The recent team discussions have been pretty interesting. Overall I haven't really been playing at all lately to judge the meta for myself, but it's nice to see that there are still people having fun with ideas being developed and put to the test on the ladder.
I agree that Regirock is kind of underrated in that it doesn't get mentioned a lot, and on the surface it does look like a pretty lopsided mon, but there were some good points made by
The2009Zapdos and
Found then Lost about it. Rock may have plenty of weaknesses to common types like Grass/Fighting/Water, but it can take advantage of those with Weakness Policy and its natural bulk. It also comes with a fair share of resistances including the commonly found Normal (which only Ghosts can take better) and Fire types, so it's kind of a risky and less consistent type in that sense where neutral hits are less likely to happen overall, which is kind of similar to how Grass's type matchups are laid out as well. Stacking defense with Fluffy/Ice Scales is a pretty solid strategy and it also effectively doubles the value of defense stat boosts, which can get you surprisingly tanky with certain sets. As an aside, Flower Veil on a non-grass as a support is kind of novel and I've never really considered not using monograss myself, but I guess it does work much like Friend Guard as a purely supportive slot.
Speaking of which, I also want to congratulate
Lectrys on reaching #1 on ladder with the Analytic Mega Camerupt team above. Going for full offense and choosing Friend Guard on Venusaur as a supporter with its own might is also an interesting maneuver that I wouldn't have considered myself, personally preferring to use those abilities with specific team compositions such as Storm Drain to mitigate a weakness or Friend Guard on bonkstall to stack damage reduction on bulky mons with Eviolite, but it looks like focusing on balanced power and mixing the general offense and defense boosts does lead to success and shows the value of synergy that a unique support partner could provide compared to fighting alone. I like how the replay was against a Regirock and Camerupt team as well to tie it all together.
As for the latest Gen 9 news, a few new items and mons were revealed recently, with the most relevant info for this format looking to be the Covert Cloak item, which acts like Shield Dust and prevents secondary effects from moves, mostly amounting to status ailments and stat drops. I could see this being a solid defensive item for Magic Bounce users like Sableye who have nothing better to use, because when combined with Magic Bounce reflecting status moves, this makes them almost fully immune to most crippling effects (aside from abilities and things that get around it like Mold Breaker and enemy Magic Bounces), forcing you to defeat them via brute force and at full power. There's also the niche Loaded Dice which affects the odds of multihit moves in some way and the Mirror Herb which copies stat boosts, which depending on how it works could be nice to copy a Weakness Policy boost without needing to get hit yourself, but may not be a consistent benefit in matches. Overall I hope there are more of these neat new options to work with in Scarlet and Violet.
As for terastallization, I'll wait for exact details and seeing how it works in practice to really judge, but on the surface I imagine having access to a pure ghost with any stat spread could be a pretty powerful option in general, since they don't synergize much with types other than Dark and aren't usually on the high statted bulky side with Silvally-Ghost being one of the most defensive ones, and you could time it after a Weakness Policy activation with a more vulnerable typing as well to get the best of both worlds.
Now after these replies for the last month, here's the usage stats for August 2022.
The battle count continues to rise back to
64613 as the northern summer ends and we enter the last quarter of the year.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2022-08/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2022-08/moveset/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Heracross (no change)
#2: Mega Venusaur (#3)
#3: Mega Slowbro (#9)
#4: Necturna (#6)
#5: Mega Ampharos (no change)
#6: Mega Sableye (#4)
#7: Dusclops (#11)
#8: Dragapult (no change)
#9: Guzzlord (#2)
#10: Mega Gengar (#7)
While Venusaur returns to second place, Heracross secures its reign even further with 18843 raw usage and doubling Venusaur in weighted usage (37.7% to 18.2%). Guzzlord falls down to 9th, and from its former place Slowbro ramps up to #3 to take its place as a setup tank with Ice Scales still, while Dusclops returns to the top after a brief dropoff, though the same can't be said for Glastrier, further falling from #15 last month to #19 now. The dark horses of the month include Victini (#21 with 987 uses) stealing items with Magician running Weakness Policy and no item alike, Cresselia (#23 with 550 uses) going on the offense with Competitive and Choice Specs, and Goodra (#32 with 312 uses) patching up its physical defence with Fluffy. Honourable mention goes to Enamorus-Therian making #11 over Blissey, using Download for raw power on either side.
Looking into the moveset file, the top viability ceilings (highest GXE of someone that used a Pokemon) start from 83 with Mega Ampharos (primarily Competitive @ Choice Specs) and Glastrier (mainly Simple/Primordial Sea @ Weakness Policy), both strong setup mons working together, and possibly achieved on the same team. Following up is Venusaur and Necturna at 82, with only the weighted 43% of Mega Venusaur running Flower Veil and Necturna actually leading with Simple compared to the usual sample team Thick Fat.
While there is no 81, 80 contains the defensive duo of Dusclops and Deoxys-Defense (#57). Dusclops is between Friend Guard, Magic Guard, and Magic Bounce with its typical Eviolite for stalling, being paired with Type: Null, Diancie, and other Dusclops. Deoxys-Defense took me by surprise and while it doesn't actually pair up with Dusclops, it has a variety of options being used like Harvest and Leppa, followed by options like Intimidate and Magic Bounce, Lum Berry and Choice Band, and pairing with Clefable or Venusaur. We can't say for sure what set was used to achieve this feat of viability, but it's interesting to think about these kinds of mons that don't really get mentioned a lot but are working out for someone in practice.
Rounding out with viability ceiling 79, we have Mega Heracross, Enamorus-Therian, Victini, Manaphy (Prankster + Choice Specs/Life Orb + Magic Guard), Swampert (Sap Sipper with Lum Berry/Choice Band), and Darkrai, who also has some variety in the lead sets like Filter/Weakness Policy (note: Prism Armor is a straight upgrade being unignorable by Mold Breaker) and Super Luck/Scope Lens, among other things that are lesser used. It's pretty neat to see things from a different perspective and see what's succeeding outside of the meta picks. Thanks for your reading.
