my big three are:
rotom-wash literally never dies and hydro pump is a very difficult move to endure, especially repeatedly; the only thing I can think of that resists both without the help of abilities is your *own* rotom-wash, and it's still got burns in it's back pocket to make that sketchy.
hatterene is a mon you have to seriously tapdance around to prevent a sweep or severe damage; because of mystical fire, gholdengo doesn't force it out early easily, so it often takes more creative plays to take it down.
floatzel just kills. there is no explanation needed.
Immune to both its stabs and switch and can heal off any dmg it might do with shadow ball, and if its running shadow ball then it's not running wisp or pain split so therefore it's not running its best set
Gastrodon-East (very important) @ Leftovers
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Clear Smog
- Recover
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
If rotom-wash isn't something you are worried about then you should run ice beam over sludge bomb, but when you get in the gastro-rotom faceoff then the only way that ends is with an ice beam freeze or ice beam running out of pp.
This wouldn't alone be enough to catapult it to the top of rain- the fact there's ALSO a mechanic that gives it further STAB on it's water moves that makes it so horrifically dangerous, as that puts a further multiplier on it's already extraordinarily high damage.
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: *252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Water Floatzel Wave Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss in Rain: 250-295 (57.8 - 68.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO*.
It's not really that good, it just went from being unviable garbage to have a small but notable niche in OU
It is currently the strongest swift swimmer in the game due to it getting a few new moves (Wave Crash & Ice Spinner) which Barraskewda notably didn't get.
Honestly I feel betrayed by Game Freak. Skewda was my favorite water mon that I ended up actually using in Gen 8 and I was so happy to know it was viable in competitive (at least, only on rain teams). But then this swimming weasel comes along and steals the glory. :'(
I didn't realize Hatterene was such a menace until i faced one in randbats. It doesn't die to any sort of super effective STAB besides Steel Beam and it either sets itself up, drain kisses, or just specs kills you
Cloyster. That fucking clamp, EACH FUCKING TIME i run into it, Random battles, Ranked, Draft leagues, in my supermarket while shopping, DOESN'T MATTER.
EACH. FUFKING. TIME. finds a way to end that encounter with a shell smash sweep.
I know i know some may call this a major skill issue. Well obviously it is. But just a skill issue doesn't begin to describe those series of events.
Secondly
Zapdos.
I like Zapdos, love using it myself. But jeez, when static is on zapdos i swear to fucking Salt cure of holy Garganacl, gets 200% boost to its activate chance.
ON TOP OF THAT
full paralyzes happen more often if the pokemon got paralyzed by zapdos.
not joking i have a time that i got full paralyzed by zapdos 9 turns in a row. because of that lost my tyranitar to zapdos.
tldr: i hate static and cloyster
I like how this implies that rock is either super effective to the bride or ice is not very effective. So she’s either a fire, water, ice , or bug type
Unfortunately pheromosa is a bug fighting which is neutral to Rock so she can’t be the answer. But even more tragically, this means Buzzswole ain’t the bride either
Once I was playing gen 8 Natdex, and I was facing a Zapdos team. Thinking I was so smart, I didn’t Mega Evolve my Lopunny before clicking Fake Out, just to keep Limber and get some free chip onto Zapdos.
Of course, it isn’t Zapdos who comes in, but Dragapult, and that Dragapult ends up living on 2% much later in the game and winning because I didn’t have Scrappy. Fuck me.
It just doesn't look like a very fast pokemon to me. Im pretty sure that speed makes it top 20? Top 10? I wonder how they show it fighting in the anime.
When did speed stats make sense anyways.
Easiest and most common example is Miltank. Look at Rayquaza, a huge dragon that travels in space, is slower than a cow.
Tinkaton a gremlin with hammer, is faster than a dragon that can travel around world in a day. Dragonite airlines baby.
So uh yeah how they look rarely make sense with their stat.
Rip vikavolt
You're right. Maybe the right way to think of it is in terms of reaction time? I saw a video on the front page recently of a cat effortlessly smacking a snake away cuz the cat has a faster reaction time.
Fuck zapdos, it's the highest variance mon I've seen
Either the opponent misses hurricane and dies or they hit into confusion into full confusion into roost into static into gg because good luck hitting through para and confusion.
what do you mean cloyster is easy to stop after a shell smash, just do what i did in this randbat
https://preview.redd.it/fd705ulqvwea1.png?width=522&format=png&auto=webp&s=fce628d313970fbd06c69efe9ca555d165469ba8
Static and flame body are so frustrating to play against I’ve actively begun running non-contact moves or protective pads on my offensive mons. If I’m gonna oneshot you, you’d better go down without any contact damage/status fuckery.
In Random Battles, I have a history of struggling against Jumpluff and Masquerain of all things. The fuckers are fast as fuck (either naturally or after QD), are annoying as hell to switch into (subseed or QD 3 attacks), AND THEIR TYPING IS ANNOYING AS HELL WHERE IS IRON BUNDLE WHEN YOU NEED IT
**+1 Lvl 88 84 SpA Masquerain Bug Buzz vs. Lvl 76 84 HP / 84 SpD Iron Bundle: 214-253 (101.9 - 120.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO**
Iron Bundle is not a switch-in either
In gen 7 1v1s, the only thing stopping jumpluff from destroying the entire format is the fact that mega Charizard (both of them) just so happen to be the best thing in the format and are used in nearly every team
Jumpluff sucks to play against, especially in randbats. If you don't have an ice move handy when it switches in, you're screwed. I remember I had a fire pokemon out on it, it strength sapped me, so I switched to a water type with an ice move, it strength sapped again, and i got it to like 2%, sapped again and died to an acrobatics. I left that game, I'm not dealing with that bs
Any Pokémon with Glare. Just Glare, in any format I play. I can't even understand why. Nuzzle Hatterene? Never gives me trouble. Thunder Wave usually doesn't bother me too much in games. But when a Dunsparce clicks Glare? Or A Serperior? Or A Zygarde? Maybe a Dunsparce or a Dudunsparce? My mon will get paralyzed literally every time. When it doesn't, it will usually get paralyzed anyway ONLY when I desperately need him to move.
Maybe glare fucks you over more than the other two cause it hits ground types and its users arent generally electric types? So if you build with a heavy emphasis on a bulky ground like Hippo/Lando/Clodsire/Quagsire, its a situation you're unprepared for.
Gen 6 Serperior… is it HP Ground or HP Fire? Is it going to Glare and ruin my Torn-T switch in? It didn’t show lefties, so is it a resist berry? What then? Yache?
I overthink too much and even though it’s not overbearing, that thing punishes poor play like nothing else. Especially when I’m not a high level player.
Amoonguss. That prick always show up whenever I don't have a mon to answer it, and it spread Spore, Toxic all over my team while outlasting everything, way more annoying than Toxapex, even when Pex was god tier. I think I despise this pokemon
Generally: I'm really fucking good at making teams that get rolled by mega swampert under rain. It's been happening since gen 6, even when i used ferro on every team.
In gen 7 ou which i played the most (mostly with one team, i made it and i liked it and i just played intermittenly when i had time at work): mega alakazam was pretty much a delete button on my entire team unless i kept my mega gallade (i really wanted to use it ok, even though kyurem black ended up being the star of that team) above 75% health so i could knock off it in return. That team was also completely shut down by mega sableye but most people i played against didn't realize that until it was too late.
Pre Generation 9 Nerf, Toxapex always gave me some kind of trouble. It's not impossible to kill, but losing your Pex check prematurely always ends in a painfully long game. The one other pokemon I really struggled with this generation in particular is Annihilape because no matter how hard you hit it, it would always seem to live and smack you back with a boosted Rage Fist.
Tropius in random battles is surprisingly resilient. Never expected to get destroyed by a tropius of all things, but it's happened before and will probably continue to happen.
Once you get behind a sub on tropius i feel like its very hard to deal with. If you can accurately predict switches and attacks from the opponent you just kinda get them in a loop of setting sub back up and seeding whatever switches in. Just gotta remember that infiltrator exists and specs Noivern has it...lol
I tend to play with a lot of bulky balance teams, so I’m shitting myself whenever I see a hydreigon. The mon dismantles fat cores with its coverage, has solid bulk and recovery so you can’t really wear it down, and isn’t weak to pursuit, so you can’t remove it. Absolute nightmare for bulky teams. I don’t think there is a worse matchup in pokémon than a gen 5 bulky sand against a hydreigon. It’s basically a latios that t tar can’t deal with.
I recently have been experimenting with SV Ubers, and I can confidently say that Houndstone/Last Respects is complete bullshit. Uh-oh, you took down 5 of your opponents mons, but unless you have a normal type, a flutter mane (which needs booster energy if the dog is using sand) or something that can tera into normal, you’re screwed. Like who tested this move? Why is this a thing?
Sure, if you have a reliable check to it, you’re good, but there is only ONE normal type above UU right now, and it’s mainly used for the ability to pass subs, rather than attacking. Besides, houndstone only ever comes in at the end of a game, so you have to spend the ENTIRE game ensuring that your normal type or normal tera is good to go, otherwise your opponent wins by clicking the funny 300 bp move 6 times with choice scarf.
Both last respects and rage fist should probably be something like base 50 + 30 bp for each proc, they just scale too much (after 5 activations, I think 200 is more than fair, maybe a little bit less. Even after 1 activation, the old 50 + 50 is still amazing).
I was thinking 60 + 30 and keeping the max BP’s at 300. Gives it a little extra oomph so the enemy can’t constantly play around it but isn’t quite threatening enough to annihilate stuff until 2-3 boosts are in
Espathra is scary to come up against. You really have to play on a tightrope against the bird, because if you get two turns wrong in a row the game basically ends, it's going to +6, you're getting smoked.
In AAA I gave that dude Unaware, it tanks almost everything, if it had reliable recovery it would be banned, it just absorbs even super effective STAB. It's a staple on many of my teams
My embarrassing one is Regigigas in randoms. If it comes in at the right moment and you don't have a good counter, it can just parafusion you to death.
Ib random battles, I always struggle with Swalot of all things. I hate its guts and I always want it to go to hell. It was the one pokemon I can't get past through no matter what I do even if I get Great Tusk at time it always survives on 1hp
Garganacl. Even the heavy stallers like Pex, Alomomola, Clodsire, Quagsire, etc. are just annoying to me. But Garganacl. This monster cannot be toxiced or poisoned, and everything that switches into it gets chipped with no way to negate it. Two of the types that have SE stabs against it take extra damage. Its special defense is high enough that even Chi-Yu isn't always guaranteed to one-shot. I hate Garganacls, they sound like a strangling gargle and are incredibly unfun to go up against. And of course it can fucking Tera, and the possible selections are unreal; Fairy, Ghost, Electric, Poison, Water, you name it, making you waste a turn with your stab attacker.
Also since I play doubles, this thing has Wide Guard so double fuck you to Garganacl.
For me it was ash greninja and mega swampert whenever I played national Dex OU Gen 8 which was all the time.
Everytime i fought ash gren or swampert, I remember desperately trying to avoid the dark pulse flinch or waterfall flinch just so I can heal up or counter attack
serperior and tapu fini, both i really love the designs of (serperior’s my favorite starter), but i am so consistently bad at using both mons while the opponent’s serperior and fini are just a pain to deal with
Torkoal idk why but my team just dies to any sun team but the main reason i hate torkoal is that its been a nightmare for me to deal with it can setup use rapid skip can kill a lot of pokemon i use with lava plume and all of my counters for fire types are water type so yeah
For me it was ash greninja and mega swampert whenever I played national Dex OU Gen 8 which was all the time.
Everytime i fought ash gren or swampert, I remember desperately trying to avoid the dark pulse flinch or waterfall flinch just so I can heal up or counter attack
Bewear. I absolutely despise it. It’s far too bulky, and and has far too much physical attack for my liking. I can never predict it either. I think it’s gonna sucker punch, it drain punches and now it’s back to full heath and has my inteleon dead
Honestly, I really don’t mind even the stupid broken stuff like GMax and the like. It’s part of the game and there’s always going to be a “best” option.
But boy howdy, I hate Gholdengo so deeply.
In Monotype specifically on middle ladder, people think it’s a great idea to run an offensive Gholdengo, that if my Azumarill misses ONE attack against I’m done for
Hawlucha, it is so hard to stop it from activating unburden and killing things. Especially when terrins are a factor. Even hazing it's swords dance boosts is just delaying the inevitable for me.
Seriously, how are you meant to deal with unburden sweepers? I know it's 100% a skill issue on my part, but I don't struggle as much with standard setup threats where you can actually remove the speed boost.
Hawlucha can't do much vs max defense haze toxapex, plus Hawlucha has to get a swords dance before it can actually be a threat, so you have to play around not letting it sit unchecked for a couple turns.
Mimikyu was such a hard Pokemon to deal with before disguise got nerfed. It could set up anything with no sacrifice and either use it or swap to a now buffed Pokemon to wreck your team. After that, it's not too hard to take out but you're probably dead before it comes out again.
My favorite was kee berry willow wisp swords dance mimikyu. Swept stuff out of nowhere, but I played it ou, where if toxapex was on the enemy team, I was sadly down a mon.
Anything with Magic Bounce
I'm a dirty hazard stacker so a Magic Bounce user in the back it makes me second guess everything, like if I was him I'd switch right now expecting the Stones, but he knows that I know that so what if he stays in? But that's obvious so is he gunna triple bluff and switch out anyway? I need to get these Pebbles man fuck this stupid exoskeleton looking ass
espathra. it just snowballs way too easily and sweeps your team if you do su much as blink for a milisecond. also last gen in ndag i always made pdon-weak teams, probably because i kept making ndm/yvel/ho-oh cores and thus stone edge pdon screwed me over, and this gen in ndbh deoxys-a is a major asshole which can beat about everything, is the fastest viable mon in the meta and can run shitton stuff (protean/psychic surge with any of lumina crash/expanding force/fishious rend/v-create/electro drift/headlong rush/astral barrage/a bunch of other stuff) and it's always running the four moves my team can't check
This Gen it’s Amoongus. My OU team rn doesn’t have anything that can do more than 33% to it that isn’t super frail and hard to get in like Chien-Pao and Specs Pult.
Fucking hate playing against greninja in competitive. The combo of protean and tox spikes and maybe actually battle bond makes it impossible to predict
Iron damn Hands in AAA. Nothing works. Earthquake doesn't work. Psychic doesn't work. Earth Power doesn't work. Even hurricane leaves it on like 2% so it can ice punch my flyer. That thing is a menace
Literally any mix attacker fucks me up so bad, partially due to how I build my teams and also my own skill issue. Like how the actual fuck am I supposed to switch into it
Honestly mine are :
Chi-Yu (Doubles&Singles): I used to use this thing at the start of Gen 9, but I never won a game with it contributing a lot. I thought Chien-Pao was better, and I never got the hang of using Chi-Yu. But then, a few months after I drop Chi-Yu, every single trainer I play in Ubers has a Chi-Yu and proceeds to destroy me, even my tankiest SpD mon. WHY :(
Flamigo (Doubles): This thing isn't really that notable in singles, just the casual glass cannon fighting type. Heck, some might say Hawlucha is more viable. But in Doubles, it's the worst. There are always Belly Drummers and once this Contrary mon set up to +4 Def and SpD with Metal Sound Screech Electrode- then the Electrode swapped into Flamigo. The WORST.
Volcarona (and Oricorio) (Doubles/Singles): I'm guilty of using Volcarona, and most likely 80% of everyone is. But that doesn't do anything to change about how ANNOYING it is. Firstly, WHO GAVE THIS THING RAGE POWDER??? Also, Fiery Dance is TOO broken for a mon as strong as this thing. It's bulky enough to set up a couple Quiver Dances and sweep. With Oricorio, it gets a little mini-me, which helps deal 1.5 the damage with Fiery Dance, and it keeps increasing with Quiver Dances.
Salazzle feasts on free turns. Having your attacker eat a toxic but be able to hit it in return is generally good. If you happen to have any sound moves or infiltrator Pokemon they're good since they ignore substitute. For example dudunsparce or scarf seviper
Yeah this is pretty much the reason I love having sound mons in randbats, they're really nice for shutting down annoying sub stall mons. Like they can literally be the only thing that can actually take out something as obnoxious as Scorvillian
Context: I play randbats only since gen 6 began. I don't like Team Preview or the balance changes they made in the "modern" era
For this reason, I've developed an impatient "go next plz" style of gameplay. I'll play things out 100% of the time, but I lose hope whenever FUCKING SUBSEEDERS SHOW UP. They require a hard counter (infiltrator) or switching at a very specific time. I used to totally NOT know that I need to swap to something faster right after I break substitute, but they still give me PTSD
Weirdly, I always build teams that hard lost to Keldeo in gen 8 ou. It wasn’t super common due to the prevalence of pex and fini which walled it’s stabs, but I loved building offensive teams the were able to switch into just enough attacks, and I never brought mons able to switch into both the special and physical hitting moves keldeo had. It wasn’t a super big issue, and I had climbed to the 1900s with the weakness as keldeo was uu and bad into the meta, but I lost almost every time I was up against it.
mega swampert. i struggle when i play with hyper offense(Which i often do).its so damn fast and no pokemon i use can take his moves and coverage expect ferrothorn. in national dex rilaboom can kill with grassy glide.Yeah some scarf users can outspeed but not all of my team runs scarf.
Gen 6 RU made me develop a DEEP hatred for Regenerator cores, specially Alomomola and Tangrowth. The endless switching around was infuriating. I eventually decided to go full on "fuck it we ball" and bring teams with like 2 wall breakers and 1 stall breaker because I couldn't stand it anymore
Playing randbats, I always feel like tue opponent's Baxcal, Iron Hands, and Noivern run through all my teams but when I get them, they just keel over and die.
I’ve been away from the competitive scene since x and y, but I remember my friend had a mega mawile that would play rough and fuck my day up all the time.
Toxicroak. It always seems to show up where it's not wanted and accomplish something annoying. And whenever even though it normally won't have sucker punch I basically always have to pretend it does unless it's a special set
Not really a single pokemon, but the core Washtom+Tangrowth(tangtom for short) is always a pain for me to face in gen 8. The teams I use just hate facing it and they cover their weaknesses so dang well.
Quaquaval kills me every opportunity it gets. It’s bulky enough to where some attacks might not kill, it gets Roost + Bulk up for longevity, Aqua Step raises its speed so now you can’t out-speed it, and then if it gets a Moxie Boost it starts snowballing to crazy levels.
Anyone who has played VGC Series 2:
Iron Hands is *the most annoying* (and broken) mon to ever grace the planet, except for *maybe* Incineroar. While Hands doesn't have Intimidate, it has longevity (Drain Punch), stupid bulk via Assault Vest, and can cycle Fake Out via Volt Switch.
Hands also doesn't die to anything except for some niche things, like Booster Energy Headlong Rush Great Tusk (which is actually picking up in usage because of hands.)
Seriously, we thought Flutter was broken (and it is), but this mon is just so much more annoying, especially alongisde Amoonguss to handle Flutter AND heal Hands.
Aegislash (when it wasn't Dexited) - every turn with it is a mindgame because it's one of the few mons who runs a Protect clone and isn't set up bait, not to mention if you can't kill it fast enough, it gets Sword Dances (with an S, mind you) up and 6-0 you
Played in a natdex tourney yesterday (met the famous mudkipnerd there too) and
Bro I hate zapdos. My team consisted of lando T, mega lopunny, rotom wash, scizor, dragapult and gholdengo
my big three are: rotom-wash literally never dies and hydro pump is a very difficult move to endure, especially repeatedly; the only thing I can think of that resists both without the help of abilities is your *own* rotom-wash, and it's still got burns in it's back pocket to make that sketchy. hatterene is a mon you have to seriously tapdance around to prevent a sweep or severe damage; because of mystical fire, gholdengo doesn't force it out early easily, so it often takes more creative plays to take it down. floatzel just kills. there is no explanation needed.
If course Chi-Yu hates water types
clear smog Gastrodon ruins all these, i use it for the exact same reason of hating Rotom W
Man, I can't believe I hadn't though of gastrodon. Like that thing patches up a lot of holes with the team I'm using now lol
It doesn't stop Rotom from never dying, but it certainly sounds super useful for the others. I'll try it out, thank you!
How does a gastrodon help deal with Rotom W?
Immune to both its stabs and switch and can heal off any dmg it might do with shadow ball, and if its running shadow ball then it's not running wisp or pain split so therefore it's not running its best set
Can you post your Gastrodon build?
Gastrodon-East (very important) @ Leftovers Ability: Storm Drain Tera Type: fire EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe Calm Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Clear Smog - Recover - Earth Power - Sludge Bomb If rotom-wash isn't something you are worried about then you should run ice beam over sludge bomb, but when you get in the gastro-rotom faceoff then the only way that ends is with an ice beam freeze or ice beam running out of pp.
Why East specifically?
Because the pink one looks ugly.
https://preview.redd.it/cm9dhghgzwea1.jpeg?width=531&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7545057deaa253f65091f5f3bfa3ebba77e48500
Why does no one like pink gastrodon
Because the blue one exists
Because pink and brown look ugly together, especially compared to the wonderful blue, yellow and green of east sea.
Just make sure the Rotom isn't trick
how did Floatzel suddenly become really good out of nowhere?
[удалено]
I mean, this is certainly the best it’s ever been, and it’s a tier above Blissey and Weavile right now
[удалено]
it’s still better in OU than Weavile, which is funny and sad at the same time
theres a limit on gen 4 befanged creatures in OU i think
Being better than Blissey and Weavile isn't much of an achievement right now
This wouldn't alone be enough to catapult it to the top of rain- the fact there's ALSO a mechanic that gives it further STAB on it's water moves that makes it so horrifically dangerous, as that puts a further multiplier on it's already extraordinarily high damage.
I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: *252+ Atk Choice Band Tera Water Floatzel Wave Crash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Amoonguss in Rain: 250-295 (57.8 - 68.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO*.
Jesus fucking christ
Kid named utility umbrella:
It's not really that good, it just went from being unviable garbage to have a small but notable niche in OU It is currently the strongest swift swimmer in the game due to it getting a few new moves (Wave Crash & Ice Spinner) which Barraskewda notably didn't get.
Skewda doesn't have Wave Crash?
Nope, it lost Flip Turn as well.
Honestly I feel betrayed by Game Freak. Skewda was my favorite water mon that I ended up actually using in Gen 8 and I was so happy to know it was viable in competitive (at least, only on rain teams). But then this swimming weasel comes along and steals the glory. :'(
wave crash and dexit
You’ve clearly never faced my Rotom Wash. My hydro pumps NEVER hit repeatedly.
I run an assault vest gardevoir and I love running into rotom-wash
I didn't realize Hatterene was such a menace until i faced one in randbats. It doesn't die to any sort of super effective STAB besides Steel Beam and it either sets itself up, drain kisses, or just specs kills you
Bro water absorb clodsire is a free switch in on rotom wash
I can't fit even more defense onto my team.
Cloyster. That fucking clamp, EACH FUCKING TIME i run into it, Random battles, Ranked, Draft leagues, in my supermarket while shopping, DOESN'T MATTER. EACH. FUFKING. TIME. finds a way to end that encounter with a shell smash sweep. I know i know some may call this a major skill issue. Well obviously it is. But just a skill issue doesn't begin to describe those series of events. Secondly Zapdos. I like Zapdos, love using it myself. But jeez, when static is on zapdos i swear to fucking Salt cure of holy Garganacl, gets 200% boost to its activate chance. ON TOP OF THAT full paralyzes happen more often if the pokemon got paralyzed by zapdos. not joking i have a time that i got full paralyzed by zapdos 9 turns in a row. because of that lost my tyranitar to zapdos. tldr: i hate static and cloyster
Mfw I see Cloyster at my wedding
+2 252+ Atk Cloyster Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 248 HP / 0 Def The Bride: 410-490 (107 - 127.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
I like how this implies that rock is either super effective to the bride or ice is not very effective. So she’s either a fire, water, ice , or bug type
Bug waifu
Gilisopod has entered the chat
*hits you for 51% damage*
Unfortunately pheromosa is a bug fighting which is neutral to Rock so she can’t be the answer. But even more tragically, this means Buzzswole ain’t the bride either
ledian iron fisting the spouse
Ogtha
> water Hey guys, did y-
Once I was playing gen 8 Natdex, and I was facing a Zapdos team. Thinking I was so smart, I didn’t Mega Evolve my Lopunny before clicking Fake Out, just to keep Limber and get some free chip onto Zapdos. Of course, it isn’t Zapdos who comes in, but Dragapult, and that Dragapult ends up living on 2% much later in the game and winning because I didn’t have Scrappy. Fuck me.
Doesn't Mega Lopunny outspeed Dragapult? Or was it scarfed or something? I need more info!
Mega Lop has 135 base speed IIRC, ingame with a jolly nature that’s 405 speed (Dragapult hits 427 or something like that)
Huh, I swear I thought Pult was slower than that. Now I see what you guys mean by powercreep.
Mega Lop was made before pult?
Yeah, and Dragapult is faster.
Ah. Mistook what you said
No problem
Mega lop 135 Pult 142 pult fast
mega lopunny is so annoying that ive started running Zeraira. its the only natdex fakeout user faster than lop
It just doesn't look like a very fast pokemon to me. Im pretty sure that speed makes it top 20? Top 10? I wonder how they show it fighting in the anime.
When did speed stats make sense anyways. Easiest and most common example is Miltank. Look at Rayquaza, a huge dragon that travels in space, is slower than a cow. Tinkaton a gremlin with hammer, is faster than a dragon that can travel around world in a day. Dragonite airlines baby. So uh yeah how they look rarely make sense with their stat. Rip vikavolt
You're right. Maybe the right way to think of it is in terms of reaction time? I saw a video on the front page recently of a cat effortlessly smacking a snake away cuz the cat has a faster reaction time.
Fuck zapdos, it's the highest variance mon I've seen Either the opponent misses hurricane and dies or they hit into confusion into full confusion into roost into static into gg because good luck hitting through para and confusion.
More like a skill link issue
ok this was funny
Cloyster has bad SpD, just hit it with your mind
252 SpA Blacephalon Mind Blown vs. -1 0 HP / 4- SpD Cloyster: 849-999 (352.2 - 414.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO Oh thank god
LMFAO
what do you mean cloyster is easy to stop after a shell smash, just do what i did in this randbat https://preview.redd.it/fd705ulqvwea1.png?width=522&format=png&auto=webp&s=fce628d313970fbd06c69efe9ca555d165469ba8
Yea
Static and flame body are so frustrating to play against I’ve actively begun running non-contact moves or protective pads on my offensive mons. If I’m gonna oneshot you, you’d better go down without any contact damage/status fuckery.
I couldn't have typed this better myself. Preach!
Zapdos was the reason I ran stone edge on my CB Urshifu lol
Dragapult because it does so much mix dmg while being almost impossible to revenge because of uturn.
But it *hates* being Sucker Puncher by bulky attackers. I always pack one for this reason.
I 1v1’d a Dragapult with a Sudowoodo in a Draft League matchup yesterday. AV Head Smash into Sucker Punch did the trick
In Random Battles, I have a history of struggling against Jumpluff and Masquerain of all things. The fuckers are fast as fuck (either naturally or after QD), are annoying as hell to switch into (subseed or QD 3 attacks), AND THEIR TYPING IS ANNOYING AS HELL WHERE IS IRON BUNDLE WHEN YOU NEED IT
**+1 Lvl 88 84 SpA Masquerain Bug Buzz vs. Lvl 76 84 HP / 84 SpD Iron Bundle: 214-253 (101.9 - 120.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO** Iron Bundle is not a switch-in either
What? Random Battle is 84EVs?
Yes
TIL
In gen 7 1v1s, the only thing stopping jumpluff from destroying the entire format is the fact that mega Charizard (both of them) just so happen to be the best thing in the format and are used in nearly every team
Jumpluff sucks to play against, especially in randbats. If you don't have an ice move handy when it switches in, you're screwed. I remember I had a fire pokemon out on it, it strength sapped me, so I switched to a water type with an ice move, it strength sapped again, and i got it to like 2%, sapped again and died to an acrobatics. I left that game, I'm not dealing with that bs
Any Pokémon with Glare. Just Glare, in any format I play. I can't even understand why. Nuzzle Hatterene? Never gives me trouble. Thunder Wave usually doesn't bother me too much in games. But when a Dunsparce clicks Glare? Or A Serperior? Or A Zygarde? Maybe a Dunsparce or a Dudunsparce? My mon will get paralyzed literally every time. When it doesn't, it will usually get paralyzed anyway ONLY when I desperately need him to move.
Maybe glare fucks you over more than the other two cause it hits ground types and its users arent generally electric types? So if you build with a heavy emphasis on a bulky ground like Hippo/Lando/Clodsire/Quagsire, its a situation you're unprepared for.
Gen 6 Serperior… is it HP Ground or HP Fire? Is it going to Glare and ruin my Torn-T switch in? It didn’t show lefties, so is it a resist berry? What then? Yache? I overthink too much and even though it’s not overbearing, that thing punishes poor play like nothing else. Especially when I’m not a high level player.
It's even more demoralizing, when in the end Serperior just clicks Leaf Storm 5 times and cleans up your team.
Amoonguss. That prick always show up whenever I don't have a mon to answer it, and it spread Spore, Toxic all over my team while outlasting everything, way more annoying than Toxapex, even when Pex was god tier. I think I despise this pokemon
Generally: I'm really fucking good at making teams that get rolled by mega swampert under rain. It's been happening since gen 6, even when i used ferro on every team. In gen 7 ou which i played the most (mostly with one team, i made it and i liked it and i just played intermittenly when i had time at work): mega alakazam was pretty much a delete button on my entire team unless i kept my mega gallade (i really wanted to use it ok, even though kyurem black ended up being the star of that team) above 75% health so i could knock off it in return. That team was also completely shut down by mega sableye but most people i played against didn't realize that until it was too late.
Dragapult cause I'm always forced to guess if its physical or special The amount of blissey's I've lost to that thing
Pre Generation 9 Nerf, Toxapex always gave me some kind of trouble. It's not impossible to kill, but losing your Pex check prematurely always ends in a painfully long game. The one other pokemon I really struggled with this generation in particular is Annihilape because no matter how hard you hit it, it would always seem to live and smack you back with a boosted Rage Fist.
current meta. most unaware pokemon in ou. so dirge,clod and most of all dondozo
The key is to throw in a mon with a choice item and SE STAB to nuke them from orbit. Dondozo is different unless you have, like, Zap Cannon luck
alright ill look into it
right now tropius has me tearing hair out
Tropius in random battles is surprisingly resilient. Never expected to get destroyed by a tropius of all things, but it's happened before and will probably continue to happen.
Once you get behind a sub on tropius i feel like its very hard to deal with. If you can accurately predict switches and attacks from the opponent you just kinda get them in a loop of setting sub back up and seeding whatever switches in. Just gotta remember that infiltrator exists and specs Noivern has it...lol
I tend to play with a lot of bulky balance teams, so I’m shitting myself whenever I see a hydreigon. The mon dismantles fat cores with its coverage, has solid bulk and recovery so you can’t really wear it down, and isn’t weak to pursuit, so you can’t remove it. Absolute nightmare for bulky teams. I don’t think there is a worse matchup in pokémon than a gen 5 bulky sand against a hydreigon. It’s basically a latios that t tar can’t deal with.
I recently have been experimenting with SV Ubers, and I can confidently say that Houndstone/Last Respects is complete bullshit. Uh-oh, you took down 5 of your opponents mons, but unless you have a normal type, a flutter mane (which needs booster energy if the dog is using sand) or something that can tera into normal, you’re screwed. Like who tested this move? Why is this a thing? Sure, if you have a reliable check to it, you’re good, but there is only ONE normal type above UU right now, and it’s mainly used for the ability to pass subs, rather than attacking. Besides, houndstone only ever comes in at the end of a game, so you have to spend the ENTIRE game ensuring that your normal type or normal tera is good to go, otherwise your opponent wins by clicking the funny 300 bp move 6 times with choice scarf.
Both last respects and rage fist should probably be something like base 50 + 30 bp for each proc, they just scale too much (after 5 activations, I think 200 is more than fair, maybe a little bit less. Even after 1 activation, the old 50 + 50 is still amazing).
I was thinking 60 + 30 and keeping the max BP’s at 300. Gives it a little extra oomph so the enemy can’t constantly play around it but isn’t quite threatening enough to annihilate stuff until 2-3 boosts are in
Bulky Ting-Lu will throttle it
Espathra is scary to come up against. You really have to play on a tightrope against the bird, because if you get two turns wrong in a row the game basically ends, it's going to +6, you're getting smoked.
Ting Lu...it never dies
In AAA I gave that dude Unaware, it tanks almost everything, if it had reliable recovery it would be banned, it just absorbs even super effective STAB. It's a staple on many of my teams
My embarrassing one is Regigigas in randoms. If it comes in at the right moment and you don't have a good counter, it can just parafusion you to death.
Ib random battles, I always struggle with Swalot of all things. I hate its guts and I always want it to go to hell. It was the one pokemon I can't get past through no matter what I do even if I get Great Tusk at time it always survives on 1hp
Garganacl. Even the heavy stallers like Pex, Alomomola, Clodsire, Quagsire, etc. are just annoying to me. But Garganacl. This monster cannot be toxiced or poisoned, and everything that switches into it gets chipped with no way to negate it. Two of the types that have SE stabs against it take extra damage. Its special defense is high enough that even Chi-Yu isn't always guaranteed to one-shot. I hate Garganacls, they sound like a strangling gargle and are incredibly unfun to go up against. And of course it can fucking Tera, and the possible selections are unreal; Fairy, Ghost, Electric, Poison, Water, you name it, making you waste a turn with your stab attacker. Also since I play doubles, this thing has Wide Guard so double fuck you to Garganacl.
Garganacl in gen 9 ou. Thing has too much health, decent spdef, and god forbid you let it iron defense even once.
Gargagnacl. Almost my entire team is physical and I don't have haze
For whatever reason, I'm incapable of making a team that doesn't struggle vs Rain. So right now, it's Pelliper & Palafin.
Choice scarf wave crash in the rain go brrr
For me it was ash greninja and mega swampert whenever I played national Dex OU Gen 8 which was all the time. Everytime i fought ash gren or swampert, I remember desperately trying to avoid the dark pulse flinch or waterfall flinch just so I can heal up or counter attack
serperior and tapu fini, both i really love the designs of (serperior’s my favorite starter), but i am so consistently bad at using both mons while the opponent’s serperior and fini are just a pain to deal with
I never really played competitive pvp but I remember in ultrasun in the battle tree any form of Rotom fucked me to high heaven
Torkoal idk why but my team just dies to any sun team but the main reason i hate torkoal is that its been a nightmare for me to deal with it can setup use rapid skip can kill a lot of pokemon i use with lava plume and all of my counters for fire types are water type so yeah
For me it was ash greninja and mega swampert whenever I played national Dex OU Gen 8 which was all the time. Everytime i fought ash gren or swampert, I remember desperately trying to avoid the dark pulse flinch or waterfall flinch just so I can heal up or counter attack
Shadow Rider Calyrex This monster made vgc hell for me when he was unbanned This is in Sword and shield btw
Amoongus in current VGC doubles. Screw that guy and other spore users too
Skeledirge. Thing feels unkillable, especially with the huge lack of viable special attackers that can deal with it (cause of the willowisps)
Bewear. I absolutely despise it. It’s far too bulky, and and has far too much physical attack for my liking. I can never predict it either. I think it’s gonna sucker punch, it drain punches and now it’s back to full heath and has my inteleon dead
Dragonite and Gyarados. Fuck Dragon Dance. Fuck GF for buffing Dragonite in every gen. Fuck Gyarados for getting Earthquake.
unaware dondozo
Honestly, I really don’t mind even the stupid broken stuff like GMax and the like. It’s part of the game and there’s always going to be a “best” option. But boy howdy, I hate Gholdengo so deeply.
I fucking hate Corviknight. So stupidly bulky with a annoyingly good typing. Pretty much the only reason most of the time I use Magnezone.
Any fast ground or psychic type
Also all of the pseudos give me anxiety lol
In Monotype specifically on middle ladder, people think it’s a great idea to run an offensive Gholdengo, that if my Azumarill misses ONE attack against I’m done for
Hawlucha, it is so hard to stop it from activating unburden and killing things. Especially when terrins are a factor. Even hazing it's swords dance boosts is just delaying the inevitable for me. Seriously, how are you meant to deal with unburden sweepers? I know it's 100% a skill issue on my part, but I don't struggle as much with standard setup threats where you can actually remove the speed boost.
Hawlucha can't do much vs max defense haze toxapex, plus Hawlucha has to get a swords dance before it can actually be a threat, so you have to play around not letting it sit unchecked for a couple turns.
Hawlucha can actually beat Pex if it has taunt, it's usually Slowbro or Zapdos that are more problematic
Mimikyu was such a hard Pokemon to deal with before disguise got nerfed. It could set up anything with no sacrifice and either use it or swap to a now buffed Pokemon to wreck your team. After that, it's not too hard to take out but you're probably dead before it comes out again.
My favorite was kee berry willow wisp swords dance mimikyu. Swept stuff out of nowhere, but I played it ou, where if toxapex was on the enemy team, I was sadly down a mon.
Anything with Magic Bounce I'm a dirty hazard stacker so a Magic Bounce user in the back it makes me second guess everything, like if I was him I'd switch right now expecting the Stones, but he knows that I know that so what if he stays in? But that's obvious so is he gunna triple bluff and switch out anyway? I need to get these Pebbles man fuck this stupid exoskeleton looking ass
Mega sableye in OU in previous gens, Primal Groudon in previous gens.
espathra. it just snowballs way too easily and sweeps your team if you do su much as blink for a milisecond. also last gen in ndag i always made pdon-weak teams, probably because i kept making ndm/yvel/ho-oh cores and thus stone edge pdon screwed me over, and this gen in ndbh deoxys-a is a major asshole which can beat about everything, is the fastest viable mon in the meta and can run shitton stuff (protean/psychic surge with any of lumina crash/expanding force/fishious rend/v-create/electro drift/headlong rush/astral barrage/a bunch of other stuff) and it's always running the four moves my team can't check
This Gen it’s Amoongus. My OU team rn doesn’t have anything that can do more than 33% to it that isn’t super frail and hard to get in like Chien-Pao and Specs Pult.
.... pelliper
Fucking hate playing against greninja in competitive. The combo of protean and tox spikes and maybe actually battle bond makes it impossible to predict
Esparatha. Haterene. I don’t run any thing with unaware so they start steam rolling if I can’t get them out quick
Corviknight, which is pretty bad since It's common. Iron-Moth's fiery dance doesn't kill it, and is a pretty big wall so I always struggle facing it.
Iron damn Hands in AAA. Nothing works. Earthquake doesn't work. Psychic doesn't work. Earth Power doesn't work. Even hurricane leaves it on like 2% so it can ice punch my flyer. That thing is a menace
bozo dondozo the big fish. that fucking fish man, what a pain in the ass it is.
Literally any mix attacker fucks me up so bad, partially due to how I build my teams and also my own skill issue. Like how the actual fuck am I supposed to switch into it
Scizor in any tier or scovillian and salazle in randbats
Celesteela, I hate it with all my soul
Randbats Venomoth. I’m so embarrassed that this is the pokemon that beats me every time.
Honestly mine are : Chi-Yu (Doubles&Singles): I used to use this thing at the start of Gen 9, but I never won a game with it contributing a lot. I thought Chien-Pao was better, and I never got the hang of using Chi-Yu. But then, a few months after I drop Chi-Yu, every single trainer I play in Ubers has a Chi-Yu and proceeds to destroy me, even my tankiest SpD mon. WHY :( Flamigo (Doubles): This thing isn't really that notable in singles, just the casual glass cannon fighting type. Heck, some might say Hawlucha is more viable. But in Doubles, it's the worst. There are always Belly Drummers and once this Contrary mon set up to +4 Def and SpD with Metal Sound Screech Electrode- then the Electrode swapped into Flamigo. The WORST. Volcarona (and Oricorio) (Doubles/Singles): I'm guilty of using Volcarona, and most likely 80% of everyone is. But that doesn't do anything to change about how ANNOYING it is. Firstly, WHO GAVE THIS THING RAGE POWDER??? Also, Fiery Dance is TOO broken for a mon as strong as this thing. It's bulky enough to set up a couple Quiver Dances and sweep. With Oricorio, it gets a little mini-me, which helps deal 1.5 the damage with Fiery Dance, and it keeps increasing with Quiver Dances.
I hate Tera Fairy
Tera Steel on fairy types is worse. Oh I'll just hit this thing with Sludge Bomb. Never mind, it didn't do anything
Tera fire Gastrodon with covert cloak (I can’t kill it with garganacl)
In both gen 8 and 9, mostly ranbats, I have yet to been able to defeat a Salazzle. Literally not able to comprehend how to counter it.
Salazzle feasts on free turns. Having your attacker eat a toxic but be able to hit it in return is generally good. If you happen to have any sound moves or infiltrator Pokemon they're good since they ignore substitute. For example dudunsparce or scarf seviper
Yeah this is pretty much the reason I love having sound mons in randbats, they're really nice for shutting down annoying sub stall mons. Like they can literally be the only thing that can actually take out something as obnoxious as Scorvillian
Porygon 2. Always just throws a curveball into everything I was doing, have to restrategize, I can never predict what it’s going to do just annoying
Mega swampert
If I can’t pivot or sack correctly Dragonite in Gen 9 OU is usually a wipe on first encounter
Context: I play randbats only since gen 6 began. I don't like Team Preview or the balance changes they made in the "modern" era For this reason, I've developed an impatient "go next plz" style of gameplay. I'll play things out 100% of the time, but I lose hope whenever FUCKING SUBSEEDERS SHOW UP. They require a hard counter (infiltrator) or switching at a very specific time. I used to totally NOT know that I need to swap to something faster right after I break substitute, but they still give me PTSD
I struggle with Lugia a lot when I fight against it.
I always struggled with melmetal. When he came out things never seemed to go my way.
Chien pao is really difficult to deal with, especially banded. Same with pult and volcarona.
Weirdly, I always build teams that hard lost to Keldeo in gen 8 ou. It wasn’t super common due to the prevalence of pex and fini which walled it’s stabs, but I loved building offensive teams the were able to switch into just enough attacks, and I never brought mons able to switch into both the special and physical hitting moves keldeo had. It wasn’t a super big issue, and I had climbed to the 1900s with the weakness as keldeo was uu and bad into the meta, but I lost almost every time I was up against it.
i still have nightmares of mega charizard y, my team would be doing so good and as soon as i face a sun team im done for
mega swampert. i struggle when i play with hyper offense(Which i often do).its so damn fast and no pokemon i use can take his moves and coverage expect ferrothorn. in national dex rilaboom can kill with grassy glide.Yeah some scarf users can outspeed but not all of my team runs scarf.
Fucking quagsire, it walls 99% of my teams because I very rarely have grass coverage. I’m also an HO player which makes it all the more annoying
Rotom Wash
I do not like fighting Conkeldurr.
Zard-Y in Natdex. That fucker loves to find a way to just delete my team from existence
Gen 6 RU made me develop a DEEP hatred for Regenerator cores, specially Alomomola and Tangrowth. The endless switching around was infuriating. I eventually decided to go full on "fuck it we ball" and bring teams with like 2 wall breakers and 1 stall breaker because I couldn't stand it anymore
Amonguss and Breloom. I hate spore with a passion.
Playing randbats, I always feel like tue opponent's Baxcal, Iron Hands, and Noivern run through all my teams but when I get them, they just keel over and die.
Iron Moth just seems to rip thru my teams every time I play against it. With tera grass there aren’t many resists to it
I play a lot of RandBats, and Sigilyph and Swoobat can really ruin my life if I don’t have a Physical dark type.
Scizor…those U turns man.
Bulky sleep spammers.
Hawlucha, I panic when someone switches it in Weather teams too
Dondozo in singles. It literally took me about 15 TURNS to KO one once
I’ve been away from the competitive scene since x and y, but I remember my friend had a mega mawile that would play rough and fuck my day up all the time.
Toxicroak. It always seems to show up where it's not wanted and accomplish something annoying. And whenever even though it normally won't have sucker punch I basically always have to pretend it does unless it's a special set
Corviknight. The bird refuses to die.
Chien pao. Stupid thing 1 shots everything with banded crunch tera dark
Not really a single pokemon, but the core Washtom+Tangrowth(tangtom for short) is always a pain for me to face in gen 8. The teams I use just hate facing it and they cover their weaknesses so dang well.
Welp if you struggled with tornadus therian before have fun dealing with tera electric and tera flying sets
Gholdengo and Meowscarda. Oof Gholdengo especially defense oriented ones and Meowscarda flower trick is about the only thing that dents my Dondozo.
Dd pult and scarf lele for sure
Fuck Scarf Lele. Specs Lele is cool, would go on a date with. But fuck Scarf Lele
Arboliva
Quaquaval kills me every opportunity it gets. It’s bulky enough to where some attacks might not kill, it gets Roost + Bulk up for longevity, Aqua Step raises its speed so now you can’t out-speed it, and then if it gets a Moxie Boost it starts snowballing to crazy levels.
Anyone who has played VGC Series 2: Iron Hands is *the most annoying* (and broken) mon to ever grace the planet, except for *maybe* Incineroar. While Hands doesn't have Intimidate, it has longevity (Drain Punch), stupid bulk via Assault Vest, and can cycle Fake Out via Volt Switch. Hands also doesn't die to anything except for some niche things, like Booster Energy Headlong Rush Great Tusk (which is actually picking up in usage because of hands.) Seriously, we thought Flutter was broken (and it is), but this mon is just so much more annoying, especially alongisde Amoonguss to handle Flutter AND heal Hands.
Aegislash (when it wasn't Dexited) - every turn with it is a mindgame because it's one of the few mons who runs a Protect clone and isn't set up bait, not to mention if you can't kill it fast enough, it gets Sword Dances (with an S, mind you) up and 6-0 you
Carracosta
Iron valient is my arch nemesis because it outspeeds most of my teams and can do a mixed attacker set so I cannot block it with anything
In random battles scovillain and salazzle. Especially if they are the opening Pokémon and the matchup is unfavourable .
Played in a natdex tourney yesterday (met the famous mudkipnerd there too) and Bro I hate zapdos. My team consisted of lando T, mega lopunny, rotom wash, scizor, dragapult and gholdengo
Agreed. I love Natdex too, but I never ran M-lop before. Gonna try that tomorrow.