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UU Stats: April 2012

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Don't get me wrong, its still a good Pokemon, but its nowhere near broken. Like, it's literally so far from it that I find it amusing to even consider it. I guess people just love to hype shit up like they did with Scrafty.
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No one is hyping Virizion. Only a few people hinted at Scrafty's potential before being absolutely shit on by the UU DAS (UU Defense Against Banning Squad). Same thing happened here, except it was one guy who didn't even say it was overpowered. The most realistic viewpoint I've heard thusfar regarding Virizion was a comparison to Cobalion (thanks Jamasha). The lesson we learned there is that even with all of the right tools to sweep, we're still dealing with 90/90 offenses. I like to keep an open mind about things, so I'm going to leave it there.

Believe it or not, the UU community has a bad track record with understating drop down potential rather than overestimating it. Hippowdon, for example, was a hidden menace. If you thought Sand was a problem now, imagine one Pokemon taking the slot for both Gligar and Hippopotas, THEN having to face Stoutland, Cacturne, and three other sons of bitches to clean up the rest of your weary team. No one expected anything from Porygon2 before Reachzero came in and made us look stupid with the offensive tank.

Toughen your skin a little bit. Back in Gen 4, every drop down was the apocalypse and we all laughed and joked around about it.
 
Swamp-Rocket said:
| 49 | Mienshao | 20645 | 3.615% | 18057 | 3.812% |

I'm actually kind of hoping for Mienshao to drop down eventually. I think it would mesh in well with the rest of UU, and it would be really good for momentum, which UU is lacking. in addition, what is with all the Fighting-types at the bottom of the usage statistics in OU?
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My guess is that Magic Guard Alakazam was released. Alakazam can outspeed both Mienshao, Virision, and Scrafty easily, and can OHKO (or deal serious damage to their defensive sets, in Virision and Scrafty's case,) them with ease. Looking at raw stats, Alakazam rose from UU to the number 41 in OU usage statistics in a heartbeat.
 
Here are the top 3 pokes with the lowest usage in the 1337 stats, that are above 3.4% usage in the normal stats:

1. Zoroark, ranked 95th in the 1337 stats, with 1 use, while being ranked 34th in the normal stats with 7355 uses.

2. Ambipom, ranked 85th in the 1337 stats, with 2 uses, while being ranked 33th in the normal stats with 7692 uses.

3. Rotom-H, ranked 81th in the 1337 stats, with 3 uses, while being ranked 45th in the normal stats with 5754 uses.

And out of those 3, Ambipom is the one with the highest usage in the normal stats, while unlike the others having zero niche...
 
SJCrew said:
No one is hyping Virizion. Only a few people hinted at Scrafty's potential before being absolutely shit on by the UU DAS (UU Defense Against Banning Squad). Same thing happened here, except it was one guy who didn't even say it was overpowered. The most realistic viewpoint I've heard thusfar regarding Virizion was a comparison to Cobalion (thanks Jamasha). The lesson we learned there is that even with all of the right tools to sweep, we're still dealing with 90/90 offenses. I like to keep an open mind about things, so I'm going to leave it there.

Believe it or not, the UU community has a bad track record with understating drop down potential rather than overestimating it. Hippowdon, for example, was a hidden menace. If you thought Sand was a problem now, imagine one Pokemon taking the slot for both Gligar and Hippopotas, THEN having to face Stoutland, Cacturne, and three other sons of bitches to clean up the rest of your weary team. No one expected anything from Porygon2 before Reachzero came in and made us look stupid with the offensive tank.

Toughen your skin a little bit. Back in Gen 4, every drop down was the apocalypse and we all laughed and joked around about it.
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There's a UU Defense Against Banning Squad? News to me, I thought everyone wanted Deo-D out of the tier (I know I did). I've been mentioning how dangerous Roserade is for months. Now that Deo-D is gone, Roserade has another monopoly in its utility belt.

Of course, I would only want to promote a Defense Against Banning Squad against something that doesn't deserve to be banned. Virizion doesn't fall under that category, as it just gives Roserade another ass to kick in UU, along with HeraBoss and a couple other Pokes I'm worried about.
 
I'm interested in whats going on with three RU alumni not named Gligar that rose to UU recently, Honchkrow, Sharpedo, and Claydol. Where Gligar has made waves these guys have hardly made a ripple.


Sharpedo has been the most successful of the three, if the 1337 stats are to be believed, and he's defiantly been the most commonly encountered in my experience, but he doesn't make any demands on teambuilding and isn't difficult to check at all. I'm guessing he'd need a lot of team support to get past the multitude of threats that can tank an attack and shit on that 70/40/40 defensive spread.

I've seen maybe 2 Honchkrow since its risen to UU. I expected him to a fairly relevant threat when he rose UU but as far as I can tell nobody is even aware that he exists anymore. I say from experience that he can barely function in the sand with all the recoil and passive damage he takes.

Claydol is Claydol - he sucks and has always sucked. I see it every once in awhile on teams that are desperate for a spinner and a SR setter. About the best I could do with him was tweak his evs to give him enough speed and special attack to kill random stuff like Roserade and Gligar.
 
alexwolf said:
Ok can someone explain to me why is this thing still UU; What does it do well except from providing a moderately powerful priority move; Good players already know how shitty it is and don't use it, so i am wondering if anyone could explain me why it is still UU...
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There's only 1 explanation plausible ''noobs use it''.


/B/utterfree said:
Because VoltTurn, that's why.

Other than that, it's mostly because as a lead it's still decent. I personally prefer Weavile or someone who sets up hazards over Ambipom anyday...
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Lol volturn. There are no dedicated leads this gen, and even then, Ambipom sucks at stopping hazards being layed down.
 
/B/utterfree said:
There's a UU Defense Against Banning Squad? News to me, I thought everyone wanted Deo-D out of the tier (I know I did). I've been mentioning how dangerous Roserade is for months. Now that Deo-D is gone, Roserade has another monopoly in its utility belt.

Of course, I would only want to promote a Defense Against Banning Squad against something that doesn't deserve to be banned. Virizion doesn't fall under that category, as it just gives Roserade another ass to kick in UU, along with HeraBoss and a couple other Pokes I'm worried about.
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It's a target for Heracross, but not for Roserade. Every set Virizion runs beats it in full. But he's definitely Mew bait.
 
SJ said:
No one is hyping Virizion. Only a few people hinted at Scrafty's potential before being absolutely shit on by the UU DAS (UU Defense Against Banning Squad).
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Where does this squad meet, and are they taking new members in? :P

Virizion would be a neat addition to the UU tier, but don't expect it to take the UU tier by (Leaf) Storm (should be a tutor move in B2W2). It has its hard counters like Crobat and Heracross that resist its STABs, has revenge killers like Darmanitan and Chandelure (assuming Scarf of course) but still can function well in the metagame with its dual threat of Calm Mind and Swords Dance. It's also hard countered by Aerial Ace Scarf Xatu, so there's no way it can be broken.

Virizion will, in my opinion, be a weaker Cobalion in UU because of its worse defensive typing. Grass and Fighting do not go as far as they do in UU as they do in OU because UU has more Flying Pokemon like Togekiss, Zapdos (the Specs set rapes Viri, the other sets do not), and Fire Pokemon like the chandelier and DarMANitan. Overall, I don't see Virizion making a big splash in UU, but it will definitely have to be prepared for.
 
I am shocked Ambipom isn't NU personally. Honestly it would be a good addition to NU. Every time I see Ambipom this is what I think:

This person will probably lead with Ambipom. Ambipom will lead with Fake Out. I can lead with anything that threatens the rest of his team, knowing that if he leads with Ambipom, I can just switch to whatever my Ambipom counter is into the fake out and the result will be 100% the same as if I chose the perfect lead to counter his Ambipom in the first place.

Basically an Ambipom lead puts 0 pressure on the opponent, gives a free switch to what is often the bulky SR setter, and even allows them to scout with anything Ambipom is good against because switching into Fake Out is easy as pie.

Hopefully we can stop using it and it will fall to NU where it belongs, where it will essentially be a more reliable alternative to Cincinno.
 
alexwolf said:
How exactly it beats Volt-Turn?
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No, Ambipom doesn't beat VoltTurn; it contributes to it for the person using it. Most Ambipom sets run U-turn for after their Fake Out lands, just to give extra momentum. Granted, I haven't seen as many VoltTurn teams in UU as I would in OU or RU. But they're still there, with their Ambipom/Zapdos combos.

As for whether or not Ambipom belongs in NU, I do not know. I don't exactly think that for Ambipom, for it can at least hold its own in RU. I would rather see it drop to RU first, then let it fall to NU if that's where it truly belongs.
 
lol yeah, NU is a little low even for Ambipom. But from what I hear, RU is dominated by Ghosts, so Ambipom is going to have his work cut out for him. This is, of course, in an ideal world where UU players realize how garbage he is and eventually stop using him. I think we can attribute his usage to players who have not yet adapted to the lack of a lead metagame and continue to see/use Focus Sash.

Ambipom and Aerodactyl are where you go before you learn how to play the tier. The real momentum setters are Scarf Darmanitan, Victini, Mew, and bulky Stealth Rock leads with Roar.
 
I think anything that hits reasonably hard with a Scarf and U-turn is a a great way to start a match. Versus the sadly common Ambipom, a simple switch to Rhyperior gives me free rocks or a hit against their team, whichever I prefer. I don't think there is a Pokemon worse than Ambipom for sacrificing momentum early game. The only reason I can see people liking it is because it's "the Scizor of UU" only unlike Scizor it doesn't have exceptional defensive typing or great attacking stats or an expansive movepool or the ability to use its priority move more than once. It's basically deadweight in 90% of games beyond hitting a couple of sweepers with Fake Out to shave off 50%. Seriously if you desperately want Fake Out put it on Technitop who can actually do something afterwards.
Anyway, I hadn't really played Pokemon in 4 months until recently and coming backed to UU it seems a lot bulkier than the last time I played it. I'm verymuch enjoying the meta, Lilligant is absolutely awesome and wrecks team after team all by herself because bulky waters are so exploitable and once you have a couple of boosts Giga Drain and HP Rock will almost certainly cover 5/6ths of the opponents team - Sleep Powder neuters the final mon long enough for you to overpower it with a little luck. I've been using SubCM Raikou to mop up the wreckage but you could probably use any decent special attacker.
Houndoom is great right now for Chandy, Azelf and many of the other Psychics and Ghosts running rampant and gets +1 off Will-o-Wisp which is always nice. As long as you watch out for Brick Break, Victini isn't too much trouble either. I used Blastoise for a bit but I don't think it had great synergy with the rest of my team; whatever the case, it didn't impress me. Flygon is still great even though base 100 attack is really meh, Outrage is a nice cleanup move once the bulkier things are dealt with and there's always EQ although I'm finding pretty much every team carries a ground immunity so being overzealous with Earthquake isn't too fun. U-turn is awesome as it always is, though irritating initially when you predict a ~1000 rating player to make a sensible move and they do something stupid and inadvertently grab momentum; fortunately, you'll usually only get a couple such individuals at most.
Togekiss became really popular all of a sudden, I'm guessing someone made a really impressive team with it and sparked a spike in popularity but I can't be sure. It hasn't been a problem for me with Ryperior and Raikou. Suicune is indisputably the most popular bulky water for me at the moment, with Milotic a distant second.
Also I'm guessing it's just exams but UU seems a lot less active than it used to be right now. If the inactivity persists it might be prudent to work out some sort of scheme to try to boost activity, I'm imagining some sort of workshop to help players from other tiers acquaint themselves with UU but hopefully things will pick up once the summer exam season is out of the way.
 
Personally, I'd like to try out CB ambipom and see how that does as, frankly, fake out is predictable and sucks, as well as destroying any form of momentum, but just about no hazard setter likes sucking on a CB for the rest of the match after turn 1 but even then, you've sacrificed your "normal slot" to something which isn't snorlax or porygon2. And while I'm on snorlax, curselax is still brilliant as so long as the opponent doesn't have sableye/fighting type or the odd hazer, he will just curse up and smash stuff while still trolling the number 1 threat in the 1337 stats to no end.

Yeah, exam time seems to be chipping away at all the server numbers.
 
I've tried Ambipom with CB. It doesn't change the fact that he's a terrible UU Pokemon, but it does give him something to do outside of fucking around with Fake Out. Pseudo-stab Pursuits, annoying Brozong with U-turn, Low Sweeping Scarfers, etc. If he had a better offensive typing, I'd be using him as we speak.
 
Well if ambipom does drop down, it would be interesting to see what he does to the RU metagame which seems packed full of suicide hazard setters like scollipede and smeargle at the moment. Payback will still badly bruise ghosts not called dusknoir and cofagrigus, and neither of them will function well being taunted. I think he'd find quite a home there myself.
 
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