A1 started off as Mambo’s, a well-respected member and 35 Champion, idea of a 35 meta where each mon is individually picked out to create a balanced meta where each type is represented and with the plan of all 35 mons being perfect and viable, however for now I will just be sticking to the meta A1, the first perfect 35 meta. 

A1 begun with a few different rerolls since some mons like Donphan didn’t fit the feel of the meta then and so were replaced by more appropriate mons like Sandslash in this instance. Very quickly players found out what the top threats of the tier were, being Cofagrigus, Golurk and Archeops. Cofagrigus was consistently the best and most used with a usage rate of 46% across the whole tour and was so dominant due to its shear bulk which was able to wall of all physical attackers and preference to run no item to further wall the meta’s knock off users and the powerful Golurk poltergeist. Cofagrigus also had a means of healing itself in pain split which punishes the opponent using healthy pokemon, along with its utility options like toxic spikes and willo-wisp or offensive options in body press which allows Cofagrigus to spinblock and punish the meta’s best spinner Komala along with hex combined with status which allows it to deal consistently strong damage, all together these make any chance of breaking through this monster all but futile. As for Golurk, it had a 31% usage rate due the extreme power and coverage it has access to which cripples unprepared opponents, the combination of life orb poltergeist, stone edge, thunder punch, earthquake and dynamic punch makes it near impossible to switch into, with the exception of itemless Cofagrigus which was almost forced onto many teams or Golurk would shred their defences. Other Golurk sets which were used was klutz trick assault vest onto mainly Cofagrigus, mawile or even mantine, another common set was bulky rocks Golurk which will often get them up for free since switching to Cofagrigus was extremely common. For Archeops though, the standard set began to change as the meta developed, starting off with a physical LO or sash to take advantage of its high attack and speed however with the threat of Cofagrigus being able to take these hits extremely well, a special power herb meteor beam archeops became the standard which deals almost 80% minimum to max hp max def Cofagrigus, making Archeops have a much better matchup into the physical wall which is apparent due to Archeops’s 41% usage rate. 

To combat these 3 big threats, players developed multiple offensive strategies to break through them such as fairy feather wall breaking Shiinotic which the combination of powerful moonblasts, spore and strength sap made it easy to break Cofagrigus and punish most switch ins, and even effect spore being able to get a clutch status on physical attackers made it even more threatening, another set i want to highlight was the hex Golurk set i used in the finals, which with my investment and LO allowed me to surprise OHKO Cofagrigus from full health when it was afflicted by a status like Aurorus thunder wave or Cofagrigus toxic spikes. As for Golurk checks pursuit Silvally-Dark was used to punish the opponent trying to preserve it for later. While LO bullet punch medicham could easily kill Archeops after chip or rocks, which either got rid of the threat entirely or force it out without power herb now. Honourable mentions for sets used were sweeper vally, with swords dance and flame charge, iron defence body press Cofagrigus, Chemfruits curse Kanghaskan, Quacklords swagger mirror herb Mr Rime, swords dance Sandslash, focus sash kadabra which with magic guard always ensured sash was intact and high-power psychic dazzling gleam and shadow balls hit most the meta and finally throat spray refrigerate hyper voice Aurorus which if set up with rock polish can easily sweep. 

Defensive strategies to mitigate the effectiveness of these threats include shuca berry Camerupt which with specific EV’s can either take an archeops meteor beam for a stone edge to put it into defeatist or getting a crucial willo wisp to neutralise the Golurk. Specially defensive Mantine could threaten toxic into Cofagrigus and defog hazards, along with also beating most special Archeops after the power herb had already been used, Assault vest Komala for Archeops, being able to take the strong special hits and fire back with strong returns and finally shuca berry/ air balloon skuntank to willo wisp or knock off Golurk. Other strong defensive mons were aurora veil Aurorus, which could be set up easily on Mantine and allow strong sweepers to set up like shell smash Turtonator, rocky helmet intimidate mawile and finally Presi’s infamous spdef Togedamaru which with lightning rod completely walls Vikavolt and prevents free volt switches along with surviving Aurorus earth powers. 

The spike setters in this meta aren’t special, Sandslash was the most consistent setter with Glalie as the other, although it saw almost 0 play, rock setters were abundant with Mawile, Sandslash, Aurorus, Golurk, Wigglytuff and Klawf which all had other niches aswell which made them easy to slot into any team, Golurk being especially good due to its spinblocking capability and raw power. The only toxic spikers used were Skuntank due to its niche of threatening Golurk with knock off or dark pulse which also threatens Cofagrigus, plus its capability to absorb the other toxic spiker, Cofagrigus’s toxic spikes. The only sticky web user is Vikavolt which it does incredibly well, especially with its good bulk, high damage volt switches and access to coverage moves in energy ball for Sandslash or the very niche mud shot for Togedamaru. To combat the large amount of hazard setters, multiple good rapid spinners and defoggers were used which include Mr Rime who can pair well with Aurorus for blizzard spam, Sandslash which when invested can fire off strong earthquakes, Komala which was an extremely consistent wish passer and immune to the hazards and status due to boots and comatose, Hitmonchan which can be incredibly threatening with bulk up and bullet punch for the faster special attackers like Archeops, Turtonator which can double as a shell smash sweeper, Mantine which was nichely used as a rain sweeper, but the more normal sets include toxic stalling or even amnesia and finally all the Silvallys which when defensive and paired with toxic, parting shot could have been a dominant core, although this variant wasn’t explored much in A1. 

All in All, A1 was an extremely diverse meta with only a few unusable mons like Simisage and Wormadam, however the dynamic between certain matchups allowed new ideas to be explored which potentially turned these matchups on their head and resulted in an incredibly fun 35 pokes metagame. 

Written by Zeke

/challenge gen9nationaldex35pokes @@@ -All Pokemon, +Unobtainable, +Past, -ND Uber, -ND AG, -ND OU, -ND UUBL, -ND UU, -ND RUBL, -ND RU, -ND NFE, -ND LC, +Kangaskhan-Base, +Wigglytuff, +Komala, +Haunter, +Golurk, +Cofagrigus, +Glalie-Base, +Mr. Rime, +Kadabra, +Medicham-Base, +Hitmonchan, +Poliwrath, +Simipour, +Mantine, +Silvally-Flying, +Archeops, +Klawf, +Aurorus, +Mawile-Base, +Togedemaru-Base, +Electrode-Base, +Vikavolt-Base, +Pinsir-Base, +Wormadam-Trash, +Simisage, +Shiinotic, +Victreebel, +Skuntank, +Silvally-Dark, +Guzzlord, +Silvally-Dragon, +Turtonator, +Simisear, +Camerupt-Base, +Sandslash-Base