Hey OU metagame discussion thread. IDT I've made a long metagame post in a while, but I've recently been messing around with a lot of sets/mons that I think are pretty good/underexplored.

Hatterene @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 208 HP / 248 SpA / 52 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Psyshock
- Psychic Noise
- Mystical Fire
This was the one set on this list that didn't pan out as well as I thought, but the general idea was to use hatterene as a powerful wallbreaker to catch opponents off guard with powerful specs boosted attacks, such as OHKO'ing offensive ghold with mystical fire or easily 2hit ko'ing glowking with psyshock. Generally, I think AV is better because it allows yout to take hits much more easily, but this was a really funny moment that happened on ladder that specs was absolutely a key part of.
248+ SpA Choice Specs Hatterene Draining Kiss vs. -1 0 HP / 0 SpD Tera Ice Great Tusk: 348-411 (93.8 - 110.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

Kyurem @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 52 HP / 128 Atk / 128 Def / 200 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Protect
- Icicle Spear
- Dragon Dance
This is a set that both me and
mcribs have been trying out which we like to call crack kyurem. This kyurem set has enough speed evs to outspeed pecharunt and most importantly, enough defense evs for garganacl salt cure to never break substitute. This means that infact, you can setup on protect garg, which is absolutely insane. From here, you can start to setup multiple dragon dances, snowballing into a sweeper that is hard to outspeed and does a lot of damage. I went with more attack investment, but mcribs went bulkier. Both are really good though.

Pelipper @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Drizzle
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 224 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Hurricane
- Surf
- Roost
- Knock Off
Yes, that's right, I have used specially defensive pelipper. Its suprisingly bulky on the special side compared to if you looked at its stats. It is 3hit ko'd by darkrai dark pulse, which is nice in order to tank weak hits. From here, its actually quite offensively threatening between knock off, hurricane and surf, with it soft checking quite a large portion of the meta. Drizzle also can help stuff pokemon such as iron moth that teams might otherwise struggle with. Its not insanely flashy, but it always puts in work.

Goodra-Hisui @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Dragon Tail
- Flamethrower
- Ice Beam
I've absolutely been spamming this pokemon recently, and I think hoodra is really good in this meta. It can take on bolt, waterpon, wake, darkrai, gholdengo, iron moth, primarina, pecharunt, kyurem and more, which is really nice. It can then use these pokemon to fire off powerful attacks, with the only thing to choose between dragon tail, which can phaze out boosting sweepers, or draco meteor, which can do solid STAB damage. But in general, hoodra is pretty difficult to switchin to if you don't have a bulky water (so basically mola, dozo or washtom in this case), but those can be handled by teammates. Its just really good at trading, which is very nice in this meta.

Rillaboom @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Swords Dance
A while back, I suggested SD Rillaboom as a potential set. I have since tried it out, and oh my god, this thing feels amazing. Early game, you can use u-turn+knock off to cripple switch-ins, while late game, you can click SD and clean up games. This set can actually trade really well into lots of its common answers. Pecharunt can't OHKO you from full, while +2 knock off is a guarenteed OHKO in return, with the only thing needed is to avoid the confusion chance. Now, ofc, rillaboom is probably going to be taken down with pecha, but that is an incredibly valuable trade to make. +2 grassy glide actually 2hit ko's gholdengo (with gholdengo having to use make it rain to have a chance to ko rillaboom), while bulky variants can't take +2 knock off at all. The birds are annoying, but zapdos and moltres don't like taking knock off, while corviknight can be pressured and if its not at full HP, actually can die to +4 knock off (you can survive a brave bird from full decently easily, so setting up another SD is entirely possible). Overall, I think this is a really good moveset. Does well into both offense and defense alike.

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- U-turn
- Taunt
This isn't an unknown set, or even an unknown mon, but I want to shout out my goat landorus. I've seen some people say Lando is worse rn, and honestly, I just can't see that. Landorus offense I won't lie feels like the most consistent playstyle rn (as it has always been). Being able to soft check a lot of the meta is insanely good, and paired with a pokemon that can take on waterpon (pecharunt is usually a good partner), you can basically beat the whole physical metagame. Taunt means that its one of the few hazard setters that corviknight can't defog on, which is really nice to make sure they are kept up, while chipping lando with rocky helmet+bb recoil for teammates to sweep.