NatDex Ubers Spotlight: Primal Groudon

By Bobsican. Released:2024/06/17
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NatDex Ubers Spotlight: Primal Groudon Art

Art by hexagonereal.

Introduction

After the removal of several Pokémon species after Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, several metagame staples disappeared from Ubers, and the tier changed considerably. Some users were unhappy with the changes and decided to make NatDex AG as a replacement; however, it was a cheaply effective way to cover this, as the tier did not require a competitive council to maintain it, due of its nature not allowing any tiering action whatsoever. On the transition to Generation 9, the userbase was extremely unhappy with glaring issues such as Fissure + No Guard Machamp, Assist + Revival Blessing teams, and Tera Electric + Air Balloon Shedinja. The removal of Dynamax rendering Pokémon such as Encore Mega Gengar and Baton Pass teams far more problematic certainly didn't help either.

The uncompetitive nature of NatDex AG caused the tier to have its ladder closed and replaced with NatDex Ubers, one of the tiers intended for competitive play with the highest power levels on Pokémon Showdown. As an Ubers metagame, NatDex Ubers has minimal bans beyond what's necessary, such as Koraidon, Miraidon, and Xerneas, to ensure that as many Pokémon species as competitively possible are legally usable, and one of them has managed to remain a constant metagame staple.

As a Pokémon with 770 BST, a type combination unresisted by the entire metagame but Ho-Oh and Giratina-O, positive matchups against several key threats including Zacian-C, Eternatus, Necrozma-DM, and Primal Kyogre, and access to setup in Swords Dance, Rock Polish, and several forms of utility moves ranging from entry hazards to status spreading, Primal Groudon has made a very visible impact to the metagame. The options its base forme has gained in Generation 8 and 9 such as Spikes, Heat Crash, and the more niche Will-O-Wisp carry over to NatDex Ubers, further making it the metagame's most dominant threat.

Overview on Sample Sets

Primal Groudon is extremely versatile; while the lack of a reliable recovery move like Morning Sun to complement Desolate Land might hurt, it can be used in several offensive and defensive ways, sometimes even both! This section will look at such sets and comment on them. It's worth noting that Primal Groudon covers so much of the metagame to the point it's almost mandatory to include on a team, ranking in around 60% of usage in high ladder from January to March of this year.

Utility Swords Dance

Groudon-Primal

This set has its EVs optimized to defensively handle Zacian-C and Primal Kyogre and ensure an OHKO on Ho-Oh with Stone Edge. This combined with its high base Attack stat renders Primal Groudon into an analog to Landorus-T by acting as an entry hazard setter that applies a lot of offensive pressure while compressing some defensive traits as well, allowing it to set hazards while forcing out or outright beating hazard removers like Ho-Oh and Giratina-O.

Defensive

Groudon-Primal

With optimal mixed bulk to more reliably handle foes such as Zacian-C, Marshadow, and Primal Kyogre, this set maximizes Primal Groudon's defensive traits while also carrying multiple ways to cripple foes with status. Rock Tomb makes foes easier to outspeed for its allies, Lava Plume deals damage while also threatening foes with a burn, and other utility moves like Toxic and Roar can be used to cripple foes it can't handle such as Zygarde or phaze setup sweepers like Tera Blast Ground Zacian-C. Entry hazards also deserve their own mention to support its team to discourage switches from the opponent. With Primal Groudon's base 180 Attack and base 150 Special Attack, Precipice Blades and Overheat still do considerable damage even with no EV investment. Will-O-Wisp also deserves a mention to burn foes more reliably than Lava Plume, but it can render Primal Groudon rather passive.

Offensive Support

Groudon-Primal

Barely acting as a check to Primal Kyogre plus outspeeding Adamant Necrozma-DM with the EV investment, this set allows Primal Groudon to perform offensive duties as a wallbreaker while also compressing ways to support its own allies to wallbreak, applying more offensive pressure than the defensive set yet still providing utility to act as sort of a middle ground between the utility Swords Dance and defensive sets.

Eruption

Groudon-Primal

As a STAB move boosted by Desolate Land, Eruption is a really powerful move early-game to blow holes into the other team. Primal Groudon can be preserved for mid- to end-game stages to sweep weakened or slower foes, especially if it's kept healthy to maximize its damage output, with its coverage options also minimizing counterplay by hitting Ho-Oh and Eternatus super effectively. This set by nature has the least defensive utility of all Primal Groudon sets and loses much of its power to chip damage, most often from entry hazards, but it's not easy to play around either, especially as it can still mitigate Eruption's power loss with Overheat.

Double Dance

Groudon-Primal

Rock Polish lets Primal Groudon outspeed Choice Scarf Yveltal with the given EV spread, shining against offensive teams with minimal defensive backbones, while Swords Dance applies pressure against team structures reliant on their bulk over their speed, such as stall and some variants of bulky offense, and acts as a potent late-game sweeper. Even though Ubers Pokémon are generally too heavy for a move like Heat Crash to be considered, Primal Groudon is among the heaviest Pokémon of all, so its weight becomes useful to crush foes with a semi-reliable 120 BP STAB move. In the early stages of the metagame, Primal Groudon could Terastallize thanks to a unintentional format bug, which made this set in particular obscenely strong, as it could overwhelm even more foes with Tera Ground or Tera Fire or go a defensive way with Tera Flying.

Metagame effects caused by Primal Groudon

Because Primal Groudon can be used for almost any role on a team, players have tried their best to work on ways to play around it.

Trend of Ground-types

Zygarde-Complete Arceus-Ground

Even though Miraidon is banned and Zekrom is a niche choice, thanks to Primal Groudon, Ground-type usage is rather common, as Primal Groudon is usually only weak to them due to Desolate Land rendering Water-type moves from any viable Pokémon besides Primal Kyogre irrelevant against it. Arceus-Ground and Zygarde-C are fairly common Ground-types.

Zygarde becomes the most physically bulky Pokémon in the metagame after being worn down and triggering Power Construct, rendering it difficult for Primal Groudon to break past, especially as it resists its Fire- and Rock-type moves; furthermore, it also makes a potent sweeper between a setup move in either Coil or Dragon Dance and only requiring Thousand Arrows to offensively make progress, often using Primal Groudon as setup fodder.

Meanwhile, Arceus-Ground has a wide movepool that lets it fit on all sorts of team structures, similarly to Primal Groudon itself; however, it differentiates itself by not being weak to Ground and being faster, avoiding having to deal with Speed ties to handle opposing Primal Groudon and providing other sorts of utility and longevity options that Zygarde lacks, such as Stealth Rock, Recover, and Refresh.

Too Much Water

Kyogre-Primal Palkia-Origin Arceus-Water Alomomola Dondozo Dracovish Iron Bundle Walking Wake

While Drizzle may seem strong due to the presence of Pokémon such as Iron Bundle, Dracovish, and Kyogre, Desolate Land replacing rain and only being replaceable by Primordial Sea, which itself leaves when Primal Kyogre switches out, makes rain and several Pokémon that could take advantage of it such as the previously mentioned examples completely unviable. Walking Wake deserves a special mention, as contrary to what one would normally think, Protosynthesis does not activate under Desolate Land and Hydro Steam is fully blocked by it as well, so it's just entirely outclassed by Palkia-O.

In terms of viable Water-types, Primal Kyogre applies offensive pressure, as it can override Primal Groudon's ability with its own, but Primal Groudon can also do the same depending on whichever's ability activates last; as a result, matchups often depend on which Pokémon switches in last, though Primal Groudon has the advantage of being able to switch into Primal Kyogre's Water-type STAB moves.

Other options for Water-types include Palkia-O, Arceus-Water, and, in more niche terms, Alomomola and Dondozo. Palkia-O has Dragon STAB to eventually break past Primal Groudon, especially given its lack of reliable recovery; Arceus-Water instead focuses on the defensive traits of the typing and either relies on its teammates to cover Primal Groudon for it or carries moves such as Toxic and Earth Power for it; Dondozo acts as a stall option to wall several threats, including some variants of Primal Groudon; and Alomomola can come into most sets of Primal Groudon and cripple it with Toxic, although it's unable to do much else out of its passivity and reliance of niche in the metagame as a cleric with Wish + Flip Turn.

Entry Hazards

Eternatus Groudon-Primal Arceus-Ground

As Primal Groudon has no usable item slot out of requiring a Red Orb to trigger Primal Reversion, it can't use Heavy-Duty Boots, and by extension it's vulnerable to all entry hazards; although, this is slightly mitigated the first time it enters the field and takes Stealth Rock by being a pure Ground-type.

Eternatus is the main user of Toxic Spikes in the tier and the most notable Poison-type in the tier, considerably pressuring offensive teams and including Primal Groudon itself. Arceus-Ground isn't forced out by the main forms of hazard removal in Ho-Oh and Giratina-O, and it can cripple them with Toxic without being vulnerable to status conditions itself thanks to Refresh. Finally, while Primal Groudon on paper is walled by both Ho-Oh and Giratina-O, its utility Swords Dance set preys on them, allowing it to apply offensive pressure against slower teams that rely on the aforementioned Defoggers to preserve hazards.

Forgotten in the Past

Flutter Mane Roaring Moon

As mentioned previously with Walking Wake and rain teams, weather team structures are but a thing of the past in this metagame. Flutter Mane in particular struggles, barely remaining viable by virtue of its unresisted STAB combination and coverage to theoretically hit most threats; however, that's also its issue, as it can't run every move it'd want, relegating it to a niche pick. Koraidon's ban as a result of its ability to overwhelm any check with its Loaded Dice Scale Shot set, including Primal Groudon, has paradoxically considerably decreased the viability of sun teams, as unlike Protosynthesis, Orichalcum Pulse does trigger in Desolate Land.

With this metagame's way higher power level and better options such as Yveltal, Rayquaza, and unsurprisingly Mega Salamence, Roaring Moon simply has no legitimate niche.

Team Cores

This section gives out some cores to potentially teambuild with, some more viable than others, but all ultimately worth looking over.

Alomomola

Alomomola has been an odd pick that has been rising in usage in the last few months and supports Primal Groudon quite well, as it can come into the Ground-types that threaten Primal Groudon and cripple them with Toxic, then pivot. Wish with a base 165 HP stat also means that Alomomola can provide some desirable longevity to Primal Groudon and other allies.

Ho-Oh

As Primal Groudon is usually only weak to Ground-type moves, pairing it with a Pokémon immune to those is a good idea, especially since two of its weaknesses in Water and Electric are usually immunities on Primal Groudon itself. Ho-Oh can cripple several foes, remain healthy across a match with Regenerator, and remove entry hazards to support its team. This core is extremely popular, as it checks most of the metagame while filling most desirable utility roles for a balance team. In fact, it forces foes such as Arceus-Ground and opposing Primal Groudon to run Ground + Rock coverage, which means using a physical wall like Zygarde, Arceus-Ground, or Giratina-O as a third team member covers virtually the entire metagame defensively, easing teambuilding for the tier a lot.

Arceus-Ground

Arceus-Ground provides backup Ground-type that's not weak to Ground itself, which is valuable to check some foes that Primal Groudon can't handle like Zygarde and other Primal Groudon. This is further complemented by Refresh's ability to minimize the impact of status conditions and Arceus-Ground's versatility, filling a variety of defensive and offensive roles as desired.

Eternatus

Eternatus, similarly to Primal Groudon, can be used to fill nearly any role desired in a team, being mostly limited by its EV spread and nature used, ranging from a setup sweeper with Meteor Beam that complements Primal Groudon's capability to weaken the other team to a more defensively oriented set that checks foes Primal Groudon can struggle with such as Primal Kyogre and Yveltal. Access to the uncommon Toxic Spikes in a metagame where offense is common and Poison-types besides Eternatus itself rare also renders hazard stack teams with this core more effective.

Kyogre-Primal

Water Spout from Primal Kyogre is surprisingly difficult to switch into, and while Primal Groudon is a viable check to it, it becomes the one being checked instead when Primordial Sea is active over Desolate Land when Primal Kyogre switches in. This core preys on this interaction to become difficult to handle defensively with the right prediction, although the low Speed tier of both does mean that teams reliant on this core often want some faster threats to keep the offensive pressure like Zacian-C and Marshadow.

Final Thoughts

The impact Primal Groudon has made on the metagame is undeniable, but at the same time it has provided healthy centralization to simplify teambuilding by limiting the range of viable Pokémon that'd require more specialized counterplay otherwise. Go ahead and try to test this gained information on the format!

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