Strategy & Metagame Ubers Article Submissions

[PISTOLERO]

Hello, I wandered into the Smog forums and it looked very interesting, so I PMed Toast and was redirected here after telling him the article ideas I had, hopefully this is the right place.

Ideas (the titles are terrible, I would try to come up with better ones):

"Things that are good in OU but are garbage in Ubers": we often see things like LO Greninja, offensive Aegislash, mega altaria, that are awful in ubers.

"The return of Soul Dew": Soul Dew is back if you didn't know, and it once more makes Lati@s viable. they have changed a lot with the generation change since BW2, they now have Defog etc.

"the rise of Groudon and the fall of Kyogre": Primal Groudon's release and the fall of Kyogre has hugely changed the tier and the way it is played.

I hope you consider some of these ideas, I would love to write articles for the Smog as I feel that Ubers has been forgotten in the past issues.

 

[Bummer]

Out of those three, the Groudon topic interests me the most, since I've heard it's the number one threat after Mega-Rayquaza (now gone). Soul Dew topic could be something of note, but maybe that topic could be fleshed out by bringing up their Megas too (although compared with Soul Dew, I hear there are better Megas to choose, so I don't know). But yeah, if you wanna write about the Groudon topic, I'd appreciate a skeleton of that article to see if you know enough about that topic or not.

Gonna tag some relevant people too: Sweep shrang

 

[shrang]

IMO the Soul Dew topic doesn't have that much you can write about, tbh. I'd be ok if you did either the first topic or the second one. Pick one and I'll have a closer look.

 

[PISTOLERO]

Sorry for the bad formatting, it comes directly out of Wordpad

1. The Rise of Groudon and The Fall of Kyogre

release of ORAS gives us primal formes. desolate land gives an immunity to water. primordial sea gives an immunity to fire. Groudon gets increased Attack, Defense, and Special Attack, Kyogre gets increased Attack, Special Attack and Special Defense.

Groudon

Primal Groudon

⦁ primal groudon now fire / ground
⦁ resists fairy
⦁ neutrality to ice
⦁ checks literally everything. Xerneas, Mewtwo, Kyogre, Palkia
⦁ rendered some things unusable, Arceus-Electric, Arceus-Water
⦁ Support, Rock Polish, Double Dance, ParaDance, lure
⦁ SD, Rock Polish, SR, TWave, Roar, Lava Plume, Dragon Claw, Stone Edge, Overheat
⦁ almost no reason not to use it

Groudon

⦁ not strictly worse now
⦁ Primal Groudon is just so good and checks so much
⦁ can actually check Primal Groudon without a special Fire move
⦁ checks Salamence, Extremekiller, Arceus-Ground, Rayquaza

Kyogre

Primal Kyogre

⦁ CM Wallbreaker
⦁ defensive Scald / Ice Beam / Resttalk
⦁ can switch in on defensive Primal Groudon somewhat
⦁ switches into Ho-Oh more easily than it used to
⦁ hard checked by Primal Groudon
⦁ hard checked by Lati@s

Kyogre

⦁ Choice sets nigh-on unviable
⦁ hard-checked by Primal Groudon
⦁ hard-checked / countered by Lati@s as well
⦁ defensive sets hard countered by Primal Groudon and Lati@s

all in all Kyogre regains its old checks in Soul Dew Lati@s, and a new almost-counter in Primal Groudon.

2. Useful In OU, Useless in Ubers

shrang if you like we could write this together?

Greninja
⦁ coverage is interesting but its Special Attack and Attack are simply too low
⦁ defensive stats in Ubers tend to be larger than Greninja's offensive stats
⦁ too easy to pivot around
⦁ impossible to switch in
⦁ outclassed by Deoxys-A which isn't too good itself
⦁ wiped out by Ubers priority
⦁ use Spikes / Toxic Spikes lead instead please

Altaria
⦁ Outclassed by Salamence
⦁ Outclassed by Xerneas offensively and defensively
⦁ heavy presence of Steel-types for Xerneas affects it too
⦁ dealt with rather easily by Primal Groudon
⦁ revenged by most viable Scarf users even at +1
⦁ turn required to Mega Evolve and acquire Fairy typing kills any viability, otherwise it would actually be pretty solid

Aegislash
⦁ only viable set is SpDef for Xerneas
⦁ SD is bad, easily checked and countered by Ho-Oh, Primal Groudon, Dialga, Arceus-Dark / Arceus-Ghost
⦁ mixed is bad as it is easily countered and / or outsped by everything already mentioned
⦁ Weakness Policy is bad too

Keldeo
⦁ Impossible to spam Water moves with Primal Groudon, which also eats up Secret Sword
⦁ walled by Xerneas and also gets set up on by Geomancy Xerneas
⦁ no switchin opportunities
⦁ either gets outsped and OHKOed or fails to OHKO and gets OHKOed back
⦁ outsped by Arceus

Charizard
⦁ X is outclassed by Salamence
⦁ Y is outclassed by Ho-Oh
⦁ Primal Groudon can take both to an extent
⦁ why are you using a x4 SR weak mon that isn't Ho-Oh

Mega Gardevoir
⦁ outclassed by Xern
⦁ walled by Primal Groudon
⦁ easily revenged
⦁ killed by Arceus-Ghost
⦁ can't check any Dark-types effectively
⦁ OHKOed by Sucker Punch from Yveltal
⦁ put to sleep / straight Sludge Bombed by Darkrai
⦁ outsped and 2HKOed by Arceus-Dark
⦁ outclassed by Xern

Mega Manectric
⦁ Primal Groudon
⦁ weak and easily walled
⦁ Primal Groudon


3. The return of Soul Dew

⦁ Lati@s get back their Soul Dew thanks to ORAS
⦁ Defog Lati@s are excellent choices for removing hazards
⦁ new things they match up well against in Primal Groudon and Kyogre
⦁ Xerneas and Yveltal can cause issues but are not full stops
⦁ choosing which one to use is often personal preference
⦁ Calm Mind is just so good

Calm Mind

⦁ 1v1s half the CM Arceus formes as well as Primal Kyogre
⦁ set up on various defensive Pokemon
⦁ CM Dew Draco destroys everything
⦁ huge defensive utility as well, especially Latias when EVed for it
⦁ can win 1v1 vs defensive Xerneas (!!!!)
⦁ Psyshock allows winning of CM wars easily

Defog

⦁ clear hazards effectively
⦁ great offensive and defensive synergy
⦁ can launch powerful Draco Meteors and Psyshocks
⦁ switch into various defensive Pokemon
⦁ outspeed and OHKO various SR setters

Conclusion

Memento, Healing Wish, HP Fire, etc all options
still pursuit trapped though
can be easy to lure into taking a TWave or Toxic
weak to both Fairy and Dark-types
eaten alive by Arceus-Dark
setup bait after using Draco (but what isn't)