"Obscure Metas" OM Spotlight

Introduction

Everyone's tried at least one "Other Metagame" on Pokémon Showdown!, whether you're #1 on the Balanced Hackmons ladder or accidentally queued up for a single match of Got Talent? last June only to find that the opponent's Furfrou was doing significantly more damage that it reasonably should've. But what about the less acknowledged OMs, metas that are unplayable on the main server and have been for quite some time? The Other Metagames forum has about 150 metagame threads for Generation 6 alone, split between universal availability, availability on a select few private servers, and a total lack of availability. Today we're going to look at metagames that, despite garnering acclaim and activity at some point in time, have either faded into obscurity or never gained mainstream recognition at all. Here are five such "obscure metas."

Haxmons

Creator: Snaquaza

PS! players might remember Haxmons from about two years ago, when it won the ladder for Other Metagame of the Month in August 2014. The premise is simple: any random occurrence that could go wrong will go wrong. Moves that have the potential to miss already feel like they miss all the time, but now they will miss, every time. If a move hits, it crits, and every secondary effect, from a 50% chance to burn to a 10% chance to freeze, will activate without fail.

It sounds like any competitive player's worst nightmare, but in reality, the absolute certainty with which hax occurs makes it easier to deal with—you know it's coming, so you can prepare for it. You don't win a match of Haxmons by doing massive amounts of damage with super effective moves, but by carefully outplaying moves with deadly effects, like Ice Beam and Iron Head, while exploiting hax of your own. Here are some haxy Pokémon that thrive in this OM:

Lapras

Lapras, a fan favorite that's been competitively irrelevant for over a decade, finds a new lease on life in Haxmons through a perfect storm of anti-hax qualities. As an Ice-type, it's immune to the ever-deadly freeze status, and because of its critical strike immunity through the ability Shell Armor, it essentially gains 33% damage reduction on all attacks. Ancient Power becomes an absurd move that boosts all of Lapras' stats by one stage every time it's used, and Ice Beam or Freeze-Dry will send most targets back to the Ice Age, incapacitating them for a frustratingly indeterminate amount of turns. If it gains enough Speed, it can even repeatedly make its foes flinch with Waterfall. Speaking of flinches...

Lucario

Lucario is already pretty decent in standard play, but in Haxmons, it gains a few new tools alongside its old strengths. Inner Focus goes from a "whatever" ability to a must-have on any team, as chain-flinching can often lead to a speedy and unavoidable loss. Fighting / Steel also happens to resist several key flinch moves like Dark Pulse, Iron Head and Headbutt, making Lucario a good offensive switch-in for the majority of flinch users. As for its moveset, Dark Pulse is a good flinching move that can hax non-Inner Focus mons to death, especially after an Agility. Swords Dance and Nasty Plot will boost the aura warrior's constantly critical moves to new heights, allowing moves like Dark Pulse and Ice Punch to deal significant damage while inflicting hax at the same time. Your old standby of Extreme Speed (to check the boatloads of fast and frail Pokemon in the meta) is also a great asset.

Stat Switch

Creator: Snaquaza

Stat Switch, created by the same user as Haxmons, was 2014's final Other Metagame of the Month. While Haxmons changes the base mechanics of the game, Stat Switch affects the Pokémon themselves, predictably, by switching their stats. Each Pokémons' highest and lowest base stats trade places, often causing a total shift in role. Slow and bulky Pokémon become fast and frail, strong physical attackers become strong special attackers, and so on.

One trick to succeeding in this OM is picking Pokémon that have multiple stats as their lowest stat, like the now-banned Regice, which trades its terrible base 50 Attack and Speed for its gargantuan base 200 in Special Defense. Here are a few 'mons that switch for success:

Breloom

Breloom, conveniently for this meta, happens to have three stats at a terrible base 60. Post-switch, it loses its menacing 130 Attack, but in turn its defensive spread becomes a stellar 130 HP / 80 Defense / 130 Special Defense, perfect for a bulky Poison Heal set, especially with Breloom's rare ability to resist the classic Ground + Rock coverage combo. You can even run Synthesis for reliable recovery, and of course, the snooze-inducing Spore. Don't sleep on Breloom's offensive prowess, however, as it also gains base 130 Special Attack to utilize moves like Giga Drain, Focus Blast, and Vacuum Wave, the latter of which can be boosted by Technician if you don't opt for Poison Heal.

Golurk

Golurk never really got off the ground in higher tiers of standard play despite its good ability, high offensive power, and unique typing that boasts three useful immunities. Time to (stat) switch it up! Not only does the clay robot upgrade up its processing power with base 124 Speed, but it can make use of its surprisingly solid special movepool with 124 Special Attack. Earth Power and Shadow Ball are solid STAB options, while Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, and Flash Cannon hit most targets that Ground / Ghost can't. Golurk can't make too much use of No Guard without a strong Dynamic Punch, but actually hitting Focus Blast is nice. Now that its Speed is high enough to actually force other Pokémon out, Golurk v2.0 actually makes a pretty good offensive Stealth Rock user.

Alphabet Cup

Creator: Martingale

Alphabet won Other Metagame of the Month all the way back in February of 2014. Since then, the OM has been largely forgotten, although it comes up from time to time based on the novelty of its mechanics: Pokémon gain every move that begins with the same letter their own name. This premise creates some absolutely amazing alliterative aggressors, like Simple Shell Smash Stored Power Swoobat, which was eventually banned.

As a result, Pokémon whose names begin with particularly common letters (like R, S, or T) have a lot more to gain than alphabetical rarities like Xatu, which has to get by exclusively on its natural movepool (outside of the dubiously useful X-Scissor). Here are some particularly propitious and powerful Pokémon:

Thundurus

Thundurus is a terrifically terrifying tyrant in Alphabet Cup. Its primary niche is Prankster + Topsy-Turvy, which keeps the meta's swarms of scary setup sweepers in check by turning their buffs into debuffs. Once the enemy has been turned on their head, Thundurus enters the boost game itself by setting up Tail Glow, giving its native (but still alliterative!) Thunderbolt an electrifying amount of power. Paired with the item Chill Drive, Techno Blast provides coveted Electric + Ice coverage that blasts through much of the metagame. If you care to experiment outside the standard set, Thundurus also gains a bounty of cool utility moves that combo well with Prankster, like Toxic Spikes, Tailwind, Trick, and even Transform.

Slaking

Slaking seems stupidly silly, but seriously, it can be super strong! The key to this strength is Skill Swap, which passes off the terrible Truant ability to an enemy, allowing Slaking to function like a normal Pokémon for once while the foe loafs around in despair. They'll almost certainly switch out at this point, but that gives Slaking the perfect opportunity to set up Shift Gear, Swords Dance, or Shell Smash. Now, simply keep clicking the Normal STAB of your choice (Return or Double-Edge), switching to Sacred Fire, Sacred Sword, or Shadow Force for the Steel-, Rock-, and Ghost-types that can stop the sloth. Slaking also has access to priority in Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch, recovery in Slack Off, and an amazing status move in Spore. In Alphabet Cup, Slaking isn't slacking!

Super-Effectivemons

Creator: Valmanway

Super-Effectivemons, like Alphabet Cup, provides a pool of new moves to Pokémon based on certain characteristics. However, instead of handing them out based on spelling, the metagame gives Pokémon every move of the types that they're weak to. Is a Pokémon weak to Rock? Then it gains access to Stealth Rock, Diamond Storm, Power Gem, and every other Rock move. Even if a move can't do damage, like Tail Glow or Defog, it will still be provided to Pokémon weak to that type.

This dynamic creates an interesting situation where Pokémon with a high number of weaknesses, particularly to strong types, have more to gain than Pokémon like Sableye or Scizor, which lack diverse weaknesses. However, some Pokémon were already fantastic in standard play despite their common weaknesses, and this meta ups their potential considerably. Here are a few of those mons that are super effective in the metagame:

Serperior

Serperior gets by in OU despite its mediocre stats, movepool, and typing entirely on the basis of Contrary Leaf Storm. Now, it can use the Grass type's many weaknesses to its advantage! The obvious choice is Leaf Storm's fiery counterpart, Overheat, which replaces the weak Hidden Power Fire with a 130-BP special move that heats up Serperior's power with a free +2 Special Attack. However, Serperior can also run V-create for a strong 180-BP physical move that boosts Defense, Special Defense, and Speed, creating a bulky boosting set that might also run Heal Order or Roost for reliable recovery. While not a new move, Hidden Power Ground becomes a more viable option to hit Heatran, as the spicy array of new Fire-type moves frees up Serperior's Hidden Power slot. If you can find room for them, Serperior also gets a diverse selection of utility moves, like Will-O-Wisp, Defog, Sticky Web, and Toxic Spikes.

Keldeo

Keldeo is normally kept in check by its lack of good coverage, allowing Pokémon like Jellicent and Mega Venusaur to switch in safely. Unfortunately for those Pokémon, Keldeo is coincidentally weak to some very useful coverage types! Aeroblast and Oblivion Wing hit Grass-types that don't fear Secret Sword, like Amoonguss and Celebi, and Volt Switch hits Pokémon like Gyarados while also giving momentum against common switch-ins like Latios. If it's Latios you're worried about, Moonblast will deal heavy damage to it and maybe even lower its Special Attack. Keldeo can even imitate its draconic rival by running a Life Orb set with Roost and Defog along with dual STAB, providing a Rock-resistant hazard remover with high offensive pressure. Speaking of offensive pressure, Geomancy turns your little pony into a friendless monster that can burst down its checks with brute strength over coverage. You can also opt to cripple Keldeo's checks with utility moves like Spore, Nuzzle, and if you're particularly cruel, Chatter.

Baton Pass Marathon

Creator: Rumors

Finally we reach Baton Pass Marathon, perhaps the strangest and most obscure metagame in this article. Baton Pass as a move has indirectly caused numerous bans this generation in standard play, but this metagame throws caution to the wind and causes Baton Pass to activate every time the player clicks the "switch" button!

In this strange new world, stat-boosting is a team-wide affair, stat-lowering moves are tricky to avoid, and people might actually use the Ghost-type version of Curse. Its a race to victory, and these are some Pokemon that can outpace the competition:

Manaphy

Manaphy, one of OU's premier setup sweepers, feels right at home in Baton Pass Marathon. Tail Glow is the obvious draw for using the little blue sea angel, as it can turn any specially attacking teammate into a force of nature. Don't count Manaphy out as a one-trick mollusk, however! Acid Armor makes sure its teammates won't get washed away by powerful physical attackers, while Charm accomplishes the same goal through the other side of the field. Aqua Ring stacks passive recovery with Leftovers, offsetting damage from Baton-Passed moves like Leech Seed. Finally, Heart Swap, Manaphy's rarely seen signature move, comes in handy when its team is behind, as it can nab the foe's boosts in return for its own.

Malamar

Malamar, as is its nature, turns this OM upside down! Topsy-Turvy, Malamar's signature move, will reverse all the accumulated boosts of the enemy team, often leaving them weak, frail, and slow. This provides a good opening for Malamar to set up Attack and Defense boosts with Contrary + Superpower. Contrary is especially useful because stat-lowering moves like Screech will actually make the shady cephalopod (and by extension, its teammates) even stronger. Another option is Taunt, which can stop a stat-passing chain or a phazing attempt dead in its tracks, letting Malamar toy with its foes from the obscurity of the murky sea.

Conclusion

Sadly, some quality metagames like these never escape that murky sea, fading away in the shadow of disinterest and inactivity. However, if you're interested in saving these or other OMs from obscurity, there's still hope! You can:

Post in the OM's thread with ideas you have about the metagame or ask permission to reboot a thread, like nv has recently done with Nature Swap;
Nominate and vote for the OM at the end of month for Other Metagame of the Month so it gains a ladder on PS! for a month;
Ask for matches in the Other Metagames room on PS!—there's usually someone up for playing an obscure meta!

And even if your favorite OMs never reach mainstream recognition, stay heartened by the fact that if just you and a few friends are the only people maintaining interest in a metagame, it will never be truly forgotten.

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