STABmons Crown Tundra Initial Thoughts

Returning/New Pokemon

Tapu Koko - Really glad this didn't get CC, keeps the check pool open enough to be worth keeping it, Drill/Ferro/Amoonguss/Heattom are all solid checks and voltblockers are close to mandatory anyway. Best sets are special, generally Rising Voltage/Volt Switch/Fleur Cannon/Roost, you can run that exact same set with either Boots or Specs (maybe even Shuca), since it can get Knocked by a few things it likes to switch in on. Nice addition to the meta because it also checks things like Torn, Specs Koko can also handle Thundys though Boots can struggle due to not doing enough, generally cool pokemon that fits with a lot of the other powerful things in the meta like Spikes and just breakers in general.

Tapu Lele - Interesting mon, can be stopped by scouting cores but not directly by ones involving Regen, usually something more like fat Steel + Dark, or Slowking + resists, or by fat Bulu/Fini with enough offensive pressure ig. Generally slower than most of the breakers I'm gonna talk about here so I think it can stay for now. Extra tip if you're feeling weak to Choiced Lele you might be able to afford Baneful Bunker on Pex or Amoonguss which may really cut into its opportunities depending on your team.

Tapu Fini - Not convinced by this mon ngl, feels like it has major 4MSS and lots of potential team clashes ESPECIALLY with ttar which is huge rn. Finds it difficult to make use of Moonlight in general, losing slots leaves it prone to just getting beaten down by things it should check like Zygarde.

Tapu Bulu - Really unsure of this one, could either be pretty cool or just kinda underwhelming and I'm not sure which. Its viability on teams might depend on how well it checks Zygarde, which in turn depends on what sets Zyg chooses to run. Could potentially be a nice check to other things like Lele but it may get stuck between Sap and actual coverage given that there's so many Flying types in the metagame.

Zygarde - Mostly finding it easiest to build with Spikes + Shore Up + Glare, DD sets are nice too usually with Toxic so that it can cripple checks and then get out of there. Having the option to use Shore Up is obviously an upgrade but in terms of offensive sets not running Sub makes it much harder to do damage against teams with status users. Sub sets should be explored too for that reason. Checking Zyg can be a bit awkward, no HP Ice makes the reliable pool of checks smaller, and some checks like Slowbro will be competing against mons that are generally easier to fit like Toxapex. Will need to keep watching this to gauge its building and in-game impact.

Aerodactyl - Not the most practical breaker right now, Rocks weak and Choice Item reliant in a meta which has good resists to both STABS, good Regen scouts, and Helmet users that can punish those STABS as well. DD sets just kinda have power issues in general, at least they can run Boots though.

Zapdos - Probably the best Defogger right now, HDB is a great buff to it and it can run pivoting sets while maintaining a reliable STAB in Oblivion Wing, fits well as a Defogger on teams that simultaneously want to take advantage of their own hazards, by choosing between maintaining momentum and defogging when it wants to. Good check to things like Lando, can be a sitting duck if it reveals Smack Down/Gravity so be careful in the builder.

Zapdos-Galar - Kinda power crept by the meta right now, Thundurus has a much better speed tier and typing as a Defiant user for the current meta, would generally use that instead.

Dragonite - Has an interesting ClangSoul set with Owing/Superpower/Roost, wouldn't use that outside of HO though. Other sets could be interesting, Scarf comes to mind as something that could be cool. Tried to build a team with Band Inner Focus, didn't quite pan out because Dnite doesn't check that much with that set and still needs heavy support to break due to again being a Banded mon.

Blaziken - Putting this here to acknowledge that I didn't forget about it, havent seen it have 0 opinion on as of right now.

Swampert - Significantly bulkier than Seismitoad in a meta where Water immunities aren't immediately needed for anything other than maybe rain. Can act as a fine choice of Ground type as well as a Heatran check/LandoZyg check if running Ice Beam.

Latis - Dragon Energy is cool, what's not so cool is the immunities to its STABS everywhere. Beats Regenerator mons and has good initial power/speed tier so it can probably work well with the right plays anyway.

Garchomp - TankChomp can be an alternative Spiker to Zyg, passive against Steel/Flyings but that can be fixed with things like Defiant Thundy. Speed tier and Helmet/Rough Skin chip allows it to be a softer check for random things like Banded Urshifu if you're taking a more offensive approach that can't afford Fat Regen users.

Heatran - Huge mon in the meta, one of two main Naganadel checks out there, good Rocker which is suddenly much more cool in a meta where every other Rocker you might naturally fit can also run Spikes, fire immunity to stop general strong Choiced fire moves running through your team. Also one of the best ways to take advantage of Sylveon, a mon well-known for not being passive.

Victini - Scarf Final Gambit + Trick seems workable, V-Create gives enough power to run bulky Scarf sets and switch them into stuff like Thundy to kill them. Definitely a cool niche option.

Torn-T - Honestly this seems to suffer from a lot of similar issues to what it suffered from last gen, not really checking meta threats and just not having enough power to be a consistent threat in the meta. Loses to Koko, (usually) loses to other Elecs or gets pivoted on by them, gets pivoted on by Pex etc with this mon not seeming to get many free opportunities in the first place that kinda sucks for its offensive capabilities. Would like to see some experimentation with NP Weather Ball paired with Ttar, NP Icy Wind with Expert Belt can help with the Thundys too

Thundurus-I - Faster Thundurus-T, escapes some big speed tiers like Lati/Blace, while also having the potential to mix it up and go physical. Defiant is a solid ability in a meta where so many mons get hazards. I'd like to keep an eye on this though, it feels somewhat handleable right now but when Owing is in the picture you just never know.

Thundurus-T - Slower Thundurus-I but it now has an Electric immmunity, how much use it'll make of this idk but it does give a Voltblocking option or a mon that can pivot on/chip Thundy-I depending on your set.

Lando-T - I think defensive sets kinda suck on this, doesn't have the slots or the moves in general to check what it needs to a lot of the time, U-turn + one move isn't enough to stop it from being huge bait to something important. Scarf however is very good, fits into teams p well, keeps up momentum nicely and has powerful STABs to clean with while being able to offensively check mons like Thundy with Edge.

Celesteela - Should be able to pull off some sets like Doom Desire in theory, unfortunately Doom Desire in general is a bit hard to build around with valid Steel resists as scouts.

Naganadel - This gets Spikes now and I completely forgot about this when building initially but I believe this is probably the best set. Specs Dragon Energy can snowball but NP and Specs both mandate solid support for getting Heatran and sometimes Ttar weakened, either via Spikes or Knock Off or both.

Blacephalon - Genuinely feels overshadowed by other breakers right now. All sets struggle with Ttar, most sets struggle with Pex + Ghost resist, speed tier isnt as good as some of the other breakers that have few answers. You can get some value out of Knocking Ttar with some very specific breaking teammates and Spikes etc etc but it's just not really worth in the builder. For now I wouldn't use it much, if a few things do end up being banned this should be much more viable though. Still has barely more than 2 checks in the whole meta, they just happen to be two of the most common things out there, so the argument for a ban is there.


Big Current Mons


Tyranitar - Should be the highest usage mon in this metagame easily. With the level of options it has now and the amount of things it checks it's easy to justify on so many teams, can fill a role setting either Rocks or Spikes, or just running 3 Attacks + Shore Up if those roles are already covered. Heavy-Duty Boots is a godsend for recovery sets, allowing it to take on a lot of the moves it wants to switch into reliably without worrying about opposing Spikes/Rocks etc. Overall just a complete package, non passive thanks to super dangerous Head Smash + Knock dual STABs, can get hazards up on its checks, and is just all around super useful providing many hugely important resistances, particularly Flying (Aero Brave Bird), Dark (CB Urshifu Wicked Blow), Ghost (Blacephalon), and Psychic (Lele Expanding Force). With the right intermediate pivots paired with it (Pex, Tran etc) all of these are super useful.

Toxapex - It's still Toxapex, just less dumb broken. We have a lot more breakers that properly pressure Pex trying to Flip Turn now, and Precipice Blades over EQ allows offensive grounds to OHKO Pex more often which is actually pretty big. Outside of that using it frees up building a lot since a ridiculous amount of the "good" breakers in this meta rely on Choiced items and Pex can switch in on most of them with impunity before switching out into the appropriate resist. As mentioned earlier the last slot can be things like Baneful Bunker if Pex feels like scouting Choiced Psychics trying to abuse it.

Sylveon - Best removal kinda, also best Zyg check when it comes to covering a lot of situations because it can run Heal Bell and Boomburst OHKOs through Sub. Try to pair with anything that can scout whether Zyg is Banded. Boomburst + good mixed bulk when investing in Defense helps it generally annoy teams spamming offensive threats as Sylv can 1v1 most of them or at least keep them in check. Super Heatran bait is the main weakness here, but otherwise this is something to fit on a lot of teams especially with the Defiant mons lurking to punish running Defog instead of Spin.

Ferrothorn - Still does the same thing, sets hazards and punishes physical attackers in general really hard. Good pokemon, make sure to carry a Ground with it so Koko doesn't Volt all over you.

Gengar - Can run Black Sludge/Spell Tag with NP Baneful Bunker, I think that is its best set because it really leans into Gengar's niches (Ghost breaker that breaks Ttar while being able to punish offensive checks like Scarfers and faster physical attackers). Need to see more of this but I don't think it's a priority quite yet (though the BP jump from Moongeist to Astral Barrage is actually a big deal when it comes to beating specially bulky Grounds and Toxapex).

Urshifu - I've talked about Regens and Dark resists for Band, I don't know how often those will be run for it but without that kind of core Urshifu can go in as a breaker, especially as it bypasses some other blanket physical checks like Def Lando. This mon is genuinely hard to fit on balances/bulky offenses right now though due to the abundance of faster breakers. However on HO No Retreat Urshifu is kinda busted, not sure how I feel about that move existing in the meta.

Amoonguss - Nice Regen user, beats Koko, can afford Bunker, not much else to say

Tangrowth - Also an ok Regen user but sorely misses HP Ice when trying to be a reliable Zyg check. I usually run Toxic on these and sometimes Aromatherapy too but that way it suffers from passivity issues. Still a decent mon on some comps, esp Drill Sand.

Slowbro - Final relevant Regen, carries some big weaknesses to Dark/Ghost which impede its scouting abilities. One of the best Zyg checks but it has to run Ice Beam for that which kinda causes some nasty 4MSS which is usuall best solved by dropping Future Sight.

Rotom-Heat - Solid Electric check that can pivot, make sure to pair it with good offensive threats because you won't switch into things like Thundy forever.

Corviknight - Just seems kinda passive :<

Obstagoon - Still holding on as a decent mon, mainly because it's a Dark and has a lot of utility options, not something you'll be fitting on more than like 5 percent of teams though.

Excadrill - Lefties Drill Sand is good, mostly because all you're actually building there is a team with Ttar and Drill which has its own utility as a Koko check that blocks Volt and speed control/removal. Has a little 4MSS when trying to pressure Lando/Heattom and maintain its overall utility, but it can be worked around with strong breaker partnerships.

Rotom-Wash - Decent Heatran/Lando check and can kinda do things with all its utility options, not a frontrunner in the meta by any means but a fairly customizable mon if you need to compress checking certain things and stuff like Defog or Aromatherapy. Survives better with its dual stab alone than Rotom-Heat does due to not being super Zyg bait.

Mimikyu - +4 Poltergeist kills Steels with Ada LO so should probably be run over Spectral Thief although the stat stealing will be missed, good pick for HO still which may be more viable in this meta than it has been so far this gen.

Mamoswine - Mentioned at the bottom because I obviously didn't really get a big reason to build with this until the DLC actually dropped, but holy shit Glacial Lance is strong. While LO isn't the most convenient item, I'm still really scared of this mon because there doesn't seem to be an actual good way to scout it. All of its moves are non-contact and therefore not punished by Helmet, Oblivious makes it immune to Intimidate, and Pblades usually straight up OHKOs pex. Glacial Lance can 2HKO standard Heattoms and it also gets Edge so that's just super annoying. Max Def Rotom-Wash seems to be the only properly good switchin. If this pans out how I expect it to right now, Mamo will be able to just kill things for free with one correct read which is incredibly scary, meanwhile most correct predictions from the opponent will be high risk low reward. Yucky mon but probably super fun too lol, maybe the Speed holds it back enough but Ice priority is super good too so idk.


Overall meta thoughts

A mixture of breakers largely relying on non Boots items, hazards being super well distributed, hazard control being buffed a little by Sylveon's existence, and the increased distribution of recovery freeing up many defensive mons to run Boots defines the meta imo. Offensively there's a lot of breakers, but those which are decently fast, form good pairings with Spikes, don't rely on Choiced items and have decent bulk/resistance to chip damage in general stand out as more consistent than the rest. On top of more things being able to exert hazard pressure, a lot of bulky mons such as Tyranitar and Sylveon also have high BP STAB moves which allow them to soft check a large portion of the metagame, and keep big offensive threats at bay. Regenerator is another decently-distributed tool that plays into a lot of the meta's dynamics, and the Regen mons help out in preventing the meta from becoming an unbalanced 50/50 based mess. Overall I've found STAB pretty fun to build in the last couple of weeks (I started before DLC release), and it's been nice to play too in the last few days. It'll be interesting to see how much of this holds true in the coming months, but for now these are my thoughts.