On Terastalization (and Roaring Moon)
Terastalization is fun, much more fun than DMax was on first impression, and it certainly has a place. That place, however, would be the Other Metagames section of Smogon. I don't really think a balanced metagame can be developed with this mechanic because of how much variance and unpredictability it adds and how many Pokemon get pushed over the edge specifically because of their ability to Terastalize. One of the mons that is on the radar, Roaring Moon, is probably the best example of this. Without Tera, I would agree with the sentiments some are expressing that it is underwhelming in this meta (although after the broken shit is gone, I'm sure it'd be very good). Though it has massive Attack and Speed stats, DD, and Booster Energy, it has natural issues that prevent it from being over the top. Its STAB moves, for one, are fairly weak unless you run dogshit Outrage. Therefore, it fails to KO most bulky things and even some offensive threats without a decent amount of chip. Moreover, while its natural bulk is solid, its physical bulk in particular is by no means outstanding and a Mach Punch, Ice Shard, or Scizor's Bullet Punch can revenge kill it fairly easily after a bit of chip. In this meta in particular, it has the additional issue of having to choose between boosting its Attack with Booster Energy (which means you get outsped and revenged by speed demons such as Booster Energy Flutter Mane) or its Speed, which leaves it too weak to sweep teams after one DD. All of this would be true, except for the fact that it can Terastalize and solve whichever issue you feel like solving with ease. The set that most glaringly breaks it is, of course, the following one:
Roaring Moon @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Acrobatics
- Crunch
- Earthquake
Flying Tera with Acrobatics immediately solves the issue of having to choose between power vs speed, since +1 Acrobatics is a much better STAB to have than Crunch or Dragon Claw and it mauls anything that doesn't resist it with ease. Additionally, Fighting types turn from its best checks into total liabilities against it: Breloom can't hope to KO it with Mach Punch anymore unless it's severely weakened, and bulkier Fighting types like Great Tusk which otherwise can eat any hit and KO in return get annihilated.
This set is far from the only set it can run, though: with Tera Steel, RM can easily break Fairy types which otherwise might hope to check it (not super relevant right now given the pool of Fairy types) and also resists Ice Shard and Bullet Punch. Tera Dark and Dragon allow for it to supercharge one of its STABs while also removing certain prio weaknesses, and Ground also seems like a very viable option that gives it STAB EQ and once again changes up its pool of checks. I'm sure if it stayed in the meta for a while and certain counterplay to it becomes dominant, people might resort to Tera Blast sets to catch said checks off guard, but that's only the icing on the cake. Fact of the matter is that a lot of sweepers really don't need Tera Blast in order to take advantage of Tera, since even switching up your defensive typing can be enough to turn the tides in your favor.
In other words, if you actually want to be reliably prepped for a threat like this, you need to have several checks for it and you still have to accept that you will probably lose a mon if you guess its set wrong. This is an excessive amount of prep needed for one mon, and fact is that there is a boatload of setup sweepers that could become problematic this way as time moves on and the initial waves of brokens are banned. Just a minute ago I had a game where my opponent thought they could stop my SD Scizor in its tracks with a Skeledirge, only for Scizor to transform into a Rock type and 2HKO with Tera Blast while Skeledirge failed to do any significant damage with its Fire move. While I respect that we want to give the new mechanic a bit of time, which I'm sure also just looks better to the outside world than banning it within a week, I'm convinced Tera is totally at odds with what we have come to define as a balanced, competitive metagame. If we do ban things before Tera, I think it would be prudent of the OU council to distinguish between those mons that are banned regardless of Tera (i.e. Flutter Mane doesn't need it to be broken) and those that are banned because Tera pushes them over the edge, so that the later group of mons can be freed in the wake of a Tera ban (and if they still turn out to be broken, they can be banned again, of course).
Flutter Mane
I might as well comment on the other stuff that's on the radar. Flutter Mane is broken. I could go on but it would be like beating a dead horse at this point, the vast majority of people already agree this thing is silly and I can only see it becoming sillier over time.
Houndstone/Last Respects
While I have yet to see this thing do really overwhelming stuff, I really don't see how a Ghost move (already a broken offensive typing) that can reach Explosion levels of power with no real drawbacks can ever be healthy on anything with a somewhat decent Attack stat that gets STAB on it. Houndstone is entirely unremarkable as an OU mon except for the fact that it gets Sand Rush and yet it can easily countersweep teams that lack fairly specific counterplay. If Last Respects can break a mon like this one, I think it's too much. Generally, the idea of a move that rewards you to this extent for letting your mons die doesn't really sound healthy at all, so I'm in favor of banning the move as opposed to the mon.
The Ferret (Chien-Pao)
I don't want him banned yet because he's cute. Sorry, liberals! (In all seriousness, he's probably broken, but I kinda wanna see how it performs in a post-Tera meta.)
Cyclizar/Shed Tail
This hasn't been too overwhelming as of yet, though I think this is bound to become really stupid as time goes on. In this meta, it's hard to keep the Sub up because of how hyperoffensive the meta is; most things you try to Shed Tail in front of have strong moves that can easily break the Sub. In a meta where more passive mons become more common, the setup opportunity becomes pretty great, however. There's also lots of room for innovation to get the maximum out of Shed Tail, for example by pairing Cyclizar with Screens Grimmsnarl. It just enables a ton of dumb setup sweepers too much, the only questions that remain are how long it'll take for people to figure out how to really "break" this strat and if the move itself is broken or just the mon. I'm thinking it's the move though, especially since slower users (like Orthworm) can pass the Sub safely even more easily as long as they come in on something they can wall.
Iron Valiant
At the moment, this thing doesn't really feel broken. The speed tier just isn't good enough (somehow), since even with Booster Energy, there's a handful of fellow Booster Energy users that all handily outspeed and KO you, not to mention all the powerful prio users running around. Moreover, I don't find that it really excels as a sweeper anyway, since you need to pick between Knock and Zen Headbutt for your last slot when running an SD set, meaning you're either walled by Gholdengo or Poison types. I wouldn't ban this yet, though I think once the meta has settled down a bit it could be pretty silly, especially when you start tapping into its mixed offenses a bit more. I'm thinking of a set like this:
Iron Valiant @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost/Fighting
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
While people have been mostly running physically oriented sets, a set like this one is much more immediately threatening due to possessing a superior Fairy move and great special coverage, while still sporting a powerful CC for special walls. I'm sure this isn't the exact set people would run, but I think it gives a decent idea. It doesn't really get walled by much other than Pdef Corivknight which is pretty much nonexistent as of yet.
Palafin
Another case of something that hasn't felt too crazy as of yet but which will most likely end up being busted down the line. Feel like it not being completely stupid is partly due to people still figuring out how to make the most out of it (the BU sets people have been sharing seem like they could be pretty rough to deal with) and partly due to the meta being so hyperoffensive that having to get this thing in, back out, then back in actually isn't too easy. Not high on my list of things that should be banned ASAP yet but feels like a pretty inevitable ban in the future.
As an aside, I also wanted to bring up one of my favorite mons in the new meta, which is Kingambit.
Kingambit @ Black Glasses
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Tera Type: Dark/Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Def
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance/Kowtow Cleave
- Iron Head
- Low Kick
- Sucker Punch
Very easily a top threat in OU once the dust has settled, Kingambit combines a great defensive typing and bulk with some pretty insane damage output. With Black Glasses, its Sucker Punch outdamages CB Scizor's Bullet Punch after only one of your mons has gone down. Once the initial chaos of the generation has passed, I can see it opting more often for bulkier sets with SR and such, as it's probably one of the best defensive Steels that are available to us and you'd probably wanna be able to eat a few Draco Meteors from Dragapult and the like. Currently though, I would run the above set, which handily picks off any would-be sweeper that doesn't resist Dark or has priority of its own and basically necessitates a sturdy Fighting type or a Breloom on every team so you don't get swept by Sucker Punch lategame. The spread is meant to tank one EQ from Adamant +1 Roaring Moon after SR, which you handily OHKO with Low Kick in return (provided it doesn't turn into a Flying type, of course). You don't really have to bother with Speed investment atm because most of the time everything on your opponent's team outspeeds you anyway.
