What Pokemon has had the most effect on the OU metagame?

[domeface]

Even though he is banned now, Salamence is definitely the most influential pokemon in OU; he literally shaped the entire metagame. Every team had to be built around countering him, and every player had to have a plan for him. Not to say that teams did not have to prepare for other things like gyara, but mence was without a doubt the number one threat for longer than anything else.

You misspelt "Garchomp".

 

[Blatreutka]

I never had the opportunity to play in with an OU Garchomp, so I went with Latias (other). It definitely defined the metagame more than anything on the poll list.

 

[noob3]

why isn't blissey on the list considering no one uses special sweepers and all physical, blissey easily has the most effect on the OU metagame by far

 

[Xtremeperson]

^That's true, it's not an effect we directly see, but Blissey is the reason why guys like Raikou can't go around and tear up the whole metagame.

 

[ungulateman]

Raikou has problems outside of Blissey. Also see: Jirachi, Suicune and Infernape (obviously Nape normally runs mixed).

Should I continue to point out special sweepers until the universe collapses?

 

[Coldcut]

Raikou has problems outside of Blissey. Also see: Jirachi, Suicune and Infernape (obviously Nape normally runs mixed).

Should I continue to point out special sweepers until the universe collapses?

Jirachi runs both special and physical sets, just not at the same time. Also, Blissey is the main reason why Infernape runs mixed instead of purely special sets. So you have really named one and a half special sweepers. Gyarados, Metagross, Tyranitar, and Lucario all make a living as purely physical sweepers (yes, Tyranitar and Lucario can go mixed, but 88% of Ttars and 84.7% of Lucarios use 0 SpAtk EVs). Do you want me to name physical sweepers until the universe collapses?

 

[ungulateman]

That might have a little bit to do with Gyarados, and to a lesser extent both of the pseudo-legends you mentioned, being physically biased (125 Atk or 60 SpA? Hmm, choices, choices). Lucario is physical because of SD (along with CC) - CM is too slow to boost and Specs ruins his perfect coverage by locking him in. Oh, and all of those Pokemon are completely walled by Skarmory unless they go mixed or special, so GG.

Obviously Blissey has had a fairly large effect on 4th gen OU, but there are still many ways around it. You have six Pokemon available for a reason.