Top Ten Titans of Gen 8 NU

By Rabia. Released: 2023/01/30.

Introduction

Sword & Shield's competitive era has ended, and looking back is more interesting this generation because of the introduction of DLC. While every generation has distinct metagames because of tier shifts, DLC made these periods all the more clear. This has led to a much wider array of Pokémon dominating SS NU at different points, and in this article we aim to bring attention to the community-voted titans of SS NU!

Honorable Mentions

These three Pokémon got a decent number of votes to be placed on the top 10 titans list but never got a majority in any voting period.

Rotom-C has been a mainstay in DLC2 NU as a fantastic Choice Scarf user that compressed a ton of utility into one slot. Its influence over the tier has been deemed toxic a lot as of late, and despite it not being banned during its suspect test, people still wish to see it gone to this day.

Talonflame has been around the entire DLC2 period as well, although it actually started off in PU because the NU playerbase wasn't sure if it or Charizard was the superior option. Eventually, Talonflame solidified itself over the competition and rose to mainstay status as a great utility pivot that pressured many offensive options like Sirfetch'd, Salazzle, and Toxicroak.

Vaporeon basically defined balance teams for several months. Because of the plethora of nuclear wallbreakers and lack of viable offensive cores, teams were designed either around Vaporeon or to beat Vaporeon. Vaporeon has fallen out of favor recently and really doesn't see much use over other Water-types like Mantine and Gastrodon, but its stranglehold on the tier was quite scary.

The Titans

10

When Cofagrigus fell to NU at the very beginning of the generation, people were immediately skeptical of whether it'd stay or be banned. It was an insanely dominant setup sweeper in SM NU at a point, with its Trick Room + Nasty Plot set running through teams with ease. However, despite gaining access to the coveted IronPress combo, Cofagrigus's overall potency was reduced a fair bit because of Hidden Power's and Z-Crystals' removals.

Nevertheless, Cofagrigus was one of NU's best setup sweepers up until Crown Tundra. Nasty Plot sets were fantastic despite their limited coverage, as very few Ghost-resistant Pokémon could also stomach +2 Energy Ball. In addition, IronPress variants were simply very hard to take down without a super strong special wallbreaker like Choice Specs Indeedee-F, and very few Pokémon in the tier could withstand +2 Body Press and retaliate in a meaningful way. Cofagrigus also possessed a nice bit of moveslot versatility: Rest made passive status inflictors like Clefairy much less effective, and three attacks sets with Shadow Ball + Energy Ball + Body Press in the pre-DLC metas aimed to give Cofagrigus the best overall odds at getting by any defensive core it encountered.

9

It's a struggle to figure out where exactly to begin with hail's influence over SS NU... For starters, Aurora Veil hyper offense was potent early on with Aurorus and Alolan Sandslash to enable setup sweepers like Silvally and Turtonator. Afterwards, once Aurora Veil was banned, we saw hail teams built around Aurorus / Vanilluxe / Alolan Sandslash / Arctovish, which were EXTREMELY effective at maintaining hail and letting the wallbreakers run roughshod over opposing teams. This actually led to a Snow Warning ban despite calls for action against Arctovish, as many people argued that instant hail was the culprit for multiple facets of the tier being overbearing and, as a result, deserved to be banned.

Later on, UU banned Light Clay, and NU ended up revisiting the decision to ban Aurora Veil and Snow Warning. The council figured that Aurora Veil's potency would be much more limited, and if Aurora Veil was no longer overpowered, then the original argument to ban Snow Warning instead of Arctovish became much weaker. This resulted in 1) Snow Warning being unbanned and 2) Arctovish being banned. However, all that happened was the original hail teams saw a resurgence but with Beartic replacing Arctovish, and shockingly enough, they were just as potent and led to insane centralization around Bronzong + Vaporeon cores. Eventually, the NU council decided on a Slush Rush ban, deeming the Snow Warning users to be good additions to the metagame as somewhat niche wallbreakers.

Yeah... safe to say hail has been quite controversial in SS NU.

8

Escavalier arrived during the Isle of Armor period, and its impact was large. For starters, it stat checked everything in the format; even the strongest special wallbreaker at the time, Duraludon, struggled to defeat it. Furthermore, because the defensive power level of NU wasn't too high at the time, Choice Band sets were especially dominant. Checks were sparse, limited to full-health Mudsdale, Colbur Berry Jellicent, Flame Body Rapidash, and Rotom-S. Even then, such answers struggled to keep up in the long run because of Knock Off crippling their longevity.

With Crown Tundra's release, Escavalier had a rockier road to traverse. There was finally competition for the Steel-type slot in Copperajah and Bronzong, both of which were simply scarier threats on a game-by-game basis. Escavalier's niche as a super strong wallbreaker wasn't as secure either, as Steel-types became more valued for their defensive presence to check wallbreakers like Sylveon, Indeedee, and Porygon-Z. Escavalier has had its moments, though. It was by far the best Cresselia answer when it was allowed in NU, and during Vaporeon's reign of terror, RestTalk + Swords Dance sets were super common as both a Vaporeon beater and beneficiary.

7

Flygon's stay in NU wasn't too long, but it left its mark as a super versatile option. For starters, its Choice Scarf set revenge killed a plethora of threats: Salazzle, Tyrantrum, and Toxicroak to name a few. Its Dragon Dance set was also a feared sweeper, with Lum Berry + Throat Chop being a particularly disgusting combination to prevent status ailments and prevent Hyper Voice Sylveon from posing any sort of threat. What truly solidified its place, though, was a bulky Defog set meant to take on Copperajah, the best Pokémon by far in NU at the time. Flygon could switch into Copperajah, force damage onto it with Rocky Helmet, and then Defog its Stealth Rock away or regain health with Roost. It defined the balance builds of the time by compressing a plethora of roles into one teamslot: entry hazard removal, Ground-type, pivot, and Ground immunity.

6

Ninjask was not a factor whatsoever in NU until the Isle of Armor DLC. With the addition of Dual Wingbeat and a dearth of sturdy, long-term checks to it, Ninjask became the best pivot and late-game cleaner in the tier. Heavy-Duty Boots made this Pokémon so much easier to build with, as you no longer had to go out of your way to stack multiple methods of hazard control just to support Ninjask's longevity. It was now really easy to support Ninjask, as all it took was getting some prior damage onto the few answers it did have like Rotom-S, Rapidash, and Escavalier to let it go off late-game. The only caveat Ninjask ever faced during it reign was that setting up still was hard because Ninjask is so frail, often forcing it to be nothing more than a U-turn bot. Despite that, Ninjask enabling so many of the potent wallbreakers at the time— Gallade, Escavalier, and Duraludon to name a few—made this a much smaller issue.

Nowadays, Ninjask is almost completely absent in the metagame. It sometimes sees use on pivot spam offense teams, making use of NU's great array of pivots like Xatu, Silvally-Steel, and Rotom-C to safely bring it in and keep up momentum against the opposition. In addition, it can still find opportunities to clean late-game, as besides Stakataka and Aerodactyl, teams often lack long-term defensive counterplay to it.

5

Copperajah arrived in late 2020, and it immediately became a force to reckon with. Its offensive movepool has always been absurd, but at the time of its drop, this was especially the case. Heavy Slam / Power Whip / Heat Crash / Stone Edge hit the entirety of NU for neutral damage at least and decimated defensive cores. In addition, Copperajah's great offensive profile made it a super solid Stealth Rock setter, as the only Defogger at the time that took it on, Talonflame, was very easy to manage due to its passivity.

Eventually, bulky Flygon's rise lessened Copperajah's status, and further on in SS NU's lifespan, other metagame shifts would cause it to fall further. Bronzong eventually usurped it as the best Steel-type in the format, and even after it rose to RU, Stakataka dropped shortly after and picked up the mantle from there. Additionally, the tier picked up pace over time and became much less dominated by the super slow bulky offense teams, which made it harder for Copperajah to simply run through teams like it used to.

4

Toxicroak has essentially been NU for all of Generation 8, save for a brief period where it was banned by council vote and then unbanned shortly after due to the release of DLC. It's hard to specifically talk about, as there have been so many different metagames that Toxicroak existed in, but the fact remains it's been at the top of NU for each of them. Whether it was using Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Choice Scarf, or even Choice Specs, Toxicroak has always been a super versatile option that also added a bit of defensive utility with its typing and Dry Skin ability. Before DLC, Toxicroak mostly benefitted from its stats advantage; it was just a very out-of-place Pokémon that was kept in check mostly due to a few super consistent answers to it. This made Choice item sets a lot more justifiable; nowadays, a Choice Scarf set is a lot harder to pull off just due to it being somewhat weak, but back then this wasn't an issue. Nowadays, we see setup sets all the time, specifically Swords Dance. Its defensive presence affords it ample setup chances against foes like Vaporeon, Vileplume, and Passimian, and checks such as Mudsdale, Talonflame, and Garbodor simply struggle to contend with +2 Toxicroak, especially if they've taken prior chip damage.

3

Bronzong was both loved and hated during its NU tenure. It started as nothing more than your typical bulky Steel-type Stealth Rock setter. It sat around spreading Toxic poisons and switching into powerful wallbreakers; it was very much just there. Eventually, this all changed with the discovery of its IronPress set. IronPress Bronzong was, to put it politely, a menace. It was super hard to stop because it was immune to Toxic, super bulky after a boost, and shockingly versatile for a Pokémon that only had two free moveslots to work with. Rest was typically used to keep it around longer, and both Psychic and Shadow Ball saw use in the final moveslot to beat certain answers like Vileplume and Dhelmise, respectively. Even Toxic Orb + Trick saw use to permanently cripple Xatu, as well as helping against Ghost-types like Golurk and Decidueye. Eventually, Bronzong rose to RU at the beginning of 2022, and NU collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

2

Oh dear... where do we begin.

Silvally has seen extensive success throughout the entire generation. At different points, different Silvally formes were reigning supreme. I'll do my best to break this into sections to encompass the timeline.

At the start, Silvally-Water, -Dragon, and -Dark were the best. Silvally-Water was good in part because bulky Water-types were at a premium, and Silvally-Dragon was used for similar defensive reasons. Silvally-Dark was a potent wallbreaker given sturdy Dark-type checks were limited to mostly Clefairy and Skuntank, and it also checked Indeedee-F.

Eventually, Wishiwashi picked up in use, so Silvally-Water fell to the wayside. In its place, Silvally-Fire started seeing use as the only viable Fire-type attacker in NU. Then, we got Rapidash, and that was the end of Silvally-Fire!

Isle of Armor comes, and Silvally-Steel and Silvally-Ghost finally drop from RU! To no one's surprise, Silvally-Steel was super good, mostly because we had no good Steel-types prior to it. It was a great pivot and Defogger and had offensive sets that weren't too shabby either. On the other hand, Silvally-Ghost was simply a very efficient wallbreaker. Substitute + Swords Dance sets were especially nice for taking advantage of Miltank, which was on a ton of teams at the time because Ghost-types were everywhere. Silvally-Steel fluctuated between RU and NU during IoA, but whenever it was NU, it was a very viable option.

Crown Tundra drops, and the NU playerbase thinks they're finally done with Silvally. "Yes! This unviable trash is finally gone!", I hear a former tier leader's voice echo in my ears. Oh, what's that? Silvally-Ground's really good because it fills some of the void Flygon left? Dang it... Silvally-Ground has been an absurdly potent threat for many months now. Very few Pokémon can withstand its boosted Multi-Attack, and many of those that do succumb to Rock Slide. If you're fortunate enough to have one of the few Pokémon like Weezing or Dhelmise that can tank either, then you deal with it using U-turn and bringing in a teammate to take advantage of it. Did I mention it can use Flame Charge to make Choice Scarf Rotom-C incapable of revenge killing it? Because it can.

1

Finally, the Pokémon voted most influential over SS NU: Mudsdale! Mudsdale has been around since the DLC1 period and has consistently been viewed as one of the best Pokémon in the format. It's just always been a defensive stalwart and great Stealth Rock setter, even in today's metagame where Xatu is a defining Pokémon. In DLC1 NU, we even got to see Mudsdale make use of its fantastic offensive potential with Choice Band sets, since there really weren't any blanket checks to Choice Band Mudsdale; you were basically just forced into a guessing game between "will it use Earthquake?" versus "will it use Rock Slide?". Currently, it may be at its lowest viability ever this generation, but make no mistake: Mudsdale is SS NU.

Final Thoughts

SS NU has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Between the DLC making tiering a nightmare and all the different metagames we've had to learn, it's been a wild experience. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing! Many Pokémon that would've never seen consistent use actually got their time in the spotlight this generation, and some of them were so defining they ended up in this article. How neat is that?!

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