Hilda's Top Ten RU Pokemon

[Chase]

I'm back...

I'll be returning to the RU Showcase thread very soon - but to hold you all off until then, I decided to drop a list of ten Pokemon -I- think are the best to use in the tier.

Please keep in mind, this is only an opinion thread. If you disagree with me or have your own list, be sure to post after me. I'm not going to worry about sets here - I have another thread that specifically needs those -and- my attention.

Number 10....Shiftry

Oh, Shiftry. This Pokemon has use from start to finish of any RU battle. STAB Knock Off gives it the ability to cause some sizeable damage to your opponent and remove items, which helps your team. It gets access to Sucker Punch, giving it a hard hitting STAB priority move on predictable attacks (such as weakened Fire type Pokemon.) Seed Bomb is a decent attack that scares away Gastrodon. It's close behind special attack gives it some unique mixed attacker opportunities, with access to Dark Pulse and Leaf Storm as STABS. This thing also carries DEFOG, a random yet helpful hazard removing move that helps out your teammates, and it also gets access to Sword's Dance, which turns this nuisance into an outright threat....if only it could learn Pursuit...then it would be higher up on my list.

Number 9....Mega Banette

Banette is a Pokemon that is slightly confused as to what it's ability -should- be when Mega. People fail to remember that Banette gets access to an attack stat this is no laughing matter because the first thing that comes to mind is likely "Ugh, Prankster, I'm going to get Will-O-Wisp'd, or this thing is going to Prankster-Bond me." - With access to Shadow Sneak - Banette gets a STAB priority move that will do a solid number on weakened opponents. Sucker Punch is another option with higher base power. Shadow Claw is a stab move it can use on a particularly nonthreatening pokemon or a switch that isn't a normal type. - and then yes, it does get Will-O-Wisp, Thunder Wave, and Destiny Bond that it can use first to help out the team. If you -really- want to use a Mega in RarelyUsed, this is a solid option.

Number 7....Jellicent

Jellicent has taken a massive fall from grace, and it was one of my favorite Pokemon in Gen 5. This Pokemon still has the ability to cause some consternation wherever it goes. In RU, it still gets it's chance to be a problem. Water Absorb gives it the ability to switch on predicted Scald from things like Gastrodon and Alomomola and it can proceed to annoy the opposing time with status moves. With access to Scald -and- Will-o-wisp, this thing has the ability to shut down a lot of physical attackers and with Recover, it can win some stall wars if it needs to. Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Toxic, and Taunt round out the set possibilities on this thing. Man, Jellicent. Good times.

Number 6....Rhyperior

Rhyperior is a fantastic Pokemon in general. Attacker? Check. Defender? Check. Stealth Rock? Check. Solid Rock? Check. ICE PUNCH for predicted grass and ground types? Check. This thing has -lots- of possibilities and opportunities to succeed on many teams.

Number 5....Delphox

Delphox is one of the 'mons that I feel best exemplifies the tier. The Vulpine Magician hits hard and very, very quickly. With access to Switcheroo, it can get rid of it's not needed choice item on a wall that would need access to multiple moves. Grass Knot fells Pokemon like Rhyperior and Gastrodon after Stealth Rock damage, and Fire Blast and Psychic/shock...will revenge kill several opponents. Despite not having a helpful competitive ability, this thing still packs a punch, and if you have Blaze, there's a chance it can start swinging for the fences if it manages to survive an attack.

Number 4....Gastrodon

Gastrodon causes teams many, many problems with it's Storm Drain ability, allowing it a free switch. Water/Ground also means it can switch in to an electric type move from Jolteon and Heliolisk if predicted well. The amount of immunity this thing has is incredible. Slap on Recover, and this thing can stall the lights out of some opposing teams. Scald and Earth Power for stab, and Clear Smog to stop those pesky set-up sweepers dead in their tracks, as well as completely shut down -and- damage Slurpuff. And of course, Toxic.

Number 3....Medicham

Regular 'ole Medicham is indeed an OU Pokemon, and provided this things checks and a few walls are out of the way, This thing seals the deal with it's multitude of coverage moves at it's disposal and Pure Power. HJK for raw base power, Drain Punch for recovery. Bullet Punch for dealing with Slurpuff and priority, 'ele punches to round out the coverage fest. Hand it a life orb and go to town.

Number 2....Emboar

Throw a Scarf on this Pokemon and make sure it has the ability 'Reckless'. Emboar's recoil damage moves are steller. Head Smash, Flare Blitz, Wild Charge get hefty boosts from the ability, ensuring a damaging blow and providing some pretty solid coverage in doing so. This thing avenges fallen teammates the best in the tier, if you were to ask me.

Number 1....Registeel

WHAT'S A SPECIAL ATTACK GONNA DO TO REGISTEEL? NOTHING. That's what. This Pokemon is criminally underused within the tier, and it's the best Pokemon in my opinion. Curse and Amnesia to boost it's already disgusting defense to greater heights. Immune to Poison type attacks. Resto-Chesto works well. T-Wave cripples teams all day long because if you aren't using Physical attacks, there's nothing stopping Registeel from doing so. Stealth Rocks if you want a back up Rocker and want to run a little more Phase or Stally. Toxic. Iron Head for STAB can pair well with Curse and T-Wave for the Paraflinch if you're -really- evil.

Registeel....you pretty bae. Many a match won simply because you just stood there and didn't care if the opponent had the advantage. I love you, you massive hunk of metal.

[Follow]

Nice list! I like using many things that are there, like scarf emboar, gastrodon and mega banette. Anyways, I can't think about 10, what about 5?

5. Mega Steelix. This is one of the best counters for almost every physical attacker in RU, in UU and higher it's outclassed by mega aggron, but RU is where it really shines, it's like the best slurpuff check, stops tyrantrum from head smash spamming, it has stealth rock + roar support, has a crolix set with gyro ball and curse. Ahh so good.

4. Amoonguss. Really, one of my favourite ones, but not only in RU, this thing even has a place on ubers, anyways, spore is something that is going to force your opponent to think a lot about his moves, you can run Assault Vest (two stabs, HP fire and foul play/clear smog), even a choice item if you're feeling creative. It also gets clear smog which is an amazing move stopping set up sweepers. AANNDD it also gets one of the best abilities in the world: Regenerator. Man, amoonguss is really good.

3. Slowking. Another monster, many options for the moveset, nice bulk, access to set up moves like calm mind and nasty plot. And it's also a really great partner to Amoonguss. Ah, and look at this coverage: Fire Blast, Grass Knot, Ice beam, Scald, Psyshock, Dragon Tail. Slowking, calm down (How does it learn Fire blast tho).

2. Hitmonlee. Answer me, what's coming in safely to take a life orb reckless HJK (ghost types, duuuhh)? NOTHING. This thing destroys stall, it can 2HKO/OHKO the entire RU tier aside from ghost types and bulky ass stuff like Cresselia, defensive qwilfish and golbat.

1. Sigilyph, hands down. "Ah but it's not that good in RU", hey bro, do you think I'm talking about the regular magic guard stuff? No, this thing is a less OP yanmega. If you haven't faced a specs tinted lens yanmega in the UU tier, you're lucky. Tinted lens is such a good ability, with a nice base spatt is so freaking good, you can run modest or timid, it really depends on what you want to outspeed (You can always use leavanny for sticky web support if you want to use modest). Yeah, that's it. The cosmic stored power set is also really good, but I love the specs tinted lens set, and I think I use quite a lot in RU.

[Guzam]

Ummmm... Hilda? What happened to number 8?

[Fumble]

Um, I didn't actually notice that.

Oh well, I'm glad that Jellicent and Mega Banette are on the list! Delphox is pretty cool, too. I haven't played too much RU, though.

[Chase]

I dropped something....Number 8....Druddigon

Druddigon is a Pokemon that has taken a tumble down since it was my original favorite. It's speed is not very ideal and thus it's very susceptible to things as a physical attacker like burns and what not - that being said, there was a reason this thing is one of my all time favorite pokemon and preceeding #1. Druddigon. Takes. Souls. Sheer Force is a downright nasty ability and so many Pokemon that have a place in my heart use it very, very well. As an all out physical attacker, Druddigon gets access to Outrage (for late game sheer power), Dragon Claw (for early game and conservative STAB), Fire Punch (boosted by Sheer Force and dealing with Steel and Grass types) Sucker Punch, a priority attack that deals with the likes of weakened Slowking and Delphox, and Gunk Shot, a powerful Poison type move that punishes incoming Fairies - particularly Whimsicott. It can also play a more of a support role, pairing it's Rough Skin ability with the Rocky Helmet to inflict damage while getting access to the best paralysis inducing move in the game - Glare - as well as Stealth Rocks. So much to experiment with, So much damage to inflict be it passive, active, or even just because your opponent wanted to attack you with a physical attack.

Honorable Mentions: Amoonguss, Slowking (I -HATE- Regenerator. Using it feels so cheap to me, and using it against me makes me twitch), Hitmonlee, Cobalion, Moltres, Houndoom, Aromatisse, Tyrantrum, Tangrowth, Clawitzer, Mega-Camerupt.

Not even close: Mega-Steelix (The only thing that MegaLix does better than Maggron in UU is block VoltSwitch.) Durant, Slurpuff, Ambipom (A pokemon that is just -too- good at being a real pain)

[Follow]

Moltres is gone :( Still don't understand why, it wasn't THAT overpowered in RU because of stealth rocks. Now it's in the useless BL2 list, like... it's too bad in UU and too good in RU.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Follow

[Chase]

I'm not going to say I agree with Moltres being bumped up to BL2, because I don't.

That being said, there are a lot of things Moltres can do to be a problem.

- Sunny Day Moltres w/ Solarbeam poses a problem and it's already decent speed will mean that it's coverage is fabulous once the sun is up.

- AgilityTres will be able to outspeed the entire tier.

- ScarfTres will also be able to outspeed the entire tier without set-up in exchange for picking a move. Hurricane Spam is never a bad move to be locked into.

[Follow]

About moltres, all this sets above are dangerous if you don't have a check or a counter... or SR support, I think the only real counters to moltres in RU are spdef cresselia and zweilous, and they do not take hits that well at all, but moltres was definitely better in RU, because now in UU there are like a hundred spdef monsters ready to laugh at moltres' face. In my opinion, if a pokemon is outclassed by so many other things in a tier, it should go down to a lower tier. And we know that moltres is outclassed by many other things in UU.

[Reignited'Light]

This is going to be irrelevant to this topic since it's about RU, but Moltres can handle itself in OU as well. It checks many threats with the nice SubRoost set like Serperior, Scizor, Charizard-Y, and can PP stall low PP moves like Hydro Pump and Stone Edge. Moltres in RU is very devastating, since it only needs like three moves to hit everything in the metagame. Fire Blast, Hurricane, and Hidden Power Grass? Either way, Moltres doesn't fuck around regardless of what tier it is in. Just have Stealth Rock up, and it shouldn't be problematic.

[Chase]

I think it's typing is very easy to wear down for sure - and I also think that it will quickly become problematic unless you know how to dance around it.

- ScarfTres needs to be effectively double-switched on, so that it gets locked into the move and needs to switch out, being left vulnerable for more rocks damage. (which would KO it)

- Sunny Day/Agility Tres needs the opposite. If you have a rock type coverage move and you think you're going to get set up on, click that move immediately.

It's very dominate in RU because there's not much that can just outright counter it's many options - meaning it does damage to virtually whatever it wants.

[Follow]

Well, doublade is gone, cress is gone, slowking is gone, mega abomasnow is gone, slurpuff is gone, whimsicott is gone, heliolisk is gone.

Noivern is now RU, as are flygon, scrafty, KINGDRA (Dragon Spam is coming), and seismitoad.

This new meta is going to be like this: With the bulky monsters gone (cress, doublade and slowking) and new offensive pressure with draco spam, RU is going to change drastically, just saying.

P.S. Now what switches in to hitmonlee? Lol

Edited May 3, 2015 by Follow

[Shadow Tack]

kingdra is a pretty much guaranteed quickban

[Chase]

So.....Remember when I said Registeel is the best Pokemon in the tier?

It can handle Kingdra - which I will concur, is gonna do some work in the tier.

[Deleted User]

Not.... entirely....

252+ SpA Sniper Kingdra Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Registeel on a critical hit: 193-229 (53 - 62.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

It's going to be annoying if it has time to set up... It's just good Sticky Web support isn't really plausible in RU.

[Follow]

It's like this, they bring down kingdra... okay, but at least don't ban whimsicott, like... kingdra has no counters if whimsicott goes to UU, rain kingdra, critdra, this will force people to run a certain pokemon in every single team to counter kingdra, which will make teambuilding in RU limited, kingdra needs to get banned, I approve.

[Chase]

Scarfed Dragons threaten Kingdra.

Paralysis would make a worthy sacrificial effort - and nobody takes 1 special attack and T-waves something better than Registeel.

[Meruem]

any team with relatively good speed control should be able to handle it. tbh I never found it that annoying when it was UU and I'm sure that, if I had the time and patience to ladder in RU, I would still be able to deal with it without any issues; however, I can see it getting banned into BL2, since my way of teambuilding isn't the same as everyone's and kingdra can be a pretty threatening wall breaker, since there are few things in the tier that can switch into it.

[Shadow Tack]

I've been talking arouynd showdown's RU room, Kingdra is definately getting Quickbanned