SV UU Metagame Discussion

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In addition to walling Enamorus almost entirely, Moltres is strong against many of the most used pokemon in the tier. It is basically an anti-meta pick. Great Tusk can't hit it for any significant damage and risks getting burned or killed by hurricane. Gambit can hit it with dark moves, but doesn't like the risk of burn. Iron Valiant has the same problem as Enamorus, as its STAB moves get walled, and it can only hit hard with coverage moves like thunderbolt (which it often doesn't have). It resists Make It Rain, and can threaten Gholdengo with flamethrower. It walls Cinderace, which doesn't want to libero u-turn and get burned. It checks Zamazenta, which doesn't have a common coverage move to threaten it and doesn't want a burn. Corviknight can't do anything to it. Physical attackers dislike flame body in general.

Overall, it matches up well against enough of the top threats of OU to serve a purpose as a defensive switch in for that tier. It is especially useful on teams that need to shore up a fairy weakness.

It has some significant downsides though, which is why it isn't high up on the usage stats. It needs to run boots, so it can't get the passive recovery of leftovers, forcing it to roost more than it would like. It faces competition from Zapdos, which can check most of the same threats (besides the fairies) provide better offense, and beat Moltres 1v1. Its speed tier is OK, but it usually needs to put its EVs into defensive stats, so it is usually slow. It can be quite passive and many pokemon can stay in on it or even set up (Bax, for example). Garg dominates Moltres, and can get free rocks or salt cure.

Moltres isn't bad in UU, and its stats are better relative to the UU tier, but it doesn't really fill the role of "anti-meta check" that it does in OU. There aren't as many moonblast threats in UU for it to counter. It faces competition from both Skeledirge and Talonflame. Talonflame doesn't have the bulk to survive in OU, but in UU it has a great speed tier, and defog gives it role compression that Moltres lacks. It certainly works in UU, but it has a more defined role in OU.


Surprised OU didn't take both moltres and goltres. (Although I kind of wish goltres got taken by OU.)

But its probably because galarian moltres typically gets more usage in high ladder and tournaments, and not enough in mid to low ladder to get taken. (Since players up there know how to use it effectively)

Also treads is really sick, as it is not only role compression, but a really nice offensive mon with okay bulk with speed or attack booster energy.

Also with Greninja and meow gone, Torn-T could become very problematic with its nasty plot sets, but for now I guess its our premier speed control mon. And this also makes galarian moltres an even dumber wincon than it already was since the speed has gone down.
 
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This post is meant to be more of a first impressions post discussing Pokémon who have had low usage so far and how they may improve after the rises of Meowscarada and Greninja, two very influential Pokemon. Even after an entire month, there’s a lot of Pokémon who are still relatively unexplored and if nothing else this post can hopefully encourage someone to try them out and see how they hold up in the new metagame.

:Zoroark-Hisui: :Gengar: :Azelf: I’m grouping these Pokémon together as strong Special Attackers that are quite fast but unfortunately not fast nor bulky enough to avoid being taken out by Meowscarada and Greninja before they get going due to their lower speed, leaving not much reason to use them over other Special Attackers who had more bulk and/or better defensive typings like Hisuian Goodra, Thundurus-T, and Hydreigon. With the two strongest fast Pokémon gone, Speed tiers in the metagame will slow down a bit. There’s still a few fast Pokémon running around like Cyclizar, Tornadus-T, and Talonflame, but only Cyclizar has had very high usage based on UUWC stats and generally is not difficult to check defensively. As such, I do think we will see a rise in usage for these breakers, with the former two utilizing Choice Specs to spam Shadow Ball and break through checks with their wide coverage, while Azelf taking up the offensive Expert Belt pivot set from last gen to take out nearly the entire metagame with its coverage while pivoting out of bad matchups. Gengar and Hisuian Zoroark are also immune to a very common revenge killing tool in Extreme Speed from Hisuian Arcanine. We still have good Choice Scarf users in Kleavor, Hydreigon, and Gapdos that can be annoying to face in addition to priority from the top tier Scizor, but ultimately I do think the metagame is a lot more suitable for these Pokémon to potentially thrive in and they will see a rise in usage to reflect that.

:Gyarados: If I’m being honest, I did not expect this to drop, especially in a Greninja meta where Gyarados’s great special bulk allows it to check Greninja to a decent degree, making it a valuable choice on offensive teams. Even post Greninja, it is still an extremely dangerous sweeper, taking advantage of a lot of Pokémon such as Quagsire, Slowking, Donphan, Gastrodon, Quaquaval, Skeledirge w/o Tera Water (a good amount), Scream Tail, and Tinkaton with its Dragon Dance + Taunt set, basically meaning Gyarados can be easily setup on just what happens to be many of the tier’s strongest defensive Pokémon. Tera reliance can be rough but Water + Flying is such a good combo offensively against the entire tier barring Hisuian Goodra, Salamence, and Slowbro, the latter of which can lose to a lure Tera Bug set that generally threatens most of the meta as well. Comparing Gyarados to another DD sweeper in Haxorus, Haxorus have the ability to outright ignore Unaware alongside a Stealth Rock neutrality and lesser Tera reliance, but Gyarados can straight up boost in front of a good amount of these Pokémon rather than relying on a forced switch as Haxorus doesn’t want to be chipped and is a bit frail. Gyarados also takes on some revenge killing options well, having enough special bulk to take on Hydreigon and resisting Bullet Punch from Scizor. I do think the new toy syndrome will wear off soon and players will eventually realize just how potent Gyarados is against a lot of the metagame, making me confident it will pick up in usage soon.

:Slowbro: Despite lacking Chilly Reception, Slowbro is still really good and I personally rate it on par with Slowking in terms of viability, largely because of its greater physical bulk. The greater physical bulk Slowbro has plays a large role in checking a lot of threats Slowking can’t check as easily such as Gapdos, Donphan, Haxorus, Gyarados, and Hisuian Arcanine especially. I also think Slowbro is far more versatile than Slowking due to being able to use a variety of coverage to fit its needs. Ice Beam crushes Flying- and Dragon-types. Thunder Wave can paralyze Pokémon that can switch into it such as Tornadus-T and Basculegion-F, Flamethrower destroys Scizor and chips Tinkaton, Body Press crushes Hydreigon and Hoodra, and Foul Play denies DD users like Gyarados and Haxorus from sweeping your team. One thing I really like about Slowbro is that it can fit on more offensive teams and helps a lot in the matchup vs Hisuian Arcanine, making it a great partner for teams featuring Donphan or Thundurus-T as the volt immunity, which is a lot of teams, as using these Pokémon likely means no Gastrodon, Quagsire, or Hippowdon on the team, meaning teams they’re on struggle with Arcanine more. As stated earlier, I think Slowbro is really good and on par with Slowking in terms of splashability, and I do encourage greater usage of it since it can patch teams up in a way Slowking can’t. It’s also able to be EVd against stuff like Tornadus-T pretty easily.

:Wo-chien: I get why the hype dropped regarding this Pokémon but now that the dust has cleared I do think Wo-chien can make a comeback, featuring its traditional Tera Ghost set rather than Tera Poison that was used pre-shifts since Meowscarda and Greninja are gone. There’s not much new to say; with its bulk and status absorption capabilities it can go back to checking a lot of the tier with Tera Ghost again like the old times, including but not limited to Scizor, Kleavor, Quaquaval, Hisuian Arcanine, Thundurus-t, Gapdos, Iron Leaves, Gyarados, Haxorus, and Regidrago. Tera Poison is still a usable option against the Ghost-types and generally checks most of the same Pokémon, but I haven’t liked being weak to Earthquake which is annoying especially when you want to absorb Toxic from Quagsire. There still are options that can hinder wo-chien such as Galarian Moltres, Skeledirge, Alolan Muk, and Hydreigon to name a few, but Wo-chien still appears to be a very good option as of now to use on teams and can approach high levels of viability.

:Zarude: I’m sure a lot of players forgot it was available in the tier, and for good reason as barring niche Bulk Up or Swords Dance sets, which couldn’t fit coverage for everything, it was outclassed by Meowscarada. However, that pivot role is now open and waiting to be filled, and I do think Zarude can fill that role. Despite lacking Knock Off and Spikes, two crazy good moves, Zarude can make up for it to a fair degree with Jungle Healing, a move that gives it recovery and allows it to act as a status absorber against Quagsire with the dangerous Toxic. It’s got basically the same offensive potential as pivot Meowscarada, nailing many of the defensive Pokémon with its STABS alone and pivoting out of resists. Moreover, its bulk is generally helpful for tanking hits from foes like Donphan, Thundurus-T, and Basculegion-F to name a few. There’s still a good amount of counterplay for Zarude and it’s certainly not the fastest thing out there, but it does offer a lot to teams as a reliable pivot that can absorb status and pressure most defensive Pokémon in the meta, making it something that can grow to prominence.

:Tyranitar: Last but certainly not least we have the former king Tyranitar. I’ve heard a lot of sentiments of the prior meta being super unfavorable for it and while I disagree that it was that bad, that was in the past, and we’re in the present with no Meowscarada and Greninja in the meta. Dragon Dance + Taunt sets should skyrocket in viability as another way to destroy walls such as Skeledirge, Quagsire, Glowbro, Tinkaton, and Scream Tail without having to worry about still being outsped at +1 even with a Jolly nature by Meowscarada and Greninja. Additionally, I think we’ll see a rise of more bulky teams which I will explain a bit more later and Choice Band can feast vs those with not having as much offensive pressure against Tyranitar and Tera Dark crunch Annihilating even Quagsire and Hippowdon. From UUWC usage stats so far, even though they’re in the prior meta, Donphan and Gastrodon were the most used Ground-types, which are the Ground-types that don’t match up against Tyranitar well due to lack of recovery for the former and being Specially Defensive oriented for the latter. The new Iron Treads will fall into that category as well. All in all, Tyranitar has the potential to become a top offensive threat with both Choice Band and Dragon Dance sets looking to be favorable in this meta, and with continued exploration and development of the metagame we might very well see this dominance soon.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the lack of offensive Spikes users we now have. Meowscarada and Greninja are gone, leaving the top Spikes users as Gastrodon and Quagsire, who are more passive and tend to slow teams down. Overqwil falls into that same category as well. With Spikes on more offensive stuff being gone, I can see teams featuring them slowing down to be more accommodating to Gastrodon and Quagsire which may influence the viability of a good amount of Pokémon who either function better on Balance teams and welcome this change or feel hindered and less splashable from these developments.
 
okay here's the REAL post abt my thoughts on the shifts

:meowscarada: Gonna miss this a lot actually, it was very fun to play around with and having a Knock Off user that could do actual damage felt so good. Fit on so many teams and the speed tier was just great to have.

:greninja: This fucker, however, will not be missed! It wasn't broken or anything, but Battle Bond very quickly proved to be very annoying in an offense-oriented meta due to allowing Greninja to heavily punish sacks just by virtue of existing. Our specially offensive Waters all being slow now kinda sucks, but I'll take the tradeoff of not having to worry about a sudden +1/+1 Gren in my face every game.

:moltres: Another one I'm gonna miss a lot, this was on a LOT of the teams I built in July and I still firmly believe that it was never given the credit it deserved. Finally having an offensive Fire in the tier that was not tied to some sort of shenanigans or very niche felt so, so good. Hopefully it eventually drops back so I can put all that tech I was developing to use :(

:cresselia: God, fuck this thing, I am so glad it's gone. Tera Poison demon Cress was unironically the worst shit I've seen on ladder in my near decade of playing this game. Made me audibly groan every single time. Rest in piss, please never ever come back.

:iron treads: HOLY SHIT ELEFUN IS REAL. I think this has all the tools it needs to be a great presence in the tier. Nice Speed tier that I'm sure has some relevant +1 calcs with Rapid Spin, Volt Switch for pivoting, frankly insane coverage, Knock Off, and provides us with both a Steel and the closest thing we've had to an offensive Ground since Sandy Shocks left. So glad that he's finally here.

:volcanion: My first battle with this thing was against Mimilucha in a roomtour and Steam Eruption went 3 for 3 on burns. That's all.

Jokes aside, I think it's kinda mid? I need to see more of it to really develop an opinion. Does look really neat as a way to deal with some defensive threats seeing as it just completely fucks over everything in Scizor's toolbox, so it'll definitely be cool for shoring up matchups in the builder. Probably cool if you partner it with Rillaboom, and a Water immunity is pretty cool too. Not looking forward to having Scald back, but I do think that this has a toolkit worth looking at. Don't believe it'll really shake the tier up in any major way though.

:zarude: Now that Meowscarada is gone and Grass/Dark isn't entirely monopolized as a typing, this guy has a chance to really make it in the tier. No Knock Off or hazards, but it does have access to some nice bulk, more setup moves, a recovery move that heals status (!), and still and admittedly decent speed tier. I think this will definitely be a mon to watch out for in coming days.

:azelf: I already made my post about how I thought people weren't doing enough with Azelf, and that's even more true now seeing as the two extremely strong Dark-types that were faster than it and could threaten to kill it are gone. Not much more to say on that.

:mew: Same deal as Azelf, offensive Psychic that's probably way more viable now that we don't have two uber strong, uber fast Dark-types running around and kicking anything that moves in the nuts. Hazards with Taunt also seems pretty cool!

:tornadus-therian: Yet ANOTHER mon that's going to be seeing a surge now that the Protean Bros are gone, this time specifically because they were both faster than it and it's now the fastest unboosted threat in the tier while already being good beforehand. Unironically probably an A+ contender right now.

:weavile: this is getting better and better with us losing more and more fast shit do NOT sleep on it
 
My opinions on the recent shift
Rises to OU
:Meowscarada:
Well shit, there goes the free progress machine, was kinda annoying to face but god it just got so much done in one slot that losing it kinda blows

:greninja:
Thank god this thing left, wasnt even broken at all it was just so annoying to face because of how easily it could force a KO and snowball. And UNLIKE meow it didnt do much other than that so it didnt feel like a good fit to help teams out... if you understand what i mean by that

Either way glad thats gone

:Moltres:
Dont got too much of an opinion here, having a talonflame with actual bulk was nice but i personally never ended up using it so idk what else to say here

:Cresselia:
This thing felt like a cheese mon more than anything here as if :tinkaton:, :skeledirge:, or taunt :tornadus-therian: opted to exist, who are all rather common (torn maybe less so but you get the idea), it got nothing done. But on the rare occasion someone didnt have one of those, it bashed you over the head. Kinda felt like a meh addition to the tier so it rising doesnt change much imo.

Drops to UU

:Iron-Treads:
Yeaaaaaahhhhh Babyyyyyyyy, thats what ive been waitin for thats what its all about, wooooooooooooo
Anyways yeah this thing can check off so many boxes in one slot similar to how meow did
Toxic Immune? Check
Volt Immune? Check
Knock off? Check
Spin? Check
Many good traits and im looking forward to see how it is optimized in the future.

:Volcanion:
Was surprised that this dropped, never really thought about what it could do unless azu dropped. Can be annoying for stuff like :Scizor:, :Quaquaval:, and :basculegion-F: maybe. Steam eruption is annoying too i suppose, i'll have to see how it does.

Stuff that (I believe) gets better from the rises/drops

:Zarude: and :Rillaboom:
Hey look! These guys arent overshadowed by :meowscarada: anymore!

Rilla did have the gterrain niche of activating some grassy seeds but outside of that felt mostly outclassed as an offensive grass pivot.

Zarude on the other hand felt completely useless when the top mon of the previous meta felt like it dropped to UU specifically to mess with it for a month as it shared the same type but a vastly superior movepool. Anyways yeah zarude will probably get some more use now

Tough to say which of the grass monkeys will be better between the two but itll be fun to use both now

:Tornadus-Therian:
Now the most important speedster to look out for (:talonflame: still exists but isnt nearly as relevant imo). Can click buttons a lot more freely now that it doesnt have to deal with meowscarada outrunning it. Overall good times with this guy now.

:Azelf: :gengar: :zoroark-hisui:
See Monky's post on these three here
:Zoroark-Hisui: :Gengar: :Azelf: I’m grouping these Pokémon together as strong Special Attackers that are quite fast but unfortunately not fast nor bulky enough to avoid being taken out by Meowscarada and Greninja before they get going due to their lower speed, leaving not much reason to use them over other Special Attackers who had more bulk and/or better defensive typings like Hisuian Goodra, Thundurus-T, and Hydreigon. With the two strongest fast Pokémon gone, Speed tiers in the metagame will slow down a bit. There’s still a few fast Pokémon running around like Cyclizar, Tornadus-T, and Talonflame, but only Cyclizar has had very high usage based on UUWC stats and generally is not difficult to check defensively. As such, I do think we will see a rise in usage for these breakers, with the former two utilizing Choice Specs to spam Shadow Ball and break through checks with their wide coverage, while Azelf taking up the offensive Expert Belt pivot set from last gen to take out nearly the entire metagame with its coverage while pivoting out of bad matchups. Gengar and Hisuian Zoroark are also immune to a very common revenge killing tool in Extreme Speed from Hisuian Arcanine. We still have good Choice Scarf users in Kleavor, Hydreigon, and Gapdos that can be annoying to face in addition to priority from the top tier Scizor, but ultimately I do think the metagame is a lot more suitable for these Pokémon to potentially thrive in and they will see a rise in usage to reflect that.

:tyranitar:
Im on the boat that this thing wasnt bad during last month but i can kinda see why people didnt use it, it was kinda slow and its sets didnt like the overly offensive pace mons like :meowscarada: and :greninja: set. However, with those two gone i can see the tier slowing down a bit, and when that happens, its banded edge time.

Its kinda hard to tell tell what gets worse due to rises/drops but i can assume one

:overqwil:
Pretty easy to tell with how slappable :iron-treads: is that this thing will not be that great, especially now that it doesnt have :meowscarada: to check
 
:xy/iron-treads:

In this post, I post some of my thoughts on two different Iron Treads sets I've been using and the type of team I've been using them on. I then discuss Iron Treads impact on the overall metagame. I conclude with some hypothesis on potential other Iron Treads sets that I have not used but know other people have used or otherwise assume is viable.

The first Iron Treads set I have been using is this:

:iron-treads:
dont tread on me @ Soft Sand
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Rapid Spin
- Earthquake
- Ice Spinner

This is an offensive spinner but it still packs a significant amount of utility that Iron Treads is already known for - specifically, it still has Knock Off support, is a Volt Immune, is a Steel type, and provides hazard control. The move set is fairly flexible in the last slot - I believe Ice Spinner is generally best because it hits Thundurus, Hydreigon and Salamence for significant damage and Chesnaught for at least some chip damage. Iron Head can provide flinches though and hits Enamorus significantly harder. I'd imagine Volt Switch, Stone Edge and perhaps even Megahorn are all viable as well, their targets just seem less common in the current metagame.

The Tera type and item give Iron Treads a very significant Earthquake and sweeping potential, especially when combined with the Rapid Spin boost. For example, in this game Iron Treads had a late game sweep by surprising a Thundurus-Therian with Ice Spinner. Essentially, this set uses Iron Treads natural traits to keep all of it's utility and the extra power from the tera, item, and EVs allow it to 1) potentially sweep and 2) become much more effective at its roles. For example, it becomes a significantly better Rapid Spin user when it threatens to KO Skeledirge from higher health, instead of risking getting Torch Songed or Will-O-Wisped. It also 2HKOs Quagsire after tera which allows you to more effectively remove its hazards, when weaker Iron Treads set can be outright countered by Quagsire.

I use this set on bulky offense: https://pokepast.es/350393d4bef5d306. I find that Iron Treads lets me be very flexible and creative in building since it covers so many roles by itself already. That lets me more viably run a double water offensive core (although both of the waters are fairly bulky as well) plus a Tyranitar (which takes special hits for Iron Treads fairly well), when both of these ideas are generally considered difficult to build with.

The second Iron Treads set I have been using is this:

:iron-treads:

dont tread on me (Iron Treads) @ Leftovers
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Stealth Rock

There is much less to say about this set because it's still overall similar to the previous set and, it's incredibly common. In terms of it's effectiveness as a Stealth Rock user though, Iron Treads is solidly average. Very few hazard control in the tier likes to switch into Knock Off or Earthquake, but it does struggle vs Defog Talonflame (if Talonflame can keep Rocks off, it won't mind losing Heavy Duty Boots), Donphan (ironically!) and defensive Quaquaval (which is increasing in usage but not dominant). Still, it does have all of it's utility from the previous set and Stealth Rock, which makes this an incredibly easy Pokemon to build with.

I have been building multiple stall teams with this set - my favorite one is here: https://pokepast.es/7b09becac98734b5. There is a very significant impact felt by anyone who stalled previous to Iron Treads drop. For example, Quagsire was almost certainly one of the most common if not the most common Pokemon on stall given how powerful it's utility was and rare access to Toxic. However, a few changes have made me rely on Quagsire less - namely Iron Treads providing hazard and Volt immune, Skeledirge becoming a top Unaware user, and Toxic Alolan-Muk dropping reducing Quagsire's relative value in Toxic. Iron Treads speed is valuable, although not as much as you might expect, as the wallbreakers it outspeeds - Hydreigon, Breloom, and Thundurus-Therian most notably - still beat this set. I can easily imagine Ice Spinner being used over Knock Off though if

Overall, a set like this often means Tinkaton is going to be less common on stall. This creates a worse match up vs Enamorus-Therian, Regidrago, Gengar/Zoroark and a few other special threats. Muk-Alolan patches this up a little bit but the Regidrago weakness, rare as the threat is, remains felt.

Iron Treads in the metagame

I predict Iron Treads is going to be the most used UU Pokemon this month because of how easy it is to use as it provides more utility than any other Pokemon in UU. Tinkaton and Donphan were previously the top utility Pokemon but Iron Treads one ups both of them while also giving more serious sweeping chances than either of them because of its significantly better speed tier.

I believe the hazard metagame is changing significantly with Iron Treads in the tier - Chesnaught should become one of our better Spikes and Overqwil, while certainly viable, is definitely becoming worse. If Brambleghast can become reliable vs Iron Treads (i.e., if Iron Treads doesn't commonly run Ice Spinner), then I can imagine it becoming more viable, if likely still an off meta pick.

The speed tiers in the metagame, while clearly more impacted by Meowscarada and Greninja's departure than Iron Treads arrival, are also importantly shifting. I believe already Thundurus-I and Azelf for example are using the lesser amount of base 120s speed Pokemon to their advantage, and both of them decisively outspeed Iron Treads bar Rapid Spin/Booster Energy Speed/Choice Scarf and can do significant damage to it or OHKO it. That's a new big difference between Thundurus-Incarnate and Therian.

Other Iron Treads sets and conclusions

There are, obviously, more Iron Treads sets that I have not mentioned. I expect these sets to be good or have seen them: Steel Beam suicide lead, Assault Vest, Choice Band, Iron Defense Body Press, more defensive/slower EV spreads, and Life Orb (similar to Soft Sand).

I do think though it's pretty clear Iron Treads is going to always be used primarily for its utility, considering it just has so much, and the other sets just give it a new, secondary, role that would be nice if it does it, but even if it doesn't end up Iron Press sweeping for example, it still can do its other jobs. Overall, I believe that offensive sets similar to the Soft Sand I posted above will be very good and compete with the the Stealth Rock Knock Off Earthquake Rapid spin sets as the standard Iron Treads.

Meanwhile, I do not attempt to isolate the effects of Iron Treads on the metagame when there have been other significant shifts, most importantly Meowscarada and Greninja's departure, but it is still clear that Iron Treads is becoming extremely dominant in the metagame. I believe it will be similar to Tinkaton in
January 2023 when it was getting 40% usage in the 1760 glicko (not Elo) stats. That's because it is even more splashable than Tinkaton, can sweep, and has significantly more set variation than Tinkaton, which generally only varied between four moves - Swords Dance, Encore, Stealth Rock and Thunder Wave. Iron Treads varies in moves and items, among other lesser aspects.

Discussion of whether Iron Treads is broken could be appropriate but I think any conclusion would be premature. I believe this would only become banworthy if sweeping sets prove to be very reliable at sweeping, which seems unlikely to me given Iron Treads inability to boost its power bar Tera and perhaps item choice (and Iron Defense Body Press).
 
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What is the best Pokemon in UU?

This is a question that players often ask for several reasons – it’s easy to discuss, you only have to talk about one Pokemon at a time. It’s highly relevant – who doesn’t want to use the best Pokemon! It promises for debates where you can try and prove yourself right. And of course, we always have an obsession with the “best” – we are after all, turning a child’s game into an outright competitive sport.

This post is not going to satisfy any of those natural compulsions. I’d like to use the upcoming viability ranking update as an opportunity to reframe this question with a different but still very valuable aim. Or beyond reframing, I’d like to prioritize another lesser asked question – what is the best Pokemon for this team given the metagame – or simply, what’s the best here?

Asking what is the best Pokemon is still a valuable question. We can have real debates about our understanding of the metagame. Should you come across someone who believes Blissey is the best Pokemon, you will have little doubt on what they believe the best playstyle is. If you argue for Iron Treads, well that might be a more obvious answer and thus gleans less information, but we still clearly understand you value all the positives Iron Treads brings.

But this is not always a practical question.

Having metagame debates on the forum and posting sweeping metagame claims can be immensely entertaining and enlightening, but metagame knowledge does not easily transfer into teambuilding and playing.

Asking what is the best Pokemon for this team, is necessarily a question of building. Therefore, it is practical.

Consider this example: Lokix Thundurus volt-turn. Clearly teambuilding is a combination, not a permutation – it doesn’t matter what order you add the elements in, two final products with the same elements will be the same. But let’s say that the first five Pokemon here were Volcanion/Scream Tail/Iron Treads/Thundurus/Gastrodon. What would be the best last Pokemon here?

Different players could give you different, convincing and valid answers. But I submit to you Lokix is a potential answer. It forms a great offensive Volt-Turn core with Thundurus and provides general safety to the team that complements Scream Tails – Scream Tails is a general wall while Lokix is a general revenge killer.

I do not know (well before I posted at least) what Lokix is ranked – or if it is ranked – on the viability rankings. I don’t think it’s possible to make a convincing argument that Lokix is the best Pokemon in the tier. But these questions, are not always relevant in building, what mattered here is what’s best for the team.

A keen objector might say: “But Iron Treads, which you acknowledge is one of the best Pokemon, is a team member here. You just picked the order to put Lokix last – if we put Iron Treads last, the question of what’s the best and what’s the best here are one and the same!”

This is a valid point. After all, nobody is saying we should always use the best Pokemon, if there was one, that would be stale and overly predictable.

Two opposing points still highlight the value of asking “what’s the best here” – first, you recognize the value of the components of your team, all the components. This team described as Lokix-Thundurus volt-turn could also be described as offensive pivots to support Volcanion and Iron Treads as breakers, or at least offensive threats. Neither description is wrong. But by asking “what’s the best here” for each slot, the builder can see the value in each component.

Of course you don’t need to ask semi-philosophical questions to know Lokix can make a volt-turn core.

Consequently, the second point is a new example – take this balanced semi stall. Now you might say this and the previous team were, not very good. I beg to be given the benefit of the doubt, that these teams are good, although this is not proven, to illustrate the point. There is no Iron Treads here!

Thus, the keen objector from the previous example can no longer say that I simply put Lokix last and ignored Iron Treads – if this balanced semi stall is good and keen objector believes in Iron Treads, they cannot say in this case that what is the best and what is the best here are questions that are one and the same.

An even keener objector might say “Aha – you are still using Skeledirge- and plenty of people could argue that is the best Pokemon. These teams still clearly are using the best Pokemon, particularly as the singular best Pokemon isn’t even clearly defined.”

To which I once again agree.

All I have to say here is (besides the fact that I am a normie who loves to “use the brokens” in the Christo school of Pokemon) – surely you can in good faith envision an optimal team where there are no clearly best Pokemon. It is not farfetched nor even sirfetched to say you can build optimal teams without Skeledirge, Iron Treads, Quaquqval, Arcanine-H, nor Scizor nor some other top ranked Pokemon.

If you disagree, then perhaps the question of “what’s best here” can be used as an indicator – if it always comes back to a small subset of Pokemon, then the metagame might not be in good shape.

But I don’t necessarily believe that to be the case, nor do I think it is soon enough to tell in any case. Valuable as indicators of metagame health are, that’s really not my aim here. The point is asking more direct, relevant and structured questions when building.

This post is clearly less rooted substantively in the metagame – my apologies! – but it’s an encapsulation of dozens of careful discussions I’ve had with excellent UU minds. Sometimes I think the debates on what’s the best are overly self-important (as if this post isn’t!), but I genuinely think people can get more value by focusing on their team, its needs, and the value of its components.

I don’t mind if you think I’m totally wrong or preaching a useless point – feel free to tell me so.
 
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so now that US East's run in UUWC is over i can reveal some of my super secret tech that i developed :)

:volcanion:
Volcanion @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Weather Ball
- Tera Blast / Sludge Bomb

Alright, hear me out on this one. Slowking's already good. Really good, even. Chilly Reception is a big part of that, since it fills in the Teleport-shaped hole in our hearts and gives us a good slow pivot to let threatening breakers (like Volcanion!) in for free. Snow is usually just an unintended side effect of this, but why not take the opportunity to turn it into free coverage? Weather Ball Ice is super effective against common threats, notably doing massive damage to the extremely prevalent Torn-T. Sand from Hippowdon or Tyranitar also accomplishes the same, exchanging the safe entry provided by Slowking for a better matchup against opposing Volcanion. Should be noted that you still need Tera Blast Grass to not have a terrible matchup into Gastrodon, so you're probably dropping Sludge Bomb for this. I think this has really cool applications though!

:basculegion-f:
Basculegion-F @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Adaptability
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 104 HP / 148 Def / 248 SpA / 8 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam
- Agility

I built a team around this idea after seeing a user in the UU room bring it up. Initially, I dismissed it as silly, but decided I would try it for the bit. TL:DR, I was wrong, it's fucking terrifying. Basculegion manages to do two things due to its nature as a very immediately threatening breaker that commonly uses Choice items: 1. Force switches, and 2. Invite Knock Off users. The only STAB Knock Off available in the tier is from Alolan Muk, and unless your opponent has one, this can very easily catch them off guard and claim a disturbing number of kills. Paired with hazards and a decent enough cleaner, this can really ruin someone's day. Spread came from pdt who passed it to Sage and then I stole it, it lets you live any hit from Iron Treads. 8 Speed Modest outspeeds the entire tier (unboosted) after one Agility too, so this is very punishing to teams without proper Speed control.

that's all for now!! these can probably be optimized so feel free to experiment with them :)
 
zapdos.png

In my neverending quest to send Breloom and its users to hell, sleestacks guided me towards a Treasure of Heat in the form of Sleep Talk Galarian Zapdos. Gapdos is normally a pretty decent check to Breloom but like most of its checks it gets sent packing with Spore. Sleep Talk over Thunderous Kick (which is mostly filler and isn't typically clicked anyway) gives Gapdos the ability to absorb Spore without becoming total dead weight, often catching the Breloom user off-guard as well. Just hope you don't wake up upon using Sleep Talk...
 
Been a while since I posted, but I'm back to present a set I've been loving recently:

:sv/meloetta: :assault_vest:
Meloetta @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
Tera Type: Fighting/Fairy/Steel
EVs: 208 HP / 112 SpA / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psychic/Psyshock
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast/Dazzling Gleam
- U-turn

You don't even see Meloetta at ALL in serious play, much less a defensive set weak to all passive damage like AV Tyranitar. But this puts in work.

First, the bulk:
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song: (12.9 - 15.5%) -- possible 7HKO
252 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane: (22.1 - 26.2%) -- 8.8% chance to 4HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse: (52.4 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
It's really good. It sponges hits from EVERY neutral special attacker (and super effective ones in a pinch!) and retaliates by either generating momentum with U-Turn or using one of its surprisingly strong attacks. Due to Serene Grace, Shadow Ball has a 40% drop chance, letting you break past Dirge with a little RNG. The given spread has enough Special Attack to 2hko the standard mixed Dirge spread (12+ def, rest in HP and spdef) with one drop. There's also enough speed to outspeed jolly Breloom and Volcanion, with the rest in HP for tankiness.

Alright, the set's good on its own, but what do you pair it with? Here are some good partners:

Pretty Much Any Physical Breaker
:zapdos-galar: :quaquaval: :arcanine-hisui: :zarude: and more
Meloetta has U-Turn, and it baits in special walls. That's all there is to it, really. Bonus points if you have U-Turn to keep up that voltturn chain.

Special Attackers that Hate Steel Types
:basculegion-f: :sylveon: :hydreigon: :tornadus-therian:
Meloetta baits in Steel types and gets good chip with Focus Blast or just plain old Psyhcic. Use one of these, and you can wear down opposing Tinkaton and Hoodra quite easily.

Wish Passers
:alomomola: :scream tail: :sylveon: (yes, actually sylveon)
All assault vest users love Wish support. Alomomola is especially nice for how it walls physical threats and baits in special attackers who Meloetta can easily receive a wish against. Sylveon is a lot more offensively inclined than the other two here and also answers Dark types for Meloetta quite well, making for a nastier core than you may think.

Hazard Removers
:donphan: :iron_treads: :quaquaval:
Being affected by every source of passive damage, good hazard removal is a necessity for Meloetta. Not much else to say.

If you'd like to play with AV Meloetta, try this team: https://pokepast.es/185fa534460df5b5. I built this with sodynamic who I don't think has a Smogon account (feel free to correct me). It gets giga owned by Iron Jugulis, but you can probably shift some tera types around to fix that. I'd also like to give another shoutout to sodynamic for telling me about AV Meloetta in the first place. Huge thanks!

If you have any questions, reply away! Enjoy this set, because I genuinely think it has a lot of potential. It's like C+/B- tier, but still a threat in its own right.
 
It honestly feels like its time for another UU survey, although I can see why the UU council might be holding off at the moment since we near another tier shift where we could get stuff like garchomp and clodsire potentially, as both would massively shake up the meta if they were to drop
 
Currently playing UU for PIF Blitz tour and maybe SCL in case I get drafted there. So far liking the post-Home meta, very balanced. Only remotely broken Mon is Galarian Zapdos, and even then I am not entirely sure it's unhealthy.

The one question I have is: Is there something expected to be dropped from OU or rising there in September? Need to know if I bother to build new teams before Tier shifts occur or do more productive things and wait.
 
Currently playing UU for PIF Blitz tour and maybe SCL in case I get drafted there. So far liking the post-Home meta, very balanced. Only remotely broken Mon is Galarian Zapdos, and even then I am not entirely sure it's unhealthy.

The one question I have is: Is there something expected to be dropped from OU or rising there in September? Need to know if I bother to build new teams before Tier shifts occur or do more productive things and wait.
People are anticipating Garchomp and/or Clodsire are gonna drop, but I'm unsure. I've even heard murmurs of Ursaluna dropping (oh god). Not sure about the rest, though Shocks coming back is on my wishlist
 
People are anticipating Garchomp and/or Clodsire are gonna drop, but I'm unsure. I've even heard murmurs of Ursaluna dropping (oh god). Not sure about the rest, though Shocks coming back is on my wishlist
Ground party! Can't see Chomp and Luna being healthy down here though. Shocks was balanced and Clod will be, but those 2 are really good in OU, so I will be quite surprised if they drop.
 
I think chomp will be fine. There’s adequate counterplay for fat teams, though offense may struggle a bit with it. Losing scale shot is pretty bad for it and it’s vulnerable to every hazard. I think it will serve as a good tank filling the approximate roll that spinless Treads and Donphan do.
 
Alright so since there is a high change that the metagame is going to change in less than 48h, I would like to share something I've been playing since a couple days. This was something which was discussed on the UU Discord a few weeks ago but at that time, the item "Big Nugget" wasn't added to Pokémon Showdown!, so I decided to make a suggestion to add the Big Nugget on PS! and this was approved so let me introduce you the anti-Skeledirge Scizor !

scizor.png

Scizor @ Big Nugget
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Fling

This set is kinda heat but pretty straightforward, I love it. It's aiming to lure Skeledirge and to remove it from the field which can be massive for teammates such as Swords Dance Iron Leaves or Bulk Up/Swords Dance Zarude. Fling alongside the item Big Nugget becomes a 130 BP physical Dark move. Paired with Tera Dark, it allows Scizor to basically OHKO Skeledirge :

252+ Atk Big Nugget Tera Dark Scizor Fling (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 16+ Def Skeledirge: 416-492 (101.2 - 119.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Big Nugget basically has the same power as Iron Ball but it doesn't come with the weakness of this item. It's not a gamebreaking set and definitively not the best one for Scizor since you only has one chance to use Fling (the move is basically useless after this) and you can't take a single Knock Off as long as you didn't have used Fling (since this would lead to making the set useless if your item is removed). However, it's quite great if you're able to use Swords Dance vs something weak to Scizor and your opponent decide to hard switch its Skeledirge on your Scizor.
 
Alright so since there is a high change that the metagame is going to change in less than 48h, I would like to share something I've been playing since a couple days. This was something which was discussed on the UU Discord a few weeks ago but at that time, the item "Big Nugget" wasn't added to Pokémon Showdown!, so I decided to make a suggestion to add the Big Nugget on PS! and this was approved so let me introduce you the anti-Skeledirge Scizor !

scizor.png

Scizor @ Big Nugget
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 224 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Fling

This set is kinda heat but pretty straightforward, I love it. It's aiming to lure Skeledirge and to remove it from the field which can be massive for teammates such as Swords Dance Iron Leaves or Bulk Up/Swords Dance Zarude. Fling alongside the item Big Nugget becomes a 130 BP physical Dark move. Paired with Tera Dark, it allows Scizor to basically OHKO Skeledirge :

252+ Atk Big Nugget Tera Dark Scizor Fling (130 BP) vs. 248 HP / 16+ Def Skeledirge: 416-492 (101.2 - 119.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Big Nugget basically has the same power as Iron Ball but it doesn't come with the weakness of this item. It's not a gamebreaking set and definitively not the best one for Scizor since you only has one chance to use Fling (the move is basically useless after this) and you can't take a single Knock Off as long as you didn't have used Fling (since this would lead to making the set useless if your item is removed). However, it's quite great if you're able to use Swords Dance vs something weak to Scizor and your opponent decide to hard switch its Skeledirge on your Scizor.

dude seeing “Scizor flung its big nugget!” in battle as skelidirge enters the afterlife never fails to make me laugh. This is probably my favorite mechanical finding of all time.
 
If you want another mon that can make good use of flinging their chicken nuggie, let me introduce you to a draft league special: Fling Quaquaval

Chicken Nugget (Quaquaval) @ Big Nugget
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fling
- Aqua Step
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat

This specifically allows it to muscle past Slowking. It's also really funny, which always gets bonus points

+2 252 Atk Big Nugget Quaquaval Fling (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowking: 444-524 (112.6 - 132.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
 
Torkoal moved from RU to OU

Hoopa-Unbound moved from OU to UU
Roaring Moon moved from OU to UU
Ursaluna moved from OU to UU

---

Three extremely potent new breakers and a loss of Torkoal which for the most part wasn't relevant. How are we feeling about these drops?
 
Not gonna lie, we in Team Germany already knew how much potential cocaine bear had on bulky Offenses but in UU where physical answers are currently Gastrodon, Hippo, Skelidirge, Slowking. They all get blown away by Facade and Skelidirge by Headlong Rush. It forces all to run Tera Ghost and besidethe Fact Headlong Rush still does good damage Mons like Lokix who are already in good shape will profit from the Fact answers gonna be a good partner abusing those Tera Ghost Mons. Ursaluna can also run Crunch for Tera Ghost Hydrei and Ghost Types in general to hit them. With Rillaboom support the Flame orb damage will be healed and Mons Like Hawlucha will appreciate the breaking power from the bear. Healingwish support with Ursaluna is also absurd from e.g. Gardevoir who already saw play in tourgames e.g. uuwcop semis. 4th can be Sub/Sd or even LeftisTect on GrassTerrain. It has many options and will be to tough for UU to handle
 
I feel like all of these are insane

Hoopa-U’s SpA is just way too much, and it’s not like we got Clodsire, not that it would’ve helped.

Ursaluna was QB-worthy in OU, lol this ain’t staying.

Roaring Moon could actually stay, maybe? Tinkaton stocks and Tera Fairy Dirge might go up, but with Volt-turn being very prevelant in the metagame, it might not be broken?
 
Hoopa-Unbound moved from OU to UU
Roaring Moon moved from OU to UU
Ursaluna moved from OU to UU
:Roaring Moon:
I dont think i want to deal with this mon, kinda just feels like it eats everything with acro eq dd taunt (none of these are stab yes but who needs it when you just kill everyone, + tera flying kills people). Might be wrong but i feel as though im gonne get murdered by this until it probably gets thrown out

:Ursaluna:
Do not fall into the flame orb facade shit, it sounds like itd be stupid as fuck as we do not have a good resist for its stabs but it has the same issues it has in OU

The set you SHOULD be worried about is bulk up. Remember how i said how we do not have resists for the stabs? Yeah what if you made a set that is harder to be outoffensed while also having leftovers and not dying after coming in twice. Overall i think this will be fun for a little but might be dumb.

:Hoopa-Unbound:
I will be experimenting with eject pack shenanigans for a little and then probably getting tired of this thing. Hyperspace fury probably two taps most resists and its coverage probably at least 2 shots whatever its stabs dont.


Anyways i do not think any of these will be ok lol. Luna maybe but this is gonna be hell for a bit.
 
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