Metagame SV RU Metagame Discussion (April Shifts, see post #191)

[FlamingoPokeman]

Hello everyone, welcome to my latest installment of 'writing a bunch of stuff I've been thinking of lately'.
In this post, I plan on covering some general guidelines for people to consider when building in the current iteration of SV RU. While the Thundurus-Therian (likely) ban will happen soon and render some of this moot, the points I discuss should still hold up until at least the next tier shifts.

General Rules of Team-Building in SV RU
​

As always, the standard 'rules' regarding team-building should be followed. This includes having a Ground immune, a Volt immune, Hazard control (both setting and removing), and having a form of Speed control.

The first specific rule to address is to have a way to stop the bulky Psychic setup mons such as Cresselia, Reuniclus and Slowbro. These three can be incredibly annoying because of their utility, having access to Calm Mind, consistent recovery, naturally good bulk and the ability to hinder opponents through the use of Thunder Wave. These three also benefit greatly from using Tera in a defensive manner, such as Cresselia or Slowbro using Tera Poison to prevent their setup from being thwarted by Poison. Reuniclus is a bit more open in what it can run but has been seen using Tera Electric recently to stop Jirachi in its tracks.
While there aren't a ton of great answers to this Psychic problem we face (all the good Dark types were too good), you can still apply pressure offensively using the litany of options available or you can phase them with something like Dragon Tail Cyclizar or Roar Empoleon.

Rule number two for me is to have answers to the generic Hyper Offense's that run the tier. The usual HO consists of some combination of the following:
While the above list doesn't cover all of the threats you may see, these are the main ones you'll encounter and the main things to focus on. A recurring theme about the above list is that a lot of them are physically oriented, and you'll often see structures that run four or five physical attackers, such as or
A great item to load on all structures is Rocky Helmet, usually given to Cobalion, Hippowdon or the occasional Amoonguss. You also want to maintain a Speed control of at least Iron Leaves at +1, which means you should ideally have a Choice Scarf mon with a base Speed of 105 or greater, such as Gengar, Infernape or Mienshao.

Rule number three revolves around some of the highest-usage mons in the tier: Cobalion, Cyclizar, Hippowdon, Jirachi and Moltres.
This rule is fairly simple; be able to break the common defensive structures. Too many people are comfortably loading three, four or all five of the listed and playing longer games that have lots of safe switches and aim to wear your team down gradually through hazard chip and fairly weak attacks.
While this Bulky Offense / Balance approach is a generally safe way to play and has lots of upsides in terms of matching up into Offensive and HO structures, they are susceptible to plenty of structures such as:
SpikeStack cores of Chesnaught, Cyclizar and Palossand that abuse how reliant teams are on their own Cyclizar to maintain hazard control
VoltTurn cores of Cyclizar, Thundurus-Therian and Zapdos-Galar that force progress through means of gradual chip damage
StatusSpam cores of Bellibolt, Jirachi and Slowbro that hinder the opponent and allow you to buy turns to get something in and setup
ChoiceTrick options such as Gardevoir, Infernape or Munkidori that force a Choice item on something that doesn't like having it

My fourth and final rule relates to ladder largely - have ways to beat Rain. While Rain is generally classified as HO, the specific structures you'll see are relatively straightforward but really potent. The obligatory trio of Rain abusers are Barraskewda, Basculegion-F and Politoed, with plenty of teams opting for also running Cobalion or Jirachi as a Steel type Stealth Rocker that can pivot or spread Paralysis, Overqwil as a Poison Type SD Swift Swim sweeper and Kilowattrel/Thundurus-Therian as Ground- and Volt-immune Electric type pivots. While the sets on these types of teams are easy to predict in preview, having reliable switches (and making good reads) into the onslaught of immediate power available to these teams isn't so easy.
Some of the better mons that also matchup well into Rain are Gardevoir, Slowbro and Volcanion, as all three of these can reliably matchup into Rain while also providing general value into other matchups. Empoleon, Suicune and Wo-Chien also see adequate usage in the tier and can be headaches for these types of mash-buttons HO. The best way to handle these teams is to maintain hazard control and force gradual chip throughout the course of a game, although that is easier said than done.

High-Value Underrated Mons​

A little bonus segment I'll include is listing a few options in the builder that I would consider underrated or underutilized.
- One of the better Stall breakers in the tier that can reliably clean games. Takes advantage of a lot of U-Turn spam with Cyclizar and can chunk a lot of stuff with CM + 3 Attacks.
- Big fan of this guy in general. Matches up into HO and Rain really consistently, can go the distance in longer games against BO and Balance, can spread Paralysis and Toxic. Genuinely good mon that is kinda memed for being a funny guy.
- One of the forgotten broken Fighting types. Deals insane damage and can revenge kill most of the tier, ignore Moltres as a Flame Body Physical Defense mon, has STAB priority... really really strong mon.
- The forgotten Toxic Chain Trio mon. Fast enough to outrun +1 Leaves with Scarf, can Trick fatter mons, Spread Toxic and deal lots of damage into the tier as a whole. Super fun thing to use.
- A standard SpikeStack mon, super good at abusing Cyclizar removal teams (which is, like, all teams). Scorching Sands is fun to click.
- A reliable switch-in to CM Enamorus-Therian and Thundurus-Therian, which is hard to find right now. NP Pain Split sets are still good.
- Fast mon, can Toxic anything, nukes most of the tier with NP Encore sets.

 

[Heatranator]

So with the thundurus therian suspect about to finish (Please ban this mon, it feels so cancerous to play against) I want to talk about two lower tier mons that I have been having great success with that can fit onto some team structures. These mons are and
I'll talk about first since I believe it is the worst of the two, but still a very good mon. Now, what the hell is 's niche? It's a PU mon that has mediocre stats and not much of a movepool. Well, with the ability fluffy, it is one of the best physically defensive mons in the game. If you don't know, fluffy halves the damage from any contact moves used against the user, but doubles the power of fire type moves. Most physical moves are contact moves, the main exception being stone edge, and unless incineroar suddenly becomes more popular, is really effective at taking physical hits. For reference, a choice band adaptability knock from crawdaunt does 80% damage max.
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Houndstone: 238-280 (68.3 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
This is a really big hit that even terrakion, a resist btw, takes 65% from max. If even the strongest dark hit in the tier can't ko it, then nothing is breaking past it. +2 iron leaves leaf blade does 43% max to it, while +1 revavroom iron head does 24% max. It even can take a few special hits, as it always survives a gengar shadow ball from full and specs cobalion flash cannon is never a 2hit ko with lefties. Now, this is impressive hits that houndstone can easily take, but what does it do in return? Well, it can do a few things. It can use it's maxed out defense stat and launch a powerful body press that can 2-3 hit ko things like cobalion, terrakion or cyclizar. But what about things that resist body press? Can't they just ignore it and continue to set up? Well, that's where night shade comes in to deal consistent damage to opponents or you can use will-o-wisp to cripple an opposing mon permanently. Of course, the main issue with houndstone is that it has no reliable recovery, meaning it has to overely on leftovers and if that is knocked off, it has no form of recovery. Right? Well, kinda. Houndstone can use pain split as an unreliable, but very much appreciated, form of recovery. This also allows it to passively chip some opponents that like to switch in on it, such as gardevoir. Overall, while houndstone isn't always the best mon on the team, it can for sure put in work and be a great defensive blanket check that can annoy the hell out of the opponent.

Set I used:
Houndstone @ Leftovers
Ability: Fluffy
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Night Shade
- Pain Split
- Will-O-Wisp

Now, I want to go onto a mon that I think has a really good niche in the tier, Now, what am I doing using a ZU ranked mon in RU? Well, in my never ending quest to not use cyclizar, I was looking through the lower tiers for a spinner. I also wanted to use a ground type that was not krook or hippo, since I had been using them a lot, and stood out as an option that covered both of those areas and didn't suck ass. Now, what is 's niche besides a spinner? Well, two things.
One, it is a ground type that beats other ground types. This is big when facing against opposing krook, hippos or palossand's, as they can not do much to it. The best krook can do is knock off toedscruel and do a tiny bit of damage with gunk shot (giga drain recovers off most of the hp), the best hippo can do is take 55% min and whirlwind it out and the best palossand can do is shadow ball it for 30% damage that will be easily recovered off by giga drain. This is while still acting as a ground type, as it is able to take any +2 hit from thundy-t that is not tera blast flying and respond with a mirror coat.
Secondly, can decimate some common cores with only a bit of help. Let's look at two good cores.

This is a core that actually can't do much to and has to overely on cyclizar to do anything to it, which is not actually reliable in countering. Cyclizar can at best, knock off toedscruel's item and then threaten it with 2 double edges. This is a risky endevaour, as cyclizar is potentially two hit ko'd by earth power and with only 10% chip, is basically always going to be 2hit ko'd. The other two can't do much to . Hippowdon can basically do nothing to while empoleon has to spec out ice beam in order to do meaningful damage to it, as surf does 35% max and can threaten a 3hit ko with earth power. Ice beam isn't even a clean OHKO, with it dealing 95% max. Technically, empoleon can roost spam in order to beat , but this is putting it at the mercy of a special defense drop from earth power and it has to use a lot of roosts. This is a really common core and forcing it into difficult positions is big for the team.

With the rise of spike stack teams in order to counter teams that use top mons to deal chip damage in order to wear down your opponent, palossand has found itself as a good mon in the tier that can be a reliable spin blocker while being an alternative to hippo as a ground type. Overqwil is a mon that rose up to RU in the latest tier shifts as it is probably one of the best defensive dark types in the tier in order to handle the increased prevelance of psychic types while fitting nicely onto said spike stack teams by providing spikes for the team. I won't sugarcoat this, shits on this core. Overqwil can try to use crunch in order to deal 70% max to , but it has a really good chance to be OHKO'd by earth power. also outspeeds overqwil so it has to predict it coming in to get damage off. It can't even try to get a spike as it goes out, since spins those away easily. Palossand, can't do shit to it. Even the stealth rocks it sets up are going to be spinned away at some point. The damage it can do is recovered off by giga drain, which is a easy 2hit ko.

Now, I'm going to list all the mons in the tier which are threatened by in some way (some of these mons can have ways to threaten , but they usually have to predict or get chip)
(band sets destroy it, but they cannot switch in to it at all)











(not against band sets though, but those can't switch in)
(unless they are a rain sweeper)

(you take too much from gunk shot but you outspeed them and ohko with earth power unless they are balloon)
(outspeeds and can ohko you with cc, but takes a lot from both stab moves)


That is 12 mons it can definetely counter with 5 others it can counter depending on the set (about a third of the tier). Many other mons such as and don't like switching into it, so this number could definetely by higher.

Now, of course an issue is that many things can pack ice type coverage for and you are a ground type that can struggle against fire types, especially moltres who rubs its wings together if it sees it in team preview. Well, there is a simple solution, tera water. Now, of course tera'ing a mon is not especially the best thing in the world, but not only does outspeed all fire types except entei (who it speed ties) meaning it can emergency check them, but a water type is a massive threat to teams. For example, a basc-f is definetely threatened by , but it can usually take a hit and respond with an ice beam. With tera water, this is thrown out the drain and due to the only electric type being thundurus therian (and sometimes raikou and magnezone), this just leaves the grass types, which while they are good, can be pressured by teammates. If you can identify that a tera water can sweep, which it can a lot of the time, then it is absolutely worth it.

If you decide to not tera , there is one option it can use to threaten any mon that decides to hit it super effectively, mirror coat. Due to 's great base 120 special defense, it can even take uninvested stabless ice beams and uninvested stab fire moves and respond with an ohko with mirror coat. This is big, especially against something like moltres, who usually sits on , but is going to be cleanly ko'd in return.

Overall, I think (are you getting tired of the minisprites yet?) is a really solid mon in the tier that can perform a lot of functions in spinning away hazards and checking/threatening a lot of the metagame with good damage. I'd suggest you give it a try if you are tired of cyclizar and don't want to use forretress. (I did not realise I wrote this much on toedscruel. I think I need to get a better life at some point lmao)

Set I used:
Toedscruel @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Mycelium Might
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Earth Power
- Giga Drain
- Mirror Coat
You can swap out mirror coat for knock off if you want to, but I like the ability to smack the shit out of thundy-t and fire types.
Also, please stop using status moves on toedscruel, you are making the mon much worse by doing that.