Neliel
Sacred Sword
Approved by Birkal and Harsha
Credit to Delver for the idea
Credit to Delver for the idea
Hi people, I'm Neliel and I'll be your host for this thread! You may have seen this project in the LC forum, and it works in a similar fashion. Every week, I will decide the Victim of the Week, and you guys have to discuss about which Pokemon, and what strategy, checks it better. It can be whatever you want, even customized sets to deal with the Pokemon, but if you do so remember to give proper explanation of it. Remember also that we should discuss all the possibilities this game offers to deal with a specific threat, so don't post always the same two to three Pokemon. The purpose of this thread is to help newer players learning how to face some dangerous Pokemon as well as having some discuss about new sets that may work in OU in order to counter a specific threat.
Volcarona
85 Hp / 60 Atk / 65 Def / 135 Satk / 105 Spd / 100 Spe
Abilities: Flame body, Swarm
We all know why Volcarona is Ou; Quiver dance. This moth have the access to one of the best boosting move, being a special dragon dance with the bonus of the special defense. Volcarona seems perfect to use quiver dance, 100 base speed is not bad in this metagame, and 135 special atk its just awesome. Its stab are not bad either, fire and bug are good, but also the other coverage moves it has make make it even more threatening. The fact that under sun it has a 270 base power move with quiver dance, is enough to say how scary it can be. But if you want to use it under rain, you can do that too, since it also have the cool Hurricane to combine with bug buzz. If this want enough, in bw2 it got giga drain and roost, being able to bypass terrakion and keldeo easier, as well as being able to run defensive sets more efficently. You also have to face the fact that everytime you are using a dragon to counter it, it will have hidden power ice, and if you use Heatran it will have hp ground. So this is one of those counterless pokemon, but then why it isnt in every single team? the reason is its typing, that lets it take 50% from stealth rock. This is an huge let down for it, since stealth rock is almost in every team. Sometimes you dont even need to counter it, because the fact that there is sr up will garante you it wont sweep.
The first pokemon we have to discuss is Jirachi. Jirachi is one of the most versatile pokemon in the OU metagame, being able to run a vast number of viable sets, like Calm Mind, Scarf, Defensive, and others. Its stats are very well balanced, and with its 100 / 100 / 100 defenses it can run defensive sets with success, also thanks to its great typing that gives it only two weaknesses and a lot of useful resistances. It also has some nice support moves like Wish, Healing Wish, Thunder Wave and Stealth Rock, that lets it shine even more. Offensively its not bad either, while 100 in every offensive stats seems bad, it can run Calm Mind sets to power up his special moves in order to attempt a sweep. He has no problem running a Scarf set, since it has one of the faster U-turn and along with the elemental punches and Iron Head it can hit a large portion of the metagame. Iron Head, in conjunction with Body Slam, is one of the most annoying move that you will ever face, since with its ability, serene grace, its flinching rate its very high. So, people, how do you deal with Jirachi? Is there any Pokemon able to beat every of its sets? If there aren't, which Pokemon can best combat all of its sets?
Breloom
60 Hp / 130 Atk / 80 Def / 60 Satk / 60 Spd / 70 Spe
Abilities: Effect spore, Poison heal, Technichan
Breloom is one of those pokemon that even with bad stats overall, always shined since the beginning of Bw. Its poison heal's sets were already good, with sub focus punch being of the most threatening and annoying. Its immunity to status and Spore were one of the main reason of its success; like it wasnt enough breloom could also use Stun spore and leech seed to annoy the opponent even more. Then, bulk up breloom became one of the most common set, being able to sweep teams sometimes. Then, with bw2, breloom got one of the best ability it could ever get, technichan. This allow breloom to effectively use its priority mach punch and the boosted bullet seed to sweep teams with sword dance.
Not everything is good about it by the way; its defensive stats makes it very fragile, since any supereffective move will almost kill it, its stab are not even the best, grass+fighting its walled by a lot of things, even though spore compensate its lack of coverage.
So, what do you guys use to stop breloom?
Landorus-t
89 Hp / 145 Atk / 90 Def / 105 SpA / 80 Spd / 91 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Landorus-t its a very dangerous pokemon if used correctly, thanks to its ability it can easily set up a rock polish or a sword dance depending or the situation. Its impressive attack lets it have one of the strongest earthquake in Ou, and thanks to move like Gravity or stone edge, even flying and levitate pokemon have to think twice before switching on it. While its speed its not stellar, its enough to outspeed the whole metagame after a rock polish, and enough to sweep a slow team with sword dance. Its weaknesses are common by the way, almost any water/ice attack will kill it. Other usefull moves are Explosion, that lets it do impressive damage in combination with normal gem, and u-turn that lets it continue the volturn strategy. Its special attack its not as bad as you may think, things like Starmie only has 100 base Spa and are really threatening, the problem with landorus-t is that its outclassed by its brother Landorus. So what do you use to stop Landorus-t?
Starmie is one of the few pokemon that was Ou in every generation since Rby; the reason of his success are not difficult to understand though. One of its strong point is its stellar speed, that lets it outspeed a large part of the metagame, often being outspeeded only by scarfed pokemon. Its special atk, while not excellent, its more than enough to open holes in the enemies teams, also thanks to its coverage that makes it very hard to counter. Hydro pump, Thunderbolt, Ice beam is an almost unresisted coverage, and for the few things that are supposed to check it starmie has some trick to beat them. It has to be noticed that in this generation starmie can be even more threatening than in the past, since almost nothing likes to take specs hydro pump under rain. Trick and psyshock deserves a mention, since they can be very usefull to get past some of his counters.
Starmie is also known for his great rapid spin support, being one of the best spinners at the moment. Its typing its not stellar for a defensive pokemon, being very susceptile to the omnipresent Tyranitar, but its not that bad. Thats it, lets discuss of do you check starmie!
Venusaur
80 Hp / 82 Atk / 83 Def / 100 Satk / 100 Spd / 80 Spe
Ability: Chlorophyll
Venusaur is one of the most threatening pokemon in this metagame, and for a good reason. While its stat may seem mediocre, with an 82 / 100 / 80 attacking stats, thanks to clorophill and growths this things became very annoying to face, providing there is sun up. Its stab are not the best offensively, poison and grass leave it open to a lot of things, but with differents hidden power it can cover anything. Since giga drain is legal with clorophill now, you cant even try to stall it with the life orb recoil. Venusaur has some trick to kill some of his counters, such as earthquake, and sleep powder that lets it have easier setup. It also has an annoying sub seed set which is difficult to deal with if you let it sub.