OU: Strategy Tier Changes 9/1/14

[DdogTheKing]

If you have not heard Smogon has moved some pokemon from xx tier to xx tier. Here are the results!

-Heracross | UU to OU
-Wobbuffet | UU to RU
-Spiritomb | NU to RU
-Slowbro | UU to OU
-Scolipede | OU to BL
-Omastar | NU to RU
-Magnezone | BL to OU
-Togekiss | OU to UU
-Diancie | OU to UU
-Quagsire | OU to UU
-Vaporeon | OU to UU
-Smeragle | OU to UU
-Mew | UU to OU
-Kabutops | RU to NU
-Gothitelle | UU to OU

How do you feel about these changes? Discuss away.

Heracross: I saw this one coming when they banned Heracronite from UU players had no choice to use M-Heracross in OU. Which jumped its usage levels there and it got the ban hammer from UU.

Slowbro: ABOUT TIME SMOGON. I called for Slowbro to get OU cause it has to be one of the best bulky waters out there period. And it even got better once it got a hold of Assault Vest.

Diancie: I am not suprised by it at all. I do feel bad that it was dropped as Diancie is one of Charizards efficent counters in that tier. Other than that, it wasn't bad as a dual screener. and RestTalk was kinda meh as a set. I like Diancie but I think it might go RU.

Togekiss: I am impartial on Togekiss being dropped. I could say that Clefable does its job better as it has lesser weaknesses, the ability to set up hazards, viable recovery, it can ignore status effects cause of Magic Guard. However, I wanna see how Togekiss will do in UU. It might be the same result as it was UU 5th gen.

Mew: I liked Mew in UU! But, now it's OU. I don't like this one one bit cause now it's gotta deal with threats like Bisharp.

 

[One Approved]

Hi. I've played UU since generation 4, so I have a lot to say about he UU changes n_n

Togekiss: I am impartial on Togekiss being dropped. I could say that Clefable does its job better as it has lesser weaknesses, the ability to set up hazards, viable recovery, it can ignore status effects cause of Magic Guard. However, I wanna see how Togekiss will do in UU. It might be the same result as it was UU 5th gen.

I would honestly be extremely surprised if Togekiss did not get quickbanned in UU. There's a quite a few differences from the 5th gen UU metagame to now that make an extremely heavy impact:

First, Togekiss is now a Flying/Fairy type instead of a Flying/Normal type. This means you now have a 4X resistance to Mienshao, Machamp, Chesnaught, and Scrafty, which is HUGE. In the 5th generation, Togekiss was neutral to Fighting-type attacks, and Fighting was one of the biggest types in the tier. Now, it's doubly resistant to Fighting, and it also resists Knock off, which is a very common move on Fightings now.

Secondly, you are immune to Dragons, which is very nice considering that Haxorus was recently tested and dropped to UU. Togekiss has a very decent amount of bulk, so unlike other fairy-types, it doesn't get trolled by a random Iron Tail or Poison Jab coverage that are sometimes thrown onto dragon-types. Togekiss didn't have that in gen 5 either, so it could potentially be beaten by other dragons, especially CB Flygon and Specs Kingdra.

Also in gen 5 UU, there was sort of a "big three" for types: Fire, Fighting, and Electric. Togekiss 4x resists fighting now, as I said earlier, and Electric really doesn't exist anymore. There are 3, maybe viable electric-types in UU right now, and none of them have a reliable form of recovery. This is different from Gen 5 UU where Raikou and Zapdos flooded the ladder everywhere, and Zapdos could easily heal itself with Roost and harass Togekiss into the endgame.

Lastly, the thing that really pushes it for me is that it literally singlehandedly breaks the entire stall metagame in half. The only viable counters are very niche pokemon (aside from maybe Rotom-Heat) that you don't want to use in the tier because they are very weak to the rest of the current metagame. Electric-types run the risk of letting Hydreigon and Haxorus in for very little damage, while Rhyperior suffers from the fact that Bulky Water-types as well as Shaymin are some of the most popular pokemon in the tier right now (even with Slowbro moving to OU.)

When you put all these things together, I really don't see any way Togekiss stays in UU.

Heracross: I saw this one coming when they banned Heracronite from UU players had no choice to use M-Heracross in OU. Which jumped its usage levels there and it got the ban hammer from UU.

To be honest, I was rather surprised when I saw this. I don't play OU as often as I used to, so I don't really know for certain how useful Mega Heracross really is, but I guess it's useful enough to get the boot. I don't see this having too much of an impact though, since there's a plethora of other fighting-types in the tier to take its place.

Slowbro: ABOUT TIME SMOGON. I called for Slowbro to get OU cause it has to be one of the best bulky waters out there period. And it even got better once it got a hold of Assault Vest.

This one I was also extremely surprised to see. Slowbro's best set in UU by far, in my opinion, is its Calm Mind set, and I always figured the Dark-types in OU would keep it at bay fairly easily. I figured there would just be too much pressure for it to get set up consistently. Even pokemon like Terrakion and Landorus-T can break through the physically defensive set with the right moves, so I don't really know what it's gonna do up there e.e

Mew: I liked Mew in UU! But, now it's OU. I don't like this one one bit cause now it's gotta deal with threats like Bisharp.

Rip. I was also very sad to see this pokemon go. It's clearly a top-tier threat in UU, but definitely a balanced one. I'm hoping that with all the dark-types in OU that it won't stick around too long, but on the other hand, 100/100/100 defenses with access to reliable recovery, defog, taunt, AND Will-o-Wisp would be really good, even if OU had twice as many good Dark-types in it. So I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm a little sad to see Vaporeon drop to UU, because I honestly think it will go straight to RU. As a bulky water-type, it is outclassed by so many different pokemon, but by Alomomola in particular, because it passes much higher-HP wishes, and has a much better ability in Regenerator.

 

[Chaos Jackal]

Heracross: Well, it wasn't such a bad Pokemon if you could do something about its Speed. Wrong. It was monstrous if you could do something about its Speed. Kinda weird that it jumped so much in usage, even with Heracronite banned in UU, but still I can see it.

Slowbro: I can't really see the reason here... Slowbro isn't so good for the OU metagame, it's easily outclassed and as a wall it breaks...

Scolipede: With the Baton Pass chains gone, it's a wonder it stayed there for that much.

Smeargle: Same.

Gothitelle/Wobbufet: The reason one drops is the reason the other is rising. Shadow Tag at its rise, with the older user giving room to the newer one.

Diancie: I can't even understand why it was OU... probably because it was new. Anyway, it's dying down now.

 

[Cinesra]

IIRC, Shadow Tag is banned in all tiers below OU, so that's why Wobb is falling hard.

Heracross: I saw this one coming when they banned Heracronite from UU players had no choice to use M-Heracross in OU. Which jumped its usage levels there and it got the ban hammer from UU.

Mega Heracross has jumped in usage because Aegislash was banned. Once Hera's number one counter was banned, it got to truly shine as one of the best wallbreakers in OU. This had nothing to do with UU.

This one I was also extremely surprised to see. Slowbro's best set in UU by far, in my opinion, is its Calm Mind set, and I always figured the Dark-types in OU would keep it at bay fairly easily. I figured there would just be too much pressure for it to get set up consistently.

Slowbro: I can't really see the reason here... Slowbro isn't so good for the OU metagame, it's easily outclassed and as a wall it breaks...

Slowbro is a great physical wall in OU. It's the best Mega Medicham counter, but it can also counter Mega Charizard X and Keldeo at the same time. Using CMbro in OU is probably a bad idea. The rise of Knock Off would've made it worse than last gen, where I found it to be one of the best physical walls in BW1 (didn't play BW2), but it's balanced out by the new threats that it can counter. Plus it has a great ability and movepool.

Personally I'm surprised Togekiss and Sylveon have stayed OU this long as I've always found them outclassed by Clefable. At least Togekiss, aka 4MSS the mon has dropped to a tier where it can be more useful.

 

[One Approved]

Slowbro is a great physical wall in OU. It's the best Mega Medicham counter, but it can also counter Mega Charizard X and Keldeo at the same time. Using CMbro in OU is probably a bad idea. The rise of Knock Off would've made it worse than last gen, where I found it to be one of the best physical walls in BW1 (didn't play BW2), but it's balanced out by the new threats that it can counter. Plus it has a great ability and movepool

Ahh, yeah that makes sense. I couldn't see it before because in UU, CM Bro is the best set, but I guess an all-out wall set lets it beat all 3 of those mons so that would be much better than I initially thought it could be. I can definitely see why it gets used now.