Metagame USUM RU Metagame Discussion

[phantom]

This thread will be used to replace the NP thread for ongoing discussion on the state of the RU metagame. You're free to use this thread to talk potential suspects, trends, sets or teams you found success with and anything else related to the RU metagame. Every two weeks, there will be a specific topic brought up about potential suspects and post-suspect discussion, where I'd like to encourage those who may be interested to share their thoughts on the matter. You don't necessarily have to stick to the topic at hand if you want to post in this thread, but it's encouraged to do so if there is an active discussion going on. I'm going to encourage the council to look over this thread closely and participate, so if you feel that something needs to be brought to the RU council's attention, this is the right place to post.

 

[phantom]

topic #1: post-Stakataka RU

Following Stakataka's recent ban, what are your thoughts on the RU metagame going forward? Did you believe the ban was warranted? Why or why not? Do you think the Stakataka ban addressed any issues with the previous metagame?

 

[Funbot28]

Hey so even tho I had voted to not ban Stakataka, I can definitely see the meta be pushed in a more diverse direction in terms of playstyles as offense was basically at the mercy of OTR Stakataka. Although the Specially defensive set brought a great new addition to the tier in terms of another defensive Steel, I can see how OTR sets may have pushed it a bit off the edge looking back.

One thing I would like to discuss however is the possible suspect of

. Ever since it dropped down to RU, Mega Toise has had a significant impact in teambuilding to say the least. An offensive spinner that can be placed on the majority of teams while simultaneously lacking solid checks besides stuff like Toxicroak, SpD Milotic and Mantine (where Dark Pulse can always be your friend). I feel Mega Toise kinda warps the tier around hazards and displays great amounts of power that may be too strong for RU, since offense has access to an actual amazing spinner that can freely perform its role due to the amount of switchins it forces. Every time Mega Toise gets a chance to come in (which is quite often thanks to its typing and amazing bulk) it often can significantly wear down the opposing team especially when paired with hazard support. While Mega Blastoise may not be broken in a conventional sense, I believe its impact on the metagame may be something that should be looked into as the metagame seems to succumbs to its presence ever since it dropped imo.

Besides that, I think RU is in a pretty good spot despite the impact of the last tier shifts. Both Raikou and Yanmega are amazing mons that I feel more people should try out, especially on more balanced builds.

 

[EviGaro]

Well at least I can get the Blastoise thing out of the way quickly lol

I can't speak for every council member, but most discussions I had with people tends to go with agreeing that Blastoise is trending down in this meta, and probably justifies the more cautious attitude we had in regards to its presence in the tier over the past few months. Beyond who I talked to, it's dropped down significantly in SPL, being used only twice in the past two weeks, as players are starting to favour other waters, both offensively and defensively.

I think your post also limits potential counterplay to it, at least in what we see in practice. Florges is picking up a lot currently, not having to fear steel wincons the way it did back when Doublade was around and having very good support attributes currently. Virizion is arguably a top 3 pokemon, maybe even gunning for the top, and its presence largely restricts Blastoise, double with Shaymin and Roserade also being incredible. AV Machamp is super easy to fit on BO builds with a great stab, great coverage and immense utility as a sponge. And while it has a decent matchup against stuff like Rhyperior / Metagross as a remover, it still has trouble coming in very safely and struggles more against Regi or Necrozma, for example. Generally what I've seen is that Blastoise requires more and more a team structure that will largely sustain it, the way Pohjis used it last week in SPL, so that it can be more freed up in doing its job. The main problem that comes with that is that it's largely reliant on keeping the momentum and getting those recovery turns right, which is exploitable, and requires awkward concessions on keeping your bulky-ish water healthy when the metagame has a lot more easier options in that sense. Finally, and again others can chime in, Blastoise really struggles to innovate as a mon; you claim it makes hazards control easy, but it's also incredibly difficult to make it beat any of the rising counterplay because it's so stuck in its role and using it as anything else tends to make a team less reliable.

Finally though, I'd speak on the meta at large a bit more. It's true that hazards are oppressive, but it's less because of Blastoise and moreso because our defoggers are absolutely terrible rn. Mandibuzz / Mantine simply do not have any form of consistency to them when they struggle hard against several matchups and require cleric support in a way that Gligar obviously didn't. Sigilyph is cool but frail with a problematic typing. Florges has horrid matchups as a remover... And then when you look at the other spinners - Tsareena, Forretress, Donphan - and while they can do something they're also stuck with massive inconsistencies. Then you add the fact that a Roserade is near impossible to covers as a spiker and really I don't think Blastoise is the biggest problem at all: it's just by far the most plausible option that we have for all its attributes despite noticeable flaws. I don't think the tier would be better without it, it would probably become an even more chaotic metagame by losing one of its main building blocks in prepping with and prepping against.

 

[TentaBuildings]

How are people deeling w big threats rn such as Zygarde-10% and Virizion? I've been hearing lots of people wanting yet another suspect for either of these 'mons. So what it the council their thoughts on these 'mons, and potentially other suspect-worthy pokemon? (since RU is arguably in a pretty unstable state rn)

 

[MrAldo]

Regarding threats like Zygarde-10% and Virizion, sure lets explain some counterplay.

You gotta understand how Zygarde-10% plays and how it gotta be placed on the perfect position (mainly offensive builds) in order to kill stuff and not dying in the process so if you got the chance of letting it press outrage to revenge kill it with something later you will be set. Bulky offense builds have an easier time slapping thousand arrows resists like Golisopod, Shaymin, Torterra. Phys Def that can take a thousand arrows with ease like Slowbro, Mandibuzz, Cresselia, Donphan, Seismitoad. Offensive have a harder time for sure but stuff like Golisopod still applies, Mega Abomasnow, and having priority puts it in an annoying so stuff like Bullet Punch Panda, Sucker Punch from Lycanroc and outspeeding with Salazzle and Noivern can be really crucial, and there is always glues like Shuca Metagross that keep it at bay. It is rather one dimensional so with some adaptation it can be handled.

Virizion looks, and can be, trickier tho since it has that 3rd coverage move to pick up switch-ins and Life Orb becomes a decent alternative given the more offensive state of the meta. Cresselia always handles any variant unless bloom doom and below 60% so thats the safest bet but stuff like Sigilyph, Noivern, Toxicroak, Ribombee, Salazzle can work but you gotta scout which coverage move it is using so thats way you use midgrounds in order to scout since knowing if it is Stone edge or Zen Headbutt is important to know how to adequately respond. It can be rather tough in practice tho so dont blame you (FUCK UU, FOR TAKING DOUBLADE).

I believe the best way to act atm is to let the meta have some development. We just came from 2 consecutive sets and while many agree that building in the metagame atm can be a massive chore, having suspect after suspect AFTER suspect is just not the best course of action. We are always listening to public opinion so if something feels dumb feel free to post it (but lets not make it a witch hunt)

On other metagame related news, Donphan can be a gift for many teams as hard as I find to admit that. Rapid Spin + 3 Attacks packs important options like Ice Shard and Gunk Shot which allow it to lure and remove annoying things. From a joke to a lowkey hero. It is a very respectable option in the meta atm, and isnt even passive so thats something to take into account. The Elephant did it after all the downplaying!

Araquanid can also be pretty nice. Sub Toxic have been a set I have used since the SM Days and Im glad it is on its best spot atm, punishing many switch-ins accordingly. A water type with notable defensive utility not just dropping to Ninetales can also be pretty dope in terms of easing teambuilding a bit for bulkier threats considering how many insane threats we have atm. A good atm, Water Bubble is clutch.

And Mega Blastoise isnt broken, this tier cant be left without glues. We just lost 3 atm, gonna need a better explanation besides saying its warp the meta when it really doesnt. Roserade warps the meta more around hazards that the turtle does. This tier has no real good mons to rely on as glues and Mega Blastoise is perhaps the last actual top one (and it is slightly declining), stuff that can trade with most things and be threatening. Like Doublade, it eases teambuilding, offers good role compression and key resistances and it is threatening. This is why Meta being disappointing is such a rough realization to me, it is very good but so whatever when with every set isnt even threatening in the slightest. We need to have some top mons to rely and Mega Toise is one of the last that could be considered that, having it as "dominant" isnt a bad thing.

Cheers!

 

[phantom]

topic #2: Zygarde-10%

​

Due to Thousand Arrows coupled with its speed tier, Zygarde has been a hot topic of discussion among the community and RU council. Its speed tier alongside access to Thousand Arrows has many believe that it’s a restricting team building presence. What do you think about Zygarde? Do you believe it’s an unhealthy presence? Why or why not?

 

[Nat]

I'm going to use this as a place to drop off some dog thoughts for the good and not so good people of ru. From what I can gather there is definitely a ton of resentment towards the state of the tier, and to me it was pretty obvious that the great times were over when doublade/gligar were looking to bounce to uu. As I outlined before here, I don't feel zygarde at all is warranting a ban. While it's very easy to say 'no tarrows resist ban tarrows' there is a boatload of counterplay at our disposal that either A) isn't being fully utilized or B) is being ignored simply because it isn't hard countering zydoge on all fronts. It's easier to start with naming the best counters, so I'll start there.

Golisopod, slowbro, cresselia, defensive mandibuzz, and more or less everything I named last time in the link above all handle zygarde as well as one could hope. But even in a non-full on counter sense, there are plenty of viable cores within the meta that handle zygarde. ie a grass type+steel type, or anything else that can bait tarrows since most wouldn't hard rage into grasses just to get potentially stuck vs fat steels that would cripple zydoge. An incredible amount of mons beat zydoge 1v1 or cripple it enough to where 1 of our 80 priority mons can take it out later. Salazzle, noiv, rhyp, araq, m-stoise, shuca m-gross, literally any ice type in the tier, just about any scarfer in the tier, aero, shaymin, tsareena, swellow, ribombee, donphan, and others are all beating it straight up from an offensive standpoint. most of them outspeed/priority kill to where taking a hit isn't huge. this isn't a small number of mons. I refuse to believe going down the path we did in oras is the correct one, and this ultimately feels like a knee-jerk reaction to an unwelcoming and admittedly less adequate metagame, where we rush to diagnose what needs to be banned, yet in reality it won't at all fix the issues we're having.

As to what we do need to do to improve the tier, i'm really not sure. I can definitely say I'm more adjusted after a few weeks and the autolosses on mu people are harping on are usually not so sinister. I think it's fair to say everything I've seen in this meta is noticeably weak to something, it's definitely a more fast and loose offensive timeline we're in. That being said, I don't believe it's so bad to the point that it's 'playing the lottery' or other catch phrases I've seen floating around. I don't think I'd suspect anything fwiw. Zygarde is 23rd in usage for spl through 6 weeks, with a 40% winrate. While that's just 1 anecdotal stat, I'd definitely like to go into detail with these replays to explain what I mean, since they're considered the highest level of play to offer. In this game, KW's zygarde was pretty much a non-factor. It was completely walled by tangela (a defensive mon i didn't name above), but on top of that it was threatened by stoutland outspeeding in sand. To top it all off, it got scared out vs shuca metagross where it most definitely lost in that specific mu. Meanwhile in this game between Diogo and Kingler, it raged into a sash roserade. Even if it wasn't sash, it'd instantly have been revenged by golisopod or bronzong (though it's worth pointing out pod would have likely came in imo if not sashed). It didn't have to luxury to tarrows because of pod, and it really didn't have the luxury to rage either. You can look through most of the teams this spl even where zygarde didn't show, and see that they have multiple viable routes of counterplay. And it isn't 'haha well look they need all these doge counters', they're mostly viable teams that simply function while allowing for dog counterplay, like any good team should in this meta.

 

[UltraBallz]

In my opinion dog definitely is not banworthy. You have already seen other defensive counters begin to surface in SPL on balances after gligar left like tangela and slowbro. And the thing about these mons is they aren’t used solely to check the dog they have a lot of overlap with a lot other physically offensive threats like Metagross, Lycanroc, semi-Virizion in tangela’s case depending on boths sets meaning that it isn’t too difficult or detrimental to your team to use these pokemon. This is on top of the other checks that already existed before the tier shifts which Nat kinda went through all them so no point rehashing.

And as the tier currently sits you tend to see a lot more offensive builds then anything else and zygarde I found tends to be very average vs these because it is so hard to get in and even then it usually won’t be able to break immediately because of stuff like pod/viriz/shay that are able to handle arrows well enough. Honestly since playing RU a lot the last few weeks and relearning the tier I don’t think it is nearly as bad or unbalanced as what people are saying and well built teams can find counterplay to most threats well enough. I probably wouldn’t consider anything really banworthy and definitely not dog.

 

[Cerulean Gaze]

topic #2: Zygarde-10%

​

Due to Thousand Arrows coupled with its speed tier, Zygarde has been a hot topic of discussion among the community and RU council. Its speed tier alongside access to Thousand Arrows has many believe that it’s a restricting team building presence. What do you think about Zygarde? Do you believe it’s an unhealthy presence? Why or why not?

With the proper support, Zydog can easily sweep through teams. It's a versatile mon that can opt to run several different sets ranging from Choice Band to DD Z to DD Glare, etc. While not as unhealthy as its 50% form was in OU, it still restricts teambuilding enough to consider it at least somewhat unhealthy for RU.

 

[Ningildo]

With the proper support, Zydog can easily sweep through teams. It's a versatile mon that can opt to run several different sets ranging from Choice Band to DD Z to DD Glare, etc. While not as unhealthy as its 50% form was in OU, it still restricts teambuilding enough to consider it at least somewhat unhealthy for RU.

Any sweeper can easily sweep with proper support, so unless the support needed is minimal to unnecessary (which isn't specified here), it isn't a solid argument to push for a ban.

And although I can't really speak for or against its versatility in sets (mainly due not having personally used it and not having seen it much on the ladder), I'm genuinely curious in what ways Zydoge restricts teambuilding. How many mons are going down in usage? Are most of them losing viability or becoming unviable outright solely due Zydoge's presence in the tier? What mons are going up? Are they only going up because they deal well with Zydoge?

If you want to convince people that this mon needs to go, presenting evidence to prove your case is a good way to start.

Personally haven't seen much of the dog and when I have, it usually struggles breaking through mons rising in usage, such as Slowbro. It also struggles to get in due poor bulk (skim through the mons in the upper viability ranking. It can only really switch into Registeel consistently, anything else can do 50% or more), so if you have a physically bulky mon that forces it out (see Nat's post), it's not going to see much use in the battle unless you switch in on predicted passive actions on defensive mons (most of whom can still dent it hard despite their limited offensive presence).

It can do serious damage against HO teams that tend to lack the switch ins to Zydoge, but it struggles even harder to get in against them and can still get revenged by scarfers, priority and mons that are naturally faster (that are admittedly few in number).

I just don't see the strain it puts on teambuilding, so I don't think it's suspect worthy.

 

[feen]

Zygarde suspect test has started!
Please use that thread to discuss about Zygarde.

 

[phantom]

The council will test Mega Sceptile first. Mega Sceptile will be allowed on the ladder for one week. After that week the council, alongside a few rotating council members, will vote to determine its fate. If you'd like to be part of the rotating council, make sure to participate in the discussion. Mega Sceptile was previously banned due to its incredible speed and coverage making it difficult for offense to handle. Has enough changed for Mega Sceptile to bring it down from RUBL? Feel free to discuss below! This retest period will end on April 19th @ 11:59 PM EST.

tagging Marty to unban Mega Sceptile from the RU ladder. Thanks!

 

[Feliburn]

 

[Feliburn]

In my opinion I think the metagame has the ability to adapt to Mega Sceptile, pokemon like Metagross, Golisopod and Florges are more commonly seen, other pokemon like Donphan don't give it free switchins thanks to the commonly spammed Ice Shard, and the most used scarfers are now Salazzle, Noivern and Houndoom, all which are faster than Sceptile, unlike the ones that were more common back when it first dropped.

My opinion is obviously subject to change cause I haven't tested with it yet but I do believe it could be a neat addition to the tier if it ends up being not broken.

 

[Sacrificed]

He is back!!!! (Everyone I am begging you to pick Marill pls)

 

[Denial]

Im really disappointed by mega scep rn. It has 0 defensive utily since its bulk is really bad and its typing is even worst, being weak to common coverage like Flying, Dragon, Ice, Bug and Poison. This makes it extremelly easy to revengekill, with things like Scarf Salazzle and Noivern, Golisopod, and Donphan, Mega Aboma and Vanilluxe thanks to Ice Shard. And tbh, its not even hard to wall. Special Walls like Florges, Registeel, Porygon 2 and Cresselia can easily eat attacks from it all day, and 2 of them are still able to deal with the Swords Dance set. Tbh, the problem with the SD set is that you have 0 initial power, cause its base attack is bad and all of his moves have mediocre bp, also you cant run any boosting item like z moves or life orb. Imo Mega Sceptile's best role is as a Revengekiller, thanks to his really high Speed. But even then, there are a lot of mons that can act as a revengekiller and not being useless for everything else.

 

[CryoGyro]

Really, the only part of Sceptile that can possibly be seen as a problem is its Speed. Being just faster than Scarf base 80s and lower is a pretty big deal when Tyrantrum, Gardevoir, and Goodra are otherwise still plenty effective Scarfers. However, no competent bulky offense will rely on just those for revenge killing, not when Ice Scard Donphan, Golisopod, and other priority users are such excellent and necessary choices thanks to other fast sweepers like Barbaracle and Zygarde. Through the rise of those prioirty moves and fast Scarfers that others have brought up, RU teams already have all the tools they need to keep Sceptile from ever becoming a consistent sweeper. As Averardo said, the best Sceptile can hope to get is revenge kills; drops from Leaf Storm, its only scary move, are too costly. Swords Dance sets are weaker and no more difficult to revenge. The worst I can see Sceptile doing is smacking ladder around for a bit, since many still think a slow Scarfer alone is enough speed control. They could use the wake-up call, honestly.

 

[Funbot28]

I've been testing on Scept and tbh I really don't find it overbearing by any sense of the word. It's a great revenge killer for sure and outpaces a handful of common scarfers like Gardevoir and Ttrum but still can be checked by plethora of priority moves, mainly being Espeed, Ice Shard, and First Impression ran on their respective abusers. It's power output is also nothing too crazy as it can still struggle to break through most Steel types mainly being Zor and Registeel (as EQ to the latter still does pitiful damage when running mixed offensive EVs). I still need to play more with the SD set but with mons like Scarf Noivern, CB Metagross, and Florges coming on the rise I really don't expect it to be too much from what I've seen thus far.

 

[snow]

I have been using Mega Sceptile a bit now and thought i'd pop in my two cents on the suspect. Personally when using it, I feel like its rather underwhelming due to a combination of reasons. Firstly, I feel like it needs set up in order to break a lot of the current meta. However, it is way too fragile to be setting up anything really. Secondly, it finds itself easily revenge killed by very common Pokemon such as Donphan and Golisopod. Which basically forces the player to remove half of a team before having a reason to set up. Thirdly, it is outclassed heavily in my opinion by pretty much every other offensive Grass-type Pokemon in the tier with Roserade, Shaymin, and Virizion being examples of Pokemon that can outclass it. With that being said I have found myself using it as a late game sweeper on Balance teams that rely on chipping away at Pokemon until Mega Sceptile is ready to come in and handle business. The core I prefer to use around it is Golbat and Slowbro as they seem perfect to take on threats to Mega Sceptile. The issue that Mega Sceptile has at the current time is that players will make sure they have the correct checks for it as its super common right now. Hopefully once it's been released it might see better match ups.

 

[Lupla]

i used Mega Sceptile in battle and i got reasons for him to stay in RU
1: Poor Defense Stats
Sceptile has bad defenses and a typing that makes it easily to get killed by pokemon like scarf salazzle noivern and houndoom and priority can hurt him a lot or kill it like ice shard from cloyster donphan mega-aboma and vanniluxe, sucker punch from toxicroak and honchkrow
2: Gets Walled By Many Mons
Pokemon like florges shaymin cresselia registeel golbat roserade marill (yes marill walls the special set lol) and bronzong wall easily the special set and even if you got physical with SD +2 you can still get walled by mandibuzz bronzong (yes bron again) and forretress.
I still dont have too much info but i know there is more and things that it could help him to kill things are spikes and rocks setters like forretress roserade drapion cloyster (maybe) donphan nidoqueen registeel etc. Thanks for the attention of my first post from RU have a good day

 

[War Incarnate]

While I haven't really tested out Mega Sceptile yet, I think Mega Sceptile should probably get unbanned for the following reasons (yay Mega Absol is getting a retest!):
1. Typing:
While it's one of the many grass-types able to utterly run over Mega Blastoise, it's typing is... not very good. While Grass/Dragon is a pretty good offensive typing, the problem with it lies defensively. It's just so easy to kill. If Golisopod presses First Impression, you're done for. If Metagross clicks Ice Punch, expect to go down - in an extremely painful way. Not to mention that a lot of pokemon also carry Ice-Type coverage to smash grass-types to pieces, all of which have became more popular and are becoming a lot more popular by the minute, and are becoming more and more popular as we speak. And Mega Sceptile is essentially the victim of all this.
2. Bulk:
This is going to be a MASSIVE issue for Mega Sceptile if it ever gets reintroduced into RU. It gets absolutely screwed over by priority such as Ice Shard (oh no...), First Impression, and Extreme Speed. Literally anything bar resisted hits are going to 2HKO or OHKO the Christmas tree. In fact, it's so easily revenge killed, you're in fact going to need to run a scarfer on the set because of how easily the Christmas tree finds itself revenge killed. I'm using a quote from its UU analysis to show what I mean.
"Mega Sceptile is extremely fast and therefore an effective revenge killer, but it should rarely, if ever, be the fastest Pokemon on your team due to how easily it is revenge killed itself."
Yep. You NEED to run a Scarfer when you make a team with Mega Sceptile, because it's burdened with poor bulk and extremely easy to overwhelm thanks to the popularity of scarfers such as Salazzle, Noivern, and Houndoom, so you need something to outspeed all of them, since Mega Sceptile isn't able to do that at all.
3. Hardwalled:
The title says it all: the increased viability of mons which hardwall it are SUPER detrimental for Mega Sceptile, such as Florges, Cresselia, Dragalge, Bronzong, and Goodra makes life much harder for Mega Sceptile. Even taking into account SD variants of Mega Sceptile, it's still possible to hardwall it, examples of mons which hardwall these variants are surprisingly common right now, examples include Forretress, Mandibuzz, and Bronzong.
4. Competition:
If Mega Sceptile was retested earlier, before the grass-types became popular, then it'd be the best out of them. But oh boy, were we horribly wrong. Roserade, Virizion, and Shaymin give it a good chunk of competition, namely, not taking up the mega slot, meaning that you can run a variety of items, having notably better bulk, offer more utility to a team, don't rely on as much support as the others, and are just more versatile in the fact that they don't suffer from a forced item slot. Of course, it does have its advantages, such as a solid amount of immediate power and a notably better speed tier, but what I'm saying is that there are mons that offer more utility outside being a revenge killer. And those three I drove home were examples. I can list more.

Again, I haven't tested it out yet, so this may be subject to change, but I think that the stage that this meta is in gives Mega Sceptile its advantages and disadvantages, so it could be a nifty pick provided it's not broken.

 

[Captain Universe]

As far as I'm concerned I do think that Mega Sceptile is too good for the RU tier, and I'm gonna tell you why:
First of all its tremendous speed stat combined with its appealing offensive stats makes it so it can just come in, click Leaf Storm and apply an immense amount of pressure onto the entire meta game . It's obviously not just that, but Mega Sceptile's ability to run various coverage moves in order to deal with those steel types, which might look like a check for a moment, makes it very hard for offensive teams to combat this mon.
some calcs for evidence:
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 76 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 156-184 (48.7 - 57.5%) -- 94.5% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 76 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 156-184 (48.7 - 57.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Machamp: 177-208 (46 - 54.1%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock :(obviously not a TwoHKO but I wanted to mention this calc to show how easy it is for Mega Sceptile to chip away at glues on offense like Machamp)

Some of you mentioned the fact that it does have some defensive checks including Florges, Cresselia, Dragalge, Bronzong and Goodra ( First of all I don't think that Dragalge and Goodra are good checks for it). It's true for Florges and Cresselia, however if there weren't some checks for it we wouldn't talk about Mega Sceptile being retested in RU in the first place. And it's not like that you can't have teammates wich can deal with those mons in particular like Drapion for Bronzong or breakers in general like CB Metagross (trick can be cool here to) which are all easy to fit on a team next to Mega Sceptile. This means that combined with minimal team support (i.e. stealth rocks; a solid breaker) Mega Sceptile is not just capable of being a nuisance for offense, but it's also able to break through more balance type of teams with ease. You can obviously have spike stacking support as well making it a laugher for the grass dragon to tear teams apart.
again some calcs:
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Dragon Pulse vs. 204 HP / 0 SpD Dragalge: 254-300 (78.8 - 93.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Goodra: 212-252 (65.8 - 78.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Bronzong: 92-110 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- 57.3% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery ( yes that does nothing but you can run pursuit support with Drapion like I mentioned earlier)
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Registeel: 154-182 (42.3 - 50%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 3 layers of Spikes and Leftovers recovery ( getting three layers of spikes up is not always easy but you can chip away at it anyway )

Nonetheless I know that there is an item called choice scarf ;) . But let me explain why revenge killing Mega Sceptile with a choice scarf is not always as easy and reliable as you might think. Gardevoir, one of the most common scarfers in the tier, for instance can not outspeed Mega Sceptile and don't really wants to eat a leaf storm. Other viable scarfers like Noivern or Salazzle for example don't want to lock themselves into Draco or Sludge Wave because of the fact that all the common steel types (i.e. Metagross) can come in and take advantage of them as setup fodder. Moreover Golisopod, which might me a nuisance at first glance, can easily be outplayed by running protect in the fourth move slot. Because to be a thread Mega Sceptile basically only needs three moves: Leaf Storm, Dragon Pulse and Focus Blast/ HP Fire, allowing it to run Protect.

All in all I think that Mega Sceptile is just too good to be allowed in RU longterm, although my mind might change in the course of the week by playing a bit more with it. It could also be the case that the meta game just needs some time to adapt to Mega Sceptile ( i.e. by putting spdef Articuno on every team lol). But that was it for me, I'm excited to see how the meta game will change.

 

[Loom]

I can get behind Mega Sceptile staying in the tier. On paper it looks broken, being able to outspeed a vast amount of scarfers in the meta, but in actual play I just feel like it lacks the power to back it up. Don’t get me wrong Sceptile is definitely worth of being A- atleast, but I just don’t see it as a broken presence. Most priority moves in the tier can easily eviscerate it, most notably Golisopod with First Impression, and Donphan in a way with Ice Shard. Scarf Noivern being one of the most popular scarfers in the tier rn, can also easily beat / revenge Sceptile. The only scary thing I can really see about Sceptile is the amount of coverage and sets it’s able to run, such as aoa and SD, which both beat many things in their own right. SD can take down mons like Registeel and Florges, with EQ and Leaf Blade coverage. Being able to almost OHKO Florges with a roll in its favor after rocks, and Earthquake heavily denting Registeel doing about 75% at +2. And aoa Sceptile can literally just spam the fuck out of Leaf Storm and pressure anything that wants to switchin with massive damage off of a base 145 Special Attack stat. Sceptile also has amazing coverage in HP Fire to boot, denting the steel types that would usually keep it in check. But yea to sum this up, Sceptile is definitely worthy of staying around, and will most likely cement itself a solid place in the meta, but for the aforementioned reasons, probably won’t be an unhealthy addition to the tier.

calcs

+2 252 Atk

Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 120 Def

: 306-360 (85 - 100%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

+2 252 Atk

Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def

: 272-322 (74.7 - 88.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

​

 

[Voyager]

As far as I'm concerned I do think that Mega Sceptile is too good for the RU tier, and I'm gonna tell you why:
First of all its tremendous speed stat combined with its appealing offensive stats makes it so it can just come in, click Leaf Storm and apply an immense amount of pressure onto the entire meta game . It's obviously not just that, but Mega Sceptile's ability to run various coverage moves in order to deal with those steel types, which might look like a check for a moment, makes it very hard for offensive teams to combat this mon.
some calcs for evidence:
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 76 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 156-184 (48.7 - 57.5%) -- 94.5% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 76 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 156-184 (48.7 - 57.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Leaf Storm vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Machamp: 177-208 (46 - 54.1%) -- 96.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock :(obviously not a TwoHKO but I wanted to mention this calc to show how easy it is for Mega Sceptile to chip away at glues on offense like Machamp)

Some of you mentioned the fact that it does have some defensive checks including Florges, Cresselia, Dragalge, Bronzong and Goodra ( First of all I don't think that Dragalge and Goodra are good checks for it). It's true for Florges and Cresselia, however if there weren't some checks for it we wouldn't talk about Mega Sceptile being retested in RU in the first place. And it's not like that you can't have teammates wich can deal with those mons in particular like Drapion for Bronzong or breakers in general like CB Metagross (trick can be cool here to) which are all easy to fit on a team next to Mega Sceptile. This means that combined with minimal team support (i.e. stealth rocks; a solid breaker) Mega Sceptile is not just capable of being a nuisance for offense, but it's also able to break through more balance type of teams with ease. You can obviously have spike stacking support as well making it a laugher for the grass dragon to tear teams apart.
again some calcs:
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Dragon Pulse vs. 204 HP / 0 SpD Dragalge: 254-300 (78.8 - 93.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Dragon Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Goodra: 212-252 (65.8 - 78.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Bronzong: 92-110 (27.2 - 32.5%) -- 57.3% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery ( yes that does nothing but you can run pursuit support with Drapion like I mentioned earlier)
252 SpA Sceptile-Mega Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Registeel: 154-182 (42.3 - 50%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after 3 layers of Spikes and Leftovers recovery ( getting three layers of spikes up is not always easy but you can chip away at it anyway )

Nonetheless I know that there is an item called choice scarf ;) . But let me explain why revenge killing Mega Sceptile with a choice scarf is not always as easy and reliable as you might think. Gardevoir, one of the most common scarfers in the tier, for instance can not outspeed Mega Sceptile and don't really wants to eat a leaf storm. Other viable scarfers like Noivern or Salazzle for example don't want to lock themselves into Draco or Sludge Wave because of the fact that all the common steel types (i.e. Metagross) can come in and take advantage of them as setup fodder. Moreover Golisopod, which might me a nuisance at first glance, can easily be outplayed by running protect in the fourth move slot. Because to be a thread Mega Sceptile basically only needs three moves: Leaf Storm, Dragon Pulse and Focus Blast/ HP Fire, allowing it to run Protect.

All in all I think that Mega Sceptile is just too good to be allowed in RU longterm, although my mind might change in the course of the week by playing a bit more with it. It could also be the case that the meta game just needs some time to adapt to Mega Sceptile ( i.e. by putting spdef Articuno on every team lol). But that was it for me, I'm excited to see how the meta game will change.

Yes however Mega Sceptile is extremely frail. It gets anialated by first impresion and the ever present ice shard. Not many pokemon can switch in on the FIRST leaf storm, but the drops really hurt it. Salazzle and noivern both 4x resist leaf storm and can return with an OHKO. It isn't terrible, but IMO needs to run protect to stop first impression. Taking a moveslot for its 'coverage' and it needs a scarfer also on the team as it is so easily revenged killed. Im not saying it will be terrible, it looks great on paper, but it will DEFINATLY not be as good as u make it out to be.