Project The Top 10 Titans of the 1v1 Metagame (Voting for #10 Titan)

[edudittA]

Approved by Quote OP partly stolen and heavily inspired from here

The Top 10 Titans of the 1v1 Metagame

The seventh generation of the Pokemon world saw various changes, like Terrain abilities, new threats, both offensive and defensive, and Z-Moves being introduced. This is also in addition to other mechanics change, like the Mega evolution speed buff, Prankster nerf, burn damage removing 1/16th of the Pokémon's maximum HP instead of 1/8th each turn, and paralysis reducing the affected Pokemon's speed to 50% its original stat instead of 25%. All of this resulted in a humongous shift in the 1v1 landscape. Again, in USUM, another bunch of additions again impacted the metagame to some extent, with the major additions being that of Kommonium Z and Marshadium Z. Due to these changes, some Pokemon like Talonflame and Whimsicott lost its gen 6 viability, while many Pokemon like Mega Charizard X, Mega Gyarados, and Porygon Z had increased viability and usage this gen. All that being said, the important question arises: which Pokemon were the most influential throughout the course of generation 7? This thread will try to answer that question.


From 20th August 2019 to 3rd September 2019, you will nominate Pokemon that will be voted on for the top 10 most influential Pokemon throughout Gen 7. After that, you will all evaluate all the nominations and individually rank the Pokemon from 1-10 by vote. Of course, all the nominations will count as long as they're reasonable and fit the criteria. Please keep in mind that we're not ranking Pokemon based on how good they are, but we're ranking Pokemon based on how influential they've been.

Here's an example format of what your nomination can look like:

Nominating Pokemon

Enter sprite here.

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Explain how the Pokemon effected the metagame as whole, and how the metagame adapted around it. A brief description of which Pokemon it countered and which Pokemon it did well against would be good here as well.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Try to explain what the Pokemon was used as? Try to take an EV set here if it ran some EV set you are familiar with, and try to explain how the EVs functioned, and what the EVs made the Pokemon function effectively as. For example, 184 Atk / 132 Def / 192 Spe and a Jolly Nature allowed Zeraora function as a semi-bulky physical attacker, with the EVs letting it tank an Outrage from Mega Charizard X.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

What exactly made this Pokemon have such a large impact on the metagame? Was it its stats, ability, useful resistances, or amazing ease of fitting into teams? Did a certain Pokemon cause it to become that much better when it was partnered with it?

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

What are the best checks/counters to this Pokemon? How does the metagame adapt to this Pokemon?

DO NOTE THAT ANY NOMINATIONS WHICH DOES NOT FOLLOW THE ABOVE FORMAT WILL BE IGNORED! ALSO MAKE SURE THAT YOU MAKE YOUR DESCRIPTION AS DETAILED, FACTUAL, AND ACCURATE AS YOU CAN. If you don't feel that you have the required knowledge to write about your nomination, don't write it! And yes, you can nominate banned Pokemon!

P.S: You're allowed to reserve nominations, but make sure to finish them in 24 hours, or they will be back up for grabs! Also, you can only reserve one nomination at a time. This is to make sure that your reservation gets done before you finish another. If you need an extension, mention it in your OP, or it will be up for grabs for whoever is able to complete it within 24 hours.

 

[edudittA]

Nominating Marshadow

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Immediately upon release, Marshadow cemented itself as a dominant, centralising force in the 1v1 metagame. Its high Speed stat and unresisted STAB moves made it the best Pokemon to splash onto a team. Its signature Spectral Thief move allowed it to steal boosts from non-Normal type Pokemon, which made it impossible to setup in front of it. It could KO most of the Normal-type Pokemon with Close Combat. This made it a very threatening presence for most teams, which were unprepared for its dominating presence. After only one month into its release, it topped the usage at #1, even though it was released midway into the month. This also forced the metagame to use mostly otherwise-unviable Pokemon like Choice Scarf Tapu Lele and Flyinium Z Landorus-T.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Marshadow was predominantly used as a semi-bulky physical attacker. Its typing, along with its decent bulk, nice offensive power and speed, allowed it to excel at that particular role. Its access to Bulk Up and Will-o-Wisp added to its effectiveness at that role. Iits ability to steal foe's boosts with its signature Spectral Thief. But, what really pushed it over the edge was its signature Z-Move, Soul-Stealing-7-Star-Strike, which just was enough to KO most non-Normal types.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

What exactly made Marshadow have such a large impact on the metagame? Was it its stats, ability, useful resistances, or amazing ease of fitting into teams? Did a certain Pokemon cause it to become that much better when it was partnered with it? In a very realistic sense, it was all of the above which made it a significant impact on the 1v1 metagame. Its 125 Attack stat, 90/80/90 defensive stats, and its 125 Speed let it tank just the right hits, and retaliate with its moves. Its ability, while not directly impacting its viability, also contributed partly to its viability. Its immunity and resistance to types like Normal, Fighting, and Poison also helped improve its viability. Due to a combination of all these factors, it was very splashable onto teams. It also helped that the metagame at that point was Mega Gyarados, Mega Charizards, Sturdy Pokemon, and Tapu Lele, which it countered.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

- Bulky Fairy-types like Magearna, Choice Specs Tapu Fini, Primarina, and Mega Mawile countered Marshadow, as they could live any hits Marshadow and return damage in full.

- Some Normal-types like Meloetta and Mega Lopunny either outsped and KOed Marshadow with Scrappy in Mega Lopunny's case, or could tank any hits Marshadow throws at it and counter with its moves, as in Meloetta's case.

- Some Choice Scarf users like Tapu Lele, Deoxys-D, and Hoopa-U came up, which were completely able to KO Marshadow before it could do any damage..

- Bulky hard hitters like Tapu Bulu, Necrozma, and Choice Specs Celesteela could tank any hits Marshadow throws at it, and KO with its own move.

- Physically defensive Pokemon like Mega Venusaur and Pyukumuku could effectively drain Marshadow of its health either because of Charm, or because of its ability to be immune to setup.

 

[Ginger Princess]

Nominating Magearna

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Magearna defined the archetype of Gen 7 bulky offense, becoming the poster child for Pokemon that set up with stat boosting moves before unloading a stupidly powerful z move or overall powerful attack, leading the way to optimizing Pokemon such as Kommo-o, Meloetta, and Normalium Z Porygon Z in Gen 7. It also forced the metagame to adopt new movesets that were seen as niche options previously, such as Laser Focus, Metal Sound, and Substitute on Offense, as well as the main reason why mixed offense Pokemon such as Shell Smash Carracosta and Z-Plasma Fists/Z-Thunder Zeraora exist in the first place. It generally serves as the barrier of viability in 1v1; if you can beat Magearna, or beat what beats Magearna, you're a good Pokemon.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Magearna @ Fairium Z
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 232 HP / 24 SpA / 36 SpD / 216 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Iron Defense
- Pain Split
- Fleur Cannon

This set, created by the esteemed MaceMaster (I think) redefined Gen 7 from Gen 6. It is a bulky offense set, able to utilize Magearna's trememdous natural bulk, alongside notable Speed investment, to boost either Magearna's Defense or Special Defense, heal off any damage while weakening your opponent with Pain Split, which also put the Pokemon closer in range to its busted Twinkle Tackle, which even with only slight investment and no Calm Mind boost, can deal a huge portion of damage to just about any Pokemon not named Chansey.

These EVs, by the way, are not the end all/be all spread for Magearna; they were created to beat Golphan, but if thats not whats necessary on your team, you don't need to invest your evs that way. Like Mega Gyarados, many of Magearna's 'answers' claim to beat Magearna on the assumption that they run these standard EVs, which is completely unnecessary. Pokemon such as Tapu Fini and mixed Zeraora cannot reliably beat every EV variant of Magearna, at least without losing the potential to beat other relevant Pokemon, like Mega Lopunny. Even Pokemon that should seem like hard counters, like Choice Specs Flamethrower Genesect, bulky Zygarde, or SpDef Mega Charizard X, just lose if Magearna bothers to run more SpDef, Speed, or Defense, respectively, with a simple Calm Mind + Pain Split + Twinkle Tackle, raw Twinkle Tackle, or a correct prediction agaisnt Char X, either Z-Fleuring on FB or sub or IDing on anything else. Even by the tail end of Gen 7 the potential of Magearna as teambuilding glue has not been fully realized.

Magearna can also run sets like Shuca Berry, Choice Specs, and Choice Scarf, but these sets are mainly used to lure in Pokemon whose task is to be a teams Magearna answer, such as Tapu Fini and Garchomp.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Before this set came into being, Gen 7 was a primarily Hyper Offense metagame, carrying over from Gen 6. One could potentially argue that, as 1v1 as an entire tier began to mature, moving from Hyper Offense to Bulky Offense was the natural progression of the tier and could be seen in Gen 6 as well, but Magearna, alongside Tapu Koko, put the shift into overdrive, with both Pokemon having the potential to boost both defenses as well as their offensive presence and heal, starting in USUM. Tapu Koko was banned because it was a bit too ridiculous, but Magearna stuck around, cementing changes in the metagame that had taken place to counter Tapu Koko - primarily the prevalence of Laser Focus. Bulldoze Earthquake Laser Focus Mega Metagross was once seen as one of the true Tapu Koko answers, but with Tapu Koko banned, it could drop both Bulldoze or even Earthquake for just Laser Focus, which had the added benefit of breaking through Pokemon like Zygarde with Laser Focus + Ice Punch as well. This is only one example, but the Metal Sound abusers, namely Aegislash and Magnezone, and later Celesteela, soon followed this strategy, with the main strategy being developed to beat Magearna but also finding purpose outside of this, redefining their purpose in Gen 7. Finally, the most recent addition to anti-Magearna strats is Substitute on non-stall mons; once seen as a purposeless move on offense, as it would only cut into HP, Substitute has the added bonus of not only blocking Pain Split, which denies Magearna their recovery, but also forces them to use their Z move early or lose -2 Spa with Fleur Cannon, both of which severely affects Magearna's chances of winning. Pokemon such as, once again, Mega Metagross, but also Serperior and Zygarde, can all severely cripple Magearna while maintaining offensive pressure, even despite sometimes not having a favorable STAB matchup.

The metagame needed to shift to accomodate for the bulky offense strategies of Magearna. If this Magearna set was placed in early SM, it would absolutely dominate the metagame, with even Pokemon that can do super effective damage being completely walled out before being hit by a Twinkle Tackle, with only the Mega Charizards, Heatran, and other fast hard super effective hitters such as Landorus-T maintaining a good standing against Magearna. Even Pokemon that can resist Fairy-types really wouldn't stand much of a chance, as Magearna would just set up and heal off damage taken, unless it was facing stall of some kind, and even then some Taunt users need to 50/50 Magearna if they fall to Twinkle Tackle into Fleur Cannon.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Nowadays, Magearna has certainly more answers than it did when its bulky offense strategy first went on ladder. Stall, such as Jumpluff, Celesteela, and Kee Berry Mew can all tank Magearna's hits or avoid them altogether, slowly wasting Magearna's PP until it can no longer pose a threat. Metal Sound and Laser Focus each can also pose a serious threat to Magearna, bypassing its defensive boosts and leaving it open to a powerful Z-Move from Pokemon such as Meloetta, Aegislash, and Magnezone. Fast, strong Pokemon with super effective STAB moves, such as Mega Charizard, Garchomp, and Heatran can usually annhilate Magearna, although Magearna can sometimes pull nasty lures to beat several of these types of answers, as well. Substitute can be used to block Pain Split, as well as forcing Magearna to either waste its Z Move or lower its Special Attack, and can be particularly useful on Pokemon such as Mega Pinsir. Finally, rare mixed attacking Pokemon, namely Carracosta and Zeraora, can react to which stat Magearna raises, and, after their respective boosting moves, attack Magearna on their weaker side. Zeraora's matchup is, unfortunately, a bit shaky, as it has trouble maintaining both the bulk needed to tank a Twinkle Tackle and the offensive presence to OHKO with a Z move, but a set can be built to counterteam the standard magearna set.

 

[pqs]

Nominating Tapu Koko

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Ever since the start of Generation 7, Tapu Koko has been a prominent and very popular Pokemon in the 1v1 metagame. Up until May 11, 2018, when Tapu Koko was banned, this Pokemon has been changing the meta in so many ways. Koko's omnipresence showed in other Pokemon gaining more or less usage because of it, for example, bulky Laser Focus Metagross-Mega gained usage after Tapu Koko's Roost + Iron Defense stall-ish set came to be in USUM. What Tapu Koko did to the meta as a whole was it shifted it to more of a Bulky Offense centered meta- since Tapu Koko's Electric Terrain + Z-Thunder/Z-Wild Charge set could kill most things on its own. Examples of Bulky Offense that could beat Tapu Koko were Charizard-Mega-X, Altaria-Mega, Landorus-Therian (Koko can't hit 'em), Tapu Bulu, Donphan, Golem, Metagross-Mega (Already went over this but Laser Focus), and Aegislash. Tapu Koko also made some Pokemon that would be popular otherwise, underused. Examples of some of these decentralized Pokemon are Tapu Fini, Gyarados-Mega (This Pokemon wasn't really unpopular but went down in usage from #1 to #3 in a year), Slowbro-Mega, Genesect, Mawile-Mega, Charizard-Mega-Y, and Greninja. You can see a trend here; Water types ended up getting the short end of the stick in the metagame while Tapu Koko was unbanned. Of course these Pokemon still got usage, but with almost everybody running Tapu Koko they were used less and less until after Tapu Koko was banned. Some ways the metagame adapted around Koko was the advent of more Pokemon using Choice Scarf to outspeed Koko and OHKO it, though I think those sets were very one-note and hindered the Pokemon in general, 2 Pokemon that applied Scarf were Greninja and Meloetta, in the current meta those see almost no use other than a gimmick for a quick counter-team, so you can see that they were really only used for that. Marowak-Alola was also highly used throughout the Tapu Koko meta because of its most common used ability, Lightning Rod- which hard countered almost all Tapu Koko sets. If you looked at the usage stats for Marowak-Alola it was consistently placed 40-50 as one of the most used Pokemon. Now, it's stuck around 120-140 rank and is almost only used for the fact that it can beat only Zeraora and Magnezone.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Originally, Tapu Koko's most commonly used set in December 2016 was this, a set utilizing Tapu Koko's dual stab and 115 BP Thunder. Obviously this was not the best set since Dazzling Gleam basically did nothing other than hit Ground- types (which would probably KO you anyways) since they're immune to Electric- moves, back then people hadn't really tapped into Koko's true potential in 1v1. In about March of 2017, Charge Tapu Koko became the most common set, with Thunder or Wild Charge being used as the Z Move for Koko. The next big change in USUM was it gaining Iron Defense and Roost. A set was formed which allowed it to counter Mimikyu and Metagross-Mega, which almost automatically made Tapu Koko S Rank until it was banned. Originally it was classified as a glass cannon, because the main strategy before people used Charge was just to click Z-Thunder with Electric Terrain and win. But in its final days it was more of a bulky attacker, since Charge and Iron Defense were used to great extents stalling out many Pokemon. Fairium Z was also a less common set used with Dazzling Gleam to beat mainly Kyurem-Black but also other dragons like Garchomp.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

I think it was a combination of things that allowed Tapu Koko to thrive in the metagame, for starters, its ability Electric Terrain gave Koko's Electric- moves a 1.5x boost and combined with Z-Wild Charge, and its 115 base Attack, (and Charged 2x attack power), this hit really fkn hard. It could OHKO almost any Pokemon that didn't resist Electric- moves or was very bulky. Also, since a lot of top tier Pokemon lost to Tapu Koko, that helped too. (Gyarados-Mega, Charizard-Mega-Y, Tapu Lele(?), and Mimikyu.) It really made a lot of Pokemon that wouldn't have been viable otherwise good.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

I had a signature team that I spammed everywhere on ladder when Tapu Koko was around, (Porygon2, Dragonite, Tapu Koko) - I know that this isn't the best team but it's what I used ;w; but this was around the time that everyone was using Z-Wild Charge Koko so I used Reflect Porygon2. the play was to use Reflect + Eviolite turn one while Koko is Charging and then Recover turn 2 if they did Charge (not all do for some reason) or use Toxic turn 2 and then spam recover, you know the deal. Also when people started using Laser Focus Metagross-Mega I hoped on the trend too and peaked around ~1750.

thanks for reading nom me good bye

 

[WailJesus]

Nominating Porygon-Z

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Generation VII was the generation of Z-Moves, and this Pokemon having Z in the name wasn't just a trick to get us to use our favorite glitchy duck as it became arguably one of the most powerful abusers of the new mechanic. Porygon-Z transformed from a linear scarf-spamming nuke that it was in Generation VI to a diverse abuser of Normalium-Z, which allowed it to use a boosted Hyper Beam without recharging, or alternatively, using Z-Conversion for a type change and a +1 stat boost across the board. Normalium-Z Porygon-Z acted as the tier's premier wallbreaker and took advantage of many of the popular bulky-offense Pokemon of the tier, forcing many players to run faster threats to outspeed it and also causing options such as Dragonite and Magearna to rise in usage as their traits allowed it to survive it's powerful attacks.


What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

The most popular Porygon-Z set throughout the generation was the Normalium-Z set, which was moderately fast and could punish foes who were slower with a nuclear attack that could play around those who resisted it's primary attack. Normalium-Z allowed it to not only unleash a powerful Z-Hyper Beam, but also use Z-Conversion, as it allowed it to change to the type of it's first moveslot and also receive a +1 boost to all of it's stats. This was normally used in conjunction with Shadow Ball which could turn it into a ghost type, meaning either Hyper Beam or Shadow Ball could be used for almost unresisted STAB coverage. This meant that Pokemon that resisted Hyper Beam such as Metagross-Mega or Heatran would tremble in their feet at the sight of a boosted ghost type Porygon-Z. It also had access to reliable recovery in Recover, which allowed it to heal repeatedly against threats who could wear it down without it. Nasty Plot could also be used as a surprise to startle specially bulky normal types such as Blissey and the esteemed glitch-free brother Porygon2.

Porygon-Z also often ran the scarf set that it had made it popular for the last 3 previous generations. Although Scarf was generally seen as a lesser item than Normalium-Z, they covered different Pokemon and ran very differently. While Normalium-Z left Porygon-Z vunerable to faster threats, Scarfed variants surprised them as they get destroyed by Hyper Beam before they could attack. Catching fast Pokemon off-guard came at a cost, however, as being locked into a move meant it couldn't recover or setup. However, despite the loss in 50BP, the damage output from Hyper Beam was still immense, and was also given the option of Uproar for more damage over 2 turns while also defeating SubStall and Sleep Pokemon.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

The insane power of STAB Adaptability Hyper-Beam is what truly makes Porygon-Z the monster that it is in 1v1, but the introduction of Normalium-Z in this generation was the blessing that gave Porygon-Z the new level of depth that it badly needed. Now having 2 sets to use instead of 1 was huge, as there are very few Pokemon that can comfortably counter both sets. Specially bulky Pokemon such as Magearna and Meloetta rose in usage as answers to it. Porygon-Z also helped neutralize the two most popular Pokemon in the tier, Charizard-Mega-X and Gyarados-Mega. Porygon-Z impacted the metagame as it shone as the most powerful wallbreaker in the tier and had great matchups against many of the tiers most popular Pokemon.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

The unpredictability of what set Porygon-Z was running meant it was difficult to counter effectively. Powerful Pokemon that outsped it's subpar speed such as Greninja and Zeraora could reliably defeat the popular Normalium-Z set, but they are left guardless if they come across the scarf variant. Meanwhile, scarf Porygon-Z was left extremely vulnerable should it fail to KO with Hyper Beam by Pokemon such as Donphan or Kommo-o.

Bulky Pokemon that resisted Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam were the best Pokemon answered both common Porygon-Z sets. Magearna was the most popular counter, as it could tank anything at it's disposal, set up Calm Mind and hit back with Z-Fleur Cannon. Other Pokemon saw a rise in usage for their ability to check Porygon-Z, such as Tyranitar-Mega. Its sand-boosted bulk meant it could eat up Hyper Beams and boosted STAB Shadow Balls while being able to hit super-effectively with Superpower or Crunch.

 

[Eriey]

Nominating Zeraora

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?
Introduced as the last Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Zeraora stormed the 1v1 metagame with its blisteringly fast speed and good movepool. It could defeat Pokemon like Mega Charizard Y, Mega Gyarados, Greninja, non-Choice Scarf Porygon Z, Mega Slowbro, Tapu Fini, and Primarina with its speed and Electric-typing. This was an incredibly powerful new threat that every team now had to account for, forcing players to bring Pokemon too bulky for Zeraora to handle, Choice Scarf users, or special cases like Gardevoir.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?
Zeraora with its blistering speed, was of course always used as a fast attacker but with its access to Bulk Up and Charge it could become decently bulky too. Zeraora could use many viable sets, so the main ones will be explained. Electrium Z has three main archetypes: Outrage, Taunt, and Mixed. It beat Gyarados the most reliably, as well as using Bulk Up and Charge the best. Life Orb can be used Physically or Mixed, primarily to beat Dragonite with Fake Out into Outrage or Donphan with Fake Out into Grass Knot. Choice Band can be used instead of Life Orb to be able to bring an extra coverage move (usually Iron Tail for Pokemon like Mega Gardevoir and Tapu Lele) instead of having to bring Fake Out. It can also beat another prominent threat from USUM, Kommo-o relatively reliably. Finally, Dragonium can be used to beat both forms of Charizard without the need of prediction, as well as Kommo-o and Dragonite reliably at the same time.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Its ability Volt Absorb could also come in handy against Electric-type attacks, or against Normal-type attacks when using Plasma Fists, allowing it to beat Pokemon like Magnezone and Meloetta (also Snorlax and Tapu Koko). Volt Absorb did leave Zeraora helpless against Gardevoir's Trace though. Zeraora, using versatility with different sets, could also potentially beat Pokemon like Mega Charizard X if played right with Outrage, Dragonite if it was non-Dragonium or Zeraora was holding Life Orb/Dragonium Z, and with a relatively newfound mixed attacker set, Magearna, Tapu Lele, and both forms of Mew. Another point was Tapu Koko's ban, Zeraora's main competition for a fast Electric-type.
How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

The best checks and counters to Zeraora are Pokemon that are just too bulky for it to handle because of its mediocre offensive stats, like Zygarde, Aegislash, Mega Altaria, Mega Venusaur, and Mega Mawile. Alternatively, a few Pokemon could manage to outspeed Zeraora and capitalize on its middling unboosted defensive stats, such as Choice Specs Deoxys-S, Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, and Pheromosa. However, special interactions could also be used to beat Zeraora, like Trace from Gardevoir, Porygon2, and Mega Alakazam. The easiest way in general to beat Zeraora however, was just to bring a soft check, and hope they didn't bring the set you lose to, with Physical Electrium being easily the most common set.

 

[lost heros]

Mimikyu


What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Mimikyu was one of the most exciting new pokemon introduced in the metagame. IT was able to dominate a lot of pokemon with a variety of different sets. Undoubtedly, one of the strongest STAB z-users from the early metagame by using a free turn from Disguise to Set up a swords dance in to a Z-move against slower opponents or a z move into shadow sneak to beat faster opponents or other sturdy users. Being able to fire off either STAB z-move threatened a lot of Dragon, Dark, Psychic, and Ghost type pokemon which is far from insignificant.

Although, that z-attacker set was nothing compared to its speed trap sets. At a BLISTERING 96 speed, Mimikyu could completely outpace the entire bulky metagame and set up a curse. It didn't need to rely on Sleep Powder Accuracy like Jumpluff nor living a hit like Whimsicott, AND it can hit ALL types unlike leech seed. Not only that, it wasn't afraid of recovery as it still had room to use a z-attack!

Even faster pokemon weren't safe from Mimikyu thanks to Thunder Wave and Z-Curse meaning there were very few options to completely shut down mimikyu relying almost entirely on bypassing Disguise with Mold Breaker or some form of speed control in the form of Flame Charge or Bulldoze.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Mimikyu had many sets. A Z-attack set with Ghostium or Fairium Z with Shadow Claw / Play Rough / Swords Dance / Shadow Sneak was a popular set early on and relied on the utility provided by the free turn granted by disguise for to maximize it's z move's impact.

However, its most notorious sets were Speed Trap or ParaTrap sets. These sets used Disguise as free turns to set up a Curse or Thunder Wave to set up more free turns. Without any typing immunities as well as ways to circumvent high speed pokemon or recovery pokemon that other speed trap pokemon could have difficulties with, Mimikyu was by far the best Speed Trap in 1v1.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

3 words
Disguise, Disguise, Disguise

Ok it was more than just Disguise but Disguise truly deserves the biggest highlight. Disguise gives an unconditional free turn which nothing else can compare itself too. Sturdy leaves you at 1 HP, multiscale forces you to take damage still, sleep powder forces you to be faster, and a type-resistant berry leaves you open to other weaknesses. Disguise has none of those issues. Even when your disguise is broken on turn 1 you can Curse. You can still bulk another hit with full health from a weaker threat on turn 2.

Ghost-typing
An extremely powerful offensive typing which could hit opposing ghosts like Aegislash or psychics like Tapu Lele, but also an extremely powerful utility typing thanks to its ability to avoid normal type moves from things like Porygon Z and Snorlax and most prominents Curse and Z-Curse.

Other Good Stuff
A fairy typing threatened things like Mega Gyarados and slower KyuB's. Speed Control in shadow sneak lets Mimikyu finish off opponents quickly and consistently as well as thunder wave can slow down faster opponents and force them into losing to a z-curse later on.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

 

[Kaif]

reserving charizard

e: charizard mega seX

e2: not interested anymore, some1 takei t

 

[IBM]

Can I reserve comfey if I make it really convincing?

 

[edudittA]

Can I reserve comfey if I make it really convincing?

No. Please make sure that the Pokemon you nominate has extended its influence for a considerable portion of the time that it was in the meta, not just something that you like, or something that caught your eye recently.

 

[ayedan]

Reserving Greninja

 

[ggopw]

id reserve chomper here

 

[Jamez]

Reserving Metagross Mega

 

[IBM]

Nominating SNORLAX

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

The introduction of z moves helped the literal titan that is Snorlax become the most viable and consistent sleep user in the 1v1 meta with over 50% of its usage being the same yawn/protect/belly drum set. Yawn allowed Snorlax to guarantee that the opponent would begin sleeping the next turn, so Snorlax could just protect after yawn to get a free sleep. Normalium z with belly drum allowed snorlax to use belly drum even if it survived the hit it took using yawn with only 1% hp. After belly drum, and given that the opponent didn’t wake first turn and KO from 50%, Snorlax could almost always OHKO from a +6 double edge.
The most obvious counters to snorlax’s shenanigans, namely substitute and taunt, could not consistently beat it because of z yawn and z belly drum going through taunt, and snorlax being able to predict substitute and just attacking, creating a series of 50/50 predictions. Other obvious counters, including Pokémon that resist Snorlax’s most common attacking move, being ghost types, steel types, and rock types, could easily be baited and defeated by an alternate snorlax set with a different attacking move, (crunch or earthquake). Only 22 Pokémon in the viability rankings at the time were able to counter snorlax naturally, without changing an important part of their set to specifically counter Snorlax.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Snorlax’s massive bulk let it become *technically* a bulky physical attacker. With its 165/65/110 base hp/defenses, it could tank any special attack, but when fully invested in defense, it could live almost any physical attack as well.

The standard Snorlax set, of course, was its yawn/protect/belly drum set. This set let Snorlax beat any Pokémon that didn’t 2HKO it, and it still had a 66% chance to beat the Pokémon that did 2HKO it.

Snorlax @ Normalium Z
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Yawn
- Protect
- Belly Drum
- Double-Edge/Crunch/Earthquake


Also though, a curse/amnesia with recycle set was run to beat the Pokémon that could counter the standard yawn set, such as Metagross, Ghostium Z Porygon-Z, and Aegislash. Bulking up with curse and amnesia while having reliable recovery with Snorlax’s ability paired with the 50% hp restoring berries allowed it to beat many of the counters to the standard Snorlax set.
Snorlax @ Aguav Berry
Ability: Gluttony
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Amnesia
- Recycle
- Double-Edge/Crunch/Earthquake

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Snorlax’s incredible bulk paired with the introduction of z moves let it tank almost any hit in the game. Z belly drum was snorlax’s main tool to rock the meta. Getting +6 and resetting to 50% was too powerful on such a bulky Pokémon. Its pure normal typing also made it only weak to fighting, immune to ghost, and thick fat gave it a resistance to fire and ice attacks. The alternate curse set’s ability took advantage of its ability gluttony and the buffs to the 50% berries in gen 7 allowing snorlax to gain 50% of its health back at below 50% for reliable recovery. Snorlax forced the meta to adapt to it, making standard hyper offense Pokémon run taunt and substitute to have a chance at beating this monstrosity, changing the meta away from those hyper offense sets. Snorlax even got people to believe Normalium z needed to be banned (with some help from Porygon-z).

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Snorlax’s bulk may be impressive, but it isn’t invincible. Powerful physical fighting types like Pheromosa, Mega Blaziken, and Mega Lucario could easily beat snorlax with their respective fighting STAB. Physically bulky Pokémon that resisted snorlax’s main stab and utilized taunt like Mega Aggron also dealt with Snorlax swiftly. Magic bounce users with resist or immunity to normal types could also counter snorlax (Diancie and Sableye).

 

[Ehmcee]

Nominating Dragonite

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

The introduction of Z-Moves skyrocketed dragonite's usage out of the sky.
Quickly reaching S Rank, and having a usage stat of 13% on most teams in high elo, and varying between the #2 most used pokemon and the #3.
Having great stats all around the board and the use of an amazing ability in multiscale made it a prime choice on most teams.
With the help of said ability, it could live essentially any hit, and either set up or launch an attack.
Great coverage moves would help it patch up almost any weaknesses it's team would have.
Commonly running Dragonium or Flyinium Z, it could launch a devastating nuke that would obliterate basically any mon.
Also greatly blessed by an amazing move in Extreme Speed, a +2 Priority attack that would chip away at pokemon low on health.

The main thing stopping this menace from being any stronger is the surge of new fairy types that joined the meta, namely the tapus.
Haxorus came in the spotlight as a harsh counter to Dnite, ignoring it's Multiscale ability and ohkoing it with an Outrage.
The other pitstop stopping Dragonite from being an S+ are the 3 other S tier pokemon, Charizard X usually having a positive matchup, Gyarados using Outrage with it's mold breaker, and the newly released Magearna, and a very strong fairy z-move to boot.

3 Extremely Predominant Pokemon also tore Dragonite to shreds, being Kyu-B, Mimikyu and Tapu Koko, all both pounding Dragonite into the ground, but once they were banned, Dragonite resurfaced to it's former glory.


What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Dragonite's impressive stat spread made it able to run a heavy load of different archetypes.
It could make any player second guess themselves if it was running a physical set, or a special set, a bulky set, or a fast set.
Even some rare toxic stall sets were present, utilizing Dragonite's great ability.

Physical Dragonite is the most prominent in the metagame, either running a lot of HP just to make sure it tanked hits, or go for the speedy route, to KO opponents first.
Dragon Dance was a must for every Dragonite set, boosting not only your absurd 134 attack set by one, and making you outspeed your opponent in the process.
Extreme Speed was also commonly used, while the last two moves were usually z-outrage/z-fly with a choice of coverage.
Some Choice Band variants also existed, running choice band with Iron Head to check most Fairy Types of the tier.

Special Dragonite, whilst being slightly more niche, still had it's fair share of strength, a special stat of 100 being nothing to scoff at, it had a variety of special coverage that it could boost with a z-crystal, while again, dragonium and flyinium were the most prominent, firium-z and electrium-z made their way into a few sets, to counter some problems that it's team could face.

Weakness policy was also a niche pick to run on either special or physical set, luring out super effective moves to greatly enhance the beast's strength.
Much less commonly used, but could work were some weakness berries, such as yache or haban berry, just to check ice and dragon types.
What caused it to have a significant impact?

Being a pseudo-legendary, the pokemon was blessed with incredible stats, a great offensive typing, a lowkey broken ability and a plethera of coverage options made Dragonite hard to predict, not many pokemon were absolute counters to Dragonite, since it had so many sets that could beat out almost every part of the metagame.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Running Mold Breaker Haxorus was usually the safest bet, but other times running fairy types, or a fast pokemon with a strong ice type nuke usually did the trick.
Mixed Defensive Pokemon also had a good matchup against Dragonite, such as the newly surfaced Registeel, harboring defensive moves for both of Dragonite's offensive spreads.

(P.S Any tips or criticsm is accepted and helpful)

 

[lancert]

Réserver Marshadow

 

[Finh]

Reserving zygarde

 

[Chrispy Burns]

Nominating FEAR: Aron, Magnemite, Lv 2 Probopass, LV 25 Donphan, and Lv 1 Togedemaru

Fear to scale, enlarged to show texture

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?​

These pokemon destroy the unprepared, and force teams to build around not being 3-0'd by them. Their strategies involve taking advantage of living hits on 1 HP, then healing back to 100% making them effectively unkillable. In the mean time they'll either knock you out in two moves or stall while you succumb to chip damage.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?​

Collectively, they act as a mix of bulky attackers and stall as moves like endeavor and pain split take 50% or 99% of most pokemon's HP in one turn, or utilizing toxic and recycle while opponents struggle to knock out these pokemon with less than 200 HP among all of them. Their presence on a team can be used as lures especially for megalomaniacs like Mega Gyarados, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Heracross and can make team predictions easier. Their power and sturdy ability may also help teammates by warding off pokemon such as choice users, tapu lele, and metagross due to lack of reliable chip damage or status.

What caused it to have a significant impact?​

This group of pokemon are attractive to new players for their surprising effectiveness and for piercing through the target's HP and directly damaging the opposing player's pride. FEAR define the spirit of 1v1 on par with Porygon-Z nuking everything and Whimsicott sub seeding until the heat death of the universe.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?​

When dealing with fear, all strategies start with getting around sub whether that is getting the pokemon down to <99% at the end of the turn or being immune to all their moves and stalling.

Reliable strategies:

• Run chip damage strategies such as inflicting burns, rough skin, leech seed, etc. to keep them from healing back to 100% and disabling sturdy.
• Mold Breaker and multi-hit moves will shred their items and ability.

Riskier strategies:

• Suppressing their ability
  • mummy, gastro acid, skill swap, entrainment
• Using a Z-Move on a turn when they protect or using a protect breaking move
  • Feint, Hyperspace hole
• Sleep
  • Spore, Sleep Powder, Lovely kiss
• Applying flinches
  • fake out, rock slide, iron head
• negative priority
  • counter, avalanche
• type advantage
  • steel and poison for toxic users, ghost for endeavor
• bouncing status
  • magic coat, magic bounce, psycho shift
• Removing items
  • knock off, trick

More are possible but all these can be predicted the second time around or aren't reliable.

Fun Facts

• Shuckle (and Munchlax) can under-speed Fear with a whopping 13 speed at minimum investment and lower with contrary shell smash.
• Showdown allows LV 1 Probopass despite needing to gain a level to evolve
• Berry juice is not a berry and will not interact with incinerate, unnerve, or bug bite
• High jump kick into spikey shield will do both contact damage and miss damage. Odds of raising a second spikey shield + risk of missing a high jump kick is 40% (33.3% to raise and a 10% miss = 100 - 2/3 * 100 * 0.9)
• Nosepass and Pineco also work as fear however, like donphan, are susceptible to toxic
• Due to the damage formula taking advantage of level (2*AttackerLevel/5 + 2) where in this section a level 100 pokemon will get 42, a level 1 pokemon will get 2 meaning if a level 1 pokemon and a level 100 pokemon both use foul play against a pokemon with 300 attack and 300 defense, the level 100 pokemon will remove 81 HP while the level 1 removes only 5 HP at most. Foul play will not work on a level 1 pokemon.

Sets and Details

Aron: The goal is to keep Aron as under-levelled as possible. What's the point of FEAR if its lv 73.
Keep HP Below 15 so that an endeavor at 100% then sandstorm will kill anything with 240 HP and higher (base 50 HP). Speed must be 7 or higher to outspeed the casual lv 1 Arons.

Due to the extreme low levels and small attack values, its hard to get the damage formula to stop truncating and locking our damage outputs to 1-2 HP. STAB isn't calculated until after the formula and anything besides the highest roll gets rounded down to 1 HP of damage. There are breakout points but any scenario where you can justify doing more than 1 HP of damage is a losing scenario. Metal burst will handle your bigger damages against things with drain punch or leech life. Because we are no longer bound by STAB moves, and that if an opponent is immune to endeavor, we lose, we don't have to worry about coverage either.
Here is the supreme Aron set:

Aron @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 2
EVs: 244 Atk / 76 Def / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 SpA
- Endeavor
- Sandstorm*/ Toxic
- Metal Burst/ Secret Power*/ Uproar/ Body Slam/ Sleep Talk
- Protect

Secret Power will do 30% par normally, switches to mudslap and lowers acc in a sandstorm
Sandstorm lands reliably and hits behind protect, sub, etc. Toxic hits ground and rock.

Magnemite: Thanks to berry juice, Swagnemite is free to rise to 21 HP (1hp left from sturdy + 20 HP from juice)
The basis of the set is, you get two lives to take damage: get hit by sturdy and juice back to full or get hit to 1 HP and Protect before you get knocked out the next turn. Recycle keeps your juice around for healing. You lead off by poisoning the foe at the first safe opportunity, then protect and recycle until they're dead.

Magnemite @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 7
EVs: 32 HP / 64 Atk / 232 Def / 180 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 13 HP / 0 SpA
- Sonic Boom/ Magic Coat/ Supersonic
- Recycle
- Protect/ Endure
- Toxic

Magic Coat may grant you an extra chance at winning uncertain matchups by bouncing back status. Sonic Boom does a locked 20 HP like Seismic Toss but at 90 accuracy.


Probopass: Like magnemite, this pokemon uses toxic and tries to indefinitely recover while the opposing mon dies from toxic damage. However, probopass heals 'n deals (damage) with Pain Split after its first berry juice is snorted.

Probopass @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 236 Def / 36 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Pain Split
- Toxic
- Protect
- Magic Coat/ Torment/ Attract/ Sandstorm/ Dynamic Punch/ Fire Punch/ Rock Blast

Magic Coat is preferred to knock back any status coming your way. Torment will shred choice locked users. Attract will prey on hax. Sandstorm works the same way aron uses it. As for the last slot, these are in case you have a free turn or have been taunted without a magic coat prediction. Dynamic punch will spread confusion, while fire punch will try to burn those who cannot be poisoned.


Donphan: While it is a familiar face in 1v1, here, Donphan gets reduced to Lv 25 and performs like how it does in the past. Instead of using Z-Earthquake, donphan sticks with endeavor for damage. Shell bell can be used for recovery assuming endeavor lands, when the opponent is at 1 HP, fire an Ice shard which only fails if the other side is bringing leftovers or water shuriken. Custap makes the user the fastest in its priority block, when paired with Ice shard, donphan is the fastest +1 priority bracket ensuring that it must take a +2 move like Extreme Speed to outpace it. Toxic is a must as if they're carrying leftovers, poison jab is less effective but does damage, and does more damage in the first 3 turns compared to toxic if it activates.

Donphan @ Shell Bell / Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 25
EVs: 244 Atk
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Protect
- Toxic/ Poison Jab


Togedemaru: This rotund little guy has two sets some of the previous sets. Spiky Shield makes Toge extremely effective against contact pokemon as it deals 1/8th of their health and punishes harder than Protect. Endeavor or Super Fang shred through HP and finish off with toxic, thief, or Spiky Shield. Thief will take the opponent's item after berry juice is gone or knocked off, Twin Needle will do twice as much damage and has a 36% chance to poison, Toxic will work away stall but has 90 acc. Fling is only used with Thief for discarding choice items or for just breaking the other mon's stuff. For the Lv 1 set, Wish can be used as it doesn't plan on losing its item, and healing reliably to heal back to full behind the shield.

Togedemaru @ Berry Juice
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 5
EVs: 212 Atk / 252 Def / 12 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 HP / 0 Spe
- Spiky Shield
- Endeavor/ Super Fang
- Thief/ Twin Needle/ Super Fang
- Toxic/ Fling

Togedemaru @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
EVs: 172 Def / 92 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 HP
- Spiky Shield
- Endeavor
- Twineedle/ Wish/ Super Fang
- Toxic

 

[Joker 1v1]

Reserving Deoxys Defense. Edited after confirming with Attidude on rules.

 

[Chickenpie2]

Kommo-o

What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?
The new pseudo-legendary of Sun and Moon, Kommo-o, became a core member of many Dragon-Fairy-Steel teams, as well as being a blanket check to the omnipresent Mega Gyarados, and being a Dragon-type that was able to handle Steel-types with its Fighting-type STAB and access to Flamethrower. This monstrous threat entrenches itself within the metagame with its unique typing, great all round stats with access to its signature Z-move Clangorous Soulblaze, which is the only damaging move that has a guaranteed +1 to all stats. What this does to the metagame is that it eliminates a lot of slower Pokemon that rely on setting up, and beckons hyper offensive Pokemon to take on the mantle in the hopes of taking it down. In particular it handles most Mega Gyarados, Sturdy Pokemon, Zygarde, and Aegislash with ease.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?
Kommo-o in itself is typically a bulky offensive Pokemon as it tanks hits from opponents and then blows them back. it can also be considered a stall breaker with Taunt, and at times a fast attacker if invested appropriately, or if running the ungodly Choice Scarf set.

What caused it to have a significant impact?
With the ability to tank almost anything it wants to, including Choice Specs Protean Greninja Ice Beam, and has a chance at tanking Jolly Outrage from Mega Charizard X, Kommo-o stood out from the crowd. Basically, it can be bulked to survive many unexpected matchups without having to invest in its offenses as it can still easily take down prominent threats with its Z-move. On top of this, Kommo-o attacks on both sides: physically with Close Combat, and specially with Clanging Scales. These moves combined with Flamethrower give Kommo-o incredibly good coverage. If Kommo-o is not taken out in the first turn, the match is likely to be in its favour. Taunt is the icing on the cake that allows Kommo-o to take care of set up and stall Pokemon, and in particular can cross up faster Taunters by using its Z-move which cannot be negated with Taunt to outspeed them and Taunt them first.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?
Kommo-o of course is not an unstoppable threat, and suffers from many weaknesses such as a quad weakness to popular Fairy-types like Magearna and Tapu Fini, and also weak to many common Dragon- and Psychic-types like Mega Charizard X and Mew. And yet despite these obvious weaknesses, Kommo-o has still cemented itself as one of the gamechangers of Gen 7.

 

[Vrji]

Nominating Aegislash



What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Aegislash has been a star in 1v1 ever since people first started using it. While its usage has dropped with the time, when it was first used it had a ton of presence, mainly because there were so few counters, forcing every competitive team to have some way of dealing with it, which greatly shaped the metagame - Edit: this is super generic, I might change it later.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Because of Aegislash's low speed and amazing bulk in shield stance, it has always been a bulky attacker. Indeed, it's often run with minimum speed in order to take attacks in shield stance before attacking. The sets are usually mixed, with some combination of the moves Shadow Ball, Sacred Sword, Flash Cannon and Gyro Ball for attacks, with the item of choice being Weakness Police at first, but after the release of gen 7 it would also run various Z-crystals.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

First of all, Steel/Ghost is an amazing typing, resisting or being immune to 12 of all 18 types, but Aegislash's main sorce of power lies in its (broken) ability stance change, allowing it to be alter between being an incredibly bulky and an incredibly hard-hitting pokémon, and together with its stats, a well-played Aegislash effectively has a base 150 in Atk, SpA, Def and SpDef! King's shield also lowering an attackers Atk on contact is really just overkill.
Like a true 1v1 star, Aegislash is also very unpredictable, mainly due to the variety of items it can run. While at first the only item ever used was Weakness Policy, the introduction of Z-crystals gave Aegislash some new toys to play with, as it has 100% perfect coverage between Ghostium Z and Fightium Z, with Steelium Z being an additional STAB option. Different berries also allow Aegislash to lure and beat particular pokemon like Mega Zard Y, Mega Gyarados and some stall.
A sample Aegislash set is:

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy / Ghostium Z / Fightium Z / Steelium Z / Lum Berry Shucca Berry / Occa Berry / Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Ball
- Swords Dance / Gyro Ball / Shadow Sneak / Metal Sound / Substitute

Metal Sound is just another great option, beating specially defensive pokémon, while Sacred Sword can cut through pokémon who try to boost their physical defense, meaning it's largly impossible to wall Aegislash. But it doesn't end there! Lum Berry + Substitute can be run to lure and beat pokémon who try to win by putting Aegislash to sleep, e. g. Smeargle, Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur etc.

Altogether what caused Aegislash to have such a significant impact were its broken ability + stats, plus the ability to run many different items to beat most opponents.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Like with all pokémon, a good way to deal with Aegislash is to outspeed and OHKO it, mainly with Mega Charizard X (although it can have mind game problems with King's shield - Substitute solves those) and Y. Mega Gyarados is safe from Aegislash's STAB and can set up enough Dragon Dances to OHKO with Earthquake not fearing King's Shield. However, Aegislash can run resist berrys to take those hits, and Air Balloon can annoy Mega Gyarados. Aegislash's low speed also makes it quite vulnerable to Leech Seed stall by Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur and Whimsicott, although the latter doen't like taking a Flash Cannon, and the others can lose to rare Sub + Lum Berry veriants. The easiest way, still, to deal with Aegislash is using Substitute, forcing it to attack and then killing it in blade stance.

Any Help / Suggestions are welcome.

 

[Synonimous]

Nominating Aegislash



What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Aegislash has been a star in 1v1 ever since people first started using it. While its usage has dropped with the time, when it was first used it had a ton of presence, mainly because there were so few counters, forcing every competitive team to have some way of dealing with it, which greatly shaped the metagame - Edit: this is super generic, I might change it later.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Because of Aegislash's low speed and amazing bulk in shield stance, it has always been a bulky attacker. Indeed, it's often run with minimum speed in order to take attacks in shield stance before attacking. The sets are usually mixed, with some combination of the moves Shadow Ball, Sacred Sword, Flash Cannon and Gyro Ball for attacks, with the item of choice being Weakness Police at first, but after the release of gen 7 it would also run various Z-crystals.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

First of all, Steel/Ghost is an amazing typing, resisting or being immune to 12 of all 18 types, but Aegislash's main sorce of power lies in its (broken) ability stance change, allowing it to be alter between being an incredibly bulky and an incredibly hard-hitting pokémon, and together with its stats, a well-played Aegislash effectively has a base 150 in Atk, SpA, Def and SpDef! King's shield also lowering an attackers Atk on contact is really just overkill.
Like a true 1v1 star, Aegislash is also very unpredictable, mainly due to the variety of items it can run. While at first the only item ever used was Weakness Policy, the introduction of Z-crystals gave Aegislash some new toys to play with, as it has 100% perfect coverage between Ghostium Z and Fightium Z, with Steelium Z being an additional STAB option. Different berries also allow Aegislash to lure and beat particular pokemon like Mega Zard Y, Mega Gyarados and some stall.
A sample Aegislash set is:

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy / Ghostium Z / Fightium Z / Steelium Z / Lum Berry Shucca Berry / Occa Berry / Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Ball
- Swords Dance / Gyro Ball / Shadow Sneak / Metal Sound / Substitute

Metal Sound is just another great option, beating specially defensive pokémon, while Sacred Sword can cut through pokémon who try to boost their physical defense, meaning it's largly impossible to wall Aegislash. But it doesn't end there! Lum Berry + Substitute can be run to lure and beat pokémon who try to win by putting Aegislash to sleep, e. g. Smeargle, Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur etc.

Altogether what caused Aegislash to have such a significant impact were its broken ability + stats, plus the ability to run many different items to beat most opponents.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Like with all pokémon, a good way to deal with Aegislash is to outspeed and OHKO it, mainly with Mega Charizard X (although it can have mind game problems with King's shield - Substitute solves those) and Y. Mega Gyarados is safe from Aegislash's STAB and can set up enough Dragon Dances to OHKO with Earthquake not fearing King's Shield. However, Aegislash can run resist berrys to take those hits, and Air Balloon can annoy Mega Gyarados. Aegislash's low speed also makes it quite vulnerable to Leech Seed stall by Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur and Whimsicott, although the latter doen't like taking a Flash Cannon, and the others can lose to rare Sub + Lum Berry veriants. The easiest way, still, to deal with Aegislash is using Substitute, forcing it to attack and then killing it in blade stance.

Any Help / Suggestions are welcome.

A good Aegi set is mixed but for shadow sneak, sword is primarily used on physical sets using Shadow Claw. Also, order the items in terms of usage. I would mention Donphan and other Sturdies as a key check as well.

 

[maki]

Nominating Aegislash



What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Aegislash has been a star in 1v1 ever since people first started using it. While its usage has dropped with the time, when it was first used it had a ton of presence, mainly because there were so few counters, forcing every competitive team to have some way of dealing with it, which greatly shaped the metagame - Edit: this is super generic, I might change it later.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Because of Aegislash's low speed and amazing bulk in shield stance, it has always been a bulky attacker. Indeed, it's often run with minimum speed in order to take attacks in shield stance before attacking. The sets are usually mixed, with some combination of the moves Shadow Ball, Sacred Sword, Flash Cannon and Gyro Ball for attacks, with the item of choice being Weakness Police at first, but after the release of gen 7 it would also run various Z-crystals.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

First of all, Steel/Ghost is an amazing typing, resisting or being immune to 12 of all 18 types, but Aegislash's main sorce of power lies in its (broken) ability stance change, allowing it to be alter between being an incredibly bulky and an incredibly hard-hitting pokémon, and together with its stats, a well-played Aegislash effectively has a base 150 in Atk, SpA, Def and SpDef! King's shield also lowering an attackers Atk on contact is really just overkill.
Like a true 1v1 star, Aegislash is also very unpredictable, mainly due to the variety of items it can run. While at first the only item ever used was Weakness Policy, the introduction of Z-crystals gave Aegislash some new toys to play with, as it has 100% perfect coverage between Ghostium Z and Fightium Z, with Steelium Z being an additional STAB option. Different berries also allow Aegislash to lure and beat particular pokemon like Mega Zard Y, Mega Gyarados and some stall.
A sample Aegislash set is:

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy / Ghostium Z / Fightium Z / Steelium Z / Lum Berry Shucca Berry / Occa Berry / Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Ball
- Swords Dance / Gyro Ball / Shadow Sneak / Metal Sound / Substitute

Metal Sound is just another great option, beating specially defensive pokémon, while Sacred Sword can cut through pokémon who try to boost their physical defense, meaning it's largly impossible to wall Aegislash. But it doesn't end there! Lum Berry + Substitute can be run to lure and beat pokémon who try to win by putting Aegislash to sleep, e. g. Smeargle, Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur etc.

Altogether what caused Aegislash to have such a significant impact were its broken ability + stats, plus the ability to run many different items to beat most opponents.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Like with all pokémon, a good way to deal with Aegislash is to outspeed and OHKO it, mainly with Mega Charizard X (although it can have mind game problems with King's shield - Substitute solves those) and Y. Mega Gyarados is safe from Aegislash's STAB and can set up enough Dragon Dances to OHKO with Earthquake not fearing King's Shield. However, Aegislash can run resist berrys to take those hits, and Air Balloon can annoy Mega Gyarados. Aegislash's low speed also makes it quite vulnerable to Leech Seed stall by Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur and Whimsicott, although the latter doen't like taking a Flash Cannon, and the others can lose to rare Sub + Lum Berry veriants. The easiest way, still, to deal with Aegislash is using Substitute, forcing it to attack and then killing it in blade stance.

Any Help / Suggestions are welcome.

Fast Aegislash with Magnet Rise can lure donphan and golem.

 

[RADU]

Nominating Aegislash



What effect does/did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Aegislash has been a star in 1v1 ever since people first started using it. While its usage has dropped with the time, when it was first used it had a ton of presence, mainly because there were so few counters, forcing every competitive team to have some way of dealing with it, which greatly shaped the metagame - Edit: this is super generic, I might change it later.

What archetype was this Pokemon used as, like bulky attacker, fast attacker, stall, etc.?

Because of Aegislash's low speed and amazing bulk in shield stance, it has always been a bulky attacker. Indeed, it's often run with minimum speed in order to take attacks in shield stance before attacking. The sets are usually mixed, with some combination of the moves Shadow Ball, Sacred Sword, Flash Cannon and Gyro Ball for attacks, with the item of choice being Weakness Police at first, but after the release of gen 7 it would also run various Z-crystals.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

First of all, Steel/Ghost is an amazing typing, resisting or being immune to 12 of all 18 types, but Aegislash's main sorce of power lies in its (broken) ability stance change, allowing it to be alter between being an incredibly bulky and an incredibly hard-hitting pokémon, and together with its stats, a well-played Aegislash effectively has a base 150 in Atk, SpA, Def and SpDef! King's shield also lowering an attackers Atk on contact is really just overkill.
Like a true 1v1 star, Aegislash is also very unpredictable, mainly due to the variety of items it can run. While at first the only item ever used was Weakness Policy, the introduction of Z-crystals gave Aegislash some new toys to play with, as it has 100% perfect coverage between Ghostium Z and Fightium Z, with Steelium Z being an additional STAB option. Different berries also allow Aegislash to lure and beat particular pokemon like Mega Zard Y, Mega Gyarados and some stall.
A sample Aegislash set is:

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy / Ghostium Z / Fightium Z / Steelium Z / Lum Berry Shucca Berry / Occa Berry / Air Balloon
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Sacred Sword
- Shadow Ball
- Swords Dance / Gyro Ball / Shadow Sneak / Metal Sound / Substitute

Metal Sound is just another great option, beating specially defensive pokémon, while Sacred Sword can cut through pokémon who try to boost their physical defense, meaning it's largly impossible to wall Aegislash. But it doesn't end there! Lum Berry + Substitute can be run to lure and beat pokémon who try to win by putting Aegislash to sleep, e. g. Smeargle, Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur etc.

Altogether what caused Aegislash to have such a significant impact were its broken ability + stats, plus the ability to run many different items to beat most opponents.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in 1v1?

Like with all pokémon, a good way to deal with Aegislash is to outspeed and OHKO it, mainly with Mega Charizard X (although it can have mind game problems with King's shield - Substitute solves those) and Y. Mega Gyarados is safe from Aegislash's STAB and can set up enough Dragon Dances to OHKO with Earthquake not fearing King's Shield. However, Aegislash can run resist berrys to take those hits, and Air Balloon can annoy Mega Gyarados. Aegislash's low speed also makes it quite vulnerable to Leech Seed stall by Jumpluff, Mega Venesaur and Whimsicott, although the latter doen't like taking a Flash Cannon, and the others can lose to rare Sub + Lum Berry veriants. The easiest way, still, to deal with Aegislash is using Substitute, forcing it to attack and then killing it in blade stance.

Any Help / Suggestions are welcome.

the fact that you won't use the Aegislash God set triggers me

frisbee ghost (Aegislash) @ Ghostium Z
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 240 HP / 12 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Magnet Rise
- Laser Focus
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak

this has the best matchup spread out of all the sets and it also lures out almost all ground types, yet nobody uses it, smh.

 

[edudittA]

I am giving you guys an extension of 4 days to nominate some more Pokemon you feel were genuinely influential in 1v1 in this thread, so go berserk... The nomination stage will finally close on the 7th of September.

Alakazam locked my 500th post, so like this post instead

And don't correct others' nomination please; this is not the place for that. Use this thread only to nominate AND NOTHING ELSE.....


Also, those who nominated and couldn't complete it / haven't started working on it, your nomination still stands. You can still finish your reservation