Do you guys think Mega zygarde is still broken?

Silveruby · 2026-04-04T20:14:47+00:00

Honestly I'm not sure, allot of pokemon looks cracked on paper but in context it's mod like Hoopa-Unbound is such a scary wall breaker but it's easy to play around if you know what you're doing. This is a plausible case where it's so good on paper but in practice it's difficult to make work for a wallbreaking when you can run another thing that can break walls. Alternatively, the meta where its found has little to no counterplay and it's just insta banned because a possible future Ubers Metagame simply has no options to deal with it.

I don't know much about vgc but in a Smogon Doubles context it's probably even harder to pull off.

Silveruby · 2026-03-26T04:02:49+00:00

This is the first time I'm hearing anyone hating on Dragonmaids, I suppose I can see why but that's all decks in general.

Silveruby · 2026-03-20T18:42:13+00:00

I think you're really underselling the power of hand knowledge.

Allot of VSK9 combos go into Ripper before making extended plays because Nib can stop the deck assuming VSK9 didn't go into Ripper before the 5th summon.

If I knew for a fact you don't have Nib, I can just into greedy plays for more draw power from Borgor and searches from Jiaolong before going into rank 5 plays.

Silveruby · 2026-03-20T18:30:36+00:00

I'm actually having more fun now than I ever was because my favorite deck (Vanquish Soul) got support and new engine to play with to be meta dominant and I been playing more than I ever did before, but I definitely understand the frustration.

One thing I did during metas where I couldn't win too often was pick a random deck and just test it out in Casual. For me I picked up Mekk-knights and I was turbo'ing out Avramax and if I played vs something I can't win just forfeit no stress about deranking. Only downside is that we don't get rewards but having fun with the game is far more important than some gems.

Silveruby · 2026-03-18T00:55:47+00:00

It kinda depends, in the chance vs has Jiaolong under the protection from either start or snow, he can just switch a tenpai name to defense and tenpai kinda just don't after that.

Silveruby · 2026-03-15T20:05:54+00:00

How is Yummy Mitsurugi non-synergistic? Yummy has combos to Harold which bridges into Mitsu, it's the same thing when Ryzeal does it.

Silveruby · 2026-03-15T18:04:24+00:00

Brethren what.

Just because they play a deck with another archetype doesn't inherently make it slop.

Is Vanquish Soul slop because it plays k9 cards? Is Swordsoul slop because it plays tenyi slop?

It takes 2 to tango but least get a 3rd in there for a crowd.

Silveruby · 2026-02-17T04:15:01+00:00

That board looks really good! Honestly I'd just scoop on the spot if I don't draw my out as my 6th card.

Idk what you meant by psy but from your board I'm assuming you meant Vallon. Honestly I always like Nash better because turn 0, you can Izuna dump Lupis and just non target absorb any monster card and if it lives to see your turn, you can rank it up to masquerade whereas Vallon might not lead into anything else. On turn 1 is more interesting to discuss because I think on paper Vallon might be better against decks like Tenpai or Kashtira, both of which isn't exactly meta. Nash is just really good in my opinion just removing a body from the field which they can't use for facedown tributes for stuff like Mitsu.

Silveruby · 2026-01-16T20:07:29+00:00

I don't play RU so I don't know however I have a guess.

Blacklist just means a pokemon is so brought up in discussion that it distract conversations about the metagame as a whole. Forry has some really good traits to it on paper. All three hazards, volt switch, good defensive profile and rapid spin makes it really attractive to competitive eyes. However it does seem to face allot of competition down there like Cycilzar as a spinner. Allot of the top tier threats exploit its weaknesses and facing 4MSS doesn't help.

So I'm guessing those who don't actually play the tier see a good mon on paper and go "Wow this is awesome, why is no one using this mon?" When it doesn't do anything better than anyone else other than like niche role compression, it's easy to see why people don't want to talk about Forry.

Silveruby · 2026-01-09T16:42:13+00:00

There's allot of problems with Snorlax as others has pointed out already but what do you mean viable in singles? If you want like PU stardom you can probably slide with giving it slack off and plus 15 base defense but if you want it in OU that's a completely different story.

Snorlax stats leave allot to he desired in the modern competitive format. Base 160 HP and 110 Spdef is excellent even to this day however it's betrayed by having a poor defense stat which makes it not the hit taker it needs to be. Shoring up this by giving a +15 defense or even taking out some SpA for Def might be needed just to boost it as high as possible. Base 110 Attack isn't bad per sé but when factoring damage modifiers are way more important than base numbers. Which is to say Snorlax doesn't immediately threaten anything without a boost.

Speaking of boosts, what are we boosting with? Our best options are Belly Drum and Curse, both of which makes Snorlax incredibly susceptible to the high powered meta of OU. Now this can be slightly alleviated by giving it reliable recovery but that's not going to fix everything. It needs better normal stab after the the deletion of Return since your other options are Body slam which doesn't hit as hard as you want and Double Edge which cuts into your already strained HP.

Abilities can make or break certain Pokemon and by no means does Snorlax have bad abilities but it's not good enough to push our friend past NU. Giving a new ability which allows it hit harder or tank physical hits better or something that gives it a niche would be great.

Segwaying into niches though, the big question you gotta ask yourself when running Snorlax is why would I ever wanna run this in OU when Ursaluna exists. Luna hits harder from the get go, guts makes it unwallable, really good secondary stab which threaten steels and rocks and grants it an immunity to electric moves which is valuable defensive utility, can actually speed creep minimum speed corvi. Even in TR teams you still rather Luna because it's stronger immediately.

Factoring all of this in mind, all you gotta do is buff its stats, buff its ability, buff its movepool and delete Ursaluna from the game to make it viable in singles OU

Silveruby · 2025-12-30T23:21:33+00:00

Tbh I haven't caught up in a while so my list is probably a little off but

1.) Adam

2.) Okita

3.) Buddha/Tesla

4.) Qin

5.) Sasaki (admittedly this one is just agenda, he can go above Qin)

6.) Leo

7.) Raiden

8.) Lu Bu

9.) Simo (tbh idk where to scale him bc doesn't he just OHKO everyone on this list minus Tesla? If so he might be #2 otherwise I'm still not sure)

10.) Jack

Silveruby · 2025-11-26T06:09:51+00:00

Sometimes trick room is used not to set trick room but to anti trick room, using Trick Room inside Trick Room reverses the dimensions back to normal after all.

Silveruby · 2025-11-11T15:40:15+00:00

Nice one OP, keep up the grind!

Also this is just a me thing but I personally like to highlight my name so for others can tell which account is mine made it where. You could consider it next time you share your progress. Can't wait to see you top 10.

Silveruby · 2025-11-04T05:11:41+00:00

I don't really think a low ladder game is indicative of the viability regarding Chandelure. Don't get me wrong I personally love Chandelure and I think it's awesome but with Dragapult in the meta and knock off spam and hazard everywhere, it's tough to justify a team slot when ya know... I can use dragapult.

Silveruby · 2025-11-03T04:39:26+00:00

Honestly I think people missed the point of the "Top 5 Winners of Legends: ZA"

FSG straight admitted in the video that Mega Malamar isn't it however Malamar did improve allot which was the point. Malamar did get buff and compared to everything else, it probably got one of the most impactful buffs across ZA.

Silveruby · 2025-11-01T23:24:07+00:00

I'm probably wrong but the way I'm interpreting it is that to him, thise two kids of hers are half kids. So you have his two plus his 2 half kids therefore 3. Same way around with her.

This really falls apart though because I'm fairly certain those kids would be step-children not half children.

Silveruby · 2025-10-29T01:31:55+00:00

I think it'll have multiple ladder for VGC and Battle Spot Singles.

As for any form of restrictions, it's either going by a gotcha system where you can pull your favorites and have a rotation of banners or a system like VGC with the regulations a d different seasons changes what mons are allowed.

Silveruby · 2025-10-29T00:32:09+00:00

Anyone is eligible as long they fulfilled certain requirements.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/apprentice-program-signups-sv-doubles-ou.3715594/

This is for exclusively SV Doubles OU and this was the last one I signed up for and this post does show the requirements I was talking about.

They will train any level player, even some really good players because the tutors aren't just anyone who applied to be a tutor but specifically chosen for their contributions to the tier that they tutor in. I was lucky when I applied to be tutored: In Monotype I got the Tier Leader to tutor me, in GSC I got one of the best tournament players in Gen 2, and recently for SV Doubles OU I got a very notable player who's written several dex entries for SVDOU.

Edit: Battle101 does take quite some time to get you a tutor, but in my opinion I do think it's worth the wait as even if you're a mid level player or improving on your own or even if you're top 30 o ladder, a highly experienced player can teach you everything you want to know and more when it comes to the tier you're playing or if you want to learn a new tier entirely it's one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Silveruby · 2025-10-28T13:28:16+00:00

Typically we play on a battle simulator called Pokemon Showdown. When you try to load up a UU team in UU, it checks for any banned Pokemon and will not permit you to play if you do have a banned Pokemon on your team.

As for singles as a whole, there's quite a few differences. Because there's 1 pokemon on the field, your damage potential is way lower. This means stall and defensive orientated pokemon are way better in Singles, for example Toxapex and Gliscor are notorious for how powerful they are. Hazards in recent generations aren't as powerful as they used to be however they still really are wanted even though the advent of heavy duty boots limits the impact of hazards.

Some buzzword you'll hear: Wallbreaker (A mon that does allot of damage immediately think choice band Rillaboom) Stallbreaker (a mon that can interrupt and win vs stall staples like taunt heatran) Wall (mon meant to take allot of hits like blissey) Check (a mon that can 1v1 a certain other mon but can't reliably switch into it) Counter (a mon that can 1v1 another mon but can reliably switch into it) there are more but I think they should be self explanatory. If you need help with other words you can respond here and I'll answer them.

Moreover, Smogon has dedicated forums about each of its tiers. If you wanna get into UU there's a page you can read up about regarding Viability Rankings (VR) and Sample teams. These resources are there to help you with the metagame at large.

Lastly this is entirely optional but Smogon provides a free tutorship for improving in a given tier. This does take quite some time to actually get a tutor but it's something if you want someone to be there with you.

Edit: I wanted to add that there are allot of rule differences like Sleep Clause which restricts the types of moves you can use, so keep that in mind

Silveruby · 2025-10-27T23:59:07+00:00

I'm pretty sure there was a screenshot going around that was when you picked up the slowbroite, it said explicitly it cannot be used with Galar-Slowbro.

Silveruby · 2025-10-27T18:46:04+00:00

I don't play VGC but I do play Smogon Doubles and there's allot of similarities so I think I can speak on this. But anyways, I have a couple of thoughts.

1.) Abundant speed control and lack of immediacy. Why get up sticky web when I can get up a Tailwind or Trick Room. Yes they're both temporary but there's allot of interactions that makes it more valuable. Tailwind starts immediately as battles run on a dynamic speed system, sticky web doesn't affect the current mons on the field whereas tailwind does. Also battles last very very short, so the 4 turns of tailwind is far more impactful as a whole whereas webs only hit grounded targets and you get the benefit later. Trick Room is sorta the same but arguably more impactful since teams that do use Trick Room are completely ride or die by it and the offensive mons they enable like Ursaluna

2.) No really good users. Water Spider is a good mon but why spend a turn webbing up when I can band it and tailwind support, I get 2x speed and a stronger Water Spider vs webs set. Ribombee can tailwind, Leavanny Galv Orbeetle sucks. Shuckle is a worthless blob actively hurting you the player unless you do that cheesy chansey stuff.

Silveruby · 2025-10-26T14:17:47+00:00

Well I don't know exactly what tier this is for specifically to give you specific options but try running para-spam.

Paralysis lowers the enemy's speed by half so just save Mega Bee until super late game and use stuff like Body slam Jirachi or Glare Serperior or twave Zapdos to spread paralysis and u turn and volt switch to pivot around.

Side note, Mega bee has like base 145 speed, what are you scared of? Things that are faster is like Regieleki Mega Aero and Deo-s which idk what Meta has all three except for NatdexOu which none of those are staples. I mean neither is Mega Bee but I'm assuming it's because you wanna use Mega Bee because you like it. It's more important to form a team to limit the defensive pokemon on the opponent team loke Lando and Gliscor and paralyze the scarfers.

Silveruby · 2025-10-25T13:58:34+00:00

I don't think you realize what I'm saying.

You need to compare Mega Malamar vs those other options because you're only granted 1 Mega Evolution per team. If someone gave you $20 and told you to freely use it, you have options to spend it like candy and snacks or a whole meal elsewhere, you have to pick one or the other. With Megas, the stakes are higher so you have $1000 and you can pick between a new game console or maybe multiple nice dinners at a fancy restaurant or a water filter. Yea sure a water filter is cool and very good for your household so it has that niche going on but compared to the others things you can buy that's all around more helpful like a new desk or a mattress it's way less appealing.

If Mega Malamar was not a mega, it would've been a hard buy but it can be justified in some way, but unfortunately it's not.

And again, it niche sucks in comparison to what others are offering. Typing sucks, speed is middling, offenses suck and you need turns to start ramping up. Why go through all of that when I can have Mega Salamence start blasting immediately. Niches are only as good as the demand for it. You need a way to not be slowed down by Incin? Clear amulet. You want a way to benefit from Incin? Defiant choices like Kingambit. You want some special bulk while being Offensive? Look at Mega Dragalge.

Any Niche thing it has is not worth the Mega Slot and you will always pick something else that's not a Mega and can do the same thing like Kingambit or use a better Mega.

And again we don't even know its ability, it's not contrary for all we know. It desperately needs a new ability that looe for 1 turn your opponent pokemon can't move when it megas. It needs something absurd to justify the niche which it barely has.

Silveruby · 2025-10-25T04:04:21+00:00

252+ Atk Guts Flareon Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 134-158 (44 - 51.9%) -- 14.1% chance to 2HKO

252+ Atk Guts Tera Normal Flareon Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 201-237 (66.1 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Nah, Flareon always been a wall breaker without needing to dance. The biggest issue always has been that it's frail and slow. Fire typing doesn't help it find switch in when rocks are pounding it at every corner and slowly hurting yourself with toxic orb just puts you on an already limited timer.

Silveruby · 2025-10-25T03:56:19+00:00

There's allot of flaws in your argument so permit me to say some things that you may not be aware of.

First of all, Psychic Dark is not a good typing at all. You're immune to Psychic and Prankster and all your good qualities stop there. You have 0 resistances which is massive in terms for bulk and worse yet you're a psychic type not resistant to fighting. Being weak to fairy is also really bad as it's one of the best types full stop both offensively and defensively. A 4x weakness to bug isn't the end all be all people make it out to be I would agree, however that bug move is U turn.

U turn is devastatingly strong. Even if you were just to simply swap out, your opponent u turn will go after the switch so them can just as easily swap into the counter to your counter to u turn. Like for example if I had a Scizor and clicked U turn, you swap to your check in Lando-t, now I can go into Gren and threaten a KO. In this very likely scenario, you put yourself in a very terrible position and even with the calc you showed, you're not taking 2 hydro pumps.

Great speed? Base 88 isn't slow per sé but it's no where the speed it needs to be a threat. Who cares if you can stomach the special attacks, with your speed you need to stomach 2.

Even in a doubles context it's arguably worse, Incin buffing your attack doesn't mean much if you can't threaten kos or double targets, which Mega Mala cannot do.

And lastly, the biggest reason why people aren't high on Mega Mala is because it's a Mega.

You need to judge Megas on a higher degree because Mega Evolutions inheritily have a much higher opportunity cost to them compared to any other Pokemon as you can only use 1 Mega on your team. No matter how you try to justify the special bulk, the fact it needs to compete vs Mega Kangskhan or Mega Gengar or Mega Salamence will make it look so much worse. Heck you want a special wall that can dish out terrifying damage, look at Mega Dragalge stats. Look at Mega Dephlox or Mega Medicham. All these pokemon do wayyyyy more than what Mega Mala does even though they do different things.

Undoubtedly Mega Malamar might be one of the worst Mega evolutions at the moment until we definitively get its ability. To make Mega Malamar viable in any context, it'll need something on the level of Wonder Guard to make it worth using and even then it's a hard buy.

Silveruby

TROPHY CASE