High Tier Scrappy / Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Special walls mean nothing to The Feesh.^note No, really: under the right circumstances (assuming Sun is up and Tera Fire is active), a Modest Choice Specs Chi-Yu has a chance to OHKO standard Blissey with Overheat, and even if it doesn't it will severely dent it.
Image by errantsquam. Used with permission.

With over 1,000 mons (and counting) in existence, it's impossible for Pokémon to keep an ideal balance as what would be possible in other role-playing games. However, Game Freak seems to have understood the bad design some Pokémon got since, after quite some time, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet might as well be the game that has introduced the most Power Creep, with several of the new Pokémon already making their name competitively in various formats.

In Singles, the sheer number of Pokémon that Smogon has banned from OU, many of which are too weak to properly compete in Ubers, has even led to the rise of the unofficial "UUbers" tier, which gives them a chance to shine without being outclassed by obscenely broken Olympus Mons or completely overpowering other Pokémon.

Return to the main page for the franchise's here. For the unfortunately underpowered Pokémon introduced in Generation IX, see here.

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Smogon Singles - Normal Pokémon

• The Paldean Starter trio made waves for being quite possibly the first starter trio that all saw competitive success, with all three having fantastic stats, abilities and movepools to make names for themselves. Though Quaquaval fell behind the pack in OU due to relying on setting up its speed to get going (with it becoming a UU staple instead), the other two found far more success there or even beyond it:
  • Meowscarada's Grass/Dark typing, while poor defensively, is quite strong offensively, and its solid base 110 Attack and amazing 123 Speed stats are complemented by Protean (despite its Nerf starting this generation to change type once per switch in); its ability and Speed also help at circumventing its allergy to U-turn. Its signature move, Flower Trick, never misses and always crits, ensuring it can ignore Defense boosts and hit hard despite its mediocre 70 base power. As for its Dark-type options, it gets Sucker Punch and Knock Off (the latter without the need to learn it through The Teal Mask DLC), which makes it hard to outspeed and scarier to switch into, as well as also boasting miscellaneous coverage^*With options like Low Kick, Play Rough, U-turn and, as of The Indigo Disk, even Triple Axel of all moves. Meowscarada can also take a lead role thanks to moves like Spikes and Taunt, and its base 81 Special Attack stat, while not great, is usable enough to let it lure in physical walls like Great Tusk with moves like Leaf Storm. All of this combined makes Meowscarada difficult to scout, requiring smart prediction to take down, let alone correctly guess exactly what moves it might be packing.
  • Arguably the most annoying of the three Paldean starters is Skeledirge. Despite having a somewhat underwhelming defensive typing (which often forces it to carry Heavy-Duty Boots to not get nailed by hazards), it has great physical Defense and HP, a fairly meaty Special Attack stat, and access to Slack Off for reliable recovery. But the two tools that turn Skeledirge from a relatively average starter to an utter menace are its Secret Art Torch Song and its hidden ability Unaware. Torch Song is a fairly powerful Fire-type move that is guaranteed to raise the user's Special Attack and can't be avoided via Substitute due to being a sound-based move. Meanwhile, Unaware brings back memories of Clefable, as Skeledirge ignores pretty much any setup sweeper and defensive boosts in the game. It's also an excellent defensive abuser of Terastallization, often transforming into a Fairy-type to become what is the aforementioned Clefable, but on steroids. Even when the very first month post-HOME update briefly dropped Skeledirge into UU (where it became a despised presence due to the reasons listed above being complemented by the lower power level), it rose back to OU a few months later, and it became a vital asset in Ubers due to it stopping Legendary powerhouses like Koraidon and Arceus in their tracks, proving just what a defensive juggernaut it is.
• Garganacl is an especially gruesome exception to Rock-Type tanks failing at their role. It has an amazing 100/130/90 bulk, a decent base 100 Attack stat, and a stupidly powerful ability in Purifying Salt that makes it immune to all status, meaning that it can't be crippled by Burn and Poison, as well as halving the damage done by Ghost-type moves. Its movepool is also impressive, carrying everything from Body Press and defense-buffing moves to reliable recovery and Stealth Rock. However, what sets Garganacl apart from the rest is its Secret Art, Salt Cure, which is a 100% accurate Damage Over Time attack that deals Damage Over Time to the target even if Garganacl exits the battlefield; the damage increases to 25% on the Steel- and Water-types that would otherwise check it. With Terastallization, it can also turn into a better defensive typing like Water, Ghost, or Fairy, making it even harder to take down. All of these factors will make anyone who has to face Garganacl extremely salty. While the metagame has since then adapted to its antics with stuff like Substitute or Covert Cloak that blocks secondary effects from Salt Cure, Garganacl is the first defensive Pokémon in a while that Smogon has ever considered for a suspect test, even if nothing came out of it in the end.
• Espathra seems like a very average Psychic-type at first, with good base 101 Special Attack and 105 Speed stats, but lacking coverage and bulk. However, with the combination of Speed Boost, Calm Mind, and Stored Power, it becomes an utter menace if it's allowed to snowball. After one single turn of boosting, Stored Power reaches 80 base power, backed up by Espathra's good Special Attack stat, and it only goes higher from there. Dark-types don't want to come in on it either, since it can dispatch them with Dazzling Gleam, much less Steel-types in risk of a Fighting-/Fire-type Tera Blast. However, Espathra struggles with the four moveslot syndrome, as it often has to choose between Dazzling Gleam or Tera Blast for coverage, letting it get mobbed by Steel-types for the former or drastically changing its defensive profile for the latter. Still, pretty much anything not named Tera Dark Unaware Clodsire had trouble coming in, and following a tiering survey and council vote, Espathra was quickbanned to Ubers. What's especially notable about its ban is that it happened immediately after Chien-Pao's suspect test (detailed below), which normally never occurs in order to let the metagame stabilize; players wanted the Cleopatra lookalike ostrich gone that badly.
• Palafin may look like All Might, but as many players who named it as the postermon for overpowered Paldean Pokémon would would say, it couldn't be further from being the Symbol of Peace if it tried. Its initial Zero Form has terribly mediocre stats outside of decent base 100 HP and Speed stats. However, when it is switched out, Palafin transforms into its absurdly powerful Hero Form, where it gains a well-distributed base stat total of 650, beating out many legendary Pokémon as well as all Paradox Pokémon not named Koraidon or Miraidon. It's comically easy for Palafin to change into its Hero form thanks to its access to Flip Turn, and unlike fellow weak-to-strong transformer Wishiwashi, it stays in its Hero Form throughout the battle no matter what. It also has an amazing Secret Art in Jet Punch, a 60 base power priority move, which it gets STAB on and comes off of its beastly 160 Attack stat — the highest out of all Water-types bar none. On top of this, it has good coverage in Close Combat and Zen Headbutt to lure in bulky Poison-types such as Clodsire and Toxapex, can use Taunt to protect itself from status moves, Bulk Up to ratchet up its damage even further, and Terastallize into Water or Fighting-type to become a hydrogen nuke. Palafin can easily punch huge holes, even in prepared teams and the massive strain it put on teambuilding got it quickbanned a week after the game's release. While Palafin was always considered a very lackluster Pokémon in Ubers because of its hindering ability, it became one of the most feared Pokémon in UUbers as that tier began to gain traction and recognition.
• Ever wanted to stare at a catfish for 15 minutes? Dondozo will have you doing that thanks to its absurd physical bulk of base 150 HP and 115 Defense stats, Water typing and Unaware ability. These factors let Dondozo deny basically any physical sweeper in the tier while setting up boosts of its own via Curse in order to sweep itself. Its decent base 100 Attack stat and access to moves like Wave Crash and Body Press also make it surprisingly strong. Its only real issue is its horrendous base 65 Special Defense, not helped by the fact that Unaware ignores stat drops from moves like Draco Meteor.
• The meme of Annihilape being "too angry to die" rings true in the competitive scene as well, thanks to its well-distributed stats that include solid bulk. This is complemented by its Secret Art Rage Fist, which starts out weak at 50 base power but gets stronger with each hit Annihilape takes, up to a maximum of 350. Its most notorious set involves boosting with Bulk Up, eating physical hits for breakfast before hitting back with the borderline unresisted STAB combination of Fighting and Ghost-type, that can be only blocked by a Normal/Ghost Pokémon.^*And the only Pokémon to have this combination? The Hisuian forms of Zorua and Zoroark. All other Pokémon get unresisted STAB damage from either the monstrous-boosting Rage Fist or very strong Fighting move so it isn't walled by Normal- and Dark-types. It's also decently fast with a base 90 Speed stat and has access to Taunt, so chances are it will Taunt you first before you do. Terastallization even lets it change into a new type to take "would-have-been" super-effective attacks reasonably. Even without reliable recovery, Annihilape proved to be incredibly unkillable after just one boost thanks to its bulk and Drain Punch, resulting in it getting quickbanned to Ubers after a month and a half. And unlike others on this list, it DOES have a place in Ubers, due to it switching into Loaded Dice multi-attacks and Defog turning it into a potential win condition if supported right. While Indigo Disk did provide some answers to Annihilape in theory, particularly the introduction of Psychic Noise (which cripples Drain Punch), it's still a universally hated presence with a toxic core concept, and any discussion of reevaluating it for OU has been instantly shot down.
• While Bisharp proved to be a very impressive Pokémon over the years thanks to tools like Defiant and Sucker Punch, it never truly reached Scrappy status. On the other hand, Kingambit almost instantly jumped to the ranks of one upon release and grew to become one of the most reviled Pokémon in all of Paldea. Despite being much slower than its pre-evolution and suffering from the line's lost access to Pursuit and Knock Off (the latter of which it didn't even get back after the Teal Mask DLC introduced it as a TM), this shogun warlord makes up for it with the upgrades to its power and bulk. While it has access to most of the line's old tricks, what really puts Kingambit on the map is its signature ability Supreme Overlord^*Increases the power of the user's moves by 10% per each fallen ally; with five allies down, that's a Choice Band boost. Since it's not a stat boost unlike Defiant, it ignores Unaware. This is more than enough to make Kingambit a horrifying late-game threat that is hard to kill, and it can both put the opponent in check and cause every turn to become a Morton's Fork — Will it hit first with Sucker Punch? Will it hit hard (if not outright KO) with Iron Head or the always accurate Kowtow Cleave? Or will it boost its Attack stat with Swords Dance to become impossible to wall by anything not named Dondozo? Several Pokémon that could respond to it got banned to Ubers and those that remain must contend with Terastallization, allowing Kingambit to respond in kind as one of the best abusers of the mechanic^*As even one turn as a Tera-Fire, Flying or Fairy can give Kingambit the chance to set up with Swords Dance and push the opponent into a hopeless battle. Despite this, though, some people agree that, for all the hatred it gets, Kingambit is one of the only Pokémon to keep certain others from getting out of hand, like Dragapult and Gholdengo. Regardless, Kingambit proved to be overwhelming (and to some, brainless) enough to be suspect tested, barely managing to escape the ban in SV OU^note Although this has only managed to stoke animosity against it even further for some players, as it was discovered that some players who voted "Do Not Ban" did so under the impression that they would be banning Terastalization instead in the near future, spoiling the integrity of the suspect test, but it got banned in NatDex OU. Needless to say, Indigo Disk finally giving Kingambit actual pushback in the form of newcomers like Gouging Fire (who can take hits from it well, hit it effectively and threaten a burn on any non-Tera-Fire set) led to a sigh of relief from everyone who loathed dealing with the Supreme Overlord, even if it is still considered fantastic.
• Intially, Baxcalibur didn't garner enough traction compared to its forefathers like Garchomp due to the high-risk nature of its signature move, Glaive Rush^*A 120 base power, physical Dragon-type move that's fully accurate, but will make all incoming moves always hit and deal double damage until the next time it acts and defensively underwhelming Dragon/Ice typing. It even fell to UU soon after Gen IX went live, partially due to the fact that Chien-Pao, OU at the time, filled its niche as a physical Ice-type better. After Chien-Pao was banned, players begin taking the risk and realize how absurd the icy kaiju can be if played right, as its mind-melting 145 base Attack stat, fantastic offensive typing, and access to Dragon Dance and high-powered moves like a Loaded Dice boosted Icicle Spear and the aformentioned Glaive Rush meant that if it got onto the field, something on the opposing side of the field would drop, and thanks to its impressive 115/92/86 bulk and Thermal Exchange Ability^*It no-sells burns and raises the user's Attack stat 1 level if it's hit by a Fire-type move, it became clear that it was much easier to do so than many previously expected. With such an incredible offensive might and longevity that could be enhanced with Terastallization or abusing Snow^*Which boosts its defense by 50% and allows its Ice Body ability to steadily heal it, and it so happens that the popular pivoting move Chilly Reception's only user, Galarian Slowking, is also a well-liked teammate for it, Baxcalibur could set itself up as a win condition. The Teal Mask DLC was even kinder to it, gifting it with another useful teammate in Alolan Ninetales (who can set up snow and also Aurora Veil) as well as access to Scale Shot, the same move that made Garchomp scary in Gen VIII and which it can abuse thanks to, again, a Loaded Dice, turning it into a team-destroying rampage sweeper that doesn't particularly have to worry about the Defense drop from Scale Shot as long as snow is up; with Aurora Veil and/or Ice Body, there is virtually nothing an opposing team can do to keep it from setting up and splattering everything in its way. The dragon once seen as a disappointing pseudo-legendary would soon be quickbanned to Ubers just four days later, in a decision that was so unanimous as to take just 10 minutes total, and was so hated that it remained banned with the release of The Indigo Disk. While too weak to compete in regular Ubers, it found a place in the emerging UUbers tier as a fairly solid sweeper.
• Gholdengo, coinciding with being the 1000th Pokémon. The Coin Entity pairs Aegislash's fantastic Steel/Ghost typing with Landorus-Therian's role diversity, then combines them with an excellent base 133 Special Attack stat, its Secret Art Make It Rain^*A 120 base power, special Steel-type move that has only a minor downside of lowering its Special Attack by one stage and can even hit multiple foes, good 87/95/91 bulk with reliable recovery and a wide movepool, already making it a powerful Pokémon. But one trait that sets Gholdengo apart from the rest is its signature ability, Good as Gold^*Blocks any status moves that target it which makes it impossible to remove entry hazards when Gholdengo's present as it completely blocks Defog while being immune to Rapid Spin and Mortal Spin, short of Court Change or Mold Breaker Defog Hawlucha. As a result, it is seen on a staggering number of teams, be in offense, balance, or stall; consequently, hazards stacking has become incredibly good due to its hazard removal denying capability. This, combined with it not being suspect tested even once as of this writing despite the bans of a large number of Pokémon viewed as less dominent or only dominent due to Gholdengo's presence, made it a massive sore spot for many players. That being said, at least in National Dex OU, it was banned after a suspect test.
• Much like with the Tapus of Generation VII, most of the legendary Treasures of Ruin have cemented themselves as dominating metagame forces. This is due to a combination of their specialized stats and signature abilities, which provide a constant debuff to a specific stat to everyone else, so long as the user is on the field. Wo-Chien falls far behind the pack due to its poor Speed and being saddled with a bad defensive typing in Dark/Grass despite being a Stone Wall, but as for the other three...
  • Chien-Pao takes all of the strengths of Weavile (amazing offensive typing and Speed, powerful STAB options, and priority) and amplifies them up to eleven. In addition to having 10 more Speed than Weavile, it matches the former's access to Low Kick with Sacred Sword to deal with Steel-types and adds its ability Sword of Ruin^*Reduces the Defense of all other Pokémon on the field by 25%. It can easily set up with Swords Dance for even more firepower or simply punch holes into teams with its high Speed, powerful moves like Crunch and Icicle Crash/the new Ice Spinner and priority in either Ice Shard or Sucker Punch. Thanks to its ability to delete basically anything that didn't have immense physical bulk (and even then such Pokémons had to switch in carefully for fear of a Defense drop from Crunch), Chien-Pao got the boot to Ubers after a suspect test... until Pokémon HOME released, where it was sent back to OU, only to get quickbanned again just a week after due to remaining such a threat. There is a reason why Chien-Pao often gets called "Mega Weavile" by the community, after all. Its reign of terror also extend to Vgc where it is the most used Treasure of Ruins by far due to its ability drop both enemies Defense stats, which allow it to pair with extremely powerful physical priority users like Dragonite, Hisuian Arcanine and Entei.
  • Ting-Lu, while not as infamous as the offensive members of its quartet, has certainly cemented itself as an incredible defensive behemoth. It has extreme 155/125/80 bulk, with its ability Vessel of Ruin^*Lowers the Sp. Atk. of all other Pokémon on the field by 25% patching up that average Special Defense. It isn't exactly passive either, with a decent Attack stat of 110 to use Earthquake with, in addition to getting Body Press, which runs off its meatier Defense. With its good movepool options^*Sand Tomb, Stone Edge, Taunt, Whirlwind, Spikes, Memento, Snarl, and its Secret Art Ruination (a clone of Super Fang), it can also choose whether it wants to take on a purely support-oriented role or, in rare cases, a bulky attacking role. The only things preventing Ting-Lu from becoming a true stall god are its typing (which gives it six weaknesses, most of which are to common offensive types) and its lack of recovery outside of Rest. But even with its flaws, Ting-Lu remains one of OU's most influential defensive Ground-types, and it's even a decently strong choice in Ubers as well, being one of the few Pokémon that can respond to Miraidon.
  • Chi-Yu is perhaps the most infamous of the four, with its average base 100 Speed stat, strained coverage options and cute design hiding its true power as a nuke in flaming goldfish form. It arguably doesn't need the coverage since it has a combination of an astounding base 135 Special Attack stat and Beads of Ruin^*Cuts the Special Defense of all other Pokémon on the field by 25%. It also gets Nasty Plot for setup, burning anything not named Blissey, Tyranitar, or Ting-Lu to a crisp. Chi-Yu can also patch up its lackluster coverage with Terastallization to take out would-be checks, topped off by partnering up with Torkoal's Drought to unleash full power Overheats in the sun boosted by Tera Fire, which made it memetic for threatening to 2HKO or OHKO even the most dedicated of special walls, Blissey included. Chi-Yu's overwhelming power got it banned from National Dex formats quickly and a later vote saw it banned from regular OU as well.
• Hisuian Samurott, compared to its Unovan counterpart, swaps its attacking stats^*From 100/108 Atk/SpA to 108/100, and trades some bulk^*-5 in each stat, from 95/85/70 to 90/80/65 for higher Speed^*From a below-average 70 to a more reasonable 85, making it a Jack of All Stats compared to Unovan Samurott's Mighty Glacier. But as soon as it migrated over to Gen IX via the HOME update, Hisuian Samurott became this thanks to its Secret Art: Ceaseless Edge^*A 65 base power, physical Dark move with 90% accuracy, but sets up a layer of Spikes if it hits. The move's otherwise low base power and imperfect accuracy is more than compensated by three factors — the spikes it sets up are not affected by Magic Bounce, it's boosted by Hisuian Samurott's Hidden Ability, Sharpness^*Boosts the power of slicing moves (like Slash) by 50%; equivalent to a Choice Band boost!, and no types are immune to Dark; the latter trait means no Pokémon can prevent the move from hitting and thus negate entry hazards, making it extremely spammable. Hisuian Samurott also gets other move options to make use of its Ability, like Razor Shell and Sacred Sword, which combined with its good Attack stat, lets Hisuian Samurott hit surprisingly hard. In spite of being walled by common defensive Pokémon like Toxapex, the fact that it's still achieving something else, means that it's done its job. Finally, while not fast by any means, it compensates with having priority moves such as Aqua Jet or Sucker Punch. It's telling that in its very first month post-HOME, Hisuian Samurott's traits have already cemented it alongside the big guns in Gen IX OU, in fact being at the top 10 of the tier's usage percentage at one point before Gliscor's reintroduction.
• Soon after the HOME update gave it entrance to Gen IX, Sneasler became a hated presence. Sneasler itself is a good Pokémon for many of the same reasons Weavile used to be — an exceptionally fast Glass Cannon with a good movepool that gives it answers to almost everything that it would otherwise fear. Both of its Abilities are excellent, as Unburden allows it to outspeed everything in OU when it activates, while Poison Touch^*Contact moves have a 30% chance to poison the target if they hit synergizes with U-turn and Fake Out to give it a real shot at crippling an entire team barring any Poison or Steel-types. Terastallization-wise, there are so many types it can make good use of to answer its checks (like Tera Dark) or terrorize Pokémon who might otherwise be able to wall it (like Tera Flying with Acrobatics). But what pushes Sneasler over the edge is its signature move Dire Claw^*An 80 base power, physical Poison-type move with a drastic 50% chance to poison, paralyze, or put the target to sleep, all of them split to ~16.66% chance each; the fact it has such a high chance to put something to sleep is especially frightening; with it, Sneasler can and will hobble an entire team with it, outside of pausing only to smash Steel-types with Close Combat. But even without Dire Claw, it's still an amazing mon - as a setup sweeper, it just needs one Swords Dance to rip through a team like a combine harvester, while it can also serve as a nimble wallbreaker with Choice Band or a ludicrously fast and efficient revenge killer with Choice Scarf. Though Sneasler does have its issues in its frailty, weaknesses to Psychic, Ground and Flying-types, struggling against some specific Pokémons like Toxapex and Gholdengo and being extremely vulnerable to revenge killers with priority, it can still pick its checks and counters depending on the coverage it slots in, combined with being able to set up fairly easily despite its frailty. Not too long after Gliscor's suspect test and ban, Sneasler got quickbanned following a community vote; this was not just due to Dire Claw, but due to Sneasler's vast unpredictability and the hilarious amounts of carnage it can wreak with very little effort.
• Enamorus, the sole female Force of Nature, has followed in its fellows' footsteps as a notoriously good Pokémon, with its Incarnate form being described by some people as a "better Togekiss". She's got excellent mixed attacking stats at base 115/135 Attack/Sp. Atk. and a serviceable enough base 106 Speed, which compensates a bit for her below average 74/70/80 bulk. Both of Enamorus-Incarnate's Abilities see use, with Cute Charm^*Contact with the Pokémon has a 30% chance of causing infatuation; a volatile status effect which makes Pokémon of the opposite gender unable to attack half of the time singlehandedly causing people to change their physical attacker's genders to female instead of male just to avoid infatuation (worse if you don't play on battle simulators), and Contrary transforming stat drops into stat boosts, much like with Serperior in Gen VI onwards. She's got a rich movepool^*Hurricane, Moonblast and Springtide Storm for Special STAB; Play Rough for physical STAB; Earth Power, Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Mystical Fire, Psychic and Sludge Bomb for coverage; Calm Mind to boost; and Superpower as a coverage/boosting hybrid thanks to Contrary to make use of her stats and abilities, too. No Pokémon with Defog wants to dare use it against a team with Enamorus-Incarnate in fear they will accidentally boost her Evasion thanks to Contrary, while no physical attacker wants to attack her simply because of Cute Charm. Similarly to Clefable in previous generations, fighting Enamorus-Incarnate amounts to letting her do something and analyzing set possibilities, then acting accordingly. She got even worse with the release of The Indigo Disk, allowing her to abuse Stellar-type Tera Blast much like with Superpower, except it boosts both of her offensive stats instead of her Defense. She does have some notable flaws, such as her aforementioned mediocre bulk, being forced to run Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid Stealth Rock, and (rather damningly) lacking U-turn unlike the other Forces of Nature, but none of this is of huge issue.
• Ogerpon possesses flavorful base 120 Attack and 110 Speed stats, alongside decent 80/84/96 bulk, and can gain a second typing depending on the mask it uses (Water for Wellspring, Fire for Hearthflame, and Rock for Cornerstone), though in order to use its full power, its forced to hold the masks as an item and is only able to Terastallize into specific types (based on the masks). However, this weakness is made moot when each of the masks give Ogerpon a 1.2x bonus for all of her attacks, already compensating for the inability to hold a power-boosting item like Life Orb. While Ogerpon doesn't possess powerful coverage options for the types she can change into, she can circumvent it via her Secret Art, Ivy Cudgel^*A 100 base power, Grass-type move with an increased chance of a Critical Hit that changes its type depending on the mask Ogerpon is wearing and she can further her power and Speed via Swords Dance and Trailblaze, respectively. Due to Ogerpon's unique Terastallization mechanics, she gains a new ability called "Embody Aspect" when Terastallized, which raises one of her stats depending on the mask she's wearing^*Speed while wearing the Teal Mask, Sp. Def. for the Wellspring Mask, Attack for the Hearthflame Mask and Defense for the Cornerstone Mask. Of the four masks, two of them are particularly outrageous:
  • The Hearthflame Mask changes Ogerpon's Ability to Mold Breaker, letting her deal with the likes of Multiscale Dragonite, Flash Fire Heatran (with Tera Grass) and Unaware Pokémon like Clodsire and Skeledirge. This is pushed further with Terastallization boosting Ogerpon's Attack and the power of her Fire-type moves. Grass/Fire is a particularly strong combination, as any Water- or Rock-types that can resist Ivy Cudgel won't want to switch into Power Whip (and vice-versa for any Grass-, Poison-, Flying- and Bug-types), while the Fire- and Dragon-types that resist both are hit by Knock Off or Play Rough. Combine them with Swords Dance to further amplify her (literal) firepower and you have a Pokémon that's very hard to stop. Though she's vulnerable to both Stealth Rock and revenge killing, Ogerpon-Hearthflame Mask was too much to handle due to a lack of defensive counterplay and it was banned to Ubers.
  • The Wellspring Mask, though not as extreme of an example, offers Ogerpon an immunity to Water via Water Absorb, which furthers her longevity and makes it easier to switch into opposing Pokémon. Grass/Water is also still good offensively, with Ivy Cudgel covering Fire-types and Power Whip decimating Water-types, while Grass- and Dragon-types are, once again, disposed of with Knock Off and Play Rough. Terastallization even makes her both stronger and harder to kill since her Sp. Def. is boosted, and rain further pushes her power beyond the rating scale. Though she hasn't proven to be as problematic as Hearthflame, Ogerpon-Wellspring is still in the radar for many people, feared and despised alike by those unfortunate to face her unprepared. The presence of Serperior and Gouging Fire following the Indigo Disk introducing them did end up stopping Ogerpon-Wellspring Mask in its tracks a bit, however.
• After Hisuian Ursaluna proved to be more flawed than players expected (in singles at least), Bloodmoon Ursaluna, upon being released alongside The Teal Mask DLC, became widely feared as the second, stronger coming of resident "Cocaine Bear" Hisuian Ursaluna, particularly after Baxcalibur's ban. Just like its Hisuian counterpart, it's an incredibly powerful and very physically bulky wallbreaker with low speed, though it's now a special attacker instead of a physical attacker. The Bloodmoon Beast gains a very strong ability in Mind's Eye^*The user is immune to its accuracy, ignores the changes to the opponent's evasion, and allows it to hit Ghost-types with Normal- and Fighting-moves, which complements incredibly well with its Secret Art, Blood Moon^*A 140 base power, Normal-type special move with the only drawback of not being able to select it twice in a row. On top of these, Bloodmoon Ursaluna matches its Hisuian counterpart's boosting options with Calm Mind, and has access to two perks the former doesn't have: Moonlight for reliable recovery and priority in Vacuum Wave. Bloodmoon Ursaluna is thus not only better than its Hisuian counterpart, but also a top tier Pokemon and one of the best Ground-types of all time, as well as the best Normal-type not named Arceus. It's so strong that as of October 2023, it was suspect tested and banned to Ubers with a near unanimous 93% vote^*For context, this is around the same percentage of people who voted to ban Shadow rider Calyrex from Gen IX Ubers, and is the second highest percentage of pro-ban voters, only falling behind Mega Lucario's mind-boggling 94% ban vote.
• Archaludon, the evolution of Duraludon, has proven itself to be a tricky bugger to face off against in Singles. Though reliant on rain, it's easily one of the best Pokémon that can abuse it, thanks to its amazing signature move, Electro Shot^*A 130 base power, Electric-type special move that charges on the first turn and boosts Sp. Atk by +1, then fires on the second; under rain, the charge turn is skipped. This move powers up its already great 125 Sp. Atk. and skips its charge turn in rain, making it very deadly. As for the Ground-types that could stomach it, Archaludon also has great special STAB options in Flash Cannon and Draco Meteor. Defensively, its Steel/Dragon typing is superb, and complementing it is a good base 90 HP and an outstanding 130 Defense stat, the latter of which is boosted one stage each time it's hit thanks to its Ability, Stamina. Its access to Body Press is icing on the cake, allowing it to contest any special walls or Steel-types sent to combat it. While it has a mediocre base 65 Sp. Def., Archaludon commonly carries an Assault Vest as its held item to fix that, and its downside isn't much of a detriment seeing how Archaludon's not much of a support/defense Pokémon. The big Terastal button only worsens the deal, usually opting for Tera Fairy as a strong defensive type that changes its Fighting and Ground weaknesses into a resistance/neutrality. And sending Ground-types to defeat it will just lead to it switching out to one of its Rain-boosted Water-type teammates, making it a lose/lose situation. All of this makes it so that Archaludon's one of the biggest pains to deal with when team-building, with any counters usually forced to Tera in order to switch in easily and neutralize it. Granted, outside of Rain teams, Archaludon is more manageable, but the fact that minimal counterplay for the bridge dragon exists in comparison to the ease of letting it set up led to it being suspect tested and then banned over strong but more manageable related threats like Barraskewda or Rain itself.
• Terapagos was, to the surprise of many, initially deemed as legal in OU, but it didn't remain for very long. Its Tera Shell ability allows it to resist any damaging move it takes at full health, even resisting all hits from a multi-hit move unlike Multiscale, giving it what is effectively a free turn (or multiple if Terapagos manages to heal to full again) to set up or do anything it wants if its opponent isn't packing a Power Nullifier like Mold Breaker and an attack powerful enough to one-shot it through its decently high bulk. Upon transforming into its Stellar Form by Terastallizing, its stats increase further (notably its health which increases from 90 to a whopping 160) to give it a staggering BST of 700, it swaps Tera Shell for Teraform Zero that wipes all weather and terrain to ruin the days of any Pokémon that rely on it, and it gains its own special version of the Stellar-type which gives it a 20% power bonus (100% for Normal-type moves) to all moves, permanently, which combined with its broad coverage and access to Calm Mind let it wreak havoc with virtually anything. This is on top of all forms of Terapagos having Tera Starstorm, a 120-power STAB attack with no drawbacks that, if Terapagos is in its Stellar form, hits all types for neutral damage due to becoming a Stellar-type attack, on top of hitting all targets in Double Battles and hitting Terastallized foes for supereffective damage. Its only real let-downs are it taking up the Terastallization slot if one wants to use its full power as well as its mediocre 85 base Speed; the former is of little downside considering how much havoc Stellar Form Terapagos can wreak, while the speed issue can easily be sorted with Rock Polish or Rapid Spin, the latter of which also gives it utility for clearing hazards. It wasn't surprising that it got banned from OU shortly after it was introduced, beating out Regieleki's ban (the exact timing as to how quickly it was banned is up for debate, with values ranging from twenty-seven to as low as twenty-three hours) and therefore giving it the current record for the fastest ban in any OU tier's history. Many question why the thing was even legal in OU in the first place given that it was basically a Box Legendary.

Smogon Singles - Paradox Pokémon

Multiple Paradox Pokémon have found themselves disliked among competitive players as soon as the generation started. This is because they tend to have more optimized stat spreads compared to regular Pokémon, and (with the exception of Koraidon and Miraidon, who have even stronger abilities) they all share powerful signature abilities: Protosynthesis for past Paradoxes, and Quark Drive for future ones. These abilities boost the Pokémon's most proficient stat by 30% (50% if the stat is Speed) in the Sun or under Electric Terrain respectively, and can be activated once per battle with the Booster Energy item. This allows the strongest Paradox Pokémon to become deadly sweepers in the right circumstances, though many are groan-inducing enough to face without needing to rely on their abilities.

• Great Tusk is viewed by many as Paldea's answer to Landorus-Therian by virtue of being a physically strong Ground-type with a variety of viable sets and being very common in the metagame, to the point where it is by far one of the most used Pokémon in OU, being used on over half of all teams (even higher than Landorus-Therian at its peak!) at several points, is only rivaled by Kingambit in OU usage, and even sees enough usage in Ubers to be banned from Ubers UU. Its Protosynthesis ability boosts the highest stat of its wielder whenever it's either under Sunny weather or is holding a Booster Energy; with an Attack boost, it can take on an offensive role, turning its STAB attacks into nukes. Even though it lacks Intimidate, its base 115 HP and 131 physical Defense stat allows it to tank hits well and its decent base 86 Speed stat lends it to a powerful support Pokémon role with moves like Stealth Rock, Knock Off and Rapid Spin. It can also patch up its lackluster Special Defense with Assault Vest, letting it tank even most Special attacks. Great Tusk is a very reliable and useful Pokémon, considered one of OU's premier defensive Ground-types, and is actually appreciated by many players for filling in so many holes in their teams and keeping strong threats like Gholdengo in check, all while not being overwhelming thanks to a combination of Limited Move Arsenal, poor Sp. Def and defensive typing, mediocre speed without Rapid Spin, and being kept in check by other common Pokémon like Iron Valiant.
• Within 0.5 milliseconds of becoming playable, Flutter Mane, the ancient form of Misdreavus, became the bane of many players' existence. Its Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed stats are all at an absurd base 135 and it has a decent movepool with coverage options like Mystical Fire and Thunderbolt. But what really pushed Flutter Mane over the edge was its ability, Protosynthesis, with either Booster Energy or Sun to boost Flutter Mane's already sky-high Speed stat to absurd levels, making it nigh-impossible to outrun outside of either Speed tying or priority and lets it sweep most teams with ease. And that's to say nothing of its ability to abuse Terastallization. Unsurprisingly, it was quickbanned from OU in less than a week after release. To quote the tier's leaders, it's "one of the most broken presences to ever grace an Overused metagame".
• Iron Bundle is what happens when a Lethal Joke Character has way too much emphasis placed on the "Lethal" part. Despite being the descendant of infamous Low-Tier Letdown Delibird, it has a high base 124 Special Attack and an absurd 136 Speed stats, outspeeding even Flutter Mane. This meant that only Dragapult could outspeed it naturally (Electrode notwithstanding) and that was unlikely to happen since it almost always held a Booster Energy to give it an instant 50% boost to its Speed stat. Its access to Freeze Dry lets it hit Water-types for super-effective damage, so its STAB combination is effectively unresisted, letting it punch massive holes in anything not named Blissey. Shortly after Flutter Mane was banned, Iron Bundle quickly took its place as the dominant fast Special Attacker, and unsurprisingly it got the boot to Ubers as well.
• Dreadful dragon Roaring Moon harkens back to the glory days of its descendant Salamence. Unlike fellow Dark/Dragon types Hydreigon^*a special attacking Jack of All Stats and Guzzlord^*an underwhelming Mighty Glacier, Roaring Moon has stats optimized to make it a true Lightning Bruiser. Boasting a very high base 139 Attack and 119 Speed stats and with Protosynthesis and Dragon Dance to boost either stat, it's either an unstoppable force that happens to outspeed most things, or a blazing-fast annihilator that happens to hit hard too. In an unintentional throwback to Mega Salamence's playstyle, it's an incredibly effective Acrobatics abuser with Booster Energy,^note Mega Salamence did something similar with Return made into a powerful Flying-type STAB via Aerilate as it instantly gets a drawback-free 110-power nuke of a move to splatter Fighting and Bug-types who might otherwise give it pause after it uses a Booster Energy up. It even gets U-turn to help it preserve momentum when using a Choice item set. While Roaring Moon doesn't even need a Dragon-type STAB move most of the time, it can still use it for added unpredictability, with Outrage being its second-strongest STAB move^note behind full-power Knock Off and Scale Shot being its best answer to Multiscale Dragonite. Terastallization-wise, it has multiple options, including Ground or Flying (to give it an additional STAB on Earthquake or Acrobatics) or Steel (to overcome and counter its Fairy weakness); this unpredictability makes it difficult to counter, especially since Flying and Steel each resist at least one of its prior weaknesses. While Roaring Moon ended up dropping several months after the HOME update (as it doesn't have a deep movepool, it's reliant on setup and its allergy to Fairy makes it easy to manage by mons like Iron Valiant or even things packing Fairy-type coverage), it proved to be strong enough to be banned from National Dex formats, and the DLC giving it access to the infamous Knock Off as a superior Dark STAB option combined with its main competition in Baxcalibur being banned to Ubers sent it flying back to terrorize OU with a vengeance. Sure enough, it got suspected and banned to Ubers just like both forms of Salamence did at some point... only to be unbanned and retested following the release of The Indigo Disk DLC, which at least introduced Raging Bolt as a check to its infamous Tera Flying set.
• Iron Valiant, Roaring Moon's Violet counterpart, packs an impressive Fairy/Fighting STAB combination, a base 116 Speed stat that can be amped up further with Booster Energy and high base Attack and Special Attack stat (130 and 120 respectively), it already has the makings of a Glass Cannon, but it quickly proved to be even more than that with its rich offensive movepool, with options like Close Combat, Moonblast, Thunderbolt, Psyshock, or Knock Off. Confusion Fu doesn't even begin to cover the amount of headaches it can cause, as it can be running any offensive set imaginable and the player will have no way of knowing until it does anything; and sometimes not even then, if it's using mixed sets. And this is all before Terastallization and held items comes into play either. Its frailty and large number of weaknesses has at least allowed players to give it some pause, along with its lack of a very strong physical Fairy STAB or consistent special Fighting STAB, but it's still proven itself to be a very notable and consistent metagame threat.
• Koraidon and Miraidon made their mark as one of the most overpowered cover legendary duos in the series' history. After the heavily lopsided duo of Zacian and Zamazenta, both bike dragons dominated the Generation IX Ubers metagame since its inception and consistently remained in the top 2 usage spots. While more balanced than Zacian was in Generation VIII, this only ensured that the Paradox duo would remain "reasonable" enough to stay in Ubers and continue terrorizing the tier for months to come.
  • Koraidon is the ultimate Jack of All Trades Master of All, having all the tools it needs to excel in offensive and support roles. This is mostly thanks to its Ability of Orichalcum Pulse, which sets up sun as soon as it enters the field and boosts its Attack while in that weather. While always considered a great Pokémon, the big ol' dinobeast was initially overlooked in favor of its robotic descendant due to its crippling Fairy weakness, its less reliable Dragon-type STAB options, and its other STAB of Fighting not being boosted by its Ability like with Miraidon's Electric STAB. However, Koraidon proved over time to be just as threatening as its other half, if not more. If Koraidon Terastallizes into a Fire-type, its Fairy weakness becomes a resistance and with its new third STAB it can use its many Fire-type moves to devastating effect, most notably Flare Blitz and the normally weak Flame Charge. This is without mentioning its other positive traits, like access to the popular Close Combat and its Secret Art of Collision Course as Fighting-type STAB options, the option to use its secondary Dragon-type STAB to hit opposing Dragons and access to Swords Dance to set up a sweep. Being a sun setter, it also acts as a great team supporter for both its fellow Ancient Paradox Pokémon and other Fire-type attackers and Chlorophyll abusers, being an even bigger threat than (regular) Groudon because of Orichalcum Pulse being a straight upgrade over Drought. In particular, its ability helps Ho-Oh, Flutter Mane and Skeledirge, three of the other best and most used Pokémon in Ubers. The Teal Mask DLC also gave Koraidon a new toy in Scale Shot, making it even scarier as a sweeper (especially with the Loaded Dice item^note The same item/move combination that caused Baxcalibur to be banned from OU) and causing it to surpass its future counterpart in usage for the first time, leading some people to label it as the best Pokémon in Ubers. The added sweeping power Scale Shot gave it was ultimately enough to push the Winged King over the edge in National Dex, causing it to join its counterpart Miraidon in NatDex AG.^*The seventh Ubers ban since Mega Rayquaza, Gen IV Arceus, both forms of Zacian, Shadow Rider Calyrex and Miraidon (in National Dex only)
  • Miraidon stood out from the very beginning due to the insane synergy between its typing, stats, movepool and Ability, similar to pre-Gen VI Kyogre. While it's a bit more predictable than its ancient counterpart, it makes up for it with the raw power of its Electric-type damage multipliers. Miraidon's Ability, Hadron Engine, sets up electric terrain when it hits the field and both increases its Special Attack stat and boosts its Electric moves while in said terrain, letting it hit insanely hard even with moves like Volt Switch and Parabolic Charge while also boosting its Future Pokémon teammates. But Miraidon's Secret Art, Electro Drift, is the best special Electric attack in the game, being almost as powerful as Thunder while having perfect accuracy and dealing more damage with a super-effective hit — anything that isn't Ground-type gets vaporized by this mechanical menace's all-powerful lightning, and Pokémon that do resist or are immune to Electric are taken care of by Draco Meteor or Overheat, the latter of which addresses one of the biggest flaws of previous Dragon/Electric Olympus Mons Zekrom.^note For context, Zekrom was considered a great Pokémon in Gen VIII Ubers, mostly being held back by its lack of reliable coverage for Steel-types. Not only does Miraidon have an even stronger offensive prowess than Zekrom (albeit on the special side) does, but has access to the move Overheat as an extremely strong Fire-type coverage option to better handle Pokémon that wall its STAB moves. Its held item makes it even more unpredictable, being able to abuse Choice Specs, Choice Scarf or Life Orb (with Calm Mind^note Unlike Koraidon with Swords Dance, Miraidon doesn't have access to Nasty Plot; not that it needs it, though...) all to devastating effect with its different movesets. It also has many viable Tera Type options; Electric lets its attacks hit like a Boeing 747, Dragon lets its Dragon-type STAB catch up to its Electric-type STAB in terms of power and there are multiple defensive options it can use such as Fairy or Water. The Electric Terrain that it sets up also helps some uncommon Pokémon in the tier such as Zekrom, Iron Treads and Iron Bundle, though none are as prevalent as the mons that benefit from Koraidon's sun. While it's consistently been a top 2 threat in normal Ubers along with Koraidon and it did go through a suspect test (ultimately remaining in Ubers), Miraidon was outright banned from National Dex Ubers early on^*The fifth Ubers ban since Mega Rayquaza, Gen IV Arceus and both forms of Zacian, with proponents arguing that the Iron Serpent was even scarier than Mega Rayquaza in that format and was essentially the new Zacian-Crowned.
• Even among Paradox Pokémon, the past Paradoxes of the Legendary Beasts more than live up to their, well, Legendary, basis, vastly surpassing the original trio in both viability and obnoxiousness:
  • Walking Wake, Suicune's past counterpart, is a (pardon the terrible Pun) walking force of nature in the metagame. It sports an excellent typing in Water and Dragon, a great base 125 Special Attack, good 109 Speed stat and solid defenses for an offensive threat. Its movepool is good enough, with options in STAB Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse, alongside Flamethrower or Hurricane for coverage. What takes it above merely being a great special attacker, however, is its synergy under sunny weather. Thanks to being a Paradox Pokémon, its Protosynthesis ability, under sunny weather, boosts its Special Attack stat (or Speed via an Elite Tweak). While sunny weather normally weakens Water-type moves, Walking Wake's Secret Art in Hydro Steam is instead boosted from a commendable 80 base power to a staggering 120, giving it a great STAB option in both sunny and rain weathers, with Flamethrower also being powered up by sun. Or (though rarely) if it's under rain, access to Hurricane that makes up for Flamethrower's power drop. And adding in the raw power of a Choice Specs and/or Flip Turn for keeping up momentum, Walking Wake can become more fearsome than its present counterpart ever could. In just shy of a week after its introduction, Smogon's OU Council suspect tested Walking Wake — though it ended up staying in OU after the fact, it still remains a massive threat, in either rain or sun.
  • Following Walking Wake is Gouging Fire, Entei's past form. Compared to the Volcano Pokémon, it sacrifices HP, Sp. Atk. (which it doesn't even need), Speed, and access to Sacred Fire and Extreme Speed for higher overall bulk (at 105/121/93), a Fire/Dragon typing that's fantastic both offensively and defensively, and a much broader movepool besides Flare Blitz^*With options like Dragon STAB (Dragon Claw, Outrage and Scale Shot), Heat Crash, Dragon Dance, Morning Sun and, most importantly, Earthquake that includes its Secret Art, Burning Bulwark^*A clone of Protect that additionally burns opponents on contact; in the end, its playstyle has more in common with the equally powerful Mega Charizard X than with Entei itself. Overall, it's a very adaptable offensive mon, firing off powerful attacks while being able to patch up its passable base 91 Speed (though even unboosted, it still outspeeds threats like Great Tusk and Gholdengo) and heal recoil from Flare Blitz thanks to Morning Sun; plus, as a Paradox Pokémon, it benefits from Protosynthesis, which since it can be activated via sun, its Fire moves hit like a freight train, heavily denting even bulky Water-types like Dondozo. Though ocassionally, it can also take on a defensive role thanks to its recovery, reliable protection and lack of passivity. Gouging Fire does come with some drawbacks, like weaknesses to Ground and Rock moves and requiring Heavy-Duty Boots to offset hazard damage. Regardless, its strengths and unpredictability in what sets it can run makes it worthy of a top spot, being extremely dangerous — in fact, enough to eventually get a suspect test, though it wasn't banned from it.
  • Rounding out the Paradox Legendary Beasts is Raging Bolt, Raikou's past cousin. Rather than being a quick attacker like Raikou, Raging Bolt is a Mighty Glacier instead, sacrificing Speed for a huge increase in bulk, at 125/91/89, letting it comfortably tank attacks and respond back thanks to its insane base 137 Sp. Atk., and even with its mediocre base 75 Speed, it circumvents this thanks to its Secret Art, Thunderclap, being an Electric-type clone of Sucker Punch. Electric/Dragon is a fairly respectable typing which few Pokémon can resist, and the high amount of resistances it provides complement its bulk well. Its moveset outside of STAB is also notable, with sun-boosted Solar Beam and Weather Ball^note It doubles in power and becomes a Fire move in sun pairing well with Protosynthesis, Volt Switch letting it pivot out slowly to bring another dangerous mon, and even Calm Mind to boost. With all of its options in mind, Raging Bolt has already garnered comparisons to Kingambit, from its strengths and the necessity for Highly Specific Counterplay (with Iron Treads even moving up in usage precisely because it's the best Pokémon to handle it despite being widely considered worse than Great Tusk) down to the very same detriments (slow Speed, exploitable weaknesses and lack of recovery), proudly earning its spot as one of the most destructive Pokémon to face.

VGCs/Official Doubles

• Dondozo is a force to reckoned with in Doubles thanks to Tatsugiri. When a Tatsugiri with Commander is on the field with Dondozo, it'll hop into Dondozo's mouth and give it +2 in every stat. With the right speed investment, Dondodzo is able to outspeed both Chi-Yu and Palafin with the Commander boosts. The catch is Tatsugiri cannot act and neither of them can switch out (including phazing moves and Red Card) for the duration of it, but Dondozo has numerous tricks up its sleeves to make up the disadvantage of being one against two. In addition to its Unaware ability ensuring that trying to beat Dondozo at its own game with stat boosts won't work without Mold Breaker, Dondozo has Order Up to raise its stat further, depending on Tatsugiri's form. Before that got patched, a glitch causes Order Up's effect to activate even if the move didn't hit. Dondozo also happens to be a fantastic recipient of Terastallization, being able to Tera into Steel-type to block Clear Smog and being poisoned or Grass-type to block Spore. Despite not receiving STAB from it, Dondozo runs Earthquake to hit multiple foes since the stat boosts more than make up for the spread damage reduction and any moves that target Tatsugiri will always miss. Even if Dondozo goes down, Tatsugiri itself is no slouch with its high 120 Special Attack, hitting hard with its Draco Meteor and Muddy Water, or Icy Wind for speed control. While it's not without checks and has been flip-flopping since, Dondozo and Tatsugiri remained one of the most dreadful cores in VGC out there.
• The moment VGC allowed Paradox Pokémon, Flutter Mane instantly became one of the most overcentralizing Pokémon ever introduced. Its Ghost/Fairy-type does wonders for Flutter Mane by granting it excellent neutral coverage with only two weaknesses in Ghost- and Steel-types and three immunities, including Fake Out and Extreme Speed. In addition to Dazzling Gleam as its spread move, Flutter Mane can also provide speed control with Icy Wind and, for a time, Trick Room despite its high speed. Even its biggest drawback, its low defense, can be patched up by Elite Tweak to survive some crucial hits, as Flutter Mane doesn't need to maximize its Sp. Attack and Speed. What earns the ire of many players is that Flutter Mane doesn't have any counters to speak of, with even a good check being hard to come by, such as Amoonguss and Kingambit. It's so good that most Ghost- or Fairy-types have a hard time in VGC with its presence, and it's saying something when Flutter Mane manages to topple Incineroar in terms of usage.
• Iron Hands is already a decent Pokémon in Smogon singles, but suffers from several issues, most notably its Ground weakness and low speed and special defense, which makes Iron Hands a prime target for being run over by Pokémon such as Great Tusk and Iron Valiant, causing it to end up stuck in UUBL with only fringe viability in OU. However, VGC is where Iron Hands rule with an iron fist thanks to its Fake Out support combined with its impressive bulk and monstrous high attack. Additionally, any issues that plagued Iron Hands in Singles can be easily patched up in VGC, such as holding Assault Vest to take special hits better and speed control such as Trick Room or Tailwind. And like premier Fake Out users like Incineroar and Rillaboom before it, it isn't the only trick up its sleeves, either; Iron Hands could function as a Swords Dance set-up attacker to take advantage of its high attack, with Follow Me/Rage Powder to redirect most moves or Terastallize to avoid super-effective hits or falling asleep from Spore if it's not holding Safety Goggles. The advent of The Indigo Disk did see Iron Hands fall off considerably, though, due to the reintroduction of fellow High-Tier Scrappy Incineroar and a more hostile metagame to it in general.
• Ting-Lu, in addition to its defensive shenanigans, has another, even nastier set in VGC. It runs Fissure, an OHKO move that's usually Awesome, but Impractical thanks to its 30% accuracy, and Stomping Tantrum, which doubles in power from 75 to 150 if the user's last attack missed (and doesn't hit the user's teammate, unlike Earthquake). This means opponents will often either have to eat an OHKO or a 150 power STAB move unless they have a ground-immune Pokémon; even then, that's not a guaranteed fallback thanks to Ting-Lu's coverage and teammates. It's gotten to the point where top-level VGC players have publically complained about the Vessel of Ruin and how it turns so many matchups into Luck Based Missions. As VGC continued to progress, its Fissure has steadily decline in usage as well as having to compete with Landorus and Hisuian Ursaluna.
• On the topic of Hisuian Ursaluna, it was commonly discussed about well before the post-HOME metagame was released, and for good reason. It's a Ground/Normal-type Mighty Glacier with perfectly Min-Maxed stats (low base 45/50 Sp. Atk. and Speed, 130/105/80 bulk^*Which actually surpasses Skarmory! and a back-breaking 140 base Attack); it's got the Ability Guts^*Raises the Pokémon's Attack stat by 50% if suffering from a status condition, ignoring the Attack drop from burns, which combined with Facade^*A 70 base power, physical Normal move that doubles in power (to 140) if the user is poisoned, burned or paralyzed, led players believing it would tear up whatever metagame was unfortunate enough to let it in. Come the HOME update, Ursaluna-Hisui would finally wake up from hibernation... and the playerbase was right to be afraid. Ursaluna-Hisui (or the "Cocaine Bear", as it's known by the community) is so overwhelmingly strong with STAB Facade and Headlong Rush that not even Terastallization can prevent it from reducing walls to fine powder, and it can use the gimmick itself to sponge hits or power up Facade even further. Its problems that plagued it in singles (being slow as dirt and utterly lacking in longevity) are not an issue in doubles either, as Trick Room is a popular strategy in doubles to begin with and users of moves like Heal Pulse can keep it going (also, the very existence of Cresselia, who is immune to STAB Earthquake thanks to Levitate and has Lunar Blessing to heal it and effectively nullify the Flame Orb's chip damage for a turn, is icing on the "Holy Shit I'm So Dead" cake), meaning that there is little hope against Ursaluna without a proper battle plan.
• The Wellspring form of Ogerpon found itself thriving in Doubles with its access of excellent support moves such as Follow Me for redirection that other Grass types are not immune to, and Spiky Shield to punish physical attackers. Its good bulk complements this, and its Ivy Cudgel allows it to put out some high damage for a support Pokémon (that also slams super-effectively the three most prominent Intimidate Pokémon in the format: Incineroar, Landorus-Therian and Hisuian Arcanine). This has allowed Ogerpon-Wellspring to become the premier support Pokémon for Water and Grass-types, even dethroning Amoonguss, whose Spore would kept getting redirected by Follow Me from Ogerpon itself.

Other/unofficial formats

• Scovillain is an outright Low-Tier Letdown in standard play, and good but not overwhelming in Monotype. However, for a while, it became the terror of Random Battles due to coming with Moody as its ability. Its standard set combined Moody with a build similar to Tropius (described in the main page): Substitute and Protect to stall and fish for boosts, Leech Seed to keep its HP high, and Flamethrower to incinerate the enemy team once it's boosted enough to become unstoppable. This set proved to be such a headache for players to deal with that it got swapped out for a new one without Moody, making Scovillain far less annoying to deal with.

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