not that impressive a peak, I'm mostly using it as an excuse to talk about the meta
I really think that the meta is in a perfectly fine spot at the moment. Take this with a grain of salt, as this may just be the AG player within me being numb to overpowered shit, but most of the undesireable parts of the meta (which I will discuss a bit) are quite manageable as is. There is an absolute ton of diversity and unique sets that exist and can be run, but a lot of people are only using a limited pool of sets and it's disappointing to see the potential of this format being squandered. To potentially help remedy this, I am going to discuss a few potent sets that I have seen far too little of, hopefully convincing someone to go experiment.
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People are overreacting to Regenerator. Regen spam is not unbreakable, not in the slightest, it's just that the teams people are using are too passive and allow regen spam too much breathing room. Regenerator cores are extremely beneficial for maintaining the stability of any team that is more offensively oriented, and there are plenty of methods that people can use to help deal with regen, from the plethora of very deadly breakers to very potent hazard stack (with Knock Off of course). Regen is only as broken as you let it be.
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If there was anything I had to say should go, it's Unburden, but I'm not quite as against it as others seem to be. As with Regenerator, I don't think people are really utilizing the counterplay that exists as well as they should. There is a distinct lack of people using fast scarfers and priority, despite having several incredible options for each. Either way, Unburden still has a negative effect on the meta, and I will not be sad if it does bite the dust.
Holy shit Volcarona is incredible. SFLO Volc is horrendously powerful, getting calcs that are frankly absurd (+1 252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Volcarona Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Goodra-Hisui [Slowking]: 187-222 (51.3 - 60.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO) This is an incredibly underrated set that can steal games in a single turn, with a
very limited pool of consistent defensive checks, essentially just Unaware Blissey and Flash Fire Corviknight. Luckily it is vulnerable to priority so offensive teams have consistent counterplay.
Speaking of priority, here's by far the most consistent user of it with Cinderace or Meowscarada fusion. Ice Spinner, Earthquake, and one of Thunder Punch or Fire Punch is perfect coverage, and allows Dragonite to pose a major threat to bulkier teams that can shrug off Extreme Speed by virtue of its coverage, which allows it to threaten most defensive mons, enabling you to fire off powerful banded attacks. Dragonite is incredible on any offensive team due to its abilty to keep pretty much every major threat to offense in check with its massively powerful Extreme Speed, OHKOing Volcarona and Hariyama after Sitrus Berry.
IT'S THE BOI! Technician Weavile is absolutely nuts, with Beat Up (assuming proper team comp) doing massive damage to pretty much anything that isn't a physically bulky resist, and Icicle Crash offering a great way to threaten Dark resists like Great Tusk. Technician Ice Shard is also, of course, very useful, and Assurance as your alternative to Beat Up in late game scenarios is great, with damage increasing by 33% (90 BP to 120) if the opponent switches in on Rocks, justifying its use over Bite. Weavile with Scyther fusion is also noteworthy for being one of, if not THE fastest meta relevant threat, meaning it is a great revenge killer and gets plenty of opportunities to throw out powerful attacks against slower attackers that it can OHKO.
Give it Tough Claws and go to town. Both Choice Band or SD work fine and it has an incredible speed tier that outruns almost everything. I'd prefer Gunk Shot over Dire Claw even with Tough Claws because it's still more powerful, and avoiding contact means it can hit Fluffy mons a lot harder, though it is entirely up to preference.
I feel like this is widely agreed to be the best mon in the metagame, and for very good reason. Regenerator sets are an incredible glue, and offensive sets are very dangerous, especially against offensive teams. We all know what it does by now, and we all know it's great.
Band Weavile Offense
Dragonite and Lando are insane revenge killers that soften up physical walls for Weavile to break with increased ease. Weak to cheesy Stamina Cresselia but otherwise very consistent.
SFLO Volcarona Screens
Barraskewda on Haxorus is for outspeeding SFLO Iron Moth.
When If Unburden gets banned you can instead run Sneasler on Haxorus to get the same threshold and better other stats, though you must find a replacement for Hariyama.
Not enough people have experimented with (Bulky) Offense in this meta yet, and it's a massive shame because the teams typically end up very cool and fun. I really hope this inspires some of you to experiment with BO, and I hope to see the fruits of your labors.
edit: just did the math, Beat Up's maximum base power on the Band Weavile team is 180.9, not factoring in Choice Band. Fucking ridiculous.
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post-DLC)
Hard walled unless they run Dark Pulse, which is completely useless against every other pokemon
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