The Negative Metagame

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LonelyNess

Makin' PK Love
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Azuril is kind of like Deoxys-N - overshadowed and thus unused because Deoxys-A (and Marill) are so much better, but still probably broken regardless.
 
Sunkern
Stats: 130/130/130/130/130/130
Ability: Chlorophyll
Item: Eviolite / Leftovers
Rain's ultimate counter. Things like Lotad and Wooper are helpless against it due to its resistance to water, grass and ground, its immunity to leech seed, and the highest mixed defenses in the game (of any viable pokemon). Eviolite makes it just unbreakable outside of a sun-boosted fire blast from something like Darumaka. In the sun, its unbeatable speed (even with zero investment) and huge offensive power allow it to sweep through unprepared teams with just Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb and Hidden Power [Rock or Ground]. If you can weaken opposing bulky fire and steel types with entry hazards, Sunkern can potentially sweep entire teams with sun support.
The main reasons to use it over Lotas are: It's higher special stats, and its access to Chlorophyll instead of Swift Swim. Rain teams with things like Marill and Lotad have immense power, but sun weakens their primary / only STAB moves and allows Sunkern to outspeed them and KO them through the use of Giga Drain / Sludge Bomb
 

EV

Banned deucer.
Don't forget, Eviolite was banned. Otherwise, Sunkern is definitely a huge threat.

Since it is so bulky, even without Eviolite, and has great Speed, do you think Solar Power is worth considering, too? It can obliterate teams with Life Orb giving it flexibility and recovery if it chooses Giga Drain over SolarBeam.
 
Since it is so bulky, even without Eviolite, and has great Speed, do you think Solar Power is worth considering, too? It can obliterate teams with Life Orb giving it flexibility and recovery if it chooses Giga Drain over SolarBeam.
It could be, although I'm still liking the speed boost of Chlorophyll. But yeah if it wants to go that route, it can use solarbeam and giga drain on the same set (for both power and healing) along with sludge bomb and a Hidden Power of choice. Replacing Lefties for Life Orb and giving it solar power would still let it die quickly though, unless the opponent it stupid enough to send out stuff that Giga Drain would actually hurt significantly.
 

LonelyNess

Makin' PK Love
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In a metagame so bulky, speed is all-in-all pretty irrelevant. Speed is important in metagames where getting the jump on your opponent means you OHKO them before they OHKO you... but OHKOs in this tier are few and far between (outside of Marill). More often than not, the EVs and nature you invest in Speed are wasted and should be put into HP.
 

UltiMario

Out of Obscurity
is a Pokemon Researcher
The only thing I'd probably do in terms of speed is run enough EVs to outpace max Diglett just to make sure the thing is never a bother without packing a Choice Scarf. Most mons here won't have to run more than a few EVs in speed, if any at all, to beat that benchmark though. It's the only thing I can really think of that won't waste too many EVs to outpace, but at the same time could be an issue if it outpaces you.
 
Hello all. I've been watching this thread from the shadows. I am a bit disappointed that this thread fell onto the second page, because this metagame has great potential. Let me throw in my $0.02 to help bring some life back into this thread...

[$0.02]

I highly suggest dividing the Pokemon into tiers. A good (albeit rough) starting point is to divide Pokemon based on BST. I would suggest this:

Tier I: BST 701 and higher (Uber...?)
Tier II: BST 641-700 (OU...?)
Tier III: BST 601-640 (UU...?)
Tier IV: BST 600 and lower (NU...?)

A few evolution lines fall into the same tier, but the only ones that I noticed are the useless bugs (Caterpie/Metapod, Weedle/Kakuna, and Wurmple/Silcoon/Cascoon in Tier 1, lol). Feel free to point out any others I might've missed... Pokemon could be moved to different tiers later.

The number one suspect for tier balancing would obviously be Shuckle. Shuckle falls into a tier where it obviously shouldn't be (Tier III, way too good for the tier), but that issue can easily be taken care of.

[/$0.02]
 
This metagame's community is small enough that splitting it into quarters would probably end up killing most of it off.
 

Codraroll

Cod Mod
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Never mind that in this metagame, high stats usually go in tandem with a horrible movepool (see Kakuna, Magikarp or Delibird, for instance).

Would banning Marill be a step towards balancing the metagame, by the way? Would it open up a few more diverse play styles, or would Marill just be replaced by the next most broken thing?
 
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