Theorymon Discussion and Viability Ranking

[Electrolyte]

What if Kyurem-B got Ice Shard?

Move aside Mamoswine, there's a new bad boy in town. Ice Shard doesn't provide Kyurem-B with anything new coverage wise, but it does make Kyurem-B a very effective anti-metagame Pokemon by giving it powerful priority. I think this would be a very interesting addition to Kyurem's movepool as Ice Shard would be quite powerful- especially off of Kyurem's base 170 Attack. It could easily OHKO x4 weaks and 2HKO x2 weaks, letting Kyurem function as a revenge killer without having to run a Scarf. It would also become a decent Lando-I check, as it can sponge an Earth Power and then threaten to KO with Ice Shard. Dragon Dancers also won't be nearly as threatening. The priority attack greatly covers up Kyurem's lack of Speed, making it more threatening. The good thing about this, in my opinion, as that it won't make Kyurem-B broken. It will have to sacrifice coverage in order to use Ice Shard, and things that usually counter it (fighting types, Scizor, etc) still will. However, Kyurem will gain an interesting new niche, making this theorymon very unique.

 

[Subject 18]

Like Jukain said above, Keldeo with Ice Beam would be a massive improvement to an already great pokemon. With Ice Beam in the mix, you the option of using a Hidden Power of choice to beat any other pokemon that would potentially check it. You could use things like Slowking, Cressilia, and Jellicent though all of which are dealt with by Choice Banded Tyranitar. Once one of the checks goes down, Keldeo is free to do as it pleases.

Expert Belt Keldeo would be very appealing set as it just barely misses out on 2HKOing Tentacruel with HP Psychic, Jellicent with HP Electric after Stealth Rock, though both would die to Sandstorm damage. Leaving only Cresselia and Slowking not to be near 2HKO by any of Keldeo's anti-check Hidden Power (Ghost and Bug).


Verdict: Borderline broken.

 

[Zecram]

What if Bronzong got Recover?

Surely he would be returning to OU. It counters Garchomp, Salamance, Dragonite, both forms of Landorus, Gliscor, Gengar, Alakazam, Lati@s, Mamoswine, Kyurem, etc..MUCH easier if It has a reliable recovery move.

 

[G-Von]

What if Landorus got Hurricane?

There's a game-changer right there. Some of its most well-known checks and counters would be decimated, like Celebi and Heracross. I know there was a thread on whether Lando should be tested or not but it is still somewhat low in the rankings compared to where it probably should be. The fact that it would be a strong alternate STAB should be reason enough to allow this to happen. Since i may get ripped for this post, let me just defend this suggestion. Hurricane is a very weather-reliant move that, without Rain, can be very risky to spam. It may have a base power, after boosts, of 304 (yikes), it still gets shut down by some of its other perceived checks and counters like the blobs, Zapdos, and Bronzong. Due to the SF boost, it also loses its ability to confuse the opponent, so there would be no worries when it comes to hax. Finally, this would give Landorus an even worse case of 4MSS than it already has; without a certain moves, there will be a pokemon that checks/counters it.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

What if Bronzong got Recover?

Surely he would be returning to OU. It counters Garchomp, Salamance, Dragonite, both forms of Landorus, Gliscor, Gengar, Alakazam, Lati@s, Mamoswine, Kyurem, etc..MUCH easier if It has a reliable recovery move.

To be honest, I don't think it would make it much better, having played with Bronzong recently I realized just how good on paper it looks, but in practice it has some big problems. Take countering Latios for example, without heavy special defensive investment, it is almost 2HKOed by Draco Meteor aka a dragon move which is resists, almost all other Latios counters take less than half of that. Also, Recover would make it suffer from a bit of 4SMM, as it would most likely be forced into a move set of Recover / Gyroball / HP-Ice / Earthquake or Stealth Rock, forcing people to either lose to Magnezone, or set up rocks on something else.

Guys, can we please stop suggesting moves that would most likely take top tier Pokemon and push them over the line, Keldeo with Ice Beam was close enough.

 

[Nix_Hex]

What if Metagross got Shift Gear?

Something like this would function quite well:

Metagross @ Life Orb
[PIMG]376[/PIMG]
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Shift Gear
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- ThunderPunch

At +1 Atk / +2 Spe, Metagross reaches 553 Attack and 524 Speed. This allows it to outspeed even Choice Scarf Keldeo and Terrakion and OHKO them with ThunderPunch or Meteor Mash. Only Scarf Base 110s+ can outspeed it, but only Starmie can revenge it in the rain. Gengar and Latios can't do very much to it either. ThunderPunch OHKOes Specs and Scarf Politoed, while defensive Toed takes massive damage from it and definitely can't switch in. Adamant can be used but you fail to outspeed Scarf Keldeo. However, you gain the ability to OHKO most Celebi and Jirachi variants. You also 2HKO Chansey and OHKO Blissey, although you have a high chance to do the latter with Jolly. Adamant Metagross is a terrifying sweeper, OHKOing a legion of offensive Pokemon. Make sure defensive giants like Ferrothorn, Forretress, Hippowdon, and resists like Rotom-W are out of the way and use Shift Gear against a -2 Latios, and proceed to sweep.

 

[Katakiri]

Great thread, my kind of thing.

I'm going to say Technician with Weavile. Technician would be perfect flavor-wise and competitively for Weavile. It would have a definite edge over the likes of Mamoswine and Scizor as a priority user and pursuit trapper. It would almost definitely be mid OU at least with Technician, and Mamoswine would almost be completely outclassed as a dragon killer, probably dropping out of OU. Weavile would be able to revenge Venusaur after Stealth Rock, something that is almost unheard of in this metagame. Unfortunately, most of its other moves just miss the Technician cutoff, like Ice Punch and Night Slash, but a boosted Ice Shard and Pursuit are irresistible on the same pokemon. Not to mention that it could actually be an effective Swords Dance sweeper with the stronger priority, even if it will still have trouble setting up. It would most likely become the ultimate anti-meta pokemon that Mamoswine has been these past two generations. It's new founded ability to kill every dragon in OU (unless they are scarfed), Venusaur and Landorus whilst beating JelliTran is not too shabby at all.

I'm late to this discussion but I want to expand upon this because Technician Weavile would be the single hardest-hitting Dark-type in the game for a reason you left out.

Technician Ice Shard is amazing & Pursuit is a death sentence whether foes switch or not but they pale in comparison to one move in particular: Beat Up. For those not familiar with how Beat Up works, it takes the Attacker’s Base Attack stat, divides it by 10, and adds 5 to the total to create the Attack’s Base Power. Contrary to popular belief, in 5th Gen, Beat Up only uses Weavile’s Attack stat for damage; teammates only create the number of times Weavile can hit. For Weavile, this is a Base 17 Dark-type Attack that hits 6 times or 102 Base Power total. Normally, that is. Technician throws balance out the window and gives Weavile a Base 25 Beat Up that hits 6 times or a Base 150 Physical Dark-type Attack with no draw-back as long as your Pokémon are healthy. If one of Weavile’s teammates gets KO’d, it becomes a Base 125 Attack, 2 Pokémon down becomes Base 100, even if half your team falls, it is still a solid Base 75 Attack which is still stronger than Night Slash’s Base 70. Normally, only Skill Link Pokémon can get that kind of damage but since Beat Up’s hits are always set, there’s no need for it.

It is, for all intents and purposes, Weavile's own Water Spout/Eruption but the only way to lower it's Base Power is to KO or Status a teammate. It also breaks Subs so Baton Pass teams be damned.

And you might think Iron Barb/Rocky Helmet would be a death sentence for Weavile using Beat Up, but Beat Up only makes contact for one hit; a nifty little relic leftover from 4th Gen's Beat Up mechanics.

Just for some clarity, this is how Beat Up looks with Technician:
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 4 HP/0 Def Terrakion: 50.62% - 59.57% 2 hits to KO
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Ice Shard vs 4 HP/0 Def Terrakion: 41.05% - 48.46% 3 hits to KO
If your name isn't Lucario or Cobalion, you're not taking advantage of Justified very easily.

252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 252 HP/0 Def Ferrothorn: 33.81% - 39.77% 3-4 hits to KO (That isn't Kyurem-B. That's Weavile, folks)
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 252 HP/252 Def Bold Gastrodon: 64.79% - 76.29% 2 hits to KO
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 252 HP/0 Def Jirachi: 74.6% - 87.62% 2 hits to KO
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 252 HP/252 Def Hippowdon: 46.43% - 54.52% 2-3 hits to KO (Those three used to be fantastic Weavile switch-ins)
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 128 HP/0 Def Rotom-W: 104.4% - 122.34% OHKO 100% (Adorable)
252 Atk Jolly Life Orb Technician Weavile Beat Up (6 hits) vs 4 HP/0 Def Garchomp: 88.27% - 103.91% OHKO 25% (Just showing that even something with Chomp's bulk isn't enough, most Pokemon don't stand a chance)

Nasty little thing, really. I do like Weavile but I think Technician would be a bit too much firepower for it, don't you think so?

 

[Neliel]

If Blissey could learn Scald, would people really use it? Of course the possibility to burn incoming attackers is great, but a base 80 unstabbed attack is particularly pitiful, especially with Blissey's low special attack. Burn also clashes a lot with Blissey's other status moves it may need to use actually combat special attackers.

Thats quite an interesting question. while i dont really see why blissey would have scald (it has water pulse but thats it) im not sure if i would use it or not. In my experience, blissey is often used with softboiled, toxic, seismic toss, sr(or wish+protect and no sr) and maybe flametrower, so i would replace seismic toss to use it, or sr if i have an another slot (which is difficult). If you think about it, it has seismic toss for just one reason, which is spam random damage when it doesnt have anything to do. Scald basically does the same things, only losing to things like sub cm latias, but with the great chance of burning you can also beat ferrothorn, skarmory, tentacruel, catch a tyranitar or a scizor and burn it... possibilities are endless. now that you make me think about it a little, i can possibly see special stuff like latios and keldeo switching in on it more often, not fearing the burn but still beating blissey with secret sword and psyshock. That would probably become one of the most used moves on blissey for sure.. and the status conflict doesnt mean anything tbh, bulky politoed already uses scald and toxic (as well as any other water) and i've never lost a battle because i burned a mon instead of toxicing it.. its still an injuried pokemon that if its phisical cant even get past blissey.

What if Metagross got Recover?

Metagross is a mediocre offensive mon with fantastic defensive typing. We all know how frustrating it is to take out Wish Jirachi so what if Metagross, a Pokemon with similar typing and solid 80/130/90 bulk got access to reliable recovery? It has an okay support movepool in Toxic, Stealth Rock, Dual Screens, Trick, etc. and a great attack stat to pose an offensive presence I could imagine this could become a solid physically defensive dragon wall that doesn't get fucked by Magnezone.

I can see metagross working over jirachi for some reason, still not outclassing it. With recover, you can free up a slot because jirachi almost always needs protect, and there you can easily put stealth rock. metagross then also has pursuit, which is what distinguish it from jirachi, making it a nice trappers for latios. (something that scizor already does, admittedly, but with less defense and no stealth rock). Metagross would see some problems anyway at checking dragons, if you think about it a lot of them has eq or a fire move, so unless you switch in on outrage so that you can kill them with ice punch i can see it losing too often. I dont think his impact would be that much with a pletora of steel types already used in Ou, but still it would have his niche.

What if Ferrothorn learned Rapid Spin?

Yes this may sound extremely odd, but if you take a look at Ferroseed:

It would seem plausible that Ferroseed could learn Rapid Spin, then carry it over into its evolution. Ferrothorn would be one hell of a spinner if it did indeed get Rapid Spin, because with its amazing defensive typing and access to STAB Power Whip, Ferrothorn could actually beat other spinners that may try to keep Ferrothorn from setting up its own hazards, such as Donphan and Starmie. It could also beat Jellicent, one of the best spin blockers in OU, and even Gengar with Gyro Ball on a predicted switch. Honestly, this thing would probably be one of the best rapid spinners in the entire game, not just because of it's ability to beat out other spinners and spin blockers and its useful resistances, but also because of how amazing its supporting movepool is to help its teammates. It could spin, setup hazards, cripple, sap health with Leech Seed, and fight back. Definitely something that I would enjoy trying out in a theorymon battle. Something like this would be awesome:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SDef
Relaxed Nature
- Spikes/Stealth Rock
- Power Whip
- Rapid Spin
- Leech Seed/Gyro Ball

I like this a lot, i wanted to post it too :3

Ferrothorn would just be awesome. The quintessential of the support pokemon. I can see it used even more that now, probably being the best support mon in the entire game. To start, i would like to say that this would basically kill forretress' usage. Ferrothorn has no problem running a set of rapid spin/ Leech seed / Gyro ball / Spikes, leaving forretress only usefull for toxic spikes and maybe the custap set, but still very limited. Ferrothorn would way more usefull thank to its typing that lets it find so many chance to spin, whereas forretress often has to kill itself against a special threath. Imo, even tentacruel would see a dramatic decrease. Tentacruel is seen only in rain teams, but why would you rely on it if you need to spin, incrementing your sinergy redundacy, when you have ferrothorn? probably only toxic spikes, again i see it becoming very little used. Ferrothorn would also be better than tentacruel and forretress thanks to power whip, which lets it hit jellicent (whereas gengar is koed by gyro ball) something that they cant do. ANyway, regarding ferrothorn set, i think rapid spin wont be used in any set, because you know, ferrothorn has 4 slot, and you cant have sr, spikes, lseed, gyro ball, power whip, spin, protect all in the same set. I think it will still have his hazard setter set (basically the one thats already used) plus one which should be something like: Rapid spin, Gyro ball, Leech seed, Spikes/ Sr / Protect. Probably you wont random switch it into everything like you did with the hazard setter, because a spinner must stay healty, but still it would check a lot of things while providing fantastic support moves.

I was going to come and post Hurricane Zapdos but ShootingStarmie beat me to it. After some thinking I came up with another idea.

What if Garchomp learned Dragon Dance?

We all know how dangerous Chomp is after getting up a Swords Dance. Once this happens nothing can safely take hit from it. However, it's base 102 speed tends to be a drawback as it makes is susceptible to being revenge killed by Latios, Keldeo, Starmie with Ice Beam. Having Dragon Dance would help alleviate that issue and give Garchomp some extra speed to outspeed it's possible revenge killers. A possible set with Dragon Dance could look like something like this:

Garchomp @ Leftovers
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly or Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance

Or

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Trait: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly or Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Dragon Dance

Some set ideas, might need some tweaking but I'm something with more experience can give some feedback.

Eh, this would eventually lead into an uber pokemon, not sure though. If you think about it, dragonite is still ou because of its weakness to stealth rock and his bad speed. Garchomp would not have those problems, still having the bulk to setup a dragon dance (unlike salamence) as well as having stab eq. Admittedly, garchomp would be too weak to beat everything after a dragon dance, so it probably needs life orb, which makes it easier to beat, and even after a dragon dance it would be beaten by scarf keldeo and ice shard, though you will have no reason to not use it in every type of team. A dramatical increase of mamoswine and scarf latios are easily predictable with this set in ou.

Im very surprised there are so many questions, and you guys are doing a nice work, though i would like to ask you to not speak about weather inducing ability on other pokemon unless you have a strong reason to do so (and please, at least not drought and drizzle), reasons being that its a too good ability that will have an incredible impact on the metagame, probably changing completely, and possibly meaning becoming uber.

ps. regarding those speaking about ice beam keldeo, the specs set already beats lati@s with icy wind, (while the scarf one 2kos with hpump under rain, just like ice beam) most of the dragons are already koed by hp ice, and hp eletric/ghost are already used in combination with icy wind, which already koes stuff superweak to ice. I wouldnt say its that much afterall, and if keldeo is broken or not its not because of ice beam. It was to show you that you can talk about top 10 pokemon, just dont give them things like adaptability or sheer force.

 

[G-Von]

What if Metagross got Shift Gear?

Something like this would function quite well:

Metagross @ Life Orb
[PIMG]376[/PIMG]
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Shift Gear
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- ThunderPunch

At +1 Atk / +2 Spe, Metagross reaches 553 Attack and 524 Speed. This allows it to outspeed even Choice Scarf Keldeo and Terrakion and OHKO them with ThunderPunch or Meteor Mash. Only Scarf Base 110s+ can outspeed it, but only Starmie can revenge it in the rain. Gengar and Latios can't do very much to it either. ThunderPunch OHKOes Specs and Scarf Politoed, while defensive Toed takes massive damage from it and definitely can't switch in. Adamant can be used but you fail to outspeed Scarf Keldeo. However, you gain the ability to OHKO most Celebi and Jirachi variants. You also 2HKO Chansey and OHKO Blissey, although you have a high chance to do the latter with Jolly. Adamant Metagross is a terrifying sweeper, OHKOing a legion of offensive Pokemon. Make sure defensive giants like Ferrothorn, Forretress, Hippowdon, and resists like Rotom-W are out of the way and use Shift Gear against a -2 Latios, and proceed to sweep.

This is a great idea and all, but I personally think that Metagross could really use a new ability instead of a boosting-move. Some examples that come to mind are Intimidate, Filter, or Guts would be very nice additions.

 

[Neliel]

What if starmie got calm mind?

I mean, just look at it.. how cant it learn calm mind? its a psichic type afterall. Even infernape has this move, but starmie doesnt. Anyway calm mind would solve one of the main problem of starmie, which is his only "decent" special attack. Actually i would only use it instead of rapid spin, with hydro pump, thunder, and ice beam, but do you think that its worth using a starmie without rapid spin, only focusing on his sweeping ability? one thing i noticed when using offensive starmie is that it just cant take an hit. If you need to spin, you do it and die, if you want to attack then starmie has no problem doing so, but when actually are you going to use calm mind? in the same turn when you normally did rapid spin, which means to die? i think it would have a lot of problem setting up, what do you think?

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

What if starmie got calm mind?

I mean, just look at it.. how cant it learn calm mind? its a psichic type afterall. Even infernape has this move, but starmie doesnt. Anyway calm mind would solve one of the main problem of starmie, which is his only "decent" special attack. Actually i would only use it instead of rapid spin, with hydro pump, thunder, and ice beam, but do you think that its worth using a starmie without rapid spin, only focusing on his sweeping ability? one thing i noticed when using offensive starmie is that it just cant take an hit. If you need to spin, you do it and die, if you want to attack then starmie has no problem doing so, but when actually are you going to use calm mind? in the same turn when you normally did rapid spin, which means to die? i think it would have a lot of problem setting up, what do you think?

This would certainly be interesting. First off, I will be the first to say that Starmie is for the most part outclassed in this role by Latias, Latios, Alakazam, ... well pretty much any good Pokemon with access to Calm Mind really. I think the difference here though is not in Starmie's power, but diversity. Now your switch into a thought Rapid Spin is punished by a Calm Mind, allowing for that one critical free turn in the game to change its outcome. Basically you fake out the common set in order to gain an advantage, this isn't as common as it was in past gens but can still be seen in Pokemon like Dragonite, for example, you can change the game if their opponent plays incorrectly vs a special attacking Dragonite, by using Thunder on their Skarmory. CM Starmie would remain uncommon though, because it is still generally outclassed and too much use would ruin the surprise, but it would certainly hang around showing up when you least expect it.

 

[Schpoonman]

What if Kyurem-B got Ice Punch/Icicle Crash?
The main reason that Kyurem-B fell to Ubers with that godly attack stat was the lack of a reliable Ice-type STAB. On that note, I find it a bit unreasonable that this monster doesn't get to punch ice, I mean just look at his left arm; you'd think that he could punch in an icy fasion.

In my opinion, one I believe just about everyone would agree with, is that if Kyurem-B got Ice Punch, it would not have fell to Ubers. It wouldn't have to run mixed sets for coverage, and it is the prime example of a Pokemon with great stats but a shallow move pool. While, still weak to Stealth Rock, Kyurem-W is as well and it still proves to be pretty solid in Ubers, being #19 on the most recent Ubers 1850 stats. Kyurem-W also has a great move pool, having access to Draco Meteor, Blizzard, Ice Beam, and Fusion Flare. Icicle Crash would be even crazier.

So one more question I have is, if Kyurem-B received a reliable, physical Ice-type STAB right now (obviously that wouldn't happen, but bare with me), what would result? Ubers? If not, how would it affect the meta?

I really don't think Ice Punch or Icicle Crash would be that huge on Kyurem-B. The only Steel-type it helps you get by is Ferrothorn, but you still only 2HKO with heavy investment, so if you predict wrong he still pops you in the dome with Gyro Ball. Dragon/Ice is horribly redundant coverage. Kyurem-W is so wildly successful because it get Fusion Flare to beat Steel-types and it has Turboblaze so Heatran can't stuff it. I mean, in addition to its otherwise incredible special movepool (Draco Meteor, Ice Beam, Earth Power, etc.)

Now, something I want to see is Archeops getting Rock Head, and possibly Brave Bird. We all know how utterly insane Archeops' stats are, and just how badly crippled it is by Defeatist. Here's the set that I'm thinking of:

move 1: Head Smash
move 2: Brave Bird
move 3: Earthquake/Heat Wave
move 4: U-turn/Heat Wave
item: Choice Band/Choice Scarf
ability: Rock Head
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Head Smash hits with nuclear force, and the strongest Pokemon in the game with access to it and Rock Head is poor little Aggron. Can you imagine if Conkeldurr were free to use Focus Punch without being forced to use a Sub? Because that's the kind of power that Head Smash has. Some calculations for the good people.

Hulk/Head Smash!

252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 130-153 (36.93 - 43.46%) -- 99.76% chance to 3HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Jirachi: 194-228 (48.01 - 56.43%) -- 32.03% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Forretress: 220-261 (62.14 - 73.72%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 202-238 (56.42 - 66.48%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 252 Atk Choice Band Archeops Head Smash vs. 200 HP / 244 Def Landorus-T: 220-261 (59.62 - 70.73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Yeah. Zero fucks would be given.

 

[Neliel]

@lord of bays

damn that thing hits hard. give it a rapid spin support from offensive starmie and you have a choice band terrakion, a little faster, a little stronger, and with perfect coverage too. 2koing lando-t after intimidate its no sluch offensively, and with brave bird too it would destroy everything, leaving only bronzong who can take two hits and ko it back. it also has u-turn and a good special attack... a stealth rock setter with acrobatics will also become viable (even without brave bird) which is probably better than garchomp for example.. i wont say it will outclass cbterrakion or become ou, but it will see an increase for sure. Just think about those sand offense that uses voltturn cores, here it will see some love too.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Drought Arcanine would be pretty damn cool and amazing. Arcanine is a great mon, and the ability to boost its own STAB and Morning Sun would be cool in and of itself. With the ability to bust Politoed and TTar to bits with good prediction, Sun would be in a totally different place in the meta.

+ Dry Skin

It's a bug that lives by the water side and evolves by stealing the shell of an aquatic snail. Why not?

Anyway, with Dry Skin, Escavalier now has the following resistances/immunities:

And still only possessing a (massive) weakness to fire. This is without a doubt a VERY interesting set of resistances, especially with that immunity to Water screwing Scald. 70 / 105 / 105 defensive stats aren't anything to sneeze at either!
With 135 ATK and Pursuit, Escavalier would be set to really screw a number of key threats in the meta. Let's take a look.

Escavalier would be immune to Scald / Hydro Pump / Surf, resists Ice Beam AND Psyshock, and is neutral to Starmie's un-STAB, un-boosted Thunderbolt. With 135 ATK, Pursuit, and Megahorn, Dry Skin Escavalier would become an absolute nightmare to Starmie-- on par with TTar, and possessing the ability to reliably kill starmie in rain!

Resistance to Draco Meteor, Psyshock, and Immune to Surf-- Latios would have to use HP Fire to do anything significant to Escavalier. Pursuit or Megahorn would destroy latios.

See Latios

Immune to both Water and Poison, Escavalier would have Tentacruel's number. A resistance to Ice seals the deal. Meanwhile, Escavalier could heal right alongside Tenta in rain, and use Pursuit or Return mash cruel into unrecognizable jelly.

Jellicent would have to use W-o-W to do anything, as Escavalier is immune to Toxic and Scald. Pursuit could rip Jelly a new one.

If you don't have HP Fire (or at least Baton Pass), you will be very sad.


So Dry Skin Escavalier kills:

AND it fits BEAUTIFULLY onto a rain team.

...
...
...

+ (

+ Dry Skin) = !??????????????

 

[Prinz]

What if Kyurem got Snow Warning?

Neliel already said to not post mon with a possible Drizzle or Drought so I'm posting this. I think hail will be for sure more important than now in BW2 OU, Kyurem has better statistics overall than Abomasnow, less weakness and a more offensive presence. I must admit I'm very curious to see how the metagame would be with Snow Warning Kyurem around. It would be better? I don't know, for sure Kyurem Snow Warning would be a very cool thing for hail team. What do you guys think about it?

EDIT @Chou Toshio: you got a really good idea, it should be more and more used in rain teams, especially in the offense ones and it would be a pretty cool support for Keldeo and it would be a deserved rival of Pursuit Scizor which is quite common in rain offense to support Keldeo nowadays (another cool support is U-Turn Thundurus, it smashes Celebi and Lati Twins and make a big pressure on things like Jellicent and Tentacruel but I don't want to go OT), so it's usage would rise a lot and maybe it would deserved a spot in the OU tier, who knows.

 

[Neliel]

@chou toshio

while the ability seems appealing, im looking right now to his movepool, and i must say that its very poor... what do you think it should run? Pursuit and megahorn are ok, but there isnt really something else i would run... iron head? double edge? they are bad moves afterall, maybe a set with a special defensive spread and protect would be its best set... not to mention that it doesnt have stealth rock, and considering that the steel type often has them, you will have to rely on something else to setup them (for example, ferrothorn already stops latios and starmie, and has sr too+eletric resistance) and not every team can use an another slot just for sr. Also, jellicent will burn escavalier probably, unless you use sub, but still you are not going to do much with pursuit... same thing with tentacruel, ok it can not hit you, but you cant do anything to it as well, so it will just setup toxic spikes and switch out. it will probably be better than a random cb scizor in rain teams anyway, still not sure if dry skin is enough to make it worth it..

 

[Asek]

What if starmie got calm mind?

TBH I always wish Starmie got a Special Variant of Hone Claws. It would be able to reliably use a moveset of Hydro Pump / Thunder / Blizzard and those coming off +1 Starmie at perfect Accuracy would break so many teams. Calm Mind would be pretty cool though, starmie is resistant to common scarfers such as keldeo and would hit a lot and is fast enough as it is

 

[DarkBlazeR]

What if Heatran learned Volt Switch?

Going with something a little different here. While this isn't the most obvious suggestion, I believe that Heatran would benefit greatly from learning Volt Switch. It's not too much of a stretch flavour-wise, since both Forretress and Cobalion learn it. Even without STAB, Volt Switch is an amazing move for gaining momentum, and would turn Heatran into one of the most effective pivots in OU. The Electric typing really works in its favour, as it allows it to smack Water types whilst keeping full control of your momentum. No longer would Heatran be seen as a liability in a rain dominated metagame. It would also make the Scarf set more viable, as you could scout obvious switches to gain the upper-hand. Offensive sets in general would also love it, as it means you get excellent coverage between Fire Blast/Earth Power/Volt Switch/Hidden Power [Ice]. Sadly, it doesn't allow Heatran to escape from Dugtrio, but that small snag aside, it's basically the move that Heatran has been begging for this generation.

 

[Chou Toshio]

@chou toshio

while the ability seems appealing, im looking right now to his movepool, and i must say that its very poor... what do you think it should run? Pursuit and megahorn are ok, but there isnt really something else i would run... iron head? double edge? they are bad moves afterall, maybe a set with a special defensive spread and protect would be its best set... not to mention that it doesnt have stealth rock, and considering that the steel type often has them, you will have to rely on something else to setup them (for example, ferrothorn already stops latios and starmie, and has sr too+eletric resistance) and not every team can use an another slot just for sr. Also, jellicent will burn escavalier probably, unless you use sub, but still you are not going to do much with pursuit... same thing with tentacruel, ok it can not hit you, but you cant do anything to it as well, so it will just setup toxic spikes and switch out. it will probably be better than a random cb scizor in rain teams anyway, still not sure if dry skin is enough to make it worth it..

Escavalier would definitely never be a super main stream Pokemon. Its only real niche would be in bringing down threats that stop a Keldeo sweep. The only other Pokemon that can really fill this niche is Tyranitar, who let's face it, isn't the ideal option for most rain teams. Ferrothorn can stop starmie and Latios, but it only stops them-- doesn't take them down. Furthermore, it can be setup bait for Latias. Escavalier would also pretty damn good against Alakazam, Reniuculus, Politoed, and Gengar.

I was hoping that Escavalier would get Drill Run or Superpower from the BW2 tutors but I guess not... :/

Also yeah, Jellicent is a problem since it doesn't get anything that beats it easily. (Though Jellicent can't do didly squat either without W-o-W)

I think something like:

Adamant
Dry Skin
? HP / ? ATK / ? SpD
@Life Orb
-Protect
-Pursuit
-Megahorn
-Return / Double Edge

Protect is used to gain HP and scout for Hidden Power Fire / W-o-W (or Fire Blast from Tyranitar). Pursuit is the whole point of using Escavalier. Megahorn is Megahorn, and Return / Double Edge take out Tentacruel. Dry Skin's recovery also helps with LO damage, especially when used with Protect.

Not being able to do anything to Steel-types is sad, but let's face it, the whole point of this thing is to use its Niche as a very selective trapper against Keldeo counters that works in rain where Tyranitar can't. Also, its immunity to Scald is golden.

 

[Bent1ey]

Nasty little thing, really. I do like Weavile but I think Technician would be a bit too much firepower for it, don't you think so?

Yeah, I gotta agree with this, Technician would make Weavile a bit too much of a heavy hitter for his speed tier.

Has anyone noticed that Celebi has those cute wings? What if it could learn Quiver Dance?

 

[Chou Toshio]

Are you kidding me? Even if Weavile got Technician, it would just make his attacking power OU worthy, not anything special. He'd still be hitting with attacks overall weaker than Alakazam, and just barely matching Gengar's offensive power. His offensive power would still be far trailing behind something like Thunder Jolteon in rain for instance.

Moreover, Weavile would still be dealing with paper thin defenses and literally NOTHING to switch in against. Furthermore, he's not like Alakazam, who can use a sash to preserve himself-- he's weak to SR and vulnerable to EVERY passive damage.

Weavile's lack of power is a big flaw to be sure.

However, what REALLY prevents Weavile from excelling in OU is its poor defenses and lack of resistances / immunities to use easily. Furthermore, even with Technician, his ability to hit Steel-types would still be pretty damn lacking.

Overall, Technician would only restore Weavile's place in the 30-40 range of OU-- it wouldn't come anywhere close to making Weavile a monster. It would still be a very niche use Pokemon; it would just be much more effective at its niche.

 

[Prinz]

Yeah, I gotta agree with this, Technician would make Weavile a bit too much of a heavy hitter for his speed tier.

Has anyone noticed that Celebi has those cute wings? What if it could learn Quiver Dance?

Quiver Dance ones willl probably outclass Nasty Plot ones and it would be a really really good supporter for things like Keldeo, Landorus-I and so on so we will see more and more Baton Pass based team accordingly (like Kidogo's one I mean). Not sure if the metagame would be better, probably not. Even more centralized on things such as Keldeo and Lando-I.

 

[Lohgock]

What if Cresselia learned Recover / Roost?

Seriously, look at it. It's a Psychic-type that flies. Why the hell doesn't it learn either Recover or Roost? I just don't get it. However, if, some day, Cresselia learns Recover or Roost, it'll be Uber immediately. Cresselia has crazy defenses paired with acceptable Speed and Sp.Atk. aswell as a good utility movepool. It's nearly impossible to OHKO Cresselia while it'd just Toxics you and recovers HP untill you die. Or it outright kills you with Ice Beam if you're a dragon. Or takes a hit easily and paralyzes you. Or.. well, you know what I mean. While the defensive set takes hits like no tommorow, you can also play it a bit more offensively with Calm Mind. With a set of Recover, Calm Mind, Psyshock and Hidden Power Fire there is nearly nothing that stands a chance against Cresselia. Scizor gets roasted even without a CM boost, any other Calm Minder loses the CM war thanks to Psyshock and Heatran can only win if it has Toxic so what's left to counter it are Jirachi and Tyranitar (probably other Cresselias with Toxic aswell), both being trappable by Dugtrio (in case of a more offensive team) or set-up fodder for the likes of Skarmory and Ferrothorn (in case of a more stallish team).

 

[Chou Toshio]

^I actually think it would be scarier if Cresselia learned Will-o-Wisp.

Cresselia's big problem is not being able to do anything particularly dangerous to its counters (or almost any opponent really). W-o-W would make it way more threatening. Of course recovery would help it too. Something like W-o-W / Roost / Ice Beam / Calm Mind would be pretty scary.

 

[lousy918]

blah blah blah
ps. regarding those speaking about ice beam keldeo, the specs set already beats lati@s with icy wind, (while the scarf one 2kos with hpump under rain, just like ice beam) most of the dragons are already koed by hp ice, and hp eletric/ghost are already used in combination with icy wind, which already koes stuff superweak to ice. I wouldnt say its that much afterall, and if keldeo is broken or not its not because of ice beam. It was to show you that you can talk about top 10 pokemon, just dont give them things like adaptability or sheer force.

252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Icy Wind vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 144-170 (39.56 - 46.7%) -- 1.17% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Keldeo Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 122-144 (33.51 - 39.56%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Latias in rain: 117-138 (32.14 - 37.91%) -- 99.56% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock