Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion v4

[BolTingBlazie]

Underrated Threats I Expect To See In OLT
Specifically DD kyurem. DD special had a moment but physical has kind of taken a backseat. I predict more icicle spears will be coming our way.
OR Depending if kyurem gets a lot of usage we will probably see either A (no kyurem) or B (lots of Kyurem). To expand on this I think calm mind users are underrated right now as special bulk that also hits hard can be tough to take down
Bulk up tusk is a bit underrated right now and all it needs is an unexpected tera type. How about fairy?

I fully expect sub kyurem to dominate wcop and olt because kyurem is pretty busted and the ability to fish for freeze and special defense drops behind a sub is actually super filthy. Makes darkrai getting a dark pulse flinch look tame in comparison when kyurem can roll the dice to freeze with freeze dry or drop special defense with earth power.

Tera AV Iron Crown is also a pretty good Darkrai answer as it is something that can 1v1 Darkrai if it teras and capitalize on that. It also doesn’t do bad into Kyurem but fears having to deal with Kyurem special defense drops from earth power or getting frozen.


I think sub Kyurem will likely dominate and put itself back on the ban radar is my guess because the amount of headaches sub kyurem can cause sounds really stupid in a tournament setting.

 

[SittinGamer]

The rap is wildly different than this and was accompanied by unique content. Apples and oranges.

I meant the then following string of posts (maybe like in the following page or two and not directly following).

Edit: Maybe those were killed or something or I am misremembering I could have swore in the past month a bunch of epic posts happened pretty quick about surface level obviously AI analysis from gen 8.

 

[Roshino]

I meant the then following string of posts (maybe like in the following page or two and not directly following).

Edit: Maybe those were killed or something or I am misremembering I could have swore in the past month a bunch of epic posts happened pretty quick about surface level obviously AI analysis from gen 8.

I think I recall what you're thinking of - someone posted a GPT-ass paragraph, we called the dude on it, everyone fucked around posting AI-generated stuff for a couple pages and then it died down. I don't think anyone other than the first dude posted AI-generated text unironically

 

[Faux Focalors Furina]

Used Shaymin Sky's team and it still lost to stall https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2163566524-t76rujjqo9zbm889vlz0rrd6pw0nfsvpw

This one is where I gave up on hax and decided to go back to HO
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2163571375

 

[RS25802580]

this is exactly why we can't have nice things. one person makes an offhanded comment or a tongue-in-cheek joke proposal and, like clockwork, ten million shitters immediately crawl out of the primordial sludge unironically advocating for it, and i somehow end up being the bad guy for saying "we shouldn't bother considering this nonsense and here's an itemized list of reasons why"

 

[befi]

i've been trying to utilize bronzong lately. It's a pretty solid defensive piece when paired with wish. It obviously has major setbacks in lack of recovery and doesn't even good support moves like twave, but it has a bunch of great qualities as well:
- kyurem wall
- destroys lead glimmora
- great tusk and gliscor check (more difficult if they are running knock off, but once knocked you can wish back your health, plus psychic noise is amazing against both mons)
- great fairy resist
- espeed dragonite check
- landorus wall (not that it needs walling)
- can't be touched by ting lu and can hit it with body press
- doesn't care about hazards at all

The set that I have been using is:
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic Noise
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Stealth Rock

And i also paired it with an alomomola because it really needs the wish support. This set also does well against stall with psychic noise, spikes immunity, and even body press for blissey. It completely walls certain stall mons like clodsire and beats it with psychic noise.

Alternatively, you can run tera ghost to beat zamazenta, but i have found tera fighting is better for gambit and to resist knock off, helping against mons like iron valiant since you can take a knock off and use a psychic noise back, killing if chipped.

I have a couple of replays, but haven't used the team on higher ladder so much, so I don't know if the team is amazing.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2164158788-0tchc2f0tcn371j6e1cj5ovlzw9jzt4pw

What you guys think about bronzong and if it has a specific niche/role in the meta?

 

[Alternator]

i've been trying to utilize bronzong lately. It's a pretty solid defensive piece when paired with wish. It obviously has major setbacks in lack of recovery and doesn't even good support moves like twave, but it has a bunch of great qualities as well:
- kyurem wall
- destroys lead glimmora
- great tusk and gliscor check (more difficult if they are running knock off, but once knocked you can wish back your health, plus psychic noise is amazing against both mons)
- great fairy resist
- espeed dragonite check
- landorus wall (not that it needs walling)
- can't be touched by ting lu and can hit it with body press
- doesn't care about hazards at all

The set that I have been using is:
Bronzong @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic Noise
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Stealth Rock

And i also paired it with an alomomola because it really needs the wish support. This set also does well against stall with psychic noise, spikes immunity, and even body press for blissey. It completely walls certain stall mons like clodsire and beats it with psychic noise.

Alternatively, you can run tera ghost to beat zamazenta, but i have found tera fighting is better for gambit and to resist knock off, helping against mons like iron valiant since you can take a knock off and use a psychic noise back, killing if chipped.

I have a couple of replays, but haven't used the team on higher ladder so much, so I don't know if the team is amazing.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2164158788-0tchc2f0tcn371j6e1cj5ovlzw9jzt4pw

What you guys think about bronzong and if it has a specific niche/role in the meta?

I think the best part of SV has been random low tier mons proving to have an actual niche - Bronzong useable again? Muk finding a place on stall? They might not be splashable, but just appearing as more than a gimmick warms my cold, black, grumpy heart.

Also, the biggest weakness I see here is giving Primarina free entry, so make sure the team has a solid switch in. Psychic Noise means the chip will stick, but either AV or a Calm Mind means it'll be very small chip.

 

[befi]

Yeah but prima is walled by glowking, who is on my team

 

[Kadiro]

This might be a hot take but i think that Landorus Incarnate should be tested in OU.



The thing with lando is that is stupidly strong with the life orb sheer force set. It destroys balance and has all the coverage it wants, not to mention it can tera now.
However i think that its fearly easy to check lando in many ways.

First: its not fast at all. 101 base speed is simply mid in gen 9. Sure you outspeed common mons like kyurem, tusk and gholdengo, but you are not doing anything in a more offensive enviroment. It has lost rock polish this gen so sweeping with it its not an option and there is a plethora of pokemon that easily outspeed lando and force it to switch or tera at the risk or getting koed: enamorus, wogerpon, moth, valiant, serperior, cinderace, meow, darkrai, weavile, zama and pult; all of them can outspeed lando easily and threaten it with a ko or big damage. So yeah, offensively lando is very easily checked and honestly it can fell like death weight against many HO playstyles.
Its also very difficult to get any defensive utility out lando. It can take a neutral hit but this thing is not healing and with rocks its put in range really quickly. Even against defensive teams it cant switch into anything since mons like garg or gliscor which seem like same safe points of entry can cripple lando really hard with salt cure and knock or toxic.

On the deffensive side is a bit more complicated since this thing gets nasty plot now and it can be completily nuclear, however there are many mons that can switch into lando. Gliscor is the main one since now lando cant hp ice it, but there is also corv, moltres, lando-t, blissey, ting-lu and skarmory. None of them are truly counters but they can cripple lando with status or pivot to another faster mon that threaten lando. There is also no knock off for landorus this gen so progress is not guaranted when facing some of the mons above, lando has to have the right coverage to deal with its check or its simply walled.

Many can argue that lando would put too much preassure when facing balance, but there is already mons that do that like darkrai and wogerpon wich are already controversial and thats because they are too strong and versatile for how fast they are and almost nothing can switch into them safely. Lando doesnt have this, its speed isnt good enough if it wants to be a consistent threat and its coverage is good, but not perfect.

I think there is enought arguments for a lando test in OU, and i think it would help against certain mons that are quite difficult to deal with like garga, gking or raging bolt.

So yeah, LETS TEST LANDORUS INCARNATE.

 

[Rekka's Backend]

Lando doesnt have this, its speed isnt good enough if it wants to be a consistent threat and its coverage is good, but not perfect.

To reply wholeheartedly, with how decently fast it is combined with its sheer powerlevel it'd only have to invest in bulk to do exactly what it wants to do. With Tera, it'd be an absolute nightmare to contend with and it'd have many opportunities to set up with it. Darkrai's 90/90 bulk can already feel very hard to contend with, Lando's superior HP stat and typing would give it more than enough room to come in and threaten a lot of our tier in one go.

I respect the hustle, but I think it'd be a fucking nightmare.

 

[Hiddenfreezer]

To reply wholeheartedly, with how decently fast it is combined with its sheer powerlevel it'd only have to invest in bulk to do exactly what it wants to do. With Tera, it'd be an absolute nightmare to contend with and it'd have many opportunities to set up with it. Darkrai's 90/90 bulk can already feel very hard to contend with, Lando's superior HP stat and typing would give it more than enough room to come in and threaten a lot of our tier in one go.

I respect the hustle, but I think it'd be a fucking nightmare.

Just put this into perspective I think it 2HKO everything offensive

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zamazenta: 203-239 (52.3 - 61.5%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 378-446 (87 - 102.7%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Darkrai: 250-294 (88.9 - 104.6%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO

Isn't Sheer Force basically like the best Breaker ever that can run every move it wants? Like the calcs do not account for coverage.

 

[Moyashi]

Even against defensive teams it cant switch into anything since mons like garg or gliscor which seem like same safe points of entry can cripple lando really hard with salt cure and knock or toxic.

On the deffensive side is a bit more complicated since this thing gets nasty plot now and it can be completily nuclear, however there are many mons that can switch into lando. Gliscor is the main one since now lando cant hp ice it, but there is also corv, moltres, lando-t, blissey, ting-lu and skarmory. None of them are truly counters but they can cripple lando with status or pivot to another faster mon that threaten lando. There is also no knock off for landorus this gen so progress is not guaranted when facing some of the mons above, lando has to have the right coverage to deal with its check or its simply walled.

Free pivots through Alomomola/Glowking/Moltres/Whatever because Lando-I is a premier Voltturn style threat (in the same vein as Nidoking which did last gen after Lando-I was banned). So in that vein it's not hard to pivot it into battle vs defensive teams at all. As for the "checks" you listed, all it takes is slapping on Gravity and Lando-I beats all of those barring Blissey and Ting-Lu, the former of which is largely stall exclusive. Ting-Lu is 2HKOd by Focus Blast (which becomes perfect accuracy under Gravity btw). So for defensive teams there really is not nearly good enough counterplay. As for offense,

but you are not doing anything in a more offensive enviroment. It has lost rock polish this gen so sweeping with it its not an option and there is a plethora of pokemon that easily outspeed lando and force it to switch or tera at the risk or getting koed: enamorus, wogerpon, moth, valiant, serperior, cinderace, meow, darkrai, weavile, zama and pult; all of them can outspeed lando easily and threaten it with a ko or big damage. So yeah, offensively lando is very easily checked and honestly it can fell like death weight against many HO playstyles.

Iron Moth is literally a switch IN target that Lando-I gets to come in on because it resists Sludge Wave (not hard to bait it into using). Zama can't do shit to Lando-I without ice fang (which is stuck on boots sets and not even every boots set), a scarf locked Darkrai stuck on Sludge Bomb is also free entry for Lando-I to throw out hits and trade hits (or collect) a KO. Valiant meanwhile doesn't even threaten an OHKO on healthy Lando-I, while post Draco Meteor Pult is free entry for it as well (whether after a KO or off a slow pivot from Lando-I's team). So claiming it can't do anything vs offense is really wrong. And if you really want secure use into offense, Choice Scarf is right there and works just fine as an option (since vs offense you don't need LO's extra power so Lando can just use scarf).

I think there is enought arguments for a lando test in OU, and i think it would help against certain mons that are quite difficult to deal with like garga, gking or raging bolt.

Glowking is not "quite difficult" to deal with. It's top tier for sure, but we have more than enough options for handling it. So there really are not enough arguments for unbanning it. We have enough threats to need to check as is. Don't need more that doesn't even fill any necessary role.

 

[Leman123]

can we ban one of the many brokens instead of talking about a different random uber that has no business in this tier every week

 

[Finchinator]

Gliscor is the main one since now lando cant hp ice it, but there is also corv, moltres, lando-t, blissey, ting-lu and skarmory. None of them are truly counters but they can cripple lando with status or pivot to another faster mon that threaten lando.

None of these are even checks. They all lose 1v1 to NP variants and take >40% from the right attack. Psychic does plenty to Gliscor, especially with NP, and Focus clocks Corv, Lu, Skarm, and Bliss, etc

Lando-I is blatantly overpowered. It has no reliable defensive counterplay. It isn’t something we should entertain.

 

[Magcargo]

can we ban one of the many brokens instead of talking about a different random uber that has no business in this tier every week

To make this post not a one liner, I think the current metagame is a bit more interesting than now than its been in a good while. Haven't been playing for a while, but it seems as though more Pokemon are decently viable now than ever. The offensive focus of the tier can be annoying, but it also opens up interesting avenues of counterplay for big threats.

One clear example is T-Spikes, which are seeing more usage since they pack utility vs Ogerpon-W + booster mons which are common staples on offense. I still find them a bit MU fishy since offensive teams still have decent absorbers like Gking, but what's nice is that various T-Spikes setters can threaten these Pokémon (think Clodsire or Gliscor).

If there is one thing that I'm excited about, it will be what cool teams & mons players will start cooking up in OLT, whether it be innovations against the offensive metagame. Offensive innovations will be interesting to see too to counteract common issues offensive teans have i.e priority, T-Spikes, etc.

 

[TPP]

I probably have more "quit talking about freeing ubers" posts than I do sweeps with Kingambit this gen. Here's another:

Quit talking about freeing ubers.

 

[Alternator]

This might be a hot take but i think that Landorus Incarnate should be tested in OU.



The thing with lando is that is stupidly strong with the life orb sheer force set. It destroys balance and has all the coverage it wants, not to mention it can tera now.
However i think that its fearly easy to check lando in many ways.

First: its not fast at all. 101 base speed is simply mid in gen 9. Sure you outspeed common mons like kyurem, tusk and gholdengo, but you are not doing anything in a more offensive enviroment. It has lost rock polish this gen so sweeping with it its not an option and there is a plethora of pokemon that easily outspeed lando and force it to switch or tera at the risk or getting koed: enamorus, wogerpon, moth, valiant, serperior, cinderace, meow, darkrai, weavile, zama and pult; all of them can outspeed lando easily and threaten it with a ko or big damage. So yeah, offensively lando is very easily checked and honestly it can fell like death weight against many HO playstyles.
Its also very difficult to get any defensive utility out lando. It can take a neutral hit but this thing is not healing and with rocks its put in range really quickly. Even against defensive teams it cant switch into anything since mons like garg or gliscor which seem like same safe points of entry can cripple lando really hard with salt cure and knock or toxic.

On the deffensive side is a bit more complicated since this thing gets nasty plot now and it can be completily nuclear, however there are many mons that can switch into lando. Gliscor is the main one since now lando cant hp ice it, but there is also corv, moltres, lando-t, blissey, ting-lu and skarmory. None of them are truly counters but they can cripple lando with status or pivot to another faster mon that threaten lando. There is also no knock off for landorus this gen so progress is not guaranted when facing some of the mons above, lando has to have the right coverage to deal with its check or its simply walled.

Many can argue that lando would put too much preassure when facing balance, but there is already mons that do that like darkrai and wogerpon wich are already controversial and thats because they are too strong and versatile for how fast they are and almost nothing can switch into them safely. Lando doesnt have this, its speed isnt good enough if it wants to be a consistent threat and its coverage is good, but not perfect.

I think there is enought arguments for a lando test in OU, and i think it would help against certain mons that are quite difficult to deal with like garga, gking or raging bolt.

So yeah, LETS TEST LANDORUS INCARNATE.

Normally I try not to pretend that a calc or two is an argument, and use them to back up something else, but I'll just leave this here:


+2 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Psychic vs. 244 HP / 16 SpD Gliscor: 377-445 (107.1 - 126.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Gliscor just dies, I have no idea why you listed it as a check.

+2 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. 80 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Primarina: 266-316 (82.8 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Ho hum 2HKO on a bulky neutral Assault Vest user, and well within range of hazard chip. Guaranteed OHKO with Tera Ground, if it's worth trading tera for the kill.

+2 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Vessel of Ruin Ting-Lu: 504-595 (98 - 115.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

Ho hum, high chance to OHKO Ting Lu if Focus Blast hits. Factoring in accuracy that's 61.25% chance, so slightly better odds than Hypnosis landing.

+2 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Focus Blast vs. 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 471-556 (72.2 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Landorus Earth Power vs. +1 4 HP / 252+ SpD Blissey: 177-211 (27.1 - 32.3%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

Admittedly it's called Focus Miss for a reason, but land one and then Blissey is dead to a followup Earth Power, even after a Calm Mind, unless you roll min damage twice. If Focus Blast misses, you can just boost up again, Nasty Plot boosts faster than Calm Mind and Ice Beam on Blissey is rare.


The grand total of things that can switch into those three moves (which are the default Ubers set in the damage calculator) and take any two hits is:

1) Dropping Lugia.

Landorus-Incarnate is never going to drop into OU as long as it has Nasty Plot, and almost certainly never even if it had Howl instead.

 

[RyukTheDarkrai]

Got out of a Rand Bat and it made me think about the extremely niche, yet cool as Hell potential could have as a Rapid Spin user. Its base 97 Speed Tier is is just enough to get the jump on Pokemon such as , , and notably . Speaking of, its Electric / Dark Type combo gives it a resistance to both of 's STABs, only being weak to variants that carry either Dazzling Gleam or Focus Blast. Aura Wheel combined with its Hunger Switch Ability can allow it to smack with super effective STAB and even if you are put into the Electric Type from it, you can slot in Protect to scout whatever moves, any sudden Teras or anything. Aura Wheel's secondary effect of a Speed buff is incredibly nice too. Parting Shot is the cherry on top, weakening bulky Ground Type switch ins while pivoting out to another teammate. You're still working with 58/58/58 bulk meaning you take hefty amounts of damage from Specs boosted Shadow Balls and you're downright OHKOed by +2 Make It Rain, but I think that the little rodent's Typing and utility grants it a small, but very real niche.

 

[Heatranator]

Got out of a Rand Bat and it made me think about the extremely niche, yet cool as Hell potential could have as a Rapid Spin user. Its base 97 Speed Tier is is just enough to get the jump on Pokemon such as , , and notably . Speaking of, its Electric / Dark Type combo gives it a resistance to both of 's STABs, only being weak to variants that carry either Dazzling Gleam or Focus Blast. Aura Wheel combined with its Hunger Switch Ability can allow it to smack with super effective STAB and even if you are put into the Electric Type from it, you can slot in Protect to scout whatever moves, any sudden Teras or anything. Aura Wheel's secondary effect of a Speed buff is incredibly nice too. Parting Shot is the cherry on top, weakening bulky Ground Type switch ins while pivoting out to another teammate. You're still working with 58/58/58 bulk meaning you take hefty amounts of damage from Specs boosted Shadow Balls and you're downright OHKOed by +2 Make It Rain, but I think that the little rodent's Typing and utility grants it a small, but very real niche.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-ou-metagame-discussion-v4-olt-hype.3732644/post-9899535
Morkal actually thought of that a long while ago. I think its stats are sadly a bit too horrible and aura wheel is too inconsistent when you need it to hit certain types. But there is something that can be done.

 

[Kadiro]

None of these are even checks. They all lose 1v1 to NP variants and take >40% from the right attack. Psychic does plenty to Gliscor, especially with NP, and Focus clocks Corv, Lu, Skarm, and Bliss, etc

Lando-I is blatantly overpowered. It has no reliable defensive counterplay. It isn’t something we should entertain.

Im not saying that there is something that checks lando forever, its crazy strong but my point is that lando is very similar to wogerpon or darkrai. Both of these mons can SD or NP and nothing can deal with them once they are boosted. Lando is also really dangerous for defensive teams but its much easier to force lando out than those other 2 because of its speed. In your average game you will have 3 to 4 mons faster than lando and the rest can maybe take a hit and respond like primarina or gliscor.
Tbh i feel like lando is closer to something like hoopa, stupidly strong with the ability to destroy everything but with 0 defensive utility and betrayed by its speed.
Thats just my take, i get that the mayority of you dont share it but i wanted to make it clear lmao.

 

[Heatranator]

Tbh i feel like lando is closer to something like hoopa, stupidly strong with the ability to destroy everything but with 0 defensive utility and betrayed by its speed.

Lando ain't even closely comparable to Hoopa, seriously. Lando's speed is alright, let's get it out of the way. Not amazing, but not bad. Base 101 speed gets the jump on quite a few good mons in the tier like kyurem, tusk and ghold (which are important benchmarks) but doesn't outspeed stuff like waterpon, moon and enam. Also, compared to hoopa, landorus has tons of defensive utility. Ground/flying is a pretty amazing defensive typing, being immune to two typings and only having two weaknesses, those being a 4x weakness to ice and 2x weakness to water. And 89/90/80 defenses isn't half bad, they aren't spectacular but with a typing that has two immunities and 3 resistances, it will get the job done. Compared to hoopa's psychic/dark typing and 60 defense stat, yeah, lando-i is going to be doing fine on the defensive front.

I also want to say, that just because waterpon and darkrai do those same things, doesn't make lando-i any less broken, it just means that those two are broken. I personally think only waterpon out of those two is broken, but we shouldn't be trying to introduce something that is comparable to other 'brokens'. Get rid of those first, at the very least. We don't need to be introducing things that are going to mess up the meta when we already are trying to make the best of this one.

Also reminder that lando has an amazing 125 base attack, if it wanted to go mixed, it could. Even -attack nature hammer arm 2 hit ko's blissey. So forget stall ever answering this thing lol.
0- Atk Life Orb Landorus Hammer Arm vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Blissey: 403-476 (61.8 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

 

[min min]

On a current meta note, here's some fun stuff I've been trying:

• AV Mirror Coat Mola. Fulfils the Glowking role on offense, you trade Chilly Reception and checking Zama for (a) being less weak to SBall/DPulse/Ice Beams, and (b) immense Mirror Coat snipes. It's easily scouted, to be fair, but even if you don't trip the Mirror Coat, the positioning vs. Gholdengo, Darkrai, Kyurem, etc. makes it worth a try in the builder. Against Raging Bolt, you can easily Tera Fairy and trade for a kill.
• CB Pult. Band Sucker wins the Pult mirror, which on BO is usually the only speed control and opens the way for a Zama sweep. Adamant Darts also has a ~70% chance to take out lead Hamurott from full, which is a nice way to open against HO.
• AV Slither Wing on Sun. IMO, Sun doesn't have a lot of pivots / ablative HP that can still keep up momentum. With just max HP, AV Slither checks Darkrai and doesn't instantly fold to Kyurem, and heavily pressures Glowking with EQ/boosted Uturn to deter the Chilly pivot. First Impression also forces opposing Roaring Moon to switch or Tera, which is nice as Sun usually has trouble outspeeding or walling. (ed: didn't realise Srn posted abt this in late May: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...-ranking-thread.3734134/page-18#post-10132908 - it still holds true IMO and the rise in the VR supports this.)

 

[sims796]

On a current meta note, here's some fun stuff I've been trying:

• AV Mirror Coat Mola. Fulfils the Glowking role on offense, you trade Chilly Reception and checking Zama for (a) being less weak to SBall/DPulse/Ice Beams, and (b) immense Mirror Coat snipes. It's easily scouted, to be fair, but even if you don't trip the Mirror Coat, the positioning vs. Gholdengo, Darkrai, Kyurem, etc. makes it worth a try in the builder. Against Raging Bolt, you can easily Tera Fairy and trade for a kill.
• CB Pult. Band Sucker wins the Pult mirror, which on BO is usually the only speed control and opens the way for a Zama sweep. Adamant Darts also has a ~70% chance to take out lead Hamurott from full, which is a nice way to open against HO.
• AV Slither Wing on Sun. IMO, Sun doesn't have a lot of pivots / ablative HP that can still keep up momentum. With just max HP, AV Slither checks Darkrai and doesn't instantly fold to Kyurem, and heavily pressures Glowking with EQ/boosted Uturn to deter the Chilly pivot. First Impression also forces opposing Roaring Moon to switch or Tera, which is nice as Sun usually has trouble outspeeding or walling.

If I may ask, what is your ELO? Looking at these sets, they seem to require top tier play to get the most out of. Hard to use, great rewards. I say this because I've used Alo (max Sp.Def, no AV) way back when, and it scored some.very saucy kills when Rotom was a thing (murders Gholdengo on the switch) but found the playstyle too demanding for my level of skill at the time.

I've been wondering the type of gameplay that goes on at the higher tiers. I'm not expecting to use Vileplume in the 2000s or anything like that, but how creative are the sets at high level play?

 

[RS25802580]

This might be a hot take but i think that Landorus Incarnate should be tested in OU.



The thing with lando is that is stupidly strong with the life orb sheer force set. It destroys balance and has all the coverage it wants, not to mention it can tera now.
However i think that its fearly easy to check lando in many ways.

First: its not fast at all. 101 base speed is simply mid in gen 9. Sure you outspeed common mons like kyurem, tusk and gholdengo, but you are not doing anything in a more offensive enviroment. It has lost rock polish this gen so sweeping with it its not an option and there is a plethora of pokemon that easily outspeed lando and force it to switch or tera at the risk or getting koed: enamorus, wogerpon, moth, valiant, serperior, cinderace, meow, darkrai, weavile, zama and pult; all of them can outspeed lando easily and threaten it with a ko or big damage. So yeah, offensively lando is very easily checked and honestly it can fell like death weight against many HO playstyles.
Its also very difficult to get any defensive utility out lando. It can take a neutral hit but this thing is not healing and with rocks its put in range really quickly. Even against defensive teams it cant switch into anything since mons like garg or gliscor which seem like same safe points of entry can cripple lando really hard with salt cure and knock or toxic.

On the deffensive side is a bit more complicated since this thing gets nasty plot now and it can be completily nuclear, however there are many mons that can switch into lando. Gliscor is the main one since now lando cant hp ice it, but there is also corv, moltres, lando-t, blissey, ting-lu and skarmory. None of them are truly counters but they can cripple lando with status or pivot to another faster mon that threaten lando. There is also no knock off for landorus this gen so progress is not guaranted when facing some of the mons above, lando has to have the right coverage to deal with its check or its simply walled.

Many can argue that lando would put too much preassure when facing balance, but there is already mons that do that like darkrai and wogerpon wich are already controversial and thats because they are too strong and versatile for how fast they are and almost nothing can switch into them safely. Lando doesnt have this, its speed isnt good enough if it wants to be a consistent threat and its coverage is good, but not perfect.

I think there is enought arguments for a lando test in OU, and i think it would help against certain mons that are quite difficult to deal with like garga, gking or raging bolt.

So yeah, LETS TEST LANDORUS INCARNATE.

What good does another wallbreaker bring to the tier though. Not many people are complaining about Gking and Garg right now. One of the main complaints about the tier is oversaturation of offensive threats. Lando-I will make that worse.

Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

 

[ninth]

US Midwest just won the World Cup of Pokemon 2024! In honor of their victory I'll post some of my favorite SV OU games from the tournament here. You can catch all of the replays here!

[Spain] Trosko vs Lily [Europe] — great showcase of Cinderace as a Poison-type.

[Canada] Potatochan vs Conflict [Germany] — crazy showcase of Deoxys-D/Weezing-Galar fat against Conflict, who amusingly did !dt neutralizing gas before the game started.

[Bangladesh] SKC44 vs Trogba Trogba [United Kingdom] — incredibly heat team from SKC44 featuring a Maushold and a Hydrapple.

[US Northeast] INSULT vs SoulWind [Spain] — Kingambit haters DNI, INSULT gets super ballsy with his Tera Ghost Gambit down 4-1. Hard Kowtow on turn 27, absolutely fearless.

[US West] Meru vs Niko [Italy] — a drunk, sleepy Niko plays at 2am his time against Meru's three UUs. Hilarity ensues.

[India] myjava vs oldspicemike [US Midwest] — myjava plays out a nail-biting endgame precisely to prevent a Scizor sweep.

[India] vk vs kythr [US Midwest] — as a certified clicker I love rain, and vk's got some nice rain here featuring Overqwil and what looks like Specs Tornadus-T.

[Europe] Eeveeto vs oldspicemike [US Midwest] — if you know the name Eeveeto you know he's achieved success with some of the wackiest teams out there, and this time he's got three UU birds all right next to each other in the builder.

[US Midwest] DripLegend vs Kebab mlml [Italy] — Iron Boulder makes its court-mandated one good appearance per tournament as DripLegend clutches a crucial game for Midwest.