Metagame NP: Stage 2 - Welcome and Goodbye (Hoopa Ban post #45)

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:sv/indeedee:


Indeedee-M was initially quick-banned due to its amazing speed tier in a metagame already dominated by fast, powerful Psychic-types. Indeedee's deep movepool leads to unreliable initial counterplay and high variance at a point of high contention in the tier due to NU Swiss top cut starting and NU Open right around the corner. Psychic Surge not only further boosts Indeedee-M, but also potential teammates like Bruxish and Medicham that can be used in tandem to overwhelm shared checks, as well as blocking priority moves like Cacturne's and Zoroark's Sucker Punch from being used as a form of offensive counterplay.

Although plenty of Psychic resists are used to deal with preexisting Psychic-types like Bruxish and Medicham, Indeedee-M has a host of both utility and coverage options that the aforementioned two and others lack. Trick with a Choice item can completely debilitate special walls like Umbreon and Chansey. Tera Blast, which functions as STAB even without Terastallizing, can give Indeedee the coverage it needs to easily beat down would-be checks like Assault Vest Perrserker and Tera Steel Eelektross. Dark-types like Bombirdier, Mabosstiff, and the aforementioned Umbreon can have their positive matchup against Indeedee completely flipped by a Tera-boosted Dazzling Gleam, or even become setup fodder to a Calm Mind + Tera Draining Kiss set.

Despite all the "on paper" merits that Indeedee has, the current metagame is admittedly already quite hostile to Psychic-types, as seen by Bruxish and Medicham. Plenty of Pokemon already run Tera Steel or Tera Dark, both of which can allow most to suddenly sponge any hit from Indeedee and retaliate back much harder. Beyond using Terastallization, which creates a slippery slope for counterplay discussion, NU is teeming with both offensive and defensive Dark-types like Cacturne, Mabosstiff, Umbreon, and Zoroark, which all prevent Indeedee from using its powerful Psychic moves. Special pivots like Assault Vest Eelektross and Perrserker can sponge a hit or two from Indeedee, although they must be wary of a respective Psyshock or specific type Tera Blast.

Interestingly enough, Indeedee-M's female counterpart has proven to be quite underwhelming in the current metagame, despite having seemingly very small differences between each other. The difference in Speed stats is the most crucial element between the two genders, with Indeedee-M outpacing very relevant speedsters like Oricorio, Bruxish, and Vivillon, making it a great Choice Scarf user. While Indeedee-F does outspeed Passimian, its more defensively-oriented stat distribution made it a less-than-ideal choice in NU.

Overall, Indeedee-M's quick-ban was mostly a cautionary practice to keep a stable metagame in the heat of multiple tournaments, but its presence does of course raise some concerns for the tier; despite its amazing speed and power, its offensive typing is less than ideal, and there's quite a few Dark-types and standard Tera Dark Pokemon ready to absorb Terrain-boosted Psychics. Indeedee-M has plenty of tools at its disposal to deal with traditional checks, but interactions with tech used by a frail Pokemon are often purely speculative, hence a suspect test!


  • Reading this is mandatory for participating in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 50 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice. **It is now 79 GXE**
GXEminimum games
7950
79.249
79.448
79.647
79.846
8045
80.244
80.443
80.642
80.841
8140
81.239
81.438
81.637
81.836
8235
82.234
82.433
82.632
82.831
8330

  • You must signup with a newly registered account on Pokemon Showdown! that begins with the appropriate prefix for the suspect test. For this suspect test, the prefix will be NUAF For example, I might signup with the ladder account NUAF Tog
  • Laddering with an account that impersonates, mocks, or insults another Smogon user or breaks Pokemon Showdown! rules may be disqualified from voting and infracted. Moderator discretion will be applied here. If there is any doubt or hesitance when making the alt, just pick another name. There are infinite possibilities and we have had trouble for this repeatedly. If you wish to participate in the suspect, you should be able to exhibit decent enough judgement here. We will not be lenient.
  • We will be using the regular NU ladder for this suspect test. We will not be creating a new Suspect Ladder. At the beginning of every battle, there will be an announcement denoting the ongoing suspect with a link to this thread.
  • The aspects being tested, Indeedee-M, will be allowed on the ladder.
  • Any form of voting manipulation will result in swift and severe punishment. You are more than welcome to state your argument to as many people as you so please, but do not use any kind of underhanded tactics to get a result you desire. Bribery, blackmail, or any other type of tactic used to sway votes will be handled and sanctioned.
  • Do not attempt to cheat the ladder. We will know if you did not actually achieve voting requisites, so don't do it. Harsh sanctions will be applied.
  • The suspect test will go on for two weeks, lasting until Friday, May 19th @ 11:59pm (GMT-4), and then we will put up the voting thread in the Blind Voting subforum.
Tagging Kris and Marty to implement this, thanks!
 
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Rabia

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OFFICIAL RABIA + MERI TL ANNOUNCEMENT

The suspect test is being extended by two days. This may change again based on what we hear, but PS! is likely going to be down all of today and perhaps could have issues in the following days. For now, the deadline will be change to Friday, May 19th.
 
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:bw/rotom:
There is nothing safe from this Pokemon and I'm at a genuine loss at how to address it in the builder. It feels like any check to one Rotom set completely loses any other Rotom set (the sets being Choice Scarf, Will-O-Wisp utility, and Substitute + Nasty Plot) ;

:eelektross: Assault Vest Eelektross can sponge hits from Choice Scarf Rotom, although it cannot block Volt Switch, and will be taking Stealth Rock damage each time. Additionally Will-O-Wisp Rotom can easily wear Eelektross down with a combination of burn damage and a powerful Hex, all while taking minimal damage from Eelektross. Because Eelektross cannot do massive damage to Rotom, Rotom can also set up Nasty Plot against it, which will easily beat down an Eelektross that has taken minimal chip damage.

:umbreon: Umbreon doesn't mind taking Shadow Ball or Hex, and can even Synchronize back a burn, but is still vulnerable to forfeiting momentum to Volt Switch as a relatively passive Dark-type in a tier ruled by Fighting-types. Additionally, Umbreon is utterly ruined by Trick, and Substitute + Nasty Plot sets with Tera Fairy can turn Umbreon into complete setup fodder.

:appletun: :cacturne: :lurantis: All of these Grass-types take small amounts from Volt Switch and Ghost-type attacks, but if you're not blocking Volt Switch, you're letting in a powerful breaker in to respond to you, and all of these are weak to U-turn which can create terrifying vortexes. None of these Pokemon really appreciate a Trick either.

:muk: With Sticky Hold, Muk can actually punish Trick attempts quite well, but Muk is also completely ruined by Will-O-Wisp, can easily be setup on by Substitute + Nasty Plot sets, and even hates taking repeated Volt Switch hits in conjunction with entry hazards, due to its lack of recovery.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to better handle this thing in the builder, I am open to suggestions. I feel like I've tried everything and even prepped super hard against it in this most recent round of NU Swiss and still lost to it despite building exactly with it in mind.
 
:bw/rotom:
There is nothing safe from this Pokemon and I'm at a genuine loss at how to address it in the builder. It feels like any check to one Rotom set completely loses any other Rotom set (the sets being Choice Scarf, Will-O-Wisp utility, and Substitute + Nasty Plot) ;

:eelektross: Assault Vest Eelektross can sponge hits from Choice Scarf Rotom, although it cannot block Volt Switch, and will be taking Stealth Rock damage each time. Additionally Will-O-Wisp Rotom can easily wear Eelektross down with a combination of burn damage and a powerful Hex, all while taking minimal damage from Eelektross. Because Eelektross cannot do massive damage to Rotom, Rotom can also set up Nasty Plot against it, which will easily beat down an Eelektross that has taken minimal chip damage.

:umbreon: Umbreon doesn't mind taking Shadow Ball or Hex, and can even Synchronize back a burn, but is still vulnerable to forfeiting momentum to Volt Switch as a relatively passive Dark-type in a tier ruled by Fighting-types. Additionally, Umbreon is utterly ruined by Trick, and Substitute + Nasty Plot sets with Tera Fairy can turn Umbreon into complete setup fodder.

:appletun: :cacturne: :lurantis: All of these Grass-types take small amounts from Volt Switch and Ghost-type attacks, but if you're not blocking Volt Switch, you're letting in a powerful breaker in to respond to you, and all of these are weak to U-turn which can create terrifying vortexes. None of these Pokemon really appreciate a Trick either.

:muk: With Sticky Hold, Muk can actually punish Trick attempts quite well, but Muk is also completely ruined by Will-O-Wisp, can easily be setup on by Substitute + Nasty Plot sets, and even hates taking repeated Volt Switch hits in conjunction with entry hazards, due to its lack of recovery.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to better handle this thing in the builder, I am open to suggestions. I feel like I've tried everything and even prepped super hard against it in this most recent round of NU Swiss and still lost to it despite building exactly with it in mind.
1683823085254.png

Seriously I'm going crazy over this Pokemon please help
 
View attachment 515581
Seriously I'm going crazy over this Pokemon please help

Kinda niche, but your best bet is probably this:

Federico (Camerupt) (M) @ Choice Specs / Assault Vest / Iron Ball
Ability: Solid Rock
Tera Type: Fire / Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power / Tera Blast

You need a TR team (there are actually some good setters in the Tier), but it does block Volt Switch, can take a few Shadow Balls and does annoy Trick a little too while being immune to WoW and Twave.

Regarding Indeedee, its not broken by itself but I will still vote Ban. I don,t think Medicham and the ugly fish (or fishes if we include Veluza) are healthy with Psychic Terrain support. Might be personal bias to those Mons and Indeedee, since I could handle them pretty well with the team I used for the Suspect. Still, I don,t like Psychic SPAM being good.
 
Regarding Indeedee, its not broken by itself but I will still vote Ban. I don,t think Medicham and the ugly fish (or fishes if we include Veluza) are healthy with Psychic Terrain support. Might be personal bias to those Mons and Indeedee, since I could handle them pretty well with the team I used for the Suspect. Still, I don,t like Psychic SPAM being good.
My stance on Indeedee is definitely the most bad-faith stance I've had on anything so far but I see it as this; Indeedee is roughly as broken as something like Bruxish or Zoroark (super borderline broken but not banworthy nonetheless), and although I don't think Indeedee is banworthy, I really don't want another Bruxish/Zoroark type Pokemon in the tier. Additionally with home supposedly right around the corner, I really don't see a point in doing anything other than keeping Indeedee banned.
 

Pokeslice

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:bw/rotom:
There is nothing safe from this Pokemon and I'm at a genuine loss at how to address it in the builder. It feels like any check to one Rotom set completely loses any other Rotom set (the sets being Choice Scarf, Will-O-Wisp utility, and Substitute + Nasty Plot)
I think the best way to deal with the (very deserved) uptick in Rotom usage might not be to find hard counters, because wtf does that if you include every set, but instead start checking the tier for interesting techs that can help mess with Rotom.

:scyther: - on paper it seems like Rotom is a great answer to Scyther, but recently I saw zS run Thief which absolutely smokes it, especially since the last slot on Scyther is totally free now that CC really doesn't feel necessary. Yes this doesn't beat Scarf, although you can run Tera Ground and catch it off guard ig or run Scarf Scyther.

:sandaconda: - Sanda right now seems to be a free Rotom switch in, but it also comfortably eats Shadow Ball and Hex, can shrug off burns without terrible luck, and can actually threaten it extremely well with Stone Edge or Rock Blast to break through Subs. It might also be time to start running some more SpDef on Sanda.

:dudunsparce: - maybe we should start trying to fit this mon on teams? It's a really solid switch in to Rotom, or as good as you can get while being weak to Volt Switch. Roost helps offset any damage and Calm Mind + Shadow Ball make quick work of it.

Rotom feels a bit like Mowtom from last gen, but instead of a super spammable dual STAB that deletes Ground-types, we just don't have Volt immunes and all our special walls lose to the variety of sets it can run. It's super annoying to deal with in the builder without running a special wall, faster offensive answer, and a Sandaconda, and even then. I feel as if it's really easy to beat in a 1v1 with a lot of Pokemon because of how weak it is, but when it has a positive MU or is given a free turn it causes havoc.
 
:sandaconda: - Sanda right now seems to be a free Rotom switch in, but it also comfortably eats Shadow Ball and Hex, can shrug off burns without terrible luck, and can actually threaten it extremely well with Stone Edge or Rock Blast to break through Subs. It might also be time to start running some more SpDef on Sanda.
They called me a madman when I said SPD Sandaconda was a good tool back in the Oricorio-E meta days... look at them now.

This mabostiff set can absolutely clock rotom in general tho

Mabosstiff @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 40 SpD / 156 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs
- Fire Fang
- Play Rough

Crunch absolutely destroys rotom no matter what.
EVs are to prevent a +2 volt switch from ohkoing after rocks
 
Sanda right now seems to be a free Rotom switch in, but it also comfortably eats Shadow Ball and Hex, can shrug off burns without terrible luck, and can actually threaten it extremely well with Stone Edge or Rock Blast to break through Subs. It might also be time to start running some more SpDef on Sanda.
Sandaconda is complete setup fodder for Rotom I don't really understand this. I brought SDef Sandaconda to Swiss and still lost the 1v1 because of the most mild bad luck. Both Trick and Nasty Plot sets completely dunk on Sandaconda and even Utility Wisp + Hex sets force Sandaconda to Rest until it gets bad Shed Skin rolls and has to switch.

:dudunsparce: - maybe we should start trying to fit this mon on teams? It's a really solid switch in to Rotom, or as good as you can get while being weak to Volt Switch. Roost helps offset any damage and Calm Mind + Shadow Ball make quick work of it.
This is pretty much the same boat as Umbreon, you just get Volt Switched on into one of the 100 Fighting-types in the tier, not really a feasible answer at all long-term.

There's lots of solid offensive counterplay, like Thief Scyther, which is a super dope tech, or Mabosstiff, but Rotom can always Substitute for free on something or Protect to scout the Dark move and just Terastallize. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
All of the posts regarding Rotom have been interesting, I think the main issue is that these pokemon can still lose or be heavily neutered by Rotom:
Kinda niche, but your best bet is probably this:

Federico (Camerupt) (M) @ Choice Specs / Assault Vest / Iron Ball
Ability: Solid Rock
Tera Type: Fire / Grass
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Ancient Power / Tera Blast

You need a TR team (there are actually some good setters in the Tier), but it does block Volt Switch, can take a few Shadow Balls and does annoy Trick a little too while being immune to WoW and Twave.
I do really like this Camerupt set, but Eeveeto themselves state that this is very niche and for that reason I don't consider it true counterplay, as you cannot justify running a very specific playstyle that is quite matchup fishy to beat a pokemon. The AV Camerupt set does seem like a good switch-in to most Rotom sets and blocking Volt Switch is very significant, however Rotom can still break past it if it uses Nasty Plot as Camerupt switches in, provided there is no Trick Room of course:
+2 252 SpA Rotom Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Assault Vest Camerupt: 177-208 (51.6 - 60.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 SpA Rotom Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Camerupt: 264-312 (76.9 - 90.9%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
Of course if Trick Room is up Rotom is never an issue but once again this is only possible on one specific playstyle.
:scyther: - on paper it seems like Rotom is a great answer to Scyther, but recently I saw zS run Thief which absolutely smokes it, especially since the last slot on Scyther is totally free now that CC really doesn't feel necessary. Yes this doesn't beat Scarf, although you can run Tera Ground and catch it off guard ig or run Scarf Scyther.

:sandaconda: - Sanda right now seems to be a free Rotom switch in, but it also comfortably eats Shadow Ball and Hex, can shrug off burns without terrible luck, and can actually threaten it extremely well with Stone Edge or Rock Blast to break through Subs. It might also be time to start running some more SpDef on Sanda.

:dudunsparce: - maybe we should start trying to fit this mon on teams? It's a really solid switch in to Rotom, or as good as you can get while being weak to Volt Switch. Roost helps offset any damage and Calm Mind + Shadow Ball make quick work of it.
Scyther with Thief can very easily revenge kill Rotom, provided Rotom doesn't have a Choice Scarf. This can be useful to take advantage of a Rotom who greedily uses Nasty Plot as Scyther comes in, however Scyther can never come in on Rotom safely and Rotom will almost never come in on Scyther, even if it is not expecting Thief, as it is built like paper.

Sandaconda can always Stone Edge/Rock Blast as Rotom comes to do a large chunk of damage, however it again is not a solid switch-in and has to really rely on hitting the rock type moves which is not reliable. Rotom can just use Wisp-Hex until Shed Skin doesn't activate, but a Trick on Sandaconda can also be devastating and sometimes depending on what is left on your team, game ending, as Sandaconda is pretty much useless for the rest of the battle.

Dudunsparce in my opinion is the best of all of these options for pretty much all of the reasons that Pokeslice mentioned. With a certain amount of Sp. Attack investment it can OHKO Rotom with +1 Shadow Ball after Stealth Rock (can't be bothered to find calc) and takes very minimal damage from any of Rotom's moves which it can Roost off if it ever appears to be in a bit of trouble. But yet again Rotom finds away to heavily neuter it's answers. Very much like Sandaconda, Dudunsparce is near worthless after a Trick as it far too slow to utilise the Choice Scarf, doesn't hit very hard without boosts and cannot freely use Roost like it could before as it doesn't want to risk a dangerous setup sweeper to come in and setup for free.

Overall I agree with the notion that Rotom is a hard pokemon to deal with in this current metagame as beating it really relies on identifying it's set as quickly as you can which can often be difficult to do. But I would not even for a second suggest that this pokemon is broken/banworthy, the stats it has are just way too low and it's speed tier while good is not amazing as there are a large number of pokemon that can outspeed it and OHKO. It really does exploit a lot of the common pokemon of this tier and I do expect it to continue to rise in line with it's rapidly increasing popularity.

In terms of Indeedee, I am very 50/50 but leaning towards ban. It's not really for it's wallbreaking capabilities and great speed tier, because with that logic Zoroark should also be banned (which some people may agree with but hey). The wallbreaking power and speed in combination with Psychic Terrain support which enables a lot of it's very powerful teammates is what might be the nail in the coffin and the main thing that differentiates it from Indeedee-F. It is not a very difficult pokemon to deal with on it's own for me personally and maybe my mind will change, but I do think this tier is probably better off without it.
 

Finchinator

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Out of Swiss now after a really fun run for me, so I’ll give some of my thoughts.

I really like this metagame and how a lot of different archetypes can work. I think most players are kinda down or frustrated at some limitations, but truthfully I think there’s some room here. Excited to see what NU Open brings.

We see a good amount of setup offense on the ladder, unaware fat can make it work, and obviously a ton of Sanda BO/balance. I wish we had more in terms of removal options and personally building hasn’t gotten comfy for me yet so I mostly have been stealing and editing, but I think it’s cool we have a lot of up-and-coming builders with fresh ideas.

Personally leaning ban on Indeedee. It’s checkable for sure and not as absurd as I would’ve imagined initially, but I think it makes what’s possible to use limited/warped like a lot of other suspect bans in the past. Unsure I’ll have time to get reqs and honestly unsure how much longer I’ll even be on council since it’s no secret that my most active days are behind me in NU, but I’m curious what’ll happen. Glad the tier is left in good hands anyway.

Also, regarding above: I find Rotom to be annoying to hard-stop, but possible to minimize through game-flow and the fact that it’s on the fragile side. It’s never registered on my “could be an issue” radar on a personal level, but it’s really good admittedly, yea.
 

etern

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I've played over 100 matches in this tier over the past week or two, so I figured I'd give my 2 cents on Indeedee and the meta in general, which for the most part I enjoy more than SS NU.

Indeedee surprisingly isn't as obnoxious as most people predicted, but it's still really good and sits somewhere within the top 5 of the tier. Probably voting ban because Scarf is arguably the best late-game cleaner in the tier, while Calm Mind sets have the ability to dismantle someone that uses a turn to scout for choiced set. Specs is fine, dont think it's broken but when you add it on top of the other two really good sets Indeedee has, it becomes a bit more problematic to deal with. I can definitely see Indeedee being a part of the meta later this year when we actually get some viable Steel-types (hopefully), but for now it's a little too flexible for the amount of breaking and cleaning potential it has.

Speaking of things that are broken, the Fire Oricorio is busted and the scariest thing in the tier for me. It uses tera so well to bust through would-be checks and avoid being revenge killed by whatever it chooses to, and I feel it centralizes building more than anything else, while also not requiring much in the way of skill to take advantage of. Tera-Ground is definitely it's best and most consistent form, but Grass is lethal as well and if you predict wrong and try to revenge it with a CB Bruxish Aqua Jet or check it with Vaporeon, you're done for.

I feel similarly to Finch re: Rotom, it's a great mon that can do a lot of cool things, but as it usually has been in prior gens, is limited a lot by how middling it's stats are. Definitely an important thing to account for, but nothing that I feel is too extraordinary for me to cover with a mix of conscious building and smart play.

I'd probably rank the top 5 in the meta as something like eelektross / zoroark / sandaconda / rotom / oricorio, with bruxish not too far behind. There's also a lot of cool and dangerous sleeper mons that are only really held back by the fact that they can be quite tricky to build with, like dudunsparce and farigiraf, but in practice they can completely dominate matches on their own. Overall, it's a pretty fun meta, and I'm surely it'll get a lot better once a few more problematic elements are removed, and we get access to some more varied removal and ground-types, it's no fun using Sandaconda on every team!
 

Rabia

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I played against one (1) Indeedee during my reqs run :D

This plays into my mentality wrt suspect tests being a huge waste of time especially as someone super in tune with NU. You just don't get reliable exposure to the Pokemon the vast majority of the time, even in past instances where it's us testing whether to ban or not as opposed to an unban test like this one. I don't feel like my opinion changed---or should have changed---as a result of facing Lycanroc HO in probably 1/3 of games.

Based on my own use of Indeedee, though, and the timing of Home's release (start of the week), I think we're better off keeping it banned. I still believe CM/non-Choiced sets to be a bit much. Anything that would otherwise scout you like Umbreon and Bombirdier no longer can, and these sets give you extra leeway against foes like Tera Dark Muk and Qwilfish. Indeedee is also a really effective use of Tera in its own right, with Tera Fairy giving a massive "fuck you" to almost every counter Tera bar Tera Steel Eelektross and Appletun. This doesn't even go into the potency of Choice Scarf as a late-game cleaner that is strong enough to wallbreak even early- and mid-game thanks to Psychic Surge.

---

I'm excited for Home! We're likely to unban the entirety of NUBL, and we do get some new moves and Pokemon: anything a Pokemon learned in SS or later will be returning, so think options like Scale Shot Sandaconda and, scarily, Expanding Force Indeedee. The moveset changes actually take into account PLA as well, meaning Defog + Roost Lumineon will be available! I'm unsure if it'll be any good, but hey, it's an option :]
 
I think it's time for a Zoroark suspect / even a QB vote.

Don't have too much to say but it's easily the most customisable/versatile mon here with a bunch of different sets / filler moves with near equal viability effectively giving it no true counters.

Here's the set I've been using lately
Zoroark (Pokémon) - The Pokemon Insurgence Wiki

Zoroark @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Illusion
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Encore
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Dark Pulse

Managed to top the ladder with this. Zoroark doesn't even need any real coverage moves to be good either lmao. Knock Off / Encore double punish mons that chew dark pulse mainly Vaporeon, Chansey, Umbreon and Muk so if they want to click recovery or hazards, they're in for a bad time but encore is useful in offensive match ups too with prediction. (Sucker Punch Toxicroak, Bulk Up Ursaring, Tauros, Coil Sandaconda etc) Since you'll be pivoting throughout the match too, boots is recommended and that also helps with illusion.

Scarf / Specs / LO are threatening thanks to Trick / Focus Blast / Sludge Bomb / Psychic / Nasty Plot and even Sucker Punch is a good idea taking out Scarf Rotom by surprise. Scarf also still outspeeds +2 Timid Farigiraf.

Originally, I thought Quiver Dance Oricorio was the most obnoxious thing in the tier but playing on the ladder for a while / battling NU peeps, Zoroark has a better match up early / mid game and that's the general mon i've been struggling against myself making it more effective than Oricorio so that can take second place.

What do you guys think?
 
I wanna take this opportunity now that i'm out of the NU open (thx elias :P) to highlight a mon i've been using quite a bit.

Pyroar

1685307097793.png


this thing can be a menace in the right hands. I've been using this set here

Simba (Pyroar) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unnerve
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Overheat
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse

and it just hits everything SO hard. 106 speed is also an incredibly nice touch just outspeeding zoroark and scyther and OHKOing them, even ohkoing phys def sandaconda and 2hkoing other staples like qwilfish, indeedee (dark pulse has a chance to ohko, non bluky variants) and even passimian cant switch into it more than once.

it is not however, infallible.the biggest problems it has are:
1. it HATES entry hazards so needs a fair bit of support
2. chansey and appletun can sit on it, and it cant really do much to them. though they can only do so much back, but
3. sp def ursaring can sit on it too, and that can REALLY lay on the hurt

those arent the only flaws (scarf passimian etc.) but despite those flaws i've found pyroar to be a pretty nice mid-high risk, mid-high reward mon and if you find yourself wanting to try something new, I say give it a try.
 
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I wanna take this opportunity now that i'm out of the NU open (thx elias :P) to highlight a mon i've been using quite a bit.

Pyroar

View attachment 519809

this thing can be a menace in the right hands. I've been using this set here

Simba (Pyroar) (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unnerve
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Voice
- Overheat
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse

and it just hits everything SO hard. 106 speed is also an incredibly nice touch just outspeeding zoroark and scyther and OHKOing them, even ohkoing phys def sandaconda and 2hkoing other staples like qwilfish, indeedee (dark pulse has a chance to ohko, non bluky variants) and even passimian cant switch into it more than once.

it is not however, infallible.the biggest problems it has are:
1. it HATES entry hazards so needs a fair bit of support
2. chansey and appletun can sit on it, and it cant really do much to them. though they can only do so much back, but
3. sp def ursaring can sit on it too, and that can REALLY lay on the hurt

those arent the only flaws (scarf passimian etc.) but despite those flaws i've found pyroar to be a pretty nice mid-high risk, mid-high reward mon and if you find yourself wanting to try something new, o say give it a try.
I also used the lion with satisfaction and, as I generally always clicked Overheat, instead of Dark Pulse, I put Snarl to punish those unaware Sub Rotom :rotom:
 
:bw/chansey: :bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey::bw/chansey:

Pokemon Home is (finally) out, and NU got a surprising amount of new things despite there being no transferring of moves that cannot already be obtained in Scarlet and Violet.

:chansey: Chansey technically can learn Heal Bell in SV, but has no legal parent to breed the egg move onto it. We can now get around this by simply transferring a Chansey with Heal Bell into the game. This will be huge for Chansey as its the only Pokemon in NU with access to the move, and in such a status-laden tier, it will find a ton of value.

:thwackey: Thwackey lost Grassy Glide, but setting Terrain is still very useful for multiple reasons. Thwackey has solid bulk with an Eviolite and can comfortably pivot into Sandaconda, while forcing Knock Off on incoming Flying-types like Scyther and Oricorio. Thwackey has a meaty Terrain-boosted Wood Hammer and U-turn to capitalize on the switches it forces. Grassy Terrain can also be used to activate Grassy Seed on Calm Mind users like Dudunsparce, Drifblim, Spiritomb, or Vaporeon. Grassy Terrain also greatly aids grounded Poison-types like Muk and Qwilfish, who both lack recovery and appreciate Earthquake being weakened.

:sliggoo-hisui: Sliggoo-Hisui has the highly coveted Steel-typing, with amazing special bulk and a diverse movepool. What catches my eye the most is the Curse sets, which make great use of Shell Armor and Sliggoo's amazing special bulk to become very difficult to KO. I can imagine RestTalk sets with decent STAB options like Flash Cannon and Dragon Breath for paralysis to be quite good, and can even use Ice Beam to threaten offensive checks like Sandaconda and Close Combat Scyther.

:sneasel-hisui: Hisuian Sneasel has a fantastic speed tier and provides a much-needed offensive check to Zoroark. Swords Dance sets seem incredibly potent, even able to use Tera Trailblaze to muscle past Sandaconda. Sneasel doesn't have a very impressive attacking stat, but it has high BP STAB moves in Close Combat and Gunk Shot. With an Eviolite, Sneasel has bulk slightly better than Toxicroak, making it a surprisingly great pivot into Dark-type attacks and U-turn. Sneasel-H also provides another Toxic Spikes absorber, which frees up team building a bit more.

:qwilfish-hisui: Qwilfish-H can make great use of Eviolite to become an amazing check to many top tier threats like Zoroark and Rotom. Qwilfish can easily set up Spikes, threatening to poison all hazard removers with Barb Barrage (or just Toxic) and has all the amazing utility options vanilla Qwilfish has, but with a better defensive typing and Eviolite. Qwilfish is also much better offensively now too, with the better bulk and retaining Water coverage but now with amazing STAB Crunch.

:rabsca: Rabsca now gets Cosmic Power. I'm not sure how great this will be, but we've seen Stored Power users be incredibly potent in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if Rabsca could make it work too.

Chansey has Heal Bell, Rabsca has Cosmic Power, and we have all the transfer NFE's, notably Thwackey, Sliggoo-H, Sneasel-H, and Qwilfish-H.
 
New tier shift right after home, NU is eating good tonight.
b8dec1d78c777bd1fa4e487e0dc908f1.gif

:komala: We finally got Komala, which is both a Rapid Spin user and status absorber thanks to its ability Comatose. It makes for a great offensive pivot with its solid bulk, great attack stat and coverage, and access to U-turn. I think it will be an amazing addition to the tier. Komala also has access to Bulk Up and Swords Dance, and semi-reliable recovery with Wish, making it a potentially brutal setup sweeper itself.

NU did lose more than it gained, but I think this is still a net positive for the tier.

Passimian, Zoroark, and Lycanroc rose to RU.

:passimian: Passimian was a great Choice Scarf user that warped the tier with its presence and provided great momentum and item removal and threatened to clean up teams with Tera Close Combat. Although Passimian was considered very good, the 3 most common Tera types in the tier being Poison, Fairy, and Ghost make any Fighting-type's life a bit harder. Losing Passimian means losing a common method of speed control and progress making, but admittedly Passimian was on a gradual decline anyway.

:zoroark: Zoroark has been the topic of much discussion among the NU community and within its council as a potential suspect test candidate. Truthfully without Pokemon Home and these tier shifts, a Zoroark suspect test was more than likely. Choice Specs sets are near impossible to play around and Illusion only exacerbates this. Zoroark rising to RU basically just made our lives easier.

:lycanroc: Lycanroc was most often used as a dedicated lead, but also found much success as a Swords Dance sweeper. It wasn't used very often but it fulfilled its role incredibly well. Hyper Offense teams take a huge hit from Lycanroc rising, and offensive teams in general greatly appreciated Lycanroc's speed tier, which outpaced the likes of Zoroark and Scyther.

Let's see some discussion on Komala and what other Pokemon benefit from these shifts :D
 
:sv/komala:

I can easily see a rapid spin support set popping up for this guy since it also gets Wish

Komala @ Leftovers
Ability: Comatose
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Tera Type: Ghost
Careful Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Wish
- Body Slam/Shadow Claw
- Protect/Bulk Up

Just try to leverage your special bulk as best you can, but you can also just turn this into a Bulk Up set, just make sure you run Shadow Claw if you choose to do so.

Or maybe just go full band, Komala's still got a meaty base 115 ATK:

Komala @ Choice Band
Ability: Comatose
Tera Type: Ghost/Normal
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Slam
- Earthquake/Superpower
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn

Unfortunately Komala is missing Double-Edge but it can still put the smack down on a lot of slower teams. Earthquake is preferred due to hitting common Poison-types like Toxicroak, Muk, and Qwilfish harder but Superpower will scare out Dark and Normal types like Umbreon, Dudunsparce, or Ursaring but honestly it's movepool is DEEP so you can pretty much make the second slot smack whatever your team is afraid of. Sucker punch helps with the low speed but there's aren't too many targets for it that aren't immune to prio in general so this slot honestly can be a free pick as well, just keep in mind you might let something like Haunter in for free if you forgo this. EVs outspeed max speed Farigiraf, no other notable numbers to hit unless you want to speed tie Eeveelutions so the rest just gets dumped into bulk.

I think it's overall a good addition to the tier.
 
Last edited:

Luck O' the Irish

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Home Drops:

Hoopa moved from OU to NU
Mesprit moved from OU to NU
Raichu-Alola moved from OU to NU
Tornadus moved from OU to NU
Wyrdeer moved from OU to NU

RU drops:

Abomasnow moved from RU to NU
Blissey moved from RU to NU
Cetitan moved from RU to NU
Ditto moved from RU to NU
Froslass moved from RU to NU
Frosmoth moved from RU to NU
Grimmsnarl moved from RU to NU
Sableye moved from RU to NU

Raises:

Vaporeon moved from NU to RU

Also sneasel-h, qwil-h, hattrem, and sliggoo-h are nu

Great news everyone! NU is ruined!
 
Tornadus moved from OU to NU

Blissey moved from RU to NU
Frosmoth moved from RU to NU
These are the drops that stick out most to me, that and well, a certain mon that went PU but I'll get to him later. TBH I don't see these three sticking around for long, especially since this is a meta where we don't have things like Passimian or Lycanroc that could revenge kill these things.

Torn has phenomenal Flying + Fighting coverage, AND it has Nasty Plot, U-turn, and a good speed stat. Without Vapo you kinda have to use the new Blissey, or if you really wanna, Eviolite Chansey, to wall it, and Torn can easily run physical sets with Bulk Up to handle special blobs.

Blissey basically replaces Chansey in most cases, and this thing's special bulk is absurd for the tier. As long as Hisuian Sneasel and Croak aren't around this thing can stick around for a long ass time. The ability to run items other than Eviolite help Blissey too, like Boots to handle Spikes, and Lefties for additional recovery.

Frosmoth we've seen before, and with both Abomasnow to give it a little more longevity pre-Tera, and the removal of several popular revenge killers to it pre-Tera, and Vaporeon handled it generally well, I don't see us having the tools to prepare for it. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I'm worried most for this mon.

So :tauros: is another mon I feel like will be a bit much. It did lose Throat Chop IIRC, but it otherwise kept what made it a strong breaker in past NU metas, and with a lower power level I don't see it sticking around for long.
 

Rabia

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:sableye::blissey::ditto:
Stall seems very much alive with these drops, and even if we ban Blissey, I imagine Sableye + Ditto alone to really help out. Blissey of course is far better than Chansey because you aren't Spikes weak (Heavy-Duty Boots moment) and can actually get away with boosting sets far more easily because your Special Attack is... decent. Sableye meanwhile offers a Medicham counter and really great check to Swords Dance Toxicroak and Sneasel, although beware Tera Dark. Ditto of course does what it always has: copies setup sweepers and dares you to not lose on the spot. We've seen stall occasionally in NUPL already, so I'm interested to see what happens with it going forward.

:abomasnow::frosmoth::froslass::articuno:
We got A LOT of Ice-types. Abomasnow and Froslass both enable hyper offense builds very well, with the former offering Aurora Veil and the latter offering fast Spikes. Frosmoth returns to a meta that lacks Copperajah now, so I imagine it's very quickly banned because it was already on the fence back then. Articuno I originally was super low on, but I do think there's value to it in this meta because its offensive coverage between Hurricane and Ice Beam (I think Freeze-Dry may be unnecessary with Vaporeon rising) is strong, and you can always use U-turn on foes like Eelektross, Umbreon, and Blissey.

:hoopa::tauros::mesprit::tornadus:
These four seem very broken offensively. There just isn't really consistently counterplay to them, especially with our lack of Steel-types to handle Hoopa and Mesprit. Tauros I think there's a world where it stays, as it lacks Ghost-type coverage and can be pivoted around somewhat with Pokemon like Sandaconda and Intimidate Qwilfish, but I think it ultimately ends up being too much. Mesprit has Nasty Plot now, so yeah.
 
Home Drops:

Hoopa moved from OU to NU
Mesprit moved from OU to NU
Raichu-Alola moved from OU to NU
Tornadus moved from OU to NU
Wyrdeer moved from OU to NU

RU drops:

Abomasnow moved from RU to NU
Blissey moved from RU to NU
Cetitan moved from RU to NU
Ditto moved from RU to NU
Froslass moved from RU to NU
Frosmoth moved from RU to NU
Grimmsnarl moved from RU to NU
Sableye moved from RU to NU

Raises:

Vaporeon moved from NU to RU

Also sneasel-h, qwil-h, hattrem, and sliggoo-h are nu

Great news everyone! NU is ruined!
If this means cetitan is out of BL, time for another ban speedrun I guess. If not though, please keep cetitan in BL where it is for the time being, that thing is demonic by NU standards
 
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