Archetypes — National Dex OU (2026-04)

Format: gen9nationaldex. Mega = 1/team, Z-Move = 1/team, sleep legal. (Set legality and what’s different from Gen 9 OU: Appendix: The Tera Ban.) Reader: an experienced player building aggressive Offense — explicitly not Bulky Offense, not Hyper Offense. This page leads with Offense and goes deepest on it; every other archetype is written so you know how to race it, overload it, or out-tempo it from the Offense seat. Archetype definitions follow 10-glossary.md. For the cores that wire these together see 05-common-cores.md; to actually build one, 06-building-offense.md.

1. Offense (your archetype) — defined precisely

What “Offense (not BO, not HO)” means structurally

The meta is dominated by Bulky Offense and Balance because defenses are reliable — fixed typing means a wall that checks your breaker on paper checks it on the field. Aggressive Offense is the harder, sharper choice: you do not match those walls, you overload and out-tempo them.

Axis	Hyper Offense (HO)	Offense (you)	Bulky Offense (BO)
Genuinely defensive slots	0–1 (suicide lead only)	≤1, and it pivots, it doesn’t wall	2–3 real walls
Pace	win by ~turn 12 or lose	constant pressure; force a trade every turn	grind the long game
Recovery on team	~none	little to none (Roost/Recover on a setup mon at most)	Regenerator/Wish/Roost stacked
Speed control	screens/lead + raw setup	Scarf + priority + natural tiers, layered	Scarf revenge + Intimidate cushions
Hazard plan	suicide lead, 2–3 layers turn 1	SR (+ maybe one layer) kept up by spinblock; chip, not lockdown	SR + slow removal war
Wincons	many, redundant, fragile	2–3 distinct routes that share no checks	one patient wincon

Pace. You aim to dictate most turns; the opponent is pressured into reacting (switch to eat a hit, sack to a breaker, lose a mon to chip + a clean attack). If a turn passes where you are forced to switch passively, you are bleeding tempo. Unlike HO you can afford one momentum pivot (U-turn/Volt Switch/Flip Turn) to re-enter a breaker safely; unlike BO you do not spend repeated turns Roosting just to “stabilize.”
Defensive pivots: ≤1, and it pivots. Per glossary, Offense runs ~4–5 attackers + momentum with at most one bulky pivot/removal slot. The canonical glue is Landorus-Therian (A+) — Intimidate + U-turn + Stealth Rock in one slot, buying switch-ins without slowing you. Great Tusk (A) is the other common single-slot pick: an offensive Ground that Rapid Spins your side clean while still hitting. These are offensive pivots that provide utility, not walls. The moment you add a third genuinely passive body (Toxapex, Gliscor defensive, Clodsire, Corviknight) you have drifted into Bulky Offense — stop.
Hazard plan: chip, not lockdown. Not the HO suicide-lead 3-layer dump. You set Stealth Rock turn one (Landorus-Therian, Garchomp, Great Tusk, or Iron Treads) and optionally one layer of Spikes (Garchomp), then keep them up with the format’s premier spinblocker Gholdengo (Good as Gold blanks Defog and Ghost typing blocks Rapid Spin) rather than re-setting all game. Hazards push your breakers’ targets into KO range and tax the switches your pressure forces — an accelerant, not the win condition.
Speed control: layered, three ways at once. Typing is fixed, so you can’t dodge a revenge KO by changing type — layered speed control IS your defense against opposing offense: (1) natural tiers — Iron Valiant and Booster/Quark-Drive boosters sit at the top; (2) Choice Scarf revenge — Scarf Gholdengo (439 Spe), Scarf Tapu Lele (475), Scarf Landorus-Therian; (3) priority — Kingambit Sucker Punch, Dragonite Extreme Speed, Raging Bolt Thunderclap, Scizor-Mega Bullet Punch. Keep at least two of the three on every team. The benchmark to clear is the 412 wall (Zamazenta’s max Speed; see 08-speed-tiers.md).

Win condition

Open a hole in the opponent’s defensive core with a breaker, then clean with a faster attacker or a priority closer before they stabilize. The through-line (cores §4): two damage-dealers that share no defensive answer, so the opponent can’t bring one wall to both — something is usually forced to take damage or give ground. Reliable closers:

Kingambit (A+) — Supreme Overlord climbs as your attackers trade and faint; Sucker Punch closes through faster mons. The canonical hazard-stack cleaner.
A boosting/priority cleaner after a break — Dragonite (A+, Extreme Speed priority + DD), Zamazenta (S, 412 breaker/cleaner), Scizor-Mega (B+, Bullet Punch).

Signature structure (the offense skeleton)

Hazards: SR turn 1 (Landorus-Therian / Garchomp / Great Tusk / Iron Treads); optional one layer of Spikes (Garchomp). More aggressive shells run a suicide Spikes lead like Glimmora (C-, Focus Sash + Stealth Rock / Spikes) or Samurott-Hisui (Ceaseless Edge) — but those push you toward the HO edge; default to a pivot that sets one layer and keeps clicking.
Removal / spinblock: you rarely run dedicated Defog (too slow/passive). Keep your hazards up with Gholdengo and remove theirs with offensive Great Tusk / Iron Treads Rapid Spin (which also attack/pivot).
Breakers — the engine. Pair mixed/dual-category breakers to overload single-typed walls: Kyurem (Freeze-Dry punishes the bulky Waters that wall everything else), Iron Valiant (physical/special/mixed + Encore tempo), Tapu Lele (Specs + Psychic Terrain blocks priority targeting grounded Pokémon), Ogerpon-Wellspring (Water Absorb SD breaker), Garchomp, Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, Raging Bolt.
Speed control: Scarf + priority + natural tiers, as above.

Mega / Z budget (your only extra mechanics)

Each is once-per-team; budget them like hazards (see cores §6/§7).

Z slot: burst that turns a 2HKO into a OHKO at a key moment — e.g. Steelium-Z on Gholdengo (Make It Rain → Corkscrew Crash, the Z-output only, never a chosen move) to convert a boosted or chipped target into a KO, or Ghostium-Z / Dragonium-Z on a breaker. Spend it only if no teammate needs it more.
Mega slot: one of Scizor-Mega (priority pivot/cleaner), Diancie-Mega (Magic-Bounce anti-hazard lead + mixed breaker), or Charizard-Mega-Y (sun nuke). They are mutually exclusive — pick one and don’t double-allocate.

Dead options to never reach for

Defensive counterplay is fixed printed-typing-vs-STAB math — build your revenge insurance from Choice Scarf or priority.
Ogerpon-Wellspring runs Water Absorb + Wellspring Mask (Ivy Cudgel / Power Whip / SD / Knock Off) as a fast pivot-breaker. The Wellspring Mask is item-locked, so it eats hazards on entry: keep your own off when pivoting it in.

2. Balance

Definition. A mix of offensive and defensive cores: ~2–3 attackers + a defensive core with hazard control and a patient wincon (glossary). The format’s flexible default and your most common ladder/tournament matchup.

Win condition. Out-resource you — remove your hazards, wall your breakers, chip with its own hazards + status, then win late with a preserved wincon (Kingambit, a boosting sweeper).

Signature structure. SR from Landorus-Therian; occasional Spikes. Active removal — Great Tusk Rapid Spin or Zapdos/Corviknight Defog. A Scarf revenge killer + Intimidate/bulk cushions. Breakers (Kyurem, Iron Valiant) alongside an Alomomola Wish-glue + Slowking-Galar/Toxapex backbone with Future Sight glue. The canonical spine to recognize is Alomomola · Gholdengo · Landorus-Therian (glue + removal-block + hazard).

How your Offense beats it. Win the hazard war and the tempo war at once: keep your SR/Spikes up with Gholdengo so its switch-heavy core bleeds, and deny its Regenerator/Wish pivots low-risk recovery turns — apply a threat every turn so each switch costs HP, not just position. Overload one wall with two breakers from different categories (e.g. Iron Valiant splitting physical/special; Kyurem Freeze-Dry vs the bulky Water anchoring the core). Once the hole opens, Kingambit or a +1 sweeper closes before it removes hazards and resets. Watch its Future Sight (Slowking-Galar) — it punishes lazy switches; pivot with U-turn around it. Gholdengo Trick (Scarf) dumps the Choice item on a wall and can cripple it for the game.

3. Bulky Offense (BO)

Definition. Offense with a thicker backbone — 2–3 genuinely defensive pieces that trade tempo for resilience, grinding chip and winning the long game (glossary). The format’s dominant archetype, and the fat-pivot build your aggressive Offense explicitly is not.

Win condition. Absorb your early aggression with bulky pivots, equalize the hazard/chip war, then outlast you with superior bulk and a slow wincon (Iron Defense + Body Press Zamazenta, a preserved Kingambit, a CM breaker like Raging Bolt).

Signature structure. SR ± Spikes from bulky pivots; reliable two-way removal (Great Tusk spin / Zapdos Defog). Scarf revenge + Intimidate cushions + priority (Kingambit). Backbone of Slowking-Galar, Zapdos, Landorus-Therian, Great Tusk, Gliscor, with one or two heavy breakers grinding behind it.

How your Offense beats it. BO wins the long game, so don’t play the long game — race it. Open fast, keep your hazards up against its removal (spinblock with Gholdengo; re-pressure its Defogger so it can’t click Defog safely), and burst a pivot before Regenerator/Roost resets it (cores §5: deny recovery turns, don’t out-stall). The bulk-for-frailty trade makes BO slow: your natural-speed and Scarf attackers move first, and priority (Kingambit Sucker, Dragonite Extreme Speed, Scizor-Mega Bullet Punch) bypasses normal Speed order into eligible targets. Overload, then snowball: force two of its pivots into the same breaker’s range, trade one, and let Supreme Overlord / a +1 sweeper run away before it stabilizes. Time pressure is your edge — every turn it Roosts is a turn you should be removing that Roost-er’s teammate.

4. Hyper Offense (HO)

Definition. Maximum aggression — a suicide hazard lead + 4–5 stacked setup sweepers, ~zero defensive backbone, race-or-die (glossary). Note: Shed Tail and Baton Pass are BANNED, so HO’s pass-the-sub / pass-boosts engines are DEAD; modern HO leans on a suicide lead, screens, and raw setup.

Win condition. Set 2–3 hazard layers turn 1, then send waves of Swords Dance / Dragon Dance / Nasty Plot sweepers faster than you can revenge, snowballing through chipped checks before ~turn 12.

Signature structure. Hazards are the whole plan — a suicide lead like Glimmora (C-, Focus Sash + Stealth Rock / Spikes pressure turn 1) or Samurott-Hisui (Ceaseless Edge). Usually no removal of its own; a spinblocker (Gholdengo) to keep its layers up. Raw setup + Booster/Quark Drive; priority cleanup (Kingambit, Dragonite). Sweepers stacked: Dragonite, Iron Valiant, Ogerpon-Wellspring, Garchomp, often a Diancie-Mega Magic-Bounce lead (bounces conventional status hazards back, but not damaging hazard moves like Ceaseless Edge) — with little behind them. (Banned and therefore NOT on HO here: Roaring Moon, Gouging Fire — do not expect them.)

How your Offense beats it. This is the frailer cousin of your own build, so it’s a speed-and-priority race you are built to win — you carry the same setup threats plus a pivot and a cleaner, answers HO lacks. Levers: (1) deny the lead — your own fast lead or a Sash-breaking hit blunts the turn-1 hazard dump; (2) revenge before it boosts twice — Scarf Gholdengo/Tapu Lele/Landorus-Therian outpace unboosted sweepers, and Kingambit Sucker / Dragonite Extreme Speed pick off the +1s that slip through; (3) because typing is fixed, its sweepers can’t flip type to survive your revenge — a clean priority hit or Scarf KO is much harder to invalidate. Your single cushion (Intimidate Landorus-Therian) buys the one turn HO can’t afford. Carry a win-con-selection read at preview: vs HO’s physical sweepers your priority/Intimidate is the answer; vs its special ones your Scarf is. Trade into it and let your superior late-game structure win the wreckage.

5. Stall / Semi-stall

Definition. 5–6 walls; win via hazards, status, and PP/recovery attrition. Semi-stall keeps one or two offensive wincons (glossary).

Win condition. Wall everything, chip you with Salt Cure / Toxic / hazards while Recover/Regenerator/Poison-Heal undoes your damage, and PP-stall or status your breakers out of the game.

Signature structure. SR + Toxic Spikes for passive chip. Removal via Corviknight Defog / Great Tusk, plus Toxapex Haze to undo your setup. Speed is irrelevant by design — it doesn’t race, it Hazes and Unaware-walls. Walls: Toxapex, Gliscor (Poison Heal), Clodsire / Dondozo (Unaware), Garganacl (Salt Cure), Corviknight, Blissey/Chansey, Slowking-Galar; semi-stall adds a Kingambit or Iron-Defense + Body-Press win route.

How your Offense beats it. Stall is the matchup that punishes any drift toward BO — you need raw breaking power, not chip. Stall’s walls have fixed, exploitable typing: bring breakers the printed core simply cannot switch into (cores §5). Haze (Toxapex) and Unaware (Clodsire/Dondozo) nullify setup, so lean on immediate, un-boosted breaking rather than sweeping: Kyurem Freeze-Dry (hits the Waters that anchor stall), Iron Valiant mixed, Tapu Lele Specs + Psyshock (hits the special-wall blobs on their physical side). Gholdengo is your MVP: Good as Gold blocks targeted status-category moves like Toxic/Defog while Ghost typing spinblocks, so your own hazards add up against their Recover — and Steelium-Z (-> Corkscrew Crash) is a one-time nuke after setup or chip. Knock Off (Tusk/Urshifu/Valiant) strips Leftovers/Boots/Toxic-Orb and accelerates attrition the other way. Against Unaware walls, do not try to win by stacking boosts — break with sheer power + Knock + hazards. (Stall is the one matchup where sleep being legal earns its keep: a Spore disables a key wall for the break.)

6. Weather / Trick Room niches

All three are niche in this meta (viability tiers — weather setters/abusers and Hatterene sit C+/A-). You build against them, not into them.

Weather (sun / rain / sand)

Definition / win condition. A setter + abusers snowball under the weather window: sun (Charizard-Mega-Y Drought as the premier nuke; Chlorophyll abusers; Torkoal), rain (Pelipper Drizzle → swift-swim/Water spam, Archaludon), sand (Tyranitar-Mega Sand Stream + Pursuit-trap → Excadrill/Grassy-Glide cores). Char-X’s “disguise factor” matters: at preview a Charizard could be the sun-setting Y or the DD-sweeping X — scout the item turn.
Structure. Setter lead + 2–3 weather-boosted attackers; hazards + spinblock as on Offense.
How your Offense beats it. Weather is a timer — outlast the turns or remove the setter (usually frail; pressure it early). Your natural-speed and Scarf attackers don’t depend on weather, so once the window closes you’re faster and stronger. Note many threats you’ll see (Great Tusk, Raging Bolt, Iron Valiant) run Protosynthesis/Quark Drive off Booster Energy — that is not weather-dependent and appears on plain Offense too; don’t misread a Booster mon as a weather team.

Trick Room

Definition / win condition. Invert the speed order so slow, powerful mons move first; Hatterene (A-, Magic Bounce) is the main setter, with Ursaluna / Mawile-Mega abusers. Wins by breaking under the 5-turn window.
Structure. TR setter (Hatterene - Magic Bounce reflects conventional status hazards/status) + slow heavy breakers; semi-TR keeps a normal mode.
How your Offense beats it. TR is a 5-turn clock and a frail setter. Don’t let it set: pressure Hatterene before it clicks Trick Room (it’s slow and not very bulky specially), or switch/sack one mon and run out the clock — under TR your fast attackers move last, so pivot and preserve rather than trade into the window, then reassert pressure when it lapses. Magic Bounce reflecting conventional status hazards means you lean on direct breaking or damaging hazard moves, not passive chip, here. TR is the one place your speed advantage inverts; respect the clock, then take tempo back.