Let's talk about 4th gen

[Pink Reaper]

Metagross was the best Gen 4 lead bar none.

Which is honestly kind of unfortunate because Gross was also in contention for best Gen 4 pokemon overall as well. But like, leads being so important he was 100% better there than anywhere else.

Back when Wobb was OU legal the two most common leads were Dragon Dance 3 attacks Gyarados and Scarf Hypnosis Gengar. Encore trapping literally ****ed everything up especially if you're sitting on a Belly Pass Smeargle.

 

[Wave⁂]

Metagross was so good that the only things that could outspeed and always OHKO it with Fire moves through Occa were Specs Typhlosion, Camerupt, and Heatran. Mamoswine and Donphan were the only ones who could OHKO with Earthquake. But Metagross would switch out of them. And only a handful of Pokemon could OHKO with Earth Power. In retrospect, I probably could have used Specs Flygon, since many players would expect me to U-Turn right off the bat.

PS: No, I will never stop talking about my Specs Swampert

 

[Gates]

Scarf Hypnosis Gengar.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Why would anyone do this.

 

[OkamiBW]

I used to use Anti-lead Ttar and Stealth Rocks Mamoswine a bunch. :x

 

[Pink Reaper]

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Why would anyone do this.

Do you have any idea how long ago that was lol. That was back before platinum destroyed Hypnomiss, before Suicide Leads had become a thing and when people honestly attempted to make their lead a complete part of their team rather than just "5 pokemon + a lead"

basically the stupid ages

Edit: Swampert was a bad pokemon. Made worse by the fact that Breloom was the best pokemon in gen 4

 

[Gates]

Even before the Hypnosis nerf, how stupid do you have to be to put a status move (other than Baton Pass) on a choice set?

 

[UltiMario]

Even before the Hypnosis nerf, how stupid do you have to be to put a status move (other than Baton Pass) on a choice set?

You'd be surprised how common this is.

 

[Wave⁂]

Scarf Breloom is (was) a thing, IIRC

 

[Gates]

Even before the Hypnosis nerf, how stupid do you have to be to put a status move (other than Baton Pass) on a choice set?

Scarf Breloom is (was) a thing, IIRC

Oh yeah, sleep moves.

I also forgot that Scarf Darkrai was one of the most popular Ubers leads.

**** it's been too long since I've played this game.

 

[OkamiBW]

Plus, with Choice status moves, you can sometimes feign not having a choice set.

 

[Wave⁂]

Wouldn't work with Breloom, since they'd see no Poison Heal, but it could have worked for Gengar.

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

Gen 4 my fav lead was infernape, and i never used it but i liked machamp leads as well.

I didnt like gen 5 ou b/c of how dominant weather was, but i felt like gen 5 uu played much more like gen 4 ou (not sure if things have changed i havent played for a very long time)

 

[kirbyraeg]

I love gen 5 only because you can use so much stupid **** and it might work. Like SD Mawile, Mixed Tech Persian, and Cosmic Power Eviolite Staryu.

Ya this is about 4th gen though. Basically, Nidoking was a great anti-lead. So was Starmie. Stupid stuff in 4 was a lot less viable just because people figured out what was actually good already, though I will never forget trying SubCurse Gengar. It was a total *****.

 

[Wave⁂]

Wouldn't Dusknoir pull off that set better? The speed isn't that important, is it?

 

[kirbyraeg]

I guess he would under normal circumstances, but immunity to spikes and toxic/tspikes is pretty neat. and he can actually do damage rather than solely relying on Curse. And fast split/curse/shadow ball let him get the last laugh in situations where he's had his fun and is about to die.

there was a funny battle I had where it was my subcurse gar vs. a mono-attack resttalk curselax. that might have been the one moment where it was more useful than a normal gengar.

 

[Problem2]

Looking back, Gen 4 was a lot of fun. It ties with Gen 3 as my favorite generation. I think Gen 3 was more balanced, but Gen 4 had some more interesting teams that you could make.