Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Sorry this one is not going to be nearly as good as my last one as I hard grinded reqs for most of the time this was live.
Pawmot is really good right now and I think we will see it a ton more if Hands goes. It has a great speed tier making it an excellent as an all out attacker or a scarfer. Revival blessing is also nice, but I feel like a lot of people focus too hard on it.
Pawmot @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
Tera: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Close Combat
- Double Shock
- Seed Bomb
- Ice Punch
This is the set Lily uses on her webs HO that I have been playing with. It honestly feels really good as nothing in the meta can really switch in. Things like mence like to soak CC's but hates double shock and ice punch. Quag likes to take Double Shock but hates Seed Bomb etc etc. Main issue with this is that we do have faster Pokemon that can kill or weaken Pawmot like EP iron jugulis or Scarf Gardevoir or Scream Tail along with burns from Talonflame and the likes. Overall Pawmot is pretty good at getting mons to burn tera too so overall I'd rate it an A.
Taunt Gyara is a lot of fun and pretty slept on imo. Taunt, EQ, Crunch, DD covers a ton of the meta with really only Iron Jugulis, Hawlucha, and Wo-Chien (who likes to tera before you are sweeping it anyways) can take on this combo. Because of this I've been thinking about Ice Fang over crunch though it doesn't hit as hard. Also I forget the EVs I was using lmao but it was some bulky set that outspeeds everything at +1.
Gyarados @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Tera: Ground / Fire
EVs: X HP/ X Atk / X Def / X Spe
- Taunt
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Crunch / Ice Fang
Definitely puts in work versus certain teams. Can be a bit hard to get going though. A lot of things can threaten its setup with Hands, Pawmot, and Shocks running around on top of just strong attackers in general. Overrall I would rate Gyara a B
to start off with i wanna talk about my experience with lokix, i was using it as a choice banded breaker/pivot as i think thats its best set. this set turns lokix into a really excellent revenge kill of boosted threats like salamence and polteagiest because of tinted lense first impression, this set also uses its unresisted u turns to chip opposing teams down and has leech life to keep it healthy and just be a strong neutral move. for a dark move i ran throat chop because i think being choice locked into sucker punch feels a bit awkward alot of the time (also if you find a random sylveon or something it turns off hyper voice) i opted not to run axe kick or another non stab move because it will almost always be stronger just to click a stab u turn or leech life and axe kick has the scary 10% to cut your hp in half with a miss. i experimented with heavy duty boots and life orb sets but i found that boots just doesnt pack as much of a punch as banded often falling short on killing things like bulky dd mence and ttar, and life orb chipps you down way too fast with you taking hazards damage on top of 10% with every attack. and it still falls short on some koes.
Lokix @ Choice Band
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Throat Chop
- U-turn
- Leech Life
going in as SVUURW2 lavarina
edit: idk why but it says someone is already using the username, ill just make it SVUURW2 lavarinaa
i'll be researching gyara and pawmot ^^
Hello everyone! Apologies for the troubles with the Live Research Tour last week but we will be hosting one this week! This Friday, February 10th at 2 PM GMT-5 (EST).
The topic for this week will be the same of what would UU be like if there was not any hazard removal? How would the meta adjust to best deal with this change?
This will be live in the Pokemon Showdown UU room at the time listed above. We hope to see you then!
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the first Live Research Tour! The winner at the end of the tour was Lily congratulations!
So what was the tier like if removal was not there?
Not too much changed due to our already limited removal options but there was an increase in options such as using Espeon for magic bounce to keep hazards off of your side. Heavy-Duty Boots was still as valid as ever as on Lily's winning team most all of her mons were using it to ignore the pressure that would otherwise comes from hazards.
Overall the change from having no hazard removal was not that noticeable since it isn't too different from our current meta, as some teams decide to go without hazard removal since our options make it hard to fit. Thanks to everyone who participated and we'll announce the next subject next week!
So my main goal behind this weeks research was to try something new since I'm usually a complete Stallord when it comes to teambuilding. Thankfully this week contained two mons that I couldn't use on Stall, one of which being a mon I haven't really tried using properly since the Alpha period. I've always been interested in Pawmot simply because it's always been so strong when wielded against me, since it can flex the amazing coverage movepool it has access to alongside utility moves like Revival Blessing and Volt Switch. I tried out a couple different sets since the entire point of experimenting is to see what works and what doesn't, so I thought that I'd show them off and explain what they do before I get into the Pros and Cons.
But first of all a small bit of background info. I played 57 games using mostly this team, which overall gave me a good perception of what Pawmot could accomplish. The set I used flip flopped between Life Orb and Scarf a bit depending on how I was feeling, but Scarf ended up winning in the end since I needed the lategame cleaning and Speed control it provided. I also used quite the unorthodox set in this SemiStall team which was more or less inspired by the shenadigans Sub Gar can get up to.
The Sets
Pawmot (Pawmot) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Volt Absorb
Tera Type: Electric / Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double Shock
- Revival Blessing
- Volt Switch / Ice Punch
- Close Combat
This is a pretty standard Scarf Pawmot set who's main purpose is to revenge kill and clean lategame. The slashes in this case are more or less supposed to indicate whichever option I flip flopped between during testing, so here for an example I swapped between Tera Electric and Fighting at times depending on which felt better (usually Fighting since people are spamming grounds atm). Volt Switch was less useful overall since I only had one other Pivot so I ended up swapping to Ice Punch to revenge kill stuff like Kilowattrel.
Pawmot (Pawmot) @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double Shock
- Revival Blessing
- Ice Punch
- Close Combat
Not gonna lie I barely used this set since I needed urgent Speed Control moreso than extra power, however it's definitely a worthwhile set on more offensive oriented teams. The only big issue I find with it is that I'd rather use Iron hands on BO 9/10, however that dilemma is probably not gonna last for much longer *cough cough suspect test*.
Pawmot @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Fist
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Ice Punch
- Close Combat
- Double Shock
And finally here's the kinda memey but still probably usable set that I used on a SemiStall build (we do a bit of lying here). Half the reasoning for why I ended up dropping it was because it was super weak, like weak to the point where Ice Punch did 20% to Hippo (although tbf I'd forgotten to put Iron fists on it). It can probably get something done despite the strength loss being noticeable, but the main issue here is that it suffers from a lack of good utility moves unlike other Sub mons like Gengar, who can use Wisp to circumvent usual counterplay.
So with these sets in mind it's pretty easy to figure out what Pawmot is supposed to do. Hit stuff hard and maybe click a utility move or two in between. Flexibility amongst move choices is definitely a common theme within a lot of Pawmot sets, since you can really expect anything to be used. While doing this I stumbled across a couple of more unorthodox sets like Leppa Berry and Choice Band, which while definitely not as good as the standard sets are still definitely viable variants that have their own pros. I won't go into them here of course because of a lack of experience on my end, but this mon definitely has a wide variety of sets to choose from.
Pros
Now that that's out of the way what exactly does Pawmot do in the metagame and how exactly has the metagame adapted to counter it? Well first thing's first there's one giant elephant in the room that's immediately noricable while using Pawmot: It's Speed Tier. Even without a Choice Scarf it's already the 8th fastest Offensive mon in UU, which coupled with Pawmot's First Impression and Sucker Punch resistances can lead to it essentially getting free reign over most of the metagame. This can be seen in this replay where my opponents only mon that could revenge kill Pawmot was Scarf Gardevoir. Pawmot also successfully bluffed a choice Item, which let it bait in and KO Sandy Shocks expecting Pawmot to be locked in. This is doubly as good when used in conjunction with a Choice Scarf since you're fast and strong enough to effectively revenge kill other scarfers (dual base 120 STAB's really help with the Power issue).
The flexibility Pawmot has in general is also very worth noting. I already touched on this a bit previously but you basically have the choice between like 4 viable sets and then all of those sets also have a bunch of variables that are worth considering. Ignoring the coverage and utility options I've previously named we have stuff like Bulk Up, Seed Bomb, Mach Punch, Encore and Nuzzle, all of which can be nice if tech'd onto the correct Pawmot set. In general half the battle when trying to counter Pawmot mainly has to do with figuring out what Item and last 2 moves are since typical checks and counters can falter against specific sets.
But the main power that differenciates Pawmot from every other offensive mon in the tier is hands down Revival Blessing. Revival Blessing is an extremely powerful tool that can let Pawmot assist in the breaking department in games where it'd have otherwise been walled. Unlike most Offensive mons which either have to pick between versatility or sheer power Pawmot has access to both. This can be seen in this replay where it let's Tyranitar come back in the endgame for free after I previously sacked it in order to cripple my opponents Iron Hands (which was a bad play but I digress). Pawmot would've been walled by Quagsire but thanks to Revival Blessing it managed to immediately force progress which ultimately lead to my victory. Using Revival Blessing on a defensive mon can also be a good investment as seen in this replay where reviving Altaria let me win in the endgame.
Cons
With all this said Pawmot does still suffer from a lot of glaring issues, most of which tie back to one particular mon who shares it's Typing; Iron Hands. The fact that Iron Hands is currently warping the metagame to the degree it does kind of screws Pawmot over a bit since it means that teams are ready to deal with Electric + Fighting coverage on a regular basis, which can often lead to games like this where Pawmot basically is just relegates to being sacked. In general I saw a lot of BO/Balance cores consisting of Iron Hands + Bulky Ground + Iron Hands Check. This alongside the fact that it faces stiff competition from Iron Hands itself leads to Pawmot just not having a good game feel at the moment. This is of course a temporary issue, but still a relevant one nevertheless.
One thing about Pawmot that is however not going to disappear with the banning of a broken mon is the fact that it's just too damn weak. It's main Stab combination may be hard to take defensively, but the few mons that can take it on defensively essentially stonewall it. Hippowdon for an example can't really be outplayed since you're essentially pidgeonholed into running Tera Electric in order for Double Shock to be strong. In general Pawmot relies too much on Tera Electric to actually reach the "Strong and Spammable" threshold many other offensive pokes effortlessly reach without Tera.
Another thing Pawmot struggles a lot with is a lack of Defensive utility. Electric Fighting is one of those extremely average types that benefit from being attached to bulkier mons that can take advantage of the plethora of neutral hits you're gonna be taking. Pawmot is however not one of these mons, which leads to it often getting one or two hit KO'd by most of the metagame. It needs heavy team support to get in and can easily be forced out since despite it's high speed it can still fail to OHKO important targets.
And that's what I got for this research week. It was fun to mess around with a mon I never really got the chance to use and now I can finally tick that off my bucket list.
Almost forgot to sign in here for this week xd. Will edit this post ig for my research notes. Will do both
Gyarados and Pawmot
Intro: To be honest, I have no idea how Gyarados is played in the newer generations coz I mainly only know it’s GSC one wherein I use it in GSC UU coz of the Mime-Gyara comps. So I needed to research a bit for its sets and the likes so the sets I used here are mostly what I found by searching in Smogon. About Pawmot, I also already managed to try it before. These two mons are interesting research subjects and to be honest, I had fun using them. I started using a team with only Taunt Gyara to have a grasp on its state in the metagame. After that, I created my own team and paired it with Pawmot + Arboliva core. Then, I searched for another team with similar comps and ended up just experimenting with phy def taunt gyara + a team that I tried to build but can’t decide on what mons to use at last slot. Okay this intro seems long but I just wanted to say I played a lot of games with the research subjects this week and here are my findings.
SUMMARY: Focusing on the move Taunt, the replays below will show my findings on when did I click Taunt. The usual ones will be against hazard setters. There’s a replay below showing Gyarados scaring Coalossal. Stealth rock setters tend to be weak to water and the likes of Gastrodon and Quagsire won’t be able to click hazards or recover because of Taunt. Good Match-ups include Wo-chien (taunt leech seed then as long as its phy def set, power whip shouldn’t hurt unlike one of the replays below), Coalossal, Brambleghast, phy def set can also tank Maushold and counter it with rocky helmet, and the likes of tauros-aqua (specifically in the replay) wherein its coverage/common set can be resisted by gyara. Taunt also helps with Dragon Dance set because it prevents moves that might force gyara out like Wo-chien’s leech seed or will-o-wisp burn, etc. Cons I found is probably a specific set can’t cover everything. Some teams are better with or against phydef gyara while like the DD Gyara set, the spdef is nice so that the likes of Scream tail (see replay below) can’t stop Gyara. Yeah good match-up too against Scream tail becoz Taunt prevents wish/calm mind while its dazzling gleam is not that strong enough vs gyara’s natural spdef bulk (base 100 in base 95 hp).
Pawmot
SET USED:
Pawmot @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Revival Blessing
- Thunder Punch
- Ice Punch
SUMMARY: Since I kinda have no idea on what moves to try with Pawmot, I ended up just using a single set in all of the replays below though I tried others coz Pawmot was already UU like 2 months ago, just went up then down here again. Life Orb set with Iron Fist ability so that I wouldn’t be choice-locked especially in this set that has Revival Blessing. It differentiates itself with Iron Hands becoz of that move aside from it being faster. Its typing makes it resist some priority moves typing which is Bug First Impression and Dark Sucker Punch. Thus, I find that it has a good match-up vs Bisharp. It also needs a pivot as I really find it hard to get into the field. Good teammates include Talonflame which is a pivot, and Arboliva which its grassy terrain helps Pawmot and resist ground attacks for it.
NOTABLE REPLAYS:
I chose 15 replays as usual with some commentary on each.
Skip to t14 ig. Gyarados set-up vs Wo-Chien. Taunt prevents Leech Seed. Opp switch so at that pt Gyara is already +2. Gengar in but gyara is now faster (nonscarf gar ig) so eq ohko it. It also took down jolt. I tera ground just to be sure. And took down Wo-Chien too.
Pawmot survived a sucker punch from Bisharp coz of its fight typing and KOed it with close combat. I don’t know how much the +4 SD but burned Bisharp affected the damage but what’s important here ig is the sucker punch. If it can tank a sucker punch, it can help sweep when all opp’s remaining mons are slower and priority moves like First Impression bar from Lokix ig and Sucker Punch will deal like just 40% to Pawmot.
T13. Tinkaton para’d Iron Jugulis then Pawmot used Ice Punch but didnt ohko it so opp click eq and ohko Pawmot. I risked a Gyara set-up coz Iron Jugulis is para’d anyways. Dark Pulse hurts though dealing 50% even with max evs spdef on gyara. Although at least, Gyara managed to KO it the next turn, and KOed Scream Tail, then KOed Iron Hands, Donphan, and Gengar. That’s with the help of stealth rocks from Tinkaton too.
In here, Wo-Chien won 1v1 vs Gyara though. I don’t remember my thought process in this game but yeah, I also realized how hard getting Pawmot in without a pivot.
In here, I just noted that Gyarados can also set-up on Brambleghast. Pawmot just cleaned brambleghast and scared Iron Jugulis ig which I think it’s a specs set or slower that is locked into dark pulse thus it switched out.
Gyara set-up vs Coalossal. It also Taunted Gastrodon and KOed it along with Grafaiai. Then, Gyara fainted against Bulk Up Tauros water. Pawmot managed to revive it vs Hippowdon. I only managed to get Pawmot in coz its a predicted spin from Coalossal. Gyara tried again vs a para’d Coalossal and survived against Scream Tail. Then, Altaria and Gastrodon won this game for me vs Hippowdon and Coalossal against a 1222 elo player.
Phydef gyara vs maushold pawmot vs +2 def vespiquen
New team. Pawmot TPunch cleaned 52% Vespiquen with +2 def already coz of Defend Order. Then, a now phy def gyara managed to survived a +1 Population Bomb from Maushold. Maushold fainted coz of Rocky Helmet. Gyara was left with a third of its max hp.
Another show-off of Pawmot tanking a Bisharp attack. This time, it survived an Iron Head dealing only around 30% to it. It is also not burned this time unlike last time but no SD setup. I lost though and Gyara’s moment in this battle is just chipping opp 2 mons with Rocky Helmet.
For some reason, my Pawmot is faster than opp Noivern thus it ohko it with Ice Punch. Then some turns later, it KOed Lucario and Tyranitar. Not that much happened but this is a rare moment for me to be able to use Pawmot.
I didn’t managed to utilize Gyara and Pawmot vs Sun in this game. In theory, Gyara should be able to eq fires or waterfall while pawmot can deal with fire flying that is immune to eq.
Early game, I realized Gyara and Pawmot might be a good pair since Gyara can get in vs ground attacks, like from Donphan’s eq this game. Nothing much to note here otherwise ig.
New team again. Although basically just Talon over tauros-fire. I was thinking between Defog and U-turn but after reviewing this game, I should have u-turned to at least get pawmot in.
I am lacking in time coz Im busy irl so last replay ig. Gyara checked tauros-aqua ig.
CONCLUSION:
Taunt Gyarados might be the standard ngl. I haven’t seen other Gyarados during this week that has a different set. The other coverage moves isn’t as worth it as Taunt because as I’ve shown in the replays, 40% of my games ig, I clicked Taunt and didn’t even need a move aside from Waterfall and Earthquake. Taunt might be going to a defensive route but I realized that it’s phy def set is not bad at all. I also managed to click Thunder Wave wherein I also realized that might be a good move so that Gyarados can support teammates. Allies with thunder wave like Tinkaton also help Gyarados set-up its Dragon Dance.
As for Pawmot, I failed I guess to bring out the best of it. I at least being able to utilize its mini defensive utility which is to get in versus moves it resist. Definitely needed life orb too for power but it can act as speed control too but again, how can it be a speed control if it has a hard time switching in itself, is what I thought. Yeah there’s Volt Switch but like electric-immune like ground is common in every team too to block its chance to pivot. That was what I concluded from my games this week. Might be a team issue coz I built more on Gyara instead of centralizing with Pawmot ngl about that but I think my findings is still noteworthy and just adding them for further discussions ig.
OVERALL RATING:
Taunt Gyarados: (A-) An A minus rating because I think this will be a standard set. It is more of the Dragon Dance but as explained above, Taunt helps it be more unstoppable. Those who will try to use status moves to stop its set can be blocked by Taunt. Gyarados is a threat that should definitely be accounted in teambuilding. It is also consistent so I might even give it A but I think A- for now because there’s still like Salamence which I think is A so Gyarados will be A-.
Pawmot: (A-) A minus rating too. Some thinks Iron Hands outclassed it so some might put it B+ but I think being faster than Iron Hands is a good thing. I also haven’t utilized much the Revival Blessing move in the replays above so this mon’s ceiling is high, just inconsistent I guess.
Another thing Pawmot struggles a lot with is a lack of Defensive utility. Electric Fighting is one of those extremely average types that benefit from being attached to bulkier mons that can take advantage of the plethora of neutral hits you're gonna be taking. Pawmot is however not one of these mons, which leads to it often getting one or two hit KO'd by most of the metagame. It needs heavy team support to get in and can easily be forced out since despite it's high speed it can still fail to OHKO important targets.
Yeah it needs heavy team support indeed which I specified in my notes to be a pivot. I mentioned Talonflame coz it was what I used to pair with Pawmot at the latter part of my battles for this research. It can wisp/flame body (basically burn) those who use Sucker Punch and Bug moves so Pawmot can get in without needing pivot. But Talonflame can U-Turn so it also aids Pawmot. And lastly, I kinda like to point out the speed part. Bar scarfed Pawmot of course, there are still some faster mons than Pawmot that I commonly encountered in ladder like Iron Jugulis, Noivern, Gengar, and Talonflame. Yep, Talonflame is also fast so it can also act like a sorta speed control or revenge kill with its Brave Bird move. It supplements what Pawmot's cons that was mentioned in the quoted conclusions above. But yeah, this is also bar the Scarf set mentioned above and I just realized after rereading that the Volt Switch mention was later switched into Ice Punch which was also similar to what I concluded based on a replay though I mostly faced Donphan in replays and not Hippowdon.
As of writing only pomfpomfpluff has posted their findings so that was all I could reply too for now I guess. I'm interested in what others found out about Gyara. I feel like my sets are also still sub-optimal because there might be a set that could cover everything, or if not all, an ally mon that could help with that.
sleestacksFiboDoesPokemonSlipLavernlavarina just a reminder the “deadline” is tonight but if you need another day or two we probably won’t post the next week just yet. Try to get it in soon though please.
First time in a while I did this in a while, may as well have some means of reintroducing myself to playing and this is about as good a place as any to start.
Pawmot @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double Shock
- Close Combat
- Seed Bomb
- Volt Switch
Pawmot @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Natural Cure
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Double Shock
- Close Combat
- Ice Punch
- Volt Switch
I started late and I honestly have fuck all knowledge about the tier by this point aside from a few things I gathered from word of mouth by this point so I didn't bother optimizing for the EVs for bulk. Honestly, the fact that Toxic and Scald no longer exist for a lot of mons means that Gyara gains more from its defensive typing than I thought and the Taunt made it really good at taking care of some nuisances, more often than not their Brambleghast or Hippowdon but also other things like Scream Tail when they wanted to come in on a boost.
Pawmot went through a bit of revisions, I initially wanted Wish + Tect but I scrapped the idea in favor of being more aggressive. I even tried not using volt switch since I didn't think I was getting enough milage out of it and just ran double coverage, which did work out on some occasions but I felt like lacking that option for pawmot to be a pivot was too bothersome. In the end I went for seed bomb instead of ice punch because Quagsire is one of the only mons who kept toxic which gyara wants no part of and gastrodon can be quite the nuisance even with taunt if my gyara ended up too low so seed bomb it is.
SUMMARY: I definitely could make some updates like removing the Tyranitar for another rocker cause spitting out sand chip on my own Gyarados isnt really fun to work with. Probably could use Tinkaton or Quagsire as the rocker but I haven't given it much thought as of now but then again SD Tinkaton is really funny to have when you get the magnezone to terra grass and be unable to check it. Gengar is really nice at dealing with offensive teams and Quagsire is just there
NOTABLE REPLAYS:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-1797221458-vtm7wvs49jgyc1lzbgw96zwcs4fynn9pw - I ran into Iron hands literally negative 5 times this entire run. This didn't really give a good showcase, I just wanted to show that this was legit the only game where I ran into this thing which is why I was confused on why it was given a suspect initially.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-1797232992-0udn1prghdj0ndf275bhrld9jnvcjvfpw - See this is what I mean by Gyarados having taunt really helps it out against shit like Hippowdon cause this is what happens when you have no actual answers to it boosted. I messed up here by terrastalizing my gengar instead of terrastalizing my Tyranitar who was terra fairy but I got out of it anyways after making a good call with pawmot.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-1797414765-6icr3oel1hskzir7bymnfijj2hiha60pw - I definitely fucked up around the Weavile, had I done better to just let my Quaggy die and then just Tinkaton the rest, I probably would've won the game but its whatever. Terra Grass Armarouge caught me off guard so gyara didn't do much and then choice scarf pawmot did revenge kill the armarouge but then it just didn't have the killing power to go through the rest. I also asked my opponent for why no gg to which they flamed me for TTar running ice beam and then my pawmot for being scarf. The end result... was actually good they gave me some advice like making my Gengar scarf instead and making my pawmot a diff item and the games actually worked better.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-1798627401-cvb8d91vnka6b3pwacg72s800i8k4ptpw - I did win when I shouldn't have, I learned that if I wanted Gyara to perform well around things like Quagsire, I need something to bait it in and probably deal with it better. This is when I decided that Seed Bomb on Pawmot would be the better play for my team.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9uu-1798748168-cgx0006nev7hr5xs2bzh4wg6r9g44vqpw - I slapped on leftovers on Gyarados and didn't bother making any team changes because I didn't really have time to come up with an entire new team and work out the kinks. It was in this game where I recognized that Ttar isn't a very good teammate when you want to make the most out of what defensive utility Gyara has cause while it can switch in here and there sand chip can really get in the way if you're not leftovers and that pairing leftovers Gyarados with no hazard removal is a certified mistake that I ignored cause like I said, I was not gonna take the time to reconstruct the build. Anyways taking out Wo Chien with the Taunt strat definitely felt satisfying, regardless of it critting and taking advantage of players who rely on donphan will never not be fun
CONCLUSION: Personally speaking, I was pleased with Taunt Gyara. It needs some working around with but it was an ok mon all around that definitely left some people scrambling on what to do on a good number of times. Pawmot feels really nice to use, I think its at its best when it can just use its moves unrestricted but can still be a fine option as a scarf mon. It's just good at being a Swiss army knife in that regard so it can be tailored made to what its team wants.
sleestacksFiboDoesPokemonSlipLavernlavarina just a reminder the “deadline” is tonight but if you need another day or two we probably won’t post the next week just yet. Try to get it in soon though please.
sorry it took me a while. electric mouse and fake water dragon. let's see how they fare in this metagame! sorry that this is terrible btw, rush moment
Pawmot
Pawmot's been compared to Iron Hands a few times, and said Iron Hands is being suspect-tested. Regardless of that, Pawmot has had its own niche, being none other than Revival Blessing. A way to revive your Pokemon is pretty much a big deal, though often times you have to be smart about it instead of just reviving things randomly.
Pawmot @ Focus Sash/Leppa Berry
Ability: Volt Absorb
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Nuzzle/Mach Punch
- Volt Switch
- Revival Blessing
A fast pivot is always nice, and access to Revival Blessing makes it something to look out for. Personally I found Focus Sash to be more effective since well, it's pretty frail. Here is a replay of it doing pretty well. Though honestly if you're looking for a Pokemon that spreads paralysis, just use Tinkaton or the Rotoms.
Pawmot @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch/Double Shock
- Ice Punch/Seed Bomb
then we have the standard attacking set. it's offensive stats and speed are really good, if i have to be honest. the access in Ice Punch and Seed Bomb gives it a way to deal with the lurking Quagsires, Donphans and Hippowdons all around too. A solid attacker that will hopefully gain more popularity once Iron Hands goes away or something.
Since I'm literally typing this last minute and I've actually not had that much success with Pawmot, I'll list a few things that hold this guy back:
1. Brick-Walled Hard
the most annoying thing i had to deal with was having to pivot in and out so often. i know, that's the standard. but lord Above me i'm just afraid of this guy just dying to literally any hit that isn't not-effective. this was also the main reason why i didn't want to put any choice item on pawmot, wrong move and you're done. sometimes pawmot can't even do anything except maybe Revival Blessing until the foes that wall it are down, which is easier said than done mind you.
2. Better Pokemon
a electric/fighting? use Iron Hands that can take hits better and can buff itself easily with Swords Dance. paralysis spreader? Tinkaton and Rotom. when i was using the attacker set, i made a copy of the team and switched out Pawmot with Iron Hands. And it made it better fr. Pawmot's good, I can't deny that. But as of right now other than Revival Blessing and funny Double Shock gimmick, i'd rather use something else.
Another thing Pawmot struggles a lot with is a lack of Defensive utility. Electric Fighting is one of those extremely average types that benefit from being attached to bulkier mons that can take advantage of the plethora of neutral hits you're gonna be taking. Pawmot is however not one of these mons, which leads to it often getting one or two hit KO'd by most of the metagame. It needs heavy team support to get in and can easily be forced out since despite it's high speed it can still fail to OHKO important targets.
Yeah it needs heavy team support indeed which I specified in my notes to be a pivot. I mentioned Talonflame coz it was what I used to pair with Pawmot at the latter part of my battles for this research. It can wisp/flame body (basically burn) those who use Sucker Punch and Bug moves so Pawmot can get in without needing pivot. But Talonflame can U-Turn so it also aids Pawmot. And lastly, I kinda like to point out the speed part. Bar scarfed Pawmot of course, there are still some faster mons than Pawmot that I commonly encountered in ladder like Iron Jugulis, Noivern, Gengar, and Talonflame. Yep, Talonflame is also fast so it can also act like a sorta speed control or revenge kill with its Brave Bird move. It supplements what Pawmot's cons that was mentioned in the quoted conclusions above. But yeah, this is also bar the Scarf set mentioned above and I just realized after rereading that the Volt Switch mention was later switched into Ice Punch which was also similar to what I concluded based on a replay though I mostly faced Donphan in replays and not Hippowdon.
these guys hit the nail on the head already, so i won't elaborate too much. but basically it really just has little defensive utility that sometimes i find myself just switching in Pawmot just to get off a Revival Blessing then sack it.
Overall, Pawmot wasn't anything spectacular. If it didn't have Revival Blessing, it'd probably be a niche physical attacker of some sort unfortunately. I'm sure others found success with it, and I am not others TT
Gyarados
Losing Power Whip and Bounce? Sad! That doesn't change the fact that it's a pretty powerful Dragon Dance sweeper under the right conditions. With Taunt packed in, it gets to shut down any attempt to stop it from sweeping, and Tera gives it more defensive utility such as with Ground or Grass. Personally I find Grass being the more successful one.
If the conditions are set right, you basically have an unstoppable monster. Though it's not all that top tier, it's been doing great in battles such ashere.
i didn't get to experiment with a defensive set, but DiannieRatson's post has a more thorough post about it which I think it's great. I still think it's funny that Gyarados got Thunder Wave. but of course, as DiannieRatson also said, you'd rather use Salamence for your Intimidate user.
Of course, Gyarados has its own flaws too: 1. Walls and Coverage
packing in Taunt means you have to choose either DD and two attacking moves or three attacking moves. And even then, it wouldn't be enough to deal with all its checks and counters. Tsareena easily walls Gyarados unless it has an actual Flying move or something. Quag is Quag and Gastrodon is Gastrodon, aka use Grass or die. And then Mimikyu. Disguise is great yall.
2. Status Conditions
Sometimes, one Lum Berry isn't enough. or maybe you'd rather use Heavy Duty Boots. Status still cripples it a lot, so you'd have to be really, really careful. Which is easier said than done.
And there's not much else, tbh. Gyarados is pretty straightforward, and Taunt helps it even further. Mystras Leoxses and DiannieRatson agree with it being good, and so do i. definitely something teams should account for.
+5 Slip - +5 (Findings)
+20 pomfpomfpluff - +10 (Highest Elo), +5 (Findings) +5 (Exemplary Effort)
+15 lavarina - +5 (Findings) +5 (Exemplary Effort), +5 (Response to other researchers)
+15 DiannieRatson - +5 (Findings), +5 (Exemplary Effort), +5 (Response to other researchers)
+5 Lily - +5 (Research Tour Winner)
Congratulations to pomfpomfpluff on officially joining the ★ The SV UU Research Academy ★ as a Research Assistant! (40+ cumulative points). We hope more of you can eventually work your way up the academy hierarchy!
-
WEEK 2 WRAP:
Gyarados with Taunt seems to be the best set atm, and Gyarados in itself is still a powerful set up sweeper. While it's not perfect and losing coverage moves have hurt it somewhat, Taunt still allows it to get ample set up opportunities and do its job as intended. It's not an unstoppable menace, but it seems to do what you want it to do.
Pawmot is a very interesting mon, mostly because Revival Blessing is a very interesting move. But it's a strong physical attacker in its own right as well that can scare off plenty of things with its offensive presence and has near perfect coverage. Revival Blessing allows it to be used across various archetypes as well, and it seems like it will be comfortably UU for a while.
-
-
Week 3
ALT CODE: SVUURW3(name)
For Week 2, after much internal deliberation, we have selected Wo-Chien and Oricorio as the research subjects!
It has been over a month and we do not yet have the adequate number of Live Wo-Chien Reactions in UU. So to fix this, we want everyone to run Leech Seed Wo-Chien and see how much work it can put in. Be sure to share your reactions.
/
Oricorio(-Pom-Pom / -Sensu)
Ability: any
-
-
-
-
Is Oricorio good? Is it too good? Is it not great? It certainly made a splash on the SV UU Viability Rankings as an A Rank mon, on par with Slither Wing. So why is it so good? That's for you to find out this week! With Pompom at A Rank and Sensu at B Rank it'd be interesting to research why the disparity, and whether or not one or both are better or worse than they seem to be. As full fledged researchers it falls on you to solve this inquiry!
-
If you are unsure on how to write a report for research week, feel free to use this template as a base (NOTE: you DON'T have to use this template, it's only if you are unsure how to really get your report going):
Code:
INTRO: (write a little blurb here, w/e you want)
Orthworm
:Orthworm:
SETS USED:
Orthworm @ z
Ability: Earth Eater
EVs: x
x Nature
-
-
-
-
(Any other sets used, list those too)
SUMMARY: (include good cores, good matchups, bad matchups, etc.)
NOTABLE REPLAYS:
(link) - (add commentary, such as: "See here how Orthworm shows it is the worm of the day")
(link) - (add commentary, e.g. "Here Orthworm fails to be anything more than escargot")
(more replays - put as many as are relevant!)
CONCLUSION: (final thoughts)
OVERALL RATING: (w/e you want, D through S is standard but you can use whatever scale you prefer)
-
:Lokix:
SETS USED:
Lokix @ z
Ability: x
EVs: x
x Nature
-
-
-
-
(Any other sets used, list those too)
SUMMARY: (include good cores, good matchups, bad matchups, etc.)
NOTABLE REPLAYS:
(link) - (add commentary, such as: "See here how Lokix ascends to the throne")
(link) - (add commentary, e.g. "Here Lokix has truly ran out of steam")
(more replays - put as many as are relevant!)
CONCLUSION: (final thoughts)
OVERALL RATING: (w/e you want, D through S is standard but you can use whatever scale you prefer)
In order to participate you must do the following:
Post here with a fresh RW alt (such as SVUURW3 Live or SVUURW3 Corio ) and the name(s) of the Pokemon you will be using.
Use at least one of the Pokemon being researched.
Post your experiences with the Pokemon you're using, participate in the discussion!
Be sure to follow the instructions in the OP - use your words and your replays to really hammer the point home!
The goal is to get points through the 3 main events - The winner of the main event will be the person who has the highest ladder ranking on the Pokemon Showdown UU ladder with their RW alt at the time the challenge ends. Winners will also receive a permanent spot in this thread's Hall of Fame.
This week will end on February 27 at 11:59 PM GMT-5. Have fun everyone!!
Hello everyone! It's me again announcing our second Live Research Tour!
Every item has its uses, but some of the most widely used are the choice items. They can drastically change an outcome of a game based on its use but we wanted to focus on one. What would happen if the choice scarf was banned? Speed tiers are so important especially when it comes to revenge killing various threats, So with everything at its base speed, and not having to keep in mind what could have a scarf or not, would much change?
Come find out with us on Monday, February 27th at 11 am live in the Pokemon Showdown UU room! We hope to see you all there!
My main goal behind this weeks research was to use things that I previously hadn't considered using, which worked out well given that this week's duo ended up consisting of two mons that I hadn't used much prior, if at all. Out of the two Wo-Chien is by far the mon that I have the most experience using, but ever since the Alpha period I haven't really used it much outside of that one time I slapped it onto a stall team for the sake of Role Compression. Meanwhile I've legitemately never used Oricorio in UU before, only in RU and bellow and mainly on HO teams, so it'll be interesting if either of the two end up exceeding my expectations. But first I'd like to go over the sets I used throughout the testing phase.
The Sets
Wo-Chien
Wo-Chien @ Leftovers
Ability: Tablets of Ruin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 72 SpD / 184 Spe or 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Protect
- Substitute
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
This is the bread and butter Wo-Chien set that you usually see spammed on a lot of Balance and Semistall structures. Knock Off + Leech Seed is a demonic combo to switch into since all the Grass types hate Knock Off and all the Dark types hate Leech Seed. The EV Spread is to outspeed Adamant Choice Banded Tyranitar, but this legitemately never came into play and ended up mostly being a bunch of EVs allocated into a stat that didn't matter.
Oricorio
Oricorio-Pom-Pom @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dancer
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Air Slash / Hurricane
- Roost
This is the standard Bulky QD Oricorio set and there's not much to say about it really since there are no other moves worth using outside the listed alternatives. Hurricane vs Air Slash is mainly personal preference and is essentially just a choice between power or consistency. The Speed is to outspeed base 110 mons with a plus speed nature after one boost.
Oricorio-Pom-Pom @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dancer
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Defog
- Roost
The reason I used it to begin with was because of how I spam the ever loving crap out of it in RU/NU atm and it's legit decent down there bcuz of how those tiers don't have many Ground types that can hurt you all that much. In UU however this set is just too Tera reliant while also being extremely passive, so I dropped it VERY early and never looked back. I also never tried this with Sensu but I'm pretty sure that my consensus won't change.
Oricorio-Sensu @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Dancer
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 208 Def / 48 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Revelation Dance
- Hurricane / Air Slash
- Roost
And finally we have the last set used. As you can see here I didn't even bother trying some passive set and went with the Bulky QD set ASAP. I'd recommend Air Slash on Sensu slightly more than Pom-Pom solely because of how the Hurricane Sensu variant is walled by Bramble post Tera, while Pom-Pom can use it as setup fodder.
Also here's a list of the teams I used throughout the testing.
Wo-Chien
https://pokepast.es/6b7b2b7f71d680d7 - This is a Stall team built around Wo-Chien and is the only team I used that featured Wo-Chien. The core itself is fairly standard aside from the lack of a Blissey.
Oricorio-Pom-Pom
https://pokepast.es/8081d5b1d2fcb946 - This is a Balance team built around facilitating Oricorio-Pom-Pom's ability to clean up lategame while also being a decent defensive mon. I ended up preferring this team less overall because I felt as if I had to allocate way too many rescources in order for it to sweep lategame.
https://pokepast.es/346da21f6fa38445 - This is a Psychic Terrain Hyper Offense team built around Oricorio-Pom-Pom. It ended up being my preferred choice overall since it was way easier for Oricorio to sweep lategame once 2-3 other sweepers had spent their time busting the opposing team wide open.
Oricorio-Sensu
https://pokepast.es/72175fa2de04a593 - This is the same Balance team I used with Pom-Pom except it has Oricorio-Sensu on it instead, which might seem lazy but I wanted to do some 1 to 1 comparisons between the two and I ended up liking this variant better. Still not a big fan of either on Balance though.
https://pokepast.es/b67e3ede28a72a92 - And finally, this is a Spike stacking HO team build around Ghost Spam. I thought about using Gengar + Oricorio-Sensu + Magnezone on the same team in order to facilitate the former two by removing and/or overwhelming Tinkaton. The idea worked surprisingly well which makes me think that Ghosts are just busted enough to facilitate a team that consists of 2 Steel Types and 4 Ghost types.
Now that the background information is done it's finally time to get into the actual analysis portion of this post. To start things off I'd like to talk about a couple of the Pros and Cons these mons have before painting a picture of what their overall place in the metagame is and how good I think they are.
Wo-Chien
Wo-Chien is THE Grass type you slap onto Fire-Water-Grass cores on bulkier teams simply because it's by far the fattest one available, which leads to it naturally fitting on more Balance and Stall oriented team structures. This means that when building around Wo-Chien you should try to keep a defensive backbone in mind while covering up for it's weaknesses. With this in mind it's time to go over exactly what makes Wo-Chien usable on these sorts of teamstyles.
Pros
By far biggest tool Wo-Chien has access to is definitely Knock Off. A lot of Substitute + Leech Seed mons have an easy time forcing progress against a lot of teams but usually struggle with bulkier teams that don't mind taking 12.5% once before switching out, which is why Knock off is so important. Not only does it allow you to force progress against teams at a faster and more consistent rate, but it also lets you enable hazard stacking cores on Balance and Stall teams extremely efficiently, while also serving as a wincon against opposing bulky teams and detering opposing Grass types. All of the above is seen in this replay where Wo-Chien allows an otherwise passive team to easily force progress.
That replay also showcases another important boon; The fact that Wo-Chien is an incredible user of Defensive Tera. A lot of teams rely on U-Turn spam in order to deal with Sub + Seed Wo-Chien, therefore using a defensive Tera that resists bug can make you essengially immortal against teams like this. You're essentially entirely switching counters when you Tera since you go from losing vs Slither Wing to stonewalling it with either Tera Ghost, Tera Poison or Tera Fairy. Tera Poison also makes you into an excellent Gengar check, but it comes with the drawback of being Ground weak which is an issue since your usual setup targets tend to be Ground types like non Tera Ice Sandy Shocks, Hippowdon and Gastrodon.
In general Wo-Chien is just great against a large portion of the metagame at the moment. It have many replays of it completely stuffing Volt-Turn cores after using Tera because of how most Volt-Turn mons and hard hitters in general can't touch it. The natural Bulk and great Ability make it an amazing mixed wall, since it basically never gets one hit ko'd by anything other than STAB Super Effective Moves (and even those can fall flat sometimes). It's also great at stuffing opposing Stall teams as previously mentioned and makes the Stall matchup of any team it's a part of essentially free unless you're dumb and get your snail Knocked Off (which I would never do). Here is a example of an extremely short game where Wo-Chien wins as soon as it gets in (both literally and figuratively), as my opponents team has no good switchin and will have to minimum get 2 mons Knocked Off in the process of PP Stalling Leech Seed.
Cons
But there are of course issues with it that cause it not to be seen as the metagame staple it might seem like looking at it on paper. It's defensive typing sucks baseline and is ridden with weaknesses to common offensive moves typings like Slither Wings Close Combat, U-Turn and First Impression, Gengars Sludge Bomb and Focus Blast. Just looking a the top 20 mons on the VR you can see that Wo-Chien really doesn't enjoy hard switching into that many of them, with the outliers mainly being Sandy Shocks, Gastrodon and Hippowdon. This replay showcases that since Wo-Chien is facing off against a team with one mon it can abuse post Tera and said mon just so happens to be Specs + Tera Blast in order to smoke it. Despite the Tera investment Wo-Chien is constantly under pressure and is only able to win lategame because of a lucky dodge on my end.
Because of these reasons it's also extremely Tera reliant if it wants to actually enter the "I Sub all over your team and nothing kills me" phase. If you have to use your Tera on another mon in order to safely wall a specific threat you otherwise lose against you're essentially stuck with a useless Grass type that can't come in against 5/6 mons on the opponents team. You can see this phenomenon in action here since I had to Tera my Alomomola in order to not have to play mindgames against an unrevealed Pawmot (which was likely Scarf 4 attack based on the lack of Revival Blessing). This essentially leaves Wo-Chien stuck being a dead slot until it comes in against a heavily battered down team and cleans up lategame.
What's also shown in this replay is the fact that Wo-Chien needs heavy team support in order to actually get going, since it's extremely weak to hazard stacking, Status and Knock Off especially. Therefore you need to build around these issues with a consistent fogger + a Status absorber + a Knock Off absorber and did I also mention that Rocks and/or Spikes need to be up consistently for Wo-Chien to be capable of actually capitalizing on the switches it forces? It's very constraining to build a Wo-Chien team for these reasons, which is why you usually only see it used on teams which can afford the slots to enable such a mon. In the matchup shown for an example my opponent can effortlessly Hazard stack against me because my fogger has a bad matchup against their hazard setters.
Conclusion
So overall Wo-Chien left me with a good impression at the end of the playtesting period, therefore the rating I'd give Wo-Chien is an A- on my personal viability rankings. The reason for this is because Wo-Chien is an incredibly dangerous and flexible mon that can easily take over a game when used correctly, but it's also very reliant on team support and can have consistency issues at times.
Oricorio
Both Oricorio variants are extremely interesting pokemon within the UU metagame that unfortunately don't see a lot of usage by the wider playerbase, hence why most people are surprised that both are on the upper half of our current viability rankings. I was to a certain extent one of these people since I had no prior experience when it comes to using it in UU, so let's just say that my initial expectations were, atleast to begin with, pretty low overall. Was my initial hypothesis correct? I guess you'll have to read in order to find out ^v^
Pros
The one thing I immediately noticed uppon using both variants was that they're absolutely incredible when the sweep actually goes off. A lot of teams are extremely underprepared against Oricorio, which makes sweeping a piece pf cake once you get enough Quiver Dances off. These replays showcase both Pom-Pom and Sensu pulling something like this off, since both teams were extremely Oricorio weak and couldn't answer it after two Quiver Dances. They're capable of pulling these things off because of how useful their defensive typings are respectively. Electric Flying might not seem very impressive at first glance, but it allows Pom-Pom to sit on just enough mons to the point where it can somewhat consistently get a bunch of QD's off. It can easily set up against a lot of the, with some examples being Talonflame, Encore-less Tinkaton, Slither Wing, Gastrodon (just don't get frozen 4head) and Slowking. Sensu has a bit of a smaller list but it can still beat a majority of the mons Pom-Pom can beat while also being less weak against the tiers Grounds since it can Roost on them freely.
This also leads to my next point; their defensive utility. As previously stated Pom-Pom can check a lot of top tier threats while also using them as setup fodder and that same thing applies to Sensu, but this also makes them super useful even before the sweep is underway. Unlike most dedicated setup sweepers they don't need to be kept in pristine condition to get the sweep off, so they can flex their defensive utility in the midgame while repeatedly threatening a sweep. That's also another boon for both birds, they can repeatedly threaten to sweep and force your opponent on the backfoot almost effortlessly, which makes it so that they can both break earlygame in order to set up for cleaners in the back and support your breakers by cleaning after they're done. This defensive profile is further exhasperated by Terastilization, which both benefit from immensely.
On the topic of Terastilization, it's very worth pointing out that both are excellent abusers of it. Not only do they have the ability to change into a defensive typing that helps them beat standard checks, but they can also use it to gain STAB on their main move without losing a moveslot. Having 5 moves on a pokemon is just really nice and comes in handy quite often, mainly because of how their initial coverage on the standard bulky set is kind of lacking in terms of versatility. You can see this in action here where it uses the defensive utility afforded by it's great typing to repeatedly come in on CB Tar locked into EQ and use it as setup fodder while simultaneously weakening Tinkaton until the sweep happens (I accidentally had the wrong Tera on it in the replay but the idea remains the same).
Cons
But there are of course downsides to Oricorio, with the main one being just how Tera reliant it is when it comes to using it as a dedicated sweeper. Rarely will a team be swept by just your main STAB combo. This is a major hit in terms of reliability since you not only need to take care of the mons that wall it before going for the sweep, but you also need to do so without using up your Tera, which means that defensive Tera becomes a lot more costly if used on another pokemon than normal since it could potentially ruin the sweep. The coverage issues can also be annoying at times since you can't go back to your previous typing after you Tera, which can lead to scenarios like this where you go from dumpstering a mon entirely to being walled by it. This is of course quite the extreme example but you get the point.
They're both also extremely prone to revenge killing from the many scarfers within the tier, mainly because of how slow they are even after multiple boosts. This sentiment applies a bit more toward Sensu because of it's Sucker Punch weakness before Tera and overall worse defensive typing when factoring in the tiers Scarfers. In this replay you can pretty clearly see this in action since Sensu gets outsped Scarf Staraptor even at +2 and ends up being ko'd because 234*2=468<328*1.5=492. You can of course EV to outspeed these Scarfers at +2 but you cannot do so without taking a severe hit to your hit taking capabilities, so it's definitely a big tradeoff.
And lastly I have some what of a personal gripe with it, which is that it's just incredibly vulnerable to bad RNG because of how it needs multiple turns of setup in order to actually pull off a sweep. The most aggregious example of this is how I've tried setting up against Slowbro with Pom-Pom 3 different times and each and every time I've tried I've gotten Ice Beam Frozen (twice) or Crit by Surf (once). Critical Hits in general are a big issue and I think that's showcased pretty well here, where it needs a lot of setup in order to break Bellibolt and ends up fortunately enough not getting Crit after using 6 Quiver Dances against it. Unfortunately I still die bcuz of Para but you get the idea, it gives me crit-me-not mon vibes because of how much time it's setup takes and is incredibly RNG prone because of it
Conclusion
Both formes definitely left me with a positive impression at the end of the playtesting period, especially Sensu which I found extremely solid on the HO team I used it on. Pom-Pom also impressed me but definitely not to the same extent as the official viability rankings would lead you to believe initially. Overall I'd put both around the A-/B+ ranks since I feel as if they fit the description quite well. They're both very powerful but you also need to invest a lot of rescources into making either work. I got a lot of Volcarona vibes from both of them to be honest, they were either incredible handy and carried the game or ended up being kinda bad, no inbetween.
Also on a quick final note; I have a couple of replays where people just insta forfeited as soon as it started setting up. These aren't very interesting to talk about but they're kinda funny so here's a list of em;
So that's the end of this analysis. I definitely had a lot of fun trying out two new mons in UU and they both left me with a positive impression in the end, so this is a big win. I'm probably gonna be doing some more teambuilding around Oricorio since it really impressed me, especially Sensu. Overall I think that both Wo-Chien and the two Oricorio's are aproximately as good as one another in the current UU metagame, around A-/B+ on my personal viability rankings.
Edit: Just adding in some post commentary since no one had posted when I originally wrote this.
- VERY VERY hard to stop once it gets going, after a quiver dance and tera in the back, its almost impossible to stop once it gets a quiver dance, so you better have a revenge tera ready
I think that the defensive tera portion deserves to be especially highlighted here because it's an issue I encountered frequently. Oricorio can be hard to answer depending on what your opponent is running so therefore it's consistency is a bit questionable, but there is always 1 variable that will screw you over repeatedly and that's defensive tera. This is the only answer every team has and playing around it can be a nightmare, especially if it's then followed up by something like a Trick or an Encore which can just royally screw you over in the lategame. Oricorio not only heavily relies on Tera to sweep but can also easily have it's sweep halted by defensive Tera.
Well I wanted to use oricorio sensu esp since oricorio-pom-pom is A tier compared to sensu's B tier ranking.... and having to compete with gengar in the tier as a ghost type... well after trying it out it is not outclassed but its an interesting mon to say the least
I was using a very similar set to what oricorio-pom-pom would run but instead flipped the tera type to be fighting to hit bisharp, ttar, be resistant to accelerock, sucker punch, and be able to setup on some other pokemon more easily, revelation dance with hurricane have perfect coverage with each other which is very very nice
- Quiver dance is an amazing tool, it often can get them up on pokemon such as slowking, tsareena, talon, and pokemon it can force out.
- Great abuser of tera, tera fighting allows it to lure in and destroyer pokemon such as ttar, bisharp, wo chien, yeah you get the picture
- VERY VERY hard to stop once it gets going, after a quiver dance and tera in the back, its almost impossible to stop once it gets a quiver dance, so you better have a revenge tera ready
Cons!
- pretty tera reliant, to be able to setup on a game to game basis, you often need tera especially agaisnt pokemon such as ttar, sandy shocks, gengar, grafaiai, bisharp, etc.
- Very hard to setup... many pokemon can threaten it enough and with the lack of speed investment it can really struggle sometimes to get going.
- Is stopped easily by pokemon such as tinkaton, grafaiai, and many dark types in the tier without a tera, and can be very predictable. ALso very weak initially, you really need quiver dances to be able to force progress esp against smth like tink.
- Status, being toxic'ed or para'ed really hinders it since if it gets toxic'ed it needs to burn so much more roosts and that is opportunities the opponent can take advantage of, without speed oricorio can be picked off by so much even with 2 quiver dances.
Replays:
maybe ill comment on them a bit later but u generally get the gist of what oricorio is able to do
Unfortunately this was in the tour... so yeah... it gets to show off what it can do or what it cannot easily accomplish
its very very good once it gets going as shown in the replays, its reliant on tera so that is smth but it almost consistently performed on a game to game basis, it was able to come in on passive pokemon or choice locked pokemon and threaten them out and often come late game and just clean since it is very hard to stop a oricorio-sensu that still has tera to use. It is like a B+/A-tier pokemon for me, very impressive suprisingly esp when backed up by revival blessing which can allow it to switch back to ghost/flying
INTRO: I haven’t played SV RU or SV NU that much so I wasn’t aware until just this week that the Oricorio variants that are the research subjects for this week are not UU in usage. Yet, the results of this research seems surprised me as they are both solid wincons in this tier. Meanwhile, the other research subject, Wo-Chien, has been a solid defensive mon and thus, I only used a single team this week and alternately used Oricorio-Pompom and Oricorio-Sensu in the team.
SUMMARY: I only tried the set above to be honest. Since this is a Leech Seed Wo-chien specific research, I kinda struggled at first since I was not a fan of leech seed but then, I realized that it seems good with the move Knock Off. Leech Seed encourage opp sometimes to switch and thus, I tend to click Knock Off after Leech Seed hits. I don’t want to have no other damage moves so I included Giga Drain here. I paired Wo-Chien with Quagsire and Tinkaton as defensive core. It’s good match-ups are against those that are weak to grass if it has a grass attack move and specifically weak to Knock-Off with its synergy with the Leech Seed variant which is the research subject of the weak. So generally it is the likes of gastrodon, quagsire, hippowdon, sandy shocks, slowking, tyranitar, iron thorns, gyarados, and the likes of other post-tera: slither wing, gallade, hawlucha (tera fairy), and gengar (tera poison).
SUMMARY: For this research week, I used the Scarf Tauros-fire and Oricorio offensive core. Since QD Oricorios need to set-up, I tried to note the mons where they can set-up. It wasn’t easy to be honest so to be a bit more reliable, I paired them with a para spreader, Twave Tinkaton. Even the burn status from Tauros-Fire’s wisp helped Oricorio to take some damage and used the weakened offensive mons as set-up fodder as shown in the replays below. Pom-pom can set-up vs: Talonflame, Encore-less Tinkaton, Slither Wing, Slowking, Brambleghast, Gastrodon with no Ice move probably, etc. The replays below include Oricorio setting-up on Forretress, Bronzong, and Pinchurchin.
Pom-pom Vs. Sensu
Pom-pom is not dark and electric weak. It is also immune to twave. Some of the replays utilized this info to help it set-up.
Meanwhile, Sensu has the ghost typing which means it’s immune to normal and fight moves. Choice-locked mons can be a free set-up on Oricorio. Also means it can spin block but that ghost typing also comes with the disadvantage of having weakness to common Dark moves such as Knock-Off and importantly, a counter to a non-tera sensu already set-up some qd, the priority move Sucker Punch though damage still depends.
I haven’t try the Defog set, or like U-turn pivot or sets that focused more on their defensive utilities.
NOTABLE REPLAYS:
I chose 25 20 replays as usual with some short commentary on each.
Wo-Chien comes in on Forretress t21. I expect a switch so I clicked Leech Seed and it hit Tinkaton. So, tinkaton was switched out again. Would have been nice if I had hazards down. But at least, Forretress is a good set-up fodder for Oricorio. Tough luck that oricorio was Koed by +2 Night Slash from bisharp. At the end though, Wo-Chien 1v1 Tinkaton with Leech Seed.
Wo-Chien vs Ice Beam Gastrodon as mentioned in the summary above too. Tough start but Tinkaton managed to twaved opp Tinkaton and thus, Oricorio comes in. Lucky that opp Tyranitar’s Stone edge missed. Oricorio at +2 sweep the remaining 5 mons (weakened ttar, para’d tinkaton, talonflame, gengar, and tsareena)
Oricorio comes in again vs a para’d forretress. Opp answered with zen headbutt Bronzong. It was scary since my opp is predicting my roost and clicked eq.
Another Wo-Chien vs ttar. Taunt was helpful vs calm mind sylv and leech seed too vs Salamence. Could have 1v6 tbh. Was just overwhelmed. It knock off’ed gengar hard and giga drain could have fainted slowbro and ttar and donphan fainted.
I haven’t learned from the previous replay and got knock-off’d by donphan again. Oricorio-Sensu then fainted from Polteageist’s Shadow Ball. Wo-Chien carried though with its Leech Seed and now with the help of hazards.
So I went back to use Oripom here. Flexing its twave immunity vs pinchurchin but fainted vs a flare blitz from Slither Wing. fsr I won this game still even without using Wo-Chien.
Wo-Chien flexing its tera fairy to wall Gallade, Hawlucha, and Slither Wing. Quagsire is also scared of it of course. Wo-Chien Leech Seed Knock Off plus the rocks set-up help in this game.
A literal star replay of my research week. Sad that oripom got frozen but I misplayed a lot though and this replay had some macro plays that I failed to notice while in-battle.
Another instructive replay I think. Opp used Klefki to set-up opp oricorio-sensu. Wo-Chien’s taunt comes in handy again with the chip from knock off and leech seed definitely helped towards that endgame imo.
This last game of mine for this week showed me that oricorio is still not safe in setting up vs a para’d mence coz some uses stone edge too.
CONCLUSION:
Leech Seed Wo-Chien is an interesting set. The move Leech Seed paired with Knock Off is a great synergy. Just build around it with hazards to utilize more the encouraged switching caused by Leech Seed. Spinner is also preferred as an ally than defogger to not get rid of opp hazards.
As for Oricorio-Pom-pom, I definitely learned what makes it better than Oricorio-Sensu. Both of them tend to rely on tera but their initial typing is also crucial especially when trying to enter the field manually to take some damage.
OVERALL RATING:
Leech Seed Wo-Chien: (A) Currently, Wo-Chien is also ranked as A in the official UU VR. I think that is for Wo-Chien’s capabilities in general since I wouldn’t say that Leech Seed Wo-Chien would be ranked differently than non-leech seed set. Besides, Leech Seed kinda amplifies Wo-Chien’s capabilities so if only it’s initial Dark typing can get overwhelmed by common physical attacks in this tier, I would nom Wo-Chien to A+ rn.
Oricorio-Pom-pom: (B+) I would only give it B+ which is the same rank tier as where Gyarados is currently in the rankings. I would say both of them have similar status in the current metagame. Yes Oripom can’t be easily weakened by like a wisp that hinders gyara but they still both have a bit of difficulty in setting up themselves based on the trend mons.
Oricorio-Sensu: (B) Then, I put sensu a tier below I put pompom which is the same as what’s in the current VR, B tier. The findings in this research week established the edge of Pompom over Sensu so I guess in terms of set-up sweeper, there’s a less debate on which is better. In theory, the ghost typing should really have it’s edge too but the metagame is just full of mons with Knock Off (I just learned in this research week that most if not all Donphan’s has Knock Off and I thought it’s only damaging move is eq which could have been an easy set-up for ghost oricorio and no eq weakness even if it roost unlike pompom).
By far biggest tool Wo-Chien has access to is definitely Knock Off. A lot of Substitute + Leech Seed mons have an easy time forcing progress against a lot of teams but usually struggle with bulkier teams that don't mind taking 12.5% once before switching out, which is why Knock off is so important. Not only does it allow you to force progress against teams at a faster and more consistent rate, but it also lets you enable hazard stacking cores on Balance and Stall teams extremely efficiently, while also serving as a wincon against opposing bulky teams and detering opposing Grass types.
The Substitute + Leech Seed set is what I haven't tried and should have tried if I guess I wasn't going with Giga Drain. I haven't tried it this week so I'm quoting this here to highlight it too. I think if there will be a standard Leech Seed set, Sub will be in the first slash ig. A common play I could think of is switching in on something it walls pre-tera then click sub as they are switching out. Then tera can be activated that could keep sub up so that Knock Off + Leech Seed could chip and make progress. Yeah I agree also that Wo-Chien is Tera Reliant.
I was using a very similar set to what oricorio-pom-pom would run but instead flipped the tera type to be fighting to hit bisharp, ttar, be resistant to accelerock, sucker punch, and be able to setup on some other pokemon more easily, revelation dance with hurricane have perfect coverage with each other which is very very nice
I used Tera Steel with Oricorio-Sensu and didn't thought of Tera Fighting. This is interesting since this also has the no ground weakness whenever Sensu use roost. I remember opp predicting when I will Roost well and does, got hit by eq both with Pom-pom pre-tera and with Sensu post-tera steel. The other advantages are already mentioned in the post I quoted above.
dumbass signs up for something despite having prelims. i am dumbass.
Oricorio
Receiving the powerful setup move Quiver Dance, these two have become prominent threats not only in lower tiers, but in UU as well. Really shows how good this move is tbh. And it's not as if Oricorio isn't a bad user of it either, specifically Sensu and Pom-pom. I'll talk about these two separately, but just know that there's definitely gonna be overlap. So let's talk about them in general first.
First of all, they're amazing Quiver Dancers and Terastilization users, though the latter might be a little too reliant on that. And like pomfpomfpluff said here:
Unlike most dedicated setup sweepers they don't need to be kept in pristine condition to get the sweep off, so they can flex their defensive utility in the midgame while repeatedly threatening a sweep.
Their typings give them such good advantages in both sides. And even if they're chipped, a simple Roost gets them back to good health. Other researchers and players agree that once they're setup, it'll be hard to stop them if the opponent is not prepared.
However, this isn't always the case of course. For their defensive stats let them down quite a lot. Without any boosts or physical defense investment, even resisted hits make a dent. In here, we can see that a failed sweep was because of my misplay and Sucker Punch was able to take the K.O., which shows how they are weak to priority and revenge scarfers. That doesn't make them any less than threats though, and these cons can be played around.
On the terastilization side, we can see that these little guys might rely on it a bit too much. Electric/Flying and Ghost/Flying can only bring you so far after all, you find yourself thinking if you want to clear out the walls first or Terastilize instead.
Now let's compare these little dancers side by side!
Oricorio-Pom-pom's typing is quite amazing defensively, if i have to admit. Being able to avoid the one weakness Electric has while also gaining defensive utility from the Electric typing is always a plus. Though not as many immunities as Sensu, it's still able to setup against many common Pokemon. It doesn't even have that much competition either, with Kilowattrel having a different role that causes them to not clash with each other.
With the ability to Terastilize, it gets to beat foes it normally struggles against like Quagsire or Tinkaton, depending on the type.
As we can see here, it proves how an unprepared team can easily get swept by Oricorio. Pom-pom having enough coverage and boosts lets it go havoc as you would expect from a setup sweeper. Of course, there are things holding it back:
1. Ground Types
While avoiding the dreaded Earthquakes, Pom-pom finds itself having to hit Hurricanes as accurately as possible to deal with Ground types, which is annoying. And it doesn't help that the most common ground types have ways to deal with it. Quagsire with Unaware and Toxic, Hippowdon with Whirldwind, and Sandy Shocks having the chance to do Tera Ice on an unboosted Pom-pom.
2. Reliant on Tera
It's clear how their available options are pretty limited, hence why its crucial to decide whether or not you want to keep your Tera or use it on another mon. This is a pretty common issue with most Pokemon I think, but Pom-pom really needs that Tera if its walls aren't taken down first.
Oricorio-Sensu's typing gives it resistances to both Ground, Fighting and Normal types, making it quite the powerful threat and finding opportunities to setup. Switching in to attacks such as Maushold's Population Bomb or Noivern's Boomburst is a feat. Though sadly, the metagame isn't friendly to it compared to its Electric counterpart. I'll be talking about that later, but let's look at what Oricorio-Sensu can do.
Sadly I don't have actual good replays of Sensu, so I recommend watching replays from the other researchers. From my view though, Oricorio-Sensu can become quite the threat once it's given the chance to setup, and there's many chances to do so with its typing. Hurricanes hit hard and Revelation Dance being a better Tera Blast is so good. Ghost is already great against foes like Gengar and Armarouge, and its ability to tera type into something like Fighting erases its weaknesses while also providing a useful attacking type against stuff like Bisharp.
What keeps it down, however:
1. Priority
This is probably the most glaring weakness for this guy. Shadow Sneak, Sucker Punch, Accelerock, you name it. It's defense stats are unfortunately not great, which means that it folds to even resisted hits sometimes. Of course, you can use Tera, but it's not always a solid solution. I used this in a Psychic Terrain team which was definitely evil, but at the same time I'd rather be more evil and use Polteageist. Which comes to my next point!
2. Competition between Ghost Types
Yeah I said it. While Pom-pom is more unique, Sensu being a ghost attacker is a role that's already common here. Gengar, Polteageist and Mimikyu are pretty common in the UU meta, and they're all powerful in their own right. So Sensu's gotta make itself have a pretty known presence too if it wants to live up to that standard.
3. Dark Types
The main reason why Sensu has to save its tera. Tyranitar is an absolute Pain for Sensu to go against, especially when it has Sand up. If you don't have your Tera type available, then you really have no chance winning against it. It shows how limiting Ghost/Flying can be, being walled by common Pokemon in the metagame. Tyranitar isn't the only issue of course, even things with Knock Off makes things dreadful for Sensu.
4. Status
And it's not just Toxic either. Thunder Wave is also common. Unlike Pom-pom who can simply avoid it, Sensu has to deal with paralyze if it ever gets it. Which cripples it from sweeping greatly. Quite a shame, to be honest.
While I do see merit in being a U-Turn pivot, there's other choices that would be a lot better instead of giving them the role. Same goes for Defog hazard control. Why use that when you can use something like Noivern or Talonflame?
Overall Thoughts
Like I said before, both Pom-pom and Sensu are viable setup sweepers in the meta. Though it's clear as to why one is better than the other due to many reasons, they're both still great choices to pick. I hope that they'll see much usage in the near future!
and nobody saw that accidental post aha thank you.
research week 1 
Brick-Walled Hard 
/ 
Wo-Chien 
Oricorio-Pom-Pom
Oricorio-Sensu
Priority 
Competition between Ghost Types 