Sword/Shield OU Metagame Primer

Composition

OU (OverUsed) is Smogon's fundamental usage-based tier. With the exception of Pokémon banished to the Uber tier, every Pokémon can be used in OU, including Pokémon from UU, RU, NU, and PU. While all non-Uber Pokémon can be used in OU, only those Pokémon that make up at least ~4.52% of total weighted usage in the tier are designated OU. A Pokémon is truly OU if a typical competitive player is more than 50% likely to encounter that Pokémon at least once in a given day of playing (15 battles).

A list of the current OU Pokémon and those with OU analyses for the SS era are found on the dex page.

Tiering

Smogon's OU tiering is ruled by a council of high-level players. The purpose of this thread is to introduce the OU senators to the public and to explain how they handle the tiering process for the OU tier in Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Play Restrictions

Players cannot use Pokémon from the Uber tier.

Players cannot use Dynamax or Gigantamax.

Players must abide by the following clauses:

Players cannot use the following abilities:

Players cannot use the following moves:

The OU Forum

Learn

The Simple Questions, Simple Answers thread is a great place to ask any simple questions you might have relating to the OU metagame. Do not make new threads for questions that could be answered here.

The SS OU Analyses forum is the place to go for writing analyses to be uploaded to the official Smogon Dex. You may reserve an analysis in the Index.

Participate

The SS OU Viability Rankings shows how well every OU-viable Pokémon fares in the OU tier.

The SS OU Metagame Discussion thread allows players to discuss current trends in the OU metagame.

You can help contribute to Smogon's social media pages by writing SS OU Pokémon Spotlights for the Facebook and Twitter pages.

The OU Discord server allows you to chat in real time with other Trainers about the OU tier.