Okay then, Ladies and Gentlemen, woopers of all ages, It is time for the moment We've all been waiting for... The 1st Gen 9 National Dex Team Playstyle "Archetype" Tier List...
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For those who don't know what an "archetype" or in simplier words, a team playstyle, strategy and synergy are two of the most important aspects of competitive Pokémon teambuilding. The foundation of both of these things is your chosen playstyle; the most stripped down, basic way your team is meant to function. Think of these as rpg or fighting game characters, were they all function differently, and thus have different strategies in order to win. So after being around here since day 1 and have 2 teambuild guides as well(go check them out if you can) I felt like doing an overall tier list would be a good idea. Still, I didn't wanted to do it just by myself for a more concrete tier list based on the natdex community, so I asked a few players who also have similar or more experience than myself. So to not keep you waiting... let's just jump into it...
I'll be naming each playstyle or achetype(you tell which word you prefer) from worst to best. Now this doesn't mean you shouldn't play them just based on the rank, even if your favorite playstyle being at the bottom of the barrell, as long as you know the matchup, and prep the team well, you can beat even higher ranked teams if skilled enough, so without further a do, lets get started...
C tier
View attachment 508463
Stall(12th place)
What ever happened to Smogon's beloved? Well, this one suprises almost no one. Stall is that ever hated playstyle where the player slowly but surely cripples you with chip damage until it eventually wins that way. A frustrating playstyle to deal with, but also similarly frustrating to play, as you have to think your plays carefully. Every single component of stall is crucial, from its teammates to its hazards and status. Some of the main ways to cripple the opponent include Toxic, hazards, sand chip, burns, knock off and even pp stalling till the opponent eventually runs out of moves. Some of the most well known mons in stall include Mega Sableye, Toxapex, Chansey, Clefable, Gliscor, Skarmory, Quagsire, Clodsire to name a few. Now with that said, Stall was done really dirty this gen. The most obvious inmediate hit is the pp nerf to all heal moves minus Wish(and Heal Order, but nobody uses Vespiquen). This alone ruins many pokemon, as they're ability to heal damage of threw these moves was crucial for them, especially for Stall. However, this wasn't the only hit to Stall, the addition of Terastalization while useful to change their typing defensively, also made already strong mons like Iron Valiant, rain abusers like Floatzel and Barraskewda, and much more, even more absurd to take hits from. To give u an idea, a Choice Band Floatzel with Water Tera under Tera 2hkos Toxapex of all things, and if it can handle that, it can easily demolish Stall in an eye blink. And to add salt to injury(quite literal) Garganacal as well as Gholdengo are a dead sentence for any Stall team, as their abilities allow them to simply ignore chip damage, as they can't be statused at all, unless u gets a lucky Scald burn in Gholddengo's case, but not Garganacal. You saw Stall before, you were infurious, now u see s
Stall and u almost laugh at it. Out of the 12 people that voted, only 3 of them think stall should be B tier, meanwhile the rest clearly aggres it deserves the C tier. In fact 1 player in particular even made gave it Z tier, which wasn't even a proper tier placement, but
about15guys gave it anyway. He also gave an overall explanation of why he thinks stall is completely unviable. So to the suprise of almost no one, Stall is the worse team playstyle in Gen 9 NatDex OU.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=0
B
=3
C
=9
View attachment 508462
Trick Room(11th place)
Trick Room is a very unique playstyle to say the least. As the name implies, this teamstyle revolves around abusing the presence of Trick Room, a move that while active, the slowest pokemom will hit first(excluding priority). This is potentially devastating against a faster frailer team such as HO teams and certain weathers like Rain and Sun. Some of the best Trick Room setter include the likes of Hatterene, Cresselia, Porygon2, Slowbro and Stakataka. Stakataka in particular is both an enabler AND an abuser of Trick Room. Other abusers include Vikavolt, Torkoal, Iron Hands, Alolan Marowak, Mega Mawile, Mega Camerupt and Kingambit. However, this playstyle as a whole is incredibly niche, as it is incredibly matchup dependant. They Heavily rely on Trick Room being out for their win condition, which they can only abuse for 5 turns, technically 4 in order to bring em out, meanwhile weathers can abuse their respective win conditions for 8 instead. And while some of them are quite bulky, theyre not impossible to take down outside of Trick Room. It does pretty well against faster and frailer teams like the Hyper Offensive teams, but not so hot against more bulkier or even balanced teams that hardly even care of Trick Room being up. In fact similar to Stall, another player didnt even bother rank it up and straight up sayd its ur. Even still, it beated Stall by just 1 point, and it at least has a niche against offensively heavy playstyles.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=1
B
=2
C
=9
View attachment 508482
Sand Offense(10th place)
Sand Offense is one of the 2 traditional ways Sand Teams are played as a playstyle. Sand Offense is about embrassing the presence of Sand and abusing it, similar to Sun, Rain, and the new Snow. The some of the bests abusers are Excadrill, Dracozolt, and Mega Garchomp, as they get extra benefits from sand like Sand Rush or Sand Force. Tyranitar is an alright setter, as it can be a bulky wallbreaker on top of setting Sand Stream, but you can also use Hippowdon over it, or alongside it for more longevity, and thus more opportunities to set Sand Stream. This all sounds great in paper, but not so much in practice. Mainly cuz the Sand Offense playstyle as a whole, is outclassed by Sun and Rain. Both Sun and Rain gets a 50% boost to Fire and Water moves respectively, meanwhile Sand does not. To be fair that was never an issue, the real issue is that the other weather teams gained new toys that elevated them, meanwhile the one sand got, Houndstone, was quickbanned for good reason. Dracozolt is quite slow EVEN in Sand, and Excadrill while Strong and Fast, has trouble breaking certain mons in the tier. And Mega Garchomp, while decent once it gets going, its not easy to get going in the first place. Even Snow is considered better, cuz it has better ways to abuse Snow like Aurora Veil. Overall Sand Offense can really use some new toys to play with, like better Sand Rush abuser or an Aurora Veil like move but for Sand.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=1
B
=3
C
=8
B Tier
View attachment 508503
Snow HO(9th place)
Snow is the new replacement for Hail in this generation, as Snow Warning now summons Snow upon entry instead(Although the move Hail still exist here in Natdex). Most if not all the same interactions that you had with Hail also work with Snow, like Slush Rush, Ice Body, and of course, Aurora Veil. The main difference is that instead of Snow doing chip damage every turn all non-Ice types, Ice types instead gain a 50% physical defense boost. This may not seem that great at first, considering Ice is the worst defensive type in the game. However, this boost in conjuction with Aurora Veil, Ice types would have a 100% physical defense, and a 50% special defense boost in total, which is pretty good if you think about it. Snow HO is quite straightfoward, you bring in a Snow Warning mon, mainly Alolan Ninetales, setup Aurora Veil, and abuse them as much as possible. This makes it play similar to Sun and Rain, but also Screens Offense as well, which gives it quite the layers of offensive prowess. Some abusers of Snow are Arctozolt and Baxcalibur, but since this playstyle also behaves as a Screens Offense, it can also take a similar mental and run mons like Volcarona, Gholdengo, Annihilape and much more, without the drawback of being chipped like you would with Hail. They also gained a new move in Chilly Reception, a Uturn like move that instead of dealing damage, it sets up Snow upon switchin out. These moves were given to both forms of Slowking, which are both decent pivot mons that can also set Future Sight for extra pressure on the opponent. So with all of this going for it, why is it only B tier? Despite all these good qualities, it also has a lot holding it back. First off, it has to try and compete with other weathers, as they can just switch in their weather setter and interrupt Alolan Ninetales's attempts to setup Aurora Veil. And speaking of Veil, it also has a hard time with the 2 premier Screen seters, Tapu Koko and Grimmsnarl, as they can also shut the fox's attempts with fast Taunts. On top of that, Alolan Ninetales itself isn't really great, as it has an abysmal defensive typing, as something as simple as M-Scizor's Bullet Punch OHKOes it 100% if the time unless it uses Tera, which also means u would sacrifice offensive prowess to keep your setter alive. And both Slowkings are also weak to Pursuit, and with how almost omnipresent Kingambit is, the task of setting Snow threw Chilly Reception is also difficult. In other words, the conditions for Snow to set the tempo in order to get going are extremely difficult to fullfill. However, IF you can get it going, it can be a force to be reckoned with.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=1
B
=4
C
=7
View attachment 508521
Sand Balance(8th place)
Sand Balance is the 2nd traditional way of playing Sand teams, the other which we've talked about already. Sand Balance uses Sand in the opposite way of Sand Offense, instead of using it to abuser sweepers in a similar fashion to other weathers, they use the more defensive aspect of Sand. Sand boostes the Special Defense of all Rock-types by 50%, and while this isn't commonly very beneficial since the Sand setter of these teams is mainly Hippowdon, not Tyranitar, it can come in handy for something like Garganacal. But of course, while active, Sand deals 6% of chip damage to all non-Rock, Steel, and Ground types(or Pokemon with other abilities like Magic Guard and Overcoat as well). Of course Sand does use Sand Rush and/or Sand Force users as well, just not to the extreme of Sand Offense. Which is why many people think that Sand Balance is better overall, at least according to this list. Some great Sand Balance members include the already mentioned Hippowdon, as well as others like Skarmory, Garchomp, Mega Scizor, Excadrill, Garganacal, Corviknight, Ferrothorn, Landorus-T and Heatran. Both playstyle are very similar to each other, with the big different being that in here you use a similar mentality as you would with regular Balance, but add the elements of Sand to Now it still isn't that amazing, as it has similat issues as Sand Offense does, for example it can still struggle vs the other weathers, even with how bulky Hippowdon tends to be. But it is at least better than its more Offensive version.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=3
B
=4
C
=5
View attachment 508191
Webs HO(7th place)
Webs HO is yet another Hyper Offensive playstyle. And as the name implies, the playstle is all about abusing the Sticky Webs, a hazard that upon entry lowers the speed of the pokemon by 1 stage. This opens up potential for certain pokemon to sweep, like Xurkitre, Mega Heracross and Thundurs-T for example. Shuckle and Ribombee are the premier setters for the job, Shuckle is bulkier and can also setup Stealth Rocks for the team, and Ribombee is faster, has access to Skill Swap for any Magic Bounce attempt from Hatterene or Mega Diancie, and can also paralyze with Stun Spore. The addition of Gholdengo also helped significantly, as it can deny both Rapid Spin due to being part Ghost type, and Defog with its ability Good As Gold. Gholdengo itself is a great Webs abuser with its high Spatk, decent speed, and appreciates the opposing team having their speed lowered. However, the problem the Webs HO teams had back in the day is still present, and that is that the hazard only targets grounded pokemon, meaning Flying types, Levitate mons or even Heavy Duty Boots can simply bypass them. Plus it isn't an automatic win even with those being dealth with, as slower and bulkier teams care very little of webs, if at all. Plus even Gholdengo can still be played around, with its weaknesses to Ghost, Dark, Ground and Fire, all of which are pretty common in this metagame. Even still, Webs HO is a pretty interesting archetype that can keep up with some of the best.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=4
B
=6
C
=2
A Tier:
View attachment 508216
Balance(6th place)
Balance is one of the most customizable playstyles out there. This playstyle is an overall Balance between Offense and Defense. From the offensive side of the coin, you have between Setup Sweepers, Revenge Killers and Wallbreakers. And from the defensive side of the coin, we have walls that usually cover the teams weaknesses, as well as each other's weaknesses, between 2 or 3 pokemon. Their job is to switchin, and cripple the opponent between status likr burns, paralysis and poison, as well as Knock Off. Once they set the tempo, you bring your offensive mons to potentially win the game from there. There is many ways you can build these type of teams, making the playstyle consistent and adaptable. Because of this, They're isn't a true right or wrong on how to build them, just as long as the pokemon in the team are good themselves. Some honorable mentions for offensive mons on Balance teams include; Annihilape, Dragapult, Great Tusk, Kingambit, Zamazenta, Iron Valiant, Gholdengo, Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Garchomp, Mega Scizor, Mega Charizard Y, Mega Medicham, Mega Diancie, Tornadus-T to name a few. For defensive mons we have Corviknight, Ferrothorn, Heatran, Rotom-Wash, Toxapex, Clodsire, Skeledirge, Garganacal, Skarmory, Tangrowth, Slowbro, Zapdos, Gastrodon, Landorus-T, Gliscor. and much more. In fact some of these can work as both offensive threads AND defensive backbones at the same time like Great Tusk, Landorus-T and Garchomp for example. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when its comes to the pokemon ypu can add to the team, and these rules are similar for BO and Fat to some extend. If they're could be an actual weakness to the playstyle, if any, is maybe that they don't excel in everything. HO is always going to be more aggresive, meanwhile Stall is going to be more defensive. But honestly, this barely even feels as a weakness, if you want to even consider that as a weakness, which is why Balance teams are some of the best playstyles in the metagame.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=6
B
=6
C
=0
View attachment 508231
Fat(5th place)
For those who aren't aware already, Fat is basically an unofficial term for yet another playstyle. Fat is pretty similar to BO, but it aims more towards Stall than its more offensive cousin. So Fat is pretty much a 60% stall(sometimes even more) and 40% offense(sometimes even less). Their teams usually consist of 4, sometimes even 5 stallmons, and then add a wallbreaker, or form of speed control to just to not get overwhelmed by the opponent. This may sound odd that Fat is this high up meanwhile Stall is at the very bottom of the tier list, but you need to remember pure Stall lacks offensive prowess. In general, it can stall the game for a while, by crippling the opponents team with status, hazards and knock off, similar to a Stall team, and even occasionally win in that fashion. However, that is where the wallbreaker comes in as an alternative win condition. Between this playstyle, Balance, and BO there seems to been a lot in common, but they have slight differences that are enough to make them overall different playstyles to each other. Fat isn't similarly customizable as Balance and BO, as it uses the ideal of Stall as part of their structure. A Stall core they use often is Hippowdon and Skarmory, or HippoSkarm, alongside Toxapex and between Garganacal or Skeledirge, with the wallbreaker and/or speed controls usually being Mega Lopunny, Tornadus-T, and Dragapult for example, Think of it as meat terms, Fat would be in the more well term meanwhile BO is on the raw term, and of course, Balance is medium.
Total Votes:
S
=0
A
=7
B
=5
C
=0
View attachment 508222
BO(Bulky Offense)(4th place)
Bulky Offense teams are really similar to that of Balance teams, in fact, too similar. The main difference however, is that they aim more towards the offensive side. Basically, BO is around 60% Offense, and 40% Defense. Most of the pokemon in these teams include 2-3 pivots, between offensive and defensive. The goal is to switch around and position yourself in a way that you can gain advantage from the scenario. However, there not just pure Voltturn as one would think, as they usually bring with them a Sweeper to clean up late game once the moment is right. And similarly as Balance teams, it is just as customizable and thus adaptable as well. However, the majority of the players that voted consider Bulky Offense the better of the three playstyles.
Total Votes:
S
=1
A
=8
B
=4
C
=0
View attachment 508433
Rain(3rd place)
Rain teams is one of the 4 weather teams in pokemon(well 5 if u count Hail not being similar to Snow). So the game is simple, bring a Drizzle setter(A.k.a Pelipper) and abuse it as much as possible. With Swift Swimmers like Mega Swampert, Barraskweda, Floatzel and Kingdra blitzing everything under the Rain. Other abusers include Manaphy, Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Zapdos, Tornadus-Therian, Walking Wake and the rare Greninja. However, Rain isn't only an offense machine, as Fertothorn is an excellent pokemon in Rain thanks to its bulk and utility, and enjoys Rain nuttering its quadruple Fire weakness. Gholdengo could also be used in Rain, similar to Ferrothorn it enjoy Fire being weakened for it while providing some power of its own, and of course, Good As Gold is always good to have. Meanwhile Zapdos and Tornadus offer some defensive utility by having a Ground immune, and Mega Swampert brings an electric immunity, which is excellent for Rain to have. However, the Real deal for Rain teams is the addition of Terastalization, which they abuse to astonishing levels with Tera Water. This makes offensive Rain abusers like Barraskewda and Urshifu-Rapid-Strike almost impossible to switch into safely, as not even Toxapex wants to take a hit seeing its 2hkoed by a Choice Band Floatzel with Tera Water. Some of the players that voted said that Rain was even S tier worthy, but the majority voted for it to be A tier. Even still, it's not a playstyle to take lightly in the slightest.
Total Votes:
S
=3
A
=9
B
=0
C
=0
View attachment 508437
Sun(2nd place)
Sun is another weather based team, and according to the votes, it is the best of the bunch. In fact, this is the first time Sun is actually considered better than Rain, which is no mean feat. Sun teams abuse the ability Drought threw Torkoal and or Mega Charizard Y. Chrollophyllers like Venusaur and the more niche Scovillain are excellent pokemon for sweeping, wallbreaking and/or cleaning up, as well as the new Paradox mons like Great Tusk, Walking Wake, and the rare Slither Wing. Walking Wake in particular boosted the viability on Sun teams almost on its own, as its typing lets it handle the Rain matchup really well, and also has a signature Water type move that gets boosted in Sun instead of nuttered. Other abusers include Victini and Blaziken, as the extra fire power is tremendous, especially with Tera Fire for them to abuse. Sun is definetly one the most powerful playstyles in National Dex OU, as some even believe that Walking Wake is too strong under Sun and should thus be banned. Many players considered it S worthy, however it was a half n half between it and A, so it barely missed the mark.
Total Votes:
S
=6
A
=6
B
=0
C
=0
S Tier
View attachment 508440
Screens HO(1st place)
Screens HO is perhaps the epedemy of hyper offense play. Screens HO revolves around the Dual Screens, Reflect and Light Screen, to half all physical and special attacks aimed at them while active respectively. This allows already dangerous mons like Volcarona and Mega Gyarados to reliably setup and potentially sweep from there. Even if 1 of there attempts falls short, its going to leave a hole for an ally to clean up late game. The premier seters for this are Tapu Koko and Grimmsnarl, Grimm with its Prankster Screens, Taunts and Parting Shots, and Koko with Electric Terrain enabling even more threads such as Iron Valiant. Another addition Screens HO gained this gen was Cyclizar, with great speed, a huge utility movepool, and of course, Shed Tail. With how destructive this playstyle tends to be, a single Shed Tail can often be described as a dead pokemon on the opponent's team, or at the very least, a massive hole, especially under Dual Screens. Orthworm is another Shed Tail passer, but it isn't nearly as good, however, it still has some unique traits like being able to set hazards and being slow allows it to slowpass Shed Tail, which can flip the tables. There is also Glimmora, who became an excellent suicide lead thanks to Toxic Debris adding an additional layer of hazard upon getting hit by a contact move. Even without it in the picture, Landorus-T is also a great suicide lead with its amazing attack and Explosion. Some excellent sweepers include Iron Valiant, Iron Moth, Volcarona, Hawlucha, Serperior, Annihilape, Kingambit, Dragapult, Dragonite, Baxcalibur, Serperior, Mega Gyarados and many more. In fact recently, people have been experimenting with a Mew set called "Demon Mew" which sets Cosmic Power to boost its defenses alongside Dual Screens to become basically unkillable, and then sweep from there with Stored Power. The power of this playstyle is such that many want it to be hit in some way, mainly banning either Cyclizar or Shed Tail as a whole, Annihilape, Dragapult and Kingambit. So similar to how Stall was unsuprisingly the worse playstyle, Screens HO is to no suprise the Best playstyle in this gen of National Dex OU.
Total Votes:
S
=9
A
=3
B
=0
C
=0
So there you have it, the National Dex OU "Archetype" tier list
S
| Screens HO | | | | | |
A
| Sun | Rain | BO | Fat | Balance | |
B
| Webs HO | Sand Balance | Snow HO | | | |
C
| Sand Offense | Trick Room | Stall | | | |
Huge Credits to those who participated on this list:
about15guys,
Oculars,
Evilo42 ,
hidin,
TheRainQueen ,
georgebowserjr ,
Dead by Daylight ,
Negative_emotions916 ,
Chino_ ,
Illouri ,
MurderousMantyke ,
Sputnik,
diseased rodent ,
hi.naming is hard ,
RunicPower413 ,
Typhlosion4 and
gamer but swag.
Thank you to all of you for helping me out on this project, I really hope this was for the better of this metagame. I hope you all like it, and who knows, I may try to keep doing more of these articles in the future.
for ghost sure ig ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A - pretty solid midspeed breaker, while 115 attack isn't anything special, rock head alongside its access to flare blitz and head smash mean this could throw a wrench into common metagame mons, especially those on slower teams
D - terrible pokemon, its got all the same issues that regular avalugg has, except worse in every regard. It's a defensive mon with the single worst defensive dual type in the game, terrible special bulk and a useless signature move
S - this is a pokemon to look out for. obviously with access to last respects it'd be turbo broken, but assuming last respects gets banned this mon would find a comfy home on rain teams as their main breaker. while slower than floatzel, its still got a great speed tier in rain alongside a second potent stab in ghost, a much higher hp stat allowing it to spam wave crash more, and slightly higher base attack elevating it to a level above floatzel. be ready for this mon to punch holes in unprepared teams and a general thorn in the side for builders
C - on paper this looks like a pretty solid option, 112 spa is nothing to scoff at, especially with access to sheer force, but the cripplingly low speed tier alongside middling bulk and a weakness to dark makes this an all around ok mon, scarfed tinted lens sets could potentially be interesting, but as a whole I don't think this mon is that good
B - triple arrows looks neat, but the statline shoehorns it into trick room teams so it's not getting much usage. again, could be an interesting scarfer, especially with triple arrows' secondary effects but nothing too crazy
D - who
B - seems ok at best, on paper a fairy type contrary user with a solid speed tier seems good, but sadly the only move she gets that works with contrary is superpower, so it's not going to be that good
C - looking at the stats on this thing, I figured it could be a pretty solid mon on fatter teams, with its good defensive typing and great statline, but unfortunately it's missing both defog and recovery, meaning its not a great option, if for some reason it gets roost and defog when it comes to S/V it could be a very solid option
A - very similar mon to regular goodra, but a valuable steel dual typing could make this a very desirable mon, as 110 spa is still somewhat threatening, especially with it's good movepool
C - rocks aren't that hard to get up right now, and magic bounce/taunt isnt even the most common. its stats also aren't the best, with 135 attack being its only one worth mention, most pokemon can probably just outright outspeed and kill it, just run a consistent rocker like lando-t
S - this thing is scary man, on paper 105 attack isn't that high, but with access to hustle and objectively better dragon dance, this thing is going to be incredibly scary to switch into. absolutely going to require building around in the builder, especially with all the great options it has for its 4th move
B - ok looking pokemon, intimidate on a poison/dark type could see some use on a few teams, but otherwise it looks pretty unremarkable as a whole
C - does not look very usable, while ceasless edge + sharpness seems like a good combo, its stats are just terrible, poor speed tier and terrible bulk as a whole make this hard to justity using, as most common leads can probably just instantly kill it with a smidgen of offensive investment, only niche it gets is how hard it beats stall
S - s/v's candidate for most annoying mon of all time. while I don't think this'll become too common, it's going to be a right pain in the ass to switch into, with dire claw's frankly absurd secondary effects alongside potent setup options in sd and unburden options w/ seed, it'll see common use on hyper offense teams and looks like a potent late game and gambit answer
B - signature move seems nice, ability to fish for burns on switches is good, but lack of good statline and poor abilities make it situationally usable over regular hex users like dragapult
A - wake up babe new fat mu fish just dropped. jokes aside this looks like an incredibly potent midspeed breaker, ground/steel has good offensive coverage and access to guts and a base attack of 140 makes this thing scary, but not being able to hold an item, taking 6% damage every turn, usable but not impressive bulk and terrible speed tier hold it back a lot, could potentially see use on tr teams but idk how common they'll be
C - psyshield bash is interesting, otherwise unremarkable as a whole, offensive mon hindered by poor speed tier + bad bulk
