OM Spotlight #3: Middle Cup

Introduction

Welcome to another iteration of the OM Spotlight, a series where I, unfixable, will be covering metagames that have been somewhat popular recently but could deserve the extra boost in attention. In today's series, I will be going over the metagame Middle Cup made by ryan! In the past few weeks, this metagame has been receiving a bunch of popularity on the forums, and the spike in interest makes it eligible for the Spotlight. The basic idea of Middle Cup is a metagame where only middle-stage evolutions, such as Porygon2 and Doublade, are allowed. Although the pool of Pokémon may appear small at first, this metagame is incredibly diverse and there are a ton of interesting threats that might not seem threatening on the surface.

Middle Cup

Middle Cup is entitled as "middle" cup because it is as the name implies: the middle of an evolution line. This means, in order for a Pokémon to be eligible for Middle Cup, they must have a pre-evolution and an evolution. Pokémon with only one or the other are not able to be used. For example, one is able to use Porygon2, since it evolves from Porygon and evolves into Porygon-Z; however, Pancham and Weezing are not able to be used, since they do not have a pre-evolution or an evolution, respectively. As an added rule, all Pokémon are set to Level 50. This causes for a bit weird EV spreads, but if you're familiar with Battle Spot, then it shouldn't be too confusing! And another rule is that Eviolite is banned, since every single Pokémon in the metagame can use it and it would make defensive Pokémon way too powerful. There are also four Pokémon bans, on Chansey, Combusken, Kadabra, and Magneton. Chansey is broken due to a lack of Fighting-type Pokémon and its crazy bulk. Combusken was banned due to its insanely powerful STAB moves and ability to outspeed almost the entire metagame with just one boost from Speed Boost. Kadabra, on the other hand, was banned due to its insane Speed tier, immense offensive prowess, and Magic Guard, which enabled it to essentially avoid being OHKOed when holding a Focus Sash. This in turn enabled it to nearly guarantee a KO for the player, and thus it was deemed unhealthy and banned. Magneton, in a similar vein, was way too powerful offensively and it could even 2HKO the most potent special wall at the time, Porygon2. Finally, Protean and Contrary are banned. Protean breaks Frogadier, and Contrary breaks Servine. In order to prevent more Pokémon bans, these abilities were banned instead. The metagame is quite balanced, with offensive teams primarily being in favor, although most of them have some sort of bulk as a backbone. Teams lacking bulk don't function quite so well, since there are a plethora of heavy hitters.

Threats

Porygon2

Porygon2 is one of the few Normal-types in the metagame, and it's the best at that. Due to excellent mixed bulk, a wonderful movepool, and reliable recovery, Porygon2 can be a huge pain to take down. Not much OHKOes it, bar incredibly strong Fighting-type attacks. Not only that, but Porygon2 is able to cripple most of the things that would otherwise threaten it by running Thunder Wave, allowing it to outspeed them and Recover in their paralyzed faces. Porygon2 also has near perfect coverage in Ice Beam and Thunderbolt, so it really can't go wrong. What makes Porygon2 especially thrive in Middle Cup is the lack of Steel-types that would otherwise take advantage of its Normal-type STAB moves, and the few that are there are able to be handled through other means. Porygon2 is one of those Pokémon that really define a metagame in a positive way.

Doublade

Doublade is one of the only Steel-type Pokémon in the metagame, and it has an excellent secondary typing to complement it as well as the ability to set up on a majority of the metagame. Even without Eviolite, Doublade has excellent physical bulk, which enables it to set up a Swords Dance against a lot of the tier and proceed to wreak mayhem with Iron Head or Sacred Sword. Although Doublade has a low Speed stat, a +2 Shadow Sneak hurts anything that's faster than it. Between its excellent offensive and defensive capabilities, Doublade remains an S-rank threat.

Fletchinder

Fletchinder strikes with a vengeance in Middle Cup as one of the best, if not the best, Flying-type Pokémon around. With its high stats, in terms of its relative competition, and a priority Acrobatics, Fletchinder is a threat that every team must account for. Flying-type checks are actually quite sparse, and the ones that can switch in to Fletchinder hate being hit with Will-O-Wisp. And later in the match, Fletchinder is able to sweep with Swords Dance. Fletchinder fits very well on offensive teams, since it provides so much utility in blanket checking many fast Pokémon such as Kadabra and Haunter, being able to attack these Pokémon before they can thanks to Gale Wings. Fletchinder's typing also isn't too bad considering that Stealth Rock is a bit tough to come by in Middle Cup, and it allows Fletchinder to switch into common Pokémon such as Servine, Combusken, and Monferno. There's really nothing this little birdy can't do!

Community Reception

The community has responded quite nicely to this metagame! Although it went a few months without much interest, a random spark of activity had happened due to a few users. In current times, Middle Cup is growing in popularity every day, and new players are sprouting left and right! Perhaps you could be the next?

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