OMotM/LCotM Spotlight: Full Potential and Automagic

By Kris.
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What is an OMotM/LCotM?

OMotM/LCotM Spotlight art

Art by anundeadboy.

The OMotM, or Other Metagame of the Month, is the metagame that is voted by the community to be showcased on the main server for a specific month. The LCotM, or Leader's Choice of the Month, is one that is chosen specifically by scpinion and The Immortal. For the most part, the LCotM is a metagame that gets a lot of forum presence but has not won OMotM.

Introduction to Full Potential

Full Potential, which is March's OMotM, allows all Pokémon to hit off of their highest calculated stat (HCS), barring HP. For example, a Tapu Koko with maximum Speed investment, a Timid nature, and a Choice Scarf, will have both its physical and special moves, such as Brave Bird and Dazzling Gleam, damage the target as if they were coming off of a positive-natured, either Choice Band- or Choice Specs-boosted, maximum-invested base 130 Attack or Special Attack stat. This means that a lot of Pokémon with previously lackluster attacking stats can now shine as some of the best Pokémon in the metagame. Full Potential is also bound to be very defensively oriented, as all offensive Pokémon either invest fully into their highest defensive stat and give it a positive nature while distributing the other 256 EVs into HP and the other defensive stat, or they have maximum Speed and invest the other 256 EVs into either HP or a defensive stat.

Threats in Full Potential

New previously barely viable Pokémon in standard OU such as Floatzel now shine due to their ability to use items like Choice Scarf alongside damage-boosting abilities to hit as hard as possible while still remaining decently bulky.

Tapu Koko

Tapu Koko's already incredibly useful high base 130 Speed is further taken advantage of in this metagame. With Tapu Koko's HCS being Speed, Tapu Koko can freely run mixed sets and not have to worry about dropping its already low bulk; instead, Tapu Koko can raise its bulk by investing the rest of its EVs into HP.

Floatzel

Floatzel is a prime example of a good weather sweeper in Full Potential. Its already good Speed stat, when boosted by Choice Scarf and Swift Swim, lets it hit as hard as +6 Azumarill in standard play. It also has the ability to run mixed sets, which it couldn't do before due to its limited movepool and low stats. With its Speed, Floatzel can outspeed a majority of the metagame under the rain, like Choice Scarf Tapu Koko and Unburden Accelgor. Aqua Jet can be used over Waterfall or another move to allow Floatzel to still hit opposing priority users in any situation under rain, ensuring that it doesn't get revenge killed by non-Extreme Speed or Fake Out priority users.

Kyurem-B

Kyurem-B is one of the most underrated threats in Full Potential. However, its amazing Choice Band-boosted base 170 Attack lets it use its strong moves and 2HKO the entire metagame. Draco Meteor is one of the best assets of this set because even though it hits off of Kyurem-B's HCS (Attack in this case), it still lowers Kyurem-B's Special Attack, meaning that it is always equally as strong. Outrage can be used over Draco Meteor to give Kyurem-B a physical STAB move to hit physically frail Pokémon more easily.

Introduction to Automagic

In Automagic, the Leader's Choice, a Pokémon automatically uses the setup moves in its moveslots once one of the attacking moves that it uses has a secondary effect triggered. For example, this means that if a Mew has Rock Polish, Nasty Plot, and Scald, and the foe gets burned from Scald, Mew gets a +2 in Special Attack and Speed. An easy shortcut to knowing if your move will act as a trigger is by looking at Sheer Force and seeing if its move is boosted by said ability. Please note that Z-Moves with secondary effects (Genesis Supernova and Stoked Sparksurfer) count as triggers, and soft stat-boosting moves (Tailwind, Light Screen, Reflect) don't count as setup moves.

Threats in Automagic

Even though the threatlist here doesn't change too drastically from OU's, some Pokémon that weren't so high there are very prominent here. With the ability to use somewhat weak STAB or guaranteed secondary effect moves to get outrageously high stat boosts in just the blink of an eye, Pokémon like Mega Charizard X, Xurkitree, and Weavile are highly threatening.

Mega Charizard X

With a moveset very similar to its one in standard formats, Mega Charizard X doesn't seem to have changed much. However, in Automagic, it can use Flame Charge to get a +1 boost in Speed, as well as triggering Swords Dance to get a pseudo-Dragon Dance. On top of this, Charizard can use its other coverage and STAB moves to easily KO a majority of the metagame at just +1 Speed and +2 Attack.

Xurkitree

A mono-attacking set with a Choice Scarf might seem very counterproductive; however, Charge Beam's 70% chance to boost Xurkitree's Special Attack, alongside having Tail Glow, Charge, and Calm Mind as triggers, causes it to be outrageously fast, strong, and bulky after just one boost. While Charge Beam's meager 50 Base Power might seem bad for an otherwise perfectly fine set, Xurkitree can KO a majority of the metagame after just one trigger due to its already high base 173 Special Attack and the boost that Charge gives it. The only downside to this set is having to switch out to avoid Ground-types.

Weavile

Weavile is able to get an immediate Swords Dance boost from just using Fake Out its first time out. This allows it to have an incredibly strong and STAB-boosted Knock Off and Icicle Crash. Knock Off is useful because even though it doesn't trigger Swords Dance, it can remove the foe's item to help Weavile and its teammates out. Icicle Crash's 30% chance to cause the foe to flinch is very helpful in this metagame because not only will it immobilize the foe if it activates, Weavile will get a free, safe boost from Swords Dance.

Conclusion

Full Potential and Automagic are very fun and entertaining OMs, causing them to be great options for the OMotM and LCotM. In the few days that they've had these titles, the community has proven to love these metagames a lot, making them bound to make March a month to remember.

HTML by Kris.
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