The History of Competitive "Pokémon": ORAS + SM Quiz

Answer: Mega Rayquaza

Mega Rayquaza's disgustingly absurd power would prove too much for the Uber tier, as it got banned less than two months after its inception. To demonstrate its power, after a Swords Dance boost (which was fairly easy to obtain, considering Mega Rayquaza had not too shabby 100/100/100 bulk) Dragon Ascent would, at worst, 2HKO everything not named Skarmory that was viable in Ubers. Are you thinking Skarmory could check this monster? Think again. Skarmory can take Dragon Ascent decently well, but gets absolutely obliterated by a +2 V Create, which was common for Mega Rayquaza to run.

This meant that Mega Rayquaza was not only un-counterable but actually completely un-checkable in Ubers. Even Lugia would be 2HKOed from full health by a +2 Dragon Ascent, meaning all it could do was Whirlwind Mega Rayquaza away to remove its boosts.

This, of course, only delayed the inevitable Mega Rayquaza sweep. This obvious overcentralization and ridiculous power made the decision to ban Mega Rayquaza easy.

Answer: Sableye

While Venusaur and Swampert have had a history of being helpful on stall builds, and their Mega Evolutions were helpful, no Mega in the game was as helpful to a stall build as Mega Sableye. Mega Sableye's Magic Bounce ability combined with its great bulk allowed it to completely shutdown utility Pokémon or bulkier, passive entry hazard setters, such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory. Because stall builds are easily pressured by entry hazards, Mega Sableye's ability to completely shut down the best of them single handedly made stall into the best playstyle in the tier. To give an idea of how centralizing Mega Sableye was, entry hazard setters in the tier were judged primarily by how they matched up against Mega Sableye.

This eventually led to it being banned on November 18, 2016, and sent to the Uber tier.

Answer: Primal Groudon

Groudon's Primal Reversion exploded onto the scene in "ORAS", and unlike its non Primal form, "P-Don", as it became nicknamed by the community, could do anything its trainer wanted it to do. Its sky high Base 180 Attack stat, tied for 2nd highest in the entire game and highest out of non Mega Evolutions, made a Double Dance set of Precipice Blades, Swords Dance, Rock Polish, and the user's choice of Stone Edge, Fire Punch, or Dragon Claw, the scariest physical sweeper in the entire tier.

Its often overlooked Base 150 Special Attack could still be put to use, as a Desolate Land boosted Fire Blast packed a serious punch behind it. If you were looking to take advantage of its godly immunity to Water and solid defensive typing, you could easily craft a Support set that was arguably P Don's best set, as its solid defensive stats, good defensive typing, access to Stealth Rock, and solid movepool allowed such a set to be incredibly effective at laying entry hazards and checking just about every threat in the tier, notably including behemoths such as Xerneas, Primal Kyogre, and Ho Oh.

Answer: Azelf

Neither Skarmory nor Shuckle are capable of doing anything at all to Mega Sableye, and are thus completely shut down by it. Garchomp can potentially muscle its way through Mega Sableye, but it's not a consistent enough option to be worth trying over Azelf. Azelf's access to Skill Swap means it can take away Magic Bounce from Mega Sableye, effortlessly setting Stealth Rock afterwards.

It should come as little surprise that Azelf's usage stats rose significantly during the rise of Mega Sableye and stall teams. Azelf wasn't the only suicide worth using, however, as Excadrill and Smeargle were also options worth considering.

Answer: Mega Absol

Despite being a somewhat mediocre pick in OU, Mega Camerupt found its way onto balanced builds or niche Trick Room teams as a wallbreaker. However, before long, Mega Charizard Y was found to outclass Mega Camerupt in many different ways, and Mega Camerupt was eventually cast aside in favor of it. Mega Salamence was actually so highly regarded in OU during its brief stay that it got banned, as it was ridiculously powerful in OU and was extremely centralizing during its time. Mega Altaria's base form was extremely underwhelming and not OU viable in the slightest, but its Mega form held its own in OU and then some; it virtually hard countered the Mega Charizards, which relieved the rest of the team significantly and removed the initial guessing game almost entirely, it could sweep with a run of the mill Dragon Dance set, and it could even stallbreak effectively with the famous "King DDD (Defensive Dragon Dance)" set. Mega Absol, on paper, would seem threatening with a high Base 150 Attack and Base 115 Speed stats, but its inability to wield a Life Orb or other boosting item combined with its inefficacy to set up a Swords Dance with its pathetic bulk meant that it never saw the light of day in OU, and was thus cast aside for other Pokémon who were better physical sweepers and notably didn't take up a Mega slot, such as Garchomp, Talonflame, Landorus-T, and Azumarill.

Answer: Lele

All four of the Tapus were more than capable of holding their own, but Lele was simply the best of the four. Psychic Terrain boasted an absurd amount of utility, making the lives of frailer offensive threats such as Greninja, Porygon Z, and Volcarona easier.

In fact, Psychic Terrain completely negated the consistency of priority based revenge killers such as Bisharp, Azumarill, and Dragonite, and brought about the rise of Choice Scarfers as revenge killers, with the most common ones becoming Gengar, Nihilego, and Latios. Tapu Lele could also take advantage of its own Terrain by employing a Choice Specs set, which became disgustingly powerful as a wallbreaker, or a Choice Scarf set to become a near infallible revenge killer or sweeper. Tapu Koko's Electric Terrain was still useful, however, in powering up the Electric type attacks of sweepers such as Xurkitree, or taking advantage of the Terrain itself with a powerful Choice Specs set. Tapu Fini quickly became a popular pick on stall builds, as its access to Defog, good matchup against most entry hazard setters, and Misty Terrain, which prevented status moves, became useful on stall builds, although Tapu Fini faced fierce competition from Zapdos as an entry hazard remover, as Zapdos boasted access to Roost and a better defensive typing that made it better suited in longer battles, notably stall mirror battles. Tapu Bulu was the oddball out here, but don't be deceived into thinking that it didn't carve a niche of its own; Grassy Terrain made Tapu Bulu a helpful ally for ground weak Pokémon such as Magearna and Heatran, giving them moderate protection from Earthquake and much needed passive recovery. Tapu Bulu could also wallbreak with its powerful Choice Band set.

A Choice Band boosted Wood Hammer was incredibly powerful, while a Choice Band boosted Horn Leech was a powerful move in addition to helping to keep Tapu Bulu healthy.

Answer: It is immune to the effects of Mold Breaker, Teravolt, and Terablaze

Although this difference is usually not useful, it can allow Lunala to better deal with Zekrom, Reshiram, and Excadrill than Lugia can. It has been speculated that the reason for this difference was to prevent Lunala from effectively countering itself with Moongeist Beam having a built in Mold Breaker effect.

Answer: A sturdy Xerneas check with reliable recovery that didn't take up an Arceus or Mega Evolution slot.

Access to Morning Sun, a resistance to Fairy, good special bulk, and a powerful Sunsteel Strike to hit back with allowed Solgaleo to become a consistent Xerneas switch in and check. Unfortunately, Solgaleo was weak to common Xerneas partners, such as Primal Groudon, Mega Gengar, and Yveltal, so it had to tread carefully as it switched in.

While Solgaleo's Z Splash set seems attractive on the surface, in practice, it's simply quite underwhelming, as Solgaleo's STAB typing are quite bad, it lacks the speed to sweep, and its coverage moves are not that great, especially when constrained by the need to run Splash as a move.

Answer: Horrible movepool

Necrozma's mono Psychic typing is bad, but was not the primary reason for its unviability; that would lie within it's utterly awful movepool. Necrozma had access to Psychic, Psyshock, Calm Mind, Moonlight, Stealth Rock, and Iron Defense for usable moves.

While access to an entry hazard, recovery, and a boosting move would make Necrozma seem threatening, the lack of ability to do anything in the slightest to any Dark type in the entire game was, to put it mildly, quite troubling in an OU tier full of prominent Dark types, such as Bisharp, Tyranitar, Weavile, and Hydreigon. To make matters worse, Necrozma could not even run Hidden Power Fighting to try to make up for this, as Necrozma's status as a legendary Pokémon meant that it was forced to have at least three perfect IVs, whereas Hidden Power Fighting required the user to have 30/31/31/30/30/30 IVs in order to access the move. Any attempt to even consider having Necrozma on an OU team would force the user to base the rest of their team around countering the Dark types Necrozma could not touch, and this effected team building so badly that better alternatives to Necrozma, and there were plenty, were frequently used.

Answer: Arceus-Ground

Arceus-Ghost was arguably a better Swords Dance sweeper than Extreme Killer, but the difference isn't so blatant that Ghostceus would've left Extreme Killer behind the way Groundceus did. Groundceus boasted amazing 2 move coverage between the EdgeQuake combo, which allowed it to run Recover to stay healthy and boost with Swords Dance more. Tectonic Rage coming off of Groundium Z based on Earthquake was quite powerful, OHKOing Primal Groudon and Shuca Berryless Dialga without a Swords Dance Boost, and OHKOing Shuca Berry Dialga and just about anything lacking a resistance to it with a Swords Dance boost. Stone Edge hit just about anything that could resist or be immune to Earthquake.

While the potency of Extreme Killer's STAB Extremespeed still cannot be overlooked, it simply wasn't enough to stand up to Groundceus' Swords Dance set.