Metagame before Smogon / Competitive Pokemon

I started playing Pokemon Diamond/Pearl around 2008 with my friend.
We both had an Action Replay and we just played with each other.
I'm sure others started like this as well.

Now, my idea is to post a description of the metagame with your friend(s) and one or more of your most succesful teams.

In the Metagame section, things you can add are:
Lead Metagame
Estimation of the most common Pokemon
Most common sets
What games are included; important.
Examples: DP, DPPt, Pt, HGSS, DPHGSS, DPPtHGSS, PtHGSS

Note: it is preferred to put them in hide buttons

I'll post mine here:

Included games: DP only, thus no Bullet Punch Scizor, Outrage Salamence, etc.

Estimation of the most common Pokemon
1. Salamence
2. Gengar
3. Infernape
4. Arcanine
5. Hitmonlee
6. Weavile
7. Electivire
8. Tyranitar
9. Porygon-Z
10. Heracross

First thing you'll probably notice is Hitmonlee on spot 5.
Choice Scarf Hitmonlee was extremely common, as it could revenge a lot of the top threats: Salamence is rampaging? Stone Edge him. Weavile/Tyranitar has set up SD/DD? Close Combat him. It also checked the common Registeel.
There were a lot more Pokemon used than just this top 10, really.

Salamence

MixMence was one of the most common set: Dragon Claw (Outrage wasn't there) | Earthquake | Brick Break | Fire Blast @ Life Orb was the most common Salamence set.
However, with the lack of DD and few Speed EVs, it was kinda slow.
Naughty | 252 Atk | 140 SpA | 116 Spe lacked Speed, Adamant Heracross outsped it, the reason to sometimes run 136 Spe EVs.
Mixed DDMence was also fairly common: Dragon Dance | Dragon Claw | Earthquake / Brick Break | Fire Blast @ Leftovers outsped Choice Scarf Hitmonlee and Heracross after a Dragon Dance and proceeded to KO.
There was also Physical DDMence: Dragon Dance | Dragon Claw | Earthquake / Roost | Brick Break / Roost @ Leftovers and Mixed Choice Scarf.

Gengar

Even though Hypnosis had 70 accuracy in DP, it was still rarely used.
Thunder Wave was more common on Lead Gengar (see next section).
When used not as a lead, the most common set was Substitute + 3 Attacks. Substitute | Shadow Ball | Thunderbolt / Sludge Bomb| Focus Blast / Sludge Bomb @ Leftovers | Spell Tag.
Two other sets that were useed are Life Orb and Choice Specs.
Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Explosion | Thunderbolt / Focus Blast @ Life Orb was powerful, and could go out with a Boom when at low health.
Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Thunderbolt | Focus Blast @ Choice Specs with a Timid nature was fast and extremely powerful, but easily walled when locked into an attack.

Infernape

Infernape was almost alaways used with Nasty Plot or Swords Dance.
Nasty Plot | Vacuum Wave / Focus Blast | Fire Blast / Flamethrower | Grass Knot / Focus Blast @ Life Orb.
Vacuum Wave was used with a Modest nature, Focus Blast with a Timid nature. The latter was common to outspeed Jolly Salamence.
Swords Dance | Close Combat | Flare Blitz / Fire Punch | Mach Punch / Stone Edge @ Life Orb.
Mach Punch was used with an Adamant nature, while Stone Edge was used with a Jolly nature. The latter is the most common, as it easily beats Salamence.

Arcanine

Arcanine was used because of its all-around good stats and a good ability.
The most common sets were bulky sets. Bulky Mixed Arcanine was common for a while, but faded away because it needed a lot of investment for every stat.
252 HP | 252 Atk | 4 Spe | Adamant | Intimidate @ Leftovers / Chesto Berrywas a common spread for bulky physical attackers. The moveset usually consisted of Flare Blitz | ExtremeSpeed | Thunder Fang | Will-o-Wisp / Rest.
Then there were Choice Specs Arcanines, 4 HP | 252 SpA | 252 Spe | Modest / Timid @ Choice Specs with the moves Fire Blast / Flamethrower | Dragon Pulse | Hidden Power Grass | Overheat.
And finally, Physically Defensive or Specially Defensive RestTalkers.
252 HP | 252 Def | 4 Spe @ Leftovers and Intimidate | Impish / Bold.
Rest | Sleep Talk | Flare Blitz / Flamethrower | Will-o-Wisp / Roar.
252 HP | 252 SpD | 4 Spe @ Leftovers and Flash Fire | Careful / Calm.
Rest | Sleep Talk | Flare Blitz / Flamethrower | Roar / Hidden Power Ground / Toxic.

Hitmonlee

Hitmonlee was the most common Choice Scarfer, pretty comparable to Flygon right now.
4 HP | 252 Atk | 252 Spe with an Adamant nature.
Limber was pretty great, as Thunder Wave was everywhere.
The most common moveset was:
Close Combat | Stone Edge | Blaze Kick / Earthquake | Sucker Punch / Earthquake.
Choice Scarfers were pretty rare, and because of this, it could not only revenge almost every other Pokemon, but also go for a lategame sweep.
The next most common Choice Scarfer, Heracross, had 2 less Base Speed, making him one of that fastest Pokemon without setup.
There was also a Choice Band to abuse the commonness of the Choice Scarf, but was fairly uncommon.



Estimation of the most common Leads

1. Porygon-Z
2. Heracross
3. Gengar
4. Infernape
5. Weavile
6. Scizor
7. Arcanine
8. Hariyama
9. Salamence
10. Gyarados

Most Leads were setuppers with a Focus Sash, like NP Porygon-Z or SD Heracross. This is to make sure their Focus Sash is still intact, although Stealth Rock was relatively uncommon. Multiple ways of stopping them have originated. Common ones are Thunder Wave or leading with a Choice Scarf. Another common one is priority or weather.

Porygon-Z

The most common Porygon-Z lead set is Nasty Plot.
Nasty Plot | Tri Attack | Dark Pulse / Ice Beam | Hidden Power Fighting / Thunderbolt @ Focus Sash with a Timid nature and Download ability. When lucky, you have a +3 SpA boost and decent Speed, allowing you to sweep Defensive teams.
An Agility set was sometimes used to have more Speed.
Agility | Tri Attack | Dark Pulse / Ice Beam | Hidden Power Fighting / Thunderbolt with a Modest natre and Download.

Heracross

Swords Dance Heracross was extremely common.
Focus Sash was the most common item, but sometimes Flame Orb was used.
SD | Megahorn | Close Combat | Stone Edge / Facade with a Jolly nature.

Gengar

Gengar was quite the anti-lead.
With Thunder Wave, Explosion and high Speed and SpA, it could do well against most common other leads.
Thunder Wave | Explosion | Shadow Ball | Focus Blast was the most common moveset.

Infernape

Basically SD / NP | STAB moves | coverage move / priority move @ Focus Sash and a Speed-boosting nature. Another common setup lead.
However, he could also use Fake Out | Close Combat | Fire Blast | Stealth Rock @ Focus Sash to beat most setuppers and set up Stealth Rock.

Weavile

Weavile was an interesting lead to face, as its two possible sets were about as common as the other.
SD | Ice Punch | Night Slash | Brick Break @ Focus Sash | Jolly was your basic setupper.
Fake Out | Ice Punch | Night Slash | Brick Break @ Focus Sash | Adamant was an anti-lead as it could break the Sash with Fake Out and KO before the setupper can move.


More might come soon




------------------------------------------------------------------------


Registeel @ Leftovers
Clear Body
Careful (+SpD, -SpA)
252 HP | 252 SpD | 4 Spe
Ice Punch
Thunder Wave
Stealth Rock
Explosion

This was a fairly effective lead for my defensively-inclined team. It does fairly good against most leads, Thunder Waving them and setting up Stealth Rock. Finally, Explosion either KO's them or brings them down to their Sash.
Ice Punch was used as Registeel is a great Salamence counter and to make sure I'm not complete Taunt bait.
Specially Defensive was chosen over Physically Defensive, because:
  • Hitmonlee and Heracross were common physical attackers
  • To easily survive Salamence's Fire Blast
  • I needed a Special Tank more than a Physical Tank


Arcanine @ Leftovers
Intimidate
Impish (+Def, -SpA)
252 HP | 252 Def | 4 Spe
Rest
Sleep Talk
Flare Blitz
Will-o-Wisp

This tanks physical hits.
It's my tool of weakening the common physical attackers with Intimidate and Will-o-Wisp.
Flare Blitz over Flamethrower because it's far more powerful.


Articuno @ Leftovers
Pressure
Calm (+SpD, -Atk)
252 HP | 252 SpD | 4 Spe
Ice Beam
Roost
Roar
Toxic

Articuno was fairly viable, with Stealth Rock being uncommon, and its high HP and SpD letting it be one of the most common tanks.
Ice Beam is my best STAB option, and hits fairly hard even with no investment.
Roost is for recovery, Roar let me hurt more Pokemon with SR, Toxic more Pokemon, and most importantly, mess up switching Pokemon.
Toxic is for stalling damage.


Weezing @ Leftovers
Levitate
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP | 252 Def | 4 Spe
Sludge Bomb
Thunderbolt
Pain Split
Will-o-Wisp

Another Physical Tank. This guy is one of the best Hitmonlee and Heracross counters.
Sludge Bomb is for STAB, Thunderbolt hurts Gyarados and other physical attackers Arcanine can't handle.
Pain Split is for recovery, and Will-o-Wisp halves their Attack.


Blastoise @ Leftovers
Torrent
Bold (+Def, -Atk)
252 HP | 252 Def | 4 Spe
Surf
Rapid Spin
Ice Beam
Toxic

This guy Rapid Spins to keep alive in case my opponent has Stealth Rock.
He also takes on Arcanine easily.
Surf is for STAB, Ice Beam for coverage.
Toxic stalls.


Salamence @ Leftovers
Intimidate
Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)
248 HP | 252 Atk | 8 Spe
Dragon Dance
Roost
Dragon Claw
Brick Break

The team basically works toward this guy sweeping. Weakening the opponents team with Toxic and Will-o-Wisp to make sure this guy 2HKO's everything after 1 or 2 Dragon Dances. Brick Break over Earthquake because Bronzong was relatively common and it breaks screens.


This team was fairly uncommon as most teams were offensively-inclined, but this one was one of my favorite because it was a bit different. I'll post a standard team later.
 

Badal

Shit
is a Contributor Alumnus
In Game Teams? Is that what you are searching for?
Or Mixed Tiers? Because this seems like a mix of both, mostly Mixed Tiers
 
I always used gyrados/salamence once i found out that dragon dance was so good. I lead with one of them and went for the quick 6-0
 
My friends and I played a one legendary per team rule.

My legendary:

Giratina @ Leftovers
* Rest
* Will-o-Wisp
* Dragon Pulse
* Shadow Claw

My strategy:

Burn.
Laugh.
Rest if necessary.
Win.

Giratina got killed once (once!) in a 4-person round robin best of 3 tournament between some friends and I.

Fuck yeah Walltina.
 
Curse snorlax and swampert being so crazy I remember looking into punishment. Other than that it was whatever we could get our hands on from the serebii chatroom (forget AR =D)
 
We had two metagames that required no thought to create...

Legendaries
and
Non Legendaries

In the Legendaries 'tier' there was al ot of Darkrai, Arceus, (stuff EV limit, it's Action Replay, let's go to the Hall of Origin) Kyogre...

Non-Legendaries was dominated by Magmortar, Electivire, Weavile, Froslass (Double Team spam), mainly those 'Sinnoh Evolutions.'

Then I discovered Pokésav and Smogon... My friends were Pokédead.
 

DetroitLolcat

Maize and Blue Badge Set 2014-2017
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnus
Suicune for RestStall, Togekiss were on my team for flinch hax, I had a Metagross that was so God awful, I think I had a Rhyperior for a sweeper. Tyranitar was for Sand and high Attack, and Latias. Once I got on Smogon things changed...
 
I usualy used Tyranitar and Rhyperior in Diamond. Then I'd almost always use Charizard, because I didn't want to get hurt by grass types, and I'd use Zapdos to kill Water Types. The other two were just bystanders usualy, but I had flinch togekiss and Milotic usualy. My brother's were always scared of Milotic since it's so hard to get they figured it must be ultra powerful. Never dreamed of putting up Stealth Rock, or anything like that haha. I barely knew enough about Supper Effective hits to know what moves to use. I thought Nidoking was beast because of his coverage, but didn't want to be creamed by water types.
 

Zephyr

Life Stream
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
I remember back in the day It was we can use legendaries or we couldn't. that's all there was to it ahahah.
 
I didn't have much experience with Gens III & IV before Smogon, but my memory of "competetive" RBY is that every team revolved around killing/disabling their Mewtwo so yours could sweep with Amnesia (which raised both offensive and defensive capabilities at the time), since Mewtwo's best counter was Mewtwo itself. My favorite strategy was to use an Electrode or something that could match Mewtwo's speed and paralyze it or explode on it as soon as it came out. Of course, this was before we knew anything about IV's (we had an inkling of EV's because of the box trick) and before the concept of natures, so there was no guarantee that your Electrode would outspeed their Mewtwo. Amnesia was the undisputed best move in the game, making Snorlax one of the best special sweepers/tanks in the game.

Once I found Shoddy Battle, my friends and I started to do a few matches in Gen IV and though we had some help from Smogon's site, we mostly used our intuition. My favorite sweeper was AgilitySubPetaya Empoleon, and Electivire and Ninjask were two of the most common pokemon among our early matches, simply because of their novelty.
 

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