Project The Top 10 Titans of the Gen 7 NU Metagame

[Espeonage.]

The Top 10 Titans of the Gen 7 NU Metagame

With new Pokemon like Slowbro, Incineroar, Heliolisk, Sneasel and Passimian dropping, this generation has been very different from previous generations. The big question that we will try to answer with this thread is, which of all the Pokemon were the 10 most influential throughout of Gen 7?

From July 28th to August 11th, you will nominate Pokemon that will be voted on for the top 10 most influential Pokemon throughout Gen 7. After that, you will all evaluate all the nominations and individually rank the Pokemon from 1-10 by vote. Of course, all the nominations will count as long as they're reasonable and fit the criteria. Please keep in mind that we're not ranking Pokemon based on how good they are, but we're ranking Pokemon based on how influential they've been.

Here's an example format of what your nomination can look like:

Nominating Pokemon

Enter sprite here.

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Explain how the Pokemon effected the metagame as whole, and how the metagame adapted around it. A brief description of which Pokemon it countered and which Pokemon it did well against would be good here as well.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

Explain why this Pokemon was used on a team more often then most other Pokemon, and what was it particularly used for? What made it so good at this role?

What caused it to have a significant impact?

What exactly made this Pokemon have such a large impact on the metagame? Was it its stats, ability, useful resistances, amazing synergy, or the ability to sweep most of the metagame very easily? Did a certain Pokemon cause it to become that much better when it was partnered with it?

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

What are the best checks/counters to this Pokemon? How does the metagame adapt to this Pokemon?

Make sure they look EXACTLY like this, or else I wont count them. Make sure they are also very informative, factual, accurate, and detailed.

Current Nominees:

Current list:
1.

2.

3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

 

[Bostonl1]

Nominating Comfey

What effect did this Pokémon have on the metagame?

When comfey dropped down back in April of 2018, it didn't immediately appear to be a massive threat. Players were still trying to find the best set and at the time many teams already had checks to it, specifically because of another major threat in the tier, Vanilluxe, mandating that every team have a fire or steel type to check it. As such, the floating ley struggled to find its footing. But after finding its flagship set (Calm Mind Offensive) and potentially benefiting from the recent ban of Vanilluxe, Comfey began to peak. Teams that found themselves lacking resists to its stab and coverage would quickly be swept after it got a boost. Its biggest impact was on teambuilding, as it required a dedicated check or two to not auto-lose to it, as well as requiring you to keep your answers healthy, which may dissuade the opponents from sending out checks like Garbodor early to get up spikes. During this time, it got pushed to its highest point on the VR at A+ rank. In recent times, Comfey has slipped a bit because players now know not to come unprepared against comfey and can properly teambuild to not be swept easily by it. But it took Comfey being a dominant force in the tier to get to this point In the first place. And if one can weaken its checks well enough, anyone can still find themselves beaten by this powerful sweeper.

In what main roles was this Pokémon used?

While it does have many great support moves to pull from, all of that is completely overshadowed by its offensive potential. It serves mainly as a setup sweeper.

Comfey @ Life Orb
Ability: Triage
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draining Kiss
- Giga Drain
- Calm Mind
- Hidden Power Fire/Ground/Psychic

This is the set to expect most from comfey. Not much to say except the hidden power is completely customizable to what checks you want to hit the hardest, which can surprise the opponent if they don't realize what coverage they are packing.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Triage. This ability makes Comfey such a powerful sweeper that is hard to stop. Its +3 priority makes it so hard to revenge kill offensively. Scarfers and priority users are all outsped by its stab Draining Kiss. On top of this, the fact that Draining Kiss recovers health means that if you can't outright ohko the comfey, it'll get its health back to help continue the sweep. Throw in the fact that it has excellent typing allowing it ample setup opportunities and it is easily apparent why it is such a good sweeper.

How do you deal with this Pokémon in NU?

The best answers are the ones who resist its stab, so Steel, Fire, and Poison types can all do the trick. Some of the notable ones that were/are used on teams are Silvally-Steel, Golbat, Vileplume, Garbodor, Steelix, Togedamaru, and Delphox, just to name a few. All of these can potentially beat comfey one-on-one, but have to look out for its hidden power coverage. If you can keep them at a decent amount of health, you should be able to beat it.

 

[Jarii]

Nominating Emboar



What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Emboar was one of the first (if not the first) Pokemons that came into SM NU when was released, it has been a menace from the start. First of Emboar was decent in the first weeks of the tier full of threats. When the first bans came through Emboar stayed and began to rule the tier more and more. Eventually that people had to take Emboar in as threat while building, if you didn't prep for Emboar you would lose to it. The go to set was Choice scarf with was able to outspeed the (back in the day) amazing Sceptile. In NUPL V people began experimenting with a couple of different sets than solely Choice Scarf, Bulk Up Z-Electrium, Choice Band and even Expert Belt were sets Emboar could use to get past the things Choice Scarf Emboar Couldn't like Slowbro. After that NUPL you couldn't just prep for Choice Scarf Emboar and say you're good to go, if you did that and faced a different set you almost lost instantly. Emboar began to influence the metagame so much that it got it's own suspect test and it got banned because it was just too much for the metagame.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

Emboar have a lot of moves to choose from, but many sets used the same moves, Flare Blitz, Superpower, Wild Charge, Earthquake, Sucker Punch, Bulk Up were the most used. Sometimes you saw moves like Will-O-Wisp used but moves like that were niche at most.

Choice Scarf
Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake / Sucker Punch

Choice Scarf was the most popular Emboar set, it can abuse it's typing and amazing movepool while not caring about it's kinda lackluster speed. With a Choice Scarf it speed hits 377 which made it outspeed other threats like Sceptile and Sneasel, this makes it an amazing revenge killer. It's natural bulk and defensive typing made that it could take hits too and was a good Knock Off switch in. In some battles you don't care about losing your Choice Scarf which made Emboar even more annoying to deal with.

Choice Band
Emboar @ Choice Band
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake / Sucker Punch

Emboar was one of the best wallbreakers in the tier back in the day and that might say enough about how good Emboar was, it was not only the best revenge killer but also the best wallbreaker in the tier. Choice Band was able to break through the pokemons Choice Scarf Emboar could not, Slowbro, defensive Hariyama and Vaporeon. If you expected Choice Scarf and it is Choice Band you might've lost your defensive Pokemon that can make you lose to potential other Pokemons. It's natural bulk and defensive typing made it a good wallbreaker too, it was able to take hits and hit massively back.

Z-Wild Charge
Emboar @ Electrium Z
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Bulk Up / Earthquake

Z-Wild Charge was mainly for Emboars best check Slowbro, if you could make is seem like your Choice Scarf and they switch Slowbro in on a Wild Charge and they stay in to Slack Off you can Z-Wild Charge them to kill it. It was a nice lure to get past Emboars checks without losing massive amount of HP like the Choice Band set.

Expert Belt
Emboar @ Expert Belt
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake / Sucker Punch

The Expert Belt set works similar to the Z-Wild Charge set, it is used as a lure to make it seems like it is either Choice Scarf or Choice Band and then surprise the opponent when you switch up moves. It was the least popular set but was still a really good set if you can use it properly.

Emboar had a multiple roles as you can see. Emboar was often used over the other Fire-types because no team could beat every set. There was no mon / team that could beat every Emboar set and this is what made Emboar so good.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

- Versatile / Unpredictable: Emboar was easily splashable and you can never really expect what set Emboar was, if you predict the wrong set it could break through your defensive core without a second thought. Reckless Flare Blitz and Wild Charge in combination with amazing STAB Superpower made it incredibly hard to switch in to Emboar, Pokemon began to run Protect solely to see what Emboar locked itself into this is also where the Z-Wild Charge and Expert Belt sets come into play, if you think Emboar was locked into a move and you faced one of those sets it could break through regardless.​

​

- Natural bulk + good offensive and defensive typing: Emboars Fire/Fighting typing made Emboar so good as well, as I said before naturally being a check to Sneasel was big. It's natural bulk made it survive most neutral hits and even non SpA invested super effective moves without putting any EVs into bulk. This made Emboar able to do it's job without fearing to die beforehand.​

​

- Amazing ability: Reckless is an ability that makes recoil moves have their power multiplied by 1.2, Emboar could abuse this ability to it's full potential with Flare Blitz, Wild Charge or even Head Smash. This way it made Emboars best moves into a free Life Orb without using an actual Life Orb. Without Reckless Emboar wouldn't be a good as it was. Here are some calcs to show what I mean:​

​

Calc

252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Emboar Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 230-272 (58.3 - 69%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Choice Band Emboar Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 192-226 (48.7 - 57.3%) -- 47.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Reckless Emboar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 152+ Def Weezing: 154-183 (46.1 - 54.7%) -- 60.5% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Emboar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 152+ Def Weezing: 129-153 (38.6 - 45.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

The best partner for Emboar was unironically it's best check, Slowbro. Slowbro began to run a set to get rid of other Slowbro's, Block Slowbro in combination with Emboar was insanely good. Slowbro could trap other Slowbro's so Emboar had a free route to destroy the team of the opponent, it was a really powerful core. Both had good synergy together, Emboar could beat the Dark and Grass types Slowbro didn't like facing while Slowbro could beat the defensive Water types Emboar didn't like facing.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

Best checks to Emboar was more so knowing what set it was running, if you knew it was Choice Scarf you knew your Slowbro could beat it. If it was Choice Band you knew you had to predict right and beat it first before it began to beat you. Z-Wild charge had it's own issues because it missed out of raw power of Choice Band and the revenge killing abilities of Choice Scarf, if you predict the Z-Wild charge you could beat it. Same goes for Expert Belt, if you know it's Expert Belt you could play around it. Best check in terms of Pokemon it was Slowbro, but like said above there are ways for Emboar to beat Slowbro quite comfortably.

 

[neomon]

reserving my man ice cream

 

[Rabia]

Nominating Incineroar

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Although Incineroar didn't pick up steam until the Emboar ban in early USUM, its been an incredibly prominent Pokemon since then. We've seen Incineroar function as a great defensive pivot that handled threats like Vanilluxe as well as probably the most consistent wallbreaker the tier has seen due to its great STAB attacks and defensive utility, which provided it with many opportunities to switch in. Incineroar was responsible for Diancie being the best Stealth Rock setter when that was around and is a huge reason Pokemon such as Passimian, Rhydon, and Blastoise are as good as they are. Every team must have multiple checks to it just because of how threatening and prominent it is.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

Incineroar has been used primarily as a wallbreaker that capitalizes on its great defensive utility to get in, but in previous months it was also commonly seen as a defensive pivot. This Pokemon has been responsible for checking many metagame titans: Sneasel, Vanilluxe, Delphox, Comfey, etc. etc..

What caused it to have a significant impact?

The biggest reasons Incineroar became good were Emboar's ban and new moves it got in USUM; Emboar was without a doubt just a better Incineroar due to its better wallbreaking power and Speed, which enabled it to run a really strong Choice Scarf set. There was pretty much no reason to use Incineroar until Emboar left. Incineroar has cemented itself since then due to its great defensive utility and scary wallbreaking power combined with just general utility between Knock Off, U-turn, and more.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

Defensively, you've got stuff like Diancie, Rhydon, Blastoise, Vaporeon, Hariyama back when Incineroar was originally getting hyped, and kind of Passimian. Offensively, you've got stuff like Passimian, Aerodactyl, and some other faster shit that threatens to OHKO. Hell, even just maintaining entry hazards is really important against Incineroar.

also this format is fucking dicks LMAO all these questions ask the same fucking thing as the first question jesus fuck

 

[Éric]

Reserving Sneasel

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Sneasrl was one of NU’s premiere wallbreaker, thanks to the Choice Band set, with its 2 good stabs, the possibility of knocking items off and pursuiting dangerous Pokémon like Xatu or Slowbro. It was one of the best Pokémon in the tier, it even got suspect tested twice, although it didn’t get banned.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

What Sneasel did best was wallbreaking and pursuiting. It could spam Knock off and get rid of its checks, it could open holes on teams so another mon could sweep, it could pursuit nearly every defensive and offensive mon for a lot of damage and it even could revenge kill threats thanks to its high speed and Ice Shard. Sure, some other sets like SD + Z or Ice/Dread Plate could be used, but Choice Band is what made it shine.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Since this Pokémon’s defenses weren’t exactly good, and it was weak to Stealth Rocks, what made this thing be good was the amount of things it could Pursuit plus the ability to revenge kill stuff. It was simply great at opening holes and helping teammates that struggled with psychic types, such as Medicham or Passimian.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

Sneasel wasn’t a hard to check Pokémon, really. Its presence (and other Ice types, like Vanilluxe) made a lot of Pokémon viable, like Hariyama and Scrafty, which tried to wall it. Sneasel even forced many Pokémon to use Colbur Berry, such as Smowbro, Mismagius or Meloetta, and made some others use Protect to scout what move was it using, like Delphox and Xatu. Later on, Incineroar got Intimidate, making it a valuable Sneasel check and one the best Pokémon overall. However, all these defensive answers hated losing their item to Knock off. Offensively, things that could outspeed Sneasel and resist Ice Shard, like scarf Passimian, scarf Emboar or scarf Houndoom were the ones that could revenge kill this little beast.

As a conclusion, Sneasel was a force to be reckoned with, even avoiding the ban twice. It pursuitted half of the tier, knocked off every Pokémon’s item and overall was pretty dominant.

 

[Funbot28]

Nominating Slowbro

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Throughout the entirety of the time that Slowbro was in the NU metagame, it had a significant impact in teambuilding. Being such a splashable defensive pivot that could fit on a wide array of teams, Fighting, Fire, and Ice types that could not break through it were often considered unviable due to the sheer prevalence of Slowbro and due to it being significantly hard to wear down thanks to it's access to recovery via Regenerator and Slack Off. Slowbro significantly shifted the metagame to a more balance / bulky offensive direction due to its ability to deal with most offensive threats and shrug off any damage due to its great pivoting capabilities and Regenerator healing.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

Slowbro was mainly used as a defensive pivot, utilizing its great physical bulk and typing to check dangerous offensive threats such as Passimian, Mega Glalie, Aerodactyl, and Medicham. Early on in the SM NU metagame, most players implored the defensive Colbur Berry set to better check wallbreakers such as Sneasel, Incineroar, and Pangoro and potentially beat them 1v1. However, later on as the metagame progressed, the Assault Vest set started to gain traction in an attempt to patch Slowbro's more fragile special bulk. With the added boost in Special Defense, Slowbro could better take on threats such as Delphox, Magmortar, Sigiliyph, and Clawitzer, expanding the amount of threats it can check. Thanks to Slowbro's great coverage, it can also deal immense amount of damage to a large portion of the metagame and provide delayed damage with a powerful Future Sight. Other common sets include Block with Calm Mind which saw great success against more defensive teams as it was able to trap more passive threats and use them as setup bait to potentially secure a sweep lategame.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Slowbro's impact mainly derived from it's ability to sponge powerful hits and regenerate it's health via its ability, making common pokemon such as Choice Scarf Passimian, Steelix, Incineroar, and Rhydon have a hard time breaking through the opposing team as a result. Slowbro's expansive movepool and ability to spread status also made it an annoyance to a large majority of the tier, where switching into a potential Scald burn, Toxic, or even coverage in Ice Beam, Fire Blast, or the rare Z-Zap Cannon made it a pain to handle defensively as well.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

Thanks to Slowbro's influence throughout the entirety of it's stay in the NU tier, many offensive threats were forced to lure Slowbro in order to have any advantage against the opposing team, with the most common examples including Z-Move wallbreakers such as Electrium Z Magmortar, Grassium Z Delphox, Buginium Z Passimian, or statusing it in order to cripple it over time. Specially offensive wallbreakers were also used to take advantage of Slowbro's more fragile special bulk (especially when not holding an Assault Vest), where great examples include Rotom, Heliolisk, Sceptile, and Mismagius. However, even with all this counterplay in mind, Slowbro still could manage to have an impact in a game due to none of the aformentioned threats being able to switch into any of Slowbro's moves without great repercussion, meaning that dealing with the opposing Slowbro could have seemed nearly impossible at times, especially when considering Regenerator enabling it to soak hits and recover it off by simply switching.

 

[WMAR]

Nominating Pokemon

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

When Venusaur dropped to NU in the January tier shifts, it immediately established itself as a top threat. Venusaur then started showing just how much of an overpowered Pokémon it could be, with its many sets, especially Z-Celebrate, being thought to be broken. All of this led to it being suspect tested in May. Sets include the aformentioned Z-Celebrate, Scarf/Specs, Life Orb and Specially Defensive. Amazing stats and solid typing, it was the most versatile pokemon that ever came into the tier. Venusaur only had 2 counters, Golbat and Silvally-Steel which makes teambuilding very restricting and Venusaur was able to easily sweep.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

As stated before, Venusaur has a variety of sets it can run. Venusaur mainly utilized Z-Celebrate, as Z Celebrate can be a mix of the Specs set and the Scarf set without being locked in and still force in offensive pressure. Venusaur can run a Specially Defensive set to reliably check Comfey, Rotom, Sceptile, and Whimsicott, forcing them out or crippling or outright beating them.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Venusaur simply lacked defensive counterplay outside of Golbat and Silvally-Steel due to its typing, high-powered STAB moves, decent bulk, and access to reliable recovery in Synthesis. The problem with these two Pokémon was that they were forced onto multiple teams despite not being the easiest Pokémon to use, highlighting Venusaur's impact on both teambuilding and the tier, and still could not reliably switch in due to Venusaur's ability to cripple them with Sleep Powder, as well as Knock Off in the case of the former.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

As mentioned the only counters Venusaur had was Golbat and Silvally-Steel, neither of which is easy to slap on a team, and not running them will make Venusaur difficult to check or counter, due to its boosted defenses and higher speed. It also depends on the set. Alolan Sandslash checks the sets lacking HP Fire but the 4th moveslot is very flexible on the Z-Celebrate set. Venusaur can run Synthesis for recovery, Growth for forcing its way through Pokemon like Garbordor and Toxicroak and stops Silvally from weakening it with Parting Shot, Sleep Powder lets Venusaur incapacitated its defensive checks and the aforementioned HP Fire for Steel types like Ferroseed. Venusaur wasn't an easy Pokemon to check/counter when the Z-Celebrate set was discovered, but when it dropped it did show a big impact.

 

[Espeonage.]

Nominating Xatu

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

xatu has been popular all gen and has had a massive effect on the setting hazards and teambuilding. xatu can easily prevent setters like steelix, garb and torterra trom getting their hazards up, and this has caused mons like mold breaker drud, sd rhydon and offensive diancie to gain massive usage. pretty much throughout the whole gen xat has been a very popular option for hazard control and also provides a lot of other utility, making pokemon very wary to use status and being massively useful against defensive teams as it can easily wall passive pokemon like audino and golbat that rely on toxic for damage. even if a team was packing a rocker like diancie or pallosand, they still had to be wary about clicking rocks because of magic bounce, basically meaning mold breaker drud was the only truly reliable rocker vs xatu.


In what main roles was Pokemon used?

xatu was mainly used as hazard control due to how reliably it could beat lix amongst other mons, and the mindgames it forced that meant with almost any rocker you struggled to get rocks. xatu was also very useful vs fat teams and was a fairly reliable defensive mon vs things like pass.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

xatu's ability magic bounce allowed it to be very useful hazard control, and its access to moves like uturn and roost meant that it could fit on a wide variety of teams from bo to stall, making it very splashable and common.


How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

the main counterplay to xatu was using rockers that could beat xatu, such as offensive diancie, rhydon, pallosand and especially mold breaker drud. xatu was also vulnerable to pursuit, primarily from sneasel, although it could circumvent this weakness with protect; however, some sneasels ran dread plate at the height of xatu's dominance so it could trap protect xatu. xatu could also simply be countered by using mons like heliolisk and incineroar that took little damage from it and could easily force it out.

 

[LBN]

somebody do the ice cream

 

[Abejas]

somebody do the ice cream

reserving my man ice cream

 

[LBN]

View attachment 187930

im diagnosed with big blind ignore me :pepe:

 

[Yoshi]

this format sucks ngl, so I did something different

Vanilluxe’s effect most came into play in the builder, although it still did have a strong effect on the battlefield. During the Vanilluxe test, users against the ban of Vanilluxe often cited that it is easy to offensively pressure it in battle, even though there is little defensive counterplay. However, certain players, including lax, were able to prove otherwise, being able to use Vanilluxe quite efficiently in big tournaments like SPL and SSD. Users who build teams often were mostly pro-ban on Vanilluxe, because it was heavily restrictive in the builder. There are very few counterplays to it, which, at the time, included Silvally-Steel, Magmortar, and Incineroar. While Pokemon like Incineroar and Magmortar were already on a ton of teams, they weren’t all that great at defending against it in the long term, especially with Vanilluxe’s access to Hidden Power Ground, even simply taking a lot from Blizzard. That pretty much left Silvally-Steel, which has no access to any recovery, and gets worn down fairly easily, even from a Choice Specs Blizzard. Therefore, even if you were to run several Vanilluxe checks on a team, it is rarely enough defensively, especially coupled with Hail and hazards. Of course, the obvious solution might be to turn to specially defensive Water-types rather than the Fire- and Steel-types, but it simply doesn’t work because of Freeze-Dry. Many users cited that Freeze-Dry is what pushed Vanilluxe over the edge, which, while significantly weaker than Blizzard, is essentially a free move in that Water-types don’t resist it, meaning you could pretty much use a STAB move versus Water-types for super effective damage. This also created more mind games in battle. Slowbro, although it can eat a Blizzard, got 2HKOd by Freeze-Dry, meaning it technically was not a safe switch-in. Therefore, opposing players were forced to consider whether or not the opposing Vanilluxe would be using Blizzard or Freeze-Dry, which could oftentimes flip matches, generally in favor of the Vanilluxe user. There were generally two sets that Vanilluxe would use:

Vanilluxe @ Choice Specs
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Choice Specs was pretty much the most used and standard set for Vanilluxe. It had the most consistent wallbreaking capabilities of the bunch, and is generally favored due to its ability to do a ton of damage at once. Once on the field, it was pretty much able to 2HKO to neutrals (in a lot of cases, OHKO) or do a sizeable chunk of damage to those that resist (coupled with Hail and hazards). The highlight of the set is the combination of Blizzard and Freeze-Dry. While Blizzard is strong in itself, Freeze-Dry with Vanilluxe’s Special Attack + Choice Specs is still a move to be feared, and coupled with the ability to hit Water-types super effectively, it changes how players think of their match-up versus Vanilluxe. Hidden Power Fighting was the superior move, especially back then, as you could OHKO Sneasel and prevent it from coming in to Pursuit trap without revenge killing, while also being able to hit Air Balloon Probopass, which used to be a popular Comfey partner (Togedemaru was used back then, too, but still takes a sizeable chunk from Hidden Power Fighting regardless).

Vanilluxe @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Snow Warning
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Taunt / Protect / Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Toxic / Hidden Power [Fighting]

Besides Choice Specs, people used Assault Vest + Mirror Coat, Taunt + Toxic, and Choice Scarf (although Choice Scarf was a rather poor set, despite its usage). The most popular of the bunch was Taunt + Toxic, which is the set displayed here. This is essentially a different type of breaker which works better versus certain balance teams. There are a few different combinations of moves you can run as seen above, with the exception of running Taunt + Protect. Protect + Toxic, Taunt + Toxic, Taunt + Hidden Power Fighting, etc., were all probable combinations. Some people cited this to be the set that pushed Vanilluxe over the edge, but it was really the combination of all the above sets that made Vanilluxe appear broken to a lot of players.

 

[Yoshi]

• Slowbro
• Diancie
• Barbaracle
• Gigalith
• Heliolisk
• Vileplume
• Passimian

Here's a list of Pokemon that should probably get write-ups. I'm not reserving them but if anyone wants to take them feel free (I might do a couple but I'll post that here).

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Nominating Gigalith

What effect did Pokemon have on the metagame?

Gigalith dropped alongside Pokemon such as Comfey in the April 2018 tier shift. At first it cemented itself as a reliable setter of Stealth Rock thanks to its sheer bulk due to Sand Stream. That ability, however, would eventually led it to the tipping point. Sand prior to Gigalith dropping didn't even exist in NU since the only real setter, Hippopotas, was too frail and unreliable. However, when the rock monster dropped, suddenly Pokemon that were considered unviable otherwise such as Stoutland and Sandslash became some of the tiers most fearsome wallbreakers. Sand teams usually went for just the former at first, but once it was discovered that Sandslash could reliably OHKO Slowbro, who handled Sand by itself otherwise, with a +2 Tectonic Rage, teams with both became more common. Gigalith could set up sand multiple times per match due to its great bulk and neat set of resistances. Sandslash and Stoutland were difficult to stop, as they outsped a lot of common Pokemon on offensive teams such as Sceptile and Whimsicott and were very powerful. The playstyle got so out of hand that Gigalith was put up for suspect only 2 months after it dropped down, although complex bans akin to the DrizzleSwim ban in Gen 5 were suggested to deal with Sand at first. It was eventually banned at a 27-6-0 rate.

In what main roles was Pokemon used?

Gigalith served two main roles: Stealth Rock setter and Sand setter. Many teams used Gigalith without Sand Rush users, and Gigalith, thanks to its bulk to reliably set up Stealth Rock multiple times per match and having slightly better matchup against Grass- and Water-types than competition like Steelix and Rhydon, had the tools it needed to succeed well in this role. However, its role as a setter for Sand was basically unmatched. The aforementioned bulk allowed Gigalith to set up Sand multiple times per match, and its offensive presence wasn't too shabby either.

What caused it to have a significant impact?

Its Sand Stream ability turned a playstyle that was considered a joke into a force to be reckoned with. Sand, during Gigalith's time in the tier, was considered a rather brainless playstyle and easy to slap together.

How do/did you deal with this Pokemon in NU?

On teams that just had Gigalith by itself, it could be dealt with by Pokemon such as Slowbro, Steelix, and Rhydon. Sand on the other hand was a lot more tricky to take care of. Sandslash could be taken of via priority moves like a Triage Giga Drain from Comfey, and Ice Shard from the likes of Sneasel or Piloswine, or by use of Pokemon such as Vanilluxe, who could nullify Sand Rush via its Snow Warning ability, Scarfers such as Houndoom or Rotom, or the niche Pyukumuku. Stoutland could be handled by a lot of the same Pokemon that could handle Gigalith, although they could get worn down rather easily, especially with teams that combined both Stoutland and Sandslash together.

 

[Bostonl1]

Gj resurrecting the thread yoshi lol

 

[Espeonage.]

due to the lack of submissions, there's just going to be a shortlist including mons that weren't nommed.

the list is:

voting for round 1 will last for 2 days, and my vote goes to slowbro

 

[Yoshi]

Slowbro

 

[Abejas]

cofag

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

Slowbro

 

[Éric]

Slowbro

 

[Rabia]

slowbro

 

[OrangeGuru]

slowbro

 

[N_Mareanie]

SLOWBRO

 

[Gryoine]

Hard to not have it be Slowbro