Metagame SwSh LCUU Metagame Discussion Thread

[MegaBanette69]

So can we put LC UU teams here? Also, great job with the meta such a fun thing to play + my boi

is popular

 

[Joltage]

Shift time bay-bee!
Additions:
Subtractions:

So we got two absolutely monstrous offensive threats with this shift in and . From first glance, I think Fetch'd will prove too much for the tier. We just don't really have switch-ins to it and it's 16-speed tier is much less punishing here than it is in LC OU. Brave Bird + Knock basically ruins all of our fighting checks and that's not even taking into account Scrappy making Ghosts unable to even switch into a predicted CC. Corph on the other hand seems much more manageable simply due to the number of natural checks and counterplay we already have in the tier between our solid grasses; like Cott, Oddish, Bulb, and Budew, to our weirdly large amount of Water immunities such as Helio, Gunk, Frillish, and Mantyke, Corp's most dangerous weapon in it's incredibly strong water STAB is pretty mitigated. On top of that, it's speed tier is okay but leaves something to be desired in terms of what it'd really like, perhaps DD is something to look at for him more than SD in this tier. All that said, Corp is still a terrifying wall breaker and doesn't exactly have issues with prominent mons in the meta like Sandshrew or even Pancham. Corp will definitely be a top tier threat should it stick around.

Finally, I'll give some words on Dwebble who, for whatever reason wasn't able to shine quite like many thought he might when he arrived. Most of the time Dwebble was seen in a hazard setting role, which it did quite well, and its Smash sets were also always threatening when you came across them, but it never got the usage you'd expect to see out of a mon of its caliber. HO teams will be the ones that are most hurt by Dwebble's departure.

 

[doomsday doink]

whæt īš łêgæł nøw ??

 

[doomsday doink]

:(

 

[Kipkluif]

Farfetch'd Galar has been quickbanned from LCUU.
Farfetch'd-Galar has a good speed tier, a good attack stat, access to Close Combat and Brave Bird, a coverage combination that has no resisted hits when combined with Scrappy. It has no real switchins, is capable of breaking most common bulky offense cores with ease, KOing any pokemon it gets 2 hits on unboosted, and if that isn't enough, it also has access to Swords Dance to increase it's damage output even more. Getting a Farfetch'd into position gives an unproportionally high reward for the slight difficulty it has switching in, and council has unanimously decided to ban it.

 

[zeroouttathere]

Hi everyone!

Wanted to make a VR post before DLC drops. Let’s take a look at a few placements on the current VR that I think deserve some discussion and will be relevant for the ongoing UU Cup as well as room tours played until the next tier shift happens.



@ S


I was somewhat skeptical about this positioning after the first DLC VR update primarily due to the overall power level of the tier increasing and the prominence of Pancham and Sandshrew. However now that the meta has mostly settled, I think Stunky is definitely still worthy of S rank. This mon just wins so many interactions. It utterly denies Cottonee, a go-to answer for hazard control as well as protection against ground spam. Stunky has so many opportunities for set up and still has like 5 different sets it can run all of which can easily take two mons or change the tide of a game over the course of a few interactions. Stunky Webs + Spinblocker is just brutal to face if you aren’t packing your own webs and get every interaction right, forcing tons of 50/50’s that generally will favor the Stunky + Webs side. Poison/Dark typing is just too good in this meta. Unless you’re running a 19 speeder or a scarfer with a move to nuke, you often have to deal with your Sandshrew or Pancham taking a huge amount of damage, or you chip away with hazards and priority in order to take this thing out. It’s not that hard to play keep away with Stunky until it can just clean up the end game.



@ A+ > A/A-


While Shellos is still an excellent mon, I don’t think the current meta trends are doing it many favors right now. LC UU is at this point a purely offensive format and Shellos’ passivity is a momentum sink. Shellos is also less hard to break than it would appear. A +2 Sandshrew or Pancham has little problem getting the 2hko. It's not that hard to chip and find a set up opportunity over the course of the match. In addition to the top tier sweepers, Cufant and even more niche breakers like Larvesta and Sizzlipede have the tools to deal with it. While Shellos does have options to punish over eager breakers between clear smog, toxic and counter/mirror coat, it can’t run all of these at once along with the essential scald and recover. I think at this point Frillish offers more as a fat water type or part of a defensive core; even tho it gets 2hko’d by Shrew quake into knock, Frillish is capable of crippling threats more reliably and forcing switches, not to mention the ability to deal real damage in more interactions than Shellos can. Unfortunately Shellos ends up being more of a sitting duck in a lot of crucial matchups and its ability to wall out the W seems nearly gone in the current environment.



@ A > B/B+


While A-Dig is clearly a mon with some dangerous tools, I don’t think this placement accurately reflects the current meta. Diglett-A is seen literally nowhere except on full sand/ground spam teams. It works fine on those teams as a cleaner and secondary speed control. Dig-A just gets invalidated by a majority of the top mons in the meta, and while it is one of a handful of Stunky checks, checking Stunky and being able to capitalize on a weather archetype is not enough to justify A ranking imo. Dig-A on paper may seem like it deserves more play outside of sand, but there is little reason to run it over or even in addition to Sandshrew and/or Cufant who do a much better job as ground and steel mons respectively, just isn’t really worth the opportunity cost for most teams.



@ B+ > A-


I stand by my strong recommendation of Joltik from earlier in the meta. Clearly the yellow bug has caught on with several premier LC UU players as well. As DC pointed out several weeks ago, VoltTurn is still super strong in this meta, and Joltik is easily the best Volt Switch user next to Helioptile. While Helioptile’s water immunity probably edges out Joltik at the moment especially due to the importance of Frillish and the entrance of Corphish, and while Helio doesn’t get chunked as hard by stealth rocks and has a slightly better time breaking it’s checks with the higher damage output of Surf over Joltik’s Giga Drain, the recovery of Giga can give Joltik longevity and it’s natural bulk (basically the same as Mienfoo’s) means it isn’t relegated to just scarf pivot or the occasional life orb sets. Joltik can make excellent use of a bulkier spread while still hinting a respectable 15 or 16 speed with it’s unique and useful defensive typing. Swarm boosted Bug Buzz also nabs a lot of surprise ko’s.



@ B+ > A-


I think a lot of people (including myself) underrated Natu earlier on in the post-IoA meta. You can see this with Natu’s increase in usage toward the final weeks of LPL 6. Natu’s typing is actually terrific in LC UU, granting it quad fighting resist and precious ground immunity. Natu can also run a wide array of excellent sets, from evio defensive/utility pivot (still capable of doling out respectable damage with meta advantageous stab and wild coverage options) to very dangerous offensive life orb set to dual screen setter. Magic Bounce is of course also huge against the major threat of webs and general hazard and status deterrent. Natu does get bopped pretty hard by Knock Off users that are capable of tanking one of it’s attacks. Still, with the utter dearth of viable flyers in the tier, Natu is a great option that provide serious offensive pressure and/or excellent role compression.

 

[Joltage]

Alright, first drops post-Crown Tundra are here, and despite what it says in the usage thread, we did not lose anything as this isn't a full shift for us (that will come on Dec. 1). However, we did gain quite a few new toys, which are:

Personally, I'm most excited for and all of whom I expect to be solid, if not spectacular additions to the meta. The rest I basically expect to have minimal impact in LC UU and will likely find their homes in LC RU.

Our next set of quick drops will be arriving on Nov. 15th, so until then, enjoy messing around with this set of new pokemon in the LC UU meta

 

[Albi]

So, now that I'm out of the cup I wanted to make a post sharing my thoughts on the meta and the teams I enjoyed the most building and playing with.
It's not the most timely post, cause the meta will be different after today's shifts, but maybe some of these points will be valid even after the introduction of these new toys to play with.

Sand Meowth + Pony-G

https://pokepast.es/8271c3f8a91d50ed

Team Description

First I wanted to build sand, so the first two mons are self explanatory, Oddish is there to deal with Corphish an in general be a wall and an annoyance with sleep powder. Then I slapped the core Pony-G + Meowth, which is what that carried me throughout the whole tour. They provide all the speed control you need and give you the privilege of not needing a normal resist, cause they can usually deal with zig or opposing Meowth. I like Feint Meowth a lot, even dropping Knock Off, especially if you have other ways of hitting ghost types (and this team has them). Pony-G can run a thousand sets but I prefer CM + Morning Sun because it's the best against opposing Pony's. The last slot, honestly, can be whatever you want depending on what style you prefer. I used to have broken Scarf Fetch when that was allowed, then I put Stunky cause you can never have enough speed control and Stunky is in general very good and splashable, but Pancham works too if you want a bulkier team, or Joltik.
Nothing too out of the ordinary, but worked very well and it's the team I like the most.

Corphish Priority Spam

https://pokepast.es/75fe181fcfd67aa3

Team Description

Now it was time to try Corphish, who I thought was gonna be broken until I realized that all its top counters are A-tier at worst. DD is the best set imo cause usually +1 is all you need, and if a mons counters it at +1 it usually counters it at +2 as well. I like Sandile a lot in the meta so I picked it as my rocker, although I still believe that scarf Moxie is the way to go but I didnt experiment it in the tour. Croagunk counters opposing Corphish and is a very good wall-breaker in general (Shadow Ball is there for Frillish). For hazard control, I didnt want to run Sandshrew because I already had a ground type, so I picked Cottonee, which works unless the opponent has Stunky, then it's dead weight for the entire match, but you can still knock it off and try and chip it slowly. The core Pony-G + Meowth rounds up the team, like they always do.
Compared to the previous one, this has some bad matchups, namely webs (although with all the priorities you can pull it off) and Shellos, which is basically unbreakable unless you get a Spdef drop with Pony-G's Psychic

Meowth + Pony-G Spikes

https://pokepast.es/3427f3744162d4fe

Team Description

After using the two most common grass types, I wanted to try Budew and put some pressure with Spikes. The team doesn't need explanation, it's just very good mons that fit every playstyle; the goal is force switches and keep up offensive momentum so that by the end of the game the opponent will have all its mons chipped by hazards and Meowth can clean it up (this Meowth has Knock off cause the team lacks a dark type)

Webs SD Pancham

https://pokepast.es/aa83b1f0a2def501

Team Description + Thoughts on Webs

SD Pancham under webs can be very scary, because its bulky enough to tank hits while setting up, and its usually not getting OHKO'd by the few things that live a boosted hit. Zen Headbutt means it doesnt hit Cottonee, but it does hit the many poison types in the tier which otherwise counter it very well. Scarf Helioptile is one of the best pivots in the tier and I still had to use an electric type in all the tour funnily enough, so I picked it.
The rest of the team, honestly, is pretty much mandatory imo. You need a ghost type for spinners, and Frillish is better than Pumpkaboo in that regard cause it lives Knock off from Sandshrew. You need Stunky to stop Defog Cottonee, you need Sandshrew for opposing hazards (especially webs) and of course you need Grubbin. In the end, if you want to build a solid webs team, you can only pick two mons, because four are already there unless you want to risk a bad matchup if not a loss on team preview. I still think webs are strong in the meta, but I feel like they're just very boring to build. Ofc this is just my opinion. Yes I'm mad I couldnt fit Meowth and Pony here too

PS: the first version of the team had LO Minccino instead of Pancham. Not consistent at all, but fun anyway, try it out

Bonus - Screens HO:

https://pokepast.es/5f0f401f14f3a3d9
Set up screens, teleport to whatever set-up sweeper you prefer, then clean up late game with scarf Sandile. Just a fun team I tried in room tours and surpsingly worked

I also wanted to make some noms for the VR, although it doesnt really make sense now that the meta will be changed. However, I'll still make them for the two mons that carried me the entire tour
to S: The CM + Morning Sun set is insanely good and can 1v1 most of the meta, including Stunky if you Mystical Fire on the switch. That alone should be enough, but instead it can also run physical or mixed and both hit so hard with Life Orb. I think it's one of the best and most splashable mons in the entire tier, and deserves the S rank alongside Stunky and Pancham
to A+: I would even say S but I understand it's not worthy of that, however it's just too good of a late game cleaner and it forces you to run a normal resist, and even then it's not enough because you need to make sure that doesnt get chipped during the game. I feel like it really pressures the opponent both in the builder and in battle, and it's as good as the other A+ mons, if not better.

That's all I had to say, I really had fun in the tour and I'm happy with how it went. Big shoutout goes to zeroouttathere for helping me with movesets, ev spreads, and in general testing every week, and now I look forward to trying out the new stuff in the room tours.

 

[zeroouttathere]

Hey party people, the VR has been updated with post-Crown Tundra drops!

As Joltage noted above, the truly relevant ones are and

If you're craving more LC UU content, check out this very fun video Joltage and Kip did together, discussion on the new drops and some great battles.

What are your thoughts on the new mons and current meta?

Go build some new teams and we'll see you out there in the room tours!

Love,
Zero

 

[Albi]

Yay, new meta, time for some very early thoughts; might edit this post as I try other stuff, or not, we'll see, however there are some clear changes this dlc brought to this tier, and the biggest one was very much needed


This is the definition of defensive role compression, you can easily slap it on any given team, offense or balance, and it'll do its job wonderfully.
It's a normal resist with access to recover (which imo makes it better than Cufant, but I'm biased, not the biggest Cufant fan), which kinda limits the freedom Meowth had in the past (although U-turn still hurts, but it can shrug the damage off).
Finally, finally we have a true Stunky switch-in that doesnt get chipped easily and not called Hippopotas.
It's an unbreakable monster on sand, reaching an insane max 42 SpDef with sand up
It's a rocker that doesnt lose to any of the spinners (unless A-Shrew with Iron Head), and can hit Natu decently on the switch with Ancient Power.
It's a Corphish check and very helpful vs rain

Seriously, I could sit here all day listing all the pros this mon brought to the tier, but I think the biggest one is really validating fat and balance teams, because NP Stunky was a huge problem for those and Lileep can tank any hit even at +2 and threaten with Earth Power. Of course, you might end up trading Lileep for Stunky, but for a defensive team that is a very fair trade, now your Frillish or your other defensive mons can probably just sit there and be a huge pain for the opponent, especially because offense teams tend to not pack recovery and are very susceptible to slow chip damage.
I wouldn't be surprised if the meta went from the offensive party that was last month to a more fat balanced metagame. Hell, I'm pretty sure stall could seriously be viable. Yes, stall in LC, we hoped that day would never come. (don't quote me on this tho, I still have to try it, but it's certainly more decent now).

However, there's also an indirect effect of Lileep's arrival that I think will change the tier significantly. As I said, Lileep can do Cufant's role, although without the offensive power and coverage; this means that Cufant will likely see less usage than before, despite still being a very splashable rocker. So teams might lack a steel type more often than previously, and we know how the fairies are not the best, with every team having a Stunky, sooo

it's time for these big scary dragons to shine. I didn't list all of the dragons, because most of them are outclassed by these four. Axew was good even pre dlc, but with less Cufant around, +1 Life Orb Outrage is ready to sweep teams in a heartbeat. Dratini can be underwhelming sometimes, but the coverage is there and both DD and mixed work pretty well. Deino with a scarf (and with luck in hitting through hustle) is just an unstoppable beast. Bagon is mostly outclassed by Axew but it's still there as a decent option.
I've been putting at least two dragons in all of my teams since the dlc came out and I've been very pleasantly surprised. We'll see if they will keep being awesome or if Cufant's usage will slowly rise again to pre-dlc level. Hail teams are a pain as well, but with support from Pancham they're more manageable.


I'll edit my thoughts on Smoochum later (spoiler: meh)
Here we are. Smoochum isn't bad just because it's walled by steel types, I said before that now more than ever teams might lack Cufant so that's fine. The real problem with Smoochum is being slower than the premier special attackers of the tier (Pony and Stunky), losing the 1v1 vs them every time, even if it hits them first with a scarf set. It's not fast enough to be ok with a life orb, it's not strong enough to be ok with a scarf. The typing is also awful defensively so any hit is pretty much a kill (i've seen it take 90% from +1 e-speed from Dratini, and Dratini isn't exactly the strongest hitter).
Of course, it's not a complete trash mon, it can be a decent late game cleaner and webs can make it a real threat (altho that's true for almost everything), I'm probably harsh on it just because I expected it to be way better than it actually is.
PS: it kinda stops dragon spam but not really, first impression from Axew scares it out

To whoever reads this, please play the tier, it's very good and funny!

 

[Kipkluif]

December shifts are here, and we got Treecko! Treecko is a pretty fast attacker that serves as a nice Lileep switchin and also a welcome ground resist, although it's defenses aren't the best and it needs to set up Swords dance to be truly threatening. If Treecko manages to activate unburden, it becomes too fast for even scarfers to catch up, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do!

 

[risi]

hi everyone! I've been meaning to make a post here for a while, but never really got to it. But anyways, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the current meta for the time being.
Rises:

• to B+: Outspeeds nearly everything in the tier and can hit everything outside of Mantyke and Bronzor with unresisted stab. Diglett is nice on hyper offensive teams, being able to set rocks and provide Memento support to set up sweepers. Sand boosts its sweeping potential, helping it achieve important 2hkos on Shellos, Oddish, and Frillish, making it a pain to switch into. Lileep usage being high right now also benefits Diglett since people are forgoing Budew/Oddish for Lileep, and Budew and Oddish both limit Diglett’s usefulness.
• to B: Cool setup mon, it gets access to Swords Dance and Unburden, and it has decent coverage with Bullet Seed/ Drain Punch/ Acrobatics. It’s a little difficult to successfully set up without veils, but if you manage to activate Berry Juice and use Swords Dance, it becomes a huge threat.
• to B+: Decent defensive mon, it's a nice soft check for Ponyta-Galar, Sandshrew, Pancham, and Croagunk. Slowpoke gets Teleport, allowing it to function as a bulky pivot or lure - you can use it to safely bring in frailer mons, or as bait to lure in defensive mons, such as Frillish and Lileep. It also gets access to a lot of coverage moves, making it not as passive as you might think.
• to C: I think this should be ranked because it is one of the very few viable bulky wish passers in LCUU. Basically a bootleg Spritzee, with worse spa and better coverage/utility moves. However Togepi is a bit of a momentum suck and although it gets good coverage, it can’t really make use of it with its lackluster spa stat.
• to A-: Spikes are great, and it hits a better speed tier than Oddish, allowing it to sleep mons before getting attacked. A decent answer to ground types and the ever-present Sandshrew.

Drops:

• to B-: Corphish is oddly better in LCOU than LCUU. We have a ton of water resists and water immunes in LCUU, and Corphish can’t put in much work unless you clear them out first. It also faces competition from Krabby, with Krabby having a better speed stat and better coverage than Corphish, allowing it to wallbreak on its own.
• to A: Meowth is good, don’t get me wrong, but I think it's overhyped at A+ rank. As an offensive cleaner, it lacks raw power; it requires a decent amount of hazard support and prior chip to sweep teams. It's not as splashable as the other mons in A+, as it doesn't provide much in team support or defensive utility.
• to B: Faces stiff competition from Larvesta, with both having similar defensive uses. However, imo Growlithe is edged out by Larvesta, Larvesta being a solid resist to fighting types and having stab Uturn put it a cut above. Growlithe does have an easier job switching in and out though, since rocks don’t bother it as much, and getting Intimidate is nice.

Also figured while I’m at it, might as well drop some teams that I’ve enjoyed playing with. Here are a couple that I’d like to share with you all!
Natu veils:

importable

Torchic @ Berry Juice
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 5
EVs: 196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Double-Edge
- Shadow Claw

Natu @ Light Clay
Ability: Magic Bounce
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Teleport
- Psychic

Stunky @ Berry Juice
Ability: Aftermath
Level: 5
EVs: 60 Def / 188 SpA / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Sludge Bomb
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse

Axew @ Eviolite
Ability: Mold Breaker
Level: 5
EVs: 220 Atk / 36 SpD / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Superpower
- Poison Jab

Diglett-Alola @ Focus Sash
Ability: Tangling Hair
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Memento

Treecko @ Berry Juice
Ability: Unburden
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Seed
- Acrobatics
- Drain Punch

description

There are two decent Torchic sets, special offensive cleaner and physical set up sweeper, but I went for the physical set because it gets better coverage and Swords Dance + Speed Boost seems not bad. From there, the rest of the team is a pretty standard screens hyper offense. Natu provides screens support to the rest of the sweepers, Stunky deters Cottonee from defogging veils, Diglett-Alola is meant to be a suicide lead to quickly set rocks and Memento out, although you can also save it as a cleaner for later. After setting veils or using Memento, go out into whichever set up sweeper you prefer. Feel free to change up the set up sweepers if you want, I used these in an attempt to balance the team, but most others work too.

Normal spam:

importable

Meowth @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Feint

Bunnelby @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 5
EVs: 228 Atk / 52 Def / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Wild Charge
- Strength

Sandile @ Eviolite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 5
EVs: 180 Atk / 76 Def / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Crunch
- Stone Edge

Croagunk @ Eviolite
Ability: Dry Skin
Level: 5
EVs: 116 Def / 188 SpA / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Nasty Plot

Frillish @ Eviolite
Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 196 Def / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex
- Recover

Natu @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 76 SpD / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Heat Wave
- Psychic
- Roost

description

Meowth and Bunnelby form a scary looking duo, wearing down each other's checks. They also can lure Cufant and ghost types in for Sandile, and then pivot out with UTurn. Sandile deals with the few mons that can comfortably swap into the normal spam core, and serves as an offensive rock setter. I then chose Croagunk as my fighting type, mainly because it's an excellent role-compression mon (serves as a soft check to water types, defensive grasses, and Pancham without zhb) and I was running out of room to fit a water resist. Frillish and Natu round out the team, serving as glues and forming the team's defensive backbone.
would also like to mention here that I originally attempted this team with an offensive core of Meowth, Bunnelby, Helioptile, and maybe even Minccino, but I quickly realized that I'd bitten off more than I could chew and there's not really a plausible way to form a solid team with 4 normal types. Still, if you want to see it, here it is: https://pokepast.es/867aa73676ca91bd

Weather teams

Side note: so, my brain defaults to building weather teams if I run out of ideas, and yeah... some of these are pretty dumb. Most of these aren't really serious teams either, they're on the meme-y side
Hail:

importable

Snover @ Berry Juice
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 5
EVs: 100 Atk / 180 SpA / 196 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Water Pulse
- Ice Shard

Sandshrew-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Slush Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 36 Def / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake

Remoraid @ Life Orb
Ability: Hustle
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Atk / 156 SpA / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 21 HP
- Bullet Seed
- Hydro Pump
- Blizzard
- Psychic

Helioptile @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Dry Skin
Level: 5
EVs: 4 HP / 92 Def / 188 SpA / 12 SpD / 196 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- U-turn
- Surf
- Thunderbolt

Baltoy @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Def / 36 SpA / 36 SpD / 156 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Earth Power
- Rapid Spin
- Stealth Rock

Larvesta @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
EVs: 76 HP / 76 Atk / 156 Def / 156 SpD / 36 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- Flare Blitz
- Morning Sun
- Will-O-Wisp

description

So, this started off as a pretty standard hail team, with the generic core of Baltoy/Helioptile/Snover/Sandshrew-A. Then I wanted to try out Remoraid, and a hail team seemed like an interesting place to test it out. Remoraid is a hard hitting cleaner, with perfect coverage and the ability Hustle. Its water typing tends to lure in other bulky water types, such as Shellos and Frillish because they can comfortably tank Hydro Pump from Remoraid. However, most people don't realize that Remoraid gets Bullet Seed, and Hydro Pump into Bullet Seed basically deletes Shellos and Frillish, giving Sandshrew a much easier job cleaning up the endgame. Lastly, Larvesta serves as a secondary fighting resist, pivot, and gives the team a bit of bulk, although running a Morning Sun mon in weather may not have been my best idea.

Sand:

importable

Hippopotas @ Eviolite
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 5
EVs: 132 HP / 20 Atk / 132 Def / 180 SpD / 20 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Slack Off
- Whirlwind

Sandshrew @ Eviolite
Ability: Sand Rush
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Atk / 76 Def / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Rapid Spin

Sizzlipede @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fire Lash
- Knock Off
- Leech Life
- Power Whip

Oddish @ Eviolite
Ability: Run Away
Level: 5
EVs: 156 HP / 236 Def / 76 SpD / 36 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Strength Sap
- Sleep Powder

Pancham @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
Level: 5
EVs: 180 Atk / 100 Def / 212 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Knock Off
- Drain Punch
- Parting Shot
- Zen Headbutt

Slowpoke @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 236 Def / 36 SpA / 196 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Teleport
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
- Psychic

description

Pretty standard sand team, Hippopatus sets sand for Sandshrew, which is the team's main sweeper. Sizzlipede needs a bit more explanation, I chose Sizzlipede because it helps clear out defensive grasses and water types. It gets great coverage in Fire Lash and Power Whip, making it difficult to switch into. Slowpoke works with Sizzlipede, luring in grass types for Sizzlipede and teleporting out, to try and keep Sizzlipede from taking too much chip. Thunder Wave on Slowpoke helps to slow down the opponent's team, because this team is on the slow side and doesn't have much in speed control. The rest of the team is self explanatory, Oddish as the water resist and Pancham as a secondary bulky pivot+knock off support.

Sun:

importable

Bulbasaur @ Eviolite
Ability: Overgrow
Level: 5
EVs: 236 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Growth
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball

Riolu @ Heat Rock
Ability: Prankster
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunny Day
- High Jump Kick
- Crunch
- Final Gambit

Charmander @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Solar Power
Level: 5
EVs: 44 HP / 12 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Weather Ball
- Overheat
- Ancient Power

Darumaka @ Berry Juice
Ability: Hustle
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 76 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sunny Day
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Rock Slide

Grubbin @ Eviolite
Ability: Swarm
Level: 5
EVs: 20 Atk / 236 Def / 236 SpD
Jolly Nature
- Sticky Web
- Volt Switch
- Thunder Wave
- X-Scissor

Fomantis @ Eviolite
Ability: Contrary
Level: 5
EVs: 76 Def / 196 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Weather Ball
- Synthesis
- Sunny Day

description

Maybe a stupid idea? But yeah, this is sun with webs, because with Chlorophyll gone, there isn't really any way to boost Bulbasaur's speed, other than giving it scarf (which is a bad idea, getting locked into one move makes Bulbasaur useless). Fomantis is here because it was too good of an opportunity to miss, as webbed sun is probably one of the only ways to make Fomantis work. Darumaka is running Berry Juice, to recover off some Flare Blitz recoil, and Riolu is running Heat Rock, to lengthen sun turns.

Rain:

importable

Budew @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 5
EVs: 196 HP / 236 Def / 36 SpA / 36 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain
- Rain Dance

Kabuto @ Power Herb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 236 SpA / 236 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Meteor Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

Riolu @ Damp Rock
Ability: Prankster
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 36 Atk / 116 Def / 116 SpD / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rain Dance
- High Jump Kick
- Final Gambit
- Crunch

Joltik @ Eviolite
Ability: Swarm
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 220 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Volt Switch
- Rain Dance

Mantyke @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Def / 196 SpA / 36 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Hydro Pump
- Rain Dance
- Ice Beam

Arrokuda @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 5
EVs: 252 Atk / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 8 HP
- Close Combat
- Waterfall
- Psychic Fangs
- Poison Jab

description

The idea behind this team is simple, a bunch of rain sweepers thrown together, with Joltik and Budew to provide support and Riolu as the rain setter. Joltik is nice on teams with water spam, because along with hitting opposing water types with super-effective damage, it deals neutral stab to defensive grass types, such as Cottonee and Budew, which Helioptile can't do. Instead of Synthesis, Budew is running Rest, because Synthesis is nerfed in rain. Natural Cure allows Budew to wake up immediately after swapping out, which is nice. The last move on both Joltik and Budew is Rain Dance, because I am paranoid about running out of rain turns early. Meteor Beam Kabuto is a meme-y idea, but actually Kabuto's Spa stat is not bad, and its special movepool is indeed better than its physical movepool. With the +1 spa boost from Meteor Beam, Earth Power ohkos offensive Croagunk, and it also gets Ice Beam to deal decent damage to grass types.

Thanks for reading! apologies if I rambled too much, I tried to keep it short but I may have gotten distracted somewhere in this post

 

[Albi]

Hey everyone! it's holiday season, and I brought some VR noms and some teams as presents!
I enjoy playing this meta, it's very fun and leaves a lot of room for experimentation, although right now everyone is getting ready for the January shifts which might really shake up the entire tier, but in the meantime, here are my thoughts on certain mons and the best teams i've built this month

VR Noms
A- ->A+ as seen in my previous post, I love Lileep in this meta and I believe it's almost mandatory in any balance or bulkier build, and why not, even in some bulky offenses. It's so much more splashable than the mons which share its rank and I think it's as good as Frillish in its role as a wall.
A ->A+ with Lileep being so popular, I'm starting to use this mon more and more and realize how good it actually is. Deals with most of the fat mons (Lileep, Shellos, Frillish), can destroy sand teams thanks to giga drain ruining hippo and Sandshrew, has a nice speed tier that allows it to volt switch out of some tougher matchups. Only flaw is rocks weakness, but I find hazard control to be manageable in the tier so it can live with it
B -> B+ I played around with Scarf Moxie pretty successfully, so this mon has two very good sets (the other is Intimidate Rocks Taunt); needs some team support so I wouldn't rank it higher than that, but i think it's better than its current rank
UR -> C/C+ a more unconventional take. Cobra can basically run one set, which is Glare, Earthquake, Rest, Sleep Talk, with Shed Skin helping it wake up from Rest sooner. It fits in paraspam teams, and helps vs sand being able to paralyze Sandshrew after living a hit comfortably. You can look at my third team to see a replay showing how good it can be (not great ofc, but worthy of being tiered imo)

As for drops, I'm kinda lazy, so I'm just gonna say I agree with risi on and , not on which I think is fine where it is

Now, time for the teams!

Sand Lileep + Joltik

https://pokepast.es/63c59abdc5d03d03

Description

This is probably my best team. The core is similar to my previous sand: hippo + shrew + water check + fast stuff, except now the water check is one of the best defensive mons LCUU has ever seen, and Joltik replaced Meowth to deal better with opposing Lileep.
Lileep has rocks so hippo can run some moves to not be completely passive against anything, like Crunch for Natu and Yawn to help Sandshrew come in and set up more freely.
If you want to try some games in the room tours these last days of December, I'd say this is a good team to start

Mix Pony + Scarf Sandile

https://pokepast.es/8453c86e6ddffaa2

Description

Pony's Psychic into Wild Charge KO's Frillish from full, High Horsepower does a ton to Stunky, Life Orb Psychic does insane damage and it's usually unexpected, this set is very very good (s/o zeroouttathere for creating this, or if someone else did it first, idc it will always be the zero pony to me).
The team supports its two sweepers with a parting shot + flip turn core, rocks Cufant and Defog NP Stunky, which is a forgotten set but pretty effective at keeping hazards off the field, as Stunky can take most neutral hits even when boosted.

Band Bunnelby ParaSpam

https://pokepast.es/3a9fef5c4bf92beb

Description

This is not an optimal team at all, but it worked in the games I used it and it features Silicobra so why not. Cobra, Natu and Joltik spread paralysis to everything faster than Bunny, that can later pull off a sweep thanks to its stellar 38 attack stat considering Huge Power + Choice Band. Eevee is also an option, with Adaptability Double-Edge, however eevee lacks coverage, whereas bunny learns earthquake to hit steel types and U-Turn to pivot but mostly to hit Lileep. Stunky and Lileep round up the team; Stunky can run Defog instead of Fire Blast if you dont like having Natu as your only hazard control.
If you are feeling brave you can run Adamant Bunny, but i dont think you want to run the risk of potentially speed tying with Croagunk and Pancham
I also have a replay of the final of a room tour showcasing Silicobra https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lc-1247981209
(I was pretty sloppy here with Sleep Talk by the end of the game, but it worked anyway)

Looking forward to the next shifts, thanks for reading and happy holidays!

 

[Kipkluif]

Happy new year! Here are the January 1 shifts:
Ponyta-galar has moved up.
Amaura, Carvanha, Elekid, Magby, Munchlax, Omanyte and Tirtouga have dropped down.
All new pokemon seem to have a niche in the current metagame, with Tirtouga being the only thing I dont think will see much use and Magby and Carvanha maybe being too strong. Stay tuned, and I hope you all continue to have fun playing LCUU in 2021!

 

[Kipkluif]

LCUU is suspecting Carvanha!
Carvanha is putting a lot of strain on defensive cores, being able to tear through most of the metagame with it's strong STABs and coverage. While it does have checks (Cottonee, Cufant, Croagunk), these pokémon get worn down by having to check multiple offensive threats and/or can't switch in safely. Carvanha's ability Speed Boost also lets it bypass Choice Scarf users that offensively check most other threats. If you have an opinion on Carvanha, please do post it, all insights can be helpful.
The suspect process works as follows:
The roomtours on Saturday 27 February, Sunday 28 February, Saturday 6 March and Sunday 7 March at 21:00 GMT+1 will be suspect tours. Winners of these tours will be getting a vote on Carvanha alongside the council members. Hope to see you there!

 

[Joltage]

As a council member, I feel that I should probably post my view on this.

I want to preface by saying that I don't think this is about Carvanha being necessarily broken. Rather, Carv stands out among a myriad of dangerous offensive threats (Elekid, Meowth, Magby, Zig, Omanyte, etc.) as particularly potent and straining in the builder. My sense in trying to build lately is that the LCUU meta feels to be in a more precarious spot than at other points in this generation. This is because the balance of power seems to be heavily shifted in more and more offensive threats that, while able to be checked in a vacuum, combine within teams to overload many of the common defensive cores in the meta. Carvanha, in particular, has the power and coverage to rip through common and uncommon defensive/bulky mons, such as Frillish, Pancham, and even Cufant. Nothing in the tier can avoid the 2HKO outside of Cottonee, Morelull, Lileep, and Shellos (most of whom are quite passive and not popular in the current meta). This is on top of the fact that unlike other mons that feel impossible to switch into, such as Joltik, Carvanha's Speed Boost ability renders revenging it after a turn to priority such as Meowth's Fake Out and Feint, Magby's Mach Punch, and Croagunk's Vacuum Wave.

Again though, Carv doesn't feel super broken as, while it can 2HKO basically everything, it is lacking OHKO power from full on generally bulky mons, such as Cufant, without a knock and a bit of chip. Plus the mons that do check Carv like Cott, Meowth, and Croagunk are really good and natural mons to use. You're not weakening your team by including one or multiple of them (generally). I also am not confident that a Carvanha ban would necessarily solve the problems I may have with the meta. Perhaps the shaky ground that I feel the meta is on right now just needs more time to settle and I'm jumping the gun a bit. Or there might be a better target for review that's causing the instability that I am failing to identify at this time and will emerge shortly.

At the time of writing, I lean toward maintaining the status quo and would like to examine the meta further as it develops more. But I do fully support this suspect and the closer scrutiny it places on the tier in general.

 

[Albi]

I have to say, I wasn't completely sold on a carv suspect at the beginning. I thought the tier is so filled with powerful and pressing sweepers/wallbreakers that it just seemed kinda arbitrary to point at Carv. Turns out, I was wrong, and this was the game that made me realize that (also the first game in which I used and played against a Carvanha)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8lcuu-1289083200 (don't look at turn 14)
despite using two different sets, both our Carv's were able to either completely bypass Cottonee with Ice Beam or pressure it with Aqua Jet + Flip Turn, and Cott happens to be the best viable counter to Carv, that can usually switch in on a hit and at least force it out.
My set was mixed with Protect and Aqua Jet as last moves, but honestly, Protect can be dumped and Carv's movepool is insane enough that it can force progress very easily and with little drawbacks during a game, not to mention Speed Boost makes it impossible to revenge kill unless you have Croagunk, Meowth or you managed to keep a bulky-ish mon healthy enough to live a hit (and if it has Flip Turn even that doesn't solve the problem, unless it's the endgame).
You don't even have to use my mixed set that had a lot of SpAtk investment to catch Cott on the switch in
0 SpA Life Orb Carvanha Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Cottonee: 13-16 (56.5 - 69.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Just give it a Naughty nature, put Ice Beam over Protect on the Physical cleaner set and suddenly you 2HKO the best counter easily. It's impossible to guess from preview, very hard to scout, cause you would have to do a much riskier switch in predicting Ice Beam and maybe getting hit by a strong Waterfall. Also, losing Cottonee during a game is a recipe for disaster, as at that point usually you simultaneously lost your Pancham, Sandshrew, Goldeen, Elekid kind of, switch in, and your insurance against most set up sweepers, and you're also facing a strong Carv at +2 Speed and you have to hope to have one of the two possible revenge killers still alive (assuming you had one in your team to begin with).
In conclusion, a Carvanha suspect test is definitely legit, and I'm slightly leaning towards ban rn, but as I said, despite not stressing it much, the counterplay is there, especially when it comes to revenge killers, not really when it comes to safe switch ins.

 

[zeroouttathere]

Dear Denizens of LC UU,

Albinson and Joltage have both done an excellent job of breaking down the Carv suspect. As mentioned by our Italian friend above, I found the Jox vs Albinson game to be a particularly strong showcase of Carv muscle power, flexibility, and pressure both in the builder and in-game.

Since Albi has traced most of my thoughts on the subject, I'll say that I am at this stage firmly in the ban column due to the flexibility of sets and inconsistency of switch-ins.

To go a bit further, my stance is that Carv is ultimately an unhealthy presence in the meta as it essentially requires offensive checks on most teams to have real consistent outs given the heavily offense-oriented nature of the current meta. This basically makes either Croagunk or Meowth nearly mandatory for most teams, sometimes in addition to a bulky option that can tank and trade like Cufant. Without them, most teams just lose to Carvanha. As described above, Cottonee is not a consistent switch-in to several Carv sets and is already experience debilitating quantities of cross pressure having to check a myriad number of threats in the tier while also performing its essentially irreplaceable utility functions.

I believe a Ban vote on Carvanha will help us begin to stabilize the meta by alleviating some of the pressure in team-building. While removing Carv is certainly not the end-all-be-all, I think with Carv out of the picture, the process of disentangling some of the more problematic offensive threats currently contributing toward this heavily matchup-based metagame will become more clear.

Big thanks to everyone who has been participating in LC UU room tours, watching LPL games, or enjoying the excellent on-going Joltage Youtube channel LC UU coverage.

What do you guys think about Carvanha? We've got 3 more days till the conclusion of the suspect and two more rooom tours for those looking to battle it out and obtain voting reqs. Share your thoughts now or forever hold your peace!

Hope to see you out there soon.

Love,
Zero

 

[qweschuning]

Love,
Zero
[/QUOTE]

LOVE ZERO!

I suppose i should discuss the meta huh... personally when the suspect was announced I made an anti carv team w 2 special carv checks and 2 phys carv checks compressed into 3 mons and general pressure that carv didnt want to be in against and still fealt like the meta was tackle-able but there are viable checks to just about everything... I dont think this is bad tho... I am neither pro nor against the ban but am leaning slightly against because i would like things to fall in line, answers to be definitive, and mons to fall out of favor of others. Not over/complete centralization but it would help a bit have clearer more defined threats in the meta and carvninja(phys carv) and ash carvninja(special carv) are pretty welcomed... However carvs flexible outside of special/phys/mixed/tect/jet

The forgotten trapper set is killer!
Destiny bond
Protect
Flip turn
Taunt

Also #toDAY

 

[Kipkluif]

Carvanha has been banned from LCUU.
Voting:

 

[Kipkluif]

Hey people, I'm going to pull a Levi here. Send me your top 20 LCUU pokémon by PM and I'll compile all that and show up with some nifty stats.
In addition, mark whatever mons you think are problematic with an asterisk so we can use that for reference when tiering in the future. That's not to say we'll just suspect whatever gets the most points, but we are definitely going to look into whatever the community deems unhealthy.
To start off I'll post my own list:

Kips top 20

1. Sandshrew
2. Joltik
3. Cottonee
4. Meowth*
5. Croagunk
6. Natu
7. Pancham
8. Elekid
9. Frillish
10. Munchlax
11. Diglett-alola
12. Stunky
13. Goldeen
14. Sandshrew-alola
15. Cufant
16. Omanyte
17. Magby*
18. Amaura*
19. Golett
20. Lileep

Your lists will be kept anonymous for the remainder of the LPL season (and my team is out so yknow). I'll post some results when I have enough lists, so council or not, bring 'em in!

 

[Pamplona]

Hey everyone, since my latest LC UU team tour campaign has ended I thought it would be nice to pass the teams for people to use in the daily room tours if they wish to or for future tour games if people wanted to see my complete sets.

I was very happy to claim a 5-2 record and I am very thankful for the help of Zeroouttathere and Risi for being my testing partners throughout the season. Also shout out to all the Bronzors, I love you all.

Week 1 - Monotype LOL

Week 2 - vs Albinson (W)

This was a team I used against Albinson when I was attempting to reintegrate myself back into the tier. I thought Mime Jr. would be a nice user to spread some thunderwaves so stunky and tirtouga may get some flinches / set ups with. As for the rest of the team, they were pokemon I felt comfortable using and it showed with the predictions I had to make throughout the match.

Week 3 - vs Jcbc (L)

I got my game moved up to earlier in the week so I just threw together an offensive minded team. Spike stack + Endeavor worked well in tests with Venipede but I had a tough match up in that I had no real switch ins for Frillish. This was the last week where I felt like I was still acclimating to the team.

Week 4 - vs Giove97 (W)

Webs felt underrepresented and I felt like it was a comfortable way for me to secure my next win in the tier. Golett is a pokemon I rate highly and served both as a rock setter and spin blocker which helped me a lot vs Sandshrew games. Work up on cufant was an appropriate way to bolster a strong offensive pokemon if the chance presented it self. Ice punch on pancham was to hit both sand style teams and cottonee. I think webs works best with 2 ghost users where pump can be changed with frillish. Flame charge on pump was formerly for carvanha and to outspeed hail. Regular pump was used because it reaches 15 speed and has more hp than small.

Week 5 - vs KSG (W)

KSG before this brought in my eyes teams that were frail to trick room but even beside that I saw the potency of trick room vs most teams. My matchup was the worst I encountered from tests but even then it became very reasonable as when using trick room you can invest into one of def/spd and put it to the max. Litwick lured Corphish here but also energyball ohkos Sandshrew so it can take out some big threats. Hex finishes off Frillish if a tspike goes up. Shell smash omanyte is to scare off Natu and just secure 1 spike at minimum while still ohko'ing stuff if I needed to use it in another way. Cubone is a top tier sweeper who happens to be my fav pokemon so it was nice to put it to action. Elgyem safely gets in a sweeper and Munchlax takes advantage of special teams when trick room ends to still net more kos.

Trick room is viable I recommend it.

Week 6 - vs Zeroouttathere (W)

Zero and Risi were my only testing partners as mentioned and people who I am close to so I wanted to use some tactics to surprise zero. This came in the form of 2 banded explosion users who net a lot of ohkos and for anything it doesn't finish off, stunky/zorua can finish off. Zorua, Stunky, Sinistea all share nasty plot to keep the guessing game going and Zorua shares 2 more moves with stunky. Squirtle is just an all-around tank who threatens to be shell smash and will provoke people to attack it. Zen headbutt on him was to target croagunk since zero seemed to be fond of him. Sinistea is great vs normal/fight priority and with endure can sweep a lot of pokemon at the end. Zorua has nice coverage and speed and illusion on this team really can mess with people.

Week 7 - vs Joltage (L)

This team still feels like it won so I have 0 regrets on the build. Charmander is lethal especially when no Meowth's are used. You only click fire moves so making it scarf just protects you when webs are not up yet. Bulbasaur also matches up well vs a lot of pokemon and its access to sleep powder means it can safely growth more often. Belly drum on munchlax is if you're lucky but overall munchlax just is annoying to deal with and can cover me up vs more matchups.

This ended up being a longer post that I rushed since I wanted to finish it tonight so I hope the links work to the appropriate paste. Let me know if they don't.

Best of luck to everyone in the playoffs!!!!

 

[risi]

The scrubs LPL season is now over, so I thought it would be a good time to share teams and give meta thoughts. Sorry this post ended up being way longer than I thought it would be, so I put all of the teams in hide tags so yall don't have to read through all of it.

lpl teams

carvanha offense

While building this team for use against KSG, I was pretty paranoid about getting cheesed or hailed, so I really wanted something solid against stuff like Magby and Omanyte. This team is structured around a Carvanha and Joltik core. I really liked how Joltik works with Carvanha, or really any offensive water mon. It’s able to break most common water resists, such as Frillish, Cottonee, and Lileep, while also providing Volt Switch support. For the ground type, I went with Diglett-A, because I wanted something that could put pressure on Cottonee and Lileep. I didn’t feel like running two water types, so instead opted for Munchlax as my fire resist and hail check. Croagunk and Cottonee round out the team, helping to glue everything together. I went with Croagunk instead of Pancham as my fighting type to further pressure Cottonee for Carvanha, and Vacuum Wave priority is nice. To help the Croagunk matchup because this team is really weak to it, my own Croagunk is running Earthquake as a little surprise (and for the same reason, Cottonee is Dazzling Gleam instead of Encore, because I can’t afford to let Croagunk in for free.)

Veils HO

Giove likes running hyper offense styled teams, and this is the one that she liked the best out of the other teams I gave her. Natu sets veils and teleports out, bringing something in safely. Diglett-Alola works well as a lead, it sets rocks and provides Memento support. Magby, Omanyte, Stunky and Pancham are formidable set-up sweepers under veils.

fake veils ho

I built this for Giove to use against Albinson in lpl, with the idea behind it being that since at that point, the only things Albinson has ever seen Giove use were set-up spam ho teams, so that’s probably what he would be expecting. Normally, the obvious idea would be to just bring something other than cheese for that week, but this seemed like an excellent opportunity to abuse the fact that he’s probably prepping for cheese, and bring a team that looks exactly like set-up cheese, but is in fact completely unrelated to that archetype. The two mons that are staples on your average veils team are Omanyte and Magby, so to make the team look convincing, they were mandatory. Diglett-A and Natu further drive home the idea that the team is a veils team, Cottonee also fits perfectly on a veils team as well as gluing everything together. Lastly, I used Amaura as the filler slot, because Albinson looked weak to hail when I was scouting. It does look a little kinky, having 2 veils setters, but I think it still looks pretty convincing, with nothing really giving away that it is not your average veils team. The way this team is supposed to work is you use Omanyte to set up spikes and knock off as many mons as possible, then break with either Amaura/Diglett/Magby. I probably could’ve done a better job constructing this team (there are a few really annoying weaknesses, such as Stunky and Cufant,) but I’m mostly pleased with how it turned out. Is this really a team that I think is functional, or better than actually running cheese? ehh... not really. But I still love the idea behind it, and it’s quite a fun team to use.

Giove’s sand

Giove’s idea for the week we were facing Pamplona was to bring sand with Carvanha, specifically special Carvanha because it lures in Cottonee and Lileep and nukes them with Blizzard or Ice Beam. Sand helps Carvanha a little with Croagunk, because when Croagunk comes in to try and revenge Carvanha, it usually gives you a pretty free switch into Sandshrew or Hippopatus. Joltik has nice synergy with sand teams, breaking both bulky water and grass mons. The rest of the team, Croagunk and Cottonee, help glue the team together. Croagunk is physical, because we didn’t really have an answer to sand Lileep, which kinda sits on everything since the spdf boost from sand makes it hard to break. Extra Knock Off support is also nice. KSG also ended up bringing a very similar team to this one the same week, the only difference being Diglett-A over Joltik and slight set differences. (i swear this wasn’t copied, by the time we realized that the teams were basically the same thing, it was friday and too late to change the plan.)

Balanced offense

This is the team that I ended up bringing against Bag of Trixx, with one major change - eviolite Diglett-alola is run over Sandshrew. I wanted to bring a safe, standard volt turn team, but I left out one crucial thing, a normal check, and got punished for it. Diglett-alola, while not a complete solution to the issue, helps a little bit and also does a decent job of checking Joltik. I also brought Calm Mind instead of Uturn Natu, because in past weeks jcbc hasn’t really brought any Natu checks (and it performed terribly, because of Trixx’s scarfed Golett.) In this version, the Natu is the standard Uturn set, which I think performs a bit better. Stunky serves as a Natu and Cottonee check.

QWES!!!

Scarf Amaura and scarf Golett are mons that are extremely difficult to switch into, and the rest of the team helps glue things together. Stunky covers the Natu weakness, and Goldeen helps bring in the scarfers safely with Flip turn. Goldeen also has a very useful electric immunity, which is great because scarfed Golett doesn’t really have great defenses. Pancham soft checks opposing Stunky, and is a nice pivot, Parting Shot helps bring in the scarfed mons. Lastly, Cottonee is the ground resist and general glue mon.

KSG’s team

KSG passed this team to Qwes to use for our last week, vs Kipkluif. (I did not help build this team, so apologies to KSG if I don’t do a good job describing it.) Carvanha and lo Magby are the cleaners, Pancham breaks and provides Knock Off support, Cottonee and Natu are the defensive glues, and Diglett is the offensive rocker+electric immunity.

unused teams and random stuff i built between weeks

Pumpkaboo Offense

This was built during my week against Bag of Trixx, because I thought jcbc who would be building for him seemed weak to mons such as Sandile, Pumpkaboo and Natu. A secondary ground check is necessary if you’re running Pumpkaboo-small, because Pumpkaboo can’t reliably check Sandshrew because Knock off will ohko. I went with Goldeen as the secondary ground check because I thought an extra electric immunity would be nice, given that Sandile doesn’t really check stuff like Joltik. Sandile is scarfed because nothing on the team can reach over 17 speed, and I felt that I needed the speed control. Sandshrew-Alola works nicely here, I needed a spinner and rocker that could also deal with Lileep, and being a good Meowth resist is also helpful. The last slot is Joltik, which forms a pivot core with Natu and Goldeen. After building the team I realized this looks a lot like Joltage’s Back to the Beach sample, so I eventually decided not to bring this against Bag of Trixx. (also it was super weak to carv, which wasn’t banned at the time)

Hail

The idea behind this team was hail + seedbat, since veils Amaura helps provide Woobat with more set up opportunities and lures in setup fodder for Woobat, such as Pancham, Croagunk, and Cufant. Cottonee is basically a requirement with seedbat, because it's the next best thing to set up grassy terrain, outside of Grookey. Golett serves as another Croagunk check, especially since you don’t want to be switching the non-evio Woobat directly into Sludge bomb. I made Golett evio, because I wanted a solid electric immunity and rocks, but you can also use scarf Golett if you want a more offensive team. Corphish is another good veils abuser, and it is capable of cleaning late game, when its best checks, Croagunk, Cottonee, and Lileep get taken out by the combination of hail and Woobat. The team struggles with Stunky, so if you get a Stunky matchup, try not to let it in as much as possible and pressure it out with Sandshrew, Amaura, or Corphish.

Zorua webs

Illusion is a really interesting ability, making Zorua appear as the last pokemon in your battle party. The main purpose Zorua serves here is disguising itself as Croagunk, to bait in Frillish, Golett, or Natu, which are the best Croagunk checks, and removing them for Croagunk to clean. Other mons that Zorua disguises well as are Grubbin and Natu (most webs teams typically lead Grubbin, and Natu is very annoying for Grubbin to deal with since it will just bounce the webs back. So instead, when I see a Natu, I like to lead Zorua disguised as Grubbin, so that they try to hard switch Natu into the Zorua and get bopped, leaving Grubbin free to click webs later. Zorua disguised as Natu helps Zorua set up with Nasty Plot. You bring Zorua in on Pancham/Croagunk, and the sight of Natu will usually force them out, giving you a free Nasty Plot. The opponent will then waste time getting their Pancham/Croagunk back in to deal with the Zorua, which will give you a free kill.) Normally with webs, you run Stunky to block Cottonee’s Defog, but Zorua works fine in its place since it is also a dark type and has access to Sludge Bomb, so you don’t get walled by Cottonee. Frillish functions as a spinblocker and a soft check to ground types. Having a Rapid Spin user in Sandshrew allows you to remove hazards on your side, without removing the webs you worked to set. Sandshrew provides an important electric immunity, Knock Off and Stealth Rocks support.

a crash course on using Zorua (feel free to skip if you know this already!)

• At the beginning of the match, choose the order of your mons wisely. Zorua appears as whatever the last mon in your battle party is, so you usually will want to put your poison/fighting/psychic type there, because those are the mons that Zorua disguises best as.
• Try to prevent chipping pokemon. Illusion does not change Zorua’s hp percentage to match that of the mon it is disguised as. Keeping at least one or two mons at full will ensure that there is always something that Zorua can disguise itself as. Zorua coming in with a different hp percentage than the mon it is disguised as is usually a dead giveaway, so try to avoid that.
• Keep hazards, especially Stealth Rocks, off the field. Zorua takes 10% chip from rocks, while other mons can take 4-50%. It’s really obvious that something is a Zorua when you see a Natu taking 10% chip from rocks, or a Croagunk taking 10% chip from rocks.
• Be subtle! The best way to use Zorua is to use it as bait, and let it draw in the mons that it beats. You want Zorua to lure in Natu/Frillish/Golett, not the other way around with Zorua coming in to revenge kill Natu/Frillish Golett. For example, let’s say you disguise your Zorua as a Croagunk, and bring it in to revenge kill a Natu. From the opponent’s point of view, why would any sane person bring a Croagunk in to fight a Natu? So, even if there are technically no outward signs that the Croagunk is in fact a Zorua, it’s still pretty obvious.

Pivot Spam

There are a lot of good pivots in lcuu, so I attempted cramming in as many as possible into one team. I like pairing Elekid with Larvesta, because Larvesta lures in bulky waters and cleanly U-turns out, allowing Elekid to come in and have a free Volt Switch. Elekid in turn lures bulky grasses in for Larvesta, and the idea is to just keep pivoting around as much as possible. Goldeen is especially nice here, providing an electric immunity so that I don’t have to run a ground type (I didn’t want to run a ground type bc sadly, none of them pivot.) Meowth is of course, an excellent pivot and cleaner, Mold Breaker Pancham pivots off everything and helps break Munchlax.

sand (and rowlet!)

I started with the basic sand core (Hippopotas, Sandshrew, Diglett-A) and just went from there. As always, I like pairing sand with Joltik, being able to break bulky grass and water mons is really helpful. The last two mons are where things get a little less standard. Skrelp has kinda fallen out of favor in the meta, because of how common Frillish and Croagunk are currently. But I decided to use it anyways, because I figured sand would do a decent job of keeping Croagunk away, and I needed a water type that could handle Cottonee and Lileep. Rowlet is the black sheep of the team, the mon that everyone thinks is garbage. I think it works well on a sand team though, because I wanted an offensive grass type that could put pressure on the opponent’s team and provide Knock Off support, since the only other mon with knock on this team is Sandshrew. Technically, Cottonee would perform a similar role, but Cottonee’s weak spa stat makes it passive (plus Rowlet is way more interesting and such a nice shakeup from the very stale team comps where every team needs a cottonee otherwise you’re too weak to grounds.)

feel free to agree/disagree with my thoughts, would love to hear from you all
Rises:
to S: The new king of lcuu, the only mon that truly switches into Knock Off + Earthquake is Cottonee, and even then, Cottonee has to be wary of Poison Jab. Along with removing hazards, Rapid Spin gives it +1 in speed, allowing it to outspeed everything unboosted.

to A+: Electric/Bug stab combo is excellent, and having access to Giga Drain means that it can 1v1 ground types, making the only mons that can comfortably switch into Joltik Diglett-A and Munchlax.

to A+: Having access to Vacuum Wave is extremely clutch right now, with hail teams, Diglett-A and Omanyte on the rise. The Nasty Plot set is very difficult to switch into, almost nothing takes a +2 Sludge Bomb or Focus Blast. Croagunk can choose to run Shadow Ball over Focus Blast or Nasty Plot if it wants to, allowing it to get around one of it’s main checks, Frillish. Even physical Croagunk has its merits, the physical set provides Knock Off support, and Drain Punch gives Croagunk recovery that the special set doesn’t have.

to A+: One of the best fighting resists alongside Cottonee, in a meta where Croagunk and Pancham dominate. Natu is blessed with perfect coverage in Psychic/Heat Wave, making it difficult to switch into. The Calm Mind set is capable of 1v1ing Frillish, and Life Orb sets have excellent breaking power. It’s ability, Magic Bounce, is an excellent hazard deterrent, prevents Natu from getting status’d, and on the dual screens set, prevents Defog users from removing screens. Having ground immunity is also excellent, since lcuu does not have a lot of good ground resists.

to A+: Even though any mon with random poison coverage basically nukes Cottonee, I still find it incredibly difficult to build without it. Compressing a fighting resist, ground resist, water resist, Knock Off support, and hazard control is so valuable. Cottonee can also run a variety of random status moves, such as Tailwind, to help clean endgames, Encore, to prevent set-up sweepers from going nuts, and Memento, to give set-up sweepers an opportunity to come in.

to A+: Diglett-A is an excellent cleaner, it outspeeds everything in the tier other than Elekid. Ground/Steel stab has basically no switch ins except the rare Mantyke, and the Life Orb set 2hko’s pretty much everything. With the rise of Joltik, Diglett has gotten significantly better, since it’s one of the only good checks to Joltik.

to A+: Being a water type that has an electric immunity is super valuable right now, with Joltik and Elekid being used on most teams. Goldeen is an excellent offensive pivot, knocking off items and cleanly Flip Turning out. Croagunk and Lileep are slightly annoying for Goldeen, preventing it from freely flip turning off everything, but Goldeen can still get around them with its coverage moves Drill Run and Megahorn.

to A: Hail is good right now with most teams on the being on the frailer side. Ice/ground coverage is impossible to switch into, unless you are named Munchlax. If Sandshrew can get up a Swords Dance under hail, pretty much everything drops. It suffers from Croagunk being everywhere though.

to B+: One of the best Meowth resists, Weak Armor makes it so you can punish Meowth for spamming Fake Out. Kabuto is also an excellent utility mon, having access to Knock Off, Stealth Rocks, and Rapid Spin.

to B+: Scarfed Golett is vicious. As long as mons are not knocked off, Poltergeist goes brr. Having ground/ice coverage is nice as well, although Golett doesn’t really need it since ground/ghost stab hits everything. It is also a hard Croagunk counter as long as Croagunk is not running Shadow Ball or Knock Off.

to B-: Sand is very threatening right now because our common checks to ground types, Frillish, Cottonee, Lileep, Pumpkaboo and Goldeen all lose to a combination of Sandshrew+Diglett-A. Rowlet is probably the next best check to sand outside of Cottonee, but unlike Cottonee, it does not lose to random poison coverage or Alola Diglett. Stab Brave Bird is really nice, especially since most lcuu teams don’t run flying resists because we have no good flying types. The flying resists we do have are Kabuto, Omanyte, Cufant, and Sandshrew-A. Kabuto and Omanyte cannot come in on Rowlet because of its grass typing, Cufant and Sandshrew-A just get knocked off and worn down. The downside to Rowlet is its bad speed tier, bad defensive typing, making it weak to rocks, 4x weak to ice types, and while it is a good Pancham check, it cannot check Croagunk because of its grass typing.

Drops:
to A: Cufant is still good, I just don’t think it is as good as it used to be. This meta is all about speed, with everything running max speed now, and Cufant is too slow to keep up. Joltik’s popularity is not good for Cufant, because it resists Cufant’s main stab move Iron Head, and Cufant’s other moves, Power Whip and Zen Headbutt don’t bother Joltik at all. The only move Cufant has for Joltik is Rock Slide, and to run that you have to give up Stealth Rocks or coverage on Cufant. Cufant also suffers from ground types being super good and Croagunk and Pancham being everywhere.

to A-: To reliably set veils, Amaura typically has to run scarf because it is on the slow side. Unfortunately, this means that after Amaura sets Aurora Veil, it’s locked into that move and swapping out of Amaura loses a lot of momentum, which you don’t want when running a ho veils team. Natu outclasses Amaura as a veils setter, and while Amaura does have perfect coverage with Blizzard/Freeze Dry/Earth Power, you have to get a bunch of predicts right for it to be a threat. Freeze Dry is pretty spammable on teams without a steel type, but because Freeze Dry has a low base power compared to Blizzard, it’s hard to clean with just Freeze Dry.

to A-: Elekid usually feels outclassed by Joltik. Even though it has a better speed tier, Joltik’s ability to 1v1 ground types, Cottonee, and makes it difficult to justify using Elekid over Joltik. Elekid needs more team support to function, because it does not have Joltik’s bulk.

to A: Electric types being excellent have hurt Frillish significantly, as well as recent speed creep. Frillish is also fairly passive and does better in fatter metas, whereas the current meta has shifted to being very offensive.

to B+: Like Frillish, but Lileep is even more passive and slow. It competes with Cottonee, which is typically a better defensive grass type, with Prankster moves, being a better ground resist, and a Pancham check.

to B: Shellos is a major momentum suck, and the fast paced ho meta is not doing it any favors. It’s usually outclassed by Frillish as a defensive wall, because Frillish is faster, has access to Will-o-wisp, and is capable of dealing out good damage with Hex.

to B+: Zigzagoon feels like such a matchup fish, it’s excellent against teams without Meowth, fast ghosts, or Cufant/Sandshrew-A. However Zigzagoon is quite a hassle to use, it only fits on ho screen team structures, because you usually need screens/Memento support to get a chance to set it up. Running Zigzagoon also feels like such an opportunity cost on screens, where you could be running sweepers that don’t need as much support (Magby, Omanyte, Stunky, Pancham.)

to B+: Natu being on half of all teams is an unfortunate meta trend for Grubbin. Natu’s ability Magic Bounce bounces webs back to the user’s side, making it difficult for Grubbin to set webs, because you can no longer carelessly spam webs. I also don’t think webs are a great archetype right now, because weather teams are popular. Either Sandshrew under sand/hail still outspeeds all the webs sweepers even with the speed drop.

to B+: Most of the time, Tirtouga is a worse Omanyte. Shell Smash Tirtouga does not have the raw breaking power that Shell Smash Omanyte does (at +2 Omanyte OHKOs Lileep, Cufant, and bulky Pancham after rocks.) Omanyte also has the advantage of not needing to Shell Smash to sweep, thanks to the +2 speed boost from Weak Armor. Defensive Omanyte is also typically better than defensive Tirtouga, spike stack is an interesting niche that Omanyte has, and of course Weak Armor helps Omanyte outspeed its checks. Tirtouga does have a few things going for it though, Solid Rock makes it less vulnerable from being picked off by stuff like Croagunk Vacuum Wave, Sturdy makes Tirtouga difficult to revenge kill, and a good attack stat + Knock Off allows it to beat Frillish.

to B: Minccino is adorable, but it’s almost always a worse Meowth. Meowth is faster, and its strong priority makes it a good check to annoying set-up mons such as Magby and Zigzagoon. 5 hit Tail Slap from Minccino does do pretty insane damage, but missing Tail Slap sucks and Meowth Double Edge never misses B)

to B: Outclassed by Amaura as a hail setter. Amaura gets Aurora Veil, which is a great tool for ho teams, and has perfect ice/ground coverage. I guess Snover has the benefit of not being 4x weak to Croagunk Vacuum Wave, but that’s about it.

to B: With Encore Cottonee everywhere, Woobat never really gets a chance to do anything. Carvanha being gone does help Woobat a little, but there are still so many things that just shut Woobat down (Hail, all of the electrics, Stunky.)

Shoutouts!
giove97 thanks for all the test games and advice! I enjoyed building for you, hope to see you continue playing lc!
qweschuning zeroouttathere Pamplona Cupcake07❤ Surfy Albinson Bronzor gang

babyboyblues best manager, ty for all the work you put in <3
Hys KSG yellowfin Joltage LCUU building coalition, thank you all for the help
DC dog >:(
Lastly, thank you to all the LPL managers for not drafting me, this couldn't have happened without your help. Hoping next season to be a scrub again, scrubs forever!

 

[Kipkluif]

Results are in!

Individual responses

1. Sandshrew
2. Cottonee
3. Croagunk
4. Pancham
5. Natu
6. Joltik
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Stunky
9. Meowth
10. Goldeen
11. Frillish
12. Lileep
13. Sandshrew-Alola
14. Omanyte
15. Magby
16. Amaura
17. Cufant
18. Larvesta
19. Golett
20. Munchlax

1. Sandshrew
2. Joltik
3. Cottonee
4. Meowth*
5. Croagunk
6. Natu
7. Pancham
8. Elekid
9. Frillish
10. Munchlax
11. Diglett-Alola
12. Stunky
13. Goldeen
14. Sandshrew-Alola
15. Cufant
16. Omanyte
17. Magby*
18. Amaura*
19. Golett
20. Lileep

1. Sandshrew
2. Joltik
3. Natu*
4. Croagunk*
5. Cottonee
6. Meowth
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Pancham
9. Frillish
10. Stunky
11. Magby
12. Golett
13. Goldeen
14. Omanyte
15. Elekid
16. Cufant
17. Trubbish
18. Zigzagoon
19. Larvesta
20. Lileep

1. Sandshrew
2. Meowth
3. Joltik
4. Cottonee
5. Natu
6. Pancham
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Stunky
9. Elekid
10. Croagunk
11. Amaura*
12. Frillish
13. Goldeen
14. Munchlax
15. Cufant
16. Sandshrew-Alola
17. Pumpkaboo-small
18. Magby
19. Omanyte
20. Zigzagoon

1. Sandshrew*
2. Croagunk
3. Diglett-Alola
4. Natu
5. Stunky
6. Joltik
7. Pancham
8. Meowth*
9. Frillish
10. Elekid*
11. Cottonee
12. Cufant
13. Pumpkaboo-Small
14. Munchlax
15. Amaura
16. Zigzagoon*
17. Magby
18. Grubbin
19. Larvesta
20. Corphish

1. Sandshrew
2. Cottonee
3. Pancham
4. Natu
5. Croagunk
6. Meowth
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Stunky
9. Joltik
10. Cufant
11. Goldeen
12. Sandshrew-Alola
13. Elekid
14. Magby*
15. Omanyte*
16. Pumpkaboo-Small
17. Munchlax
18. Frillish
19. Zigzagoon*
20. Amaura

1. Pancham
2. Sandshrew
3. Cottonee
4. Stunky
5. Natu
6. Magby
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Meowth
9. Elekid
10. Croagunk
11. Joltik
12. Frillish
13. Cufant
14. Goldeen
15. Sandshrew-Alola
16. Omanyte
17. Munchlax
18. Baltoy
19. Larvesta
20. Pumpkaboo-Small

1. Sandshrew
2. Pancham
3. Cottonee
4. Joltik
5. Natu
6. Meowth
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Stunky
9. Croagunk
10. Pumpkaboo-Small
11. Frillish
12. Cufant
13. Goldeen
14. Sandshrew-Alola
15. Amaura
16. Elekid
17. Magby
18. Corphish
19. Omanyte
20. Munchlax

1. Sandshrew
2. Joltik
3. Cottonee
4. Meowth
5. Croagunk
6. Natu
7. Diglett-Alola
8. Frillish
9. Pancham
10. Goldeen
11. Munchlax
12. Stunky
13. Magby
14. Sandshrew-Alola
15. Golett
16. Cufant
17. Pumpkaboo-small
18. Skrelp
19. Lileep
20. Amaura

1. Pancham
2. Sandshrew
3. Natu
4. Goldeen
5. Cottonee
6. Joltik
7. Diglett-Alola
8.Stunky
9. Elekid
10. Magby
11. Omanyte
12. Frillish
13. Cufant
14. Amaura
15. Pumpkaboo-Small
16. Meowth
17. Zigzagoon
18. Tirtouga
19. Larvesta
20. Croagunk

1: Joltik
2: Natu
3: Cottonee
4: Pancham
5: Sandshrew
6: Diglett-Alola
7: Croagunk
8: Meowth
9: Cufant
10: Magby
11: Goldeen
12: Frillish
13: Elekid
14: Larvesta
15: Amaura
16: Stunky
17: Munchlax
18: Sandshrew-Alola
19: Omanyte
20: Corphish

All rankings (alphabetical)

Amaura - 11, 14, 15, 15, 15, 16, 18, 20, 20
Baltoy - 18
Corphish - 18, 20, 20
Cottonee - 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 11
Croagunk - 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10, 20
Cufant - 9, 10, 12, 12, 13, 13, 15, 15, 16, 16, 17
Diglett-Alola - 3, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 11
Elekid - 8, 9, 9, 9, 10, 13, 13, 15, 16
Frillish - 8, 9, 9, 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 18
Goldeen - 4, 10, 10, 11, 11, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14
Golett - 12, 15, 19, 19
Grubbin - 18
Joltik - 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 6, 9, 11
Larvesta - 14, 18, 19, 19, 19, 19
Lileep - 12, 19, 20, 20
Magby - 6, 10, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 17, 17, 18
Meowth - 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 16
Munchlax - 10, 11, 14, 14, 17, 17, 17, 20, 20
Natu - 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6
Omanyte - 11, 14, 14, 15, 16, 16, 19, 19, 19
Pancham - 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9
Pumpkaboo-Small - 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 17, 20
Sandshrew - 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 5
Sandshrew-Alola - 12, 13, 14, 14, 14, 15, 16, 18
Skrelp - 18
Stunky - 4, 5, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10, 12, 12, 16
Tirtouga - 18
Trubbish - 17
Zigzagoon - 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Average rankings (not included=rank 21)

1. Sandshrew - 1,55
2. Cottonee - 4,00
3. Natu - 4,36
4. Joltik - 4,73
4. Pancham - 4,73
6. Diglett-Alola - 6,91
7. Meowth - 7,00
8. Croagunk - 7,27
9. Stunky - 9,00
10. Frillish - 11,36
11. Goldeen - 12,09
12. Elekid - 13,09
13. Cufant - 13,45
13. Magby- 13,45
15. Sandshrew-Alola - 16,27
16. Munchlax - 16,55
17. Omanyte - 16,82
18. Pumpkaboo-Small - 17,45
19. Amaura - 18,82
20. Golett - 19,27
21. Larvesta - 19,36
22. Zigzagoon - 19,64
23. Lileep - 19,82
24. Corphish - 20,55
25. Trubbish - 20,64
26. Baltoy - 20,73
26. Grubbin - 20,73
26. Skrelp - 20,73
26. Tirtouga - 20,73

Marked as problematic

Zigzagoon (3x)
Amaura (2x)
Magby (2x)
Meowth (2x)
Croagunk (1x)
Elekid (1x)
Natu (1x)
Omanyte (1x)
Sandshrew (1x)

Please note that there will be a usage shift soon, and we will most likely not suspect anything before that happens.

Fun facts:
- A total of 29 Pokémon were included, making this list just as varied as it's LCOU counterpart.
- None of the Pokémon that were only included once were included at rank 20.
-11 Pokémon were included in every list.
-Sandshrew and Diglett-Alola were ranked in the same spot the most; they were included 8 times at rank 1 and rank 7 respectively.
-Despite Zigzagoon only being included 5 times, it receives the most reports for being problematic.

I want to conclude this by saying that 20 is a very arbitrary cutoff point and that many more Pokémon are viable; also, because something is ranked last in the list of "most powerful" doesn't mean it's bad. Thanks for participating, everyone!

 

[Joltage]

April Shift is here and it's a pretty notable one for us.
Gone:
Gained:

We lose both of our Psychic/Flyers thanks to the rampant cheese present in lc ou right now. While Woobat wasn't really a major player in lc uu, losing Natu is a huge blow to a ton of teams as it was a really solid fight check that generally provided a ton of utility to various constructions on top of being a solid offensive threat in its own right.

In terms of the drops, we got some fun new toys to play with. Dwebble makes its return to the UU space after a good while and provides us with more options for hazard setting as well as a new potentially dangerous sweeper thanks to Shell Smash. Dwebble was weirdly not as impactful as expected during its first stint in UU, but its presence will certainly be felt this go around. Scorbunny also makes its return to UU for the first time since it gained access to Libero. Scorb should prove to be a great tool for Offense with it's decent, if not spectacular coverage, and access to U-Turn. I'm very excited to see how it fares in the UU landscape. Archen is making its first appearance in UU this generation, and boy does it look like a top-tier threat. Archen can do basically whatever you could possibly want with genuinely no less than 15 viable moves it can run between the STABs, coverage, and utility options in its arsenal. 17 speed is as good as it ever has been and I expect Archen to be no less than an A+ mon moving forward. Lastly, we have the all-gen UU debut of Drilbur. Drilbur enters UU for the first time in its history and immediately will draw comparisons with fellow Ground-mon Sandshrew. What Sandshrew provides in bulk and utility, Drilbur brings some extra offensive firepower to the mix with a very solid base 85 Attack and that crucial 17 Speed tier. For Sand teams, it'll be a real decision to make between the two which will definitely be an interesting thing to watch out for going forward.

Winners: With this shift, I think there are a few existing UU mons and strategies that stand out as clear winners. Grubbin and its webs setting fell off quite a bit from LPL 5 to LPL 6 thanks to the rise of Natu. With Natu gone, Grubbin is freer than ever to set webs and unlock some of the bulkier hard hitters of the tier to unleash their full potential. Speaking of the Natu departure, hazards, in general, are probably winners of this shift. Spikers like Budew, and Trubbish are better able to set up hazards without worrying about Magic Bounce sending them right back. We did get 2 potential removal options in Drilbur's Spin and Archen's Defog, but I'd wager that Hazard setting comes out ahead overall in this trade. Bulky Waters also look like big winners from this shift, as we got 4 water-weak mons for them to hopefully abuse. Mons like Corphish and in particular look like huge winners. Corphish's Aqua Jet is a major problem for all of our drops and it has the physical bulk to never worry about being OHKO'd itself. Shellos on the other hand is just a fat sack who can actually deal with such offensive powers as Archen and Drilbur, threatening them with a Scald and never fearing a Knock Off from the likes of Archen or Dwebble.

Losers: Where there are winners, there must certainly also be losers, and there are a couple that stand out to me as such. Stunky lost two of it's better switching opportunities with the departure of Natu and Woobat and in return it gained a few mons it has to be wary of. Granted, the Skunk does outspeed every drop, but it has no way to come in safely on them outside of slower pivots and doubles. Not to mention, Stunky isn't particularly threatening the OHKO on any of them either (except maybe Scorb). Gunker is another mon I think ends up unhappy with this shift. On the one hand, it doesn't have to deal with Natu anymore, but on the other, there are 4 new mons that all outspeed and can threaten the poison frog greatly, and it's not like Vacuum Wave is going to be the worst thing in the world for them either. And for a non-Poison-type loser, I'll point to Larvesta. Archen is a problem, Drilbur is a problem, Dwebble is a problem, and my predicted uptick in Bulky Waters to answer these mons is also a problem. Now, I don't expect any of these mons I point to as losers in the shift to fall away completely, and I of course could just be completely wrong in general, but I do think their lives got much harder with the changes to the UU landscape.

p.s. prob stay tuned for a video on these shifts over the weekend.