What's New OU? SCL-edition

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Introduction

OverUsed (OU) is considered to be the flagship tier on Smogon, and it has become an iconic staple as to Smogon's identity from a competitive and cultural perspective alike. Between its wide representation in official tournaments and status as the only usage-based tier that can actively build its own adaptations at a controlled pace without usage shifts warping its metagame, it is much unlike other tiers regarding how quickly and deliberately it can experience metagame shifts. Consequently, it can be very difficult to keep up with the metagame since the metrics that define major developments are not as black and white, and it can experience rapid, unexpected change. While this makes OU a very interesting and one-of-a-kind tier, it can be daunting for newer players who may want to get more involved, but don't know where or how to learn about it. If you are one of these players who are struggling to keep up, then this new article series is for you! To kick off this series, we will be featuring SCL-based developments!

SCL, or Smogon Champions League, is a new, official, yearly team tournament that features every major usage tier in the modern generation of Pokémon. While it did feature every usage tier, SS OU had major representation, with three weekly slots creating a feisty battleground between highly skilled players, featuring new, hip developments and metagame adaptations. Even though it was a very wild and hectic tournament, there were still many new developments that have fallen into place, exploiting the high usage of specific top-tier Pokémon and pushing viable, potent threats to terrifying new territories. In the following article, you will be seeing just what kinds of changes that this season of SCL has brought to the table for SS OU.

What's New in SS OU?

Landorus-T is considered by many to be the face of OU, as a force of nature with renowned flexibility for teams in need of a handy Electric- and Ground-type immunity, removal option, Stealth Rock setter, Choice item user, or setup sweeper. Despite some of its circumstances changing with the removal of Hidden Power and Z-Crystals, Landorus-T's deep movepool, superb typing, and versatile base stats always let it innovate and adapt to the metagame around it. Due to these attributes, it is not at all surprising that Landorus-T is considered one of the most consistent OU-level Pokémon of all time. With a staggering usage at an unprecedented average of at, bare minimum, over 70% in usage in this year's SCL, Landorus-T continues to be the top dog even when the metagame knows what to expect of it thanks to its unparalleled level of role compression in a metagame where the threatlist and a team's needs are high.

Landorus-T's most common set is that of a defensive pivot, utilizing heavy Special Defense investment in order allow it to more consistently pivot into Heatran, Dragapult, and Volcarona. Despite how long this set has been present, it is still just as consistent as it was when it developed months ago, and continues to demonstrate just how important role compression is on teams in such an offensive metagame. However, due to its naturally high Attack stat, a Smack Down set has risen in use in order to let it utilize its powerful Earthquake to disrupt the wide range of Steel-reinforced cores that have developed in the metagame as a reactionary measure to Arctozolt, Weavile, and Kyurem, while letting it still blanket check Tapu Koko and opposing Landorus-T. Interestingly, this set has numerous variants depending on whether the team utilizing it wants to exploit Smack Down for passively chipping away at Corviknight and Landorus-T, scaring them out to gain momentum against a different Earthquake pivot, or if it wants to use Smack Down to dedicate itself as a wallbreaking option that fits on a wide range of teams and exploits Corviknight, which can pair powerfully with boosting options in Bulk Up and Swords Dance or with Substitute to alleviate prediction and exploit opposing Landorus-T/Corviknight.

Although these sets are very clear cut in their use, it's important to consider that there are many viable EV spreads and alternative moveslot options for them. Imprison is an interesting option that lets Landorus-T blank U-turn in the Landorus-T mirror and against Corviknight, Knock Off lets it disrupt Corviknight and potentially remove irritating Rocky Helmets and Shed Shells, and the occasional Stone Edge can be helpful to snipe Tornadus-T and Zapdos that may be willing to soak a Toxic or a Smack Down in a pinch. Furthermore, there are also different EVs that can be applied to your Landorus-T set depending on what you want it to check throughout the game. It's not uncommon for it to invest slightly into Defense in order to provide some extra reinforcement against Pokémon such as Victini and Melmetal, and Speed investment can be helpful for more offensively inclined variants.

• Zapdos-Galar @ Choice Band
• Ability: Defiant
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Close Combat
• - Brave Bird
• - Stomping Tantrum
• - U-turn / Drill Peck

Due to Landorus-T's near-omnipresence, it is unsurprising that the metagame continues to try and find ways to exploit its usage. In this edition of SCL, several new threats have risen to fame in order to exploit its awkward passivity against Earthquake-immune foes; however none are as flashy and extreme as Galarian Zapdos.

Galarian Zapdos had its series of highs and lows throughout the Crown Tundra metagame. It started off as a premier Choice Scarf user with a menacing dual STAB combination able to clean games and revenge kill a wide range of threats like boosted Kyurem-B, Urshifu-S, and Cinderace; however, as the metagame stabilized, its volatility became an increasing problem for it, and Urshifu-R's consistency as an offensive pivot and wallbreaker alongside its pinch defensive applications against Weavile gave it a major run for its money. However, with Landorus-T usage at its peak and Landorus-T generally being incapable of immediately threatening it, Galarian Zapdos has become the Fighting-type of choice on teams that needed to break major holes efficiently and quickly. Due to its access to Defiant, Intimidate instead buffs Galarian Zapdos's wallbreaking prowess, and makes it capable of taking dominating trades that almost always favor the Galarian Zapdos user in addition to near guaranteeing crucial damage to common physical walls like Toxapex and Slowbro. Frequent Close Combat pivots like Tapu Fini and Tornadus-T wanted absolutely nothing to do with its +1 Choice Band-boosted Brave Bird, which reaches obscene feats of potentially 2HKOing even Steel-type Pokémon like Corviknight after Stealth Rock and even threatening to OHKO Tapu Koko. Its Speed tier is not shabby either, as it can also act as a threatening revenge killer against Pokémon like Kyurem and non-Choice Scarf Tapu Lele. It started with feeble usage, but as it picked up in popularity, its usage landed very comfortably in SS OU's top 15, and eventually top 10, boasting a seasonal average of around 16%.

Galarian Zapdos has found frequent usage alongside fast Electric-types like Regieleki, Zeraora, and Tapu Koko, which can very consistently lure Landorus-T due to their inability to make immediate progress against it. Although their tendency to require very aggressive doubling can make these pairings inconsistent at times, Galarian Zapdos's natural bulk and surprisingly good defensive typing that covers Earthquake can warrant an occasional slip-up if predicted poorly, especially early-game.

However, despite how obscenely powerful and dangerous it is, Galarian Zapdos's staying power leaves much to be desired. Brave Bird and Rocky Helmet recoil can stack quickly against it, which in tandem with frequent Toxic usage and Stealth Rock can minimize the number of breaking opportunities it could find in theory. Though, even if it has some limitations, the levels of progress it is capable of forcing with sheer force alone makes it one bad bird that can always deal devastating levels of damage if exploited well.

Slowbro has often competed alongside its equally slow monarchial figure in Slowking throughout the landscape of the metagame. But, with spiked Galarian Zapdos usage alongside increasing Melmetal and Victini usage, Slowbro has started to become an increasingly preferable option that has cemented itself as one of the tier's more consistent bulky Water-types. While Heavy-Duty Boots remains a solid option on teams without hazard removal, Rocky Helmet and Colbur Berry have become stronger options as means to allow Slowbro to punish and exploit the wide range of contact moves that it has become tasked to handle without being forced to attack. Colbur Berry, in particular, is a popular Weavile lure that allows Slowbro to turn an otherwise negative matchup into a positive one. Even if the Weavile user expects it, being able to force Weavile out gives Slowbro much more leverage to make progress, build momentum for offensive teammates, and provide a stronger countermeasure against its highly spammable Knock Off for teams that are more structurally weak against it in the long run. Colbur Berry also provides a strong check against Bisharp, another powerful Dark-type with a threatening Knock Off.

Alongside its fantastic defensive utility, it still packs the infamous FuturePort combination that can be an invaluable source of immediate progress for teams that lack status or hazard stacking; since it finds many more free turns nowadays, it is more capable of making use of Future Sight than it could in the past. Slowbro has oscillated in use throughout the tournament, but it has found itself once more in the top 15 in average usage.

Kyurem is a well-known, major threat in the SS OU metagame, boasting powerful STAB attacks in Ice Beam and Freeze-Dry, perfect neutral coverage with Earth Power, and incredibly versatile base stats with a staggering 660 BST. Ever since it gained access to Freeze-Dry and Dragon Dance this generation, it has been ravaging the tier throughout the rapidly changing DLC metagames. Most notably, all of its sets have different pools of checks, which can make scouting against it very difficult without dedicated answers.

Its threat status has been on a steady incline as more sets and combinations of its tools come to light, making use of its superb stat spread and generous range of tools to attain some shocking feats that appear unrealistic otherwise; for instance, heavy Special Defense investment allows SubRoost variants of Kyurem to PP stall Clefable, an otherwise astounding feat. While many different popular variants consisting of the menacing Choice Specs and Substitute + Roost sets remain very strong, in recent weeks, bulky Dragon Dance and Never-Melt Ice are two new sets that have grown increasingly more renowned and have greatly bolstered its flexibility as a win-condition and wallbreaker, respectively.

While all of its sets are powerful in their own ways, Never-Melt Ice, in particular, deserves a special mention as the set that pushed Kyurem to true infamy. This set was a discovery that was founded and exploited to a great effect in SCL as an incredibly potent balance buster. This set mirrors its Choice Specs variant in the targets it can actively pressure, except with several of its drawbacks mitigated. When packing a Never-Melt Ice, Kyurem finds many more wallbreaking opportunities throughout the game thanks to easier access to Roost and its great natural bulk, while mitigating the need to predict properly. As a metric for this set's power even without the added power of a Choice Specs, a common Kyurem check–Clefable–is cleanly 2HKOed by Ice Beam when using its standard spread, and Ferrothorn is brutally pressured and threatened with 2HKOs even with investment. When considering that the tier's Pokémon with a resistance to Freeze-Dry are also vulnerable to Earth Power, it becomes extremely difficult to defensively answer without fishing from the small pool of dedicated counters in Blissey and Scizor. The best way to cap its progress making abilities without relying on these counters is to apply constant offensive pressure in order to minimize its wallbreaking opportunities, utilizing fast threats like Kartana and Dragapult to force it out.

Another popular set utilized frequently in SCL was Dragon Dance Kyurem, which became an increasingly popular pick once again for its shocking ease-of-setup and ability to PP stall a majority of Icicle Spear checks like PP stalling Slowbro, Toxapex, and Heatran. It has paired most notoriously with ally Flame Body Heatran, Cosmic Power Mew, and the contentious Magnezone. Although not as overtly menacing as its Never-Melt Ice variant, Kyurem's Dragon Dance variant has a vastly different matchup spread that emphasized bulky Steel-types far more directly, which has left a drastic impact on Kyurem counterplay both in teambuilding and when scouting against it in-battle.

In terms of usage, Kyurem has had generally high use throughout the tournament. Although it started in its top 15, as it discovered its grounding on offensive teams, it steadily rose to top 5 in usage and found itself at an impressive 26.6% usage in the final week.

• Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
• Ability: Iron Barbs
• EVs: 252 HP / 92 Def / 164 SpD
• Careful Nature
• - Spikes / Stealth Rock
• - Body Press / Gyro Ball
• - Leech Seed
• - Knock Off

• Other Viable Move Options: Power Whip, Thunder Wave, Iron Head
• Other Viable EV Benchmarks: Enough Special Defense to take Never-Melt Ice Kyurem's Freeze-Dry followed by Ice Beam, enough Defense to take Choice Band Kartana's Sacred Sword after Stealth Rock

As a reactionary measure to Kyurem and a wealth of other progress-forcing offensive threats like Weavile, Arctozolt, Kartana, and Tapu Lele, dual Steel-type cores have surged in use as of recent. It is not at all uncommon to see teams feature at least two–and even three–Steel-types for their sheer game-to-game utility. Furthermore, many of the tier's best Steel-types are capable of handling one another's weak points as a merit of a secondary typing, defensively-oriented abilities like Flash Fire, or sheer bulk. No matter how one may feel about the magnitude of some threats, it is undeniable that Steel-types play a pivotal role in the SS OU metagame as means to safely pivot around and readily exploit major threats through various means, such as item disruption, removal, hazard setting, or momentum building.

Ferrothorn has arguably benefited the most from SCL's climate. Initially surging in usage to check Arctozolt at its prime, players quickly discovered how blatantly fantastic Ferrothorn's utility and disruptive options like Knock Off and Thunder Wave are in a metagame with rampant Tapu Koko, Tapu Fini, Weavile, and Kyurem usage for it to exploit. Although it lacks reliable recovery, its access to Leech Seed, superb defenses, and ability to create free turns for itself by forcing switches against the range of Pokémon it checks give it shocking longevity. Much like Landorus-T, Ferrothorn's EV spreads and movesets are very pick and choose between Power Whip, Thunder Wave, Body Press, and Gyro Ball depending on what the team is in need to check more urgently; however, Kyurem variants have been a very consistent benchmark for both its moveslots and its EV investments. Throughout the course of the tournament, Ferrothorn found itself comfortably in top 10 usage, ending off the main season at a respectable 16.6% usage rate.

Melmetal had a rough start going into SS OU's Crown Tundra metagame, but its raw bulk, power, and respectable utility options have given it a stronger niche. Unlike its other Steel-type counterparts, it lacks a secondary typing, however its obscenely high HP, Attack, and Defense alongside the Steel-type's naturally fantastic bevy of resistances let it shine on bulky offense structures in need of more immediate power and bulk. While its classic Choice Band set is still fairly difficult to pivot around without Pokémon that resist Double Iron Bash, its Assault Vest, resist Berry, and status-spreading variants are fantastic sets that take full advantage of Melmetal's ridiculous natural bulk to reinforce teams, and have proven to be far more popular and consistent options thanks to how well they complement and mesh with Melmetal's tanking and damage-dealing potential. It, at first, hovered around the tier's top 20, but throughout the tournament, Melmetal found itself creeping into the tier's top 10 and top 5, capping at a staggering 26.6% usage rate before having a harsh falloff in Week 8. However, its Week 8 usage is a major outlier compared to its usage throughout the tournament, even in earlier weeks.

Closing Words

According to November 2021's official tiering survey, OU Tier Leader Finchinator cites that a majority of the playerbase, on average, views the competitiveness and enjoyability of the metagame slightly under than that of early October. While this is not a significant change, it is demonstrative that there is either something seen as potentially worrisome, or the status quo has grown stale. Considering the consistency of very similar structures that tend to feature heavy usage of bulky Steel-types in order to provide teams with counterplay to major, polarizing metagame threats such as the infamous Kyurem, it is unsurprising that there could be call for change to free options in teambuilding. The council’s response to this and the high support for action against Kyurem in general is the Kyurem suspect test, with currently undecided results.

If you are interested in learning more about these changes and want to experiment directly with them yourself, the official OU Forums have recently been working on some major resources to reflect the metagame climate of SCL. SS OU Good Cores is a popular project that is aimed to assist teambuilders who may be interested in building around popular and effective cores; changes to reflect the metagame and Kyurem’s suspect are currently in the works. Furthermore, the SS OU Sample Teams will soon be updated as well, boasting numerous teams featuring hip metagame picks that have been discussed above. Lastly, if you have any thoughts on the metagame, the metagame discussion thread is and always will be calling for your two cents!

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