Pair it with lunar dance cresselia to restore iron head pp and HP aswell :)
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Metagame SV RU Metagame Discussion (April Shifts, see post #191)
- Thread starter Feliburn
- Start date
Some first impressions of playing this tier. Not too high up on the ladder so take anything I say with a grain of salt.
Jirachi is a fantastic addition to the tier. Not only is a versatile, well-rounded Steel-type that compresses a lot of utility (including U-turn and Rocks) in one slot, it also has ENCORE. A decently fast Encore is extremely useful in this economy to own a lot of random cheese setup sweepers that you may encounter in the ladder, namely double dance Enamorus-T. Jirachi reminds me a lot of Magearna from earlier iterations of the UUbers metagame in this sense, since its a strong utility piece. I really like pairing it with Roar Moltres, since the two have good defensive synergy and you can do lines like Encore with Rachi -> U-turn -> Roar out with Moltres to soft check most greedy setup mons. I've seen a lot of other sets on this mon, like Calm Mind, Scarf, Meteor Beam, WishProtect, etc. so this mon isn't just limited to utility roles & can run some random moves to mow through common counterplay to standardish sets (like Thunderbolt for Slowbro or Tera Blast Ground for other Jirachi). I could see calls to ban this mon down the line for that reason, but IMO it is an extremely positive presence to the tier.
From using this Pokemon and facing it, the bicycle is just cancer. If there is one thing I hate about both UU and RU, its that a 121 speed Regen mon with Knock and U-turn sees a high amount of usage. That being said, Cyclizar's lack of a Stealth Rock weakness, access to Rapid Spin, and higher accuracy moves might make it more annoying to deal with in RU compared to Torn-T in UU. Very few Pokemon can match this Pokemon's progress making capabilities, and long-term, it is very difficult to answer. Its ridiculous speed tier also lets it revenge kill most of the metagame. I think the worst part is that the bike doesn't even answer itself well, since other bikes can tech Draco or deal a shitton of damage with double edge. I get that this Pokemon is very much needed in the metagame to handle hazards + act as speed control, but I do question how healthy it is (at least on initial impression). At the very least, Spikes aren't as easy to come by in this tier compared to OU, so the consequences of its Knock Off aren't as lethal.
Moltres is once again proving itself to be the most GOATED mon in whatever tier its used in. Admittingly, the weakness to Knock Off isn't great, but its friend, the Bicycle, makes it relatively easy to keep hazards off so it can continue being an annoying presence by spreading burns with Flame Body, Scorching Sands, or Wisp, or dealing a bit of chip with U-turn as it staves off some key physical attackers. I'm liking Roar as well for various setup mons. Also finding it to be one of the better users of the Tera mechanic post Knock Off since it doesn't need to be as paranoid around rocks.
IDK why this mon is NU when it is good af in RU as well. One of the better checks to Barra, good longevity with Regen, can setup Future Sights pretty well, and has access to both Scald and T-Wave to spread burn or para. Its also one of the best status absorbers ever since it doesn't gaf about either burn or para and can still be effective even after a potential poison. Its a great defensive Tera user as well to more reliably check some threats like Salamence or Alolan-Muk (lowkey nasty mon to face). It does really suck that it lost Teleport in the generational shit since a slow pivot would have been extremely good, but its still a very effective Pokemon imo.
This mon is fun. With so many status spreading mons in the tier, I've been trying to run a pivoty utility set with Hex and Wisp to mimic Dragapult in OU. Its nowhere near as effective as Dragapult is in this role due to its lower speed and bulk (which gives it an awful match-up into Cyclizar), but it can still clean end-games if played well. What I find really cool is that this mon can disguise itself as a lot of other mons like Cyclizar, Thundurus-T, and Moltres effectively since its running a lot of similar moves (namely Knock Off, U-turn, and Wisp). This can't be relied upon, but it is really cool since you can force some otherwise unoptimal interactions in your favor, like luring the opponent's Crawdaunt out when disguised as Slowbro to "land" a free Wisp, or baiting an opposing fighting move when disguised as Cyclizar / Ghost move when disguised as JIrachi. WIth Boots, it becomes more difficult to tell which mon is really Zoroark. I think a set like the one I'm running might be a bit too position based to be effective at higher levels of play, esp since Zoroark-H isn't bulky enough to spread Will-O-wisp on its own, but it sure is fun.
Jirachi is a fantastic addition to the tier. Not only is a versatile, well-rounded Steel-type that compresses a lot of utility (including U-turn and Rocks) in one slot, it also has ENCORE. A decently fast Encore is extremely useful in this economy to own a lot of random cheese setup sweepers that you may encounter in the ladder, namely double dance Enamorus-T. Jirachi reminds me a lot of Magearna from earlier iterations of the UUbers metagame in this sense, since its a strong utility piece. I really like pairing it with Roar Moltres, since the two have good defensive synergy and you can do lines like Encore with Rachi -> U-turn -> Roar out with Moltres to soft check most greedy setup mons. I've seen a lot of other sets on this mon, like Calm Mind, Scarf, Meteor Beam, WishProtect, etc. so this mon isn't just limited to utility roles & can run some random moves to mow through common counterplay to standardish sets (like Thunderbolt for Slowbro or Tera Blast Ground for other Jirachi). I could see calls to ban this mon down the line for that reason, but IMO it is an extremely positive presence to the tier.
From using this Pokemon and facing it, the bicycle is just cancer. If there is one thing I hate about both UU and RU, its that a 121 speed Regen mon with Knock and U-turn sees a high amount of usage. That being said, Cyclizar's lack of a Stealth Rock weakness, access to Rapid Spin, and higher accuracy moves might make it more annoying to deal with in RU compared to Torn-T in UU. Very few Pokemon can match this Pokemon's progress making capabilities, and long-term, it is very difficult to answer. Its ridiculous speed tier also lets it revenge kill most of the metagame. I think the worst part is that the bike doesn't even answer itself well, since other bikes can tech Draco or deal a shitton of damage with double edge. I get that this Pokemon is very much needed in the metagame to handle hazards + act as speed control, but I do question how healthy it is (at least on initial impression). At the very least, Spikes aren't as easy to come by in this tier compared to OU, so the consequences of its Knock Off aren't as lethal.
Moltres is once again proving itself to be the most GOATED mon in whatever tier its used in. Admittingly, the weakness to Knock Off isn't great, but its friend, the Bicycle, makes it relatively easy to keep hazards off so it can continue being an annoying presence by spreading burns with Flame Body, Scorching Sands, or Wisp, or dealing a bit of chip with U-turn as it staves off some key physical attackers. I'm liking Roar as well for various setup mons. Also finding it to be one of the better users of the Tera mechanic post Knock Off since it doesn't need to be as paranoid around rocks.
IDK why this mon is NU when it is good af in RU as well. One of the better checks to Barra, good longevity with Regen, can setup Future Sights pretty well, and has access to both Scald and T-Wave to spread burn or para. Its also one of the best status absorbers ever since it doesn't gaf about either burn or para and can still be effective even after a potential poison. Its a great defensive Tera user as well to more reliably check some threats like Salamence or Alolan-Muk (lowkey nasty mon to face). It does really suck that it lost Teleport in the generational shit since a slow pivot would have been extremely good, but its still a very effective Pokemon imo.
This mon is fun. With so many status spreading mons in the tier, I've been trying to run a pivoty utility set with Hex and Wisp to mimic Dragapult in OU. Its nowhere near as effective as Dragapult is in this role due to its lower speed and bulk (which gives it an awful match-up into Cyclizar), but it can still clean end-games if played well. What I find really cool is that this mon can disguise itself as a lot of other mons like Cyclizar, Thundurus-T, and Moltres effectively since its running a lot of similar moves (namely Knock Off, U-turn, and Wisp). This can't be relied upon, but it is really cool since you can force some otherwise unoptimal interactions in your favor, like luring the opponent's Crawdaunt out when disguised as Slowbro to "land" a free Wisp, or baiting an opposing fighting move when disguised as Cyclizar / Ghost move when disguised as JIrachi. WIth Boots, it becomes more difficult to tell which mon is really Zoroark. I think a set like the one I'm running might be a bit too position based to be effective at higher levels of play, esp since Zoroark-H isn't bulky enough to spread Will-O-wisp on its own, but it sure is fun.
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Agreed, the bicycle is cancerous to me, it just knocks and u-turns on everything, and is really annoying to deal with due to regen giving it suprising amounts of bulk.
Anyways, to commerate "screw cyclizar" day, here are some sets and mons that can outspeed and ko cyclizar from full.
Noivern @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Frisk
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dragon Pulse
- Moonlight
- Hurricane
- Flamethrower
Noivern can naturally outspeed cyclizar and ko it with a dragon pulse most of the time if it isn't assault vest, if it is, then it is 2hit ko'd. Dragon pulse is better than draco due to not dropping your offenses, which can mean that noivern remains more active and if they switch cyclizar out, it isn't becoming setup fodder.
Barraskewda @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Flip Turn
- Ice Fang
- Liquidation
Barraskewda can outspeed and ko cyclizar with cc, or if you want to get funky, tera water liquidation two hit kos cyclizar anyways. Ice fang even has a chance to ohko cyclizar, though that is a mere 6.3%, but hey, you can flex on people with that move.
That's it. The mons that can naturally outspeed cyclizar without employing a choice scarf, due to cyclizar usually knocking it off as they come in, and not use tera. Seriously, this thing is annoying af.
I've come across a fun and surprisingly strong strategy lately while trying to optimize some overlooked mons: Cobalion + toxic spikes.
Cobalion is the best pokemon in the tier, no doubt about that, and ironpress is its best set. But it has a few obnoxious roadblocks in mons like Hippowdon, Palossand, Basculegion and Slowbro. But something these guys all have in common is a real vulnerability to toxic spikes. None of them like being poisoned, and it allows you to wear them down through passive damage for a Cobalion sweep. Another fun side effect is that you are less reliant on taunt to beat mons like hippo, you can more freely run stealth rock or volt switch to keep up momentum vs switches. Tspikes also pair pretty well with more offensive Cobalions for the same reason. SD Coba is still countered by Palossand and Slowbro, so tspikes help vs them as well. The awkward part is trying to fit a spiker on the team. Gengar is frail and can't really set them up multiple times, Tentacruel is just a wacky pokemon in general, Quagsire is Quagsire and Dragalge is slow and awkward. Tentacruel is the best option I've found, it fits well on Cobalion teams and has good type synergy. It's worth using a mon like Tentacruel to make Cobalion even better.
team suggestions:
You need a few good knockers on this team in order to deal with boots slowbro or FlamingoPokeman running boots palossand. Tentacruel is a possible option there, though I don't like the thought of having to take away a move to fit it. If you use another toxic spiker than Tentacruel then you can fit the ol' reliable Cyclizar. Krookodile is a good knocker that can also be an offensive rocker if you use volt switch Cobalion, and there are plenty of other creative options like Okidogi, Empoleon, Horoark, Gapdos and Thundurus.
Amoonguss is a problem, but fortunately for us it is also a hella fake mon. It's not that good and we can make some simple changes to handle it. Sub or taunt Cobalion turns Amogus into a victim, safety goggles has a similar effect, and even if you don't want to use more niche options for Cobalion then there are plenty of team options to punish the imposter. Flip turn Tenta and volt switch Cobalion can help you bring in mons like Gardevoir, Entei, Gapdos and Moltres to force it back out and deal big damage to the rest of the team. Glowbro is a problem for similar reasons, but fortunately it is even more fake than Amoonguss and nearly as exploitable. All the other poison types in the tier just don't beat Cobalion. Fezandipiti gets slammed, AMuk gets set up on, Gengar gets slammed and Vroom gets pressed.
Cobalion @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Heavy Slam
- Volt Switch
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Heavy Slam
- Volt Switch
Cobalion is the best pokemon in the tier, no doubt about that, and ironpress is its best set. But it has a few obnoxious roadblocks in mons like Hippowdon, Palossand, Basculegion and Slowbro. But something these guys all have in common is a real vulnerability to toxic spikes. None of them like being poisoned, and it allows you to wear them down through passive damage for a Cobalion sweep. Another fun side effect is that you are less reliant on taunt to beat mons like hippo, you can more freely run stealth rock or volt switch to keep up momentum vs switches. Tspikes also pair pretty well with more offensive Cobalions for the same reason. SD Coba is still countered by Palossand and Slowbro, so tspikes help vs them as well. The awkward part is trying to fit a spiker on the team. Gengar is frail and can't really set them up multiple times, Tentacruel is just a wacky pokemon in general, Quagsire is Quagsire and Dragalge is slow and awkward. Tentacruel is the best option I've found, it fits well on Cobalion teams and has good type synergy. It's worth using a mon like Tentacruel to make Cobalion even better.
team suggestions:
You need a few good knockers on this team in order to deal with boots slowbro or FlamingoPokeman running boots palossand. Tentacruel is a possible option there, though I don't like the thought of having to take away a move to fit it. If you use another toxic spiker than Tentacruel then you can fit the ol' reliable Cyclizar. Krookodile is a good knocker that can also be an offensive rocker if you use volt switch Cobalion, and there are plenty of other creative options like Okidogi, Empoleon, Horoark, Gapdos and Thundurus.
Amoonguss is a problem, but fortunately for us it is also a hella fake mon. It's not that good and we can make some simple changes to handle it. Sub or taunt Cobalion turns Amogus into a victim, safety goggles has a similar effect, and even if you don't want to use more niche options for Cobalion then there are plenty of team options to punish the imposter. Flip turn Tenta and volt switch Cobalion can help you bring in mons like Gardevoir, Entei, Gapdos and Moltres to force it back out and deal big damage to the rest of the team. Glowbro is a problem for similar reasons, but fortunately it is even more fake than Amoonguss and nearly as exploitable. All the other poison types in the tier just don't beat Cobalion. Fezandipiti gets slammed, AMuk gets set up on, Gengar gets slammed and Vroom gets pressed.
I know it's not my place to say and they gotta build against the set posted, but I feel like it's very interesting that a very, VERY large majority of the so-called "checks and counters" in the Victim Of The Week thread suddenly get threatened by thundy-t if it decides to run any type of coverage other than electric stab and grass knot. Namely Tera Flying T-Blast, and for the clinically insane, Tera Ice T-Blast. There's also Dark Pulse, Sludge Bomb, Flash Cannon; Thundy-T honestly can just pull out whatever it needs out of it's moveset sometimes and the crazy thing is that you can't really predict it. like at +2 with tera Ice or tera Flying most of these supposed "checks" either get OHKO'd or 2HKO'd; If your check relies on not being mildly chipped or being switched in Thundy-T can just... kill you and there's nothing you can do about it sometimes. IDK, I just wanted to yap about this, I'm probably being stupid
TLDR; never make assumptions against Thundy-T because it WILL kill you and it WILL steal and burn your last will and testament in front of your grieving family "for the bit"
TLDR; never make assumptions against Thundy-T because it WILL kill you and it WILL steal and burn your last will and testament in front of your grieving family "for the bit"
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You are very right on everything you just said. Thundurus-T is indeed the best pokemon in the metagame. Agility beats offensive counterplay, Nasty Plot beats any fat, Specs demolishes Balance. You can fish for any MU you want and even if you don't fight what you fished for, it always forces awkward plays for the opponent who was to juggle between its immunities and any misstep means you lose, especially against Tera Blast Flying Specs where it's a 50/50 between TBolt and Tera Blast, and if you guess wrong you lose a mon. I'm not even talking about how it can get past any answer just by switching its last move. Doesn't help that common answers like Scarf Gardevoir can't switch into Sludge Bomb variants, Cyclizar gets mopped by Focus Blast... Well, they both fold to Specs Tera Blast Flying anyway soooo
Alright, with RU open on the horizon and RUPL nearing the finale of the 2nd week, I think it's time we start discussing the meta as a whole. Personally, I both like and despise this meta. On one hand, the list of viable Pokémon is quite high, and it reminds me of SM where there's obviously a higher echelon, but you can reach down for a ton of variety flavor picks. Pokémon like Palossand, Conkeldurr, Overqwil, and a lot of other Pokémon allow for a healthy degree of variety.. However, I find that a lot of Pokémon in this tier right now are very both obnoxious in the builder and the battle, and some others that I think are becoming pressing concerns. Building can be obnoxious because there's a lot of highly threatening things in the tier where your pressed for what you can fit to check them, often resorting to the half-measure to everything: Cyclizar, to do so, which is highly abusable and abused. I think that multiple elements needs to go / have an eye kept on them going forward, and I'll list some of them right now.
I'll start with this one because I've seen some claims that Jirachi has helped make this pokemon more manageable and... yeah no it has not. The most that has done is just make it run Tera Electric, which is something I'll get to later. Alot of pokemon that check this thing are liable to get punked by a random Tera or coverage slot / another set it has. Agility is an underexplored moveslot which can fix Enam-T's primarily flaw, being revenge killed, and with modest max it can shoot to being 382, faster than things like Noivern, and realistically, faster than anything relevant in the tier besides Jolly Barraskewda without a scarf. Rotom-Heat is vulnerable to getting chipped down, and loading pain split so you don't just lose automatically lose the long term forces you to abandon 2 of NP, Wisp, or Twave, none of which it really wants to abandon. This also ignores how Tera electric also lets you CM through any non NP variant, which also completely invalidates Jirachi as a check, as seen here. Enamorus has solid odds to outspeed a teams given ground type after using T-Electric, between Quagsire, Hippowdon, Gastrodon, Swampert and sometimes Rhyperior.
I find covering this Pokémon to be a nightmare, as it's checks are all liable to being broken down or pressured quite easily barring Moltres, whom is pressured by other things and is also blown away by tech Weather Ball. It's incredibly restrictive and even Moltres and Rotom-Heat are often not enough, and even then those two being among the only "consistent" responses to it make it incredibly problematic. I think it's by far the biggest suspect test candidate right now, Jirachi is simply not enough to make it more palatable than it was pre shifts.
Slightly below Enamorus-T on the metaphorical ladder, Thundurus-T is by far the biggest builder threat in the tier. I won't beat around the bush, this Pokemon in theory beats anything it wants in the tier, no exceptions. Focus Blast, Grass Knot, T-Blast Flying/Ice, Psychic, Thunder Wave, Knock off, Sludge bomb, NP, Agility, U-turn. All of these moves drastically alter how you go about handling this pokemon, and you have zero way of telling what moves it will be employing besides glorified guess work. Sure, you can scout intentions at times but this is always running the risk of both being wrong and them not taking the bait and you wasting your time, or Thundy-T just knocks whatever came in for free, like a Cyclizar or Gardevoir scouting GKnot. Offensively checking it runs the risk of Agility sets eliminating things like Noivern or Infernape as revenge killers, and it's entry points are common and numerous including things like Cobalion, support Jirachi, and it's ground / electric immunities. It's a massive headache in the builder and it's an extremely unhealthy presence in the tier. If not Enamorus-T, this is the thing that needs to go.
After those two, I think there's a sizeable gap in urgency between the next picks. As expected though. Iron Leaves is next.
This Pokémon has been elaborated on plenty of times before so I won't go too in depth, but I will note what has changed for it. Jirachi is, once again, invalidated by simply slapping Tera Electric on a setup sweeper jeez who could've seen this coming. This time, bolstering Wild Charge while also smashing Moltres and Braviary-H at the same time. Besides this, nothing else has really changed, and it's practically the exact same as before, except now it can slot ways to invalidate thunder wave because thank you tera.
This is what I think are the 3 most pressing, after this it's up in the air, and Pokémon I think should be kept an eye on from here on will be listed instead. I think the best solution is another survey. And this time, we don't need an April Fools joke to delay action. The following are what I think should pad the survey, so to speak. I won't give a huge elaboration of them to keep the post from being too long, but I'll give brief sum-ups.
Volcanion makes the list as one of the more restricting presences in the tier. Forcing either very specific waters like Gastrodon or Slowbro, or dragons like Noivern, Salamance or cyclizar. With the gen shifts, Milotic is no longer capable of managing Volcanion, and Cyclizar; by far the most commonly used soft check, is liable to explode from a stray body press. While Slowbro being on here may seem questionable, I mainly put it here as a pairing of merely the group of CM psychic types. With our darks now being of... questionable quality, the CM psychics have exploded in popularity and their threat potential with Tera are liable to show their thorns. Reuniclus and Slowbro are the fore-runners, with Cresselia, Jirachi not too far behind. I think they are likely to get out of hand as time progresses, and their placement on a survey being justified. Jirachi is here for it's impact on the tier being of questionable health. The influx of random tera electrics on random setup mons like H-Braviary, Iron Leaves, Cresselia and Enam-T to get around this thing can be seen as it exerting an unhealthy restriction on the tier, and it's generally annoying nature and potency at wishpassing leaves a potentially undesirable impact on battles, while it's offensive sets can be difficult to contain in endgames.
As for general thoughts on the tier, I think it's in a weird spot. Cyclizar is often slapped on teams primarily for necessary role compression, not just for spinning, but because it barely staves off a LOT of threats. Gengar/H-Zoro, Thundurus-T, Volcanion, Yanmega and Basculegion-F are all incredibly threatening Pokémon which both are soft checked by Cyclizar, but also can easily break past Cyclizar with a smidgen of effort, and a lot of times, these Pokémon have minimal checks beyond this. This type of dynamic often leaves teambuilding to be a mess of half-measures, and this is pushed to the logical extreme by random tera types being used to both fill in gaps, and also abuse the gaps in the opponents team. I think the tiers future path should be to minimizing these type of half-measure forcing scenarios, and with RU Open on the horizon, I think it's the perfect time to push out a 2nd survey, or use the previous Survey for the first 3 mentioned and push a test out. Which, honestly I think could've been done 2 weeks ago.
I'll start with this one because I've seen some claims that Jirachi has helped make this pokemon more manageable and... yeah no it has not. The most that has done is just make it run Tera Electric, which is something I'll get to later. Alot of pokemon that check this thing are liable to get punked by a random Tera or coverage slot / another set it has. Agility is an underexplored moveslot which can fix Enam-T's primarily flaw, being revenge killed, and with modest max it can shoot to being 382, faster than things like Noivern, and realistically, faster than anything relevant in the tier besides Jolly Barraskewda without a scarf. Rotom-Heat is vulnerable to getting chipped down, and loading pain split so you don't just lose automatically lose the long term forces you to abandon 2 of NP, Wisp, or Twave, none of which it really wants to abandon. This also ignores how Tera electric also lets you CM through any non NP variant, which also completely invalidates Jirachi as a check, as seen here. Enamorus has solid odds to outspeed a teams given ground type after using T-Electric, between Quagsire, Hippowdon, Gastrodon, Swampert and sometimes Rhyperior.
I find covering this Pokémon to be a nightmare, as it's checks are all liable to being broken down or pressured quite easily barring Moltres, whom is pressured by other things and is also blown away by tech Weather Ball. It's incredibly restrictive and even Moltres and Rotom-Heat are often not enough, and even then those two being among the only "consistent" responses to it make it incredibly problematic. I think it's by far the biggest suspect test candidate right now, Jirachi is simply not enough to make it more palatable than it was pre shifts.
Slightly below Enamorus-T on the metaphorical ladder, Thundurus-T is by far the biggest builder threat in the tier. I won't beat around the bush, this Pokemon in theory beats anything it wants in the tier, no exceptions. Focus Blast, Grass Knot, T-Blast Flying/Ice, Psychic, Thunder Wave, Knock off, Sludge bomb, NP, Agility, U-turn. All of these moves drastically alter how you go about handling this pokemon, and you have zero way of telling what moves it will be employing besides glorified guess work. Sure, you can scout intentions at times but this is always running the risk of both being wrong and them not taking the bait and you wasting your time, or Thundy-T just knocks whatever came in for free, like a Cyclizar or Gardevoir scouting GKnot. Offensively checking it runs the risk of Agility sets eliminating things like Noivern or Infernape as revenge killers, and it's entry points are common and numerous including things like Cobalion, support Jirachi, and it's ground / electric immunities. It's a massive headache in the builder and it's an extremely unhealthy presence in the tier. If not Enamorus-T, this is the thing that needs to go.
After those two, I think there's a sizeable gap in urgency between the next picks. As expected though. Iron Leaves is next.
This Pokémon has been elaborated on plenty of times before so I won't go too in depth, but I will note what has changed for it. Jirachi is, once again, invalidated by simply slapping Tera Electric on a setup sweeper jeez who could've seen this coming. This time, bolstering Wild Charge while also smashing Moltres and Braviary-H at the same time. Besides this, nothing else has really changed, and it's practically the exact same as before, except now it can slot ways to invalidate thunder wave because thank you tera.
This is what I think are the 3 most pressing, after this it's up in the air, and Pokémon I think should be kept an eye on from here on will be listed instead. I think the best solution is another survey. And this time, we don't need an April Fools joke to delay action. The following are what I think should pad the survey, so to speak. I won't give a huge elaboration of them to keep the post from being too long, but I'll give brief sum-ups.
Volcanion makes the list as one of the more restricting presences in the tier. Forcing either very specific waters like Gastrodon or Slowbro, or dragons like Noivern, Salamance or cyclizar. With the gen shifts, Milotic is no longer capable of managing Volcanion, and Cyclizar; by far the most commonly used soft check, is liable to explode from a stray body press. While Slowbro being on here may seem questionable, I mainly put it here as a pairing of merely the group of CM psychic types. With our darks now being of... questionable quality, the CM psychics have exploded in popularity and their threat potential with Tera are liable to show their thorns. Reuniclus and Slowbro are the fore-runners, with Cresselia, Jirachi not too far behind. I think they are likely to get out of hand as time progresses, and their placement on a survey being justified. Jirachi is here for it's impact on the tier being of questionable health. The influx of random tera electrics on random setup mons like H-Braviary, Iron Leaves, Cresselia and Enam-T to get around this thing can be seen as it exerting an unhealthy restriction on the tier, and it's generally annoying nature and potency at wishpassing leaves a potentially undesirable impact on battles, while it's offensive sets can be difficult to contain in endgames.
As for general thoughts on the tier, I think it's in a weird spot. Cyclizar is often slapped on teams primarily for necessary role compression, not just for spinning, but because it barely staves off a LOT of threats. Gengar/H-Zoro, Thundurus-T, Volcanion, Yanmega and Basculegion-F are all incredibly threatening Pokémon which both are soft checked by Cyclizar, but also can easily break past Cyclizar with a smidgen of effort, and a lot of times, these Pokémon have minimal checks beyond this. This type of dynamic often leaves teambuilding to be a mess of half-measures, and this is pushed to the logical extreme by random tera types being used to both fill in gaps, and also abuse the gaps in the opponents team. I think the tiers future path should be to minimizing these type of half-measure forcing scenarios, and with RU Open on the horizon, I think it's the perfect time to push out a 2nd survey, or use the previous Survey for the first 3 mentioned and push a test out. Which, honestly I think could've been done 2 weeks ago.
100% completely agree with this and it perfectly sums up my feels on the builder side of things.
Also, let's not forget about Revavroom, that thing can also invalidate all the flimsy counterplay to it by just running Taunt. Sure, it compromises coverage, but Tera Water Taunt actually just 6-0s almost everything.
Decided to make a longer post than my previous one to give some of my thoughts on the tier.
If "pick your checks and counters" was on the dictionary, then SV RU Revavroom would be the main example. Since offensive counterplay does not exist due to how absurd Shift Gear is, it can choose between 4 viable Tera types and pick between Taunt / a coverage move to pick what defensive cores it can beat to 6-0 them. Tera Water + Taunt 6-0s HippoCycMolt, Temper Flare 6-0s teams with Forretress, Tera Ground Stomping Tantrum 6-0s teams with Empoleon/Jirachi. Just fish for one of these and enjoy your free wins. It doesn't help that the following mon pressures the few checks it has immensely:
Admittedly the "tamest" of the broken mons I will be covering here but Iron Leaves is simply too good at forcing Tera out of the opponent. The only, and I mean only reliable counters in Tera Dragon Hippo, Tera Dragon Roar Moltres and Tera Poison/Fairy Wo-Chien HAVE to burn Tera to handle it. Some Scarfers can technically revenge kill it but it would be forgetting about Leaves's Celebi-level bulk coupled with Tera which mandates Scarfers that can hit on its weaknesses, like Scarf Gengar, but then Leaves Teras, tanks and Psyblades for the KO and now you have to answer Leaves defensively which, as mentioned previously, requires you to burn Tera. This is 100% of the time a lose/lose scenario for the defender and is, in my opinion, very unhealthy.
If "pick your checks and counters" was on the dictionary, then SV RU Thundurus-Therian would be the second example. LBN explained how silly Thundurus-T is beautifully on the post above, so read this for my opinion on Thundurus-T.
I will be 100% honest with you: I have never felt like Enamorus was a problem in the builder or in-game. I just never see it for some reason despite my 100+ games in the past 2 weeks. So yeah, not much to say about this one...
VS The World ( 
etc...)
Forget about Hippowdon, THIS is the the one mon that holds this mess of a metagame together. If it weren't for that thing, hazards would be un-removable and suddenly every special attacker would be banworthy. It singlehandedly stops Gengar, H-Zoroark, Yanmega, Thundurus-T (debatable) and Basculegion from running through the tier. Cyclizar is not even that good, it is highly abusable, but how the f*** are you supposed to make a non-HO team without it exactly? I don't even think there is an easy fix for this, you can't just say "well, just ban Gengar and Zoroark and Yanmega and Basculegion all in a fell swoop and we good". I mean, you can, and that is definitely something I could get behind, but the majority is not ready for that opinion yet.
I'm just going to name drop it so you think about this post the next time you get swept by it running a random coverage/Tera that beats your "counter".
Also just a reminder that this thing exists and is a menace. Insert joke about the dictionary here. At this point, there is so many threats that can just pick their counterplay and fish for 6-0s on preview that I sound like a broken record.
Honorable Mentions
eats Balance for breakfast, Literally impossible to switch into if you don't play an unviable Water like Gastro or Milotic.
It's fine but damn does it bring absolutely nothing to the table and just exists to make HO just that bit more infuriating to play against.
If Cyclizar didn't exist then this would be the #1 mon.
It would be fine if the meta itself was fine, but in the current state of affairs, we really don't need Rain to be somewhat viable.
Actually just QB it in secret and don't tell anyone, I swear no one will notice and it will improve things tenfold.
Revavroom if it had Dragon Dance instead of Shift Gear.
So yeah, if you couldn't tell from this post, I am a liiiiittle tired of the meta. Started playing NU recently and god was it so much more fun and balanced, it truly opened my eyes on how awful RU feels to build and play in. Gonna take a break for a little bit until something is done to fix all this.
If "pick your checks and counters" was on the dictionary, then SV RU Revavroom would be the main example. Since offensive counterplay does not exist due to how absurd Shift Gear is, it can choose between 4 viable Tera types and pick between Taunt / a coverage move to pick what defensive cores it can beat to 6-0 them. Tera Water + Taunt 6-0s HippoCycMolt, Temper Flare 6-0s teams with Forretress, Tera Ground Stomping Tantrum 6-0s teams with Empoleon/Jirachi. Just fish for one of these and enjoy your free wins. It doesn't help that the following mon pressures the few checks it has immensely:
Admittedly the "tamest" of the broken mons I will be covering here but Iron Leaves is simply too good at forcing Tera out of the opponent. The only, and I mean only reliable counters in Tera Dragon Hippo, Tera Dragon Roar Moltres and Tera Poison/Fairy Wo-Chien HAVE to burn Tera to handle it. Some Scarfers can technically revenge kill it but it would be forgetting about Leaves's Celebi-level bulk coupled with Tera which mandates Scarfers that can hit on its weaknesses, like Scarf Gengar, but then Leaves Teras, tanks and Psyblades for the KO and now you have to answer Leaves defensively which, as mentioned previously, requires you to burn Tera. This is 100% of the time a lose/lose scenario for the defender and is, in my opinion, very unhealthy.
If "pick your checks and counters" was on the dictionary, then SV RU Thundurus-Therian would be the second example. LBN explained how silly Thundurus-T is beautifully on the post above, so read this for my opinion on Thundurus-T.
I will be 100% honest with you: I have never felt like Enamorus was a problem in the builder or in-game. I just never see it for some reason despite my 100+ games in the past 2 weeks. So yeah, not much to say about this one...
VS The World ( etc...)Forget about Hippowdon, THIS is the the one mon that holds this mess of a metagame together. If it weren't for that thing, hazards would be un-removable and suddenly every special attacker would be banworthy. It singlehandedly stops Gengar, H-Zoroark, Yanmega, Thundurus-T (debatable) and Basculegion from running through the tier. Cyclizar is not even that good, it is highly abusable, but how the f*** are you supposed to make a non-HO team without it exactly? I don't even think there is an easy fix for this, you can't just say "well, just ban Gengar and Zoroark and Yanmega and Basculegion all in a fell swoop and we good". I mean, you can, and that is definitely something I could get behind, but the majority is not ready for that opinion yet.
I'm just going to name drop it so you think about this post the next time you get swept by it running a random coverage/Tera that beats your "counter".
Also just a reminder that this thing exists and is a menace. Insert joke about the dictionary here. At this point, there is so many threats that can just pick their counterplay and fish for 6-0s on preview that I sound like a broken record.
Honorable Mentions
eats Balance for breakfast, Literally impossible to switch into if you don't play an unviable Water like Gastro or Milotic. It's fine but damn does it bring absolutely nothing to the table and just exists to make HO just that bit more infuriating to play against. If Cyclizar didn't exist then this would be the #1 mon. It would be fine if the meta itself was fine, but in the current state of affairs, we really don't need Rain to be somewhat viable. Actually just QB it in secret and don't tell anyone, I swear no one will notice and it will improve things tenfold. Revavroom if it had Dragon Dance instead of Shift Gear.So yeah, if you couldn't tell from this post, I am a liiiiittle tired of the meta. Started playing NU recently and god was it so much more fun and balanced, it truly opened my eyes on how awful RU feels to build and play in. Gonna take a break for a little bit until something is done to fix all this.
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Gonna drop my thoughts on the meta threats.
Haven't seen this much on ladder, so I don't really want to comment on it since idk about this mon.
This is easily the most banworthy mon. Outspeeds a ton of the meta and basically cannot be defensively answered. Been using a np + volt switch set, dealing amazing damage and then getting tf out of there so nothing can try to revenge kill you. This would be my ban vote, please get it out of the tier.
Second most banworthy mon, does need a turn to set up, but then destroys everything. Tera fire just decimates everything and requiring tera to answer it is not healthy.
Some other mons in the meta:
I don't think this thing is broken. Sure, it can be annoying to switch into, but lots of things can threaten it. It's slow as hell so any moderately fast ground, electric or rock type destroys it. You do have to dip a bit into NU to get some of these, but those still work fine outside of volc. At best trades itself with 1 mon, and then is revenged killed.
Guys, please run krook. Jokes aside (but seriously, use krook please it is so good), idk about these guys. On paper they seem broken, but the ghost and dark types that are good in the meta hold them back.
Don't think that this is broken yet as it's defensive answers, while limited, can be decently splashable. Needs two boosts to truely destroy everything. But, I can see why some people don't like this, so I'd keep an eye on it.
Nah, definition of just a good mon. It's not the fastest thing in the meta or the bulkiest thing, so it has to decide between bulk or offense.
I think this mon is cancerous. Half of the reason Barra is so good is due to it naturally outspeeding cyclizar, which means only scarfers can outspeed it, which is exploitable by cyclizar. It cripples teams that try to answer it by hitting it hard, and regens off the damage. IDC if it helps against special attackers, it warps the tier so much that I think it should be banned.
Other mons I don't think are close to broken, but if you think they are then that's alright.
Haven't seen this much on ladder, so I don't really want to comment on it since idk about this mon. This is easily the most banworthy mon. Outspeeds a ton of the meta and basically cannot be defensively answered. Been using a np + volt switch set, dealing amazing damage and then getting tf out of there so nothing can try to revenge kill you. This would be my ban vote, please get it out of the tier. Second most banworthy mon, does need a turn to set up, but then destroys everything. Tera fire just decimates everything and requiring tera to answer it is not healthy.Some other mons in the meta:
I don't think this thing is broken. Sure, it can be annoying to switch into, but lots of things can threaten it. It's slow as hell so any moderately fast ground, electric or rock type destroys it. You do have to dip a bit into NU to get some of these, but those still work fine outside of volc. At best trades itself with 1 mon, and then is revenged killed. Guys, please run krook. Jokes aside (but seriously, use krook please it is so good), idk about these guys. On paper they seem broken, but the ghost and dark types that are good in the meta hold them back. Don't think that this is broken yet as it's defensive answers, while limited, can be decently splashable. Needs two boosts to truely destroy everything. But, I can see why some people don't like this, so I'd keep an eye on it. Nah, definition of just a good mon. It's not the fastest thing in the meta or the bulkiest thing, so it has to decide between bulk or offense. I think this mon is cancerous. Half of the reason Barra is so good is due to it naturally outspeeding cyclizar, which means only scarfers can outspeed it, which is exploitable by cyclizar. It cripples teams that try to answer it by hitting it hard, and regens off the damage. IDC if it helps against special attackers, it warps the tier so much that I think it should be banned. Other mons I don't think are close to broken, but if you think they are then that's alright.