Ara ara
sayonara
EDIT: I was nicely asked to submit a more viable counter as Stunfisk is undeniably niche and arguably unviable in the overall ORAS metagame, which is a fair request. I'll put my previous nomination in the following spoilertag in case anyone is wondering whether I might be onto something after all.
As for my fallback nomination, I'm gong to go ahead and call Diancie-Mega a counter to the described Tornadus-T set. It fits very nicely onto offensive teams and can come into Torn repeatedly while threatening it out with rock STAB.
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Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 8 Atk / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Hidden Power Fire / Earth Power
- Protect
Diancite can not be knocked off, so switching into that has very little drawback. U-Turn does pitiful damage as well, which leaves Hurricane as the strongest attacking option against Diancie, which is still a 4HKO against Diancie-Mega and 5HKO against pre-mega Diancie even with Diancie's negative SpD nature and 0 investment into bulk.
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Diancie: 51-60 (21.1 - 24.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Diancie-Mega: 66-78 (27.3 - 32.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Diancie itself has the means to severely damage Torn pre-Mega, to the point of having a favourable roll after Stealth Rocks damage, which Regenerator can not prevent. This means that Diancie doesn't have to mega evolve the first chance it gets, but there's a lot of upside to that due to the phenomenal offensive presence Mega-Diancie has, while also discouraging your opponent from using Status Moves due to Magic Bounce.
Post Mega-Evolution, the roll turns into a 100% OHKO.
8 Atk Diancie Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Tornadus-Therian: 258-306 (71.4 - 84.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
8 Atk Diancie-Mega Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Tornadus-Therian: 390-458 (108 - 126.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
This means that Diancie can switch into everything Torn throws at is multiple times and scare it out, while being very hard to switch into for a lot of teams.
Nominating this juicy Counter:
Stunfisk @ Air Balloon
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Scald
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
I was pondering a way to punish Torn's tendency to spam Knock off and U-Turn, and Static seemed like the most efficient way. Flame Body is inferior since Torn does hardly care about the damage it deals with its physical attacks most of the time and burn chip is being mittigated by Regenerator. Paralysis in turn really bites Torn, as it really wants to be speedy to do its part effectively. Statics really annoys a ton of other Pokémon in the Tier as well, as a lot of physical attackers at least partly rely on contact moves.
Stunfisk is actually the most suited Static mon in the generation, as it has surprisingly good bulk with 109/84/99 basestats, which make it bulkier than Ampharos and allow it to really bug the lot of contact-Users in the tier. Ground/Electric typing lets it resist both Stealth Rocks and Tornadus' STAB, turning Hurricane into a 6HKO after rocks without having to invest into special defense. While electric immunity does not help against Torn, it's something every team should have as Electric is one of the premier offensive types in the game and T-Wave spam is prominent in ORAS. Sharing weaknesses with LandoT is lame, though.
Discharge discourages Torn from Taunting in your face to prevent Rocks and compliments Static in the para-spreading compartment. Scald really annoys Ground types that want to switch into Discharge and is a busted move anyway. Stealth Rocks don't really need explanation, but Static potentially paralyzing opposing Spinners trying to get rid of them deserves mention. The last Move can be a number of things like Toxic/Yawn, to make Stunfisk spread a third Status, Rest for some recovery (Painsplit sadly sucks due to its huge HP Stat) or a coverage option like EQ/EP or Rock Slide with Relaxed Nature to deal a nice chunk to Volcarona. I considered Foul Play, but since it deals pitiful damage to Medichamp due to not applying Pure Power and to ZardX due to the latter having an absurd 111 (?!?) base defense, there doesn't really seem to be too much value in that.
Air Balloon was my Item of choice since I wanted to switch it in against Knock Off Torn anyway. Balloon allows it to counter lead Landorus and Excadrill. Rocky Helmet can be used as well, but in the Torn MU, getting one instance of Chip didn't really feel worthwhile. Lefties are of course a solid alternative if you're not planning on throwing Stunfisk into the first Knock Off.
I realize that Stunfisk is not tiered in the VR, but since the rule about that doesn't seem to be enforced anyway and Stunfisk seems to be designed to punish Torn while being far from useless against other Pokémon, I decided to try my luck anyway.
If it results in this nomination being invalid, I'll have to change to a more conventional mon, as I don't have the time to Ladder for Replays right now due to upcoming exams.
Stunfisk @ Air Balloon
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Scald
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
I was pondering a way to punish Torn's tendency to spam Knock off and U-Turn, and Static seemed like the most efficient way. Flame Body is inferior since Torn does hardly care about the damage it deals with its physical attacks most of the time and burn chip is being mittigated by Regenerator. Paralysis in turn really bites Torn, as it really wants to be speedy to do its part effectively. Statics really annoys a ton of other Pokémon in the Tier as well, as a lot of physical attackers at least partly rely on contact moves.
Stunfisk is actually the most suited Static mon in the generation, as it has surprisingly good bulk with 109/84/99 basestats, which make it bulkier than Ampharos and allow it to really bug the lot of contact-Users in the tier. Ground/Electric typing lets it resist both Stealth Rocks and Tornadus' STAB, turning Hurricane into a 6HKO after rocks without having to invest into special defense. While electric immunity does not help against Torn, it's something every team should have as Electric is one of the premier offensive types in the game and T-Wave spam is prominent in ORAS. Sharing weaknesses with LandoT is lame, though.
Discharge discourages Torn from Taunting in your face to prevent Rocks and compliments Static in the para-spreading compartment. Scald really annoys Ground types that want to switch into Discharge and is a busted move anyway. Stealth Rocks don't really need explanation, but Static potentially paralyzing opposing Spinners trying to get rid of them deserves mention. The last Move can be a number of things like Toxic/Yawn, to make Stunfisk spread a third Status, Rest for some recovery (Painsplit sadly sucks due to its huge HP Stat) or a coverage option like EQ/EP or Rock Slide with Relaxed Nature to deal a nice chunk to Volcarona. I considered Foul Play, but since it deals pitiful damage to Medichamp due to not applying Pure Power and to ZardX due to the latter having an absurd 111 (?!?) base defense, there doesn't really seem to be too much value in that.
Air Balloon was my Item of choice since I wanted to switch it in against Knock Off Torn anyway. Balloon allows it to counter lead Landorus and Excadrill. Rocky Helmet can be used as well, but in the Torn MU, getting one instance of Chip didn't really feel worthwhile. Lefties are of course a solid alternative if you're not planning on throwing Stunfisk into the first Knock Off.
I realize that Stunfisk is not tiered in the VR, but since the rule about that doesn't seem to be enforced anyway and Stunfisk seems to be designed to punish Torn while being far from useless against other Pokémon, I decided to try my luck anyway.
If it results in this nomination being invalid, I'll have to change to a more conventional mon, as I don't have the time to Ladder for Replays right now due to upcoming exams.
As for my fallback nomination, I'm gong to go ahead and call Diancie-Mega a counter to the described Tornadus-T set. It fits very nicely onto offensive teams and can come into Torn repeatedly while threatening it out with rock STAB.
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 8 Atk / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Hidden Power Fire / Earth Power
- Protect
Diancite can not be knocked off, so switching into that has very little drawback. U-Turn does pitiful damage as well, which leaves Hurricane as the strongest attacking option against Diancie, which is still a 4HKO against Diancie-Mega and 5HKO against pre-mega Diancie even with Diancie's negative SpD nature and 0 investment into bulk.
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Diancie: 51-60 (21.1 - 24.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO
0 SpA Tornadus-Therian Hurricane vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Diancie-Mega: 66-78 (27.3 - 32.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Diancie itself has the means to severely damage Torn pre-Mega, to the point of having a favourable roll after Stealth Rocks damage, which Regenerator can not prevent. This means that Diancie doesn't have to mega evolve the first chance it gets, but there's a lot of upside to that due to the phenomenal offensive presence Mega-Diancie has, while also discouraging your opponent from using Status Moves due to Magic Bounce.
Post Mega-Evolution, the roll turns into a 100% OHKO.
8 Atk Diancie Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Tornadus-Therian: 258-306 (71.4 - 84.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
8 Atk Diancie-Mega Diamond Storm vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Tornadus-Therian: 390-458 (108 - 126.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
This means that Diancie can switch into everything Torn throws at is multiple times and scare it out, while being very hard to switch into for a lot of teams.
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