3 Pokemon Tier

[DTC]

3 Pokemon Tier is Standard OU except you can only use three Pokemon instead of six. Battles are much more fast paced in this tier and most will end in less than 12 turns. It's interesting what strategies are more or less viable when you only have three Pokemon. It's relatively unexplored, but here's what I've noticed so far:

• Focus Sash and Gems are more viable
• Trick Room, Tailwind, and dual screens are much more potent
• Hazards are a lot less useful

This may seem like a Random Matchup clone, but it actually has quite a few differences from Random Matchup. Differences from Random Matchup:

• You only have three Pokemon; you don't pick three Pokemon out of six.
• Pokemon are level 100
• Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Deoxys-D, Phione, Victini, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, and Genesect are unbanned; Garchomp, Blaziken, Thundurus, and Excadrill are banned.
• There is no Item Clause
• Swift Swim + Drizzle and Moody are banned
• There is Sleep Clause, OHKO Clause, and Evasion Clause

So what are you waiting for? Make a team and battle with someone. There are plenty of eager players on #othermetas, #pokemon, and Pokemon Showdown!. What's also nice about this tier is that it's pretty easy to build teams because you only need three Pokemon.

 

[Alfalfa]

So how do we play this? Do we wait for it to appear under the scrollbar in the lobby?

 

[DTC]

So how do we play this? Do we wait for it to appear under the scrollbar in the lobby?

Ask on PS or on IRC on #othermetas and #pokemon. Just challenge people who have 3 Pokemon tier teams to OU.

 

[Relados]

Ah, this is cool. If I can guess correctly this would also reduce weather's viability by some, considering that you can't build a more balanced team that counters common weaknesses. I can imagine a lot of fast, diverse sweepers will gain a lot more popularity (like Infernape and such).

 

[Sprocket]

This seems remarkably similar to the GBU's Single metagame in concept, just with a Smogon twist. Not that it's a bad thing mind you.

 

[DTC]

I've been playing a few matches since I created the topic, and I've realized synergy is extremely important in 3 Pokemon tier. You only have three slots, which makes it that much harder to cover most of the threats. Of course, you also have to focus slots on Pokemon that can sweep and blast through everything else.

One Pokemon I've found that is really effective is Heatran. Heatran has so many excellent resistances and thanks to the very fast paced nature of the tier, it can use Air Balloon really well. I've been using an offensive variant with Fire Blast / Hidden Power Ice / Earth Power / Substitute @ Air Balloon and it's pretty awesome. Fantastic check to so many Pokemon, especially Dragon-types. It's one of the only things that's discouraging me from using Venomoth. Sleep is so much better in 3 pokes tier because you can make 33% of the team useless. I'm sure Quiver Dance / Sleep Powder / Bug Buzz / Roost/Substitute Venomoth @ Tinted Lens is really good against teams lacking powerful and fast Choice Scarf Pokemon and Scizor and Heatran.

 

[Keiran]

I've been dabbling around with the combination of Heatran and Gliscor. Aside from its huge Water-type weakness, it has been doing quite well for me. Heatran is invaluable; its typing checks a huge amount of threats, such as Genesect. While Gliscor's typing takes on a lot of physical attackers, such as Terrakion. I had the idea for this core when someone on #othermetas said that "Genesect + Terrakion is strong". To address the Water-type weakness, I played around with two Pokemon - Rotom-W and Celebi. Rotom-W was mediocre, while it dealth with most Water-types, and provided an additional Ground-type resistance, it simply wasn't strong enough. I liked Celebi slightly better, its higher Speed meant that it could outspeed Genesect, not to mention Leaf Storm is pretty darn strong. The popularity of Heatran pretty much means it's forced to run Earth Power but that's fine.

I'm liking Protect so far as well; knowing what move your opponent will make in a tier that's so reliant on synergy is invaluable. I've ran it on Heatran and it's been nice for random HP Grounds or the like. Although I've since ran Air Balloon so it hasn't been needed as much.

I'm interested in trying a simple FWG core, or a Dark/Fighting/Ghost core.