Strategy & Metagame New NU Additions

[Expulso]

(will c/p qualifications here later)

DRAFT

With the new additions in XY, many new Pokemon have dropped down to the NU tier. Many are very viable, some aren't. Some have been buffed, etc.

- Feraligatr: New drop: strong, powerful, bulky; SD and DD sets viable; useful typing

- Shiftry: Knock Off buff makes it very viable as a strong Physical / Mixed with Lead Storm attacker; Defog access

- Spiritomb: New drop; excellent check to prominent Fighting-types + Sigilyph*; best spinblocker in the tier

- Magmortar: New drop; very powerful mixed attacker; tier's best special wallbreaker

- Pangoro: New XY Pokemon; useful signature move in Parting Shot; gets Scrappy Fighting-type attacks to hit Spiritomb

- Leavanny: Good Sticky Web setter; Sticky Web has many abusers in NU; can use Swarm-boosted X-Scissors when Sash activates; Magic Coat sends back Taunts

In conclusion, there are many intriguing new Pokemon in NU; we at the Smog urge you to try them!

 

[skylight]

Zebraiken Raseri
They'll respond to your approval shortly! n_n

Also you can probably make reference to this article: http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue31/nu

 

[jake]

Are you just planning to talk about the tier in general? If you are, the mix of Pokemon you've chosen here sort of confuses me - Pangoro / Leavanny are mediocre-ish, while the first three are great and Magmortar is somewhere in-between. If you're just aiming to talk about Pokemon that weren't in NU last gen (as the title implies), you can't include Shiftry or Leavanny since they were both solidly NU last gen. If you just want to talk about those that got "buffed" by XY, only Shiftry, Spiritomb (through other Dark-types getting buffed, it's the best Pursuit trapper now), technically Pangoro, and Leavanny qualify.

It'd be cool to have an NU article, but I don't know about the scope of this one - I'd like some more definition on what you want this article to be about, rather than just a dump of information. What would you like the people who read your article to come away with? Are you just giving them the generic lowdown on the XY NU meta, are you trying to get people who invested time in BW NU to try XY NU?

Also, thanks for tagging me, Nica. It'd be appreciated if you did this in the other NU ones b/c I'm definitely probably not gonna be looking here frequently. :x

 

[Expulso]

Are you just planning to talk about the tier in general? If you are, the mix of Pokemon you've chosen here sort of confuses me - Pangoro / Leavanny are mediocre-ish, while the first three are great and Magmortar is somewhere in-between. If you're just aiming to talk about Pokemon that weren't in NU last gen (as the title implies), you can't include Shiftry or Leavanny since they were both solidly NU last gen. If you just want to talk about those that got "buffed" by XY, only Shiftry, Spiritomb (through other Dark-types getting buffed, it's the best Pursuit trapper now), technically Pangoro, and Leavanny qualify.

It'd be cool to have an NU article, but I don't know about the scope of this one - I'd like some more definition on what you want this article to be about, rather than just a dump of information. What would you like the people who read your article to come away with? Are you just giving them the generic lowdown on the XY NU meta, are you trying to get people who invested time in BW NU to try XY NU?

Also, thanks for tagging me, Nica. It'd be appreciated if you did this in the other NU ones b/c I'm definitely probably not gonna be looking here frequently. :x

I was thinking of talking about new additions to the tier in XY, but we can just discuss the tier in general :)

 

[jake]

If you want to do new additions to it in XY, we can probably structure it as a follow-up to Treecko / Hollywood's speculation article. For example, you can section it up into talking about Pokemon that are outright new to NU like Pangoro and Feraligatr, those that were in NU before but got significant buffs like Shiftry and Leavanny, etc.

I'd be cool with this, but I'm pretty picky information-wise (since previously we've had some misinformation in other articles) so I'd like to review whatever you make your final skeleton out to be before you start writing it up.

 

[tennisace]

ok if this is new additions to the tier, then the list of mons should look something like:

sigilyph / feraligatr / archeops / spiritomb / generic section about pyroar + typhlosion + magmortar / generic section about new shell smashers barbaracle + omastar + crustle?? idk Zebraiken what do you think

 

[jake]

ya that sounds good

 

[Expulso]

ok if this is new additions to the tier, then the list of mons should look something like:

sigilyph / feraligatr / archeops / spiritomb / generic section about pyroar + typhlosion + magmortar / generic section about new shell smashers barbaracle + omastar + crustle?? idk Zebraiken what do you think

Should I omit Sigilyph due to the likelihood of a ban?

Also tennisace I was planning to do changes to existing NU Pokemon that increased their viability; should I do like Defog Shiftry / Fairy-type Granbull + Wigglytuff / Defiant Primeape; anything I'm forgetting here?

 

[tennisace]

make changes a separate article or else you're either a) going to have a super long article or b) it won't be nearly detailed enough. also plan for sigilyph being in the article then omit later if banned since idk when any vote is planned for.

 

[Expulso]

Writing up a draft as of now.

 

[jake]

While I'm not sure you technically have approval from the Smog Staff to write this article (not sure who all approves 'em, but I'll highlight skylight since she posted in this thread already), could you please post an updated, thorough skeleton of everything you wish to put in your article? It doesn't have to be point for point every detail you plan to include in the article, but I'd like it to include all major Pokemon / points you plan to make so I can review it and make any major nitpicks I might have before you spend all of the effort writing up everything. Also, be sure to tag me / highlight me on IRC or PS! if you post it and I haven't noticed it, so I can go over it quickly and get ya back into your writing chops.

Thanks!

 

[Expulso]

Oh, you had to get approval beforehand? My apologies, I assumed I had the go-ahead.
------------------
Feraligatr:
- Two viable sets: Swords Dance and Dragon Dance
- Extremely powerful, able to plow through unprepared teams
- Slow unboosted, though this is mitigated by Aqua Jet
- Very few counters, most of which are weak to Fire; it partners well with Fire-types like Magmortar, Pyroar and Typhlosion

Archeops:
- Very versatile: can be a hazard lead, Scarfer, physical wall breaker, mixed attacker, etc.
- Extremely fast, at Base 110 Speed
- Held back by its awful ability, Defeatist
- Able to run tons of moves, making it extremely hard to counter before you know all four of its moves

Slurpuff:
- Introduced this generation
- Mono-Fairy typing is great, gives it many setup opportunities
- Many viable sets; Belly Drum is the best, but offensive CM, bulky Cotton Guard + CM and Defensive sets are all viable
- Barren physical move pool, wide special one
- Mediocre speed before a boost; very weak before boosts

Spiritomb:
- The most viable spinblocker in XY NU, giving it a very valuable niche on Spikes-stacking teams
- Is not weak to Knock Off, which helps it wall most of the common Fighting-types
- A very useful Pursuit-trapper, meaning it can eliminate Psychic and Ghost-type Pokemon such as Mesprit and Haunter, as well as beating Cryogonal with ease
- The newly buffed Infiltrator ability lets it revenge foes behind a Substitute

Fire-Types:
- 3 new Fire-types: Magmortar, Pyroar, and Typhlosion
- Magmortar is an excellent mixed wallbreaker, able to get past Special walls like Dragalge and Lanturn with Earthquake and others with its incredible coverage
- Pyroar is a great Scarfer, but can also use other sets such as LO and Specs; its Normal-typing gives it an immunity to Ghost and a reliable STAB to fall back on.
- Typhlosion: Specs Eruption.

Shell Smashers:
- 3 new Shell Smash sweepers in XY NU: Omastar, Barbaracle and Crustle
- Omastar (Water / Rock) is specially-based, and gets excellent coverage moves in Ice Beam and Earth Power; however, it struggles to break past Water-types and is susceptible to priority without a White Herb, which weakens it. It can also be an effective lead.
- Barbaracle (Water / Rock) is new in XY, and gets excellent coverage as well as the new Tough Claws ability. It struggles to break past many defensive Pokemon, however, and faces competition from Feraligatr; at times, it can also be hard to set up Barbaracle.
- Crustle (Rock / Bug) is the least viable of the 3, though still a great Shell Smasher. It uses its unique typing and STAB combination, as well as Earthquake, to break down many offensive teams. A drawback to using it is its low speed before a boost, which leaves it outsped by many Scarfers; it also loses to most Fighting-types. Like Omastar, it can also be an effective lead, setting up both Stealth Rock and Spikes.

considering sections about electric-types and leads, but idk if that would make this too long / not be worth it
Zebraiken skylight Raseri

 

[skylight]

Zebraiken is free to approve anything under nu he feels is okay soooo

 

[jake]

Oh, okay.

Anyway, I think this could benefit from a little less "rehash the Pokemon's capabilities" and a little more "talk about how it performs in the metagame", if that makes sense. A lot of this information you've presented doesn't carry over well for people who are familiar with these Pokemon (ie they already know everything you have to talk about), and as such it doesn't really generate any appeal for anyone who is relatively experienced in NU. It's perfectly fine to cover these aspects, but it would definitely be worth it to delve in a little further and talk about the Pokemon's performance. For example, let's go over the Archeops one really quickly:

Archeops:
- Very versatile: can be a hazard lead, Scarfer, physical wall breaker, mixed attacker, etc.
- Extremely fast, at Base 110 Speed
- Held back by its awful ability, Defeatist
- Able to run tons of moves, making it extremely hard to counter before you know all four of its moves​

The versatile one is a good point, but you can cover literally everything listed here in a single sentence (example only, this is kinda bad and could be worded better etc): "Archeops is an incredibly versatile Pokemon thanks to its fantastic mixed attacking stats, wide movepool, and great Speed - its only drawback is its awful ability, Defeatist."

If you were planning to write a whole section on just that information I can cram into one sentence (an admittedly bad sentence), it'd be pretty barren and filled mostly with fluff and information that the reader can pull from other sources (ie our analyses, whenever we get 'em). Take this opportunity to step away from just the facts and really just talk about the Pokemon, since analyses don't truly give us the chance to do so. For example, talk about the /best/ sets Archeops can run, how it changes the metagame, best partners, lure sets. You can talk about bad sets, places to experiment, literally anything you can think of 'bout Archeops that isn't just the monotonous "look at this nice base 140 Attack, but Defeatist is bad". I'd love to have some unique thoughts on Archeops that don't just repeat the same old same old basic information that makes most "informative" Smog articles boring to read.

I really want to see a mix of pure information and some other engaging thoughts here, even if this takes a more opinionated turn. I'm willing to work with you to come up with things if you're struggling to think of anything.

(I'll approve this, btw)

 

[Bummer]

(I'll approve this, btw)

Alright then. Expulso , you should now have access to Article Workshop, where the articles are written and prepared for release. Here's some general advice to all new writers:

1) Get your stuff done on time. If there's ever a situation that comes up, talk with The Smog Staff, and we'll make accommodations. The key here is communication; we need to hear from you if something is up that will prevent you from meeting the deadline. Try to get your stuff done in two weeks if possible, in order to give the GP/HTML/art team time to get everything done.
2) Don't leak any of our stuff until the release happens. This includes art and any other information. If you ever want feedback on your work or have questions, you can join us in #thesmog on IRC (if you don't have IRC, you can PM me or another staffer on the forums and I'll give you a link).
If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask The Smog Staff. When you post your thread in the Article Workshop, you need to set labels for it. You'll need to set the issue's number too. For the tags that say WIP, Grammar, etc, those are the stages your article are in. Since you'll ideally be working on the article after posting your thread, mark it as WIP. When you finish, move it to Grammar and get it checked twice by other people. Afterward is the HTML stage and someone will put it into HTML code. Your article will eventually get art done for it and it'll be complete!

Welcome to the force!

 

[Expulso]

Thanks Bummer! I talked with Zebraiken on PS, an he gave me some helpful tips for the article; I'll implement them today or tomorrow.