Alphabet Cup

You can pretty much say that about every Shell Smasher.
Thundurus is starting to look like this metagame's equivalent of Avalugg in Inverse. I can see it getting top usage, especially if the letter S gets banned. Forget Shell Smash, Belly Drum will be almost unviable if Thundurus becomes popular
Should be noted that Tornadus can also do the exact same, so it's something to watch out for too. In fact Tornadus basically gets most of Thundurus's relevant moves (Thunder Wave, Thunder/bolt) with the exception of Volt Switch.

Also do the drives/techno blast work on anything other than Genesect?
 

Albacore

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Should be noted that Tornadus can also do the exact same, so it's something to watch out for too. In fact Tornadus basically gets most of Thundurus's relevant moves (Thunder Wave, Thunder/bolt) with the exception of Volt Switch.
True, but Thundurus has a better defensive typing, STAB on Thunderbolt, and is far more powerful. The only thing Tornadus has over Thundurus is his speed, but they have priority anyway. Tornadus is harder to revenge kill, but a particularly mean-spirited Thundurus might want to run both Topsy-Turvy and T-Wave to neuter Scarfers who try to revenge it.
So basically, Thundurus can choose to outclass Tornadus as what it does best in the first place. Tornadus defenitely has a niche, but Thundurus is better most of the time
Also do the drives/techno blast work on anything other than Genesect?
Yes. Hence Thundurus getting BoltBeam coverage.
 
I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but I'd say you could try a bulky Togekiss with Tail Glow to make Garchomp cry in his bed.
If anything's a weird lol in the face, you could try a Boomburst Blissey. Or maybe an Unaware Bibarel with Boomburst lol.
Chesnaught gets the always coveted Close Combat to use instead of Hammer Arm. So does Cloyster so it can use CC instead of Razor Shell w/ Icicle Spear and Rock Blast for pretty nice coverage. Conkeldurr can also use CC instead of Drain Punch for -really- scary damage.
D gets Defog, but there aren't that many pokemon to abuse it.. Maybe either Dragonite or the Dusclops line would be best.
Dragon Dancing Diggersby anyone?
Freeze-Dry's an awesome move and maybe Froslass could run a Sub+3 attacks set with it?
Haxorus, Honchkrow and Heracross with High Jump Kick.
Mienshao got Mach Punch, Megahorn and possibly, Moonblast. Mixed Mienshao maybe?
Psystrike Porygons?
These are the ones I'm sorta interested in, but I guess there are always more.

So far, I think X,Y,Z,U and Q got the worst ones.
 
Tornadus and Thundurus have the exact same bases lol, and Tornadus gets both Topsy-Turvy and TWave too. I know Tornadus isn't as good as Thundurus, but it's still a legitimate threat simply because it has the same movepool, and some other moves too.

Q, U, X, Y and Z got the worst ones, but there aren't that many affected Pokemon. Unfortunate victims are random shit like Quagsire, Umbreon, Xatu (X's only representative, mind you, excluding Xerneas) and lolunfezant. The bigger ones are stuff that are still pretty ok, like Zapdos, Zygarde and Yanmega.
 
Quiver Dance?
Your choice of new Quiver Dance sweepers are Quagsire, Qwilfish, Quilava and Quilladin.

Quagsire: Quiver Dance Quagsire allows derpy here to gain usable SpA and SpDef stats. Its speed is unsalvageable though. Unaware means it can stop big boosters easily, and it has a decent special movepool.
Quilava: With a special movepool consisting of Extrasensory, fire moves (including Eruption), Nature Power and Hidden Power, and a bit of bulk through Eviolite, Quilava is usable but not amazing.
Quilladin: Quiver Dance Quilladin is okay, but has a limited Special movepool. The extra bulk Eviolite gives means it can be hard to take down after a few boosts, surprisingly. A low Special and Speed stat can make it difficult to begin.
Qwilfish: Qwilfish has a deep Special movepool but base 55 Special Attack takes too long to rectify. It does, however, gain Quick Attack through Q which can be usable for Qwilfish, but Aqua Jet is usually superior.

None of these are great options. Quagsire can have a decent niche as it also has Unaware, but the others are somewhat near unusable (except maybe Quilava).
 

Albacore

sludge bomb is better than sludge wave
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Quiver Dance?
The problem with Q is the actual pokemon, not the moves. There are only 4 Q-mons, 2 of which are fully evolved : Qwilfish and Quagsire, neither of which can use Quiver Dance for any effect. I guess Quilava is OK, but you might as well go for Volcarona.

Edit : Greninja'd
 
I'm actually excited for parting shot Politoed lol. With a scarf, you could reliably set up rain and switch out to a rain abuser.

I love gen 6, but I kinda miss being able to run a rain team effectively :/

EDIT: eh, someone already mentioned this a while back. Damn, you guys have picked up pretty much everything viable!

Also, regarding the S move ban, by banning status moves do you mean banning only moves that inflict status, or all non attacking moves?
All non attacking moves.
 
A huge thank you to everyone who voted for Alphabet Cup as Other Metagame of the Month. Sadly, we didn't win, but we were so close (lol Arcticblast and TTT voted after it was closed, so Middle Cup won).
As for where we go from here, I will be doing the necessary coding for the tier to allow a ladder to be implemented somewhere. Where? I don't rightly know. I'll be casually coding due to college and such so it so it may take some time. March may come before I'm done. Who knows.

Once again, I have to thank everyone who voted-- We really were just inches away from winning. I hope Alphabet Cup will have your support in March's OMotM voting. At the risk of making a horrible spelling joke... Can't spell awesome without U.
 
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TalkTakesTime

as shallow as a plate of cereal
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
As for where we go from here, I will be doing the necessary coding for the tier to allow a ladder to be implemented somewhere. Where? I don't rightly know. I'll be casually coding due to college and such so it so it may take some time. March may come before I'm done. Who knows.
I just coded and implemented Alphabet Cup on Joim's Lab, so it should now be playable both by challenge and on a ladder! If you find any bugs in it, let me know either here or on IRC (I'll be in #showdown or #othermetas)
 
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I just coded and implemented Alphabet Cup on Joim's Lab, so it should now be playable both by challenge and on a ladder! If you find any bugs in it, let me know either here or on IRC (I'll be in #showdown or #othermetas)
This is awesome! On first inspection, all the rules seem to be working fine. I tested as many things that would slip under the radar as possible: Sketch Smeargle, Jolly ExtremeSpeed Entei and the like, and everything looks like it works as intended on the surface! Thank you, and once again, this is awesome.
 

TalkTakesTime

as shallow as a plate of cereal
is a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
This is awesome! On first inspection, all the rules seem to be working fine. I tested as many things that would slip under the radar as possible: Sketch Smeargle, Jolly ExtremeSpeed Entei and the like, and everything looks like it works as intended on the surface! Thank you, and once again, this is awesome.
My pleasure :) Consider it my repayment for voting after voting was technically closed
 
I know this is unreleased-talk but once Volcanion is released he will be a monster, he already has like 140 base Atk and gets STAB V-create, which would work well in Trick Room because of his crap speed, and he has decent bulk to take a hit after the Def and SpD drop from V-create.
 

Albacore

sludge bomb is better than sludge wave
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Mamoswine may not have gained anything good besides Milk Drink and maybe Mach Punch, but it's extremely anti-meta due to the fact that it counters standard Chill Drive Thundurus, resisting both Thunderbolt and Techno Blast thanks to Thick Fat. However, some Thundurus may opt to carry Douse Drive, but then it would be walled by Grass-types and Gastrodon. In any case, Mamoswine seems like the only good Thundurus counter ATM.
 

Albacore

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http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/joimslab-alphabetcup-3817

An alphabet cup match me and my friend had (I hope it isn't wrong to share replays, I thought I'd post it since I haven't seen anyone else post their replays here), this meta's really fun. It shows some pretty cool movesets and strategies that can be used in Alphabet cup. The match is pretty cool in itself too lol.
Geomancy Garchomp looks interesting. Chain Chomp unchained, anyone? Although Gardevoir, Gengar, Greninja and especially Genesect seem better.
Wobbuffet looks like it now has about 5 viable sets. It can Counter, Encore, WishPass, Burn Shuffle... I expect it to be very big in this meta.
 
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Geomancy Garchomp looks interesting.
Wobbuffet looks like it now has about 5 viable sets. It can Counter, Encore, WishPass, Burn Shuffle... I expect it to be very big in this meta.
I know right? It has good special STABs in dragon pulse and earth power, and the last move is just filler. Though I did get cocky tossing it out early game lol.

Wish wobuffet isn't as effective as you'd think it would be, mainly because it lacks protect. It still appreciates the recovery though, and will probably be a top tier mon in this meta.
 
I know this is unreleased-talk but once Volcanion is released he will be a monster, he already has like 140 base Atk and gets STAB V-create, which would work well in Trick Room because of his crap speed, and he has decent bulk to take a hit after the Def and SpD drop from V-create.
Volcanion, Diancie and Hoopa will all bring interesting things to the table. A V-Create, Volt Switch Volcanion sounds awesome, and Diancie could pull off a lovely Dragon Dance set to patch up its low speed. Hoopa is probably the Base 100 everything mon and it has a ton of fun moves it can use, such as Hydro Pump and High Jump Kick. Each of them also provide their own moves: Diamond Storm (Like Stone Edge only could boost defense, Doublade is even more crazy), Steam Eruption (dammit it's a more broken Scald), and Hyperspace Hole (if there was anything amazing specially in H I'd be scared). Of course, none of these will be implemented until they're legitimately available ingame, but they have interesting implications.

Mamoswine may not have gained anything good besides Milk Drink and maybe Mach Punch, but it's extremely anti-meta due to the fact that it counters standard Chill Drive Thundurus, resisting both Thunderbolt and Techno Blast thanks to Thick Fat. However, some Thundurus may opt to carry Douse Drive, but then it would be walled by Grass-types and Gastrodon. In any case, Mamoswine seems like the only good Thundurus counter ATM.
It sounds great! I think I run Burn Drive Thundurus just because I didn't think about what Thundurus needs to counter and it seems to have decent synergy with Electric, too. Only Gastrodon and dragons come to mind as something it struggles with. While it hits TF Mamoswine neutrally, neutral +3 120BP moves off a behemoth special attack stat makes Mamo a shaky switchin. Having Ice Shard makes Mamo an excellent crusher of Thundurus if it gets in safely.

(Thundurus new meta? I consider it anti-meta, maybe Mamoswine is anti-anti-meta!)

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/joimslab-alphabetcup-3817

An alphabet cup match me and my friend had (I hope it isn't wrong to share replays, I thought I'd post it since I haven't seen anyone else post their replays here), this meta's really fun. It shows some pretty cool movesets and strategies that can be used in Alphabet cup. The match is pretty cool in itself too lol.
Not wrong at all to share replays, I encourage it! Geomancy Garchomp seems really interesting, but I'd say Genesect is an amazing Geomancy user too. Parting Shot Politoed and Wish Wobbuffet have lovely niches... Wobbuffet wishes it had Metal Burst though. I found that battle quite interesting though, and it showed me that Skill Swap Slaking is more than just a physical beast. Giving an opponent Truant forces them into a corner (but the Banette was mono-attacking anyway and Slaking was immune to Ghost). A lovely battle!
 

Albacore

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Each of them also provide their own moves: Diamond Storm (Like Stone Edge only could boost defense, Doublade is even more crazy), Steam Eruption (dammit it's a more broken Scald), and Hyperspace Hole (if there was anything amazing specially in H I'd be scared). Of course, none of these will be implemented until they're legitimately available ingame, but they have interesting implications.
Diamond Storm looks scary on Darmanitan, Durant and Dragonite. Dugtrio now has a much more reliable alternative to Stone Edge for coverage, although the defense increase does nothing for it.
Steam Eruption needs no comment. Did we really need another broken S-move
From what I can gather, Hyperspace Hole doesn't look like a good move. Still, Hydreigon, Houndoom, and Heatran can learn it if they want to force Fighting-types out, but the 2-turn thing stops it from being effective.
 
Hoopa is probably the Base 100 everything mon and it has a ton of fun moves it can use
I'm afraid there is no 100/100/100/100/100/100 legendary this gen. These are Hoopa's stats (IVs unknown, no EVs, nature is recognizable by the text color):
http://www.smealum.net/hh.jpg

This is the base stats we currently have calculated, unrounded: 95.5 / 125 / 68.1 / 155 / 145.5 / 86
That speed isn't gonna help much but we already know for a fact that Hoopa gets Trick Room.

Oh and Hyperspace Hole isn't a 2-turn move like Fly or Phantom Force, despite the confusing name.

Regarding Steam Eruption, it only has 8 PP so you can't freely spam it like Scald until you get the burn, even if we don't know the odds of getting the burn yet.
 
Oh and, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Searing Shot yet. Yep, another S move and probably the single best fire type no-drawback move in the entire game, but too bad it is (or was in this case) only limited to Victini. 100 BP, 100% acc and a nice 30% chance to burn. It's stronger than Flamethrower, is accuracy-wise better than Fire Blast and Blue Flare and doesn't lower your SpA like Overheat. I think it works good on Salamence instead of Fire Blast
 
Oh and, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Searing Shot yet. Yep, another S move and probably the single best fire type no-drawback move in the entire game, but too bad it is (or was in this case) only limited to Victini. 100 BP, 100% acc and a nice 30% chance to burn. It's stronger than Flamethrower, is accuracy-wise better than Fire Blast and Blue Flare and doesn't lower your SpA like Overheat. I think it works good on Salamence instead of Fire Blast
Searing Shot is great. Swoobat can also use it on Shell Smash sets: As CM/Stored Power/Giga Drain/ Heat Wave is the norm in standard, it can run Shell Smash/Stored Power/Searing Shot/Seed Flare for amazing effect. It's shocking how little attention the special side of S gets.

Also, dammit GF don't break tradition on us, base 100 everything update for Hoopa or Diancie k
 
Volcarona gets V-Create and Volt Switch ... Nice

and T is a nice letter: Toxic Spikes, Trick, Transform, Trick Room, regex(Thunder(bolt| Wave| Punch| Fang)?), Tail Glow, Teether Dance, Technoblast
 

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