From Top to Bottom: An OU Player's Guide to Learning PU
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Introduction
Unlike most formats, PU has not had a long and illustrious past. In fact, as Smogon's newest official metagame, it's barely a few years and a couple of generations old. Nevertheless, there's been plenty of time for it to evolve into a totally unique format, quite different from the familiar territory of OU. So, before you rush in with DragMag and Spikes-stack stall at the ready, make sure you've got the right tools to perform in the land down under.
Mega Evolutions and Fairy-types
Since the beginning of generation 6, OU has been dominated by the new Mega Evolutions and Fairy-types introduced to the metagame. It's hard to imagine what the metagame would be like without threats like Mega Charizard X and Clefable; certainly the amount of power creep would be much lower and coverage moves such as Sludge Bomb would be much less common. In PU there's little need to imagine what that would be like, as it sports a grand total of zero legal Mega Evolutions and only two viable Fairy-types. While both Clefairy and Mr. Mime are solid Pokémon in their own right, Clefairy has become increasingly uncommon with the addition of Audino, and, while Mr. Mime is still common, it has less HP than Caterpie, preventing it from doing anything defensively. Without any Mega Evolutions, there's no need to worry about nailing down that one Mega slot or about the cost associated with running one particular Pokémon. There's also much less power creep without a pool of Mega Evolutions much stronger than the average Pokémon running around. Without Fairy-types, the need for Poison- and Steel-type coverage is also reduced, with the only common user being Poison Jab Fraxure, which lacks any other way to get past Fairy-types. Fortunately, this is balanced out by having only four viable Dragon-types in the tier, with Altaria being the only particularly common one. While dominant in other tiers, Dragon- and Fairy- types simply don't have enough representation to make it big.
Stall
As the driving factor behind OU's most recent suspect test, stall would presumably be a powerful force all the way down to PU. However, there are several major factors for why stall simply isn't good. In OU, there are plenty of Mega Evolutions to back stall up, including incredibly bulky Pokémon like Mega Venusaur, Mega Sableye, and Mega Slowbro that can be incredibly hard to break through. There's also plenty of different hazard removal and support options that can make a fairly passive playstyle more unpredictable. In PU, there are no bulky support Megas, and there's very little variation in the overall playstyle. PU's lack of more than a handful of reliable entry hazard removers, including the slow and Stealth Rock-weak Vullaby and easily spinblocked and pressured Cryogonal and Avalugg, gives stall a poor matchup versus hyper offense and Spikes-stack offense, two very common playstyles. The tier just doesn't have enough defensive Pokémon; good defensive Pokémon don't fall from higher tiers very easily, while offensive Pokémon can be outclassed enough to drop but still be good enough to function as potent threats in PU. Finally, there are simply too many random offensive threats for stall teams to cover. There have been few notable stall teams over PU's course, and none have been particularly reliable versus hazard-stacking hyper offense or able to take on even a few of the best stallbreakers, such as Simisear. Bulkier builds typically come more in the form of defensive balance, with three or four defensive Pokémon backed up by an offensive core to give the team some offensive presence. Stall may eventually become usable with a few metagame shifts, but, for now, it's simply ineffective without a very good matchup.
The lead game
OU has a few suicide leads like Azelf and Focus Sash Garchomp, but they're far rarer than balanced entry hazard setters like Rocky Helmet Garchomp, Klefki, and Landorus-T. In contrast, PU is defined by the massive number of viable hazard leads that can fit onto offensively oriented teams. The most common and notable is Golem, which stands out thanks to its great typing, Sturdy, and different item options in Weakness Policy and Custap Berry. Suicide Spikers are also very common. Venipede has access to both Spikes and Toxic Spikes in addition to Speed Boost, making it effective at laying down multiple layers of entry hazards. Glalie only has regular Spikes but also comes with Taunt, Freeze-Dry, and Explosion, making it almost impossible to set up on it or remove its hazards. Quilladin has Taunt, similarly to Glalie, but fares better versus Golem thanks to its superior typing, and Dwebble, while rare, is the only hazard setter in PU with both Stealth Rock and Spikes. Even Sticky Web has its place, with Leavanny being an excellent hazard lead to support slow, strong attackers like Rampardos and Stoutland. As far as preventing hazard removal goes, with great Defiant users like Pawniard and Purugly, spinblockers like Misdreavus, and Taunt users like Floatzel being easy to fit on most teams, hazards will often be there to stay. All of this is not to say that PU lacks good balanced setters, as tank Golem, Metang, Relicanth, Stunfisk, Roselia, and Quilladin are all easy to use on less offensive teams. However, PU simply overflows with excellent suicide lead choices, making lead choices a critical part of teambuilding.
Basic cores
OU has plenty of common type cores; it's pretty common to see people throwing phrases like "Fire / Water / Grass" or "Dragon / Fairy / Steel" around. Often the first instinct when trying out a new tier is to go back to basic balance cores. Unfortunately, the common defensive and offensive threats are just so different that these cores are no longer relevant or effective. The most common types of offensive cores are based more on typespam, with multiple Pokémon of the same type, most notably Normal or Water, to break down shared checks. A common example is Choice Band Stoutland and Choice Scarf Chatot, with Stoutland weakening Pokémon like Probopass and Gourgeist-XL for Chatot to sweep late-game. Offensive cores don't even need to come with a specific trendy typing, as any Pokémon that can threaten each other's counters can form a decent core. Simisear and Regice form an excellent offensive core, with Simisear luring Grumpig and pressuring Steel-types and Audino while Regice checks Ground- and Water-types for Simisear. However, Rapidash + Glaceon and Ninetales + Rotom-F aren't very good cores as, despite having the same typing as Simisear + Regice, they threaten totally different Pokémon. As for defensive cores, they tend to rely on multiple blanket checks like Stunfisk, Vullaby, and Audino to cover as many Pokémon as possible with as few slots as possible. Audino + Vullaby + Stunfisk can cover a large majority of the attackers in the tier while also providing Stealth Rock, Defog, Heal Bell, and Wish passing for the rest of the team, although they still fall to certain balance breakers such as Simisear and Choice Specs Chatot.
Conclusion
OU and PU are two incredibly different metagames, and they come with some drastically different trends. And all of this notwithstanding, PU is a constantly shifting metagame thanks to tier shifts. Next tier shift we could lose Gourgeist-XL, the best Machoke counter in the tier, or receive Primeape and finally get a fast Fighting-type. Only recently, PU received Cryogonal and Prinplup, giving it two new entry hazard removers and some much-needed checks to Rotom-F and Water-types. Whether you're searching for a different tier to main or just looking for a few fun games, give Smogon's newest metagame a try.
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