What Pokemon has had the most effect on the OU metagame?

[manav95]

The OU metagame has several threats that define it. There are many Pokemon that are shut down by these and so are not in OU. This thread will be about which one has the biggest effect and forces the metagame to change. Which do you think has the biggest effect on the metagame?
Heatran
Starmie
Rotom-A
Gyarados
Dragonite
Tyranitar
Scizor
Jirachi
Infernape
Flygon
Any other Pokemon could be argued for but these are the ones that really shape the metagame.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

I'll take a shot and say it was Azelf with its suicidal Stealth Rock.


Or was Deoxys-S the first to use it?

 

[tawp64]

I think Scizor is, he dented almost everything that switches in. He's been #1 for a long time.

 

[Arcticblast]

You should have taken ALL Pokemon into account. Garchomp and Salamence absolutely destroyed the OU metagame.

 

[giggity69]

Even though he is banned now, Salamence is definitely the most influential pokemon in OU; he literally shaped the entire metagame. Every team had to be built around countering him, and every player had to have a plan for him. Not to say that teams did not have to prepare for other things like gyara, but mence was without a doubt the number one threat for longer than anything else.

 

[probationsmack]

Blissey has severly discouraged special attackers ever since its premiere in gsc.

 

[Smith]

Other: Garchomp.

 

[Bogmire]

Rotom-A probably. It's the only spinblocker that isn't deadweight when not spin blocking thanks to its good speed, STAB, and multitude of resistances. Plus it's so damn versatile. Dunno where stall teams would be without it. Dusknoir and Spiritomb just aren't up to snuff in today's metagame. Heatran is a close second, it's just that good. I mean, there isn't any other pokemon with it's resistances, 120 bp STAB, bulk, special attack, and support options. It literally can find itself onto any team with any of its gazillion movesets. I can't even imagine what a metagame without heatran would be like. And to think we thought Heatran would be BL at best in way early DP just because of a 4x ground weak, lol.

 

[Sandstreamer]

Blissey has severly discouraged special attackers ever since its premiere in gsc.

THIS. Most effect on the metagame. Which gen? Every gen.

 

[Omnipresent]

Assuming that we don't count pokemon that are banned right now I would think heatran has some damn good resistances, powerful wide range of moves, and it's ability is enough to make you wary on using a fire type move. He's a great supporter.

 

[panamaxis]

Right now? Probably Starmie...
In the whole of 4th gen?
Probably Other: Deoxy-S
Pretty much forced the metagame around Dual Screen Offensive / Dual Screen short Baton Pass / Early Spikes and Sr Teams.

 

[vikingraider]

Aerodactyl-guaranteed SR almost 99% of the time, has 2nd highest OU taunt, forced trickscarf over trickspecs or band due to said taunt.

 

[DetroitLolcat]

This is tough...I would lean towards Rotom-A for the crazy spinblocking, typing, and signature moves.

Garchomp or Deoxys-S would be the most impacty Ubers that were banned, Salamence was big, but not like Chomp. Tyranitar is a mega threat too.

 

[CRASHiC]

Pokemon who are currently banned from OU shouldn't be listed. They aren't apart of the metagame.
Blissey hands down.

 

[Seriin]

Many on the list have had a big effect on the metagame, but many of them are cyclical. Scizor took out the fast and frail with Bullet Punch, threatened the stalwart with a stab U-Turn and punished the fleeing with Pursuit. In comes the pokemon that can deal with this, like Heatran and so on.

The only one I can think of that wasn't based on a cycle but you always had to watch out for was Tyranitar. Various T-Tar sets worked in cycles, of course, but the pokemon itself didn't fluctuate a great deal, he was always there. This makes sense. Tyranitar is one of the psudo's graced with great stats and movepool. 4th gen gave him many new toys and yet with all of this he is held back by common weaknesses including a 4x weakness to fighting. Why then do I choose Tyranitar? Because I don't choose him only for what he can do, but for what his ability has done.

If you take a look at many of the war stories in the archive you'll see this message many times "Sandstorm damage has been omitted". SS's 6% has been so ingrained into all of us that it is automatically calculated in our thoughts. In addition, SS boosts the special def of its main set up and, most importantly, it has acted as a bouncer keeping the other weather effects from being the problem that they are in the lower tiers. Want to use rain? It has been a raging debate down in UU about being banworthy. In OU, however- watch out for T-Tar. He'll mess up your plan quickly.

But this was, for the most part, present in Gen 3. Why then does this make T-Tar the pokemon with the most effect on the metagame? I say it is because of synergy, or how well it all works with everything else that changed in the metagame. T-Tar as a pokemon checks many threats and is a powerhouse on his own right. An automatic sandstorm limits otherwise viable strategies, and damages each turn. Add this to the varying damage of stealth rock & the added power attacks on Gen4 and everything comes together go smoothly. T-Tar has had the most effect on Gen.4 because you don't notice how much it affects you when you're building a team or planning a strategy, it had become second nature.

IMO, anyway. Obviously other things have had a great impact at one time or another but T-Tar has gradually built up a sand castle empire, and occasionally drops by to shake stuff up.

 

[Mario With Lasers]

Pokemon who are currently banned from OU shouldn't be listed. They aren't apart of the metagame.
Blissey hands down.

Title: "What Pokemon has had the most effect on the OU metagame?"


The most effect on the metagame.


Not "who is the most relevant OU pokémon".

 

[doomvendingmachine]

rotom-A baiscally makes spinning borderline unviable (is that a word?) in ou, and thus makes the already overpowered stealth rocks moreso. However, if chomp was allowed, i would vote him.

 

[CRASHiC]

Title: "What Pokemon has had the most effect on the OU metagame?"


The most effect on the metagame.


Not "who is the most relevant OU pokémon".

If they aren't in the metagame right now, they aren't effecting it.

 

[Xtremeperson]

Blissey easily. Guys like Raikou never really became that great because Blissey was everywhere.

 

[Colonel Darren]

Blissey has pretty much determined that physical attacks will be the true ruling typing since it's introduction thanks to it's huge HP, Special Defense, ability to heal reliably, and cure status for itself and others via Aromatherapy and Natural Cure. I don't care about Salamence or Garchomp or whatever, as I find that Blissey, since it was first created, was always a staple in shaping how the metagame worked. All three generations it's been around, and likely will continue to do so even in Black and White.

 

[manav95]

I now think that Blissey and Tyranitar are the 2 dominant in terms of impact. Blissey walls special attacks like IHOP pancakes and Tyranitar can do a bunch of stuff to kill the team.

 

[PenguinKnight]

Blissey made a great big chunk of special attackers less viable with it's omnipresent special sponging abilities, most notably Raikou and Porygon-Z. Gen4 is mainly based on physical attacks due to her.

However my vote goes to Heatran, it's the pokemon I worry about the most when building a team. It's extremely versatile, makes fire attacks a leap of faith and also causes tons of grief with the choice scarf revenge set. I have to throw in a Heatran on my team just to absorb another Heatran's goddamn flash fired attacks.

 

[Percussionist]

My vote is: Other. I'm specifically referring to Blissey, who since she was created has been the bane of special attackers. I didn't play competitive Gen II or III, but from what I hear, Blissey has always been what she is today; a godly special wall. Physical attackers have to deal with burn and Intimidate (probably forgetting something else), while special attackers only have to worry about one Pokemon out of 493. And physical attackers are still the dominant attackers. I'd say that's a fair amount of centralization. Although, I have to ask why Garchomp, Salamence, Latias, Deoxys-S, and Blissey aren't in this poll, yet Infernape, Dragonite, Flygon, and Gengar are.

 

[cosmicexplorer]

I started playing competitively after Deo-S and Chompy, so I can't attest to their impact. As for right now, I think Heatran or Starmie have the most effect, due to their ability to dish out high-powered attacks and their good typing. However, I disagree with Blissey having the most effect upon the OU metagame. Blissey, although it can sponge special hits like a shamwow and has underestimated physical bulk, loses to almost any physical fighting attack and can be killed by pokemon it's supposed to wall, like Heatran (with Toxic and Explosion) and Gengar (with SubSplit and Explosion), or made essentially useless by being Tricked a Choice item. With that in mind, I'd like to cast my vote for Salamence. Garchomp was found to be Uber relatively quickly and Latias was too. Salamence was OU for a whole generation and almost two before being banned, allowing its presence to warp the metagame considerably. Salamence's Dragon Dance set and its mixed set were incredibly hard to switch into, and Mence could even run a Specs set, hitting its usually physically defensive checks very hard. But even before Outrage's power was pumped and its OU status came into question, it was a powerful threat that could still wreck a team. It was a defining force in the metagame, and as such I'd like to cast my vote for Salamence (as a response the title's query).

 

[SlashingTires]

Ninjask + Electivire
Hands down