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Project The Top 10 Titans of the Gen 7 OU Metagame

Nominating: Pheromosa

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What effect did Pheromosa have on the metagame?

Pheromosa was instantly seen as a big threat in the early SM OU metagame, as its offensive Stats in Attack and Special Attack, access to boosting moves such as Quiver Dance, access to a different variety of Z-Moves and the good Speed tier allowed it to break through a high portion of the OU metagame easily.
First of all, its offensive typing wasn't bad at all - being Bug and Fighting - it immediately had access to a good STAB Combination with Moves such as High Jump Kick, Focus Blast, Bug Buzz and U-Turn for Momentum.
Furthermore it has access to coverage options such as:
- Ice Beam & Hyper Beam
- Poison Jab.
Pheromosa has a high variety of Sets being Choice Scarf (mixed), Choice Specs and different types of Z-Moves: Buginium Z, Fightinium Z and Normalium Z.
It was able to use Rapid Spin to Spin the Hazards away while immediately threatening the opposing pokémon with its unpredictable movepool.
Each Set was utilized towards Pheromosas good stats to abuse and with the help of a Beast Boost after killing a mon, Pheromosa became even more of a threat to the opposing team.
The downside of Pheromosa was its low defensive Stats, with HP being the highest. The overall low bulk of Pheromosa leaves it helpless against strong Priority-Moves such as Water Shuriken by Ash-Greninja, Bullet Punch by Mega-Metagross and Mega-Scizor and Quick Attack by Mega-Pinsir.
Pheromosas controversy was given due to the fact, that it can boost its already high Stats even further with Quiver Dance and due to Beast Boost it was guaranteed that Pheromosa would gain the speed after killing a pokémon.
It was even able to bypass its checks in Toxapex in the later stage while it was OU with a boosted Z-Normalium Hyper Beam. Other Checks feared the same Destiny.

In what main roles was Pheromosa used?

It offered different roles as a fast Scarfer, as a breaker with Choice Specs and also a breaker with Quiver Dance and a Z-Move.
It also served as a Spinner, which, due to its high stats, can threaten out a large portion of pokémons, while spinning the Hazards Like Stealth-Rocks and Spikes away.
A different variety of Z-Moves were used from Z-Focus Blast, Z-Bug Buzz and even the Z-Hyper Beam
The Specs set was a very interesting and dangerous Choice, as it has a +1 in Special Attack and a +1 in its Speed after killing a pokémon. Specs could be classified as one of the very best Sets of Pheromosa.


What caused Pheromosa to have a significant Impact?

A lot of reasons already stated above caused the impact on the OU tier. The Speed, the offensive Stat-Distribution and the wide range of Sets and Moves it was able to use.
Pheromosa was very overcentralizing, which led to a Suspect test later on, as the OU Council wanted to take action on this impactful and dangerous pokémon.

How do/did you deal with Pheromosa?

Checks to Pheromosa were Tapu Fini, Toxapex, Alola-Marowak and Mega-Scizor, but each of them take a hefty chunk from Pheromosas STABs or its coverage options.
It was even able to easily bypass its "checks" like Mega-Scizor with a +1 Z-Focus Blast which OHKOes Mega-Scizor, being also able to bypass with a boosted Breakneck Blitz Toxapex and catching Tapu Fini off guard with a Poison-Jab and / or Z-Hyper.
Pheromosas STAB + Coverage Options are able to dent holes even through its checks, so there was actually no real counterplay besides picking off a weakened Pheromosa with a priority move such as Water Shuriken, Quick Attack or Bullet Punch.
Also other strong Priority Moves such as Aqua jet and Ice Shard (from Azumarill and Weavile / Mamoswine) were able to revenge kill it.



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Overall the OU Council thought they want to take actions on Pheromosa, as its Impact was too threatening and its Appearance in the metagame always caused a Major Flaw already at the State of the Teambuilding process, therefore
a Suspect was needed as Pheromosa was too overcentralizing for the OU metagame. The Suspect Result ended in a Super Majority in Favor of banning Pheromosa.


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Considering the current amount of nominations, I'm going to extend this phase by 1 week, so feel free to take anything that hasn't been nominated yet. Funbot28 Counting Sheep, are you guys still interested in writing about the Pokemon you reserved? Also just a reminder that you can write about more than 1 Pokemon in total, just make sure to finish writing your reservation before reserving and writing another.
 
Jordy said:
Considering the current amount of nominations, I'm going to extend this phase by 1 week, so feel free to take anything that hasn't been nominated yet. Funbot28 Counting Sheep, are you guys still interested in writing about the Pokemon you reserved? Also just a reminder that you can write about more than 1 Pokemon in total, just make sure to finish writing your reservation before reserving and writing another.
Click to expand...

Don't have much time to spare over the next 4 days sorry
 
If we're allowed to reserve more than one thing (I already did my Dugtrio nomination, obviously) I'd like to tackle Hawlucha.

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I'd like to nominate Hawlucha for this list; it's an extremely different - and potentially-controversial - pick for this list, especially when compared with virtually everything else thus far, but I feel that Hawlucha has historically been significant enough in this generation's OU metagame to be worth considering for this spot. It isn't Landorus-T, Zygarde, Heatran, Kartana, Dugtrio, Greninja, or Pheromosa levels of influential, and it bears a much lower ranking on the current VR than any of these do or did, but many who were around when Hawlucha was at its absolute peak can attest to just how much Hawlucha constrained teambuilding back then. Even now, though its checks are more established in this metagame than in the past, one can still feel the burden placed upon the teambuilding process by this threat; without one of its answers, it will pose a tremendous threat to your team.

Unlike my Dugtrio post, which had to break the required formatting considerably in order to best explain how influential it was, my Hawlucha nomination is going to follow the traditional format, since it's still a part of this metagame.

Hawlucha's Effect on the Metagame

Hawlucha was initially seen on powerful offensive Rain teams and acted as a relatively strong lategame cleaner, but it wasn't a metagame staple in any real sense; the rain teams that used Hawlucha notably made use of Tapu Koko, as the two seemed to have pretty good synergy with one-another, and while this may be considered insignificant for most threats this pairing would prove to be extremely important for Hawlucha later on.

With Tapu Koko making its home on a variety of different offensive builds, Hawlucha was eventually paired with it more frequently as the synergy between the duo on Rain teams translated very well to teams that didn't rely on the weather to put in work. It utilized a Swords Dance set that combined a laundry list of amazing offensive traits - its powerful STAB High Jump Kick, its good Attack stat, its access to reliable recovery, its incredible ability in Unburden that has perfect synergy with its Flying STAB of choice Acrobatics, and its great Speed stat - with the unorthodox Electric Seed to give it a Defense boost as soon as it entered the battle while Electric Terrain was active to make it an extraordinarily dangerous setup sweeper with a Speed tier that simply couldn't be contested and a surprisingly good amount of staying power.

Moreover, though Tapu Koko proved to be its best partner, the other Tapus - all of whom had some degree of influence, though Tapu Fini was at the time a bit worse than the other three - could also enable Hawlucha's sweep as long as Hawlucha used a Psychic Seed, Grassy Seed, or Misty Seed instead of an Electric Seed. Hawlucha wasn't the most splashable threat in the tier, but with all the Tapus being powerful standalone threats one could easily make accommodations for Hawlucha's considerable offensive presence when teambuilding with any of them.

During the era of Hawlucha's dominance the metagame was leaning more towards the offensive side; Tapu Koko established yet another viable set for itself in its entirely utility-focused Dual Screens set, and with Screens support Hawlucha was a behemoth, getting even more opportunities to set up a Swords Dance as well as opportunities to potentially set up two. These teams generally picked up around about the time OLT began due to how quickly players could climb the OU Ladder with teams that could win (or lose) games in under a dozen turns, and often featured powerful setup sweepers like Gyarados and Zygarde (the latter of whom is now banned); the latter proved particularly interesting on teams featuring Screens Koko+Hawlucha because it could bait in the fat Grass types that Hawlucha could potentially use as setup fodder.

The metagame attempted to counter the Hawlucha trend by adopting bulkier answers to it, as offensively checking something with 606 Speed is very difficult. Landorus-T proved a decent check in a pinch courtesy of its bulk, power, and Intimidate; Zapdos began trending heavily in-part due to its use as the best defensive countermeasure to Hawlucha, being one of the few threats able to resist both of its STABs while hitting it back hard. In general, the strategy to deal with Hawlucha is very similar today to the strategy when it was at its peak: run something with enough bulk to live a hit and potentially cripple it if not outright KO it; however, this proves much easier in practice than it sounds because the things that can defensively pressure Hawlucha are much better in the current meta. Moreover, though Hawlucha is fast it simply cannot outpace Priority moves; this is one of the few ways to actually revenge kill Hawlucha while not defensively checking it.

In short, Hawlucha made the metagame incredibly offensive until it proved threatening enough that players needed to adopt many defensive answers to it. Said defensive answers are still incredibly viable in the metagame today, but for many more reasons than just beating Hawlucha.

Hawlucha's Role

Hawlucha is a setup sweeper best utilized in the lategame, when its countermeasures are weakened if not outright eliminated; though it can pressure many walls after a Swords Dance, it needs support in order to be at its deadliest. Any attempts to use Hawlucha to fill any other niche are likely to be in vain; other things do those roles already and can do so much better than Hawlucha can. It is therefore almost exclusively a lategame cleaner.

Hawlucha's Tools of the Trade

As mentioned above, Hawlucha combines a series of very specific traits to become one of the tier's premiere offensive threats. It has two powerful STABs and moves with very, high base power to go along with them. It has impeccable synergy with the threats that directly enable its sweep. It has access to reliable recovery to increase its staying power, potentially even granting it extra boosts. But what is perhaps Hawlucha's most important trait is its Speed tier: though base 118 Speed is merely good on paper, Hawlucha's incredible Unburden Ability doubles its Speed stat when an item is used up as long as it remains in battle. Hawlucha could effectively run an Adamant nature to maximize its damage output while also reaching 303 Speed. After Unburden activates, Hawlucha outpaces everything up to and including Jolly Sand Rush Excadrill under Sand. This effectively gives Hawlucha one of the highest attainable Speed tiers in the OU metagame, contested only by specific threats like Jolly Landorus-Therian after a Rock Polish boost and Mega Alakazam after tracing Sand Rush or Swift Swim while that particular weather is active. This makes offensively checking Hawlucha nearly impossible as virtually nothing can outpace it.

Dealing With Hawlucha

The best way to deal with Hawlucha is to check it defensively. Zapdos is perhaps the most prominent defensive answer to Hawlucha as it resists both its STABs, can KO it, and has access to reliable recovery to keep it healthy enough to check Hawlucha. Mew - which was also a powerful Zygarde check - could also live a hit from Hawlucha and status it. Clefable cannot OHKO Hawlucha but it can still do some significant damage with Moonblast, and Unaware variants in particular do very well as they ignore its Swords Dance boosts. This is true of all the viable Unaware users. Celesteela could, if healthy, do some considerable damage to Hawlucha courtesy of Leech Seed and potentially stall it out, but this isn't without its risks as Hawlucha can flip the script on Celesteela should it set up a Swords Dance on a correctly-predicted Protect. Offensively, Z-Fly Landorus-T and most Tapu Koko variants can live a hit from a +1 or +2 Hawlucha and OHKO it in return, and priority users like Ash-Greninja and Weavile can threaten to revenge kill a weakened Hawlucha.

That said, all these countermeasures have their issues: Hawlucha's defensive answers have to remain healthy enough to live hits from Hawlucha, which can prove surprisingly difficult given the nature of the teams it finds its home on, while its few offensive answers cannot OHKO Hawlucha if it remains healthy enough to live those targeted priority moves.

In conclusion, Hawlucha may not be quite as powerful as it once was - it's dropped considerably down the VR since its peak - but one could still argue that it has a lasting influence on this metagame: its checks are better in this metagame and as such they appear on a wider variety of teams, but Hawlucha's presence absolutely mandates the use of these checks on most competent teams, and as such it constrains teambuilding to a degree few other threats can match. Hawlucha may be the textbook definition of a one-trick pony, but there's nothing inherently wrong with being a one-trick pony when that one trick allowed it to at one point be the tier's premiere offensive threat. Dealing with it set a new benchmark for teams with a strong defensive backbone, and its relatively tame setup conditions allowed it to play an integral role in establishing this generation's offensively-oriented OU teams.
 
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Since Kartana got dropped I nominate Kartana, as I think this mon can't be missed out, so here we go:

Nominating: Kartana

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What effect did Kartana have on the metagame?

Kartanas effect on the SM OU metagame is that people started to run defensive checks to it, as Kartanas skyhigh attack stat and a good speed tier makes it, that it is able to bypass a lot of offensive Pokémon.
Furthermore Kartana has a good offensive typing being Grass /Steel, also having good offensive Moves such as Leaf Blade or Smart Strike and very good coverage options in Sacred Sword, Giga Impact and of course Knock Off.
Kartanas first impact was that it was seen as a Scarfer with 3 Attacks and Defog, as with 109 speed and a Scarf, it can outspeed a lot of mons in the metagame and is furthermore able to revenge kill faster threats
such as Mega Alakazam, Ash-Greninja and Adamant Mega-Swampert in Rain. However people came up with more sets as the Generation progressed further. One set especially had a short time period of
popularity, the Timid Set which was used to gain the Speed instead of the Attack boost from its Beast Boost. People ran it with Swords Dance Setup.
However this Set didn't have a lot of Impact in the metagame, whereas Setup Sets gained more attention and attraction with SD + Grassium or SD + Steelium, as after the SD and its already skyhigh Attack stat,
which is 181 it has a lot of power to break through a lot of mons. The SD sets are still played, but later revolved more around Z-Giga Impact as this is able to bypass defensive checks such as Pokémon like Zapdos.
As of recently it gets paired up with Tapu Bulu as this double grass core has a lot of support for each other as Grassy Terrain boosts also Kartanas Grass -STAB Leaf Blade and with a
Choice Band this Leaf Blade can be really deadly as the damage output is pretty high. In Return Tapu Bulu offers a true Water resist to Ash-Greninja as Kartanas low special defense leaves
it vulnerable to even "resisted" hits. In overall Kartanas Impact through the Generation was strong enough to keep it consistently at the Top of the Gen7 OU Viability Rankings and it found itself on a lot of tour as well as ladder-teams.

In what main roles was Kartana used?

The main roles of the Kartana are:
- Scarf 3 Attacks + Defog / Scarf 4 Attacks.
- Swords Dance + Z move abuser with either Grassium Z, Steelium Z or sometimes All out Pummeling and recently more recognized Z-Giga Impact to bypass its defensive checks.
- Choice Band to act like a breaker from the get go.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Its typing and reliability proves that this mon can have a huge Impact on the Metagame throughout the entirety of Generation 7 OU.
Also its pretty good speed tier can help revenge or scare out other Pokémon without the use of a Choice Scarf.
Also Kartana is incredibly hard to counter as anything takes a significant amount of Damage and it has a decent enough physical bulk. Its typing is well done
as Grass/Steel only has two weaknesses being Fire (4x) and Fighting (2x). But this typing helps it to sponge (physical) hits very well and neutralizes Ground and Flying attacks.
Also Speed Boost gives it a +1 each time it KOs a mon in the game, makes the counterplay incredible hard and inconsistent so many players are forced to play around this threat.

How do/did you deal with Kartana in OU?

Faster Special Attackers are great to revenge kill Kartana as its low special defensive nature leaves it very threatened by strong even resisted hits (Water Shuriken from Ash-Greninja as an example).
Also defensive Pokémon such as Zapdos can tank most hits well and can Roost on Kartana because Kartana might get threatened by a Heat Wave. Volcarona especially can come in on all 3 of Kartanas Attacks
pretty safely due to its Flame Body it is able to cripple it down with a burn and thanks to the Bug/Fire typing it resists all of Kartanas hits beeing Steel, Grass and Fighting.
Defensive Steel types such as Ferrothorn, Heatran and Celesteela can come in consistently on especially Choice Scarf variants, which are locked into Leaf Blade or Smart Strike and scare it out in the process.
There are also a lot of bulky grass types in the tier such as Mega-Venusaur, which can come in on Kartana, same Treatment goes to Tangrowth and the lesser used Amoonguss.


​
 
Not gonna write it since I stopped playing halfway through this gen but some mons that deserves a write-up didn't get it are;
1) Greninja / Ash-Greninja (obvious)
2) Tapu Fini (good utility throughout the gen)
3) Tapu Koko ( momentum grabber + Hawlucha partner)
4) Mega Alakazam (Trace can take advantage of some nice Abilities)
5) Mega Tyranitar
6) Excadrill
7) Ninetales-A (fallen off the cliff but part of the Screens team archtype)
8) Naganadel (can't be revenge killed)
 
Nominating Ash-Greninja
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What effect did Ash-Greninja have on the metagame?

Throughout the generation, Ash-Greninja has consistently been one of the few Pokemon at the top of the metagame. Thanks to a mix of an amazing offensive typing, amazing offensive stats, and access to Spikes and strong priority in Water Shuriken, Ash-Greninja can fill many roles for offensively geared teams. Ash-Greninja has never really switched its set up, despite the fact that the set that it's running is very obvious, which should tell you something about just how consistent it is. Ash-Greninja is particularly good at pressuring bulkier teams, thanks to its amazing offensive typing and access to Spikes, forcing bulkier teams to rely on Pokemon like Tapu Fini and cores like Toxapex + Magearna to be able to play against it. In addition to this, primarily thanks to its incredible Speed stat, it also has an amazing matchup against more offensively geared teams, mandating Pokemon like Mega Gyarados or Kommo-o to abuse it on these type of teams.

In what main roles was Ash-Greninja used?

Ash-Greninja was mainly used as a wallbreaker that could consistently apply pressure throughout the match thanks to its good offensive typing. On top of that, since it forced so many switches thanks to its typing, it also made for a great Spikes setter. In addition to this, it was a good offensive check to Pokemon like Excadrill, Volcarona, and Landorus-T thanks to its access to Water Shuriken and outstanding Speed stat.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

As I've referred to multiple times now, Ash-Greninja had such a significant impact on the metagame thanks to a combination of its amazing offensive typing coupled with amazing offensive stats, access to Spikes, and strong priority in Water Shuriken.

How do/did you deal with this Ash-Greninja in OU?

* water resist like pex/tang/ferro + dark resist like gear
* tapu fini
* revenge killers like mega zam/mlop/scarf kart
 
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Nominating Protean Greninja as my third post!

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Introduction:

Many familiar with the OR/AS metagame know how powerful Protean Greninja happened to be back then: it gained access to valuable moves in Gunk Shot and Low Kick through Move Tutors that allowed it to effectively defeat many of its few counters from the XY metagame, and as such it was suspect tested and consequently banned due to its terrifying combination of its incredible Speed stat, its incredible movepool, and an incredible Ability that effectively gave it STAB on literally everything. While the rampant powercreep associated with Sun and Moon, further exacerbated by the changes brought about by Ultra Sun and Moon, definitely put Greninja in line, other changes brought about in the generational shift - both directly and indirectly - also added considerably to Greninja's near-unparalleled versatility by further expanding its incredibly wide movepool. Greninja as a whole is considered by most USUM OU players to be among the biggest threats in the tier due to its unparalleled versatility.

Greninja's Effect on the OU Metagame:

Greninja's overall viability has gone back and forth throughout the generation, but (to my knowledge) it was at no point worse than A- on the Viability Ranking. To discuss Greninja's effect on the metagame would have to involve a non-negligible amount of focus on Ash-Greninja: from team preview, Greninja proves to be an ambiguous amphibian as Ash-Greninja has a single but metagame-redefining viable set that mandates the use of bulky Grass types, bulky Magearna variants, and even more niche picks like Hydreigon to counter - or at least check - it by preventing it from picking up a KO and transforming while Protean Greninja has several sets that, while all less meta-defining than Ash-Greninja's flagship Choice Specs set can easily prey on an opponent's suspicions of an Ash-Greninja or different Protean set. As such, games involving either Greninja require a great deal of scouting in an attempt to safely determine whether the Greninja on the opponent's team in an Ash-Greninja or a Protean Greninja. It's also for this reason that every OU-viable team using Greninja always sets its Protean Greninja's gender to Male: Ash-Greninja is gender-locked.

Most if not all Greninja sets have a counter. For instance, a healthy bulky Magearna (usually Assault Vest) can check most Protean variants while simultaneously checking Ash-Greninja. However, Greninja's seemingly-bottomless movepool allows it to never truly have a hard-counter until its set is discovered: all it takes is having the right Greninja set to punish the right lure for it to punch a gaping hole in the opponent's team.

Greninja's Tools of the Trade:

Greninja is versatile to a downright absurd degree. It can almost never function as a setup sweeper (please do not use Z-Celebrate; it really isn't a good set), and its defensive utility is almost nonexistent. However, Greninja can fulfill almost any offensive role depending on its set. This form of the ninja frog can act as one of the tier's best revenge killers with a Choice Scarf set, a powerful suicide lead capable of abusing Taunt, Spikes (or potentially even Toxic Spikes), and its wide movepool to remain decently ambiguous offensively, or even one of the tier's fastest and most formidable mixed wallbreakers courtesy of its pick of the litter in terms of Z-moves as well as its classic albeit uncommon Life Orb sets. Spikes is such an incredible move that all Greninja variants should at least consider dedicating a moveslot to it: the switches an unscouted Greninja forces equate to many free turns to set up Spikes, and this is even true of its Choiced variants.

Greninja has a lot of sets. Greninja has so many sets, and so much customization within its sets, that I didn't even list the Life Orb set and its absolute laundry list of options for each moveslot for its Life Orb set alone. Each set serves a purpose:

  • Choice Scarf Greninja serves as one of the tier's fastest revenge killers and in its prime it served as one of the definitive ways to revenge kill Volcarona after a Quiver Dance (this was Volcarona in its prime), and it could depending on what moves it opts to run revenge kill other threats as well. Even today it continues to function as one of the tier's most consistent Choice Scarf abusers: its Speed tier is good enough that it serves as a revenge killer killer, outpacing and eliminating other popular Choice Scarf users like Landorus-Therian, Kartana, and even Tapu Lele if running Gunk Shot. In this sense, Greninja can be considered one of the tier's most important Scarfers.
  • Lead Greninja has fallen out of favor more recently, but during the last OLT it saw a decent amount of use on various Hyper Offense teams for a combination of traits that no other lead in the game can boast: Taunt, access to both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, and a blistering Speed tier outpacing almost all other suicide leads.
  • Fightinium Z serves as its best way of breaking past Chansey, but the impeccable coverage provided by Fighting moves allows it to do a considerable chunk to Celesteela as well. This Greninja set runs a Hasty nature to better check Heatran.
  • Waterium Z serves to hit the opposite end of the spectrum from the physical Z-move sets, hitting tanks capable of sponging its strong physical Z-moves for an absurd amount of damage while boasting generally stronger Special attacks.
  • Groundium Z is perhaps most notable example of Greninja's unparalleled versatility as a wallbreaker, as well as arguably the most impactful lure set this generation: with the Generation 6 exclusive Dig in its kit Greninja now has a one-time nuke that shreds past a gutsy Toxapex or Magearna user thinking he or she can wall a different Greninja set. The utility of being able to lure in and eliminate both of these threats - something no Ground type can really do as Earthquake is such a common move in general - is highly coveted on many teams. Some OU players, including the well-known Blunder, consider this to be Protean Greninja's best set at the moment.
  • Though not listed anywhere under Greninja's Smogon analysis, Grassium Z was an interesting set brought up in one of the other OU forum threads not long ago as a means of capitalizing on Rotom-Wash's drastically increased usage both on the ladder and in tournament settings after the Zygarde ban. Low Kick and Grass Knot, though variable in power in their base forms and thus extremely weak against something as light as a Rotom forme, are both cranked up to a respectable 160 base power Z-move. The resulting Bloom Doom from a Z-Grass Knot will utterly throttle any Rotom-W lured in, while boasting still-respectable coverage against threats like Mega Gyarados and most notably Mega Swampert in its base form. This lure set stood out to me so considerably that I simply couldn't give the more obscure Z-moves a point of their own: it begs the question of what Z-move Protean Greninja may adopt next to deal with a new metagame trend. Could we see Poisonium Z? Icium Z? Rockium Z? Psychium Z? Will Grassium Z become notable enough in due time that it'll become its own set? Only time will tell.
  • Lastly, Greninja's classic All-Out Attacking Life Orb set is still quite strong, though the Z-move and Choice Scarf variants generally bring more to the table: Greninja gains a considerable boost to all of its attacking moves and as such its set can be customized to suit whatever one's team needs the most. Though I couldn't fit it onto a Pokepaste, it is still a perfectly respectable set in its own right and deserves a mention even if it has seen better days.
The Threat of Greninja:

To say that Greninja adds layers of prediction to the tier whenever its presence is known is a colossal understatement: with its combination of a blistering Speed tier that notably outpaces the meta-defining Tornadus-Therian, its diverse offensive and support movepools that would make even the biggest threats in Ubers incredibly jealous, and an incredible Ability in Protean that overcomes its low Attack and Special Attack stats by granting all its non-Water and Dark moves a 50% damage bonus from STAB, Greninja can mix and match well over a dozen viable moves with well over a half-dozen viable items to become one of OU's most centralizing and versatile threats. It cannot function on Stall teams whatsoever due to its extremely poor defensive stats and limited defensive utility, but it can function on any other archetype and it will frequently function quite well on those archetypes.

The Metagame's Adaptations to Greninja's Presence

Adapting to something that can pick and choose what it wants to KO can prove incredibly difficult, especially when there's a whole different forme of it that Jordy will cover in his post:

The simplest adaptation to Greninja's presence - and an adaptation that many people fail to take into account - is simply looking at its gender when it is sent out: though this is easily preventable by your opponent setting its gender to male in the teambuilder, a female Greninja will always be Protean unless the opponent decides to go a step further with the mindgames and use the Torrent ability instead (they most certainly will not), and knowing this information can make it much easier to scout for once you simply have to determine which Protean set it is instead of whether it's Protean or Ash.

Another adaptation to something that may seem impossible to adapt to is dedicating several teamslots to covering its multiple different Protean variants. For instance, the popular Balance core of Tangrowth (though most fat Grass types can cover this role somewhat well) and Toxapex can deal with a wide assortment of different Greninja sets: Tangrowth can generally switch into Greninja at least once without taking an overly extreme amount of damage and unless the Greninja user makes an aggressive double-switch to keep Greninja's moveset ambiguous will give away Greninja's Ability at the very least: if its typing changes it is Protean, and if it does not it is Battle Bond. One can go a step further: using the amount of damage Tangrowth takes from an attack, one can determine approximately how much investment into one of its attacking stats Greninja is running. Tangrowth may take a significant amount of damage from an Ice Beam, but this may be a dead giveaway that it is a specially offensive Greninja and is therefore not running Groundium Z, so a Toxapex switchin can prove very safe.

A third adaptation to Greninja lies in using moves like Protect, which many things tend to use in this tier (i.e. SpDef Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Celesteela, two of which are good Greninja checks). One can semi-safely scout for Z-moves, abilities, or even the potential Choice-locked Spikes and then garner a large amount of momentum through aggressive predictions thereafter. One can determine if a Greninja is running Hidden Power Fire or Low Kick through such a scout, and this can completely change the pace of the game in favor of the person who scouted correctly.

Conclusion

Greninja's best counterplay until its set is figured out is, of course, safely forcing it to give its set away early and adjusting accordingly. This does not mean that Greninja is one-dimensional in any sense, however, and it is for this reason that Greninja has remained near the absolute top of the SM and USUM metagames for their entire duration. It is for this reason that I, and some others, have argued that Greninja in Team Preview is the most dangerous threat in the OU tier. It can beat almost anything it wants with correct prediction and the right choice in moves, but it can never beat everything with any one moveset. Greninja users must abuse the element of surprise - the stealth that embodies the ways of the ninja itself - to get the most out of it now and in the future.
 
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Nominating Mega-Alakazam

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What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Mega-Alakazam is a beast of a special wallbreaker. It has the highest unboosted special attack and speed stats in the OU tier. The amount of teams 6-0ed by Alakazam ( shoutouts blunder ) is honestly kind of amusing. The metagame was forced to adapt to Alakazam and it's psychic partner, Lele, with an abundance of steel types. These include AV Magearna, Celesteela and the now more common Jirachi. These are not the only Pokemon that Alakazam struggles with; Chansey is another solid answer with it's eviolite intact. Priority users not in psychic terrain, alongside Pursuit and U-turn users that can tank or outspeed Zam also help deal with it. Mega-Scizor is a good example of a user of at least one of each of these things. Bulky psychic types also give Zam some trouble if it isn't running shadow ball.

Alakazam does well against most Pokemon, as it's monstrous special attack stat and high speed tier force many things to fear it. It eats Toxapex for breakfast, and gives stall a hard time once Chansey is dealt with or severely weakened.

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.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

As mentioned above, Mega-Zam is used primarily as king of the special wallbreakers. It's so good because of Psychic's power as an offensive type, good coverage moves, amazing stats and it's awesome ability.

Psychic completely decimates teams, and what it doesn't kill, Focus Miss and Shadow Ball are likely to finish off. It breaks Balance in half, while also severely pressuring stall and hyper offense. It has so much versatility in its role, always (when played correctly) able to force chip, severely weaken checks or even sweep later in the game if given the opportunity.

Trace is another element which really helps Mega-Zam. There are a lot of solid abilities in the OU tier that the mon really appreciates. Regenerator is the first thing that comes to mind, with the abundance of Tornadus-T, Tangrowth and Toxapex that have been common throughout gen 7's lifespan.

Lele gives Zam competition in its role, not taking up a mega-slot, being able to hold a z-crystal and providing psychic terrain. Mega-Zam has a noticable niche over Lele in both its speed tier, and immediate power.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

As mentioned above, Mega-Zam's ability to break teams on the special side is arguably unparalleled. It's stats, ability to sweep and synergy with other metagame threats all allowed its impact to be felt across gen 7's lifespan. Zam works best with Pokemon that remove its checks and counters. Thankfully, these Pokemon are abundant in OU.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in OU?

There are generally three ways to reliably deal with Zam. Defensive steel types not weak to focus blast including AV Mage, Celesteela and Jirachi; Pursuit and u-turn users that either tank a hit from it, or even outspeed it such as Mega-Tyranitar, Scarf Weaville and Mega-Scizor, and the last option is just thicc chansey.

As mentioned above, the metagame adapted in such a way that having a defensive steel on every team is almost mandatory. Lest you get curb stomped by this spoon wielding menace.
 
Nominating Tapu Koko
koko.gif


What effect did the pokemon have on the meta game?

First off, the introduction of a way to use terrains. Even though terrains were technically added in Generation 6, Generation 7 saw the rise of the Tapu's and the "Surge" abilities. Electric terrain slid its way in as ever present in OU, and for very good reason. First, preventing sleep. This may seem silly, but preventing sleep for the time terrain is up invalidated and neutered a large part of some play styles present in Generation 6, Spore Spam. Pokemon such as Amoongus and Breloom were able to pressure pokemon with Spore, either by taking a hit and sleeping a mon or threatening it out offensively. Electric Terrain prevents all but flying and levitating pokemon to fall asleep. Secondly, Electric moves boost. First off, this attack boost let Koko hit really hard with Thunderbolt and Wild Charge, and do reasonable chip damage with Volt Switch, but where it really shines is other pokemon using it. The ever present Koko-Mega Medicham is one such example, however others such as Mega Mawile, Kyurem-B, Hawlucha, and Magnezone all getting use out of the Terrain.

Aside from Terrain, Koko also was great at applying pressure. With access to both Volt Switch and U-Turn, sometimes even running both, Koko didn't have much to worry about, and teams sometimes would have to be built around this. The rise of Rocky Helmet Lando-T was one such build, if Volt-Switch could not be stopped, then the helmet chip from U-Turn would have to suffice.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

Tapu Koko could perform many roles. Most common was a fast pivot by use of VoltTurn, commonly paired up with other users who took advantage of the momentum. In USUM, Tapu Koko gained Defog, and ran Defog as an offensive Defogger. Offensive sets using Electrium-Z, Life Orb, Expert Belt, and other Choiced items were common as well, taking great advantage of Koko's split attacking stats. Some even used Koko's superior base 115 attack and ran Wild Charge koko along side other moves such as Brave Bird to handle Grass types such as Tangrowth or Serperior. Finally, on some variants of Offense, Duel-Screens Koko with Light Clay was used as a fast way to get up screens.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

First off, the typing. Electric/Fairy was a unique typing offensively and defensively. Even though Koko was hampered in terms of its limited move pool (No good Physical fairy move, coverage moves lie in Hidden Power or Brave Bird), it's typing and moves it had access to were good enough. It threatened a large majority of the bulky pokemon in the meta game, and even had access to a fast taunt. Pokemon such as Celesteela and Toxapex (who make a very tanky CelePex core) are blown back by this pokemons stab + coverage moves. Secondly, its stats. Power creep is ever-prominent in pokemon games. From Gen 4 to Gen 7, pokemon have either gotten even faster and stronger, or slower and fatter. Tapu Koko sets a good record as a fast pokemon that is more than just some glass cannon. It's coverage and speed let it threaten even pokemon it would, at first glance, be weak to.

Take for example, it's interesting relationship with Lando-T.

Scarf Lando-T has no worries about out speeding Koko, but any Koko can just get off it's Hidden Power ice and extremely weaken or out-right KO Lando-T with it. Now, this is more so a Lando-T thing, but I believe it gives good insight as to how Koko's coverage lets it slide in a good spot in the Metagame.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in OU?

In the case of a choice locked Tapu Koko, abusing locked in moves and gaining momentum from their is one way. Pivot Koko's get beaten down by Helmet Lando-T, Helmet-Chomp, and Ferrothorn as these pokemon are able to either take no/little damage from VoltSwitch, or can abuse U-Turn and slowly chip away at Koko. Koko's lacking Brave Bird must watch out for Tapu Bulu and AV Tangrowth, especially Tapu Bulu as it resets the Terrain and removes the electric boost. Lastly, priority and even faster pokemon can take advantage of Tapu Koko and its fraility.

I strongly believe Koko is the new swiss army knife pokemon for Gen 7. If there are any requests to add into this post, DM me and I will be sure to add them and give credit! This is a really cool thread and I can't wait to see it pop off!
 
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Remember, this is a vote for the most influential mon, not the most OP. Votes like Pheromosa do not make sense to me.

Landorus-T is is.
 
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