so note that i don't play much gen 3 in general so whatever thoughts i have on the meta's change are going to be pretty unfounded. ladder kinda ded atm but i will hopefully try and spark some discussion:
flying types all get Aeroblast (and Drill Peck!). this means Aerodactyl, Salamence, Gyarados, Swellow, Dodrio, and even shit like Bellyzard and Altaria get more reliable STABs than the terrible HP Flying. otherwise kind of barren - i guess Zapdos getting Featherdance might be cool once in a blue moon (or Skarmory). oh and Scizor also gets to use it though i don't think it's the best option.
grasses of course get Spore, certain key mons like Celebi get access to Stun Spore as well, and others like Venusaur gain Aromatherapy. everything also has access to Leaf Blade which is about the most consistent grass move on the market.
rock, ghost, poison, and ice types largely do not benefit. Regice getting Haze is like the only thing i can think of out of these groups, and there aren't as many special sweeper in this meta so it's not as cool as it would be in regular OU with CMers here and there.
fighting gets all of its good moves for every user; that means Breloom gets Cross Chop, Blaziken gets Superpower, and Medicham gets Mach Punch. cham getting strong priority and a more reliable offensive move to spam in Superpower means it might actually be decent sometimes though it does lose to what it will often need to priority against (namely, EK normals). more likely it will be something else for Heracross to throw out.
ground gets Bonemerang on everything, and lets Ninjask get that as well as Earthquake making it an interesting choice for a sweeper. more notably, a bunch of things - including Tyranitar, Shedinja, Dugtrio, Flygon, Steelix, Swampert, Rhydon, Claydol, Donphan, and Camerupt - are able to throw up Spikes. so many spikers means that Skarm isn't as coveted, and it gives mons like Flygon and Tyranitar even more roles they can perform on top of their myriad of others. also Claydol and Donphan can now set spikes as well as spin.
due to the omnipresence of flyers and normals because of their great new STAB and utility options respectively, steels are even better in the meta. the new moves they get aren't much, but they're there. Doom Desire is a cool option for something like Metagross or even a filler on Magneton sets when it has a helpless steel trapped, and things like Skarmory, Scizor, and Registeel gaining Meteor Mash is kinda cool. Iron Defense is another cool filler on Magneton - if you're able to get it in on a steel that can't touch it much, you can set up 3 and usually prevent yourself from being KO'd by whatever comes in. also Rachi gets Meteor Mash which has a 40% chance to raise its Attack.
bugs get the move they all want in Megahorn - Scizor can now throw out both of its STABs but must be really careful of Magneton. random shit like Shuckle getting Spider Web, Ninjask getting Tail Glow, and Forretress getting Twineedle are also worth mentioning.
fire types now get Sacred Fire for spamming and Eruption for sweeping. Houndoom becomes an interesting choice for its ability to Pursuit trap Gengar and throw out Sacred Fires on switches while being able to run Early Bird for all the sleepers in the meta. Blaziken becomes a cool mon as its typing grants it unique resists and it can mix and match how offensive and supportive it wants to get, with options like Fire Blast, Sacred Fire, Eruption, Will-o-Wisp, Superpower, Overheat, Cross Chop, Mach Punch, Swords Dance, Thunderpunch, HP Ice, etc. Moltres can also Aeroblast shit and Sacred Fire em here and there, seems like it's worth trying. at the very least, there are three new fires that benefit from these changes.
darks are like steels in that they get a couple of cool options, though not much huge. stuff like Umbreon can use Crunch now, though it can more importantly Knock Off stuff. sand Cacturnes can also run Torment, as well as Knocking Off leftovers and Crunching when necessary (plus all the new powder moves they get), so i think they benefit a good deal from this. also every dark can now run Memento and support a setup sweeper in a flash. makes Houndoom's set some combo of Crunch/Pursuit/Will-o-Wisp/Memento/Sacred Fire/HP Ice/HP Grass/Knock Off/Counter, a very diverse a difficult to answer to mon thesedays. and yeah Tar can now do a couple more things now.
dragons get some better stuff. Kingdra gains access to Dragon Claw should it want to utilize that in a special Rain Dance set. Flygon gets Dragon Dance now, though it's probably outclassed by now compared to things like Mence or Gyara. otherwise, nothing else happens.
every electric now gets access to Volt Tackle, which could be nice for stuff like Magneton and Jolteon, but you can also use it on Raikou and Zapdos. nothing otherwise.
psychics get a lot of tricks now. they get, well, Trick, giving things like Celebi and Jirachi new ways to disrupt the opponent. Rachi can kinda run like a Meteor Mash/Trick/Body Slam/Hidden Power set but it still gets rocked by Dugtrio and Magneton so eh. every psymon also gets a wide array of boosting moves like Barrier, Amnesia, Agility, Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, and Meditate. random things that come to mind are Agility Rachi, Agility Medicham, double dance Metagross, and a meme Cosmic Power passing Celebi set. random shit can also use Mirror Coat. everything in the tier gets Psycho Boost now which is cool. only other one i can think of is that Rachi can sort of make use of Luster Purge/Mist Ball to drop Sdef/Satk guaranteed in one move respectively, though only 8 PP makes that hard to use well.
water gets little; shit like Milotic and Starmie can run Water Spout (on Starmie it's pretty good as you also get Psycho Boost so you can be an aggro spinner quite well) but otherwise nah. i guess Kingdra can throw out Rain Dance boosted Water Spouts on rain teams but eh.
finally, we have normals! just gonna go thru all of the normal mons that are notabler now:
Altaria: DD/Aeroblast/Lovely Kiss/Filler gives it a strong niche over Mence, nothing else gets those three moves.
Azumarill:
Blissey: you can run things on it like Lovely Kiss for disruption, Baton Pass as a surprise, Perish Song as a backup attack, Rapid Spin to spin on passive Spikers, Whirlwind to phaze CMers, Super Fang for Super Fang shenanigans, and Transform which it's not the worst user of.
Dodrio: CB/Swords Dance/Belly Drum sets with some combo of Aeroblast/Normal STAB/HP Ground/HP Fighting/Explosion/Extremespeed/Lovely Kiss/Rapid Spin/Weather Ball (with Ttar support). Early Bird is also just great to have in this meta.
Espeon: CM/Sub/Psychic can use things like Baton Pass, Encore, Lovely Kiss, Recover, or Glare in the last slot.
Exploud: Roar users have a bit more to worry about now that Exploud has so many more moves it can utilize.
Flareon: some sort of Swords Dance or Belly Drum set that utilizes Sacred Fire could be kinda cool.
Girafarig: nothing in particular comes to mind but this bitch gets a fuckload of relevant support moves and can probably find some way to cheese with any normal and psychic move. plus anything with Early Bird is probably at least viable.
Jolteon: as is the theme, Jolteon is a diverse powerhouse. Volt Tackle is super strong now, and you can Sleep stuff, Spin, Explode, use its super fast Encore, and even heal with Recover, in addition to throwing out SubPasses and Twaves.
Kangaskhan: same deal as Dodrio although it doesn't have Aeroblast but it has actual bulk it can use to help setup with and Early Bird
Miltank: probably not that good but it can use even more support moves now
Porygon2: still reverses trappers, still checks the DDers (though Aeroblast does a fuckload now), probably best used as a Spinner.
Slaking: okay probably bad still but cmon banded Espeed and banded Explosion are probably going to kill at least one mon on a non-Gengar team
Snorlax: probably the best EKiller, watch out for banded Espeeds and stuff like Medicham tho. gets a lot of mileage out of Recover as well, and can even support with stuff like Spin.
Swellow: gains access to Explosion and Lovely Kiss and Aeroblast making it a dangerously fast sleeper that's capable of taking things out after it does its job. can also make use of surprise options like Weather Ball if need be.
Tauros: a better Kangaskhan with an arguably better ability, though loses out on Early Bird. Belly Drum/SD/Band it and watch it go to town - though band on pure normals probs not the best idea since Dodrio and Swellow outclass em in that regard.
Umbreon: regular Umbreon shit with more options, Recover/Spin/Toxic/Pursuit or something could be a solid spinner.
Vaporeon: also does standard Vaporeon stuff but it can now Recover, Spin, or Super Fang.
whew. what all have you been trying out? what works and what doesn't?
flying types all get Aeroblast (and Drill Peck!). this means Aerodactyl, Salamence, Gyarados, Swellow, Dodrio, and even shit like Bellyzard and Altaria get more reliable STABs than the terrible HP Flying. otherwise kind of barren - i guess Zapdos getting Featherdance might be cool once in a blue moon (or Skarmory). oh and Scizor also gets to use it though i don't think it's the best option.
grasses of course get Spore, certain key mons like Celebi get access to Stun Spore as well, and others like Venusaur gain Aromatherapy. everything also has access to Leaf Blade which is about the most consistent grass move on the market.
rock, ghost, poison, and ice types largely do not benefit. Regice getting Haze is like the only thing i can think of out of these groups, and there aren't as many special sweeper in this meta so it's not as cool as it would be in regular OU with CMers here and there.
fighting gets all of its good moves for every user; that means Breloom gets Cross Chop, Blaziken gets Superpower, and Medicham gets Mach Punch. cham getting strong priority and a more reliable offensive move to spam in Superpower means it might actually be decent sometimes though it does lose to what it will often need to priority against (namely, EK normals). more likely it will be something else for Heracross to throw out.
ground gets Bonemerang on everything, and lets Ninjask get that as well as Earthquake making it an interesting choice for a sweeper. more notably, a bunch of things - including Tyranitar, Shedinja, Dugtrio, Flygon, Steelix, Swampert, Rhydon, Claydol, Donphan, and Camerupt - are able to throw up Spikes. so many spikers means that Skarm isn't as coveted, and it gives mons like Flygon and Tyranitar even more roles they can perform on top of their myriad of others. also Claydol and Donphan can now set spikes as well as spin.
due to the omnipresence of flyers and normals because of their great new STAB and utility options respectively, steels are even better in the meta. the new moves they get aren't much, but they're there. Doom Desire is a cool option for something like Metagross or even a filler on Magneton sets when it has a helpless steel trapped, and things like Skarmory, Scizor, and Registeel gaining Meteor Mash is kinda cool. Iron Defense is another cool filler on Magneton - if you're able to get it in on a steel that can't touch it much, you can set up 3 and usually prevent yourself from being KO'd by whatever comes in. also Rachi gets Meteor Mash which has a 40% chance to raise its Attack.
bugs get the move they all want in Megahorn - Scizor can now throw out both of its STABs but must be really careful of Magneton. random shit like Shuckle getting Spider Web, Ninjask getting Tail Glow, and Forretress getting Twineedle are also worth mentioning.
fire types now get Sacred Fire for spamming and Eruption for sweeping. Houndoom becomes an interesting choice for its ability to Pursuit trap Gengar and throw out Sacred Fires on switches while being able to run Early Bird for all the sleepers in the meta. Blaziken becomes a cool mon as its typing grants it unique resists and it can mix and match how offensive and supportive it wants to get, with options like Fire Blast, Sacred Fire, Eruption, Will-o-Wisp, Superpower, Overheat, Cross Chop, Mach Punch, Swords Dance, Thunderpunch, HP Ice, etc. Moltres can also Aeroblast shit and Sacred Fire em here and there, seems like it's worth trying. at the very least, there are three new fires that benefit from these changes.
darks are like steels in that they get a couple of cool options, though not much huge. stuff like Umbreon can use Crunch now, though it can more importantly Knock Off stuff. sand Cacturnes can also run Torment, as well as Knocking Off leftovers and Crunching when necessary (plus all the new powder moves they get), so i think they benefit a good deal from this. also every dark can now run Memento and support a setup sweeper in a flash. makes Houndoom's set some combo of Crunch/Pursuit/Will-o-Wisp/Memento/Sacred Fire/HP Ice/HP Grass/Knock Off/Counter, a very diverse a difficult to answer to mon thesedays. and yeah Tar can now do a couple more things now.
dragons get some better stuff. Kingdra gains access to Dragon Claw should it want to utilize that in a special Rain Dance set. Flygon gets Dragon Dance now, though it's probably outclassed by now compared to things like Mence or Gyara. otherwise, nothing else happens.
every electric now gets access to Volt Tackle, which could be nice for stuff like Magneton and Jolteon, but you can also use it on Raikou and Zapdos. nothing otherwise.
psychics get a lot of tricks now. they get, well, Trick, giving things like Celebi and Jirachi new ways to disrupt the opponent. Rachi can kinda run like a Meteor Mash/Trick/Body Slam/Hidden Power set but it still gets rocked by Dugtrio and Magneton so eh. every psymon also gets a wide array of boosting moves like Barrier, Amnesia, Agility, Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, and Meditate. random things that come to mind are Agility Rachi, Agility Medicham, double dance Metagross, and a meme Cosmic Power passing Celebi set. random shit can also use Mirror Coat. everything in the tier gets Psycho Boost now which is cool. only other one i can think of is that Rachi can sort of make use of Luster Purge/Mist Ball to drop Sdef/Satk guaranteed in one move respectively, though only 8 PP makes that hard to use well.
water gets little; shit like Milotic and Starmie can run Water Spout (on Starmie it's pretty good as you also get Psycho Boost so you can be an aggro spinner quite well) but otherwise nah. i guess Kingdra can throw out Rain Dance boosted Water Spouts on rain teams but eh.
finally, we have normals! just gonna go thru all of the normal mons that are notabler now:
Altaria: DD/Aeroblast/Lovely Kiss/Filler gives it a strong niche over Mence, nothing else gets those three moves.
Azumarill:
Blissey: you can run things on it like Lovely Kiss for disruption, Baton Pass as a surprise, Perish Song as a backup attack, Rapid Spin to spin on passive Spikers, Whirlwind to phaze CMers, Super Fang for Super Fang shenanigans, and Transform which it's not the worst user of.
Dodrio: CB/Swords Dance/Belly Drum sets with some combo of Aeroblast/Normal STAB/HP Ground/HP Fighting/Explosion/Extremespeed/Lovely Kiss/Rapid Spin/Weather Ball (with Ttar support). Early Bird is also just great to have in this meta.
Espeon: CM/Sub/Psychic can use things like Baton Pass, Encore, Lovely Kiss, Recover, or Glare in the last slot.
Exploud: Roar users have a bit more to worry about now that Exploud has so many more moves it can utilize.
Flareon: some sort of Swords Dance or Belly Drum set that utilizes Sacred Fire could be kinda cool.
Girafarig: nothing in particular comes to mind but this bitch gets a fuckload of relevant support moves and can probably find some way to cheese with any normal and psychic move. plus anything with Early Bird is probably at least viable.
Jolteon: as is the theme, Jolteon is a diverse powerhouse. Volt Tackle is super strong now, and you can Sleep stuff, Spin, Explode, use its super fast Encore, and even heal with Recover, in addition to throwing out SubPasses and Twaves.
Kangaskhan: same deal as Dodrio although it doesn't have Aeroblast but it has actual bulk it can use to help setup with and Early Bird
Miltank: probably not that good but it can use even more support moves now
Porygon2: still reverses trappers, still checks the DDers (though Aeroblast does a fuckload now), probably best used as a Spinner.
Slaking: okay probably bad still but cmon banded Espeed and banded Explosion are probably going to kill at least one mon on a non-Gengar team
Snorlax: probably the best EKiller, watch out for banded Espeeds and stuff like Medicham tho. gets a lot of mileage out of Recover as well, and can even support with stuff like Spin.
Swellow: gains access to Explosion and Lovely Kiss and Aeroblast making it a dangerously fast sleeper that's capable of taking things out after it does its job. can also make use of surprise options like Weather Ball if need be.
Tauros: a better Kangaskhan with an arguably better ability, though loses out on Early Bird. Belly Drum/SD/Band it and watch it go to town - though band on pure normals probs not the best idea since Dodrio and Swellow outclass em in that regard.
Umbreon: regular Umbreon shit with more options, Recover/Spin/Toxic/Pursuit or something could be a solid spinner.
Vaporeon: also does standard Vaporeon stuff but it can now Recover, Spin, or Super Fang.
whew. what all have you been trying out? what works and what doesn't?
