Age 29
Male
In the swimming pool
Seen November 17th, 2013
Posted December 23rd, 2011
1,194 posts
15 Years
It's because Espeon is primarily used for its support role in bouncing stuff back. It can't do too much offensively apart from laugh at Blissey with Psyshock (if it carries it) or beat out a fighting type. If you look at the top 10 of OU, you can also see why. Ferrothorn laughs at Espeon these days, Scizor can just Bullet Punch or Pursuit, Tar can Pursuit, Garchomp/Latios can take a hit then bring it down, Gliscor can Protect stall it thanks to Poison Heal, Excadrill outspeeds in sand (not used anywhere else hopefully) and brings down in one shot with Earthquake, Reuniclus lives a Shadow Ball and retaliates with a more powerful one, so on and so forth. Speed doesn't help Espeon out too much because it doesn't have the offensive capacity to do well in OU anymore even with a decent Speed stat.

On other notes I guess this means I need a new OU team lol (when 1/3rd of your team is UU there might be a problem). I'm actually a little bit surprised that Kyurem didn't break the UU barrier because it really is a powerhouse if you play it right and it has variety (Hone Claws set, Life Orb Special, Specs, Sub, etc). I would've thought it to be OU for sure.
I'm back. But not as active as before. 2 years has been too long.

Check out my food blog if you're not busy.

Vrai

can you feel my heart?

Age 28
Male
Seen October 24th, 2022
Posted April 1st, 2016
2,896 posts
14.9 Years
But....but...Espeon can outspeed quite a few things...
The points .Aero outlined are really crucial to its lack in usage. However, though, there's another thing - the name of the metagame is speed & priority. So many things are blazing fast in OU (Excadrill, I'm looking at you) that really, the speed quality of everything else just doesn't mean as much. Plus, Espeon's relatively frail and priority from random things like CB Azumarill's Aqua Jet will do huge damage to it. Espeon's just not bulky enough to take any kind of hit, nor is it powerful enough to KO anything with remote special bulk before it dies to their counterattack. Plus it has an awful time trying to break through Tyranitar and Scizor and all sorts of other things. Espeon's just too frail to really do anything other than Bounce away some hazards. :(

...I was going to say something else too but I forgot. -scratches head-

edit: damn you skippy you beat me by a minute. :((((((((((((((

On other notes I guess this means I need a new OU team lol (when 1/3rd of your team is UU there might be a problem). I'm actually a little bit surprised that Kyurem didn't break the UU barrier because it really is a powerhouse if you play it right and it has variety (Hone Claws set, Life Orb Special, Specs, Sub, etc). I would've thought it to be OU for sure.
Well, Kyurem is indeed a powerhouse but I guess the people just didn't want to utilize it in OU. Plus, Fighting-type and Steel-type dominance in OU kinda scares Kyurem slightly. It's good in OU, but nowhere near as good as it is in UU. TBH my favorite set to abuse with it in UU is the Hone Claws+101 Sub set - the Pokémon that normally switch into it like Chansey just lose flat-out to it. Plus, when that's coupled with Spikes and Toxic Spikes and SR, nothing lives more than two +6 D-Tails.

OH I REMEMBER WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY. I want to try Trick Room Victini and/or Moxie Honchcrow (mix with HP Fire?). Moxie Sucker Punch just sounds too good to be true and TR Victini will seriously tear apart any kind of offensive team especially if you're already working with Sun. Plus V-Create actually makes you faster and faster in TR which is awesome - and there are no good Pursuiters in UU save maybe Houndoom (which any sun team should have a check for anyway).