Just goes to show that Shed Tail might've been the issue the whole time, lol. Mostly joking here, as I almost never see Orth and when I do, I punish it super hard.
Yeah, that makes sense. Alt formes and such like that make demand for team slots that much more difficult. I would've thought that maybe Taur-Fire would've been the better offensive mon over Taur-Water. Or maybe better tank... I dunno, lol.
it's still a nice ghost cleaner with choice band and maybe tera blast ghost to maintain STAB. it's definitely not going to be outright unhealthy without last respects but it can still break weakened teams with ease and can even punch some holes in early/mid-game. here's some damage calcs with tera blast against some fat mons, with stealth rock up:
Yeah, I was thinking that Phantom Force would've been the main STAB or Tera Blast... Just like with non-mix, non-specialy offensive Dragapult. Those numbers are surprisingly impressive, I kind of want to try it now lol. But I doubt I could build around it properly lmao.
1. Espathra going to OU doesn't surprise me, even if it's a bit of a matchup phishing Pokemon. Orth coming to OU is a bit surprising, but as I said, I'm not sure if it's because of Shed Tail shenanigans, or if it is because it's just generally popular as a pivot/tank. Let's see where things go with it, but I think it MIGHT be Shed Tail itself.
Hey hey, pretty on-point predictions this time around! Peli, Orthworm, and Espathra did indeed all rise to OU and nothing else did. Meanwhile Torkoal, Iron Hands, and Pawmot all did drop, and Quaquaval and Ceruledge weren't far off. In fact, Ceruledge was a mere 0.006%(!) away from dropping to UU. If you used Ceruledge in high elo OU this month, you were integral in keeping it in the OU tier. Well done. I'm surprised Azu's usage is as high as it is, but I guess people were desperate for a Chi-Yu answer and still are desperate for a Chien-Pao answer. Once Pao gets the boot, I don't think Azu will stick around in OU.
Tusk is officially is part of every 1/2 team is insane to me, shoutout the the user a couple of weeks ago stating that Iron Treads is better than Tusk, I understand that there's there's certain things both do well over the other but lets be real, usage wise people are going with Tusk, where Tread is nowhere to be found near the top 10.
great tusk on every other team is a clear indication of how good it is in the current meta, and why it also feels like you can’t make a great team without at least 3-4 high viability Pokémon in it.
on the forums and ladder, and to also use CM 
again because god mag is gonna be so busted this genTusk usage rising isnt suprising . It fiils in the boots of Lando being a defensive ground type providing hazard removal and even as a hazard setter in rare cases . Typically it runs a defensively oriented sets with leftovers or av and works as a really good physical walls , checking the likes of kingabmit and cinderace. Torkoal dropped down because mostly tusk sets are defensively oriented and yes , sun gives defense boost but , it sometimes isnt really the best usage of spots for just a temporary def boost . Also torkoal lost the key abusers - Chi-yu and fluttermane which is another reason . Orthoworm rised in usage since well being slower allows you to keep ur sub up , earth eather provides a nice immunity , and they even run tera ghost for the fighting immunity ( now that i think of it , slower shed tail seems better - if you can set it up that is ) . Espathra rising was expected as the metagame needed for mons for the HO teams , and even the BO teams . Also tusk rising in usage might be a reason for the drop of Iron hands
This is my first time posting on any Smogon Forum ever, so I hope you all will bear with me in case I make any weird mistakes o7
Tusk is so good and checks most of the physical mons in tier, it is basically gen 9 Lando.
until actual lando drops, at which point tusk's usage gets severely cut into because running them both on a team is not a great idea. their strengths complement each other well, but they share very similar weaknesses (very weak to water and ice especially because water/ice moves tend to be special, lackluster special bulk in general, kinda awkward speed tiers, no recovery). gholdengo, on the other hand, has no competition. this might actually be the first time in a decade where lando-t isn't the most used mon in the tier
lando is apparently losing defog, so tusk will definitely have a niche
lando's losing knock off as well, and tusk will have far more than a niche. tusk has other things that lando doesn't, like powerful fighting stab, the ability to boost its speed without a scarf, the ability to boost its attack on switch-in, bulk up, ice coverage, and an excellent synergy with sun teams. lando, meanwhile, has a very important ground/spikes immunity and fighting resist, u-turn (and, though a niche option, explosion) for momentum grabbing, a more comfortable time running rocky helmet, and some sets might run the new sand burn move thing (though i personally don't buy it)
Actually, I think that Tusk is better than Lando as a defensive/set up sweeper. Outside scarf/Suicide lead, I don't see why somebody would Lando over Tusk.
Obviously it's all speculation at this point, but Lando pivots better with U-turn, has arguably better defensive typing, has better special bulk, and has greater set diversity (sub sd, explosion lead and scarfer like you mentioned) to name a few reasons.
When HOME rolls around, TornadUS, thundurUS, enamorUS, and the hisuin party will come in, and, while these mons can threaten treads, he is gonna have way more use with sus birds around
A lot of lesser experienced players tend to overlook the fact that the existence of Pokémon like Landorus-T in past gens and Great Tusk actually allow you to get away with a lot more in the builder. These Pokémon have extremely high usage because they offer unmatched role compression, which means by using them on most teams you don't have to take up more team slots to fill roles that Landorus or Great Tusk would already be able to do on their own. Me personally, I'd much rather see Great Tusk on every single team instead of seeing the same group of Pokémon that people would be forced into using in order to make up for not having a Pokémon that can accomplish so much with one slot. People constantly parroted for a Lando-T ban in Gen 7, but the idea of building without Lando in a meta where there were like 25+ Pokemon in A rank at one point sounds like depression.There's a ton of people who are starting to hate great tusk because he is every single team ever, which is fair, but honestly, I would rather see tusk in every game than lando, because lando looks like Garfield and tusk has some actual design effort, + no u turn on tusk makes it way less annoying, at this point im just waiting for HOME to roll around, so I can start spamming
I've been trying it out Scarfed. It's decent, but doesn't help the team as much as I'd like because it always has to switch out after spinning. So it doesn't have the role compression you'd want from an offensive spinner like Great Tusk has.
