Don't knock on death's door—hit the doorbell and run.
For a long time, Hydreigon was previously considered the best Pokemon in the tier when it was last around, its superb offensive typing and stats, defensive attributes, and huge set versatility largely compounded by the new addition of Nasty Plot to its arsenal, on top of the discovery of the nearly uncounterable Nasty Plot + Steelium Z set, which could easily lure in remove the many Fairy-type checks of the tier, such as Mega Altaria after a boost, ultimately made it far too centralizing of a force that was eventually banished to UUBL.
However, fast forward to today’s metagame, and you may notice that the current environment is far from entirely suitable for it to thrive. Hydreigon’s base 98 Speed, its biggest issue, while not bad by the metagame’s current standards, becomes much more of a hindrance with our expansive list of options for revenge killing most offensive Pokemon in comparison, Hydreigon included. As far as examples go, Cobalion is possibly the greatest it’s ever been, and can easily blank Hydreigon’s STABs to outspeed and strike back with a Close Combat OHKO in return, while others, such as Mienshao, CC Zeraora, U-turn Zarude, Draco Meteor Salamence or Noivern (If because Special sets have since risen to be the main sets for their utility as offensive pivots), and the newly discovered RestTalk Primarina have also been seeing more exploration on top of the existing list of faster revenge killers and/or checks, such as Specially defensive Celesteela, Mega Altaria, Keldeo, Terrakion, and Tapu Bulu, giving teams more options to deal with Hydreigon as a whole without compromising on much else, given their already existing importance on a wide variety of team structures and playstyles. Moreover, the prominence of most of these Pokemon to act as full-on or mid-ground speed control also significantly limits Hydreigon’s opportunities to set up Nasty Plot throughout a match altogether. Choiced sets on the other hand, especially the Specs variants, while able to maximize coverage and wallbreaking potential through instant power in the case of the latter, can still struggle to predict around our many resists, and being locked into the wrong move can also be detrimental in such a volatile offensive metagame with many setup Pokemon to take advantage of it, especially when factoring in Draco Meteor’s -2 Special Attack drop.
Additionally, it has been commonly cited that Hydreigon would be a healthy addition to the tier in its own right, with said set versatility being capable of fulfilling some crucial roles in the current metagame; Choice Scarf sets have the potential to be an excellent revenge killer and speed control option, leveraging Hydreigon’s strong STAB combination, good defensive typing, ability to maintain momentum with U-turn, and ability to provide hazard control with Defog should it go that route. while its offensive sets can also potentially run Roost for longevity, opening up some interesting opportunities with its defensive typing as a Spikes-immune offensive check to several notable Pokemon, including the likes of Mega Manectric, several Aegislash variants, and Demon Deoxys-D.
However, this is not to say that some aspects of Hydreigon haven’t raised some concerns among the playerbase. To start, Hydreigon’s Nasty Plot sets still lack consistent defensive counterplay, especially when factoring in the list of Pokemon that it is capable of switching into and taking advantage of with either set, such as Mega Manectric, various Psychics, and most Water and Ground-types via its resistances and bulk, with various types of Z-Crystals at its disposal to bypass many of the defensive answers available, such as Mega Altaria and Cobalion with Groundium Z, or Darkinium to potentially break past Specially defensive walls such as Celesteela at +2 and prevent Pokemon such as Salamence from being one-time switch-ins, meaning that you will often have to wait before it reveals said coverage move to appropriately deal with it in this regard. Choiced sets can also potentially surprise or invalidate much of the offensive counterplay on teams, limiting most offensive counterplay options to revenge killing on a free switch at the absolute least.
Suspect Test Information
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 40 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 20 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 40 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice.
GXE Minimum Games 79 40 79.2 39 79.4 38 79.6 37 79.8 36 80 35 80.2 34 80.4 33 80.6 32 80.8 31 81 30 81.2 29 81.4 28 81.6 27 81.8 26 82 25 82.2 24 82.4 23 82.6 22 82.8 21 83 20
- You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDUUDREI. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDUUDREI Arishem.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Hydreigon, will be allowed on the National Dex UU ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- This suspect test will go on for two weeks. It will last until November the 22nd at 11:59 PM GMT+8.