OU SPL XIII ORAS Discussion Thread

Vulpix03

is a Tiering Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
RUPL Champion


Hey ORAS enthusiasts ! With SPL XIII underway, this thread will be used to discuss all ORAS related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, usage stats, and replays.

SPL Commencement Thread
SPL XIII SpreadSheet
SPL XIII Administrative decisions



Likely ORAS Starters: (in bold)
Possible Players (not bolded)

Alpha Ruiners
:entei: - Luigi / BluBirD252 / MANNAT
Circus Maximus Tigers
:raikou: - Jonfilch / ACR1 / Iza / Sabella
Cryonicles
:Suicune: - Lusa / Splash / Spl4sh
Congregation of the Classiest
:Gardevoir: - Erz / London Beats
Dragonspiral Tyrants
:tyrantrum: - Santu / Frisoeva / Will of Fire
Evergrande Bigs
:Snorlax: - z0mOG / Vileman / pj / Hayburner
Indie Scooters
:Alakazam: - Raptor / Vulpix03 / Joya
Stark Sharks
:Garchomp: - Crashinboombang
Team Raiders
:Marowak-alola: - xray
Wifi Wolfpack
:Lycanroc: - Persephone / Trosko / Corazan

TBD

TBD
 
Last edited:
I genuinely think that this year's ORAS lineup consist of some of the best ORAS player base. I honestly don't expect an undefeated record from anyone specifically, but there are alot of threatening players. Xray and CBB's consistency throughout the ages is nothing more than impressive to say the least, and seeing Jon's performance over the recent years along with his teambuilds has also greatly impacted the metagame, especially his Latias team variations. Vulpix isn't afraid to pull something unexpected to his teambuilds, and he doesn't go down easily in games, and although Persephone wasn't in last years SPL, he did force a tiebreaker two years ago in the finals, and also has a vast amount of knowledge in damage calcs and team build versatility. Santu, Erz, Raptor, and Luigi have demonstrated phenomenal performances in SPL before, and while the competition will be tough, they are more than capable of securing solid wins against the best. While I'm still unsure of who Cryonicles and Evergrand Big's will list for their oras lineup, I'm sure that there are great expectations for their oras players this season.
 

MANNAT

Follow me on twitch!
is a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Hey there, I'd like to give some thoughts on my first time playing meaningful games in SPL. Besides the wack Volcarona set, most of this stuff was inspired from other people, I just wanted to highlight some of the stuff that I enjoyed using this SPL as well as giving general metagame thoughts.

Sets and Teams
:sm/venusaur-mega:
CHRIS BOSH (Venusaur-Mega) (M) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 248 HP / 52 Def / 80 SpA / 128 SpD
Modest Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off
- Synthesis

I wanted to use mega venu against Niko because I wanted to be prepped for those italian mega alt HOs, and this is eventually what I came up with. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to create an original team that I liked in my time building that week, so I settled for tweaking the old ABR team with it. Venu is really underrated in the current metagame, and something I found from playing/testing with it is that it exerts a surprising amount of offensive pressure. Knock off is really the engine that makes this set go, as crippling checks like tran and torn is extremely valuable for not only itself but also its teammates. You may notice that this set is modest in spite of being featured on a stall team, and that's very intentional. Offensive teams have an incredibly tough time switching into this thing, largely because of knock, and pumping up its spatk makes this task even more daunting for those teams. I considered using leech seed on it like CBB did in his finals game against xray, but decided that the instant recovery was more important for how the team functioned.

Team: https://pokepast.es/5c1bc31402f42454

:sm/tyranitar-mega:+:sm/manaphy:
GUMBO WILLIAMSON (Tyranitar-Mega) @ Tyranitarite
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 176 HP / 184 Atk / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Ice Punch
- Pursuit

DRIP BAYLESS (Manaphy) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 204 HP / 140 SpA / 164 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Tail Glow
- Surf
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Fire]

This core was another counterteam-y choice that I decided to make against xray in my semis game. I expected xray to bring a mega latias + ferro type balance team to catch me off guard, as he typically uses a lot more offensive stuff. This core is ultimately what I came up with, and I was very happy with the final team that I came up with. The idea here is that mega ttar traps mega lati so that you can go to town with manaphy, as this moveset is nearly impossible to deal with defensively on those teams if lati gets trapped. If you're more concerned about dragons like mega alt and spdef garchomp than waters like rotom and gastro, then dazzling gleam>energy ball on a team without ttar (since you don't need to trap lati anymore) is also an excellent set. Though I do think that set should be paired with healing wish support, and you obviously don't need the trapping support anymore.

Team: https://pokepast.es/efbaf067eec01e48

:sm/volcarona:
Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 112 HP / 56 Def / 196 SpA / 144 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Quiver Dance
- Flamethrower
- Bug Buzz
- Hidden Power [Rock]

Admittedly this was another attempt at counter teaming that unfortunately did not work out, but it's still a pretty cool set, so I'd like to share it nonetheless. The idea behind this set is to punish people that like to spam talonflame while also having solid value against zard, volcanion, volcarona, etc. The EVs here let you tank a 0 attack BB from talon at full, as well as a couple of offensive/speed benchmarks. I ultimately decided on bug buzz as the coverage move because I was afraid of the lati twins and didn't think that I was gonna see a keldeo. Unfortunately, I got fucked by xray bringing his first ORAS heatran in living memory in the game, so this ended up being pretty useless. Overall, this is a fun set that isn't very consistent in general but can catch opponents off guard big time in select situations.

Team: https://pokepast.es/b6a2c376afd4b53c

:sm/lopunny-mega:
Drip Bayless (Lopunny-Mega) @ Lopunnite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Fake Out
- Literally Anything

This isn't really an underrated set per se, just something that I just wanted to talk about. I'm of the personal belief that ada mlop is the most consistently threatening mega across all matchups in the entire tier. This thing is ridiculously strong and can overwhelm stall teams pretty easily with some solid chip damage, and it has a ridiculous speed tier that lets it fuck up offensive teams. Obviously, running ada on this thing means you'll be slower than some stuff like torn and weavile, so I like to pair this set with ample paralysis support to make up for that shortcoming, with slowbro and serp being notably good paralysis inducers. The filler slot on lop is one of my favorite debates in all of ORAS, just because there's so many genuinely good options. You can run some fun techs like copycat, magic coat or healing wish that can completely swing the tempo of games once they're revealed. On the other hand, you can use more expected options like QA for zam/volc, encore to fuck over defensive counters like clef as they use recovery moves to generate opportunities for teammates, or PuP to become one of the most terrifying balance breakers there is. I absolutely love this mon and it proved that it's at the pinnacle of the tier this SPL.

Team: https://pokepast.es/5154d2dd1d6aeea2

Metagame Thoughts/Reflections from my SPL:
  • I really love the current ORAS OU metagame. There's a ton of routes that you can take when building and still feel solid against most styles. It's a real breath of fresh air from the two adjacent formats to it, which are a lot more matchup based.
    • No playstyle feels too strong and you can win games with basically anything
  • Personally, I tried to matchup fish too much this SPL, and got punished for it pretty hard once. There's a lot of solid playstyles that can get you a solid matchup without having the same type of autoloss matchups that the fishier playstyles do.
    • I felt like my semis team struck a good balance between these two concepts, as it fished for ferro with hp fire mana, but could still exert pressure and make progress in matchups where the mana set wasn't an autowin.
  • People finally realized how to prep for HO this SPL after the complete mess that was made of the metagame last year, this can pretty clearly be seen in the winrates of notable HO mons like volc in particular.
  • Keldeo is still good as fuck, I wanted to bring it quite a few times this SPL but never ended up finding the right spot to use it. A lot of teams cheat against it pretty hard and it can really break through teams. I'd actually argue that its single biggest flaw is the accuracy of its strongest moves, as you have to hit multiple hydros/focus blasts/etc to be able to properly break through the opposing team much of the time.
  • CB Tar is broken but UNFORTUNATELY some people do not agree, it absolutely demolishes bulky teams and can find plenty of opportunities to collect a kill against even offensive teams.
  • Even though HO as a whole isn't as good as it was a year ago, manaphy in particular is still extremely strong and terrifying for bulkier teams to deal with, as rd sets completely destroy the majority of modern fat teams, and it has the bulk to tank even one off super effective STAB hits like serp leaf storm and zone tbolt.
Seeing a dead thread like this for the metagame I love is pretty sad, let's get some more posts here!
 
I did want to bring up a few notable things that's happened this ORAS SPL(I myself did not play, was moreso a spectator) and its in regards to the rise in gastrodon which is probably one of the coolest mons out there to tech, and its had its best performances when paired directly with Volcanion courtesy of Persephone, showing how dangerous the duo is. Why worry about the likes of scarf tom crippling your volcanion with leftovers when you can just go directly out to your gastrodon? Or why worry about knock off when gastrodon's sticky hold neuters it altogether? Now of course, gastrodon is frail and should be kept in mind before mindlessly being thrown out to gobble every single hit in existence, but the fact it pairs so nicely with volcanion in being a perfect rotom-wash answer in where you've almost completely neutered it is nothing to sneeze at, pair that with Lopunny-mega and its getting pretty tough to deal with.

Another interesting trend was seeing sub drill, being able to sub as the opponent goes to their drill answer makes it especially dangerous and a real pain in the butt, as you're now able to fire off a return, iron head, eq, spin, or whatever it is you need drill to do in peace. That mon really do be doing it all.

Also, last two things I want to point out is manaphy is still scary broken no matter how you slice it, you could probs unironically throw it on balance if you're crazy enough, and dragonite is an underrated threat that shouldn't be slept on, seriously. Nothing's scarier than seeing a dragonite set up a ddance, get off its roost back to multiscale and your best answer is clefable about to eat a god knows what.
 

Amir

Banned deucer.
Hello, now that I have managed to clear up my schedule from University. Although I didn't manage to play, I still had a key role in building teams. So I'd like to show some of the sets and spreads that were used in SPL.



Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 8 HP / 224 Atk / 24 Def / 32 SpD / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Brick Break / Hammer Arm
- Pursuit

When ORAS OU began to stabilize and shift towards a fatter meta, I was thinking of ways to cause trouble for those "Torn-T, Clefable, Excadrill, Volcanion" builds which were essentially popping up every other week.
AdaGross played a role in slowly breaking down fat teams as it was able to net 2HKOs that were not possible with jolly mega Meta.
Here it was used by Persephone vs Xray in week 5 of SPL. And here is the team import: https://pokepast.es/ed9f95d49d5a40fe

224+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 248+ Def Rotom-Wash: 136-162 (44.7 - 53.2%) -- 87.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 248+ Def Rotom-Wash: 127-151 (41.7 - 49.6%) -- 23.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery


224+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Weavile: 282-332 (100.3 - 118.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Weavile: 260-308 (92.5 - 109.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO


224+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 248 HP / 168+ Def Amoonguss: 392-464 (90.9 - 107.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Zen Headbutt vs. 248 HP / 168+ Def Amoonguss: 366-432 (84.9 - 100.2%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock


224+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 170-200 (48.2 - 56.8%) -- 91.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Brick Break vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 156-184 (44.3 - 52.2%) -- 17.6% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery


224+ Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Latias: 290-342 (79.6 - 93.9%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Latias: 270-318 (74.1 - 87.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock


Defensive calcs:
252+ Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 8 HP / 24 Def Metagross-Mega: 254-302 (83.8 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 8 HP / 24 Def Metagross-Mega: 252-299 (83.1 - 98.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 8 HP / 32 SpD Metagross-Mega: 240-284 (79.2 - 93.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
+1 252+ Atk Dragonite Earthquake vs. 8 HP / 24 Def Metagross-Mega: 254-300 (83.8 - 99%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Hydro Pump vs. 8 HP / 32 SpD Metagross-Mega: 240-283 (79.2 - 93.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Pursuit (80 BP) vs. 8 HP / 24 Def Metagross-Mega: 254-302 (83.8 - 99.6%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 8 HP / 24 Def Metagross-Mega: 246-290 (81.1 - 95.7%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

And many more, these are on the top of my head.




Serperior @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 200 HP / 44 Def / 12 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Leaf Storm
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Glare
- Rest

Serperior has had a huge impact in the recent years, from screens support to setup sweeper, to fat teams breaker it has a wide range of roles and definitely deserves an S tier rating along with Excadrill and Clefable in the VR. But that is for another day.
I managed to create a lot of Serperior sets and spreads in ORAS but one of the coolest featured has to be the chesto resto set, used by both Persephone (but didn't reveal), and Xray vs CBB in the SPL tiebreaker finals.
The EV spread is inspired by my Screens Serperior which aims to survive both the Fake Out + HJK from Mega Lopunny 100% of the time (minus crit chance). This Serperior aims to do 2 things, punish twave scarf rotom-w and glare serperior in a 1v1 situation. It can kinda be seen as the synthesis set but unlike that set, it cannot remove status. HP Rock was the chosen Hidden Power unlike HP fire, ground and ice, hp rock is capable of eliminating Talonflame, Volcanion, Torn-T and Zapdos, it can solo teams if conditions are right.


0 Atk Gale Wings Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 200 HP / 44 Def Serperior: 218-258 (63.9 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Fake Out vs. 200 HP / 44 Def Serperior: 67-81 (19.6 - 23.7%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Lopunny-Mega High Jump Kick vs. 200 HP / 44 Def Serperior: 220-259 (64.5 - 75.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
(81+259=340)

0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Serperior: 270-318 (79.1 - 93.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 200 HP / 0 SpD Serperior: 282-332 (82.6 - 97.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery




Volcanion @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 152 Def / 16 SpA / 76 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
- Roar / Haze / Protect / Hidden Power Grass

As I have to go soon it's time to wrap things up, Volcanion is a huge powerhouse in today's ORAS OU metagame. We are all familiar with the current set of dual stab + toxic / haze / roar, w/e. But I wanted to share with you my EV spread which can be implemented in your teams.
Great water type, very reliable, you can see countless replays of this set being using.
P.S: the speed doesn't matter too much, unless you want to run earth power for opposing volcanion but you can run more or less speed up to you.
Taking off some of the SpA may work but you can miss out on some OHKOs like vs Weavile with flamethrower for example.

252 SpA Diancie-Mega Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 76 SpD Volcanion: 230-272 (63.3 - 74.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Diancie-Mega Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 222-264 (61.1 - 72.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ Atk Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 300-354 (82.6 - 97.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Lopunny-Mega High Jump Kick vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 151-178 (41.5 - 49%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Lopunny-Mega Return vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 118-141 (32.5 - 38.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Thundurus Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 76 SpD Volcanion: 288-342 (79.3 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Secret Sword vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 142-168 (39.1 - 46.2%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Keldeo Focus Blast vs. 248 HP / 76 SpD Volcanion: 294-346 (80.9 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252 SpA Serperior Leaf Storm vs. 248 HP / 76 SpD Volcanion: 295-348 (81.2 - 95.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 300-355 (82.6 - 97.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Excadrill Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 230-272 (63.3 - 74.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Metagross-Mega Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 152+ Def Volcanion: 162-192 (44.6 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery




16 SpA Volcanion Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Excadrill: 350-414 (96.9 - 114.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
16 SpA Volcanion Flamethrower vs. 56 HP / 0 SpD Serperior: 258-306 (84.5 - 100.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
16 SpA Volcanion Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Weavile: 282-332 (100.3 - 118.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
 
People finally realized how to prep for HO this SPL after the complete mess that was made of the metagame last year
Hey! I'm new to ORAS, coming from ADV (and more recently GSC) and I can say that I've been somewhat averse to playing newer gens for the reasons you mentioned concerning the highly mu reliant nature of play and also what I (as a spectator, not a player) view as a very offensive and unforgiving metagame. I've had my interest piqued by hearing that there is more balance in ORAS of late, and I was interested in hearing about this metagame shift. I wasn't there for this previous SPL, or that before, so I was wondering if I could learn something on the forums. Would you mind sharing about the shift and how HO took over (and how the current metagame handles screens)? Thank you for sharing your thoughts, regardless.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top