Gen 5 BW PU

[Akir]

Welcome to Gen5 PU

art by IoSonoNeon ​

BW Differences:

• Sleep turns reset upon switching
• Some moves have unique versions to BW, such as Psywave only having 80% accuracy in this gen alone
• Some abilities are not at their current state, such as Infiltrator not piercing Substitute. Other abilities have been inproved from previous gens, such as Storm Drain now absorbing Water-type moves and Sturdy working as a free Focus Sash
• Team Preview was added, in contrast to previous gens
• Explosion and Selfdestruct no longer halve Defense, in contrast to previous gens
• Eviolite was introduced in BW
• Gems are allowed and cover all types
• Defog does not clear entry hazards on your side of the field

Clauses & Banlist
Clauses:

• Sleep Clause: Sleep-inducing moves are banned
• Species Clause: Limit one of each Pokémon
• OHKO Clause: OHKO moves are banned
• Moody Clause: Moody is banned
• Evasion Moves Clause: Evasion moves are banned
• Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
• Evasion Abilities Clause: Evasion abilities are banned
• Baton Pass Clause: Limit one Baton Passer, can't pass Spe and other stats simultaneously
• Swagger Clause: Swagger is banned

Banlists:

• Banned Pokemon: - A team cannot have any of the Pokemon found in the following tiers: NU, RU, BL2, UU, BL, OU, and Ubers.
• Banned Abilities: - Snow Warning, Drought
• Shell Smash + Baton Pass: - Using a Pokemon carrying both Shell Smash and Baton Pass in its moveset is banned.
• Drizzle + Swift Swim: - Using both a Pokemon with Drizzle and a Pokemon with Swift Swim on the same team is banned.
• Auto-Sand e.g. Sandstream is also banned.

Banlist (PUBL)

Combusken
Gothorita
Linoone
Rotom-Frost
Riolu
Simipour
Swanna
Throh
Vigoroth
Sleep Moves
Damp Rock

Viability Rankings

Viability Rankings

BW PU

S Rank

Monferno

A+ Rank

Bronzor
Stunfisk
Zebstrika

A Rank

Beheeyem
Duosion
Jumpluff
Marowak
Shiftry
Stoutland
Tentacool
Torterra
Vileplume
Zweilous


A- Rank

Arbok

Clefairy
Golduck
Maractus
Muk
Purugly
Rampardos
Scraggy
Simisear
Ursaring

B+ Rank

Audino
Dodrio
Dwebble
Frillish
Gabite
Glalie
Huntail
Mawile
Mr. Mime
Natu
Sneasel
Swoobat

B Rank

Abra
Articuno
Fraxure
Glaceon
Grumpig
Kingler
Klang
Leafeon
Machoke
Rapidash
Simisage

Vullaby
Whiscash

B- Rank

Banette
Dragonair
Luxray

Meganium
Vanilluxe
Victreebel
Volbeat

C Rank

Bibarel
Chinchou
Krokorok
Lampent
Murkrow
Pelipper
Raichu
Relicanth
Slaking
Solrock
Staryu

D Rank

Dustox
Eelektrik
Emolga
Fearow
Hypno
Mantine
Munchlax
Pikachu
Regigigas
Togetic
Whirlipede

E Rank

Everything Else!

Sample Teams

Raw Pastebin

=== [gen5pu] CB Stoutland Bulky Offense, LpZ ===

Vileplume @ Occa Berry
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 44 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Leech Seed
- Aromatherapy
- Moonlight

Stunfisk @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Discharge
- Earth Power
- Toxic

Bronzor @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- U-turn

Zebstrika @ Fire Gem
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Facade
- Superpower
- Pursuit


=== [gen5pu] Eviolite Stall, Feaniix ===

Duosion (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Signal Beam
- Psychic

Bronzor @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Rest

Tentacool @ Eviolite
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 124 SpD
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb

Audino (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Double-Edge
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

Frillish (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 216 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Night Shade
- Taunt
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

Machoke (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Def / 64 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dynamic Punch
- Ice Punch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk





=== [gen5pu] Suicide Lead Rampardos HO V5, LordST ===

Simisage @ Flying Gem
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Acrobatics
- Superpower
- Knock Off

Beheeyem @ Leftovers
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

Rampardos @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam

Klang @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Volt Switch
- Toxic

Simisear @ Choice Specs
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Overheat

Gabite @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Claw


=== [gen5pu] Specs Swoobat Offense, SergioRules ===

Swoobat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Heat Wave
- U-turn

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- U-turn

Dwebble @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off

Scraggy (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Rest

Torterra @ Yache Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge

Klang @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Rest
- Sleep Talk


=== [gen5pu] Wallbreaker Spam + TR Beheeyem, TJ ===

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Facade

Beheeyem @ Leftovers
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Nasty Plot
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Jumpluff @ Flying Gem
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- U-turn
- Aromatherapy
- Synthesis

Tentacool @ Eviolite
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 224 Def / 4 SpD / 32 Spe
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off
- Scald

Stunfisk @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 60 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Discharge
- Toxic

Mawile @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

CB Stoutland Bulky Offense, LpZ

Vileplume @ Occa Berry
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 44 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Leech Seed
- Aromatherapy
- Moonlight

Stunfisk @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Discharge
- Earth Power
- Toxic

Bronzor @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 116 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- U-turn

Zebstrika @ Fire Gem
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Overheat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Facade
- Superpower
- Pursuit

Eviolite Stall, Feaniix

Duosion (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Recover
- Signal Beam
- Psychic

Bronzor @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psywave
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Rest

Tentacool @ Eviolite
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 124 SpD
Bold Nature
- Toxic Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Sludge Bomb

Audino (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Careful Nature
- Double-Edge
- Wish
- Heal Bell
- Protect

Frillish (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 36 Def / 216 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Night Shade
- Taunt
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp

Machoke (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 196 Def / 64 Spe
Impish Nature
- Dynamic Punch
- Ice Punch
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Suicide Lead Rampardos HO V5, LordST

Simisage @ Flying Gem
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Acrobatics
- Superpower
- Knock Off

Beheeyem @ Leftovers
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Nasty Plot
- Recover

Rampardos @ Focus Sash
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Ice Beam

Klang @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Volt Switch
- Toxic

Simisear @ Choice Specs
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Overheat

Gabite @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Dragon Claw

Specs Swoobat Offense, SergioRules

Swoobat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Signal Beam
- Heat Wave
- U-turn

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- U-turn

Dwebble @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off

Scraggy (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 248 HP / 228 SpD / 32 Spe
Careful Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Rest

Torterra @ Yache Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Earthquake
- Wood Hammer
- Stone Edge

Klang @ Eviolite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Toxic
- Rest
- Sleep Talk

Wallbreakers + TR Beheeyem, TJ

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Facade

Beheeyem @ Leftovers
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Nasty Plot
- Trick Room
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Jumpluff @ Flying Gem
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Acrobatics
- U-turn
- Aromatherapy
- Synthesis

Tentacool @ Eviolite
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 224 Def / 4 SpD / 32 Spe
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Sludge Bomb
- Knock Off
- Scald

Stunfisk @ Leftovers
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 60 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Earth Power
- Discharge
- Toxic

Mawile @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch

Speed Tier

Speed Tiers, credit to SergioRules

Stat	Pokemon	Base Speed	Nature	EVs	Modifier
700	Jumpluff	110	+Spe	252	+2
590	Golduck	85	+Spe	252	+2
518	Shiftry	80	+Spe	252	+2
512	Fraxure	67	Neutral	252	+2
509	Rapidash	105	+Spe	252	+1
497	Simipour	101	+Spe	252	+1
497	Simisage	101	+Spe	252	+1
497	Simisear	101	+Spe	252	+1
478	Victreebel	70	Neutral	252	+2
459	Mr. Mime	90	+Spe	252	+1
449	Dodrio	100	Neutral	252	+1
443	Golduck	85	+Spe	252	+1
443	Swanna	98	Neutral	252	+1
433	Gabite	82	+Spe	252	+1
424	Torterra	56	+Spe	180	+2
423	Vanilluxe	79	+Spe	252	+1
364	Zebstrika	116	+Spe	252	0
361	Persian	115	+Spe	252	0
361	Sneasel	115	+Spe	252	0
355	Purugly	112	+Spe	252	0
354	Rampardos	58	+Spe	252	+1
350	Jumpluff	110	+Spe	252	0
350	Fraxure	67	Neutral	252	+1
343	Ursaring	55	+Spe	252	+1
339	Rapidash	105	+Spe	252	0
331	Simipour	101	+Spe	252	0
331	Simisage	101	+Spe	252	0
331	Simisear	101	+Spe	252	0
328	Dodrio	100	+Spe	252	0
306	Mr. Mime	90	+Spe	252	0
295	Golduck	85	+Spe	252	0
289	Gabite	82	+Spe	252	0
287	Monferno	81	+Spe	252	0
282	Vanilluxe	79	+Spe	252	0
271	Krokorok	74	+Spe	252	0
270	Klang	50	Neutral	0	+2
259	Stoutland	80	Neutral	252	0
259	Shiftry	80	Neutral	252	0
256	Fraxure	67	+Spe	252	0
239	Victreebel	70	Neutral	252	0
236	Rampardos	58	+Spe	252	0
233	Fraxure	67	Neutral	252	0
229	Dwebble	55	+Spe	252	0
229	Ursaring	55	+Spe	252	0
219	Maractus	60	Neutral	252	0
218	Mawile	50	+Spe	252	0
212	Torterra	56	+Spe	180	0
200	Gabite	82	Neutral	0	0
200	Gabite	82	Neutral	0	0
199	Mawile	50	Neutral	252	0
176	Natu	70	Neutral	0	0
156	Maractus	60	Neutral	0	0
148	Torterra	56	Neutral	0	0
140	Beheeyem	40	Neutral	96	0
136	Mawile	50	Neutral	0	0
136	Vileplume	50	Neutral	0	0
135	Klang	50	Neutral	0	0
132	Scraggy	48	Neutral	0	0
126	Throh	45	Neutral	0	0
126	Machoke	45	Neutral	0	0
119	Beheeyem	40	Neutral	0	0
100	Stunfisk	32	Neutral	0	0
96	Duosion	30	Neutral	0	0
76	Beheeyem	40	-Spe	0	0
58	Duosion	30	-Spe	0	0

 

[LpZ]

SPEED CONTROL: PERKS AND CURRENT STATE
​

Of course its your boy to debut this thread, today I wanna talk about how I see the speed meta nowadays, some of the noteworthy options of speed control, how it shapes the meta and some of my personal favorite surprise scarfers.

It is common sense that it is of great value to have at least something to offensively answer a good portion of offensive mons so you don't struggle having to take hits from it outside of a Stall team, but something I noticed is that it has been changing lately, the perception of having exactly scarfers on teams to act as speed control options has been less and less common in the tier in favor of trusting naturally speedy mons and priority users to do the job. Of course I'm not saying that literally every individual thinks like that but this is what I've been noticing by playing and following other games from PUPL and BWPL. Let's take a look on what have been getting notable attention as speed control options for teams as of lately:



ZEBSTRIKA

Zebstrika has been THE ultimate speed control option for many and many teams this year, the decrease in scarfers usage has been greatly helping this pokemon to function as an annoyance for most of the offensive meta due to the fact it is the fastest mon in the tier, while being unpleasant for many defensive staples too due to Volt Switch allowing it to keep momentum and bring in actual threatening stuff for that Zeb answer, the pool of reliable Zebstrika stops is also sort of small too, so mainly in bulky offense teams you might struggle to imagine a reason to not use this mon, mainly taking into account scarfers are less likely to appear. This year I could witness a LOT of Zeb mirrors and that is a statement and a perfect representation of how it dominates the speed meta.



NATURALLY FAST POKEMON

Outside of Zebstrika there are other notable options of natural speedy mons, this is relative tho, each player stablish their rule of the minimum speed a natural fast mon needs, some think Zebstrika is the only non-scarfer that can be considered an option, some think 350 is the minimum with Pluff and Purugly, some think being above 100 make them appropriate for that category, anyways lets go over them.
- is the 2nd fastest noteworthy pokemon at 115 base speed, it takes on very different roles compared to Zebstrika with possible sets in CB with Pursuit and Swords Dance on top of access to priority Ice Shard, as fast as it is it suffers a lot with its weakness to rocks and the omnipresence of Monferno, psychics are less common than it used to be so Pursuit is not in huge demand, it can't pivot out like Zebstrika and other options we are gonna talk about and it doesn't hit absurdly hard, solid Attack by PU standards but low-powered STAB moves making so it struggles to score OHKOs.
- goes just below Sneasel with 114 base speed and oh boy this mon has been in a crazy downfall lately, dropping from A to B+ in the most recent VR update, so what is up with this mon? A ton of meta shifts occured since Swoobats peak in the tier, notably Scraggy is a bit lesser common presence in the tier, psychics are not seen as commonly as before, the tier shifted quite a lot from Torterra spam to a good amount of Stunfisk over it and priority is now everywhere, probably more than it used to be in the Bat`s time, all of this affects its viability quite a lot. A pokemon with a lot going against it from the meta while it doesn`t hit all that hard, has very little defensive purpose with bad defensive stats but at least it 4x resists fighting and it is immune to Ground, and it suffers from 4MSS a bit, wanting all of Psychic, Air Slash, Heat Wave, Signal Beam, U-turn, Trick. There are also those funky setup sets but they are even more inconsistent with how the meta is.
- is a sufficient speed control option for multiple reasons, first its 112 base speed means it naturally outspeeds everything bar the aforementioned pokemon, but it also packs valuable priority with Fake Out and Sucker Punch, being a solid countermeasure for offensive pieces in the meta also also providing momentum for the team with U-turn. It doesn't come without flaws though, it struggles with common defensive staples such as Stunfisk, Bronzor and Klang, its Normal-typing does not do it too much justice too as it is weak to the most common priority in the whole tier in Mach Punch from Monferno. Still a solid option for speed control on offensive teams.
- is in my opinion the slowest speed control option I can still feel safe fitting on teams, this mon provides some very valuable assets as a speedy pokemon. For one this mon has more defensive value than any of the aforementioned mons, resisting Grass, Ground, Fighting and Water is kinda huge with ok bulk (at least its not too frail), with access to Encore it can do quick work vs boosters like Scraggy, SD Shiftry, SD Plume and SD Torterra, access to Aromatherapy makes it also act in supportive ways for the team, healing Rest mons like Bronzor, Klang and Zweilous and also the constant Static procs victims like Monferno and itself, complementing with a strong Acrobatics paired with Flying Gem and U-turn to still maintain momentum for the team. The fighting resistance is noticeable as it can also revengekill Monferno very reliably. Not without to say that it suffers from Stunfisk and Bronzor omnipresence, on top of being very threatened by Zebstrika which can softcheck it.
- for me already goes out of the safe territory of speedy mons, and I really don't rate it high as a speed control. Being rocks weak already makes it hard enough to use, also taking into account that it faces direct competition from Monferno which is the best pokemon in the tier for many people, its main STAB is a recoil move in a mon that already suffers from longevity issues and it is very vulnerable into many and many of the priority moves and it is not hard to pressure it out, it does not like Stunfisk either. It is an alright mon using it as a wallbreaker alongside another fast mon but it is def not reliable as a speed control for teams.
- and are just above 328 speed with base 101 base speed and I've seen teams as they were the fastest mons in a team, and I feel like they are extremely unreliable as SPEED CONTROL options, they don't like priority at all, they can't pivot out with U-turn or Volt like some of the other faster options, Simisage has better longevity with the option to run Giga Drain and not being rocks weak but it does struggle breaking past Bronzor a lot and its not incredibly strong with a STAB that is not that spammable while Simisear is an incredible wallbreaker, being really hard to switch into for many common teams but it suffers from rocks weakness and Monferno competition. Both are solid but I just wouldn't recommend using them as speed control options unless inevitable for a team.



COMMON PRIORITY USERS

- is the defining priority user, usually dictating what mons are good speed control options or not. Packs giant amounts of utility with its access to STAB Mach Punch, often boosted further by Iron First though Blaze is also great for it, useful in both U-turn and SD sets capable of nailing stuff like Zebstrika, Purugly, Dodrio, Rapidash on top of anything chipped down enough like +2 Huntail, Scarf Golduck, Scarf Gabite, opposing Monferno, +1 Fraxure and the list goes on. It is not an easy mon to answer offensively cuz of that and defensive stuff, altho not a large pool, are usually what deals with it often reliably.
- is a noteworthy priority user with a very strong Sucker Punch, the strongest priority in the whole tier as it paired with Dark Gem and an Adamant nature reaches absurd calcs like OHKOing Zebstrika after rocks and +2 Sucker doing a minimum of 74% to Eviolite Monferno, the Monferno iteraction specifically is curious cuz Monferno's Mach Punch can't OHKO Shiftry from full and if it decides to Mach it risks getting OHKO'd by Nature Power, but with just little chip if Monferno decides to click anything else it risks dying to Sucker Punch so in many situations its a 50-50 batte. However, it suffers from lack of good physical Dark STAB other than Sucker which means this mon relies a lot on Sucker to succeed and it is exploitable, this is not the end of the world tho cuz you can very viably run Mixed sets with Leaf Storm, Dark Pulse, Sucker Punch and Nature Power with either Life Orb or Dark Gem, exchanging Sucker`s powerlevel for less reliance on Sucker Punch in order to break stuff like Vileplume, Jumpluff, Bronzor, Beheeyem and Duosion.
- is another mon that found itself being a staple on offensive teams thanks to Coil and the poison typing serving well those teams as a TSpikes absorber, Sucker Punch is more of a complement to this mon to nail some of the scarfers and Zebstrika trying to revengekill it, I don't even consider Sucker mandatory on it as it has decent speed and this mon is very flexible on the team demands.
- as mentioned before is a reliable mon to combat most of the offensive mons due to its access to Fake Out and Sucker Punch and its excellent speed tier.
- makes good use of Sucker Punch due to its low speed meaning many stuff would easily be able to revenge it otherwise, the drill with it is that it has to choose between Ice Punch to beat grounds like Stunfisk and some every Torterra variant while it also wants Fire Punch to hit Bronzor and Klang and having a natural bad matchup into Monferno so it needs to act like a breaker to create opportunities for teammates or have quite a lot weakened for it to sweep, either way Sucker Punch is essential on it to do these jobs.
- as mentioned has access to Ice Shard on top of great speed, Ice Shard is not the best type of priority ever but it can still pick stuff like Shiftry, Zebstrika, Scarf Gabite, +2 Torterra and +1 Fraxure off when needed so it is still of good value.
-dodrio: has already been a rare presence in the tier, even rarer is seeing Dodrio click Quick Attack, which it has access to and it is totally recommended using on CB sets to pick off the weakened stuff it wants to revengekill.



POPULAR SCARFERS

- is an interesting case to me, I personally used to run Scarf Monferno quite a lot a while ago and now I just think Scarf Monferno kinda sucks? Still perfectly usable and helps many teams with speed issues but it is SO much worse than Eviolite or CB Monferno, the utility Mach Punch brings with the other 2 sets seem much more valuable than the raw speed Scarf can bring while being very frail with the lack of Eviolite and not hitting nearly as hard as a CB Monf tends to. I just think it struggles with how every style looks rn, offenses full of priority, teams filled with Stunfisk, excessive hazard pressure and STABs that CAN be punished by locking yourself into. This mon was actually the biggest reason on why I wanted to make this post at all, I found curious how I changed my mind from it being the best scarfer to not even being a great scarfer.
- is the most common scarfer rn and I'd say its the best common scarfer rn, its speed has some really nice value as a scarfer being able to revengekill stuff like +2 Huntail, +2 Torterra (even if Jolly) and any other scarfer bar Dodrio. It is also an annoying mon to switch into even with Scarf, with great STABs and with some little defensive value as a Scraggy check and resisting Mach Punch thus being able to rk Monferno, matter of fact I'd even go as far to say it is the only GOOD scarfer rn. Even tho I consider it as the best scarfer ofc it has flaws, the rocks weakness being a big one, which limits its opportunities quite a lot and even making switching it into something unreliable cuz any HP loss is big for it, also if you are using this set you are not using SubRoost (broken set), still the best scarf rn imo.
- is a solid scarfer that has seen better days before, it used to be of big value on the Rain times and even a short period after the Damp Rock ban it was still a staple scarfer with good coverage and decent stats. Its just a scarfer that doesnt suit the offensive meta too well rn with the amount of priority and natural checks still roaming around like Klang and Tentacool and it just does not reach some of Swanna's value with the Fighting resistance, Ground and Spikes Immunity and the extra speed (Golduck is 1 base speed short of outspeeding +2 Huntail).
- is an ok scarfer, it can force annoying mindgames vs Zebstrika at least and it has just above Monferno speed but this mon is just not that strong, it has good STAB combination and great moves in Outrage and Earthquake, but it is extremely owned by Bronzor and it still struggles to break through neutral bulky stuff like Torterra, Beheeyem, Duosion and Vileplume, both Outrage and Earthquake also feel punishing to click when you take into account Swanna has been this successful as of lately also giving easy entries to grasses and other flyings while Outrage is just naturally not an easy move to lock into due to the 2-3 turn lock + confusion (which is 50% self-hit in BW btw). I don't rate it too high but its typing can be somewhat valuable to some teams as a scarfer.
- is a much lesser common scarfer but still a noteworthy one, it doesn't fair that well into the priority-heavy offenses but it still resists Monferno's Mach Punch while also having unique traits with Trick and Healing Wish while still outspeeding +2 Huntail.
- is a gimmicky scarfer nowadays, I just included it here cuz it used to be a somewhat popular a while ago. Fastest "viable" scarfer with Pursuit and strong STAB moves but it absolutely hates the Stunfisk Bronzor meta rn.

PERSONAL LIST OF UNUSUAL/SURPRISE SCARFERS


Arbok @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Earthquake
- Coil / Fire Fang / Ice Fang / Seed Bomb
- Switcheroo

Arbok has kept my attention into his traits and honestly it has just enough tools to act as an alright scarfer with its TSpikes absorbing duty and Switcheroo. I`ve even used it in a tourgame and it has a good amount of surprise factor going for it, stuff like Bronzor, Beheeyem, Duosion and Stunfisk absolutely hate getting tricked a Scarf and you have good revengekilling potential due to Fighting resistance + Intimidate. Last offensive moveslot can be any of Coil, Fire Fang, Ice Fang or Seed Bomb, Coil retains the ability of being a threatening setup sweeper after tricking Scarf off to something and actually abuse its own check being crippled, Fire Fang helps with just hitting Bronzor regularly, Ice Fang helps with coverage for Torterra and Gabite and Seed Bomb helps with coverage against Frillish and Whiscash.


Stoutland @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Scrappy/Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Facade
- Superpower
- Pursuit

I`ve used it multiple times in tourplay as well and I gotta say it is very good at what it does, threatening the hell out of the faster stuff like Zebstrika and even luring them into commiting a mistake, I`ve killed multiple Zebstrikas as they tried to Volt out of the way but I ended up being faster. Of course it is not nearly as strong as CB but it still has some solid breaking potential and it can still run Adamant nature, which is enough to outspeed Zebstrika already. As always Scrappy to aliviate Frillish mu or Intimidate to be a better rkiller to priority users. Valuable Pursuit user too given the speed it packs now, once you reveal to be Scarf faster stuff won`t be too encouraged to stay in on you, on which you can Pursuit-trap them.


Persian @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Double-Edge
- U-turn
- Switcheroo
- Shadow Claw / Toxic / Punishment

This one is kinda carried by surprise factor but it is still an usable scarfer, its a physical pivot that can click U-turn for free on Stunfisk thanks to Limber and since it is fast as hell you outspeed literally everything, every scarfer, every speed booster basically and with Jolly even weather mons like Modest Victreebel on sun and Modest Golduck on rain, and it packs utility in the form of Switcheroo just like Arbok which heavily annoys Stunfisk, Klang and Bronzor. Last slot is literally whatever you wanna run, you are very rarely clicking it anyways, Shadow Claw gives you more consistent Frillish measure, Toxic cripples stuff in general from non-Steel defensive answers to offensive stuff you can nail the poison in order to stall it out, and Punishment is an alternative way to hit slow boosters like Duosion and Beheeyem when they accumulate enough boosts.


Grumpig @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Signal Beam / Focus Blast
- Heal Bell
- Trick

I experimented this one a good amount too and it is alright, did not end up using in tourgames tho. Whole niche with this one is being an alternative to Scarf Mime, Pig favoring fat teams a bit more thanks to better bulk, Thick Fat and access to Heal Bell. It has a much easier time trying to take a hit than Mime and being a cleric is very valuable in this meta with the amount of Rest users and Static procs. Trick as always serves a nice purpose utility-wise and annoys many of its checks like Bronzor and Scraggy and the coverage slot you can choose between Signal Beam and Focus Blast, depending on what the team needs to deal with the most.

CONCLUSION

In my vision the meta has just gone further and further away from the scarfer speed control concept and favoring more natural measures with speedy mons, highlighting Zebstrika and priority users, Scarfers usually feel weird to use nowadays as recent shifts just went against them but they are still very usable and the tier still has a lot of room for creativy in this regard, you can get creative with many other mons to act as speed control with different purposes, I would love to see if anyone else wants to share their thoughts about the speed control situation of the tier or if they have other creative options I did not mention. Thanks everyone for reading.

 

[Akir]

HOW DO I BEAT X?
One of the most common questions I get when showing people the tier is the simple "How do I beat X? It seems so good" and this makes complete sense as to why it's so common. A plethora of offensive options is the calling card of this tier so dealing with all of them can be very intimidating. Even dealing with some of the tier's best wallbreakers can be difficult, as most have the ability to circumvent some of their counters. However, I am here to help with a hopefully useful guide to answer these questions. Keep in mind that this guide is not meant to be gospel or fully comprehensive, just a starting point to ease newer players into teambuilding.

Monferno
Monferno is definitely a notable menace, as it can run tons of sets with tons of variation so picking a surefire counter can sometimes be challenging. Monferno can run AoA, Choice Scarf, Choice Band, Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, AoA Special...and can even slide in Slack Off to mitigate chip damage. Combined with the fact that Monferno almost always runs priority - even on the Scarf set - and the scope of the headache is complete. There are options though, and most teams can be considered monkey-proof if they have at least 1 switch-in and 1 check on hand. That's much easier to do than it sounds, don't worry.

1. Figure out the set.
Monferno is scary to prep for because your opponent has their pick of what set and what counters Monferno has. However, as soon as Monferno presses any button, you can usually figure out which set Monferno is running and beat it from there. This is very basic I know, but a lot of answers to Monferno either work or don't based entirely on the set. That is why I recommend 1 switch-in and 1 check: that way, whatever the set is, you probably have an answer and therefore a gameplan. A lot of these answers are also diverse and synergize well with each other, like Swanna and Stunfisk, so get creative. Sometimes you might find that you accidentally made your team monkey-proof without directly going for it.

2. Reliable Counters:
The best generalized option as of writing this is Stunfisk. While not resisting any STABs, Stunfisk still has enough bulk to consistently avoid the 2HKO and threaten with its STABs and the extremely-valuable Paralysis that can proc off of its Static too. The downside of Stunfisk is the lack of recovery, meaning that you have to play smart in order to have it consistently counter Monferno. Frillish, on the other hand, does resist every STAB of Monferno and has recovery, however comes with the downside of being sometimes very difficult to fit on to teams and the fact that Monferno CAN run SD Thunderpunch, which is a massive pain. Both of these can be reasonably relied on to check Monferno.

3. Situational Switch-ins:
These are all answers that can reasonably beat Monferno in a pinch, but have some flaw that prevents them from being counters. Swanna resists both STABs and can heal with Roost, but Monferno is known and sometimes loved for sometimes intentionally baiting in Swanna with Thunderpunch. Duosion is also a great pick for running plenty of bulk, resisting Fighting, the ability to heal, and not even taking entry hazard damage. The problem with Duosion is the fact that it really has issue with tanking Choice Band Flare Blitz so it can't be relied on as your singular answer to Monferno. Same deal with Tentacool, except you have to run more physical defense and you can't heal. Beheeyem is also a good option, but only if you are running the max Defensive set-up set and even then chances are decent that Beheeyem would rather not switch in directly (but can). The last one that I wanted to touch on is actually surprisingly Machoke. Most stall teams run a physically defensive Machoke that takes only about 43% at most from Eviolite sets and can hit back for a near-2HKO with Dpunch. The downside is that Machoke only heals with BW Rest and can't handle Choice Band or SD well.

4. Mountain of Checks:
Basically, anything that can take a hit from Monferno or outspeeds and resists Mach Punch can be seen as a reliable check. After all, Monferno itself is not super fast or super strong, so it really is just a good 8/10 in a ton of areas. Arbok would rather not take a hit, but with Intimidate and resisting Fighting Arbok is very capable at stopping a Close-Combat-locked Choice Band Monferno at least once. Swoobat and Jumpluff both outspeed the base 81 Monferno, resist Mach Punch, and OHKO with their own STABs. Golduck can also outspeed and KO with STAB, but has to be careful of Choice Scarf.


Swanna
So before I say anything, i wanted to add an asterisk to basically everything to say that thanks to Hurricane confusion garbage Swanna has a chance to break through everything with enough luck. Sometimes this is an astronomically low chance of Swanna winning, but it exists. This part will also focus entirely on the SubRoost set, but just know that Swanna can also run a great Choice Scarf set. It's just that the Scarf set is reasonably easy to wall conventionally and if something beats the SubRoost set, it probably works on the Scarf set even better.

1. The Klang + Zebstrika Combo:
This is by far the most reliable way to getting rid of Swanna. Klang takes the hits and then Volt Switches to break any Substitutes and goes into Zebstrika for the revenge kill. Very cut and dry honestly. Klang has so much SpDef that Swanna needs help to even get a 5HKO, so Swanna is walled if it weren't for the ever-so-slight chance of Hurricane confusion winning out by confusing 5+ times in a row. So, with Hurricane garbage in mind, Klang takes the Scald and/or Hurricane, Volt Switches to Zebstrika and breaks the Substitute, and then Zebstrika outspeeds and nukes Swanna. This setup also works for the Choice Scarf set because Klang just wins outright. Give it a try if the SubRoost salt takes you.

2. Works in theory:
Thanks to Hurricane and SubRoost having the ability to fish for confusion, all of these Pokemon check Swanna a solid 90% of the time. Tentacool takes basically nothing from Scald and breaks subs with Sludge Bomb and 2HKOs with HP Electric, but Hurricane is a 3HKO on a Pokemon that can't heal. Audino has enough bulk to avoid a 3HKO most of the time and can Encore + break subs with Return or Double Edge. Bronzor also is comfortably 5HKO'd by Scald sans any burns and can pray that Psywave actually works. Frillish is another example, as it is immune to Scald and Hurricane is a 3HKO, but confusion ruins Frillish more than any other on this list. Zweilous also is a solid pick as it sits on the cozy 4HKO and can Crunch or Roar the Swanna, but BW Rest is...BW Rest.

3. Just kill it:
Offensive pressure is surprisingly effective for beating Swanna. A bit of a basic statement but Voltturn can handle Swanna by never allowing the Substitute without a fight. Swanna comes in on Monferno as the Monferno U-turns into Zebstrika. Zebstrika Volt Switches on the Substitute as Swanna Roosts and brings in Purugly for a Fake Out + Return. Swanna's strength is in buying itself turns to heal and spreading status, so if you just never let up on the pressure then ideally Swanna never gets that turn to set up.

4. Chinchou:
So as a final note, I will mention Chinchou as the hardest counter Swanna has. It isn't listed anywhere else because Chinchou proves to be incredibly awkward to fit on to teams. The synergy that Chinchou offers is awkward and the support it offers is also limited. To even counter Swanna, you need some other Electric STAB than Volt Switch, so you either have to give up Volt Switch or give up another very valuable moveslot of Rest/Sleep Talk/Scald/Volt Switch. This is less a "don't use Chinchou" and more of "understand what you are getting into with building with Chinchou". Works on paper great and in practice though, but difficult to properly pull off. If you fit it on to a team and you like it then more power to you.


Beheeyem
A controversial figure even to this day. After successfully dodging half a dozen bans, Beheeyem is still in the format and still blasting holes into underprepared teams. Analytic hurts even without investment, and Choice Specs has Trick on hand to neutralize any would-be counters. Even so, it can be argued that Beheeyem is currently at its weakest in the metagame. Even in the worst case, it pays to remember that Beheeyem might invest in bulk but that doesn't make it particularly bulky...so most offensive Pokemon can still pressure it fine.

1. Figure out the set again.
Beheeyem is like Monferno in the sense that it runs multiple sets that can get around would-be counters. Specifically, it comes down to Beheeyem's coverage. Only Choice Specs sets have the room to run all of the coverage that Beheeyem wants, so figuring out if the Beheeyem is Signal Beam or if it's HP Fighting changes the list of counters heavily. Entry hazards can also help with figuring out the Beheeyem more than Monferno because Defensive sets love Leftovers and Choice Specs obviously just takes the damage. Defensive sets can also run Colbur Berry though, so simply scout the Beheeyem to figure out what it's packing and go from there.

2. Scraggy:
Scraggy stands as the best general answer to Beheeyem, as even Choice Specs HP Fighting has at best a 6% chance to 2HKO while all other options are hard walled. This underpins the need to scout Beheeyem before committing, as Signal Beam does so little that Scraggy can use Beheeyem to set up. Not that Scraggy needs to set up to beat Beheeyem, as Crunch is a 2HKO on most Beheeyem and a solid 3HKO on Defensive sets. So long as Scraggy remains healthy, and the Beheeyem doesn't hit multiple HP Fightings into it uncontested, Scraggy can win.

3. Pile of Dark-types:
As a surprise to no one, being immune to Beheeyem's STAB makes for a pretty reliable check. Shiftry can OHKO with Choice Specs Dark Pulse and Dark Gem Sucker Punch has a coin flip to OHKO. Zweilous can 2HKO with Crunch while avoiding the 2HKO itself from non-Specs variants. Sneasel is a bit of a niche pick than the first two, but hitting a Choice-locked Psychic Beheeyem with a Pursuit does 74% minimum on the forced switch.

4. Other:
This is just the miscellaneous section of options for beating Beheeyem. Bronzor enjoys a nice 8% chance to get 3HKO'd by Signal Beam, so it can be relied upon for walling Beheeyem, using Toxic, and then missing all of the Psywaves. Klang also takes very little from STAB and Signal Beam in order to Toxic Beheeyem, but really has to watch out for HP Fighting. Banette and Stoutland both fall into the same category: they both have a Choice Band and Pursuit and can take a chunk out of Beheeyem. Banette also enjoys priority to take out a weakened Beheeyem even in Trick Room, and Stoutland likes to simply press Return and watch as it does about 80+% but neither enjoy taking STAB Psychic.


Zebstrika
This will be the last one because this is already a very long post. Zebstrika isn't strong at 80 base SpAtk but the problem is in the coverage. If Zebstrika didn't have coverage like Overheat or HP Ice to hit every would-be switch-in and 2HKO, there wouldn't be many issues. It is important to remember that realistically Zebstrika only runs one set 99% of the time. It's Volt Switch/Thunderbolt/Overheat/HP Ice in case you were wondering.

1. Chip Damage.
This is the case for literally every Pokemon ever, but a lot of teams generate advantage on Zebstrika simply by wearing it down over time. Thanks to Zebstrika's Speed it can usually Volt Switch before you can pin any damage on it, so chip damage from things like entry hazards become surprisingly key for getting Zebstrika down. Zebstrika also tends to come in a lot so if you are able to get Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Toxic up, that means Zebstrika takes 31% every time it comes in. Two of those and now Zebstrika is within priority range. Revenge killers faster than Zebstrika are fairly uncommon, especially on balance and bulkier teams, so it pays to tip the scales in your favor on the long-term with chip.

2. List of Ground-types that work:
Stunfisk avoids a 2HKO from Zebstrika no matter what Zebstrika runs and absorbs Zebstrika's Volt Switch. Stunfisk can also kill with Earth Power or just Toxic it back, just don't Discharge into Lightningrod. The only real downside is that Stunfisk can't really heal outside of Leftovers so it only has so many times it can come in and check Zebstrika. Marowak also works as a potential answer thanks to the fact that HP investment pushes Marowak outside of 2HKO range, but this only really works once.

3. Generally Specially-Defensive Pokemon:
Audino enjoys a 4HKO from Zebstrika and Zweilous only has a very small chance to get 4HKO'd by HP Ice. Neither of these can stop the Volt Switch, which is a huge problem as that means you don't necessarily stop Zebstrika from generating momentum, but they can be relied upon for soaking up hits when possible. This also underlines the need for entry hazards: if you are using these walls and forcing Zebstrika to switch, it pays dividends to have at least Stealth Rock up to punish the switch. Vileplume also makes this list but only if it is holding an Occa Berry. With the Occa Berry, Vileplume is able to avoid the 2HKO entirely and careless Zebstrikas will find themselves at -2 SpAtk after Overheat while staring down a healthy Vileplume that now really does wall it and get great chip with Sludge Bomb.

4. Just kill it:
Zebstrika is the fastest Pokemon in the tier, sitting at a clean base 116. That doesn't mean that it is impossible to revenge kill though. Once the chip damage has added up, it is time to move in for the kill. Choice Band Monferno can hit 42% minimum with Mach Punch and a Choice Scarf set can also simply outspeed and KO with Close Combat. Swanna also enjoys a good Choice Scarf set and stands as the best scarfer in general that can 2HKO Zebstrika after Stealth Rock. Zebstrika itself can also check Zebstrika, as you can initiate the ZEBSTRIKA TRADE by bringing in your healthier Zebstrika as you both Overheat the other. Beheeyem also gets a shoutout here because it can OHKO with Psychic in Trick Room, or it can force Zebstrika to choose between giving up a teammate to Beheeyem's Analytic Psychic or simply taking the hit itself.


There are plenty other Pokemon that I get questions about, like Torterra or Stoutland, that I haven't touched here but you can reach out to me if you do have any further questions. The BW PU smogdex is in the works and will get done eventually, so feel free to look at the pre-approved analysis for more information as well as looking at the temporary sets that are already up. Thanks for reading!

 

[AngryPidgeon]

In the viability rankings, Eelektross is actually not allowed in PU right? Im pretty sure its only allowed in NU.

I have some confidence that Luxray is maybe better than D since it can sport intimidate, twave and some decent coverage moves, but we'll see.

 

[Akir]

In the viability rankings, Eelektross is actually not allowed in PU right? Im pretty sure its only allowed in NU.

I have some confidence that Luxray is maybe better than D since it can sport intimidate, twave and some decent coverage moves, but we'll see.

Eelektross is NU and not included in the VR, but Eelektrik is. Eelektrik has seen some light tournament experimentation as a slow pivot + support mon.

As for Luxray, I also would consider it much closer to C personally, but if you think it should be higher than that then I welcome the discussion. There will be a light VR change after BW PU Open so I'd love more perspectives.

 

[roxie]

https://pokepast.es/b51148e4508c7620 (encore/twave clef)

 

[Akir]

Small VR Update

This post is a bit late due to me being out of country, but there has been a small VR update after the latest tournaments just in time for PUPL. The update consists mostly of small adjustments to some mons to reflect metagame changes and bringing up the NFEs that have seen an explosion in tournament success. It is as follows:

Torterra A+ to A
Gabite A- to B+
Rapidash B+ to B
Vullaby B to B+
Murkrow B- to C
Krokorok B- to D
Whiscash B- to B
Clefairy C to B
Luxray D to B-


Torterra A+ to A

This might seem like a big change but honestly I think it has been a long time coming. The popularity of huge threats like Swanna, Monferno, and Bronzor all are an impact to Torterra's success and is simply not on the level as the other A+ mons like Zebstrika. A is still excellent though, filled with a ton of very strong mons like Beheeyem and Klang that are played a ton and represents the bulk of BW PU's higher end metagame, so this is less about making the case for Torterra being bad and more of putting it in more appropriate company. Torterra might not be on the same level as Swanna, but it is certainly on the level as Bronzor.


Gabite A- to B+
Rapidash B+ to B
Murkrow B- to C

Lumping these three together because their reasonings is largely the same: as the metagame gets bulkier and grindier, the environment becomes more hostile to these mon's success. Gabite's tanky rocks set is best when momentum is more of a premium so dedicated rockers are less attractive, and Gabite's other choiced sets are still good but face down higher numbers of mons like Bronzor that just wall it to hell and back. Rapidash does have Morning Sun but really doesn't want to be pressing it all of the time, so grindier and longer games can lead to Rapidash simply getting worn down more than other choices like Monferno. Murkrow is more of the same: great coverage and Pursuit/Sucker is amazing in BW PU, but is easily worn down or beaten back by new walls. Life is just slightly harder for these three.


Vullaby B to B+
Clefairy C to B

Continuing the trend of the metagame becoming grindier and more defensive, these two have been gaining significant popularity and tournament success as of late. Vullaby and Clefairy finally have a moment for their much sought-after support to shine fully. Vullaby's typing allows it to be one of the best pivots around, walling a shocking amount of the tier most notably Psychics like Specs Beheeyem and offensive pivot mons like Jumpluff, all with the ability to heal itself and have its pick on how it wants to disrupt (personally I have been really liking how Knock Off is working atm). Clefairy is more of the same, with the special bulk leaning into walling threats like Scarf Swanna well all while dodging the #1 way for more modern BO teams to push advantage: chip damage. Clefairy even gets great moves like Stealth Rock and Thunder Wave, making it a fantastic support mon for a variety of teams. Both of these mons can suffer from being more on the passive side and relying heavily on Eviolite for bulk, but recent tournament matches have suggested that these downsides aren't that big of a deal right now.


Krokorok B- to D
Whiscash B- to B
Luxray D to B-

These last few are just to update them based on recent success. Korkorok is good for threatening the hazard control in the format really well, but does little beyond that. Whiscash has mainly been pushed by LpZ but it has plenty of wins under its belt at this point to find better company in B. Luxray has also seen tournament usage as an Intimidate pivot that resists Flying, so a bump to B- was seen as the minimum for admitting its place in the metagame.


Overall this was a small shift because I think that the VR as a whole is still in a fairly robust and accurate position. That being said, I have already seen a lot of new tech from myself and plenty of others that makes me look forward to how this PUPL is going to turn out. Good luck to everyone in the slot!

 

[Snuggle-Conda]

Monferno is an amazing glue mon, but from what I've seen in tournament, ladder, and building it's just not as difficult to deal with as Zebstrike who leaves little choice in speed/electric resists when also trying to check stunfisk. Kind of a wait and see if Monferno should stay above it

These guys seem kind of wack at A+ besides cheese sets and being psychic answers, I just think Zweilious kind of fills the role better even if I see how they're run away sweepers A+ seems way to high
Scraggy
Shiftry


B- -> B
Banette's banded set on spike stacking is really nice glue, I like curse as 4th move to easy switch out and stop fat snowballs, cursed body and spin blocking often allows a free turn after and pursuit trapping intm. Stoutland with spikes up? That dog is cooked

C -> C+
Krokorok imt, rocks, knock, taunt is more then enough, he heats up the butter, keeps people somewhat honest

D -> C
Dustox's dust shield abuses passive mons, after 1 boost can handle Zeb, great baton pass receiver, when paired with another special win con kind of goes to town.


Unranked
B-
Lunatone's choice sets really knock teeth in, scarf with ice beam without a rocks/spikes weakness? oh gurl. The problem with lunatone is while it hits hard and has a million great options, it often still ends up making Your team weak other psychic and dark/ghost types and it really wants to be modest

B+
Seadra, FFFFFAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT, with evolite it can come in and tank like Kingler wishes it could with basically all-around better bulk and speed, great agility user 252+ SpA 30 IVs Seadra Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Zebstrika: 250-295 (85.9 - 101.3%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after 1 layer of Spikes
Seadra @ Eviolite
Ability: Sniper
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 56 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA / 16 SpD / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Agility
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Grass]

B
Omanyte
great (T)spiker/rocker has knock/scald, can out trade hazards with most setters and cripple switch ins. IDK why nobody is using it besides it being a newer drop? Pairs beautifully with arbok
Omanyte @ Eviolite
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Def / 20 SpA / 180 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Stealth Rock


Arbok @ Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 12 Atk / 144 Def / 28 SpD / 164 Spe
Impish Nature
- Protect
- Glare
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail


imo should have a quick test
A-
Volbeat
baton pass glow tail with encore/t-wave is to much, but haven't seen enough abusers yet

 

[AngryPidgeon]

Does anybody have a recommendation for this team? It did relatively well for me, but I struggle big with Duosion. Im looking for what I can swap out to not be completely beat by Duosion or other similar things (Scrafty)

Meganium (Screens)
Torterra (Bulky Rock)
Whiscash (DD)
Simisear (Sub-Salac)
Klang
Tentacool

https://pokepast.es/5e11f19e43beb592


---

Ive been laddering a bit with this team since BW PU is the spotlight ladder:
https://pokepast.es/2ec2ba32b2a66196

Beheeyem (Specs)
Girafarig (Scarf)
Stunfisk
Golduck (Encore)
Togetic
Bronzor

I think Girafarig is a diamond in the rough. Sap Sipper makes it a useful pivot against some threats (Torterra, Vileplume, Leafeon). Trick-Scarf lets it ruin Duosion, Scrafty, and most Eviolite enjoyers. The STAB Return combined with Earthquake is pretty solid coverage.

Golduck with 3 attacks and Encore has worked pretty well for me. Golduck is primarily a sweeper, but the ability to shutdown some supporters or CM stackers with Encore is well worth the slot.

---

Im glad to see Luxray get a promo to B.

 

[Akir]

Does anybody have a recommendation for this team? It did relatively well for me, but I struggle big with Duosion. Im looking for what I can swap out to not be completely beat by Duosion or other similar things (Scrafty)

Meganium (Screens)
Torterra (Bulky Rock)
Whiscash (DD)
Simisear (Sub-Salac)
Klang
Tentacool

https://pokepast.es/5e11f19e43beb592

The shortest answer to your question is to simply swap Leaf Storm on Meganium to Dragon Tail for phazing. It is not an ideal solution, more like putting it off, but in a pinch Meganium should be able to take a +1 fine and phaze Duosion out. In terms of more direct adjustments (this might be a lot of change) is to make the Meganium into a Zweilous. That would allow you to also make the Klang into a Bronzor for a defensive core readjustment, and from there you could also swap the Torterra for a Jumpluff with Encore. That big change would solve a lot of problems as is while also doing a few more things like giving you a new Monferno answer.

Ultimately it is your choice, but I do suggest a few small edits too. Like Focus Blast > Grass Knot on Simisear, as Grass Knot actually doesn't really hit anything particularly hard as most things in BW PU are remarkably light (applies to low kick too). Klang also might appreciate Volt Switch as well instead of Gear Grind...this makes it way more passive but adds a slow pivot for all of those setup sweepers you got there. Can also go farther with adjustments, but I don't want to go overboard.

I like the basic idea of the team though, setup spam is really cool and Whiscash is well worth more experimentation.

 

[Snuggle-Conda]

I'm dropping my teams here if anyone is interested

Dragonair Phase

Vileplume @ Black Sludge
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 16 SpA / 12 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis

Dragonair @ Eviolite
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 152 Def / 100 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Tail

Omanyte @ Eviolite
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 20 SpA / 204 SpD / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Stealth Rock

Anorith @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 20 Def / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- X-Scissor
- Brick Break
- Rock Blast
- Rapid Spin

Rampardos @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 92 Def / 20 SpD / 144 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Fire Punch
- Superpower

Frillish @ Eviolite
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 152 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hex
- Recover
- Scald
- Taunt

Sleep Talk Phasing is so brutal being at +0 speed and Dragonair hitting 459 Defense, Ram evs aren't for an exact thing, but will net nice surprises in tanking, Anorith comes in clutch more then You'd expect, cool fossil team with a solid back bone, can over rely on Dragonair/hazards

SD spam

Stunfisk @ Choice Specs
Ability: Static
EVs: 12 HP / 184 Def / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 40 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Surf
- Earth Power
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Discharge

Jumpluff @ Leftovers
Ability: Chlorophyll
EVs: 192 HP / 52 Def / 12 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- U-turn
- Leech Seed
- Aromatherapy

Zweilous @ Eviolite
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 248 HP / 20 Def / 240 SpD
Careful Nature
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
- Crunch
- Roar

Monferno @ Eviolite
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Mach Punch

Raticate @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 12 Def / 244 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Facade
- Crunch
- Quick Attack

Omanyte @ Eviolite
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Def / 20 SpA / 200 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Stealth Rock

WOW jumpluff is annoying, really allows Monferro/Rat to smack through teams, those often the team is super passive waiting for position by hazards, status(encore too) or phasing, this team is extremely straight forward, Specs fisk is so-so, not it's best set at all, more of a fun pick of a hard to go wrong mon

Glow Tail Baton pass

Volbeat @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 248 HP / 212 Def / 48 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Tail Glow
- Thunder Wave
- Encore
- Baton Pass

Dustox @ Black Sludge
Ability: Shield Dust
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 16 HP / 12 Def / 220 SpA / 12 SpD / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Quiver Dance
- Roost
- Bug Buzz
- Sludge Bomb

Krokorok @ Eviolite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 72 HP / 212 Def / 224 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Taunt

Tentacool @ Eviolite
Ability: Liquid Ooze
EVs: 248 HP / 40 Def / 4 SpA / 216 SpD
Calm Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Icy Wind

Lunatone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 24 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 12 SpD / 192 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ancient Power
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

Seadra @ Eviolite
Ability: Sniper
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 56 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA / 16 SpD / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA
- Agility
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Electric]

I LOOOOOVEEEE Seadra/dustox in this format. Dust shield allows You to boost past passive teams, lunatone is a surpring anti lead for Gabite/Monferro and it's ice beam is very clutch in general. Krok helps control pace/set

Spike/Priory/spinblock

Banette @ Choice Band
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 8 HP / 252 Atk / 24 Def / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shadow Claw
- Pursuit
- Shadow Sneak
- Curse

Persian @ Silk Scarf
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Return
- U-turn
- Taunt

Stoutland @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 16 Def / 20 SpD / 220 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Superpower
- Pursuit
- Facade

Seadra @ Eviolite
Ability: Sniper
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 56 HP / 12 Def / 252 SpA / 16 SpD / 172 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA
- Agility
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Hidden Power [Grass]

Arbok @ Black Sludge
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 160 HP / 12 Atk / 144 Def / 28 SpD / 164 Spe
Impish Nature
- Protect
- Glare
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail

Omanyte @ Eviolite
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Def / 20 SpA / 180 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Spikes
- Knock Off
- Scald
- Stealth Rock

Chill and cripple things, hit hard, prevent set-up/etc. very disrupt heavy, 1st good team I made for the tier, stunfisk/zeb/special attackers are a problem You have to get ahead of, Seadra positioning is super important.



EDIT: Omanyte should be bumped up to A tier, oh my lord is that a good mon and pairs perfect with a ghost, phaser, or jumpluff/annoying grass type idk why people aren't spamming it more

 

[Akir]

So the BW PU tournament season is finally winding down, and it was quite the season. Lots of good matches, and we even had a ladder for a month of it. I spent PUPL lurking in team chats to keep tabs on new metagame trends, got 3-4 alts in top 20 of the ladder and then built for the Sandiles in BWPL, so I had a great time this year and have a ton of thoughts swirling around in my head. But for now, I wanted to make a VR post and respond to some of the various opinions I have come across while providing my own. I'll do the various rumblings I have heard first, and then post some of my own ideas for adjustment.

A+ to S, Disagree

I'm starting strong by talking about a more roundabout nomination. The specific wording was that Zebstrika should be on par if not above Monferno, and simply put I don't think Monferno in A+ makes sense right now. The ladder never caught on to the AoA sets from what I saw, but this is about Zebstrika. Honestly I think Zebstrika is a very good mon that rightfully factors into every single team built with the crazy coverage and speed. It's also the premiere revenge killer of the tier and finds itself on basically every kind of team except hard stall. However, PU has historically kept S rank in a different light than other tiers and I am not sure if Zebstrika hits that mark. Zebstrika is very good and I cannot ever see it being less than A+ for the foreseeable future, but Monferno has a clean 60% usage rate for the reason that it is theoretically useful in just about every single game and every single team it is in. Zebstrika just isn't that.

A to Lower, Agree to B+
This post also included Shiftry but I wanted to discuss Scraggy because I am actually in strong favor of it dropping. B+ is a very big shift, but I have noticed that people have largely abandoned it. Still a great mon, but people reach for Zweilous or Shiftry first nowadays. Even Bronzor is seen as the preferred Psychic answer. This also puts Scraggy on the same level as Audino and Natu, two other picks that can do work if given the right parameters but generally are left aside in favor of more versatile picks.

A to B, Agree
LpZ pointed this one out and I fully agree. Klang's niche has been eaten by Zweilous and Bronzor. If I need a Spdef tank on Offense, I go with Zweilous. If I need a Flying/Normal resist, I go Bronzor. In all of PUPL X, Klang was used twice. Klang's remaining niche of being a slow Volt Switch pivot is also questionably useful, since momentum is no longer at such a premium so Klang's passiveness becomes more and more of an issue. It was a good run, but the party is over.

A- to A, Agree
Zweilous has really blossomed, squeezing in a respectable 10% usage and becoming a comfortable go-to for dealing with threats like Beheeyem, Duosion, and Swanna. The real secret to using this mon is to abandon Dragon Tail; swap to Roar and suddenly you have the most consistent phazer in the format. Obviously running Resttalk is rough in BW, but Zweilous fits best on teams that are slow enough to be able to afford Heal Bell anyway. Try the Vileplume/Zweilous core sometime, it's shockingly solid for bulky offense.

Unranked to B, Disagree
This was amended to A, but that is far too high. That wouldd put Omanyte on the same level as things like Bronzor and Torterra and that just isn't the case. I also think B is too high but B- is something I can buy. More than anything, I appreciated this nomination for making me ask why we use Dwebble over Omanyte. There's a few answers, but the main reason I think Omanyte is subpar is that it's one of the easiest Tentacool switchins of any rocker in the format. I think the niche is arguably there, so I would buy B-

B- to B, Agree
Yeah, B- was probably too rough. Banette is not as good as ladder would suggest, but it's definitely better than B-. It's better than Vanilluxe, surely. Not a ton to say, it's not like a huge jump or anything either.

Unranked to B+, Disagree
I'm sorry but I just don't see it. I played against this thing a decent amount on the ladder and was never, in any of those matches, particularly impressed with Seadra. I even ran into that Resttalk/Poison Point variant and I still was not impressed. The main problem that I see with it is that it is a dedicated anti-offense tech in a tier that doesn't need or want more of it, in a metagame that is shying away from HO. Killing Vileplume is great but what about Audino, or Ursaring? What is the Clefairy calcs? I definitely remember walling that Seadra with my Ursaring more than once. I'm not opposed to revisiting, but I want to see more of it before I can be won over. I wil lsay that me quoting hard SpDef walls at what is obviously meant to be a sweeper is a bit unfair, but my point is that it is not as explosive as advertised and ends up competing for slots with more familiar faces like Swanna or even Purugly.

My noms:

B to A-

There was so much successful innovation around his guy that I deleted the analysis I had after seeing everything being done with Muk. Turns out that Muk has enough Spdef bulk and decent enough Attack that you don't actually need to go a full Cro route. Just tank the hit from probably Swanna, set up Curse once, and then spread Poison with Poison Jab. If Bronzor comes in, you pressure it heavily with Fire Punch. Muk even has its choice of additional coverage in Ice Punch or priority in Shadow Sneak. The metagame had a slot for a Spdef tank and Muk falls right in. Went from zero to hero real fast.

B to B+

Stall had a very strong showing in PUPL, especially in Week 1. A lot of stall staples are also in B+, like Audino and Frillish, but Machoke very notably is not. But if you go back and watch the replays, Machoke is doing a ton of the work. Still much more niche than the other two posted above, but I would still place Machoke on par with Frillish.

B to A-

Another mon that PUPL and BWPL hammered out to be a staple. Being a Swanna switchin that can run both rocks and heal bell on the same set while also avoiding the #1 pitfall of the metagame of entry hazards is HUGE. Goes on a ton of different teams but it seems that it works best on balance. I will also take B+ but B is far too low now.

A to A+

Ok listen. Listen. I am a dedicated Bronzor hater but the role compression that Bronzor gives teams allows for so much more team variety. At this point, with the current metagame environment, I would credit Bronzor with a good chunk of the diversity that we currently enjoy. The ability to cram its long list of resistances as well as Stealth Rock is good as is, but then also add in that it takes 0 Spikes damage and resists Rocks and you have a mon that can stay around for a really long time and cover a lot of bases all at once. Honestly I have been running a 252 HP/128 Def/128 SpDef/Bold build lately that is able to tank Stoutland and Swanna at the same time and it ends up tanking most of the tier just fine. I don't even give it Stealth Rock, just Sleep Talk into Toxic is enough to break down more offensive teams nowadays. Overall I think A or A+ would be fine for the guy (especially with the 30% winrate in PUPL oof) but I wanted more opinions.

I have plenty more in the works, from more VR noms to a hard discussion about Swanna, but think that this post is long enough. I'll be back soon hopefully!

 

[AngryPidgeon]

So the BW PU tournament season is finally winding down, and it was quite the season. Lots of good matches, and we even had a ladder for a month of it. I spent PUPL lurking in team chats to keep tabs on new metagame trends, got 3-4 alts in top 20 of the ladder and then built for the Sandiles in BWPL

Nice! I queued about 100 games on ladder, I peaked at 4th on an alt but dropped some after. We prob matched at some point.

Monferno, Swanna, Zebstrika are considered the face of the tier in many ways, but I think defense is generally the team to beat. Im not going to say offense is bad or that these three are unplayable, but I wouldnt say Monferno is best mon in tier. Swanna is overrated in my opinion, its rather frail.

For me, the top threats in the tier are eviolite stackers/stallers and toxic spikes. The higher level players tend to run on average more eviolite users on their teams in my observation.

--

Zebstrika (A+): Of the big 3 offense, this is the best and most consistent IMO. Its fast, has great coverage and can run fire gem for a surprise. Im always thinking about Zeb in the teambuilder. A+ is the right place I think.

Klang (A-> B): I Agree. Your response to me earlier about swapping Klang for Bronzor got me thinking, and I do now think that Klang is a poor man's Brozonor. If you run Klang, you need to run Volt Switch or you are wasting your time. It invites Stunfisk in. Ya this is a more "offense" variant of Bronzor but its just not there.

Seadra (unranked -> B+): I agree with you that this is wrong. I tried running Seadra with Rest-talk and 2 attacks. If Seadra had dragon typing it would be amazing. It doesnt though, and its just mediocre. It's not immortal like Bronzor, its not a utility god like Tentacool. Its not worth running. If you want an offbeat eviolite user, Marshstomp is similar but better since it works as a nearly flawless Zeb check.

Muk (B to A-): Im glad to see this. Muk's stats on paper are totally fine. It has a solid SpDef and Atk stat. It gets a priority move, base 30% chance to poison enemies, and curse. I ran Muk on my Trick Room team and I think its totally fine. The main "issue" with Muk is that most of the attacks it gets access to are fairly low BP.

set

Muk @ Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 196 HP / 96 Atk / 216 SpD
Careful Nature
- Curse
- Poison Jab
- Fire Punch
- Shadow Sneak

Bronzor (A to A+): If you aren't sure what to build in BW PU, you can start by slapping Tentacool and Bronzor on a team. From there you can build stall, balance or offense. Rest-talk Bronzor is immortal. Ive seen this mon sweep multiple enemies. This mon is so sturdy I think it deserves A+ for sure.

--
Other opinions.

Stunfisk (A+ -> S): I have nothing bad to say about Stunfisk. I used to be a Torterra enjoyer, but Stunfisk is an absolute unit, has excellent attacking coverage with its basic set, and sets rocks.

Audino: I thought this was bad until Bughouse beat me with this. If you run Audino without Knock Off then you are wasting your time. Knock Off wins the matchup mirror against slower teams.

Lopunny / Girafarig: I think these two may be underexplored. Trick Scarfers are good since they can shut down defensive cores. Lopunny worked out for me as an anti-lead, or as an emergency button to stop some threats with Thunder Wave and Encore. Oh you want to lead your Dweble? Ya you get the Scarf, and then your next switch-in is getting the custap.

Lopunny

Lopunny @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Limber
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Switcheroo
- Return
- Encore
- Thunder Wave

 

[LpZ]

YEARLY SEASON REPORT​

It is about that time of the year, a whole year of BW PU gaming is completed and I'm here as usual for my yearly essay talking about what I've cooked throughout the year, results and my stance on the meta today. Have a good read

I. PUBD

We go all the way to february for the first PU forum teamtour where I did go decently experimental and wanted to try a good amount of new stuff or just get more of a taste from stuff I had already discovered.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-747920

I was already a Kingler fan but I wanted to go for it as I think I didn't hand me an opportunity to load it in last years PUPL and BWPL, so I just decided going with a pivot spam alongside it with Aroma Pluff so I can heal the very likely Static procs my whole team was prone to, nothing too crazy. In the actual game I kinda won it t1 with a DEdge predict crit into Plume, which was the only thing that could try taking hits from Kingler, from there I really just needed to play around Swanna and try getting Kingler in as much as I could. It ended up closer than I wanted it to be but it worked out in the end.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-750180

I cooked with this one, as I went for a grass spam which could both offer utility vs offensive teams which Tack liked using while also bullying the fuck out of opposing Bronzor with them, facilitating a Swanna sweep later on, featuring the GOOD SD Shiftry set with Sub over Nature Power, and it ended up being a great team overall that I even spammed during individual tours. In the game the team worked perfectly, Swanna ended up not being incredibly useful aside of getting a funny Marowak kill t1 as I didn't really face offense but Bronzor just sat on everything after Wak and Monf died and then Sage just cleaned with ease.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-752729

Undercook. I played GSC in W3 so we go to W4 here. Evi is a creative builder and she always seems to load some heat vs me when we face each other, so the best way I could've approached this was to outcook her, and well I failed miserably on that. It has the looks of a very standard team but the twist is that instead of the more common Scarf Duck and CB Stout I went for Mystic Water Duck and Scarf Stout. In the game my only type of unusualty did not do anything at all, and instead I got shmoked by SubBU Ursaring, of which I had little to do vs, but in hindsight I should've tried to just 1v1 it with my asleep Zor and pray for the best. Pretty cool team from her tho.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-753619

Overcook. I went in with some fire ideas, like Sash Counter Sneasel lead, Custap Rocks 3A Torterra and Custap NP 3A Behee, with some more usual HO options. Everything in life is better when dosed and I had to learn this the hard way, as this team did not really work. Sneasel did exactly what it was supposed to do, attract the Monferno that let me click Counter on whatever button he clicks provided he doesn't have a Ghost, after that shit went downhill, Torterra comes next for rocks and I had EV'd it to take any non-LO Swanna hit to put me into Custap range, the problem is: it was LO. I went for my only mon that could outspeed Swanna which was my Scarf Arbok and I thought the switch was obvious and I had the freest Switcheroo on Bronzor, but he stayed in, I don't agree with his play cuz after taking Switcheroo with Bronzor I had nothing else to outspeed it, so switching was very safe there as long as he kept Zweilous HP for Huntail. Arbok died and then I tried my Beheeyem bamboozle, I could catch the KO on Bronzor after getting poisoned but all that was not enough to put me into Custap range once again, so Monferno had a free U-turn to RK me, from there my only hope was to set up with Huntail on Zwei as it misses one of its Crunches at least, I could masterfully keep his Zwei on the field as I sacked Monf on it so I could keep my chances alive but both Crunches connected.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-755841

Instant revenge time, this time I went with a more standard-looking BO with the usual FiskZor core and the only heat part of the team is that I stole Evis Ursaring set she used vs me earlier in the tour LOL. Ursaring didn't do a whoooooole lot but I could catch a very nice play with Return into Jumpluffs switch after I clicked sub, antecipating its attempt to Encore me. After that Ursaring found another opportunity vs Fisk to set up 2 BUs but all it could do was get the opposing Zor to around 40%, which is not terrible. The favorable earlygame and after some Fisk HP management it meant my Scarf Swanna was posed to win and this is a very big thing to notice, if u have a Scarf Swanna and you win the earlygame, it wins the late, just like what happened here.

Semis went to a tiebreaker of which I was slotted into GSC, we ended up losing Semis tho RIP but it was fun helping and teaming up with Magbys after the success of Magmortars in the previous PUPL with many of my homies there.

II. PUPL

I was hyped for another season as I had a lot of ideas to go for this season and also due to, again, how the previous PUPL went.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-777274

Excellent cook featuring a secret broken mon that I will talk more about later, but my focus was just making a structurally solid Clef build, Clef is a VERY hard mon to play around with SToss TWave Encore and it can annoy entire teams more often than not, trust me. To solidify the team I opted to go for rocks on Monferno and keep SD on Tort to not struggle with breaking. The general idea was to spread paralysis with Clef and get more turns with Swanna to sub and spam confusion with para. So I faced stall, the slow setup mons went big as well as Clef saving my ass for the entire match, basically after I got the Switcheroo off on Bronzor my Tort and Behee instantly became threats and well, they win the game by themselves, also got sticky cuz I faced dual dance Duosion (this set is really bad I stg).


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-778989

My 2024 magnum opus, this team is just one of the most fun teams I've ever done and my favorite team of the year, which not only I built to use it here but also used it to win several individual games. This team features some underappreciated mons (at that time at least) like Muk, Abra and Krokorok alongside HO staples like Monf, Swanna and Shiftry. I found the best way to run Krokorok and it is the lead set easily, hard to anti-lead and threatens both Tenta and Natu as it also anti-leads Rampardos and Dwebble, as well as some additional utility in Bulldoze and Intimidate. Muk represents my love for fat setup with Custap in this tier that I took long to really develop and it works so well, its bulk is such a great emergency kit vs would-be offense destroyers and you need real hard hits to really threaten Muk, it can even 1v1 Stunfisk bar full para bs so Monf doesn't have to worry about anything and Swanna can spam flying moves, its so easy to fall for Custap on any mon but mainly Muk, Abra had the usual Sash disruptor set but it complements the team so well. In the game Muk showcased why he the fucking goat, beating Stunfisk and doing around 50 to Bronzor, Shiftry did a lot of the work too and could've done more if I got turns right vs Clef and well, just like always Swanna just wins when building enough advantage.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-780361

This is Feaniix's Rampardos sample team but I tweaked every set bar Ramp and Zebra. I decided to load this to use Sergios knowledge against him, assuming he would know the team from the spot and assume it was just the standard sample team. Not much to say here other than the experimentation I did with Fighting Gem Monferno, which kills Tentacool with CC at +2 and with little chip it can kill Stunfisk too as well as picking opposing Zebra off at +2 with Gem Mach after rocks, and it also featured Custap Behee and Mystic Water Duck once again. In the game surprise factor barely came into play, Gem Monferno got the very key KO on Tentacool as I was facing an Articuno team so, it died and the game was p much over there already, Articuno was a big threat to my team without rocks so thank god I disposed of it, Zebra did put a lot of work as well and got a crit vs Monf at -2 which I strongly believe that didnt matter at that point.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-781725

Revenge time and I was really looking forward to beat Evi after a good while not beating her prior to this game, I aimed at decently varied cooks but without going too crazy so I gathered some options and I ended up liking this one the most. I loved tspikes on this game given Evis lack of removal and grounded poison usage so I enjoyed the fact I had it on a team with Sear. Complementing the team we have Jumpluff to give another source of speedy mon with pivot to bring stuff in for Sear and also a safety net vs setup with Encore this time, usually I would run Aroma on a Zwei team but thats not the case cuz I have another cleric option in Grumpig, running Heal Bell to work with that for the team. This team is VERY good and the synergy is absurdly good within all 6. What I can say is, Sear simply got 4 kills before getting the chance to get 6 cuz of the forfeit, monke masterclass fs and p much everything worked out for me on that game, I had an early Overheat miss on opposing Behee which put me in Blaze and then it was just gg as long as I kept rocks off.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-782506

Yea so Tack ended my winstreak in the tour unfort, but I'm happy it was her doing it over anyone else, anyways, the idea of the team was for Leafeon pass SD boosts to either Monferno or Muk, both of which make great use of the boost and even Leafeon itself works well with its own boost also acting as a Tort check for example. The problem with this team is not the team itself, I can assure you its great and the idea hella works as I've made it work in other individual games, but that prep was not meant to be for Tack and her trends so it was a lackluster prep fs but iirc I did not have time to prep cuz of uni tests or something. Looking at the game the mu already didn't look good for me, but I really worked hard to make it at least close but that crit on my Stunfisk made the game harder, in the end what cost me was clicking Roar when I had my Zwei out vs her Sear instead of Crunch, I could've won if I didn't go for the more passive play. Def recommend the team but not vs Tack :sob:


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-783895

This was one of the leftover ideas vs Evi earlier in the tour, but considered using this for a long time, this time I did not regret bringing this at all, baller team with some great ideas, Spikes with Ursaring, Zwei and most importantly Scarf Swanna is a mischeavous tool to have, like seriously Scarf Swanna alr cleans games with certain ease, try pairing it with spikes and you see how automatic this mon gets to win games, it wasn't the case here tho. T1 they had already gone for a Leafeon setup as I had to forgo Spikes for the match in order to stop Leafeon which would be a threat, Cactus lived at 1 but couldn't escape death as Sneasel traps me, I got Ursaring to make a lot of progress killing Staryu and Sneasel but Audino + Muk was still a big threat. As long as I was able to not get very unlucky with Zwei I had it under control but then I very well timed crit from Muk as I tried to Roar it out basically ended the game as my remaining mons couldn't touch Audino + Muk + Fisk.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-784829

My team was already out by that point but looking at what Guille had used in the tour I knew this guy had to step up, I'm talking about the OG BW PU gem Choice Band Zwei. Pretty whatever build overall with a couple of shit that looked good like SD TPunch Monferno, Staryu and a Trick mon to help. Zwei killed the FiskZor core while SD Monf dealt with Tentacool as planned as well as Audino and then Guille forfeited. I kinda knew Guille was gonna reuse and Zwei woulda 6-0.

III. BWPL


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-789501?p2

Another Clef tour opener but this one is a more offensive version of the PUPL Clef team, featuring a wider paraspam with Stun Plume and Fisk while again Sub Swanna abuses it greatly as it subs and confuses to make opps lose their mind and Specs Shiftry this time, a mon that I hadn't used for so long and it made a return to abuse everything paralyzed etc etc. Bro, Clef literally beat all 6 from sashas team and I mean LITERALLY, sasha started with TSpikes that really only helped me cuz it meant Fisk couldn't even para me anymore so I could spread pain and agony with Clef, such a hate energy of a mon.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-790600

Very standard Spikes BO, you spit Spikes, shuffle with Zwei spamming Roar, a couple of prio options in the team, CB Monf breaking, Coil Shuca Arbok being a dick and and the star of the show Swanna to clean like every game ever with the ups. And so it did, alongside some very good HP management on Maractus to not get in danger vs Tort.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-792246

Texas most likely had never played the tier prior to that game so I decided to spice things up a lil bit, bringing back my Specs Whisca$h to get some shit going, no one expects Specs, specially if you know Whiscash competitively from other gens. Whiscash got a funny kill vs a Stoutland switching in with Hydro after rocks and then forced Muk to explode on it to stop it, what an unit. My Tenta all of a sudden became annoying and forced Stunfisk to deal with it which gave me chances to burn it and the rest of the team just won by themselves.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-793046

Decided to just reuse this vs a clueless Nalorium , ended up in a packwatch. What Muk couldn't do vs Tack it did it all to Nalo, good stuff.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-794363

Decided to run this odd Scarf Tort team here that I'm not sure if I like too much ngl... Scarf Tort is legit and can catch a lot off guard, just like I did T1 in the game as I picked Monf lead off. The thing is that the mu was just not doing me too many favors and I had to make a big amount of plays in order to win this one, so I'm proud of my clicking but not this team idk.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5pu-2222247944-4v76nnnodyt3jqubyf8ympox0lgjveupw

Super dishonest team, use it if you wanna tilt someone. In all seriousness tho I got interested in further exploring what I could do with Clef builds and I had this Machoke Clef core in mind for weeks, same concept as other Clef builds, you spread para and Swanna subs and Hurricane fish but this time you also have Machoke clicking a 100% acc confusion move so it can get as devious as it could get, joining them you also have finally a non-Scarf Pig on my end which is also clicking TWave and a Stun Plume once again. Clef did in fact play football once again IM SAYING THIS MONS NUTS.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-800521

I was 6-0 prior to that game and this is prob the saddest lose out of every game shown in this post, breaking my streak and denying my perfect regular season score. I loaded this basic phys offense featuring double CB on dawg and monke alongside Scarf Arbok and Pluff to pivot and to help against Static procs. The thing is, Pluff did not help with procs, cuz my Monf got the proc on the first click vs Fisk and when Pluff had the opportunity to help it got itself parad like 5000 times from Discharges, insane stuff. Got myself on the backfoot of which I had to play a guessing game in the last turn between facing CB or Eviolite Monf as it did not get revealed until then. Ended up it was CB as I get the last play "wrong". Just real unfortunate stuff but owell.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-804182

Oh this one got me tweaking. I went back with a double grass core with offensive 3A Plume + Aroma Pluff featuring Specs Golduck, nothing really that interesting I think, I didn't have time to cook more fire teams. Ended up the mu was p ass and again I had to see what I could do, luckily my Specs Duck saved me from any setup possibility I faced earlier in the game and left my opp with only a low Arbok and an Ursaluna. I had the perfect position with my Monferno vs Arbok which could only crit Sucker to win the game as even if Ursaluna was Chople I had it locked. Guess what happened.


https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5pu-805471

I'd had enough, I was back at the kitchen to finally cook something fresh and I ended up with this witchery. I knew a type of offense or HO was likely coming due to how often fish was using those and how my only losses in the year were almost all to these type of teams. So I made a team that looked p safe vs offensive shit while also utilizing a couple of techs. Custap Behee is back and it FINALLY proc'd the damn berry and made a big difference on how the game that early getting the crucial chip on the only mon I needed. The team also features Sash Gabite, a rocker that could set Rocks in front of any Taunt lead including Glalie and the rarer Monferno while still threatening Tentacool at least, getting rocks was of huge importance for the team as not only I needed to exactly threaten 2hkos and ohkos all the time due to the teams frailty but I needed a way to limit opposing Swanna from the get go cuz I don't have switch-ins to it, mainly against Scarf. Team was basically a fast spam with Scarf Swanna, Quick Feet Ursaring, Simisage and some additional help with prio on Monferno and again the Custap Behee. I got the exact type of mu I was expecting to see, HO with a dedicated lead so I could get the early advantage with Gabite, and so it did, getting Rampardos to sash while getting my rocks up, fish did not up his own rocks and it made it considerably easier as Swanna was never ever threatened throughout the game and it just cleaned alongside Ursaring.

It ended up in a frustrating loss in finals coming from 4-1 on sat to 4-6 on sunday but shit like that happens, just funny for it to be my 3rd BWPL being my 3rd time getting finals and losing it a 3rd time. Unfort.

Despite not winning any of these teamtours I had a great year in the tier, 3-2 in PUBD, 5-2 in PUPL and 7-2 in BWPL, a total of 15-6 in teamtours but also winning both BW PU Cup (for PU Classic) and the BW PU ROA Spotlight (I got acted in semis of the BW PU Open :c). Also while writing this I decided to post my stance of the meta in a separate post so expect it very soon. Thanks for reading!

s/o to Magbys, Golurks and Mountaineers, especially Tack BloodAce SBPC Akir .

 

[Nalorium]

Never tag me again for one of your posts. It was actually a very tight match.

Maybe it was a really good post.

 

[LpZ]

My current stance in the meta (including personal VR and watchlist)​

^btw its all unordered within subranks

- The usual same since last year, mostly Eviolite U-turn and CB with occasional uses of SD, I tried out Gem SD Monf which I think is the only new thing I could pull off with it and its solid as well, still the best mon imo despite the Fisk popularity imo.
(A+ to S) - Ok I am convinced this is just a S rank mon with how big of a help Scarf makes to like every single offensive team, the STABs are not unwallable when forced to be locked but outspeeding everything in a tier where racking up damage is not hard at all for it just to clean and that made me realize that, it always wins when you get the better earlygame, actually insane and even made me question if even the Scarf set is broken, I was sure about SubRoost being broken but offensive teams can limit it at some extent. If you want the full Scarf Swanna experience pair it with Spikes, it cleans with ridiculous ease.

(A to A+) - This mon has an ass movepool and it is forced to run a very unreliable Psywave, yet it is still the best mixed wall in the entire tier. The typing, ability and stats with Eviolite just carry it so hard that adding it to teams becomes stupidly easy as it can check like half the tier. Although it can only annoy stuff with Psywave and Toxic, there are not a whole lot of Toxic switch-ins in most teams and the majority of the tier has a low HP stat which makes Psywave annoying to switch into as well, specially annoying fires.
(A to A+) - The Tack mon ig. It has grown on me a bit since it has enough bulk to soft check like everything and any team without Bronzor is at mercy of having to sack something every turn. It doesn't do that bad vs offensive teams either as again, it has the bulk to soft check a threat and Intimidate gives it some utility. Its also the only common Pursuitter and it is solid at that as well, I still rate Scarf Stout btw. I just don't run this mon more often cuz its hard to make heat builds with it and I'm always looking to THE cook.
- Still amazing with its usual AoA set varying on item choices between Fire Gem, EBelt, Leftovers and Magnet (please don't run LO its ass). Keeps being great as the meta progresses to a more offensive look and Zebra being the fastest thing in the tier while pivotting to other offensive threats is as fire as ever.
- Numba one ground and rocker, Static being fucking disgusting still, nothing really changed for it. I've run RestTalk Fisk this year but its not like I created the set, still its a good set that fixes its one issue even tho being asleep is unoptimal. Other than that its just your giga compression mon.

I used to think it was A+ ending last year but now I think it is fine where it is, the more offensive meta doesn't help it too much as stuff can bruteforce through it while Zweillous seems to have more usage than before lately. Still prob the best abuser of passive mons in the whole tier and its the second most broken mon after Swanna in my books.
I still love this mon for the compression it offers. Defensively its typing is not too good but it has enough stats to make it work, also despite Poison defensively not being good in a tier with good Psychics it has the ever appreciated utility of absorbing TSpikes. The thing with this mon is just how incredible its movepool is, making excellent use of options such as Aromatherapy, Leech Seed, Stun Spore and Worry Seed while being capable of go more offensive with either SD or max SpAtk with STABs + HP Fire or Leech.
The mon that forces us to include grounded poisons in our teams, Tentacool does the usual job of spinning while absorbing opposing TSpikes and setting up its own, all of while being a softcheck to most special attackers and Monferno. Idk what else to say here, many teams find its help invaluable.
(A- to A) - This mon is the most threatening mon of the tier, having literally no switch-ins and sporting a good enough bulk, bulk that is very customizable depending on what u want it to do between outspeeding specific stuff or switching into something. Used to be more niched into Glalie teams but now you can find it in a whole lot of different structures, not even always being the rocker but its at least a ground that doesn't get deleted by Zebra unlike Gabite or Torterra.
- Idm if this ends up getting dropped to A- but I still think this mon forms some neat cores with other offensive threats. Aromatherapy and Encore are still great options to have and being a Torterra check is still appreciated while being able to offensively check many stuff with its speed, but the U-turn into pile of danger is so good to pull off with it and its the best at doing that pivotting job.
- Specs is still super threatening although it is predict reliant but what makes me like this mon a lot is SubSD Dark Gem, completely abusing Bronzor to set up while making Sucker 50/50s turn in your favor, Nature Power literally only hits Monferno which does not like switching into it anyways.
- Still a weird mon to build with due to its inability to check Zebra and being vulnerable to Monferno, but offensively this mon is still superb, bulky SD with Occa or Yache (or even Coba), CB, Rock Polish 3A and even rocks SD Wood are very threatening sets that are only fully checked by Bronzor, every Torterra team should be accounting to abuse Bronzor in some way.
(A- to A) This mon hella cooks, if you dont have a Zweillous or a Tentacool it can just click fire moves for free the whole time with its Specs set, which with its good speed tier it can break fatter and offensive teams with ease. Theres also the NP Salac set that can catch offensive teams p well. The only drawback is that its awkward to use Monferno with it.
- Really only thing different with this mon this year was the NP Custap set (im a genius and the goat), which is surprisingly p good and can easily catch opps given the right entries. Other than that its the usual NP Recover sets that tries to abuse asleep Bronzor and break it ASAP while checking Monferno and being a threat to fatter shit, with occasional Specs and OTR appearances.
(A- to A) - I've been a Zweillous merchant for years and I think people are finally realizing why this mon is so good. It follows the trend of NFE mon having a dogshit movepool carried by amazing bulk and typing. It can check a FUCK TON, from Psychics to Swanna to Zebra to Simisear to even more, its not as passive as Bronzor as it can shuffle mons around with Roar (objectively better than DTail) and dealing good damage with Crunch boosted by Hustle. I include it to at least half of my teams for a reason and its just an amalgamation of compression in a mon. Ofc it can get unreliable as it relies on a 80% acc Crunch to do damage (just like Zors 80% Psywave) and it has to rely on Rest for longevity (just like Zor). Pulling Roar on STalks really helps it with burning Sleep turns but for good measure load it alongside a cleric mon and it WILL do work for you in p much every game.

(B to A-) - I was not kidding, this mon is fucking insane, the real proof of how broken Magic Guard is in BW tiers. It doesn't have as otherwordly of stats as Bronzor and Zwei but it still has great stats which are decently customizable, but this mon does not rely on Rest and it cannot be chipped by anything other than direct damage. The cherry on the cake is the SToss TWave Encore set, this mon can annoy the entire tier, yes, the entire tier. NOTHING wants to switch into it cuz nothing likes taking para and the ones that do take it take a lot from SToss or just outright loses 1v1 to Clef. You can see on my post above this one that the 2 times I loaded Clef it fucked, proving how stupid it can get. The real only drawback to it is that it makes building with it awkward as it doesn't really resist anything and teams are often starving for resists but I can def see this mon in A by the end of the next year cuz its just insane.
- I think I still rate it a bit higher than most people but I still think the set versatiliy on this mon paired with the overall solid stats makes it hard to play around it.
(B to A-) - Another one of my proudest noms, this mon is sick and it has done a lot of work throughout the entire year, being another TSpikes absorber but with fat stats is nice to cover whats considered a bad defensive typing. It can be key on some offensive teams to help with special attackers while absorbing tspikes and having a colorful movepool, with options such as Ice Punch for grounds, Fire Punch for steels and Shadow Sneak for prio. Its able to pull off sets such as Curse 3A with either BSludge or Custap, Curse 2A Rest and AoA, all of which have incredible applications in games.
- Another mon I like quite a bit and with a good amount of set versatility, between CroBear, SubBU and Quick Feet (never really seen anyone run Guts Orb in a teamtour match). Quite difficult to play around once its in for the first time.
- Spikes with some ok amount of defensive utility. Def run a resist berry on this if you want actual opportunities to click spikes with more consistency.
(A to A-) I still respect it on builder as it should be but it just gets too little usage to justify being in A, on top of teams naturally being at least alright into it.
I almost nommed this to A but I still acknowledge its hinderances, Scarf often feeling weak and Coil feeling slow and easy to stop. However its still the best tspikes absorber in offensive teams and it being an easy mon to fit with Scarf mainly is still appreciated while it offers utility with Intimidate and Switcheroo.
(B to A-) - I can take a slight raise to B+ but should def rise. This mon is actually p easy to be weak to, and no one really take it into account, Leaf Storm with Acro and Superpower is a really good combination, packing Taunt to mess with what would easily check it like Bronzor. I also believe this mon has also room for exploration like some type of NP set or choiced sets of some sort or whatever we can find, but as its main set it has already been doing great and has def found success this year.

From here onwards Ill be a bit briefer

- Didn't have a loud year but it does about the same as it used to with Specs or Scarf, while also being able to pull off a NP set for itself or being the best bpasser in the tier with options like CM, NP and Barrier while Soundproof makes it immune to Roar.
- I still respect it with its unique typing and great speed tier, specially threatening for offensive teams and imo with a lot of room for exploration still. Also very threatening Pursuitter but does struggle quite a bit vs even the most remotely fat teams.
(A- to B+) - Not a big fan of it, does a very poor job as a Steel type aside of switching into Stoutlands Return if ur running the bulky set, and the bulky set is very abusable. The SD set is not bad, it can break, but it suffers with 4mss and usually you would prefer the slot being occupied with other options.
(B- to B+) - I MIGHT be alone on this but hear me out, I like this even more than Mime nowadays. My favorite set with it is Scarf with Heal Bell for role compression, having Thick Fat can make big differences switching into Monferno, Simisear and Zebras Overheat, while having Trick to compensate for the lack of attacking slots as it cripples anything that would check it. I like this a lot cuz of Heal Bell mainly, having a cleric option is always great when using it alongside fat Rest mons like Bronzor and Zweillous and its bulk over Mime means it can actually switch into stuff as a Scarf mon which is kinda rare.
- Does what it has done for many and many years. Just can't value it as a mon that belongs to A ranks as its super one dimensional and what it does is good, just good.
(A- to B+) - About the same premise as Glalie imo thus they should be ranked next to each other. My problem with Rampardos is that its Attack doesn't mean much when you would rather p much always up rocks instead of attacking, on top of Taunt leads completely stopping it on its tracks. It does have some potential as a Scarfer but I honestly don't have too much faith cuz rock STAB is horrendous.
(A- to B+) - Another mon I'm not a big fan of, not that strong, frail and vulnerable to the main priority move of the tier (Mach Punch). It doesn't even match up that well into the current offense trends so I just don't think it has been given much work to do.
- Didn't change much aside of the Sash lead set I ran in BWPL Finals. CB still struggles with opportunities and the exploitable speed tier, Scarf still struggles with hitting like a doll and rocks still struggles with being Zebra food, while all the sets struggles with Bronzor (top 5 mon). Has its moments tho I cannot lie but its prime is just gone.
(B to B+) - Its just good enough to be there, SD has good breaking potential and can have various tweaks which I've experimented with some and I have yet to experiment with others, such as SD 2A Synthesis, SD Blade Synthesis Heal Bell, SD Natural Gift and SD BPass. All of them working well with the necessary amount of support.
- Stall staple and it works alongside fat pokemon that struggles with longevity such as Muk, CB Tort and Stunfisk. I respect it a lot but imo Clef is better than it in many ways so I can't in sane conditions rank it as high as Clef.
- It never changes really, it does the same with tweaks to the last slot between Smash, Endure, Knock and EQ. Just not that hard to limit its hazards but can at least always up 1 at least so thats valuable enough?
- Really good on paper but struggles to fit on teams. Enjoys Stoutlands running Intimidate more often.

- The original dumbass mon, spamming Dynamic Punches and nothing else but confusion is broken in BW and it has actual amazing phys bulk so it can throw a lot of these, pair it with para and you just crafted war crime.
- I have no idea but this is never bad enough to drop to B-, but it has had another silent year. Great movepool with Wild Charge for waters mainly Swanna, Drill Run for fires and Megahorn for Zweillous but it can't really pull everything in the same set while being super vulnerable to Stunfisk and rocks while having to compete with Monferno for a slot. I have faith this mon will once show its worth but its not now.
- Doctor ball balls, but it struggles to find entries. When it does, however, it p much gets a kill with CB unless ur facing Plume. Weird speed tier paired with a god awful SpDef can make it hard to work. Also experiment it with Agility 3A or dual dance, both work.
- Bronzor and Stunfisk. Could cook if it had the 350 speed from later gens but 328 is not enough for it to shine with what it has.
- Really scary and dangerous mon if you manage to keep rocks off the field, if you fail that it turns into a Roost bot that won't accomplish anything.
(B+ to B) - Why would you ever fish not seeing the most common rocker which threatens it. Outside of Magic Bounce it really doesn't offer anything and the typing is p exploitable. You get to perma off if you face most of the other rockers tho (Tort, Zor, Gabite) so that keeps this from being useless.
- Good set versatility with blessed typing but not brilliant offensive stats, those are workable tho as it can pull either a Specs set which I call it whisCASH or a DD set with some variables between items and moves, tweaking between Stone Edge, Subs, Ice Beam and even something heat like Natural Gift for moves, and Leftovers, Life Orb, Ground or Ice Gem or a Rindo Berry for items. It admittedly doesn't ALWAYS work cuz of the said offensive stats being kinda low but its not an easy mon to play around too.
(B+ to B) - Its always super threatening but as long you have Scarf Swanna you are safe vs this. Other stuff rising in popularity like Zweillous and Muk also doesn't help it.
(B+ to B) - This shits ass, the rocks weakness ruins it completely.
(A to B) - Ok, behind Zweillous this was the second topic I wanted to touch with all of this, THIS THING SUCKS ASS. It has excellent defensive stats with poor offenses and a god awful movepool just like the other NFEs of the tier. The problem is, running Volt and Tox means that if it sleeps its p much dead cuz either doing nothing or its volting out with STalk which resets its sleep counter. On top of that its SUPER abusable, just like what I've done before with Sub Shiftry or Leafeon or Mime or Golduck. Zweillous is the Klang done right, equally good typing and stats, actually checks Duosion instead of being fodder to it like Klang, instead of auto-sabotaging with Volt resetting the sleep counter you have Roar to help you burn sleep turns so you might not even need clerics to wake yourself up and it can actually do damage instead of playing sudoku on the field. The real only value I give to this is that its actually the most solid Swanna check available provided you have something faster than Swanna to follow up on its Volt. Its not even a good normal resist as Stoutland can literally stay in on Klang to permanently click, if you Volt out you have a 50% Klang that will struggle to check stuff afterwards, if you Tox have fun taking boosted Facades afterwards, and after asleep its p much dead weight. I had near 0 Klang usage during this year vs 9 Zwei usage on my end for a reason.

(B to B-) - B was too high for it, its still super niche on very specific HO even though I've built one that it fit perfectly.
(B to B-) - This mon is just not that good and idt there are much to be done to save this mon. Plume outclasses it defensively and offensively it barely misses out on enough power to be a dominant threat, and it also hates seeing Zwei.
(C to B-) - This mon has shown its value on tours this years on some fat teams and its bulkier than it looks like, although its still not that much.
- CB is fun but idk why you would run this mon tbh, not that bad at breaking tho and it can also Pursuit.
- It just seems perfectly fit in B-, bulky Lefties has won tour games and it gets some mus it can get p annoying but it shows multiple hinderances that u gotta deal with by using it.
(B to B-) - It was a bit overrated, solid at breaking but Bronzor is super annoying for it and its slow as fuck in this more offense oriented tier.
(B to B-) - Unfort, as good as I think it is, this thing receives no usage in tours and its still very awkward to built around it. Still a believer that someone sees my vision on this mon but for now I think its only far to drop it a bit.
(C to B-) - Ass mon offensively BUT a new set has restored my faith on it a bit, a suicide lead set. Rocks Bulldoze Crunch Taunt is actually a very good lead set that can Taunt mons like Rampardos and Dwebble, set rocks up yourself while threatening Tentacool and Natu with its STABs and Intimidate to top it off, Bulldoze gives you a turn vs faster mons and helps vs Glalie.
- This mon on fat Spikes structures do wonders with DD Dtail Resttalk sets. Already great bulk with Eviolite turns into an unkillable mf when asleep thanks to Marvel Scale that just shuffles non-stop. Its inconsistent tho as it needs to not get crit while prefering to be asleep which is odd and getting good Stalk pulls.

- Really cool movepool with Surf, Focus Blast, Encore and NP but stats are not that too good, mediocre immediate offenses with a middling speed.
(UR to C) - Good weather setter but most importantly it has Switcheroo to pull off a surprise Scarf set, and you can also do Purugly-esque sets with either Technician for a stronger Fake Out or Limber to give a big fuck you to Static. Unfort its p weak.
- Big blob of stats, can either go big wall route with DTail Aromatherapy or you can go SD with Seed Bomb and EQ as it gets a lot of opportunities with its bulk. Unfort its super owned by Bronzor and just feels more passive than Plume overall making it harder to use.
- Swanna hard counter.
- Interesting offensive assets with the typing and the movepool while doing some stuff with Prankster such as TWave, Haze and Taunt with offensive moves like BB Sucker and Pursuit. The problem is that its stats suck compared to other NFEs and it ends up not being able to not fill any specific niche. Room for exploration tho but I can't rank it higher.
(D to C) - I thought it was higher than C but still idt its as hopeless as the mons in D, still a p bad mon.
(D to C) - Baller moth actually has sauce, not that hard to mess up vs this thing as give it free boosts making it unstoppable and thus having to account for crit to stop it. Still needs a shit ton of boosts and some heavy prayers to not get crit but it does get sweeps with somewhat solid consistency.
- Good phys bulk with access to U-turn and recovery. Can also run Agility offensive sets with a Gem just like in ZU, heavy competition with Swanna tho.
- Solid phys bulk with unique assets in Rocks, Wisp and Levitate. Rock is a trash type tho and Psychic doesn't save it at all.
- Lacks a niche in the tier, as Head Smash is not spammable at all in this tier with numerous resists all over the place, super vulnerable with common weaknesses as well.
(D to C) - Prob overreacting but it makes such good use of pure bs to bypass Slow Start. Ofc super cheesy but it does annoy entire teams if it gets the right luck for that.
(UR to C) - Actually a p good discovery by Guille on his stall teams as Drilbur can set rocks up, spin and with Mold Breaker it can threaten Bronzor with EQ as well as set rocks up on Natus face while naturally threatening Natu. Still super specific but for fwiw C sounds fitting.
(B- to C) - Glaceon is better, Glaceon should drop, so does Vanilluxe.
(D to C) - Actual p decent pivot with nice bulk having no weaknesses at all and being a cool Swanna check, it suffers from the exact same problem as Klang of pivot + having to rely on Resttalk. Multiple options in Knock, Super Fang, Discharge and U-turn.
- Decent breaker if it doesn't see Zwei but rocks weakness and lack of entries other than Monf (that can U-turn anyways) and the low speed is gonna make it fall short often.
(UR to C) - Great typing and great movepool but bad stats. The typing allow it to check psychics and completely wall Bronzor, I think its better used with TWave and then a selection of options between Iron Head, Sucker, Pursuit, Night Slash, Rocks.
- Doctor pick. On one hand giving free turns to stuff due to Truant is more unforgiving cuz the meta just got more offensive, on the other hand the meta getting more offensive means it gets a bit frailer too, so it has an easier time picking up kills.
(B- to C) - Super passive to be ranked alongside goated Vull, I really don't like the premise of being an Encore U-turn bot so I only rate it on weather teams.

(UR to D) - Not a terrible rocker while also having good offensive capabilities but can get picked by a lot in the tier due to bad defensive typing.
(UR to D) - Super on-paper mon but it does check Monferno flawlessly with its good phys bulk and Regen while being a TWave bot.
(UR to D) - Can trap Mawile and can trap Bronzor SOMETIMES. Pretty useless otherwise.
(UR to D) - Weather.
(UR to D) - Special Kingler with actual crazy phys bulk but ass special bulk just like the crab. The crab is considerably stronger tho.
(UR to D) - Completely walls Zebra with Lightning Rod and clicks Scald to fish for burns and it has Knock which mainly messed with Eviolite mons. Agility has been used but I'm not sold on that set.
(UR to D?) - Eh it has some crazy phys def with Eviolite and some similar niche to Dwebble with double hazards. Not too convinced tho so idc too much about this mon.
- Super weird mon to use, absurdly crazy bulk with 0 immediate threat but it can work with NP BPass decently enough. Rocks weakness makes it p hard to use tho and its a shame it doesn't have Air Slash.
- Can act as a weird BDrum mon or with Wish sets paired with Taunt. Mostly outclassed tho.
(UR to D) - Blessed ass typing with nothing interesting to use, just your boring Rocks Scald EQ Tox/Roar mon that can wall Zebra but struggles to do much else.
(UR to D) - Idc about this either but its super fat and can softcheck Monferno.
(UR to D) - Niche ground with recovery that can actually check Zebra unlike Tort and it has crazy good bulk. Doesn't do anything interesting tho and its still outclassed by the less passive Torterra and the less specific Stunfisk.
- Curse RestTalk and Whirlwind RestTalk are legit sets, it does rely waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much on RestTalk to be any valuable and not resisting anything while being exploitable doesnt help matters.
- Really fat Spikes bot that can absorb TSpikes as well and set on its own.
(UR to D) - Decently fat Spikes bot that can actually lead vs a lot and has Explosion to avoid get spun.
- Super ass in PU despite being jesus in ZU, the stats are just not it and its p much outclassed by Jumpluff.
(C to D) - I used to like it more as a suicide lead but imo Krokorok took its spot while having more set versatility. Bibarel can still pull off a suicide lead set tho as it still has Taunt but also stuff like Super Fang.
I FORGOT TO PUT ON THE TIERLIST - Super frail but it works like Zebra, difference being the godly ESpeed.

Now that I've talked about every mon I could list on this tier I wanna talk about problems.

And when I look at problems I think of Swanna:


I had my doubts about it being broken or not, mainly due to its actual broken set (SubRoost) being able to be outoffensed and pressured for whole games. But now I started to realize how easy is it to clean games with Scarf Swanna and I started wondering it that set is also broken. As soon as I reached that line of thought I realized its over, this mons STABs are just too good alongside the speed it brings with it and solid power. Scarf Swanna can literally own any offensive team you can come up with while SubRoost can own entire fatter teams, both cases have been done and proved to be true so I don't find another alternative unless to call for a suspect at least. You can even say well if the mon or set is good vs some type of structure its just what the mon can do and it doesnt represent it being broken... then explain how in many games SubRoost Swanna got past shit like Audino, Zweillous, Frillish, all amongst some of its best counterplay options. I know there are downsides for banning Swanna such as losing a mid to high speed tier special breaker and the best Scarfer in the whole tier, potentially making some boosters better like Huntail. I just wanna see the potential for a suspect being on the table cuz atp its not only me complaining about the mon and anyone is free to second my sentiment or to oppose it. Its been literal 2 years of me calling the mon out and now I'm as sure as ever that I want it gone. I'm eager to know what yall think about the mon. I did another post last year talking more in-depth about Swanna even tho it has SOME outdated info there but should help somewhat.

Thanks for reading yall.

 

[Tack]

everytime i try to write i full on adhd away any chance of finishing but heres a teamdump of some stuff i've been enjoying semi recently


built this for bw slam and i think i used it twice in pupl because i felt it was incredibly consistent, its a fairly basic spikes offense with duosion to checkmate some endgame lines and stoutland to make the earlygame simple, if you're doing scouting of your opponent and you're gonna try to use this my main thoughts are watch sear moveset and stoutland ability since they can be tweaked to change your matchup spread in various ways, also watch out for swanna if it gets a sub up on you the game is over a massive portion of the time


this is another fairly basic offense with the same general structure of stoutland ground, fire, psychic, arbok, i was playing vs lax in pupl for his second tour match in the tier and i wanted to keep it very simple because i start doing stupid shit when i deep think and lax is probably better in a complex game than i am. since the person building for him loved fatter structures and used frillish as the normal check too often so stoutland gets to just rip and tear often, also maro threatens an ohko on pretty much the entire tier except bronzor and can pretty easily tech enough bulk to eat at least 1 hit from functionally anything and either put up rocks or just fire back and make a pokemon or 2 explode



This is more of a fun one since i LOVE messing around with offensive articuno, since it mostly gets used for its defensive utility in the context of the tier people just end up not being ready to eat hits from it, its a very good answer to grasses if you can keep rocks off since it switfches in to all of them and gets to mash ice beam, the air balloon elec immune sub zebra is also a cool mon to mess with stunfisk since its almost always running dual stabs tox rocks, has the easy offense gluemons in stout and bem to help provide some solid pressure in most matchups

wish i had more time and wish this tier had more tours cus its honestly pretty close to peak pokemon imo

also im gonna hard +1 the thoughts on klang/zwei lpz posted

 

[Akir]

What's new in BW PU 2025?

Hello everyone, I am here to squeeze in a quick newsletter about all of the new changes to BW PU, both in tier shifts and trends, to get you hopefully caught up. A lot of ground to cover and I will try to be brief:


Swanna is banned! Now what?

Swanna was banned in a very contested vote, but as it currently stands it is banned. Swanna was a menace to stall but a helpful friend to offense. What this means for the meta is to be seen, but some people are guessing that some mons like Pelipper are going to rise and others worry about Monferno. If I had to put my money anywhere, I would guess that really only Goluck will see a meaningful spike in usage (to be touched on later), but for now I am assuming that the metagame is going to slow down further and people will feel the need to run more strong Monferno counters in the short term. Swanna was never really a Monferno switch-in so the defensive capabilities of the tier for handling the monkey stay the same, but the offensive check will be missed.


New Swannas?

As people reach for ways to make up for the loss of utility in Swanna there have been 3 names thrown around as potential "replacements". The most direct replacement is Pelipper, with the same typing and very similar movepool. If people wanted a defensive answer for Monferno, then Pelipper is a much more immediate and strong choice for the role. Offensively, however, some people have been tinkering with Agility to make Pelipper into a sweeper like in ZU and it is these results that I am personally interested in seeing play out.

Beyond immediate replacement, some people are wondering about the newest "best scarfer" and two names have been thrown out: Mr. Mime and Golduck. Mr. Mime continues the trend of powerful scarfer that resists Mach Punch, but the problem with Mime is the fact that it is exceptionally easy to wall in the early and mid games since whatever Mime locks into simply invites in different threat (Psychic invites in Shiftry, Signal invites in Muk, Focus Blast invites in Duosion, and so on). Even so, the added utility of Trick and Healing Wish - something Swanna couldn't do at all - might be enough to propel Mime to relevancy. Golduck, on the other hand, is the second scarfer considered and this one is also a Water-type that is historically slightly harder to wall. The lack of secondary STAB ends up mattering a lot, but stopping the probable Week 1-2 Sun team is also great. Ultimately if I were to guess, I would say that neither really rise to the occasion but I am excited to be wrong.


Voltturn is now AromaTurn, or HealTurn? Or maybe just Voltturn still.

One of the more interesting defining features of BW PU Offense is its reliance on Aromatherapy to keep its steam going. This allows the Voltturn to keep chugging along even with the sheer amount of status being thrown around, in particular from Stunfisk's Static. It is also surprisingly easy to slot in: Jumpluff is a mainstay on Voltturn anyway and can run Aroma, and Vileplume can carry a lot of defensive utility in a single slot so it finds a home there as well. Obviously not all offense runs Heal Bell but the ones that do are generally much stronger.


New Kids on the Block

Muk, Clefairy, and Huntail have both been around for a while but the new metagame has a light shining on the both of them in way that hasn't been the case before. Muk was finally experimented with fully and people found that if you forget about Resttalk entirely then Muk becomes an interesting Curse + 3 Attacks mon because it turns out that Muk is so bulky that Leftovers is all it arguably needs and the +1 Atk means that you pressure would-be GSI Bronzor incredibly. Clefairy is also unsurprisingly on the list after NU was too slow to scoop it up during the original BW run, and the benefits of having a SpDef wall that doesn't take hazard damage and sets rocks is immense. Both of these mons credit a huge chunk of their success to being good answers to the now-banned Swanna but I expect their utility to exist beyond the ban. Huntail has also been on the verge of being a common threat and did see success last year, but has always been kept low by common revenge killers like Swanna...who is now banned...so that means Huntail now has one less common answer and is better positioned.


Stall was Strong Before...

Stall had a hell of a start in PUPL last year, with most matches in the opening week being stall. Check out the stall sample if you want to know what most of them looked like; they were about like that. However, new meta trends of having the tier's best stallbreaker leave means that there is a lot of potential room for growth for stall. In particular, Grass-types have a genuine chance at stopping Water-types now, wow. Meganium has seen a chunk of testing as of late due to being really bulky, but its much better matchup to Golduck than to Swanna gives it more of an edge than before.


Stop using Klang

Use Zweilous instead. Functionally, outside of the Volt Switch, it is the same mon but less passive. Just try it.


Anyway I just wanted to ramble and say that Swanna is, definitely, banned. Looking forward to PUBD!

 

[AngryPidgeon]

Meganium has seen a chunk of testing as of late due to being really bulky
Huntail has also been on the verge of being a common threat

Is it finally time for screens Mega into shell Huntail?
Id be a little surprised if Huntail took off. I had a lot of faith in it and tried to run it on a few teams, but it struggled for different reasons. But on paper I love it

 

[Akir]

Is it finally time for screens Mega into shell Huntail?
Id be a little surprised if Huntail took off. I had a lot of faith in it and tried to run it on a few teams, but it struggled for different reasons. But on paper I love it

Meganium is still very niche and relatively unproven, but the main appeal it has is the fact that it resists Water and Ground at the same time while being real bulky. So I think that if Meganium is to take off, it would probably be as a part of particular stall teams. If you wanted screens, you might have more luck with Mime since Mime can also Healing Wish, but there's also Audino with Regenerator that can do it was well as Solrock which can explode.

All that being said though, I don't think Huntail really needs screens all that much. There are plenty of mons it can set up on, both passive stuff like Audino or Frillish and stuff it naturally checks and takes a hit (not that it wants to take a hit) from like Monferno. Thanks to that, all it really needs is a clean turn to press Shell Smash and plenty of Voltturn teams can do that. Just play either one turn ahead or with the reminder that Huntail is actually decently physically bulky and some opportunities should show up. Not super common, but enough to pull it off more often than not.

Setting up with Huntail isn't necessarily the issue anyway, it is the payoff that is the issue. Not having Sucker Punch sucks so much for the mon it is insane. So it is easy for revenge killers to chip it down and kill. Basically every scarfer in the format can outspeed it. That is the main thing I was trying to hit on: Huntail has the same amount of opportunities to set up but one less way to get revenge killed so it comes out as a winner in the shift.

Either way, I figure people might be trying to make it work to fill the gap that Swanna left behind. Interested to see what happens