It's Ninetales.
I want to add onto this and bold this ending part of Finch's statement in particular because this metagame has been the most fun I've consistently had in an OU metagame since the Gen 5 OU weather wars (my personal favorite meta), and I feel very strongly about Gen 9 OU's positive qualities compared to several previous OU metagames. There is so much room for flexibility in team building and strategy thanks to Tera, a wide set of new mons/moves, and (I know this will be semi-controversial) this generation's power creep which I feel is beneficial to OU as a whole. So focusing on any mons or playstyles that stifle this generation's team-building creativity and flexibility is where the focus should go, and I feel we're going in the right direction so far. This is a meta where almost any Pokemon can find a niche while still having clear OU staples and I wholly believe that's fantastic!
, personally, I still feel that Roaring Moon is a more pressing matter over Kyurem, Gouging Fire, and (especially) Archaludon, but I recognize that Kyurem puts a lot of pressure on team building due to its strong offenses, bulk, and set variety so I wouldn't be upset to see it go or stay either way (I feel that I'd lean more towards banning Kyurem if our meta wasn't so hazard-oriented). To me, I've had the most consistent results with Kyurem's Choice Specs set - I generally partner Specs Kyurem with Great Tusk, Furret, and Glowking as those three together give Kyurem plenty of switch-in opportunities while keeping hazards off the field + scouting items/crippling would-be checks/counters while boosting Kyurem's physical defense thanks to Chilly Reception. I'm personally not the biggest fan of Kyurem's Dragon Dance sets (I originally thought they'd be broken in the past due to feeling like a mini-Baxcalibur, but they lack Bax's immediate power + burn immunity). What I've generally noticed though is that if you control the momentum flow in your battle, Kyurem will generally be your wincon.This is how I used them in fact. Ninetales needs Boots to work, Torkoal was the main setter. Having 2 setters really helps to win the weather wars (currently mostly vs Rain, in 44 games I saw 0 Snow excluding Glowking and Sand, which is funny, since those 2 are better vs Kyurem, who demolishes Rain most of the time).
I find that a-ninetales (You happy that I spelt it right ant4456?) is pretty great into rain, as it can not only switch the weather, but it can also threaten a lot of rain staples.
Gterrain teams are still fairly strong, Rillaboom + Hawlucha's been quite popular in the Tournament scene, as well as plopping a grassy seed on CM sweepers like Hatterene, Latias and Primarina (and Comfey one time :O).
DO NOT USE ELECTRIC TERRAIN. I have tried it, and it was horrible. Grassy Terrain is still great, as hawlucha is a great mon with other threats like latias that use grassy seed. Psychic terrain has iron crown and deoxys speed to abuse expanding force, though it can struggle a lot with barraskweda on rain. Misty terrain sadly while it could be good, doesn't have much benefits to it as while status immunity and halfed dragon damage is great, there isn't enough reasons outside that to use it, misty explosion ain't cutting it chief.
If it weren't for the fact that the highest ranked Magic Room user is Azelf in RU, and also it having only five fully evolved users, it would have a neat gimmick on hazard stack teams, disabling the opponent's HDB every so often. Of course, your own item would also be useless for that duration, so maybe it's a good thing people haven't tried it yet.
) Dark/Fire-type Special Attacker allowed in OU, it has acceptable special bulk with an acceptable speed tier (75/80 special bulk with 95 speed), has Flash Fire to give it additional switch-in opportunities while powering up its Fire STAB, and with Tera it can patch up its specific coverage issues and muscle through some annoying threats while gaining a useful Dragon-immunity. The last option on this set is what makes Houndoom such an effective cleaner and also an effective sacrificial mon - Destiny Bond. With Timid + Choice Scarf, Houndoom reaches 475 Speed - this outspeeds +1 Jolly Gouging Fire and ties with +1 Jolly DD Kyurem along with outpacing many other threats like Scarf Modest Enamorus, Scarf Gholdengo (also resists both of Dhengo's STABS). If Houndoom is down for the count and you need a last-ditch effort to take down a +1 sweeper, Houndoom can outpace a huge number of threats, use Destiny Bond, and take down an opposing threat with it. Houndoom's fire STAB is nuclear under the Sun and having Dark STAB isn't bad either and allows Houndoom to threaten Pokemon like Dragapult, Pecharunt, Skeledirge, and Glowking. Houndoom's niche comes from its powerful STABS, speed control with Scarf, access to Tera, and effective revenge killing both from its attacking power + ability to take any mon down provided it can outspeed it.Pincurchin really needs an evolution or some stat buffs. It has no HP, 95 less BST than Rillaboom and lowest BST of the fully evolved terrain setters, and doesn’t have proper moves like Rising Voltage or Volt Switch.
Imagine if leaf guard worked like hydration, it would add a lot more diversity to sun teams with more defensive playstyles. Also, I see we have another low tier encore grass type.Morkal SunSo we've been talking a lot about Rain lately, but what about Sun? I want to quickly share some of the unique/strong picks that I've been working with on various OU Sun teams. Some of these mons are meta staples while others are Pokemon that I feel should be looked at more due to their nice qualities. I'm going to start with my favorite sun mon as of right now -
Meganium @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Leaf Guard
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 84 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Encore
- Knock Off
- Synthesis
Meganium has been one of my favorite discoveries on Sun teams thanks to its great bulk, the newfound ability to terastallize, a surprisingly good base 80 speed for a bulky mon, a great ability for Sun, reliable recovery, and a stupendous movepool. Leaf Guard protects it against status while Synthesis is phenomenal in the sun - allowing it to shrug off attacks and attempts at status that other Pokemon can't begin to deal with. Meganium provides excellent utility and even some offensive pressure thanks to access to the combination of Body Press + Knock Off along with Encore to royally mess over slower setup mons such as Raging Bolt and Kingambit. Meganium is another Gen 2 mon that finally has a chance to shine thanks to its access to a plethora of unique and synergistic tools that other Pokemon could only dream of. I'll likely be posting the full Sun team I'm using Meganium on in RMT at some point soon, so keep a look out for that and also check in there as well for a plethora of other wonderfully constructed teams!
Necrozma @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Prism Armor
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Calm Mind
- Heat Wave
- Photon Geyser
- Morning Sun
Beats Calm Mind Agility Stored Power Iron Crown one-on-one, cooks Kingambit under Sun while comfortably surviving Supreme Overlord 5 Allies Fainted Sucker Punch on Bulky variants both pre and post-tera. Boost with Calm Mind, fantastic recovery (especially under Sun) with Morning Sun, solid natural bulk combined with an incredible ability in Prism Armor, and more. Necrozma is pretty underexplored as its movepool is a bit mind-boggling with how many different roles it can take on. Solid bulky offensive mon that pairs well with numerous other threats under Sun (especially staples like Great Tusk).
Gouging Fire @ Choice Band
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
- Outrage
- Psychic Fangs
I discovered somewhat early on that I'm not the biggest fan of Gouging Fire requiring setup, so I decided to instead run either bulk (Morning Sun with Burning Bulwark) or outright power. So I discovered Choice Band Gouging Fire under Sun and let me tell you, it's one of my new favorite sun threats. STAB Flare Blitz boosted by Sun, Choice Band, and Protosynthesis will cook almost anything. Outrage is also great with the lack of consistent Fairy-types around (Clefable does not want to switch into Flare Blitz), and Earthquake is phenomenal coverage. My preferred niche tech on this set is Psychic Fangs for two specific reasons - breaking screens and hitting Pokemon like Great Tusk, Toxapex, Pecharunt, and Zamazenta super effectively (especially if Sun is not up).
Houndoom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat/Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Tera Blast
- Destiny Bond
Houndoom has a very unique spot in the metagame thanks to four traits that no other Pokemon have; it's the only (legal
Using encore feels so good into many different threats, so I'm glad to see it on the meganium set.The rain community when i show them footage of gouging fire casually switching into to bulky resists and doing heavy damage to them without cringe beta male setup turns
Morkal OU SunSo we've been talking a lot about Rain lately, but what about Sun? I want to quickly share some of the unique/strong picks that I've been working with on various OU Sun teams. Some of these mons are meta staples while others are Pokemon that I feel should be looked at more due to their nice qualities. I'm going to start with my favorite sun mon as of right now -
Meganium @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Leaf Guard
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Def / 84 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- Encore
- Knock Off
- Synthesis
Meganium has been one of my favorite discoveries on Sun teams thanks to its great bulk, the newfound ability to terastallize, a surprisingly good base 80 speed for a bulky mon, a great ability for Sun, reliable recovery, and a stupendous movepool. Leaf Guard protects it against status while Synthesis is phenomenal in the sun - allowing it to shrug off attacks and attempts at status that other Pokemon can't begin to deal with. Meganium provides excellent utility and even some offensive pressure thanks to access to the combination of Body Press + Knock Off along with Encore to royally mess over slower setup mons such as Raging Bolt and Kingambit. Meganium is another Gen 2 mon that finally has a chance to shine thanks to its access to a plethora of unique and synergistic tools that other Pokemon could only dream of. I'll likely be posting the full Sun team I'm using Meganium on in RMT at some point soon (along with writing a full Meganium essay), so keep a lookout for that and also check in there as well for a plethora of other wonderfully constructed teams!
Houndoom @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Overheat/Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Tera Blast
- Destiny Bond
Houndoom has a very unique spot in the metagame thanks to four traits that no other Pokemon have; it's the only (legal
I don't actually care tbh. In fact I will begin thinking about spelling it wrong instead of going on auto pilot just to spite you.
I feel that band gouging fire, while great, does have issue. It has to give up timid to go adamant to 2 hit ko dondozo, which is a big deal against non stall teams because it then is outsped by tusk, which is what is so great about its speed tier. I've even tried it on a sun team and it kinda felt meh, it even has to take heavy recoil from flare blitz, so it doesn't live that long. With wish support or the right teamates to take advantage of the holes it creates, it probably is better than when I tested it, but damage numbers ain't everything.
Try wish delphox, it has suprising special bulk and can get you out of some tough spots.
Rain is definetely fun right now for me, probs due to the sheer power of it. I would say use lower tier mons and experiment with them, as that has been where I have found more fun. Even just UU mons can be interesting.
People are having issues with rain? Really?
Maybe if Electric had actual resistances, Pincurchin would start seeing legit use.
Because archaludon isn't a problem outside of rain and it's the combination of it with other mons, like with swift swimmers and other rain abusers like Barreskewda, Raging Bolt, Tornadus-T, etc; since it patches up defensive holes and hits really hard.
