With SM NU right about the corner me and
Eternally were talking about a couple of pokémons that liked how the metagame was going and also disliked how the metagame was going:
Like the current metagame:
: Due to the rapid increase in SpecsSprit usage, Dark types are almost a must to have on any team, this is where Skuntank began to shine more then it did already. With the ability to be immuune to Psychic while still being normal against Signal Beam helps Skuntank alot over other dark types, now with Crunch being a more common filler move helps as well with the like CM Colbur / bulky Colbur Psychics what otherwise it was struggling against. The special set became also more populair with the likes of rhydon and steelix being the main rockers as of late, With Shuca Fire Blast or HP Grass you were able to massive damage to both of them. Despite both Skuntank sets are easy to take advantage of when you know the set Skuntank was liking how the metagame was going in the end.
: Another Dark type that benefits of the popularity of the likes of Mesprit / Xatu and Bronzor in a lesser extent, while being overshadowed alot of the time by Skuntank and Shiftry, Liepard finally found it's place with it's Choice Band set. Choice band hits increblibly hard with it's main stab Knock Off (one of the best moves in the game), with Mega-Audino also being less populair helps Liepard alot since that was on of it's main counters. All with all Liepard got the love it deserves at the end of ORAS NU.
: With the rising popularity of Dark types the Fighting types was a logic result of it. Gurdurr being a amazing fighting type with good bulk and the ability guts, Gurdurr is easily able to sweep after one Bulk Up what is can set up on most of the common mons in the meta game (of course not psychic types counted). With Stone Edge being more common as of late Scyther and Charizard are more fearing to switch in on Gurdurr because it just straight ohko's them. Gurdurr rising popularity is well deserved in the end.
: Another Fighting type that has increased immense in popularity, Hitmonchan is now the best Spinner in ORAS NU with it's good variety of sets and power. Hitmonchan had issues catching up with the popularity of psychic types but in the end it found it's place. Something that has seen a lot of popularity is "BU Chan" which rampages through Balance which use Vileplume and Xatu as primary fighting-type checks. After one Bulk up those aren't a check anymore and most of the mons that are able to outspeed Hitmonchan do not like taking a +1 Mach Punch. At the end Hitmonchan fell down to the tier it belongs in and it's a force to reckoned with.
Dislike the current metagame:
: As I have told before in a post in the VR thread, the current metagame is very unfriendly to Rotom due to the popularity of Skuntank / Liepard, Pursuit / Zen Headbutt Tauros and Pursuit Scyther (Hariyama / Rhydon / Lanturn to a lesser extent). Makes it really hard to use rotom effectively, Scarf has troubles vs Lanturn / Rhydon and is almost forced to trick it which loses your scarf most of the time really early in the game. Spell Tag WispHex isn't as threatning as it was before thanks to the rise of darks types, with Spell Tag WispHex not being as common due to its immense vulnerability towards pursuit trappers, Lanturn has become an even better check than before. Colbur was good back in the day when Skuntanks didn't run Crunch but nowadays its quite a common filler move. All with all at the end of ORAS NU Rotom wasn't as threatning as it was before.
: While being the most threatning Shell Smasher in the tier and a pretty good scarfer Barbaracle does not like how ORAS NU is going to end. With the populairity of Hitmonchan, Gurdurr, Vileplume and Seed Bomb Garbodor, Barbaracle has a hard time to shine in the current metagame. Shell smash is pretty hard to set up and due to the weakness to fighting can you take it out pretty easy after some chip with Mach Punch from both Hitmonchan and Gurdurr (Gurdurr is also to live any hit at full health and just OHKO is after with Drain Punch). With Seed Bomb Garbodor being more common then not doesn't help it either, while all this it's still a pokémon to look out for just not as threatning as it was before.
This was the end of ORAS NU and I enjoyed the most of it and let's have a fun SM NU!