Project The Top 10 Titans of the 6th Gen OU Metagame

[matthewc20090]

Nominating Mega Sableye

How did Mega Sableye impact the metagame?

Mega Sableye was one of a few defensively oriented Mega Evolutions introduced in ORAS. With a solid defensive typing in Ghost/Dark, good 50/125/115 bulk, access to support moves such as recover, knock off, and will-o-wisp, and a godly ability in Magic Bounce, Mega Sableye completely changed stall teams and was the centerpiece of the infamous ABR Stall. Magic Bounce was a godsend for Sableye, as it could bounce back hazards that would otherwise wear its team down, as well as deflect any status conditions such as Will-o-Wisp and Toxic. It also bounces back taunt, so it could keep recovering. Sableye stall teams were near unbreakable without a good fairy type or stallbreaker. It’s presence alone deterred hazards, causing a rise in Stealth Rock Clefable and Offensive Stealth Rock Landorus-T.

In what main roles was Mega Sableye used?

Mega Sableye was used mainly on stall teams to completely dominate the hazard game. By bouncing them back, it allowed it’s teammates to stay healthy and wall what they needed. A prominent example of it’s usage is against Mega Gardevoir and the Lati twins. Without Sableye, Chansey could be 2hkoed by Psyshock. However, Sableye could bounce back the hazards, allowing Chansey to never be 2HKOed by Psyshock. Most Sableyes ran will-o-wisp to cripple physical attackers such as Garchomp and Landorus, either knock off to remove an opponent’s item or foul play to beat physical attackers, Recover to stall out opposing pokemon, and Fake Out to safely mega evolve and possibly revenge kill.

In the early days of ORAS however, Sableye was mostly used as a Calm Mind sweeper. By utilizing its pseudo-immunity to status, high defenses, and Will-o-Wisp, Sableye could win entire games on it’s own. Sableye could come in on something unable to 2HKO, Calm Mind if the opponent was a special attacker, burn them if they were a physical attacker, and eventually break through teams with boosted Shadow Balls or Dark Pulses. This set fell out of favor for it’s utility set mid-ORAS, but was still something to keep in mind.

What caused Mega Sableye to have a significant impact?

Magic Bounce. With it, it was the king of hazard control, preventing Stealth Rock and Spikes from wearing down its team. It could beat a huge amount of hazard setters and burned everything. Its good defensive typing gave it only one easily coverable weakness in fairy, and got tons of utility moves to play with including Will-o-wisp, Taunt, Toxic, and recover.

How did you deal with Mega Sableye in OU?

Click x. Despite having good defenses, Sableye’s HP is mediocre at best. Therefore, strong wallbreakers such as Mega Gardevoir and Mega Heracross can break through Mega Sableye with their STAB moves, though Heracross has to watch out for a burn. Life Orb Tornadus-t was also a great answer to most stall teams as it could 2HKO Sableye with Hurricane, provided it hit. Stallbreakers such as NP Togekiss and SD Gliscor could eventually break through Sableye teams, though Quagsire is a problem thanks to Unaware. Fire types such as Talonflame and Charizard X could switch in (provided that rocks are not up) and set up, but they are threatened by knock off and toxic. Mega Lopunny deserves a special mention because although it cannot switch in to a will-o-wisp, it is able to OHKO Utility Sableye with High Jump Kick. Stealth Rock Clefable and Offensive Rocks Landorus can 2HKO Sableye and force it to switch, allowing them to set up Stealth Rock. Mega Diancie can OHKO Sableye with Moonblast, and Manaphy can demolish Mega Sableye and it’s team with it’s Rain Dance Tail Glow set. Finally, Mold Breaker Excadrill can set up Stealth Rock against Sableye or threaten it with a Toxic, but it has to watch out for Will-o-Wisp.

 

[cityscapes]

Sorry matthewc20090 , didn't check the rest of the thread.

ok, here we go (note: this is my first post in explaining stuff in this much detail. I hope I did well)

Nominating Mega Pinsir

What impact did this Pokémon have on the metagame?
Mega Pinsir was the only Pokémon legal in OU with access to the Aerilate ability, and with an amazing Base 155 Attack backed up by a great 105 Speed, Swords Dance, and access to the coverage it needed in Close Combat, Mega Pinsir was truly a dominating Pokémon. It was able to wear down opposing Flying resists, such as Rotom-W, with raw power, forcing offense teams to carry a consistent check to it. A Stealth Rock weakness meant that it could get worn down easily, though, and it was fairly easy to revenge kill, but the devastation it could cause after a Swords Dance made it a great Pokémon against more defensive teams. Therefore, Mega Pinsir contributed to a more offensive metagame: For example, many teams began to use Zapdos to counter it, and more defensive Pokémon, like Skarmory, were often overlooked in teambuilding because of their inability to KO Mega Pinsir back.

In which roles was Mega Pinsir used?
Mega Pinsir was typically used as a late-game sweeper-- once its checks, like Mega Diancie and Tornadus-T, were in range of a Quick Attack or Feint, it looked for an opportunity to Swords Dance before KO'ing the remainder of the opposing Pokémon. It also had a role on a popular "bird spam" team that gained popularity in the later ORAS era in which it was paired with Talonflame. This was because its Close Combat discouraged many Flying resists, such as Tyranitar, from switching in on its Return attacks. The Flying resists not covered by Close Combat, like Rotom-W, were quickly worn down by the birds' combined power, making this combination very dangerous to face.

What caused Mega Pinsir to have a significant impact?
With its extremely powerful Return, Mega Pinsir was the epitome of Flying STAB. An Aerilate-boosted Return was the single most powerful Flying-type move in the meta, and its ability to not fall flat against many common Flying resists made it a great pick for a birdspam core (despite it not being a bird). Swords Dance allowed it to destroy nearly all weakened Pokémon, even ones that would normally check it, late-game.

How did you deal with Mega Pinsir in OU?
Stealth Rocks, while not a guaranteed answer to Mega Pinsir, reduced its chances to set up, making it much easier to deal with. It was also revenge killed quite easily by Pokémon such as Choice Scarf Tyranitar and Weavile. Counters to it, such as Rotom-W and Defensive Landorus-T, existed as well, and any status move instantly crushed any hope it had of sweeping. Being a more offensive threat, Mega Pinsir really wasn't that hard to wear down; you just had to be prepared for it.

Conclusion
A combination of great Attack, good coverage, a good speed tier, and Swords Dance made Mega Pinsir one of the best Pokémon in the OU Metagame, and every team had to be careful when facing one. This meta-defining Pokémon was definitely one of the Top 10 Pokémon in OU!

Edit: Didn't realize I needed a sprite/model, here's one for you

 

[Vxy]

Been a long time since I or anyone has used this in OU, so I may be forgetting some things. It's not going to be long, either, because it wasn't in OU for as long as some other things here.

Deoxys-Defense

What effect did Deoxys-Defense have on the metagame?
Deoxys-Defense was Ubers in gen 5, but came down for the start of XY, only to get banned again later on. However, for the short time, Deoxys-D was in the metagame, it popularized the combination of using Stealth Rock + Spikes, or hazard stacking, as it's now known. With access to both of these hazards and other moves such as Taunt, Magic Coat, Recover, and pretty much any attack type that you'd want to beat certain things (Ice Beam, Fire Punch, Knock Off, etc.), it became (arguably with its Speed forme) the best hazard stacker in the tier. Due to this, it popularized a type of hyper offense called DeoSharp, where a Deoxys forme was used (mainly Defense forme for its excellent bulk) alongside Bisharp, a Pokemon that had become OU viable thanks to gen 6 changes such as Dark buff, Knock Off, buff, and Defog being a form of hazard removal so Bisahrp could abuse it with Defiant. Hazard stacking forced many teams to run hazard removal, and Bisharp could pressure Defog, while a Pokemon such as Aegislash could act as a spinblocker. Slower teams simply could not avoid hazards getting up unless that had Espeon or Xatu on their team, and it was really hard for any team to get rid of hazards due to the Pokemon Deoxys-D paired up with.

In what main roles was Deoxys-Defense used?
As said before, its main role was as a hazard stacking suicide lead, mainly for offensive teams. It could also act as an anti-lead through the use Taunt and/or Magic Coat. Deoxys-D also had a pretty nice speed stat considering its bulk and could make use of Taunt to stop status and hazards from slower Pokemon, and could use Magic Coat's priority to stop faster Taunt users and hazard setters/status users. It's last 1 or 2 moves could be catered to beat anything after it had Stealth Rock + Spikes in its moveset. One could even drop Spikes and give it Taunt + Recover + attacking move to give headaches to stall.

What caused it to have a significant impact?
Deoxys-Defense, as its name suggests, had really high bulk which allowed it to live all sorts of attacks, such as Life Orb Bisharp's Knock Off! Another smaller but important factor was that it had above average speed for such a bulky Pokemon. Its speed allowed it to outspeed pretty much every Pokemon on stall, and even some slower offensive Pokemon such as Tyranitar, Azumarill, and Bisharp if you opted to invest in speed. Part of Deoxys-D's success in OU and the playstyle that was called DeoSharp are the Pokemon that were commonly paired up with it. At that time, OU had a lot of big offensive threats that appreciated hazard stacking (a lot of which are banned from OU today) such as Landorus-I, Mega Mawile, Greninja, Aegislash, Mega Charizard X, and of course, Bisharp. The support it could provide these already-big threats was what made it to have such a big impact in the tier.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in OU?
Magic Bounce users were the best way to deal with Deoxys-D. Unfortunately, Espeon, Xatu, and Mega Absol were the only viable options at this time, with Xatu being pretty mediocre too, so people that wanted to stop hazards from going up were pretty limited in their choices. Also, it was quite prediction reliant against Pokemon that were faster and could threaten it with a heavy hit or with Taunt, such as Azelf, Latios, and Greninja. Dark types were usually a great answer to it, but all of them could lose to a certain coverage move if they couldn't knock it out (Drain Punch was the main coverage move Dark types feared).

Might add a little more later.

 

[Fire Fist Ace]

Nominating Mega Diancie

What effect did Mega Diancie have on the metagame?

Mega Diancie was introduced in a peaceful time of the XY meta, lacking in otherwise deadly checks and counters to it, such as Aegislash, Mega Mawile, Greninja, and Landorus. What Mega Diancie brought to the table was an ability to check most relevant Dark, Flying, Dragon, and Fighting types, as well as a certain degree of stall breaking (prior to the ban of Shadow Tag). While it wasn't a profound overnight success like Greninja, Aegislash, Lando-T, or similar, it found a fairly solid place in OU as a decently quick Mega with a unique typing that resisted some common attacking types, and unique coverage that could nail over half of OU for supereffective damage quite easily (depending on the set you fancied).

In what main roles was Mega Diancie used?

Mega Diancie was best used as an anti-lead, anti-stall, or offensive glue Pokemon for a team. It could often lead out against stall by deterring hazard setters with Magic Bounce, or force a switch, giving a free turn to Mega Evolve and increase its Speed. If it isn' paired off for stall, it often finds itself placed together with certain Pokemon like Keldeo to take care of Pokemon that the partner couldn't afford to touch (such as Talonflame in the case of Keldeo). It could also lure out and kill Scizor and Ferrothorn if it ran the HP Fire version and could effectively predict a switch.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Mega Diancie, like most other driving forces of XY and ORAS, helped contribute to both the fall of formerly popular Pokemon, and kept the percentage of usage of certain Pokemon down. Notable Pokemon like Heatran and Talonflame tapered off a little bit in usage since Mega Diancie's introduction. Diancie has also been listed as a popular check to the once very viable Mega Gallade and Mega Altaria, who both saw a good amount of usage in their brief OU stint before they got bumped down to BL.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in OU?

Diancie is often best dealt with by pummeling it with strong supereffective moves, such as Keldeo's Hydro Pump, Garchomp and Landorus' Earthquakes, and every Bullet Punch, Gyro Ball, Iron Head, and Flash Cannon seen this side of OU. The meta has adapted with much more usage in Mega Scizor than in the last year and more usage in Pokemon like Jirachi, which have kept Diancie in check.

 

[Agent Gibbs]

Sunday has come and gone, and I'd say we have a nice collection of nominees, which means it's time for...

Voting for #1
​

So here's how this will work. Just like the BW version, we'll start with the #1 spot and work down from there. During each round, you are free to vote for any one of our nominees. When you do so, please post your vote in bold as it makes the votes easier for me to keep track of. Each voting round will last for 2 days, at which point I'll tally up the votes and award the winner with the position being voted on. I might extend some rounds a little if I feel that we don't have enough votes, so we'll see how that goes. When you post your vote, try to add a little justification for it. I won't require paragraphs or anything - they'd probably get meaningless and repetitive after a while anyway - but it's still nice to see the reasoning behind the votes.

So now the answer is up to you: who do you think is the most influential Pokemon in all of 6th Gen OU?

 

[Eclipse]

Clefable

I don't think much needs to be said about Clef, and how the simple change of typing made it into one of the most consistent and dominant threats throughout the entire generation. It does it all; at the end of the day, when I think of gen 6 OU, the first mon that'll come to my mind is always Clef.

 

[boxofkangaroos]

Mega Charizard X

The metagame really is shaped around Mega Charizard X. It can set up on so many threats, and every team must have a hard check to it. If it wasn't for Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T likely would not be the most used Pokemon in the tier.

 

[HailFall]

Clefable

fk didnt read that i had to justify it um bc clef is clef and idk not much else to say its the best pokemon in ou

 

[Paraplegic]

Clefable
The fairy buff it got at the beginning of the gen, combined with its decent bulk, reliable recovery, colorful move pool, and access to the broken move that is twave makes this the best mon in this gen by a decent margin imo

 

[cityscapes]

Landorus-T

This glue mon contributed to a change in many teams: Ice-type coverage on Pokémon like Mega Medicham became far more common, and additionally, Pokémon that could force it out, like Tangrowth and Keldeo, grew in usage as a result of its popularity.

edit: Fire Fist Ace [hide] [/hide]

 

[MANNAT]

Mega Charizard X

IMO you niggas are thinking way too much about the recent metagame voting Clef for so much, I believe that Zardx should be the #1 titan, it has almost always retained S or A+ rank from the start of XY all the way to where we currently are in ORAS, and it will almost certainly stay that way for the rest of the generation. Not only that, but Zardx has retained S rank longer than any other mon this generation, being a force to be reckoned with. As dominant as Zardx is now, threatening to rip apart offense within a moment's notice, it was even scarier in late XY when Lando-T wasn't even the top mon in usage, and the defensive Rocky Helmet set hadn't picked up nearly as much steam as it has today, making even more of a case for it to be the #1 mon. Lastly, Zardx has been the best offensive setup sweeper that the tier has seen all generation that hasn't been banned, and it has been in that position consistently. Were there short periods of time where mega pinsir was equal to or a tad better than zardx? yes, but no other mon has been as dominant as Zardx has been throughout the history of 6th gen. Ples listen to me and don't get caught up in the present fwens. ;-;

 

[Fire Fist Ace]

LANDO-T

To sum up Lando-T's usage in OU the short way.

Hide

But in all honesty, it's been both the most used and frequently checked for Pokemon in OU since Gen 6 began. Lando-I had nowhere near the usage of Lando-T, but both saw a lot of play. Though I make it for Lando in general, I believe the fat cat is the overall titan of Gen 6.

EDIT: could someone tell me the BB Code for spoilers? It isn't working for me on here for some reason

EDIT 2: Fixed

 

[komet3]

Landorus-T

From the very start of xy this has been a part of every viable team in the book. Been a staple for anything role you want it to play. From the common rocker to the infamous scarfer to the very rare dual dance. It does everything you need it to do. Perfect number one.

 

[Funbot28]

#1) Clefable

It was so hard to vote for me in between Clefable and Landorus-T, however if we are talking about consistency throughout the entire 6th generation then Clefable takes the first slot in my eyes. Clefable has influenced the 6th generation like no other mon due to the wide variety of roles it could perform and its ability to always be a dangerous win condition on any team thanks to Thunder Wave + Calm Mind. The fact that it could beat its own checks/counters with hax and that it could fit on nearly all archetypes leaves me to believe it deserves the top spot imo. Landorus-T has only really become as influential as it is currenlty when it got it's new move tutor moves in ORAS imo.

 

[koista12]

Clefable

I don't see how this is even a debate. Clefable has consistently been S-Rank since early XY, and there really hasn't been talk of dropping it since. Is it better now than it was say, mid-XY or mid-ORAS? Yes, but even in those metagames it was fantastic. Its a constraint that practically mandates the use of steel types on every team; and the amount of Pokemon it can check by virtue of not taking hazard damage is unparalleled. Its consistently adapted to every metagame trend its met: using Flamethrower when Ferrothorn and Scizor were the go to checks, Knock Off when Greninja became really popular in late XY, Ice Beam for SpDef Gliscor, and of course, Thunder Wave since early/mid-ORAS for steel and fire types. Clefable may not have always been the defining Pokemon in every metagame (although it has been for a while), but its always retained its reputation as one of the best Pokemon in OU.

 

[MANNAT]

Clefable

I don't see how this is even a debate. Clefable has consistently been S-Rank since early XY, and there really hasn't been talk of dropping it since.

It was only made S-rank in early-mid ORAS and was A+ or possibly lower (can't check vr threads before late-xy for some reason) for all of XY. You guys need to look back and realize that Clef has only been truly dominant for a short period of time and that other Pokemon such as Zardx and Lando-T have been more consistently at the top of the tier, although I do not agree with the statement: no viable team lacks lando-t because that's simply not true at all and the thing frankly doesn't fit onto any playstyle aside from bulky offense, hyper offense, and maybe some balances, whereas zardx can fit from any playstyle from stall to offense (you really shouldn't need an rmt for this lol), and therefore can be used on more viable teams than landot can.

 

[thesecondbest]

Landorus-T
It has so many roles - defensive sr, rock polish, sd sr, scarf, even band is good. It's better than clef. Easily the best and most splashable mon in OU history.

 

[Random Passerby]

Mega Charizard X

Unlike Clefable who only really graduated from great Pokemon to top threat sometime late XY or early ORAS, Mega Charizard X was just an ever present threat that threatens to rip teams apart if given the opportunity. It's even better back then because the premier Scarf user Lando-T is slower than +1 Zard X and is almost OHKOed at +1 after Stealth Rock. Zard-X was versatile as it could be running DD+Roost, DD+3 attacks, SD+Tailwind or even a bulky set. Nowadays, most of its sets except DD has fallen out of favour but Zard-X is still able to do its thing even with meta trends going against it.

 

[Futatsuiwa of Sado]

Mega Charizard X

Charizard X has easily been one of the most threatening mons in OU since the begnning of XY, with its ability to rip apart teams of many archetypes, ranging from stall, to balance, to offense. Zard has heavily influenced team building, as unprepared teams will flat out get steam rolled by this. It's also responsible for various metagame trends such as the rise of defensive Lando-T, especially Rocky Helm variants to better take it on.

 

[Xerfanderas]

Landorus-T

Lando is a mon that has simply always been there. It absolutely never fails to do what it does. Being a blanket check to so many threats in a generation with such a power creep is invaluable. In Clefs case, its dominance is more of a recent occurrence, while Zards time was more during the early gen.

 

[HC]

Landorus-T

While I think Clefable has been the best (most annoying) and Zard X the most consistently threatening this gen, Lando-T has defined the generation. It's viability has barely changed at all, it's usage has climbed from high to really high and thus it should be number 1.

 

[Roxachronic]

Mega Charizard X
Without doubt, this thing has been one of the top defining threats since it was made, the fact that its best set has remained great since its release is proof of it.

Like the only thing close to it is Lando-T, Clefable has been godlike for much less time than those.

 

[sand1234]

Mega Charizard X

This mon along with exca shaped the entire metagame.The high usage of Lando,decline of tankchomp,massive usage of sand,rise of slowbro,hippo to OU were some of the main trends caused by this mon.It was almost suspected at one point in XY,and was a top threat throughout this generation.Even though most trends in the metagame are against it rn,it still sweeps once lando t is weakened.This mon is also the only reason to use scarf lati and/scarf chomp in this meta.

 

[Niadev]

Mega Charizard X

Yeah, sure, Clefable has been top tier from around mid ORAS, but MegaXard has been extremely influential from the very start of XY, and it's impact has lasted to the end of ORAS, which should really say something. Honestly it's had much more of an impact on the meta than clef, who you could deal with (from my experience) by just slapping a Heatran or something steel type and strong enough to KO on your team. MegaXard, on the other hand, had no switchins and it's numerous checks could all lose to a certain coverage move (TPunch for Azu, EQ for Tran, etc) on either boosting set, or were crippled by it's defensive to the point of being incapable of beating it, so you had to take more time to beat it in teambuilding (except for when Defensive Lando was splashable af late ORAS, and even then it was a good idea to carry a backup check to Xard). It can also be attributed to Sand's rise unlike Clef, as well as Defensive Lando-T, partially. imo it's much more influential than Clef. imo it's more influential than Lando as well because Lando's usage has been intermittent and it hasn't affected the meta anywhere near as much as Xard.

 

[Martin]

Mega Charizard X
I don't really get the number of people voting for Clefable honestly. Like, idk the status of voting for your own nom here and how it's recieved, but honestly when I think influential I think Mega Charizard X: not Clefable. Clef is good and has definitely left it's mark, to say it's more influential than a large number of Pokémon--let alone the most influential Pokémon in the game--kinda goes against what I see as the purpose of this thread. I want to look at how the meta has shaped itself around stuff, and I think that Charizard, Aegislash, Latios and a couple of other 'mons are easily above Clefable in this regard. Zard X is basically the centre of the OU meta in terms of the way that the meta has prepped for it and pretty much started orbiting in with it's utterly immense gravitational pull--if Zard X is the sun, Landorus-T is Jupiter and sand is Saturn. The fact Scarf Lati and ScarfChomp exist is more than enough evidence that this thing's influence has been completely fucking huge, and it is far and away the most influential Pokémon in OU.