Topic of the Week #12 - Shielding Moves

[Nollan]

So far the majority of what I see (correct me if I'm wrong) are some great in-depth reviews of specific Fairy-types such as Mawile and Togekiss. I think we can all agree that there are a good few useful Fairy-types to choose from. But how does this in turn affect the rest of the metagame? To start things off, here is an interesting set I've been putting to use:

Garchomp @ Roseli Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 100 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Iron Head
- Protect

The idea of the set is simple: lure out and eliminate troublesome Fairy-types while hitting anything else hard with powerful STAB attacks. The rest of the set details aren't really important to the point I'm making, so I won't bother explaining them.

Overall, I can say Fairy-types definitely have the largest effect on Dragon-types. Many Dragon-types now opt to use coverage for Fairies (i.e. Iron Head Garchomp as shown above, Flash Cannon Hydreigon, etc). As for everything else I have to say, Darkmalice has already touched on Fairy-types vs Dragon-types so I see no need to repeat what he said. Dark-types and Fighting-types seem to not be phazed very much compared to what I was expecting; they usually just run their typical sets and switch to an ally Steel-type or such when confronted by a Fairy-type. Bug-types are almost uncaring about Fairy-types, as Scizor and Volcarona (the most common Bug-types) can easily work around Fairies courtesy of their secondary typings. Some less common Bug-types like Heracross are definitely hurt by Fairy-types, though.

Countering Fairy-types in the metagame has a tendency to be a tad difficult, as common Fairy-types such as Mawile, Gardevoir, and Togekiss have optional methods for dealing heavy damage to Steel-types (Brick Break, Focus Blast, and Flamethrower, respectively). For the most part Gardevoir will fall to a Bullet Punch and Togekiss won't be using offensive sets, but Mawile in particular is a challenge to counter. Its solid bulk allows it to tank almost any unboosted Earthquake thrown at it (Mega Garchomp has only a 31.25% chance to OHKO 252 HP Mawile without a Sand Force boost), and common Fire-types like Talonflame, Chandelure, and Volcarona will take massive damage from Sucker Punch, making them pretty easy for a skilled player to work around. One option is to use bulkier Fire-types that can tank Sucker Punch, such as Blaziken, Infernape and Arcanine (Mega Charizard X also does a decent job). Arcanine in particular I have seen a fair bit, since it is a great way to handle Mawile thanks to Intimidate (It can also utilize Snarl as well, though I usually see offensive sets). Finally, there are also two notable Poison-types that can get past Mawile: Nidoqueen and Nidoking. With a Life Orb and Sheer Force boost, Nidoqueen (the less powerful offensively of the two) only needs 88 SpA EVs with a neutral nature to OHKO a 252 HP / 4 SpD Mawile 100% of the time with Earth Power. I definitely expect these two to see some usage for this reason, especially on hail teams where they can utilize Sheer Force boosted Blizzards.

So I guess if I were to conclude this, Fairy-types certainly have a large effect on the metagame, as they can fulfill everything from redirecting moves (Togekiss) to eliminating Fighting-, Dark-, and Dragon-types from the field (Mawile, Gardevoir) to setting Trick Room (Aromatisse) to great effect. Countering them is definitely a priority for any team that wants to see a lot of success.

 

[Audiosurfer]

Will post with my own thoughts later, but just wanted to remind people that the topic ends Sunday night, so now's the time to post with your thoughts.

 

[Deoxymoron]

I think that a lot of the new Fairy-types have a lot of potential, most notably Togekiss and Klefki. I've always liked Togekiss and the typing buff makes it even better. It now hard counters Volcarona, Garchomp and Scrafty, which is great in tandem with Follow Me. Roost is always nice, Tailwind can be fun, Air Slash and Thunder Wave are hilarious, Dazzling Gleam gets spread and hits Dragons (and has great synergy with Fire- and Ground- type moves), et cetera. Klefki is annoying as shit and provides great team support. Aromatisse and Mawile are quite good as well, and can even be used with each other to great effect.

However, the pokemon I think everyone is overlooking is Florges. The combination of good special bulk, access to Wish and Aromatherapy and the all-time favorite, Dazzling Gleam, give it a chance to work on many teams. It takes Rotom-W hits all day, and like all Fairies, doesn't care about Dragon-, Fighting- or Dark-type moves.

Also, it has not one, but two signature abilities specifically made for double/triple battles. Admittedly, Flower Veil is useless- it doesn't even protect against self-inflicted stat drops. The second, however, has potential in my opinion. Symbiosis lets Florges pass its item to its partner. Gimmicky? Probably. Useful? That remains to be discovered. There are many combinations of two items. Here are some of them.

Hide

Normal Gem + Life Orb
Pinch Berry + Life Orb
Pinch Berry + Pinch Berry
Sitrus Berry + Life Orb (Belly Drum)
Chesto Berry + Chesto Berry (ChestoRest x2)
Sitrus Berry + Sitrus Berry

P.S. Mega Gardevoir has the unique opportunity to pull this shit.

Prepare for the Gimmick

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 144 Spd / 252 HP / 112 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Skill Swap

Noivern @ Life Orb
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Boomburst
- Draco Meteor
- Tailwind
- Protect

PIXILATE BOOMBURST GET WREKT
SYLVEON IS FOR N00BS

 

[Darkmalice]

I think that a lot of the new Fairy-types have a lot of potential, most notably Togekiss and Klefki. I've always liked Togekiss and the typing buff makes it even better. It now hard counters Volcarona, Garchomp and Scrafty, which is great in tandem with Follow Me. Roost is always nice, Tailwind can be fun, Air Slash and Thunder Wave are hilarious, Dazzling Gleam gets spread and hits Dragons (and has great synergy with Fire- and Ground- type moves), et cetera. Klefki is annoying as shit and provides great team support. Aromatisse and Mawile are quite good as well, and can even be used with each other to great effect.

However, the pokemon I think everyone is overlooking is Florges. The combination of good special bulk, access to Wish and Aromatherapy and the all-time favorite, Dazzling Gleam, give it a chance to work on many teams. It takes Rotom-W hits all day, and like all Fairies, doesn't care about Dragon-, Fighting- or Dark-type moves.

Also, it has not one, but two signature abilities specifically made for double/triple battles. Admittedly, Flower Veil is useless- it doesn't even protect against self-inflicted stat drops. The second, however, has potential in my opinion. Symbiosis lets Florges pass its item to its partner. Gimmicky? Probably. Useful? That remains to be discovered. There are many combinations of two items. Here are some of them.

Wish isn't a good move in doubles, as the doubles metagame is too fast-paced for Wish. Sylveon and Togekiss have more HP to pull it off too. Florges does have strong special bulk, but it doesn't really have the movepool to take advantage of it or physical bulk to back it up, unlike Togekiss and Aromatisse. Aromatherapy, whilst not a bad move choice, isn't that great, as it costs precious momentum and is only useful against teams that utilise status. Yeah it gets Dazzling Gem but so does every other Fairy-type.

However, you brought up a good point about walling Rotom-W, who is currently one of the metagame's most dominant Pokemon. It can also hit back with x2 Energy Ball, and Aromatherapy can nullify Rotom-W's Will-O-Wisp. By extension, it is also useful against rain teams for similar reasons.

P.S. Mega Gardevoir has the unique opportunity to pull this shit.

Gardevoir @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Telepathy
EVs: 144 Spd / 252 HP / 112 SAtk
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Skill Swap

Noivern @ Life Orb
Ability: Frisk
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Boomburst
- Draco Meteor
- Tailwind
- Protect

PIXILATE BOOMBURST GET WREKT
SYLVEON IS FOR N00BS

If you're going to use this strategy, use Telepathy on Noivern. This way, Gardevoir can Skill Swap to receive Telepathy (which will be lost upon Mega Evolving) to become immune to Noivern's Boomburst. Consider a Timid nature to outrun Greninja, other Noivern, and Gengar during the turn that it MegaEvolves.

Also consider Sylveon over MegaGardevoir, who has better bulk to let you pull off a Skill Swap more successfully (especially with a Sitrus or Babiri Berry) and frees up your Mega Stone slot. This is a waste of Mega Gardevoir's potential. You'll lose Speed though. Regardless, replace Calm Mind with Protect. Protect is the move to use in doubles, as it can be used to protect Gardevoir whilst your ally takes out a threat or sets up Tailwind or a similar move, stall for time, nullify Fake Out, and play mind games with your opponent. Plus you don't want to have to switch out Gardevoir every time Aegislash or Scizor threatens you with priority. On the other hand, setting up CM can be quite difficult, especially if you want to use Skill Swap too.[/hide]

 

[Lasagne]

Aromatisse is one of the most promising fairies gen 6 brought around. While it is incredibly poor in singles, in doubles it does very well in dealing with many of the Fighting, Dark and Dragon types. Arcticblast's team is largely responsible for Aromatisse's popularity, and it's how I first found out about how cool it is. It has decent bulk and 2 good abilities in Healer and Aroma Veil. Healer is great for stopping status from annoying your teams, and Aroma Veil is awesome for pissing off Taunt and Encore users that try to annoy your teammates. Aromatisse also makes a great trick room setter, as it is slow and as I mentioned, has good support options. It has a few good STAB options, most notably Moonblast, which is powerful but only targets a single Pokemon, and Dazzling Gleam, which is slightly less powerful but targets all Pokemon on the opponent's team. Both of these are good attacking options for Aromatisse, as they have STAB and provide good coverage. It also has many other coverage moves such as Thunder, Energy Ball and Psychic. With a decent Special Attack stat of 99, Aromatisse can easily go offensive, utilising Trick Room, good STABs and nice coverage moves to its advantage.

One interesting move it has access to is Aromatic Mist. This raises the Special Defense of both it and its ally by +1, and could be potentially useful to withstand more hits, especially since under Trick Room, Aromatisse outslows a lot of stuff. This can help its teammate (and itself) survive a lot of powerful special hits, such as Latios and Hydreigon's attacks, so that your Pokemon can stay alive longer and do whatever they want for an extra turn. Aromatisse often has an empty slot, since it wants Trick Room, Protect and a Fairy STAB, but has many choices for the last slot. This slot can be filled by the aforementioned Aromatic Mist, or a more offensive option like Thunder. It can also run dual screens, though usually only one is required, especially since Aromatisse really wants those other 3 moves.

 

[BlankZero]

Togekiss is by far and away my favorite Fairy. Follow Me is the best support move already next to Fake Out (even more so now with the Priority Change, but this isn't about Fake Out) and now, you can eat Draco Meteors all day long.

Also, gaining a 4x resist to Fighting over Neutrality, a Dark resist, and only losing the Ghost immunity, but gaining a Dragon Immunity makes it probably the best suited defender for the current and future Metagame.

 

[Nollan]

Togekiss is by far and away my favorite Fairy. Follow Me is the best support move already next to Fake Out (even more so now with the Priority Change, but this isn't about Fake Out) and now, you can eat Draco Meteors all day long.

Also, gaining a 4x resist to Fighting over Neutrality, a Dark resist, and only losing the Ghost immunity, but gaining a Dragon Immunity makes it probably the best suited defender for the current and future Metagame.

Unfortunately it gains a Steel-type weakness, which with the rise of popularity of Steel-types due to Fairy-types is a fairly common attacking type. From my experience, I almost view Togekiss as easier to handle now because my Steel-type Pokemon will wall typical defensive sets and strike back incredibly hard. It could simply be that I have yet to run into a well played Togekiss, however. I can definitely say I like Mawile(-Mega) more for its (much) higher offensive presence and better typing, though.

 

[BlankZero]

Unfortunately it gains a Steel-type weakness, which with the rise of popularity of Steel-types due to Fairy-types is a fairly common attacking type. From my experience, I almost view Togekiss as easier to handle now because my Steel-type Pokemon will wall typical defensive sets and strike back incredibly hard. It could simply be that I have yet to run into a well played Togekiss, however. I can definitely say I like Mawile(-Mega) more for its (much) higher offensive presence and better typing, though.

While I like MegaMawhile, it seems to face the common problem of many great offensive mons in Pokemon in that it's not always Doubles material. The lack of usable spread moves and support options make Togekiss shine in Doubles more than MM, although it would totally be possible to run both on the same team.

 

[Darkmalice]

While I like MegaMawhile, it seems to face the common problem of many great offensive mons in Pokemon in that it's not always Doubles material. The lack of usable spread moves and support options make Togekiss shine in Doubles more than MM, although it would totally be possible to run both on the same team.

Even though MM doesn't have spread moves or support options, it is still really, really good. With what is effectively 259 base attack, its Play Rough will actually outdamage Latios' Gem Draco Meteor this generation (Gem's power has been nerfed to 30%). And with its bulk, all it needs is TR or paralysis support to wreck havoc. It also provides some support with Intimidate from its base form unlike most other straight-out attackers, and we all know how good Intimidate is; some very good Pokemon usually run neither spread attacks nor any form of support outside of pure offence - Aegislash, Hydriegon, Conkeldurr, many more.

 

[BlankZero]

Even though MM doesn't have spread moves or support options, it is still really, really good. With what is effectively 259 base attack, its Play Rough will actually outdamage Latios' Gem Draco Meteor this generation (Gem's power has been nerfed to 30%). And with its bulk, all it needs is TR or paralysis support to wreck havoc. It also provides some support with Intimidate from its base form unlike most other straight-out attackers, and we all know how good Intimidate is; some very good Pokemon usually run neither spread attacks nor any form of support outside of pure offence - Aegislash, Hydriegon, Conkeldurr, many more.

I get what you're saying, and I won't discount MM as being a fucking awesome mon (can't seem to make a good team with it but that's not the point), but I feel like Togekiss is definitely the best Fairy in Doubles. While Mawhile with Play Rough/Iron Head/Suckerpunch/Protect will certainly run through a lot if unprepared teams (Sub Wisp Trevenant is the absolute best counter I've found), Togekiss has Follow Me, reliable recovery, a ton of bulk, similarly good defensive typing, Helping Hand (after PokeBank), no EQ weakness, etc.

TL;DR MegaMawhile is freaking awesome, but Togekiss is the best Fairy so far in XY Doubles.

 

[Skore]

I'm finding that Aromatisse is fast becoming my favorite fairy as Trick Room is my preferred playstyle. This is the set I'm running

Aromatisse @ Leftovers
Ability: Healer
EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 SAtk
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Trick Room
- Protect
- Moonblast
- Thunder

It has ok physical bulk, it's special bulk is superb and it has usable special attack for when it needs to go on the offensive. Thunder was something I added for coverage due to Talonflame but the 4th move can be tweaked however you like. I need to run some calcs to see if it's worth dropping some SpDef EV's for more offense but the Healer ability is great for shitting on Prankster T-Wave spammers and STAB Moonblast does a heck of a job on Dragons, Sableye and gets great neutral coverage on lots of other mons.

 

[youngjake93]

I get what you're saying, and I won't discount MM as being a fucking awesome mon (can't seem to make a good team with it but that's not the point), but I feel like Togekiss is definitely the best Fairy in Doubles. While Mawhile with Play Rough/Iron Head/Suckerpunch/Protect will certainly run through a lot if unprepared teams (Sub Wisp Trevenant is the absolute best counter I've found), Togekiss has Follow Me, reliable recovery, a ton of bulk, similarly good defensive typing, Helping Hand (after PokeBank), no EQ weakness, etc.

TL;DR MegaMawhile is freaking awesome, but Togekiss is the best Fairy so far in XY Doubles.

I'm not ashamed to say that I lost a match due to paraflinch Togekiss hax lol. It was good in Gen V, it is good now. Thunder Wave+Serene Grace Air Slash on something with serious longevity is pretty scary, I know I've been on both ends of it.

 

[Ultimathunder]

To emphasize how Fairies affect Dragons, Dragons have to shift out coverage moves to be able to hit Fairies. Garchomp would love to have rock slide, dragon claw, and earthquake, but needs to lose rock slide to hit Fairies. Hydreigon would like Fire Blast, Dragon move, and Dark pulse, but must lose one for Flash Cannon.

Countering Fairies in general is hard because their weaknesses are not very common, and some like Mawile don't even have the normal Fairy weaknesses. However, certain pokemon, like Scizor, can easily run though most Fairies with priority bullet Punch.

Speaking of Aromatisse, I'd like to point out that it is one of the very few viable TR users that resists dark, and eventually gets Aroma Veil, making it immune to Taunt.

 

[Allosteric]

Speaking of Aromatisse, I'd like to point out that it is one of the very few viable TR users that resists dark, and eventually gets Aroma Veil, making it immune to Taunt.

Aroma Veil is already available from Friend Safari Spritzees.

Incidentally, I think Granbull could find a niche for itself in Trick Room teams. Play Rough + Earthquake is amazing attack coverage, which can be further rounded out with Crunch, Stone Edge/Rock Slide, Close Combat, Iron Tail, or any of the elemental punches. Intimidate cuts the power of the opponents' priority moves (except Vacuum Wave, which he resists anyway), further supporting Trick Room. He even gets some support options, like Taunt, Reflect, or Incinerate or Charm for lulz.

 

[Lasagne]

spritzee isnt available in the friend safari, so actually no its not

 

[Escape Plan]

spritzee isnt available in the friend safari, so actually no its not

My aroma veil aromatisse on wifi begs to differ.

 

[Allosteric]

spritzee isnt available in the friend safari, so actually no its not

475G-WWWW-WWW3-BJXZ

*cough*

 

[Lasagne]

oops

sorry my bad, I didn't realise spritzee was in the safari. ...and now I feel like a tool

 

[Audiosurfer]

Time for a new topic! First off, time to give out points. The award for Best Poster goes to Darkmalice for his excellent analysis of the viability of some of the most common Fairies right now. Other good posters on this topic include Nollan and Lasagne21. Nollan shared a unique Garchomp set and talked about how he felt Fairies affected existing types as well as how he deals with them. Lasagne21 did some indepth talking about Aromatisse, which was initially overlooked by some but has since shown itself to be a powerful threat.

Points breakdown:
+3 - Darkmalice
+2 - Nollan, Lasagne21
+1 - Deoxymoron, Blankzero, Ultimathunder, Parallel, youngjake93

Now for the new Topic of the Week: Items!

With the move to XY, there have been some changes in how items work. The most notable by far is the loss of gems. Outside of Normal Gem, they are no longer obtainable in XY. In addition, Normal Gem has had its damage output reduced from 50% to 30%, something that would presumably apply to all other gems should we ever get access to them. So for this topic, think of how this shift affects the overall metagame. What Pokemon have been hurt the most by the item shift? What items have you been using to replace gems on your Pokemon? What items do you think will become more popular to fill the vacuum? All of these questions and more are things to consider as you post on the topic. Good luck :)

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

Since gems are almost all gone the first thing to look at is the items we have available to increase the damage output of our moves.

/

Choice Band / Specs are the only things that can match them in terms of damage output but they're generally not worth running. Only a handful of pokemon can even use a scarf to great benefit in doubles and I can think of very few Pokemon that I would want to use a Band or Specs on, even without gems available. One set that I have enjoyed using Choice Specs is the following Rotom-W:

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Discharge
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Trick
Rotom can pull of specs because it has decent natural bulk and a great typing to go with it. Trick also helps greatly by hindering opponents Trick Room cores and can often shut down a Pokemon which relies on it's coverage to net KOs. In addition to this Specs Discharge hits like a truck and helps it form a solid DisQuake core with Pokemon such as Landorus-T and Garchomp.

Expert Belt will be good for a couple of reasons. One of my favorite things about it is that it's very incognito, it leaves people guessing as to what item you have. It is quite possible to bluff a wide variety of items such as damage resist berries or even Choice items. The extra damage output can often help secure KOs and on Pokemon with good coverage it really does help. To me, Genesect is the quintessential Expert Belt user; BoltBeam coverage that hits almost every pokemon in the tier for neutral damage and Bug-type STAB that allows it to hit the wall that is Cresselia as well as a couple of offensive Pokemon like Tyranitar and Hydreigon.

Life Orb seems like your best bet for hitting hard. A 1.3x boost for every attack at the cost of 10 percent of your health doesn't seem too bad to me. Fast frail Pokemon really enjoy abusing the extra power provided by Life Orb and I can see things such as Talonflame running it alongside Brave Bird as a 'fire and forget' nuke in a similar, though far less devastating, way to GemMeteor Latios was used last gen. The bonus output really does help secure extra KOs but you defiantly have to be wary of the HP decay.

Whilst Custap Berry doesn't exactly scream 'reliability' it's actually a really interesting choice. There are plenty of Pokemon with decent bulk and offenses that often find themselves surviving a hit and dropping into the bottom 25% of their HP and the ability to move first provided by the Custap Berry really is a godsend that can turn the tide of a battle. Pokemon like Tyranitar or Landorus really love this as their middling speed is negated and it allows them to throw one final punch that can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Mega Stones will surely have a big impact on the way we play. The base stat increases they provide makes it look silly to not carry a mega on your team. Examples include Gardevoir's Spa increasing from 125 to 165 or Kangaskhan's Atk reaching 125. Not only this but going mega improves other stats as well as providing a new, often brilliant, ability. With good team support Megas can tear through a team with ease so you certainly need some countermeasures or else the power the Mega Stone brings will be a huge issue.

 

[Skore]

I think Hitmontop took a big hit with the loss of Fighting gem. It relied a lot on that gem boosted Close Combat to achieve vital KO's that it just won't have any more. If it's not investing in it's defences in order to stick around and support it's team mates it could become too frail.
Surviving Top's gem boosted CC was a benchmark for a variety of mons so new benchmarks will have to be invented to adapt to the shift.

 

[Nollan]

BLOOD TOTEM already covered the offensive items for the most part, so I'll try not to copy anything he said and focus on the defensive items, listing the items by category.

Old Favorites that aren't so popular now:

- Gems. Honestly, we should all know why they aren't very popular now, but for those select few behind the curve, they don't exist as of this moment. Except for Normal Gem, which is really only useful for powering up Explosion (and Boomburst I suppose).

- Lum Berry. It was nice for curing paralysis, burns, etc. But now with Talonflame on the rise and Grass- and Electric-types gaining respective sleep (well Spore and Sleep Powder, technically speaking Hypnosis still puts them to sleep) and paralysis immunities, Lum Berry just isn't what it used to be. Granted, it was never extremely popular, but now there isn't much use for it outside of the infamous ChestoRest combination.

Favorites that are still favorites:

- Sitrus Berry. It's as popular as ever with new threats like Trevenant abusing it alongside Harvest and old threats like Amoonguss still making use of it. Great for providing fast-paced recovery in the fast-paced metagame that is Doubles.

- Resist Berries. As popular as ever, allowing Pokemon to sponge hits easier and allowing them to survive attacks they normally wouldn't. Some new type berries I except to be on the rise are Roseli Berry (Fairy) and to a much lesser extent Coba Berry (Flying; generally for Talonflame which is a nuisance xD).

- Focus Sash. With a rarity of hazards in Doubles, Focus Sash is an excellent choice for frail Pokemon who need to survive attacks, such as Excadrill and Weavile.

- Choice Scarf. Bulkier threats with middling speed (Chandelure, Mamoswine, Tyranitar, Tyrantrum, etc) are all making use of this item to move before threats that they normally couldn't. Along with the surprise value that is sometimes associated with it, Choice Scarf is as popular as ever.

- Life Orb. BLOOD TOTEM covered this for the most part.

News Items and items rising in usage:

- Choice Band/Specs. With Gems no longer in play, these two items will definitely see some rise in usage. They do require specific Pokemon to function at their top though (as BLOOD TOTEM said), which still leaves them fairly low on the charts.

- Expert Belt. BLOOD TOTEM covered this as well.

- Rocky Helmet. With a lot of physical attackers dominating the metagame as of this moment (Tyranitar, Mawile, Talonflame, Trevenant, etc), Rocky Helmet has become useful for wearing them down faster (it won't work on non contact attacks like Rock Slide, but still). In particular, it can really put a dent in Talonflame, whose longevity is bad enough as it is. Bulky Gyarados is one of the most common users of this item (from what I have seen), and Garchomp can also use it in tandem with Rough Skin to really ware things down.

- Weakness Policy. It has become fairly popular on bulky Pokemon, particularly Aegislash, who can switch between bulky on offensive thanks to Stance Change, making it an ideal user of this item. It is particularly useful for mixed attacking, a role that used to be scarce (if existent at all) in Doubles. I'm very interesting to see whether this item will give mixed attacking a solid foundation in the Doubles metagame.

- Mega Stones. The only role of this items is to access Mega Formes of Pokemon. That is reason enough to use them, as they effect the metagame by bringing giants such as Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile into the field. However, do note that these take up an item slot, meaning in most cases (bar Mega Mawile, that thing is a menace) that Attack or Special Attack increase isn't as effective since the non-Mega Formes can carry a Life Orb. In general, these items are most useful for increasing the defense and offense of the Pokemon who use them simultaneously (in some cases they also grant nice speed boosts as well), something other items will not do (they can also change typing and ability which is cool; such as Intimidate --> Mold Breaker and Water / Flying --> Water / Dark on Mega Gyarados). For example, Mega Gyarados gains some intense 95 / 109 / 130 defenses AND a massive attack stat of 155, making it quite the tough customer to handle.

 

[BlankZero]

I think the biggest thing this Gen as far as items go is the Gem Nerf and MegaStones.

The gem nerf hurts the viability of things like Gem Draco Meteor (already hurt by Follow Me Togekiss), Gem Explosion, Steel Gem Scizor, etc. The only things keeping gems will probably be things like Unburden Hawlucha Acrobatics and the like that really benefit from losing items. It also helps the viability of Walls. Not having to contend with a sudden 50% boost on a move they'd normally live is kinda nice and now we can calculate for Life Orb and be pretty much set.

I'll edit later to talk more about MegaStones that hasn't already been touched on.

 

[BlakDragon]

I think the safety goggles is a dang good item on Slowbro and Slowking; this combined with their ability, Oblivious, aid them greatly in setting up trick room with no fear of taunt, spore, the redirecting effects of rage powder, Captivate (take THAT, Sableye!) and (if applicable) the passive damage from their partner Abomasnow's hail.

I've yet to see any offensive powerhouses get good mileage out of this thing though; they're all too busy using WP, LO, lum, etc etc yaddayaddayadda.

 

[Darkmalice]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Plate items. One of the big pros of Gem over Life Orb is that you don't get recoil, especially considering how good bulk is in doubles. Now with the power nerf, this is the only reason to use Gems over Life besides tricks like Acrobactics. But in saying that, you'll usually be better off using a Plate item than Gem if you want to conserve your bulk. Simply put, two attacks coming off a plate deal more damage than a one-time gem boost. Mind you, moves like Draco Meteor still deal more damage with a Gem over two attacks provided your second attack occurs when you have the SpA drop, though this can be circumvented by switching.

There's also the tried-and-true combination of Swagger + Lum Berry for an attack boost. Mind you, it's harder to pull off this generation thanks to more Will-O-Wisp, introduction of some very strong priority (Talonflame, Mega Khan and Mawile Sucker Punch, Aegislash), and some of its main abusers last gen being nerfed (Metagross, Conkeldurr). Still perfectly viable though.

I feel that Draco Meteor abusers were the hardest hit by the loss of Gems. Draco Meteor used to outright OHKO many Pokemon, but with the Gem power nerf, that list has narrowed (though this is also due to Fairy-types and the nerf to Draco Meteor itself). They still have Life Orb, but some Dragon-types had enough bulk to feel hurt by the recoil like Hydreigon and Salamence (the latter thanks to Intimidate), further compounded by the fact that the Dragon-type has good resistances. This loss is more notable in the Pokebank metagame where Latios exists and the Dragon-type is better defensively (thank you Heatran, Jellicent, Thundurus, and Zapdos).

Another big loser is Hitmontop. No more Fighting Gem Close Combats - it is no longer the Pokemon that can provide such immense team support and take down a Pokemon by itself. For example, Chople Berry Tyranitar cannnot be OHKOed without the Gem boost, and Life Orb and Fist Plate don't have enough worth to be used over Sitrus Berry on Hitmontop. Even worse now that Top's more reliant on Close Combat for damage given that it doesn't have Sucker Punch to finish off weakened Pokemon.