Now that I've gotten my reqs and am not in danger of dying of hypothermia anymore (just a stroke from playing on this garbage ladder), I might as well make a long, rambling post about both Terrakion specifically and the meta in a more general sense.
To start with, I don't really agree with this fixation on Slowking as
the enabling factor for Terrakion. Yes, it's the best pivot available, but that doesn't mean you can't just U-turn/Volt Switch in with the many other pivots in the tier, most of which have at least one common check that Terrakion can take advantage of (Salamence, Victini, Rotom-H, Chansey, etc.), support it with paralysis, or even just use a double switch to get it in. On top of that, 91/90/90 defensive stats aren't exactly fragile and it's still beefy enough to come in on 1/2 neutral/resisted attacks per game without any support at all and live most priority moves (Conkeldurr and Azumarill don't KO from full and Scizor needs a Life Orb to guarantee the KO; it survives stuff like Victini's Psychic, any unboosted move from Salamence, Hurricane from Moltres-Galar, Hydro Pum from Rotom-Wash from full and has around a 20% chance to live things like Gyarados Waterfall and Zeraora Close Combat), to say nothing of its ability to tank one Scald/Giga Drain/whatever from defensive Pokemon like Amoonguss, Tangrowth, and Slowking at need. When you combine that with the fact that there are only maybe 4-5 commonly seen Pokemon in the tier that actually outspeed it, it doesn't exactly need to be a defensive powerhouse.
Other than that, I don't have much to say about Terrakion specifically, since previous posters have done a good job talking about its ability to click buttons and kill things, so I'll just do something that I don't see people really do anymore: post analysis of tournament games. I'll use my games from LTPL to start with, but I'm open to talking about my UU Masters games or trying to analyze someone else's games if there's enough demand for that. I only played in 4 weeks, so this hopefully won't drag on for too long.
Week 3 vs. Ajna:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8uu-1259285415
Team:
https://pokepast.es/8e3e22062beb1fd5
I hadn't really built SS UU since the very beginning of UU Snake at this point, so I just started by slapping together 2 brokens (Latias + Terrakion) and then filling out the rest of the team in ways that let me play around the meta. Celesteela is an excellent defensive Pokemon and let me pretend it was possible to switch into Latias. Tentacruel punished Celesteela for trying to spam Leech Seed, cleared hazards, checked a few other things, and so on. Tapu Bulu was meant to put pressure on stuff that checked Latias and Terrakion while also providing useful typing and a little bit of recovery for the rest of the team. I gave it Zen Headbutt to remove Amoonguss/defensive Kommo-o and used Stone Edge to maintain neutral coverage on as many things as possible. Krookodile offered Intimidate, useful typing, and revenge-killing capacity. I probably could've put Stealth Rock on Krookodile instead of Terrakion, but I never ended up in a situation where I would've wanted to click Stealth Rock with either of them during the game, so ultimately it didn't matter. I don't think Close Combat was strictly necessary on Krookodile, so maybe dropping that would've been better.
I led Latias here because it threatens anything he could open up with to try to grab momentum and I can easily switch into his two possible answers. I went ahead and clicked Mystical Fire because going to Jirachi on the Draco Meteor seemed like the obvious response and I didn't think he'd be gutsy enough to stay in to try to status, especially since Rotom-Wash had the potential to be useful vs. everything but Latias with the right moves in its last two slots. The Mystical Fire damage let me know the Jirachi was offensive, so I switched out to scout for Choice Scarf. The fact that Ajna switched out told me that his Jirachi wasn't Choice Scarf, so I felt like Latias was in a very good position at this point and wanted to build my gameplan around getting it in and dropping Draco Meteors more or less for free. I also got to kill the Jirachi a few turns later.
On turn 7, I switched Latias out because I didn't want to feed it to a crocodile and thought I could get an opportunity to remove Amoonguss or Kommo-o with +2 Zen Headbutt. While my game plan mostly revolved around Latias at this point, I was still thinking of how I could open up lategame opportunities for Terrakion, so getting one of those two out of the way would've been helpful. Instead, Tapu Bulu missed Zen Headbutt, took a Sludge Bomb to the face, and died without accomplishing anything. The less said about the ability, the better. I blame Showdown for that one. At least Tapu Bulu's noble sacrifice/crippling incompetence gave me a free Latias switch.
I switched out of Victini because I still wasn't 100% sure whether Victini or Krookodile was the Scarfer, but Ajna played it the same way he did his Jirachi, so after that turn I was pretty confident that Krookodile was the Scarfer. Up until about turn 20, I just clicked Draco Meteor whenever I got the chance and chunked a couple of his Pokemon. I got a Sludge Bomb poison that limited his ability to try to double with Rotom-Wash, but I'm not sure how much that mattered since I could've still traded out the Tentacruel to click Draco Meteor brainlessly again. From there I just played around his Krookodile a bit until he was able to get his Kommo-o in. Maybe I should've stayed in with my Terrakion to prevent Kommo-o from setting up, but I didn't think Ajna would take the risk there and he ended up switching to Amoonguss instead. Once Krookodile and Kommo-o were on the field at the same time, I had to just go for it so that Clangorous Soul didn't just sweep me, since I was definitely vulnerable to it at that point. It probably would've been smarter to fodder something so that I could revenge kill it with Close Combat instead of risking a High Horsepower miss, but I think I was afraid of Drain Punch or something. From there, I just had to close it out.
Week 4 vs. Bushtush:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-536339
Team:
https://pokepast.es/e6156d2654e29747
I didn't really do specific prep this tour and instead just built stuff that seemed fun to play. Latias wasn't any less broken this week than it was the previous week, but I switched it up by using Choice Specs instead. Thunderbolt was for Slowking and better damage on Celesteela, Azumarill, and Primarina, but one Draco Meteor meant Slowking wasn't a check anymore anyway, so I probably could've just slapped Sleep Talk or Trick or something on there instead. Indigo Plateau's waifu gave me a way to get Latias in on stuff like Tangrowth, Amoonguss, Kommo-o, and Salamence via Volt Switch while also giving me some speed control. I chose Blaze Kick and Play Rough as the coverage to deal with Scizor and Kommo-o more effectively. Zarude served as the obligatory revenge killer and also let me get Latias in on stuff it could threaten. I ran Close Combat over Jungle Healing to revenge weakened Kommo-o. Primarina gave me some extra breaking power and let me remove the fat Grass-types for Zarude and Zeraora just in case threatening them with Latias wasn't enough. I've seen a lot of people be skeptical of this set, and I understand why, so I'll talk about it in a little more detail here. The goal is to remove Amoonguss (and Tangrowth and Tentacruel to a lesser extent), hence the Psychic/Life Orb combo. A boosting item is necessary to KO Amoonguss and Tentacruel at +1. Expert Belt generates similar results, but the roll on Tentacruel is worse and you need Stealth Rock to 2HKO Assault Vest Tangrowth. Considering how heavily people leaned on the fat Grass-types (and how much they continue to do so), I think this set is a nice partner to anything that wants them removed. Nidoqueen/Celesteela provided Stealth Rock and some defensive value to the team.
I played out the first turn the same way as last game for the same reason, only this time I learned that the Jirachi was fat. On turn 8, I was able to get Jirachi in on Tangrowth and clicked Draco Meteor on the assumption that he wouldn't switch Jirachi into a potential Mystical Fire. I was right, crit the Suicune, and opened up a path for Celesteela to potentially win if I played it right. Primarina ultimately didn't get the chance to do anything this game because I left it in on a Jirachi instead of just going to Zeraora or Celesteela and the Jirachi did Jirachi things, so that was a mistake on my end.
I got a Flamethrower burn on Tangrowth that helped offset Regenerator healing somewhat throughout the game and then burned the Krookodile immediately afterward, which meant that Celesteela stood a very good chance of just outlasting everything if I could wear his team down a little more. I used his burned Krookodile to get Zarude in, which set up a double to Latias. I got Latias in a couple more times over the next 10 turns, but guessed wrong each time and ended up losing it without accomplishing much. I really should've trusted my instincts a bit more there, but I wasn't too worried because I'd been thinking of Celesteela as my victory condition ever since the Suicune died. Once Celesteela got one kill, it just kind of snowballed as long as I could get enough health back through Leech Seed, so I was able to close it out without difficulty. I got a bit lucky early, so it's hard to tell what might've happened otherwise, but I definitely think I messed up by not respecting Serene Grace enough. Guessing right with Latias didn't matter too much in the long run, but I'm annoyed with myself for not listening to my instincts.
Week 5 vs. Ramolost:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8uu-1268286448-mp91u1wv4c885dlphyand3gywcbossdpw
Team:
https://pokepast.es/439f7d8f296104f2
I wanted to change things up this week instead of just using Latias, Celesteela, and 4 filler Pokemon, so I diversified my builds through the highly creative strategy of using a different Dragon-type, a different Steel-type, and a different Water-type, because I am old and don't like change, now get off my lawn. I saw Adaam post about Zarude and Chandelure, so I decided to start there. I ran Trick on Chandelure in case I got stalled, but Sleep Talk is just fine too. Zarude can get Chandelure in on the fat Grass-types and let it blow things up. I added Slowking to pivot Chandelure in, Nidoqueen for the usual Nidoqueen things, Scizor because I could pretend I had covered Latias between Slowking and Zarude and therefore could run a Steel-type that died to Mystical Fire, and Salamence because it fit in the slot. I hadn't decided on sets for these two at the time and was originally considering Swords Dance Scizor and the standard 3 attacks Special Salamence, but I decided on Dragon Dance because I wanted something that could really take advantage of Chandelure roasting things while also posing a threat itself and also I really love Salamence. I consider Life Orb mandatory on Salamence because you don't do enough damage otherwise and I build my Dragon Dance Salamence teams with the goal of bringing Salamence in once or twice, finding an opportunity to set up, and either ending the game right there or weakening the opposing team enough for something else to clean up. The Stealth Rock weakness doesn't matter as much when Salemence is only supposed to come in once, take 25% + whatever it needs to tank to set up, and get 2-4 kills before dying to Life Orb recoil. This philosophy is why High Impulse's game in week 1 of UU Snake caused me actual brain damage and sent me spiraling into tilt that lasted for an entire season. I slapped Defog on Scizor because both Salamence and Chandelure were weak to Stealth Rock, which isn't a great trait in my primary offensive weapons. I truly hate wasting slots on offensive threats on hazard control, but it fit here. I can't remember what the defensive investment did, but it was important for something. Safety Goggles let it switch into Amoonguss, but Sleep Talk on Chandelure might've been better to free up another item, especially since I didn't get stalled.
I led with Salamence here because the worst case scenario was that I traded evenly by chunking 2 Pokemon for around 50% each as he tried to switch around. I kind of wish I'd had the guts to Dragon Dance here, but I just clicked Outrage to guarantee that something died and protect myself against a potential attempt to stay in. I ended up getting a kill and a half, but I failed to capitalize on it later and a 3-turn Outrage cost me the chance to try again later. From there, we just traded Stealth Rock and Slowking Teleports until turn 9, where I wimped out and tried to Bullet Punch the Nidoqueen instead of listening to my instincts and either switching out to Chandelure or just clicking Knock Off on the incoming Magnezone. Removing the Magnet still would've left me with a weakened Scizor, but I still could've come in once or twice more to force out the Kyurem or potentially heal up on the Slowking. The high Thunderbolt roll sucked because it meant I died to hazards, but it's my fault for not playing around the Magnezone more intelligently to begin with.
Once Scizor went down, I'd pretty much lost my ways of dealing with Kyurem unless he decided to fodder it to Zarude for some reason. Maybe I could've gone to Zarude on turn 15 and tried to grab momentum somehow there or tried to put Kyurem in range of a Darkest Lariat crit.
Week 6 vs. PinkDragonTamer:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8uu-540061
Team:
https://pokepast.es/24af43232c86032f
This team was kind of similar to my week 4 team. I brought broken Latias because it was broken and Zeraora and Primarina served similar purposes to their week 4 incarnations, but I diverged a bit from there. I was tired of defensive Steel-type or Slowking + Choice Scarf Dark-type being the Latias counterplay, so I started looking for something unusual that could serve as a defensive check without being Chansey, because only scum use that Pokemon. Moltres-Galar stood out with that sick 90/125 Special bulk, so I started playing around with calcs and ended up liking it more than I expected to. The defensive investment allows it to survive 2 Choice Specs Latias Draco Meteors from full, while the speed outpaces Timid Nidoqueen. The original spread, which I used for the LTPL game, had less Speed investment in exchange for a little more Special Attack. I went with a simple RestTalk 2 attacks set because I really just wanted Moltres-Galar to serve as a special tank and running Fiery Wrath alone would have left me walled by too much. I chose Hurricane over Air Slash because the damage differential is huge, especially since I'm not running offensive investment, and I already had a reliable STAB in Fiery Wrath. This set also serves as a decent stallbreaker thanks to Berserk, since you can set up on Chansey, Rest off the Toxic or other damage, and then fish for Hurricane confusion and Fiery Wrath flinches like a skilled player, especially since nothing but Chansey on most common stall teams really wants to deal with a +2/3/whatever Moltres-Galar. Scizor gave me some revenge killing ability and another threat/wincon. Between Scizor, Zeraora, and my defensive backbone, I felt willing to forego a Choice Scarfer. Rhyperior finished out the team by providing Stealth Rock, a nice Flying resist, a Zeraora check, and so on and so forth. The Speed creeps defensive Celesteela and uninvested base 55s, athough I don't remember why I cared about the latter. Heat Crash bonks the fat Grasses, Celesteela, Skarmory, Scizor, etc. The Zeraora set is a little unorthodox, but I decided that anything I'd Volt Switch on would probably just recover the HP with Regenerator anyway, so I tried to make Zeraora more of a breaker than a pivot. A boosting item is actually really nice on Zeraora because suddenly you do actual damage instead of barely failing to KO things you hit super effectively. It could probably have been Jolly to give me a better shot vs. opposing Zeraora, but then I would've run into the damage problem again. 8 Defense on Primarina lets it survive something, but I don't remember what and don't care enough to figure it out right now. It's late and I need to go to bed so I can wake up tomorrow, watch Fox News, yell at the neighborhood kids for having too much fun, post angrily on Facebook about how the younger generation is ruining the world, and still make it to Red Robin in time for the senior buffet.
I started off by getting the lead wrong. Leading with the Dragon-type 4 weeks in a row probably wasn't the best decision, but change takes energy I don't have. In retrospect, Primarina or Zeraora probably would've been better lead options. I spent 3 turns trying and failing to play around the Azumarill I had no actual answer to (bringing that was a smart choice vs. me since I rarely use Tangrowth/Amoonguss, so props to him for that) and then getting crit on turn 4, which meant I had a lot less freedom with my Latias. PinkDragonTamer had the option of staying in to punish a potential Roost or of switching into something else, and I needed to pick which one I thought he'd do and commit to it, which meant Roosting, trying to kill the Nidoqueen, or switching out to something that let me take back control of the game. Instead, I tilted, tried to catch a Celesteela I wasn't beating anyway (I was assuming it was the standard defensive set at this point), and failed to accomplish anything meaningful.
By turn 12, I was in a pretty big hole, but managed to make up some ground by KOing his Terrakion. At this point, I was starting to calm down and think my way through the game instead of just getting annoyed, but then I brought Moltres-Galar into Nidoqueen and got high roll Sludge Wave crit into useless Sleep Talk roll into high Sludge Wave roll (I believe his Nidoqueen was Timid because of the earlier 36% roll and the fact that it outsped the Moltres-Galar).
I managed to heal Latias up after losing Moltres-Galar and made a couple of doubles that got Zeraora in for free. If I'd been more aggressive with the first one, I could've made up more ground, but I got the Azumarill with the second one, so at least that worked out. I definitely had to be aggressive here if I wanted a chance to win. I probably should've gone to Latias on the Meteor Beam and tried to preserve Zeraora's health to deal with his own Zeraora, since I could've tried to pick up a kill there, but I still wasn't sure if it was offensive or defensive and I guessed wrong. From there, there wasn't much I could do without somehow healing Latias.
I knew his Zeraora was Jolly from the Knock Off damage on Rhyperior, which meant its kill pressure was pretty low, so without the crits/garbage Sleep Talk roll, I think I had a pretty solid chance of winning that one. A healthy Latias and a weakened Nidoqueen could've gone a long way toward containing his Zeraora and enabling my own, respectively, but that's not how things turned out. I was very frustrated by this game because my team needed a good result that week to keep the playoff dream alive and we did not get that, but I still enjoyed LTPL even though half the team was meming from week 1 and
Kingler managed the team by throwing darts at the list of available tiers and then telling his players to figure out who's playing whatever the dartboard comes up with, which is how we got things like 2 PU games a week and Finchinator in Ubers.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and please feel free to let me know if this was actually useful/interesting instead of just deranged boomer rambling brought on by spending 3 days without electricity and nearly a week without running water while my Senator takes a vacation to Cancún.
Edited in pictures since I haven't seen something as ugly as this block of text since the last time I watched a BW UU game.