Project [NEW] SV OU Office Hours [BACK OPEN FOR QUESTIONS]

[Finchinator]

What newly introduced Indigo Disk pokemon do you like the most?

Hydrapple is really cool and, in my opinion, underrated in OU!

2 questions:

Favorite album to listen to rn?
What mon are you most excited to build around rn?

Badlands - Halsey

Been toying with Indeedee + Deo-S + Poltea lately, insanely cheesy fun

If you had one lower tier pokemon to buff, which would it be. For me, it would be giving vespiquen +20 to defenses and regenerator.

What playstyle do you have a visceral reaction to? Ribombee sticky webs for me has led to me using a scarf dual wingbeat salamence mainly to prevent sticky webs, Bee is just too reliable and doesn't feel as wasted a teamslot.

I would give Slowbro back Teleport honestly, it would be so good

I find Webs to be outplayable with a lot of natural remedies like boots spam, Cinderace, Hatterene, etc., but personally I find Sun teams to be rather obnoxious right now

What is your favourite Not Fully Evolved mon?
Do you believe that should evolve into , should evolve into and should evolve into terapagos?

Scyther probably

Yes, Yes, no LOL

If you could make a change to the typing chart, what change would you make?

Poison flip from doing 0 to Steel to being super effective

Two questions

What’s your favorite NU Pokémon/team rn? (Ik this is OU Office Hours but hey)

If you could change one thing about Tiering policy, what would it be?

Have not touched NU in some weeks now, but it was Florges

I would go back and not have Aldaron's proposal take place in BW; it created a shitstorm we still deal with to this day

is there a plan for tera to be tested post-dlc?

Formal plan? No, it will hinge on community support. Informal plan to get discussions going and gauge support? Yes, we intend to include it on a survey in a couple months once this metagame settles, which will help us determine if a suspect is worth pursuing or not.

 

[Finchinator]

Why are tiering decisions made in OU without consideration for how it would affect lower tiers? I understand that OU is the central tier and the most widely played, but to make decisions while ignoring them feels…ignorant?

Why would it ever be our job to consider other metagames? Tiering one flagship format is more than enough as is and their presence does not directly impact our metagame. It is always the onus of lower tiers to react to OU usage and OU tiering, never the other way around. This just contradicts the point of the current usage-based tiering ladder.

Obviously, I’m mostly talking about the impact a Tera and BE ban would have. Of course, we see that very useful tools when given to an extremely high power level can cause them to be broken (which is why Tera and BE ban calls exist in OU). However, at the same time, the lower levels show that an equilibrium point exists in which they balanced to a high degree.

These are things that if I were to factor in when tiering OU, then I would be doing a great disservice to the OU players and OU tier. It would be backwards. I would not expect UU to factor RU or NU in when tiering for itself either and so on.

The latest example for this is now Terapagos. Obviously, it does make more sense for the whole Pokémon to be banned according to tiering policy. However, as part of your response to calls for the stellar form only to be banned, you argued that it would have no niche in OU, so doing so contributes nothing. However, if that is true, Pagos could contribute heavily to lower tiers. You know how strapped for hazard removal the lower tiers are. Even if Paragos doesn’t fall all the way down, the effect it would have on higher tiers could cause a snowball effect, leading to more hazard removal options in lower tiers (as seen when Treads fell to UU).

I never argued anything about Terapagos regular's niche in any tier. And this is just not how tiering works regardless as you seem to acknowledge in your post, so yea.

What kind of the strings would I need to pull to cancel team preview & what requirements from the community do you feel you need to have to allow open team sheets on the ladder or SPL?

Neither is happening; these would be insanely drastic changes with the former going directly against in-game battle mechanics and the latter not even being on the radar currently. Having ladder or the biggest tournament adopt this on whim would be an all-time misstep.

 

[Finchinator]

This is back open now. Sorry, but the drop of DLC and then some IRL issues made it very hard to balance everything, so I put this on the backburner for a bit. But with DLC2 now up-and-running + some things off my plate, I am happy to keep this going!

 

[GT89]

Are the tier shifts happening today or are we waiting until after the Holiday/Day after? Sorry if this is discussed somewhere else already.

 

[Finchinator]

Are the tier shifts happening today or are we waiting until after the Holiday/Day after? Sorry if this is discussed somewhere else already.

No clue; PS/Smogon has a strong team and it will happen whenever they get to it. I do not have any extra knowledge on this topic

 

[GT89]

No clue; PS/Smogon has a strong team and it will happen whenever they get to it. I do not have any extra knowledge on this topic

Oh ok. Sounds good. Thanks! Happy New Year.

 

[TCTphantom]

Out of the mons on the current survey, which do you have the strongest feelings towards right now? Personally for me it’s Roaring Moon, Kyurem, and Gholdengo.

Conversely, is there anything on the survey you feel adamant is fine for now?

 

[ACExDiscostu93]

For all the new mons the DLC has introduced, which do you feel has had the greatest positive impact and which has had the greatest negative impact on the metagame?

Are there any pokemon which you are excited to use due to buffs that you would have generally dismissed in previous gens?

 

[NotDaProGamer]

New Year's Resolution?
Any mons which usually use one attacking stat that you find success using the other stat with? Saw some people with special so curious.

 

[Just A Shroom God]

Personal question, feel free not to answer:
Do you ever get tired of being "the face of OU"? You've all the responsibilities of a normal council member with the added pressure of being the person people go to to whine, ask favors, request bans, ask questions, etc. I know I wouldn't be able to handle a week, and you seem to be always present and always ready to calmly respond to everybody.

For that matter, do you ever get tired of playing pokemon in general? One of my biggest struggles this generation was not playing during the points that I hated the meta, and then being even less skilled than usual when coming back. You're practically one of the founding members of the site, and you've played through many different iterations of OU. How do you deal with it?

 

[Director]

Thoughts on Weavile in the current meta? I’ve been enjoying sd vile as a powerful cleaner.

With weavile specifically, how to I decide if I should run icicle crash or triple axel? I really like triple axel for the damage thresholds it reaches but the sheer inconsistency of the move makes me hesitant to use it. In that regard, how do you balance luck in the team builder?

 

[Finchinator]

Out of the mons on the current survey, which do you have the strongest feelings towards right now? Personally for me it’s Roaring Moon, Kyurem, and Gholdengo.

Kyurem followed by Gouging Fire. Kyurem I am very confident is going to end up drawing more complaints and getting suspected eventually. Gouging Fire and Roaring Moon deserve serious consideration, too.

Conversely, is there anything on the survey you feel adamant is fine for now?

Iron Boulder is very good, but clearly not broken to me.

For all the new mons the DLC has introduced, which do you feel has had the greatest positive impact and which has had the greatest negative impact on the metagame?

I think that Archaludon and Hydrapple are cool additions, but I wish Raging Bolt was not around because it is annoying mostly lol

Are there any pokemon which you are excited to use due to buffs that you would have generally dismissed in previous gens?

Latios seemed cool with no Pursuit and Luster Purge/Flip Turn, but it is still middling sadly.

New Year's Resolution?

Finally moving out with my gf this year hopefully!

Any mons which usually use one attacking stat that you find success using the other stat with? Saw some people with special so curious.

Scale Shot Kyurem deserves a shout for sure

 

[Finchinator]

Personal question, feel free not to answer:
Do you ever get tired of being "the face of OU"? You've all the responsibilities of a normal council member with the added pressure of being the person people go to to whine, ask favors, request bans, ask questions, etc. I know I wouldn't be able to handle a week, and you seem to be always present and always ready to calmly respond to everybody.

It is an honor and a pleasure honestly. I just do my best and sometimes it does get to me -- people may note I sometimes clapback at people on Twitter or PS, for example, but for every one of them there are dozens I ignore at least. It is just about staying strong and finding ways to have the most fun I can, which I have thankfully had this generation thus far!

For that matter, do you ever get tired of playing pokemon in general? One of my biggest struggles this generation was not playing during the points that I hated the meta, and then being even less skilled than usual when coming back. You're practically one of the founding members of the site, and you've played through many different iterations of OU. How do you deal with it?

I am definitely not one of the founding members of the site; I started playing in 2011 and Smogon started in late 2004! I was 6 years old at the time actually lol

With this in mind, not yet. I have some lofty goals I still hope to achieve as a player within tournaments that keep me grinding harder than ever.

Thoughts on Weavile in the current meta? I’ve been enjoying sd vile as a powerful cleaner.

It got quite good, yea

With weavile specifically, how to I decide if I should run icicle crash or triple axel? I really like triple axel for the damage thresholds it reaches but the sheer inconsistency of the move makes me hesitant to use it. In that regard, how do you balance luck in the team builder?

Triple Axel is usually better for sheer damage output and you have to accept it is not always the best. You can opt to drop SD and run both, you can opt to run it alongside a fully accurate team to minimize other methods of bad RNG, etc., but there are some inevitable risk factors upon us

 

[j0nathan]

Stats and Movepool are already leaked so do you think Pecharunt will end up in OU?
And why does Pecharunt kinda look like it could be a Masquerain Regional?

 

[Finchinator]

Stats and Movepool are already leaked so do you think Pecharunt will end up in OU?
And why does Pecharunt kinda look like it could be a Masquerain Regional?

It’ll definitely be good in OU imo

 

[Heatranator]

What playstyle would you like to buff hypothetically? Like how sun got buffed with proto mons, something that is unique and we wouldn't have expected.
What would be an item that you would like to be introduced? Either returning or new, both if you want to.

 

[NotDaProGamer]

Weavile vs Meowscarada?

 

[DaddyBuzzwole]

assuming tera sticks around, do you, or anyone on the council to your knowledge, have any plans to ever unban or test any ubers in the foreseeable future of the gen? if so, which ones have crossed your mind? it's been a point of contention in the meta discussion thread recently and i'd like to get a clear perspective of what is and isn't being considered so the discussion can be guided towards the most productive avenues

 

[TCTphantom]

Gonna go with a bit of a reversal of the above question.

If somehow we get action on Tera, what would the council’s plan be? Would we see things pushed over the edge due to it brought down slowly, or all at once? Would there be interest in looking into borderline cases of whether Tera was what debatably broke the mon, like say Urshifu Rapid or Ogerpon Hearthflame? What if the test was just for Tera Blast?

Full disclosure idc what happens to Tera at this point, I like the mechanic. I just wanna know what the path forward would be if Tera left out meta. Or Tera Blast, which I’d say is far more likely to go.

 

[Dreadfury]

Huh, not a lot of recent posts. May as well toss my hat into the ring with four questions:

• From a competitive standpoint, what's your favorite non-OU mon to use (this can include OU mons that work differently in Ubers compared to how they play in their native OU, but can't include a lower-tier mon's OU-viable set) across any generation, and what's a mon in a recent (think Gens 7-9) OU metagame that works reasonably close to how that mon works in that metagame?
• What's your favorite Deo-S set? If it's an offensive set, what's your ideal combination of four moves and Tera type?
• I see you posting tons of pictures of stuff you get at Buffalo Wild Wings. What's your favorite sauce? Mine's Asian Zing!
• How are you today (or whichever day you wind up responding to this)?

 

[woodgoldtwo]

Thoughts on Pecharunt? I remember people speculating that it could be a good Iron Valiant answer when its stats and typing were datamined but I haven’t seen much discussion on Iron Valiant recently (in the 100 something pages of the OU metagame discussion thread I’ve seen at least) (except for comparisons to Iron Boulder)

 

[Hykalia]

Ok, so serious question. What do you think about serene grace, relic song Meloetta? I've noticed this thing popping up on a few teams after the sleep ban happened and I guess the move has a 20% chance to induce sleep. I only know this because its happened a few times now. Its not obnoxious or anything, but is this something that should've been included in the sleep ban? I suppose instead of banning the move you could just mod out its secondary effect since Meloetta relies on it to switch forms and everything, but idk, what do you think Finch?

 

[FlamingoPokeman]

Ok, so serious question. What do you think about serene grace, relic song Meloetta? I've noticed this thing popping up on a few teams after the sleep ban happened and I guess the move has a 20% chance to induce sleep. I only know this because its happened a few times now. Its not obnoxious or anything, but is this something that should've been included in the sleep ban? I suppose instead of banning the move you could just mod out its secondary effect since Meloetta relies on it to switch forms and everything, but idk, what do you think Finch?

My understanding is that the OU Council wanted to stay true to cartridge in the sense of banning moves that directly cause sleep but NOT banning abilities or secondary effects that could cause it, such as Relic Song or Effect Spore.

 

[Hykalia]

My understanding is that the OU Council wanted to stay true to cartridge in the sense of banning moves that directly cause sleep but NOT banning abilities or secondary effects that could cause it, such as Relic Song or Effect Spore.

That's understandable and honestly Meloetta isn't a great pokemon outside of its 20% sleep chance and honestly the only people I saw using this strategy were sub 1400, not a single player I've faced since the ban that was above that threshold has used this gimmick.