What's up guys, this is Pinkacross. For those of you who don't know me, I've been playing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet OU since day one, and now that the DLCs are complete and the meta is stabilizing, I'm ready to rank every archetype and give my thoughts on them. I'll be starting with most offensive to most defensive, but I'm going to go a little bit more in-depth than just the archetypes you see here on the screen.
I'll be ranking the archetype in its most common form, which I'll simply call Standard, and then... specifically ranking the subcategories within that archetype. For example, standard hyper offense may be a 6 out of 10, but trick room may be a 3 out of 10, or sticky web a 7 out of 10. Archetypes that I believe should be used frequently at a top level will be 7 and up. Archetypes that I think will have a place at a top level, but are perhaps difficult to build or generally less commonly successful will be from 5 to 6.5, and builds that I think are very... rarely good but still viable will be 4 to 4.5.
Anything in the 0 to 3.5 range is pretty terrible and I don't see it having much of a place in competitive Pokemon. I'll show the final ranking at the end once every archetype has been assigned a value from 0 to 10. I won't be able to cover every team archetype that has ever been considered an archetype though. For instance, Gravity Ground spam will not be considered in this video.
I also want to say that even if an archetype gets a low score, it doesn't make it unusable. Even typically bad archetypes have at least one or two successful teams, although some don't, but even if they don't, if it's your favorite, you know, don't give up. There's still a chance it could work, even if it commonly doesn't.
I'll be showing footage of me playing all of the archetypes I discuss. Most of the teams I built myself, but not all of them, and I will give credit where credit is due. All of the teams will be in the description if you're interested.
Without further ado, let's get right into it. Hyper Offense is a lot stronger in Gen 9 than previous generations. At times, especially after DLCs, it has been the strongest archetype.
As the meta stabilizes, HO is getting worse, but it has surprisingly maintained a respectable strength and unusual consistency in the current metagame. Even with the potential ban of Volcarona, HO has a lot of tools. Booster Energy Pokémon like Roaring Moon, Iron Valiant, Iron Moth, Gouging Fire, Raging Bolt, and more are perfect for HO since they don't mind the temporary nature of this incredibly powerful new item.
Terra has also given HO a lot more tools, leading to Pokémon like Dragonite, Volcarona, Iron Moth, Roaring Moon, and Superior being far more threatening than they would otherwise. HO also just got a lot of new toys with new strong sweepers like King Gambit, Dark Rai, and many Paradox Pokémon. That being said, HO still suffers from inconsistency. Stal teams beat most hyper offense, most HO is weak to priority, and due to the flowchart nature of how HO teams play, it's very difficult to outplay a bad matchup.
Overall, HO is a 7 out of 10 archetype. Stickyweb has been surprisingly viable in Gen 9 despite heavy duty boots usage being higher than ever. Goldengo is amazing on Stickyweb, but being both a fantastic abuser and the best removal blocker in the history of Pokemon.
The addition of Superior is also massive for Sticky Web teams. Having a Pokemon that can take advantage of Sticky Web, even if an opposing Cinderace court changes, adds a lot of consistency to this notoriously unreliable style of HO. Furthermore, booster energy users like Raging Bolt, Roaring Moon, and even Modest or Adamant Iron Valiant abuse Sticky Web extremely well.
Sticky Web is a 7 out of 10. about on par with standard HO. To put it simply, Trick Room sucks. Even with new toys like Ursa Luna and Terra, the metagame is against Trick Room.
There are a lot of reasons for this. Firstly, there's a ton of powerful priority. Rillaboom Grassy Glide, King Gambit Sucker Punch, Raging Bolt Thunderclap, and Dragonite Extreme Speed can significantly negate the benefit of inverting speed.
Furthermore, a lot of bulky Protect Pokémon can stall out Trick Room turns, Gliscor and Olimomola being notable examples. And on top of these struggles, Trick Room faces the same issues it always does in singles. Inverting speed for just 5 turns, counting the turn you set it, just isn't very good and the payoff is almost never worth it.
You can win with Trick Room, and maybe Semi Trick Room has serious potential, but you shouldn't really use Standard Trick Room in any serious setting. It's a 2 out of 10 archetype. Although hyper offense as a whole is quite good, screens in Aurora Vale face a lot more of an uphill battle. Infiltrator Dragapult is extremely popular and screens completely.
Encore Pokemon like Iron Valiant can lock sweepers into setup moves whether screens are up or not, especially the slower and bulkier Pokemon that screens teams often favor. While some teams use a mental herb as a counterplay option, this is not ideal and more often than not just leads to your sweeper not having a real item. Cinderace can also court change the screens and put your team in a really bad situation. Screens teams also have to give up entry hazards unless they want to run a screens lead and a hazard lead or they're forced to run something that tries to do both like screens plus Stealth Rock Deoxys Speed.
Typically when you try to run hazards and screens on a Pokemon it ends up doing neither very well. Certain sweepers can absolutely decimate teams with the help of screens, but you generally give up a lot and just don't gain enough to justify using screens. I give it a 4.5 out of 10. Hazard stack hyper-offense can be very effective. Using Goldengo or Dragapult as a spin blocker, these teams stack up spikes and stealth rock, often utilizing Samurott Hisui. These can be very solid teams, but they do face issues that standard H doesn't.
When using these types of teams, you need to give up at least one slot for hazard stacking. The only great one-slot option for Stealth Rock and Spikes is Tinglu, but if you want to reliably set hazards, you'll need two slots. Then you need to spare a slot for Gulldango or Dragapult to Spinblock, which are good Pokemon, but they don't always fit your team.
You end up with only three or four slots for Sweepers, as opposed to the HO standard of five. I would say this sacrifice can be worth it, but it's a slight weaker archetype overall. I give it a 6.5 out of 10. Electric terrain teams absolutely suck.
Conkurchin is a terrible Pokemon that is comically easy to take advantage of. Especially since losing rising voltage, the only thing it can really do is set hazards, and the two most common rapid spin users, Great Tusken and Unyielding, Treads easily spin on it and threaten to one-shot it. If you use Pinkurchin you start with a five Pokemon team.
But is it worth the boost it gives your other Pokemon? Absolutely not. Raging Bolt is the only rising voltage user so you're not getting any great power boost out of the electric terrain, just Quark Drive boosts. The freedom not to run booster energy does allow you to run other things, but this doesn't give your abusers enough strength to justify Pinkurchin.
On top of that, all it takes is a Rillaboom or a Great Tusk Ice Spinner to shut down your terrain entirely. Note that Pinkurchin lets both of these Pokemon in for free as well. Furthermore, you're going to have to give your opponent free terrain boosts as well. Iron Valiant, Moth, Treads, Hands, and Crown all see usage in OU and they're happy to get a free boost courtesy of your Pinkurchin. It's a 1 out of 10 archetype.
Psychic terrain teams suck for a lot of the same reasons electric terrain teams suck. They can fight back more than electric terrain teams though, and the psychic terrain can be abused more powerfully. Voltigeist, Deoxyspeed, Volcarona, and Armarouge can be fairly strong against the same type abusers.
Unfortunately, psychic terrain teams are perhaps the most inconsistent and matchup reliant teams on this entire archetype list. They often rely on focus sashes for setup and psychic terrain to block priority. This makes two Pokemon, two common Pokemon a near instant loss.
Samurott Hisui can set hazards on Hatterene, basically ruining every Psychic Terrain team, and Rillaboom can bypass the priority restriction by setting its own terrain and killing most of the sweepers on Psychic Terrain teams with Grassy Glide. Even if you switch in Volcarona and get a Lucky Burn, Rillaboom is still strong enough to ruin your day and it still has the ability to immediately deny your terrain. Unlike Electric Terrain though, Psychic Terrain teams can often apply enough pressure to destroy your terrain.
pressure to avoid Tusk Ice Spinner, and Psychic Terrain teams have some truly dominant matchups, even against good teams where there's not much your opponent can do. Overall, I give this playstyle a 3 out of 10. Before I continue, if you guys are enjoying the video, I'd really appreciate it if you would subscribe, like, and leave a comment. It helps out a lot. Grassy Terrain is by far the best of terrain teams. Rillaboom is also by far the most common terrain setter in the tier, so you probably won't have your terrain interfered with by another setter.
It's also a great Pokemon in its own right, unlike Pinkurchin and Nindidi. Rillaboom is a great terrain setter, but it's also a great terrain setter. a great addition to HO and it can be run alongside many Pokemon that benefit from Grassy Terrain. Hawlucha, Serperior, Heatran, Raging Bolt, various forms of Ogre Pawn, King Gambit, Gouging Fire, and more enjoy Grassy Terrain's support.
It's also the most diverse style of Terrain team. Because Rillaboom actually fulfills important defensive and offensive roles, Grassy terrain teams have a lot more variation than psychic and electric terrain teams. The freedom given to you and the fact that Rillaboom is just generally a solid Pokemon makes full grassy terrain HO and semi-terrain HO teams viable and solid. I give it a 7 out of 10, on par with standard HO and Sticky Web. Misty Terrain is hardly a real archetype, but I included the others so I figured I'd include this one too.
The idea is to block status moves like Toxic Thunderwave and Will-o-Wisp. This makes Pokemon like King Gambit, Volcarona, and Raging Bolt popular. choices.
Is it worth using a Misty Surge Weezing to achieve this? No, it's not. Still, with strong sweepers and Hawlucha as an option, Misty Terrain teams can get wins.
Your team will probably just end up getting carried by... by Hawlucha, King Gambit, and Volcarona, sweepers that would probably perform better on another team, but they still can be pretty busted on Misty Terrain as well, and a Terra Fairy King Gambit with the inability to get burned is pretty nasty. I give this archetype a 3 out of 10. Standard offense is a very solid archetype in the current metagame. Compared to other archetypes, it is quite diverse and has a lot of options to put pressure on the opponent's team.
Something I want to clarify before we continue is that there is no solid line between offense and defense. offense and bulky offense, and bulky offense and balance. It's more so a gradual scale.
The general game plan of all these styles is to use bulkier Pokemon to enable more offensive Pokemon to break and win. The main difference is that where a bulky balance is, it's more of a gradual scale. balance would emphasize the bulky support to play the long game and sacrifice some offensive firepower, offense would have fewer bulky Pokemon and a more capable offensive core to end the game faster and break before being broken. With incredibly powerful breakers like Ogre Pond Wellspring, Raging Bolt, Kyurem, Darkrai, Rillaboom, and more, there's no shortage of tools that offense can use to end the game fast. Since games are faster, you can also often afford to skip removal and just use core change Cinderace.
This flexibility is very important in the game, and it's a great way to is a benefit that bulkier teams typically cannot afford. Although offense can be difficult to build, and it takes precision to play, it is a very solid play style with a lot of options. I give it an eight out of 10. Since losing Archeladon, rain has fallen off a lot.
It faces great struggles in the current metagame. Ogre Pond Wellspring can absorb water attacks and use your own rain against you. Alamomola can wall Barraskewda and Basculegion and flip turnout. Galarian Slowking can spam chilly reception and prevent you from getting a lot out of rain. Rillaboom can threaten your swift swim users and one-shot Pelipper with Woodhammer.
And on top of it all, Terra hurt rain a lot. Water and Dragon are some of the most most popular Terra types, and a well-timed Terra Water can ruin a Rain user's day. Rain still does have strong abusers like Raging Bolt, Beraskewda, and Tornadus, but since losing Archelodon it has become more and more difficult to justify using this playstyle with so many hurdles to overcome. I give it a 5 out of 10. For the first generation in a while, Sun is the best weather in the current metagame.
Torkoal is not a particularly strong Pokemon, but it can stop some common sweepers like Iron Valiant and King Gambit, as well as providing Stealth Rock and Rapid Spin support. Even though While Corkoal isn't great, Sun abusers get a lot out of Sun. Unlike Cork drive Pokemon on electric terrain, Protosynthesis Pokemon on Sun often take advantage of the power boost Sun provides as well as the Protosynthesis boost. Gouging Fire and Walking Wake are the two most powerful Pokemon on the list. two examples of this.
Even Sun abusers that just take advantage of one or the other do so very well. Protosynthesis Great Tusk and Roaring Moon are fantastic Sun abusers. And on the non-protosynthesis side, Hisuian Lilligant, Venusaur, and Heatran have also seen great success on Sun teams. Sun does have its challenges though.
Chilly reception from Glow King can cause major problems for Sun, especially with how easy it is for Glow King to switch in on Torkoal. Hazards are also a huge issue for Sun. Sun, meaning many Sun teams have to run Hatterene and or Great Tusk, and often Sun teams that just opt to run Great Tusk will still be quite weak to hazards. Sun can struggle to fit important type resistances such as Ghost and Dragon, given how many slots Sun teams are forced to give up to manage hazards and run certain strong sweepers.
Lastly, Sun does end up giving a lot of free protosynthesis boosts to your opponent's run, notably Roaring Moon, Raging Bolt, Great Tusk, and Gouging Fist. fire. Still, I give Sun a 7.5 out of 10. To use Sand, you have to run Tyranitar and Excadrill.
So already we have two Pokemon that aren't that great. Excadrill can dominate certain matchups, but it struggles to break common walls like Corviknight, Skarmory, and Gliscor. Even with tech like Air Balloon and Terra Ghost to get past Body Press, Excadrill is extremely vulnerable to priority.
Things like Rillaboom, Grassy Glide, and King Gambit Sucker Punch. Excadrill is also something of a Terra Hog. It's almost never going to sweep without it.
However, Excadrill with Sand does provide a nice benefit of being perhaps the best Pokémon in OU at actually getting hazards removed, allowing Sand teams to run Spikes and Stealth Rock but not spam Heavy Duty Boots themselves. Still, Sand faces the fundamental issue of utilizing Tyranitar and Excadrill. It's barely viable, I'd say, but just barely. I give it a 4 out of 10. Bulk Offense is very similar to Offense, and it is strong for a lot of the same reasons Offense is. The primary difference between these two styles is that Offense tries to break the opponent using powerful, faster Pokémon, and Bulk Offense aims to break the opponent using powerful, bulkier Pokémon.
Both styles can and should run speedy and bulkier breakers, but the different emphasis is what differentiates these two playstyles. Like offense, bulky offense is quite diverse and has a lot of strong options to break the opponent. Pokemon like Zamazenta, Raging Bolt, and Rillaboom are bulky offense staples.
Lots of successful bulky offense teams have been seen in tournament and in ladder, and I expect this archetype to continue to flourish. I give it an 8.5 out of 10. Balance is a classic. It uses bulky support and offensive pressure, roughly in equal measure to win the game.
Often utilizing walls, especially those with pivots, like Galarian Slowking, Olimomola, Corviknight, and Gliscor, balanced teams are able to support their frail offensive powerhouses with these bulky cores. Balance has no significant weaknesses, although it is sometimes known to be overwhelmed by hyper-offense. Balanced teams can look extremely different, and it is often known as the most diverse archetype.
You'll rarely find a generation where balance isn't successful and Gen 9 is no exception. I give it an 8 out of 10. Standard bulky balance teams emphasize bulky support and playing the long game more than balanced teams do. These teams often have an unaware Pokemon or strong priority paired with at least one relatively strong or fast Pokemon to prevent being too vulnerable to sweepers and breakers. Sacrificing some offensive power allows bulky balance teams to run some of the truly incredible walls in the tier, like Skeledurge, Claude's Ire, Corviknight, Mandibuzz, Garkon Ackle, Olimomola, and more. I believe this slight lean toward bulk puts bulky offense just a bit ahead of balance since there are so many strong and threatening sweepers and breakers in the current metagame.
I give standard bulky balance an 8.5 out of 10. Bulky Balance Hazard Stack is a flexible archetype in which Pokémon you choose to use, but the general roles of the team follow a relatively strict format. You need a Spike Setter, a Stealth Rock Setter, Knock Off Absorbers, a Rapid Spin Blocker, and something that can use Knock Off while applying pressure to common Knock Off Absorbers. The point of this is to remove heavy duty boots from your opponent's team so that you can break more effectively and utilize your hazards.
Spike setters are typically Claude's Dire, Gliscor, Skarmory, and Tinglu. Knock-off absorbers are typically Skarmory, Corviknight, Glafable, and Gliscor. Great examples of what Pokemon remove heavy-duty boots while pressuring common knock absorbers are Swords Dance Gliscor, Mixed Iron Valiant, Meowth Skirata, and Weavile. There are a lot more that can work though.
This archetype doesn't really have a big weakness. Hazards are extremely powerful and removal is very limited. Even Cinderace Court Change isn't a big issue for these teams. They can just set hazards again, and they don't mind full hazards since these teams spam heavy duty boots themselves.
I give this playstyle a 10 out of 10. Semi-stall is pretty much always hazard stack. It has a lot of similarities with bulky balance hazard stack, but it generally takes the bulk aspect too far. The best hazard stack teams can apply sufficient offensive pressure when needed so they don't get overwhelmed before full hazards can be established and the knocking off of heavy duty boots can begin. Semi stall is much more likely to be overwhelmed in this way than bulky balance hazard stack and it struggles to play after losing a pokemon or two.
It's still a strong archetype but its general inferiority to bulky balance hazard stack Explains why the only sample of this archetype I could find to record this replay is months old. I give it a 7.5 out of 10. Standard stall is not good at all. It does have some very strong matchups into unprepared teams and even some well-built hyper-offense teams, but almost every archetype can prepare for stall with relative ease. Playing stall is without a doubt the biggest matchup fish of any archetype, except maybe Psychic Terrain. If your opponent has a team that can beat stall, you're probably going to lose and there's not much you can do about it.
If they didn't prepare for stall, you'll likely win and there's not much they can do about it. Unfortunately for stall players, it is very easy to prepare for stall. Sun can run Proto Special Attack Walking Wake, Hyper Offense can run Psyshock, Goldengo, and Taunt, Roaring Moon, Hazard stack teams can slowly dismantle stall, dual status can Pulse can whittle down at walls while entering on Blissey for free. Now Stahl does have answers for all of this, but it has to pick. Run Terra Dark Blissey to avoid Psy Shock Goldengo, or Terra Water to deal with the Walking Wake, or Terra Fairy for Hex Dart's Dragapult.
It's a futile war of patching up holes just to see more holes open up. Stahl is extremely inconsistent, and prepared players will beat it far more often than not. Stall still has a place in the tournament scene though as it can decimate unprepared players and make preparing against you, even with a scout, a much scarier task.
I give this archetype a 5.5 out of 10. Here's the final ranking. I hope you all enjoyed the video and if you did I would really appreciate a subscription. Also if you're interested I offer one-on-one tutoring if you want to improve your competitive Pokemon skills.
Have a great day! and I'll see you guys next time.