Other News

Volume 1, Issue 3 (Release April 6th, 2015)

OMotM Coverage: A New Favorite Inherits the Crown

By Eevee General

Inheritance, the metagame by Snaquaza that lets you transfer one Pokemon's moves and ability onto another, won April’s OMotM contest in a landslide. This is Snaquaza's fourth win after producing such hits as Mediocremons, Haxmons, and Stat Switch. With that track record of success, there was little doubt Inheritance wouldn't win for April, especially considering the thread was on page twenty-five after its relatively short life since starting in early February.

The concept may be simple, but the application produces some truly wild results. Take for instance one of the metagame's top threats, Landorus-T. It can "inherit" Gale Wings from Talonflame along with all its moves, giving Landorus priority Brave Bird off base 145 Attack. Aerilate sets are also popular, which are donated by Mega Pinsir, granting Aerilate-boosted Returns and Quick Attacks, STAB Earthquake, and coverage with Close Combat plus the boosting power of Swords Dance. But don't be surprised when you encounter Landorus without those two abilities and instead find yourself unable to escape due to Arena Trap!

Even with the metagame's large initial following, Snaquaza himself didn't foresee this level of enthusiasm. "Honestly, I never expected it to get this popular," he told Other News. "I thought it was a decent idea, but was prepared for it dying out after a few weeks, much like most other Other Metagames."

The sentiment isn't uncommon in the OM forums where a lot of metagames top out early only to drift off to page two within a few weeks.

"Contrarily," he continues, “people immediately loved it and even started asking for tours. I couldn't have been more surprised!"

Inheritance is playable all of April on the official server. You can find tournaments and discussion in the Other Metas room on Showdown and drop by the thread to share your exploits on the ladder as well.

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor of Other News,

In response to the question "Why do you play Other Metagames," I play OMs because they are fun of course! When I first joined Showdown, I played a lot of OU, Ubers, and NU, but eventually they got boring--they rarely change, and the same threats pop up often, such as Groudon, Kyogre, Xerneas, etc. (no offense to people from those tiers or anything, but this is just my opinion). I eventually joined Monotype, and found that insanely fun. I still hang out in the Monotype room often and have many good friends from there. I was then directed to Smogon, and discovered more OMs other than the ones with ladders and was immediately hooked. The amount of creativity displayed in OMs is really outstanding, and there are constantly new ones popping up. On top of that, almost everyone in the community is nice and welcoming, making it an enjoyable place to hang out, theorymon, and play.

Another great thing about OMs is that there is a metagame where pretty much any Pokemon is good. Pokemon that you would never dream of using in standard play because they are outclassed or simply suck pretty much always have an OM in which they have a solid niche, allowing everyone to use their favorite Pokemon. Some of my favorite OMs (other than the best one, Monotype) are actually newer ones. I really enjoy playing Inheritance (OMotM!) because of the endless possibilities and creativity, and like the ideas behind OU Theorymon and Metamons. And of course, there is Linked (which is a very cool metagame) and Hidden Type, which can solve the problems of many Pokemon. Overall, I enjoy OMs because there are a lot of fun options depending on what you like and there are so many underrated and creative options in every OM, causing a lot of diversity and making matches more fun!

Sincerely,
InfernapeTropius11

Tournaments

Two tours kicked off last month. The first was Magnemite's PU minitour called The Way it Used to Be, which sends the metagame back to its roots at the beginning of the XY generation in August. This means quite a lot of Pokemon that have left the tier since then are usable again. It also means that some current PU Pokemon are not available anymore, since they weren't PU by usage in August. It should be a fun tournament so stay tuned to how it plays out!

The second to launch in March was Kit Kasai's BH UU tour, which came on the heels of the return of BH's usage statistics. Any Pokemon below the 3.41% threshold in February's 1500 usage statistic file are eligible for use, including powerhouses like Mega Tyranitar, Cresselia, and Latias-Mega. The tour is currently in the semifinals with astroboy vs. jeran and Pikachuun vs. E4 Flint. Keep your eye on the thread to see who wins!

Showdown

Promotions

In March we promoted peef rimgar to voice and imas234 and Uselesscrab to moderator. Congratulations!

Seasonal

April saw the continuation of the Seasonal ladder Super Staff Bros. due to high demand. A few sets were tweaked and two new staff members joined the ladder: Articuno and Crestfall, an Articuno (!) and Darkrai respectively.

Locked Up

Lastly, the Locked Up challenge ended with an unprecedented win by TheBurgerKing99. Not only did he finish first in the BH ladder challenge, he also peaked on the BH ladder itself! Well done! The next challenge will take place on the PU ladder and the top 15 most used Pokemon (not counting bans) will be off-limits. Good luck to all the participants!

Critic's Corner

An Overwhelming Tide in Underwhelming Metagames: Eevee Reviews What's New

Streetmons

No, this isn't a reiteration of the classic metagame Glitchmons. Rather here we have an eclectic menagerie of poverty-stricken, welfare-check-cashing, Friday-night-special-giving Pokemon, each with a unique new ability to fit the metagame's theme. Consider Scrafty, a hoodlum without a cause who trades his normal abilities for the more apt Graffiti Punk,which changes its moves' types depending on the canister of spray paint it holds. There's also Lopunny, a top-tier threat, and its Red Light ability, which grants an auto Harden to any incoming male target while also confusing and poisoning him. Odds of winning OMotM - 1:9. Odds of bringing Arcticblast out of retirement - 1:5, if only because of the name.

Alphabet Cup Soup

This one's simple: The first letter of each Pokemon (Alakazam, A) must spell out a word in your team. That word then unlocks particular events. Take for instance a team of Weavile, Infernape, Nidoking, Noivern, Empoleon, and Rhyperior (W-I-N-N-E-R), gives you an auto-win versus your opponent. However if you both spell the same word, you're both server banned instead. A few clever strategies have popped up to encourage wins without enacting the server ban such as I-A-M-G-O-D (all six Pokemon turn into Arceus), T-A-N-N-E-D (the phrase "praise The Immortal" floods the screen, which has a 50/50 chance to crash the server and reset a bad ladder ranking), and F-I-N-A-L-D (initiates a Final Destination mini-game and the loser is sealed in an alternate dimension for eight days with the souls of banned Smogonites). Odds of winning OMotM - 2:7. Odds of summing w0rd from hiding - 1:2, if only because of the game mechanics.

Mono-Egg-Color-Ability

If Monotype wasn't enough, there's another Mono going around (not the virus, though that's going around too), and if the initial hype means anything, we may have found our next permanent ladder. In this metagame, you're required to use a team from the same egg group all of the same color and all sharing the same ability. The issues with matchup-reliance are not as bad as you'd think, though a few battles are determined at birth. You can never truly eliminate problems with matchups in Pokemon, so why fight it? Also, there's a rumor that another edition of the metagame, this time requiring the same footprint, is due for release soon. You won't want to miss it! Odds of winning OMotM - 2:1, mostly because the fanbase will rig the votes.

Anatomymons

The foot bone's connected to the leg bone. The leg bone's connected to the knee bone. The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone. So goes the modern version of the spiritual song "Dem Bones," which you'll want to memorize in order to learn how this metagame works. Essentially, you must build a skeleton out of Pokemon. Take Hitmonlee's legs, Jynx's lips, Glalie's head, attach Hariyama's hands, throw on some Snorlax belly, and complete it with Alakazam's brain and ta-da! You've just murdered six Pokemon, hence why this metagame is outlawed in 49 states. Odds of winning OMotM - 1:99, due to legal issues. Odds of a new cult emerging with Marowak as its mascot - 1:0.

Miscellaneous

Tier Shift

There was a significant change to Tier Shift, which put it in line with the original concept of the metagame when it came out a few years ago.

This generation it had been giving a boost in stats to BL Pokemon based on the tier below them. So a BL Pokemon like Tornadus was receiving the same +5 boosts as UU. However, the correct method should have been to give boosts to BL Pokemon relative to the tier above. Tornadus' +5 boosts translate into net change of zero with this method since it is too strong for UU and shouldn't receive the same bonus.

The mechanics were adjusted and a new thread was started by insanelegend to indicate the change clearly.

STABmons

The STABmons ladder saw a major ban on the 25th. Diggersby, a Pokemon suspected a total of three times during XY/ORAS, could no longer escape the hammer. During the time it spent in the metagame, Diggersby was a defining threat. Nearly every Pokemon conscripted on a team had to pass the "Does Diggersby 2HKO with FakeSpeed?" test. However, the main argument was that it kept offensive threats in check that would normally run rampant and ruin the metagame. The council decided this was just not true and its presence was doing more harm than good.

PU

Sneasel and Throh, two centralizing threats, were banished by the PU council at the end of March. Sneasel was one of the earliest metagame-defining Pokemon this generation with a great combination of Speed and power coupled with a boosting move that tore through a lot of teams not carrying a dedicated counter like Poliwrath. Sneasel could run a number of effective sets and with an Eviolite it sported respectable bulk which made setting up Swords Dance less risky, not to mention the opportunities it had to setup since it caused a fair amount of switching.

Throh was arguably Sneasel's antithesis: slow, bulky, and less threatening at the get-go. Not only was it a nice Sneasel check itself, it was also a deterrent to a lot of other Pokemon, especially since it was semi-immune to status thanks to Guts and its common Rest+Sleep Talk sets. Throh could stack Bulk Ups pretty easily, phase other threats with Circle Throw, and break down its own checks with Knock Off. Taunt sets were also viable, making it even harder to manage Throh before it starting setting up. Overall, the council decided Throh put too much pressure on teambuilding, so it along with Sneasel were promoted to BL4.

Featured Art

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Classifieds

Wanted

A metagame where all priority is fixed at zero. Call it Spe-Neutrality. Contact Sun King for details.

For Sale

The move Grudge, applied to every attack when it knocks out a Pokemon. Goes by BeGRUDGEd, call Darklatias92 for price.

Free

Metamons, an OM that grants Pokemon their debut type chart. Phy/Spe split exists where necessary. Pick it up off Eevee General's front lawn.

For Sale

New pre-evos to play with in Little Cup, user created, fully customized. I call it Little Cup Creationism. Telegram unfixable ASAP.

Needs Work

These primal formes for every Pokemon give new types, abilities, and moves. Willing to trade. Email unfixable with the subject line "Primal De-Evolution."

Wanted

A Gen 1 mod where roles don't overlap. Some Pokemon excluded. Violet Version maybe? Stop by Kristoph's to discuss specifics.

Articles by Eevee General and unfixable | Design and layout by Quarkz | Art by unfixable, brightobject, and other artists.