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New OU List (and various other stats)

I don't claim that this is the reason for why the Standard and Suspect metagames seem to have different Pokemon, but the following is what I believe is the reason: Standard is played by practically every player in the Smogon server, while Suspect is only played by the 'expert' players. Until we have weighted stats, this theory will only be speculation, though. Doug seems to be reluctant to implement weighted stats, though... although he has valid reasons for not implementing them.
 
Spiritomb vs. Rotoms is basically a preference between no Weakness and more Resistances.
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No it is a little more complicated than that. The Rotoms have decent speed and an offensive movepool actually worth boasting about, whilst Spiritomb has stat-up moves, strong priority and a decent Attack stat.

Even ignoring all this, that first point is very significant. A wide range of resistances is far more useful than simply no weaknesses in the current metagame, where many things can hit ridiculously hard for only neutral damage. Rotom's resistances allow it to effectively counter many potent OU threats, and will often be capable of OHKOing back with the right move, sometimes even outrunning the opponent too. Spiritomb is limited to Porygon-Z and several Ghost/Psychic types as far as reliable countering is concerned, but even then may struggle to hit back hard enough, although the ability to trap kill with Pursuit can often be an important advantage. Both have their ups and downs but I personally deem Rotom to be more suited to the current environment.

I can't think of a good reason for Mismagius' popularity in Suspect though. I'd appreciate it if somebody could shed some light on this one.
 
Kitamerby said:
Ninjask is widely believed to be the "best" baton passer in the game. Its his reputation, not necessarily how good it is that I think causes it to always be in OU. >>
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A large number of the OUs I would call "noob pokemon." I know that's quite an odd handle, but I'm going to make the bold statement that Ninajaks and Electivire are two common pokemon that are used a lot as a lot of newer players see their good points more than their bad points. The point is they are easily counterable but work reasonably well on paper. I believe at one point Smogon was considering opnly counting pokemon that had won battles in the statistics for the OU list in order to cut out this form of statistical noise.
 
I'm not exactly sure how Donphan seems to be scraping OU this month. It seems people still use Rapid Spinners not named Tentacruel.

I guess I've been one to raise Electivire's usage a little.
 
This came out exactly as I expected, except for Gallade, which I haven't seen at all the past month.

Nothing too surprising here.
 
Roserade drop is somewhat expected. With the Taunt Azelf / Aerodactyl & Fake Out + Fire Blast Infernape leads the Sleep Powder / Toxic Spikes @ Sash lead was bound to see decreased usage and Roserade dropping reflects that. I've just resorted to using Toxic Spikes Roserade later in the game or just Leaf Storming first turn then switching to T-Tar or going to Starmie on Infernape or something like that. It's still usable but I think it's more difficult then most people want to bother with.

Milotic's drop was expected. It can't really wall much of anything besides Heatran and to some extent Gyarados. Vaporeon just seems to largely outclass it since it carries Wish support. The drop in Hypnosis accuracy is probably responsible as well.

I have no explanation to offer for Spiritomb's drop. Spiritomb is just as good as it always was. I'd conjecture that it is because of the Rotom-appliance addition that caused the Spiritomb drop but I still contend that Spiritomb is the most reliable anti-spinner in the game. The lack of Pursuit weakness is huge to me and I'll always prefer Spiritomb to Rotom-appliance if being used as a defensive anti-spinner. However, I suppose CM Spiritomb or Rest-Talk Spiritomb is largely set-up fodder for Lucario and Scizor so that may be why people are shying away from it. WoW should be enough to scare them off though. I'm just really baffled by this one.

Gengar's drop is "wow". I didn't think Hypnosis drop in accuracy would effect it this much but I guess it has. Possibly Scizor coming into play has hurt it as well but I can't imagine it being that significant to Gengar's drop.

At least the shaymin-s hype is over.

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I'm excited to see the most under-rated UU Pokemon in the "OU" of UU, that being Articuno. Finally other people are catching on to what a huge threat Articuno is in the UU metagame (Stealth Rock can go to hell). Possibly it's because people are starting to see the potential of SubRoost Articuno (50% of Articuno run 200+ Speed EVs according to DJDs stats so I can only assume they are using my SubRoost set).

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Mismagius on the Suspect Ladder is surprising really. I was using it on my Suspect Ladder team but I don't recall running into anyone else using Mismagius. Obviously it wasn't just me that got it up there, but I'm just wondering who else was using it since I didn't see it at all.
 
Taylor said:
It looks like Obi's presentation of his defensive team was released a little too late to positively influence Spiritomb usages. I am suprised with Spiritomb's drop, given the gradual popularity in defensive teams.

As always, thank you, X-Act, for your greatly appreciated work.
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This is probably a result of metagame stratification (higher rungs vs lower rungs of the ladder) but I have hardly seen any shift towards stallish play (I suck, so I'm not exactly a great barometer). As good as Obi's team is, I can't seem to wrap my mind around how it could be that successful in a Trick-happy environment such as the post-Platinum metagame. If anything, it seems like Obi's repost of his stall team just resulted in a surge of players trying out the team for the first time. With so many teams packing TrickScarfers (sometimes two!), I can't see how defensive teams can keep up in the long haul.

Please feel free to enlighten me on this potential shift from offensive play to more defensive play.
 
Milotic in bl? Put her back where she belongs!
Trust me, Milotic can take out anything in BL and OU. Yay. Lets all cheer. We no longer have a great beautiful godly water type.
 
Little Green Yoda said:
This is probably a result of metagame stratification (higher rungs vs lower rungs of the ladder) but I have hardly seen any shift towards stallish play (I suck, so I'm not exactly a great barometer). As good as Obi's team is, I can't seem to wrap my mind around how it could be that successful in a Trick-happy environment such as the post-Platinum metagame. If anything, it seems like Obi's repost of his stall team just resulted in a surge of players trying out the team for the first time. With so many teams packing TrickScarfers (sometimes two!), I can't see how defensive teams can keep up in the long haul.

Please feel free to enlighten me on this potential shift from offensive play to more defensive play.
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Regardless of whether I encounter defensively-based teams on the ladder - incidentally I often do - threads, around Stark Mountain, particulary in the RMT sub-forum, stall-type teams are becomming favorable. Whether this be by my own experiences on the ladder, and coincidentally I end up with a defensive opposition, I do not know; however, I tend to favor that I meet these teams more and more through a definate increase in usage, and not a freakish coincidence.

Take Brawley's "What style are you most comforatble with?". In this thread, there is a suprisingly capacious ammount of choice towards stall. Of course with a thread widely responded to, you're bound to recieve many votes for each style. But I don't discount the fact that there are many players, who favor stall remarkably, claim that they constantly play on the ladder with stall teams with great success.

With Obi's latest, most popular RMT thread currently active, I am not suprised why we may encounter a replica used by someone else.

It is imperative that I understand why you'd be uncertain with what I claimed, as it is not ostensible.
 
Shinymilotic13 said:
Milotic in bl? Put her back where she belongs!
Trust me, Milotic can take out anything in BL and OU. Yay. Lets all cheer. We no longer have a great beautiful godly water type.
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Start using her like mad and convince others to do the same. This way, she may return to OU in no time.

And why people get so upset when their favorite pokémon end up BL? You can still use it.

EDIT: Great, I wasted my 3k post talking about Milotic's downfall.
 
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