Hello everyone! Cycle 1 has now come to a close, and with it, we've seen quite a
lot of innovation thus far, with some expected uprisings and even some surprises. Given the nature of the tournament, these are innovations that may stick or may fade as the tournament proceeds. Here are some noteworthy trends that we've seen:
Offenses
Screens
Hyper Offense has wildly surged in use in Cycle 1, mainly with the use of dual Screens or Aurora Veil. However, more notably: Heavy-Duty Boots have made Stealth Rock far lower value for these kinds of teams that aim to overwhelm and waste no time, which has led to the 5th slot being opened for another dual Screens abuser. Given how powerful and versatile many rising options such as Galarian Moltres and Cloyster are, it's fairly easy to justify and often leads to even cleaner endgames with more breathing room for these types of cores.
Interestingly, Ninetales-Alola is an option as a Screens setter that has also surged in use, between being able to set Hail for Arctozolt and providing fast, simultaneous Screens. Its Hail, moreover, can double as an option to provide the potential chip damage that Stealth Rock would have otherwise gave teams. It provides quite a lot of very convenient support that has made it a premier pick for these types of teams once again.
King's Rock remaining in the tier has been exploited to great effect by quite a few OLT participants, including several qualifiers. In fact, it's because of King's Rock's startling reliability with dual Screens that Cloyster is given very sizeable odds to cleave past many Pokemon that could put a stop to it otherwise, such as Urshifu-R, Toxapex, healthy Tapu Fini, and Melmetal. Some examples of this can be found
here,
here, and
here.
Togekiss is also a Pokemon that has seen an uptick in use for its ability to artificially beat supposed checks with flinches and has seen usage on hyper offenses alongside Cloyster. Its typing, natural bulk, access to longevity, and Nasty Plot make it particularly good as an offensive check to Pokemon like Garchomp and Dragapult which Hyper Offenses can struggle to answer consistently. Galarian Moltres also performs as an offensive check to Dragapult with its Dark-type and natural bulk reinforced by dual Screens giving it the ability to set up Agility and Nasty Plot surprisingly well in spite of its lack of recovery.
Weather
Outside of Alolan Ninetales' incredible role compression as a form of offensive support with Aurora Veil and Hail for Arctozolt, other forms of weather are an incredibly common sight at the higher ladder as offense archetypes that play heavily, quickly, and efficiently into overload. Rain and Sun are not rare to see, and neither are their best abusers.
Barraskewda remains as potent as ever, but options like Tornadus-T, Thundurus-T, the incredible Urshifu-R, Seismitoad, and even Keldeo are popping up quite commonly, even foregoing Barraskewda outright sometimes. Sun utilizes Venusaur but also makes heavy use of Heatran and Victini as nuclear Sun abusers with neat defensive attributes to keep the tides in their favor and to give breathing room for aggression. While Hippowdon isn't really as common, it contests weather itself and can enable Pokemon such as Excadrill and Dracozolt to a solid effect.
You can see some good examples of their performances
here,
here, and
here.
Trick Room
Once thought to be a fringe archetype, Trick Room has seen a shocking amount of high-level use, and even more shockingly has worked to a solid effect due to the wide amount of options for wallbreakers and setters as well as being incredibly anti-meta against offense. Hatterene and Cresselia are extremely common setters; Hatterene has access to Magic Bounce to block Taunt and hazards making it a great lead setter and even a good abuser in of itself with high Special Attack and its near-perfect neutral coverage. Cresselia is extremely bulky, immune to Earthquake, and boasts access to coverage and Lunar Dance to prevent it from being taken advantage of and also providing invaluable support to tankier wallbreakers to give them more breathing room and breaking opportunities respectively.
You can see some good examples of performances
here,
here, and
here.
Other Pokemon
Tapu Fini's incredible matchup in the current landscape of the metagame has hit the ladder full time, and it's as fantastic of a pick as WCoP outed it to be. Between its amazing variety in set combinations between Choice Scarf, Whirlpool, and Calm Mind and its superb bulk and defensive typing, it takes on a lot of the metagame and can be slotted onto a variety of offenses and have even seen usage on Hyper Offenses.
Kartana is one of the best proponents to overload in the tier, and in Cycle 1 it's no different as an amazing dual Screens abuser and versatile breaker on balanced offenses. It abuses Magnezone's trapping abilities quite well, too, and is startlingly easy to enable with pivoting support and its natural physical bulk.
Mew is truly a jack of all trades, and its insane movepool has proven to make it a Pokemon of many roles in Cycle 1, between access to status, utility, boosting, and having the natural bulk to take on some dangerous targets. It sees use on a variety of archetypes between offenses with its classic lead variant with spliced moves, with Spikes, and a wide range of Cosmic Power setup variants.
Magnezone forces progress by deleting Steel-type walls for Pokemon like Weavile and Kartana, and in particular has even served some defensive purposes thanks to Iron Defense and its defensive typing providing options against Weavile, Cloyster, and Tapu Koko.
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Balances/Stalls
Although more pure balances are a bit rarer to come by, Toxapex's utility is quite the opposite. Its ability to blanket check a vast majority of the metagame with its amazing typing, bulk, and access to Haze make it a phenomenal pick to keep setup and the spiked use of weather at bay. It's because of this that it has almost entirely superseded the use of the Slowtwins as a fat Water-type with absurd longevity on these types of teams. Seeing Toxapex on more balanced and defensive teams is almost a guarantee given that it provides a very reliable way to wall common wallbreakers and displace hyper offense with its mere presence. Regenerator cores are also a dime a dozen with their premium ability to provide recovery without wasting turns to heal, making it even easier to force progress. More often than not, Toxapex is a feature of them.
Kyurem is a Pokemon with a rough history, but as a Pressure abuser, it is considered to be among the best. Kyurem usage has spiked in Cycle 1 and has once more proven itself to be an incredibly potent PP staller with access to longevity, perfect neutral coverage, and its incredibly well-rounded stat spread, letting it fit quite snuggly into an assortment of balances and stalls. This also does not consider Choice sets which are exceedingly difficult to switch into as conventional defensive counterplay is far more difficult to naturally pad into teams in such an aggressive environment. If caught in a poor position, Kyurem can easily force a sack if opponents attempt to play around SubRoost prior.
Stall hasn't seen as meteoric of use as initially projected, however, that's not to say it hasn't been used at all! In fact, to call it bad or irrelevant would be quite dismissive. However, many Stalls have opted to adapt some options to force pressure directly with several win conditions, even utilizing options like Dragapult which tends to find itself leaning more toward offense. Reuniclus has also seen an uptick of use as a win condition that can soak Toxic without breaking a sweat while finding many Pokemon to reliably boost against, however, it's not uncommon to see it playing a similar role on balances, too.
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The OU Moderation team hopes that you are all enjoying OLT and the developments it's been bringing to the table. We wish you all the best of luck in Cycle 2; see you then!
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