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Sun and Moon better have a damn Mega Solrock and Lunatone to make those two competitively really viable finally :U

Hey peeps - how goes the metaplay 'n such.

So, about that ORAS Gen 1 OU thingy...I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. Kinda hoping to find that one broken team that I can use that is hopefully more broken than all the teams that I might end up facing.

Who thought leaving Megas in while removing their checks was a good idea? {XD}

Mega Charizard X's only remaining checks in ORAS Gen 1 OU are...Slowbro and Rhydon. Yikes. Very limited options for Scarfers and Prankster TWave users. The only one that can outrun and KO +1 Zard X is Scarf Aerodactyl. No thanks. I suppose the best option for dealing with it is using a whole team that threatens or cripples it. Dugtrio exists too.

On the bright side, weather has plenty of options in this metagame.

wolf said:

Mega Charizard X's only remaining checks in ORAS Gen 1 OU are...Slowbro and Rhydon. Yikes. Very limited options for Scarfers and Prankster TWave users. The only one that can outrun and KO +1 Zard X is Scarf Aerodactyl. No thanks. I suppose the best option for dealing with it is using a whole team that threatens or cripples it. Dugtrio exists too.

On the bright side, weather has plenty of options in this metagame.

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ZardX still has decent Special Attack and if you run into one with Solar Beam, then your Rhydon isn't even a check anymore. Granted, it lacks the Drought ability, but there's still other options for that.

oh shit Volcanion's legal for use now

Volcanion's release kinda makes me want to build a Rain team for some reason.

I kinda wonder really why they thought that Steam Eruption was good idea. I mean:

BP: 110
Acc: 95%
30% burn chance

On a poke that gets STAB on it too. It's basically Scald with Hydro Pump's power.

At least it's restricted to 8 PP only. Also since Volcanion itself has Water Absorb, your opponent is going to think twice if he wants to use it into a potential Volc switchin. Same with Scald. I also think that other Water Absorb user, like Gastrodon, are going to be used a little bit more, restricting the efficiency of those moves a little bit more.

Bumping this because we got info about the SM legendaries and their types, abilities and signature moves.

Solgaleo (Sun mascot) is a Psychic/Steel-type, and Lunala (Moon mascot) is a Psychic/Ghost-type.

The two legendaries have brand-new abilities called Full Metal Body and Shadow Shield. The trailer did get a bit of a glimpse and I guess it's like a variant of Clear Body since Solgaleo blocked Salamence's Intimidate in the trailer.

The signature moves for Solgaleo and Lunala are called Sunsteel Strike and Moongeist Beam. No word on what type the moves are, or their base power or damage category.

The downside here is Lunala has a 4x weakness to Dark and Ghost, and we know that these two types are a common sight in competitive. I do wonder if this will make people less desired to choose Moon, if I wonder. However, it also has a resistance to Poison and immunities to Normal and Fighting.

Moongeist Beam is likely a STAB move for it, given that it was super-effective on the Gengar in the trailer. The question is which of its two types will it be.

Nah said:

Moongeist Beam is likely a STAB move for it, given that it was super-effective on the Gengar in the trailer. The question is which of its two types will it be.

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I think the fact that it lights up might suggest it'll be Psychic. I can't decipher Solgaleo's move as easily since we don't hear a damage sound cue when it hits Salamence.

Hikamaru said:

I think the fact that it lights up might suggest it'll be Psychic. I can't decipher Solgaleo's move as easily since we don't hear a damage sound cue when it hits Salamence.

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I'm assuming fire or steel for solgaleo's move, (because of the name) and ghost for lunala, (also the name)

MUDKIP!!! said:

I'm assuming fire or steel for solgaleo's move, (because of the name) and ghost for lunala, (also the name)

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I'm leaning towards Steel here, since the majority of the time, signature moves are the same type as their wielders.

After a bit of research, Lunala's signature move Moongeist Beam appears to be Ghost-type. Its Japanese name is even called Shadow Ray, and we know shadow is something heavily associated with the Ghost-type.

While Solgaleo appears to be a Metagross clone, I'm still going with Sun as my first game.

As for Lunala, 4x weaknesses to Pursuit, Sucker Punch, and Knock Off totally suck. It appears to be complete Tyranitar and Yveltal bait unless it gets good defenses and/or Focus Blast/Moonblast to compensate.

It'd be a bit silly really if Lunala, the Pokemon with the moon as its motif, doesn't get Moonblast

but this is also Game Freak we're talking about so....

So we had two new Pokemon revealed today, one of them was Iwanko, a Rock-type dog with Vital Spirit and Keen Eye for its abilities, but we also had another Pokemon revealed who has a brand-new ability...



The new koala Pokemon from the latest CoroCoro scan, Nekkoala is a Normal-type koala we all wanted for years but it has what I consider to be an ability with potential to be overpowered. The new ability Nekkoala has is called Definite Sleep (no English name known yet, but this is its Japanese name) which makes the user immune to all status conditions other than sleep.

If this thing's evolution has good stats, it could easily use Attack-boosting moves like Hone Claws or Swords Dance and not worry about its physical attacks getting crippled by burns (since I'm assuming it'll likely be physical in its stats) or it could learn a Speed-boosting move and not worry about paralysis crippling its Speed. And it'll also say "screw you" to Toxic users and Toxic Spikes.

Considering how much status conditions run around the metagame, it's quite an overpowered ability if most of those statuses can't even affect it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDTKAX-UcQs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7cW0F4JMsc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeZ_8s_kWXg

Here are Zygarde's 10% and 100% formes in action. Zygarde 10% will transform into 100% when in a pinch. It also shows Thousand Waves and Thousand Arrows in action, as well as a new signature move in Core Enforcer (it seems to be a Dragon move, since it was supereffective on Garchomp).

In the video, there's a massive HP difference between both formes.

It seems that Substitute is a reliable way for Zygarde to get to pinch-level so it can transform and gain plenty of HP in the process:
-Substitute
-Core Enforcer
-Thousand Arrows
-Dragon Dance/Extreme Speed
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Liechi Berry/Salac Berry

Thousand Arrows is used over Earthquake to let Zygarde hit Fliers/Levitators and not be completely boned by Togekiss, Skarmory, and Bronzong.

As a result of the suspect testing process, some interesting tiering decisions have occurred over the past month:

- Tauros, a formidable but beatable Normal-type attacker in NU, was spared the humiliation of being condemned to BL3, receiving 60 'Do Not Ban' votes and 23 'Ban' votes.
- Salamence, a fearsome Dragon Dance sweeper that was virtually uncounterable thanks to its ability to run a large variety of other good sets, returned to BL, receiving 63 'Ban' votes and 31 'Do Not Ban' votes.
- Drifloon, which, in the past few months, had emerged as an incredibly annoying Unburden sweeper through a Substitute + Recycle set, was banned from LC, receiving 41 'Ban' votes and 18 'Do Not Ban' votes.
- After a controversial discussion surrounding the legitimacy of banning a single move, Dynamic Punch, from PU, Machoke, which had emerged as a bulky and strong user of Dynamic Punch when paired with No Guard, was cast away to BL4, received a whopping 43 'Ban' votes compared to a measly 6 'Do Not Ban' votes.
- NU decided to suspect test the ability to Baton Pass Speed boosts as a result of ChickenPass - a playstyle involving Baton Passing Speed boosts from Combusken to another Pokemon - being considered broken; in the end, 'ChickenPass' became no more, receiving 47 'Ban' votes and 27 'Do Not Ban' votes.

Do you agree with these bans? What metagame changes do you think will arise as a result of them?

Personally, I agree with the Salamence ban. Its incredible versatility, being able to run any of a mixed attacking set, a defensive Defog set, and a Dragon Dance set viably, made it very difficult to account for when teambuilding. Another sticking point was the fact that it was very difficult to deal with a boosted Dragon Dance Salamence locked into Outrage without sacrificing a Pokemon then sending in Sylveon or Florges for the revenge kill. The ban will relieve some of the pressure placed on UU players attempting to teambuild, as there is now one less dangerous offensive threat to account for.

From passing observations of my friends playing on the LC ladder, Drifloon also deserved to get banned. It added very little to the metagame, and dealing with it was made more difficult as a result of it being able to run a usable (albeit inferior) Calm Mind set; this made otherwise solid checks to the SubRecycle set, such as Chinchou, much worse at dealing with Drifloon

Ah, I was wondering what all those recent suspect tests in the lower tiers was about. Can't really comment on much it since I don't really play any of those. But I'm a bit surprised that it took this long for a ban on "Chicken Pass" to occur, baton passing speed has been known to be BS for a while