Metagame NP: RU Stage 17: Try Again / Do It Again (Shaymin and Slurpuff banned, Tangrowth up to OU)

[MrAldo]

Welp, new metagame, new possibilities but many people including myself wonder... what happens with steelix?

Reminder that regular steelix always had the potential of being viable but mega steelix being so goddamn good and the opportunity cost of not running it was too much. Now that it is banned, you dont have much of a choice if you want to use steelix since it still has merits stopping magneton better than other ground types.

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP / 128 Atk / 140 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head
- Toxic
- Earthquake

This spread is extremely experimental and not too sold on it since Im still looking for the most optimal benchmarks. Unlike mega steelix, regular steelix needs to invest a considerable amount on spdef to not get blown back by Pokemon like Meloetta and magneton so yeah. The spdef evs make meloetta STAB moves all a 3hko and specs flash cannon/hp grass a guaranteed 3hko (means you survive 2), attack investment is enough to 2hko meloetta with earthquake after rocks, and OHKO mega glalie with iron head after rocks. Usable y/y. Now to other sets!!

Steelix @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Tail
- Crunch / Thunder Fang
- Earthquake

This set is extremely hilarious. Sheer force boosted iron tail is so goddamn strong, omg.

252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Steelix Iron Tail vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Solid Rock Rhyperior: 271-322 (62.5 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Steelix Iron Tail vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Druddigon: 175-208 (48.8 - 58.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Etc, etc. Walls of calcs arent funny, but yeah, you get the idea. Crunch is mainly for slowking and jellicent, you maul them (literally and figuratively, but only if they arent colbur sadly...)

Steelix @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 80 HP / 252 SpA / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power

It looks memey as fuck, but sheer force taught me that mons with a mediocre special attack that have this ability would be strong (nidoking, nidoqueen) and if you have a strong special attack stat you would be "wtf, my switch-ins?!" (mega camerupt, good thing this can hold life orb...) and well, even though steelix special attack is pathetic low... this manages to be pretty strong o_o

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Steelix Dark Pulse vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Slowking: 174-205 (44.2 - 52.1%) -- 75.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Steelix Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Jellicent: 182-216 (45 - 53.4%) -- 89.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Steelix Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Registeel: 174-205 (47.8 - 56.3%) -- 84.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

So yeah, amazing coverage and you know the rest. All these sets are screwed over by alomomola one way or another, colbur slowking and jellicent would be like lol, and the offensive sets arent meloetta or exploud switch-ins ffs, dont do that.

Other SR setters you could use

Rhyperior is the one that love mega steelix gone the most tbh, no more competition!, being one of the best electric type responses (it has always been), and registeel alongside the pixies love not being mauled byt it. Mega Camerupt lost competition as a mega, diancie is even better now and life orb drudd is back!

Offensive mons that get better

So yeah, hell has basically been unleashed, lol. For real tho, Magneton is the mon that hated mega steelix the most of all of this imo, specs set with analytic is back to destroy everything. Looking forward to what people do with scyther tho, I seriously dont have any idea what this do and the only time I used it was on a bad SD Pass team. Cincinno and normal types get better obviously (they arent shitty except for ambipom, straight garbage) sneasel reaching God status (thankfully, fairies also become better). Escavalier is Mr. No Switch-ins 2.0 (Emboar had the title first, sweetie), Mega Glalie is OMG and SD Drapion is better than ever before (Drapion in general is amazing and every set of its gets better)

But yeah, thats basically it in a vacuum, look forward to a fun meta cause thats what gonna be (for good or for bad, we will find out!). Obviously I missed a lot of mons, faries like aromatisse and pokemon like Garbodor for instance.

Registeel is still ugly.

Cheers!

 

[zbr]

Registeel is still ugly.

but you look like a registeel! O:

anyway, now that trum and lix are gone, people can't just be lazy and slap on two mons onto their team and have 1/3 of the team done. with this new banning, the mons that rise in power are inherently harder to support (either they are slow as balls, or that they are weak to groundspam like every ru team in existence) making it a lot more skill based when it comes to team building [: finally trum has gotten the ban good lord.

 

[EonX]

+

So with Mega Steelix gone, guess what has a chance to succeed in RU again? Yup, you guessed it, VoltTurn. And you're looking at what should be the two faces of it. Between Magneton and Flygon, they're able to heavily pressure the vast majority of defensive cores and Flygon is the most reilient Pokemon to entry hazards in RU that also has access to U-turn or Volt Switch. What's more is that both Pokemon can outspeed virtually all defensive Pokemon as well as most somewhat slow offensive Pokemon (up to Exploud) The best part about them though is there synergy. Flygon resists Fire and is immune to Ground entirely while Magneton shrugs off Ice, Fairy, and Dragon moves (the latter less-so since no Eviolite) Uxie is a godsend for this duo. Rocks, Fighting check, much more reliable Ground immunity, and a way to maintain momentum while tanking hits for these two. Add some Spikes support and this duo becomes an absolute terror

VoltTurn

Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power Grass

Flygon @ Choice Band / Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly or Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- U-Turn
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw / Aerial Ace

Adamant and AA with Scarf. Jolly and DClaw with Band.

Rhyperior is back to being the premier "tank SR user" with Mega Steelix gone, and is it ever happy for that. While never really "bad" in the Mega Steelix meta, it did have much more opportunity cost to use thanks to some unfortunate 4x weaknesses and much lower special bulk. However, if you want to channel the true power of the Monado and just know what your opponent is going to do before they do it, change the future by running a Choice Band set that 2HKOes the whole tier at worst with the right move. Rhyperior still has some issues as a Rock setter, namely being it's total bait for Blastoise, the premier spinner in the tier, and that Venusaur and Virizion are on plenty of teams and scare the hell out of Rhyperior. Still, great mon that was never really bad that's ready to show why it's been good all this time.

sets

Rhyperior @ Leftovers
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 184 HP / 16 Atk / 212 SpD / 96 Spe OR 184 HP / 12 Atk / 216 SpD / 96 Spe
Adamant or Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch

First spread is for Attack jump point with Adamant and 2nd spread is for SpDef jump point with Careful. Speed is enough for Modest Mega Camel and HP hits Lefties number

Rhyperior @ Choice Band
Ability: Solid Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Megahorn

Max Speed puts it ahead of Hitmontop and everything below, including Alomomola

DISCLAIMER: Cinccino is not a top tier Pokemon. Not even a high tier Pokemon. Ok, with that out of the way, Cinccino is definitely better now that Mega Steelix and Tyrantrum are gone. Two fewer Normal resists and there's no Steel-type that just can switch in and not care for Knock Off.

cute

Cinccino @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Skill Link
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
- Tail Slap
- Bullet Seed
- Knock Off
- U-turn

"But wait Eon. Not only is Cinccino a garbage Pokemon, but you're not even using Rock Blast when it has Skill Link?!?" Truth be told, Cinccino gets absolutely nothing out of Rock Blast in RU right now. Think of the targets and think of what Knock Off or Tail Slap can do to them. Delphox? Dead. Sigilyph? Dead. Fletchinder? You die anyway. Houndoom? Frail asf. Braviary? ...ok, I'll give you that one. Knock Off makes it to where Ghost-types have a more difficult time switching into Tail Slap, 2HKOes Bronzong, and at least hinders Registeel by removing Leftovers (we all know how reliant it is on that recovery) to make it easier for a teammate to get through. Cinccino also benefits from Rhyperior and Diancie becoming two of the best Stealth Rock setters in the tier as it can quickly wear down or eliminate them with Bullet Seed. Of course, Ciccino still has the same basic problems it has always had. High Speed that still leaves it outsped by a fair share of threats, absolutely no defensive synergy, a good, but not amazing Attack stat, and a tendency to be easily predicted around. Life Orb helps with the latter problem by giving Cinccino a power boost and the ability to switch moves (on top of U-turn) but it still has all kinds of problems with that horrible typing and bulk as well as being outsped by Scarf Medicham, Jolteon, Aerodactyl, Accelgor, and Scarf Emboar. Not to mention just about any form of priority is ripping out about 45-55% minimum. But with Knock Off + U-turn instead of Rock Blast over one of them, Cinccino can at least be a nuisance that isn't always so simple to switch into. Oh, and if you wonder where the "TOUCHING IT WILL KILL YOU" meme with RockySkin Druddigon started, this is the one. Cinccino dies with 3 hits from Tail Slap, so it still has that problem too LOL.

 

[FlamingVictini]

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 16 Def / 236 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Heavy Slam
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Lazy man's solution for people with mlix teams where you can't properly replace it without restructuring a team too much. This lix is definitely weaker than mlix, and this can make teams a bit more braviary weak than before. If you factor in lefties recovery, this is a bit bulkier than or equally bulky to mlix, which is neat (So you'll be worse against knock users like drapion).

 

[Sugarbear]

Personally I think you're better off with a bulky spread of Band Rhyperior - its selling point compared to Aggron is Solid Rock and its increased switch in opportunities, and running max Speed dramatically undermines this. If you need a Band user that can outrun Alomomola, use Aggron - its typing doesn't let it use that epic Defence anyway.

Speaking of Aggron, is Rock Polish viable? It lets it outrun Jolteon, which RP Rhyperior can't do. However, Mach Punch from Hitmonlee does a ton of damage.

 

[MrAldo]

Personally I think you're better off with a bulky spread of Band Rhyperior - its selling point compared to Aggron is Solid Rock and its increased switch in opportunities, and running max Speed dramatically undermines this. If you need a Band user that can outrun Alomomola, use Aggron - its typing doesn't let it use that epic Defence anyway.

2HKOing Alomomola, Hitmontop and some slow jellicents is worth all that bulk, no doubt about it. But in the end from my experience, the increase in bulk is actually not that notable, it is still easily able to switch into the stuff it can with 0 HP.

252 Atk Emboar Superpower vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Solid Rock Rhyperior: 226-267 (60.9 - 71.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Emboar Superpower vs. 172 HP / 0 Def Solid Rock Rhyperior: 226-267 (54.5 - 64.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

If it is banded, you are screwed by all means still. Plus the speed makes its matchup against defensive builds much better since it can outspeed a good amount of defensive mons, albeit niche, like Roselia and Pelipper and the speed helped every time to not get revenge killed by them and relieve some pressure.

And speaking of Aggron, Rock Polish sounds pretty interesting, not as viable as it was on BW2 RU but still looks like a potent late game cleaner with the proper support. I think it needs to run jolly tho so scarf medicham doesnt revenge kill you.

 

[Sugarbear]

It can outrun Scarf Medicham if Jolly, but sadly it's still slower than Scarf Hitmonlee

 

[EonX]

So I've been working with the Steelix set that FlamingVictini posted above, but with a pretty important key change:

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed or Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball / Iron Head
- Roar / Toxic

The above EV spread is the closest Steelix gets to having near the bulk of Mega Steelix with Leftovers compensating for the slight difference. Lix should always have Rocks and EQ on its set, but the last two moves are where I feel Steelix has to play differently from its Mega counterpart to just avoid being subpar vs offensive mons it checks. Gyro Ball is extremely important to make up for the severe power loss when it comes to Steelix's Steel-type STAB. Thanks to Steelix's pretty low Speed, Gyro Ball is able to hit extremely hard; 2HKOing stuff like Meloetta (after Rocks) Venusaur (after Rocks and you tank Leaf Storm) Flygon (you tank EQ) 2HKO Virizion (scout for CM sets. You die to Focus Blast) and OHKOes Mega Glalie. Because Steelix has a hard time investing in Speed anyway to maintain the amount of bulk it needs to tank hits, Gyro Ball just works better overall imo. Of course, if Steelix is the team's main switch-in for Fairy-types, Iron Head is a better option, but the power reduction against stuff like Virizion, Mega Glalie, and Flygon is absolutely brutal. Not only that, but anything above 189 Speed is at least hit marginally harder by Gyro Ball. The low PP sucks and forcing Steelix to be outsped by dang near everything can be annoying, but what slow Pokemon are Steelix realistically staying in on? Roar is good since Steelix is setup bait for a lot more shit than its Mega counterpart was, but Toxic is still nice for all the Regenerator Pokemon looking to get a free switch-in against Steelix. Anyone going for a way to make Steelix play more like its Mega counterpart offensively should probably look into a Sheer Force set (the one MrAldo posted is probably best for that) as any defensive Steelix set is just going to fail miserably at replicating the offensive abilities its Mega counterpart had.

Gyro Ball vs Iron Head

0 Atk Steelix Gyro Ball (149 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Virizion: 183-216 (56.6 - 66.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Steelix Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Virizion: 99-117 (30.6 - 36.2%) -- 98.3% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

0 Atk Steelix Gyro Ball (141 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Flygon: 159-187 (52.8 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Steelix Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Flygon: 91-108 (30.2 - 35.8%) -- 94.8% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

0 Atk Steelix Gyro Ball (141 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mega Glalie: 318-374 (105.6 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 Atk Steelix Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mega Glalie: 182-216 (60.4 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

0 Atk Steelix Gyro Ball (122 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venusaur: 135-159 (44.8 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Steelix Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Venusaur: 88-105 (29.2 - 34.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock

0 Atk Steelix Gyro Ball (131 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Meloetta: 153-180 (44.8 - 52.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
0 Atk Steelix Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Meloetta: 93-111 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- 76% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock

 

[FlamingVictini]

Regarding Gyro Ball vs Iron Head vs Heavy Slam;

Heavy Slam is very consistently 120 BP vs the mons that you want to use it, which is generally strong enough. Gyro ball is stronger if you choose to run min speed lix and the opponent hits 281 speed or greater, so that is the move you should use on your defensive lix if you want to hit mons this fast or faster stronger (like the ones eon mentioned).

Regarding Iron Head, i see very little reason to use it over heavy slam outside of LO Sheer Force sets when you don't want to risk iron tail misses. The reason is that heavy slam, which has "60 base power or less, if target's weight is greater than ⅓ (33.3%) of user's weight," will rarely (glalie is probably one example) be used in a situation where you would actually want to attack on such a mon, and will thus do less damage than iron head would have (and the damage difference will likely be minimal).

The way I view it, heavy slam has consistent high bp that is valuable against fairies (which is one, albeit small, reason to use lix > rhyperior), and a well-built team shouldn't be overliant on lix like teams could rely on mlix in the past where hitting those faster mons that should be threatening you out for more damage is hugely important.

tldr: Gyro Ball is a great option, but please use heavy slam instead of iron head

 

[DaRizzleTheMan]

Aerodactyl looks like it's sitting pretty happy in this meta. Lost a hard counter in Steelix and competition for an offensive rock type from Tyrantrum :D A large offensive movepool (a lot of the moves being relatively viable too, such as Aqua Tail, and Ice Fang to pressure Flygons for teammates) which makes more offensively inclined sets harder to switch into in the tier, as it has the coverage needed to wear down the likes of Registeel throughout the game. However, there are fat waters that can take any of Aeroactyl's hits pretty well, but they have always been around and have always taken on Aerodactyl pretty well, as well as it needing a pitfully weak Flying STAB in Aerial Ace to consistently hit Fighting Types hard. Overall it's viability has increased due to it's good speed tier vs offense, it being a check to the rising Fletchinder due to Tyrantrum's ban, and very nice power and movepool, as well as the only competition being CB Rhyperior for an offensive rock type, (Maybe OTR Diancie too) but Aero generally does more vs offensive teams.

Offensive Druddigon is also better in this meta, not being outclassed as an offensive dragon type by Ttrum and not being somewhat pressured by mlix (Even though Sheer Force LO Fire Punch still did a considerable amount)

 

[Rollout Shuckle]

Ok so I got beat by this really lolly (or not so lolly as it turns out) magneton set a few minutes ago. As Magneton's prominence and usage continues to rise, people are in need of more and more checks to it. Flygon checks it, so does Seismitoad and Mega Steelix and Camerupt and a few offensive mons. But of all the Pokemon in RU, who would've thought that the Magneton's best check would be……


Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power Ground
- Thunderbolt

…itself. Yep, Magneton literally beats Magneton when you slap Magnet Pull and HP Ground onto the moveset. Just pair this guy with a Ground-type; this will make the opposing Magneton user more wary of using Volt Switch, which is good. If the opposing Magneton uses Volt Switch when you switch your own Magneton in then he escapes and you can't trap it. The idea is to discourage the opposing Magneton user from using Volt Switch so that you can safely trap it by switching into any other move. So when your opponent's Magneton user comes in just switch your Magneton in on a Flash Cannon, Thunderbolt, or non-super-effective Hidden Power, and KO them! This actually works really well and is a cool set to run if you don't mind losing out on other Hidden Power types.

 

[Miyami~~]

Magneton gets Magnet Pull, not Arena Trap.

 

[fran17]

Actually if you want to trap other Magnetons you better use Timid because with Modest you tie and they can switch out with Volt Switch

 

[Martin]

Druddigon @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Sucker Punch / Dragon Claw
- Fire Punch
- Gunk Shot

252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Gunk Shot vs. 132 HP / 0 Def Tangrowth: 380-447 (101.6 - 119.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Registeel: 203-239 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Audino: 374-442 (91.2 - 107.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Steelix: 156-185 (44 - 52.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Diancie: 161-190 (52.9 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Druddigon Outrage vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rhyperior: 211-250 (48.7 - 57.7%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

BAN DRUDDIGON

On a more serious note tho this is legit horrifyingly powerful, and those calcs are made even more disgusting by running Choice Band over Life Orb. Without Mega Steelix being everywhere it is a completely terrifying wallbreaker. And its other sets get better too: Stealth Rock, AV and defensive are all noticably better with both Tyrantrum and Mega Steelix being out of the picture, which is pretty sweet in general.

 

[Wandering Wobbuffet]

Druddigon @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 20 spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Sucker Punch / Dragon Claw
- Fire Punch
- Gunk Shot

252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Gunk Shot vs. 132 HP / 0 Def Tangrowth: 380-447 (101.6 - 119.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Registeel: 203-239 (55.7 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Audino: 374-442 (91.2 - 107.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Steelix: 156-185 (44 - 52.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 1 layer of Spikes
252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Gunk Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Diancie: 161-190 (52.9 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Druddigon Outrage vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Rhyperior: 211-250 (48.7 - 57.7%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

BAN DRUDDIGON

On a more serious note tho this is legit horrifyingly powerful, and those calcs are made even more disgusting by running Choice Band over Life Orb. Without Mega Steelix being everywhere it is a completely terrifying wallbreaker. And its other sets get better too: Stealth Rock, AV and defensive are all noticably better with both Tyrantrum and Mega Steelix being out of the picture, which is pretty sweet in general.

I think this is the best druddigon set in the metagame right now.
Druddigon @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 152 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Tail

The speed allows you to outspeed Alomomola/Jellicent and 2HKO them without risking getting burned. Meanwhile You OHKO diancie and still 2HKO granbull
-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Druddigon Iron Tail vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Granbull: 221-263 (57.7 - 68.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[Lord Death Man]

Iron Tail also hits Rhyperior, which is neat, but I've personally found offensive Druddigon to be lackluster if I wasn't running one of it's unique support options. It's slow and it has a similar power level to Emboar, except with a worse stab and, in my opinion, a worse defensive typing. Having to lock yourself into Outrage to potentially wallbreak is sort of frustrating when you want access to your coverage to handle the common Registeel+Fairy cores that have risen in this meta.

I also don't think Magnet Pull Magneton is worth it. It doesn't even reliably trap most Registeel, and you have to drop either Analytic, a generally great ability that will see use almost every single match, or Sturdy, a niche but potentially game changing ability, for something that only sometimes occasionally will do something if you predict correctly. Also you take like 70% from specs Analytic Thunderbolt yourself so you have to get that one Flash Cannon predict right, because otherwise you're dead.

 

[Rollout Shuckle]

Ok this is just me theorymonning but could Lanturn actually be viable in RU again? It's literally the perfect Magneton check. a nice Magneton check, and it's not like it's completely unviable too: having Volt Switch helps its cause a lot, and Heal Bell too I guess. Ice Beam can hit flygon too. The problem I see with Lanturn is that its resistances are few, its Defense is bad and that some of the tier's best special wallbreakers (Venusaur, Tangrowth, Meloetta and Exploud) easily slice through Lanturn. no recovery sucks too. I could see it having a place in RU though as a Mag check and also checking Fire-types and other Water-types. Just an idea

 

[Wandering Wobbuffet]

Ok this is just me theorymonning but could Lanturn actually be viable in RU again? It's literally the perfect Magneton counter. It's not like it's completely unviable too: having Volt Switch helps its cause a lot, and Heal Bell too I guess. Ice Beam can hit flygon too. The problem I see with Lanturn is that its resistances are few, its Defense is bad and that some of the tier's best special wallbreakers (Venusaur, Tangrowth, Meloetta and Exploud) easily slice through Lanturn. no recovery sucks too. I could see it having a place in RU though as a Mag check and also checking Fire-types and other Water-types. Just an idea

252+ SpA Choice Specs Magneton Hidden Power Grass vs. 104 HP / 212+ SpD Lanturn: 182-216 (43.6 - 51.7%) -- 67.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Analytic Magneton Hidden Power Grass vs. 104 HP / 212+ SpD Lanturn: 236-278 (56.5 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Not really the "perfect magneton counter" if you ask me

 

[Rollout Shuckle]

252+ SpA Choice Specs Magneton Hidden Power Grass vs. 104 HP / 212+ SpD Lanturn: 182-216 (43.6 - 51.7%) -- 67.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Analytic Magneton Hidden Power Grass vs. 104 HP / 212+ SpD Lanturn: 236-278 (56.5 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
Not really the "perfect magneton counter" if you ask me

Ah I assumed it (hp grass) would do less, my bad. I reworded it to "check".

 

[DTC]

Ok this is just me theorymonning but could Lanturn actually be viable in RU again? It's literally the perfect Magneton check. It's not like it's completely unviable too: having Volt Switch helps its cause a lot, and Heal Bell too I guess. Ice Beam can hit flygon too. The problem I see with Lanturn is that its resistances are few, its Defense is bad and that some of the tier's best special wallbreakers (Venusaur, Tangrowth, Meloetta and Exploud) easily slice through Lanturn. no recovery sucks too. I could see it having a place in RU though as a Mag check and also checking Fire-types and other Water-types. Just an idea

Lanturn is a very interesting Pokemon right now because of Magneton. Being a Water-type that can absorb Magneton Volt Switch while not automatically dying to Hidden Power Grass is pretty cool, and so is access to Volt Switch and Heal Bell.

However, Lanturn has one inherent teambuilding flaw that it creates: It is a Water-type that is weak to Ground-types, which makes it unable to effectively check Pokemon that Water-types are traditionally able to check like Rhyperior, Flygon, and Mega Camerupt, and makes it vulnerable to trapping by an increasingly common threat in Dugtrio. I feel as if Lanturn would have to be paired up with something like Tangrowth that could alleviate some of those concerns, but you're still vulnerable to Mega Camerupt and trapping by Dugtrio. Lanturn is an interesting Pokemon for sure, and I think it has potential in this meta, but you need to keep in mind these concerns when putting Lanturn on a team.

 

[HypnoEmpire]

I don't know if it's just me, but I've been seeing Scyther a lot more recently. I suspected that Scyther would raise in viability after Mega Steelix and Tyrantrum got banned, but after trying it out the past couple days, it's a lot better than I originally anticipated. Scyther seems to pair well with Magneton, which also got a big boost in viability after the bans, and forms a neat VoltTurn core with it. These are the sets I like to run:

Hide

Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Water]

Scyther @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Bug Bite / Pursuit

Magneton checks bulky waters, Flying-types, and fairies for Scyther while Scyther checks Fighting-types, Psychic-types, and Grass-types for Magneton. Flygon is a great partner for this core since it can check various Fire-types like Mega Camerupt, remove rocks for Scyther, and continue the VoltTurn chain with U-turn. Medicham is pretty fun to use since it has a pseudo U-turn in Baton Pass and has barely any solid switch-ins bar some fairies, bulky Psychic-types, and Spiritomb, all of which are handled pretty well by Scyther and Magneton.

In regards to Magneton's Hidden Power, I don't consider Seismitoad to be much of a threat and it's kinda easy to check it offensively and defensively. Flygon is relevant but Flash Cannon already OHKOes offensive Flygon if it tries to switch in and defensive Flygon is Scyther bait, so Hidden Power Water was an easy choice for me since it lures Mega Camerupt and the occasional Steelix, both of which are a pain for Scyther as well.

I don't think Pursuit is that great of a choice on VoltTurn, though outside of that archtype, Scyther retains its capabilities as a Fighting check, Psychic check, and Grass check in one while also being able to trap pesky Psychic-types like Meloetta, Sigilyph, and Hoopa, break Sawk's Sturdy, and weaken other Pokemon it scares out for teammates. Really nice option, especially when there isn't a lot of good options in the last moveslot anyway.

tl;dr Use Scyther, scrubs.

 

[Drybones]

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Man what a speed tier, too. A tad under Virizion but man, nothing like blasting those damn flygons with CB aerial ace.

 

[Thatwackycruton]

I don't know if it's just me, but I've been seeing Scyther a lot more recently. I suspected that Scyther would raise in viability after Mega Steelix and Tyrantrum got banned, but after trying it out the past couple days, it's a lot better than I originally anticipated. Scyther seems to pair well with Magneton, which also got a big boost in viability after the bans, and forms a neat VoltTurn core with it. These are the sets I like to run:

Hide

Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Water]

Scyther @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Bug Bite / Pursuit

Magneton checks bulky waters, Flying-types, and fairies for Scyther while Scyther checks Fighting-types, Psychic-types, and Grass-types for Magneton. Flygon is a great partner for this core since it can check various Fire-types like Mega Camerupt, remove rocks for Scyther, and continue the VoltTurn chain with U-turn. Medicham is pretty fun to use since it has a pseudo U-turn in Baton Pass and has barely any solid switch-ins bar some fairies, bulky Psychic-types, and Spiritomb, all of which are handled pretty well by Scyther and Magneton.

In regards to Magneton's Hidden Power, I don't consider Seismitoad to be much of a threat and it's kinda easy to check it offensively and defensively. Flygon is relevant but Flash Cannon already OHKOes offensive Flygon if it tries to switch in and defensive Flygon is Scyther bait, so Hidden Power Water was an easy choice for me since it lures Mega Camerupt and the occasional Steelix, both of which are a pain for Scyther as well.

I don't think Pursuit is that great of a choice on VoltTurn, though outside of that archtype, Scyther retains its capabilities as a Fighting check, Psychic check, and Grass check in one while also being able to trap pesky Psychic-types like Meloetta, Sigilyph, and Hoopa, break Sawk's Sturdy, and weaken other Pokemon it scares out for teammates. Really nice option, especially when there isn't a lot of good options in the last moveslot anyway.

tl;dr Use Scyther, scrubs.

Scyther is definitely a lot better, but I can't help but think its usage is just a little overblown. I definitely understand its pros as a Fighting check, powerful U-turn user, and as a mon with a nice speed tier, but I feel like its 4x weakness to rocks is still very annoying. Yes, hazard removal can be run, but that's giving momentum back to the opposing team, which is extremely counterproductive when it comes to using voltturn. This is especially unfortunate when you consider that many voltturners (Medicham, CB flygon, Magneton) function quite well without hazard removal. Speaking of Choice Band Flygon, I'd consider that Scyther's biggest "competition" on Voltturn squads. They're obviously very different, but they share the function of being powerful, momentum-grabbing physical attackers, but I feel that Flygon can function with much less support and can lay on pressure a little better overall since the game isn't stalled by the removal of hazards. Despite Scyther having Knock Off to annoy the hell out of both Registeel and Alomomola, it still isn't breaking them very well and can even struggle to whittle Mola dues to Regenerator. Flygon can, at the very least, beat Registeel and pressure Alomomola. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here as Scyther has obviously gotten much better and has notable perks over Flygon and other U-Turn users (more power, better VS Slowing and Bronzong, Flying STAB) but I thought I'd toss in a few points.

 

[Take Azelfie]

Dugtrio is so amazing right now. Registeel is one of the most popular Pokemon at the moment for Balance and Stall squads. So instantly being able to threaten Registeel is so useful. But also being able to stop the opponents momentum really sucks for the opponent. Dugtrio excells the most on Toxic Spike themed teams from my experience since all of Dugtrio's defensive answers despise TSpikes and Duggy also traps the absorbers (Qwil, Garb, and sometimes Venusaur[latter can be done easier with CB but CB sucks.]) But yh Duggy is arguably the most anoyying Mon to face IMO.

 

[MANNAT]

Actually I've found xatu to be a really good partner for Scyther instead of the usual hazard control because it passively prevents rock setting, it can beat all of the common rockers bar Rhyperior, and it has u turn to maintain momentum. VoltTurn with Defog flygon is just a bad idea because Defog sucks momentum and using a magic bounce mon is much better since you can control hazard setting without killing momentum. Also, running xatu lets u run spikes Glalie and have hazard stacking Volturn l, which can be really potent