Metagame Tier Shift

2 sets I love to use

prinplup def combines rocks and defog. AV medicham with drain punch combines bulk, damage and recovery. Also nidoqueen is god damn strong, tho this is nothing new I guess, I just want to mention it lmao, I use it with modest max hp.

Prinplup @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Defog

Medicham @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pure Power
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Psycho Cut
- Ice Punch
- Bullet Punch
 

alephgalactus

Banned deucer.
I have a couple sets I used this past month that I’d like to share. They did quite well—I peaked at 95th on the ladder this month (not as good as my previous record of 11th but I didn’t have nearly as much time to ladder and half of the matches were interrupted by the extraordinarily bad Internet connection I had to deal with for the first half of August).

Duke Pyukem (Pyukumuku) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Recover
- Soak
- Toxic

Pyukumuku is a very polarizing Pokémon in this meta in particular. If you’re one of the many people who have called for a Pyukumuku ban, then this is likely the set you crossed paths with to create that opinion. With 95/170/170 bulk, a great defensive type and a phenomenal defensive Ability in Unaware, Pyukumuku is the bane of setup sweepers. Because of Soak, even Steel and Poison-types aren’t safe from having their HP whittled away as the cucumber sits there and takes hits that no Pokémon should ever be able to take. Soak has the added bonus of removing the opponent’s STAB, making the opponent deal even less damage. How much less? Well, after a Soak, a fully Attack-invested Light Ball Pikachu’s Volt Tackle does a maximum of 70%—which means that, if you spam Recover (it is crucial to do so), Pikachu dies to recoil before Pyukumuku dies to, and this is the important part, one of the strongest hits in the entire metagame. (For the sake of the exercise, we have to assume Pikachu switched in on a Soak, which it is very likely to do, or is Soaked from behind a Substitute. If Pikachu has STAB and Pyukumuku has no Substitute, Pikachu has a chance to OHKO and you’re in serious trouble.) What can possibly stop this monstrosity? Well, a number of things. First of all, as just stated, extremely strong hits can take out Pyukumuku, though Pyukumuku can survive a number of them if it keeps setting up Substitutes. More reliable is Toxic—still doesn’t work if Pyukumuku has a Substitute up, but it can force a switch-out easily. Most reliable by far are Taunt, Encore, and Abilities that grant Toxic immunity. Taunt and Encore bypass Substitute altogether and universally force switch-outs, and Pyukumuku has no way to damage Pokémon that have a Toxic immunity due to something other than their typing (or, in Silvally’s case, because their typing can’t be changed). Despite the numerous checks and several hard counters the meta has to offer, Pyukumuku is a solid Pokémon on any stall or balance team.


Tsar Bomba (Rampardos) (M) @ Rockium Z
Ability: Mold Breaker
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 64 HP / 252 Atk / 192 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Because HP scales differently than other stats, Tier Shift is a naturally very bulky metagame. Most of the strategies revolve around stall and other defensive playstyles. There are so many Pokémon with enormous defensive bulk that someone might say it’s impossible to run anything offensive in Tier Shift. Rampardos doesn’t care. The only thing Rampardos cares about is throwing rocks at you until you stop moving. Rampardos is a lot like Thanos, in that it fits well with balanced playstyles, and half of the opponent’s team will crumble at a snap of its fingers. After a Rock Polish, it outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame (including Ninjask!) and Scarf users of base 120 Speed or lower, and after a Swords Dance, it scores OHKOs or 2HKOs on nearly every Pokémon in the game, including Regirock (whose physical bulk, may I remind you, is 120/240), Alolan Persian (though it’s not guaranteed unless you use Continental Crush), and Pyukumuku. The only viable thing in this meta that resists EdgeQuake with Mold Breaker is Torterra, and that dies to a +2 Continental Crush anyway. And remember what I said before about Tier Shift being a naturally bulkier meta? Well, Rampardos benefits from that too. Its defensive spread is a respectable 137/100/90, which makes it a lot less of a glass cannon and a lot more of a straight-up hypertrain of murder and destruction with no brakes, a psychotic conductor, and a payload of lost souls. Send it out as a lead to punch holes in the opposing team—it can set up on most of the meta’s top leads, allowing it to set up Swords Dance against stall and slow bulky offense, or Rock Polish against hyper offense. Or, if you wish, you can save it for the later game, when anything faster than it has been eliminated, and clean up the tattered remains of the opponent’s team. Defensively, nearly nothing besides Quagsire beats it. On the offensive side, it’s outsped by a lot without Rock Polish, and it can only take a couple hits before going down (which, at least, is better than the zero hits it could take in the normal meta). It generally has a limited time on the field, so make sure to use that time wisely.


And here’s a link to the full team I used.
 

G-Luke

Sugar, Spice and One For All
is a Community Contributoris a CAP Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
While its not OMotM anymore, this decision is gonna greatly affect current and/or future tours. I have decided that, following numerous complaints and first hand accounts, to remove the buff to the HP stat.

Of course with Snake Draft going on, I expect this week to not be affected, but this pretty much shakes up a lot of the metagame, and changes A LOT of plays. That being said, you can discuss how this change will impact how the metagame moves forward.
 
While its not OMotM anymore, this decision is gonna greatly affect current and/or future tours. I have decided that, following numerous complaints and first hand accounts, to remove the buff to the HP stat.

Of course with Snake Draft going on, I expect this week to not be affected, but this pretty much shakes up a lot of the metagame, and changes A LOT of plays. That being said, you can discuss how this change will impact how the metagame moves forward.
This was certainly needed since this is such a bulky metagame, but this change will impact the meta quite a lot, and quite possible make it very offense based. Did you consider simply halving the HP buff?
 

G-Luke

Sugar, Spice and One For All
is a Community Contributoris a CAP Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
This was certainly needed since this is such a bulky metagame, but this change will impact the meta quite a lot, and quite possible make it very offense based. Did you consider simply halving the HP buff?
Removing the HP buff is weird as is, but halving it just makes it look bad optics wise
 

alephgalactus

Banned deucer.
While its not OMotM anymore, this decision is gonna greatly affect current and/or future tours. I have decided that, following numerous complaints and first hand accounts, to remove the buff to the HP stat.

Of course with Snake Draft going on, I expect this week to not be affected, but this pretty much shakes up a lot of the metagame, and changes A LOT of plays. That being said, you can discuss how this change will impact how the metagame moves forward.
Should there be a “Classic Tier Shift” or “Tier Shift Legacy” or something, where the HP buff is not removed? Also, I think that Eviolite should probably be unbanned since the meta is significantly less bulky, and Light Ball should probably be looked at since basically nothing can survive a Volt Tackle anymore.
 

Ren

i swore lips were made for lies
is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Why is this happening during Snake Draft? Before or after is fine, but players that knew stuff about the meta don't know much anymore because calcs are different, mons are different, and suddenly things that got a gross HP number or a decent HP number don't get it anymore. I understand stall is good, but with such a mechanics change that changes every Pokemon in the tier, is it really worth it to shake up a format so badly right in the middle of a tournament it's getting?
 
While its not OMotM anymore, this decision is gonna greatly affect current and/or future tours. I have decided that, following numerous complaints and first hand accounts, to remove the buff to the HP stat.

Of course with Snake Draft going on, I expect this week to not be affected, but this pretty much shakes up a lot of the metagame, and changes A LOT of plays. That being said, you can discuss how this change will impact how the metagame moves forward.
I think we should leave this open for discussion. Not only is it late in the generation but it's a drastic change to the Tier Shift concept. It will NOT apply to Snake Draft. Let's see what people have to say about it and perhaps we can end the generation with the change, so that we can build from it in gen 8.
 
I'm not so sure about the removal of the HP buff, since imo a lot of the extremely bulky threats like Mega-Audino, Togemaru, Wigglytuff, etc.; they like the HP buff, but for a lot of them it isn't what makes them *as* ridiculous as they are, if anything its most of the more Glass-cannony pokes that really like the HP buff. I think it would make a bit of a shift so offensive tanks are much more prevalent, but I don't think it will shift the meta away from bulk.
(It would make Pyumuku less ridiculous though)
(Honestly I think banning Protect would get rid of a lot of the more toxic (ha ha) elements of bulky play)
And honestly I think it's definitely better to start with halving the HP buff rather then removing it entirely, and then seeing what happens.


On another note I'm really gonna miss Tier Shift being in the highlight, I had so much fun messing around in this metagame.
 
And honestly I think it's definitely better to start with halving the HP buff rather then removing it entirely, and then seeing what happens.
In my opinion it would be better to reduce the stat boosts as a whole, because the lower tiers are played way more often than the higher tiers, atleast that is how I witnessed it. And this is not the goal of this tier, right? The goal is that every tier is approximately the same strong.

Edit: This might also help with the bulky mons that are a little bit too strong. Imo the reason for this is, that bulky mons gain stats boosts in def/spdef AND hp, while offensive mons do only gain buffs in atk/spatk. This is also the reasoning why it is suggested to remove the hp buffs as a whole. However, if we reduce all stats equally, the defensive mons get nerfed in 2 ways as said before, which means this might do the trick aswell AND higher tier mons get a little love aswell.
 
Last edited:

Ivy

resident enigma
is a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributor
In my opinion it would be better to reduce the stat boosts as a whole, because the lower tiers are played way more often than the higher tiers, atleast that is how I witnessed it. And this is not the goal of this tier, right? The goal is that every tier is approximately the same strong.
Thing is, this was the case in the past: with a boost of 5 per tier, OU mons were dominant. With a boost of 10 per tier, PU mons are dominant. Unfortunately, trying to use anything in the middle would make the mental math rather annoying. There is a /ts command, but not many people know to use it.
 

G-Luke

Sugar, Spice and One For All
is a Community Contributoris a CAP Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
In my opinion it would be better to reduce the stat boosts as a whole, because the lower tiers are played way more often than the higher tiers, atleast that is how I witnessed it. And this is not the goal of this tier, right? The goal is that every tier is approximately the same strong.

Edit: This might also help with the bulky mons that are a little bit too strong. Imo the reason for this is, that bulky mons gain stats boosts in def/spdef AND hp, while offensive mons do only gain buffs in atk/spatk. This is also the reasoning why it is suggested to remove the hp buffs as a whole. However, if we reduce all stats equally, the defensive mons get nerfed in 2 ways as said before, which means this might do the trick aswell AND higher tier mons get a little love aswell.
Making PU mons become the dominant Pokemon is kinda inevitable at this point, , and if we reduced the boosts, we would only result in Gen 6 TS, which had the exact opposite problem, in that OU was still the dominant strat.

What the HP boost removal does is simultaneously break up the ludicrous defensive strats that plagued the tier, while potentially giving RU and UU Pokemon room to breathe (and probably like six specialist OU mons), as they don't have to compete with ludicrous stats, and their (usually) superior movepool and or abilities can shine through.
 
After the recent OM/UM split, OM leadership has decided to add a second rotational ladder. Tier Shift will be rotating with Partners in Crime!

Tier Shift will begin rotation next month. In addition, the no HP boost is in effect. This will be your opportunity to test out the meta and decide if you want to keep the change permanently.
 

Samtendo09

Ability: Light Power
is a Pre-Contributor
I'm not so sure about the removal of the HP buff, since imo a lot of the extremely bulky threats like Mega-Audino, Togemaru, Wigglytuff, etc.; they like the HP buff, but for a lot of them it isn't what makes them *as* ridiculous as they are, if anything its most of the more Glass-cannony pokes that really like the HP buff. I think it would make a bit of a shift so offensive tanks are much more prevalent, but I don't think it will shift the meta away from bulk.
(It would make Pyumuku less ridiculous though)
(Honestly I think banning Protect would get rid of a lot of the more toxic (ha ha) elements of bulky play)
And honestly I think it's definitely better to start with halving the HP buff rather then removing it entirely, and then seeing what happens.


On another note I'm really gonna miss Tier Shift being in the highlight, I had so much fun messing around in this metagame.
Banning Protect wouldn't make sense since its too much of a component for the metagame (like in OU) to be banned. On the other hand, I don't remember any play involving Wigglytuff despite being PU thus having lotso stat buffs.
 
Would Hail teams be viable in Tier Shift using Abomasnow-Mega as a Hail Setter (or alternatively, base Abomasnow if you want to be faster), given the plethora of Hail abusers (and just Ice-Types in general) in and below PU?

To give a list of the Ice-types and Hail Abusers that get the full boost from tier shift.

Walrein, Silvally-Ice, Regice (Base 240 Special Defense!), Lapras, Jynx, Glalie, Glaceon, Dewgong, Delibird, Crabominable, Beartic, Avalugg and Abomasnow are below PU.
Sandslash-Alola, Rotom-Frost, Froslass, Aurorus and Articuno are in PU.
 
Probably one of my favorite Pokemon to run in Tier Shift is Tauros. In PUBL, he gets a pretty good boost, specifically giving him a great 130 base ATK and MASSIVE 140 base Speed. On top of that, he has the great Life Force combo boosting all of his attacks, making him a monster of a physical attacker. Even if 130 isn't the greatest ATK stat around, Life Orb Sheer Force gives him some major oomph, and he has good coverage to take advantage of it with moves like Body Slam, Rock Climb, Zen Headbutt, Iron Head, and Rock Slide. Personally, I'll also throw in Fire Blast. 70 base SpA is nothing special, but it provides some great coverage that he's lacking, and no one really expects it. They'll switch in Ferrothorn and get OHKOd. Very useful against Steel Types that would normally shrug off his moves, or against other physical tanks. While it wouldn't seem too effective, the Life Force boost makes it hit decently hard.
 

Windingsss

shine like jewelry
is a Top Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Playing TS, I discovered some very interesting sets, some of them are:

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Scald
- Toxic / Ice Beam
- Encore / Haze

This Quagsire is very powerful because its characteristics add up to 40 points, leaving its stats at 95/125/125/105/105/75. Good offensive and defensive characteristics. It can withstand several hits and also counterattack with Toxic or Scald.

Now, his moveset, Scald is his move by water type STAB, giving opportunity to burn rivals. Recover is to keep Quagsire healthy and keep him in the fight. Toxic is used to lower the hp of defensive rivals and Encore is for setup pokemon and hazards setters and force them to change. Ice beam can be used if you want to hit plant type threats and finally Haze can be used to avoid setup pokemon but Encore is usually more effective. On the other hand, the skills of Quagsire, Water Absorb can be used to receive water-type attacks by teammates. Unaware can be used if you want to use the Haze or Encore slot for another move.

Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Lava Plume
- Toxic

This little turtle in Tier Shift gets very high stats, leaving them at 70/125/180/125/110/60. This set is, more than anything, a Sun Support and Sr setter. Although other sets can be used, like defensive, attackers, trick room, etc.

Now, let's talk about your set. Stealth rock serves to pressure the rival team with hazards and helping make the task of our teammates easier. Rapid spin is to remove hazards that are in our field, such as annoying sr, toxic spikes, among others. Lava Plume is your fire type STAB movement (plus it has the ability to burn) and Toxic serves to annoy other pokemon and make them easier to weaken.

Movements like Earth Power, Earthquake and Stone Edge can be used but won't do much good, and would be more useful in offensive sets. Clear Smog can be used to prevent opponents from getting boost. Explosion can be used in a Sr/Toxic/Explosion suicide set. Will-O-Wisp can be used to weaken the attack of possible rival threats.

Dodrio @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Early Bird
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Jump Kick
- Quick Attack / Return

Who said Dodrio was bad? Here's your bad Dodrio.

This bird with Ts gets great statistics, leaving them at 60/150/110/100/100/150. If he does Setup with Sword Dance, he will be unstoppable. His skill, Early Bird, serves to prevent many turns from falling asleep, and is certainly useful.

His moveset. Sword Dance is your boost move to make this little bird into a beast. Brave Bird is his STAB move and, with 120 power, I doubt many pokémon will resist this powerful move. Jump Kick is used to remove threats from Ice and Rock and Quick Attack is their normal STAB movement, which also has priority. Return can be used instead of Quick Attack but you lose the priority. In addition, you own Brave Bird's Z-Move, which can be used for defensive threats.

Drill Peck can be used if you don't want to receive recoil damage from Brave Bird. Double Edge can be used instead of Return or Quick Attack if you want a more powerful normal type STAB. Roost can be used to keep Dodrio healthy. Stomping Tantrum can be used to stop electric types, but is usually not so used. And finally, Knock Off can be used if you want to remove the opponent's item.

What do you guys say about these sets?
 

G-Luke

Sugar, Spice and One For All
is a Community Contributoris a CAP Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Playing TS, I discovered some very interesting sets, some of them are:

Quagsire @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Scald
- Toxic / Ice Beam
- Encore / Haze

This Quagsire is very powerful because its characteristics add up to 40 points, leaving its stats at 95/125/125/105/105/75. Good offensive and defensive characteristics. It can withstand several hits and also counterattack with Toxic or Scald.

Now, his moveset, Scald is his move by water type STAB, giving opportunity to burn rivals. Recover is to keep Quagsire healthy and keep him in the fight. Toxic is used to lower the hp of defensive rivals and Encore is for setup pokemon and hazards setters and force them to change. Ice beam can be used if you want to hit plant type threats and finally Haze can be used to avoid setup pokemon but Encore is usually more effective. On the other hand, the skills of Quagsire, Water Absorb can be used to receive water-type attacks by teammates. Unaware can be used if you want to use the Haze or Encore slot for another move.

Torkoal @ Heat Rock
Ability: Drought
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Lava Plume
- Toxic

This little turtle in Tier Shift gets very high stats, leaving them at 70/125/180/125/110/60. This set is, more than anything, a Sun Support and Sr setter. Although other sets can be used, like defensive, attackers, trick room, etc.

Now, let's talk about your set. Stealth rock serves to pressure the rival team with hazards and helping make the task of our teammates easier. Rapid spin is to remove hazards that are in our field, such as annoying sr, toxic spikes, among others. Lava Plume is your fire type STAB movement (plus it has the ability to burn) and Toxic serves to annoy other pokemon and make them easier to weaken.

Movements like Earth Power, Earthquake and Stone Edge can be used but won't do much good, and would be more useful in offensive sets. Clear Smog can be used to prevent opponents from getting boost. Explosion can be used in a Sr/Toxic/Explosion suicide set. Will-O-Wisp can be used to weaken the attack of possible rival threats.

Dodrio @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Early Bird
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Brave Bird
- Jump Kick
- Quick Attack / Return

Who said Dodrio was bad? Here's your bad Dodrio.

This bird with Ts gets great statistics, leaving them at 60/150/110/100/100/150. If he does Setup with Sword Dance, he will be unstoppable. His skill, Early Bird, serves to prevent many turns from falling asleep, and is certainly useful.

His moveset. Sword Dance is your boost move to make this little bird into a beast. Brave Bird is his STAB move and, with 120 power, I doubt many pokémon will resist this powerful move. Jump Kick is used to remove threats from Ice and Rock and Quick Attack is their normal STAB movement, which also has priority. Return can be used instead of Quick Attack but you lose the priority. In addition, you own Brave Bird's Z-Move, which can be used for defensive threats.

Drill Peck can be used if you don't want to receive recoil damage from Brave Bird. Double Edge can be used instead of Return or Quick Attack if you want a more powerful normal type STAB. Roost can be used to keep Dodrio healthy. Stomping Tantrum can be used to stop electric types, but is usually not so used. And finally, Knock Off can be used if you want to remove the opponent's item.

What do you guys say about these sets?
What is the point of running a Bold nature if you are not gonna place any investment towards defense?

Also Drought is banned from UU, so therefore Torkoal with the Drought ability does not gain any stat boosts.

Dodrio is pretty much standard so no comments there.
 
So, I think I've developed a really sound team. It's won quite a few games for me, though it's still getting a bit of testing down, it's performing well. It's fairly well balanced, I think, the only thing it's lacking is a way to get Stealth Rocks up... on another note, how do I turn off the spoiler tag? I tried posting this after and it just was a part of the dropdown, lol

Silvally @ Leftovers
Ability: RKS System
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Parting Shot
- Defog
- Flamethrower

Silvally is the general supporting role of the team. While Silvally-Steel is usually better defensively, the fact that it's a tier up costs it some stat boosts. The Leftovers and extra +10 to all stats make Silvally have more longevity. Toxic and Flamethrower are for wearing down enemies, Defog makes him the team's go-to for hazard removal, and Parting Shot for the momentum building, allowing many safe switch ins.

Persian-Alola @ Leftovers
Ability: Fur Coat
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Parting Shot
- Foul Play
- Taunt
- Dark Pulse

Pretty much the backbone of the team. Immensely fast, putting Pheromosa to shame, and able to throw some pretty big wrenchs into the works of the opponent's team, with Taunt working with the massive speed to prevent any status or setup, before making a safe retreat with Parting Shot. Fur Coat makes sure that even with minimal defensive focus it's fairly bulky. Foul Play takes advantage of any physical wallbreaker your opponent might try, like Rampardos, and Dark Pulse lets Persian do something against the opponents that aren't so physically inclined. I tried something else so I wasn't running dual Dark attacks for a while, but this was ultimately what functioned best in my experience.

Feraligatr @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Liquidation
- Crunch
- Ice Punch

After the support, the team needs some backbone. And Feraligatr has a titanium spine. Even being in RU, those +20 boosts do wonders to his power. After just one Dragon Dance, he is set up to sweep. Even the tankiest Pokemon around tend to be 2HKOd at most, if they aren't weak to any of his attacks. Since Life Force is a combo that basically makes your moves ~70% stronger, you just need the boost to outspeed the rest and you're practically an unstoppable wallbreaker. Seriously, Shuckle, Cofagrigus, Cresselia, Klinklang, Carracosta, a lot of usually rather great physical walls don't stand much of a chance surviving much of a beating from this monster. Liquidation is the go-to with its immense power, but Crunch and Ice Punch provide coverage against most of what would resist said physical nuke.

Lilligant @ Grassium Z
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Petal Dance
- Sleep Powder
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Basically the other end of the Spectrum from Feraligatr. Sleep Powder, if it lands, can ensure a safe setup, and after a Quiver Dance boost or two, not much is going to want to stand up to it. The premier Unaware blockers, Pyukumuku and Quagsire, don't want to switch into even a boostless Petal Dance, so there's less risk of your sweep being stopped. And while Petal Dance tends to make short work of most anything that resists it even after a boost or two, Hidden Power Fire allows for some extra coverage. Grassium Z allows you to work as a last resort for taking down the occasional trouble that you might come across, like Regice or Guzzlord. Even if they survive Bloom Doom, they'll be hurting. Feraligatr relies on his coverage, while this is Liligant's way to deal with counters.

Tauros @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Body Slam
- Rock Slide
- Fire Blast
- Zen Headbutt

A sweeper that doesn't need to setup isn't a bad inclusion either. While most need a Scarf, Band, or Specs, Tauros doesn't need any of this. Just like Feraligatr, he's working off of Life Force power. The main difference is that Tauros has much higher speed, and even better ATK than the aforementioned gator. Body Slam can take care of most that would be sent out, while Zen Headbutt takes care of any Fighting types that might pose a threat, Rock Slide for any Fire or Flying types mostly. And while the Special Attack is nothing special, the Tier Shift boost, combined with Life Force, makes Fire Blast good coverage for Steel-Types that would try to wall you. While he doesn't one shot 99% of opponents like boosted Feraligatr, his output is still very respectable, and can come out right off the bat.

Ribombee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shield Dust
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Sticky Web
- Moonblast

And lastly, your generic Sticky Web setter. Ribombee is blindingly fast in Tier Shift, faster than Alolan Persian even... when fully invested. With the Focus Sash securing a turn, Modest nature makes sure that once the Webs are up, Ribombee has a chance to leave an impression on the opponent's Pokemon before heading out. And if Quiver Dance gets up, it might be sticking around a while longer... though I have been considering replacing that with Stun Spore, since Ribombee is still pretty frail, meaning the chances for it to set up Sticky Web, and get off a Quiver Dance, and still be alive for the followup is relatively slim. Still, it serves the role of a web setter well.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top