658Greninja’s Archetype Ranking
Last week I watched Pinkactoss’ team archetype ranking (great video btw, please check
it out if you have the chance.) I’m mentioning this cause I want to present my own takes on SV OU’s team styles. I’ve been working on this write-up before the Volc ban, but imo it did not impact the rankings since every archetype minus a couple benefits from Volcarona being booted.
View attachment 629622Standard Hyper Offense: 8/10
My opinion on HO is similar to Pinkacross’. It has remained one of the strongest playstyles in Gen 9 due to the level of offensive power creep and Tera. Offensive powerhouses like Moon, Valiant, Kingambit, Raging Bolt, and Darkrai, HO is very flexible in the way it can be built. The style has gotten worse due to the meta slowing down and matchups like Zama, Webs, and Prima being obnoxious. Plus HO teams can find themselves feeling flow-charty, making the style inconsistent and more difficult to pilot once taken to a higher level of play, but remains great in the current metagame.
View attachment 629623Webs: 6.5/10
The idea of webs is simple. Set up webs, keep them up with Gholdengo, and sweep with your offensive mons like Manaphy or Booster Tusk that would otherwise be too slow to sweep normally. It has great matchups into HO and the mons used are good enough on their own like Ghold to be good into other builds. However the style is slowly becoming more of a matchup fish. Boots Spam is more common, Knock Boots Tusk makes spinblocking with Ghold less trivial, Cinderace is an annoying mu, and lowered speed doesn’t protect you from priority. Webs as a style goes back and forth. Boots spam becomes the norm, then HO teams start tramping over them, then Webs ends up being a cteam vs HO, and then Balance/Boots Spam rises to check both.
View attachment 629624Trick Room: 2/10
Ursaluna isn’t enough to make this archetype worth it. Priority is common in this meta. Gambit can straight up 6-0 in team preview. Gliscor and Mola can click Protect to stall out TR turns. Sub-CM Prim is very bad for Trick Room, or just anything with Sub like Moth in general. It can do fine into certain HO builds, so I don’t think it is as bad as in Pinkacross’ ranking, but the style is incredibly inconsistent.
View attachment 629626Screens/Veil: 5.5/10
Screens is not the most consistent offensive archetype in SV OU, but it has its place in the current meta. It appreciates the rise of bulkier teams that often rely on trading or status to deal with these offensive threats thanks to mons like Hatterene, NP Darkrai, and Sub-CM Prima being scary for Balance teams. The main issue with the archetype is that common screen setters like Deo-S, Serp, Alolatales, and Pult are frail, so switch in opportunities are harder to grab. You often can’t sack your screen setters early unlike other HO builds with dedicated hazard leads like Glimm or Ribombee. Running screens also means Rocks are difficult to slot in. You can run both Rocks and screens on Deo-S, but it means you risk being a sitting duck vs a number of threats. Matchups like Pult and Cinder are also incredibly annoying. However I do not find it to be bad.
View attachment 629627Hazard Stack Hyper Offense: 6/10
Hazard Stack HO is a classic in SV OU. With Ghold along with a slot for Spikes and Rocks, you input offensive pressure with chip from hazards. It is rather inconsistent these days for a few reasons. There’s only 3-4 free slots as you need to fit in a rocker, spiker, and a spinblocker on the team. If they can successfully remove hazards with Cinder or Tusk, these teams can fall apart as they become less potent versions of standard HO without them. Boots Spam Balance/BO is relatively common. Plus most good players will hardly give you room to get up 3 layers of Spikes. Still, you can find some successful hazard stack HO builds on ladder or tours.
View attachment 629628Electric Terrain: 1/10
Pincurchin is a frail as shit mon with a great support movepool but terrible stats. Running E-Terrain to support the Future Paradoxes is not worth it. Better to just run them on a standard offense. It also loses hard to matchups like Rillaboom who comes in on Pincurchin for free and Tusk who can Ice Spinner your hard work away.
View attachment 629629Psychic Terrain: 2.5/10
Psychic Terrain Offense or Psyspam, is better, but by a hair. Indeedee is still mid, but rocks an ok speed tier and support options like Encore or Healing Wish. Plus the terrain itself is more valuable for blocking priority than Electric Terrain is for free Quark Drive boosts (and Alolan Midchu). It has had rare instances of taking a win, but its incredibly inconsistent and loaded with bad matchups. Psyspam struggles to break past Ting-Lu Balance teams, even with support from Hatt and Hawlucha. The gameplan with Psyspam is to keep terrain up and hazards out, which becomes hell if you run into a Samurott or Rillaboom. Psyspam often hard loses to Stall since they pack Tera Dark Blissey or Tera Steel Unaware Clod. It is an archetype you can’t make mistakes with, as you can lose for making even minor errors in your plays.
View attachment 629630Grassy Terrain: 7.5/10
Unlike Psyspam and E-Terrain, G-Terrain teams not only are more varied in how they are player, but its main setter is also not garbage, in fact its a strong breaker that role compresses Knock, speed control, and U-Turn. Grassy Terrain also benefits mons like Gambit, Tran, Garg, Bolt, G-Fire, Lucha, Hatt, Prima, Dirge, Tusk, Ghold, Zama, Wogre, etc. You could either build an offensive style Grassy Terrain with a couple Grassy Seed abusers, or a bulky offense team backed up by passive recovery.
View attachment 629631Misty Terrain: 3/10
Yes, this style exists and is ironically better than every Terrain besides Grassy. G-Weezing is rather decent, and as a Terrain setter it’s alright. Misty Terrain can support status weak mons like Kingambit, Moon, Dnite, R-Bolt, etc. Again though, having difficulties slotting in rocks and though the status immunity is nice, these sweepers can function fine without it.
View attachment 629632Standard Offense: 9/10
As stated by Pinkacross, Standard Offense makes use of slow and fast pivots alike to support powerful wallbreakers like Kyurem and Wogre. Pokemon like Court Change Cinderace and Lando-T are big contributors to the archetype’s success. Compared to Hyper Offense, this build has a stronger matchup into fatter teams while defensive backbones like Glowking, Tusk, and Lando provide flexibility into offense. It also makes the archetype less flowcharty than the standard HOs.
View attachment 629633Rain: 5/10
While Rain still has a couple showings since the Arch ban. Without the bridge, Rain does not reach the same heights it used to. The archetype does have good matchups into offense, but lacks in flexibility. Rain runs Pelipper, Barra, Raging Bolt, and Treads which only leaves room for 2 slots. Rillaboom is annoying, priority from Gambit or other strong threats is hard to play around, Prima can pick up a kill vs most Rain teams, any team with checks to both Bolt and Barra tend to give Rain a hard time, Wogre puts Barra in an awkward position, click CC and lose momentum or click your Water moves and lose momentum. You could slot in answers to them like the birds, your own Gambit, or Overqwil, but slots are limited on Rain.
View attachment 629634Sun: 6/10
Pinkacross rated Sun a 7.5/10, but I disagree about it being at that level. Sun is the best weather in the tier, with strong abusers like the Past Paradoxes and H-Lilligant and Torkoal being a decent check to Gambit, Dnite, etc. Sun has more flexibility in the builder than Rain. The Paradox Dogs are also still great outside Sun (besides Wake). The archetype still has a lot of holes that are frequently seen on these builds. Glowking is an infamous matchup that can pivot into Wake or Torkoal to reset the Sun, nearly everything on Sun hates Garg and it can Protect to stall out turns or Tera on an incoming Wake. Prima can pick up a kill vs Sun as they have few ways to OHKO or switch into it. Wogre makes clicking Hydro Steam a risk and pivoting around Wake easier. Booster mons like Valiant can outspeed and threaten everything under Sun. Glimmora messes with a lot of Sun builds, either by getting up rocks/tspikes or dealing big damage. We’ve also seen Balance teams adapt to CB G-Fire with Tera Water Knock Gliscor or G-Fire/Heatran to switch into Blitz. The archetype has other fundamental issues like lacking Ground immunes making Headlong Rush or EQ free to click, Sun also relies on double switches or stuff like Eject Button Hatt since they have few ways to generate momentum otherwise.
View attachment 629635Sand: 5/10
I don’t think Sand is as bad as Pinkacross says. Tyranitar is not great, but Knock, Ice Beam, and T-Wave with Sand chip is surprisingly annoying to switch into, even for Balance. Ttar + Balloon Drill also has solid matchups into Raging Bolt and some offensive builds. Sand is flexible enough to steer offensively or defensively and saw some minor success in SPL or OLT. Excadrill is kinda mid, I agree, Sand Rush is great, but it struggles to break past standard Balance teams with Gliscor, Dozo, Zama, Lando, Mola, Tusk, Corv, Skarm, etc and you often have to burn Tera to break them. I would personally just ditch running Sand for Drill all together and just going all-out with CB Ttar alongside Tusk to remove hazards who’s a much better mon.
View attachment 629636Standard Bulky Offense: 10/10
I might be biased since it is my favorite archetype, but BO teams rn have plenty of flexibility and is an equilibrium matchup. It can pack glue mons like Lando, AV Crown, or Glowking, progress for Balance like Wogre, Darkrai, Samu, or Prima, and anti-HO options like Pult, Gambit, R-Bolt, Dnite, Zama, etc. It can forgo running Boots Spam or Hazard Control entirely due to the offensive power it puts out. The archetype also has enough bulk to pivot into strong hits hence the name. A well-built BO team is incredibly good and satisfying to play.
View attachment 629637Balance: 10/10
BO might be my favorite, but Balance is the best archetype rn, mainly the classic 3 offensive mons/3 bulky walls builds. Balance is also the most flexible and diverse archetype, if it is in the tier, 90% of the time it fits on Balance. There are plenty of variations of these Balance teams, either spamming Boots, or running Tusk/Corv as hazard control. Even its worst matchups like Wogre, Darkrai, or HO can be accounted for through the plethora of teambuilding options Balance has in its disposal. You could also tweak your Balance teams for any matchup. Want to shred Stall? Mola + Ursaluna Balance. HO got your tongue? Run Dozo, Zama, or Ting-Lu. It sports a palette of great wincons like SD Gliscor, Kingambit, CM Primarina, DD G-Fire, and Curse Dondozo, etc. Pinkacross put three styles of Balance on his list, but imo they’re all equally good rn.
View attachment 629638Hazard Stack Semi Stall: 4.5/10
What makes Hazard Stack Balances good are not just that they can get up multiple layers, but also they have offensive pressure supporting it. Take that away and you’re left with mid. Meow Hazard Stack Semi Stalls lost their luster long ago, and they get overwhelmed fast before hazards can take effect. Pinkacross put it in 7.5/10, but imo it has too many bad matchups. Standard Stall prefers to have six sturdy walls while successful Hazard Stacking Balances sports a solid offensive mon or core. This archetype feels like a Frankenstein mish mesh of the two without the wings that keep them afloat.
View attachment 629639Standard Stall: 7/10
Most of Pinkacross’ takes in the video I agree with, but I think he massively downplayed Stall with his ranking. Stall is not only successful in tournaments, but we’ve seen several Stall teams top the ladder. Stall has more flexibility outside the typical Blissey/Dozo/Clod/Gliscor builds. Molt is an option that checks Gambit while punishing U-Turn with Flame Body, Amoonguss, Wo-Chien nicely cover Wogre while providing utility like Status, Knock, Worry Seed, etc. Wo-Chien in particular checks some bad matchups like SD Wogre, Future Sight, Hoopa-U, Gambit, Samu-H, etc. Toxapex hard counters most Prima variants while being good into other Fairies. Muk has seen usage as a Knock absorber with Sticky Hold and also doubles as a hard counter to Barb Clef while packing Knock Off itself. Muk notably checks Valiant which can trade a Knock or a kill vs Stall. Mirror Coat Mola can hardstop Volcanion who is often an insta-loss for Stall. As an example of Stall’s flexibility, El Stefano posted this creative
Stall team with three Defoggers including N-Gas Weezing meaning hazards are rarely staying up. It showcases Talonflame who’s criminal underrated on Stall, being a Defogger that beats Ghold, Flame Body being OP, and fast Wisp to cripple Tusk, Gambit, etc. These three Defoggers also allow the team to run Helmet on Mola, Lefties on Dozo, and Chansey over Blissey. It covers some notorious matchups for Stall like Black Glasses Kingambit, Knock + Hazard Stack, SD Wogre, Garg, Glowking, and Taunt Roaring Moon. There are other examples like Knexhawk’s infamous
Muk stall, but I’ve already made my point.
Final Ranking
10/10: Balance, Standard Bulky Offense
9/10: Standard Offense
8/10: Standard Hyper Offense
7.5/10: Grassy Terrain
7/10: Standard Stall
6.5/10: Webs
6/10: Hazard Stack Hyper Offense, Sun
5.5/10: Screens/Veil
5/10: Rain, Sand
4.5/10: Hazard Stack Semi Stall
3/10: Misty Terrain
2.5/10: Psychic Terrain
2/10: Trick Room
1/10: Electric Terrain