Hoopa's Competitive Viability

FFS I was in the middle of writing the same topic

Hoopa-U Is slow and frail and completely walled by Weavile and Scizor. This makes it extremely bad defensively and as a bulky attacker. However if even one hit reaches you when shot by a Positive-Natured Hoopa-U, god help you. The fact is that Hoopa-U is an amazing Pivor if switched in on the right Pokémon but can be walled like Nothing when switched in on another Pokémon. He also has an extensive movepool and is easily viable as a Mixed attacker, making sure nothing bar Mega Sableye.

Hoopa however belongs in UU in my opinion. This is because it is completely outclassed by its Unbound form in every way and UU can form a very good niche for Hoopa like they did for Mamoswine and Mandibizz. Anything with Pursuit can Kill it, switch or not. It can give Moxikrow with Pursuit a free set-up opportunity and anything that outspeeds it can get some major damage on it. However it still hits for ridiculous damage and a Specs wall-breaking set can OHKO Specially Defensive Gligar with HyperSpace hole.

That's my opinion anyway.

 

Hoopa-U is a monster with the right support. Dark got a massive boost this gen and Hoopa-U takes advantage of that. Hoopa-U shreds bulky teams, but its sped hinders it. It 2HKOs every wall with the correct coverage move. Life orb mixed is the best set in my opinion, however it needs support. The most important support is VoltTurn support for safe switches into walls, speed control can help it as well. However the fully physical scarf set is good, but not as good as the mixed life orb set. This is because it fixes the speed issue but lacks priority, power, and is still very frail.
This Pokémon is so unpredictable with coverage though, that I feel that it definitely is a staple wall breaker, and a scarfer.

 

Honestly I like Hoopa's confined form more than its unbound form. I use it on my team as I like to call it "A slow revenge killer". However, I find that it doesn't hit hard without life orb, however, a choice scarf set gets the job done as well. I also love its move pool personally. I find myself using Psyshock, Focus Blast, Energy Ball, and Shadow Ball often. The only real problem I have with it is it's 70 base speed and it's x4 weakness to dark and psychic. However, I find a good partner to make up for that weakness, such as Klefki.

Honestly I think Hoopa-C will be in BL2. It has tons of flaws, but it can be worth your while.

 

There's a reason why Hoopa-U found it's way to being S ranked in Smogon's OU Viability List and that the OU council is leaning towards suspecting it. Hoopa-U absolutely destroys balanced and defensive teams, especially when it has a life orb. It's also capable of running a completely physical or special as well as mixed due to it's insanely high attack and Sp. atk.

Here are just some of the more common special defensive/defensive mons in OU: Slowbro, M-Slowbro, Rotom-W, Hippo, Ferro, m-sableye, mew, heatran, Celebi, Lando-T, Chansey, TankChomp, Skarmory, Sylveon, and Clefable.

There's a single hoopa set that can 2HKO or OHKO that entire group:

Hoopa-Unbound @ Life Orb
Ability: Magician
EVs: 52 Atk / 204 SpA / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Hyperspace Fury
- Focus Blast
- Gunk Shot
- Energy Ball

If you'd like to do the calcs yourself, have fun http://sparktrain.github.io/index.html (also I recommend this calc over the standard showdown one, this one is far more up to date and has CAP mons in there as well)

But just for arguments sake, let's say you're a stall player (which I most definitely am not, HO and fat balance all the way) and you're running a pretty common defensive core of M-sableye, Skarm, Chansey, and Rotom-W.

Here are the issues that Hoopa-U presents you.

204+ SpA Life Orb Hoopa-U Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skarmory: 296-350 (88.6 - 104.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

50 Atk Life Orb Hoopa-U Hyperspace Fury vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 289-341 (45 - 53.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

204+ SpA Life Orb Hoopa-U Energy Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Sableye: 148-175 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
(or) 50 Atk Life Orb Hoopa-U Hyperspace Fury vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mega Sableye: 134-160 (44 - 52.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

204+ SpA Life Orb Hoopa-U Energy Ball vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Rotom-W: 315-372 (103.9 - 122.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Oh and it outspeeds all of them.

Even if you aren't running stall and are running more of a balance core, you can't switch anything into this. I'm not saying that this mon is broken per say, mons like Mega-venusaur and Scizor (unless HP-fire) wall this, and almost every offensive threat in the OU metagame can come in and OHKO it. However, when you have a mon like this that discourages the use of balance cores, that's when a metagame starts to get extremely unhealthy. As much as I personally enjoy Hyper Offense and hate stall, even I can recognise that a metagame where everyone has to run LeadChomp+ 5 offensive threats is not something that many will want to continue to play.

As far as Hoopa-C is concerned, I forsee it dropping to BL because there is literally no point in using it while Hoopa-U is in OU. The only stat difference between the two is that Hoopa-U gets an added 50 atk, 20 Sp.Atk, and 10 Base Speed. However, Hoopa-C's 110 atk and 150 sp. atk is nothing to laugh at; I doubt with stats and the coverage it has, they'll let it drop to UU. But as long as Hoopa-U is in the OU metagame, I don't really see Hoopa-C getting that much usage.