hello gamers
with the distribution of defog and spin getting cut down significantly, i could see hazard stacking becoming a defining aspect of sw/sh uu and sw/sh lower tiers in general. just from looking at the ou discussion thread, the number of spinners/foggers that actually have the typing or stats to hang around in ou seems pretty low so i'm assuming that the majority of these mons will be uu legal. not gonna comment too much on dynamax, in its current state it seems kinda broke but the games been out for two days so odds are we don't know the full mechanics of it.
spin:
these are the spinners i could see not having some kind of niche in ou that arent complete dogshit otherwise. hitmontop losing access to toxic sucks but hey it can still spin. seems like it loses foresight this gen so no spinning on ghosts. depending on the speed of this hypothetical uu a double dance set with spin / bulk up / cc / coverage could allow it to have some sort of offensive presence. torkoal dropping is somewhat of a toss up, with venusaur getting access to earth power and weather ball this gen sun could be a pretty strong playstyle in ou so who knows if we'll see it. claydol looks like it could be solid this time around. ground and electric immunity, fighting resist, and spin all in one slot is good role compression. on top of that it doesnt have to fear pursuit now which is nice. tsareena would likely do the same shit it does this gen so no comment there. eldegoss is the new regen mon on the block by the looks of it, sadly that and a good spdef stat is pretty much all it really has going for it. its best coverage move is pollen puff (???) and its support movepool is pretty limited but regen is broke so who knows. maybe some kind of spin / giga drain / synth / filler set could work? idk seems pretty ass. maybe move tutors will bless this thing somewhere down the line.
edit: apparently eldegoss gets sleep power / stun spore / leech seed which makes it a bit better than i originally thought. sleep inducers are pretty sparse this gen which could give it a niche.
defog:
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the potential defoggers seem to be more offensively oriented, which is nice considering the spinners i think will drop are quite passive with the exception of tsareena. hilomilo already summarized the appeal of g-weezing pretty well so not gonna comment on it. shiftry could have some merit as on offensive defogger given its decent offensive stats and high powered moves. having the option to run boosting sets with either np or sd gives it an unpredictability factor as well. braviary and noivern are two mons that i think would generally not run defog, but given the limited distribution of the move i wouldn't rule them out. cramorant is interesting to me (despite being ugly as fuck lol). water flying stabs complement each other nicely, and its ability could be good depending on the mechanics. its stats are middling but maybe water flying stab is enough to make up for it, slap an lo on it and it could be difficult to switch into. if sirfetch'd drops i could see it being a solid defogger, base 135 atk is good but its speed stat might keep it out of ou. access to sd, knock, and coverage options in brave bird pjab and leaf blade would make it a nice breaker as well. mandibuzz would be a nice defogger, but its tiering seems like it'll be tied to ou's annual aegislash suspect so not gonna comment on it.
rocks:
not going to go too in depth on these, given how most of the rockers seem pretty slow and bulky i think that what stays ou will largely be determined by what offensive threats evade the banhammer in the next couple months. the tiering decisions around dynamax will probably determine what rockers drop as well. that being said, im guessing that the mons above will be outclassed by something no matter what and thus we'll see them in uu.
coalossal is interesting, good bulk and a wonky typing gives it a cool resist spread that lets him get them up vs most of the hazard control mentioned in the ou thread. that being said its slow as balls and rock will always be an abusable typing on the defensive side which makes me think it'll stay out of ou. hilomilo already touched on duraldon so again not gonna say much. runerigus seems like it's facing heavy competition on both sides of its typing in ou, with aegislash and g-corsola as ghosts and hippo as a ground. that being said, it has a huge defense stat and ground typing is rarely a bad thing. should this thing drop i could see it being one of the premier fighting checks in the tier. mudsdale and sandaconda both fall into the "ground without recovery" category which makes me think we'll see them in uu (bye hippo).
spikes:
i think that spikes are going to be a big deal this gen, and of all the spikes setters available i'm sure we'll be seeing some in uu. these are the ones i think wont quite make it in ou, but could see some form of viability in lower tiers. roserade will likely fall, losing hidden power removed any hope it had of even remotely threatening ferro+pex. i also wouldnt be surprised to see frosslass ho being a popular archetype given the small selection of spinners. qwilfish and garbodor could both have some sort of viability as spikes setting fighting checks. i think qwilfish in particular could be a really nice glue mon due to its typing and intimidate, while still hitting a solid speed tier. golisopod would likely do the same thing its did in gen7 ru, not much to say on it other than i highly doubt it'll be ou. my thoughts about rocks coalossal apply to spikes as well, nothing else to add there. pincurchin is a bit of an oddball and the only reason i mention it is that its a flying resist with reliable recovery that will likely not be ou. its stats outside of speed and hp arent awful, and electric surge is a really nice ability. add on the fact that it has coverage to hit grounds, and it could be viable in some way depending on how the meta turns out.
hope u liked reading my rambling, excited for the new gen and to see if any of the predicts in this thread turn out to be accurate. also pls dont let dynamax ruin this gen if its turns out to be as bonkers as it is now thx
with the distribution of defog and spin getting cut down significantly, i could see hazard stacking becoming a defining aspect of sw/sh uu and sw/sh lower tiers in general. just from looking at the ou discussion thread, the number of spinners/foggers that actually have the typing or stats to hang around in ou seems pretty low so i'm assuming that the majority of these mons will be uu legal. not gonna comment too much on dynamax, in its current state it seems kinda broke but the games been out for two days so odds are we don't know the full mechanics of it.
spin:
these are the spinners i could see not having some kind of niche in ou that arent complete dogshit otherwise. hitmontop losing access to toxic sucks but hey it can still spin. seems like it loses foresight this gen so no spinning on ghosts. depending on the speed of this hypothetical uu a double dance set with spin / bulk up / cc / coverage could allow it to have some sort of offensive presence. torkoal dropping is somewhat of a toss up, with venusaur getting access to earth power and weather ball this gen sun could be a pretty strong playstyle in ou so who knows if we'll see it. claydol looks like it could be solid this time around. ground and electric immunity, fighting resist, and spin all in one slot is good role compression. on top of that it doesnt have to fear pursuit now which is nice. tsareena would likely do the same shit it does this gen so no comment there. eldegoss is the new regen mon on the block by the looks of it, sadly that and a good spdef stat is pretty much all it really has going for it. its best coverage move is pollen puff (???) and its support movepool is pretty limited but regen is broke so who knows. maybe some kind of spin / giga drain / synth / filler set could work? idk seems pretty ass. maybe move tutors will bless this thing somewhere down the line.
edit: apparently eldegoss gets sleep power / stun spore / leech seed which makes it a bit better than i originally thought. sleep inducers are pretty sparse this gen which could give it a niche.
defog:
the potential defoggers seem to be more offensively oriented, which is nice considering the spinners i think will drop are quite passive with the exception of tsareena. hilomilo already summarized the appeal of g-weezing pretty well so not gonna comment on it. shiftry could have some merit as on offensive defogger given its decent offensive stats and high powered moves. having the option to run boosting sets with either np or sd gives it an unpredictability factor as well. braviary and noivern are two mons that i think would generally not run defog, but given the limited distribution of the move i wouldn't rule them out. cramorant is interesting to me (despite being ugly as fuck lol). water flying stabs complement each other nicely, and its ability could be good depending on the mechanics. its stats are middling but maybe water flying stab is enough to make up for it, slap an lo on it and it could be difficult to switch into. if sirfetch'd drops i could see it being a solid defogger, base 135 atk is good but its speed stat might keep it out of ou. access to sd, knock, and coverage options in brave bird pjab and leaf blade would make it a nice breaker as well. mandibuzz would be a nice defogger, but its tiering seems like it'll be tied to ou's annual aegislash suspect so not gonna comment on it.
rocks:
not going to go too in depth on these, given how most of the rockers seem pretty slow and bulky i think that what stays ou will largely be determined by what offensive threats evade the banhammer in the next couple months. the tiering decisions around dynamax will probably determine what rockers drop as well. that being said, im guessing that the mons above will be outclassed by something no matter what and thus we'll see them in uu.
coalossal is interesting, good bulk and a wonky typing gives it a cool resist spread that lets him get them up vs most of the hazard control mentioned in the ou thread. that being said its slow as balls and rock will always be an abusable typing on the defensive side which makes me think it'll stay out of ou. hilomilo already touched on duraldon so again not gonna say much. runerigus seems like it's facing heavy competition on both sides of its typing in ou, with aegislash and g-corsola as ghosts and hippo as a ground. that being said, it has a huge defense stat and ground typing is rarely a bad thing. should this thing drop i could see it being one of the premier fighting checks in the tier. mudsdale and sandaconda both fall into the "ground without recovery" category which makes me think we'll see them in uu (bye hippo).
spikes:
i think that spikes are going to be a big deal this gen, and of all the spikes setters available i'm sure we'll be seeing some in uu. these are the ones i think wont quite make it in ou, but could see some form of viability in lower tiers. roserade will likely fall, losing hidden power removed any hope it had of even remotely threatening ferro+pex. i also wouldnt be surprised to see frosslass ho being a popular archetype given the small selection of spinners. qwilfish and garbodor could both have some sort of viability as spikes setting fighting checks. i think qwilfish in particular could be a really nice glue mon due to its typing and intimidate, while still hitting a solid speed tier. golisopod would likely do the same thing its did in gen7 ru, not much to say on it other than i highly doubt it'll be ou. my thoughts about rocks coalossal apply to spikes as well, nothing else to add there. pincurchin is a bit of an oddball and the only reason i mention it is that its a flying resist with reliable recovery that will likely not be ou. its stats outside of speed and hp arent awful, and electric surge is a really nice ability. add on the fact that it has coverage to hit grounds, and it could be viable in some way depending on how the meta turns out.
hope u liked reading my rambling, excited for the new gen and to see if any of the predicts in this thread turn out to be accurate. also pls dont let dynamax ruin this gen if its turns out to be as bonkers as it is now thx
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