Metagame Type Split (Darkrai, Volcarona & Damp Rock Banned #55)

[All Lice]

I topped out at like 6 on the ladder so I thought to share the team I used here



I don't got much profound to say about this team other than a few things
- Primarina is easily one of the best mons in the tier
- Pult good. Clear Body was to deal with all the Webs HO I encountered but Infiltrator might be better since I've seen less webs lately.
- Treads counter leads both Alolatails and Ribombee (most of the time). Could run booster but I opt not to
- Zacian is really just okay. Feels very match up dependant.
- Kyurem Black is astoundingly strong. Teravolt means you break unaware and with the assistance of tera ghost can run through stall and defensive cores. The Shadow Ball + Tera Ghost Combo matches well into a lot of stuff offensively but defensively enables you to skirt strong fighting moves and espeed/boomburst stuff. EV'd Ice Beam always beats Lando T from full who otherwise is a very strong anti-offense tool. Zekrom is similar in usage to KB but trades easy MUs with Glisc/Lando via Ice Beam for a strong Fusion Bolt which beats Dondozo (winnable for KB depending on set but messy) and Corv/Skarm and it can actually run an item that isn't boots. You can run non-mixed sets on either but I'm of the mind that you really should respect Lando and Glisc in the builder.
- I'm going to be completely honest I had no idea what to fit as the sixth and tried a bunch of stuff. Team kinda blows vs defensive Sinstcha so I thought 'might as well join them'. It's okay, there's probably better options but this is as far as I'm willing to go so find that 'Truth' yourself.

Anyways this meta has been a fun time and I especially love messing with all the silly drops. May everyone have a good rest of the ladder!

 

[applesaucething]

Peaked #9 at 1352 with these

+ https://pokepast.es/a09c4fea3e58dfaa

Team 1 Desc

Latios is a huge threat. Tera Steel gives it a great matchup into mons like , , and , can easily snowball out of control after boosting up on these mons.
this thing is an excellent cleaner, almost everyone expects the special set but physical is heavily slept on, synergizes well with 6th slot because helps chip down the most common physical walls in and /.
+ no explanation needed here. Best Physical and Special Pivots
Walls prim and threatens with Wild Charge, also a great wallbreaker. Speed evs here just to try and outspeed other volcs.
This Guy. Extremely threatening with dual priority. Threatens to OHKO steel birds after 1 SD and can set up an SD on Lando-T to OHKO after intimidate. Basically after this gets an SD you either need to still have tera or have a dozo. BTW speed evs here to outspeed Standard Bolt which is a threat to my team but HP invested sets can comfortably beat Gliscors.

+ https://pokepast.es/f3873aab5df0dae9

Team 2 Desc

switching into this is a nightmare. threatens to 2hko almost every defensive mon in this tier. Snow support from Glowking lets it tank some strong attacks.
very good special tank. only hit super effectively on the special side by dark which is fairly uncommon after krai ban. TSpikes are very annoying and help Pult.
He's back once again to help vs primarina. so before I said KyuB threatens to 2hko ALMOST any defensive mon in the tier? well prim eats up a super effective fusion bolt, only taking 40%. This is just good to have, especially if the Primarina is CM set.
mostly added this just as a speed control, also wanted to try a hex DD set after seeing aims vid. Great cleaner if you have the tspikes up.
+ again, not much to explain here just two amazing physical walls. Lando evd to outspeed Hoopa-U.

Thoughts

please get this guy out of here. he knocks off your prima on the switchin and then 2hkos from there next time it gets in. Nothing else in the tier can switch into a specs hyperspace fury.
I also think this needs to be banned. If it gets off an SD, you're probably cooked. You either need dozo or save your tera to surprise this thing. I mentioned earlier beats the most common physical walls (can get off SD on lando and then OHKO with bullet):

Calcs

+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Tera Fighting Scizor Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Skarmory: 317-374 (94.9 - 111.9%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Tera Fighting Scizor Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 390-460 (97.5 - 115%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

+3 252+ Atk Life Orb Technician Tera Fighting Scizor Bullet Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Landorus-Therian: 380-448 (99.4 - 117.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

This thing is very strong but its healthy here. The mixed set I use misses out on a lot of KO/2hko on offensive mons due to mediocre special attack. I've seen mixed dd sets but those cant fit all the coverage they want to fit. Also struggles with neutral hits due to running non stab physical moves.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

 

[Byleth]

It isn't an omotm without me posting a stall so here's the very lazily made/inspired one that got me to number 3 on ladder:



Allow me to explain the roles of each I guess.

For those of you that know stall, you'll realize there's a magic guard Clefable. This mon is here to soak up most Knock Off users in the tier since they're special now, and still be able to switch into hazards/status and salt cure with no problem unlike unaware. Due to poison and steel being physical, this means killing Clef on the special side proves really difficult. Tera dark lets me troll Hoopa-Unbound looking to come in and click Psyshock trying to 6-0.

Doesn't really need an explanation, with hazards up it will deal with the strong flip turn and special breakers in the tier. Tera water in case Wake gets out of hand.

This guy is really big! Grass and Electric only hit special now! Which means it will just about eat every average physical hit lol.

Not very useful, but special defense unaware is always welcome. Can be water absorb if you are really worried about water spam but no need rly.

Doubling down on physical water wall for obvious reasons, stall needs a regen, cool. Tera steel to handle Kyurem-Black.

Alongside Clef, another star of the show. Tera Ghost makes various normal abusers like boomburst/pop bomb users cry and spinblocks, otherwise Gliscor can't be hit by super effective moves on the physical side and spikes wear down teams really easily.

Threats

If they play it correctly they can force a kill if you don't have Clefable in at that very second (Clefable ALWAYS needs to be tera dark or it will die to a specs tera psyshock) and if Clefable ever goes down you are getting destroyed by Specs Hyperspace + Psyshock.

Any physical set with freeze-dry already poses a problem since every physical wall gets deleted by freeze dry coverage, will need to tera Alomomola and try to burn it or toxic it on the switch with Gliscor.

Wall Of Replays

Swords Dance Ival Specs Deo-S https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125914331?p2
Calm Mind Knock Off Clef destroys other stall
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125588763?p2
Vs Sun https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125572047
Ghost Gliscor vs Mono Normal https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125565928?p2
Stall Clef War https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125557164?p2
vs Hoopa Unbound and Kyurem Black
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125263236?p2
playing around Hoopa after accidentally sacking Clef https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2125254753?p2

Peak #3 1422 ELO 82.7 gxe

No real point in me sharing this team besides hopefully terrorizing the ladder, so have fun.

Update: Rank 1 Now!!!

 

[NANI?!]

I've been wondering about the potential of Zoroark in this metagame. It was initially overshadowed by Darkrai, but after the bans, it might have a chance.

Zoroark @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Black Glasses / Focus Sash
Ability: Illusion
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Flamethrower
- Nasty Plot

This is basically Darkrai at home, using Flamethrower rather than Ice Beam. Heavy-Duty Boots removes a pivotal way to predict Illusion, aka hazard damage. If none of your other Pokemon are running Boots, you can choose to run Black Glasses or even Focus Sash instead. It might at first seem tempting to go for Life Orb, but the HP loss will give you away.

Obviously, Zoroark is inferior to Darkrai in practically every way. It doesn't have the speed tier, bulk, or even damage output. But I'm hoping the information advantage might give it a niche. Here's a replay to showcase this, credit to demirab1 for the team (I only replaced Darkrai with Zoroark).

 

[demirab1]

The bulk and speed tier was massive for darkrai, but yea there are some zoro's on the ladder (and an sd hzoro that's actually v real) so other people are also seeing potential. I'd be inclined to run a bulkier spread with toxic > flamethrower, as fire coverage hits nothing in particular in this meta (ig tink? knocking pao is honestly more progress) and toxic on anything not expecting it is massive. And probably uturn > np to surprise the hoopas

4 Atk Zoroark U-turn vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 316-376 (104.9 - 124.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

(and get more value out of switching into hoopa one time) and bc zoro's unlikely to just sweep with that speed tier (ival, zacian are common, enam, pao exist) and bc np is likely to reveal illusion

PS I was your opp in that replay :p and misplayed by letting the clef die for no benefit. will share this team at a later date

 

[SnackWasTaken]

​

What is this metagame?
A move's damage category has been determined somewhat arbitrarily since generation 4 with what players call the "physical/special split". Have you ever had trouble remembering what each and every move's category is? Water Shuriken definitely used to be physical and how in the world is Diamond Storm not a special move? Well, worry no more, we've taken that split completely out of the game! Damage categories are now determined by a move's typing, just like it was in generations 1-3.

Water Shuriken: stays Special
Diamond Storm: stays Physical

 

[demirab1]

Going to share a team and a bunch of takes as the month comes to an end. There's no order or a more general point being made in these, just some notes taken over time, so I'll put them in bite-size spoiler blocks.

pls set your ivs explicitly

After building in this format, ideally both atk and spa should be minimized when not in use:

Min spa simply because foul play targets it. Notable users are umbreon, grimmsnarl (and ? i have a theoretical av set for this that checks hoopa-u but never seen a single one on the ladder).

Min atk because minimizing strength sap healing is way more significant than maximizing struggle damage.

this was noted early on in the om room but apparently not here so ig we just forgot

Currently the teambuilder doesn't have special behavior for type split so these have to be manually set in some cases. Double check your team after building it.

pls use pixie plate > flame orb on sylveon

it was brought to my attention that pixie plate is almost directly superior to flame orb facade - the only case where it isn't is when switching sylveon into knock, which is avoidable. if you were to consider double edge chip a sidegrade to burn chip, gaining a boosted quick attack would be a net positive outcome.

252+ SpA Pixilate Sylveon Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 207-244 (52.5 - 61.9%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Pixie Plate Pixilate Sylveon Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Clefable: 213-252 (54 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

light clay

Addressing this just bc it was mentioned one time earlier - it's not broken at all imo.

The relevant screen setters, , while valuable for their defensive utility (checking for instance), they happen to be an exploitable sort - defensive pivots that are already splashable force them to waste turns or give up momentum.

vs a9t:

vs grimm: actually anyone with a pivot move lol

I suspect and still being in the tier might give an impression that light clay and/or tera are broken (more on this later), but if more than like 2-3 mons that are broken only behind screens can be named then I'll support having light clay > said mons on the watchlist.

hoopa-u

good mon. not broken yet. i like av sets best, they thrive on bulky teams that can reset momentum several times. definitely put on watchlist.

Hoopa-Unbound @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magician
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 156 HP / 252 SpA / 100 Spe
Modest Nature
- Knock Off
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch / Drain Punch

zekrom

Zekrom @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Teravolt
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Bolt Strike
- Draco Meteor
- Earth Power
- Volt Switch

I saw someone's alt in the om room praising the 4 attacks set right after the bans. It would seem from a glance that stall gets endlessly volt switched on on the bliss and clef, and both clod and physdef gliscor get broken with coverage. That was speculation, ofc, and here's what I found in practice:

- Stall can adapt with tera ground clod, which counters even tera ground zekrom with physdef investment, and fast gliscor, which takes a draco from full.

- Lando can likewise run full speed if it needs to rk zekrom. Tinglu checks zekrom for long enough to mess up its teammates.

- Zekrom's strength lies not in its breaking power, but in its defenses being able to withstand repeated chip from corv and water types found in fellow balance/bo, leading to eventual hazard advantage. It's also bulky enough to survive an exca eq, or specs sylveon quick attack, or +2 tera lo scizor vacuum wave, for reference. (don't use vacuum wave scizor)

sun

I tried sun briefly with a physdef tork + spdef cress core

Cresselia @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 196 SpD / 16 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonlight
- Thunder Wave
- Future Sight
- Moonblast

There's enough counterplay to each of sun's staples, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something that broke sun but hasn't been discovered or revealed. Worth putting heat rock on watchlist.

checks: , , /

checks: / , , , rk it

checks: , , , , rk

checks: , , encore, rk

(pls note all of the mons i listed here (not cress) are excellent on their own already and would be used regardless of sun's absence)

zacian and friends

People that stack options to rk zacian - pult, various prio, booster ival and treads (and some others) - seem to have no issue with its presence. These are top tier options that would see usage regardless of zacian, but the fact remains that with perfect plays zacian always removes 1 mon from opp team unless there's a dozo or balloon gholden. (likely more if behind screens.) And imo at that speed tier that isn't acceptable. I also have no doubt that some element (healing wish?) that breaks zacian further is just yet to be discovered.

I was briefly on to something with tera ghost on mola as a panic button in cases where first scald doesn't burn, allowing 1 or 2 more tries. But the invention of shadow ball on kyub (very often paired with zacian) now means tera mola doesn't necessarily check that anymore.

I support keeping zacian and kyub on watchlist.

stall thoughts + a team

After the bans I got vibes from some people's comments that would imply stall isn't in good shape. So I focused on stall innovations that week and ended up developing this team:

fairy garganacl stall
https://pokepast.es/5ff146c39cef783a

Stall wasn't heavily impacted by the bans (for example the resulting decrease in dnite usage helps but increase in hoopa-u usage hurts). But now that I've actually run stall, I think it's a bit mu fishy especially when it comes to tera ghost trapping mons. Normally you'd have umbreon handle those, with tera ghost on bliss for a panic button, but umbreon is rlly rlly difficult to fit on a team because it's so specific in its role (it beats venusaur, non-drain punch hoopa and select special attackers like latis, gholden, kyurem; but not pult or any fairy, so it doesn't synergize with bliss or clef). The same reasons that something like cress on stall doesn't work out either.

(can't run shadow ball on bliss in this format)
just look at this generic ass heatran 6-0 stall https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9typesplit-2132370257-4ohlodimq3e2se2n85zfa0vkklo8ncypw
maybe next time someone finds tech for this mu? anyway, back to my team:

+
Team was built around this core; the idea is to always tera nacl on hoopa-u matchups, then depending on their set most hoopa will be hard countered by either nacl or bliss. The nacl spread avoids 2hko from both specs hoopa psyshock and knock (if tera) after rocks. Blissey obv walls full special hoopa no problem. Aside from that bliss takes on 4 attacks zekrom well, I found, thanks to the gen8 full physdef spread making a return here :p it does also matter for pivot pult matchups as those are v hard to chip and they run 252 atk unlike in gen8. Tera ghost to troll tera ghost fire spin volcanion, and ig you spinblock torkoal.


We're building stall, and zacian is in the tier; dozo is not negotiable. Ability shield on dozo is exclusively for kyub, I feel dropping boots is worth the trouble considering that we're going to run defog. I just had to do it after losing to wp kyub and shadow ball kyub ... Dozo's spread gives it some utility in sun matchups: it lives wake flip turn + 2 hydro steams. Tera steel just in case opp breaks nacl and corv by spamming hurricane, also helps in taking dracos from bolt or something.


Although clef might seem less valuable after the bans, we still need a second unaware to stall out idbp mons, and clef still synergizes with bliss for checking taunt raging bolt, cm prim, serp etc. It also counters psychic + drain punch hoopa. Knock is on clef to open up a moveslot on gliscor; encore is for checking curse nacl and situationally a few other mons. Tera dark is a panic button vs stored power users and might also help vs hoopa.


Nacl and dozo need defog, and people often bring cb boomburst/hurricane that other mons can't handle. Tera ghost for handling bu palafin and drum kommo, who're less common than, say, toucannon and dnite. Besides, fitting an actual ghost type into stall is a nightmare (I tried pult and spectrier with little success). Corv's set is the min speed uturn one that you'd see on balance, rather than idbp; this is vital for bringing in bliss and clef safely to heal accumulated chip damage, esp in primarina matchups.


Fast taunt gliscor serves as glue for the team: it can rk zekrom and hoopa, scout tusk, maintain progress vs corv (often knocked by clef) and potentially others like bliss clef dozo etc (but not mola). Tera grass was to resist flip turn from hsamu, prim, palafin etc. but never rlly ended up clicking it.

Threats:

+ + hazards: these are synergistic elements, I've built a team just like this, and the only way I see to improve this matchup is by going magic guard on clef.

tera fight strong fighting types: lost to these; this matchup is probably sound and just a skill issue on my part. but I suspect changing tera on gliscor to ghost would help a little.