As the third month with a Smogon ladder, October 25 was explored in depth, with the meta evolving over time. At the start of the month ultra aggressive teams, often using weather or enabled by Choice Band Golem-Alola, were prominent. This was largely due to the presence of scary breakers like Tauros-Paldea-Aqua (Pauros), who had no safe switch to its Choice Band set. This doesn't even mention the Bulk Up sets, which could easily spiral if not carefully played around. This didn't mean there was no counterplay to Pauros, the most popular strategy being the use of Rocky Helmet Corviknight to scout Choice Band locks and rack up recoil damage. Choice Scarf Basculegion was a common partner for Corviknight as it resisted into each of Pauros' STAB's and could pivot for momentum. When Pauros was partnered with attack invested Pursuit Muk a unique dynamic was formed where Basculegion had to click Flip Turn, which could be called out by the Pauros user staying in or switching to their own Rocky Helmet teammate. This led to the most common teams of the time featuring all of Corviknight, Muk, Basculegion and Pauros. These teams would use other Pokemon, namely Nidoking, to resist Pauros' Wild Charge, a move which could threaten both Bascuelgion and Corviknight. Offense players were quick to exploit these structures, with Power Trip Corviknight serving as a potent threat to this common balance core. On HO, Corviknight would be backed up by threats like Bulk Up Pauros, Nasty Plot Zoroark and Calm Mind Dududnsparce. These sweepers were made more difficult to handle through the use of Screens, especially those set by Froslass which was incredibly popular at the start of the month.

Eventually, bulkier teams, aiming to permanently wall Pauros and Bascuelgion, along with the litany of set-up sweepers used on HO, would be experimented with. Physically Defensive Bascuelgion would gain traction and Protect spamming squads that scouted choice-locks would also be seen. These defensive squads tended to be weaker against special breakers able to get past Muk, namely Nidoking, and so they looked for methods to break opposing defensive cores before they would be overwhelmed themselves. It was here that non-scarf Bascuelgion rose to prominence, running mixed sets with Wave Crash or using Choice Specs to weaken Muk for a teammate like Choice Scarf Porygon-Z. At the same, time Pyukumuku would rise as a shockingly good defensive Pokemon. It walled almost every set up Pokemon and its typing helped to stave off Pauros and Basculegion. Moltres and Copperajah were two other Pokemon who rose in popularity, as it was extremely difficult to switch into them even when they invested in bulk. Moltres in particular was incredibly difficult to wall long term, as nothing could safely switch into it long term.

The start of the monthly tournament saw a fresh explosion of innovation, with Sub Roost Articuno pressure stalling and Calm Mind, Iron Defense, Weak Armour, Weakness Policy Armarogue clicking an incredibly strong Stored Power. These weren't the only unique sets on display during the tour, as Zoroark and Crobat delved into their movepools to claim Nasty Plot sweeps and applied Choice items to break apart their regular checks. Other pieces of innovation were subtler, like Munkidori equipping an Air Balloon to check Nidoking and Muk running speed investment to Pursuit trap Baton Passing special walls. Most famously, Moltres ran Burn Up to stall out the water types that dominated the meta.

Overall, October 2025 was stylistically diverse, with niches present for many low tiers thanks to the unique demands of switching into CB Pauros. Should the meta be played again it's likely that innovation would follow as Galvantise Aolem, Munkidori and Zoroark were all underexplored whilst the month was current.

Written by Mangoose

/challenge gen9nationaldex35pokes @@@ -All Pokemon, +Unobtainable, +Past, -ND Uber, -ND AG, -ND OU, -ND UUBL, -ND UU, -ND RUBL, -ND RU, -ND NFE, -ND LC, +Dudunsparce, +Muk-Alola, +Ambipom, +Floatzel, +Sandslash-Base, +Perrserker, +Copperajah, +Dugtrio-Alola, +Meganium, +Tauros-Base, +Spinda, +Munkidori, +Basculegion-F, +Farigiraf, +Porygon-Z, +Tauros-Paldea-Aqua, +Corviknight, +Sigilyph, +Nidoking, +Armarouge, +Froslass, +Magmortar, +Zoroark-Base, +Articuno-Base, +Hippowdon, +Orthworm, +Weezing-Galar, +Ninjask, +Sirfetch’d, +Crobat, +Golem-Alola, +Steelix-Base, +Pyukumuku, +Bibarel, +Simisear

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