Metagame Ubers Metagame and Set Discussion v2 - Home Edition

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Ryota Mitarai

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Restricting Dynamax to any group of Pokemon won't solve the problem. I have destroyed games by Dynamaxing Blastoise (Blastoise now has Shell Smash). Not to mention, Excadrill is a very good abuser of Dynamax as well. Sure, the amount of mons that are broken with Dynamax will be limited, but there will still be a Pokemon that is "too much" with Dynamax. Even then, if we restrict Dynamax to a specific group of Pokemon, people are bound to find something that can abuse it (which seems to be set up sweepers, those seem to abuse Dynamax the most).

Also Lacus Ichinose is correct in that Corviknight seems the only viable pre-Home mon from the aforementioned ones. The problem with Rotom formes is that they aren't bulky enough to survive attacks so well, and are too slow without Scarf to spread burns. Even then, special attackers like Lunala exist, so here's a new problem.

+1 252+ Atk Zacian-Crowned Play Rough vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rotom-Wash: 279-328 (115.7 - 136%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 252+ Atk Zacian-Crowned Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rotom-Wash: 279-328 (91.7 - 107.8%) -- 50% chance to OHKO
(this assumes a player is running max Speed + max HP)

252 SpA Lunala Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Wash: 160-190 (52.6 - 62.5%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rotom-Wash: 244-288 (80.2 - 94.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Choice Specs Turboblaze Kyurem-White Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-Wash: 340-400 (111.8 - 131.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
(note: Turboblaze ignores Levitate, making this calculation possible)

sure, it can burn them through Scarf WoW, but then you are locked into WoW, so that's a problem. Not to mention that stuff like Zekrom could have set up at +1 and thus outspeed it anyways. So it's definitely harder for Rotom formes to shine here (Rotom-H would probably remain the best Rotom forme, since it can hit Necrozma and Zacian-C harder than the other formes. I ran it in pre-Home and it was pretty good at keeping Zacian-C at bay).

Quagsire is definitely worse in Home meta. Zekrom ignores Unaware through Teravolt, so if it has set up one or two DDs, it can break Quagsire or deal heavy damage to it, Lunala's Moongeist Beam ignores Unaware, so CM boosts can blast through it, and stuff like Specs Kyurem-W can blast through it. Sure, it can be used against Necrozma-DM, but a lot of them are defensive variants that run Toxic, which cripples Quagsire significally.

252 SpA Choice Specs Turboblaze Kyurem-White Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Quagsire: 381-448 (96.7 - 113.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252+ Atk Teravolt Zekrom Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 288-339 (73 - 86%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Lunala Moongeist Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Quagsire: 240-283 (60.9 - 71.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Not gonna comment anything on Zamazenta, because I neither have seen it a lot on the ladder nor I have used it.

as a matter of fact, here's the Corviknight set I generally run:

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Brave Bird

The main goal of Corviknight is to keep Necrozma-DM and Marshadow at bay, with Brave Bird ensuring that Marshadow can be checked properly. I do not run any Speed because there's nothing that I really need to outspeed and, if anything, I sometimes prefer to underspeed when it's possible. If the Necrozma is a set up sweeper, I generally have clicked U-turn before it tries to set up and switch into something that can offensively pressure it.
 
Ok, so here's what I was trying to get across, with no sidetracking, focusing entirely on Dynamax:
1. Pokemon like Gyarados, Hawlucha and Excadrill were all held up as textbook broken abusers of Dynamax before Home dropped, and yet they were mostly balanced. What has changed? Is it the new legendarys Dynamaxing? Is the pool of abusers now too large? Or is it just the 5 minutes of chaos that happens at the start of every meta? Because I didn't see any complaints about Dynamax before Home. If Ubers is considering restricting or banning Dynamax, then it should be very, very sure it is unmanageable. But I don't think it is because:
2. I might be biased coming from Nat Dex AG where more walls exist, but our premiere anti-Dynamaxer, Necrozma Dusk-Mane, is already in Ubers. Dynamax is balanced and manageable in Nat Dex AG, and I do not see a reason this cannot be the case in Ubers as well. In Nat Dex, we have Xerneas and Yveltal, who can both 6-0 teams as leads with Dynamax. But this rarely happens to prepared opposition. Despite these obscene wincons and other breakers like Zacian-C, a balance metagame has evolved, with stall teams even finding sucess. Mega Ray and Ultra Nec are struggling for air, and are often ommited from many teams, in part because they cannot Dynamax. While this shows the power of Dynamax, there are also many other reasons for the struggles of these two (Zacian-C being a huge one) and Mega Ray regardless finds itself on many teams. And the fact Zacian-C is considered a top 3 threat with Eternatus being in the top 10 with ease, despite both not being able to Dynamax, is really a telling sign that Dynamaxing is not the entire game. So I ask, if a balance meta can evolve in Nat Dex AG, with far worse abusers, is there any reason there cannot be one in Ubers?
I really hope that a decision on Dynamax is made carefully. Because I do not think it is unmanageable in the long run, and I think it offers a new way to keep the omnipresent wolf called Zacian from the door. I think the theory of defensive Dynamax, which was considered terrible in OU, applies much better to tanks than dedicated walls, and tanks are much more common in Ubers due to the natural bulk of everything and how important it is to prevent top threats coming in for free on a passive mon. While Dynamax pushes many mons "over the edge", it's important to note that many of those mons are a lot more tame it you do defensively Dynamax correctly.
On the other hand, you can bait Dynamax in certain ways, either by trapping, forcing the opponent to burn Dynamax to escape the trap, or by taking a setup, which costs momentum but can bait a defensive Dyna. While the former is almost omnipresent in Nat Dex with the threat of Mega Gengar, the latter can be harder due to Xern only getting one setup and Yveltal relies on Max Airstream boosts to setup. Then again, there are also plenty of threats in Nat Dex which have a more convenient setup to try and bait a defensive Dynamax (see: LO Mewtwo and Arceus Ground), but there are walls that are perfectly capable of handling these threats for a turn or two without Dynamax.
So overall, I'd say Dynamax should be given time for the meta to adapt. It hasn't even been a week yet, in term of meta age, we're at the point at the start of the gen where Swords Dance on Zacian was considered mantatory, and people were still trying to do something with Zamazenta-C. But if it does turn out to be unmanageable in the long run, I would be open to seeing AG becoming "the Dynamax tier", an arrangement that could breath life into Galar AG. However, this is not a concern for Ubers, and for now the best policy is time and patience.
 
Out of the newly freed Ubers, Necrozma-DM and Mewtwo are the most interesting Dynamaxers. Necrozma-DM is really good with Dynamax, possibly over the top - if it sets TR as the opponent switches, it can take any SE attack while Dynamaxed, gain the +2/+2 from Weakness Policy, and sweep. With WP activated it can also run (admittedly dubious) things like Heat Wave to catch Corviknight:

+2 0 SpA Necrozma-Dusk-Mane Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Corviknight: 346-408 (86.5 - 102%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO

You probably don't want to do this though, as if WP doesn't activate Heat Wave is pretty terrible.

Mewtwo is trickier - the Dynamax sweeper set of Nasty Plot/Psystrike/Fire Blast/Hurricane isn't great without Dynamax, as Hurricane has terrible accuracy and doesn't offer much coverage. Burning your Dynamax on Mewtwo has other implications, for example you can't Dynamax your Necrozma to sweep, or your Ditto to stop a sweep in some cases. Mewtwo also has a ton of options, so it's not clear that the Dmax set will be the most desirable set.

The others (Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem-*, Lunala) aren't that interesting. Reshiram and Zekrom can set their own weather, but don't gain much of a power boost and lose Blue Flare and Bolt Strike's neat secondary effects. Zekrom's still suffers from its dual STAB having immunities even with Dynamax, and Reshiram still doesn't really have boosting moves. The Kyurems are...not that good, probably worse than Reshiram and Zekrom right now. Lunala could be interesting defensively; Shadow Shield + Dynamax will survive practically anything. Unfortunately it loses its recovery moves while Dynamaxed, and being able to take any hit and hit back with Max Phantasm is not that useful.

I certainly don't feel we should ban Dynamax this early in the new metagame. It remains to be seen whether Necrozma-DM will be a problem - we all thought SD Zacian-C would be banworthy, and look where that went.
 
Mewtwo @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psystrike
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane / Shadow Ball / Focus Blast
I love that idea, could be a lot a fun when dynamaxing. Although it doesn't change much I guess, Hurricane Mewtwo can't have "Pressure". Hurricane Mewtwo was a 2013 japanese B&W exclusive event, only available with the "Unnerve" ability.

Showdown allows the combination of Hurricane Mewtwo + Pressure but that can't normally exist (thanks to Serebii for the confirmation).
 

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Ropalme1914

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I love that idea, could be a lot a fun when dynamaxing. Although it doesn't change much I guess, Hurricane Mewtwo can't have "Pressure". Hurricane Mewtwo was a 2013 japanese B&W exclusive event, only available with the "Unnerve" ability.

Showdown allows the combination of Hurricane Mewtwo + Pressure but that can't normally exist.
Hurricane is a TR on SwSh, any Mewtwo can get it. Mewtwo's ability won't matter much, but taking extra PPs from stuff like Sunsteel Strike is good, although you could run Unnerve to bluff a Aura Sphere / Focus Blast sets that prevent Chople Ttar I guess
 
What exactly are people doing to handle Dusk Mane in this metagame? Its absurd bulk/typing/ability give it a lot of setup opportunities and it realistically only needs one turn of setup to absolutely obliterate entire teams, and it becomes increasingly more impossible to revenge kill as it uses its primary two Max Moves to boost its bulk even further. Brute-forcing past it is an enormous risk because you're literally always running the risk of triggering its Weakness Policy and losing the game outright unless you have a very healthy Corviknight or Quagsire in the back to deal with it, and those mons have their own sets of checks that prevent them from completely doing their jobs.

I don't find myself getting swept by it quite that much since I haven't seen it that much on the ladder, but I've consistently been running it on a Webs team (since I've played Webs HO in this tier since mid-USUM) and every time I've given this monstrosity enough elbow room to start setting up I'm consistently asking myself what my opponent could possibly do to prevent the inevitable Dusk Mane sweep besides run a Ditto that can't kill it from full or run a handful of other things that a breaker like LO Mewtwo or Specs Lunala can easily tear through.
 
Dusk Mane is walled by Corviknight, which was and is still the premier defogger in the meta. Lunala can also switch into any Dusk Mane move except Knock Off. It's the best Mon in the game, but much like Zacian it's manageable.
 


Reshiram @ Haban Berry / Heavy-Duty Boots / Life Orb / Shuca Berry
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Blue Flare
- Draco Meteor
- Roost / Defog
- Flame Charge / Will-o-Wisp

I'm still thoroughly enjoying Reshiram right now. With so many teams running multiple Steel-types atm, whether it's Corviknight, Zacian-C, Necrozma-DM, and/or Melmetal, Reshiram's Blue Flare just torches all of them. Being able to take any one attack from unboosted Zacian-C, while not being weak to any of its coverage moves, is super nice for an offensive Dragon-type as well.

As I said in my previous post regarding Reshiram, it's fairly customizable with its choice of item. My personal favorite is still Haban Berry as a countermeasure against Ditto or other Dragon-types as it's still extremely powerful without a boosting item like Life Orb. However, Life Orb's extra breaking power is still nice to have, Shuca's a neat way to survive one of the many EQs in the tier, and the Timbs is nice for Defog sets as it's able to scare away the common Stealth Rock Necrozma-DM. There are other unexplored moves like Mystical Fire on more supportive sets to nerf Special Attackers (this combined with Will-o-Wisp would make for a deceptively hard mon to take down) and Shadow Ball to bust through Lunala that could have some merit, too.



I've had no success with this mon. I wanted to try this as a specially-offensive Stealth Rock setter w/ Heat Wave as a means to break through Defog Corviknight, but Dawn Wings Necrozma is simply worse at running this defensive typing than Lunala due to the lack of Shadow Shield, and with so many Pokemon running Dark or Ghost-type coverage moves as a means of trying to break through Lunala, Dawn Wings Necrozma suffers by proxy. It's because of this that it's a very subpar rocks lead in most scenarios and I found myself having a tough time getting this mon on the field. Other sets it could run like OTR or a CM set are simply done better by Lunala and other mons.
 
Who doesn’t like Underrated and Anti-Meta sets?
You might, but I certainly don’t, so here are some unique sets.


Blastoise @ Life Orb
Ability: Rain Dish
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive/Naughty Nature
- Shell Smash
- Liquidation
- Earthquake
- Focus Blast
This set is similar to a set I came up with in the OU discussion forum.
One of Blastoise’s main niche’s as a Shell Smasher is it’s Speed (in SWSH anyways), typing, and most importantly, access to Earthquake.
These attributes are Blastoise’s saving graces in OU, and now in Ubers too.
What about Earthquake that makes Blastoise stand out? Toxapex mostly.
A +2 Life Orb boosted Earthquake is actually able to OHKO Toxapex after Hazards.
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Blastoise Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 224-265 (73.6 - 87.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock, 1 layer of Spikes, and Black Sludge recovery
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Blastoise Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 247-291 (81.2 - 95.7%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
While one might say that you can use Barbaracle, Blastoise has the advantage of 78 Speed and having a better defensive type.
With positive nature and +2, Blastoise has 560 Speed, which means that it can outspeed Scarf Jolly Dugtrio, Adamant Excadrill in Sand, and of course the other 2 common Smashers in Ubers (Poltea and Cloyster).
Even with Naughty, Blastoise can also still outspeed Adamant Scarf Dugtrio as well, while Barb is still slower than Scarf Jolly Darmanitan.
To also add, Blastoise isn’t just there to outspeed and use Earthquake either.
Since Dynamax is Legal in Ubers, this set has a few differences to take advantage of compared to its OU variant.
Firstly, with Liquidation becoming Max Geyer, not only will Blastoise hit much harder, but setting up Rain helps Blastoise immensely with Rain Dish and x1.5 boost to Water moves.
In fact, this is so deadly that it allows Blastoise to cleanly 2HKO Quagsire.
252+ Atk Life Orb Blastoise Max Geyser vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire in Rain: 269-317 (68.2 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
The Rain after each turn will then recover 6.25% HP and help offset Life Orb recoil.
Also, thanks to Dynamax, Focus Blast becomes Max Knuckle, which is weaker, will be 100% accurate, which you can use against Ferrothorn or Kyurem-W if you are not feeling lucky, and this will raise your Atk as well.


MiniDeoxysS (Accelgor) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sticky Hold
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty/Naive Nature
IVs: 0 Def / 0 SpD
- U-turn
- Spikes
- Encore
- Guard Split
Do you hate it when Gothitelle exists?
Do you hate having your Hazard Setter being tricked a Choice Scarf, and to then be locked into Status moves as it’s trapped by Satan himself, you continuously repeating the same actions over and over for eternity?
Well, here is the Hazard Setter for you.
Thanks to Sticky Hold, you will never be given scarf without consent every again.
U-Turn is amazing as it allows Accelgor to escape Shadow Tag without the need of Shed Shell. It also lets Accelgor scout out what the opponent will do.
Spikes are there to, well set up Spikes.
Encore is great utility for Accelgor and its Teammates. Other leads will be trapped onto the move they last used. It also will force Rapid Spinners into either being locked into Rapid Spin or in one of their coverage moves. Like say Excadrill wants to spin away your Spikes. You can Encore them into Rapid Spin so your Ghost type gets in for Free, or you can lock Excadrill into Iron Head and have your Gyarados come in easily.
Lastly, having a Negative Nature and 0 IVs in both your Def and SpD can make the impact of Guard Split a lot more effective. An opposing lead like Specially Defensive Necrozma will have 230 SpD if Accelgor has Naive, and Ferrothorn can have its Def become 236 with Naughty. That’s effectively Base 55 SpD and Base 58 Def respectively.
 
What exactly are people doing to handle Dusk Mane in this metagame? Its absurd bulk/typing/ability give it a lot of setup opportunities and it realistically only needs one turn of setup to absolutely obliterate entire teams, and it becomes increasingly more impossible to revenge kill as it uses its primary two Max Moves to boost its bulk even further. Brute-forcing past it is an enormous risk because you're literally always running the risk of triggering its Weakness Policy and losing the game outright unless you have a very healthy Corviknight or Quagsire in the back to deal with it, and those mons have their own sets of checks that prevent them from completely doing their jobs.

I don't find myself getting swept by it quite that much since I haven't seen it that much on the ladder, but I've consistently been running it on a Webs team (since I've played Webs HO in this tier since mid-USUM) and every time I've given this monstrosity enough elbow room to start setting up I'm consistently asking myself what my opponent could possibly do to prevent the inevitable Dusk Mane sweep besides run a Ditto that can't kill it from full or run a handful of other things that a breaker like LO Mewtwo or Specs Lunala can easily tear through.
I usually never have a problem with Dusk mane, but that's because my team has like three separate offensive checks that are all faster than it even with a boost. Also, uninvested, Dusk Mane isn't *that* bulky. It has 97/127/109 defenses. which are only slightly better then Zekrom, who has 100/120/100 defenses. The thing is that it has a pretty good defensive typing for the current Ubers metagame, as only Reshiram, Lunala, and Marshadow (Out of the current pokemon restricted to the Ubers tier. There are, of course non Ubers Pokemon that are extremely viable that have stab super effective moves, like Aegislash and Excadrill.) naturally have super effective stab (Oh and prism armor, forgot about that lol.). Which is actually why, IMO, Scarf Reshiram is the best counter for Dusk Mane, because it can easily switch in on Sunsteel Strike and outspeed even at +1 and OHKO it with Blue/Fusion Flare. So weakness policy isn't a problem, and neither is Dragon Dance unless you let it get two up (In which case good luck mate), and it's max moves won't help unless it used max quake already. There are of course situation where Reshiram won't help, but it's still the most consistent revenge killer. From what I can tell, Haban berry and life orb are the most popular items for Reshiram right now, and since the meta is still young I'm not quite sure as to how viable scarf Reshi is, it could be pretty good or absolute trash, (It does wreck Melmetal, Zacian, Corviknight, Eternatus, and Dusk Mane Necrozma with just it's stabs, which also happen to be unresisted right now, so it sounds good on paper, but only time will tell how good it ends up being.) but it's definitely the best answer for Dusk mane, at least in a vacuum. Marshadow will definitely work, but it loses to a Dusk Mane with any boost, gets OHKOed by Photon Geyser, and can only steal boosts from a weakness policy set that hasn't yet danced.
 
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I’ve been using a bulky Necrozma-DM set that turns any Zacian-C lacking SD into setup fodder:

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Leftovers
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 196 HP / 200 Def / 112 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Morning Sun
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake

This Necrozma-DM can get to +2 fairly easily, as any physical attacker will need a boosting move to break through it. It beats sash Marshadow as long as it hasn’t DDanced yet, takes minimal damage from Dugtrio, and laughs at anything Zamazenta can do. The speed EVs let it outspeed Jolly Zacian-C at +2, and EQ OHKOes easily, even without investment.

+1 252+ Atk Zacian-Crowned Close Combat vs. 196 HP / 200+ Def Necrozma-Dusk-Mane: 166-196 (43.2 - 51%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 196 HP / 200+ Def Prism Armor Necrozma-Dusk-Mane: 159-189 (41.4 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Marshadow Spectral Thief vs. 196 HP / 200+ Def Prism Armor Necrozma-Dusk-Mane: 177-211 (46 - 54.9%) -- 7.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

+2 0 Atk Necrozma-Dusk-Mane Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Zacian-Crowned: 376-444 (115.6 - 136.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO

I’ve also been using a similar bulky CM Lunala:

Lunala @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Shield
EVs: 196 HP / 184 Def / 72 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Moonblast
- Roost
- Calm Mind

SpD investment lets it switch in to either LO or Metronome Eternatus’ Dynamax Cannon, CM on another hit, and still have enough HP to take a third hit and Roost back to full HP. Speed investment lets it outspeed max speed Ttar. Defense helps it take Zacian-C on better.

+1 252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Play Rough vs. 196 HP / 184+ Def Lunala: 222-262 (47.8 - 56.4%) -- 39.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
 

Ropalme1914

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All right, some follow up to my original post after playing the tier:

:sm/necrozma-dusk-mane:
Yeah, this is top 1 as expected. Trick Room isn't being used as much as I thought it would, but Dragon Dance is dominating the tier. Similar to the post above, I've been also running a phys def Necrozma with Dragon Dance, although I use a bulkier spread:

Necrozma-Dusk-Mane @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe
Impish Nature
- Sunsteel Strike
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Morning Sun

This makes the Necrozma, Eternatus, Zacian, Ditto, and others matchup pretty easy. The Ditto matchup, in particular, is actually a great boom for it compared to other Dragon Dance sets, as this can Morning Sun on its face and even activate its Weakness Policy in the process; it can also use Dynamax and Max Steelspike to still take on Ditto even if its Attack is already super buffed before it comes. Discussing it on Discord, Iron Head over Sunsteel also came up due to its PP, but I couldn't test it.

:sm/lunala:
Imo, this is a top 2 Pokémon in the game. From what I saw, there's four Ghost resists that people are running: Umbreon, Tyranitar, Mandibuzz, and more rarely, Snorlax. Tbh, I don't like Umbreon as an answer to it: although I didn't use one myself, everytime I faced one it couldn't 1v1 my Lunala, since you can outplay WishProtect and go for Calm Mind, alongside the fact that Max Starfall explodes it. Tyranitar has been more reliable, and although it doesn't like Focus Blast, I haven't either seem or even used one yet (Sandstorm breaking Shadow Shield is another bonus). Mandibuzz is bulky and has good utility with Defog, U-turn, Foul Play, and Knock Off, but is extremely vulnerable to status and can be overwhelmed when it's forced to Defog. Still, has some consistency going for it. Snorlax is pretty underrated imo, CurseLax is nice on this tier and can give many teams quite a bit of trouble; I've seem Figy Berry, but Chesto would always be my choice.
Although Calm Mind is my set of choice, defensive also is showing to be great Pokémon on the tier, pretty hard to break and checking most Psychic-types. I thought Heavy-Duty Boots would dominate, but Leftovers is showing up a lot too.

:sm/Marshadow:
I changed my mind: Life Orb still is pretty good, although still not to the same extent as gen 7. Its STAB combination is as nice as ever, and the boosted power from Max Phantasm is great (although Max Knuckle offers a good secondary effect, the lower BP is a great letdown). Having once again a good, strong priority is a bonus too. Scarf still worked as expected tho, nice revenge killer and it can Dynamax to switch moves against stuff like Melmetal.

:ss/melmetal:
Got a bigger niche than expected, Band hits really hard. Not amazing, but still usable even when stuff like Necrozma is on the tier.

:ss/Corviknight:
This remained good despite the Home additions. Iron Defense Corviknight is one of the few reliable Necrozma-DM checks and it still can help against almost any physical attacker. It also still is a good defogger (the best one alongside Lunala I think, with Mandibuzz following behind those two), although it struggles a bit more to find space for it on its moveslots.

:sm/zekrom:
This surprised me not exactly from a offensive point of view, but a defensive one. Even without investment, it still is fairly bulky, making its SubDD more reliable than you may think. Although I theorized that Haban would be the main item, it seems like Leftovers took the main spot for it. Being a physical sweeper that isn't stopped by Quagsire is another bonus. I did miss many Bolt Strike (way more than it should), which is a shame, but when it works, it works very well. I also constantly see the debate between Dragon Claw and Outrage, and although the argument for Dynamax does help the case for Outrage, I had more success with Dclaw simply because it's sufficient enough at +1 or +2.

:sm/reshiram:
I didn't use it, but I did fight it a lot. Didn't look as threatening as I thought it would be: Flame Charge was by far the set that I saw the most success, but stuff like Tyranitar does hurt it. If you don't have it tho, it also works nice as an early-game wallbreaker.

:sm/excadrill:
Outside of Corviknight, nobody is running Ground resists lol really, this is nice on sand as well as on its classic lead set with Sash on HO.

:ss/zacian-crowned:
Really good, but not Necrozma or Lunala good imo. The new mons can all threaten it and I think it's getting harder to choose its coverage, as it wants Sub for Ditto, a strong move for Necrozma (Fire Fang is too weak, so either Crunch or Close Combat, and Crunch activates its Weakness Policy), Crunch for Lunala, etc.

:sm/ditto:
Premier scarfer alongside Marshadow, really good too and can revenge a lot of mons, but tbh, contrary to what most people think, I think Dynamax is helping it less than it's hurting it, as it now needs to risk a Speed tie and those big Ubers can take one hit of their own even when boosted during Dynamax, and Ditto doesn't to risk a Speed tie either. Still really good tho.

:sm/mewtwo:
Good mon, one of the most dangerous win conditions for any team. I like it a lot, although it's kinda hurt by the fact that it sometimes it really wish it had more slots (Hurricane tends to be the choice for the last slot, but Lunala makes it want to run Shadow Ball and Tyranitar requires Fighting coverage, as it completely walls Mewtwo otherwise).

:sm/Tyranitar:
I mentioned it a lot, and I think it's one of the biggest winners of the Home meta. Ghost resists are almost non-existant, which already gives it a nice niche, and it can take hits from almost any special attacker and cripple them, like Lunala, Mewtwo, and Eternatus.

:ss/Eternatus:
The king of pre-Home Ubers. I've been liking offensive sets way more this time around: I think Cosmic Power sets are getting overwhelmed way too easily this time around to my liking, especially by crits, alongside the fact that it's weak to Dragon and Psychic, two of the most common types rn. A Metronome set is something that I was looking for to test, but also couldn't fit on a team yet. Probably A material.
 
Really good, but not Necrozma or Lunala good imo. The new mons can all threaten it and I think it's getting harder to choose its coverage, as it wants Sub for Ditto, a strong move for Necrozma (Fire Fang is too weak, so either Crunch or Close Combat, and Crunch activates its Weakness Policy), Crunch for Lunala, etc.
I mostly agree with you, but I think that Zacian is a bit stronger than people make it out to be. The amount of times in which Zacian has been useful for me or won the game single handedly is absurd. Even though my Zacian is an SD+three attacks set, I'm not just talking about sweeping, but revenge killing, wallbreaking, and even some defensive utility with it's pretty good typing and above average defenses. I would put it at bottom of S tier, right behind Lunala and Necrozma, slightly behind Lunala but Dusk Mane definitely has a solid lead on both of them.
Got a bigger niche than expected, Band hits really hard. Not amazing, but still usable even when stuff like Necrozma is on the tier
I would also make a case for Melmetal, as banded Double Iron Bash is stupid strong. Wrecks anything neutral to it, and even some things that resist. Being slow as fuck sucks for him since you can't use the flinch chance, but it allows for great bulk. Good luck fighting it physically, because you have to one shot it with it's 135/143 physical defenses or get wrecked unless you're a bulky resist. However the best bulky resist just so happens to be the best Pokemon in the game, so big oof in that department. I would put it at B to B+.

And my pick for most underrated goes to Kyurem White, with it's insane power and great coverage. If you want the strongest special attack in the tier then specs is the way to go, but I find that Scarf is by far my favorite. With almost all the Ubers being pretty fast, I find that Kyurem has the perfect scarf speed tier, as it outspeed every viable unboosted mon, and out speeds some important things even when they have a boost. For example, it will almost always win the 1v1 against Galar Darm, as even if it's also scarfed and wins the speed tie, as it will survive the icicle crash and OHKO back. Same with Marshadow, Eternatus, Melmetal, Zekrom, and Reshiram. Virtually all things it can't win OHKO or always win the 1v1 it can with some chip. Specifically, Zacian, Lunala, and Mewtwo (Although he has a small chance to OHKO). However, Dusk Mane needs to be weakened quite a bit to kill. With full special defense and HP investment, it's a 3HKO, which shows how stupid Dusk Mane is. However, without full special defense investment, it's a 2HKO. So if you weakened him, it's an easy ko, especially since Necrozma is slower even at plus 1 with max speed, and with no speed EVs speed ties at plus 3. Anyways, here's my set.

Kyurem-White @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Turboblaze
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Fusion Flare
- Earth Power

I found that Focus Blast is redundant, as Earth power, Ice Beam, and Fusion Flare cover everything Focus Blast does. The set also gains a pretty good boost from Dynamax, as it can become even fatter than normal and choose any move it wants, and even though it's max moves don't help it *that* much, it's still nice to have. Turboblaze is actually really nice to have, since ignoring every ability is a great thing to have. (except for Prism Armor, ya know, the most important ability to negate? Because negating a negate is a great idea that makes a lot of fucking sense.) Honestly, I can't confidently tell you exactly where it belongs on the tier list. I would put it somewhere around A- to maybe a really low A.
 
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I was thinking "with how good Nec DM is, wouldn't it be nice if Solgaleo could cover some of its defensive duties?"
Then I open up the calc to the default Choice Scarf set and see this:
252 Atk Solgaleo Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Zacian-Crowned: 240-284 (73.8 - 87.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Yeah, never mind. And it doesn't get Rocks, any way to set up offensively... Just garbage. But at least you live Crunch with 8 Def EVs assuming no prior chip, Flare Blitz recoil or anything.
+1 252+ Atk Zacian-Crowned Crunch vs. 0 HP / 8 Def Solgaleo: 328-388 (79 - 93.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
Even in the best-case scenario you can't avoid the 2HKO:
+1 252 Atk Zacian-Crowned Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Solgaleo: 220-260 (46 - 54.3%) -- 54.7% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
So... Don't use. Again.
 

Inspirited

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Unsurprisingly good despite having its usual 4 moveslot and EV restriction problems. It's just fast enough and just tanky enough to pull off a support set that can has a few variations depending on the team. It's not good enough to consider on more than a couple teams I think, but good enough to mention here. It getting recovery back is pretty awesome despite all of the new threats that came with home.

Rotom having Pain Split again has also been a pretty big game changer for less offensive builds.
 
Slurpuff @ Mental Herb
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Def
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Sticky Web
- Wish / Light Screen
- Protect

I think speed variant with Focus Sash and max speed instead may also work if you go for complete suicide lead to take advantage of Unburden. But this version is more of a dedicated Wish Passer as Fairy typing in pretty good for obvious reasons. Physically defensive worked for me just fine.

There is so few Sticky Web users and most of them are either pretty damn frail or are really, really slow. This fella has IMO a pretty solid niche, a shame movepool is kind of limited. But it has just enough to work.

Gengar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Trick / Thunderbolt / Sludge Wave
- Focus Blast
- Psychic

I think it's solid. I recommend Sticky Web support for obvious reasons, but it hits pretty hard. Sludge Wave is pretty much strongest neutral hit, but with things like Necrozma around it's a pretty risky thing. Thunderbolt is mostly for bulky water and Mandibuzz, which otherwise walls this a bit too well. Psychic is for Eternatus. Trick is obvious. Also recommended slow U-Turn or Teleport support as it is kind of frail, but it has enough good resistances/immunities to get in reasonably safely. And it also absorbs Toxic Spikes. Anyway from my experiences if you predict well, most things go in one or two hits. Although most of time you will click Shadow Ball, as ghost STAB is as amazing as always.

Kyurem-White @ Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power / Roost
- Freeze-Dry
- Draco Meteor
- Fusion Flare / Roost

I love this Pokemon. All you need is T-Wave support or Sticky Web for this guy to dominate. G-Max version is a scary, scary thing. I personally prefer Leftovers, as it is bulky enough to take advantage here. Max-Hailstorm or Max-Quake are best openers. First one for that passive hail damage afterwards and Max-Quake grants free special defense, which is also really helpful even if your Dynamax finished. Modest Nature works, but I always prefer to have that additional speed just in case. Fusion Flare with G-Max also may summon Sun instead, so if your opponents team is for example Steel heavy, this is it.

Mew @ Shed Shell
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Stealth Rock / Spikes
- Foul Play
- Encore / Defog / Reflect

It's ok for me. I kind of miss Skarmory or I hoped Corviknight would get Stealth Rock / Spikes. This is ok-ish pick for tanking special hits, while also have enough tools to not be a complete set-up bait as long as opponents doesn't run Taunt. 100/100 bulk is pretty good, especially if invested. We all know what this Pokemon can do and how wide movepool of this fella is. Throwing in Reflect also won't hurt (or Light Screen) as it baits things like Marshadow like honey baits bears, so throwing Reflect or Light Screen before getting out is a good way to support incoming switch in.

Metagame kind of misses good hazard users, so this Mew at least helps with this issue.
 

I was wondering what your thoughts on Beartic?
Beartic and Hail in general seems to be overlooked.
Beartic @ Life Orb
Ability: Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Icicle Spear/Icicle Crash
- Throat Chop
- Dig/Bulldoze/Low Kick
At first glance, it just seems like worse Excadrill, having less power, being slower, and being part Ice.
However, with Slush Rush, it fits on Hail teams which allows a hail setter (typically Alolan Ninetales) to set up Aurora Veil, which makes a huge difference in survivability for Beartic and its teammates. In conjunction with Dynamax, it essentially has a x4 damage reduction
252 Atk Life Orb Marshadow Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Beartic with an ally's Aurora Veil: 298-351 (45 - 53%) -- 28.1% chance to 2HKO
+1 0 Atk Necrozma-Dusk-Mane Sunsteel Strike vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Beartic with an ally's Aurora Veil: 286-337 (43.2 - 50.9%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Turboblaze Reshiram Blue Flare vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Beartic with an ally's Aurora Veil: 407-480 (61.4 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
164 SpA Life Orb Eternatus Dynamax Cannon vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Beartic with an ally's Aurora Veil: 263-309 (39.7 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Beartic also got a great movepool buff this gen, getting the 100% accurate Icicle Spears, but can still use Icicle Crash, Throat Chop to beat any Lunala after hazards or hail without a boost, and being able to Dynamax, Beatric can utilize Dig (mostly for Dynamax power but can keep Beartic safe for damage) or Bulldoze (also Dynamax, but doesn’t rely on it).
 
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