Played a good amount to give some opinions about the new drops and some meta-shifts I have seen.
A very strong and positive addition to the tier. We now have a Rapid Spin user that doesn't completely blow allowing for more diversity in builds to support certain Pokemon or sets better, which was hard to do previously. Excadrill is much more threatening than Iron Treads thanks to SD allowing it to potentially get through Pokemon like Mandibuzz. Mold Breaker is so good with it letting you to deal with Washtom and Latios. It also has other uses like letting you OHKO Rockpon through Sturdy and beat Quagsire and Tera Skeledirge by ignoring Unaware. Sand Rush is also a decent alternative making it a scary cleaner, especially with LO. I do think you need to be running Rock Slide though over spin to get value out of your Sand turns and not be stonewalled by Zapdos. Good amount of diversity with standard SD or Spin/Rocks Lefties, SpD spreads, Sand Rush, Choice Scarf, and Lead. Easily the most impactful drop to me.
Skeledirge @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Water / Dark / Steel
EVs: 248 HP / 132 SpD / 128 Spe or EVs: 248 HP / 132 Def / 128 Spe
Calm / Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Torch Song
- Hex / Earth Power
- Will-O-Wisp
- Slack Off
Tried Skeledirge for a bit and I would say it is just okay. Not bad but also not insanely good. It is a pretty good check to stuff like Iron Moth and Iron Crown but both can muscle through it if the former is Tera Ground and the latter is under Psychic Terrain. For me, it feels a lot more Tera reliant to deal with the several boosting threats within the tier. Water felt nice to help with Keldeo, Greninja, and Azu. Dark helped on SpD sets to deal with Latios as Luster can be an issue + it helps with Deoxys and Crown under Terrain. Steel could probably be used for similar reasons while also resisting Draco. I tried Fairy but did not really like it aside from helping vs Chomp assuming you are Phys Def. All Tera types come with their downsides though of course. Nice addition to have back regardless.
Deoxys-Speed @ Life Orb
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 140 HP / 96 Atk / 252 SpA / 20 Spe
Rash Nature
- Psycho Boost
- Thunderbolt
- Knock Off
- Recover
So DeoS is a weird one. I don't think it is broken in the sense that we have no switches to it because we do. You can pivot around it through Pokemon like Slowking, Tinkaton, Metagross, Mandibuzz, etc. The biggest problem is that pretty much all of its pivots really hate having their item removed as they either lack recovery outside of Lefties or now become weak to hazards making dealing with it long-term very difficult. AV users like Crown, Torn, and Azu just no longer become pivots into it. Most DeoS right now are 4 Attacks mixed with LO on ladder, which I would say is probably the best set or at least variations of it anyway. I've personally been using the above set with Recover to give DeoS more staying potential to counteract hazards + LO. I found Thunderbolt to be the best coverage to hit Mandi, Slowking, Empo, AV Azu and Torn + neutral vs every other Steel bar Excadrill. Excadrill taking half from Psycho anyway if it's not SpD. The Spread OHKOs other no HP DeoS after Rocks with Knock then Speed for other DeoS too. Rest in bulk.
Another massive thing with DeoS is it is faster than everything in the tier with no Speed investment. This just makes it an insane revenge killer, usually being an absolute pain for offense to deal with tbh. Whether you want Speed investment solely comes down to what you might need to creep as it can go as far as being faster than +1 Chomp. Thankfully it is slower than Base 108 at +1 but I do think it forces you to run prio or one of those scarfers if you want to reliably deal with it as this Pokemon has the most freedom when it comes to creating an EV spread for it. You can go max Attack so Knock melts AV Crown or Slowking, bulk to potentially live priority better, etc.
The final big thing is set diversity. You have AoA, NP, Lead, Screens, and potentially more. I have seen Specs and honestly, I can see Scarf + Trick being fine. Personally, I will be a little surprised if DeoS hangs around long-term in the tier especially when people start optimizing and experimenting even more with it. It can easily swing defensive counterplay especially if it ends up revealing NP. I am fine with it not being quick banned yet but I don't think it will end up being the healthiest addition to the tier.
Thoughts on other stuff:
Feels really good with being one of the sturdier DeoS checks and disrupting Sand, which is very popular on the ladder right now.
Psychic terrain got better with DeoS and that just removes its weakness to priority. Very annoying playstyle to play around.
Webs can be super annoying with boots being used a little less but stop running Bee so you can keep them up vs Drill.
Lil bunny feasts on these Sand teams
Still, an insanely good mon that didn't really get worse. Drill limits Tera Elec but +1 Draco still does a lot. Skele can kinda sit on Tera Elec but it does not take Dracos or Luster well. DeoS is a bit annoying for the CM sets though with having a strong fast Knock Off.
Still fine but definitely feels worse with Drill dropping. Will probably fall off a little bit.
Can run AV more again with Drill coming down so it gets better
It sucks stop using the mon. So easy to prevent veil with faster Pokemon or just limiting the turns by removing Clay before it is set. Sand everywhere also just makes it feel worse. Grimm and DeoS are far better.