Smogon Shoddy Server Statistics - January 2010

[petrie911]

I noticed something interesting while seeing how Houndoom did this month when compared to last month. Houndoom usage rose nearly a full percentage point (from 4.74 to 5.68), but it only increased by 1 rank (36 to 35). With such a large usage increase, you'd think 'Doom would have more of a gain.

The reason for this is that UU became much more centralized during the past month. In December, the UU cutoff* was at rank 58, while this month it was at rank 49. Now this is still less centralized than OU, whose cutoff currently stands at rank 44 (so yes, if the tiers were decided using only this month's statistics, Heracross would be in UU). But still, it does make you wonder about PorygonZ and Cresselia.

 

[ultimifier]

not too mention that cresselia and porygonz were not even in the tier for the entire month. if they had been the centralization would have been even more pronounced

 

[Pride]

The most interesting moves are over on the UU ladder, with Cresselia and Porygon-Z added to the tier on January 6th. If you prorate their usage across the entire month, Cresselia would have been 21.87% (1st place), and Pory-Z 19.66% (2nd place).

I really wouldn't call that centralizing.... There are five pokemon just in OU that have more usage (Salamence, Scizor, Latias, Heatran, and Tyranitar)

 

[Chou Toshio]

What's amazing to me (after thinking about it a bit and having only started playing actively again recently) is to see Zappy and Celebi below Flygon, or to have fallen that low in general.

Zappy and Celebi were traditional parts of the core that classic Bulky-Offense. When Garchomp was gone (and even before really), Zappy-Cele-Tran+Bulky Water was like an almost sure fire sight on bulky offense, the premier team of the times. In Zappy's case, I guess it probably has a lot to do with Rotom, as they share similar resistances, and while zappy's got better stats, rotom's spin blocking and status options (and good secondary STAB) are hard to pass up.

 

[WECAMEASROMANS]

Yesss!!!! Scizor population is finally decreasing in usage, dropping under 30% for the first time. And, oh my god, ScarfTar is being used a lot, taking Salamence's regular #2 spot. Of course, now Rotom-H and Latias are being used less as well.

Mewtwo is more used than Groudon now? Damn, I guess people really do like the physical walling set lol. Nice stats Doug.

 

[Staraptor Call]

As Scizor goes down and Scarftar comes to the fore, Scizor is going to come back again in a big way. A Scarftar locked into Pursuit or Crunch is the perfect opprotunity for Scizor to get a free turn, either to set up Swords Dance or let loose with U-turn. DDTar, which can also set up on Scarftar's moves and not be revenge-killed by it, will also come up.

 

[pastel]

Like always, thanks doug.
I cant believe heatran has got such a high position.

 

[Purple Wobbuffet]

As Scizor goes down and Scarftar comes to the fore, Scizor is going to come back again in a big way. A Scarftar locked into Pursuit or Crunch is the perfect opprotunity for Scizor to get a free turn, either to set up Swords Dance or let loose with U-turn. DDTar, which can also set up on Scarftar's moves and not be revenge-killed by it, will also come up.

Then Ttar will run Steel resist berry andFire Punch/Flamethrower, forcing Scizor down after the spike.

 

[jc104]

As Scizor goes down and Scarftar comes to the fore, Scizor is going to come back again in a big way. A Scarftar locked into Pursuit or Crunch is the perfect opprotunity for Scizor to get a free turn, either to set up Swords Dance or let loose with U-turn. DDTar, which can also set up on Scarftar's moves and not be revenge-killed by it, will also come up.

I regularly use Scarf-Tar to revenge DDtar with Superpower - this is pretty reliable unless it is Jolly, in which case it is a speed tie.

Thanks for the stats Doug.

 

[mtr]

With all the Tyranitar and Swampert running amok, and a general tilt towards semistall, Breloom is quite strong in the current metagame. I've had more fun with it now than ever before.

 

[Larvitar Star]

Metagross | Item | Lum Berry | 23.4 |
| Metagross | Item | Occa Berry | 21.8 |
| Metagross | Item | Leftovers | 18.6 |
| Metagross | Item | Life Orb | 17.9 |
| Metagross | Item | Other (4) | < 6.8 |

Looks like Choice Band/Scarf Metagross is nowhere to be seen?

 

[Sparko]

With all the Tyranitar and Swampert running amok, and a general tilt towards semistall, Breloom is quite strong in the current metagame. I've had more fun with it now than ever before.

agreed :) I've been experimenting with breloom and have had pretty good success with it lately. Scarf-tar is losing its "suprise" element though.... I wonder if more pokemon will start being scarfed for the sake of speed since it is becoming a speed orientated metagame (salamence runs more + speed natures and jolly luke is becoming more common) just a thought...

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Metagross | Item | Lum Berry | 23.4 |
| Metagross | Item | Occa Berry | 21.8 |
| Metagross | Item | Leftovers | 18.6 |
| Metagross | Item | Life Orb | 17.9 |
| Metagross | Item | Other (4) | < 6.8 |

Looks like Choice Band/Scarf Metagross is nowhere to be seen?

Interesting. About 40% of all Metagross were leads, about 23% were running Agility. No more than 13.6% were using Band/Scarf. That leaves some 23% remaining.

If we assume that the entire 10% of non-Adamant, non-Jolly Metagross to be a fully standard Mixgross or defensive Metagross, that means at least 13% of Metagross were non-standard in some form or another. Kinda crazy to see that non-standard Metagross usage to be close to (or perhaps even exceeding) ChoiceGross usage.

 

[Chillarmy]

JAN 2010 STANDARD USAGE
| 50 | Uxie | 20414 | 2.72 |

...Did I miss something?

 

[Bologo]

JAN 2010 STANDARD USAGE
| 50 | Uxie | 20414 | 2.72 |

...Did I miss something?

Heh, awesome. People have always said that Uxie is outclassed by Cresselia, but now Uxie is only 1 rank below her. I guess the fact that Uxie can actually set up Stealth Rock, be a great Rain Dancer, U-turn, and is just generally doing more than Cresselia than just taking hits is quite a factor in his usage spike.

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

JAN 2010 STANDARD USAGE
| 50 | Uxie | 20414 | 2.72 |

...Did I miss something?

Yes, I was very shocked too. I think this might be another situation like Deoxys-E, where people use a Pokemon a lot in a lower tier, and discover that there's other ways to use the Pokemon than previously thought.

 

[Hood Dream]

Yes, breloom runs wild in this metagame, trust me. Good to see t-tar at #2 and mence at #2 for a change, thanks doug!

 

[imperfectluck]

Am I missing something when people mention 'stall with scarftar?'

 

[Coronis]

I really wouldn't call that centralizing.... There are five pokemon just in OU that have more usage (Salamence, Scizor, Latias, Heatran, and Tyranitar)

These pokemon very much centralize the OU Tier around themselves. Which pokemon are you packing 2/3 checks to? Which pokemon are you always looking out for?

 

[Pride]

These pokemon very much centralize the OU Tier around themselves. Which pokemon are you packing 2/3 checks to? Which pokemon are you always looking out for?

Please dont take my post out of context as I was talking to ultimifier in that previous post. I was using the ou tier as reference to the "centralization" that Porygonz and Cressela are causing in uu and I was not claiming that the ou tier was not centralized. Which it is centralized anyways but that is not necessary a bad thing. People always use it as a way to belittle the metagame but there is truly nothing wrong with a metagame being more "closed" then "open."

 

[Smurf.]

So heracross will be dropping in to UU?

 

[Coronis]

Please dont take my post out of context as I was talking to ultimifier in that previous post. I was using the ou tier as reference to the "centralization" that Porygonz and Cressela are causing in uu and I was not claiming that the ou tier was not centralized. Which it is centralized anyways but that is not necessary a bad thing. People always use it as a way to belittle the metagame but there is truly nothing wrong with a metagame being more "closed" then "open."

How do Porygonz and Cresselia not cause centralization just because other pokemon in another tier have higher percentage of usage. Thats like saying Scizor doesn't centralize because Kyogre's usage percentage is much higher.

Smurf., not neccessarily. The tier changes happen every 3 months, and are based on the usage of all three, and it is based on percentages, rather than their spot in usage.

Although, it'd be nice to have Uxie go to OU, make UU a bit easier.

 

[Pride]

How do Porygonz and Cresselia not cause centralization just because other pokemon in another tier have higher percentage of usage. Thats like saying Scizor doesn't centralize because Kyogre's usage percentage is much higher.

They are going to cause i degree of centralization, I am not arguing that, but the severity of it is not even close to being great when compared to ou. I was using ou as a reference to state that uu wasn't nearly as centralized as ou, which I believe I can do as they are both (relatively) balanced metagames. Comparing ubers to another metagame doesn't hold any weight since ubers is, obviously, an unbalanced metagame.

 

[ultimifier]

but the thing is ubers isnt really that unbalanced of a metagame. Its just that there are only so many pokemon that are useful that it seems like its unbalanced. If we had usage stats and shoddy battle for when RBY came out I would say that the "OU metagame" would be more "centralized" than ubers is today.

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

but the thing is ubers isnt really that unbalanced of a metagame. Its just that there are only so many pokemon that are useful that it seems like its unbalanced. If we had usage stats and shoddy battle for when RBY came out I would say that the "OU metagame" would be more "centralized" than ubers is today.

I agree with you. In, RBY, there was perhaps about 15 common Pokemon in OU (Chansey, Tauros, Starmie, Venusaur, Rhydon, etc.). However, do bear in mind that there were less Pokemon in the game in RBY, so it was acceptable for there to be less Pokemon per tier.

In Gen IV, about 15 per tier wouldn't be enough, as it'd take forever to get down to the tier where Pokemon such as Sharpedo and Magneton are useful, let alone the tier where Luvdisc, Lickitung and Delibird can be used.

Likewize, in Gen V, we'll probably have to adjust the tier sizes, so they're not unrealistically small. There's no way we'll be having tiers of 40 if there's 650 Pokemon.