Miscellaneous News & Art

Permanent Ladder Updates

Almost every permanent ladder saw an update, so let's recap the last month's bans and other changes.

AAA

Mamoswine was banned temporarily in January, re-tested, and banned again in February. With its limited number of viable counters and the power it brought with Adaptability, the council decided to reinforce its ban and send Mamoswine packing.

Balanced Hackmons

While most bans are controversial in any format, none seem to draw the attention that Balanced Hackmons gets when it introduces a suspect for banning. The latest source of ire among BH players was AssistDon, which abused the move Assist on Primal Groudon with Prankster, Mold Breaker, Tinted Lens, and/or Magic Bounce to plow throw teams with Thousand Arrows and V-create. When it was all said and done, the vote to ban Assist was overwhelming and the move — not the 'mon — was sent packing.

Inverse Battle

Inverse is one of those metagames that is easy to exploit because of the game's mechanics. Normal-spam is fairly popular and one of the worst offenders was Huge Power Diggersby. A recent addition was also causing some headaches that had people clamoring for suspect which was Contrary Serperior. Both Normal and Grass are strong offensive types and these two were deemed too good for Inverse and got the boot.

Monotype

Monotype has a unique process for instituting bans, due in part to its unique format. A while ago Kyurem-White and Shaymin-Sky were introduced to Ice and Grass teams respectively in an effort to balance those types with the others. However, this experiment came to an end after enough evidence showed they were just too strong in their own right. Along with those two, a third Pokémon was banned. The Galladite mega stone was restricted from Psychic teams, meaning Mega Gallade is only usable with its fellow Fighting brethren now.

STABmons

After a new council formed last month during the middle of a call to suspect Keldeo, they decided to take up the suspect as their first official vote. The arguments went back and forth with the playerbase fairly split on whether Keldeo was indeed broken. In the end a majority 3-2 vote felt that while Keldeo has some usable counters, its ability to beat them with just a few tweaks to its set or the ease of removing those counters with another teammate was unhealthy and the pony was put out to pasture.

Tier Shift

The move Chatter has been making quite a stir ever since we discovered it worked on other Pokémon besides Chatot. (It was banned from STABmons for that reason in January.) In Tier Shift only Chatot can use Chatter, but the boosts to Chatot's stats made the Pokémon much more viable and hence Chatter became used a lot more frequently. After enough players complained about its uncompetitiveness, the move flew the coop forever.

PU

PU gained and lost a couple Pokémon each with the last tier changes. Once things settled down, however, two dominant threats continued to cause problems for the rest of the tier. One was Tauros who sported great Speed and power and just enough moves boosted by Sheer Force to get past its typical stops. The other was Kecleon, which abused Protean and could constantly shuffle its viable sets to where opponents never knew what kind of Kecleon they were facing. The council promoted them both to BL4 after enough testing proved PU couldn't adapt with them around.

Other Metas Artwork

There are a lot of great artists contributing to Other Metagames. Here are a few of the masterpieces created this last month!

Inheritance art by KAIZA

Can you imagine what that Keldeo must be thinking with Primal Kyogre looming like that behind it? It's probably thinking I'm going to destroy you. This art is actually no longer in the Inheritance Thread anymore because, in fact, Keldeo did destroy a lot of things. #BadPony.

Kektus Ladder Challenge art by CactusCacti

Look at that mad scientist Maractus deviously concocting some terrifying Mega Rayquaza set while Chansey watches anxiously. Cower in horror as Mega Rayquaza receives the ability Protean and the moves Tickle ... and Lick ..? Seriously, how am I supposed to ladder with that? Such is the challenge!

Brackets art by Astara

This relatively simple design is lauded by critics across Smogon for its workmanlike use of color, provocative subliminal message, and effusive disregard for contemporary aesthetics. The piece's creator will be opening a gallery soon in New York City where the starting price for most 2x5 notecard scribbles is expected to top $10,000. Get your pocketbooks ready!

OM Mentoring Program art by Sparkl3y

If you're as nervous as Electabuzz or Magmar are when it comes to trying out a new OM, then you should join the mentoring program headed by unfixable and Snaquaza. Soon enough you'll be happy as a Rhydon with your new-found expertise.

Well that's it for our second issue! Tune in next month for what will only be another wonderful survey of the events coming out of Other Metagames! And remember, what you read in Other News may not be front-page news, but it's our news.

If you have a design you want featured in the next issue of Other News, please PM Eevee General or unfixable by the 20th of that month.