XY UU Beta Discussion (Read post #32)

[BROloom]

Zygarde as a physically defensive pokemon is flat out amazing with hazard support, 252 HP, 252 Def, EQ, Dragon tail, Rest and Sleep talk.

You absorb status like nobodies business, and take hits like a champ, the only thing remotely concerning is ice attacks, but they are generally lived through unless special. Its base speed is also useful as a defensive pokemon, getting sleep talk dragon tails off with decent speed is annoying for opponents. Bisharp? Darmanitan? Hell, even Mega Heracross can't 2HKO (although, he will bring you close).

If teams aren't prepared, or you take out the one threat, you can just keep dragon tailing and resting up. Seriously, shove Deoxys-D (or any hazard setter) with defensive Zygarde and watch the magic.

 

[Swamp Link]

Yeah, physically defensive Zygarde is pretty good, but I prefer Hippowdon. Instead of Resttalk, it's got Slack Off and Stealth Rock, and that's pretty helpful although being able to take status is good, and the typing is arguably better, except when taking hits from Dragons. But I really liked Zygarde when I did try it in place of Hippowdon, and it made a pretty good core with Umbreon and Florges. There's not much that breaks through that core, although Mega Houndoom in the sun is a bitch.

 

[Arkian]

With Kyurem-B having been banned recently, Zygarde may have found its chance to shine as the premier physical Dragon-type of UU, and it's pretty good at it too. However, It's not nearly as strong as you're claiming it to be, and must be set up in order to reach those power levels. I've found it easy for Zygarde to get to +1, having faced more than I'd care for, but getting beyond that is not as easy. Zygarde sits at a really unfortunate speed tier for something of its stature. It's fast enough to yes, get the jump on common revenge killers, but is still outsped by Choice Scarf users with base 100 Speed or higher. I've found Zygarde to be much more susceptible to burns than Kyurem-B was simply because it lacks both the immediate power and can't use its Special Attack very well, making it mildly easier to manage.

In short, Zygarde is in my mind, a textbook UU Pokemon. It gets this "acclamation" due to its garbage ability, poor movepool, okay typing, and great stats, none of which should warrant it a ban. It has Raikou syndrome; does one or two things very well, but still has its checks and counters to keep it in line with the metagame. Personally, I find Haxorus to be a much bigger threat due to its wider movepool and Mold Breaker.

I knew someone would point that out eventually :P Zygarde may be the least ban-worthy Pokemon on my list due to it needing the boosts from Dragon Dance to become a threat. From my experiences, however, it isn't that hard to boost thanks to its good typing and bulk. As for the Scarf point, it beats all common Scarfers around the 100 area except maybe Draco Meteor Latias, but Scarf Latias is uncommon. However, the Raikou analogy has won me over and made me feel stupid for not connecting to that lol >.<

I can already tell that you've never used Mega-Medicham, based on the part that I've bolded. Having once used Mega-Medicham on my team, Cesspool Sweepers, I know from first-hand experience that the only way Mega-Medicham becomes a massive threat is if you run it alongside Sticky Web or intense Thunder Wave support, as it sits at a very disappointing speed tier. While its power may be unparalleled, Mega-Medicham has no way of boosting its speed without receiving boosts from Baton Pass, and therefore suffers in a metagame where a slew of faster threats make their home. A "bulk" of 65 / 85 / 85 won't get Mega-Medicham through many tough opponents either, and folds or takes significant damage from even a low-end attacker. For the record, anything capable of resisting, or possessing an immunity, to High Jump Kick is essentially given a free switch in on Mega-Medicham, as it's probably the biggest example of a Pokemon that suffers from 4MSS.

I honestly have used Mega Medicham quite a bit, and I didn't find its bulk as lacking as you described. In fact, Mega Medicham can live Scarf Keldeo's Hydro Pump just fine and OHKOes back with Zen Headbutt. Furthermore, I use Mega Medicham can be used as an effective anti-lead, since it's capable of stopping Sticky Web leads and Baton Pass Scolipede as well. While I agree calling its Speed tier and bulk "great" would have been an overstatement, Mega Medicham can still survive hits and outspeed a couple of common Pokemon just fine. Also, Mega Medicham is really hard to switch into, even if you do bring in something that resists HJK; In fact, non-Choice Scarf variants of Chandelure, Jellicent, and Mega Banette are both defeated by Mega Medicham provided it hits them with something other than High Jump Kick on the switch in (the latter needs to be hit by Zen Headbutt actually v.v). Furthermore, Thundurus-T is actually OHKOed by HJK after SR 100% of the time while Florges is 2HKOed. But again, this is just my opinion :]

I didn't find any of your honorable mentions to be of any major concern. They're just good at what they do, and somehow that keeps translating into "this Pokemon is/could be broken, let's get it out of the metagame asap", when in all reality, there's nothing terribly wrong with them. Kyurem-B, Drizzle, and Manaphy were all banned because of their centralizing effect on the metagame. The only Pokemon I could immediately name off the top of my head that has the same effect right now is Mega-Heracross, which you've already brought to light.

That is exactly what I intended my honorable mentions to come off as, as many people believe them to be broken when they're really not (imo) :/

Ill be honest here, i dont think we should be banning anything atm. Am i saying that i dont think anything is broken? No i am not, i actually think there are overpowered stuff, but the thing is, this metagame has only existed for a very short time. Its very easy for something to look broken early in a tier but as stuff develops and standard sets/strategies are settled on, everything will radically change. I dont really see any harm in playing this for a few more months, officialize it as an actual tier, and only then start to testing/quick banning stuff. I mean did drizzle seriously lasted through the whole bw ou tier but it got banned in an unoffical xy uu after like one week lol?. It needs to be taken in consideration that xy ou itself is barely stable now, the ''new mon hype'' is still strong which explains why things like deoxys and keldeo are sitting on uu. A lot of these ''broken'' (deoxys, keldeo, bisharp) stuff are actually just barely making the cut off for ou and theres no doubt that they will reach it anyway so whats even the point of bothering with banning stuff now? I dont really like the way this is being handled, i just want to see the metagame develop naturally. Banning anything at such an early point just doesnt make any sense, the standards are not yet set, of course a lot of threats are going to steamroll shit now, exactly like how sd aegislash steamrolled shit in early xy ou and now its easily the worst set. Seriously lets just give some time, you know things are getting ridiculous when someone is proposing that we ban something whose only niche is kill something with outrage and gets revenged/setuped on next turn.

I was never saying that the Pokemon suggested on my list had to be banned, I was just simply sharing my opinion on some Pokemon that I personally thought were unhealthy for the current metagame, so please don't interpret it that way. I don't even have a say in what's being banned or not lol. The last line also urks me a bit, since Zygarde is meant to be used as a late-game cleaner, not some random Pokemon that gets revenge killed easily.

Also, idk how I forgot to mention Staraptor and Haxorus, I had them on the initial list but completely forgot to post about them lol.

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

I was never saying that the Pokemon suggested on my list had to be banned, I was just simply sharing my opinion on some Pokemon that I personally thought were unhealthy for the current metagame, so please don't interpret it that way. I don't even have a say in what's being banned or not lol. The last line also urks me a bit, since Zygarde is meant to be used as a late-game cleaner, not some random Pokemon that gets revenge killed easily.

Also, idk how I forgot to mention Staraptor and Haxorus, I had them on the initial list but completely forgot to post about them lol.

I was not directing it at you specifically, its just the way im feeling with how this whole thing is being handled. You can call me crazy but i simply did not want anything to be banned in such a early stage, and yes, this includes kyurem b, manaphy and drizzle. I think that if something is going to be banned, it needs to be after extensive testing, and simply put we didnt had enough time to do this yet. When you dont do that people end up making ridiculous statements like ''haxorus 2hkoes everything by locking itself into outrage, ban'' (which is what i was referring to, not zygarde). Even if we are going to talk about a initial ban list when the tier becomes official, these lists still need to have a very strong reason why something should never be allowed in the tier even without testing (which is a problem i have with some of the pokemons in the uber banlist

). Overall, i think it would be much better for the future of uu if we tried to discuss about how to deal with the current threats before calling them broken/unhealthy since that will just lead to more ''sd aegislash'' situations.

 

[BROloom]

Yeah, physically defensive Zygarde is pretty good, but I prefer Hippowdon. Instead of Resttalk, it's got Slack Off and Stealth Rock, and that's pretty helpful although being able to take status is good, and the typing is arguably better, except when taking hits from Dragons. But I really liked Zygarde when I did try it in place of Hippowdon, and it made a pretty good core with Umbreon and Florges. There's not much that breaks through that core, although Mega Houndoom in the sun is a bitch.

Eh, Zygarde's good special defence makes him much more attractive for me, you don't run in fear when a special attacker comes in, especially with his typing, only if it has ice attacks, that and the added speed advantage is rather useful.

 

[Jaguar360]

I knew someone would point that out eventually :P Zygarde may be the least ban-worthy Pokemon on my list due to it needing the boosts from Dragon Dance to become a threat. From my experiences, however, it isn't that hard to boost thanks to its good typing and bulk. As for the Scarf point, it beats all common Scarfers around the 100 area except maybe Draco Meteor Latias, but Scarf Latias is uncommon. However, the Raikou analogy has won me over and made me feel stupid for not connecting to that lol >.<

Have you tried/seen Zygarde's Coil set? It was really good for me in OU and it wrecked just as much when I tried it in UU.
Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Coil
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail
This set has great physical bulk and power. Extremespeed helps Zygarde's little speed problem quite a bit and puts a dent in several Pokemon. Earthquake is obviously 100 BP STAB and hurts those that Extremespeed is not very effective against. Dragon Tail gets rid of threats that Zygarde doesn't want to be around and is boosted to perfect accuracy after a Coil. He is also able to pull off a Dragon Tail very well with its high bulk and numerous resistances. So yeah, Zygarde's a beast.

 

[TPO3]

I was not directing it at you specifically, its just the way im feeling with how this whole thing is being handled. You can call me crazy but i simply did not want anything to be banned in such a early stage, and yes, this includes kyurem b, manaphy and drizzle. I think that if something is going to be banned, it needs to be after extensive testing, and simply put we didnt had enough time to do this yet. When you dont do that people end up making ridiculous statements like ''haxorus 2hkoes everything by locking itself into outrage, ban'' (which is what i was referring to, not zygarde). Even if we are going to talk about a initial ban list when the tier becomes official, these lists still need to have a very strong reason why something should never be allowed in the tier even without testing (which is a problem i have with some of the pokemons in the uber banlist

). Overall, i think it would be much better for the future of uu if we tried to discuss about how to deal with the current threats before calling them broken/unhealthy since that will just lead to more ''sd aegislash'' situations.

If I understand correctly, most everything will be re-introduced into UU and extensively tested like you want them to be at a later period. Everything gets a round of a suspect test, so we will get to see if they are really broken or not. So these pokemon aren't necessarily gone forever, they'll have a chance to undergo a testing period just like normal. So I wouldn't worry about ridiculous bans being put into place just yet.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Medichamite

The thing is, Medicham hits way too hard. It literally 2HKOes max Hippodown and 4/0 Latias with High Jump Kick without the help of hazards. Medicham's Speed tier and bulk are both very good as well, the former more than the latter. Mega Medicham has no trouble Mega evolving with the help of Fake Out, which ensures it doesn't have to live as its slow, frail self for too long. Mega Medicham's bulk allows it to survive many hits as long as they're not too powerful like Bisharp's Sucker Punch and then it can proceed to OHKO or at least cripple the threat at hand. So basically, Mega Medicham is much like a faster, frailer version of Mega Heracross. What makes Medicham so deadly is that it is extremely hard to switch into and will get your Pokemon crippled no matter what, unless you're a Mega Banette and you happen to switch in on a Fighting-type move. For this reason, I'm doubting how healthy Medicham really is for the metagame, despite there being a select few Pokemon that can revenge kill it, like Bisharp or Choice Band Stoutland with sand support.

Having used Mega Medicham on nearly every single one of my teams in OU and UU team: I don't really agree. It hits insanely hard, only very bulky Pokemon like Dusclops and Cresselia that resist/are immune to HJK and don't get hit SE by elemental punches are able to wall it, but 60/85/85 is not bulky, 100 base speed is not very good when you can't use a Scarf, and UU is no stranger to insane physical attackers (e.g. Darmanitan.) Furthermore, HJK has a really unfortunate side effect when you miss, or whenever your opponent uses Protect or switches to a ghost. Sure, you'd not use HJK freely when there's a ghost on the other team, but you're still unable to use your most powerful move without it possibly backfiring.

It's really hard to switch into, but it's also pretty easy to check. Again, 60/85/85 is not very bulky, Fighting/Psychic is really bad defensively. It's an absurdly good wall breaker but it won't sweep any decent team.

Mega Heracross I somewhat agree with: while it doesn't hit as hard as HJK, its coverage moves hit a lot harder, and it has great bulk and more resistances.

I was not directing it at you specifically, its just the way im feeling with how this whole thing is being handled. You can call me crazy but i simply did not want anything to be banned in such a early stage, and yes, this includes kyurem b, manaphy and drizzle. I think that if something is going to be banned, it needs to be after extensive testing, and simply put we didnt had enough time to do this yet. When you dont do that people end up making ridiculous statements like ''haxorus 2hkoes everything by locking itself into outrage, ban'' (which is what i was referring to, not zygarde). Even if we are going to talk about a initial ban list when the tier becomes official, these lists still need to have a very strong reason why something should never be allowed in the tier even without testing (which is a problem i have with some of the pokemons in the uber banlist

). Overall, i think it would be much better for the future of uu if we tried to discuss about how to deal with the current threats before calling them broken/unhealthy since that will just lead to more ''sd aegislash'' situations.

While I agree that we shouldn't be banning things just because "they hit too hard," manaphy and KyuB should absolutely not have been in UU.

 

[Swamp Link]

Regarding the Drought discussion, I'm pretty sure that there's nothing that makes Drought overpowering in UU except for the existence of Mega Houndoom. I can't think of anything at all that isn't 2HKO'd by Solar Power boosted, Sun boosted Fire Blast, Dark Pulse, or Solarbeam in the tier besides Chansey. There's just no hope of walling this thing if you don't have room for Chansey on your team, and goddamn, even Chansey can take around 40% from Fire Blast.
There are 3 other stupidly powerful pokemon in the tier, Mega Medicham, Mega Heracross, and Mega Gardevoir. I actually think that Medicham outclasses Heracross at pure wallbreaking unless it's SD Hera, but either one of them hits so disgustingly hard that the prominent physical walls, like Hippowdon have to be at absolutely full health to handle them, which is really lame. Physically defensive Florges and the aforementioned Hippwodon are champs that barely holds it together for you, though.

252 Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 199-235 (55.2 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Florges: 157-186 (43.6 - 51.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 180-215 (50 - 59.7%) -- approx. 88.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Those Medicham and Heracross calcs don't look too encouraging, but since Florges uses Wish+Protect for healing, it has a decent chance of handling them as long they don't get too many max rolls, and Moonblast will destroy them.
Basically, Medicham, Heracross, and Gardevoir are stupidly strong, but they have shaky counters and very solid checks, so they can be dealt with, and Mega Houndoom is a broken whore.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Regarding the Drought discussion, I'm pretty sure that there's nothing that makes Drought overpowering in UU except for the existence of Mega Houndoom. I can't think of anything at all that isn't 2HKO'd by Solar Power boosted, Sun boosted Fire Blast, Dark Pulse, or Solarbeam in the tier besides Chansey. There's just no hope of walling this thing if you don't have room for Chansey on your team, and goddamn, even Chansey can take around 40% from Fire Blast.
There are 3 other stupidly powerful pokemon in the tier, Mega Medicham, Mega Heracross, and Mega Gardevoir. I actually think that Medicham outclasses Heracross at pure wallbreaking unless it's SD Hera, but either one of them hits so disgustingly hard that the prominent physical walls, like Hippowdon have to be at absolutely full health to handle them, which is really lame. Physically defensive Florges and the aforementioned Hippwodon are champs that barely holds it together for you, though.

252 Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 199-235 (55.2 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Florges: 157-186 (43.6 - 51.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Mega Heracross Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 180-215 (50 - 59.7%) -- approx. 88.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

Those Medicham and Heracross calcs don't look too encouraging, but since Florges uses Wish+Protect for healing, it has a decent chance of handling them as long they don't get too many max rolls, and Moonblast will destroy them.
Basically, Medicham, Heracross, and Gardevoir are stupidly strong, but they have shaky counters and very solid checks, so they can be dealt with, and Mega Houndoom is a broken whore.

Just a note: 252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Florges: 214-253 (59.4 - 70.2%)

 

[Swamp Link]

Just a note: 252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Florges: 214-253 (59.4 - 70.2%)

As you could see from the calcs, the Florges set that I was calcing was 252 Def Bold. So this is the damage.

252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 144-169 (40 - 46.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

As you could see from the calcs, the Florges set that I was calcing was 252 Def Bold. So this is the damage.

252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 144-169 (40 - 46.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Oh, right.

 

[Srn]

I was not directing it at you specifically, its just the way im feeling with how this whole thing is being handled. You can call me crazy but i simply did not want anything to be banned in such a early stage, and yes, this includes kyurem b, manaphy and drizzle. I think that if something is going to be banned, it needs to be after extensive testing, and simply put we didnt had enough time to do this yet. When you dont do that people end up making ridiculous statements like ''haxorus 2hkoes everything by locking itself into outrage, ban'' (which is what i was referring to, not zygarde). Even if we are going to talk about a initial ban list when the tier becomes official, these lists still need to have a very strong reason why something should never be allowed in the tier even without testing (which is a problem i have with some of the pokemons in the uber banlist

). Overall, i think it would be much better for the future of uu if we tried to discuss about how to deal with the current threats before calling them broken/unhealthy since that will just lead to more ''sd aegislash'' situations.

I suppose it was a little stupid of me to suggest a ban only because it can 2hko the entire tier, it still is easily revenged and stuff, and outrage haxorus is a little different from a specs keldeo w/hydro pump in the rain. Updated that post to say nothing of bans, just that its a damn good wallbreaker :P Thanks for pointing that out nonetheless.

But kyu-b and manaphy certainly needed to go. That's like saying you should test kyogre in OU for a while and you need "extensive testing" to see if its broken in OU or not. You don't, it's quite clear that kyogre would fuck the OU tier sideways, there isn't really a discussion. Likewise, it was quite obvious kyu-b and manaphy was simply too much for the tier to handle (maybe not as clear as ogre in OU but I rest my case) and it didn't really need extensive testing.

 

[EonX]

Yeah, Medicham and Heracross hit like damn dump trucks. There's next to nothing that can take repeated switch-in assaults from them and neither is super weak to hazards. Heracross even has solid bulk and decent resistances to switch in on. As for Mega Gardevoir, it sucks... I mean, it hits really damn hard and it can switch in on virtually any special attacker in the tier that doesn't have a super effective STAB move and Mega Evo on them and smash them with something. Pixilate also gives it a stupid strong STAB move that even hits through Substitute while Psyshock, Focus Blast, and Shadow Ball / Thunderbolt covers p. much everything else. It's typing is pretty good defensively as well with just Poison, Steel, and Ghost weaknesses (all 3 of which can be covered by coverage or a secondary STAB move)

That said, I do find revenge killing them to be relatively easy, although this may be due to the fact I've been running Reckless Scarf Staraptor. That said, many strong and fast physical attackers can at least revenge kill these threats. Victini and Darmanitan outspeed all 3 with a Choice Scarf and can use V-create / Flare Blitz to demolish them. Both also have the benefit of working well with Mega Blastoise and Defog Latias (Victini does have overlapping weaknesses with Latias though)

 

[Patrick1088]

Im surprised that eviolite doublade wasnt mentioned as a check to mega hera and non-fire punch mega cham. You can use both as setup fodder while you boost that juicy 110 base attack. I believe that it can survive a knock off from bisharp too and ohko with sacred sword (need to confirm).

While keldeo is powerful i think it may be fitting in uu. Florges checks it nicely, drizzle got banned, and hydro pump got nerfed to 110 base attack. Unfortunately, all of keldeos main checks came to uu with it: celebi, toxicroak, jellicent and latias.

Bisharp and deoxys are the top pokes that are overcentralizing the metagame atm that is forcing people to use apecific threats. The only 2 priority taunt users that can stop deoxys dont stand a chance against bisharp (whimsicott and tornadus).

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Im surprised that eviolite doublade wasnt mentioned as a check to mega hera and non-fire punch mega cham. You can use both as setup fodder while you boost that juicy 110 base attack. I believe that it can survive a knock off from bisharp too and ohko with sacred sword (need to confirm).

Heracross can run Earthquake and 2HKO Doublade. There's also not a lot Doublade can do in return.

It counters Medicham though. Fire Punch does under half and Medicham is 2HKOed by Shadow Sneak (and OHKOed by Shadow Claw.) Fire Punch is also a rare move and doesn't provide much coverage outside of Aegislash/Doublade.

Hide

Medicham could run Foresight though. I mean it's not the best move with something that's strapped for coverage as it is, but it's a possibility.

 

[Patrick1088]

Heracross can run Earthquake and 2HKO Doublade. There's also not a lot Doublade can do in return.

It counters Medicham though. Fire Punch does under half and Medicham is 2HKOed by Shadow Sneak (and OHKOed by Shadow Claw.) Fire Punch is also a rare move and doesn't provide much coverage outside of Aegislash/Doublade.

Hide

Medicham could run Foresight though. I mean it's not the best move with something that's strapped for coverage as it is, but it's a possibility.

I suppose eq is an option but running sub or sd is so much safer and common on mega hera. Sub allows it to hide and be safe from nasty status while sd allows it to pummel through most if the meta.

Even behind a sub it can still be checked by infiltrator crobat and hyper voice mega gard.

 

[Patrick1088]

What does everybody think of quagsire? I was going through some calcs and it can check/trap pokes between unaware and infestation. Bisharp cant do much once hes trapped by infestation and possibly burned. It also can check zygarde.

 

[EonX]

A quick problem that comes to mind with such a set on Quagsire is Latias. Unaware backfires on Quagsire at this point since Latias can quite literally spam Draco Meteor until Quagisre is out or switches.

As for Keldeo, it's counter-balanced pretty nicely. Two of the top offensive checks it had from BW2 OU have come to XY UU with it (Latias and Celebi) Mega Gardevoir is also a pretty damn good answer to it with that special bulk and 4x Fighting resistance.

Deoxys-Speed is just stupid, but I highly doubt it will be around UU for very long (as in, usage making it rise to OU) While Bisharp is annoying, it's hard for it to come in for free unless the opponent just makes it stupidly obvious that a Defog is coming. It's got p. bad special bulk and the 3 best megas in the tier (Medicham, Heracross, and Gardevoir) can just blow past it with their STAB moves alone. That said, if it gets Defiant to activate, good luck. You'll probably need it unless you have something like Keldeo or a Mega Heracross fast enough to outspeed it.

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Is anyone else having success with Manectric? I have been trying a bulkier spread for the standard set and its quite good at creating momentum:

Manectric @ Manectrite
Ability: Lightningrod
Evs: 112 HP / 252 Sp Atk / 144 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Volt Switch
- Hidden power [Ice]
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt

Enough speed to outspeed timid tornadus-t because i honestly dont care about weavile and crobat cant really do anything to manectric anyway. Intimidate and volt switch is a great combo specially when paired with an u-turn partner (in this case mienshao). The hp evs let it take hits better (it can survive a band haxorus outrage 100% of time) which allows it to make better use of intimidate. There are so few ground types being used that volt switch is almost always guaranted momentum everytime you use it. The best thing about this is that its still usable even in its base form due to lighingrod. Keep it unevolved if your opponent has an electric mon (say, scarf thundurus-t) on its team to punish it.

 

[DTC]

SmashBrosBrawl you should at least run enough Speed to outspeed Weavile after mega evolution (spread becomes 80 HP / 252 SpA / 176 Spe). You say you "don't care about Weavile" which is pretty stupid because Weavile is one of the best and most threatening Pokemon out there and Mega Manectric is one of the few Pokemon that can actually check it well (partially because of its ability to outspeed). Crobat is fine to underspeed but you really don't want to underspeed Weavile lol.

 

[Turtleye]

Arcanine @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun
- ExtremeSpeed
- Flare Blitz

I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned Arcanine yet. It has very good physical bulk and a fantastic ability in Intimidate. It's also a good check to fairy types (aside from Mega-Gardevoir, although he can OHKO her on the switch), has amazing utility in WoW and somewhat reliable recovery in Morning Sun, although the weather inducers are annoying but you shouldnt saty in on Hippo.
Also Extremespeed is one of the best priority's in the game in my opinion.
With the right plays this set can dispatch Bisharp who should be OU by now(too strong smh) and other physical attackers such as Ambipom(lol).

Yes it DOES have flaws, but every Pokemon has those. I found it to be pairing very well with latias, who can sponge up Water and Ground attacks and remove rocks, while she is also bulky on the special side.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

No one has mentioned Arcanine because it didn't really change this gen. It's still great, but it's not new.

 

[Ace Emerald]

Actually there are several reasons no one has mentioned Arcanine:

• Intimidate gives Bisharp an Attack boost
• Dragons are everywhere and most do well against Arcanine
• The Fire-types it used to switch in on have declined in popularity
• It wasn't steller last gen, just a little above mediocre
• Also yeah it got nothing new

 

[Srn]

Is anyone else having success with Manectric? I have been trying a bulkier spread for the standard set and its quite good at creating momentum:

Manectric @ Manectrite
Ability: Lightningrod
Evs: 112 HP / 252 Sp Atk / 144 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Volt Switch
- Hidden power [Ice]
- Overheat
- Thunderbolt

Enough speed to outspeed timid tornadus-t because i honestly dont care about weavile and crobat cant really do anything to manectric anyway. Intimidate and volt switch is a great combo specially when paired with an u-turn partner (in this case mienshao). The hp evs let it take hits better (it can survive a band haxorus outrage 100% of time) which allows it to make better use of intimidate. There are so few ground types being used that volt switch is almost always guaranted momentum everytime you use it. The best thing about this is that its still usable even in its base form due to lighingrod. Keep it unevolved if your opponent has an electric mon (say, scarf thundurus-t) on its team to punish it.

First off,
-1 252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Mega Manectric: 138-164 (44.6 - 53%) -- 24.6% chance to 2HKO

That's an unacceptable amount of damage on your mega, you can't even switch in safely.

Also, like DTC said, its not exactly rare and is definitely a threat, so you need to prepare for it. Definitely run evs to outspeed weavile.

I'm also sorta low-ish on the ladder, but I've been seeing ground types quite often; swampert, rhyperior, quagsire, and hippowdon are not uncommon.
Lastly,
-1 252 Atk Choice Band Mold Breaker Haxorus Outrage vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Mega Manectric: 259-306 (83.8 - 99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
but
-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Mold Breaker Haxorus Outrage vs. 112 HP / 0 Def Mega Manectric: 285-336 (92.2 - 108.7%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
I just happen to prefer jolly, but somebody else could definitely run adamant.