Hey all, since I’m stressed (again) I’ll talk about some mons that I like. Because of this there may be a little bias in what I say but here we go.
This thing is just such a good wincon. There are checks to it but they can be overwhelmed, like ting-Lu, ferro, mtar, a lot of fast stuff etc. but I’m far from saying the thing is broken. I just really like it’s consistency as a wincon mainly, it always breaks just so effectively against so many structures in the tier, like those pex / Glisc balances (along with a lot of balances in general that have Lando as the ground) along with doing nicely into weather teams (not featuring Mtar). Drag z is obviously pretty good but Taunt and booster stuff is also still pretty smooth sailing to use, being good traders and denying further defensive counterplay in the case of taunt and more consistent breaking with booster.
This fulfills so many defensive roles for a team it’s actually so useful on top of being a blanket check into stuff like Darkrai ival Volc among others. It provides so many useful resistances to water, fire, fairy, and fighting and is super good glue to a variety of teams. Besides this there isn’t much to say, and I don’t think the thing has fallen off at all but in fact is thriving due to the meta being fighting infested in top of having common things that pex checks, like msciz, volc, Weav, and mlop. Being able to have reliable recovery, the ability to run scald, haze, and potentially even Tspikes also separate it from mola and make it much better imo, also you actually check stuff with pex LOL.
I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this, but whenever a mtar is correctly slotted on a team it makes it so much more consistent and heck even more fun to use. It provides so much good utility in rocks, knock, and the rare pursuit on top of the ability to check bolt, Weav, and yard. Typing sucks but it being able to check these threats on top of having the bulk to survive a good amount of hits and hitting like a truck and you have me sold. It’s also good into choice locked stuff like rai, lele, and even hsam if it predicts right which furthers its potential utility to set rocks or click knock or even pursuit these guys.
After looking at some prep for wc I realized how much this thing can cook and how important it is to have a fire resist if you can slot it. Initially in dlc2 I (and probably others) thought that this was just an enabler for gouging and bolt, but now thinking more about it and looking at opinions and teams from others I feel this is a generally good offensive threat. It’s done what it has always done; it blasts through teams with the right opportunities since a solid amount of teams can lose to it if it’s checks are weakened, like say pex or Tera dragon gking. Sure it’s rocks weak but with the right play and the teammates you should probably be running with it it’s well worth the power and ability to shred a lot of Lando offenses or bos given the chances.
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Rain has from what I have seen risen. A lack of bulky water resists have made rain a lot more difficult to deal with, and although it does not like pon staying or losing turns due to the potential checks of the individual rain sweepers (like Barra into pex or Fightings / fast spatkers into arch, although it still trades nicely). Rain being able to do the offense style’s main purpose and overwhelming checks for the teammates on it helps it to be one of the things you have to account for in building or else you’ll just auto lose to it. Rain stuff rising on the vr also helps prove the point of rain having a resurgence.
Looking back this thing has super good defensive traits. Being a zama check is always good but like pex it has the same fighting and Water resists that are all so useful. It’s good into the waters rain uses, shifu, zama, mlop, mmedi (which is surprising and is a good trait), and other stuff pex can have trouble with like non drag z dnite and sd Gliscor which is pretty good in the case of the last one. Besides that it has pivoting support on top of Tera to pivot on pon, Koko, and yard, allowing for more counterplay into them (mainly yard and pon; Koko is just a nice thing to resist for bro especially) since they can be revenge killed despite their threat level. Pivoting and future sight support is also just a generally good thing for a lot of breakers and even just a regular team that appreciates the pivoting.
Serp being only B is kinda a crime ngl, it has some super cool traits and offensive capabilities. For one, its almost unresisted coverage in combination with Tera makes it pretty threatening in its own right. Grass fire ground hits basically the entire tier except for like flying stuff, and those things can either be overwhelmed by repeated leaf storms or be cheesed with glare. Being able to cripple pon and be faster than it is also a huge plus. It’s also solid on some Ho builds because of its good offensive capabilities and ability to wear down stuff for teammates like Volc or Ival while also packing the insanely good glare. Other sets like taunt synth and fog are also usable and give a more utility focused approach to serp which propels offense greater, like fogging and glaring stuff for things like mmedi and weav while also having decent longevity with synth. Sub glare is also super cheesy and can severely chunk teams if positioned right and is personally my least favorite set to play against since glare is once again broken.
I feel this thing has a good amount of potential, as it’s a steel bird (so it has a good defensive profile) with the broken spikes (and a good matchup into the ground foggers and maybe even some of the non grounds too, like non taunt fog torn or kart). Being a steel that can’t check lele makes it super hard to fit it on a team though. Its wincon potential is super limited in a tier with pex and lele but iron defense is super useful because with it you can 1v1 zama long term with helm chip which is one of the best reasons to use skarm. Besides that it doesn’t really do much else, it has issues with getting overwhelmed easily and losing momentum against stuff but spikes gives it a solid niche imo.
This is a super solid balance breaker, which although is not THAT big of a deal considering offense is all the rage now, but even so balance is still decent and pecha does pretty well into those teams. Shoutouts to oculars for creating the ghost z set you really did save Pecha from being something that can’t break at all. It also has a nice speed tier if you use the sample spread, outspeeding Glisc (which is super important on this mon), modest bolt, adamant msciz, and any landos trying to creep those 2. Good defensive traits in being immune to toxic and having a fighting resist into stuff like lop and zama is also super good, which furthers its mu into balance because fightings like those 2 are common forms of speed control. Also don’t use any other set than nplot ghost z most others are either outclassed or lack sufficient breaking power.
Although having bolt in this tier sucks this actually has some neat traits. It checks lele a little better than Corv due to it being able to threaten lele with damage without costing its health while also soft checking other things like rai and nplot torn (rai 2hkoing after rocks is like a 3% chance lolz). Leech protect is also annoying at times, especially with the steels besides tran being cooked by flamethrower so they can’t blank it. Leech is also surprisingly hard to switch into and is super annoying because of this as ferro can’t block leech. That’s all I have to say for defensive sets but autotomize can also be a decently threatening wincon that has a super good defensive typing to setup with and can check lele on top of that.
Decent trader because of Tera and ok longevity with lefties and Drain punch on top of being absurdly fat. SD sets are ok because of its fatness and good typing and offensive coverage, allowing it to trade with almost the entire tier. Hazards hurt it a lot and it sometimes doesn’t really put in the work it should but I feel it has a niche.
Ok this is a curveball and I’ll make a vr post on it in the future going more in depth but this can be a surprisingly ok wincon into fatter stuff because of magic guard being super useful on top of good coverage into a lot of the tier. Resisting fighting helps it against zama and mlop too. Oh yeah this thing also gets psychic noise which is an insane tool you can use at the cost of not being able to threaten gking, but imo I feel psychic noise is worth this trade, being able to deny recovery from stuff like Glisc, Ferro, and Garg if you want something that will always cripple them somehow if you aren’t fight z. It still has issues like not being that consistent of a wincon and struggling against darks but if you pair it with tspikes pex or mtias (which helps overwhelm the darks so at least one of them wins in the end) then it can do stuff probably. I still think fight z is the best set so you slam mtar Weav on switch in while also having a consistent hit into Ferro, heatran, and ting Lu. In terms of evs you can just go the standard 44 to outspeed pex but if ur crazy ig you could outspeed ting Lu if you really really wanted.
Another unranked mon I think has potential to put in work. Thundt has actually super good coverage and good offensive typing, which makes it pretty decent on webs teams but can also be used on some more specific Ho teams. On webs it has the nice use of actually threatening the foggers immediately unlike serp or even bisharp. Fight z is imo the best set, as you get to nuke stuff like bolt ferro and mtar much more consistently along with lure the occasional blissey and chansey if they switch in on you (clod can potentially be worn down since you are playing Ho or is persuaded to not come in due to teammates like mmedi or shifu). Ground immunity is also a good trait for a mon that needs the opportunities to set up since it’s so frail, as it can do such against stuff like Lando or Glisc (if they toxic you, they can’t really threaten you beyond that so you can probably take out a good chunk of a team by then). Rocks weakness along with having a meh speed tier out of niche style of webs makes it probably not the best mon for discussion but whatever I like it. Oh yeah it’s an electric sweeper that doesn’t struggle to offensively threaten bolt so that’s also nice.
alright I’m done pls don’t flame me too hard :3
This may come as a surprise to you since it's gone under the radar ever since it was introduced. Many of you might not even recognize this Pokemon(Dialga-Origin). A staggering 680 BST with good enough distribution for any tier. Dialga-O has great coverage and useful stab combination that allows it to hit fairies and blow up Pokemon who don't resist Dragon. If you can look past it's strengths, it has major flaws holding it back. As a certified doctor, I feel confident to diagnose this Pokemon with FMSS. Another major flaw, Dialga-O is item restricted., meaning it can't change it's item. Simialr to Ogerpon forms but it's item only boost it's stab moves by 1.2x. Dialga's main role would be a bulky offensive Stealth Rocker. Similar to Mega Tyranitar, Dialga hits very hard and is very tanky which allows him to trade well verses offensive Pokemon that'd normally threaten your defenisve core. Dragon Steel is generally a good typing if it's backed by strong offensive stats, it's not 4x weak to anything, it has a lot of great resist that all teams can appreciate and it's capable of living most unboosted neutral and x2 hits when it's healthy.
we do not have to let this demon into the tier (literally only chansey and blissey can switch into draco from this thing what)
and any off meta choices that catch your team by suprise. Tera is a trash mechanic that should have been banned and this serves to counter a lot of the variance that can easily cheese a game you deserved to win.
and kleavor has a huge variety of very strong coverage moves coming off an insane 135 base attack, and getting up rocks while attacking will never not be good.
specifically a psychic seed tera flying set can be lethal with a combination of sd aqua step cc and acrobatics, its basically like a stronger slow hawlucha that can snowball with moxie
