Well, looks like the tier shifts did NOT go the way anyone expected. I'm glad we get another month of Mega Tyranitar, and that NDOU took A-Ninetales because my god that thing was annoying. Screens are still a problem though.
That aside- the drops. The part that's REALLY interesting, the ones that caught us all off-guard. Namely...
Looks like the restraining order expired, or something like that.
Really, there's not much to be said here, I just wanted an excuse to make a funny image. Kartana is back, after we thought we'd gotten it off our backs.
Rapid firing the reasons why this mon is absolutely absurd, 181 base attack with that kind of movepool and STAB combo is gonna send chills down anything's spine, specially down here, with very little to reliably answer it, much less anything that wants to take a hit from it switching in. Skarmory can wall it out, but it risks getting Knocked, and Kartana can just switch out to keep pressuring you with its tried and true combination of Leaf Blade, Smart Strike, Sacred Sword and Knock Off. This mon is incredibly reliable, hits like a truck, takes physical hits well, and is one of the best revenge killers you could ask for. Its speed tier is above average, which is more than enough to make it one of the scariest scarfers around, while also being able to succeed with Choice Band. Beast Boost takes all of this and makes it thoroughly overkill, able to take entire games off of one good revenge kill.
TL;DR: This thing is a goddamn powerhouse and the fact it's down here AGAIN after it got put on the radar in the early stages of the tier is honestly a bit comical. It's the most likely ban out of all the drops, and I have no doubt it's getting the Torn-T treatment soon. It'll be fun to spam it on ladder, though.
I like this thing.
I don't know if it's healthy or not, I will admit that much- it has problems! Meowscarada makes it take over 75% minimum from U-Turn, and can potentially one-shot it after chip. It's pretty frail, and of course it doesn't get a proper item, though it does get effectively 144atk as a tradeoff.
Water Ivy Cudgel is a REALLY good move, very reliable, and in my personal opinion not exactly ridiculous. It doesn't resist much, but it has very few relevant weaknesses. Flying weakness pretty much doesn't exist outside Gapdos and the only real relevant Poison user in the tier is Mega Venusaur. Bug weakness is relevant as mentioned earlier, though- it's VERY susceptible to fast U-turn users, and without setup it can't really do enough damage to break through walls. Mega Venusaur namely HARD walls it, unless it runs Zen Headbutt, in which case it can OHKO at +2, but it does not seem like a good user of the move. Personally, I've been using Play Rough for coverage! It's quite useful for Mega Latias, non-Scarf Hydreigon, and MAYBE Meowscarada, but only if it's already locked to dark. Don't try to 1v1 Meowscarada with this thing, just don't. Unless you're at the very end of the game and you know you can kill it, just don't.
Most notably, the part that I absolutely LOVE, is that it completely shut downs Alomomola cores. Yes, Kartana does the same thing, but it does it by committing war crimes. I like how it shuts down Alomomola, it turns its Flip Turn attempt into a free SD turn, and sweeps from there with Ivy Cudgel and Wood Hammer, which it can get away with using despite the recoil because of its speed tier, in my opinion. It's fun. I like this. It might get banned once people figure it out more, but at the same time it might become easier to deal with as people figure it out the other way. Either way, I will keep using it whether it gets banned or not. I'm biased. I like Ogerpon.
YOU.
While I don't think it's as busted as Kartana, I do think it will probably get banned. 100% accurate Stone Edge is absolutely messed up, specially off of that (effective) 144atk stat. Rock/Grass is a really good offensive typing, it's pretty decent defensively, and it's pretty difficult to revenge kill despite how frail it is, due to Sturdy. This mon will, at minimum, take something down with it, more often than not.
It's admittedly frail, and it does share bad matchups with WaterPon, but the matchups that shut down Waterpon are often matchups that Rockpon can just smash through with Rock Cudgel. There's a reason Stone Edge has low accuracy, and Rockpon just doesn't care about that.
I have less to say about this one because its good traits are very much just inherent to it and less metagame dependant, though there's very little that can wall it out. If it has Swords Dance, our steel/flying mons get busted down by Rock Cudgel.
We might figure out more of its weaknesses as time go on, but right now it is a very, very potent mon.
This thing is silly.
I say this positively. I like Ursaluna! I haven't been running it, but I think it's pretty unique. It has some problems, its defensive typing is not good, it gets walled HARD by plenty of mons in the tier, notably it can't touch Skarmory at all, and relevantly if Waterpon gets an SD off it can smack it hard upside the head. If chipped, it gets OHKO'd by Gapdos Close Combat, and if Gapdos is banded it will one-shot it outright. It has a few other problems, but I don't want to make this post too long.
It's not bad, though! It has quite a few good answers, sure, but it's undeniable just how utterly potent it is and how bulky it is. It's a bruiser and a half, able to CRUSH neutral matchups, capable of taking hits and dishing out ludicrous damage with its Guts-boosted attacks. If it gets a Swords Dance off, pretty much nothing is capable of withstanding its assault. I don't run it, but I like it, you know? I find it fun to play against, it's definitely something to look out for, but it's not unreasonable to deal with. Solid B/B+, in my opinion.
HE'S DRY. HE'S DEHYDRATED.
I just included him because I feel bad for him. From the days of Gen 7 OU, where he was the scariest Rain sweeper around, to now being all the way down at UU, where Drizzle is banned, so he doesn't have the rain support he needs to succeed. He'll probably fall to RU, unfortunately.
A shame, really. I like this design a lot. Who knows, though, maybe some maniac will find a way to make him work with Rainy Day instead of Drizzle, but it's very unlikely. I honestly find this drop strange, last I played NDOU, he was pretty damn decent? Though, I haven't played in a long while, I dropped off somewhere around the time of the Kingambit suspect test, simply because I got sick of Tera.
Mega Swampert got done dirty.
There's other drops, but I don't exactly feel strongly about them. The Loyal Three have an interesting gimmick, but they have nothing else going on other than that. Their stats are underwhelming, their movepools aren't that impressive, and their abilities aren't BAD exactly, hell one of them has Technician, but other than that, they're quite underwhelming.
Dipplin is bulky as hell with Eviolite, and it can get super-accurate Leaf Storms and Draco Meteors, but its stats are quite underwhelming. It doesn't have much else other than that in terms of moves, so I don't see what it could do down here.
I would have speculated more about Grass Ogerpon because, again, I REALLY like Ogerpon, but considering the other two forms dropped, I don't see the base one doing much of anything, considering the other two just do whatever it does better. Maybe if they both get banned, I'll have more thoughts, because I WILL try to make it work if it's the only remaining form. But, for now, it looks like it's not gonna do anything with its other forms and Meowscarada being around. Man, Ogerpon REALLY hates Meowscarada in NDUU, huh?
And that's my thoughts for now! Take them with a big grain of salt, as I'm not the most experienced player and we're literally within the first day of this new metagame.
I've been having fun, and I do really like where the tier is at right now. Even the broken drops haven't been too havoc-inducing, though I do insist Kartana deserves the quickban.
Good luck to the NDPL players, don't let the big origami creature eviscerate you too hard!
