General Discussion

[Chieliee]

Ponyta really shines in this metagame, imo. With Flame Body, it can be a major fuck you to Sneasel, Meditite, Honedge, etc. There's a surprising lack of fire resists, and an abundance of fire weaks (honedge, sneasel, yanma, tangela)

it also walls swirlix.
Im running Flare Blitz/Flame Charge/Will-o-Wisp/Wild Charge@eviolite. fuk morning sun

my first ladder game with it (vs a meh opponent but w/e)

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanklcbeta-58433864

i knew i won wonce gligar went down because it was literally the only thing that can stop pony

leading with sneasel in that match was actually a misclick but w/e it turned out well

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/pokebanklcbeta-58464966

#ponypower

 

[Pen Ink]

Swirlix @ Berry Juice
Ability: Unburden
Level: 5
EVs: 204 Spd / 204 SAtk / 100 SDef
Modest Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Flamethrower

offensive swirlex wrecks shit. bulky enough to survive weaker hits like priority and ohko back with that amazing movepool.

offensive tangela is really cool as well. 116 def / 196 satk / 196 spe is very nice.

 

[tcr]

Im really interested as to how Arauma is in this lc meta :] For those who dont know, its the ice/rock forgotten brother of tyrantum. It has better everything than snover(who was excellent 5th gen) and even gets a better movepool (psychic/thunderbolt/ice beam/ etc etc). Even energy ball IIRC so it can hit chinchou. Its fighting weakness is negligible with spritzee/missy on every team (or at least they SHOULD be). Its ground is easily avoided with a good flying type, and steel is a trade off, there arent many steel types in lc anyway (bronzor, honedge, beldum, magnemite...). I just think its got a good future (i hope it does!)

 

[Pen Ink]

Froakie @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
Level: 5
EVs: 188 Spd / 184 SAtk / 4 SDef / 108 Def
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pumpn
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Taunt

froakie is pretty cool. hits 17 speed and 15 satk but hits really hard with a stab 120 move + lo. also get stab on ice beam and hp grass which is really cool. taunt is really useful and froakie doesn't honestly need a fourth move for coverage (although quick attack / toxic spikes / scald / u-turn / sub are decent options). would be better if it had 18 or 19 speed but 17 is still fantastic.

 

[Shouting]

Quick Rant on my few games of LC:

Growlithe: Wow, this thing is sooooo good for me right now. Like Chieliee said, Fire a really solid type right now. With Intimidate, Growlithe can check Sneasel
, Meditite that lack High Jump Kick, Yamna that lack HP Ground, most Tanglea, Snubbull, Swirlix lacking Surf, and Spirtzee and more. It can also burn Gilgar, the most common switch-in to it.

Gilgar: Honestly, what the HECK do people do against this thing. The best thing I could come up with is Archen, but it really can't do anything back without Hiiden Power Ice, and even with Hidden Power Ice (yes that's how desperate I am) it only does about 50% to eviolite ones, and it does a pathetic 25% when it roosts. So annoying. I also thought of Sturdy Berry Juice Magnemite, as most Gilgar will switch in on a Volt Switch, Earthquake / Swords Dance / Stealth Rock and you could just hit it with Hidden Power Ice. It obviously isn't reliable though. Does Bronzor do a good job?

Berry Juice: This is so dumb / annoying on anything with Sturdy or anything with Recycle.

Skiddo: Is pretty good. It's bulky, has some good power and speed, and a great movepool with recovery. Sap Sipper takes priority over the immunity to powder moves (at least on PS!) so it isn't a total waste.

Snubbull: I haven't used it, but I've seen it quite a few times and it's kind of underwhelming. It's really slow, but it does have decent coverage and is a good tank, but the nail in the coffin (for me) is that it has no recovery.

Misdreavus: I haven't seen even ONE during any of my games, and I love it. Probably because Sneasel is running around and people are trying out all the new stuff. What's odd is that I really haven't seen Vulpix either, I wonder if it is because of the weather nerf.

 

[Pen Ink]

Tyrunt @ Berry Juice
Ability: Strong Jaw
Level: 5
EVs: 204 Atk / 236 SDef / 68 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Stealth Rock

bulky offensive sr setter. i run ice fang over stone edge for gligar switch ins which happen all the time. it actually has pretty good defensive bulk and hits hard. might be the only useful dragon type in lc. it's a pretty cool gligar lure tho u.u

 

[Phemeto]

Tyrunt @ Berry Juice
Ability: Strong Jaw
Level: 5
EVs: 204 Atk / 236 SDef / 68 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Stealth Rock

bulky offensive sr setter. i run ice fang over stone edge for gligar switch ins which happen all the time. it actually has pretty good defensive bulk and hits hard. might be the only useful dragon type in lc. it's a pretty cool gligar lure tho u.u

Is Tyrunt strong enough to OHKO gligar with ice fang?

 

[Pen Ink]

Is Tyrunt strong enough to OHKO gligar with ice fang?

offensive gligars dont stand a chance, neutral nature max def are ohko'd with sr and 6.25% chance without sr.

unless you're running like max hp max def gligar is going to take a ton of damage.

 

[Chieliee]

I'm really surprised at how balanced this metagame is. Sneasel is 'on the verge of being broken' but so was Murkrow last generation, and we kept that too. There are some huge offensive threats like Swirlix, the aforementioned Sneasel, and Yanma but each have their counters/checks (skrelp, Growlithe, Sneasel).

This is probably a bit of a premature statement, and we'll have to see how the metagame develops and new threats are created, but i'd be perfectly fine if we were to keep this meta. I'm really enjoying it.

 

[Ray Jay]

Parting Shot Pancham + Life Orb Sneasel is the only thing you need on your team

 

[Swan Songs]

Parting Shot Pancham + Life Orb Sneasel is the only thing you need on your team

Eh. I don't see how this would really help you a lot. Sneasel doesn't sweep much early game and I don't see Pancham doing much other than allowing Sneasel in for free, which saccing something would do anyways. Plus Pancham would get raped by Gligar.

Personally I feel that what keeps the majorly powerful things in check is the other really powerful things.
Gligar checks Meditite really well, Sneasel checks Gligar and Yanma, Meditite revenges Sneasel nicely with Bullet punch etc.
I think if one thing goes multiple things have to go or things will be really unbalanced, or scarf Snover will be EVERYWHERE to check/maybe counter Gligar and Yanma.

Also I think that Swirlix would wreck everything without Meditite to revenge kill it.

 

[spuds4ever]

I'll just post some thoughts from the games I've had and what I've use.

Tyrunt: I was a bit dissapointed at how decidedly average this guy was. Perhaps it was because i was running a choice scarf set but to be honest, i can't see a set up sweeping set working with all the fighting types fairies and especially sneasel running around. I think the main issue is the lack of outrage and headsmash without which it just can't do enough to get a sweep rolling. Still a pretty good Mon and i will probably still keep using it as it looks so badass. Can't comment on its murkrow beating ability as i haven't bumped into a single one yet :/.

honedge: this guy is really decent as I'm sure a lot of people could already tell you, it's a sweeper that works well as a team player, keeping meditite in line and checking fairies. Not outstanding as relying on a still relatively weak shadow sneak after a boost isn't too good and the knock off weakness is really a blow.

Fletching: this is definitely the Mon I've been most impressed with. Priority acrobatics is just really useful and makes it really dangerous late game as well as a formidable revenge killer. On top of this, Swords dance and overheat mean it is fully capable of sweeping and priority tailwind can be really clutch late game, but again, sneasel with ice shard is an issue. Though if you combine the two, you get a really neat (albeit SR weak) revenge killing core that will ensure you don't get swept by a lot of threats. I would highly reccomend using it.

As for stuff that is older or i haven't been using myself, sneasel seems like the best Mon in the tier atm, or certainly the most threatening, bulky fire types are a thing now because of it but yeah, it was banned last gen and that was without near perfect STAB coverage and steroids knock off. Meditite seems very good as well again to no surprise but seems easier to deal with with gligar and honedge around. Misdreavus has been surprisingly mediocre when I've faced it. I think shadow ball just isn't strong enough in a tier where sneasel, tite, and gligar reign supreme. Gligar is also very good but so long as sneasel is here, i can't see it going out of control (scarfed pokemon with ice coverage help a lot too). Scraggy has been doing surprisingly well in a tier with fairies and gligar, intimidate makes it a pretty nice sneasel check.

So to summarize that wall of text, it's a very different metagame from last gen and a lot more fast paced but I'm pleasantly surprised at how many viable mons there still are out there. Also, at the guy above me, swirlix isn't that hard to deal with, bulky fire types are your friend and it's not too hard to play around it without activating its berry juice.

 

[Chieliee]

porygon @ Evio
tri attack
psych up
recover
shadow ball/twave/psychic

munchlax @BJ
recycle
whirlwind
body slam
poison jab/fire punch/whatever ur team needs

ded cotton candies everywhere

 

[Swan Songs]

porygon @ Evio
tri attack
psych up
recover
shadow ball/twave/psychic

munchlax @BJ
recycle
whirlwind
body slam
poison jab/fire punch/whatever ur team needs

ded cotton candies everywhere

I always find Porygon to be complete setup bait with Swirlix. The Twave just puts it at it's normal speed after Unburden and it can setup Calm Minds in it's face.

 

[Chieliee]

1. Twave puts it at half speed
2. Psych up

 

[Swan Songs]

1. Twave puts it at half speed
2. Psych up

My bad, I didn't see Psych up on there. That would actually be a really interesting set, but wouldn't it be easily revenge killed by 'tite or Sneasel?

 

[Chieliee]

I guess you could run agility too but idk

 

[Pen Ink]

slowpoke is actually pretty decent this meta. it checks meditite really well and i've been using a slowpoke + ponyta / growlithe + snover defensive core, which is just hilariously fun. it has some problems like yanma and sneasel, but it's hard enough to check those things and you have three other teammates.

 

[Swan Songs]

slowpoke is actually pretty decent this meta. it checks meditite really well and i've been using a slowpoke + ponyta / growlithe + snover defensive core, which is just hilariously fun. it has some problems like yanma and sneasel, but it's hard enough to check those things and you have three other teammates.

Ice shard on Snover checks Yanma?
Could use Meditite to check Sneasel with Bullet Punch doing ~70% to Life Orb.

 

[Pen Ink]

Ice shard on Snover checks Yanma?
Could use Meditite to check Sneasel with Bullet Punch doing ~70% to Life Orb.

doubt ice shard ko's eviolite, not sure on life orb.

 

[Swan Songs]

doubt ice shard ko's eviolite, not sure on life orb.

Is it not 4x effective? If it is than Snover has a terrible Attack stat O.o

 

[Pen Ink]

Is it not 4x effective? If it is than Snover has a terrible Attack stat O.o

ice is not super effective on bug.

 

[Swan Songs]

ice is not super effective on bug.

Oh, my bad :P
Does Snover get OHKOd by Air Slash?

 

[dende5416]

ice is not super effective on bug.

What set are you running on Snover, out of curiosity?

 

[Pen Ink]

What set are you running on Snover, out of curiosity?

Snover @ Eviolite
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 5
EVs: 184 SAtk / 116 SDef / 104 Atk / 36 HP / 36 Def
Quiet Nature
- Blizzard
- Giga Drain
- Ice Shard
- Hidden Power [Fire]

standard smogon eviolite set. could probably tailor the ev's more to your needs. could maybe run toxic or subseed too. maybe a different hidden power.