What's Missing From OU?

Introduction

Many of us have imagined about how there are certain missing roles from OU; roles that would make for a more versatile and enjoyable metagame. Who hasn't noticed how OU lacks non-Stealth Rock-weak Fire-types with reliable recovery or defensive Pokémon able to hold their own against stallbreakers? That's what this article is for, to discuss some of those roles, and why they would make for positive additions to the OU metagame. Let's get started:

Fast Grass-type

Water, Electric, and Ground are some of the best offensive types in OU, which makes Pokémon such as Landorus, Thundurus, Keldeo, Mega Gyarados, and Azumarill incredibly hard to switch into, especially without using slow and defensive Pokémon. The fastest viable offensive Grass-type we have in OU is Mega Venusaur, with a mediocre base Speed of 80. A fast and decently bulky Grass-type (with the bulk of Terrakion for example) would be able to check all of those Pokémon by being able to switch into their STAB moves, outspeed them, and threaten with a OHKO. Some types that a fast Grass-type could be paired to be even more effective at switching into the aforementioned Pokémon would be Ghost, in order to resist Secret Sword and have an alternative STAB with great neutral coverage to hit Grass-type resistances, and Fairy, to resist Secret Sword and be immune to Garchomp's Dragon STAB moves and cover many Grass-type resistances (Dragon-types, Mega Heracross, Breloom, and Mandibuzz). Furthermore, a fast Grass-type would appreciate Natural Cure and Thick Fat as abilities, as it would want to switch into many status users and Thick Fat makes checking Pokémon such as Thundurus and Mega Manectric easier.

Bulky Electric-type

Electric is a great typing defensively in OU because of its resistance to the very important Flying and Electric attacks and only one weakness in Ground moves. Unfortunately, the only good bulky Electric-types in OU are Rotom-W and Zapdos, both of which lack an Electric resistance and thus cannot deal with Electric-types, especially Thundurus, one of the best offensive Pokémon in OU, while Zapdos is also weak to Stealth Rock, so it's not hard to wear down. For these reasons, a bulky Electric-type (once again, let's say with the bulk of Terrakion) with a secondary STAB type to threaten Thundurus would be a great addition to OU. A good additional type for such a Pokémon would be Poison, which resists Thundurus's stronger coverage move, Focus Blast, and is a great defensive typing in general. Such a Pokémon would be able to deal with Thundurus, Azumarill, Clefable, Mega Pinsir (without Earthquake), Talonflame, and Tornadus, amongst others, while being immune to Toxic and paralysis and having a neutral STAB move to hit Electric-types with. Great coverage moves for a bulky Electric-type would be Ice Beam, to deal with Thundurus, Grass-, Dragon-, and Ground-types, and Flamethrower, which deals with Ferrothorn, a common roadblock to Electric-types.

Bulky Poison-type

The Poison typing got much more useful in X and Y than it used to be, as it now resists Fairy moves and can threaten omnipresent Pokémon such as Azumarill and Clefable. Not only this, but a Poison-type Pokémon would be able to check other threatening offensive Pokémon such as Mega Heracross and Terrakion, threats that the only two Poison-types of OU, Gengar and Mega Venusaur, can't handle because they are either too frail to switch into them or are slower and 2HKOed by their STAB moves. A good Poison-type Pokémon would preferably be physically based to be able to threaten Clefable regardless of Calm Mind boosts and deal more damage to Assault Vest Azumarill. It would also appreciate either being faster than Terrakion and Mega Heracross in order to check them at least once, having a typing that allows it to wall Terrakion's STAB moves, or having the physical bulk to take two Stone Edges from Terrakion and Rock Blast from Mega Heracross. In addition, such a Pokémon would like to have a decent secondary offensive STAB type to threaten the Pokémon it checks, such as Ground, Water, or Dragon, and have a STAB type with good offensive prowess in general.

Offensive Heal Bell / Aromatherapy user

While OU is not lacking in the cleric department, with very viable Pokémon such as Chansey, Clefable, and even Celebi available, it lacks a Pokémon that can take a role similar to Xerneas's offensive Aromatherapy set, which combines great bulk and offensive prowess to occasionally cure status from its teammates. Such a Pokémon would need to be able to switch into and threaten out common status users, such as Mew, Amoonguss, Slowbro, Heatran, and Rotom-W. A specially based attacker with a Dark / Grass, Dark / Fighting, or Dragon / Ghost typing would be great for this job, with decent coverage between its STAB types, meaning it would have room for Heal Bell/Aromatherapy, and a decent enough typing to switch into many of those Pokémon. Additionally, it would need to have a tankish stat spread similar to Heatran and Mega Venusaur in order to be able to take advantage of its typing defensively, outspeed most status spreaders with some Speed investment, and be powerful enough to force many switches.

Sturdy Rock-type With Reliable Recovery

Pokémon such as Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Talonflame, and Mega Pinsir are amongst the hardest hitting offensive threats in OU to deal with, with many of their checks and counters either lacking recovery or being prone to burns, which all of those Pokémon bar Mega Pinsir often carry. A Rock-type able to switch into those Pokémon somewhat easily, not mind burns, and be able to last throughout the game would be a very helpful addition in OU. Some typings that such a Pokémon could have are Rock / Poison, Rock / Flying, and Rock / Fairy, and some good abilities for it would be Levitate, to avoid Mega Pinsir's and Mega Charizard X's Earthquake, Intimidate, to make checking them easier, and Solid Rock, to mitigate the damage their super effective moves can do. Give to this Pokémon decent physical bulk, similar to Terrakion's for example, a specially offensive bias to not mind burns, reliable recovery, and a decently strong special Rock move, such as Power Gem or Diamond Storm, and you have a potentially great OU Pokémon.

Fast Fairy-type

A really fast Fairy-type would be a great asset in OU, being able to revenge kill Keldeo, Terrakion, Latios, Latias, Garchomp, Mega Gyarados, and Mega Medicham with a single move, as well as being a great offensive check to all of those Pokémon be being able to switch into their Dragon and Fighting attacks. Mega Gardevoir is the closest thing OU has to a fast Fairy-type but unfortunately it has shitty physical bulk and can't outspeed most offensive Dragon- and Fighting-types, leaving it unable to switch into them except for Latios and Latias. Some secondary typings that would pair nicely with Fairy are Ground, Grass, and Dragon, allowing this Pokémon to take moves such as Stone Edge, Secret Sword, Waterfall, and Hydro Pump, while also covering many Fairy-resistances in Ground and Dragon's case. Of course such a Pokémon would need to have only decent Special Attack, similarly to Greninja and Starmie for example, and limited coverage, in order to not be able to plow through teams very easily. This is considering considering Fairy is one of the best offensive typings in OU, with most Fire-types being Stealth Rock weak and only three Poison-types, out of which Gengar can't even tank resisted hits, leaving only Steel-types as reliable answers that need no support, and even they can have troubles if the Fairy-type is partnered with Magnezone.

Fast Defensive Pokémon

With Pokémon such as Mega Heracross, Mew, and specially defensive Gliscor getting more common and all of them greatly threatening defensive teams, those teams are sorely in need of fast defensive Pokémon to have room for more aggressive play and avoid being passive. Being able to move before those threats can mean the difference between losing and winning a game, as Taunt shuts down the recovery and status moves of walls and Mega Heracross can OHKO the majority of defensive teams after a Swords Dance. A fast defensive Pokémon would need to have 95 or more base Speed in order to be able to outspeed those threats without too much Speed investment and have room for investment in defensive stats. It would also need to be able to threaten those three Pokémon in one way or another. Dark, Ghost, Water, and Flying would be good primary typings to pressure Mew, Mega Heracross, and Gliscor offensively, and being specially based would mean that Will-O-Wisp is not a big concern. Then, this Pokémon would need to not care much about at least two of Knock Off, Toxic, and Earthquake, so that it can switch somewhat reliably into Mew and Gliscor. A Poison typing, Poison Heal, Immunity, Magic Bounce, or Magic Guard would all be great ways to fill the above criteria. Give it some reliable recovery, a way to deal with Taunt (Taunt, Oblivious, Aroma Veil, Magic Guard), and a decent Special Attack stat, and you have yourself a solid defensive Pokémon that deals with many problems of stall teams and is not a momentum killer.

Defensive Dragon-type

We all know what a great defensive typing Dragon is, as despite having three relatively common weaknesses, two of them are only seen on Pokémon of the same type, making them easy to spot (Dragon and Fairy), leaving only Ice moves as their widespread weakness. Defensive Dragon-types are able to deal with Pokémon such as Thundurus, Mega Charizard Y, Keldeo, Heatran, and Rotom-W, all Pokémon with few reliable counters. However, all the defensive Dragon-types of OU, namely Mega Charizard X, Dragonite, Latias, and Goodra, have severe drawbacks, such as a Stealth Rock weakness, a Pursuit weakness, and a lack of reliable recovery respectively, making them somewhat unreliable at handling the threats you want them to. A defensive Dragon-type with reliable recovery and a secondary STAB type to help it handle some of the Pokémon it checks would be a very welcome addition in OU, helping to handle many of the special juggernauts that lurk in OU. A few useful secondary typings for a defensive Dragon-type would be Fairy, Poison, and Fighting. Fairy would help against Keldeo's Secret Sword and make the Pokémon immune to Latios and Latias's main STAB moves, Poison would also help against Keldeo's Secret Sword while also removing the Fairy weakness, and Fighting would give to the Pokémon perfect neutral coverage outside of Fairy-types as well as a way to deal with Heatran. As for abilities, Thick Fat and Filter would be some of the best for a defensive Dragon-type, mitigating the Ice weakness and letting it check Pokémon such as Greninja, Starmie, and Mega Gyarados more reliably.

Balanced Ghost-type

Ghost is a great offensive STAB type and provides a useful immunity to Fighting, so even frail offensive Pokémon can find switch-in chances. Ghost is also a great defensive typing, with its only relevant weakness being Dark, as Gengar wouldn't want to switch into a Ghost-type obviously. A defensive Ghost-type would have a good matchup against pretty dangerous Pokémon, such as Mega Medicham, Mega Heracross, Terrakion, and Breloom. Unfortunately, the only relevant Ghost-types in OU are Gengar and Sableye, of which the first has little defensive use and the latter little offensive use when it comes to taking advantage of it Ghost STAB moves. Therefore, a Ghost-type with both offensive and defensive merits would be a refreshing sight in OU, and it would have respectable offensive prowess, and the ability to deal with many common threats. Good secondary typings for a balanced Ghost-type would be Ground, Fighting, and Steel. All of those types would make switching into Terrakion and Mega Heracross easier, as well as provide perfect (in the case of Fighting) or almost perfect neutral coverage in tandem with Ghost moves. The Fighting typing would also remove the bothersome Pursuit weakness. Just imagine a non-broken Aegislash in OU showcasing both the offensive and defensive merits of the Ghost typing.

Sticky Web User

We all have thought about how OU would have been if a Pokémon that is not used solely because of Sticky Web got it. Whether a metagame with such a Pokémon would be better or worse is a big debate, but we can all agree it would be drastically different, and what more reason do we need to theorymon a bit? Rather than talking about what tools a good Sticky Web user would need, which is not an interesting subject as almost every single OU Pokémon would make for a great Sticky Web user, let's examine what the metagame with an effective Sticky Web user could look like. First of all, priority would be even more important than it is now, being one of the few ways to deal with fast sweepers when Sticky Web is on your side of the field, with the other two being sturdy walls and non-grounded Choice Scarf users, such as Landorus-T and Latios. We would also see a huge influx of powerful but slow or moderately fast wallbreakers, such as Mega Heracross, Diggersby, Swords Dance Mega Charizard X, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Medicham, as Sticky Web mitigates one of the best ways to deal with them, revenge killing. Bisharp would also become even more common, as it can both take advantage of Sticky Web with Defiant and revenge kill a ton of faster Pokémon with +2 Sucker Punch, making it one of the best revenge killers to use against Sticky Web teams. Moving on, Latios and Latias would become even more metagame-defining threats, as they are the fastest Pokémon not affected by Sticky Web that can also remove it, outside of Mega Aerodactyl, making them one of the best answers against Sticky Web teams. Entire games could be decided on whether Latios / Latias manage to remove Sticky Web, which will probably mean a rise in Pursuit users to remove them as well. Finally, Sand Rush Excadrill would remain as one of the best revenge killers available, as even after Sticky Web, it is able to outspeed most Speed-boosting threats, especially if using a Jolly nature.

Trace User

Trace is such a unique and versatile ability that has so many defensive applications, yet no Pokémon with this ability is viable in OU, outside of Porygon2, which is mostly used on Trick Room teams with Analytic, and is a gimmick Pokémon in general. This ability would allow a Grass / Poison Pokémon to Leech Seed Heatran to death, a Pokémon with mediocre physical bulk to check Landorus-T and Gyarados, a physically bulky Pokémon that resists Ground to check Mamoswine, a Pokémon that checks Thundurus to take advantage of Prankster, a Pokémon with mediocre Attack that can check Azumarill and Mega Medicham to take advantage of their abilities, and any defensive Pokémon to switch into Pokémon such as Chansey, Starmie, and Celebi without fear of status. Some typings that would fit well on a defensive Trace user are Grass / Poison, Grass / Steel, Ground / Bug, and Electric / Flying. Grass / Poison and Grass / Steel would be able to wall Heatran and slowly wear it down with Leech Seed; check Thundurus and be extremely annoying with Prankster Leech Seed and other status moves that most Grass-types carry, such as Stun Spore and Sleep Powder; check Azumarill and take advantage of its Huge Power; check Landorus-T and Gyarados even better thanks to Intimidate; and deal with Mamoswine, assuming good physical bulk. Ground / Bug also switches in easily against Heatran and can threaten with an OHKO, walls Landorus-T easily thanks to Intimidate, checks Mega Medicham if it has good physical bulk and can take advantage of its Pure Power, and can even switch into Thundurus and steal Prankster, depending on whether it has a good support movepool and special bulk (even Prankster Recover spam to stall out Thundurus to death with Life Orb damage could work). Finally, a physically attacking Electric / Flying Pokémon does most things as other typings, but has the added benefit of having a STAB type to threaten regular Gyarados and in general has the best offensive STAB type combo, making it a great way to punish Azumarill and Mega Medicham by stealing their abilities.

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