opposing team a bad matchups for the mons you have left? Curse gives you another way to possibly force progress or guarantee a close out. I simply find this more useful than whatever else I would put in the 4th slot. Just don't try to use it after clicking Tera Dragon.

Other options include Tera Fire, which allows you to avoid Burn and hit Steel types, Tera Fighting to beat Gambit, or a priority move like Quick Attack. But so far, I haven't preferred these things.

I sometimes run Sucker Punch to get over... other Pults.

Band Pult is great. I have tried it with great success, because tera Ghost Terablast just hits hard.

However, this build of Pult would suck against fatter teams, especially ones with tera fairy Nacl.
 
Garchomp @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Rough Skin
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Scale Shot
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
- Swords Dance

Been having a lil fun with this set after taking a cue from Gouging Fire. Tera Dragon Garchomp is kinda cool since it gives Scale Shot some good breaking power against some of its usual annoying match-ups like Great Tusk, Lando-T, and Gliscor, where it can OHKO every single one of them with the slightest bit of chip. Also does a truckload to other Pokemon like Moltres.

+1 252 Atk Tera Dragon Garchomp Scale Shot (4 hits) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Landorus-Therian: 360-432 (94.2 - 113%) -- approx. 75% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Tera Dragon Garchomp Scale Shot (4 hits) vs. 244 HP / 36 Def Gliscor: 360-424 (102.2 - 120.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 Atk Tera Dragon Garchomp Scale Shot (4 hits) vs. 248 HP / 248+ Def Moltres: 344-408 (89.8 - 106.5%) -- approx. 37.5% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Tera Dragon Garchomp Scale Shot (4 hits) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 352-416 (94.8 - 112.1%) -- approx. 62.5% chance to OHKO

Dragon Tail is pretty cool - allows Garchomp to phase out some annoying Pokemon like Roar Moltres, ID Zamazenta, Dondozo, and ID Corviknight, letting it rack up extra hazard chip on these guys and put the opponent in an awkward position since the opponent won't wanna face a +2 Garchomp.

The main annoying part about Garchomp is that it usually needs to spend 2 turns getting a speed boost unlike gouging Fire, so against some foes like Ogerpon-W, you have to click Scale shot first to boost your speed first before setting up. I also feel it secretly wants a lot of different Tera types. There are a lot of situations where I want Tera Fire to avoid burns or Tera Ghost to handle Zamazenta / Dragonite better. Scale shot is also a double edged sword a lot of the time since the lower defense makes Garchomp more prone to being KO'd by Mr gambit. Dealing with Lando-T cores is also a bit dicey since Garchomp has to play mindgames against the fairy type these teams usually have in the back.

Garchomp's Speed tier is pretty great right now. I find its able to find a good amount of opportunities to setup SD on various Pokemon like Gking (the main one), Iron Crown, some Gholdengo, etc. Not a lot of Pokemon are able to outspeed it after setting up.
 
it's kinda wild how this gen has made everyone collectively realize that dragon is still a really good offensive type. it never really came up as a topic when bax was running around, but tera dragon gouging has got people talking about tera dragon on garchomp and roaring moon and i've even heard people float the idea of trying it on dragonite or walking wake. we all thought dragon fell off after fairy was introduced but it turns out that being neutral or better against 16 of 18 types is a pretty solid matchup spread if your stab is strong enough
 
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