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Thought i'd share a couple of teams i've been laddering with now its been a couple of days. I'll probably make a post later today / tomorrow about general thoughts on mons but wanted to share these for now!
Like most people I did play around with screens a fair bit to play with el broken ostritch. Tbh like Lyss ive actually been expressing a feeling of not being so strongly against it compared to most people, in practice ive found myself usually beating it while playing against it with various teams especially due to its heavy 4mss, i'd definitely appreciate it going when OU steals it though.
Unlike people playing with stuff like Klefki i was more interested by Morgrem at first, the taunt + parting shot combo is pretty cool in reality to support a lot of stuff. Double Dance Gallade is a fun one for screens tbh, solves some of its slower speed issues while its still insanely powerful to the point that just agilitying into LO sharpness attacks can often clean anyway even if you don't SD too. Indeedee generally useful for the psyterrain + trick scarfing something annoying + healing wish, lets stuff like espathra really have two goes at it but actually compresses the hawlucha utility into it at same time unlike say pawmot who also only brings it back to 50% which might not be enough a lot of the time. Tbh ive not found weavile that great after playing with it on this sorta stuff, its in theory mildly threatening but hasn't actually done that great in practice and doesnt really seem like it'll be good in UU at all.
Does gallade have any TRUE counters? Like its one of the FEW mons that kept knock off so it can cripple every one of its switches while doing decent damage.
Scarf is absurd progress maker tnx to knock off and band is just hard to switch into.
Some cool stuff I've seen Day 3 into the new metagame
Hatterene @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Dark / Water
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire
This Pokemon is good, like really really good. I think Calm Mind is easily one of the most threatening sweepers atm and Hatterene trades like no other vs a whole variety of foes like Hawlucha, Gallade, Salamence, Hydreigon forms, and more. Calm Mind can easily snowball thanks to its natural bulk and there are few Pokemon that can shut down a +2 Hatterene. I run Tera Dark to resist Gengar's Shadow Ball but I've seen Water be used for just a better defensive typing. Natural role compression by blocking entry hazards via Magic Bounce is incredible too with the lack of removal. As the tier settles I definitely envision Hatterene being a top tier that is widely recognized.
I think both of these Pokemon are absolutely incredible right now and are going to be UU top tiers. All they needed was to up and now they shine on balance teams very well. Both are incredible stops to rain thanks to their Water Absorbing abilities while Quagsire with Unaware is a fantastic answer to setup sweepers like Salamence, Hawlucha, and Mimikyu. I like Quag on teams where I need a physical wall and Gastrodon where I need a special wall. I think they play just a huge role in stopping so many offensive threats and should be considered a near staple on balance teams.
Wo-Chien @ Leftovers
Ability: Tablets of Ruin
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Giga Drain
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Ruination
Haven't seen many talk about this but I think Wo Chien has been vastly underestimated and is dangerously good right now. Leech + Knock is a very annoying combo that isn't disrupted due to our limited Grasses, and coupled with Ruination it can really wear down a lot of Pokemon and sweepers. I like Tera Water on it because of the defensive improvement but Tera Fairy and Tera Steel work as well. I've got this fat team of this + Quag + Talon for fast Defog and it does wonders, try out Wo Chien you'll def be surprised at how good it is.
I think this offensive core is a very valuable and dangerous combination on Spikes HO which I think is a solid alternative to the screens going around. Froslass is a solid lead because of its ability to Spinblock as well as disrupt shit with Taunt. Destiny Bond is always useful for mindgames vs foes like Gengar. Mimikyu is an underrated star right now, with its Disguise ability being invaluable at taking hits from a variety of foes like Hatterene, Gengar, Gallade, Hydreigon, Weavile, Barraskewda, Slither Wing, the list goes on, and KOing them back with its powerful STAB combination. It still has issues like Quagsire as well as annoying shit like Tera Steel Haxorus or Salamence but I think its a great pick on hyper offense. Iron Jugulis is another nice sweeper I've used, it only really fits on hyper offense though as a booster energy cleaner. I like STABs + Hydro Pump + Fire Blast for maximum coverage. It's still kinda weak and reliant on Hurricane a lot but its a fine revenge killer to many foes like Gengar, Gallade, and Staraptor.
In terms of the truly stupid shit that needs to go I'd only really say Light Clay and Espathra atm. The former, while lacking last gen's staples like Grimmsnarl or Alolan Ninetales, still has plenty of different setters that can work. Klefki, Morgrem, and Sabeleye are able to get up fast screens thanks to Prankster and the former two have ways to get momentum via Steel Beam and Parting Shot. Although they cannot come in more than twice for some they still do an incredible job at setting screens and enabling so much like Azumarill, Haxorus, Salamence, Espathra, and more. Jumpluff is a cool option that is fast and has both sleep powder and memento to mess with Pokemon it is facing and to facilitate easier setting up. Scream Tail is yet another fast setter that also has additional utility in rocks and encore. I think it's already dumb now and I think the quicker we remove this the better the tier will instantly become. As for Espathra, the fact OU is considering banning it shows how cracked it is here. I think it can just autowin on the spot and boost to the point where if you don't stop it within like 3 turns you lose. I hope OU bans it so UU Alpha becomes even more fun.
For other controversial figures, I don't think they're that bad or to the point where they make Alpha suck. Gengar is probably busted between its set versatility of Sub 3 attacks, Choice Specs, Nasty Plot, and Wisp + Hex but I haven't really struggled too much. Ladder kinda sucks at using Gengar where they'll stay in and die and that's kinda how I've just been able to beat it, by trading with a lot of stuff like Tinkaton (very good Pokemon) and Gastrodon. Its also easy to revenge kill between good scarfers like Pawmot, Flamigo, Hydreigon, and Gallade as well as tons of priority from Mimikyu, Bisharp, and Lycanroc and just faster threats like Weavile and Kilowattrel. Once we enter beta it'll probably be banned but I think we can live with it for a month. Hawlucha is a super inconsistent Pokemon, it can either sweep a team or die trying. It's incredibly reliant to both activate Unburden and get an SD Boost to win but I have rarely done both. Plenty of times it has flopped and not done much at all because its just so weak without an Unburden boost. Stuff like Hatterene, Slowtwins, and bulkier Salamence easily eat a +2 hit while Quag shuts it down, not to mention all the offensive counterplay that exists by just not giving it free turns. I like Tera Ghost with it for Hatterene and Slowtwins but then your last slot is useless if something else has been Terad. Idk it's not the gamebreaking threat I thought and I think we can give it more time. Lastly rain is super overrated, none of the swift swimmers stand out remotely as insane and can easily be shut down by our many, many water resists like Quag, Gastrodon, Salamence, Slowtwins, Rotom-W, Tsareena, and other bulky shit like Blissey and Scream Tail. I wouldn't touch this at all and I think rain is healthy, flopping into balance yes but keeping HO on its toes which is always a great thing. Lastly, Tera hasn't seemed dumb yet as we're only on day 3 but there's already some annoying stuff like Tera Steel Salamence and Haxorus. Too early to say whether Tera is a problem in UU like it is on OU but I personally wouldn't mind it being gone.
I was initially skeptical about SV UU, mainly fearing the lack of defensive options at first, but now seeing the tier it is incredibly fun to play and build in. It feels a lot less centralized than OU and Gholdengo hazard stack land, being able to run so many different archetypes like Voltturn, Screens HO, Spikes HO and balance, rain semi-snow, stall, and just regular BO and balance. There are so many cool Pokemon to use and so many different roles to fulfill, I myself am glad we have more than two viable choice scarf users now. We are only starting out but I personally really look forward to playing and tiering in this new generation.
Sableye @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Knock Off
- Recover
- Will-O-Wisp
This has been a super good stall/semi-stall core that I've been running for the day. Only 4 mons and you already have 2 types of Hazards, the most unkillable special wall in history, one of the best blanket physical walls in the tier, unaware, big hp wish/pass, prankster taunt, knock off, and spin blocking. It's a little passive MidGame once you've gotten your hazards up and you do have to be careful with recover PP, but it's super hard for the opponent to break through.
I've been going more balance-ey with bisharp/barraskewda last, but dragalge and toxtricity are brutal additions to the squad for their breaking ability, access to t-spikes, absorption of t-spikes, and great MU vs Tsareena who can give this team trouble. I have also tried specs hatterene as a breaker who helps with hazard control and let's some of the mons at least consider going for a non-boots item, but I haven't liked how little it does in some games. On the same note of hazard control, boots braviary gives you defog which can be nice for MidGame clearing after you've killed their own spinner/defogger. It also lets you punish opposing defog with defiant and then break through with it's solid coverage. The ground immunity is also very appreciated.
Oricorio-Sensu is legitimately fantastic in this metagame, physically bulky Quiver Dance sets can set up on a surprisingly large amount of things and being able to switch from Ghost to Fighting stab means that nothing can safely switch in, plus tera helps with many of its weaknesses. Espathra is genuinely dumb, honestly it feels like Magearna when it was in Gen VIII OU but with trading defensive typing for auto-speedboosting, and I honestly feel Magearna had more counterplay there than Espathra has here. Probably the most ridiculous thing is that I've seen people start to run Opportunist on Espathra simply to so their teams can have better shot at taking on opposing Speed Boost Espathra. Beyond that, nothing is really too broken, though I do find Quagsire a bit annoying to break through for anything that doesn't have a Grass-type move, and I feel Sleep moves are quite annoying with few good status absorbers. As for things people haven't mentioned, I think Mudsdale is pretty decent, being a rocker that can check certain physical threats while having good power and coverage. Overall, I feel this metagame is surprisingly well-balanced for the beginning of a generation, and it's definitely much better than OU right now.
effortposting, how lame. just to prove how lame it is, I'll do the exact same thing
The Gen 9 UU meta is shaping up to be a very interesting one, haha! Obviously, we're only a whopping three days in, so there's a limit to the amount of informed judgement we can pass...but even in that case, there's a lot of cool stuff running around and I thought I'd shed spotlight on Pokemon I think are very cool and based so far.
Book by the Cover (Slither Wing) @ Choice Band
Ability: Protosynthesis
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly/Adamant Nature
- First Impression
- Close Combat
- Earthquake / Leech Life
- U-turn
Slither Wing is, so far, proving to be a very reliable revenge-killer, pivot and stallbreaker. While it has below-average speed and okay bulk, it makes up for it with the strongest priority in the tier, bar none:
252+ Atk Choice Band Slither Wing First Impression vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Kilowattrel: 188-222 (66.9 - 79%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Slither Wing First Impression vs. 252 HP / 80 Def Scream Tail: 231-273 (53.2 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Slither Wing First Impression vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Donphan: 159-187 (41.4 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
These calcs are pretty dang absurd: it shreds through frail pokemon and leaves large dents even in some of the bulkiest unresisted targets in the tier. Against the few Pokemon that can really a First Impression, Slither wing has access to a strong U-turn and a nuclear Close Combat. In all honestly, I have rarely if ever clicked earthquake, so the extra healing will probably be way more useful overall. Adamant's extra power is very much appreciated, but jolly can be occasionally useful? I dunno, both of them work mostly the same.
Steel Tera Typing was mostly to counter Tera-Fairy Espathra.
I've found Slither excellent in weathering the assault versus all the crazy H.O. running around on the ladder, and I recommend that everybody try it because it's a really fun Pokemon to goof around with.
Willow Smith (Scream Tail) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Trick
- Play Rough
- Thunder Wave / Encore / Perish Song / Whatever you want
- Stealth Rock
Scream Tail's proving to be a fantastic support Pokemon so far; though it's typing isn't the greatest (mono-fairy would do this mon miracles), it's stats are pretty much perfect as far as defensive Pokemon go, and it's got a really wide moveset; the one posted above is far from the only one, but it's my favorite. This trick set above is ev'd to outspeed espathra at max speed with 1 boost (if ever relevant) and gyarados with one boost: usually good enough for a trick!
It's only real disadvantage is a lack of longevity, however it can make up for this by tricking a lefties or hdb into it's itemslot (which happens often). Potential sets include wish/protect, screens setting and really just whatever combo of moves fit the best for your team. I've never had a game where Scream Tail isn't useful, and it's probably the best utility Pokemon in the whole tier.
(P.S.: run psychic fangs in the third moveslot, you will lose games due to play rough accuracy lmao)
Slugma Balls (Gastrodon) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Chilling Water / Surf
- Spikes / Stealth Rock / Protect / Counter / Yawn
- Recover
- Earth Power
A post above me already talked about Gastrodon but honestly it bears repeating; this is a damn fine special defensive wall and a great ally against the torrential floods of Pelipper Rain. Chilling Water is a bit of a meme pick, but the attack drop can be pretty useful for not letting physical attackers switch in as freely, and you have earth power anyways. Outside of recovery and two attacks, Gastrodon can run pretty much whatever it wants: spikes/stealth rock makes it a reliable hazard-setter/stacker, Protect is fantastic for scouting and can help win PP wars, yawn is really annoying and counter is a meme pick.
While I've been playing most extensively with the three Pokemon above, I've got a lot of little notes on other Pokemon as well:
Tera Normal Arcanine can seemingly put in decent work every once in a while, maybe? Not the greatest but the few times I came against it I got a bit spooked. The two birds squatting on the tier. Both of them are notorious for being really obnoxious snowballs that can come in off a dime, as well as being perfectly capable fitting in both balance, offense and H.O. Espathra requires more setup and has a lot of checks, but it can muscle past these checks with any of it's wide variety of tera-types and movepool adjustments. Hawlucha is just ridiculous: terrain up? free swords dance turn? you're in for a fucking world of hurt. Honestly, rain doesn't seem that bad so far? Certainly a strong-playstyle but there's only two threatening abusers and kilowattrel isn't nearly as threatening as chat would make you believe. Only really hyped because of barraskewda, which is admittedly very scary and demands a semi-dedicated response, like tera-grass donphan or quaggy. Speaking of which... The hazard control in this tier is dramatically lacking. With approximately 0 good defensive defoggers (defensive noivern is awful), donphan and toedscruel lead the pack. Donphan has great physical bulk and can hit decently hard, while toedscruel has a bullshit moveset. Both of these mons can use knockoff and setup their own hazards, though Toedscruel's versatility makes it superior (though I use donphan much more). If not for Mycelium Might toedscruel would easily dethrone Scream Tail as the best utility in the tier. (Forretress is alright but generally outclassed by these two don't @ me) Underrated electrics that do kind of the same thing but not really: Tera Ice for the win! Sandy Shocks has notably better bulk, better movepool and spikes, while Jolteon's speed is really obnoxious. Alluring but ultimately very bad. Dedicated defensive sets are awful, lacks the power to actually cleanup games and has some severe 4MSS (defog, roost, uturn, boomburst, draco meteor, taunt, flamethrower, flying stab). I have yet to lose a game versus this and it crops up a lot. Edit: If you really want to Noivern for like, anything Salamence does it's job better in literally every way bar speed.
I wanted to share this snow/screen core of Abomasnow and Cetitan. I was surprised after seeing someone else on ladder actually use it as well.
With that being said, Abomasnow makes it much much easier for Cetitan, who's already a pure ice type, to set up Belly Drum much easier thanks to Aurora Veil & +1 Def in snow. After which, it becomes a 1400+ atk monster that 2hko's almost anything that doesn't resist & even the Pokemon that resist are losing at least 60%+ of their health. Icy rock is preferred over Light Clay since having Cetitan be insanely fast under snow is much more important than it tanking attacks, it already has really good HP, it just needs that one turn to get up BD. Tera Ground and Play Rough is to hit Pokemon/types that give Cetitan issues (Arcanine, Armarouge, Iron Thorns, Slither Wing and Paldean Tauros). Ice spinner is also a strong stab than gets rid of terrain.
Rotom-H can be an issue because of Will-O-Wisp and being immune to ground. If it's choice scarfed that can be the end of Cetitan, but if it isn't you can probably get rid of it before you get burned. Other Pokemon w/ stealth rock would help chip at Rotom.
+6 252+ Atk Cetitan Ice Spinner vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Rotom-Heat: 195-231 (80.5 - 95.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Fun little hyper-offense team I whipped up. Sub plot gengar is an absolute menace with screen support, and lucario does his priority business very well against opposing offense. I used to have klefki as the screen setter to also get spikes up, but I've been smashed one too many times by gyardos DDing in my face. Encore sableye plus volt switch forretress puts gyara in the blender nicely.
Almost 100 games done already in SV UU so I guess this is the right time to give my thoughts ! Overall I had a lot of fun, there is so much things to try and so much things we didn't ever think about yet, I'm also really torn about Terastallization because while I can't deny this brings a great layer to the competitive aspect of the game, it's also really tough to manage to know when the opponent will use it, on which Pokémon they will use it and which type this will be.. so yeah, we'll see. As a ORAS/SM/SS UU player, I missed my Water-types Scald users, feel like I'm back 15 years ago when Surf was the move to play on your Water-types..also where are my Knock Off users sheeeeeeeesh.
Espathra is such a lame Pokémon lmao, it's quite frankly a braindead thing to use, you click Calm Mind, stall a couple turns with either Protect/Substitute/Roost and then proceed to dig holes in the opponent's team. It has few good counterplays (Tinktaton, Prankster Encore user such as Sableye or Grafaiai or things with enough raw power to prevent its setup). With Screen support it can really be nasty to play around without really dedicated answers and Terastallization makes it even harder to manage since it can run benefit from a lot of typing. So far I've seen Fairy and Fighting the most but also faced Ground Terastallization to mess around Thunder Wave users and punish Tinktaton but also Dark to do a massive middle finger to Prankster user.. so yeah, doesn't seems a healthy, fair and square Pokémon to have around. Hopefully, OU will still this shit soon enough !
This was the Pokémon I was willing to try the most before the release of SV UU because I knew Fairy/Fighting Terastallization was going to be so deadly on it, and with no surprise, it's great ! I've been messing a lot with it alongside Screen support and I reached the point where I'm not even sure you need Shadow Ball.. I feel like Stored Power + Tera Blast + Strenght Sap is super dumb too.
Lucario @ Life Orb /Muscle Band
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Close Combat
- Bullet Punch
- Extreme Speed
People already talked quite a lot about Lucario but I had to give it a few words. SD + Normal Terastallization + Extreme Speed is as good as expected even tho Ghost-types such as Gengar or Mimikyu and Ghost Terastallization users such as Bisharp can be annoying to deal with. Speedtier is unfortunately lackluster and it can be tough to handle for Lucario since the metagame is really focused on the offensive spectrum atm.
Tinkaton @ Leftovers
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Ground / Water
EVs: 252 HP / 240 SpD / 16 Spe
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock / Protect / Play Rough
- Swords Dance
- Gigaton Hammer
- Knock Off
This is one of my favorite Pokemon rn. It brings great value to current teams thanks to its typing and access to Stealth Rock. It's one of the best answer to the shitty ostrich and one of the few user of Knock Off. I'm pretty sure this could become a staple once all the broken things are gone, can't wait to see if this will become our early SV staple such as Incineroar in early SS UU.
Pawmot @ Choice Band / Choice Scarf / Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
Tera Type: Electric / Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Revival Blessing / Seed Bomb
- Double Shock
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
I talked just above about one of my favorite Pokémon, well well well, let me introduce you my real favorite one ! Using Pawmot has been an absolute blast for me for the last few days. I love its typing, I love its speedtier (sadge not fast enough to mess around Gengar) and Revival Blessing is really cool while not being too overpowered in my opinion. I've been messing a lot with Electric Terastallization mainly because it allows Pawmot to abuse of Double Shock. I don't know if it's like this in the cartridge game but man this is so great to be able spam this move. For those wondering what it does, it's quite simple, Electric Terastallization allows Pawmot to not lose its Electric type once it used Double Shock and if it used it already, it regains its Electric-type which allows it to spam its attack. I've been using this alongside Electric terrain while pairing Pawmot with a Choice Band and the damage output is frankly ridiculous lmao. But yeah, I really fucking love this Pokémon and I trully hope the release of Revival Blessing will not make it rises to OU. I already suffered the lost of Zeraora in SS UU, pwease I don't want lose another fast Electric-type..
Grafaiai @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Parting Shot / U-turn / Toxic
- Gunk Shot
- Knock Off
First of all, I must give credit where credit is due so shoutout Lily who whooped my ass on the ladder with this Pokémon and then kindly shared the set she was using. While this Pokémon isn't the most incredible thing I talked about in this post, I feel like it needs some recognition because it has great assets. Even tho its bulk is quite shitty, its typing allows it to check things such as Gengar and Mimikyu but also to mess around setup sweepers thanks to Prankster Encore. Much like Tinkaton, it has been blessed with the rare Knock Off so lets thanks Gamefreak for this. It's a fun Pokémon, not the greatest the tier has to offer but a good one for sure.
Donphan is my favorite Rapid Spin user in the current tier and probably one of the best one too. I've been mainly using this set with Heavy-Duty Boots and offensive investments and it worked quite nicely. I've been using it a lot alongside Wish users (mainly Scream Tail tbh) and this allows it to be effective during a good amount of the game. There isn't a lot of good Ground answers atm so a powerful EQ is also nice to land. It has Knock Off, you know the deal now, it's always great. Sturdy + HDB is also clutched sometimes and it allows you to have an emergency check to a lot of threats and setup sweepers.
Scream Tail @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Protect
- Perish Song / Encore / Stealth Rock
- Dazzling Gleam
Jigglypuff on crack is quite a nice Pokémon to have around. Big fat Wishes, kinda meh typing but good bulk to offset the issue. Lack of offensive presence is kinda sussy especially when you're trying to revenge kill a 15% Bisharp and Gleam doesn't even KO bc this thing hits like a chips and Bisharp has a fucking ton of bulk now thanks to Eviolite. Otherwise, it's doing great, good support.
Alluring but ultimately very bad. Dedicated defensive sets are awful, lacks the power to actually cleanup games and has some severe 4MSS (defog, roost, uturn, boomburst, draco meteor, taunt, flamethrower, flying stab). I have yet to lose a game versus this and it crops up a lot. Edit: If you really want to Noivern for like, anything Salamence does it's job better in literally every way bar speed.
As I said to Lily, this is probably one of the first time I think Noivern is good at something and unfortunately, this isn't thanks to its usual typing neither its access to Defog. Normal Terastallization + Choice Specs + Boomburst goes brrrrrrrrrrr, it really deals a ton of damages to a lot of Pokémon (fuck Ghost-types tho) and Noivern speedtier allows it to really mess around a lot of things. Normal-type is kinda eh sometimes (Mach Punch Pawmot uhhhhhhh) but otherwise it's really nice and fun to use.
Gengar @ Choice Specs
Ability: Cursed Body
Tera Type: Electric (pretty sure you can run whatever you want there)
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Energy Ball
- Thunderbolt
Generations are passing and Gengar still look hellah menacing. Choice Specs Gengar is absolutely disgusting to face because it has a fantastic speed tier and defensive answers are quite meh. I trully think you can run almost anything on this set to fit your need and it will be good. I've been using this set alongside Electric Terastallization because I was using it in a Electric terrain team but you can probably run anything as its Tera Type and it will be good. You can also run whatever coverage you need, this is quite insane. Not sure if this Pokémon is broken or not but it's part of the ones I keep in a corner of my head when thinking about what may be too much for the tier.
Hatterene @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 200 Def / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Mystical Fire
Hatterene lover in SS UU, Hatterene lover in SV UU ! Really great win condition with insane utility thanks to Magic Bounce. Water Terastallization is really great to deal with Rain teams and offers an overall great defensive typing to use as a slow setup sweeper.
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 148 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Close Combat
- Acrobatics
Last but not least : Hawlucha ! Like other Pokémon I mentionned earlier, I've been messing with this threat alongside Electric terrain support and so far, so great. I feel like Taunt is the best filler as it allows Hawlucha to mess around Quagsire or phazer such as Hippowdon. Much Like Gengar, I'm not frankly sure this Pokémon is healthy for the tier.
That concludes this big post. Have not posted for a god damn while in UU subforum but this will change for sure considering how I'm hyped by the new generation and all the things we have to test. I'll maybe make a another post later to talk about more defensive threats such as Quagsire since I trully think some of them are worth to talk about thanks to movepool buff. That's all for me, it's 2.15am, I'm going to sleep !
I mean, Espathra is already a really frail Pokemon and coming in with 50%, minus hazards, isn't too difficult. Lycanroc-dusk should always be able to clean-up, as well as the other E-speed spammers, and tinkaton/screaming tail can still attempt to win?
I mean, Espathra is already a really frail Pokemon and coming in with 50%, minus hazards, isn't too difficult. Lycanroc-dusk should always be able to clean-up, as well as the other E-speed spammers, and tinkaton/screaming tail can still attempt to win?
Screaming tail doesn't outright "beat" espathra by itself, but it can mess with it in a large variety of ways (repeated play roughs, trick, encore, etc) that make it much easier for it's allies priority to beat it. What exactly Scream Tail does depends on the espathra set but it'll always help massively against it.
Pretty much any good Scream Tail set will do, the main point is that it weakens it so that priority can finish it off. Scream-Tail doesn't often win by itself.
I mean, Espathra is already a really frail Pokemon and coming in with 50%, minus hazards, isn't too difficult. Lycanroc-dusk should always be able to clean-up, as well as the other E-speed spammers, and tinkaton/screaming tail can still attempt to win?
I think people run max HP / max Def on Espathra, which means even banded Accelerock does roughly 30%, and they often run Roost, while Tera-Fairy takes care of Sucker Punch. Life Orb Tera-normal Lucario does well under half, and doesn't KO even after an SD. Bullet Punch to Fairy Espathra does similar damage. I've also seen it paired with Psychic Terrain to avoid priority entirely. I'm not really sure the priority users are good solutions.
Edit: I guess my argument is that coming in under half isn't necessarily the worst thing ever on a mon that usually runs Roost.
You're right that that stuff definitely helps, it's just not foolproof. I can see stuff like Tink being good in this scenario though.
Hello all! After a few days, uu is starting to come alive. It will be neat to see how tier develops after some bans and also seeing the remaining lower tiers unfold as well. I just want to talk about some mons briefly. On mobile, so forgive my formatting.
Talonflame is a neat thing to see finding itself in the tier. A blast from the past, seemingly being one of the better hazard control options as well. Good defensive utility in being a bird, having flame body, wisp, and good offensive stabs overall. Good things will come of this bird being in a good spot and has still yet to peak.
Wo-Chien is a great mon. I can't believe OU immediately dismissed it. Despite it's typing being believed to be bad, Wo-chien has great defensive attributes for the tier. It's ability helps it a lot as well in mitigating uturn damage, and makes it a lot bulkier in tanking hits you wouldn't expect it to. I believe this mon will be one of the most influential mons in this meta. It's easily here to stay in UU. It's one of the best mons in the tier in my eyes. It has lots of moveset options between
Leech Seed/Protect/Body Press/Foul Play/Knock Off/Substitute/etc. As for spreads, i like 248 hp/ 252 def/ 8+spdef.
I haven't seen much talk about Klawf, and is definitely worth mentioning. This mon makes for an effective knock user and also likes that talonflame is becoming more popular, which certainly can force awkward scenarios given that it has the coverage to be annoying for some teams to manage. The downside to it are that it has to be used on sand for the best results, but surprisingly tanky in sand with AV, and despite switching into talon, burns can be annoying especially since cleric moves are gone. Assault Vest is neat with this spread I've been using on sand: 80 hp, 160+ atk, 252 spdef, 16 speed and can run anything from Rock Blast/Knock Off/Crabhammer/Trailblaze/Brick Break/Stomping Tantrum/etc.
Gastro/Quagsire. It's funny that in SS UU there existed the dynamic of two mons basically being two sides of the same coin were essentially two sides of the same coin (Tang and Amoonguss) and i expect these two to follow a similar pattern of existence in SV uu unless OU randomly takes one or both of them. Both are great and make for effective hazard setters, but are rather different in terms of when you would use one or the other on a team.
There's lots of cool things in this tier that i could ramble on about, but some honorable mentions are Bisharp with eviolite, Bombirdier, Altaria, Slither Wing, Brambleghast, Veluza, and Toedscruel.
There's few key things that i think are banworthy and some borderline things that should be monitored closely. Banworthy: Espathra, Hawlucha, Venomoth, Polteageist, Azumarill.
Espathra kind of speaks for itself, a set up mon that doesn't mind burns or paralysis being a special attacker and speed booster respectively. It's arguably the most influential presence in the tier at the moment in that a lot of building involves making sure you have something that checks this mon. It's checks heavily depend on its tera type and whether or not it was the tera mon of choice for the opponent.
Much of the same case applies to Polteageist, though this is arguably being overshadowed by the former, but i have no doubt that if Espathra were banned this would suddenly take its place. Managing the teapot in SS was enough of a hassle already, Tera just worsens this.
Hawlucha, the unburdened one with lethal stabs, has enough qualities to rock the tier no matter how you look at it, especially without our lord and savior scarfed Weezing-Galar here to stop it.
Venomoth is absolutely crazy. Tinted Lens on top of Sleep Powder just shreds teams and forces 50/50s that make it even more difficult to check. You don't want to let it set up while at the same time needing to account for the potential of being put to sleep; just too much for this tier especially in combination with tera.
Azumarill might still be overshadowed by the tier being new, but this tier has nothing that repeatedly switches into this thing. Belly Drum is potent, and the counterplay to Choice Band is just predict correctly or something dies, everytime.
Revivial Blessing is pretty whack, especially in combination with Leppa Berry. The only drawbacks are that it's restricted to certain mons, but can definitely be argued to be uncompetitive.
Hatterene has always been a very capable mon, but it might be too much for the tier to handle. Frankly, i expect it to go to OU at some point. If it sticks around, it'll easily be a top tier mon and might just be too much for UU with tera in the picture.
Slither Wing honestly reminds me a lot of SS Diggersby, in that it forces certain game states by threat of U-Turn and high damage output (and in this case stab First Impression too). The concern i have here is that the tier doesn't seem to have good long term bug resists to where Slither Wing might just be too overbearing, especially when you consider that it has Flare Blitz to mitigate some of the would be bug resists.
I haven't faced rain that much, but from what I've heard it might be a lot to handle and should definitely be on the watchlist.
Gyarados, while having lost Power Whip, is still a powerhouse with tera and moxie. This is another mon that we need to be weary about as the meta settles.
Last generation, HO became prominent within the tier that lead to the banning of Light Clay in lower tiers. Light Clay is dependent on the screen setters available, but this could end up being problematic later on and we should also consider this depending on how the meta shapes.
Been enjoying the tier so far, I really like Toedscruel, I think he'll settle down here in the the tier; Rocks Hydreigon is really good, though I do think there are a few bad early game matchups for it.
HDB Sliver Wing has been a fantastic win con so far
Gengar keeps kicking my ass, though Tinkaton kinda checks it
and one really big thing I've noticed so far is that Mence has been kinda mediocre or just dissapointing as a DD user, but I skipped that and tried out a specs set, and have really enjoyed the results; especially in rain. I think the higher BP moves of a specs set along with fewer Sdef invested mons can really let it nuke some things with Hurricanes Dracos, and even rain boosted Hydros. I hope it's worth a look by better players than myself, because I see some good potential there.
Really liking the tier so far. Since I haven't seen much discussion about it, here's some thoughts on Sun:
My preferred pick for a sun setter. The other Prankster mons could also fill this role, but I like Grafaiai for the combination of Encore and Parting Shot.
The primary sweeper for the team and possibly the main reason to use Sun at all. If you can get off a Growth with this thing, it's kind of disgusting how much damage it can do. Max HP Blissey takes 66% min from +2 Life Orb Fire Blast in Sun. SpDef Gastrodon and Alomomola take similar damage from the move, to say nothing of what your Grass stab does to them. Scream Tail gets one shot if it's not full SpDef. Offensive mons just drop.
I've mostly been running Choice sets on this thing. First Impression can be a life saver against rain teams, especially vs Barraskewda. You're likely to have to pick between running Flare Blitz and U-Turn, though (Wild Charge is necessary so you don't get walled by mons like Gyarados).
Not an amazing pick, but it gets the job done. Has nice coverage for the team, and a Volt Turn core between this and Slither Wing can be pretty hard to deal with. I've only tried 4 attacks Scarf, but you could probably slot in some random utility like Stealth Rock or Sunny Day as a backup.
The rest of the team can be your typical offenders like Hydreigon, Forretress, Salamence, Gengar, Espathra, another Chlorophyll sweeper, whatever you prefer.
everyone at this point knows how stupid this is, you are only gonna know what tera it is when it destroys ur face
fast mention but both make a insane duo ^, espathra cleans for u or u clean for espathra to sweep and both sinergize so well offensively
each one has a unique trait, morgrem has pranks pivot, klefki spikes, and sab w encore
defensive bois: and rotoms in general w tera electric
Wow altaria is disgustingly bulky and deserves a mention, forretress is as bulky now due to it not needing to run any atk invest and focusing on def w body press, hippo and bliss are old and everyone know what they do, kinda wanna mention all of them bc tera electric is mad good on them, turning u from a couple of weaknesses to a mono weakness-less mon is great, wo is kinda annoying to take down if u not a fighting type, fast mention to quag and gastro who are the same w diff abils
it works as both ^v, cool cm mon, disgusting w nuzzle and annoying to take down w teras
offensive onslaught:
most of them are self-explanatory, SS cloyst, Tera normal luke and noiv, Flamingo is crazy cool w band cc, kilo is cool w its high speed and stabs, gallade is cool w new abil actually, Haxorus is cool tera abuser, gengar is both a good offensive but speed control option, np breaker is cool too, pawmot is insane w both revive move but also as a offensive weapon too, Sandgneton is both good as a breaker but also as a setter, slither is heracross but better, hydra is hydra and some guy used tera steel and it was cool ig, and bisharp is good w evio, holy
Rain is ok, not busted but I feel like it had a decent spot on ladder games I played
special mon I wanna mention:
both of them were very bulky even when not investing in bulk itself, TPW is great breaker if being honest, remind me of a physical keldeo who can also BU, while TPF is insanely bulky and wow is a incredibly cool option on it, offensively and defensively it can do well
things i've seen way too few off but have potential after thing settles?
u all know how they work so, but weav is kinda weird rn w nerfs and the busteds going in, lucha has terrain problems if not using indeedee, ive seen one gyara and it flopped, and star was kinda dying to my lukes extremes so :skull:
mons that suck(dont use them) but are common on ladder:
and I think thats it?, gonna try playing some games on upcoming days, prob forgot some mons like the psn monkey but meh
You'll probably get better value by running Jolly Talonflame with Def investment. Max Speed with Impish nature gets you 198 Def, while the spread below gets you 211 Def.
Talonflame @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- U-turn
- Will-o-Wisp / Taunt / Defog
Tera Normal Arcanine can seemingly put in decent work every once in a while, maybe? Not the greatest but the few times I came against it I got a bit spooked.
Honestly, rain doesn't seem that bad so far? Certainly a strong-playstyle but there's only two threatening abusers and kilowattrel isn't nearly as threatening as chat would make you believe. Only really hyped because of barraskewda, which is admittedly very scary and demands a semi-dedicated response, like tera-grass donphan or quaggy. Speaking of which...
The hazard control in this tier is dramatically lacking. With approximately 0 good defensive defoggers (defensive noivern is awful), donphan and toedscruel lead the pack. Donphan has great physical bulk and can hit decently hard, while toedscruel has a bullshit moveset. Both of these mons can use knockoff and setup their own hazards, though Toedscruel's versatility makes it superior (though I use donphan much more). If not for Mycelium Might toedscruel would easily dethrone Scream Tail as the best utility in the tier. (Forretress is alright but generally outclassed by these two don't @ me)
Underrated electrics that do kind of the same thing but not really: Tera Ice for the win! Sandy Shocks has notably better bulk, better movepool and spikes, while Jolteon's speed is really obnoxious.
Alluring but ultimately very bad. Dedicated defensive sets are awful, lacks the power to actually cleanup games and has some severe 4MSS (defog, roost, uturn, boomburst, draco meteor, taunt, flamethrower, flying stab). I have yet to lose a game versus this and it crops up a lot. Edit: If you really want to Noivern for like, anything Salamence does it's job better in literally every way bar speed.
fast mention but both make a insane duo ^, espathra cleans for u or u clean for espathra to sweep and both sinergize so well offensively
each one has a unique trait, morgrem has pranks pivot, klefki spikes, and sab w encore
and rotoms in general w tera electric 
