SV National Dex OU Suspect Coverage: Terastallization

By ChrisPBacon. Released: 2023/02/02.
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Art by Swiffix

Art by Swiffix.

The onset of Generation 9 brought multiple new, interesting, and powerful additions to National Dex, and from day 1, Tera emerged as one of the strongest new tools the generation had to work with. In addition to new Pokémon such as Chien-Pao, Gholdengo, and Skeledirge, National Dex featured Tera users available in no other metagame, such as the unbanned Magearna and Zamazenta. As a result, Tera became an even more contentious issue than in OU, leading to multiple cries for outright banning the mechanic. On the other hand, counterarguments that it was too early to decide on such a generation-defining mechanic before the metagame had stabilized enough were raised. As a result, after the initial ban waves—and many Pokémon such as Shedinja and Roaring Moon continuing to use Tera to great effect—the NDOU council decided that Tera should be the first suspect test of the new generation.

The Users

Offensive - Same Type

floatzel

Floatzel is a Pokémon that has generally never been seen in competitive OU play—and for good reason. Its relatively middling Attack and Speed outside of rain in conjunction with its frailty mean it struggles to solidify a niche amongst the fierce competition for Water-type Swift Swim users, such as Mega Swampert and Barraskewda. However, with Generation 9's introduction of a new powerful Water-type STAB move in Wave Crash, Floatzel cements itself as the forefront of rain in National Dex. Tera Water grants Floatzel a significant boost to its Water STAB, allowing it to achieve monstrous levels of power in rain, 2HKOing even the bulkiest Water-resistant Pokémon, such as Toxapex and Ferrothorn. This results in counterplay boiling down to either having a Pokémon with Water immunity—the only viable ones being Clodsire and Gastrodon—or hoping Wave Crash recoil KOes Floatzel, which would likely still let it take down at least two Pokémon with it. This also allows Floatzel's partners, such as Mega Swampert, to capitalize on weakened Water-resistant Pokémon with a late-game clean.

melmetal

Melmetal was another user of same type Tera that can boost Double Iron Bash without facing Floatzel's drawback of being stopped by immunities. While Melmetal was an excellent Pokémon on its own, with Tera it pioneered a once borderline-unviable playstyle to genuinely threatening levels: Trick Room. Melmetal's incredible power and low Speed made it a prime Trick Room beneficiary, as excluding Rotom-Wash and Heatran, it was able to 2HKO the entire relevant tier with Tera Steel-boosted Double Iron Bash. This allowed Melmetal to make full use of the limited Trick Room turns, whereas previously missing out on key 2HKOs held it and its team back severely. With support from Hatterene and Cresselia—bulky Trick Room setters which also provide Healing Wish and Lunar Dance, respectively—Melmetal was likely to find more than one opportunity per game, and after breaking through its checks, that second opportunity is likely to mean lights out for the opposition.

dragapult

While the previous two examples show unseen Pokémon and strategies in Floatzel and Trick Room, respectively, Dragapult is an example of an excellent Pokémon made even more superb with Tera. Choice Specs Dragapult can have issues with missing out on KOs, making it difficult to fully take advantage of its unmatched speed. However, Tera solves this by granting an Adaptability boost on either of its STAB moves. Ghost is the preferred Tera type of choice, as Shadow Ball has very few safe switch-ins, although Tera Dragon is an alternative to seriously dent Dark-types such as Mega Tyranitar and Ting-Lu.

Offensive - Different Type

regieleki

Regieleki emerged as one of the premier users of Tera Blast, granting it critical coverage against Ground-types, which it otherwise lacked reliable options against. Although Tera Ice was more popular to hit the likes of Landorus-T, Gliscor, and Garchomp, Tera Grass was situationally helpful against the popular Gastrodon. With Tera, Regieleki became incredibly difficult to answer consistently, with reliable counterplay boiling down to either Clodsire or a specially defensive Pokémon such as Ferrothorn alongside a Ground-type. This worked effectively in tandem with Heavy-Duty Boots, which allows Regieleki to pivot consistently throughout a game and ease prediction against Ground-types, unlike Choice Specs. As such, Regieleki can be deemed restrictive both in the teambuilder and in practice given; it can easily steamroll teams lacking a dedicated check, and Regieleki's teammates can take advantage of the switches it forces. However, Regieleki's weakness lies in being somewhat predictable: A team with Regieleki is likely to use it as their dedicated Tera user, and Terastallizing another Pokémon to adapt to a particular matchup mid-battle leaves Regieleki far less useful.

dragonite

Dragonite is another fantastic offensive user of changing its type when Terastallizing, although for different reasons. While Regieleki mainly used Tera to gain additional coverage, Dragonite wields Tera Normal to gain STAB on Extreme Speed, turning the already powerful priority move into a fantastic late-game cleaning option alongside Dragon Dance. Dragonite can also use Tera as a defensive tool alongside Multiscale; only having a weakness to Fighting after Terastallizing pairs well with its initial Flying typing while shedding the weakness associated with its pre-Tera typing. Unlike Regieleki, Dragonite doesn't need to Tera in order to function as a breaker; rather, it amplifies its power, making it more versatile relative to the former.

annihilape espathra

Tera can also be used on offensive Pokémon for fully defensive reasons. Examples of this include Annihilape and Espathra, which change their types to Water and Fairy or Steel, respectively, to shed the weakness of their original typing, gaining more setup opportunities. These two are particularly dangerous; in the case of Annihilape, trying to KO it with a super effective hit only for it to change its typing only charges up the power of its Rage Fist. Meanwhile, Espathra dodging an otherwise KO allows it to not only raise more Calm Minds but also subsequently boost the power of its Stored Power.

Defensive - Different Type

skeledirge

Skeledirge is an example of a defensive Pokémon making excellent usage of Tera. While Skeledirge possesses numerous positive traits, namely its good physical bulk, access to Unaware, and a fantastic, non-passive combination of moves in Torch Song, Will-O-Wisp, and Hex, it is somewhat let down as a defensive wall by its rather poor typing, which renders it weak to common physical types such as Ground and Water. Tera Water allows Skeledirge to remedy this weakness, allowing it to wall attackers such as Great Tusk and Mega Swampert with the combination of Will-O-Wisp and Slack Off. It also allows it to throw off emergency burns against Pokémon it would otherwise be OHKOed by, such as Choice Band Chien-Pao and Floatzel. This makes Skeledirge an excellent fit on defensive/stall-oriented teams, as they rarely need the extra power from offensive Tera while greatly appreciating its defensive properties.

magearna

Magearna was another user of defensive Terastallization, although Magearna already has an excellent defensive typing that let it take on the likes of Chien-Pao and Tornadus-T. So why Tera? Tera Flying provides Magearna with a Ground immunity and resistance to Fighting-type attacks. This allowed Magearna to take on the likes of Great Tusk, Garchomp, and Zamazenta in a pinch, although it became weak to Pokémon it would otherwise check, such as the aforementioned Chien-Pao. This is a prime example of defensive Tera being a calculated risk taken in battle instead of being assigned to a dedicated user and solidifies defensive Tera as a reactionary tool, most notably easing play against dangerous offensive threats—including offensive Tera beneficiaries.

Arguments

Pro-Ban Reasoning

A fundamental factor for banning Tera is how easily it can turn a matchup on its head; for example, revenge killing setup sweepers becomes much more difficult when they can Tera to remove their weaknesses and proceed to KO the revenge killer. Even if you can predict that an opponent will Tera and attempt to exploit the weakness of their new typing, this creates a 50/50 guessing game of sorts on whether the opponent will Tera and remove the original weakness, or keep the base typing to predict a move targeted at the Tera type.

I think it is not dereasonable to think that the conditions for a Pokémon to be a broken Tera abuser are not very hard to fulfill ... any pokemon A that is checked by a pokemon B because B can hit pokemon A super effectively can just make the interaction not happen and invalidate its check.
- R8 (Forum Moderator)

Additionally, an argument can be made that regardless of how predictable it is, certain same type Tera users are just too strong. The likes of the aforementioned Floatzel, Melmetal, and Dragapult, alongside other offenders in Zamazenta and Chien-Pao, achieve ludicrous power levels that the tier simply lacks enough reliable defensive counterplay towards. While defensive Tera can be used to check these threats once, a smart player can exploit the telegraphed Tera, not to mention the opportunity cost of not being able to offensively Tera themselves.

I personally enjoy how Tera can be used defensively to alter a Pokémon's checks and counters, but nine times out of ten I don't even bother doing that because why the f*ck would I when choiced Tera dark Chien Pao or Tera fire Victini can 2hko their "counters" with a resisted attack offering way more value in just about every match.
- Kyo (NDOU Council Member)

All of this largely boils down to Tera creating too many strains in the builder. Having to prepare for such a varied and threatening array of offensive threats that can also change their counterplay options at will can be considered too difficult to prepare for in one team.

I've seen people say that you need to adapt but I don't see how you can adapt to this without extreme restrictions on teambuilding. The "tera is freedom in builder" is completely false, unless you're unaware or don't give a shit about common threats and meta trends while building. Building with tera in mind is extremely painful, to say the least.
-Ryuji (NDOU Council Member)

No-Ban Reasoning

Tera is the generation's defining mechanic and as such, deciding to axe the gimmick so early into the tier's lifespan would likely leave little opportunities to retest it. Unlike Dynamax from the last generation, which was so clearly broken no matter how you could try to reign it in, Tera has multiple options when it comes to creating restrictions. Having such a simple yes/no voting system discouraged those thinking Tera was unhealthy from voting Ban, instead considering OU-style restrictions such as only allowing one Pokémon to have the ability to Terastallize or showing the Tera types on team preview.

It can also be argued that, excluding certain specific Pokémon, Tera is not too broken nor uncompetitive. While there are certain users that may push the mechanic over the edge, such as Chien-Pao and Regieleki, perhaps tiering decisions should first be focused on the individual Pokémon that break Tera in its current state, then choosing to tackle the issue later on if it persists. On the other hand, there are plenty of Pokémon that take advantage of Tera that do not require your own Tera in order to check—one of the biggest complaints with Dynamax. Tera can potentially contribute to a more skillful metagame after the most problematic beneficiaries are banned. It has the potential to lead to more fun games and variety in the teambuilder and can require skill to both use and adapt to Terastallization.

For further reading onto both sides of the Tera argument, check the suspect discussion thread.

Outcome

Tera received 52 out of the 88 eligible votes in favor of banning it and 36 for not taking action. While this did pass the 50% +1 threshold, with around 59.1% for banning, it barely failed to meet the 60% needed for action to be taken. As such, Tera remains legal in National Dex.

Closing Thoughts

After the end of the suspect resulting in Tera remaining legal, tiering action has already been taken. Some of the most problematic Pokémon in Chien-Pao, Regieleki, Melmetal, and Magearna have been banned—all of which were prime users of Tera in different ways. There are chances that future action will occur to adapt to the current metagame and eventually leave it in a healthy state. Make sure to try out the novelty of National Dex as the tier continues to evolve!

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