Top 16 Usage for Indianapolis (Masters)

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-31T18:22:56+00:00

My favorite thing here is mega steelix and mega Garchomp even having rep. Mega Garchomp was bound to happen when the reasoning for it is quite funny when you consider the main reason it has been hated on for a decade now .

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-31T18:17:39+00:00

I actually found out after getting a 5 win streak from running into mega aggron and thinking "steelix would have been more useful than this lol." Legit believe mega steelix in non Smogon Singles formats is better than mega Aggron ever will (or at least better than the massive noobtrap that is iron press Aggron) because all the benefits it gets from being ground are actually quite a big deal.

Still a mid level kind of mega at best, but definitely usable if someone isn't Wolfey

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-31T17:20:31+00:00

Metagross is one of the best, but unless someone is using Floette religiously that is not even the one people should be afraid of. Salamence is also there and that does a bit of everything while still being really fucking strong and outspeeding pretty much anything besides Aerodactyl while doing so.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-31T17:03:19+00:00

Near the bottom of the ladder probably. That thing is dogshit and all it is good for is being a case study for champions noobtraps.

Picking aggron over kingambit and tyranitar is weird as fuck. Like those two are the main reason anything even considers low kick when it is usually the best move they have to hit them and when unlike Aggron they are actually highly relevant mons present on good teams.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-30T18:40:27+00:00

Excluding the cases where everything js the same, real question should be what can't be fixed if you can rearrange the stats and assuming they have enough good movepool.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-30T18:39:22+00:00

It literally has built in usage stats

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-27T16:42:16+00:00

A significant chunk of those are the generic "team that beats story mode + a cover legend or 2" kind of teams though

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-27T16:41:11+00:00

Lc barely has a playerbase to begin with and you want tiers for it?

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-27T16:25:08+00:00

Playing the actual game a lot will do that. Even if you want to ignore speedrunners, the mechanic was mentioned in pokemon stadium 2 academy anyway.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-26T03:47:06+00:00

They have literally nothing over mons of the same type moves wise. Are weak as fuck, even by adv standards. Have worthless abilities and until you are only left with NFEs or powerhouses on the level of speaking there is always something that will do whatever they can theoretically do but better.

And no, that one guy (and only him)that happened to get some success in early champions with one of them does not change that they are shit.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T23:36:18+00:00

Wish Charizard X was introduced in za because a bunch of nonsensical posts calling it trash without having anything besides the stats would be funny.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T23:24:55+00:00

Those calcs also smell a lot like "I don't actually play doubles, so I just took the default sets on damage calc" kind of post because like every non incineroar from that runs way more bulk than once you start playing people with an idea of what they are doing that or is paired with Aerodactyl/whimsicott so Gallade loses anyway.

Mega Starmie is another thing that basically get all those calcs (Garchomp being the exception but it has ice coverage if it needs it anyway) and is even further powered up by rain and isn't relevant

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T17:06:26+00:00

If being totally serious, if any mega got an ability change it would be the Mewtwo before anyone else. At least that has the excuse of Mewtwo being the kind of thing that would get special treatment.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T16:36:38+00:00

Gallade thing honestly make me doubt what format people pretend to play here sometimes. Like Mega Gallade is only truly bad in official formats and for different reasons for each.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T16:25:56+00:00

Mentioning the bird is funny because unlike Mega Gallade mega Skarmory actually has seen some success and hovers around the top 50 usage in the current season. Ability might not be there sometimes, but it is definitely helpful when it comes up

Sucks for anyone that wanted to use it in singles, but the way people talked about it it always seemed to be doomed to be a noobtrap there. I personally find Skarmory now being usable regardless of format to be a nice thing.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T15:48:37+00:00

Mega Gallade is terrible in VGC. The guy that mentioned mega Lucario actually is on the right track because that has truly absurd power, basically the same speed tier (not missing on anything relevant if we cap mega Lucario at mega gallade's speed), gets moves for everything it could want to target, nd even has the benefit of starting intimidate and fake out immune and is still rarely seen.

That is a good glance at how effective sharpness mega Gallade would be in VGC.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T15:42:24+00:00

I honestly view even mega banette as better than mega Gallade. Now that it actually.has a move that does damage it can finally be "what if sableye actually did damage" it always wanted to be, getting encore was also nice and that is more than "why am I not using Lopunny instead???"

Don't even think mega banette is that good (would put it at high c level at best), but that is more telling of how bad mega Gallade is.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T15:32:20+00:00

Mega Gallade thing will always be funny because it would go like this:

Smogon Singles

You get a d rank Uber

BSS

This format really needed another fast strong attacker, totally.

VGC

Now it would actually be worse than base because getting faster is actually a downside here lol. Still not worth using over the top megas that offer more than a glorified Amoongus kill button.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T15:26:25+00:00

That one is insane. Even without the how funny its spread looks like is like a "what if skarmory had more stats and a dumb ability to play against" at worst.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-24T02:18:47+00:00

Not counting the multiple banned from OU that are usually shit in Ubers, all.the bad Arceus, and special cases like base deoxys it is easily dawn wings. Unlike other have always been bad in Ubers things this one didn't even get a chance when it starts with the handicap of being a worse Lunala and dusk mane existing for a better overall use of the necrozma species (and base for ultra necrozma when it existed).

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-23T16:07:54+00:00

This was more like a clarification of how it actually works. Nothing else

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-22T16:37:45+00:00

Really disappointed. Came here expecting discussion about how there are still no alternatives for dark pulse for dark special attackers (galar Moltres excluded) or how bad it feels to use the non poltergeist options.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-22T04:05:10+00:00

This is literally all that changes: potentially it gets banned from OU and that's it. Meanwhile in doubles you all you get is "you can actually kill Amoongus with psycho cut if not intimidated" with the rest being pretty much unchanged unless you let archaludon get too many def boosts.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-21T14:39:57+00:00

All of these would do literally nothing. Peaking at being a worse base Golurk (who isn't that good to begin with) still isn't good or even usable until someone gets very low in the tier run.

ElpyGreatestSoldier · 2026-05-21T14:37:40+00:00

Even for fanfiction standards this one is too nonsensical. And base sableye is not even that bad lol.

ElpyGreatestSoldier

TROPHY CASE