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I like doublade too. I prefer to use power trick to add power to an amazing move set. I also like to put protect and defensive moves so it lasts longer in battle
A mon that has been very useful to me is mega Tyranitar. The varied physical move set can be adjusted with easy for the type of pokemon you are facing and these attacks can be boosted with dragon dance, providing even more power. The ability to do this, lay hazards and the sandstream ability make this pokemon great for any team
Power Trick turns Doublade from a very niche Pokemon, into a very terrible Pokemon. The whole reason to use Doublade is for its insane Phys Def so it can wall Mega Hera, which otherwise 6-0s stall as well as CB Terrak which also gives it issues, and a few other notable things. Protect is only really good if you choose to run Toxic on it, otherwise you lose out on reliable recovery or utility. Protect isn't that great on a defensive Pokemon lacking Leftovers, because otherwise it's just wasting turns. Scouting is nice I guess, but it really can't afford to run it.
Mega Tyranitar is fun to use, but it's so bad in the current meta unfortunately because all of the current meta trends are just really bad for it. If it had a bit more Speed so it could outspeed Mega Lopunny at +1 or 6 moves it would be great, but it can't so it falls flat most of the time. It's outsped by the best Scarfer in the tier at +1 as well as pretty much any other relevant Scarfer, and being outsped by Mega Lopunny is really bad for it as well. It really needs to run dual STABs, because Stone Edge is obviously strong as hell while Crunch is essential for Slowbro and Steels and has outstanding much needed neutral coverage with Stone Edge. Ice Punch is mandatory as well, otherwise Lando-T and even Chomp can easily live a hit at +1 and KO back. That means if it wants coverage for stuff like Keldeo it would have to run T-Punch over Crunch or Ice Punch, but without Crunch it loses to most Steels and Slowbro is a lot harder to deal with. Fire Punch still hits Steels and OHKOs Mega Scizor, but than it's walled by Slowbro AND Keldeo. On top of that you have Clefable being everywhere which can easily stomach hits from it and cripple it with T-wave. It's very easy to set up and it's strong as hell, but most archetypes are able to check it very easily without even thinking about it when team building; offense has Mega Lopunny, Bisharp, Excadrill, and Keldeo, while fat teams have Mega Scizor, Ferro, Clefable, and in stalls case Quagsire. Mega Tyranitar has the potential to be good because it has all the right tools, but in a meta with both fast revenge killers AND fat defensive cores, it really struggles to sweep and you're much better off just running T-tar with another mega.
man yall know me i've been straight fucking the ou ladder in recent memories and all i gotta say is alomola is prob top 10 mons in the game RIGht now.
For one it doesnt succumb to the stupidity of shit like quag. I never fux with quag unless we're talking about gen 5 and those are some years i want 2 forget n shit.
This set is EASILy the best phys def set, like ever.
And you know sometimes people ask me why I use this pokemon over some others. Though it is setup fodder for certain mons and it does give free turns to a lot of special attackers with the correct support on shit like breeloom and some other pokemon i dont care about this thing makes up for a lot of its problems.
It's ability is p good imo tbh. The set I noted can take a lot of special hits as its hp is large af. Really easy to slap onto teams too. I make some pretty fucking sly teams with this thing. P sure its a female. But modern day kinda sexist n stih to be calling pink female and stuff so maybe u gotta make it shiny. Though the shiny ug as fug.
I know I was against a raise for Bisharp in the VR to A, I definitely can't deny how it has the potential to just thrash so many teams right now. Keldeo is heavily pressured as a check/switch-in to Weavile, Bisharp, and Mega Scizor, all of which can easily wear down Keldeo to a point where they can beat it later on in the match. On top of that, the meta is more prepared overall for Weavile and Tyranitar, as they are the more common and arguably more threatening Dark-types at the moment. What I think really gives Bisharp the edge right now, is that people are depending a lot on Keldeo, Clefable, Landorus-T, Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Mega Scizor as there "Dark-type" checks, and Bisharp just preys over all of them (minus Mega Scizor). The major difference between Weavile and Bisharp is that Weavile is more threatening for its ability to consistently spam STABs due to its amazing Speed stat, but outside of Icicle Crash bullshit or the stray Poison Jab you're pretty safe with Clefable, Skarmory, Mega Scizor, or even Ferro as your check to it. While Weavile is strong and has access to SD, its shitty defensive typing and fragility keeps it from being able to set up vs anything; even defensive Pokemon like Skarmory, Ferrothorn, and Clefable have ways to keep it from setting up on them safely.
Bisharp on the other hand takes full advantage of these fat cores or inconsistent checks, because while they do have an answer to a Bisharp Knock Off or Sucker early game, they don't really have any sort of way to deal with a +2 Bisharp mid-late game, and when played smart it's very difficult to deal with. Keldeo can only take like one Knock Off, and after a tiny bit of residual, it falls to a +2 Sucker. Mega Diancie can easily be put in range of a +2 Sucker, so something as simple as a Scarf Lando's U-turn + SR switch-in puts it in range of a mid roll. Bisharp may not have the most stellar bulk, but its defensive typing and defense is good enough to where it can set up on most Steel-types as well as Choice locked T-tar or Mega Latias. This lets it take advantage of fat teams a lot more consistently than Weavile, as well as offensive teams that can't really afford to pack multiple checks to it and are forced to play more aggressively to prevent allowing it from setting up on something like Choiced T-tar or a -2 Latios. The only huge issue is that Bisharp depends so much on Sucker Punch to win that it can be played around, and it forces Bisharp into a ton of 50/50 situations, and while most are in your favor, Sucker's low PP is an issue. It has the potential to bust through defensive teams and cleave through offense, but its middling 70 base Speed allows things like Wisp Talon, Pokemon with Substitute, Trick Latios, DD Zard-X, and Protect Mega Diancie to play around and stall it out. Weavile may not be able to set up that easily but it doesn't really need to, and its ability to check so much shit in the metagame and actually abuse Pursuit is very useful atm, and while Bisharp may have the potential to be more threatening when played correctly, it's just not as consistent overall.
So yeah this is just an observation, but it's just something to note considering how I've noticed quite a bit of teams being VERY vulnerable to well played Bisharps.
Recently, I have been experimenting with a wide lens high jump kick Lucario. I like to put moves that don't have 100% base accuracy such as Blaze Kick, Focus Blast, and Stone Edge so that the accuracy is almost at 100%. I usually like to use this to sweep up many types of Pokemon after I set up hazards so that I can get good chunks of damage.
It's not a good item lol. Life orb on lucario is inevitably better by far as it can potentially threaten teams with its powerful close combat, backed up by its iron tail. Complimentary stab attacks as long as the ability to boost its attack stat by 2 stages makes it a threat for unprepared teams for sure. Pretty cool cleaner overall, and like i said before Life orb helps it to definitely punch holes into the opposing team.
Recently, I have been experimenting with a wide lens high jump kick Lucario. I like to put moves that don't have 100% base accuracy such as Blaze Kick, Focus Blast, and Stone Edge so that the accuracy is almost at 100%. I usually like to use this to sweep up many types of Pokemon after I set up hazards so that I can get good chunks of damage.
Wide Lens is a bad item, you are doing it all wrong since you are boosting the accuracy of that move instead of using Life Orb Close Combat, Focus Blast is not relevant here since you won't use it on physical lucario (the best one) and Stone Edge doesn't provide the best coverage, i already told you the best set, LO adamant with close combat, swords dance extreme speed and iron tail (or ice punch maybe) but your set doesn't achieve anything and is plain wrong, if Lucario didn't learn Close Combat i could quite understand your post, it's a quite common combination used by less experienced players, you'd rather not use the item wide lens at all, it's better to have a move with 90% accuracy and an item that helps you alot instead of using an item specifically to boost the accuracy of a move that doesn't miss as often, 90% is fine but i already told you, in that case you've got Close Combat available.
we talk about Lucario, therefore Lucario is an incredible special and physical Wallbreaker, enjoys having a movepool "decent" with many priority moves that threaten the most offensive teams, its speed is not very high, so the priority is almost "mandatory" on his sets; Now let's talk about movepool that was listed above, I think hjk is a bad and unnecessary move on lucario, why risk a miss when you can kill the same the most common target (Heatran, Ferrothorn) with close combat, does not make sense, also if you lack power, Lucario has access to Swords dance, actually wide lens seems a bad choice as item, Lucario loses power and its qualities of wallbreaker if you put an item as life orb; about to Lucario in this Metagame: I think it's a pokemon with the ability, who takes advantage of the domain of bulky offense with rotom-w, CB kion, to easily threaten them, also the constant presence of lando-t in the tier, makes less lucario common despite its excellent wallbreaking capacity Lucario loves to be supported by volturn users to have more possibility to use swords dance / nasty plot and then put pressure on the opposing team.
Not a fan of np lucario in ou honestly. That espeed is a big part of what makes it so threatening to deal with, meaning it cant be neutralized by stuff like thundy's prankster twave or revenge killed by talonflame. Its also worth considering that even after STAB vaccum wave is only 60 BP while espeed is 80. Furthermore a ton of stuff lucario wants to use its priority on like torn resists fighting, making normal better overall imo. The special set forces lucario to run much lower base power moves, such as flash cannon over iron tail, or aura sphere over close combat making it significantly weaker. Focus blast is an option but that misses which is kind of shit and not exactly the kind of thing that makes me inclined to run special lucario. You could say the same thing about iron tail with regards to the physical set but ehh. This isnt like uu where people actually prepare for this mon, you arent luring much of anything with a nasty plot set tbh. Its not like physical lucario has solid defenisve answers in the first place, so i see no real reason to forego better priority and higher base power moves.
This is a pretty trivial discussion point cause SD Lucario is a big point in why it's used but NP Lucario has a better matchup against your typical sand balances with Excadrill. NP Lucario will normally forgo Focus Blast anyways since it'll want Dark Pulse / Shadow Ball to break Slowbros (something the physical set can only do with Crunch for a mon already strapped for slots) with Flash Cannon and Vacuum Wave. I'm fully aware SD is superior but I think writing it off based off of based power comparisons and theoretical is silly like the above comment if you're using it for reasons it's not intended to be used for or haven't tried to make it work for more legitimate reasons. Just your friendly ex-mod dropping his two cents.
I think Gary brings up some interesting points so I wanna give my input on that
I agree Bisharp is a big threat - it always has been. Onto some individual points I'd contend that Keldeo is nearly as easily worn down and beaten by Weavile due to its ability to outspeed, and I think Clefable is a poor Weavile check if you don't run Bold (Knock the first switchin, spam Crash the next time). Also Mega Scizor honestly kinda needs Superpower to truly counter Bisharp, since if you switch into a SD, no other move is gonna take out Bish and it can 2HKO after setup.
One thing I wanna touch on is the turn of setup. You may notice in the current metagame that setup wallbreakers are becoming less common than choiced ones. CB Tar, CB Terrakion, Mega Medicham these are the types of wallbreakers that have been on the rise while mons like Manaphy have been less consistent than in their heydays. Now one major component of Bisharps viability is its ability both to sweep and to wallbreak. However as I've just mentioned, setup is less desirable on wallbreakers these days - it is easier to smash offensive and bulky teams with choice moves off the bat. Combine that with the fact that more teams run Dark resists now and many Bisharps forgo LO for Lum or Black glasses (smacking Bish on SD and LO stalling will often prevent clean sweeps) for sweeping purposes and we can see Bisharps niche has changed from a hybrid wallbreaker / sweeper to more of a pure sweeper / revenge killer. Of course, Bish is better at breaking walls than Weavile most of the time unless you run CB and their ice resist is Skarm + Quag. But yeah just in general I think Bisharp's niche has changed and its used less to soften things up and more to clean up after the mess something like Medicham makes
Granted this is all assuming you don't get +2 on a Defog but I imagine most people who let you do that should have something healthy enough to stop it cold. There's also sorta the aspect where people often just Pursuit trap hazard removers instead of trying to take advantage of them with Bisharp
Some months have passed since Volcanion's release. Discussion on Volc has been quiet since its initial hype, so I have been asking a few people for their opinions on the Pokemon and have mostly received mixed responses. I am curious to see the thoughts other community members have. Some people think it's amazing, some bad. I have mixed feelings. One one end, Volc has some unique things going on, namely: 1. a unique typing and ability granting the power to check premier threats like Mega Sciz, and 2. Steam Eruption backed by a high SpA and good coverage, making reliable Volc switch-ins limited. On the other end, we have an annoying weakness to SR, which is a pain for any Pokemon capable of functioning in a wall breaking or defensive capacity. SR isn't always easy to remove in this metagame, and having 25% taken away limits Volc's ability to come in as much as one would like to apply pressure/take hits from Pokemon like Azu. Low speed and a weakness to common attacking types like ground and rock also means Volc can often be forced to switch by faster threats, only to take another 25% upon coming back. Add a vulnerability to status like Thunder Wave from Pokemon like Clefable (who Volc can otherwise threaten well) and you have a fair share of problems to consider before picking Volc over Pokemon like Keldeo and other proven water type staples.
Regardless of any strengths or flaws, Volc is still new and generally unexplored. I find defensive sets to be underwhelming and think Volc's redeeming quality lies in its ability to, once in, use its strong STABs and burn chance to apply offensive pressure on a team. It's able to do this particularly well via Specs sets, with other items like Leftovers also being solid choices on offensive sets. Berries have the potential to be solid and popular choices in the future too, with Shuca being something bludz mentioned during our discussion to surprise kill Pokemon like Exca. All in all, Volc could be something players haven't discovered how to fully use or build around so far. There has been a lack of standout teams with OU's latest toy in general, and builders currently appear to prefer using other popular glues capable of performing similar roles as Volc, such as Keldeo, Heatran, and so on. I am curious to see whether Volc will gain more traction as the months pass and people explore the Pokemon more.
What have been other people's thoughts on Volc's current position and future in the metagame based on observations/experiences? Good, bad, underwhelming? Too early to tell or discuss? Job done better by other Pokemon? Easy or hard to find a place for on teams? Any particular archetype you find Volc to function best on? Favorite partners and sets?
Other quick things: Although they've been solid for a while, Mega Cham, Weavile, and Mega Diancie have been some of my favorite Pokemon lately. Watching Mega Cham's HJK blow through even resists is hilarious, unless you're on the receiving end (!). Every game I watch, Weav also seems to do major work. Such high speed and amazing STABs is simply really good and allows Weav to threaten so much, especially with Pokemon like Lando-T and Latios being staples on countless teams. On Mega Diancie, I mainly like using max Atk now because so many teams use Clefable as their initial switch in. Strong rock STAB in general is really nice now, which is a reason CB Terrak and CB Tar have been really popular for a while.
My main gripe with Volcanion is how awkward it is to fit onto teams unless built around specifically. Yes, it threatens slow, fat grounds (Lando-T and Hippo), but it has a nasty weakness to EQ, making it a very shaky answer that has to be brought in on a sac or hard read or something. To me, it just doesn't accomplish the role of a water as neatly as I would like for my builds, and find myself resorting to Azu or Keld almost exclusively as my picks for offensive waters.
AM covers it really well in the Blaziken april fools thread in Policy Review, so I'm just gonna repost it here:
I'd be ok with this if we there weren't other issues people want to arguably suspect and see removed before any sort of retest. I also think the system in its current state is really flawed to be endorsing a suspect these days let alone a retest, which is where some of my hesitations come from every time we go for a suspect test. The OU community tend to have a pretty negative mantra associated with retesting at sort of the "wrong time" I guess you would call it. Aegislash is an example of the wrong time in a state of the metagame where Landorus was more or less slated to be suspect and removed out of the tier. Then there's the whole STAG + M-Sableye drama (and we're still dealing with people complaining about M-Sableye granted it's a minority). We sort of just got to the point where Hoopa-U maintained enough presence in the tier to entertain a suspect based on gaining more tournament usage and relevancy. I think Blaziken falls under that "wrong time" picture as well because there's been complaints about a variety of stuff and the last thing I want to be doing is retesting stuff when debatably broken or unhealthy (subjective I know) stuff is in the tier. OU suspects a hold a pretty high amount of scrutiny already and I don't feel comfortable doing re-tests such as Blaziken at this point in time.
It was suspected once, long time ago and i don't see why would you ban Mega Metagross, it was almost being banned but glad that more people actually voted "no ban" since it's perfectly balanced, it may be a strong offensive juggernaut on offense but that's it, Sand Rush Exca is common, Rotom-W too and it deals with the standard Mega Meta that uses Meteor Mash, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch and Bullet Punch/Pursuit/Hammer Arm (so no zen), BoltBeam is a cool combination for coverage and lets it deal with checks like Landorus-T, Slowking and Skarmory and Thunder Punch compensates for the lack of Zen against Keldeo since the move retains coverage on it, Metagross is a strong attacker and has many options, your opponent doesn't know the move combo it has so it may be hard to wall it, i think that this pokemon is great but don't see why would it be banned, it seems totally fine.
Problem that mega metagross has compared to other megas and Why its not banned is that it can only really do one thing well and thats to be a big bruiser/Wall Breaker. As powerful as it is it cant beat everything it wants to with 4 moves, Rocky Helm users like Chomp and ferro are hit fairly prevalent, It Absolutly hates Thunder wave from fairies like clefable and togekiss its supposed to easily plow through and if it tries to take on over roles like rock polish/Hone Claws Sweeper then it becomes so much worse at its main job. When you look at it in a nutshell metagross simply has to many flaws to ever end up ubered and the fact that Megas like Scizor, Lopunny and Diancie are all above it on the viability thread shows why. These megas can all take on alternate roles without diminshing there effectiveness in there main Jobs, Dont have 4mss and can to a certain extent play around thunder wave which right now in this fat metagame is huge.
Until metagross gets either swords dance or reliable recovery it will never come close to being ubered. I hope that helps explain it
Just want to point out that the "Keldeo-Landorus-Latios-Steel-Mega-Filler" teams have been on about 40% of the teams used in WCoP round 1. So I think there's definitely something to be said about they archetype (is that the right word? Maybe structure would work better). It covers a lot of the metagame both offensively and defensively, and can be used to support a whole host of different mega pokemon and filler mons. Again, not really saying anything in particular about these teams, just pointing out the metagame trend.
Yeah it's a common starting point and general build. I find myself using Lando Lati Scizor more, personally (should probably use Keldeo more often than i do) and I would expect that to be quite standard as well, although it does use up the Mega slot but on probably the best Mega anyway. Its kind of a trend I guess but that build structure has been pretty solid throughout most of ORAS in my experience
I think part of it is also in tours you can figure out which players bring stall or not, and if they don't then these builds are gonna be pretty consistent
Speaking of how handy-dandy Latios is as a glue 'mon, how do you guys feel about running Tbolt/Surf over Psyshock these days? Especially if my team is already running something with flying STAB, I notice that Psyshock isn't that useful in that slot it occupies since I already have an Amoonguss/Venu check. Draco tends to target the same things that Psyshock does as well, although you have to be careful about giving things setup opportunities when Dracoing.
Tbolt turns Lati into an excellent Sp. Def Skarm lure that can also clear out the occasional Azumarill, while Surf turns Lati from Heatran bait into a viable answer to it should you also carry roost/recover. Talonflame + Surf Lati is a really fun combo given how much Talon appreciates Ttar/Heatran pressured---yet I've hardly seen it used.
I've noticed how the hype for a lot things some months back has completely died, and will more than likely never resurface until next generation.
AV Metagross was a very hot topic a few months ago. It was revered for it's ability to function as a reliable Pursuit Trapper that could simultaneously check and beat almost every Fairy in the tier and blanket check a vast majority of threats such as Mega Alakazam, Thundurus, and Kyurem-B. It also thrived during the time that Mega Altaria was near godlike and functioned as an emergency check towards it with it's excellent bulk to avoid being swept by it. However, Tyranitar is the new king of Pursuit trapping due to the numerous benefits it brings to a team, most noticeably, it's ability to run Choice Band to incredible effect and function as an influential wallbreaker and successfully trap Mega Latias, which is a big deal in today's' metagame. Choice Band Weavile also deserves a mention as a trapper has rose to extreme relevance in the past months.
Manectric-Mega @ Manectite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Flamethrower
This is a HO team I had made as part of an application to the team building workshop about 6 months ago. It was based around the core of Mega Manectric + Breloom which still does fairly well in today's metagame. Naturally, those two had issues with bulky Grasses, which usually meant back then that Mega Venusaur walled you for days. LO Torn-T was added to combat the weakness as well as make a nifty VolTurn core. There was a weakness to Latios and the many Fairies in the tier, so AV Metagross made an appearance here as a decent check to said Fairies and a trapper for the Latis. Next, BD Azumarill was added as a needed check to Mega Charizard X and it abused the VolTurn core as well as a more solid way of dealing with specific Grounds and Dragons. Finally, SD + SR Garchomp was added to setup rocks and function as a secondary wincon if so needed. Haban Berry was a neat little twist I added to revenge kill +1 Zard X if Azumarill was ever to be KOed before it's gone. This team still works pretty well in the current metagame, but the stall matchup leaves much to be desired (taunt torn isn't breaking stall that well these days) and Garchomp should probably run Yache Berry to lure Electrics.
Mega Charizard X was once known as the S Rank threat that could 6-0 teams from turn 1. It was insane how powerful it was after a single boost, which made it a staple for offensive and bulkier teams alike. It has a movepool that gave it just the right move to bypass it's would be checks with ease; Earthquake eliminated Heatran and Mega Diancie, Iron Tail tore through Mega Altaria, and Thunder Punch ripped through Slowbro effectively giving it no definite counters. Just like all Pokemon, it's reign of terror came to an unfortunate end with the popularization of Defensive Landorus-T, Sand, and numerous other factors that furthered it's decline.
Hippowdon was one of the most influential of defensive threats due to it's ability to be a full blown counter to Mega Manectric and Raikou, check Mega Charizard X, and blanket check nearly every physical attacker in the tier along with reliable recovery. I also supported Excadrill which made it the usual pick on Sand builds. Not too soon after it became a metagame staple, it started to decline as the metagame progressively became more offensive and Hippowdon was notorious for sapping momentum away. Defensive Landorus-T and TankChomp then became the bulky Grounds of choice as they maintained momentum and kept up with metagame trends. The same can't be said for TankChomp as of now though. Offensive sets gradually rose to power as Defensive Landorus steadily became the more safer and potent pick as a bulky Ground with the prevalence of Sand and it's enhanced ability to check threats due to Intimidate. Garchomp's offensive sets are very brutal though! It's great power alongside nice coverage + Swords Dance makes it a force to be reckoned with. As we wind down to the current metagame, Defensive Landorus still stands as one of the best bulky Grounds in the tier due to it's influential typing and splashability, alongside it's wide movepool to support it's team in different ways such as U-turn for momentum or SD to break down bulkier teams. It's most potent offensive set, Double Dance, while uncommon is a terror to behold for offensive and defensive teams alike due to its access to Swords Dance and Rock Polish making it an unpredictable threat that has to be accounted for.
Raikou in general was seen as an awesome glue with AV about a year ago since it blanket checked it's ever present brethren Mega Manectric and Thundurus, as well as threats such as Gengar, Starmie, and a one time switch-in to Mega Charizard Y. As the time passed it fell out of favor for it's new fad: Calm Mind. It was absolutely astounding for Raikou to function a massive offensive threat and have a degree of bulk, it was even capable of 6-0ing a few teams with ease after a single Calm Mind. However, the metagame eventually progressed to become extremely harsh towards Raikou and by extension Mega Manectric, a big factor being the aforementioned Hippowdon, increased usage of Sand, and now Mega Latias coming into relevance.
There are a few other Pokemon such as Manaphy, CB Victini, CB Tyrantrum, and SD Diggersby but I haven't used them in a while to write about them :x
We've had Volcanion for quite some time now, and although it's new I have to say that it's fallen under the radar. It not much of an all time threat, but more of a looming threat that punishes builds that don't account for it. But that philosophy is really shaky when considering Volcanion in it's entirety. It's Speed is such a huge hindrance to it's true potential as it's nothing more than a "speed bump" when concerning offensive builds, and ironically variants of offense are the most viable playstyle. Yes, I know that a Modest STAB Specs Steam Eruption coming off of a base 130 SpA is crazy, but realistically it'll only get off a few SEruptions since it's forced out by nearly everything. Keldeo blows it back with Fighting STAB, Tornadus smacks it with Hurricane, Mega Lop and Mega Cham wrecks with HJK, Mega Alakazam kills it with Psychic, etc, etc. It's only ever coming in on select few Steel-types and some frisky prediction to come in on Water attackers. Couple that with it's Stealth Rock weakness and it ends up being kinda death fodder in a slew of matchups. The only type of teams that Volcanion can really excel against are the really passive balance builds alongside certain stall builds (but Chansey) that are a rarity these days. What separates other wallbreakers from Volcanion such as Mega Medicham, Terrakion, Keldeo, Mega Charizard Y, and Mega Gardevoir is that they actually have some kind of speed factor that makes them all the more deadly to face. A comparable wallbreaker is Tyranitar, but TTar itself has the ability to make things like Latios a liability due to Pursuit and at the end of the day it has still done it's job as long as it gets rid of something, even if it didn't get off a Stone Edge.
I've analysed a lot of teams from the teambuilding workshop and I've noticed how almost all of them follow the exact teambuilding path normally taken even when Volcanion wasn't around. Usually the only counterplay is Lati + Water-type (Keldeo for example) and I guarantee you, you'll do just fine against it as long as it's not loaded with really slow Pokemon. A few other teams run more dedicated switch-ins such as Suicune, Jellicent, and Slowking, but I think the best overall way of handling Volcanion is offensively which is relatively noticeable when examining teams, especially more offensive oriented builds.
From another perspective, I realized the type of strain Volcanion applies when teambuilding and no I don't mean it wrecking everything. Whenever building with Volcanion, it prevent you from using some really great mons such as Heatran, Keldeo, Talonflame, Starmie, etc due to it's typing. Fire / Water is honestly great, but considering Volcanion honestly doesn't do anything aside from attacking you miss out on so much utility that other mons bring to the table. Yes, you could still use those mons regardless of Volcanion, but that stacks a bunch of nasty weaknesses such as Electrics, Stealth Rock, and Sand that I'd rather not have compounded. All in all, I don't think Volcanion measures up to what we all though it'd be despite it being an OK mon.
I don't really like making a sweeping generalization like that because it's too early to write the book on this mon. It was actually underhyped for a long time right up until the week before its release which is when it received all the hype. Let's not forget that Hoopa-U was in the same boat after a few months - there was some initial hype and then everyone was like oh it has no defensive synergy it's kinda dong and easily revenged etc. Then people learned how to build with it better and adopted the best set (Specs) and it became pretty broken. Now I don't think Volcanion is nearly as good as Hoopa but I think there's still a lot of exploring that hasn't been done. Most people I think probably tried Specs and a few other sets when it first came out and decided Specs is the best set and thats mostly what they built with since. After the initial hype dies down people stop trying to fit it onto builds and honestly it is a bit of a tricky one to use due to SR weakness and low speed. I know personally I built a few teams with it and then kinda stopped using it for a while. But there's still time to really delve into the possibilities and in all honesty it is a tough mon for offense to switch into already, if you give it the proper support it's still pretty damn good it's just not Keldeo level or anything. I'd prefer - rather than saying oh it's just overhyped - to go out and tell people to try other things like Scarf or resist berries or Toxic Lefties idk. It's a mon that hasn't really adopted a strong niche in the metagame yet and it's up to us to find that. Granted I do think it suffers a lot of competition from amazing glue mons like Heatran and Keldeo but I think it might still end up being a bigger threat than it is right now.
What do you guys see rising to OU when the next usage update comes out?
Based on the current meta, I'm assuming:
Tangrowth—This thing's defensive RH set with sleep powder walls so much stuff it's stupid. It's amazing on sand teams for it's ability to check Breloom, Azumarill, Lopunny, and a few other things. It's also perfect for more offensive balance/bulky offense since regen synergizes really well with those playstyles and is over all just a really solid pivot nowadays.
Terrakion—Good lord this thing scares me. It's a solid balance breaker that typically puts fear into the heart of most stall players as well, and rock/fighting STAB is extremely hard to play around (Medi's the only resist that comes to mind but Medi's a glorified grocery bag when it comes to defenses anyway).
Heracross-Mega—With people realizing how scary-good Bulky-Cross is, it's started to see a lot of usage. It's got high BP moves at its disposal plus humongous attack, meaning it's defensive answers are virtually non-existent with an SD under it's belt (Doublade being the only defensive answer coming to mind). Pair this bad boy with a Volt Switcher to cover Talonflame and Torn and you're good to go.
Maybe if more people recognize how scary DD Chesto + Rest regular Gyara is in a meta where Lando-T is everywhere, Gyara could end up OU. I think that sentiment may be a bit of a stretch, though, as Rotom-W is around every corner and is a really solid answer to that set.
I'm not even going to lie, it's pretty disappointing to me how Tangrowth is really starting to get the regonition it finally deserves. Kinda makes me think how Amoonguss peaked OU first despite it being inconsistent at times (maybe I'm just bad). Just piggybacking off what daddy's kisses stated, Tangrowth is an extremely reliable pivot and the fact that it's so easy to fit Tangrowth onto teams nowadays I don't see why it wouldn't move up.
Terrakion should never be BL to begin with zzz, OU pleb just hate me and getting back at me for not wanting Genesect banned. Their prank has gone on too long though!
Since the post above me brought up Gyarados, just wanted to bring up M-Gyarados for a sec. Makes me cry to see this thing not being used, although having the ability to cuck teams. Since the meta is more bulk orientened nowadays, Gyarados doesn't have to worry for its relatively low speed as much as it use to which usually had been troubling in the past. Pretty exhausted so this post is relatively short rip. Just some things I wanted to say.
