Smogon University PO Statistics — October 2011

[AccidentalGreed]

Why do I never notice these things...


Most major buffs in OU:

• Dragonite. You're the reason why I beat an opponent today because his Celebi/Rotom-W had Hidden Power Ice (of all things...). You're also the cause of my several loses (though LUM DD + ExtremeSpeed is incredibly retarded). Congratulations. You've reigned supreme. Now witness millions of battlers attempting to take you down the throne, with Cloyster and Blue_Star in the wings.
• Terrakion. You're so incredibly strong and speedy that it's obnoxious. But your usage, coincidently at #13, is well deserved.
• Espeon. Hang in there.
• Cloyster. Good to see you back again, and just in time for the November Issue: Dragonite's Supreme Reign.
• Dugtrio: Incredibly useful, yet so incredibly avoided. Heaven forbid I actually bring up the idea of trapping weather inducers.
• Donphan: I get you're a good Physical tank and Rapid Spin user, but I'd never imagine you'd recieve this much usage.
• Chansey: I simply want to do a double facepalm in your presense. And no, it's not because of your obnoxious pink color or utterly inferior fashion sense. It's because you're always used on Rain stall teams. ALWAYS.
• Alakazam: Sometimes I go to the effort to actually open Teambuilder and give you Focus Sash. That's all you need to succeed in life.

 

[SuperMegaUltra]

I'm happy to see Tornadus back in OU. It's not Thunderus, but it fires off strong STAB Hurricanes rounded up by Focus Blast/Hammer Arm for nice coverage. Prankster is nice for priority Taunts and Subs. Tornadus my not have much but it has enough, I like where it is in OU. I don't expect it to rise much, but I don't expect it to fall much either.

D-nite at #1 can only mean one thing: a rise in Cloysters, simply because it can break through Multi Scale with multi hit moves. I'm not a fan of Cloyster taking on Nite, but I feel as though November stats will tell me otherwise...

Sableye in OU is just a phase. People are using him like wildfire because it's an annoyer. People will move on from it.

 

[Pokémon Trainer R]

~Attention entire world, hear my proclamation. I am Dragonite, Emperor of the Holy BW OU metagame and your only ruler. Tyranitar has surrendered to me. As a result of this, I'm now in control of both the Drought and the Drizzle weather effects, and even the Sandstorm abusers no longer possess the strength to oppose me now! If anyone dares to challenge my supreme position, they shall know the devastating power of the Hurricanes! Those who could challenge my metagame dominance no longer exist! Yes, from this day, from this moment on, the world belongs to me. Dragonite commands you, obey me, subject! Obey me, world!~

Added a bit to that message.

ALL HAIL DRAGONITE! ALL HAIL DRAGONITE! ALL HAIL DRAGONITE!

 

[zyrefredric]

Whimsicott is underrepresented because the tiers were only changed halfway through the month.

A question related to this:
Why can't tier changes be done exactly before the start of the month?
That way, it won't affect a Pokemon's usage ratings, skewing the data.

 

[Jaetheho]

but things like released dream world abilities will still skew the data.

 

[Progeusz]

More like:
Can't we collect the data from particular period of time, e.g. since the day of tier shift? Does it have to be one month?

 

[MasterSwordsmanGallade]

Some stuff happening in UU:

Crobat has dropped, and that is a obvious link that stall has dropped.
Roserade steals top spot of Donphan. Neutral feelings about that.
Donphan has lost top spot and is overrated. Full stop.
Heracross has taken a dive, but a top-tier threat like Heracross should be back in a jiffy.
People are finally noticing Rhyperior as a good Poke.

I haven't noticed much else happening in UU.

 

[Antar]

A question related to this:
Why can't tier changes be done exactly before the start of the month?
That way, it won't affect a Pokemon's usage ratings, skewing the data.

Because changes are based on usage stats, which I can only get once the month is done.

In an ideal world, the tiers would have been updated on the 3rd or 4th, and this wouldn't have really been a problem. But there were other problems last month that delayed things.

 

[Forsety]

I'm not hating on Dragonite, I just find incredibly weird that a pokemon that is so reliant on Rapid Spin support and has mediocre speed to boot is allowed to switch in unscathed and run all over the opponent, while everything else with a SR weakness and not excellent speed is treated like crap by this very community. Kyurem? Darmanitan? Honchkrow? Chandelure? Cloyster?

These are all pokemon that benefit from RS support and pack equal or higher firepower than Dragonite, yet they're often instantly dismissed by this community as a whole because of their typing, speed and because "they need support". Guess what, Dragonite has these exact flaws as well.

Let's be honest, if SR is in play Dragonite is very, very easy to take down before it can even move. Anything faster with an ice/rock/dragon attack (re: a large portion of the metagame) will bring it down.
Yet for some reason it seems that Dragonite players never allow the opponent to keep rocks up. So why can't these very same people try to different things instead of bashing them without giving them a try?

Because it has priority, a obscenely powerful STAB, reliable recovery to keep its overpowered Multi-Scale going, massive bulk, excellent buff move and movepool?

 

[Xephyr]

Because it has priority, a obscenely powerful STAB, reliable recovery to keep its overpowered Multi-Scale going, massive bulk, excellent buff move and movepool?

lol this. People that are questioning Dragonite have clearly never faced a well-played one.

 

[M Dragon]

The king of BW OU!

 

[SJCrew]

I have faced plenty of Dragonites thank you. It is the most used pokemon isn't it?
I still find it very unimpressive. It needs one or two turns to set up to do anything, unless you're facing the special variant in rain, which is completely and utterly walled by any generic special wall and Rotom among other things.
Its STAB isn't more powerful than any other dragon in OU, its priority attack is easily walled, it has some really bad weaknesses.
Oh and Sandstorm ruins it, just saying.

Yeah, standard DD Lum is kind of laughable nowadays. Either Stealth Rock is up or it's trying to set up on something with Stealth Rock, which usually doesn't work. Every Scarfer in the metagame is faster than it, so it averages 1-0 KOs per match against a prepared opponent unless you somehow let it get two DDs. Terrakion is quite obviously the most dangerous Pokemon in the metagame and will only continue to rise in usage as more people realize how brainlessly easy it is to fit onto a team, yet so difficult to stop.

Dragonite has taken its spot at the top as little more than a convenience Pokemon (easy to fit on a team, effective to an extent), with Scizor and Rotom-W following suit. This is a common trend in usage statistics where the top sweepers or most problematic Pokemon were never as high as the more versatile threats or the Pokemon that threatened them. Can anyone recall the last time they've been threatened by a Tyranitar? Me neither. But hey, he's good, right?

 

[SuperMegaUltra]

I have faced plenty of Dragonites thank you. It is the most used pokemon isn't it?
I still find it very unimpressive. It needs one or two turns to set up to do anything, unless you're facing the special variant in rain, which is completely and utterly walled by any generic special wall and Rotom among other things.
Its STAB isn't more powerful than any other dragon in OU, its priority attack is easily walled, it has some really bad weaknesses.
Oh and Sandstorm ruins it, just saying.

I think I'll stop here. Lets see which other pokemon people start complaining about during the next suspect test, because you can bet it will rise in usage for that reason alone. Bandwagon logic is bandwagon.

It's not bandwagon, it's reality. From the Pokemon you compared Dragonite to in your other post, they all miss out on one important aspect that the mighty dragon has: versatility. Dragonite has a huge amount of versatility thanks to bulk, a great ability and a wide movepool as well as some great offensive stats to support mixed sets.
Cloyster? No ones gonna use anything but the shell smash set so he's pretty much a one-trick pony
Darmanitan? Try using a mixed set with Zen Mode, because that's really good 9.9
Honchkrow? Erm...no

And just because other dragons can fire off strong Outrages too toesn't hinder Nite at all. Can Haxorus function as a great team player in rain and fire off Thunders and Hurricanes? Can Mence threaten with a powerful +2 priority move? Can Latios take pursuits? etc etc

 

[alphatron]

SJ, what's your opinion on SubDD Dragonite?

 

[SJCrew]

Great against defensive teams, mediocre against offense. The polar opposite of LumDD. He will swallow most forms of stall whole. I'm surprised I haven't seen him used alongside Toxic Spikes, which makes him theoretically unbeatable.

 

[champz]

It's interesting how "Swampert haters" (no offense) are worried about it being in OU. He used to outclass Gastrodon, but as this thing is being used now, it's just a matter of time until Swampert falls. Even though Swampert is still arguably better than Gastrodon with clear skies, the later is better in rain and with Politoed showing up once in 5 teams, people will probably prefer Gastrodon. I don't think OU is big enough for 2 Water/Ground pokémon so I can't see Swampert rising again in a rainy season.

About Tornadus. He is very outclassed by Thundurus. The exact same stats, just with Hurricane instead of Thunder. More weakness and less resistances. On the other hand, there are no pokémon imune to Hurricane. I mean they are nearly identical. Thundurus was the only reason for Tornadus' low popularity. With Thundurs gone, Tornadus will eventually claim his position. The absence of Nasty Plot is probably the only thing that may save Tornadus from sharing the same fate of Thundurus.

 

[ReddyGo]

Best statistic on there:

Normal RU:

27 | Hitmonchan | 1873 | 6.022% | 0.75±0.93 | 4.47±3.22 |
| 86 | Samurott | 551 | 1.771% | 0.92±1.06 | 4.56±3.05 |

vs. 1337 RU:

3 | Hitmonchan | 107 | 29.155% | 0.84±1.07 | 5.24±3.41 |
| 2 | Samurott | 147 | 40.054% | 0.82±0.87 | 5.34±3.75 |

 

[alphatron]

Great against defensive teams, mediocre against offense. The polar opposite of LumDD. He will swallow most forms of stall whole. I'm surprised I haven't seen him used alongside Toxic Spikes, which makes him theoretically unbeatable.

I'd say lum DD fares pretty well against defensive teams (although no where near as well as Salamence). Seeing as how the first answers to subDD are steel types, I think I'm missing how toxic spikes support makes him unbeatable. How does it help him?

 

[DG BR]

why everyone hates virizion?

swords dance virizion virizion x rain stall

+2 close combat x 252/252+ blissey = 100%+
+2 close combat x 252/252+ chansey = 100%+
+2 close combat x 252/232+ skarmory = 68-80% jolly, 74-88% adamant
+2 close combat x 252/252+ ferrothorn = 100%+
+2 close combat x 120/0 conkeldurr = 100%+ *¹
+2 close combat x 4/0 toxicroak = 91-107% (80% chance of ohko with rocks) jolly, 100%+ adamant
+2 leaf blade x 248/216+ jellicent = 100%+
+2 leaf blade x 252/240+ tentacruel = 100%+
+2 stone edge x 224/0 dragonite*² = 100%+
unawared leaf blade x 252/252+ quagsire = 100%+
unboosted*³ stone edge x 4/0 tornadus = 100%+


these are the most common members of those teams imo. virizion can even take a weakned skarmory, or even close combat so skarmory will die to brave bird recoil and you opened a sweep for something like swords dance scizor

all the calcs were made with life orb.

*¹ Virizion takes 30-36% from unboosted mach punch
*² With Multiscale inactive
*³ Assuming you predict the obvious switch

 

[muramusaw8]

Virizion is nice and all, but faster 'Mons like Lati@s with Psyshock and Tornadus with Hurricane/Acrobatics force him out. Strong priority moves from the likes of Scizor or Dragonite can also pick Virizion off if it is weakened.

It also has low attacking stats, encouraging you to boost before you attack while allowing your opponent to switch accordingly.

Those are some nice calculations for Swords Dance Virizion, but I know the Calm Mind set has problems with Reuniclus. The CM set also won't do anything to Toxicroak and Volcarona unless it is running something like Hidden Power Flying.

 

[SJCrew]

I'd say lum DD fares pretty well against defensive teams (although no where near as well as Salamence). Seeing as how the first answers to subDD are steel types, I think I'm missing how toxic spikes support makes him unbeatable. How does it help him?

Hippowdon, Tangrowth, Quagsire and a few other things beat that set straight up, but can die to Toxic Spikes support. I was mostly talking about Quagsire, the one thing that Dragonite will never be able to get past unless it had a reliable way to wear him down.

 

[alphatron]

I forgot all about quagsire...Now I get you.

 

[Xephyr]

Hippowdon, Tangrowth, Quagsire and a few other things beat that set straight up, but can die to Toxic Spikes support. I was mostly talking about Quagsire, the one thing that Dragonite will never be able to get past unless it had a reliable way to wear him down.

Which I why I've been Roost/Toxic/Dragon Claw/Dragon Dance for a little while. Unless it gets poisoned, it never really dies.

 

[Thundur]

I think the rain mixed attacker set is really a great set. With hurricane, aqua tail, e speed, and roost with leftovers. Hit anything hard with hurricane or aqua tail and finish off the next turn with e speed. Great set.

 

[Mishra]

Which I why I've been Roost/Toxic/Dragon Claw/Dragon Dance for a little while. Unless it gets poisoned, it never really dies.

And then proceeds to get walled/scared by a lot more? Why would you give up substitue/coverage move? Without sub, status moves become a lot scarier and without a coverage move, a lot more things wall you (and those things probably can status/set up on you ala Skarmory, Ferrathorn, Scizor, almost anything with a steel typing).