Probably cause Band Tera Bug Tinted Lens first impression kills so much in the tier
Whenever I played Lokix i lead with it and slammed any opposing Palafin immediately as example. Its Tera Bug FI is not to be underestimated
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Data Usage-Based Tier Update for December 2022 (for UU and you!)
- Thread starter Marty
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Probably cause Band Tera Bug Tinted Lens first impression kills so much in the tier
Whenever I played Lokix i lead with it and slammed any opposing Palafin immediately as example. Its Tera Bug FI is not to be underestimated
It is that strong. Not much wants to switch into it, and a bunch of those that resist after Tinted Lens fall to the follow-up Sucker Punch (Flutter Mane, some Gholdengo, some Iron Moth). When it comes to First Impressions and priority saving your butt, Slither Wing has nothing on this guy.
Defensive utility, stealth rock neutrality, better stab combo (having to rely on sucker punch sucks when its your main stab), a huge utility movepool, reliable recovery, solid natural bulk, even options for set up sets with bulk up.
Lokix thuds into bulky neutral targets and its dependance on band or lo in such a hazard heavy metagame greatly reduces its threat level. To say nothing of rocky helmet chip. Lokix is hugely overrated and there are several far bettwr priority users who also happen to be much more multifacited and splashable.
Is this the most amount of new gen mons making it to OU other than gen 5? Power creep has been crazy this time around but as someone who loves most of the new Pokemon I couldn't be happier.
Orthworm is actually a pretty decent mon in OU, it can setup hazards, shed tail which is amazing by itself and has a really good typing with the ground type immunity ability. Like it walls garchomp for example, go say that isn't good.
Early in the meta I was finding it quite amazing since it had utility to destroy all the tier. Hazards being a thing isn't really a problem since It has enough attack to threaten things with first impression, also we came from a gen where neutral mons were running it, don't go say this is a liability, people will start running boots on everything soon. Roaring moon and chien pao? You either tera to survive, which is a waste of it, or you lose the mon instantly, and unlike slither, it can keep using sucker punch for priority. Axe kick is nothing to laugh at either, true it's a weaker high jump kick by 10bp, but the chance to confuse is actually pretty great, and slither wing suffers with mons that can resist it's stab attacks, something this guy doesn't.
Ttar dodged UU once again
I'm quite relieved Annihilape just missed the cut to drop to UU, because that would've been the quickest quickban ever. But I foresee the Pelipper + Barraskewda combo with other rain teams will be a bit overwhelming in UU at least the first couple of weeks. I'm proud of Scizor being in the top 15 of usage but I have a feeling that will drop (because of the Flutter Mane ban).
Happy for Quaquaval and Iron Hands keeping in OU 
Without band/lo it doesn't hit nearly hard enough so boots aren't an option as it loses the damage that even justifies its usage in the first place. But without boots, it eats 25% minimum from rocks and 37% if spikes are also up. To say nothing of opposing priority smashing it. It thus gets very limited switch in opportunities, worsened by its complete lack of defensive utility, and is really outclassed in the priority department by other actually great mons. Lokix having dual stan priority doesn't mean much when only LO sets can use both in succession, a set that dies even faster.
Tera on Pao and Moon is a waste? Is that a joke? Both are famously powerful abusers of the mechanic.
Can you post here when the Gen 9 discussion thread is up and when smogon.com/stats is up?
Espathra and Staraptor speedrunning UUBL
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Only 13 out of the 38 Pokémon that made it to OU are returning Pokémon, with Gen 6 not even having a representative. Ironically not surprising when almost all Gen 9 Pokémon have super min-maxed stats that go along with high BSTs.
Powercreep is pretty intense, but this is pretty easy to accomplish when most of the previous gen's OU staples are currently not in the game until HOME.
Edit: It does make me wonder how a lot of this tier (and tera as a whole) will change when the old OU staples like Lando-T and friends return.
Surprised to see people be surprised at Skeledirge and Maushold staying in the tier.
Skeledirge is about as good, if not a situationally better physical unaware wall than Dondozo having a worse typing but much better movepool (Slack Off for reliable recovery, Will-o-Wisp for support...) and a signature move in Torch Song that actually lets it do something other than staying there and even pierces through Substitute/Shed Tail since it's a Sound Move. The defensive typing makes you have to Tera Water/something else more often than you'd want to, but the result is a pretty tough to break wall, being also very effective against Cyclizar shenanigans and Roaring Moon, and reasonably effective against some EKiller Dragonite builds. If anything, it's underrepresented.
As for Maushold, it will always have a unique place in the tier because of hazard removal. Population Bomb is such a deadly move that it's half the reason why Rocky Helmet is used on many physically bulky pokemons, but the most important part of it is that its very existence forces the opponent to switch into something to counter it, timing at which it can use Tidy Up, THE ONLY HAZARD REMOVAL MOVE THAT GHOLDENGO CANNOT STOP.
It's other virtues as a pokemon are lacking, but with Gholdengo+Hazards being as prevalent as they are, he has a pretty solid niche.
On the other hand, surprised to see Annihilape so low and Espathra outright falling to UU; I feel they were pokemons that weren't as popular the first week or so, and seeing how the stats show Flutter Mane and Palafin so high, maybe it's just a timing issue? Definetely felt more common in the ladder, at least at my (mid-elo) level.
Skeledirge is about as good, if not a situationally better physical unaware wall than Dondozo having a worse typing but much better movepool (Slack Off for reliable recovery, Will-o-Wisp for support...) and a signature move in Torch Song that actually lets it do something other than staying there and even pierces through Substitute/Shed Tail since it's a Sound Move. The defensive typing makes you have to Tera Water/something else more often than you'd want to, but the result is a pretty tough to break wall, being also very effective against Cyclizar shenanigans and Roaring Moon, and reasonably effective against some EKiller Dragonite builds. If anything, it's underrepresented.
As for Maushold, it will always have a unique place in the tier because of hazard removal. Population Bomb is such a deadly move that it's half the reason why Rocky Helmet is used on many physically bulky pokemons, but the most important part of it is that its very existence forces the opponent to switch into something to counter it, timing at which it can use Tidy Up, THE ONLY HAZARD REMOVAL MOVE THAT GHOLDENGO CANNOT STOP.
It's other virtues as a pokemon are lacking, but with Gholdengo+Hazards being as prevalent as they are, he has a pretty solid niche.
On the other hand, surprised to see Annihilape so low and Espathra outright falling to UU; I feel they were pokemons that weren't as popular the first week or so, and seeing how the stats show Flutter Mane and Palafin so high, maybe it's just a timing issue? Definetely felt more common in the ladder, at least at my (mid-elo) level.
Y'all really made those "UU will look a lot like old gen OU" jokes go out of hand
A mon that forces the opponent to either switch or terastelize is amazing. I'm not calling them bad users of it, but if you need to tera in order to use a mon, that mon isn't as great as you might think it is.
Since when does either of them need Tera to function? Have you played OU lately?
Tidy Up and Population Bomb are nutty
Landorus will finally have competition in Great Tusk, as they have some identical roles but Great Tusk has more Speed
Lando is actually faster though?
Oh shit I was thinking of Iron Treads' Speed LMAO oops
You should read what the whole thing before saying something like that, context mattered.
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