[Gen6] Competitive Discussion

[RicePigeon]

And the first casualty of ORAS OU is Mega Salamence:

Source: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/salamencite-is-now-banned-to-ubers.3523082/

After a month of testing, taking into account both our personal experience as players and the community input from this thread, the OU Council has unanimously decided that Mega Salamence should be immediately placed in Ubers.

The ORAS OU ladder and, starting from last week, the Standard OU ladder on Pokémon Showdown have led us to believe that Mega Salamence is simply too much for the OU tier and that its presence is actually hindering the development of the ORAS metagame.

Mega Salamence's unhealthy presence in the metagame can be summed up in 3 points:

1) Incredible physical bulk

By sheer stats, Mega Salamence is one of the sturdiest offensive Pokémon in the game. 95 / 130 / 90 defenses are exceptional for a sweeper and give Mega Salamence the possiblity to set up with impunity on a plethora of defensive and offensive Pokémon. Combine this with Intimidate and the fact that people often opt to invest in a lot of bulk (as Salamence does not need significant Attack investment to sweep against offense at +1) and it becomes immediately clear that both killing M-Salamence on the turn it comes in and revenge killing it after it has fainted an opposing Pokémon is no easy feat. In fact, Mega Salamence's physical defense is comparable to that of Skarmory.

As the above damage calculations prove, taking down M-Salamence is incredibly hard, even if it opts to not invest in bulk at all.

2) Stupidly powerful offensive presence

Mega Salamence receives a significant boost in both its offensive stats and Speed. With 145 / 120 offenses combined with Aerilate, 120 base Speed and an extremely large movepool, Mega Salamence is one of the most unpredictable and hard hitting sweepers in the game. No Pokémon outside of Eviolite Porygon-2 can safely switch into Mega Salamence.

A few damage calculations will show how easy it is for Mega Salamence to sweep/wallbreak against the vast majority of the OU metagame:

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 252 HP / 88+ Def Ferrothorn: 159-187 (45.1 - 53.1%)

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 228 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 283-334 (71.1 - 83.9%)

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 248 HP / 116 Def Mega Scizor: 160-190 (46.6 - 55.3%)

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 237-279 (58.6 - 69%)

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard X: 214-253 (72 - 85.1%)

252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Mega Gyarados: 219-258 (66.1 - 77.9%)

252 Atk Salamence Earthquake vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Tyranitar: 218-258 (54 - 64%)

4 SpA Salamence Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 248-292 (74.2 - 87.4%)

+1 252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Hippowdon: 306-360 (72.8 - 85.7%)

+1 252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 244 HP / 28+ Def Gliscor: 259-306 (73.5 - 86.9%)

+1 252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Thundurus: 237-279 (79.2 - 93.3%)

-1 252 Atk Aerilate Salamence Return vs. 252 HP / 0+ Def Landorus-T: 157-186 (41 - 48.6%)

While its most common set (Substitute / Roost / Dragon Dance / Return) can be walled by Skarmory, Heatran, Zapdos and defensive Rotom-W (assuming it has Hidden Power Ice), all of the aforementioned Pokémon can be defeated with the appropriate move. For instance, Mega Salamence can use Fire Blast for Skarmory, Earthquake for Heatran and Outrage/Draco Meteor for Rotom. On top of that, Mega Salamence can run many other sets such as: Sub Dragon Dance 2 attacks, Roost 3 attacks, Dragon Dance 3 attacks, Dragon Dance Roost 2 attacks, Dragon Dance Refresh, fully Special, and so on, which are all viable. While they are not equally as effective as the most common set, this means that there is no surefire counter to Mega Salamence. While the same can be said for other offensive OU powerhouses, none of them have the same combination of offensive presence, staying power and Speed as Mega Salamence. In the end, it's safe to say that Mega Salamence’s presence in the Overused tier simply overshadows the worth of using other Megas.

3) Centralization and negative effects on team building

For the reasons listed in the above two paragraphs, every team has to overprepare to "counter" Mega Salamence. The amount of teams that run obscure and niche counters/revenge killers on the ladder is impressive. People are forced to run defensive Porygon-2, HP Ice Rotom-W, defensive Zapdos and Cresselia in order to deal with the threat that Mega Salamence represents. On top of that, none of these Pokémon are exactly viable on offensive teams, meaning that said teams are either forced to run gimmicks such as Choice Scarf Greninja in order to revenge kill Mega Salamence or to completely twist their structure and sacrifice a Pokémon slot to carry a dedicated answer to it.

While we aren't directly using the 4th Generation suspect characteristics anymore in order to address bans, they still provide a reliable framework to assess the situation. By looking at the Offensive Characteristic:

A Pokémon is uber if, in common battle conditions, it is capable of sweeping through a significant portion of teams in the metagame with little effort.

it's easy to notice how Mega Salamence perfectly fits this definition.

Nonetheless, Mega Salamence also falls under the Support Characteristic:

A Pokémon is uber if, in common battle conditions, it can consistently set up a situation in which it makes it substantially easier for other pokemon to sweep.

Considering that it can easily eliminate or severely weaken common defensive cores, this makes it easy for other Pokémon (such as Talonflame) to sweep even teams that are prepared to handle the so called "bird spam" strategies.

For all the reasons listed above, the OU Council has decided to place Mega Salamence in Ubers with immediate effect.

Now onto the Greninja suspect test...

[RicePigeon]

Well this was... unexpected...

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ubers-is-now-a-tier-a-new-metagame-called-anything-goes-is-added-m-ray-is-banned-from-ubers.3523205/#post-5889461

So yeah. Ubers is now its own tier, Mega Rayquaza just got quickbanned from Ubers, and new meta called AG (Anything Goes) is now the spiritual successor to old Ubers.

[Dumanios]

Well. That happened.

 

I suppose AG will live up to it's name, with entire teams put to sleep, Lock-on + Fissure being a thing, and so on. It could either be really interesting to watch or quite boring.

[RicePigeon]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-usage-based-tier-update-december-2014.3523339/

 

So its December and the usual 3-month tier updates happened, but different than usual:

 

this time around, there have been some... complications.

Firstly there was the release of the new games, complete with new mega evolutions and new move tutor moves. Overnight Pokemon like Altaria and Lopunny went from atrocious to awesome. All of the stats collected before the ORAS release suddenly no longer reflected the state of the metagame.

Secondly... the PS server lost a hard drive, and with it, all the logs and stats from the past several years. This is largely my fault--I stopped running backups about six months ago. And since I stopped posting the monthly stats in threads quite some time ago, that meant that there was no practical way to get the data needed to update the tiers, since I'd only be able to work from about 10 days' worth of data.

The cleanest option to move forward would have been to not update the tiers at all this month and put off the update until February 1, when we would have two full months and one partial month of data. But (1) that would have put a lot of responsibility on the suspect councils of the lower tiers to figure out which new megas didn't belong in their tiers and (2) it would needlessly delay the drop of Pokemon like Mawile, which has already been waiting three months to leave OU. Still, we didn't feel comfortable basing the tiers for the next three months solely on ten days of stats in a set of brand new metagames, where players are still discovering the best movesets and strategies.

So we worked out a compromise: based exclusively on the stats collected since the ORAS release, we would allow rises and falls only when the usage data was dramatically off from the status quo. I said earlier that the cutoff between tiers is the point at which you're more than 50% likely to encounter a Pokemon at least once in 20 battles. Well, this month, we will allow to rise any Pokemon that you're more likely than not to see that Pokemon at least once in 10 battles (6.70% usage), and we'll allow to drop any Pokemon that you're unlikely to see in 40 battles (1.72% usage).

 

With that in mind, the tier changes:

 

OU

Additions: (up from UU), (up from UU), (up from UU), (up from BL)

Rises: N/A

Drops: (down to UU)

 

 

UU

Additions: (up from PU), (down from OU), (up from PU)

Rises: (up to OU), (up to OU), (up to OU)

Drops: (down to RU)

 

 

 

RU

Additions: (up from PU), (up from PU), (up from NU), (up from NU), (down from UU)

Rises:

Drops: (down to NU),

 

 

NU

Additions: (down from RU),

Rises: (up to RU), (up to RU)

Drops: (down to PU)

 

 

 

PU

Additions: (down from NU)

Rises: (up to RU), (up to UU), (up to RU), (up to UU)

Drops: N/A

[RicePigeon]

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-oras-uu-stage-1-changes.3522744/page-9#post-5902261

 

Mega Altaria, Mega Diancie, Klefki, Staraptor, Togekiss, and Volcarona have all been Quickbanned from ORAS Singles UU.

 

 

Volcarona is easily among the most threatening setup sweepers in the game, being exceedingly difficult to stop due to Quiver Dance boosting all of its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed at the same time, making even revenge killing it very difficult. It finds setup opportunities almost every game due to its great set of resistances which include Fighting-, and Steel-, two very common types to be Choice-locked into in UU. Its Base Speed is also high enough that only two of the common Choice Scarf users in the tier can outspeed and revenge kill (Mienshao and Infernape) and even then, its not guaranteed since they need to rely on the inaccurate Stone Edge to do so. While you would think its 4x weakness to Stealth Rock severely hinders its sweeping potential, the fact of the matter is that hazard removal is extremely easy in UU, given the fact that the tier is home to two of the fastest Defog users in the game (Crobat and Aerodactyl) and literally all but one of the Rapid Spin users in the game, including Starmie and Mega Blastoise, which have nice synergy with Volcarona and are extremely effective at removing hazards.

 

Mega Altaria holds even more sweeping potential than Volcarona, possesses better typing than Togekiss, and is nearly as strong as Staraptor (jk Staraptor is WAY stronger, but still) due to its Pixilate boosted Return / Body Slam / Hyper Voice backed by 110 Attack / Special Attack. Mega Altaria also packs more than enough bulk to set up multiple Dragon Dances with its 75 / 110 / 105 Defenses and can run a variety of sets ranging from mono-attacking Dragon Dance to full Special Attacker, making it very dangerous to face on the first turn it comes out. However, don't confuse my words, this doesn't mean the threat has been neutered once the set is discovered, even knowing, for example, that you're facing a Dragon Dance Altaria with Roost, Return, and Earthquake, there's not much you can do to stop it, since even Pokemon that resist its Pixilate boosted Returns take a huge chuck of damage from it and can rarely actually do much damage in return.

 

Staraptor's sheer power is what makes it such a threat. Despite the fact that its main attacking moves come with a steep price of 1/3 recoil and its notable Stealth Rock weakness, Staraptor still tears wholes into all kinds of teams. To give you an idea of its power, here's how much damage a resisted Brave Bird does to a Choice Scarf Jirachi coming from Jolly Choice Band Staraptor: 48.6 - 57.4%. This means that Jirachi can only come into that attack a single time before succumbing to it. Also, much like Volcarona, the Stealth Rock weakness is easily neutered in this tier, due to the fact that there are so many efficient ways of removing hazards here.

 

Togekiss is a Pokemon who has the perfect typing, ability, and stat combination to pretty much beat anything in the game 1 on 1, which is absolutely insane. Between its nice set of resistances, courtesy of its Fairy-typing, access to paralysis inducing moves (Thunder Wave and Body Slam), and Serene Grace to boost its main STAB attack's chance of flinching the opposing Pokemon to an absurd 60%, Togekiss is an absolute nightmare to face. The fact that it can boost its Special Attack to absurd levels with Nasty Plot is just the icing on the cake. These qualities alone disqualify any Pokemon slower than Togekiss as a check, since they run the risk of simply getting flinched to death, and given the fact that it can, and usually does, use its bulk to tank any hit from any Pokemon in order to paralyze them and make them slower, one comes to the conclusion that checking Togekiss is just too difficult in this tier.

 

Mega Diancie is an absolute terror. Between its twin 160 attacking stats, its above average 110 Speed, Magic Bounce to deflect any attempt to stop it from setting up, access to both STAB Moonblast and Diamond Storm, and excellent coverage in the form of Earth Power, Mega Diancie has proven to be absurdly difficult for UU to handle. It can run Calm Mind to plow through defensive teams with ease or Rock Polish to decimate offensive teams. It can even forego a boosting move and simply run Hidden Power Fire as coverage to get past its only decent check--Bronzong. There's really not much more; if you've faced a Mega Diancie, you know what it can do.

 

Back when Klefki was banned the first time around, people complained a whole lot because no one really saw how it could be broken. Then [smogon] decided to unban it when ORAS was released and just a single short week later, people could not stop complaining about how absolutely ridiculous its support capabilities are. Between its ability Prankster, which gives all non-damaging moves +1 priority, and access to Spikes, Reflect, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Magnet Rise, and Magic Coat, Klefki is one of the few Pokemon in the game that never fail to do its job. Its most dangerous set is Thunder Wave, Light Screen, Reflect, and a filler move, while holding a Light Clay. This allows Klefki to both aid in setting up any of the wide array of dangerous setup sweepers that reside in UU (try and stop Cloyster from setting up two Shell Smashes behind Screens, I dare you) and also mitigate the risk or running heavy offense with insurance against most sweepers due to priority Thunder Wave. There's also a few people who believe access to prankster Thunder Wave promotes bad and careless playing, which is a small part of the reason Klefki is getting the boot again.

[RicePigeon]

Smogon has quickbanned Mega Gallade from RU:

 

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-ru-stage-5-gods-and-monsters-galladite-is-bl2-read-post-115.3522572/page-5#post-5898998

 

 

Mega Gallade is a major threat, no doubt about it. It wields a base 165 Attack stat, which is unheard of for RU standards, while also having a base 110 Speed stat that outpaces all but the fastest of Pokemon in RU. Offensive teams are forced to run the likes of Mega Pidgeot, Jolteon, Dugtrio, and various Choice Scarf users (Meloetta, Rotom-C, etc.) to keep from being taken apart by Mega Gallade's powerful coverage in Close Combat, Knock Off, and Zen Headbutt. Because Mega Gallade already has its bases covered in 3 moves, it is able to run Swords Dance, thus allowing it to ravage more defensive teams that rely on defensive switches to take care of powerful Pokemon like Mega Gallade. As if this versatility in a single set wasn't enough, it gets a Defense buff through Mega Evolution that allows it to take most neutral physical attacks if they aren't boosted, stomach *most* priority (looking at you, Fletchinder) quite easily, and retaliate with a powerful attack of its own. The boosted Defense also lets Mega Gallade set up on many more threats than it would be able to without Mega Evolution, and the switches it forces due to its coverage only amplifies this fact. Between its ability to perform well against offensive and defensive teams alike with just a single set, and the heightened ability to withstand revenge killing attempts, the RU Council has decided to enact a quickban on the Galladite, thus removing Mega Gallade from RU.

[PlasmoidThunder]

Seems strange he was in there to begin with :s

[Dumanios]

Seems strange he was in there to begin with :s

That's mostly a side-effect of how they did the most recent tier-moveabouts. They lost a ton of data, so they had to rely on much smaller amount of info. Thus, they changed the numbers needed to move a mon up or down a tier.

[RicePigeon]

Pretty much what Dumanios said. Normally they do tier updates every three months, but they're going to do another tier update in January before resuming the three-month schedule. The data loss was part of the reason why they did this, the other was the fact that ORAS was released so close to the scheduled tier update, that they needed to weed out as many broken Pokemon from the lower tiers as quickly as possible (remember when XY UU had Keldeo, Terrakion, and Black Kyurem sitting in there for like 5 months before they finally moved up?)

 

Besides, if the November usage was any indication, Altaria, Gallade, Sceptile, and Lopunny will be moving up to OU next month. The fact that all four of these Pokemon currently occupy the A+, A, and A- ranks in OU is a testament to this.

 

 

EDIT: Looks like Mega Salamence is getting banned from Doubles OU as well

[Galvatron]

Pretty much what Dumanios said. Normally they do tier updates every three months, but they're going to do another tier update in January before resuming the three-month schedule. The data loss was part of the reason why they did this, the other was the fact that ORAS was released so close to the scheduled tier update, that they needed to weed out as many broken Pokemon from the lower tiers as quickly as possible (remember when XY UU had Keldeo, Terrakion, and Black Kyurem sitting in there for like 5 months before they finally moved up?)

 

Besides, if the November usage was any indication, Altaria, Gallade, Sceptile, and Lopunny will be moving up to OU next month. The fact that all four of these Pokemon currently occupy the A+, A, and A- ranks in OU is a testament to this.

 

 

Ah! that does make since.. plus now that Tutors are more available in OR/AS Some things has changed with the rankings. :-P

[RicePigeon]

The only things the Tutors affect are the new Pokemon and previously illegal egg move + tutor combinations, otherwise the tutors are exactly the same as in B2W2

[Galvatron]

The only things the Tutors affect are the new Pokemon and previously illegal egg move + tutor combinations, otherwise the tutors are exactly the same as in B2W2

Hmm.. True

As you said Rice least the new pokemon in this gen can learn more moves especially some new fairy-types like Florges, Aromatisse, and Klefka. :-P

 

Plus save some time on breeding pokemon to learn some Tutor moves.

[RicePigeon]

 Klefka. :-P

 

 

 

 

 

Couldnt resist

[Galvatron]

 

Couldnt resist

LOL! It so  funny that it make since. Considering Klefka has prankster ability. Good one Rice

[RicePigeon]

Except Klefki don't poison rivers and take delight in the resulting voices of hundreds screaming in unison, push emperors off of steep cliffs, or destroy entire cities with their Light of Judgement just because they don't like them. :p

[RicePigeon]

So even though it hasn't been publicly announced yet, going by the process used to calculate the tier shifts for Singles I went ahead and did the same for Doubles:

 

 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- + 
 | Rank | Pokemon            | Usage %   | Raw    | %       | Real   | %       | 
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- + 
 | 1    | Landorus-Therian   | 22.71961% | 11086  |  8.035% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 2    | Kangaskhan         | 22.22415% | 10187  |  7.383% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 3    | Heatran            | 21.85577% | 9656   |  6.998% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 4    | Talonflame         | 17.37126% | 17937  | 13.000% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 5    | Sylveon            | 15.63021% | 8700   |  6.305% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 6    | Rotom-Wash         | 15.11797% | 12082  |  8.757% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 7    | Amoonguss          | 14.63868% | 7746   |  5.614% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 8    | Azumarill          | 13.70006% | 11086  |  8.035% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 9    | Garchomp           | 12.65198% | 15337  | 11.116% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 10   | Salamence          | 11.61509% | 10541  |  7.640% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 11   | Thundurus          | 10.17918% | 6200   |  4.494% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 12   | Aegislash          |  9.87136% | 7574   |  5.489% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 13   | Zapdos             |  9.85377% | 6382   |  4.625% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 14   | Bisharp            |  9.48491% | 6656   |  4.824% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 15   | Charizard          |  9.42553% | 15831  | 11.474% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 16   | Metagross          |  9.20891% | 9553   |  6.924% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 17   | Gardevoir          |  8.98531% | 13662  |  9.902% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 18   | Togekiss           |  8.75084% | 10513  |  7.619% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 19   | Cresselia          |  8.71416% | 4927   |  3.571% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 20   | Hitmontop          |  7.88459% | 4230   |  3.066% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 21   | Terrakion          |  7.56762% | 5105   |  3.700% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 22   | Breloom            |  7.39888% | 7399   |  5.363% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 23   | Greninja           |  7.15626% | 15740  | 11.408% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 24   | Keldeo             |  6.94656% | 2852   |  2.067% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 25   | Sceptile           |  6.79599% | 11568  |  8.384% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 26   | Shaymin-Sky        |  6.62616% | 3201   |  2.320% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 27   | Chandelure         |  6.47478% | 4736   |  3.432% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 28   | Gyarados           |  6.37880% | 8470   |  6.139% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 29   | Tyranitar          |  6.35022% | 9480   |  6.871% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 30   | Venusaur           |  6.29035% | 7963   |  5.771% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 31   | Politoed           |  6.08870% | 10052  |  7.285% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 32   | Excadrill          |  5.73637% | 5462   |  3.959% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 33   | Meowstic           |  5.71891% | 4753   |  3.445% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 34   | Conkeldurr         |  5.59276% | 7010   |  5.081% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 35   | Mamoswine          |  5.33137% | 5116   |  3.708% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 36   | Ferrothorn         |  5.17199% | 10329  |  7.486% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 37   | Darkrai            |  4.93211% | 1915   |  1.388% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 38   | Gengar             |  4.91971% | 10653  |  7.721% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 39   | Scizor             |  4.91937% | 7144   |  5.178% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 40   | Latios             |  4.91927% | 4869   |  3.529% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 41   | Mawile             |  4.79417% | 4980   |  3.609% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 42   | Suicune            |  4.60687% | 1764   |  1.278% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 43   | Scrafty            |  4.32380% | 3970   |  2.877% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 44   | Victini            |  4.15259% | 2667   |  1.933% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 45   | Mew                |  4.13706% | 3232   |  2.342% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 46   | Ludicolo           |  4.09064% | 5691   |  4.125% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 47   | Hydreigon          |  3.92055% | 4500   |  3.261% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 48   | Dragonite          |  3.91432% | 8868   |  6.427% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 49   | Rotom-Heat         |  3.85865% | 3321   |  2.407% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 50   | Swampert           |  3.82761% | 9645   |  6.990% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 51   | Slowbro            |  3.78978% | 5316   |  3.853% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 52   | Medicham           |  3.64947% | 2404   |  1.742% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 53   | Sableye            |  3.56753% | 8079   |  5.855% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 54   | Genesect           |  3.35892% | 1802   |  1.306% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 55   | Jirachi            |  3.34675% | 2827   |  2.049% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 56   | Ninetales          |  3.27746% | 5037   |  3.651% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 57   | Marowak            |  3.25198% | 1858   |  1.347% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 58   | Porygon2           |  3.05505% | 3093   |  2.242% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 59   | Manectric          |  3.04832% | 7019   |  5.087% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 60   | Diancie            |  3.01492% | 3333   |  2.416% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 61   | Camerupt           |  2.94275% | 4575   |  3.316% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 62   | Weavile            |  2.93232% | 5037   |  3.651% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 63   | Dusclops           |  2.83854% | 3444   |  2.496% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 64   | Gothitelle         |  2.66543% | 3917   |  2.839% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 65   | Whimsicott         |  2.62229% | 5558   |  4.028% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 66   | Aromatisse         |  2.54400% | 2412   |  1.748% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 67   | Clefable           |  2.36977% | 6483   |  4.699% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 68   | Hariyama           |  2.35264% | 1832   |  1.328% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 69   | Thundurus-Therian  |  2.34137% | 3576   |  2.592% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 70   | Milotic            |  2.33743% | 4070   |  2.950% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 71   | Kyurem-Black       |  2.28636% | 2139   |  1.550% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 72   | Gastrodon          |  2.06742% | 3294   |  2.387% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 73   | Volcarona          |  2.02764% | 3733   |  2.706% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 74   | Tornadus           |  2.00876% | 823    |  0.596% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 75   | Crawdaunt          |  1.99513% | 2059   |  1.492% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 76   | Klefki             |  1.99185% | 4941   |  3.581% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 77   | Latias             |  1.93264% | 2810   |  2.037% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 78   | Arcanine           |  1.82276% | 6367   |  4.615% | 0      |  0.000% | 
 | 79   | Aerodactyl         |  1.72523% | 3607   |  2.614% | 0      |  0.000% |

 

 

Rises from DUU:

 

Drops to DUU:

 

Unchanged:

 

 

 

[RicePigeon]

Pokeaim of Smogon uploaded this onto his youtube, which I think would help alot of newer and lesser experienced players:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgntqUE8Olc

[RicePigeon]

Mega Houndoom has been banned from RU, while Mega Lopunny and Mega Gallade have been banned from both UU and RU:

 

 

 

Mega Houndoom is a very fearsome threat in the RU tier. The most common set is Nasty Plot, Fire Blast, Dark Pulse, and Flame Charge. With this set alone, Mega Houndoom is able to destroy nearly the entire tier on its own. Nasty Plot gives Mega Houndoom the ability to break through bulky teams while Flame Charge ensures that offensive teams won't have an easy time revenge killing it. On the subject of revenge killing Mega Houndoom, this can even be diificult to do without it using Flame Charge thanks to decent bulk and a solid set of resistances. Even Life Orb Hitmonlee can't OHKO with Mach Punch after Stealth Rock, meaning you'll generally need something that naturally outspeeds Mega Houndoom and hits it for super effective damage. That list is severely limited to Dugtrio, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Sceptile. Of common Choice Scarf users, Meloetta is the only one that can run a super effective move against Mega Houndoom, but not only does it rarely run Focus Blast, but it also is very shaky against Mega Houndoom regardless. While Flame Charge is the best move in the last slot, Mega Houndoom can choose to run Substitute, Destiny Bond, or even Sucker Punch in the last slot if needed. Perhaps the only downside to Mega Houndoom is that it's weak to Stealth Rock, but this doesn't come close to making up for all of the ridiculously good qualities it has. Because of this, the council has decided to quickban Houndoominite to BL2, thus effectively removing Mega Houndoom from RU. Of course, this only affects Mega Houndoom. Regular Houndoom is still perfectly legal in RU.

Written by EonX

 

 

 

Lopunny has gone under the radar for quite a while since ORAS was released, but after the recent batch of bans it has become apparent just how much of a threat Lopunny is. With base 136 Atk and 135 Speed, an unresisted STAB combination thanks to Scrappy, as well as a myriad of support options it can run, Lopunny is a nightmare for offensive teams to handle. Normal/Fighting Stab is a very good combination when you take Scrappy into account, as most Pokemon that resist one generally fall to the other. Thus, Lopunny can be very hard to switch into, outside of using dedicated physical walls. Due to only needing Return/Frustration and High Jump Kick to wreck most of the meta, Lopunny also has the option of running various support moves such as Encore, Healing Wish, and Magic Coat to further its versatility and turn would-be defensive counters into a liability, which can be best seen by its SubEncore set.

 

 

 

Mega Gallade was banned due to its massive 165 Attack in comination with its 110 Speed, as well as respectable bulk. Between Close Combat and Zen Headbutt, Mega Gallade is able to 2HKO almost everything in the tier. The Swords Dance set specifically is able to practically render stall unusable. Mega Gallade also puts immense pressure on balanced play styles which would usually have to sacrifice a pokemon or two in order to force it out. Even offensive playstyles struggle against it, as many of the tier's top scarfers are unable to break through Mega Gallade's bulk. Even faster pokemon like Alakazam and Mega Beedrill have to watch out for a boosted Shadow Sneak. Even in its worst matchups, Mega Gallade is still able to consistently tear through teams with little trouble. It performs its role way too well, and is generally too hard for teams to stop.

[RicePigeon]

Smogon has decided to suspect test Greninja in Singles OU to see if it should be banned to Ubers.

 

Hey there guys, the OU Council has decided to suspect test Greninja this round. Greninja got a few interesting toys in ORAS, namely Gunk Shot and Low Kick, which allow it to get past some of its best checks in XY, like Azumarill and Chansey. Its formidable Speed along with the boost from Protean and Life Orb make Greninja incredibly hard to play around for both offensive and defensive teams and it puts a massive strain on team building. On the other hand, Greninja is incredibly frail and, in a such offensive based metagame like the current ORAS OU one, it has hard times switching in and is relatively easy to revenge kill. It should also be noted that it suffers from 4th moveslot syndrome, being unable to run: Hydro Pump, Gunk Shot, Low Kick, Ice Beam, Dark Pulse and Hidden Power Fire/Grass on the same set.

[RicePigeon]

Tiering discussion now has its own thread here: