Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion v4 [Volcarona Banned]

what the fuck is power shift
Basically, the user switches its attack stats and defense stats. For example, shuckle would end up with base attacking stats of 130 and base defense stats of 10 after using it.
It's the only way for shuckle to sweep.
It was also only accessible in Legends Arcues. Why did they create that move for Legends specifically? The fuck I know.
It's basically better power trick, which swaps just your attack and defense, not your special stats and is in the game, but only on forretress and medicham in SV. This move is a confusing abomination.
 
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You need Sun and Healing Wish to throw powerful Fire Moves? How sad.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2076522583-e44ibk0etiyg45ylvxbotn8z6xx2gv4pw (This was my last battle of the Suspect btw).
Honestly, respect for having the patience to sit through that. I know this isn't even a long stall game considering that there are games out there that can last 100s or 200 turns even, if both players are any good and the MU isn't loopsided. Also massive respect to stall players for their incredible patience even though that playstyle isn't for me and is infuriating to play against.

Me, I just wanna see shit blow up, preferably with some nice fire types.
 
Yeah I wouldn't bother. They've repeatedly left bad faith comments like this and done nothing but complain about bans all gen long. They really haven't shown they're interested in having an honest discussion on these kinds of matters.

Anyways onto something else, while the suspect is still going on I'm curious. What kinds of mons does everyone find to be underrated or underexplored atm? Got any ideas for sets you want to share?
I used that Gweezing + Moltres balance team for reqs, and I'd say both are underrated picks, which isnt surprising given both were great Pokemon in DLC1. GWeezing is genuinely great. An unblockable Defog + Wisp + good physical bulk give it a plethora of utility against many threats such as Moon, Rilla, Zamazenta, etc. Neutralizing gas is also genuinely great to completely f over many of the top mons in the metagame such as Mola, Gliscor, Garganacl, etc. I've even used it to check late game Gambit with an emergency Wisp.

Moltres is still as goated as ever. Fire Flying is just an excellent typing in general & it is very good at punishing many of the annoying physical attackers such as rillaboom and Meowscarada with burn. It does solidly vs the Grounds like Lando-T and Tusk as well given they never run Rock coverage. Volcarona is annoying + big competition, but Moltres's better defense gives it a niche over it and Moltres can tech Roar or Brave Bird to punish Volcarona.

Iron Crown is another underrated mon
 
GWeezing is genuinely great. An unblockable Defog + Wisp + good physical bulk give it a plethora of utility against many threats such as Moon, Rilla, Zamazenta, etc. Neutralizing gas is also genuinely great to completely f over many of the top mons in the metagame such as Mola, Gliscor, Garganacl, etc. I've even used it to check late game Gambit with an emergency Wisp.
I'm personally of the mind that levitate is actually better on gweez. Sure you lose out on the unblockable defog but in exchange you get to act as a stop for every single physical attacker in the tier short of gouging fire and gambit. You lose out on the ability to annoy gliscor with ngas, but in exchange you wall it entirely, stopping regenerator and especially purifying salt isn't great either but the ability to swap into staples like great tusk, lando-t, and ting-lu without being threatened by their ground stab is incredible, especially with the threat of wisp or tspikes going up whenever it does hit the field.
 
I'm personally of the mind that levitate is actually better on gweez. Sure you lose out on the unblockable defog but in exchange you get to act as a stop for every single physical attacker in the tier short of gouging fire and gambit. You lose out on the ability to annoy gliscor with ngas, but in exchange you wall it entirely, stopping regenerator and especially purifying salt isn't great either but the ability to swap into staples like great tusk, lando-t, and ting-lu without being threatened by their ground stab is incredible, especially with the threat of wisp or tspikes going up whenever it does hit the field.
you also get to switch in and out of spikes whenever you want without boots, so you don't have to fear the opponent knocking your socks off. a natural ground immunity that comes without a rocks weakness is one of the best things a mon can have in this meta because you can just pivot all over the place without getting shredded by spikes or rocks. that's why gliscor and lando are as good as they are, why corv and skarm are still in the tier, and why i'm convinced that latios, latias, and rotom-wash have a bigger place in the tier than people think they do

(as an aside, i'd advise against running tspikes on geezing. tspikes in general costs a lot of momentum for how easily undone it is and i just don't think it's a good option most of the time)
 
you also get to switch in and out of spikes whenever you want without boots, so you don't have to fear the opponent knocking your socks off. a natural ground immunity that comes without a rocks weakness is one of the best things a mon can have in this meta because you can just pivot all over the place without getting shredded by spikes or rocks. that's why gliscor and lando are as good as they are, why corv and skarm are still in the tier, and why i'm convinced that latios, latias, and rotom-wash have a bigger place in the tier than people think they do

(as an aside, i'd advise against running tspikes on geezing. tspikes in general costs a lot of momentum for how easily undone it is and i just don't think it's a good option most of the time)
I'm curious how well a misty terrain team would fare; blocking status is pretty nice for sweepers after all. You'd be missing out on Levitate/NG, which are busted abilities, so idk how nice of a trade-off it would really be. Also, I don't think Gweez has pivot moves, so it would also be limited by that.
 
you also get to switch in and out of spikes whenever you want without boots, so you don't have to fear the opponent knocking your socks off. a natural ground immunity that comes without a rocks weakness is one of the best things a mon can have in this meta because you can just pivot all over the place without getting shredded by spikes or rocks. that's why gliscor and lando are as good as they are, why corv and skarm are still in the tier, and why i'm convinced that latios, latias, and rotom-wash have a bigger place in the tier than people think they do

(as an aside, i'd advise against running tspikes on geezing. tspikes in general costs a lot of momentum for how easily undone it is and i just don't think it's a good option most of the time)
Tspikes is run because levitate gweez isn't gonna be defogging, and the rest of the team should be built for that. Tspikes isn't the greatest move in the world, I'm aware, but it's the most threatening one gweez has access to outside of the obligatory will-o-wisp. I guess you could run taunt or haze but then you run into the issue of not dissuading switches very much.
 
What's up with Landorus making a comeback? I keep running into that one fast helmet set. What's up with that?

EDIT: Realized that Lando went from 19th to 10th in a month. Now I'm really confused. Why?
 
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all right, because this is somehow an argument i keep hearing and it's incredibly disingenuous, i'm going to list out just a few of the differences between swsh ou and cg ou if the changes you quoted were all implemented:
  • recovery moves' pp nerf makes swsh defensive cores less reliable
  • combined with that, the cut distribution of moves like toxic, knock off, teleport and scald basically deletes every good swsh defensive core
  • massively increased spikes distribution and massively decreased defog distribution means that hazards are king
  • grassy glide nerf means rillaboom's priority isn't as overwhelming
  • no tapus
  • no ultra beasts
  • no ferrothorn
  • no melmetal
  • no zeraora
  • no victini, inexplicably
  • no urshifu-rs, it's not coming back even without tera
  • magnezone less used
  • slowbro less used
  • pex less used
  • ttar less used
  • bisharp less used
  • volcanion less used
  • mew completely fucking irrelevant
  • alomomomomola back
  • darkrai back and legal
  • gliscor back
  • serperior back
  • cinderace legal
  • zamazenta legal
  • hatterene relevant because of increased spikes distribution
  • primarina relevant because of psychic noise
  • torkoal relevant because of protosynthesis mons
  • clodsire
  • dondozo
  • enamorus
  • gholdengo
  • glimmora
  • great tusk
  • iron boulder
  • iron treads
  • iron valiant
  • meowscarada
  • hisuian samurott
  • ting-lu
  • walking wake
  • rockpon will probably rise if waterpon goes because every masked ogerpon is fantastic offensively
  • iron moth will also likely fill the power vacuum volc leaves behind, like it did last time
  • protean/libero nerf
  • snow buff
  • chilly reception
  • ice spinner
  • psychic noise
  • trailblaze
  • we don't have sleep moves
and this is just the stuff that's in ou now, there's plenty more relevant stuff in uu/uubl and lower that i'm not covering. so your claims of this somehow magically turning into swsh if those things are banned are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. i am begging you to do some serious research into tiering and the reasoning behind past actions to get better insight into present ones, or to at least get good enough at the game that you can make bad arguments without getting laughed out of the room
I think that you should have mentioned the new pokemon and the missing ones only if they impacted the game with such way that encourage discourage or even create new strategies.

pokemon like ting-lu are good, but they were not particularly impactful.
gholdengo by the other hand has centralized the metagame arround it (it is debatable if it is healthy or not, but I am talking about impact here, not health).

also psychic noise traileblaze and ice spinner aren't thaaaat impactful either.
who runs trailblaze?
most pokemon who have this move either are too slow to use it, either so fast that they have little to no use for it, or have better alternatives.
psychic noise is more of a gimmick.
 
People will do anything for a decently fast special ground type with some bulk and utility
people are so desperate for one that they're turning physical grounds into special ones even though they're very clearly built to be physical. first treads, now lando, it's only a matter of time until people start slapping earth power on gliscor and tusk. i just don't get it. i understand why it was a thing during the arch days, but is it really that necessary for gouging? or is there something else i'm missing? are they that scared of dondozo? glimmora? someone please explain why the mon with base 145 attack isn't using it because i'm just confused
 
people are so desperate for one that they're turning physical grounds into special ones even though they're very clearly built to be physical. first treads, now lando, it's only a matter of time until people start slapping earth power on gliscor and tusk. i just don't get it. i understand why it was a thing during the arch days, but is it really that necessary for gouging? or is there something else i'm missing? are they that scared of dondozo? glimmora? someone please explain why the mon with base 145 attack isn't using it because i'm just confused
Earth power treads I do not get, every time I have used physical treads it has been way better.
Special Lando on the other hand has a base 105 sp.Attack, which isn't bad. Plus, with coverage like grass knot, it can actually threaten the other ground types in the tier extremely well. Plus, if you are going to do physical, tusk is better since it actually has a secondary stab move and better physical coverage. Lando also has options such as taunt and u-turn, which the only other ground type that has those is gliscor, which putting these on it would be extremely constricting for it. Lando basically has a lot of good traits ground mons don't have.

It also has nasty plot, so you can technically sweep with it, though that is more of a gimmick.
 
oh right, i almost forgot how stupid gouging is. so do you think the trend will persist past the inevitable gouging ban?
While not the same, it feels sort of like an exaggerated Dragapult, where better coverage and matchups in the current meta generally lends a lower attacking stat to be preferred. As stated, Grass Knot covers Tusk and Dozo very nicely, and it can similarly have its utility in rocking vs pult's status and pivoting in the exact same manner as pult.
 

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people are so desperate for one that they're turning physical grounds into special ones even though they're very clearly built to be physical. first treads, now lando, it's only a matter of time until people start slapping earth power on gliscor and tusk. i just don't get it. i understand why it was a thing during the arch days, but is it really that necessary for gouging? or is there something else i'm missing? are they that scared of dondozo? glimmora? someone please explain why the mon with base 145 attack isn't using it because i'm just confused
Why is the mon with 145/105/91 offenses mostly known for its defensive sets?

On a serious note. I find Earthquake and Earth Power to be interchangable with Lando.

Earthquake is better into Raging Bolt, Hatt, Volc, Moon, Primarina, and Gking.

Earth Power is better into Tusk, Dozo, Curse Garg, G-Terrain, Hex Pult, Glimm, Zama, Torkoal, and ofc G-Fire.

Considering both the amount of targets EP is better against and the move usage for Lando leaning towards that, it’s safe to assume that Earth Power Lando isn’t just a phase, it has legitimate merits. Also helped by the fact Lando is the only viable Ground type with an actually decent SpA stat.

Yes I know Sandy Shocks exists, but shhh

I actually have an analysis that involves comparing 2 mons with very similar niches to one another, and determining which is better or which fits on what style. Not only cause its sparks interesting discussions, but a certain mon has gained my interest lately. These are the mons that will be compared. (I may consider adding a couple more in the final draft)

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Why is the mon with 145/105/91 offenses mostly known for its defensive sets?

On a serious note. I find Earthquake and Earth Power to be interchangable with Lando.

Earthquake is better into Raging Bolt, Hatt, Volc, Moon, Primarina, and Gking.

Earth Power is better into Tusk, Dozo, Curse Garg, G-Terrain, Hex Pult, Glimm, Zama, Torkoal, and ofc G-Fire.

Considering both the amount of targets EP is better against and the move usage for Lando leaning towards that, it’s safe to assume that Earth Power Lando isn’t just a phase, it has legitimate merits. Also helped by the fact Lando is the only viable Ground type with an actually decent SpA stat.

Yes I know Sandy Shocks exists, but shhh

I actually have an analysis that involves comparing 2 mons with very similar niches to one another, and determining which is better or which fits on what style. Not only cause its sparks interesting discussions, but a certain mon has gained my interest lately. These are the mons that will be compared. (I may consider adding a couple more in the final draft)

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I have tried Iron Moth, and while it isn't bad, it kinda just feels like worse volcarona in many ways. I could potentially see a team using both, but moth seems to just not be as impactful as volc. Again, not a bad mon, but if I am choosing fire type offense, volc strangely enough feels more consistent. Guess the title of matchup moth has been passed on.
 
I actually have an analysis that involves comparing 2 mons with very similar niches to one another, and determining which is better or which fits on what style. Not only cause its sparks interesting discussions, but a certain mon has gained my interest lately. These are the mons that will be compared. (I may consider adding a couple more in the final draft)

View attachment 613353 Vs View attachment 613354
View attachment 613356 Vs View attachment 613358
View attachment 613359 Vs View attachment 613360
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I can see the rest of them, but imo volc and moth play completely different roles on a team: moth plays a cleaner with good coverage while volc serves as a bulkier wincon late-game.
Here are some more I thought of
:kyurem: and :raging_bolt:
:zamazenta: and :great_tusk:
:alomomola: and :dondozo:
 

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