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Project Top 10 Titans of NDOU
- Thread starter Milo
- Start date
- Status
Clefable
and 
Knock Knock...
Who's there...
We've decided to restart...
We've decided to restart who?
We've decided to restart and reopen the Top 10 Titans of NDOU Project.
Due to the lack of submissions when this project first started, we are reopening submissions for a period of time (case-by-case, no select deadline yet). The first 10 submissions will still remain valid, but we have decided to reopen to give an opportunity to missed Pokemon who were very influential in the metagame to be posted about!
So go get posting! Spread the word!
Who's there...
We've decided to restart...
We've decided to restart who?
We've decided to restart and reopen the Top 10 Titans of NDOU Project.
Due to the lack of submissions when this project first started, we are reopening submissions for a period of time (case-by-case, no select deadline yet). The first 10 submissions will still remain valid, but we have decided to reopen to give an opportunity to missed Pokemon who were very influential in the metagame to be posted about!
So go get posting! Spread the word!
Ash-Greninja
What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?
Bro helps hazard stack for itself so it can get all extra chip it needs for its switch ins, on its way to haxxing you down with dark pulse flinches to transform into a titan. Only ever needs specs. Not enough to run Fini, you got to run those nasty blobs Gastro and Mantine or the inferior grassy surger Tapu Badlu to really shut it down, otherwise your bros will ask "BuT bRo WhErE's Ur AsH-gReNiNjA sWiTcH-iN?"
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
Offensive spiker, priority move user, flinch haxxer, fast specs user, can be overloaded on rain for extra cheese.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
STAB PRIORITY, MULTI-HIT MOVE and SPIKES
Bro got 145/153 attackin stats it's really a menace wit essentially one hand tied behind its back. Oh yea did I mention it's faster than koko...
A strong offensive movepool, ability to set up hazards or pivot, great offensive typing, insane stats and an unfair signature move make this mon unfair. Oh yea and on the off chance it's actually lil bro protean gren with the gunk shot or groundium z, the fact that u can keep ur opp guessing til you start revealing moves makes it brazy.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NDOU?
Gastro Mantine Fini Bulu Ferro Pex
What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?
Zapdos has a very strong presence in National Dex OU, both defensively and offensively. With access to exceptional coverage, recovery, and decent typing and bulk it fits on a plethora of team compositions and archetypes making it extremely flexible and versatile. It checks Kartana, Mega Loppuny, Corviknight, Mega Gyarados, Mega Scizor, and Rillaboom consistently, which most if not all can be extremely threatening if not accounted for in a team.
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
Zapdos is mostly seen on teams as a defensive pivot, but also has decent usage as a rain abuser and wallbreaker. For the most part, Zapdos has a role in checking physical attackers such as Mega Scizor, Kartana, Mega Gyarados, Rillaboom, and Mega Lopunny; as well as potentially beating many walls like Toxapex, Tapu Fini, Ferrothorn, Landorus-Therian, and Gliscor with its remarkable coverage in Heat Wave and Hidden Power Ice. As a rain abuser, Zapdos' coverage is nearly impossible to resist because of Weather Ball, and the 100% accurate Hurricane and Thunder. As of recent, Flyinium Z and SubRoost sets on Zapdos have been becoming more and more popular due to the ability to break and Pressure stall roadblocks such as Gastrodon, Ferrothorn, Clefable. Landorus-Therian, Garchomp, Kyurem, Heatran and Hippowdon after prior chip damage. Zapdos can take advantage of learning Defog although it loses to many Stealth Rock setters such as Garchomp, Mega Diancie, Landorus-Therian and Mega Tyranitar meaning other hazard removers outclass it. The reason Zapdos is better in rain over an alternative such as Thundurus-Therian is Flying-type coverage and it provides rain teams with a buffer against Kartana and Rillaboom which Thundurus-T just can't provide due to lesser defenses and lack of Static. Zapdos is also one of the better physically defensive pivots due to it being a lot less passive than Corviknight, Gliscor, and in some cases Tapu Fini.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
Zapdos' ability Static allows it to hinder many physical attackers, punishing opponents using pivot moves such as U-turn and Flip Turn as well as mult-hitting moves like Triple Axel and Surging Strikes. Being a Flying-type in a Ground heavy metagame is extremely useful and allows it to give teams a proper switch in to Landorus-Therian, Gliscor, Excadrill, Garchomp, and Mega Swampert. If Zapdos could only have one extremely beneficial partner, it would be Pelliper. With the ability to set rain, and pivot out with U-turn; Pelliper enables Zapdos extraordinarily well due to Weather Ball now allowing Zapdos to check Landorus-Therian and Heatran as well as 100% accurate STABs.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NDOU?
Zapdos' struggles against basically any Ground-type due to them being immune to Electric-type moves, although they need to watch out for Hidden Power Ice and Hurricane. Some notable checks would be Garchomp, Landorus-Therian, and Heatran; Garchomp and Landorus-Therian despite being really weak to Hidden Power Ice, have access to Stone Edge which is severely threatening to Zapdos. Heatran is able to trap Zapdos with Magma Storm and use utility such as Taunt, Stealth Rock, and Toxic whilst recovering most of the chip damage with Leftovers, Zapdos can however pivot out with Volt Switch or U-turn as well as use Weather Ball to its advantage. A lot of the aforementioned Pokemon such as Kyurem, Gastrodon, Hippowdon, Clefable, Mega Diancie, Mega Tyranitar, and Ferrothorn are all great against Zapdos but I think this post is getting long enough as it is.
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What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?
Serperior is a great stallbreaker and paralysis spreader, as it could snowball very quickly thanks to contrary. Serperior provided a soft check to many threats such as tapu koko, and it was able to revenge kill slower pokemon such as mega medicham.
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
Explain why this Pokemon was used on a team more often then most other Pokemon, and what was it particularly used for? What made it so good at this role?
Serperior is a great partner for many offensive pokemon that have a subpar speed tier, as glare allows them to outspeed potential revenge killers. It is especially good on HO teams, acting as a good stallbreaker and annoying most fat pokemon. Serperior is great on sticky web teams, since contrary gave serperior a boost to evasion, punishing defog attempts.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
Serperior had an amazing abilility in contrary, which meant that when it used leaf storm, it received +2 Special Attack. It also had a great speed tier, outspeeding many base 110's. Finally, serperior also had great utility moves such as glare, substitute, and leech seed.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NDOU?
While serperior has good speed, it is still outspeed by threats such as mega lopunny and weavile, which can revenge kill it. Serperior also has a very shallow movepool, and leaf storm only has 8PP, so serperior can often be PP stalled by pokemon such as corviknight. Finally, fire types don't take much damge from HP Fire or Leaf storm and can force it out with super effective STAB moves. However, many of serperior's checks dislike paralysis from glare.
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quagsire
it is better than pex
What effect did Genesect have on the metagame?
Genesect enjoyed a brief but memorable stay in the early beginnings of the National Dex OU tier. Within a few weeks of the tier's inception, Genesect was released into the metagame largely due to the power creep instantiated by Dynamax - it was not viewed as a notable abuser of the mechanic compared to its counterparts, and the additional bulk of its targets frustrated Genesect's ability to make full use of its versatility. Following the tier's first suspect test and the banning of Dynamax, Genesect quickly rose to prominence as one of the tier's premier offensive threats. It formed a lethal offensive core with Dugtrio, and served as a necessary revenge killer to other offensive threats at the time, like Mega Blastoise and Zygarde.
Subsequently, Arena Trap was quickbanned by the council as an overly problematic element in the metagame, leaving Genesect alone for evaluation on its own merits. As the tier continued to develop in its early stages, Genesect performed a variety of roles as a potent wallbreaker, important speed control and as a useful pivot, depending on the context of its team. Even without the ability to pivot out of its defensive counterplay and trap its checks, many believed that Genesect's versatility and set potential continued to place it as the metagame's premier threat. Genesect was eventually banned in February 2020 via suspect test.
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
Given the offensively volatile state of the tier in its early stages, Genesect was often used as a revenge killer for several prominent offensive threats such as Mega Blastoise, Darmanitan-Galar and Zygarde. However, as balance cores began to take shape and its wallbreaking potential became more valuable, Douse Drive and Z-Move sets saw some experimentation as well. Shift Gear sets (often using Z-moves, though not exclusively) saw some usage on hyper offense teams with screens support. Given its Steel/Bug typing and sufficient bulk, Genesect could also serve as an emergency check to things like Mega Metagross and setup Magearna sets, given its ability to take at least one powerful neutral attack and retaliate with Download-boosed attacks, and often utilized its signature U-turn spam to retain momentum and facilitate other Pokemon into play.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
While Genesect is typically known for its wide movepool and diverse quantity of sets, Genesect was able to make use of its versatility due to its good typing and bulk, its Download ability boosting its coverage moves, and the defensively-frail state of the early metagame, amplifying the effectiveness of its Choice Band and Choice Scarf sets. These qualities allowed Genesect to easily clean through weakened offensive teams, bluff several of its other sets within a single game, and to generally serve as an offensive partner with whatever offensive options a teambuilder wanted to pair it with. Genesect also boasted a strong U-turn due to its stats, typing and ability, allowing it accrue significant chip damage on many of its non-regenerating targets throughout the course of a game, and further allowing it to facilitate other Pokemon safely into play.
How did you deal with this Pokemon in NDOU?
Genesect lacks universal defensive counters, so its counterplay typically required the player to first deduce its set and coverage via team preview analysis and thoughtful scouting/pivoting early on in games. Given that most of Genesect's defensive counterplay was slower than it and therefore susceptible to being U-turned on into another teammate, counterplay generally required at least some continued pivoting and aggressive positioning once the set was known to avoid losing momentum.
Specific defensive and offensive counterplay was always dependent on the teams players were using. Hyper offensive teams, which were common at the time, typically attempted to outpace Genesect and take advantage of its average speed tier and choice-locked attacks. While Stall was not a common playstyle during its time, it typically relied on cores such as Toxapex+Chansey to effectively shut down most Genesect sets you may be facing. Balance teams often relied on common balance staples such as Heatran, Toxapex, AV Magearna and other bulky fire types like Volcarona to hold Genesect off, while aggressively positioning their common faster options like Cinderace and Tornadus-T to retain momentum. Hazard stacking was helpful in deterring Genesect from repeatedly pivoting in and out of play, along with residual passive damage from pokemon like Rocky Helmet Garchomp, Toxapex, Landorus-T and Ferrothorn, which could punish U-turn spam.
Heatran
What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?
It gave more of viability too alot if offensive playstyles since it could offer alot of role compression and stallbreaking power and is a big part of the reason why Gliscor is one of the premiere defoggers in the tier. It also forced alot of defensive pokemon too speedcreep it
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
It was used both as a spdef oriented defensive option and an offensive stallbreaker when equipped with a Z-Crystal and the move taunt
What caused it to have a significant impact?
A good offensive and supportive movepool, great typing, good stats and an insane signature move are what make this pokemon as unique and influential as it is
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NDOU?
Shed Shell Toxapex, Gliscor are the best ways of dealing with it altho Fini and Chomp can work as more short term counters as well
What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?
really gave water types a run for their money and significantly lessened their ability to be defensive. Kyurem was also known for being a team wrecker, it was extremely easy in the past to spend about 30 mins making a team only for it to be 6-0d by kyurem. The ice/ground coverage coupled with the ice coverages ability to damage water types makes this mons SE reach really strong. IMO Kyurem’s Ice/ground is better than bolt beam as it offers not only ice ground but a super effective reach on water.
In what main roles was Pokemon used?
Wallbreaker. The combination of freeze dry, pressure, and it’s massive HP gives walls a run for their money as things such as pex are easily handled.
What caused it to have a significant impact?
So many things. Ability, typing, stats, and movepool. The stats of this mon are amazing, the movepool of this mon is amazing, the ability of this mon is amazing, and the typing of this mon is great as it’s rare and offers stab to a move that makes a resist of its type weak to it.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NDOU?
It’s genuinely difficult to find a solid, one size fits all counter. I like to go ferrothorn but freeze dry is very spammable thus the rate at which it can get frozen is not super low. One can sub on a seismic toss from bliss, freeze dry into ferro, freeze dry again from an iron head and freeze the ferrothorn making it useless. Offensive pressure like that from lele and Mlop are helpful but they both require a sub to be gone. As non AV lele and Mlop take a major hit from freeze dry.
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