Adding on to this, one thing I am interested in is taunt corv. It sits on many ground types completely and can probably do more things I can't think of. I haven't used it myself but in theory it should be great.We’re nearing the end of March and this year’s SPL is coming to a close. With this in mind, let me bring up some notable sets and trends that I found cool. Plus this is a good time to highlight some underrated sets/mons.
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Alomomola (Alomomola) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Flip Turn
- Wish
- Protect
This isn’t a new idea, but it does see more frequent play. Generally with Pokemon with over 150+ HP, maxing out HP isn’t necessary since bulk is the HP and defense stats multiplied. So since your HP is so massive even without much investment, its best to focus on maxing out the other stats. The SpD investment allows Mola to avoid 2HKOs from Ghold’s Sball, Darkrai Dpulse, and Enam Moonblast while it doesn’t sacrifice the bulk needed to be good at tanking physical hits.
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Cinderace (Cinderace) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Libero
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- Gunk Shot/Low Kick
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn/Low Kick
As valuable as Cinderace is for hazard control, AoA Libero sets deserve to be explored. STAB Pyro trucks a lot of neutral targets, and even some frailer resists like Dragapult. The standard offensive sets are locked to running Pyro/U-Turn/Court which leaves you with an awkward 4th slot for either Sucker, Gunk, or Low Kick. Instead you forgo Court Change to run Sucker and Coverage. Gunk Shot hits a ton of neutral targets and lands a surprise KO on Primarina. Gunk also lets you punish Tera Fairy, a very common defensive Tera on stuff like Garg and Dirge. Low Kick 2HKOs Garg and OHKOs Tran on the switch. Sucker can catch some mons slipping like Dragapult, Volcarona, and Tera Flying Moon. Even in the matchups where Cinderace can’t break something open like Garg, Dirge, or Mola Balance, U-Turn invites in the mons that do exploit these cores like Kyurem or Wogrepon. Its a banger set that role compresses pivoting, breaking, and speed control.
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Darkrai @ Heavy-Duty Boots/Leftovers/Focus Sash/Lum Berry/Choice Scarf/Expert Belt/Life Orb/Custap Berry
Ability: Bad Dreams
Tera Type: Poison/Fairy/Electric/Ghost/Ice
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Sludge Bomb
- Ice Beam/Nasty Plot
- Focus Blast/Nasty Plot/Knock Off/Will-O-Wisp/Thunder Wave/Trick
Darkrai has beat the mid allegations after the Sleep ban, solidifying itself as a wallbreaker with great coverage, good speed tier, and several options to mess around with. Wisp and T-Wave let it act as a budget Dragapult. Scarf sets outpace Val and Moon while remaining good into Balance with Trick. Knock Off is nasty against Stall since Sludge Bomb smacks Clef, Gliscor drops to Ice Beam, and Skarm can’t eat a special hit to save its life. The bread n’ butters though are Nasty Plot and AoA. As you can see, Rai runs a shitton of different items. We’ve seen Boots Rai to be the ultimate anti-Webs soldier, Lefties for passive recovery and to punish pivoting, Lum to punish Gliscor for staying in and avoid getting T-Wave’d by Pult, Lead Rai with Sash to dent the opposing team early, LO is an option for that extra power boost, but E-Belt is a better for what you want to hit anyways, and Custap for landing cheeky, surprise KOs. Considering Darkrai’s movepool is wider than the country of Russia, I’m interested in seeing what developments pop up in the coming months.
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Deoxys-Speed (Deoxys-Speed) @ Eject Pack
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 100 Def / 24 SpA / 56 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Superpower
- Taunt/Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
(56 Spe Timid outpaces Booster Tusk. 76 Atk with Tera Fighting ensures an OHKO on Gambit and Samurott after rocks. I forgot what the SpA EVs are for, and the rest is dumped into Def)
Eject Pack Deo-S is a neat concept put into practice during SPL. The main idea is simple. Get up rocks, then you click Psycho or Superpower to pivot out for early momentum. We’ve seen this paired often with Teal Mask Ogerpon because Deo-S copes for the days of more than one Defogger in the tier and SO is too OP for Deogambit to become a thing. Deo-S is difficult to build around due to its awkward typing, but it puts in work if you can find a way to make use of Deo-S Jack-of-All-Trades nature.
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Dragonite (Dragonite) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 48 SpA / 208 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Hurricane
- Fire Punch/Earthquake
While the Standard Dnite set is a true bread n’ butter that has stood the test of time, it can struggle with such as Zama and bulky Tusk variants. Hurricane is a reminder that yes, Dnite has 100 SpA, yes it’s a Flying type. Send it out earlier than usual, and if they bring in Zama or Tusk…
48 SpA Dragonite Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zamazenta: 222-264 (57.2 - 68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
48 SpA Dragonite Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 414-488 (95.3 - 112.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
This also does a sizable chunk to Dozo, letting you force a Rest and potentially 1v1 it with luck.
48 SpA Dragonite Hurricane vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dondozo: 177-208 (35.1 - 41.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
The final slot can either be dedicated to EQ for Garg, Tran, Cinder, and Gking or Fire Punch for Balloon Ghold and Skarm. The lack of Ice Spinner means Gliscor can 1v1 this, but Gliscor will not stay in on a +1 Dnite to risk the potential of Ice Spinner. Hurricane Dnite also opens up other wincons like Kingambit.
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Garganacl @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty-Boots
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Water/Fairy/Grass/Ghost/Dragon/Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 32 Def / 224 SpD
Careful Nature
- Stealth Rock/Curse
- Salt Cure
- Recover
- Protect/Earthquake
The Salt Rock has exploded in popularity by doing the exact same thing its been doing since Pre-Home. Blanket-checks half the tier and is the best Hex Pult switch-in while chipping everything with Salt Cure. Garg can 6-0 unprepared teams with Curse and the right Tera. If it doesn’t rise in April, I’ll be completely shocked.
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Gholdengo (Gholdengo) @ Air Balloon/Covert Cloak/Rocky Helmet
Ability: Good as Gold
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 184 Def / 72 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hex/Shadow Ball
- Make It Rain/Nasty Plot/Focus Blast
- Thunder Wave
- Recover
T-Wave Ghold has been a thing for about a year now, but it has more merit in this meta for crippling common Ghold checks like Volc, G-Fire, and Gambit. The issue running it is you have to decide on giving up Nasty Plot or a secondary attacking move.
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Glimmora (Glimmora) @ Red Card
Ability: Toxic Debris
Tera Type: Ghost/Flying
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Stealth Rock/Spikes
- Mud Shot
- Power Gem
- Mortal Spin
We’ve hit a Glimmora renaissance this month with options like Power Herb M-Beam, Balloon, and the set you’re seeing here being explored, Red Card. Red Card has seen increased usage due to the aggressive nature of the metagame. Prevent early setup or force them to waste their Booster Energy. Red Card goes from underrated to cracked with hazard setters like Ting-Lu who uses Red Card to rack up hazard chip and use its gargantuan bulk to stop premature sweeps. Glimm gets some nasty milage from Red Card since in conjunction with Toxic Debris, Glimm can poison a random mon. Shout outs to Adamant Nature for putting this set to work in their RMT to reach the 1900s.
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BU Taunt Tusk (Great Tusk) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Poison/Fairy/Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Bulk Up
- Headlong Rush
- Ice Spinner
- Taunt/Roar
Super underrated set. In response to Ironpress Zama, Tusk has been running Tera Poison to 1v1 it. In response to that, Zama has started running Roar, but Booster Tusk has other underrated options to mess with for the 4th slot. Taunt allows you to shut down both Iron Defense and Roar while 1v1ing Gliscor without Terastilizing. Taunt also shuts down opposing setup, letting it run other Teras like Tera Fairy to 1v1 Swipe G-Fire and Tera Fire to block Wisp. Roar has a similar function to Taunt but it does a couple things such as force hazard chip, 1v1 opposing Booster Tusk, and punish plays like hard switching to Valiant to get off an Encore. Its a cool alternative if Rapid Spin is unnecessary and CC isn’t needed.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2081587084
(Taunt BU Tusk violating a whole HO team by itself. Truly a work of art.)
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Hatterene (Hatterene) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water/Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 76 SpA / 120 SpD / 60 Spe
Modest Nature
- Mystical Fire/Psychic Noise
- Draining Kiss
- Psyshock
- Nuzzle
Credits go to njnp and Srn for cooking AV Hatt. An absolutely goated set. I often feel Hatt lacks the ability to actually switch into hits that aren’t from passive mons like Skarm, but AV fixes that issue.
On faster paced teams, it provides solid role compression. Sponge special hits, spread Para, block hazards, and break some holes.
It legit 1v1s and trades with most of the tier like Kyurem, QD Volc, Rai, CM Tera Poison Prim, Tusk, Samu, Wake, Glimm, Hex Pult, Glowking, Weavile, Zama, opposing Hatt, Zapdos, Deo-S, Valiant, etc.
It even lives offensive Ghold’s MiR after rocks.
252 SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 252 HP / 120 SpD Assault Vest Hatterene: 234-276 (73.5 - 86.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
You can slap this on any BO, Terrain, HO, or Sun team and get some great milage off it.
If the Ghold or Corv matchup doesn’t concern you, Psychic Noise allows you to smack even more shit like Garg, Dirge, Clef, Gliscor, and Lando. Tera Water 1v1s Ghold and switches into Wake, but Tera Flying hardwalls Knock-less Gliscor and 1v1s Ting-Lu.
Easily my favorite Hatt set and I’d love to see the Hatt meta evolve past Calm Mind and Healing Wish.
With Fast Taunt Lando, you can ensure that hazards don’t go up.
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Iron Crown (Iron Crown) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Tachyon Cutter
- Psychic Noise/Future Sight
- Focus Blast
- Volt Switch
Continuing the discussion of Assault Vest Psychics, Iron Crown has seen usage as a specially bulky pivot on BO teams as an alternative to Gking. Being a Steel type that outspeeds Kyurem, it has been a valuable check that can switch in and one-shot with Tachyon Cutter. You’ve might’ve seen the Lando/Prim/Crown BO teams flying around either in tournament replays or games. It’s another innovation BO builds have been embarking on to continue being relevant in this fast-developing meta.
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Iron Jugulis @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse
- Hurricane
- Taunt
- Earth Power
Jugulis is a pretty fun/underrated mon to mess around with. It’s a niche anti-lead that can deny rocks from Deo-S, Treads, Lando, and Glimm while potentially 1v1ing Sash Pult. Jugulis functions as a decent stallbreaker, being able to blank Gliscor, Ting-Lu, and Clodsire with Taunt. It’s strong enough to 2HKO physically defensive Clef with Hurricane, helped by the fact it lives a Moonblast. Tera Ground can surprise Raging Bolt and Gambit with STAB EP while blanking T-Wave.
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Iron Valiant (Iron Valiant) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Shadow Ball
- Vacuum Wave
Pdt brought in an off-the-walls Val set in this game, this time with SpA Booster. While it does worse vs offense even with Vacuum Wave, Moonblast hits targets like Clef and Gliscor even harder while +1 Tera Ghost Shadow Ball one-shots Gking outright. We’ve also seen other Val sets like Choice Specs from players like Storm Zone and LO Mixed.
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Kyurem (Kyurem) @ Leftovers/Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 56 HP / 64 Def / 196 SpA / 192 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Protect
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
(192 Spe outspeeds Tusk. 56 HP to sub up on Blissey. The defense EVs let you dodge an OHKO from Moon’s +1 Knock, tho Tera Flying will kill.)
You can ruin alot of Balances with this set. Been running Sub-Tect on a Stall team as an Anti-Balance measure that can also do some sorcery vs offensive builds before dying. Tera Steel lets you Sub on Clef, Garg, and Gking while you fish for freezes and Sub-Tect + Pressure lets you drain out PP early which is huge for these classic Dozo/Bliss/Glis/Clod/Mola builds vs Balance and opposing Stall.
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Landorus-Therian (Landorus-Therian) @ Rocky Helmet/Leftovers/Focus Sash/Eject Button/Red Card
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 244 HP / 12 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb
- Taunt
Rock Tomb Lando is decade old tech digged up recently. Rock Tomb has applications such as slowing down Booster mons, hitting Volc, and hitting Flyers. I am interested in seeing if sets like Scarf or offensive variants will resurface in the future.
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Latios (Latios) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draco Meteor
- Psychic Noise
- Aura Sphere
- Recover
As cool and shiny the newly-buffed Luster Purge is, the 8 PP makes the move easy to play around, however Psychic Noise has double the PP, plus it prevents checks like Ghold and Garg from clicking Recover, helping it in its niche as a Spikes immune Wallbreaker. It also hits through Sub which can clutch out certain matchups. Tera Steel in particular shuts down Kyurem, Toxic from Gliscor, bounces back Fairy moves, and hardwalls HLR + Spinner Tusk. Modest is for the extra power boost and even with less speed, it still outruns Kyurem. Latios is hard to fit because of competition from other Dragons, but I appreciate Latios’ traits.
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Ogerpon-Cornerstone (Ogerpon-Cornerstone) (F) @ Cornerstone Mask
Ability: Sturdy
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spikes
- Ivy Cudgel
- Knock Off/Horn Leech/Power Whip
- Encore/Taunt
Ogerpon has a built in Sturdy + the combination of Knock and Encore with Spikes. A couple players have made use of this set like Storm Zone. Rockpon is the third fastest Spike setter in the tier (Greninja isn’t real) and it scares common hazard control with Rock + Grass STAB. The other Ogres have been seeing usage outside of Wogre and I am curious if they will rise to OU in the future.
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Primarina (Primarina) @ Leftovers/Custap Berry
Ability: Liquid Voice
Tera Type: Fairy/Steel/Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 48 SpA / 208 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Psychic Noise
- Moonblast/Draining Kiss
- Encore
(208 Speed Timid outruns Jolly Kingambit and 0 speed Gliscor)
This set Encores vs Gambit and also opposing Primarina. You also outrun defensive Ghold, Tran, and opposing base 60s.
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Ribombee @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shield Dust
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sticky Web
- Moonblast
- Stun Spore
- Skill Swap
Webs deserves a mention here as it’s been seeing higher usage in high level play in response to increased HO usage and decreased Boots Spam Balance. DLC2 also gifted the archetype several strong abusers such as Rbolt, G-Fire, Serperior, along with pre-existing abusers such as Booster Atk Tusk and Ogerpon. I am interested in seeing if Webs will continue to see use or drop as players start preparing for it. Webs generally has been having an up and down streak since DLC1.
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Roaring Moon @ Lum Berry
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Knock Off
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast
I do not know who came up with the concept first, but Finch used this early in SPL but I’ve been using it myself on Sun and this shit cooks. Lum punishes status from Wisp Tran, Pult, Clef, Gliscor, Clod, Mola, Zapdos, etc. As stated by Finch, Tera Fairy Blast rounds out the Dark/Ground coverage by hitting Ting-Lu, Ghold, Tusk, Kyu, and Zama. Exactly what Acro covers, but it keeps your Dark resistance and you gain a neutrality to Ice. A lot of players will expect CB Moon and get bamboozled by the Tera Fairy. It does mean you need to preserve Tera while using it on Sun, but Sun generally banks on one Tera abuser a game anyways.
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Samurott-Hisui (Samurott-Hisui) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Dark/Water
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 180 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ceaseless Edge
- Aqua Cutter/Razor Shell
- Knock Off/Sacred Sword
- Aqua Jet
(180 Speed EVs to outrun Raging Bolt)
CB Samu is a cool set as it has 0 safe switch ins. Ceaseless goes from spammable to spammable and dangerous. Even some bulky resists like Clef and Kingambit are 3HKOd by Tera Dark Ceaseless. Mola and Skarm are 2HKOd. Zama is 2HKOd by Aqua Cutter after it loses the Dauntless Shield boost, Tusk dies to Water STAB too, Dozo gets Knock’d and worn by Spikes. It can outright 6-0 Stalls lacking Clef, and even then, one Aqua Cutter puts it in range of Tera Dark Ceaseless. On top of this, you’re getting Spikes up and you have priority Aqua Jet. I do enjoy the increased usage Samu is getting, despite competition from Wogre.
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Tinkaton (Tinkaton) @ Air Balloon
Ability: Pickpocket
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Gigaton Hammer
- Knock Off/Thunder Wave/Stealth Rock
- Ice Hammer/Thunder Wave
Tinkaton’s defensive typing and speed matches up well with a good chunk of the metagame. While Mold Breaker + its great utility pool has given it a small niche in each metagame, Balloon synergizes well with its other ability Pickpocket. Stealing Lefties, Helmet, and more deviously, Boots. This set ruins Weavile, Meow, and other fast Boots spammers. Thus freeing up a slot to run T-Wave or Rocks over Knock. It’s seen a slight bit of usage in tours and on high ladder.
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Volcanion @ Custap Berry
Ability: Water Absorb
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 176 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Endure/Will-O-Wisp
- Taunt
(176 Spe outpaces Jolly Gambit and other mons speed creeping it.)
This was a cool set brought by Gilbert arenas. Custap Berry has seen increased usage overall to pick up surprise KOs which started with Custap CM Prim. Gilbert however decided to spice it up with Endure to ensure the berry actives. Unfortunately it didn’t get to be used due to Gambit cleaning up the game it was in, however its awesome to see Custap usage after 90% of the items used in modern gens have been Boots, Lefties, Choice items, Helmet, or Lum.
If I’ve forgot any sets or if you have some you wanna share, feel free to do so. I find that the OU discussion thread rarely talks about meta developments or innovations. (Morkal where are you?)
Either it’s “we gotta ban X” or a shitpost or the thread gets derailed by an unban Lugia campaign.
While I think the meta still has issues to be addressed, this tier is starting to grow on me. Probably the best state SV OU has ever been in.
Every archetype in the tier is viable and consistent because there are defensive and offensive cores that help with several matchups, along with highly splashable mons like Zama, Gambit, Pult, and Lando that fill multiple roles on a team. We got here due to the bridge crashing down, among the countless bans just to get here.
Gen 9 feels like a hybrid of Gen 4’s lead centric meta, Gen 7’s chaotic but fun offensive meta, and Gen 3’s creative meta. I’ve been having an enjoyable time laddering, building teams, and testing them. Not every one feels the same and that’s fine.
Have a good day/evening, and if you’re in school, finish your homework.
Also, I've used both scarf kyurem (which was also used in SPL, but I didn't know that when I was testing it lmao) and specs Darkrai and both are great sets.
- Set hazards and bring Knock support so that Dragon Tail does something. Gliscor is also a Ground immunity.
- Aids with keeping hazards down and puts pressure on Fairy types.
- Provides passive healing and takes out Primarina.
- Knockers that bring high offensive pressure and can sweep with the amount of chip Gouging Fire will apply to the opponent.
