At the start of NU, a few years back, many threats have been used in the tier. Some of the threats from the start of NU are still lurking throughout the tier, some have moved-up to LU, UU, or even OU. Sadly, other older NU pokemon have dropped into the depths of NU. Hell, pokemon like Scarf Sawk are barely ever seen anymore. In this case, it's due to it being outclassed by Primeape. In some other cases, the drop in usage could be due to a pokemon not fitting well in the metagame, like Articuno (who is now NEU.) Discuss pokemon or specific sets that you feel had a good niche in NU at somepoint, but are now rare in the tier. Feel free to posts sets, logs, etc. We'd like for the pokemon to still be NEU / NU, but if it moved up due to usage, but was really good in NU, you may bring it up. Spoiler OP redone by Finch to be more suited for discussion
Thread reopened, made some changes to the OP for it not to dwell upon one pokemon set (Scarf Sawk) and be more generalized to the whole metagame and the previous stages of it. Enjoy! [Note: Don't post threads without one (or more) tier leader's approval in the future.]
During the first month Primeape was released in NU, Scarf Sawk still was used more then CB. Basically if Scarf Sawk if was bad/worse then Scarf Primeape then why was Scarf Primeape not closer to #1 in usage if it could do everything that Scarf Sawk did but better if Sawk itself was #1 in usage for over a year? Primeape has been decreasing in usage ever since its inception while Sawk has just shifted from Scarf to CB but after a very long period. Even if you say Scarf Primeape > Scarf Sawk in usage statistics Scarf Sawk still is more used then Scarf Primeape. ~10000 recorded usage for Scarf Sawk compared to ~8000 Scarf Primeape. Basically Scarf Primeape is not the reason why Scarf Sawk fell in usage. Also, for people who are going to say you can't use usage statistics this is not a suspect thread this is about the -usage- of certain sets and that is why -usage-statistics are being used. Usage has nothing to do with how good/bad a pokemon is but it does have an impact on...usage. Hence my usage of usage statistics which are related to this. Spoiler also finch thanks for changing my original thread[/HIDE]
That doesn't explain why it shifted from Scarf to CB, as Scarf Mold Breaker Close Combat already let it OHKO all the Sturdy users and most levitate users excluding Levitate Misdreavous, who it doesn't beat as CB anyway. Also when Mold Breaker came out it still did not gain much usage compared to Sturdy as only ~10% of all Sawks were Mold Breaker in December.
took a while for people to realise mold breaker was released, and because mold breaker w/ choice band allows it to wall break a lot more efficiently (beating sturdy leads, hitting weezing) throwing a choice scarf on sawk is wasted potential imo, especially when primeape does it better.
simply, PO players are generally slow to adjust to these things. people will be stuck in their ways for a while, using the previously established sets. also, what's a better set doesn't necessarily correlate with the usage at a given time. hence why SD Samurott is the top used Samurott, for some reason (SD is good but LO Special is what makes Samurott such a huge threat in the tier)
Well, neither set is 'better' than the other, it depends on what team you have, special Samurott can be a great wall breaker and hazard preventer with Taunt, allowing another sweeper to do work. Whereas SD Samurott is good on hazard stacking teams to sweep mid-late game.
lol I always believe that its special before anything and then switching into a special wall gives it the time to SD... but then that just means special is more of a immediate threat; SD is easier to handle even with priority due to the better variety of physical walls in the tier unless you have a mantine or such for its special attacks. and about Sawk it was still the king for a lonnnng time and Primeape never reached its heights Why did people put Scarf Sawk on their team for whole year or so of time that caused it to be used so much? Does it still achieve the same goals that made it so popular or does Scarf Primeape achieve more then it ever did?
There wasn't really any other fighting type that could fill that role in NU, Sawk was strong and had sturdy to reliably revenge kill things and sweep late game (assuming you kept it intact) the rest were bulky attackers or just plain bad, Emboar was the only thing that I guess could compete, but that got outsped by every other scarfer. I'm not sure how it fares in todays metagame, probably not very well, but I think in its time scarf Sawk achieved far more than scarf Primeape will ever achieve, scarf ape just isn't strong enough and todays meta is dominated by bulky psychics and ghosts.
Regice @ Leftovers Trait: Clear Body EVs: 248 HP / 252 SAtk / 8 Spd Modest Nature (+SpA, -Atk) - Rest - Sleep Talk - Ice Beam - Thunderbolt rip regice. This thing was soo good during the early phases of BW nu, being able to stop many of the prominent specal attackers. However due to it's weakness to stealth rocks, lack of a spinner able to beat a ghost type besides from foresight wartortle, the increased amount of voltturners, the increase in wallbreakers, and the mass amount of fighting types, regices flagship set will never see usage. Its sad really cause it has fantastic special defense and a pretty solid 100 base spec attack with access to boltbeam, a rare sight to see in nu.