Metagame SS OU Metagame Discussion Thread v7 (Usage Stats in post #3539)

Speaking of naming Pokemon sets, let's talk about Demon Mew. Nothing specific about the set (I think it should be running taunt otherwise I don't get why you use this over magic guard mons). No, I want to talk about the most important part of the entire set: The Name.

Demon Mew

That's such a goddamn great name. Not since Extreme Killer have we had such an evocative name for a competitive set. It saddens me that most sets are really bland and workmanlike. Specs Pult. Utility Ferrothorn. Defog Corviknight. Yeah they describe the sets just fine and ultimately that's probably more important. But they don't have that special oomph that embeds the concept of the set in your mind. We had teleport + future sight slowtwins dominate the meta for a brief period, and what name did we come up for them? FuturePort. Blergh. Get creative folks. Why are we calling it Banded Rillaboom when we could be calling it THE BOOMHAMMER!
 
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Speaking of naming Pokemon sets, let's talk about Demon Mew. Nothing specific about the set (I think it should be running taunt otherwise I don't get why you use this over magic guard mons). No, I want to talk about the most important part of the entire set: The Name.

Demon Mew

That's such a goddamn great name. Not such Extreme Killer have we had such an evocative name for a competitive set. It saddens me that most sets are really bland and workmanlike. Specs Pult. Utility Ferrothorn. Defog Corviknight. Yeah they describe the sets just fine and ultimately that's probably more important. But they don't have that special oomph that embeds the concept of the set in your mind. We had teleport + future sight slowtwins dominate the meta for a brief period, and what name did we come up for them? FuturePort. Blergh. Get creative folks. Why are we calling it Banded Rillaboom when we could be calling it THE BOOMHAMMER!
So a compendium of set names:

Banded Rillaboom = The Boomhammer
Defog Corvknight = Rotund Mist Bird
Utility Ferrothorn = Green Toxapex
Specs Dragapult = Slenderdragon
Teleport + Future Sight Slowtwins = Beavis and Butthead
Assault Vest Melmetal = Silver Creampuff

(I'm bad at making names idk, but competitive Pokemon needs to have more fun like this), speaking of...

Melmetal is a monster right now. Specs Kyurem leaving eased a lot of pressure off our metallic friend.
How do you all feel about Melmetal?​
 
Melmetal is a monster right now. Specs Kyurem leaving eased a lot of pressure off our metallic friend.
How do you all feel about Melmetal?
Melmetal is in a fantastic place right now. Although it did smash Kyurem into the dirt, Kyurem also put on a lot of pressure with its Specs EP and Focus Misses. DIB is just such a devastating move able to 3HKO Pex with a resisted hit if it's banded. Melmetal usually has the bulk to live a hit and dish back devastating damage in return allowing it to use its immense attack and movepool to usually claim a kill every match.

Melm also appreciates the surge of physical grass spam, being able to easily bulk any Grassy Glide or Leaf Blade they have to offer, only taking 35% tops from Kart Banded Leaf Blade in Terrain, and once again absolutely demolish the opposing team. Psychics like Lele have to rely on hitting a Focus Blast else they risk taking 400% from DIB, and if its AV Melmetal it can even take that Focus Blast and kill anyway.

On the other side, obviously Melm has its issues, biggest one being it's slow as molasses being only faster than Overgrown Pex and the Slowtwins. With Toxapex even beating it out by 1 speed. Melmetal is weak to Fighting and Ground which are two of the most common types right now with CC and Focus Miss being just about everywhere and Lando-T being on almost 50% of all teams. It has good bulk, but no recovery to take advantage of that to recover and continue to dish out devastating blows, so even if you have to sack something to weaken Melmetal, you can usually revenge kill soon after. Even a burn from Flame Body Volcarona just disables Melmetal on the spot, allowing you to take advantage of that to kill not long after, or just bulk its hits from things like Pex and the gang. The only way I could see Melmetal recovering is like DIB-TPunch-Rest-Talk which sounds so memeable.

If predicted correctly, Melmetal can 2HKO the entire tier including pretty much every physical wall we've got with Overgrown Pex falling to Superpower, Pex falling to EQ, Clef and Fini getting bodied by DIB, Heatran dies to EQ, even at -1, Lando-T dies to DIB, Slowbro with T-Punch, Buzzwole dies to DIB, ect ect. However, its abysmal speed stat allowing others to get big hits of their own off before Melmetal and below average Sp.Def stat letting Focus Blast be devastating outside of AV sets, keeps it out of reach of being bannable. If someone nominated Melmetal to A+ or S- tier on viability rankings though, I wouldn't be against that.

TL:DR, Melmetal has its problems, but definitely very poggers right now.
 
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Red Raven

I COULD BE BANNED!
So a compendium of set names:

Banded Rillaboom = The Boomhammer
Defog Corvknight = Rotund Mist Bird
Utility Ferrothorn = Green Toxapex
Specs Dragapult = Slenderdragon
Teleport + Future Sight Slowtwins = Beavis and Butthead
Assault Vest Melmetal = Silver Creampuff

(I'm bad at making names idk, but competitive Pokemon needs to have more fun like this), speaking of...

Melmetal is a monster right now. Specs Kyurem leaving eased a lot of pressure off our metallic friend.
How do you all feel about Melmetal?​
Endrism already posted the main points so I'll just add that I think it's a fun pokemon. My favorite set is the pads + twave because it just feels so good to be on the other side of the rng bullshit

Since we're having fun, here are some more set names

Scale shot Garchomp - Scale Shark
Boots Koko - Tapu Chicken
Trick Fini - Tapu Monspeet
Boots Weavile - Slashing Ninja
Any Tornadus - Who let the Koel out?
Spdef Rotom - Never gonna wash you up
Utility Landorus - Light of the overused empire
Any Heatran - Mutated Frog
Specs Lele - Pink Punisher
 

airfare

is a Tutoris a Tiering Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
OUPL Champion
hi i've been experimenting with a lot of different types of offense builds and found that the one consistent threat that there's no realistic workaround to is dragapult

specs pult has been a known offense destroyer throughout the whole gen, but i feel like right now, with the majority of people spamming the bo/offense cores that lack consistent answers, it's turned into a real pain to deal with. nothing else in the tier is as uniquely restrictive on these offensive builds as specs pult. the fact that there are only 4 ghost resists in the tier and 3 of them are dogshit really sucks

here are some of the best options, from my experience, for offense to hold it off. none are remotely foolproof, so i wanted to preface that, to be safest, you'll almost always see these guys paired with something that can scout pult's moves: spdef lando, heatran (which can beat pult on its own if heavy slam), torn-t, and tapu fini are some of the best options available before switching into one of the below.

:weavile: - obviously most people's first choice when looking for a ghost resist. in addition to adding onto its teammates' pressure on steels/fairies, its surprising special bulk lets it scrape a 3hko from shadow ball and threaten to OHKO with knock or pick it off if weakened with ice shard. easily the most splashable ghost resist in the tier, an often overlooked factor that has led to its omnipresence just as much as its offensive use

:moltres-galar: - gmolt is a newer trendy gift to offense, benefitting from the lower koko usage while acting as a very strong ghost resist and scary sweeper in its own right. the natural bulk gives bulkier spreads rolls to even eat two dracos in a pinch - you'll often see it on offenses or HOs without the obligatory spdef lando or heatran to scout pult's move. definitely the second best dark in the tier, and a valuable defensive presence on any ho/offense when facing the threatening ghosts/grasses that dominate otherwise

:assault vest::tornadus-therian: - although it's not really an offense mon, i wanted to mention it alongside the above two because it's probably the most consistent pult answer here. its main weakness is that it usually requires strong hazard control support to not get 2hkod by draco, making it a mediocre option on typical offensive structures that lack the room for extensive support. it shines mainly on slightly fatter bo structures with teammates like lando/fini that can keep the rocks off for it to adequately wall special attackers, but can work on specific nicher offensive structures like this

:bisharp: | :assault vest::melmetal: | :kommo-o: - other misc stuff that can do the same job on offense (but worse)

if pult is such a strong offensive threat, with its reliable stab, amazing coverage, and speed tier, why hasn't it become a major problem yet?
imo there are a few key weaknesses to using dragapult that sometimes turn people off of using it. one of its biggest issues is how easily it can be chipped down. it's not strong enough to burst past its checks reliably, and although it can enter often, taking rocks (+ spikes on the omnipresent ferro teams) makes it incredibly easy to wear down if the opponent can pivot around it long enough. this isn't helped at all by the rise of scarfers that weren't used several months ago, like lele, kart, and blacephalon.

because of this, it doesn't fit well on a lot of the dominating archetypes in this meta. it doesn't abuse ferrothorn's spikes as much as other abusers (in fact, it often achieves nothing in mirror matchups vs spikes teams where it has extremely limited opportunities to switch in), specs doesn't benefit from magnezone on offense, it doesn't have the mileage to survive a longer game on fatter balances lacking momentum, and it faces competition from its busted dd set/other scarfers or speed control options on ho. from my experience, i've found that specs pult holds a cozy niche on ferro-less offense/bo, where it can benefit from pivot spam alongside a stronger special breaker like tapu lele, kyurem, or blacephalon. on these teams, it serves a multifaceted offensive and utility role by helping add to the special offense, pivoting with uturn, and giving speed control to the slower breaker it works with.

the last thing is that it's unreliable vs fat, probably the weakest point here because fat is awful... a post for another day. the thing that pult hates most is thudding into a bliss/pex/gastrodon, giving the opponent a free turn, and being chipped down in the process. shadow ball spdef drops aren't nearly reliable enough to make up for this flaw.

while i think pult is extremely obnoxious to face for the majority of the metagame, these flaws hold it back from being truly broken in my eyes... but they don't change the fact that facing it w offense is fucking dumb
 
hi i've been experimenting with a lot of different types of offense builds and found that the one consistent threat that there's no realistic workaround to is dragapult

specs pult has been a known offense destroyer throughout the whole gen, but i feel like right now, with the majority of people spamming the bo/offense cores that lack consistent answers, it's turned into a real pain to deal with. nothing else in the tier is as uniquely restrictive on these offensive builds as specs pult. the fact that there are only 4 ghost resists in the tier and 3 of them are dogshit really sucks

here are some of the best options, from my experience, for offense to hold it off. none are remotely foolproof, so i wanted to preface that, to be safest, you'll almost always see these guys paired with something that can scout pult's moves: spdef lando, heatran (which can beat pult on its own if heavy slam), torn-t, and tapu fini are some of the best options available before switching into one of the below.

:weavile: - obviously most people's first choice when looking for a ghost resist. in addition to adding onto its teammates' pressure on steels/fairies, its surprising special bulk lets it scrape a 3hko from shadow ball and threaten to OHKO with knock or pick it off if weakened with ice shard. easily the most splashable ghost resist in the tier, an often overlooked factor that has led to its omnipresence just as much as its offensive use

:moltres-galar: - gmolt is a newer trendy gift to offense, benefitting from the lower koko usage while acting as a very strong ghost resist and scary sweeper in its own right. the natural bulk gives bulkier spreads rolls to even eat two dracos in a pinch - you'll often see it on offenses or HOs without the obligatory spdef lando or heatran to scout pult's move. definitely the second best dark in the tier, and a valuable defensive presence on any ho/offense when facing the threatening ghosts/grasses that dominate otherwise

:assault vest::tornadus-therian: - although it's not really an offense mon, i wanted to mention it alongside the above two because it's probably the most consistent pult answer here. its main weakness is that it usually requires strong hazard control support to not get 2hkod by draco, making it a mediocre option on typical offensive structures that lack the room for extensive support. it shines mainly on slightly fatter bo structures with teammates like lando/fini that can keep the rocks off for it to adequately wall special attackers, but can work on specific nicher offensive structures like this

:bisharp: | :assault vest::melmetal: | :kommo-o: - other misc stuff that can do the same job on offense (but worse)

if pult is such a strong offensive threat, with its reliable stab, amazing coverage, and speed tier, why hasn't it become a major problem yet?
imo there are a few key weaknesses to using dragapult that sometimes turn people off of using it. one of its biggest issues is how easily it can be chipped down. it's not strong enough to burst past its checks reliably, and although it can enter often, taking rocks (+ spikes on the omnipresent ferro teams) makes it incredibly easy to wear down if the opponent can pivot around it long enough. this isn't helped at all by the rise of scarfers that weren't used several months ago, like lele, kart, and blacephalon.

because of this, it doesn't fit well on a lot of the dominating archetypes in this meta. it doesn't abuse ferrothorn's spikes as much as other abusers (in fact, it often achieves nothing in mirror matchups vs spikes teams where it has extremely limited opportunities to switch in), specs doesn't benefit from magnezone on offense, it doesn't have the mileage to survive a longer game on fatter balances lacking momentum, and it faces competition from its busted dd set/other scarfers or speed control options on ho. from my experience, i've found that specs pult holds a cozy niche on ferro-less offense/bo, where it can benefit from pivot spam alongside a stronger special breaker like tapu lele, kyurem, or blacephalon. on these teams, it serves a multifaceted offensive and utility role by helping add to the special offense, pivoting with uturn, and giving speed control to the slower breaker it works with.

the last thing is that it's unreliable vs fat, probably the weakest point here because fat is awful... a post for another day. the thing that pult hates most is thudding into a bliss/pex/gastrodon, giving the opponent a free turn, and being chipped down in the process. shadow ball spdef drops aren't nearly reliable enough to make up for this flaw.

while i think pult is extremely obnoxious to face for the majority of the metagame, these flaws hold it back from being truly broken in my eyes... but they don't change the fact that facing it w offense is fucking dumb
I was literally coming over to this thread specifically to post about how ridiculous pult was and whatdya know?

But in any case, Dragapult forces teams into highly defensive structures to avoid getting overwhelmed over time due to shadow ball's dirth of resistances and the lack of speed control options to deal with it. The later essentially only comes in the form of zeraora and scarfers, zeraora obviously getting walled by the nigh-universal bulky grounds of the tier and scarfers being plagued by their severely reduced damage output leading to frequent lack of progress during games.

Even if one has an otherwise "solid" check to dragapult like toxapex, heatran, clefable, tapu fini, or even something like spD lando (which I will come back to), they are often just one spD drop or knock-off away from being KOed by shadow ball. Case in point: tapu fini. With weavile and urshifu's presence essentially requiring teams to run defense on tapu fini, Dragapult can frequently overwhelm it with damage over time just by spamming its best stab move: 252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Fini: 130-154 (37.7 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Another factor that aids in wearing down checks on paper is its solid bulk. While 88/75/75 defenses doesn't seem amazing on paper, it allows it far more leeway against the bulky checks that teams are normally forced into using to beat it. Even clefable has less than a 40% chance to KO it after stealth rock, letting dragapult freely fish for a spD drop or a critical that can help beat clef: 0 SpA Clefable Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 248-294 (78.2 - 92.7%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock.

The way that most teams deal with dragapult is by stacking multiple defensive stopgaps to shadow ball + its coverage moves, something that can only be reasonably done when using bulkier pokemon that can afford to invest further into special defense like landorus-t or heatran.

While many often feel that it isn't broken due to the structures that they build, few often ask the question: why do we need to build this way in the first place? Why does lando-t almost always run spD even on structures packing heatran or tyranitar for threats like volc and blacephalon? Simple: Dragapult has the ability to overwhelm singular defensive checks over the course of a game, requiring one to stack multiple checks such as weavile, toxapex, mixed ferrothorn, tapu fini, etc. to avoid losing to it + any of its potential partners.

With all of this in mind, the community should examine dragapult's effect on the metagame and determine whether a suspect is appropriate given its strengths and weaknesses in the teambuilder and in battle.

TLDR: Toxapex is a good dragapult check
 
:moltres-galar: - gmolt is a newer trendy gift to offense, benefitting from the lower koko usage while acting as a very strong ghost resist and scary sweeper in its own right. the natural bulk gives bulkier spreads rolls to even eat two dracos in a pinch - you'll often see it on offenses or HOs without the obligatory spdef lando or heatran to scout pult's move. definitely the second best dark in the tier, and a valuable defensive presence on any ho/offense when facing the threatening ghosts/grasses that dominate otherwise
yeah im going to agree with airfare here. gmolt goes hard especially with kyureum gone. it can agility on the mag part of a rilla magnzeone core and go for a sweep, especially if the mag is chipped already.

basically airfare gave me a gmolt team and i liked it
 
So I’ve been bored and saw that Smogon Twitter said that you don’t have to prepare for Landorus-therian and on my quest to make that age like milk I went into builder and created this. Did some calcs and it beats all of the physical walls in OU. Just asking for a second opinion though. What beats this? (Besides d bond cheese and swift swim/slush rush/chlorophyll abusers)
https://pokepast.es/75b68d0431b472e8
also credit to Weaselfie for the weav bait bro
 

pulsar512b

ss ou fangirl
is a Pre-Contributor
So I’ve been bored and saw that Smogon Twitter said that you don’t have to prepare for Landorus-therian and on my quest to make that age like milk I went into builder and created this. Did some calcs and it beats all of the physical walls in OU. Just asking for a second opinion though. What beats this? (Besides d bond cheese and swift swim/slush rush/chlorophyll abusers)
https://pokepast.es/75b68d0431b472e8
also credit to Weaselfie for the weav bait bro
Rillaboom and similar revenge killers completely destroy this core, although it is indeed difficult to defensively answer.
 
Rillaboom and similar revenge killers completely destroy this core, although it is indeed difficult to defensively answer.
It can have a hard time with scarfed but rilla isn’t as big of a problem as you might think and I
prepared for some revenge killers like weav with slowbro+colber.

0 SpA Slowbro Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Rillaboom: 174-205 (51 - 60.1%) -- 87.5% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

and if rilla tries to take it on switch in then it has a not great time after rocks

+2 252 Atk Landorus-Therian Smack Down vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rillaboom: 129-152 (37.8 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

not to mention it’s not even an OHKO without rocks (not that it matters much though because lando is only doing like 40 back and gets priority)

252+ Atk Choice Band Rillaboom Grassy Glide vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Landorus-Therian in Grassy Terrain: 259-306 (81.1 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

still IMO if you need a revenge killer to beat something its at least pretty good.
 
So I’ve been bored and saw that Smogon Twitter said that you don’t have to prepare for Landorus-therian and on my quest to make that age like milk I went into builder and created this. Did some calcs and it beats all of the physical walls in OU. Just asking for a second opinion though. What beats this? (Besides d bond cheese and swift swim/slush rush/chlorophyll abusers)
https://pokepast.es/75b68d0431b472e8
also credit to Weaselfie for the weav bait bro
Love Smack Down Lando but I feel the core can be completly shut down by any Toxic Lando + Corviknight core, especially if opposing Lando is defensive with lefties. Could Gravity be a better option over Smack Down? Would also maybe consider Sub over Rock Polish, depending on whether you want Lando to be a breaker or a cleaner. Love offensive Lando though, sometimes people forget this guy has the highest attack stat in OU.
 
Love Smack Down Lando but I feel the core can be completly shut down by any Toxic Lando + Corviknight core, especially if opposing Lando is defensive with lefties. Could Gravity be a better option over Smack Down? Would also maybe consider Sub over Rock Polish, depending on whether you want Lando to be a breaker or a cleaner. Love offensive Lando though, sometimes people forget this guy has the highest attack stat in OU.
Agree 100% with everything you said. I believe that sub + gravity are miles ahead of smack down + rock polish. A double dance set only works if the rest of your team is tailored to overwhelm lando, corvi, buzzwole, etc, but Lando-T is its own biggest check so having sub to block toxic and intimidate pivoting is vital if you want to take advantage of it.

I'd say that, at that point, you are better off using a setup move either bulk up or sd with toxic and spikes support in the back, or you decide to be a demon and use toxic yourself over SD, which I think is still good if you have spikes because of gravity and the amount of switches you force with such a set that directly pressures every defogger between toxic and gravity-eq

Eq toxic gravity substitute - "demon lando" lol
 
In my opinion I would also add something cheeky to bait out Buzzwhole, something like LO Sand Tomb + Fire Blast Garchomp or SD Aerial Ace Weavile or even LO Air Slash Bisharp if you feel extra spicy
I feel like we could make a team out of this I probably will later today thank you all for the feedback.

Edit:
I like the sub idea very much as it adds more use to lefties and works to beat toxic users like said above HOWEVER
I’m not going with gravity lando tho it’s cursed and
1. Taunt shuts it down
2. Smack down does extra damage to grass mons mons like tang, bulu, rilla etc.
3. Not the most obvious to think about but gravity lando is a double edge sword as your own landlord can get eq’d now
 
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I feel like we could make a team out of this I probably will later today thank you all for the feedback.

Edit:
I like the sub idea very much as it adds more use to lefties and works to beat toxic users like said above HOWEVER
I’m not going with gravity lando tho it’s cursed and
1. Taunt shuts it down
2. Smack down does extra damage to grass mons mons like tang, bulu, rilla etc.
3. Not the most obvious to think about but gravity lando is a double edge sword as your own landlord can get eq’d now
Bear noting that without grassy terrain EQ still does more than Smack Down even against ground resists. The new-found EQ vulnerability I feel can also be covered if running Bulk Up over SD but that's a matter of team style and preference. Feeling inspired to try building something new too, see ya on RMT
 
:ss/heatran:

Lately I've been experimenting with a new Heatran set that I've been seeing around ladder and tours, with Air Balloon and Eruption. I'm not sure who thought of the set, but I think it's pretty great. At lead, I've found that most opponents on ladder don't really anticipate it at preview, and go with a Lando lead, which is ideal for this Heatran set. Because it's fast and offensive, it can get a powerful eruption off on the Landorus, as they're likely to try to Knock, U turn, or simply switch, giving you a fairly free turn. If you're able to get that chip off on Landorus turn one, I've found that it enables quite a lot of threatening teammates, which greatly appreciate such progress being made early on.

252+ SpA Heatran Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Landorus-Therian: 223-264 (58.3 - 69.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

That, and this Heatran is particularly nice at keeping rocks up throughout the course of the game, especially if the defogger is Landorus itself.
Teammates that I've been liking with this set so far include Zeraora, Garchomp, Zapdos, Regieleki, offensive Landorus, Excadrill/Dracozolt on sand teams, Choice Band Tyranitar (particularly appreciates Heatran's ability to keep rocks up vs common defoggers to fire off Band Assurances), and so on. All of these pokemon, while able to pressure or beat Lando in the long term, certainly appreciate it being chipped/removed early on to facilitate wallbreaking and cleaning with less difficulty. And again, since this set is still somewhat new, I've found that it's been working pretty well at getting that chip eary on as intended.
This is the set I've been using

:heatran:
Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Eruption
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

I run Modest because I don't think hitting 278 speed is terribly important for this Heatran set, and I would rather get as much chip as possible on its intended targets. Modest's final speed of 253 is a somewhat vague speed tier, so there is probably some room for optimization there, but I feel comfortable running max speed on it since the leftover EVs are relatively negligible, and max speed could come in handy at outpacing some creeping Adamant Buzzwoles (which this spread outpaces the analysis tank Buzzwole spread).

Has anyone else tried this set out lately? What kinds of builds have you been trying it out on?
 
:ss/zeraora:

Just wanted to talk about Zeraora and its place in the meta currently. Specifically, I always felt like people have underestimated the threat of Bulk Up Zeraora for a long time, although you kinda have to believe on this statement because there's probably no evidence on this forum. Anyway, this doesn't matter in the context of what this post is about, but rather as an indicator of the attention I give to the Pokémon and how it fits in the OU environment.
That being said, Bulk Up Zeraora is definitely being rediscovered and explored at the moment, because it appreciates meta trends and especially tournament trends. It may seem counterintuitive, but :Landorus-Therian: being the absolute number 1 most used Pokémon in tours and on ladder is a blessing in disguise for Zeraora and, other than surface level analysis, I've never understood why people could think otherwise. Landorus-T is possibly its biggest counter due to its typing, bulk and ability, but as the most used Pokémon it faces the reality of being also the most prepared for, the most exploited and the most targeted. Since it's such a perfect counter to Zeraora, many builds tend to only have Landorus-T as their counterplay, which only goes to show how underrated Zeraora's biggest quality is: the ability to outlast its checks. Zeraora boasts the highest natural Speed in SS OU which lets it have many avenues to be positioned against threats it forces out, most notably Dragapult. It having good coverage between Plasma Fists, Close Combat and Knock Off also helps at expanding the pool of Pokémon it threatens out, and this threat is what allows Zeraora to find a free turn to click Bulk Up in the late game. Knock Off is absolutely huge in its efforts to outlast its checks and Landorus-T, who heavily relies on Leftovers to sustain its health, is the biggest victim of this. At last, Landorus-T itself is a great partner to Zeraora due to being a good counter to itself as they both tend to trade Toxics or Knock Offs between each other, which only makes Landorus-T's own stellar viability a good thing for Zeraora.

However, why is Bulk Up Zeraora being used more now? In the first week of SPL it was used 16.7% of the time with an astounding 80% winrate (4 games out of 5).
This is due to new metagame trends, the biggest one being Air Balloon :Heatran:, which has beenaddressed in the previous post, so I won't go in depth about it. Truth is, if you look at the SPL teams that featured Zeraora, pretty much all of them have some kind of Stealth Rock Heatran. Since Landorus-T is a premier Defogger, having Stealth Rock on a Pokémon that pressures Landorus-T is a great tool to not only win the Stealth Rock war, but also directly weaken Landorus-T. Air Balloon Heatran has enjoyed more usage as a very quick and safe way to force massive damage on every Defoggger through Eruption and Zeraora obviously enjoys this trend a lot due to liking both Stealth Rock and a heavily chipped or dead Landorus-T (on the topic of Zeraora and Heatran, shameless plug here).

Another great rising trend is :Zapdos:, which is less commonly seen with Zeraora than Heatran but in my opinion is another terrific partner, especially if packing both Hurricane and Toxic. With these two moves, Zapdos pressures every Ground type even further because they will try to absorb its Volt Switches in order to stop the momentum generated by the move. Most importantly though, an opposing Zapdos (especially one lacking Toxic) is yet another avenue for setting up a Bulk Up. Pokémon like Weavile and Kartana being heavily used alongside other staples such as Tapu Fini, Toxapex, Urshifu, Slowbro, Ferrothorn and Tornadus-T only give Zeraora a larger pool of victims to KO with its STAB and coverage, as it only needs one boost to threaten a KO on these very popular Pokémon. Heatran and Zapdos also heavily pressure and/or scare out other miscellaneous roadblocks such as Buzzwole and Gastrodon.

Now, the second week has seen a drop in Zeraora usage, but the point of this post isn't convincing readers that Zeraora is this incredibly strong super viable Pokémon, it's just meant to raise awareness about the threat that Zeraora poses despite the astronomical usage of Landorus-T, which most of the time ends up being only a temporary roadblock towards it that doesn't require particular skill to wear down since it's usually the safest or the only good switch-in. Having Heavy-Duty Boots to ignore Stealth Rock, synergizing well with many slow, bulky pivots and being the fastest unboosted Pokémon in the metagame allows Zeraora to be well positioned offensively most of the times and from there it can easily cause chip damage to its checks or, in the late game, grab a decisive boost. It also finds itself being naturally preserved for late game scenarios due to its aforementioned positive matchups and good enough power to KO everything that usually makes it to the late game with a single boost.

What do you think of Zeraora at the moment? Have you been using it lately? Which partners do you like using it with?
 
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Love Smack Down Lando but I feel the core can be completly shut down by any Toxic Lando + Corviknight core, especially if opposing Lando is defensive with lefties. Could Gravity be a better option over Smack Down? Would also maybe consider Sub over Rock Polish, depending on whether you want Lando to be a breaker or a cleaner. Love offensive Lando though, sometimes people forget this guy has the highest attack stat in OU.
You forgot about kartana, also haxorus if you wanna count him since he's on the vr
 
This place has gone a little quiet, so why don't I spark up a conversation.

I wanna hear people's opinions on Nihilego in the current meta.

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Nihilego seems to have gotten more love over the last little stretch despite the influx of things like Weavile and Rillaboom able to do massive damage. It's shown itself in a few SPL replays and I've been seeing it on the ladder a little more than usual. Was wondering what sets you guys like to run with Nihilego, or if you do like running Nihilego in OU at all?

I seemed to get decent results with this set:

Nihilego @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 80 HP / 176 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Meteor Beam
- Sludge Wave
- Thunderbolt

The obvious meteor beam concept, but also getting some role compression by making it an offensive stealth rocker that can set up as it forces switches. The 176 Special Attack allows for the speed boost to happen instead of the special attack boost, letting Nihilego outspeed the entire meta including some threats to it like Scarf Lele, which normally threatening to kill, is now an easy KO with Sludge Wave once you get a kill most likely with Meteor Beam. Losing power gem coverage sucks, but Volcarona cant kill Nihilego in time before another Meteor Beam gets sent off, so it's not that huge of a deal. The biggest drawback to no PGem is the loss of Dragonite coverage, as one swift EQ will decimate Nihilego before a second Meteor Beam can come out, but if Dnite is crippled, you can get away with killing it with a +1 Sludge Wave.

+1 176 SpA Nihilego Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Dragonite: 216-255 (66.8 - 78.9%)

Overall decent mon, but a glass cannon on the physdef side. Has it's problem but is interesting to use imo. What do you guys think?
 

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