Flavor of the Month

[PDC]

srry dtc had too

As we all know the metagame changes constantly. People come up with new revolutionary sets that get popularized very quickly and become the standard, threats are banned and overall usage drops. The purpose of this thread is to remember these once metagame-defining Pokemon of the 5th Generation, and elaborate and discover more reasons why they dropped in usage, why they were so effective, and why the metagame at the time allowed them to be so good. I will be usually weekly posting a new Pokemon that we can discuss. I will try to make the options as interesting as possible, and make sure we have variety for all parts of the BW1 and BW2 metagame.

This week we will be discussing Reuniclus as our first subject. Not only has Reuniclus fallen from the top of OU, but it has fallen to the brink of UU quite recently. While Reuniclus in my opinion is still a great Pokemon, its usage has decreased dramatically from what it was back when Blaziken and Excadrill were around. Once the most feared bulky Calm Mind user in the metagame has fallen into obscurity. Why did this happen? What changes occured that made Reuniclus fall out of the limelight?

Week 1 : Reuniclus

 

[Gary]

Two words...errr....Pokemon.

These two Pokemon have given Reuniclus a LOT of competition this past generation, and once BW2 rolled around, the popularity of these Pokemon skyrocketed. Alakazam has been deemed one of the greatest revenge killers in OU, taking advantage of his amazing speed and power combined with its Magic Guard ability to make its Focus Sash set very hard to dispose of effectively. When played right, it pretty much always guarantees a KO each match. Pretty much every other revenge killer in the metagame is weak to one of Alakazam's moves, so if your team is weak to anything that carries CS, Zam is your go to Psychic-type.

Latias on the other hand has probably given Reuniclus the most competition in terms of sets. Although Latias is more commonly seen running a bulky LO set to check weather, its Sub CM set is well known for being one of the most terrifying sweeping sets in OU. With her amazing bulk, above average power, blazing speed, and a ton of resistances, there's not a whole lot that can stop her from going on a rampage once Scizor/T-Tar is dead. Dragon Pulse is all she needs to sweep, because not even Ferrothorn can stall her out once she gets a couple boosts under her belt. The previously terrifying CM Reuniclus is often overlooked because of this monster, and its not really hard to see why. Latias can setup in the face of a LOT of Pokemon, and her speed makes it that much easier for her to sweep. Reuniclus on the other is a bit bulkier all around, but it ALWAYS has to take a hit before giving one out, making it an unreliable sweeper. Magic Guard makes it a more relialbe sweeper, but that's why Latias has Substitute.

Reuniclus' only true niche now is the ability to absolutely fuck 75% of the tier with its Offensive Trick Room set. This set is more than enough to keep in OU IMO, but many seem to overlook it. It finds it very easy to setup a TR, and it pretty much tears everything apart from there.

All in all, Reuniclus is still good, it just faces competition for a Psychic-type. If you want to use Reuniclus effectively, use the OTR set. It's amazing.

 

[Prosecutor Godot]

I think that Reuniclus is usually passed up because of it's typing offering almost no defensive synergy. Mono-psychic gives a U-Turn weakness, a pursuit weakness and few key resistances. When I'm looking at threats my team might face, I never think that I would need a Reuniclus to cover a weak spot. If I'm out of ideas and I need to throw in something, I'll go for Alakazam instead. I like to compare Reuniclus to Conkeldurr; a slow and bulky monotype that while good, is passed up for faster competition with secondary typings that offer more defensive synergy.

I find the OTR set a complete bitch to face so in a way, I'm glad Reuniclus isn't being used more.

 

[ShootingStarmie]

As a user of Reuniclus through out BW1, I beleive the biggest reason for it's fall in usage was because of the incredible new Pokemon introduced with BW2. Keldeo, Thundurus-T, Landorus-T and Genesect are seriously powerful Pokemon in the OU metagame, and had the potential to blast through Reuniclus if need be. These Pokemon are also really bulky for offensive Pokemon, which hindered the OTR set (but I'll discuss that more later).

Reuniclus in BW1 was mainly used as a Stall breaker with its CM set, or an offensive Trick Room sweeper. Now stall was very viable at the end of BW1, as the only common Pokemon to give it trouble would be Terrakion (and maybe Haxorus, but that's besides the point). This made CM Reuniclus very viable, as stall teams were fairly popular. However, with the powerful new threats (Kyurem-B, Keldeo, and Thundurus-T), some people beleive stall isn't viable anymore. With the decrease of Stall in the metagame, there was no need foe stall breakers, making CM Reuniclus an out dated threat.

And then there's OTR Reuniclus, which demolished most offensive teams in BW1. Sadly, not only were these new threats really powerful, they were also really bulky, meaning they could take a hit from Reuniclus, and easily OHKO back. The new bulkiness of the offensive Pokemon I think made OTR Reuniclus fall in usage the way it did.

I think the above users also bring up good reasons, but I think the main reasons for Reuniclus' drop in usage are...

Stall became non exsistant.

Offensive Pokemon became too bulky for the OTR set.

(please excuse any spelling or grammar errors, I'm currently on my phone and it's a bitch to type on these small touch screen key pads)

Just my two cents.

 

[Nglittleguy]

I would agree that the decrease in usage is Heavily because of the rise of magic guard alakazam. Sporting a higher attack, speed, and the ability to survive a would be ohko move leaves alakazam at a better position to deal damage without the need to waste a turn setting up trick room. As someone who has always used reuniclus on trick room teams however, I can say that if it's counters are worn down enough, reuniclus can tear through entire teams with adequate tr support.

 

[Myzozoa]

Reuniclus really wants spikes if it's going to use an OTR set, otherwise it misses too many OHKO's. The real problem is that you can't really switch TR reuniclus into anything until youre gonna go for the all out sweep, so you have to play the mid and early game with 5 pokemon.

 

[doughboy]

Reuniclus just doesn't hit hard enough, fast enough nor does it tank enough, well enough.

That is my opinion of Reuniclus in a nut shell. Unfortunately for Reuniclus, it can't really diversify in the way it plays. Without an extreme amount of both physical defensive investment and HP investment, it really isn't a Pokemon that can tank powerful hits as you would think. If you put that defensive investment instead into special attack, you are better off using the TR set.

And seriously, without any resistances to play off of, Reuniclus does jack shit defensively. It's fighting resist would be handy if the most popular Fighting-types in OU didn't have a secondary STAB to smash the hell out of it with. Terrakion, Keldeo, and Breloom all can hit it for a pretty hefty chunk of health, especially after an appropriate boost is taken into play (SD or Rain boost)(Loom can spore too!).

As a matter of fact now that I think about it, the CM set faces really stiff competition from CM Jirachi. I am thinking about this set:

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Def / 20 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Wish
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Flash Cannon

Same immunity to Sandstorm, similar bulk, same immunity to Toxic, and it still retains the ability to beat Blissey/Chansey. On top of that, you get the chance to paralyze and cripple any offensive threat that attempts to stop your sweep, Wish support, more speed, and tons of handy resists with a steel typing. No wonder no one uses CM Reuniclus.

edit: Alakazam is not stronger than TR Reuniclus. Remember Reuniclus runs a +SpA nature while Zam runs +Spe. In addition Zam runs Focus Sash most of the time, while Reuniclus runs Life Orb.

 

[Jukain]

I am just going to say this -- what is with all the CM Reuniclus hate? It is very, very good. Max HP/max Def Bold can take so many hits, Recover up, and proceed to CM. It's actually very difficult to break, and not at all hard to set up. It's immune to like every common method of stopping CMers on the face of the Earth, and has things like reliable recovery, a Fighting resistance and a burn immunity that Jirachi would kill for. Test it out for yourself -- it's amazing on hail teams, but sand also treats it well.

 

[PDC]

Reuniclus was really good back in BW1, and its immunity to status / hazards made stall conventional ways of defeating things obsolete. At the start Reuniclus was looked down upon due to its bad defensive and offensiev typing, but its additional power and qualities made it a pretty fearsome sweeper if used correctly. CM Reuniclus was very clutch and had many merits, and considering how SDef Jirachi really only relied on getting continuous flinches to beat it meant that it could not win 100% of the time against Calm Mind variants. Although Reuniclus did have trouble against Scizor, Tyranitar, Jirachi, and just in general the very powerful attackers that were still in the metagame at the time, it still was very useful. I remember Meru made a team with CBTar during this era that basically was his only answer to Reuniclus, and if you played Reuniclus well you could force a Tyranitar switch and take it out, which basically meant Reuniclus was going to win eventually. Calm Mind Reuniclus died out as time went on sadly, and is nowhere near the level of usage it once had back then.

The Trick Room set is very strong today however, and although I do partially agree with Jukain that the Calm Mind set is not bad, in fact it was very useful in World Cup due to the lack of Reuniclus counters people carried nowadays, I don't think it will ever be as good as it once was. The metagame right now is not very kind to it, and although it can still be used to great effectiveness, I don't see too much merit in using it over other Pokemon too often. Trick Room is probably the most widely liked set today, and because of the no Life Orb damage and weather damage it can last quite some time, and be very powerful without being punished. Myzo is right though in that it really does like having Spikes + SR on its side, as it still doesn't have the most powerful attacks in the world, as most of them are moderately weak compared to other top sweepers in the metagame.

Our next subject will be:

Haxorus was once the face of DragMag and was featured on many prominent BW1 offense teams, and early BW2. What made this Pokemon eventually become unpopular and even outclassed in almost every aspect?

 

[Prosecutor Godot]

Haxorus is still a good pokemon. It's the only physical dragon in OU with access to taunt as well as both Swords Dance AND Dragon Dance. It's raw physical power is only beaten by Kyurem-B in OU. If it had dropped to UU this gen, it would've been likely banned.

I think Haxorus is a victim of too much competition. Between Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp and Kyurem-Black, there has to be one PD that falls out of favor from the others, and it just happened to be Haxorus. Dragonite is seen as a better Dragon Dance sweeper thanks to Multiscale, more natural bulk and an amazing movepool. Salamence is seen as a better late game cleaner because of Moxie. Garchomp is seen as a better Swords Dance user because of more bulk, speed and STAB to it's Earthquake.

All in all, I think Haxorus is still good but there's just too many options that it doesn't have much of a niche over the other physical dragons.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Ah yes, Haxorus. Honestly, yeah, it really was a very good Pokemon back in the day. The Dragon Dance set was awesome because Haxorus has an insane Attack, a great STAB and good enough coverage, and decent Speed. It could lethalize teams with DD or use CB to just overall be a great and powerful Pokemon. It got Low Kick and Aqua Tail in BW2, so it was really pretty damn good in early BW2. But then its fall from grace began...once we had freed two things from Ubers:

Garchomp and Kyurem-B came down into OU, and both gave Haxorus some really stiff competition. Garchomp has pretty good power too, as well as more immediate Speed. More importantly, Garchomp comes with a STAB Earthquake while it can run a surprise Fire Blast for Forretress and Skarmory; and overall just plain gives Haxorus a lot of competition. Kyurem-B, on the other hand, has about as much Speed; but much more Attack, as well as Teravolt, which functions just like Mold Breaker, and Kyurem-B also has that meaty 120 Special Attack to run mixed. Haxorus is still a great Pokemon; but now it has to compete directly with these two powerhouses for a Dragon-type.

Basically, the harsh amount of competition Haxorus has now is what caused its fall from grace (but thank goodness it stayed OU; if that thing was UU...)

 

[dice]

haxorus's only unique niche which isn't rivaled by other dragons is the ability to OHKO sashed breloom leads with a banded dual chop. any other usage typically makes your team substandard as most offensive varients are simply outclassed by kyurem-b or garchomp. don't try to bullshit me with shitty SD + superpower to lure in skarmory reasoning as kyurem-b actually checks an offensive pokemon in thundurus-t which haxorus cannot do, and garchomp can simply run fire blast while checking jirachi among other things (better speed). wow! you can weaken the prevalent rain skarmory and bronzong! that is great reasoning to use haxorus!

taunt is an interesting move to have on a dragon, but it's primarily for steels (forre, skarm, ferro) which other dragons can still nail with a timely fire blast or punch. ps all three of those steels still beat you 1 on 1 anyways bar 50/50s with ferro.

 

[Yuttt]

Can't Garchomp KO the Sashed Brelooms with Dual Chop also?

I think Haxorus' main niche is a Dragon dance set with the ability Mold Breaker. That isn't much, but, unlike Garchomp and Cube, it actually gets DD. It faces competition from the DDDnite set, which has E-speed, and I think the only reason to use it over the others is a lack of weakness to SR, and the ability to take an Ice shard from Mamoswine.
252+ Atk Life Orb Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Haxorus: 205-244 (69.72 - 82.99%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Other than that, it can be used as a filler on some Dragmag teams.

 

[MrEon]

Hmmm... Haxorus really was a cool 'mon. Why, Chomp and Cube? ;_;

I personally think that for the onsite analysis, the Choice Band set should be first. Why is SD up there, I don't get it. That thing is too slow and frail to set up or and use that boost effectively, and if power is your thing, CB does it just fine.

Which brings me to what I believe is Haxorus' niche over other fellow Dragons - a physical wallbreaker. A CB, Adamant, max Atk/Spe, Outrage/EQ/Superpower/Aqua Tail, rain support. This thing is literally unwallable. Nothing, I repeat, absolutely nothing in all of OU can avoid the 2HKO from this. Lando-T, Skarmory, Hippo, Ferrothorn (heck, even Cresselia) - you name it; Haxorus takes a crap on all of them with as little as SR and rain on the field. Its power is second only to Cube, but unlike it, Haxorus gets more than enough coverge moves to terrorize the whole tier. On this front, the only competition it has is CBNite, who has better bulk + Multiscale + ESpeed, and gets all the above mentioned coverage moves. Even then, Haxorus has a few minor perks, such as not being weak to SR and being able to survive LO Mamoswine's Ice Shard due to it, as well as extra speed (Gliscor, anyone?)

 

[PDC]

Alright, it has been a week and its time to switch up the Pokemon after I put in my final post on Haxorus.

Haxorus was really cool in BW1, after PKG made his RMT featuring it as a very powerful breaker for DragMag teams it spiraled like crazy in usage. Haxorus had the power, the decent enough set of bulk, and a decent amount of options for it to use. It had Taunt, which was quite a cool option, although it usually wouldn't do too much for it as the majority of its checks / counters didn't care too much about Haxorus. Dragon Dance + SD is very cool, and although it can be used a breaker against stall with SD + Superpower, it overall is just inferior the majority of the time. When BW2 rolled around it brought back many notorious threats. BW2 gave Haxorus a huge run for its money, and after a few short tests it fell back in obscurity. Haxorus was something we all were looking forward too pre-BW, and after it came out we didn't use it at all. But slowly it grew in usage, and then just as quick as it shot up, it got shot down again.

Garchomp / Kyurem-B overall just have much more utility, movest options, general use, better set of resistances (at least in Chomper's case), and much better bulk. Haxorus right now doesn't have too much going for it at all. DD is mostly outdone but Dragonite / Salamence because Haxorus can't really break through Skarmory with SD + Superpower. Garchomp can break through Skarmory with Fire Blast, SD LO Aqua Tail, and even a Fire Fang if you run it. Kyurem-B doesn't care about Skarmory as Fusion Bolt and Ice Beam do a huge amount of damage to it. Haxorus lacked what was needed to stay apart from the rest of the dragons, as all of its jobs are just overall done better. While it being not SR weak is cool, it doesn't have too many other merits. It is a bit weaker than CB Kyurem-B and is overall very limited. That is why at this time I think we should really ignore Haxorus and leave it in BW1, as right now it really just has no uses, and its time has moved on.

Our next Pokemon might be a little controversial, as I can't say it suffered that much of a drop, but today we will be examining the next subject of Flavor of the Month, Gliscor.

 

[Jirachee]

literally the only reason why Gliscor dropped is because Landorus-T exists now (I guess Terrakion dropping in usage has something to do too), and it's arguably a better pivot than Gliscor on bulky offense teams, thanks to Intimidate, and also much higher Attack which allow even an uninvested Earthquake to hit pretty hard on neutral targets like Scizor or whatever. I guess the Sand Veil ban has something to do with it too. We must not forget how ridiculously effective the SubSD set was in BW1 and it was one of its main set. Otherwise, I wouldn't say Gliscor dropped that much actually. The SubToxic set is incredibly dangerous against unprepared teams and since everyone seems to forget about Gliscor nowadays it's probably even better than in early BW1. The newly discovered Double Dance set with Hyper Cutter is pretty nice too, since it kind of ruins Landorus-T which frequently attempts to switch into it. Gliscor is still great!

 

[ShootingStarmie]

Gliscor was at the top of usage during the Excadrill metagame. It was one of the true counters to Excadrill, and was needed on any team to beat it (without having to resort to priority, changing weather, or Skarmory). When Excadrill was banned, Gliscor was still a great Pokemon, as it's solid typing and stats allowed it to act as a physical wall. What sets Gliscor apart from most physical walls is it's ability, Poison Heal. While holding a Toxic Orb (or being poisoned through another method), Gliscor would recover 12% every turn, twice the amount of Leftovers recovery. With the Substitute + Protect combo, Gliscor became an amazing Toxic Staller, as it'd lose no health with the combination of these two moves (if it were faster than it's opponent). Poison Heal also prevented immunity to Status, meaning it was one of the best counters to Breloom in BW1, as it was immune to Spore and resisted Focus / Drain Punch. Things were going great for Gliscor during BW1, as it was one of the few "counters" to Terrakion, Scizor, Breloom, Lucario, and other powerful physical sweepers. On top of this, Gliscor could hax it's way to victory by taking a completely different approach, by going offensive, which was very viable due to it's respectable speed and attack stats, along with Sand Veil allowing you to dodge attacks very easily behind a Substitute. With the new ability, Gliscor could also hold a different item, which was normally Flying Gem, as it boosted Gliscor's STAB Acrobatics to allow it to muscle through some of the sturdiest walls, like opposing Gliscor and Hippowdon.

However, when BW2 arrived everything changed. Landorus-T was released into the metagame, which severally outclassed Gliscor as a bulky tank. With Intimidate, Landorus-T is much bulkier, and hits harder with it's much higher base attack. Not only this, Landorus-T outclassed it offensively as well, because of the higher attack stat, and better move pool (Landorus-T has Rock Polish). The metagame also shifted towards Rain offence, which Gliscor could never stand up to anyway. Genesect, Tornadus-T, and Keldeo were the face of rain offence, and Gliscor couldn't stand a chance in this metagame (unlike BW1, where most of the time sand dominated the metagame). Most of the Pokemon Gliscor could check can now muscle through Gliscor. Breloom gained Technician and took a much more offensive approach, while Scizor had been seeing good usage with a new SD Acrobatics set, which could easily plough through Gliscor. The only reason to use Gliscor over Landorus-T is for Roost, or it's immunity to status. And to top it all off, Sand Veil was banned, meaning it couldn't hax it's way to victory any more by waiting for the opponent to miss, and this also brought more competition for Gliscor in the form of Rough Skin Garchomp.

tl;dr

Gliscor was great in BW1
Landorus-T and Garchomp give it competition on a team slot
The metagame is no longer suited for Gliscor's needs
Only use it if you're going to abuse Roost or it's immunity to status

 

[Halcyon.]

I agree that Gliscor is still a very threatening Pokémon. The SubToxic set is nightmarish, and still does its job quite well. Some people seem to think that if they can't Toxic a Pokémon (such as Tentacruel) that they should switch out. But actually, you can PP stall many moves (such as Tenta's Scald), crippling them later on in the match. Also, many people don't know that Glicor is actually pretty fast and the Sub Toxic set runs a ton of speed (I should know, I made the spread) to outpace things like Lucario, Rotom-W, etc. It's incredibly funny when Lucario thinks it can OHKO you with Ice Punch only to have you KO it with STAB Earthquake. The AcroBat set is also pretty terrifying, as it can outspeed and OHKO its most common check, Rotom-W with Flying Gem Acrobatics at +2. It also dismantles sun teams, and they NEVER see it coming.

Obviously Landorus-T outclasses it in many ways. It has much more attack, Intimidate is much better for supporting the entire team, and can afford to run moves like HP Ice / Stealth Rock / whatever you need because it doesn't need to run Protect or Toxic to beat opponents. However, Gliscor does have a pretty big advantage over Lando, which is its ability to heal. People obviously know about Poison Heal, but they often forget that Poison Heal + Roost is basically the same as Moonlight in the sun, but it can be used in any weather. Recovering 62.5% in one turn is nothing to scoff at. Gliscor also arguably makes a better teammate on Hail, since it has a pseudo-hail-resist thanks to Poison Heal, whereas Landorus loses all of its recovery. I definitely think Gliscor should still be considered anytime Landorus-T is used, depending on your team.

 

[BLARG weather BLARG]

Gliscor is an incredible physical wall, but has troubles finding its way onto well built teams because Dragons are very good, and Gliscor brings a 4X ice weakness to the team. even on teams where it synergizes well, it still has to wory about errant HP Ices hurled about by powerful special attackers and even Terrakion, Forry, and Lando =[

I love the Toxic/Protect set, though its gotten very predictable, and many pokemon are running Sub. Gengar completely shuts down most defensive sets, but another option I am really starting to love on Gliscor to the point where I never run Gliscor without it is Taunt. Taunt prevents Dragonite, Breloom, Scizor, and anything not named Volcarona (which can be toxic/sub or protect stalled) or Salamence (similar, but if physical, somewhat playable) setting up, and turns Ferrothorn and other hazards/support pokemon into complete setup bait. Gliscor has 95 Speed, and many people usually forget this.

 

[rainbowumbreon]

Gliscor is very good in bulky teams or semi stall.I would always run the sub toxic set because it can get into a cycle which your oppenents find very hard to break .Its a good pokemon to plug a specific hole your team has to some phisical attacker and for some undisclosed reason you're allergic to landorous.Now other than Landorous being competition for gliscor there are other reasons why it is just very meh it tends to have 4 move slot syndrome where as landorous i has room for hp ice.While poison heal is good intimidate is so valuble for set up sweepers and black kyurem.I think that black kyurems introduction also pushed gliscor dwn the ladder as they all ran ice beam

i know this isnt everything but these were the most apparent to me and i don't think its a good mon in this meta

 

[Prosecutor Godot]

This is a really weird choice to do. I don't think Gliscor was ever a "flavor of the month" as it's still used a lot. Hell, it was even above Landorus-T before this month. More natural physical bulk + access to Taunt and Roost are nice advantages over Landorus-T, but what's ironic is Landorus-T can actually tank physical hits better than Gliscor sometimes thanks to Intimidate. I'll admit, I'm not a fan of Gliscor at all but I acknowledge that it's still a good pokemon. Thing is, with Landorus-T around there's less and less reasons to use Gliscor outside of more bulky team builds.

 

[Shurtugal]

In Exca days no one left home without 252 Hp / 252 Def Gliscor!

 

[Spinda]

I just brought my magnet rise air balloon magnezone :c


..Stupid rock slide flinches..

Gliscor is just struggling due to having to compare itself to landorus-t :/

 

[Soul Fly]

I just brought my magnet rise air balloon magnezone :c

Wow fuck I never thought of that. It's pretty spot-on one-time guaranteed exca killer.

 

[TaBuu]

In my opinion, as few have already stated, I don't think Gliscor has fallen from the OU yet as he definitely has his own solid niche and position in the metagame. He still ranks high enough to be considered a viable defensive threat as well.

Sadly, Landorus-T usually finds itself as the better defensive pivot compared to Gliscor because he carries Intimidate and packs way more power. With these two combined factors , Landorus-T really ended up outshining Gliscor in this aspect.
However, Gliscor had one saving grace : Poison Heal

When it comes to stalling and shutting down various threats, Poison Heal Gliscor can do its job like no other. An amazing passive recovery ability along with Roost and Taunt seriously allows Gliscor to get past even the bulkiest of Pokemon that even Landorus-T could never dream of taking on his own.

While a little unusual, The AcroBat set is still very effective. Ground + Flying STAB provides great coverage and very few Pokemon can handle both. Landorus-T lacks such coverage and is usually stuck with STAB Earthquake and an unreliable Stone Edge.