Hi, since this OM's gonna be finishing up within a few days, I wanted to do one last write-up of things I found really, REALLY strong or omnipresent, since this is easily the OM I've dumped the most games into. This might be one of the simpler OMs, but y'all did a stellar job at making it as fun as possible.
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Koko's REALLY strong, and a lot of teams almost carry a mandatory Koko resist or check - Ferrothorn was the most common, but Kartana (for Volt Switch variants), Lando-T, Toxtricity, and Nidoqueen were also seen. Other electrics were also popular - Zeraora and Magnezone being the main two - but Koko stands out for its speed, Electric Terrain (enables Acrobatics Celesteela and Tornadus-Therian), and ability to just slot in U-Turn to do 50% to Kartana and pivot out of Lando and Nidoqueen. Lots of checks also are reliant on Koko not running Thunder over Thunderbolt, as Koko tends to turn 3HKOs into 2HKOs rather frequently. Ferrothorn stops being a switchin if it is even around 50% around Thunder Koko, since it takes minimum 30.9% on Specially Defensive sets. There were a few rogue Screens Kokos roaming about, and just added to Koko's innate threat level when it sets up Reflect on your Nidoqueen and you're suddenly on the backfoot.
The other electrics really do no favors, since Zeraora carries an even better speed tier and coverage to hit the Grounds, and Magnezone makes as effective a Ferrothorn deleter as ever and stops Kartana almost completely with Body Press, making an electric resist or immune just about mandatory.
In a surprise to exactly 0 people who played on the ladder, Dragon Dance Hurricane spam was absolutely terrifying, and often carried the ability to straight up win games because of just how strong it is. Dragonite's the best of the bunch - Multiscale saves it from being directly OHKO'd by Koko before a boost, and carries the same coverage of the other two. Salamence trades Multiscale for Moxie and a speed tier meaning it can run Adamant over Jolly to outspeed Koko at +1 (Dragonite hits 384 with Adamant, versus Koko's 394.)
If you're going to test one of them, test Dragonite; Multiscale makes it a versatile nuker who doesn't care about the gamestate with Boots or can outright win games with Lum to block Scald/Thunder Wave. Salamence is scary, but I never found it to get anywhere once it got walled once, and Gyarados, while also intimidating, suffers from an even worse 4x weakness and lacks Salamence's speed.
(there's a re[play of Hurricanespam, but I put them below in the Rain section.)
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Rain's fun. Pelliper is a great rain setter who has enough physical bulk to reliably switch in to most of the OM, including Nidoqueen (although you eat 70% from Sludge Wave on switch-in.) Rain's got a variety of great abusers across the type spectrum - Swift Swim Omastar and Kingdra were popular for instantly deleting teams, Tapu Koko gets to freely use its strongest STAB option, and the Dragon Dancers appreciate Hurricane becoming the best move in their kits. The real problem with Rain is Pelipper is either running Damp Rock to maximize weather turns, in which case Stealth Rock completely cripples it, or Heavy Duty Boots, in which case the benefits of rain are significantly reduced.
Sun also gets a special mention for, despite having a significantly worse weather setter, an excellent matchup against most of Rain's best abusers thanks to Grass types fearing nothing aside from Hurricanespam. Leafeon is an excellent mon with a variety of great matchups and Weather Ball for the Steels that normally plague it, giving it excellent coverage. It's also a free instakill on Tapu Koko if you're so inclined.
Thanks to Drampa's Grandpa for
being based informing me of Kartana. Kartana carries the same excellent defensive typing as Ferrothorn, but comes with the benefit of the best instakill button in the game, +1 Steel Beam. There is no safe switchin. Ferrothorn who switch in to Thunder Wave, if Kartana has boosts, will just eat a comedic amount of damage. Volcarona, as seen above, is hilariously OHKO'd by the little paper death machine. Vacuum Wave rounds out the standard set, as a form of priority great for cleaning up games (but sadly not hitting Gengar or Marshadow.) Synthesis is an option for if you just really hate Ferrothorn's existence, as is Substitute to punish Thunder Wave, although you do absolutely nothing in return.
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 226-268 (64.2 - 76.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Kartana Steel Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 174-206 (49.4 - 58.5%) -- 68.8% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Kartana Steel Beam vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Celesteela: 284-334 (71.5 - 84.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+1 252 Atk Kartana Steel Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Volcarona: 312-368 (100.3 - 118.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 Atk Kartana Steel Beam vs. 248 HP / 156 Def Volcarona: 337-397 (90.3 - 106.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Kartana Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 169-199 (55.5 - 65.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
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Sticky Webs were also really popular and devastating if you lacked a good spinner or defogger, especially the suicide leads who could get reasonable damage off before dying. Araquanid has the best defensive profile thanks to great bulk, a typing that resists every STAB Ground-user in the OM, and one of the strongest Scalds along with packing Ice Beam to deter Dragons. Galvantula is the fastest, but it lost Energy Ball, making it worse against Lando, Nidoqueen, and others. Gaining Special Sucker Punch is nice, but if you want a fast Webber, Orbeetle exists. Orbeetle was the second most common (behind Araq) and the most successful, thanks to a great speed tier with good bulk, and utility in the form of Trick, Screens, Recover, and Body Press.
Lots of the best wallbreakers in the tier, namely Blacephalon and Nidoqueen who I saw on a few Orbeetle teams, appreciate the faster mons in the tier being slowed to their level or far below it. Flame Charge Blacephalon with Sticky Webs is a sight to behold as it casually nukes an entire team, and Nidoqueen can flex her attempt to replicate Nidoking's success. I even saw a rogue Arctozolt running around ladder earlier, was pretty funny.
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and a (dis)honorary mention to the two mons that absolutely failed!
Sylveon suffers from being the most one-dimensional mon in Category Swap, basically only running Last Resort sets. While Sylveon
is by no means a weak mon, doing the same thing every time means that players will catch on to your gimmick, and Ferrothorn's ubiquity does it no favors. Quick Attack was more successful than Protect sets were, but that really says nothing. It's like asking what console Balan Wonderland runs best on (stolen joke, hurrah!) A friend who was playing the tier found it amusing
Rillaboom... sucks. It does nothing the other Grass types can't do significantly better, since having a powerful Boomburst and Leaf Storm can't make up for lacking Knock Off, a much weaker U-Turn, and losing out on the best tool it has in OU, Grassy Glide. Kartana with its limited movepool and Zarude with its mediocre movepool do a much better job with vastly better stats and typings that would make Camomons Rillaboom blush, and even specialists like Leafeon saw some good success on the ladder. If nothing else, it
can work, since the strongest Grass STAB for Category Swap, Boomburst, and Earth Power for coverage does the job well enough, but you've got a lot of other, better options that offer more. It's sort of insane how much losing a great STAB Priority move decimated Rillaboom and how it just never did anything of note in games I played.
(and please remove the Slurpuff info from the first post, please!)
