About

General presentation

This website is designed to serve as a visual learning and teambuilding tool for the Smogon Overused tier of each generation. The idea is to provide a quick way to get into a tier and be familiar with its trends as fast as possible. When starting to play a new generation, the only ways to know how a Pokémon is played is either by facing it multiple times, going to the not very convenient Pokémon Showdown's usage stats pages or scrolling down the long Smogon Pokedex descriptions. And this can quickly become overwhelming.

Writing descriptions like the one on Smogon represents a tremendous amount of work and keeping them up to date is also a serious brain teaser. Each time a Pokémon is banned or unbanned, you've got to re-write everything to readapt it to the new metagame. For instance, when Latias was reintroduced in DPP OU, every pages had to be reworked to add mentions of it as it immediately became a top tier threat, and this can clearly takes months to do.

The main feature on the website is tables (like the one shown below) for each Pokémon that gathers its most common and best sets as well as its counters, best checks and ideal teammates ; and this for every generations where this Pokémon is playable and viable. Those tables have been built using both high ladder usage stats and high level Smogon tournaments stats like the Smogon Classic, World Cup and Smogon Premier League. Thus, the sets shown do not cover every existing options, but focus on the most susceptible to be seen at a high competitve level.

For each generation, you will also have access to :

• the complete banlist + a banlist history.
• the speed tiers at +0 (displaying +1 and +2 speeds is unnecessarily overloading the page and one can easily deduce +1 and +2 speeds from there).
• a list of moves used on at least one Pokémon in the metagame.
• a roles compendium.
• a selection of good teams to help you get a good start in the tier.

Hidden information in Pokémon's tables

Here is an example with the case of Tyranitar in ADV. Clicking on Tyranitar's abilities, items or moves will give you their effects. You can also easily navigate through tables of the same generation by simply clicking on the Pokémon in the counters, checks and teammates categories :

Tyranitar	Item	Ability	Nature	HP	Atk	Def	SpA	SpD	Spe	Moveset
HP : 100 Atk : 134 Def : 110 SpA : 95 SpD : 100 Spe : 61 x4 : x2 : x1/2 : x0 :		Sand Stream	Jolly		252		-	4	252+	- Dragon Dance - Rock Slide - Earthquake - HP Bug / HP Grass / Ice Beam / Taunt
			Adamant	248	252+		-		8	- Rock Slide - Earthquake - Focus Punch - HP Bug / HP Grass
			Modest	248	-		252+		8	- Crunch - Pursuit - Fire Blast / Flamethrower / Ice Beam - Brick Break / HP Grass / Roar
			Naive (Rash)		4		252(+)	-	252+	- Fire Blast - Ice Beam / Rock Slide - HP Grass - Brick Break
Common Counters
Unusual Counters
Checks - RK
Ideal Teammates
Back to ADV index >>

Now, if you are on PC, you can have access to much more information by hovering over some elements (you can test this out on the table above) :

• the Pokémon's base stats on its own sprite.
• the Pokémon's weaknesses and resistances on its type.
• the Pokémon's speed at +0 on its speed EVs. Speeds at +1 and +2 are displayed in the case of a Choice Scarf or speed boosting moves/ability user.

And most importantly :

• hovering over the counters will give you the minimal requirements so that the Pokémon can be considered as a true counter [this feature is only available in ADV and DPP tables at the moment]. It may only display a single move or sometimes the whole set with the item, ability, nature, EVs and full moveset, as needed, within a pool of viable elements. The point of this is not to play random things to create a counter from nowhere. This is obviously theorical, but it really helps understanding why "A" can counter "B". Bracketed elements (like in the case of Suicune, Heracross and Vaporeon) underline the fact that hax has a significant chance to prevent the Pokémon from countering, even though it should still win the 1v1 in most cases.
• hovering over the checks & RK will show you what advantages those Pokémon have against the Pokémon in question, in this very specific order : Types immunity and/or (double) resistances / Speed / Speed Tie / Wall / Wallbreak / Ability / Moves [this feature is only available in ADV tables at the moment].

Even though everything may evolve in a metagame, the most effective checks and counters are generally those on the left side, and more niche as you go on the right side. As regards the sets (and moves), it works pretty much the same : the most common are those listed on the top (from left to right for the moves).

Difference between Checks and Counters

Like this article on Smogon explains it pretty well, and to keep it as simple as possible, a check is a Pokémon able to come in on a safe switch (after a KO or after using a move like U-Turn or Volt Switch) and win the duel against the opposing Pokémon, while a counter can switch into any move that the opposing Pokémon may use and still be able to win the duel afterwards. This does not take into account hax odds for obvious reasons, these being critical hits and moves' secondary effects (paralysis, burn, flinch, confusion etc.). As for rolls, they should always be considered maximum against said check or counter, and minimum when said check or counter attacks.

If a Pokémon is listed as a counter in the table, this means that it exists at least one version of this Pokémon that is able to counter every presented sets. Of course, counters to a Pokémon that has a sleep inducing move (Hypnosis, Lovely Kiss, Sing, Sleep Powder, Spore) should only be considered if another member in the team has already been put to sleep. In other words, Sleep Clause is always considered activated. Moves like Explosion and Self Destruct has not been taken into account to establish the counters lists. From generation 3 onward, Unusual Counters category exaclty works like the Common Counters one, the only difference being that it displays low tiers Pokémon.

If a Pokémon is listed in the Checks - RK category, this means that it exists at least one version of this Pokémon that is a good check to at least one listed set, or that it is, in a way or another, a good Revenge Killer to this Pokémon. A Pokémon in this category can also, under some circumstances, be a counter of one (or several) sets.

Most common moves' pages

Clicking on each row in the Most common moves's pages will display the most common users of said moves in the metagame. Hovering over the rows will give you some information on what's new and what have been changed compared to the previous generation. Here are some examples with a few gen 8 moves :

Name	Cat.	Contact	Power	Accuracy	PP	Description/Effects
Body Press		x	80	100	16	Takes the user's Defense stat instead of its Attack stat into account for the damage calculation.
/
Thunderbolt			90	100	24	10% chance to paralyse the target.
/ //
Defog			-	-	24	Removes Entry Hazards on both sides of the field. Removes the terrain, the screens on the opposing side of the field and lowers the target's Evasion stat by 1 stage.
/
Rapid Spin		x	50	100	64	Boosts the user's Speed stat by 1 stage. Removes Spikes on the user's side only and frees it from the effect of Leech Seed.
/

To sum up :

• a green row means that the move is new in this generation.
• a grey row or box means that no changes occured.
• an orange box means that the name, the category, the fact that the moves makes contact or the effect changed.
• a green box means that a number (Power, Accuracy or PP) has been boosted.
• a red box means that a number (Power, Accuracy or PP) has been lowered.

If Pokémon are behind a "/", that means they are not much used in the metagame. If they are behind a "//", they are currently banned. Same thing applies for Pokémon that are behind "/" or "//" in the Roles Compendium's sections or in Ability.

How to Contact me?

You noticed a mistake? You've got a question? You found a broken link? You have some suggestions in order to improve the website? Feel free to reach me out on Overstrat's Discord server, or directly by sending me a PM : redshreder.

Since the website is constantly evolving, the Discord server is the right place to be if you want to be aware of new updates.