Approved by Aragorn the King
One of the most important things to take into account when teambuilding is to have good hazards control. But what is good hazards control?
Entry hazards are moves that give pokemon that switch in a disadvantage. This can be a little loss of health (Spikes, Stealth Rock) losing speed (Sticky Web) or getting a status (Toxic Spikes) What moves and abilities apply to hazards control and what pokemon can use these moves or abilities?
Stealth Rock
Stealth Rock is the most common entry hazard. Stealth Rock always inflicts damage when the opponent switches in, except if the pokemon has the ability Magic Guard. 'Rocks' damage alternate between 1/32 of the pokemons health to 1/2 of the pokemons health, depending on the weakness to a Rock Type move. Another reason this move is very common is because many pokemon can learn this move, with almost every team having at least 1 pokemon able to learn this move.
Spikes
The second most used entry hazard is Spikes. Unlike Stealth Rocks, Spikes does not take resists into account when doing damage. However, a pokemon that has an immunity to ground type attacks does not take any Spikes damage. Spikes can be layed in 3 layers. The first layer deals 1/8 of the pokemons health when switching in, the second layer does a total of 1/6 health and with 3 layers the pokemon that switches in loses 1/4 of his health. The amount of pokemon that can learn Spikes is significantly lower than the amount of pokemon that can learn Stealth Rock, but it is still a pretty common entry hazard
Toxic Spikes
A more uncommon form of entry hazards is Toxic Spikes. Toxic Spikes is uncommon because it doesn't effect a huge part of the metagame. Just like Spikes, pokemon with a ground immunity can't get poisoned by the Toxic Spikes. Steel Types and Poison Types also have an immunity to Toxic Spikes. A grounded poison type pokemon will absorb the Toxic Spikes on their side of the field, so the use of Defog or Rapid Spin is not needed. Toxic Spikes can also be layed in multiple layers. One layer poisons the pokemon that switches into Toxic Spikes and with two layers the pokemon becomes badly poisoned. The amount of Toxic Spikes setters is very small and with the flaws this entry hazards have it makes an uncommon entry hazard.
Against offensive teams, it is usually better to only have 1 layer of Toxic Spikes on the field instead of two, because the damage from badly poison is only higher than the damage of regular poison after 4 turns. In many situations offensive pokemon are not longer than 4 turns on the field.
Sticky Web
The least common entry hazard is Sticky Web because the amount of Sticky Web setters is restricted to only Shuckle (Smeargle and Galvantula suck) Sticky web decreases the speed of every grounded pokemon with 1 stage. The biggest flaw of Sticky Web are the setters. Galvantula and Smeargle are both pretty bad Sticky Web setters, and even if they succeed to set Sticky Web they don't do much otherwise and they can only be used once. Shuckle is a more reliable Sticky Web setter because it has Sturdy, so he is guaranteed to get Sticky Web up. However, Shuckle lacks recovery so he often can do its job only once.
Defog
Defog is the most common way to remove entry hazards. Defog clears all entry hazards on both sides of the field, while also removing Reflect and Light Screen on the targets side. Defog users fit on every achetype, such as Stall (Zapdos, Skarmory) and weather offense (Lati@s) However, Defog has its downsides. Taunt prevents the use of Defog and a pokemon with Defiant or Competitive as ability will get a +2 boost in their attack or special attack, because Defog also has a secondary effect which gives the pokemon that is affected by Defog get a drop in their evasion stat. The evasion drop also works counterproductive against Serperior, who gets a +1 boost in its evasion.
Rapid Spin
Another way to remove hazards is by using the move Rapid Spin. Rapid Spin only removes the hazards on the users side, keeping the hazards on the opponents side intact. Rapid Spin cannot be taunted. However, Rapid Spin can be blocked by ghost types, because it is a normal type move. Furthermore, Rapid Spin does not remove hazards when the user dies after using the move (if it is at low HP and Life Orb, Rough Skin, Rocky Helmet or Iron Barbs make the user faint) Also, there are only a few Rapid Spin users, so it it not as easy to slap on your team as a Defog user.
Defiant + Competitive
While there are not any good Competitive users in OU, there are two good Defiant users: Bisharp and Thundurus. What is Defiant exactly? Defiant gives the pokemon a +2 boost to their attack stat when one of their stats gets a drop. The use of Defog has a secondary effect which decreases the users evasion, so the Defiant user gets a +2 boost in their attack stat. Sticky Web's speed drop also gives the Bisharp a +2 Attack Boots (Thundurus is a flying type so it is not affected by Sticky Web)
Magic Bounce
Magic Bounce is an ability that bounces back almost every non-damaging move. Entry hazards are moves that are bounced back so the hazards user can't get up their hazards succesfully. Magic Bounce also reflects moves like Taunt, Defog and Toxic, which are all common moves on hazards users. Magic Bounce can be avoided by simply forcing the user out with a strong attack or a secondary status on one of the attacks, but there are also moves and abilities such as Mold Breaker and Skill Swap which are used to get hazards up against Magic Bounce users. Magic Coat has the same effect has Magic Bounce, but the amount of viable users is very small and Magic Coat costs a moveslot. Magic Coat users also can't freely switch in to prevent stealth rocks because they need to do the move first and the effect of magic coat only works the turn itself, so you can't keep hazards off consistently.
Taunt
Taunt is a pretty interesting move that has pretty much use on teams that don't like hazards. Taunt prevents the pokemon from using a non-damaging move, so it cancels moves like Stealth Rock and Spikes. It also stops Defog, so the opponent is not able to remove the hazards on the field. Taunt is a move that is pretty common and it should definitely be taken into account if you use a defogger.
Spinblockers
Spinblockers are not really common and they are not really a big deal when building teams, especially because the most common rapid spin users (Starmie and Excadrill) don't really have problems with the spinblockers. LO Analytic Starmie OHKO's Gengar and 2HKO's Mega Sableye and Excadrill under sand or with Scarf Mold Breaker can outspeed and OHKO Gengar. A pseudo-spinblocker (Rocky Helmet Garchomp or Rocky Helmet Ferrothorn) can stop the spinner if it is at low health, because Rapid Spin will not remove entry hazards if the user is KO'd by recoil.
Suicide Lead
A common way to get hazards up is by using a Suicide Lead. A suicide lead is a pokemon used for setting up any kind of hazards - often Stealth Rock - and die afterwards, often by using a move that blocks the defog and rapid spin (if a pokemon uses explosion and the opponent uses defog, it will fail because there is no target) such as Explosion or Brave Bird. Common suicide leads are Azelf, Skarmory and Mamoswine.
Other
There are also other ways hazards have an impact on the metagame.
*Anti Leads are pokemon that prevent the opposing pokémon from setting their hazards. This is especially useful when you use pokemon weak to stealth rocks as teammates. Some good antileads are Mega Sableye (Magic Bounce bounces hazards back while Sableye beats almost any stealth rock setter 1v1) Mega Lopunny (Fake Out + Ice Punch / Return / HJK is able to beat many leads because Fake Out breaks Sturdy and Sashes and the good coverage in Return and HJK can kill many stealth rock users such as Tyranitar and Azelf in 1 turn) and Breloom (a combination of a strong coverage move and Spore helps Breloom past many slower leads like Hippowdon and slow variants of Heatran)
*Entry hazards may force your team to run coverage so you are able to beat many hazards setters. For example Sand teams are usually weak to Spikestacking, because the most common hazard remover is Excadrill, who is easily worn down by Spikes + LO Recoil to a point where it is unable to sweep. The most common Spikes setters are Ferrothorn and Skarmory, who are both weak to fire. Luring these pokemon in with Fire Blast Tyranitar for example can keep the Spikes off the field. A similar situation applies to teams that are very weak to Toxic Spikes. Using lures for poison types can prevent the Toxic Spikes setters from doing their job.
*Hazard stacking is a popular strategy and is often used to wear down checks so a teammate can clean up the game. Hazard stacking is often used with Voltturn (pokemon such as Mega Manectric force switches and with a combination of Spikes this easily gets a lot op chip damage on the opposing walls) and phazing moves (Whirlwind, Roar and Dragon Tail will force the opponent to switch into a randomly chosen target. This is another way to easily wear down the opponents team)
A common example of this strategy was seen in the XY metagame where a core of Landorus-Therian and Mega Manectric was used very often. Landorus-Therian can switch in against a Heatran and force it out with a deadly Earthquake. If the opponent goes to a Ferrothorn for example, Landorus-T can U-Turn to Mega Manectric and put pressure on the Ferrothorn. If in this example there is 1 layer of spikes and stealth rocks up, both Heatran and Ferrothorn now have taken 25% of their health with the momentum for the Mega Manectric user. With the weakened Heatran and Ferrothorn, pokemon such as Clefable and Kyurem-B will later be able to clean up the game.
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Feel free to discuss any of the above mentioned moves and abilities and pokemon that can use one of these succesfully. What are good anti leads and which pokemon should you not use to set up a certain entry hazard? You can also discuss what the general impact is on the metagame (the viability of Charizards, Talonflame, Dragonite etc.)
Also, this is not a thread to discuss a Stealth Rock suspect.
One of the most important things to take into account when teambuilding is to have good hazards control. But what is good hazards control?
Entry hazards are moves that give pokemon that switch in a disadvantage. This can be a little loss of health (Spikes, Stealth Rock) losing speed (Sticky Web) or getting a status (Toxic Spikes) What moves and abilities apply to hazards control and what pokemon can use these moves or abilities?
Against offensive teams, it is usually better to only have 1 layer of Toxic Spikes on the field instead of two, because the damage from badly poison is only higher than the damage of regular poison after 4 turns. In many situations offensive pokemon are not longer than 4 turns on the field.
The least common entry hazard is Sticky Web because the amount of Sticky Web setters is restricted to only Shuckle (Smeargle and Galvantula suck) Sticky web decreases the speed of every grounded pokemon with 1 stage. The biggest flaw of Sticky Web are the setters. Galvantula and Smeargle are both pretty bad Sticky Web setters, and even if they succeed to set Sticky Web they don't do much otherwise and they can only be used once. Shuckle is a more reliable Sticky Web setter because it has Sturdy, so he is guaranteed to get Sticky Web up. However, Shuckle lacks recovery so he often can do its job only once.
While there are not any good Competitive users in OU, there are two good Defiant users: Bisharp and Thundurus. What is Defiant exactly? Defiant gives the pokemon a +2 boost to their attack stat when one of their stats gets a drop. The use of Defog has a secondary effect which decreases the users evasion, so the Defiant user gets a +2 boost in their attack stat. Sticky Web's speed drop also gives the Bisharp a +2 Attack Boots (Thundurus is a flying type so it is not affected by Sticky Web)
Magic Bounce is an ability that bounces back almost every non-damaging move. Entry hazards are moves that are bounced back so the hazards user can't get up their hazards succesfully. Magic Bounce also reflects moves like Taunt, Defog and Toxic, which are all common moves on hazards users. Magic Bounce can be avoided by simply forcing the user out with a strong attack or a secondary status on one of the attacks, but there are also moves and abilities such as Mold Breaker and Skill Swap which are used to get hazards up against Magic Bounce users. Magic Coat has the same effect has Magic Bounce, but the amount of viable users is very small and Magic Coat costs a moveslot. Magic Coat users also can't freely switch in to prevent stealth rocks because they need to do the move first and the effect of magic coat only works the turn itself, so you can't keep hazards off consistently.
Taunt is a pretty interesting move that has pretty much use on teams that don't like hazards. Taunt prevents the pokemon from using a non-damaging move, so it cancels moves like Stealth Rock and Spikes. It also stops Defog, so the opponent is not able to remove the hazards on the field. Taunt is a move that is pretty common and it should definitely be taken into account if you use a defogger.
Spinblockers are not really common and they are not really a big deal when building teams, especially because the most common rapid spin users (Starmie and Excadrill) don't really have problems with the spinblockers. LO Analytic Starmie OHKO's Gengar and 2HKO's Mega Sableye and Excadrill under sand or with Scarf Mold Breaker can outspeed and OHKO Gengar. A pseudo-spinblocker (Rocky Helmet Garchomp or Rocky Helmet Ferrothorn) can stop the spinner if it is at low health, because Rapid Spin will not remove entry hazards if the user is KO'd by recoil.
There are also other ways hazards have an impact on the metagame.
*Anti Leads are pokemon that prevent the opposing pokémon from setting their hazards. This is especially useful when you use pokemon weak to stealth rocks as teammates. Some good antileads are Mega Sableye (Magic Bounce bounces hazards back while Sableye beats almost any stealth rock setter 1v1) Mega Lopunny (Fake Out + Ice Punch / Return / HJK is able to beat many leads because Fake Out breaks Sturdy and Sashes and the good coverage in Return and HJK can kill many stealth rock users such as Tyranitar and Azelf in 1 turn) and Breloom (a combination of a strong coverage move and Spore helps Breloom past many slower leads like Hippowdon and slow variants of Heatran)
*Entry hazards may force your team to run coverage so you are able to beat many hazards setters. For example Sand teams are usually weak to Spikestacking, because the most common hazard remover is Excadrill, who is easily worn down by Spikes + LO Recoil to a point where it is unable to sweep. The most common Spikes setters are Ferrothorn and Skarmory, who are both weak to fire. Luring these pokemon in with Fire Blast Tyranitar for example can keep the Spikes off the field. A similar situation applies to teams that are very weak to Toxic Spikes. Using lures for poison types can prevent the Toxic Spikes setters from doing their job.
*Hazard stacking is a popular strategy and is often used to wear down checks so a teammate can clean up the game. Hazard stacking is often used with Voltturn (pokemon such as Mega Manectric force switches and with a combination of Spikes this easily gets a lot op chip damage on the opposing walls) and phazing moves (Whirlwind, Roar and Dragon Tail will force the opponent to switch into a randomly chosen target. This is another way to easily wear down the opponents team)
A common example of this strategy was seen in the XY metagame where a core of Landorus-Therian and Mega Manectric was used very often. Landorus-Therian can switch in against a Heatran and force it out with a deadly Earthquake. If the opponent goes to a Ferrothorn for example, Landorus-T can U-Turn to Mega Manectric and put pressure on the Ferrothorn. If in this example there is 1 layer of spikes and stealth rocks up, both Heatran and Ferrothorn now have taken 25% of their health with the momentum for the Mega Manectric user. With the weakened Heatran and Ferrothorn, pokemon such as Clefable and Kyurem-B will later be able to clean up the game.
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Feel free to discuss any of the above mentioned moves and abilities and pokemon that can use one of these succesfully. What are good anti leads and which pokemon should you not use to set up a certain entry hazard? You can also discuss what the general impact is on the metagame (the viability of Charizards, Talonflame, Dragonite etc.)
Also, this is not a thread to discuss a Stealth Rock suspect.
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