TEAMBUILDER ISSUES; and what to do about it
We have had the opportunity to get accustomed to the post-Mega Alakazam metagame for two days now, and it is already apparent that persistent teambuilder issues from the previous metagame have carried over, and even, I daresay, worsened, to the point where balance and bulky offensive teams have to pick and choose what they want to cover with their defensive slots, and what matchups they will essentially need to avoid. In other words, the metagame is increasingly devolving into a state where games are decided by matchup alone. There are several culprits to blame for this anomaly in balance, which I will outline below in no particular order.
Mega Metagross is as problematic as ever, continuing to demand extensive attention in the teambuilder and centralizing it to quite an extent. Notably, Toxic sets have blossomed more visibly ever since its suspect test, making the formula to check it even more complicated than it already was. Up to this day, the only reliably splashable hard-checks remain the Toxic-prone Hippowdon and physically defensive Tangrowth on bulky offense and balance, and the fairly exploitable Mega Scizor on bulky balance, with a limited pool of additional soft-checks in Slowbro, Alomomola, and Rocky Helmet Reuniclus. Moreover, combined with its hax potential and the presence of common teammates that pressure these checks well, Garchomp and Urshifu being prime examples, Mega Metagross is often capable of pressuring its counterplay into oblivion in the long run regardless, making it all the more overbearing.
Ash-Greninja is another such threat with a limited pool of viable and contemporarily realistic counterplay options, merely consisting of Tapu Fini and Toxapex (which needs to be paired with backup Dark-resistant Pokemon if forgoing Baneful Bunker) on bulky offense and balance, and Chansey on bulky balance and stall. The fact that Ash-Greninja often mandates at least two slots in order to take it on inherently adds pressure to the teambuilder, and this is even more problematic in a metagame where teams are strapped for slots as is.
View attachment 255601
Urshifu-Single-Strike lacks relevant counters, period. The only somewhat reliable short-term defensive soft-checks are Clefable, and Tapu Fini to an even lesser extent, and this is not even considering the fact that Urshifu needs a singular correct Poison Jab prediction to break through these, or the fact that it can simply U-turn into Mega Metagross. Personally, the only balance team compositions I have built that can somewhat take on Urshifu defensively are Toxapex + Clefable teams, and even this particular core struggles against it long-term. A Choice Band-boosted Wicked Blow is an extremely risk-free move, forcing out plenty of defensive staples and picking up 2HKO’s on the bulkiest of Pokemon such as Hippowdon, physically defensive Toxapex, Alomomola, Tangrowth, and Mega Scizor after Stealth Rock. Unseen Fist may also not be ignored, as it allows Urshifu to break through very relevant trends such as Baneful Bunker Toxapex, Unaware Clefable, and Alomomola, and it makes Urshifu very hard to scout since the likes of Protect Heatran and Ferrothorn fail to do so. Obviously, this results into added strain in the teambuilder, as defensive counterplay is so limited.
As of right now, Tornadus-T lacks true counters as well, other than Zapdos and the incredibly niche Tapu Koko. Its phenomenal resiliency courtesy of Regenerator paired with Knock Off means it can naturally outlast many Flying-resistant Pokemon, such as Heatran and Rotom-H. Heat Wave allows it to lure and weaken several additional ones in Mega Metagross and Magearna. U-turn and Z-Focus Blast allows it to overwhelm Mega Tyranitar, either in the long term or directly. Taunt takes advantage of and beats the only consistent answer to the aforementioned sets, i.e. Toxapex. All things considered, Tornadus-T is one of the trickiest threats to account for, and therefore a major influencing force in the teambuilder as well.
Galarian Darmanitan still mandates the use of at least one bulky Water-type from an already shallow pool to begin with, consisting of Toxapex, Tapu Fini, Slowbro, or Alomomola. Moreover, running Toxapex or Tapu Fini mandates the use of an additional teammate that can punish a Galarian Darmanitan locked into Earthquake, which makes it comparable to Ash-Greninja in the sense that it very often requires two slots to be accounted for properly, condensing the teambuilder quite significantly in this scenario.
Mega Lopunny has always been infamous for its stellar matchup against offense. In addition, it was capable of making progress against balanced teams as well if it chose to drop Quick Attack for Toxic, which overall made it the second best Mega Evolution in the tier. However, with a brand new toy in U-turn in the DLC metagame, it is now capable of directly grabbing momentum against its checks and counters in a much more punishing fashion than Toxic, as it can now bring in dangerous wallbreakers into battle in a very risk-free manner. Kyurem is perhaps the most dangerous wallbreaker that benefits from this, easily dismantling some of Mega Lopunny's premier checks in Tangrowth, Slowbro, Toxapex, and Hippowdon. This is particularly troublesome in the context of the teambuilder, as there's just very little that can consistently handle Kyurem in the first place, essentially boiling down to Clefable, Mega Scizor, and Volcarona. Notably, Mega Alakazam's departure has also taken away one of the best ways to pressure Mega Lopunny teams, further worsening the situation.
Dragapult has proven to be nigh impossible to check once it gets into a good position mid- to late-game for many builds, which basically boils down to every single build other than Mega Tyranitar balance, Mandibuzz / Ditto bulky balance / semi-stall, and Unaware Clefable (semi-)stall. Not running either of these options, which you often will as they are not the most conventional options available to us, means you will need to either play aggressively so as to not give Dragapult a convenient opportunity to set up a Dragon Dance, or outplay your opponent in a series of predictions where you will ideally have to stomach the Z-Move with your physically bulky Pokemon, bait Phantom Force with a Dragon-resistant Pokemon, and directly switch into your Ghost-resistant Pokemon to kill it the turn it hits you with Phantom Force. In other words, quite a bit of thought must often be dedicated to Dragapult when building a team, resulting in further constriction.
Garchomp is another threat you must seek to pressure whenever playing against it, as traditional counterplay to physical attackers, such as Slowbro and physically defensive Tangrowth, fold to a boosted Devastating Drake, or even a Continental Crush after some chip. Luckily, Garchomp often serves a few defensive niches as well, such as being a Heatran / Rotom-H pivot, which will give you opportunities to limit its progress in the long run by pushing damage / status inflictions on it. Nevertheless, it remains a fearsome wallbreaker that has no true defensive counters in ideal circumstances, and therefore something that needs to be somewhat accounted for by your defensive slots.
Libero Cinderace's unwelcome arrival came at a time where our bulky Water-types were being pressured severely already by Galarian Darmanitan and either Ash-Greninja or Mega Metagross. After its drop, Cinderace added insult to injury, invalidating the established Tangrowth + Tapu Fini builds by virtue of Gunk Shot, pressuring Toxapex and Slowbro significantly well along with Ash-Greninja and Mega Metagross, respectively, and limiting traditional counterplay to Fire-types in general with Choice Band, or a boosted Dark Hole Eclipse / Shattered Psyche, leaving Hippowdon as the only somewhat reliable check to all sets. Obviously, it has made a splash on the teambuilder as a result.
Nothing is more annoying then building a team and being satisfied about it, only to get cleaned by the first Dracovish that shows up in ladder in your attempt to test it. This particularly holds true for specially defensive Toxapex + Hippowdon cores, which do not have the means to handle a Choice Scarf Dracovish under rain at all. It's not something you can convincingly ignore either, as Rain is still the best hyper offensive playstyle in the metagame, although they do tend to forego Dracovish for Ash-Greninja or Manaphy in most instances.
All of the above has resulted into bulky balances and (semi-)stall builds being one of, if not the, most reliable builds as of now, as you can afford to dedicate more slots to cover as many threats as possible. However, even these builds are inherently restricted in the teambuilder, with the culprit in this case being:
The single best stallbreaker our metagame has to offer easily slices apart every single one of these bulky builds that has the guts to forego Clear Smog Gastrodon. It is quite possibly the number one threat to the defensive metagame as a result, and a nigh impossibility to defensively account for in our teambuilder.
All of these threats combined, in addition to several other ones such as Nasty Plot Hydreigon, Z-Move Heatran, and Rotom-H, make this metagame a quite unhealthy one to build in, and as a result, it is very clear further action needs to be taken in order to restore balance to an extent again. What do you think needs addressal foremost? Please feel free to elaborate on this issue here.
