In response to
Eevee General 's call for more cultivation and less creation in Other Metagames, we've noticed that for a metagame with a ladder, Tier Shift gets very little discussion. A small team including me will be writing analyses of the way things work in Tier Shift
every other day. We hope that these act as a sort of discussion prompt for the community to take a hold of and cultivate the meta with their ideas and their opinions. Assisting me in my efforts are;
Deathly ♛The King ,
Dream Eater Gengar ,
insanelegend ,
jeran ,
Kingslayer2779 , and
Snaquaza .
Starting us off for our first topic, I will be talking about Walls and Wallbreakers in Tier Shift.
Walls and Wallbreakers
in Tier Shift
A side-effect of lower tiered mons have
ALL of their stats increased by a uniform rule is that they gain a lot more bulk than they do power. This leads to a metagame where bulky offense and stall are two of the strongest playstyles. It is important to know however, that even on a perfect stall team, where every relevant wallbreaker is checked, there are chinks in the armor. Finding the less well known wallbreakers, where the opponent only has 1 answer, in the case of a stall team, or a very shaky check on a balance team, pressures the same few pokemon to be forced in. Knowing how stall is built is an important aspect in knowing how to break it. First off, there are a few things that stall should
always have an answer to.
Houndoom-Mega @ Houndoominite
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse / Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Nasty Plot
- Solar Beam
Under sun, not even Chansey can stomach powerful hits from this monster at +2. This means that stall has only 2 defensive answers for it.
+2 252+ SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey in Sun: 490-577 (76.3 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Dark Pulse vs. 248 HP / 112+ SpD Flareon in Sun: 319-376 (87.8 - 103.5%) -- 25% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Dark Pulse vs. 248 HP / 112+ SpD Flareon in Sun: 160-189 (44 - 52%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
148 Atk Flareon Superpower vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Houndoom: 266-314 (85.5 - 100.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 252+ SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Assault Vest Thick Fat Hariyama in Sun: 306-360 (66.6 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Solar Power Mega Houndoom Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Assault Vest Thick Fat Hariyama in Sun: 153-181 (33.3 - 39.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Hariyama Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Houndoom: 440-522 (141.4 - 167.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
So, what we learn from Houndoom is that strong offensive presence on an otherwise defensive mon can often be important. We also learn that strictly offensive mons are incredibly useful in checking huge threats to defensive cores.
I now leave you with two exercises, one to introduce the idea of semistall cores, and one to reinforce the idea of wallbreakers.
Here is a common stall core, both of these mons are blanket counters to a large amount of offensive mons, but they share some common weaknesses. Neither can fully deal with Mega Houndoom under sun, both struggle with LO Hydreigon (Draco Meteor, Dark Pulse, Iron Tail, Super Power), both are threatened by Mega Lopunny, and both fall to Guts Ursaring. What offensive mon would you use? Keep in mind that even defensive mons should have some degree of defensive synergy. Also keep in mind that semistall relies on making aggressive plays to get attackers in on wallbreaking threats and making the safe play the majority of the time to whittle the opponents team.
Abomasnow @ Abomasite
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Wood Hammer
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
Now here is a wallbreaker with unexplored potential. What Pokemon (1, 2, or even 3) would you pair Abomasnow with to put added stress on its switchins and assist in wearing down the opposing team?