Approved Hazards In PU

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Anty

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Im new to this so sorry if i get stuff wrong, and also I'm in the PU council so i the meta enough to write an article (i have also voted in every suspect test and can link posts if you need me to).

I think this should be sufficient detail for an approval. Looking at other Smog articles this looks like a decent formatting (ofc other than the bullet point part)
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Overview:

  • Just like in any metagame, hazards are important
  • The offensive nature of the tier greatly increases the importance of hazards, as it allows teams to maintain offensive pressure
  • Hazards is an important reason the tier is so offensive as the many wallbreakers really appreciate it to punish defensive switch ins
  • Many offensive mons cannot recover this health either and there are plenty of eviolite mons that cant passively recovery the damage off
  • Another huge reason to why hazards are so amazing it to do many top tier pokes being effected by hazards as well as the setters being better than removal

Stealth rock:
  • Stealth Rock has always been the best hazard due to its large access and ease to set up while doing fairly consistent damage
  • This is also true for PU mainly due to the amount great offensive and defensive users of it which all bring other utility
  • Almost every hazard setter is rocks weak which helps wear them down or pressure them to recover rather than clear hazards
  • Fire and Flying are both common types and other common types like water and grass types dislike taking the constant
Users: (the four best seems like a decent number since they are all a/a+ mons + rocks is best hazard)
Torterra (will include sets for all)
  • Great poke as its bulk + typing + access to recovery allows it to switch in to plenty of pokes such as Pawniard
  • And its offensive presence provides plenty of forced switches to easily set up hazards
  • Speedy bullet seed sets are also great at by passing sturdy to beat other stealth rock setters while its resistance to rock and ground type also helps it check many hazard setters
  • However it can be defogd on as Togetic and physically defensive Pelipper can take it on
  • One of the two Stealth Rock users with reliable recovery
Piloswine
  • Provides a lot of utility along with rocks like switching into Zebstrika
  • Unlike Torterra its Ice secondary STAB threatens most Defog users however Pelipper, the most common Defog user, is one of the best switch ins.
  • However has other niches such as priority helping vs Pokemon such as Jumpluff, almost unresisted STAB combo
  • Large amounts of power mean it is constantly forcing switches
  • Bulk is nice to act like an offensive pivot for offensive teams which makes it easy to fit onto pretty much any type of team

Golem
  • One of the best Stealth Rock leads due to Sturdy
  • Works better on more offensive based teams
Probopass
  • Its typing although providing it with many weaknesses, helps it beat Pokemon such as Kadabra
  • This is helped by great Special Defense along with moves such as Thunder Wave
  • Volt Switch to maintain momentum

Toxic Spikes and Spikes: (grouping together as the best users do both, though i can do separately and talk about Quilladin which is fairly niche mon)
  • Toxic Spike are amazing due to there only being three common Poison-types
  • The main reason it is not too common is due to the lack of users
  • Very helpful to defensive and passive teams especcially for passive sweepers such as Vigoroth and Duosion
  • Often only one Toxic Spike is necessary as that does better against offensive teams which are more common, though against defensively based team two layers are preferred

  • Spikes are less common than Toxic Spikes as the best users get both however Toxic Spikes are better due to often only needing one and the effect being more lasting
  • It takes several layers to really be effective which is often hard to do since the users are prone to being warn down
Users:
Roselia
  • Arguably the best Pokemon in the game and is the best spikes setter
  • Can fit onto any team due to having offensive and defensive sets
  • Has many switch in opportunities for spikes
  • Mainly uses Toxic Spikes though has enough opportunities to stack spikes so will often depend on what the team wants, as it lacks the movepool for both

Whirlipede and Venipede
  • Work best on Hyper Offense as leads
  • Both do the same thing but Whirlipede has a better chance at living Rock Blasts and Venipede outspeeds more at +1 from Speed boost
  • Will often try to get one Spike and one Toxic Spike up

Sticky Web:
  • Sticky Web used to be a very viable strategy when PU first came out however teams got more prepared, such as Taunt leads, which made Sticky Web hugely fall in viability
  • Sticky Web only works on a team specifically built to abuse it, meaning Defiant users and Spinblockers are important
  • Often is built up from a setter + a couple slow wallbreakers + a couple faster pokes who work out of webs + bulky pokes
Users:
Leavanny
  • Best user due to high Speed allowing it to outspeed Taunt users such as Misdreavus
  • Used almost entirely as a lead as getting webs up early are important

Hazard Support
Pawniard
  • Defiant allows it to get +2 Attack from a Defog
  • However it dislikes switching in on plenty of Defog users, as Swanna and Pelipper can threaten it with a Scald burn
  • Despite this it is still by far the best Defiant user as Purugly cannot get past walls even when boosted and lacks bulk to switch in
  • Although it is predictable, just being on the team discourages Defog in general

Spinblockers
  • Misdreavus/Gourgeist/Dusknoir
  • Missy can work on defensive or offensive, gourg-super fits much better on defensive, gourg-small and dusk work better on offense
  • Gourgs lose to torkoal but can beat armaldo and super beats avalugg
  • Missy/dusk lose to torkoal and most of the time armaldo

Hazard Removal:
Defog
Defensive:
  • Pelipper/Togetic

Offensive:
  • Swanna

Rapid Spin
  • Torkoal/Amarldo

Summary:
  • Hazards are very important in the PU metagame due to there being more and better setters than there are defog-ers
  • This should be kept in min when team building to make sure your team is not hazard weak
 

antemortem

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I already told you that you'd be a fine writer for this, as you definitely know the meta incredibly well.

el approvo
 
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