Note: I felt insecure about this post, which is why I decided to delete it again. Reflecting back, one-and-a-half week of grinding and 2 tournament games did not really constitute a conclusive SwSh experience, so I had come to doubt the worth of my thoughts. However, I was then told privately by somebody (you know who you are, you are the best!) that my thoughts aren´t too bad, so I decided to repost it, after all. Also, the post was written before the recent viability updates.
World cup qualifications, round 1 is over and sadly, we didn´t make it. Still, we gave it our all, and I think we did much better than we could have hoped for. If nothing else, it really glued us together as a team, and I personally at least ground like a madman for one-and-a-half weeks to stand a chance in a tier that I had maybe 3 days of playing experience in prior to the event. I´m going to throw all the stuff I built, thought up and theorized on here, and see if somebody is interested in discussing some of it. Probably not, I´m hardly a good player, but at least I built it all myself.
Nussknacker und Mausekönig
I brought this team to
my first match. I fancy myself something of a balance player, and when I started looking for ideas, I scouted for bulky defensive Pokémon that aren´t tier staples and wouldn´t be something that my opponent would expect. I eventually stumbled upon Tangrowth. I initially used it, because I simply loved the green Spaghetti monster´s design, but over time I came to appreciate its genuine strengths. Tangrowth´s biggest strength in my opinion is its ability to force consistent and lasting damage on the tier´s two most common support Pokémon,
and
. It plays a little like Corviknight in practice, except for the part where Corviknight attempts to pressure stall, while Tangrowth simply forces continuous chip damage on its targets. Moreover, Corviknight not only has to roost frequently to stay healthy, but it gets forced out by Swords Dance Landorus and Leech Seed Ferrothorn, while Tangrowth can laugh this off. It gets poisoned extremely easily, but knocking off and chipping Landorus and Ferrothorn in return is more than worthwile, since they can´t recover their HP unlike Tangrowth. Tangrowth isn´t wholly passive against offensive teams either, as Sleep Powder is a wonderful ace in the hole to gain a decisive advantage.
So, when building with Tangrowth, you need something to cover against special attackers, especially Heatran and Zapdos. I went for the most obvious option.
At this point, I needed a plan for opposing set-up sweepers. I decided to try out Unaware Clefable, and discovered that this Pokémon ruins a significant number of ladder teams, mercilessly abusing Dragonite and Volcarona to set up itself.
At this point Toxapex is still sitting on this team, ruining everything with Knock Off and status, so Stallbreaker Heatran looked like an obvious addition, especially since Tangrowth and Clefable could knock off Toxapex´s Shed Shell. It also offers the team a much coveted Fire- and Ice resist.
At this point I had to compress Stealth Rock, hazard control, a Ground type, a Ghost type resist and preferrably a second Steel type into the final two slots, so I went for Defog Landorus and Stealth Rock Bisharp.
After running a lot of test games, I found Landorus far too unsuited as a Defogger for a reactive team such as this one, continuously getting itself chipped without being able to outheal Stealth Rock damage, so I got myself Tornadus-Therian instead. Now I had to compress a ground type somewhere else. After testing around with Gastrodon, I found myself taking a liking to it, its unique typing allows it to switch into massive threats such as Choice Specs Volcanion, Eruption Heatran, Whirlpool Tapu Fini and others, and it is probably the only Pokémon in the tier that can safely attempt to tank an Arctozolt lacking Freeze-Dry.
The team overall is extremely vulnerable to Tapu Lele (especially Choice Specs versions), but it can handle most other opposing threats fairly consistently. My teammates in this tournament spammed rain teams, which got me the impression that this was a dominant, already established team archetype, which is why I overly prepared for such a case with Storm Drain Gastrodon and Tangrowth. In the end, I think I mostly ended up lucking out by way of match-up, as my opponent brought at least 2 Pokémon that were completely dominated by my bulky Leftovers Bisharp, Choice Band Dragapult and Choice Specs Aegislash.
Some thoughts on some Pokémon I used on this team:
I already specified what it does for me, I think this is super sexy and more people should use it. It chips down Landorus-Therian and Ferrothorn with unmatched consistency, and it can handle a number of dangerous physical attackers in a pinch, such as
,
and
. You are also probably looking at the best
counter in the tier. This will probably rise in the viability rankings soon.
I think with the sheer number of appearances it made in World Cup qualifications so far, especially on Stall teams, and its very respectable win rate, this has established itself as a borderline staple Mon, I think this will also soon rise in the viability rankings, even more so than Tangrowth. Depending on its and the opposing set it can switch into and wall any of
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
, ..., one gets the idea. It can sit on Calm Mind set-up sweepers with Clear Smog, it can sit on Pokémon that rely on Knock Off to make progress with Sticky Hold, it can scare many of its switch-ins with Ice Beam and it spreads around status with Scald, Toxic and potentially Sludge Bomb. What´s not to like? Vulnerability to poison? Touché :)
Unaware Clefable is a demon and a one-woman army in about one-third of all ladder games.
SwSh will soon stop being the current generation, and this still doesn´t have an official Smogon analysis (I´ll volunteer to do it, so this isn´t just random complaining), and nobody really talks about it, because everybody is busy (rightfully) swooning over
. So let´s remedy that, let´s talk about Bisharp. I think Bisharp is pretty good. The dominant set by far is Choice Band, but I think people could really stand to explore the bulky Leftovers set I tried a bit. This hinges partially on Dark/Steel being an utterly fantastic defensive typing, probably the second-best in the metagame after Tapu Fini´s Water/Fairy duality in my humble opinion. It switches at least once into any Weavile lacking Low Kick, and it can actually generate a lot of free turns through the threat of Sucker Punch, letting it heal off chip damage with Leftovers if you burn Sucker Punches at the right moment. Because of how many switches this can force, Bisharp also makes extremely good use of utility and coverage moves, Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, Low Sweep and Substitute are all options that in my opinion should be explored more. Because Clefable, Tapu Fini and even Heatran and Ferrothorn are way more scared switching into it than on Weavile, it can also make very good use of Toxic to poison switch-ins such as
or
. If I had a complaint, it would be the iffy speed tier, getting outsped by timid
,
,
and jolly
without running a jolly nature itself is annoying.
Straight Flush
Preparing for
my other game was a terror, as my opponent is known as a highly skilled player who excels at playing bulky balances and cheese teams, and would probably beat me at my own game in a drawn-out battle. At least, this time around, I had already collected some experience and wasn´t just grasping at straws when looking for ideas. I eventually decided to build around a Tyranitar-Slowking core, probably my favorite core to build around in this tier, as together they can handle all special attackers in the tier bar some strong electric attackers which can be walled by a ground type who fits on these team styles like a glove. Choice Band Tyranitar and Heavy-Duty Boots Slowking also form a solid future-port core that can wallbreak many bulkier cores.
I originally wanted to draft in
, as my opponent had a reputation for spamming Clef-Pex cores (with Corviknight on top, no less), and this was one of the few Pokémon that could somewhat reliably break those sorts of teams, but having 2 slow wallbreakers along with Tyranitar struck me as highly counter-productive, so I eventually went for a different mon that I think is actually quite bad, because of how badly it matches up against
and
. At least it compresses both speed control and Rapid Spin, while also outhealing Stealth Rock damage with Leftovers alone, which are both valuable traits on such a team. I think the key to playing Excadrill during a match is simply not to use it too much, unless you absolutely need to. It nearly always runs into something it can´t beat, so one should time its appearances extremely carefully and scout left and right for it.
and
can single-handedly knock those 3 out, so I needed something to check those. I disliked the idea of getting Corviknight involved, since I already had Excadrill, so I instead went for Zapdos. Defensive Zapdos-Kanto also has the valuable ability to fight off its own Galarian cousin, which I have to admit scared the wits out of me. It also added something for me that could pivot into and gain momentum off bulky water types, especially Tapu Fini.
Weavile would still tear me apart at this point, so I really needed either
or
. Even though Buzzwole could also fight off Swords Dance Garchomp for the team, I don´t like it much as a Pokémon. On this team it would need to run an extremely bulky spread, limiting its offensive capabilities and by extension its ability to force progress. It would probably spend most its time roosting, lose its Heavy-Duty Boots at the first opportunity and then get bodied by either a single double-switch or Future Sight. So, Toxapex it was, which also compressed an additional Fighting and U-Turn resist into the team, and I simply hoped that I wouldn´t run into Garchomp.
At this point the team still lacked any major surprise value, and I really knew that I needed some ace in the hole. Eventually, I decided to simply steal an idea from my opponent, Tricky Barb Clefable. If my opponent played their star team, this way I could engage them in a game of Trick-or-Treat, which is a little less about skill in Pokémon battles and a little more about sheer persistence, and I was prepared to play this game like my life depended on it, probably the only advantage I had. Calm Mind Clefable also added an actual win-condition to the team, and with Magic Guard also gave me a much coveted status-absorber and another weather-immune team member.
Very vulnerable to Swords Dance Garchomp, the final product, and I wasn´t wholly sure if I could win if my opponent played their Ditto team well, but I happened to run into an other incredibly convenient match-up for me. I actually played the battle very, very badly, my RBY- and ADV-honed instincts telling me to scout Mienshao endlessly for Poison Jab, and almost managed to get myself tournament-banned(?) in the process for never Calm Minding with Clefable with all the chances I got. But I got the most important turns right, managing to trick the Sticky Barb onto the best target, Nidoking, and only bringing Excadrill in to spin against Blissey when my opponent had no other choice but to heal up. I also successfully withheld Zapdos´ full moveset long enough that I could profit from Volt Switch in the endgame, and Heavy Slam on Tyranitar could have KO´d Mienshao in a similar fashion, if not for the timely critical hit. Most importantly, I remained patient enough to not try to brute-force my way through my opponent´s defenses even in the endgame, instead stacking chip damage with sandstorm, Stealth Rock and Future Sight to the very end, while trying to avoid Scald burns and preserving as much HP on my own Pokémon at the same time.
Also, now that I look the team paste again, the EV´s are garbage. I put 30 speed IV´s on my Slowking in order to underspeed opposing Slow-guys, but didn´t even give it a sassy nature, and I got undersped in that regard anyway, my opponent even using a Level 99 Slowking for the purpose. I can´t remember what the speed on Zapdos is for, either. The movesets are fully intentional, though.
Some thoughts on Pokémon I used on this team:
Rejoice, the king is back in town! I value the Cif highly in this metagame. Dark types are incredibly valuable in a metagame starved for Ghost resists and providing barely any usable Normal-types bar Blissey, and Tyranitar performs defensive legwork by far the best out of the bunch. Defensive Leftovers variants make for solid long-term solutions to specially offensive threats like Zapdos and Blacephalon while also potentially compressing a Stealth Rock setter and a reliable status spreader with Thunder Wave and/or Toxic, while Choice Band variants can make for scary balance breakers that make up for their lack of speed and Knock Off with their absurd coverage, being able to run all of Crunch, Stone Edge, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Earthquake, Superpower/Low Kick, Heavy Slam (for Fairies), Thunder Punch (for Water types, especially
and Metal birds in one) and Aqua Tail (for
,
and
in one) to great effect.
Highly valuable due to being the best answer in the tier to many specially offensive threats that have recently (re)risen;
,
,
,
and others. I think we need to get away from the idea that Slowbro and Slowking´s usefulness in the tier is mutually exclusive, they do different things, and they do their respective jobs very well, independent from each other. You are unlikely to include both on the same team, but you would not assign one of them to do the other one´s job. Aside from that, business as usual, Future-Port is still great when paired with Breakers like
or
, and makes both Slowking and Slowbro Pokémon earn their place even on offensive teams.
Not splashable at all, and is only highly effective once every full moon in my humble opinion. Should be used with great caution in battles, micromanagement of both your own and your opponent´s Pokémon´s HP typically pays off when using it. 200 speed EV´s + a neutral nature are enough to outspeed the fastest commonly seen Choice Scarf user, Kartana, in sand. Being faster is only worth it for Sweeper sets that aim to do so after Rapid Spin, but those sets are in my opinion highly limiting, requiring way too much support to work consistently.
The best Electric-type in the tier by a wide margin, in my humble opinion. Not only the strongest one and the one least likely to get walled, but also by far the bulkiest one and the only one that can really consistently perform defensive duties for a team, specifically switching into
,
,
,
,
,
and most
sets for its team. I think defensive sets are legitimate and can make use of Pressure over Static to PP stall, Heat Wave to hit steel types and/or Toxic to spread status, unlike Pokémon such as Tapu Fini it tends to actually do this job consistently, though managing its HP well isn´t always easy and it can still
end up overwhelmed by sheer offensive pressure from multiple fronts.
Is Tricky Barb a gimmick set or not? I´d say it probably is, it´s not always easy to get off Trick against the desired target, especially when up against offensive teams. Still, Trick-or-Treat is a funny game, and if you have a free moveslot on your Clefable, it´s not the worst move at all.
Other sets I have played around with, but not seen anywhere, probably really, really bad, and probably somebody already came up with them, but 2 cents are better than no cents:
Weavile @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Choice Band
Ability: Pickpocket
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance / Triple Axel / Low Kick
- Ice Shard
-
Psycho Cut
Once these days somebody needs to run this to nail knocked off 50% Toxapex, Urshifu and Buzzwole.
Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Block
- Stone Edge
- Taunt
- Rest
I tried to pair this with a Knock Off user such as Weavile in order to trap and remove Toxapex, never quite worked out, maybe the same idea can work on Heatran or something.
Garchomp @ Leftovers
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 Spe
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Whirlpool
- Protect
Same idea, but this is more aimed at forcing chip damage on
,
and
. Unlike the previous set this actually worked on occasion.
Slowking @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Future Sight
- Earthquake
- Psyshock / Fire Blast / Zap Cannon
I think this is a legitimate set. While the lack of Heavy-Duty Boots can be annoying, this is probably the best counter to Choice Specs Tapu Lele, just pair it with a Dark type that can switch into Psyshock. The amount of damage it takes from Heatran and Volcanion is similarly hilarious, and it can even stay in on Zapdos and Dragapult, if need be. It still relies a bit on surprise value, but the results from laddering with it have been positive.
Kartana @ Protective Pads / Choice Band
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Toxic
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword / Synthesis / Defog
Why would you use Kartana for anything other than sweeping or wallbreaking? Why not? It really does cripple Tornadus, Buzzwole and Zapdos.
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Roost
- Toxic
- Whirlwind
Running Skarmory over Corviknight sounds like a pretty bad idea, if you aren´t using Spikes. However, it is easy to forget that Skarmory also has access to Toxic and Whirlwind over its (c)raven counterpart. Unlike
it really does actively pressure
,
and
.
Thundurus (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Substitute
- Knock Off
- Bulk Up
When I suffered a burn-out early last week, I went laddering with this on low ladder. I won against Toxic Melmetal and lost against Bulk Up Buzzwole, but on the whole it was a funny experience.
, the tier´s premier physical answer to Bulk Up users and
, the only commonly seen Hazer, both get smashed by a fast STAB Thunder Punch, and the tier´s ground types get slowly, but no less reliably worn down by Knock Off.
Other Pokémon that I think are a little underrated right now:
It seems to be going the same path as its S-Rank partner, Heatran. I have been seeing more and more offensive sets. People seem to have remembered that this is a Pokémon with 145 base attack, a workable speed tier and a respectable offensive movepool. Standard specially defensive sets nowadays switch into Choice Specs Blacephalon, only to lose 50% of their HP and drop after switching in a second time. U-Turn and Knock Off are still clutch moves to make progress, they just don´t need to be run on defensive sets anymore.
I wrote some time ago a huge wall of text on why I thought this Pokémon deserved to drop in the viability rankings, I find myself having changed my mind a bit since; Tapu Fini´s problem in many cases lies in my humble opinion not with herself, but rather with the teams she is featured on. Many teams slap her on as a band-aid against
,
and
, only to get crushed under offensive pressure, but I think the mistake lies in trying to rely on this one (admittedly bulky) Pokémon to patch massive defensive holes to begin with. Fini has a lot of fortes when played to her strengths, boasting many of the same utility moves as Clefable and the sheer difficulty in putting her down when momentum is actually on her side can swiftly turn a battle´s tide. I would like to write more, but I don´t think I have used this Pokémon enough to give an optimal account.
Gastrodon is probably preferrable to Hippowdon right now, as far as Ground types with longevity go, but Sand Stream and Roar/Whirlwind are useful tools to force switches that Gastrodon lacks. If offensive
,
and Weather Ball users such as
continue to stay strong, Hippowdon might find a more charitable spot on the viability rankings again.
I haven´t seen much of this Pokémon, but realistically it can still singlehandedly crush absolutely everything with Bolt Beak, Freeze Dry and Low Kick under Hail. Maybe there´s an unwritten agreement among the player base that using it too much constitutes an abuse of power?
Other Pokémon that I think are a little overrated right now:
I saw
one performance of Buzzwole in the World Cup qualifications that I absolutely loved to death. Otherwise I sadly found most of my prejudices regarding this Pokémon to be justified. Teams relying on it as their all-purpose physical tank see themselves driven into a corner far too often, and a good player can
wear it down with double switches or simply knock it out with Future Sight. Defensive sets also suffer from Rillaboom syndrome in that there will typically be at least one Pokémon on the opposing team that can wall it without even actively trying. As I mentioned above, I had great joy watching the Choice Band version perform, but in many respects it relies on surprise value and isn´t necessarily better than other Choice Band users. Regardless, I find all sets to be too inconsistent right now. Maybe I´ll eventually come around on it, like I did on Tapu Fini.
It has a fantastic speed tier, a very sexy movepool and a unique typing, but I find this Pokémon to be just too frail to my liking. Even most neutral attacks in the tier do at least around 50% damage to it, so when it switches into an opponent, it needs to roost like a brainless chicken the following couple turns just to be able to switch in a second time, hoping that its opponent will eventually lose interest and switch out. To make matters worse, the electric terrain it summons boosts the electric attacks that it could otherwise switch into with a little less worry, and it also doesn´t want to switch into Knock Off, as it often strongly depends on its Heavy-Duty Boots, giving this Pokémon overall very few resistances to work with defensively. It also deals only manageable damage to Landorus and Heatran, and has difficulty making tangible progress at all as long as the opponent has a Ferrothorn. Nature´s Madness helps out in that regard, but it needs to drop either one of its STABs or U-turn for it, and the move will never finish the job on its own. Maybe if I used more offensive teams I´d have a better opinion on it, but alas.
It can deal awesome damage, but dealing awesome damage isn´t always the same as actually getting kills. It always seems to come just short of knocking out its targets. Worse yet, the speed and defense drops incurred from using its signature move make it a sitting duck in a highly momentum-oriented metagame. Defensively it is one of a handful of Pokémon that can safely switch into Tapu Lele for the most part, but almost every other Pokémon in the metagame runs a move to hit it for massive damage it can´t heal off.
General metagame observations:
- Building a team that can answer most realistic opposing teams feels extremely challenging, there are too many offensive Pokémon in the tier with only one to three good defensive answers. Most teams are fishing for a good match-up, whether they want or not.
- Teams are relying more and more on overall team synergy, rather than the strengths of its individual members. Teams that rely on a single star to do all the team´s difficult work are unlikely to see great success going forward.
- Crucial support abilities like weather or a certain terrain might find their way even onto teams that don´t explicitly rely on them, as it can facilitate dealing with other teams that do rely on their weather/terrain.
- The Metagame is approaching a level of streamlining and formulaization seen in many metagames of past generations. While the offensive metagame is still undergoing significant evolution, the defensive and especially stall meta has largely defined itself, with almost all stall teams choosing from a pool of ~10 Pokémon.
- Related to the above, a number of dominant (and not-so-dominant) team archetypes such as standard weatherless offense, rain offense, weatherless stall and bulky balance are starting to fight each other for supreme control of the tier, and will probably ultimately settle into a vague hierarchy in terms of dominance they exert in the tier.
Feel free to challenge anything written here, it is the account of a person that played the tier for all of 2 weeks, after all. I probably won´t play SwSh going forward, and move back to the older generations. Brief appreciation post to all my teammates and supporters during the tournament, I couldn´t have gone where I did without their help.
