The OU discussion Thread

[DCM]

FINE MAKE ME MAKE ALL THE THREADS ; ;
And I repeat

This is a thread to discuss the coming and goings of the OU tier. New additions to the OU tier, pokemon moving up or down on the tier, as well as successful movesets, styles, and strategies. this is not a place to post warstories. this is to discuss movements in the tiers, regarding what teams work, work, and changes in the tier.

Firstly, this is the most up to date OU tier list

OU Tier

This tier is the one that shall be the subject of discussion, not the Marriland/IGN UU tiers.


anyone have any success with specific teams?

 

[Dexington]

As with UU, my Rain Dance team is the only thing that really works, and that's just because Kingdra is unstoppable in it. Also my mono-ground team works well, as long as I don't run into a mono-water team for some reason.

I really don't like OU, it is way too centralized and you can see that based on the usage percentages that are posted on Smogon each month. Scizor, Tyranitar and Salamence are all on over 20% of teams. And you rarely see any variation in moveset either, other than Mence.

EDIT:

See here

1 | Scizor | 204410 | 27.23 |
2 | Tyranitar | 168163 | 22.40 |
3 | Salamence | 157044 | 20.92 |
4 | Heatran | 142891 | 19.03 |
- | Rotom-A | 140549 | 18.72 |
5 | Latias | 140485 | 18.71 |
6 | Gyarados | 130298 | 17.35 |
7 | Jirachi | 128205 | 17.08 |
8 | Metagross | 117392 | 15.64 |
9 | Swampert | 116548 | 15.52 |
10 | Gengar | 113638 | 15.14 |
11 | Infernape | 110546 | 14.72 |
12 | Lucario | 104562 | 13.93 |
13 | Starmie | 89135 | 11.87 |
14 | Blissey | 86192 | 11.48 |
15 | Rotom-h | 85867 | 11.44 |
16 | Skarmory | 76862 | 10.24 |

That is 16 Pokemon who are used on one in every 10 teams, minimum. 3 on over one in 5. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING

 

[Our Wasted Years]

As with UU, my Rain Dance team is the only thing that really works, and that's just because Kingdra is unstoppable in it. Also my mono-ground team works well, as long as I don't run into a mono-water team for some reason.

I really don't like OU, it is way too centralized and you can see that based on the usage percentages that are posted on Smogon each month. Scizor, Tyranitar and Salamence are all on over 20% of teams. And you rarely see any variation in moveset either, other than Mence.

It happens in all tiers and not just OU. People get bored or tired of shit so they just find what works the best and put it together and run with it. Very few people outside of Smogon actually even try to use any kind of strategy or something that sets them apart.

 

[coolking503]

Ah yes, OU, who doesn't love it? I find that salamence is over powering BECAUSE you don't know what set its running. The others you can make a guess what set they have and are generally right, however, mence can use dragon dance, and screw you like that, or use mixmence, and force you to sacrifice a pokemon, possibly your ddmence counter. And they both are used almost equally, making it tough to counter. Its Uber, really. As for in general, two of the "3 in one in 5" pokemon are countered by the other one, which is why it is used. This is the cycle of a metagame, one pokemon is used, its counter is used, its usage falls, its counter's usage falls, etc.

 

[Troggy]

OU has been pretty bad lately. Mence and Latias are basically uncounterable. At least Mence is weak to SR and does die eventually. Blissey can wall Latias but Trick cripples her. Scizor can Pursuit Latias as well, but I have seen HP Fire Latias.

I haven't had much success on Shoddy at all lately. Especially when something random is trendy that day, like Ninjask/BP leads. Some teams will always beat BP teams, and some won't.

 

[SharKing]

Of course Scizor would be the single most overused Pokemon at the moment. And of course, they're all some kind of Bullet Punch spammers!

I'm not surprised Mence is up in the Top 3. It's quite powerful if it's allowed to set up, and it can be either Physical, Special, or mixed. This thing's tough to predict, and a wrong move will cost you.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Of course Scizor would be the single most overused Pokemon at the moment. And of course, they're all some kind of Bullet Punch spammers!

I'm not surprised Mence is up in the Top 3. It's quite powerful if it's allowed to set up, and it can be either Physical, Special, or mixed. This thing's tough to predict, and a wrong move will cost you.

What about Dragonite? True, it's not used as often as Salamence, but most of the time, Salamence is played offensively. Dragonite is a rather versatile Pokemon. It can sweep (but not as well as Salamence can), support or stall.

 

[SharKing]

Yeah, but the current metagame is pretty sweeper-oriented. And the most used Pokemon are here because they're top-tier sweepers. Dragonite's rather bulky, but it still can't take an Ice Beam/Punch. And Salamence has a big advantage over Dragonite: Intimidate. Dragonite usually has a harder time setting up Dragon Dance because it takes a full-force physical attack, and can't survive a priority attack.

Yes, Dragonite can support, stall, and do other things, but unfortunately, it's not particularly adept at them.

 

[coolking503]

I hate to say it, but Dragonite is a bulky less powerful mence, and when you have a 4x weakness, it doesn't matter either way. If it wasn't for the ice weakness, both would be equal. intimidate is countered by greater bulk.

 

[Our Wasted Years]

I hate to say it, but Dragonite is a bulky less powerful mence, and when you have a 4x weakness, it doesn't matter either way. If it wasn't for the ice weakness, both would be equal. intimidate is countered by greater bulk.

Um people pick Mence over Nite because of the huge speed difference not because of the 2 point Atk difference.

:| I mean you can just look at their stats on Smogon to see that.

 

[Troggy]

Yeah, after you 'equal' out the Bulk vs Intimidate Salamence still has a huge speed advantage.

If you want to make the argument for Dragonite you gotta use his awesome movepool, but he is still not as good...

 

[coolking503]

by attacking I mean pure sweeping stats (wasn't very clear, was I). Dragonite is perfectly usable, though. I had it as a cleric once, it did OK, not great. mixnite is OK, and innerfocus makes it a good lead, with extremespeed. I just like playing around with the two, interchanging them when possible, and seeing which is better on the certain team.

 

[Troggy]

I've tried Dragonite many times, and I've really wanted to love him since he is awesome, but he has almost always let me down :[

 

[SSJ4Jesus]

I've got an OU team that has all 6 members in the top 16. 4 in the top 5. xD

A little OT: I think that Dragonite needs a better ability to get out of the shadow of Salamence. Thick fat would be pretty cool...

 

[Ino-Chan]

A little OT: I think that Dragonite needs a better ability to get out of the shadow of Salamence. Thick fat would be pretty cool...

Thick Fat would be pretty good to get rid of taking all the 4x damage from ice types... Hmm, maybe a set with Light Screen would be great with it.


Anywho, how viable is using Weavile now in OU? I mean since it got Low Kick, I would imagine it got more usage correct?

 

[PlatinumDude]

Thick Fat would be pretty good to get rid of taking all the 4x damage from ice types... Hmm, maybe a set with Light Screen would be great with it.


Anywho, how viable is using Weavile now in OU? I mean since it got Low Kick, I would imagine it got more usage correct?

Haven't checked Smogon lately, but I think Weavile's usage is "meh." It's easily picked off by Scizor's Bullet Punch.

 

[Angad]

I've got an OU team that has all 6 members in the top 16. 4 in the top 5. xD

A little OT: I think that Dragonite needs a better ability to get out of the shadow of Salamence. Thick fat would be pretty cool...

I honestly can't think of a better or reasonable second skill for Dragonite.

 

[mc2094]

Of course Scizor would be the single most overused Pokemon at the moment. And of course, they're all some kind of Bullet Punch spammers!

I'm not surprised Mence is up in the Top 3. It's quite powerful if it's allowed to set up, and it can be either Physical, Special, or mixed. This thing's tough to predict, and a wrong move will cost you.

Seriously, people need to realize that Bullet Punch isn't the reason Scizor is so great, it's STAB U-turn. Honestly, I don't find too many people using him once you get to ~1500 cre as most people go with stuff like Jirachi,Heatran, or Skarmory for their steel type mon. I know Mence can be hard to play around but as long as your team doesn't give him too many oppurtunities you should be fine, but I'd personally prefer him in Uber. Latias is probably leaving OU soon which is pretty cool since that will definitely cause semi-stall to be less effective and a rise in the potential of offenisve teams.

I have had some success with an offensive team actually. Rather than using a whole load of set up mons like hyper offense though I have about 4 mixed attackers and I basically rely heavily on prediction to win, the complete opposite of standard ho teams. Just keeping the pressure up on my opponent and keeping the momentum the entire match. I'm probably going to use it more once Lati is gone though, since I have both Mence and Infernape.

 

[Troggy]

I've got an OU team that has all 6 members in the top 16. 4 in the top 5. xD

Meh, it's what wins. Pretty lame though brah.

Seriously, people need to realize that Bullet Punch isn't the reason Scizor is so great, it's STAB U-turn

STAB U-Turn on Scizor is ridiculous, I agree, but remember that most of the switches that Scizor forces are due to the threat of Bullet Punch. That is what allows you to U-Turn out successfully so often.

 

[SSJ4Jesus]

Meh, it's what wins. Pretty lame though brah.

Didn't say I was proud of it. D: