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Metagame SM Doubles OU

Why is hoppa-u unranked? He seems to be used in tours with a good niche and seems to be mentioned occasionally in this thread when people speak about viability. I just started playing serious and he seems insanely good when Im playing him, of course ladder players r mostly noobs and there's some demon adamant on running protect stall (confirmation bias probably). But even with that in mind it there doesn't seem to be anyone who doesn't like him on the threads when he is discussed.

Albeit now as I write this I realize it's been a year since a VR update and most of the discussion seems to be more recent so maybe next VR update our little protect breaker will have his time in the spotlight.
Hi, in Smogon tours Hoopa-U sees effectively zero usage and has done for a long time, the last time it was really seen as far as I'm aware was in 2018 Invitationals by Nvakna on a fullroom team with level 1 Sturdy Endeavor Togedemaru. Despite the fact that yes, on paper Hoopa has a valuable niche as a Trick Room setter and attacker that can break through Protect (a common form of counterplay to Trick Room by stalling out turns), unfortunately that alone isn't enough for it to be viable. The first problem comes defensively, as despite respectable 80/130 base stats specially, its 80/60 stats on the physical side are more lackluster, which combine with a glaring chink in the armour of a 4x weakness to Bug resulting in U-Turns from metagame staples Incineroar and Landorus-T practically OHKOing without any investment:

0- Atk Landorus-Therian U-turn vs. 192 HP / 104 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 324-384 (92.8 - 110%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
0 Atk Incineroar U-turn vs. 192 HP / 104 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 292-348 (83.6 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

The recent rise of Choice Band Genesect makes this even worse as its U-Turn can easily OHKO even through any Intimidate. Hoopa's physical frailty does extend to other typical physical attackers as well though:

252 Atk Tough Claws Metagross-Mega Iron Head vs. 192 HP / 104 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 238-282 (68.1 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 192 HP / 104 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 211-250 (60.4 - 71.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
180 Atk Aerilate Salamence-Mega Double-Edge vs. 192 HP / 104 Def Hoopa-Unbound: 315-372 (90.2 - 106.5%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO

Iron Head from Mega Metagross and Leaf Blade from Kartana both do a lot of damage, and a Z-move or +1 from Beast Boost on the latter will turn it into a roll to KO, or a defence drop from Hyperspace Fury will do the same and turns Iron Head into a guaranteed OHKO. Mega Salamence has been seeing more usage recently in tours and while there are different sets, Double Edge from mixed attacker sets can straight up OHKO Hoopa despite not even being super effective. Mega Scizor is rarer but can also obliterate Hoopa with Bug Bite, while Volcarona (which has also risen more in usage recently in tours) can OHKO with Bug Buzz on the special side. In other words, there's no shortage of ways to handle Hoopa offensively before it can set Trick Room.

The other equally large problem, however, is the meta's ability to handle Hoopa defensively. Intimidate weakens Hoopa's strongest attack, which just happens to also be on the two aforementioned metagame staples with U-Turn, limiting its offensive potential. Incineroar is even another level above though, as on top of those it also happens to resist the -1 Hyperspace Fury while being immune to Hyperspace Hole, and can even Fake Out to stall out Trick Room turns too. Incineroar against Hoopa is about as hard a counter as you'll ever see, unless Hoopa is running a Fighting move, which has been the case years ago when it seen some non-TR use, but isn't really ran on Trick Room sets. The other super important Pokemon to mention that hasn't been yet is the probably best Pokemon in the meta: Tapu Fini. On top of eating resisted Hyperspace Furys for breakfast, Hyperspace Hole does <40% making it prime bait for Calm Mind, which is already incredibly strong in general, let alone being really good into Trick Room teams specfically (outside of Tapu Bulu). With those two Pokemon everywhere, even when Hoopa gets Trick Room up things aren't great, though otherwise it isn't actually much better. Hyperspace Fury is a roll to KO Mega Metagross (though with Intimidate, it will survive and then KO the -1 Hoopa as mentioned before), but otherwise Hoopa's STABs don't particularly hit much; most Pokemon are hit for an okay amount and yeah get their Protect broken but with all the other flaws going for Hoopa that isn't enough to salvage it.

When it comes to semiroom teams there's zero contest between Hoopa and the more established setters like Diancie and Porygon2, who both offer better, more balanced bulk, with the former also offering a strong spread STAB attack with Clear Body (and defence raises rather than drops) offensively, while the latter has Download with BoltBeam coverage backed up by Recover for longevity. Gothitelle can also run Trick Room, trading any offensive ability for a far stronger support ability and slightly more serviceable physical bulk over Hoopa, with only a 2x weakness to Bug as well. On fullroom teams where there's 2-3 TR setters there's more of an argument to use Hoopa, but even there it hasn't really carved a solid place for it. When people do use fullroom in tours it's usually this sample team with Bronzong, which with Levitate to set Trick Room against Mega Metagross covers the one Pokemon Hoopa-U has a kind of notable matchup into. Another point I should throw out is that Hoopa being a Dark-type stacks with Incineroar and Scrafty which fullroom teams will want at least one of for Fake Out and Intimidate to help set Trick Room, which on top of slightly redundant offensive coverage also means a crippling Fairy weakness in the case of Scrafty. Hoopa just does not work well as either a general purpose TR setter or as a piece to solve certain matchups for fullroom, the only thing to its name is the ability to hit through Protect but without also picking up KOs that isn't enough. There's also plenty of Pokemon that don't even run Protect in the first place, so don't care about that unique perk at all.

There will be an update to the thread soon, after the completion of the 2024 OldGens Invitationals, though for the aforementioned reasons don't expect to see Hoopa rising up.

tl;dr - Hoopa gets owned by the most common Pokemon in the meta (especially Incineroar, Tapu Fini, and Landorus-T, but also others) and the more used TR setters (Diancie and Porygon2) are better than it
 
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