BW OU The Way It Was

[yee]

I'd argue the way it was was terrible for us.

A lot of people believe I'm very opinionated on this site, and it all starts with our current OU. I consider myself pretty reserved on getting out what I think about a metagame, but I don't just see it as something that people may or may not subjectively like; I see it as a toxin attempting to kill competitive pokemon as a whole by making the main tier as a whole a roll of the dice, the game that unites us here being a game where the highest level of thinking achieved isn't much higher than that of rock-paper-scissors.

That being said, BW1 was at least playable and BW2 isn't that far from it (in terms of changes required). The generation wasn't a complete black hole because along the way we learned a few things for the next one. We decided to get rid of Sand Veil and Snow Cloak which is a cool loophole to let us use Garchomp now. We can carry that into the next gen also knowing of other ways to simplify our banlist while creating a more enjoyable metagame, things like getting rid of U-Turn moves or auto weather can save simplicity and do more good.

This team ties into to all of this to say goodbye to the low point of pokemon, to show just how low it had gotten and what we are leaving. We're moving on from a point where the main metagame was solvable to a point where it's not the main tier anymore and seemingly will be playable anyway with the leave of Keldeo and Landorus. Get ready for Genesect nostalgia in the team building process!

A tutee decided he wanted to use a Mamoswine balance team. Remember at that time Rain required offense with Torn-T and Genesect to not be outclassed by miles, meaning no Rain on balance. Tyranitar had to be chosen for the sake of not going double ground and having counterweather. LO Latias was also needed for the sake of being a Thund-T check that actually beats Thund-T and can beat Keldeo / Landorus if it doesn't get trapped (Latios loses by the own efforts of those three in the long run on balance teams). For Genesect the only way to beat it without a terrible set like Shed Shell + Resttalk (which for the record I still don't know why people used), was ScarfTran. This happened to pair well with Tyranitar to trap special walls and Latias taking advantage of the same thing, and with those three Sun was already doomed to never win.


Because suspect ladder with it's low tendency to use balanced teams only required beating Rain, Sun, and Deo-D offense, we just needed a second water resist of any kind as you always do with Rain. To also deal with Torn-T and compensate for Latias's strength in offense being nearly as poor as Latios's strength in taking a mild slap, we added SpD Skarm and Jellicent for spikes that would stay up if we wanted them to.


At the end SD SR Rak was added over Mamo for just being more useful overall and making it easier to play against other Terrakion. If you caught that Terrakion was also a stupid good lead against those moronic Scarf Genesect and that was actually the reason we switched, get yourself a treat. Tar would be CB in any other meta to effectively trap things for Latias and Heatran, but because the focus was (and still is) offense you just wanted speed and therefore Scarf.


If you look back at this process and realize just how required and unquestionable every step was with Genesect at half usage, it just goes to show how low we got and why I've labeled that meta solvable. It's basically this team if you want to beat Genesect / Rain / Sun most easily (remember that the two weathers both virtually required Gene / Dug / Torn-T or Venu), or a different Sand team with a threat this one is weak to (Hippo + Stoutland teams like the one The Great Mighty Doom used to use) to win against this while making it slightly harder to beat one or more of the above. Deo-D teams were viable but absolute shit for consistency, so if you wanted that and / or something remotely original your options ran out pretty fast.

@

Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Taunt / Quick Attack / Swords Dance

Even though it hasn't been long since BW2 began, you may feel a bit nostalgic seeing this set because it's dropped off so much. It is absolutely replacable and honestly a bit crappy at times, but I'm not here to retire the most up to date version of the team I've used, this is the team to showcase how bad BW2 had become. Taunt is a saving factor in the current meta for leads like Skarmory and Lando-T, but overall there's nothing more to this set than what you see. It's a no frills pokemon; good enough that you never need to be questioning what it's going to be doing, but good enough to perform decently or very well anyway.

(M) @

Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Spikes
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Brave Bird

Skarmory is a much less boring pokemon IMO. Running special defense lets it do so many great things, without necessarily countering the pokemon it's useful against. Feel free to set up spikes all day against that bulkytoed if you like, don't worry about the Celebi doing pathetic damage with HP Fire, don't worry about last mon Landorus beating you, Rotom-W isn't breaking you with Volt Switch alone, you gain a check phaser to things like Tornadus-T and Lati@s, the list goes on and you retain Skarmory's resistances and immunities physically. Excellent against Garchomp outside of rain, but has trouble with a lot of other main physical attackers even with a lot of defense so it's mostly used to get spikes up and help you play around things.

(F) @

Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Surf
- Rest
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover

If you thought Skarm was still a little boring, meet Rest Jellicent! Capable of more ridiculousness than its looks as a female, Jelli does whatever it wants as long as it has WoW and Recover. I really do mean this, you can run even Waterfall as your attack for shits if you'd like and it won't hurt you (this was useful for Volc back in the day, and the reactions of people who saw this in the latter turns of a losing game were even funnier than you'd expect them to be). Taunt has its moments, but in this day and age there aren't many things slower than Jelli and it's usually foolish to waste time scouting for it anyway if you are one of those things.

I find it never worth the effort to EV Jelli for Special Defense because it takes on the special things it can take on just fine (EB Keld / SpecsToed etc.) without it and doesn't suddenly live against Landorus if you go max. It's absolutely stellar against Tentacruel obviously, and usually does a great job just doing what it does- WoW and Recover, occasionally tanking things like a traditional bulky water. Speed EVs are obviously on the Jelli, but it's up to you to decide how many (there isn't much use without Taunt).

(F) @

Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Draco Meteor
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Roost

With Latias we return to the norm with the most standard set you can find, because that's all that was needed at the time. If you want to stay up against Thund-T / Keld / Lando with an offensive pivot on balance, this is obviously how that usually works. Spikes are crucial for this thing doing enough damage when it needs to, but it always does fine in that department so the only thing to be weary of is it getting worn down or trapped. A bulkier Roar set is a possibility here and always has been, but it made it much harder to deal with Thund-T off the bat when you can't KO it and took away a secondary revenge killing option for a lot of things. The metagame is getting less offensive to feel absolutely free to give it another go.

(M) @

Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Superpower

ScarfTar isn't as good of a pokemon on it's own as it used to be ever since Alakazam broke the "no useful attacker can be faster than ScarfTar" rule, but obviously it still covers a lot of things and gives you sand. This set itself really does nothing more than that besides sometimes switching into things like Lati@s and Thund-T's, but it doesn't need to. Choice Band makes it easier to clear the way for Latias and Heatran and I usually prefer it these days being able to do things on its own and working more organically with the team. Chople Tar can also be useful to help you against things like Stoutland while letting you pull some tricks that EBelt Tar always enjoyed.

(F) @

Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Dragon Pulse
- Flamethrower / Toxic

Modest ScarfTran was so unbelievably useful in Gene meta and always works some magic in a match. It still outruns basically everything but Weavile (don't laugh, I use that sometimes), and gives just enough oomph to break up sightings of Tornadus-T that took just enough LO or SR damage which came in handy all the time. Grabbing the 2HKO on Tenta is easier, and while it doesn't clean quite like a ScarfChomp or Keldeo could, it does a good job finding win conditions. Toxic helped a lot wearing down SpD Rotom-W which was a bit of a problem, helped beat Volcarona occasionally, pulls the good old Toxic Blissey then Pursuit it trick and was actually a decent all around move for the team. However, Flamethrower was what I ended up switching to on ladder to beat Dugtrio more often. I didn't actually ever use Dragon Pulse so don't scratch your head trying to figure out if there was some hidden reason behind it.



If you would like to change this team for use in this metagame, start by changing your SR user and Tyranitar's set. If you have something you like, the core is tried and true, consistent with every lesson about the nature of the game I've learned and written about, and will fall into place for you with little, simple, or no changes. The things it currently has the most trouble playing around are Stoutland and Sharpedo, following the mold of boosting mons that get above the scarfers.

Shoutout to Team West whos run just ended in WCOP, I've given you all your shoutouts multiple times before and you know you're all great. I'm sorry I singlehandedly ended our streak of making playoffs every time this year, it's my fault for going along with something I didn't want to do but I look forward to working together next year and the year after. Special thanks to Jason for the art.

I hope you enjoyed the read and look forward to the future as much as I do. It will be a time with the Fairy type and Ghost / Steel, in my opinion the power creep will be offensive and defensive. In any case, it can't be as bad of a failed abortion as BW2 had been, and should Keldeo and Landorus depart it will be a metagame worth digging into itself. It will not be the way it was, unless you are referring to DPP w/ Salamence or some other time with a good OU metagame.

 

[BKC]

i've played against this team ever since bw2 came out and it's great, covers threats as well as any team can right now. i liked the analysis of our wonderful metagame btw.

i'd recommend is making latias' ev spread 72 HP / 184 SAtk / 252 Spd. it's still strong enough to kill what it needs to but the extra bulk is really good for things like keld/lando. it also conveniently gives you a life orb number.

also you might want to throw in a few speed evs on skarm in case you get into a whirlwind war, which could really hurt you if it phazes in the wrong things because the team's really weak to spikes. being faster than cbtar will also let you roost on its stone edges.

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