Metagame 1v1 Metagame Discussion

I just beat a bigtime mod! https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen81v1-1512404524. I am a 1v1 master!

I used Encore CM Primarina to do it.

By the way, if any mods have to delete this thread because it breaks the rules, go ahead and do it.
great win! I like encore prim as well

I get the curiosity about the rules of the forum, but in the future try not to write on random badgeholders walls to ask if they want to delete your post. I don't think eeveeto or heracross2.0 know that you posted at all, nor are they mods for 1v1. ask our forum mods instead!
 

ultracslewisjr

Banned deucer.
great win! I like encore prim as well

I get the curiosity about the rules of the forum, but in the future try not to write on random badgeholders walls to ask if they want to delete your post. I don't think eeveeto or heracross2.0 know that you posted at all, nor are they mods for 1v1. ask our forum mods instead!

Yeah. Its not easy to remember every single rule, so I try to be polite and cover my basis. Sorry for the confusion.
 
da new top 10

1. :togekiss: togekiss
Menace rn, fun to use but not broken imo. Can beat a large amount between the sets i've seen (scarf, maranga, kee, resist berries). This mon would still be extremely good without serene grace. Good but balanced.
2. :zeraora: zeraora
SS meta rewards versatility GREATLY. You can see this with a lot of these top 10 mons. Hella versatile, can run a variety of sets and moves to beat lots of different mons and there is still more room to experiment.
3. :tapu-fini: fini
Fini has been an ss staple for a while. Suprisingly versatile in what it can choose to beat, and has a pretty nuts movepool which people don't utilise in moves such as natures madness and even like toxic with taunt could be good.
4. :aromatisse: aroma
Aromatisse is in a weird spot for me rn. Lots of tisse teams are very similar and that is pretty abusable. Annoying in the builder, but can be teched easily. Still, its strong, annoying, and gives lots of teams a "bullshit-proof" (think ladder) layer in the same way sturdy mons do.
5. :regidrago: drago
Drago is and will always be a good mon in the meta, however, obviously, it loses to fairy types which most teams run. Still room to tech except often leads to some ugly 50/50s driving many people away from using it.
6. :metagross: metagross
Another good versatile mon in ss. Can beat a good amount between its sets and is easy to spam on teams.
7. :celesteela: steela
Part of me loves this mon and part of me hates it. Most of the time i'd rather use a cool steel, but since a lot of people auto assume they are occa or even sitrus, you can run other sets such as custap or band to mix it up.
8. :darmanitan-galar: darm
Its always been pretty crazy. People still choose to run 2 different darm counters for some reason and darm loves it. An aspect people should tap into on darm is how many good moves it gets, leaving it options in zen mode and beating a lot of counterplay to standard darm. I have never not liked having a darmanitan on my team at preview.
9. :sylveon: sylv
Very solid fairy. Can wish it was a bit more bulky however, as it can lead to being beaten by things it should cover. Custap is kind of inconsistent and very succeptible to cheese. Yawn is always a decent option and a bit less succeptible to the cheese. Specs is a great mixup to common counterplay to sylv, in taunt. Can also do some crazy things with mystical fire.
10. :landorus-therian: lando-t
Scroll up and you can see why this might be valued in the current meta. Massive attack stat, room for creativity, solid movepool, good bulk. Fun mon to use and tech.

HM: primarina, urshifu, spectrier, crustle, pult, ferro, koko, pz.
most the hms could be 9 or 10 depending on the day

underrated mons (def my biased opinion):
:reuniclus: reuniclus
Fun mon
:zarude: zarude
People forget there are a lot more items than just wp...
:azumarill: azumarill
Fun mon
:nidoking: nidoking
There is at least 3 teams every ss series that is 3-0d by scarf nido, not even exaggerating
:rotom-heat: rotom h/w:rotom-wash:
Both great, easy to build around for what they are
:rillaboom: rillaboom
I like it more than bulu right now.
:ninetales-alola: ninetales a
Encore disable will always be alright. Ninetales is an unconventional fairy, but a pretty solid one.
:aegislash: aegislash
I remember building around this after looking at usage and seeing this is crazy vs a lot of the best and most used mons in the meta. does its job as a steel type, and more, beating some other steels, as well as a lot of random mons.

Building and playing ss rn is pretty fun imo. Necro ban was a godsend for creativity and there is a lot of fun things you can do with lots of top mons. In ss, versatile mons always find their way to the top.

encouraging others to post theirs too as long as they aren't too bad cuz i like seeing what other ppl think
 
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great to see this thread used again I'll post my top 10 w some reasoning

1. :Togekiss: - This shit is absurd in practice and on paper. Just dick around w sets that aren't maranga scarf and you'll see how much it can beat (lowkey concerning it can pretty easily beat gross/aggron LMAO) tho if u want to use maranga scarf that's okay their typing and stats r super good leading them to beat a majority of the tier regardless of flinches. Easily the biggest builder and preview menace in the tier
2. :tapu fini: - yea insane glue mon. a lot more versatile than cm/scarf asw the typing is just broken w absurd bulk
3. :Zeraora: - zera is only bad into grounds and grasses otherwise it can beat basically anything u want w varying degrees of consistency. I'm not as high on it as most as it's opportunity cost the pokemon but it is incredible glue and never dead weight on preview.
4. :Porygon z: - scarf and np variants are both pretty absurd. the thing is u can run sets like reflect helmet w little opportunity cost because hbeam just murders the entire tier.
5. :Venusaur: - zio hot take this shit is BUSTED dude you beat zera fairies everything <80 speed it's so insanely nice to have on a team. also custap claims free wins v darm pz etc
6. :Primarina: - being a less well-rounded fini is still fucking great LMAO also u can run so much shit on it w berries. slow encore is also busted
7. :Regidrago: - beats everything except for fairies for the most part unfortunately this tier is fuckin ran by fairies. bringing drago means u r either fishing or just accepting a pure 50/50
8. :metagross: - best steel in the tier by far lot of good sets. it is held back a little bit by the fact that my left nut can cheese it but it's just a good bundle of stats can cover a lot of holes for teams
9. :cresselia: - GOD THIS SHIT IS ANNOYING. while not the most consistent mon as preview sometimes just makes it super awkward to click, cress's versatility is very frustrating to handle because it can beat a lot it shouldn't be beating while still owning a myriad of fat monsand attackers.
10. :Entei: - both its main sets are pretty good w a good amount of hidden versatility. can also run weird wisp shit ig its stats+typing carryit supa hard

other high tier mons w no order would be like :dragapult: :darmanitan galar: :Aromatisse: :ferrothorn: :crustle: :tapu bulu: :urshifu: :landorus: :landorus therian: :sylveon:
I'm sure non-top 10 darmg arom are pretty hot takes I'm personally not a fan of how easy it is to tech them I find them very awkward to click with.
Also I don't consider koko cele top/high tier they are like the epitome of overrated to me, cele is cucked by its speed and koko by its bulk

:chansey: :tyranitar: :aggron: :swampert: :rillaboom: :haxorus: underrated
:zapdos: :corviknight: :glastrier: :naganadel: I'm not sure why these mons still see usage

I think this meta is very fun with there being a lot to do w a lot of mons. I think atm the tier is fairly balanced with the difference between top tiers and the rest of the tier being relatively minuscule compared to previous metas. s/os rtm for sparking discussion
 

Here Comes Team Charm!

Perhaps the stars
is a Community Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Terrible charm takes:

Top 10

1. :zeraora:- Honestly yea this is probs the best mon in the meta now. Crazy fast, lots of options between its coverage and AV, ground types are kind of awkward and tend to be easily covered by a single good water, and unsets like balloon and toxic probably still have potential.
2. :tapu-fini:- This might still be at #1 but I feel like its counters have all gotten much better over the past weeks (with cheeseable counters like naga or glast dropping in usage)
3. :metagross: Incredibly versatile, great typing, tons of coverage, trick, good bulk, this mon has it all. I like the scarf sets but AV, band, occa, etc are all still good as well.
4. :porygon-z:- Excellent take Zio, this mon is absurd between specs, scarf, nasty plot, custap, and even chople, rhelmet, and trick conversion, there's enough solid checks that it doesn't feel overwhelming but a lot of teams are absolutely 3-0d by some pz set.
5. :regidrago:- Funny drago still good, a decent number of techs and the sheer power of its stab make this still highly relevant and easily the best dragon in the tier. Awkward to build with but very rewarding when you pull it off.
6. :togekiss:- Still not a huge fan tbh, as I've said before the flying type feels like a detriment on this, and if your partners need to cover boltbeam + steel + rock + poison + wallbreakers already then it's not as easy to use this as glue as people are saying.
7. :aromatisse:- It's really good and super easy if you have to cover a bunch of annoying mons, does what you'd expect your fairy to do, just a bit linear and consequently cheeseable.
8. :celesteela:- Better core matchups than gross but a lot more inflexible in what it can adjust to beat. Still really good, it just isn't my go-to steel type anymore.
9: :landorus-therian:- The only good ground type: insanely good fairy matchup, ways around the steels that (try to) beat it, great ability, and AV is one of the better non-fairy drago answers. Held back by its awkwardish speed and the lack of payoff in sets like custap.
10: :tapu-lele:- NO gdarm in the top 10, society has moved past the need for gdarm in the top 10. Fairy that beats other fairies (with 2-3 exceptions), good speed combined with taunt CM, insane special bulk with psychic seed, just a solid mon that ends up fitting on a lot of my teams.


Underrated mons:
:rotom-heat:- It's hard to explain this but it just feels so much more clean than most other fire types. Heatran loses to random occa metagross sets, arcanine can't beat entei, ninetales gets bulked by glastrier somehow, several other fires just die to venusaur (even scarf volcanion needs to fear custap), meanwhile rheat is out there picking up an incredible number of clean matchups with scarf alone.

:rillaboom:- Much better steel matchup than bulu, the sheer power of LO also secures some notable wins. Mons like cress and spectrier that are really awkward for the tapu are handled quite easily by rilla. Kind of unexplored as well.

:goodra:-Great special wall, no longer needs to awkwardly dance around necro existing. Counter takes care of a ton of problematic matchups and earthquake is great coverage as always. Probs has sets worth exploring beyond AV too, I had okayish success with a scarf set that lures entei and bandpult.

:arcanine:- AV and scarf both come up a lot for me while building, and getting Outrage/Play Rough is actually a huge reason to use this over entei imo (haxorus is a menace). Burn Up is also a great tool vs sets like occa gross that try to cheese. Also unlike AV entei it doesn't die to phero lmao.

:darmanitan:- I really like the scarf set for about the same reasons i like rheat, I guess. Ada scarf is surprisingly okay and has a much better landorus matchup.
 
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going to attempt to order this but take it with a grain of salt since the meta is still pretty young and i think the top 6 are super close to each other.

1. :tapu fini: its definitely fallen off a lot and is getting bsd by more stuff than before but i think its still the best glue in the tier. specs is still really strong months after zyg ban.
2. :darmanitan-galar: most constricting mon in the tier by a decent margin. can be a huge pain in the ass to setguess and it can choose literally whatever it wants to beat with its spread.
3. :cresselia: pretty hot take but theres like 3.5 mons on the s to a- ranks that cress cannot beat with a pretty good set. it can be surprisingly hard to setguess and i think theres a lot of unexplored potential with it.
4. :porygon-z: phenomenal mon. every set with nasty plot is busted, timid specs and scarf are almost nvr prepped for, helmet cheeses a lot of assumed counters. especially consistent rn since custap as an item is pretty uncommon and it has ways around most av mons.
5. :zeraora: all the grounds are terrible so its pretty big menace in the builder. it's slightly inconsistent in battles but the majority of ss teams just lose to the right zera. electric is a pretty good typing.
6. :metagross:
7. :togekiss: agree with everything the ppl gassing this up have to say i just think its worse than the above mons.
8. :tapu bulu:does not die and taunt disables everything, leech and synth r both flames.
9. :entei:
10. :aromatisse: a lot worse than people who i talked to before pl thought it was (being a lot worse than the best mon of all time is still pretty good). spd sets get insane mus despite being comically cheese-prone.

celesteela lando-i and volcanion are all super overrated. celesteela doesnt have a single great set, lando is nifty but doesnt deserve the usage its getting, volcanion does not win games.
zap-g is terrible.

spect kart vish registeel are underrated.
 
I think trick Blacephalon is pretty good with over heat,shadow ball and coverage move while max speed and special attack i would suggest running choice specs for pure power if your not sure about tricking your item so you can melt something with overheat. Its best counter would be sticky hold specialy bulky mon (like Gastrodon) and faster threats wit powerful attacks (Like barraskweda or something)
 

Brambane

protect the wetlands
is a Contributor Alumnus
I had some time to burn yesterday so I decided to try hard at at 1v1 ladder for the first time. I have toyed with the meta in the past but never really made a serious attempt. I went through a solid chunk of games the past two days (this is a fast and active ladder, which I appreciate) and peaked at 8th before tossing me ELO away with a Petaya Berry Overgrow Sceptile meme. I have currently been fluctuating in the 1500/1600 range for the most part; I seriously enjoy this ladder and how this format rewards forethought and creativity.

I have been using WaterShifu a lot. I find that the neutrality to Fighting, access to a Water-type multi-hit move, and only a 2x weakness to Fairy is quite nice. I partner it with stuff like Porygon-Z, Zeraora, and Regieleki to take advantage of Rock, Ground and Steel-types, especially stuff like Crustle and Aggron. A move I really like is Substitute, which is awesome for scouting Counter and helps against stally stuff. I have also experimented with Roseli Berry Poison Jab to improve the MU into non-Specs Sylveon and Primarina. Hasn't worked great against Tapu Fini, the sets I encounter are either faster or too physically bulky.

Togekiss is kinda horseshit LOL. I have picked up some Ws and Ls with and against the mon respectively just by spamming Air Slash from T1. Where Togekiss differs against other gambling strats is it has a lot of safety/tech in its kit too, and it has legitimately decent MUs into some common options. I played around some sets like Assault Vest and Scope Lens Super Luck (this was bad, but not THAT bad) and it still felt okay. I agree with HCTC that this doesn't feel like a glue mon, but more something you build around to force the opp to bring something that isn't prone to dying if it gets flinched once or twice. I think its a psychological thing, where even if the mon needs like three flinches in a row to win vs a mon, some people aren't going to gamble against that ~18.5% chance.

I think Zeraora is the best Pokemon on the ladder. Nothing applies preview pressure (I assume that is the correct term based from its usage) like this monster. Why does it get Outrage? Or Play Rough?? The number of times I have Play Roughed Urshifu into oblivion is easily more than 10. I like Fire/Drain Punch on Band instead of CC, losing to Magnezone more than once got real embarrassing.

Crustle murked me like the first three times I faced it, but now I am prepping for it it I haven't had too many issues. Part of the reason I switched to WaterShifu for some teams. I haven't seen one use Counter yet, but that looks pretty clean. Avalugg is probably the most annoying Sturdy mon for me, I try to build teams I feel like you would NEVER bring Avalugg into, but they always call me out :blobsad:

I have fought a lot of Metagross, but idk I haven't been too impressed with the mon. It feels like the one mon I get right the most often when I think the opponent is going to bring it. That might also be because people are terrified of Porygon-Z, Zeraora, and Togekiss (rightfully so!) Looking at its movepool I can see the appeal. I am always a little scared its going to be something weird like Magnet Rise or Agility, the mon has a lot of weird shit in its movepool. Speaking of Magnet Rise I PP stalled a Landorus locked into EP with Magnet Rise Regieleki; that was pretty cool.

Tapu Fini is always terrifying. Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko are sometimes terrifying. Tapu Rilla is pretty scary. Tapu Bulu seems bleh, I think I lost to one once because I brought Zera. That may be ladder bias tho, going back to look at tournament replays it seems scarier.

When I first started playing the format, I used Counter AV Rhyperior and found it to be a very solid Ground-type for the lower ladder. It fell off a bit once I got to around the 1400s, so I switched things up. I might go back to the Kyurem/Rhyperior/Jellicent team I was using though, it was REALLY fun to pilot.

Overall, enjoying the format and the community in the showdown room/on the ladder. Looking forward to learning more of the meta and to a couple hundred more games.
 
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I had some time to burn yesterday so I decided to try hard at at 1v1 ladder for the first time. I have toyed with the meta in the past but never really made a serious attempt. I went through a solid chunk of games the past two days (this is a fast and active ladder, which I appreciate) and peaked at 8th before tossing me ELO away with a Petaya Berry Overgrow Sceptile meme. I have currently been fluctuating in the 1500/1600 range for the most part; I seriously enjoy this ladder and how this format rewards forethought and creativity.

I have been using WaterShifu a lot. I find that the neutrality to Fighting, access to a Water-type multi-hit move, and only a 2x weakness to Fairy is quite nice. I partner it with stuff like Porygon-Z, Zeraora, and Regieleki to take advantage of Rock, Ground and Steel-types, especially stuff like Crustle and Aggron. A move I really like is Substitute, which is awesome for scouting Counter and helps against stally stuff. I have also experimented with Roseli Berry Poison Jab to improve the MU into non-Specs Sylveon and Primarina. Hasn't worked great against Tapu Fini, the sets I encounter are either faster or too physically bulky.

Togekiss is kinda horseshit LOL. I have picked up some Ws and Ls with and against the mon respectively just by spamming Air Slash from T1. Where Togekiss differs against other gambling strats is it has a lot of safety/tech in its kit too, and it has legitimately decent MUs into some common options. I played around some sets like Assault Vest and Scope Lens Super Luck (this was bad, but not THAT bad) and it still felt okay. I agree with HCTC that this doesn't feel like a glue mon, but more something you build around to force the opp to bring something that isn't prone to dying if it gets flinched once or twice. I think its a psychological thing, where even if the mon needs like three flinches in a row to win vs a mon, some people aren't going to gamble against that ~18.5% chance.

I think Zeraora is the best Pokemon on the ladder. Nothing applies preview pressure (I assume that is the correct term based from its usage) like this monster. Why does it get Outrage? Or Play Rough?? The number of times I have Play Roughed Urshifu into oblivion is easily more than 10. I like Fire/Drain Punch on Band instead of CC, losing to Magnezone more than once got real embarrassing.

Crustle murked me like the first three times I faced it, but now I am prepping for it it I haven't had too many issues. Part of the reason I switched to WaterShifu for some teams. I haven't seen one use Counter yet, but that looks pretty clean. Avalugg is probably the most annoying Sturdy mon for me, I try to build teams I feel like you would NEVER bring Avalugg into, but they always call me out :blobsad:

I have fought a lot of Metagross, but idk I haven't been too impressed with the mon. It feels like the one mon I get right the most often when I think the opponent is going to bring it. That might also be because people are terrified of Porygon-Z, Zeraora, and Togekiss (rightfully so!) Looking at its movepool I can see the appeal. I am always a little scared its going to be something weird like Magnet Rise or Agility, the mon has a lot of weird shit in its movepool. Speaking of Magnet Rise I PP stalled a Landorus locked into EP with Magnet Rise Regieleki; that was pretty cool.

Tapu Fini is always terrifying. Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko are sometimes terrifying. Tapu Rilla is pretty scary. Tapu Bulu seems bleh, I think I lost to one once because I brought Zera. That may be ladder bias tho, going back to look at tournament replays it seems scarier.

When I first started playing the format, I used Counter AV Rhyperior and found it to be a very solid Ground-type for the lower ladder. It fell off a bit once I got to around the 1400s, so I switched things up. I might go back to the Kyurem/Rhyperior/Jellicent team I was using though, it was REALLY fun to pilot.

Overall, enjoying the format and the community in the showdown room/on the ladder. Looking forward to learning more of the meta and to a couple hundred more games.
really good post, it's been a while since we've had an actual good post like this in metagame discussion, and I'm always glad when people get into 1v1 and get to understand it. I wanna give a solid reply to your points from a tournament perspective standpoint, since tours and ladder are like night and day.

First of all, Togekiss is a fucking monster, because flinches are secondary. Its bulk is absolutely insane and it has some great defensive typing, so it can kinda do anything; the most popular set is twave maranga, since not only is paraflinch 70%, but you can simply outstall mons with roost and fish for paras, so matchups like Volcanion become 100% reliable. You can Encore set up moves so those are not reliable, cause you can never just boost yourself to overcome the maranga. This set doesnt even need maranga berry actually, if you run a spread with max hp and 180+ spd you simply always beat volcanion, allowing you to use mental herb to beat mons like lele and spectrier which use taunt to beat it. You can even run 252 hp 176+ physdef and always beat AV Entei which theoretically makes use of inner focus to not get paraflinched. This is only the twave set, then you have scarf, whose main appeal is the fact that you can trick scarf mons like fini and sylveon which usually beat you, not as much the scarf flinches. Two other main sets have popped up this Premier League, being fast maranga made by Waylaid which beats mons like fini that win through taunt by simply being faster, and uses mystical fire + maranga to stall most special attackers. This set was about to beat a fucking zapdos! but unfortunately got insane bad luck. The other big set is kee charm counter made by zioziotrip, a lure set that beats a fuckton of physical attackers, since using special attackers to beat togekiss is nigh impossible generally: this set should've beaten a glastrier! but also got insanely lucked (what a pattern).
The big deal about togekiss in tournament is that it is insanely hard to find reliable counters to it, since relying on 70%s in a game where the turns last single digits is horrible (reason why no one uses moves like focus blast).

The other mon that you've mentioned you think is bad is Tapu Bulu, I don't know how you came to this conclusion but this mon is fucking broken, nothing beats it. It has three main sets: taunt disable which tanks half the fucking tier physically. With how bulu's typing is, generally most mons will only have one good move to hit it with, and if it tanks it can just disable it and horn leech back health, for example
252 Atk Choice Band Urshifu Poison Jab vs. +1 128 HP / 188+ Def Tapu Bulu: 244-288 (77.9 - 92%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
and then grassy terrain + horn leech does its job so nothing else from it kills (not struggle nor like life orb wicked/cc do the job)
Other than that you also just beat nearly every stall mon by taunting then disabling the only attack move they have, you beat fairies like fini lele which is huge and then being a fairy instantly shuts down regidrago. You also beat zeraora and like celesteela which are two huge threats that are hard to cover together.
The 2nd set is sub disable which is like taunt disable but instead of tanking hits now you dont get hit at all so you beat shit like magnezone or band metagross LOL
Alternatively I like running this since Protect allows you to beat mons with multihits like icicle spear and also gives you more leech seed / grassy terrain recovery between turns. You also beat scarf steel beam magnezone (which is forced if you dont wanna lose to sub disable)
The third set is like scarf cause you beat band darmg and naga which are two of the most reliable counters bop and also some other stuff I don't know.
Beating this thing is super difficult

I agree with Zeraora being insane, that mon can tech everything besides some ground types and the grounds in this meta are literally Landorus and Rhyp (rhyp is only ran cause you beat zera and kiss and darmg in the same mon (unheard of)). It has a fuckton of options besides the typical band or av sets with stuff like life orb or bulk up sitrus or taunt etc but I think it struggles cause no single set really stands out. It can cover a lot but it really wishes it had 5 moves cause you can't drop plasma and a lot of MUs require stuff like taunt + bulk up + coverage to reliably beat then you dont have space for much else. Other than that taunt and bulk up both run in crazy 50/50s that are hard to take at tournament level if you're not confident your opponent is gonna play in a certain way. Over-all Zera is one of those mons that is much scarier to face than strong to use, in my opinion. I think it's very similar to Dragapult in a way, another mon that is super broken on paper but also you have a hard time building with it and you can be fucked if you're not the right set.

I agree with Urshifu Water being good cause you're a water type that can actually beat volcanion (unless they run scarf solar beam then just say gg you got outplayed). The fire types we have are kinda shit but forced bc a lot of the top threats are grass/steel/ice types, reason why Entei is actually kinda busted right now, no competition.
Same deal with Metagross, really not a great pokemon but since the other steels we have are fuckin Celesteela Ferrothorn and Magnezone then it becomes really good. It can run a variety of sets between band av scarf custap wp and other variations of each, the appeal is indeed the fact that you can beat zera pz togekiss darmg bulu with the same mon which is crazy! And it's all reflected in its winrate in PL
| 4 | Metagross | 59 | 9.67% | 61.02% | (ranked 4th place with 59 usage it has a 9.67% usage rate and a 61.02% winrate)

Sturdies are also broken yeah, Crustle can run lum / mental herb which gives mons like Spectrier a big setguess to deal with, mental herb allows you to beat tapu fini unless its scarf trick. Generally +2 wrecker just kills shit kek + rock type is great for normals and for fires. Counter is rarely seen nowadays cause not that reliable and you need x-scissor for zarude and cresselia. Avalugg is also one of those mons that is harder to deal with than it is strong to use simply bc of the move mirror coat which makes breaking sturdy unreliable for special attackers, and other than that the setguess between band and id press makes it more awkward to play against.

I hope this was a good read and I hope that you'll play 1v1 more in the future. If you wanna try a set I've been liking a lot throughout PL it's Band Ferrothorn, I just really like it right now because of the stuff it beats and the surprising options it has. Payback is for Metagross, Heavy Slam is for Aromatisse, Bullet Seed is for counter mons like crustle or pp stallers like raikou and generally just more accuracy. Revenge is big fighting move (it does more than bpress and if they hit you its 120bp so basically a free cc), bulldoze just ground coverage idk what you'd beat honestly and Steel Roller is funny because you beat taunt disable bulu (usually you'd lose cause disable but if you remove terrain then struggle does enough and they cant really touch you), if they sub you cry though. You can run Iron Head over Gyro if you are a psychopath.

have a good one
 
Yo it's my first post. :mad:
Here's my crazy balanced team ~

Carracosta @ Power Herb
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Meteor Beam
- Ice Beam
- Surf

Entei @ Assault Vest
Ability: Inner Focus
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Serious Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Sacred Fire
- Crunch
- Stone Edge

Tapu Bulu @ Grassy Seed
Ability: Grassy Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 140 HP / 120 Atk / 36 SpA / 212 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Horn Leech
- Stone Edge/Protect
- Disable
- Dazzling Gleam

Entei is almost bulky as well as physical attacker and here it is
252+ Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 252+ Def Entei: 288-342 (77.6 - 92.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Suprisingly, it can also beat avalugg with sacred fire spam. But sadly don't have any replays.

For Tapu Bulu, can resist fiery dance.
252 SpA Volcarona Fiery Dance vs. 140 HP / 212 SpD Tapu Bulu: 228-270 (72.1 - 85.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery.

Hope you like it !:smogduck:
 
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Here Comes Team Charm!

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hi got a SQSA : does RegiEleki beat any matchups that other electrics don't, and if yes what are one or two examples? Thanks
Regieleki is mostly notable for beating a combination of things that no single electric can beat (this is the case for many pokemon).

For example, consider Aromatisse, Darmanitan-Galar, and Haxorus. Aroma and gdarm lose to magnezone, while haxorus loses to something like LO zapdos or WP zeraora. However, if you needed to beat all of these (in additions to the flyings and waters that you need an electric for), then Regieleki is probably your best bet.

If I had to mention a specific matchup that Eleki does better than any electric, I'd think of very slow pokemon that make prime Electro Ball targets (Aegislash, Corsola-Galar) or very fast ones that can outspeed and threaten most other electrics (haxorus, gdarm).
 

clerica

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hi got a SQSA : does RegiEleki beat any matchups that other electrics don't, and if yes what are one or two examples? Thanks
seems like charm sniped me but
S- Rank
:tapu fini: Tapu Fini wins

A+ Rank
:Aromatisse: Aromatisse wins
:celesteela: Celesteela wins

:metagross: Metagross loses to av
:regidrago: Regidrago loses
:togekiss: Togekiss wins
:Zeraora: Zeraora loses almost always

A Rank
:Darmanitan-Galar: Darmanitan-Galar wins just click tcage
:Dragapult: Dragapult loses
:Primarina: Primarina wins
:porygon-z: Porygon-Z wins just tcage

:Sylveon: Sylveon loses
:tapu lele: Tapu Lele loses

:urshifu: Urshifu-R wins
:urshifu: Urshifu-S set dependent, loses to av and band
:volcanion: Volcanion wins

A- Rank
:cresselia: Cresselia should win but you have to hit 2 thunders
:entei: Entei set dependent
:ferrothorn: Ferrothorn set dependent (eball 2kos chople but gyro and band win)

:garchomp: Garchomp loses
:Haxorus: Haxorus beats most with hyper beam
:landorus-therian: Landorus-T loses
:spectrier: Spectrier wins
:tapu bulu: Tapu Bulu loses
:tapu koko: Tapu Koko wins but you have to hit thunders
:volcarona: Volcarona set dependent but overall id say favorable in 2022
:zapdos-galar: Zapdos-G wins vs standard

B+ Rank
:heatran: Heatran spread dependent but favorable
:Kyurem: Kyurem loses
:magnezone: Magnezone set dependent but id say overall unfavorable (you beat non hyper beam custap with tcage)

:moltres-galar: Moltres-G wins
:naganadel: Naganadel beats most however ladder loves the bad max spdef set which wins

:registeel: Registeel set dependent, you lose to av always or nascar if you don't crit
:rillaboom: Rillaboom lose
:tyranitar: Tyranitar lose
:venusaur: Venusaur lose

:zapdos: Zapdos set dependent because agility wins but you should beat others
:zarude: Zarude loses

B Rank
:aggron: Aggron lose
:Arcanine: Arcanine set dependent but loses to av which is most common
:Avalugg: Avalugg loses
:Crustle: Crustle loses

:Dracovish: Dracovish wins but custap is a 50/50 between thunder and tcage
:Dracozolt: Dracozolt loses
:glastrier: Glastrier loses to most but you should beat band with eball
:goodra: Goodra loses

:kartana: Kartana beats all but scarf
:Kommo-o: Kommo-o loses
:landorus: Landorus loses
:nihilego: Nihilego loses

:pheromosa: Pheromosa wins
:regieleki: Regieleki pray
:Rhyperior: Rhyperior loses
:Whimsicott: Whimsicott loses


B- Rank
:azumarill: Azumarill wins
:chansey: Chansey loses
:Clefable: Clefable wins
:Corsola-Galar: Corsola-Galar wins
:Corviknight: Corviknight wins

:Hydreigon: Hydreigon loses
:steelix: Steelix loses

:suicune: Suicune beats standard

C+ Rank
:Aegislash: Aegislash wins
:Blissey: Blissey loses
:buzzwole: Buzzwole wins
:diancie: Diancie wins

:gastrodon: Gastrodon loses
:incineroar: Incineroar set dependent
:ninetales: Ninetales wins
:Porygon2: Porygon2 loses to standard
:Pyukumuku: Pyukumuku wins
:raikou: Raikou cursed and very luck dependent
:roserade: Roserade loses
:Rotom-Heat: Rotom-Heat loses
:Sawk: Sawk loses
:swampert: Swampert loses

:type-null: Type:Null wins

C Rank
:archeops: Archeops wins
:Carracosta: Carracosta technically set dependent but loses to the good set (meteor beam)
:Darmanitan: Darmanitan wins
:nidoking: Nidoking loses
:ninetales-alola: Ninetales-Alola wins
:Quagsire: Quagsire loses
:regice: Regice loses

:salazzle: Salazzle wins
:slowking-galar: Slowking-Galar wins

:thundurus-therian: Thundurus-T cursed but generally unfavorable
 
seems like charm sniped me but
S- Rank
:tapu fini: Tapu Fini wins

A+ Rank
:Aromatisse: Aromatisse wins
:celesteela: Celesteela wins

:metagross: Metagross loses to av
:regidrago: Regidrago loses
:togekiss: Togekiss wins
:Zeraora: Zeraora loses almost always

A Rank
:Darmanitan-Galar: Darmanitan-Galar wins just click tcage
:Dragapult: Dragapult loses
:Primarina: Primarina wins
:porygon-z: Porygon-Z wins just tcage

:Sylveon: Sylveon loses
:tapu lele: Tapu Lele loses

:urshifu: Urshifu-R wins
:urshifu: Urshifu-S set dependent, loses to av and band
:volcanion: Volcanion wins

A- Rank
:cresselia: Cresselia should win but you have to hit 2 thunders
:entei: Entei set dependent
:ferrothorn: Ferrothorn set dependent (eball 2kos chople but gyro and band win)

:garchomp: Garchomp loses
:Haxorus: Haxorus beats most with hyper beam
:landorus-therian: Landorus-T loses
:spectrier: Spectrier wins
:tapu bulu: Tapu Bulu loses
:tapu koko: Tapu Koko wins but you have to hit thunders
:volcarona: Volcarona set dependent but overall id say favorable in 2022
:zapdos-galar: Zapdos-G wins vs standard

B+ Rank
:heatran: Heatran spread dependent but favorable
:Kyurem: Kyurem loses
:magnezone: Magnezone set dependent but id say overall unfavorable (you beat non hyper beam custap with tcage)

:moltres-galar: Moltres-G wins
:naganadel: Naganadel beats most however ladder loves the bad max spdef set which wins

:registeel: Registeel set dependent, you lose to av always or nascar if you don't crit
:rillaboom: Rillaboom lose
:tyranitar: Tyranitar lose
:venusaur: Venusaur lose

:zapdos: Zapdos set dependent because agility wins but you should beat others
:zarude: Zarude loses

B Rank
:aggron: Aggron lose
:Arcanine: Arcanine set dependent but loses to av which is most common
:Avalugg: Avalugg loses
:Crustle: Crustle loses

:Dracovish: Dracovish wins but custap is a 50/50 between thunder and tcage
:Dracozolt: Dracozolt loses
:glastrier: Glastrier loses to most but you should beat band with eball
:goodra: Goodra loses

:kartana: Kartana beats all but scarf
:Kommo-o: Kommo-o loses
:landorus: Landorus loses
:nihilego: Nihilego loses

:pheromosa: Pheromosa wins
:regieleki: Regieleki pray
:Rhyperior: Rhyperior loses
:Whimsicott: Whimsicott loses


B- Rank
:azumarill: Azumarill wins
:chansey: Chansey loses
:Clefable: Clefable wins
:Corsola-Galar: Corsola-Galar wins
:Corviknight: Corviknight wins

:Hydreigon: Hydreigon loses
:steelix: Steelix loses

:suicune: Suicune beats standard

C+ Rank
:Aegislash: Aegislash wins
:Blissey: Blissey loses
:buzzwole: Buzzwole wins
:diancie: Diancie wins

:gastrodon: Gastrodon loses
:incineroar: Incineroar set dependent
:ninetales: Ninetales wins
:Porygon2: Porygon2 loses to standard
:Pyukumuku: Pyukumuku wins
:raikou: Raikou cursed and very luck dependent
:roserade: Roserade loses
:Rotom-Heat: Rotom-Heat loses
:Sawk: Sawk loses
:swampert: Swampert loses

:type-null: Type:Null wins

C Rank
:archeops: Archeops wins
:Carracosta: Carracosta technically set dependent but loses to the good set (meteor beam)
:Darmanitan: Darmanitan wins
:nidoking: Nidoking loses
:ninetales-alola: Ninetales-Alola wins
:Quagsire: Quagsire loses
:regice: Regice loses

:salazzle: Salazzle wins
:slowking-galar: Slowking-Galar wins

:thundurus-therian: Thundurus-T cursed but generally unfavorable
just a few things here I think should be noted:
1. Hitting 2 thunders in a row is a 49% chance, I would not consider this favorable :P
2. Specs Diancie beats eleki
3. Scarf Archeops outspeeds (and ohkos obvs) unless ur timid
 

Bella

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dffsdf.PNG

im pretty proud of myself
this is one of the teams i used to get top 65 with, honestly its pretty dumb.
La Chona (Tapu Fini) @ Leftovers
Ability: Misty Surge
EVs: 236 HP / 96 Def / 176 Spe
Bold Nature
- Iron Defense
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
Vanilla Ice (Darmanitan-Galar) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Crash
- Giga Impact
- Flare Blitz
- Earthquake
9 (Celesteela) @ Custap Berry
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 56 Atk / 60 Def / 140 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Endure
- Heavy Slam
- Flamethrower
- Air Slash
 
This is mine team with sub salac belly drum zen garm and its partners (pls rate im not sure if its good)







Darmanitan-Galar (F) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Zen Mode
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Icicle Crash
- Belly Drum
- Substitute

Rillaboom (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Drain Punch
- Taunt

Zeraora @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Plasma Fists
- Grass Knot
 
This is mine team with sub salac belly drum zen garm and its partners (pls rate im not sure if its good)







Darmanitan-Galar (F) @ Salac Berry
Ability: Zen Mode
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Icicle Crash
- Belly Drum
- Substitute

Rillaboom (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Grassy Surge
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Grassy Glide
- Drain Punch
- Taunt

Zeraora @ Life Orb
Ability: Volt Absorb
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Close Combat
- Fake Out
- Plasma Fists
- Grass Knot
looks fricking powerful to me but you could struggle a bit with some high ranks mons. Maybe switch drain punch on rillaboom to wood hammer, taunt to probably knock off and nature to adamant, so you kill things more reliably (you don't need to outspeed much because of fake out into grassy glide) and change grass knot on zeraora to knock off/outrage. Ik u are running sub belly drum darm-g but endure could be good for some faster things that threaten to ohko it. I got rid of zeraora and changed some moves around and the team should be more solid now but do whatever. Haven't tested at all so could be bad but i built it pretty quick. https://pokepast.es/5a8297f7ec372b0e
 
looks fricking powerful to me but you could struggle a bit with some high ranks mons. Maybe switch drain punch on rillaboom to wood hammer, taunt to probably knock off and nature to adamant, so you kill things more reliably (you don't need to outspeed much because of fake out into grassy glide) and change grass knot on zeraora to knock off/outrage. Ik u are running sub belly drum darm-g but endure could be good for some faster things that threaten to ohko it. I got rid of zeraora and changed some moves around and the team should be more solid now but do whatever. Haven't tested at all so could be bad but i built it pretty quick. https://pokepast.es/5a8297f7ec372b0e
Tank you very much :>
 

Here Comes Team Charm!

Perhaps the stars
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While sub salac works fine in 6v6, endure salac outclasses it pretty hard in 1v1. The only pokemon you can safely set up substitutes against are the ones slower than you, but obviously a speed boost is useless against those pokemon. Most pokemon faster than gdarm (scarf haxorus, scarf garchomp, dragapult, zeraora) can knock you out from full health anyway.

Even if substitute itself puts in work against slower status move/counter/custap users you're not going to get a lot out of salac specifically. If you wish to keep substitute, I'd change your item to Liechi berry instead, to get attack boosts against the pokemon that won't let you set up belly drum.
 
While sub salac works fine in 6v6, endure salac outclasses it pretty hard in 1v1. The only pokemon you can safely set up substitutes against are the ones slower than you, but obviously a speed boost is useless against those pokemon. Most pokemon faster than gdarm (scarf haxorus, scarf garchomp, dragapult, zeraora) can knock you out from full health anyway.

Even if substitute itself puts in work against slower status move/counter/custap users you're not going to get a lot out of salac specifically. If you wish to keep substitute, I'd change your item to Liechi berry instead, to get attack boosts against the pokemon that won't let you set up belly drum.
Its very good if i think but i still think scarf boost is more important with belly drum
 

Gross Sweep

Plan Ahead
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Some of you may or not remember me, but I used to frequent this forum in Gen 6 and early Gen 7. For the first time I played some Gen 8 1v1 and pretty quickly got sucked in. Played around 150 games on the alt Unknown Gross, some of you may have seen me. I used a pair of sample teams, so while I did not mess around much with team building I got to get a feel for the meta a bit. Especially with the ladder tour going on, there was no lack of differing opponents.

There were a few different aspects of the meta that really interested me. Regidrago was intriguing. I've never seen a Pokemon be successful with such limited options. Not to say Pokemon haven't been dominant using moves of one type, Mega-Salamence being a very good example of this abusing its Flying-STAB. However, M-Mence always had a wide array of coverage options to adapt to whatever counter play the ladder threw at you, which is a luxury Regidrago does not have. Even with access to some coverage like Fire Fang. I found myself flinch fishing with it vs mons like Metagross, as opposed to using it as an actual KO move.

The next strategy that made me smile was seeing a healthy usage of Custap Berries. For those of you who do not know Custap was a pretty common strategy in Gen 6, my favorite abuser being Sylveon, but it was not present in Gen 7. Seeing that dimension being added back to the tier was a very cool blast from the past. Especially since I was a bit worried about the tier having less in-match complexity with the removal of the mega evolution mechanic. That said the meta feels really good right now, and while there always will be games that are simply over after players pick their mons in this tier. It actually feels like there are numerous match-ups that could go either way once the battle itself starts. Which is a phenomenon that usually signals this meta is in a really good place.


I realize this post probably wasn't filled with the most quality content, but I find myself wanting to play this tier again and writing about some of my initial thoughts just feels like the right thing to do. Hopefully I'll be a bit more active going forward.
 
So first post in 1v1 and I don't know where to report this. Anyways Aggron needs to be banned. It has access to sturdy and metal burst and most people see aggron as a free kill due to its crippling quad weaknesses to ground and fighting. So they often attack aggron and activate sturdy as aggron fires back with a choice band brave nature metal burst automatically winning the game. This is just as broken as the level 1 aron with berry juice, toxic, endeavor, and sturdy which is an automatic win. Therefore aggron should be banned due to its prominent sturdy metal burst combo. Sure it can be checked with status conditions like burn, but it's still overpowered overwhelming 1v1.
 
why was council action taken on sleep without any discussion from the playerbase

For the record, I think these bans are good (hypnogar is complete cheese) but it’s a bit scary to think that tiering action can take place with absolutely no consultation from the playerbase.

There are plenty of ways to survey the playerbase with this thread, OTR, community polls, etc. A complete ban on sleep with very minimal forum discussion almost occurred which to me is some 2018 “the community is wrong” type shit.

I plan to make a post on why Yawn, Sleep Powder, and Spore (terrified of morelul mfs) belong in the tier and I encourage others to share their thoughts here instead of fruitless discord discussions.

edit: I’m aware there has been prior discussion in both this thread and oldgens but there was no post-pl update on where council was at with sleep
 
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