Lower Tiers ORAS UU Discussion, Trends, and Rambling

[Lyssa]

post uupl random rumbling

- HO resurgence is slowly happening, playstyle is good but it feels so naked in terms of options. The main 2 takes you can have on it to me are either Sharpedo funnelling ( 1 2 3 4 ), built around the fact that sharpedo is an unfair mon when being up against anything but florges (and counter quagsire, apparently) although it somehow hasn't done shit in any of the replays i just posted, and something more theorical like physical offense, where entei and broken oras burns open up the room for the guys to just beat what they have infront of them. The reason why i called it naked is because you don't really have much room to wiggle or experiment with things: there aren't many mons worth funnelling on left and they all require strong support that comes from specific elements/moveslots you can't really take off. In my experience playing with the first kind of team I mentioned above, I never really felt like I was facing a straight up impossible MU due to the amount of tools I had at my disposal, but so many of them were really hard to play through because the teams so slow and often ends up having to take a decent but still unwelcomed trade. Froslass is easily the hardcarry and only reason why the playstyle is still even usable, not many things lead up well into it and it setups the game in a way where getting hazards off the field is impossible unless you're willing to sacrifice an important piece. And finally, I really don't think gyarados is good. Current meta is a near-utopic field for it with most of the things that truly annoy the mon, such as mandibuzz or previously much more utilized aerodactyl, trending off and being seen a lot less, but the mon still feels way too weak, and +1 speed doesn't make the cut. It obviously can steal a game or two but I don't find it particularly worth funnelling, we've seen it once this tour in what can only be described as A Game, so maybe it pops up again in the future.

- Healing wish is broken. For how the tier functions and the pace it plays at, healing wish allows you to take trades you'd otherwise be forbidden from, and boy does that feel unfair in a tier entirely built around proper trading and positioning. Surprisingly there haven't been many examples of this during the tour, everytime it would've come up the game ended before it could, but I'd say it's the one reason for the scarf celebi usagespike we're seeing considering it's the best body it's attached to.

- Speaking of celebi, onion girl is back even as a setup wincon. Few things have contributed to this such as mienshao, mandibuzz and aerodactyl(especially pursuit) falling off in usage which is by far the biggest help it could receive, but also most people moving away from previously utilised outs for it, such as signal beam empoleon, and multiple players having a balance-heavy metaread coming into the tournament contributed their part. All in all, this meta is MUCH friendlier to celebi than what we had.

- The tier is "solved" and what I mean by this is that if you're looking for what is the most consistent thing you can use, and I doubt this is really going to change in the future, you're most likely looking at toad/swamp+emp+bat+3(or better, hwish+2 for last). It's pretty much good into anything commonly utilised, with a couple of things such as heracross and drei being the exceptions, but it having neutral mus at worse into anything else while still holding tools to deal with the aforementioned 2. Instead of defaulting, the trend for multiple people this tour has been finding ways to disrupt said core. We've seen stuff like sableye rose up to the occasion, the mon's still pretty mid into most things but demolishes almost singlehandedly swampert structures. This has been a much more "out there" tournament, with people being more willing to take risks and try out new ways to beat what's been top, although said things are big times flawed into the rest.

- Protect on megas remains a social construct i'm sorry. ORAS speed mechanics absolutely suck but I've never found myself comfortable sacking a moveslot on what is arguably the most important slot on my team everytime, and things get so much better once that is utilised. I've never been a fan of standard absol for multiple reasons I've talked about before, however I am a fan of sucker punch absol recently with the way things are moving towards. Tried it and I never really felt like I was lacking opportunities to get the turn to mega off from, and while I understand especially on absol being able to do that from the start and getting more variance into your opponent's head is great, on top of being able to sack a turn for burn damage if you're utilizing wisp, sucker for lategame and occasionally pursuit are SO good. Other examples such as beedrill with things such as tspikes that can entire MUs around and so much more. At the end of the day, if you're using these mons you're taking a risk regardless with how flawed they are and the requirements you have to put up with to make them work in the first place, not fully committing to their strength is something I don't quite get at that point. Also the absol example sucked and i realised it halfway through writing this paragraph so instead of me calling that shit because it isn't rly take that part as me praising other absol sets i suppose.

random quickfire stuff because i'm too lazy to write much more:
- Houndoom is just good now, and I'd put it as solid top 20. It's by far one of the best hwish partner abuser and mienshao/dactyl trending off are a god sent, the mon feels amazing rn.
- Sylveon is so good for being a glass cannon it's kinda ridic, i've def misunderstood it in some capacity before but I absolutely love her now
- If there is a lesson to be taken from this tour is that any mon with wisp is viable and I hate that.
- Heat/mow tom are both great and should be used more
- Taunt bat is past it's prime and has a much awkward time sequencing nowadays compared to previously, but it's still the bat to consider while theorycrafting because superfang landing is inevitable. That mon stays clear #1
- Knock off empoleon solves every single problem I had with emp before (just knock that viri the mons gonna do 50 with zhb to bat next turn anyways) and the moment celebi and drei fully come back to life i'll hate life again.
- Gligar fucking sucks
- Roserade doesn't suck but it makes your team suck. if you know you know
- Doubalde wins everygame until it doesn't :fire:

ty once again to umbry for building/editing every single team i've used this season, some of them were incredibly fun. I'll be taking a long break from this tier because i'm truthfully bored of it and don't like when things get to that stale point and people start using dumbassery to beat what's good because i'm boring and lack creativity, but I think the metas in a solid place and it's easily one if not the best UU tier atm. bye

 

[London Beats]

Rambling post UUPL


Hey, long time not seen, after uupl I wanted to make a rumbling, since some voices already interacted Ima ride the wave with my own thoughts. I am happy to say that I am very glad to see so much diversity of opinions, since I think Oras UU is pretty much a metagame where a lot of ppl could argue that X pokemon is top 10, and others will argue that said mon is niche, lowkey bad.

I used this tour to basically explore more the tendencies I already claimed as mine in the builder and most of ‘em are effectively right, so I am quite happy to be able to say that. 4-1 isn’t the most flashy record, but after seeing that pak was slotted in dpp and the development of my team, spl and blah blah; I kinda lost the drive to keep building and playing for a while.

I gotta shoutouts Sylvi for basically making my building season much much fun, Garay Oak for the same and once again stopping me when I cooked too hard (unlike Sylvi), and last but not least Umbry, though we didn’t talk that much this time, I always ask you for tests and your thoughts about my teams, and I really appreciate it.

Being that said I shall start:

Mega aggron incident

Mega Aggron is still a difficult topic for me, I think Mega Aggron Florges structures are dipshit and if you honestly play them you are either unaware of the game you are playing or you don’t care enough. I saw the renaissance of it using my Krooko Suicune semistall, or at least my 6, but I honestly believe it is far from being spammable and the more I see the ranking I submitted I think I will stick to my guns. But why is that? Well as I said, Aggron needs, and I don’t think this is a debate anymore and the earliest we understand this the better, Crobat’s defog, or mandibuzz but the latter is in a very bad state; and that really really friggin sucks. I cannot explain with words how horrible its having to play Crobat as a defensive tool instead of a progress maker, it's just so alien to the mon itself that it shouldn’t be ever done; but if you wanna vary your repertoire of teams you have to commit with stuff that aren’t your cup of tea always, or as lyssa stated you will end up using Seismitoad and Empoleon in every team.

Though I wanna be the advocate of the devil, Albeit M-Aggron niche as a defensive pokemon is kinda difficult to justify, I think it is a great pokemon to use offensively, being that understood as a 3 attacks rocker. Curse sets are mid at best, and non rocks are worse than trash, but Rocks 3 attacks can maintain rocks in lotta mons, as well as, pressuring the main defoggers/spinner of the tier. You will need to cover its needs, and it is a pokemon that pretty much needs HW/Wish if you wanna play it.


Mientaishan And Its Downfall

I will be adamant on this, I think this pokemon sucks and does nothing better than virizion or heracross, regenerator is cool and w/e, but AV set is bad anyways and you are throwing a pokemon with av, which cannot take scalds because then it is a deadslot, and your best way to win with this mon, offensively, it’s praying for no doublade. Ye, using this is bad. The defensive issues are crazy in comparison, if you wanna get into scald, well you cannot unlike viri; you wanna come in scarf draco, if that's your best counterplay to scarf hydra you have a damn problem; you wanna take momentum out of Crobat, you gotta play your guts in that game and praying for no doublade or you will be playing with 5.

Though I really think this pokemon is not only past its prime but also in a downfall of a caliber this tier has never seen before, I think, I wanna believe, there are structures where this pokemon can shine. But I really am lost in this department, maybe I have to be very strict with where I fit it in, due to how much it invites sylveon and doublade to the field, maybe the backbone you need is bigger or maybe the choice sets aren’t that good after all and maybe LO is the way to play it. I honestly don’t know, I still wanna believe and I will prolly give it a last try, but anytime I give my best to build with this pokemon it ends up being a waste of time.

P.S. Also inviting Sylveon to the field is one the worst things that a pokemon can achieve in this tier, but I will speak more about it later.


Celebi a Clear Case of Fake Information

I think Celebi is bad, or at least against me most of the time. It doesn’t surprise me the rise in popularity of onions though. So many people use bad sets of Empoleon, overuse Seismitoad, and the living fetish with the water dog makes the tier the perfect field for Celebi. But I do believe this is not representative of the tier/meta state, Celebi keeps being a cheesy mon that sometimes will punish bad building tendencies. But maybe I am being too harsh with the onion, I don’t think she is trash at all, I think she is decent and a good way to punish those water balanced that reigns the tier. I just think it is kinda inconsistent, the rise of moltres makes its life quite more troublesome, and the onion kinda lacks attacks if it runs NP, and without NP it lacks power to shred teams; basically a toxic relationship. Though, maybe people have been too harsh with the poor Celebi in PRs, including myself, the truth is that the lil onion keeps rockin 'so Take it into consideration when you try to build your next disgusting fat oriented Suicune team with no wincons! I think I might actually like this.


1001 Nights of Cresselia

Yea, this is weird to word it out but Cresselia is not that bad. I am not kidding when I say that it solves a lot of holes, and the worst MU it’s Kroko, which is rising so be careful (special mention to the forgotten knight Scavalier). It's a nice check of nidoking, and special attackers in general, as well as a fighting resist, check of virizion; you need some heavy oriented team around her to make her work in balance, or use her in some cheesier teams as the one I used against Attribute.

Cresselia has a lot of utility in form of TW, lunar dance, trick even TR. All of this allows you to customize your cresselia at your will and exploiting its capacities as it fullest. I am not saying cresselia it's the new Empoleon of the tier, though I think Cress has been overlooked for too long and it has a nice niche.


Moltres a Story of Wings and Wisps

Disclaimer: If you don’t like strong opinions or cannot accept other views of the metagame, I encourage you to don't read this, you ain’t going to like it.

Moltres is GREAT, and we all should join the cult of the all mighty chicken. Jokes ‘sides people should explore more with moltres. I think the bird is still very unexplored, being me its main advocate, and the player base is still unaware of the correct sets, structures and sequences.

Moltres is the best fire type of the tier, and I will be adamant on this statement, there is no better options if you wanna orient a team around will-o-wisping, the only one that somehow keeps it pace it’s Rotom-Heat (second best fire type), and being completely honest the roles they both encapsulate are kinda different; but still comparable, I suppose.

We all know how obnoxious burn is, and I think I already expressed my opinions about such status in not only Blastoise post but also my PR, and moltres is the best Will-o-wisp spreader with Absol and Rotom. You can basically farm a lot of teams just by spamming wow, as I did against Chaitanya in my game, because unlike the popular opinion, Seismitoad + Florges are not wow checks if your team is not horrible. You cannot check wow defensively unless you run blastoise or some other structure I am not witnessing now, but I will not close the door just yet; and that makes Moltres such a menace, the bird is fast, tanky, great typing though handicapped by rocks, great movepool, and a lot of customization depending on your team.

Hence, we have a pokemon that basically melts teams away if rocks are not in the field, there are many ways of achieving such things it's been largely illustrated, and a defensive tool that checks fightings, having these mons to run coverage only for it (Virizion many times does not like this idea, though the decrease in popularity of rose may help ‘im), fairy types and a big list. Oh also, it is not pursuitable, if you don’t wanna gamble of course.

On another hand, Moltres is better if your oppo doesn’t prepare against it, there are ways to stop moltres such as: coverage, aggressive playing, rocks pressure with a mon that is not the f***** frog, etc. but the bird has been disrespected for too long.

PS. Don’t use defog moltres as your only way to deal with hazards, it ends poorly.


Roserade an Unfair Treatment

I get the roserade hate, many time you lack of moves with it and its makes of her a very difficult pokemon to argue building with; though I think it is being over exaggerated, I saw many teams completely shred by Powder roserade, people slacked too much and blindly used helmet Crobat (best set btw). Problems with roserade are deep and they basically can be encapsulated as the lack of movements she is able to carry, and the lack of defensiveness she has unless you run synthesis, and as I said this is a big commitment to do with a mon that already has a big 4 moves syndrome. But I think you can basically scout for tendencies and use whichever fits your scout, and team better; this might be a bold statement but I honestly believe it.

To heal or not to heal

Natural cure is kinda cheeks right now, I don’t think roserade should be used as an entry of Seismitoad, albeit I understand the necessity of a scald switchin in some roserade teams, and how tempting it is. I think Technician sets been underused, I have not seen a single LO roserade which arguably is the best set for Technician (but this is just my opinion), and I think this is a pity; because the decrease in popularity of pursuit really helps to it in some way, but I guess this is a reading that it is not shared.

Linking the topic of healing, I would like to make an especial mention to synthesis. Many people think that synthesis roserade is reliable or a good option, I mainly disagree with this statement, unless you have a really specific team. Roserade needs coverage, and I really don't think this pokemon can sacrifice a slot to gain synthesis. Roserade already needs, stabs, coverage, and either utility or + coverage; sacrificing this to win a unreliable synthesis people can take advantage of said turn. I don’t know it feels anti synergical, this is pokemon though, and nothing is written in stone and all it's subject to changes if the arguments are good; but on a more general basis this is my opinion.


HO

I hate HO, I find them dumb teams that basically are praying to get a good mu and ask you to brainlessly play taking over-risks because who cares. Though, after the vanting, HO state is great right now as always, some teams just cannot check it all reliably, especially if you try to cook a lot, so that makes HO great. There are some big flaws though, such as how glass cannon the teams are in the moment the opponent can bite back instead of looking how much fun you having , the necessity of Crobat in many teams (HO teams) it’s also understood like a lack of tools which doesn’t indicate anything good, imo; and last but not least, the incapacity these teams have to basically win against any Blastoise team/ scarf hydra spikes (unless u 6/0 with cm sylveon)/ and a short list of common mons right now such as metagross for example.

Lyssa already made a great post about it and I am mostly in agreement with what she wrote, so I don’t think I should speak a lot more about it, gj besti, give her some likes.

PS. I wanted to bring it too T.T.


Sylveon, The Pink Kaiser

Sylveon is great, she is a pokemon that basically forces you to run others which its very purpose is not getting 6/0ed by her shouts. CM sets in HO are hella difficult to handle for many teams, seen Pak last UUPL game and mine against attribute; but specs set, also the most common one, it’s as threatening and much more spammable. Tier been built around scald, but also sylveon shaped this metagame deeply, making pokemons such as Hydreigon that would be taken as S tiers with no debate pretty mid in terms of expectations, just because they invite sylveon to come in every day, and that might be game.

Checking sylveon defensively is not that simple if you don't wanna repeat the same mons over and over, and playing around it also requires that your team doesn’t let free windows to said mon because the result will end poorly. You can use my game against lyssa to take an example of. Using this as a link, I wanna emphasize something, pokemons that call sylveon to the field are difficult to justify. Mienshao sounds great on paper, yes, but if you are not leading the momentum every moment you will be in a very very shaky situation, I assure you this. Hydreigon dark pulses are SO threatening for sure I will win spamming ‘em, sylveon tanks it for ages and hits you back much harder, forcing Hydreigon to run u turn or TW in Scarf sets.


The Doomed Hunt and The Falcon Wings

My favourite topic to discuss with Lyssa and Umbry. Houndoom against Absol and their states in the metagame, as well as the sucky speed mechanics. Love it.

First things first Houndoom popularity should increase, that pokemon is great in many ways: nice utility before Mega evolving, basically threatening random wisps; Utility in form of Wisp or boosting moves such as NP and Flame charge; very very difficult to handle defensively I challenge you to run fire blast calcs at switchin, it ain’t funny at all playing defensively against this dog; very good speed, arguably almost the perfect one; and also coverage, literally the only downside is how useless his ability is after mega.

And then we have our Bouncy Griffith (Absol for who doesn’t get the Berserk reference), Absol, is good and this is not big news, knock off, wisp, magic bounce etc. we are all familiarized with what Absol does, the debate here is much more subtle, and it is the necessity to bring protect. Absol, unlike Houndoom, doesn't have an easy mega, he is basically useless in his regular form, so that's why people will grant us that protect is needed, and I personally believe this is true. Though I think there are ways for experimentation, and structures you may not need to protect and you can run pursuit, sucker, or whatever; I don’t think protect is that bad. The point is, Absol doesn’t need more than knock off and wisp to success, or at least that is my opinion, and protect grants you not only the mega but also a scouting/burnstalling tool. I personally believe this is enough, but I can understand some people's urge to run other stuff.


These two will probably be eternal rivals because of their speed and debate, and I personally like it. I find it brilliant that such a living debate happens in a tier that is quite old.


Toxicroak, The Gem Of The Swamp

Toxicroak is very very underrated, too many people don't play earth power in Seismitoad and too many people brainlessly click scald, and that makes Toxicroak great. Look at it this way, you have a fighting pokemon that unironically wins momentum every time it's in the field and pressures its walls with rocks, handy speed tier (heracross), and a variety of sets.

Sd LO Toxicroak is the real deal. It's really menacing with the correct set up, and the whole tale we are all bored reading. Though the reason why the Frog it’s so good its the ability to switchin in so many defensive pokemons and gain momentum out of it at worst, best case scenario you will just sd and probably get a kill anytime you do so.

Toxicroak is almost the only pokemon that can enter without any punishment to Empoleon, if it doesn’t run IB (tendency which’s been clearly stated, making the Celebi rise possible as we seen in previous paragraphs). Turn you can just use to click any move and be happy with your almost brainlessly progress made, specially if rocks are in the field. Its ability its good but it also is it’s typing, being able to tank zen less virizion and heracross trading HP for their lives, these combined with the ability of healing with any scald thrown makes this mon very very consistent in long term games being my favorite fighting type on those.

I have already spoke about its variety of sets, being able to run multiple items, but I would like to make mention to its movepool which is large, you can be greedy and use no priority, you can have priority and using sucker, you can use t punch for aero, jelli, crobat, Ice punch for the same but being able to kill Gligar, stone edge it's also very good for Moltres and specially Crobat

It’s also handy knowing that Toxicroak is one of the few mons able to enter in the field when Suicune is preparing for its gaming since it cannot be ppstalled by it; knocking it, forcing its roar, and then having fun with the +4 sd you will have against a defensive team not prepared for your gunk shoot (Disclaimer, no defensive team is prepared for this).

Scarf Toxicroak it's also a mon I like to play when I want some speed control, its known its very situational but though it is not heracross, it kinda works similarly being a pokemon that will annoy anything with knocks, speedy gunk shoot, and being a set able to pressure Crobat immediately, and if you can do this you pretty much won the game especially against the defog’s set.


Doublade My Glory and My Shame

Doublade is great, glorious, top steel type even, a wincon by itself and threatening in every spot of the game having the ability of shredding teams by itself with just one sd; what is a very simple task thanks to its bulk being able to get 2 sds many times into a big variety of mons. But it never wins, many times you will use your doublade and find in situations where though you got your sd you cannot win, and this is fine, metagame has been shaped around this pokemon; but it serves him poorly, I personally believe Doublade gotta be used as a lategame tool you can use when you have the correct position, but I think that would be kinda restricting, the truth is doublade doesn’t need sd to win games. I am not saying to not run sd, don’t get me wrong, I am saying that you don’t need to click it and many times just clicking a move or choosing the correct coverage will be better.

Doublade High attack stat is already threatening and many times the pressure this pokemon exerts into the opponent without joining the field is already enough, having them to play in accordance in order to not get sweeped by the incoming SD Sneak sequence. The defensive capacities of doublade cannot be overlooked either, they are just great. It's one of the most difficult to get rid of pokemons in the tier, if we are talking by physical hits, and the perfect panic button when you see something that is going to be menacing and you wanna trade at worst.

I think the main problem of that great wincon that never wins syndrome is reflected when Doublade has to do many things in the team he is in, which is normal, and it doesn’t mean the team is bad; this is just a consequence of the (type of) teams the swords can be part of, which are a lot. Hence, I would also like to speak about the large amount of structures Doublade fits in: Moltres balanced, thanks to flame body and wow you can basically burn your checks, so you make ‘em yours set up fodder; HW balanced and offense, this way you can basically trade with the threatening pokemon or with your check depending of the situation and revive the swords again, making that a hell of a problem for the opponent, who has to deal with doublade twice; HO, I am not a big fan of this due to what I already talked about, though doublade’s defensive capacities are great, the fact that it has to be the piece that have to withstand any counterpunch made by the opponent is too overwhelming and serves it poorly as an offensive weapon. Though sacrifices must be done I suppose, and the truth is that it really fits in this structure.


The Assesination Of Mega Aero by The Not So Coward Mega Sceptile

Sceptile is slowly but surely raising as one of the offense mainstay of this tier, its speed makes of it a real deal, especially with the downfall of Aerodactyl, but the movepool cannot be overlooked either, having one of the most threatening combinations against any team that doesn’t have a Florges.

Sceptile been widened used timid, but people started to use modest Sceptile as a response for the greedy not max speed bats that nowadays flourish, and the under usage of Aero, making of the big fella a hell of a balanced breaking tool, being able to completely demolish teams with very little counterplay and having GREAT rolls against Empoleon and Florges. As always, using Sceptile needs some finesse and it cannot be put in any team due to its weakness to scald though its typing. But I honestly believe Sceptyle is slowly rising as one, if not the best, of the best offensive megas of the tier, but time will tell.


Krookodile Dundee

Krookodile is experiencing a renaissance again, though its defensive sets are kinda outclassed by other pokemons such as Rhyperior, it’s must be said that offensive krooko is a real problem for many teams. Banded is very threatening if you play it correctly and place yourself in a good position to knock off the pokemon you must knock and use it as a late game sweeper, thanks to its handy speed, faster than heracross its great. Scarf it's also a very useful tool for many teams, but I think the real focus should be put in Band.

Band set, unlike other sets, is not a free entry for virizion thanks to the damage of earthquake and the low defenses of the green knight, this makes Kroko a hell of a menace once you can pressure. When you force a double of Kroko into doublade and you have a free hit you pretty much can choose what pokemon is dying if rocks are correctly settled. Though, band Kroko has some problems, some people have used my Stall with Band Kroko as a way to make progress, which is fair, but the Dile enjoys offense/balanced much more than stall/fat structures, rocks are very important for the Band set, or at least to an extent where you are able to create an scenario you can basically sweep with earthquakes.

Another set that’s been forgotten is SR Kroko, and I understand why. The multiple Seismitoad gaming and the incapacity to pressure reliably Crobat, unless you run RH where you are mitigating your sturdiness by a lot, makes its niche very difficult to justify. Though, I think it’s been over hated, there are ways to make it work such as: Seismitoads lures and Florges wish. Knock off is broken, and Kroko is great at knocking stuff, hence by following that we cannot say that kroko’s niche is poorly exploitable.

Intimidate also makes of the crocodile a very handy pokemon to enter to some stuff or just to pivot, same shit with his SR resistance makin him able to switchin with almost no punishment, and if you are skilled enough you can win an extra +6% anytime you place yourself in a good position. I think the problem of this set it’s maybe the resilience of using it on teams that lack of that longevity we talked so much about (Blastoise post if you wanna know more about it), this set is no good as a rocker that trade once and so be it, at least not now, this set is good if the pokemon can knock something, place rocks, and gain momentum back out of its entries.



Thank you all for reading this post, it was really fun to write it, and to comment the different stuff that are going on in this brilliant metagame with my friends. Have a nice day.

S/os again to Sylvi umbry Lyssa Garay oak dingbat talking with y'all about the tier gimme life.

 

[Pak]

Post UUPL Things​

Didn't end up playing my ORAS tiebreak game for semis, and we're now out of the tour. I went 3-1 in ORAS specifically and our team did well overall, but still this tier in particular was pretty frustrating for me. The reason I generally always prefer team tours over individual tours is how much bo1s spur innovation when you're prepping 1 team for a specific opponent. I'll pretty much always slip and fall into some new metagame ideas with more and more people building and there being more general developments to work off of. I felt like I had decent reads on what was going on the tier, but ultimately I was solidly annoyed with how little I actually pushed the boundaries in the builder.

As many know, I've been big into Master Duel since its release a couple years ago, but some formats are much better than others. Currently, there's a deck called Snake Eyes which is way better than everything else right now, and the mirror matchups between Snake Eyes are pretty notoriously awful. It's a bit strong of a comparison, but building this tour felt vaguely similar. What I mean by this is that Bat/Emp/Toad kind of teams feel much better than everything else into the majority of the metagame. There are other options of course, but they always felt worse / less consistent overall. A big part of my style is trying to maximize the amount of playable matchups, and that would constantly lead me back to roughly the same place in the builder. The mirror matchups between Emp/Bat/Toad aren't nearly as bad as Snake Eyes, but there are a multitude of tech moves that can go a long way in swinging the matchup one way or the other. Others may disagree with these sentiments and that's fine. In the end I think I'm just in a bored place with the tier considering how much of it I've played in the last however many years. It's still good and rewards the better player a lot of the time, but it may just not be for me for a while.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

• Crobat is #1 in the tier right now and it isn't remotely close. It is the best glue mon by a ton and it offers a real progress maker with the rising popularity of Super Fang too. Just offers so much between its speed, resistances, general defensive utility (especially vs Fighters), and splashability​
• Wisp is still broken and anything that learns it is probably decently viable, bonus points to Sigilyph for also being immune to Wisp (speed tier too shitty for me to use tho)​
• Maintaining that HO is still really good but healthy. It isn't a herculean task to cover it and generally comes will come down to the plays themselves unless Shark or whatever has an insane mu​
• Virizion is still super splashable but has had a decent drop off imo. Just comes with the insane Bat spam going on and it having to get more turns right than ever.​
• Heracross is in such a weird spot, also due to the Bat spam. Even though keeping rocks isn't hard, if you're going to make meaningful progress vs Bat then you kinda have to have Edge on your moveset. I still dont like SD Edge anymore because you have no midground move at all vs Seismitoad or whatever. I've been liking 4 atk, either AV or just lefties, for a while but obv you miss SD sometimes vs Florg teams and whatever else​
• Aero is washed (compared to the old days). I talked about why I don't think its the best mon anymore a while back, but its only been exacerbated more since then. This is prob the lowest usage its ever had by a wide margin. You would think with all the Bats, this thing would be at its best, but there's a reason Bat is the pick over it the vast majority of the time. Checking the fighters is so huge along with its multitude of other super consistent roles. A lot of the time Aero teams are super loose into the mons Bat checks or need to be super clunky to compensate defensively. Even in the Bat matchups, its eating helmet to click Pursuit and will always have some of the same problems like thudding into its 1-2 hard checks on any good team.​
• Non Edge Mega Pert not being able to effectively deal with helmet Bat is so fucking funny/sad​
• Healing Wish broken​
• Bulky Rotom H with Overheat/Volt/Wisp/HP Grass or Split is so handsome. Lowkey beats everything one on one and is a good way to abuse Bat. Very weird to fit but I'm a big fan and glad I got to use it.​
• Now I said Aero is washed, but Mandibuzz is like actually washed. Very sad for me specifically given my history with the mon, but good gravy its so hard to get away with at the moment. I tried to use non Defog Toxic when I did use it, but even then it was just blanked by Refresh Toad and didn't accomplish much of anything. If it could actually beat the Fighters without giving up its other defensive utility itd be much better. Really bad as a remover rn and its team styles have never felt worse. Viriz/Hera rising have been close to a death sentence for Slowking Mandibuzz cores.​
• Shao is in a level of washed between Aero and Mandibuzz. It's still a good mon in theory and will always do the same kinda shit, but its role has never really felt less essential. It's hard to tack this thing onto any team right now and feel like you're optimal into the metagame relative to other mon options that fill similar roles.​
• Edit: holy moly I can't fit Roserade on anything - that man is so bad defensively. Theoretically powder is good again with all the helmet bats.​
• Snorlax is probably good - was thinking about it in tiebreak but didnt want to risk thudding into Jellicent. Just going to copy/paste something I said to Pearl​

curselax

This isn't a quit post bc those aren't real but idt I'm going to play in UU team tours for a while. I first got drafted in UUPL 8 years ago and my first real breakout tour in ORAS was 7 years ago. Its been a lot of fun, but I just don't care as much or get as much excitement over it as I used to. Overall it makes me incredibly happy with how well-received the tier is now, especially compared to when it was universally hated. I never gave up on it and the fact that there are way more people actively building/care about it means a lot to me.