Those two Pokémon aren't the best examples because they're naturally excellent in the higher tier
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Metagame SV OU Metagame Discussion v4 [Volcarona Banned]
- Thread starter TPP
- Start date
The point remains there's no reason, practically speaking to try and get a Pokemon actually in a tier by usage, to the degree of making the cut off more lenient. Things downstairs can be used further up but not vice versa, so an OU-viable Pokemon being NU doesn't bar other tiers from using it the way a C-Rank OU mon being OU instead of RU does.
Ambipom, the Hitmons, Donphan, Gen 4 Electivire are all examples of Pokemon that are worse off for being in a higher tier by usage because that usage doesn't reflect their viability, it was inflated for the sake of meaninglessly listing them in a higher bracket.
I wanted to take a moment to talk about Tera Blast on Normal types. With the mechanic of Tera, you can use it to get two different STAB coverages even in a choice locked set. My use of this on Indeedee made me look for other examples. I believe the reason why we don't see this more is the lack of viable normal types in OU. Blissey is the only one that is truly OU and it's a pure defensive mon. The only UU normal types are Ursaluna and, again, Indeedee. They can be used in OU, but both are limited to niches. In the case of Ursaluna in particular, it makes little sense. Its speed is too slow for a Choice Scarf set and it makes less than zero sense to run Choice Band over Guts Flame Orb.
The leaves us with 6 more niche lower tier mons that are maybe possible to use in OU under certain conditions. RU has Chansey, Cinccino, Maushold, Cyclizar, and H-Zoroark. Nu has Porygon-Z. Of these, the only two that make any sense for this TB strat are H-Zoroark and Porygon-Z. Chansey is maybe viable on that one hazard clear stall team where it wouldn't be required to run boots, but it is still a pure defensive mon. Maushold and Cinccino are Technician and/or Skill Link mons that would prefer to run better Normal type moves like Population Bomb or Tail Slap. Cyclizar has weak attacking stats and would really need something more powerful like Double Edge to do any decent damage.
Porygon Z starts pretty easy. Most sets run Tri Attack, so just replace that with a different 80 base power move. Or run both to have a Normal STAB for after you Tera. The difficulty there is the 90 speed tier being really bad for gen 9. You could maybe get around this a bit with Choice Scarf, but the boosted metagame wouldn't be very kind to it. Z might be better as a wallbreaker on webs. A lot of teams are designed to check physical attackers first, so having a strong special attacker could be nice either way. It would likely need its own dedicated team, though.
H-Zoroark is a bit trickier for me to figure out. My best guess is it would probably want Choice Specs for the power. I think the main niche would be the double surprise factor. You are surprised once by Illusion, maybe, and then Tera Blast switching type could mess with what the initial check should be. There is the possibility of mixed attacking, but this might be harder to justify on a choice locked set
For the record, I believe that Ghost is the best Tera type for this strategy. Plus, H-Zoroark in particular is already a Ghost type. So it would essentially get an Adaptability level boost. Porygon-Z already has the Adaptability ability, although Download is supposed to be better. Aside from Blissey, which can be crippled by Trick, the only types that resist Ghost moves are Dark types due to Normal types being so rare in gen9 OU. The only Dark type in OU that resists both Normal and Dark type STAB is Gambit. If you have a team that can deal with Gambit, or even somehow find a way to fit a Magnezone, that would make it so that you essentially have no resistance to this combination.
Of course, this is pure theory right now. I have not tested it yet. These mons tend to be lower tiered for a reason. I'm just brainstorming out loud right now. There is maybe room for more special attackers since the physical threats in this meta seem to carry the most weight overall.
The leaves us with 6 more niche lower tier mons that are maybe possible to use in OU under certain conditions. RU has Chansey, Cinccino, Maushold, Cyclizar, and H-Zoroark. Nu has Porygon-Z. Of these, the only two that make any sense for this TB strat are H-Zoroark and Porygon-Z. Chansey is maybe viable on that one hazard clear stall team where it wouldn't be required to run boots, but it is still a pure defensive mon. Maushold and Cinccino are Technician and/or Skill Link mons that would prefer to run better Normal type moves like Population Bomb or Tail Slap. Cyclizar has weak attacking stats and would really need something more powerful like Double Edge to do any decent damage.
Porygon Z starts pretty easy. Most sets run Tri Attack, so just replace that with a different 80 base power move. Or run both to have a Normal STAB for after you Tera. The difficulty there is the 90 speed tier being really bad for gen 9. You could maybe get around this a bit with Choice Scarf, but the boosted metagame wouldn't be very kind to it. Z might be better as a wallbreaker on webs. A lot of teams are designed to check physical attackers first, so having a strong special attacker could be nice either way. It would likely need its own dedicated team, though.
H-Zoroark is a bit trickier for me to figure out. My best guess is it would probably want Choice Specs for the power. I think the main niche would be the double surprise factor. You are surprised once by Illusion, maybe, and then Tera Blast switching type could mess with what the initial check should be. There is the possibility of mixed attacking, but this might be harder to justify on a choice locked set
For the record, I believe that Ghost is the best Tera type for this strategy. Plus, H-Zoroark in particular is already a Ghost type. So it would essentially get an Adaptability level boost. Porygon-Z already has the Adaptability ability, although Download is supposed to be better. Aside from Blissey, which can be crippled by Trick, the only types that resist Ghost moves are Dark types due to Normal types being so rare in gen9 OU. The only Dark type in OU that resists both Normal and Dark type STAB is Gambit. If you have a team that can deal with Gambit, or even somehow find a way to fit a Magnezone, that would make it so that you essentially have no resistance to this combination.
Of course, this is pure theory right now. I have not tested it yet. These mons tend to be lower tiered for a reason. I'm just brainstorming out loud right now. There is maybe room for more special attackers since the physical threats in this meta seem to carry the most weight overall.
One thing about un-tera'd tera blast is that it always is a special move, it only does the thing where it changes between a physical and special move when you tera. This means that ursaluna, maushold and cinccino will be so weak using it. Thus, you have to use it purely on special attackers.
The only other mon I can think of that would use it is meloetta but meloetta's main niche is that of a devastating wall breaker by using relic song to switch between forms. Relic song is just a really good move due to it's sleep chance. You could potentially use tera blast to stay in aria form, while also abusing the form change, but you then have to drop psychic or knock off, which is not ideal.
I had forgotten this. It's kinda funny that I wound up dismissing all the potential physical attackers for other reasons. Luckily for me, Indeedee and the two I didn't dismiss are primarily special attackers. So there's no need to change too much of what I said.
I did briefly mention mixed attacking on H-Zoroark, which I guess would have only been for Low Kick to maybe hit Gambit and Blissey anyways. I just ran the calcs on that and even Choice Specs Focus Blast does much more to Blissey than uninvested Low Kick. Yeah, that would have never worked. I think a 252/252 speed/special attack set is the only way to go on for this particular Tera Blast strat.
I actually think Arboliva could work pretty well with this concept. Its base 125 special stat is a good starting point. Add on Choice Specs and a Modest nature and you have a powerful normal type to spam STAB Tera Blast.
That’s where Tera Ghost comes in. Arboliva invites in checks like Corv, Spdef Glowking, Dragapult, and Gholdengo. Click Tera Ghost, and suddenly you get a Specs-boosted Ghost STAB to nuke these mons.
Might actually be a pretty fun set.
Didn't Arboliva used to have a niche in OU? I swear prior to DLC1, some people were talking a bit about it and it was sitting somewhere in / near D Tier.
I searched through the past viability rankings, and nope, arboliva did not.
Though here are some mons that did have a ranking:
Sylveon: C- Rank
Masquerain: C- Rank
Flamgio: C- Rank
Golduck: C Rank
Charizard: C Rank
Floatzel: B- Rank
Pawmot: B Rank
Breloom: B Rank
Zoroark Hisui: A- Rank
These are all for the first viability rankings.
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Slyveon was c- rank? Man, people were desperate for any decent fairy types. RIP the Tapus