Originally Posted by
PokePoindexter
Those of us who have been visiting Smogon and other sites like it have probably seen a lot of buzz about the development of a Black and White metagame. Note to mods here: I don't intend to make this the same as the other thread (towards the end, it looked like it would be), but I apologize if it seems too much like it.
Here are some thoughts on some possible new additions to the metagame from me to get things started):
Things that will probably be solid OU contenders:
*Technician Breloom - As if Breloom wasn't strong enough with Poison Heal, Base 130 Attack, Spore, Focus Punch, and who-knows-what-else, this just adds to the pain; how about a possible 250-powered (375 with STAB) Bullet Seed? 100 (150) at bare minimum? The bad news is this means Breloom now gets crippled by Toxic (Spikes), but it's still a viable trade-in, as five hits will easily OHKO or 2KO most Pokemon who aren't resistant to the attack.
Don't forget about Technician Mach Punch here. An equal base attack to Scizor and a priority move with much better coverage makes Breloom a viable revenge killer, especially for Sand Throw Doryuuzu. Even with these new toys, the Poison Heal ability is still going to be popular for that staying power.
*Shandera - How does 145 Base Special Attack, a stellar special movepool, and Shadow Tag suit you? Some people think this is good enough to evict it to Ubers, but I seriously doubt it; every Pokemon has at least one Achilles Heel, and in Shandera's case, it is easily revenge-killed with low defenses, and being weak to both of Tyranitar's STAB attacks doesn't exactly help. Gyarados and Vaporeon can often prove to be good checks to it as well, all having solid Sp.Def and/or HP. Still, with a Choice Scarf attached, Shandera can quite possibly be a candidate for the #1 Anti-Metagame Pokemon.
I happen to use Shandera on a quite a few of my teams, and it works excellent as a revenge killer, but there's something else that makes Shandera even more threatening to unprepared teams: A Shandera running Calm Mind/Acid Armor/Shadow Ball/Flamethrower. Switching this set into a choice Fighting or Normal Type essentially guarantees you the win, as you can boost your Special Attack and Both Defenses to astronomical levels, making an unkillable tank that can crush entire teams. It still fills the revenge killing niche with decent coverage with its STAB attacks as well. I have won many a battle that I thought to be lost with just this set.
*Ulgamoth - Let's just say, you might need Stealth Rock on your opponent's field to ensure any chance of beating it, as with stellar Special stats, base 100 Speed, and access to Butterfly Dance (which boosts all three of those stats one level each), this turns Ulgamoth into a real beast. The only Pokemon I can suggest as a potential wall is Heatran. If he wasn't 4x weak to Rock attacks and had better Defense or Special Defense, I'd be advocating for him to be shoved to Ubers instead.
Ulgamoth is a pretty solid force with a Butterfly dance, but it's Physical Defense is extremely weak. Butterfly Dance is easily one of the premier boosting moves, but in my experience, use of Stealth Rock is still very high, and it's useless against the now omnipresent Sandstorm and Rain Dance teams.
*Magic Mirror Espeon - Magic Mirror works as an automatic Magic Coat. Talk about cool; Taunt, Stealth Rock, Leech Seed, Toxic, Will-O-Wisp, etc. all get blasted back towards your opponents without you needing to use the attack ahead of time. This makes Espeon even better at his infamous EspyJump combo than before. Espeon's movepool doesn't give it many good attacking options aside from Psychic and Grass Knot, so he'll probably be doing EspyJump again, just in OU this time.
Probably one of the most annoying things for Stealth Rockers, Magic Mirror in general is just a momentum killer for anything that isn't an Anti-Lead or straight sweeper. Espeon actually works great as an Ulgamoth partner, since it can stop those damn Stealth Rocks, and still give you some offensive punch that just isn't found in a lot of Spinners. This is going to be a very effective set in OU, and Xatu will probably occupy the same role in UU.
*Speed Boost Blaziken and Sharpedo - The former was mentioned a lot more commonly, but I seriously believe both Blaziken and Sharpedo can make excellent use of this ability. Neither Blaziken nor Sharpedo are tailored to be defensive Pokemon, but both have great Attack and passable Special Attack, so adding a Speed Boost helps out a lot. This will certainly give Blaziken a chance on higher ground than either Infernape or Emboar. Sharpedo can also do this well; he has Yanmega's speed, better typing (not being 4x weak to SR is better, yes?), and solid offensive stats.
I haven't had the chance to use Sharpedo just yet, but Blaziken makes pretty good use of this ability. It loses a couple of it's good moves like Thunderpunch in order to use the DW ability, but there are some new roles it can fill. Running Protect sacrifices some coverage, but grants the +1 speed boost without having to take a hit, and often lets Blaziken outpace it's foe, and continue to build momentum from there. Blaziken with Protect/Swords Dance/Baton Pass/Attacking move works as an effective Baton Passer, and pairs well with Wobbufett, who is currently still OU as of posting. Wobbufett gives Blaziken a free turn of setup with Swords Dance, essentially guaranteeing a boost of +2 to Attack and Speed to whatever you pass to. And if a Phazer or Taunter comes in? Use your now boosted attacking move off of that nice 120 base attack to bring the pain.
I haven't really used Sharpedo yet, but there are some things I can see right off the bat. First of all, it's got terrible defenses, so Priority and Sturdy pokemon are problematic. However, having Aqua Jet to take out those priority users could help out a ton.
*Eccentric Ditto - Instant transformation into anything your opponent has out at the time. There's even speculation on Smogon about him being booted to Ubers. This I can imagine happening, as a Ditto that turns into an Arceus can do some number or two on your opponents.
Ditto with a choice scarf wins the award of most annoying pokemon in the metagame. I got so pissed off at Ditto that I made a team specifically to thrash the crap out of anyone who uses it (using a clever baton passing team and the Shandera set I mentioned... fufufufu. Don't use Ditto against me). Anyway, where were we? Eccentric copies the stat boosts of any pokemon, which makes using any kind of boosting sweeper a hazardous risk for you, as your entire sweep can get reversed by a Choice Scarf Ditto. It may not have the ability to switch attacks, but it's guaranteed to go faster than your +6 speed pokemon, and will kill it or force you to switch, ending your plans for sweeping. And given than most pokemon resist their types, it can come in for little cost on many pokemon.
Think of it this way. There are a few pokemon that you must be able to beat, or you will not be sucessful in the gen 5 metagame. Eccentric Choice Scarf Ditto is one of those pokemon.
*Doryuuzu - Everyone, meet Tyranitar's (and/or Hippowdon's) new partner-in-crime; this Steel/Ground monster packs a Base 135 Attack, 88 Speed, and an ability called Sand Throw, which doubles his Speed in a sandstorm. Thus, a Jolly nature will get his Speed up to 604 - not bad, eh? Even if you use Adamant instead, this thing will still hit 550, which still outruns ANY non-Scarfed Pokemon (and some that are). He's not without his checks, however; with two new auto-weather Pokemon hitting the scene, both of whom can score super-effective hits on him, Doryuuzu's reign of terror isn't quite as lethal as one might think. And speaking of auto-weather, that brings us to...
Pretty scary stuff here, PP has graciously showed you that tasty 604 speed, which to put in perspective outspeeds Choice Scarf Base 130 pokemon. It's defenses are a bit flimsy though, and there are a lot of new pokemon that can KO it with a well-placed Mach Punch now, not to mention risking being overrun by your own pokemon when the other guy switches in his Ditto on you. I have a hard time getting in a Swords dance on a set of Swords Dance/Earthquake/Rock Slide/Coverage Move, but Doryuuzu usually doesn't even need the boost. Strong, but overrated.
*Drizzle Politoed - How about auto-rain, huh? Man, oh man, we got some Uber-level abilities comin' onto non-legendary Pokemon now. As if rain wasn't lethal enough, too. Well, all kidding aside, I certainly believe auto-weather will skyrocket Toed to OU, simply because he gives instant (permanent) weather to help many UU/BL/OU Pokemon of the last generation who could plaster whole teams as long as the rain existed; such Pokemon as Kabutops, Ludicolo, Kingdra, and Hydration Vaporeon (more about that one later) can be counted on this list. Dry Skin Toxicroak might also see some usage in OU, either to counter or provide type coverage on these teams.
Rain, rain. Another deadly weather effect now, and Politoed does a decent job of setting it up and profiting off the boost. Lots of interesting swift swimmers are already around and familiar to people, with new ones like Tsunbear coming up. I'll note that Genosekuto makes a great pokemon for Rain as it's fire weak is reduced greatly. One thing though, you must note that if someone has a sandstorm team and leads with their Ttar or Hippowdon, the slower pokemon (A.K.A. not your Politoed) will have their weather effect set up first. It is simply because of this fact that I think Sandstorm teams are better right now, even though Rain teams have the type advantage. I have two teams for both effects, and my sand teams have no trouble demolishing rain teams, while its a bit more tricky the other way around for some reason. Maybe it's because Garchomp got moved back to OU...
*Drought Ninetales - It's not all rosy for Rain-based Pokemon, though; Ninetales, having been generally decent in the 4th generation metagame (albeit outclassed by Ape and Tran), jumps into a similar league as Politoed with infinite weather available at his disposal. Ninetales can either use SolarBeam (which will have the charge negated in the sun) or Energy Ball (which can now be learned through TM53) to counter Water and Rock Pokemon, and Psycho Shock gets around Blissey and Snorlax. All of these have their power boosted by either Calm Mind or Nasty Plot. Also, a Scarfed Ninetales with 492 (or 448, for that matter) can outrun and OHKO non-Scarfed variants of Azelf, Gengar, Metagross, Mamoswine, Doryuuzu, Bronzong, and Magnezone with Fire Blast. One more thing - he also learns Will-O-Wisp to cripple Tyranitar and Hippowdon.
I don't really have enough on Sun teams to tell you a lot here, I haven't seen them used that much to be honest. Venusaur seems to be the prime favorite to partener up with Ninetales. Keep in mind that Ninetales loses to Hippowdon and Ttar for weather control as well.
And one last one:
*Hydration Vaporeon - Ahhhh, nice and refreshing...yeah. Anyway, having statuses healed in the rain is a steal when your main role is supporting other Pokemon with WishPassing and the occasional Hydro Pump. Vaporeon was already a great OU contender before, but this new ability makes him outstanding on Rain teams, where he can switch into just about any status and wash it away. Just be sure to keep your opponents from changing the weather; Tyranitar can survive two Surfs with that extra bulk, and CM Ninetales after one boost can easily handle three.
This works as a great annoyance set, especially if you can Toxic a few foes. Just watch out for boosting sweepers, as if you're running a rain team you might not have room for a ditto.
I know that many of these are only available through the Dream World, and not all are available yet, but once they DO become available, you can probably expect to see them.
PokePoindexter out.
