Other News

Volume 1, Issue 4 (Released May 5th, 2015)

OMotM Coverage: A Little of This, A Little of That!

By Eevee General


Arriving in the shadow of last month's runaway success, May's winner with 35 votes, 2v2 Doubles, is sure to appeal to a smaller fanbase thanks to its more familiar and standardized format. 2v2 Doubles is a combination of Doubles OU and 1v1, so unlike Inheritance, its draw isn't a product of novelty, rather it's one hedging on enticing the playerbases of both formats.

Arcticblast, the co-leader of DOU, says the nature of 2v2 Doubles should cater more to the DOU community. "I played it with a few people who aren't familiar with Doubles and won three games in a row," he says. On the topic of using common DOU strategies, he agrees that they work. "[Trick Room] still has potential. Spread spam is a little better if you can keep it from being too obvious, otherwise you'll get fucked by Wide Guard. Tailwind is an even better move here."

It makes sense that short-term field effects like Trick Room and Tailwind would flourish because the fast-paced nature of both formats encourages quick strategies that pay off immediately.

One of the top players on the 1v1 ladder, Dream Eater Gengar, thinks 2v2 Doubles will be tougher to master. "[It] takes more prediction skills than 1v1," he says, "due to fact that there's four Pokémon to pick from, and you have to really think about your opponent moves and Pokémon otherwise you can't succeed."

Similar to 1v1's mechanic that lets you bring three Pokémon and choose one to send to battle, 2v2 Doubles allows you to bring four and choose two to battle with.

Dream Eater Gengar also says some old 1v1 standbys can be used to good effect versus the typical Doubles lineup. "Mega Charizard X can get past Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile, which will be used a lot in this metagame. Also bulky Kyurem-Black can beat most threats."

He even speculates that a certain move will be so powerful it will be banned eventually, but the secrecy surrounding it will have to play out on the ladder.

In terms of what might have been, a "high concept" metagame called Linked came in second place with 23 votes. Linked allows you to—as the name suggests—link the first and second moves known by a Pokémon into one single attack. Mix & Mega was not far behind at 22 votes and an old favorite, Averagemons, pulled in only ten. Rounding out the top five was No Ability with nine votes.

2v2 Doubles will be available on the main server of Pokémon Showdown! for the entire month of May.

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor of Other News,

Getting metagames coded has become much simpler due to new methods being found, and more people volunteering for the coding process. Of course, more people volunteering is probably self-explanatory. In terms of the new methods, for instance, Super Staff Bros, a metagame that is currently the seasonal as of this letter, is a great example of this. The Other Metagames version that I coded shows that Pokémon can have customizable stats without the need for an individual mod, not to mention typings, which were present in the vanilla version. Linked, a metagame that would probably not have been seen as possible back in the day, is now coded and implemented on Pandora. A similar thing occurs with Mix and Mega, which even I thought was nearly impossible to code until coding began. And of course, the simulator still has untapped potential, I believe, maybe allowing a single Pokémon total control over the battle's parameters itself...

But anyways, speaking of implementation, due to more people owning registered servers, it's actually also simpler to implement your metagame somewhere else, and not have to rely on it becoming OMotM. Joim's Lab has various Other Metagames in addition to Pandora and Aqua, making those prime choices for the people who like Other Metagames.

Overall, the coding of Other Metagames has become a much easier process due to more people volunteering, more coding methods becoming available, and more people willing to implement.

Yours truly,
Pikachuun

Tournaments

The PU tour The Way it Used to Be entered the quarterfinals at the end of April. The matches have been dominated by PU's biggest threats before they were banned or before they rose in usage, like Musharna and Garbodor. Here's a match between Ary and Kingler12345 that shows just how good Musharna was at setting up.

Pikachuun beat out jeran to win the BH UU tour thanks to his Protean Mega Latias. Congrats!

The OMotM Ladder Challenge Tournament hosted by The Immortal kicked off last month. The top eight players on the OMotM ladder will gain entry into a 32 person tournament, which is broken into four rounds with each round representing a recent winning OMotM. First up was Stat Switch and the second round, FU, just started on the 29th. After that the remaining players will duke it out in Classic Hackmons and the finals will take place in Hidden Type.

Unfixable posted a new STABmons tournament called The Crying Game where each round a banned Pokémon will be dropped back down for use. Expect to see the return of Pokémon like Sylveon and Mega Altaria who once terrorized the metagame.

And lastly, the moment a lot of people have been waiting for has finally arrived! The Other Metas Premier League III will pit six teams against each other for five weeks battling in five different OM formats. In the sixth week, the top two seeded teams will face off in a showdown to determine who the best OM players are! OMPL II was a big draw and we expect III to be even bigger this year. Sign up while you can and if you manage to make the cut, best of luck! Otherwise root on your favorite team to victory!

Showdown

Promotions

In April we promoted Ransei to voice and Peef Rimgar to driver. Congratulations!

Seasonal

After two months of the hugely popular Super Staff Brothers ladder, a new installment called You Are (Not) Prepared hits shelves this month. This RPG-inspired mashup of Futurama, Star Wars, Evangelion, and TTGL features two opposing sides in a battle of good versus evil. Who will prevail? Who will fall? And will Fry ever deliver that pizza? Play to find out!

Locked Up

The PU challenge ended with only one participant cracking the top 500. Congrats Dundies! May's challenge will take place on the Tier Shift ladder. Players are given an "allowance" of $30 and must spend it on their Pokémon. Each tier's value is determined by the boosts it receives in Tier Shift, so for example OU/BL cost $0 (since they receive no boosts) down to NU and below costing $15. Spend your money wisely and good luck!

Critic's Corner

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

A Game of Phiones

Arriving on the heels of the HBO series with a similar name, this metagame encourages you to apply your courtly intrigue and subterfuge in order to win. First you designate one Pokémon as your king. You must do everything in your power to keep it alive. But don't worry, if it dies, another king will pop up immediately to take over. Plus, two more will proclaim themselves king as well. Afterward, you'll want to hire an advisor to serve as your hand and teach it the move Self-destruct, since all hands do themselves in at some point. Now it gets a little confusing. Your opponent becomes your ally and you must combine forces to defeat a team of all Ice-types before they take over the kingdom. You'll have to wait a few years to finish the match, however, since the code's author is still busy trying to figure out how to complete it all. Odds of winning OMotM – 1:7. Odds of defeating the team of Ice-types - You know nothing, Ash Ketchum.

Chefmons

Grab your apron; it's time to get cooking! In this pet mod you have to prepare a dish for your opponent using only the finest Pokémon ingredients. A popular appetizer is Slowpoke Tail to get their mouths watering. Others prefer to lead with Sharpedo Fin Soup with a side of steamed Clauncher, an offensive core that defeats most opponents' hunger pangs. Steak of Miltank is commonly seen on teams that lack an answer for Fried Blaziken, so packing a decent check like Liquid Ooze of Gulpin to wash down all the chicken grease is a good idea. In terms of dessert, Whipped Slurpuff is the most obvious and overly prepared for. I prefer the less-conventional fresh Combee Honey or even Scooped Vanilluxe with a Cherubi on Top to end a delicious battle with a friend. Odds of winning OMotM – 3:2, because people are hungry for something new. Odds of getting its own show on the Cooking Channel – 1:1, since Bobby Flay is a huge admirer.

The 12th Mon

Who said teams had to be restricted to only six Pokémon at a time? In 12th Mon you can bring—you heard right—up to twelve Pokémon! Offensive cores now range across a broad spectrum of threats and often include four physical and four special attackers. Defensive cores are much harder to crack as you can prepare for just about anything. And it's not rare for a team to be both stall and HO at the same time! Metagame purists haven't responded kindly to 12th Mon, going as far to circulate a petition to have it taken down from the server it was hosted on. But the roar of the fans was enough to keep it alive. If you want to play, expect team matchup to be less of an issue and for skill to determine most games. Odds of winning OMotM – 1:2. Odds of winning OMotM twice in a row – 1:5, but the metagame's leader will make a bad call that costs it the win at the last second.

Ladders

Anything Goes

After consulting with a site admin, we decided to move Anything Goes from Ubers to Other Metagames where it fits in better with our part of the forums. The ladder is still playable on Showdown! like normal plus it got a shiny new viability ranking thread. Check it out!

Monotype

Two global bans and one type ban occurred last month in Monotype. First, Mega Metagross was banned globally for being able to threaten too many other types on a regular basis, namely opposing Rock, Fairy, and Ice teams, with its superb Speed, strong Attack with Tough Claws, and overall great bulk. The second global ban was Greninja, a threat able to gain STAB on a number of different types thanks to Protean. Essentially, Greninja was any type you needed on a Water or Dark team and thus had to go. The last ban and only team-specific one was Zapdos on Flying. Zapdos was a defensive and supportive glue that kept a lot of Flying teams afloat, letting them devote other Pokémon to more offensive roles, and worked exceptionally well in tandem with Skarmory. Instead of banning the combination, Zapdos was sent packing because it presented itself as the more potent of the two, and is now only usable on Electric teams.

STABmons

STABmons is most often known for its crazy setup and the prevalence of FakeSpeed, used to keep that crazy setup in check, so when something doesn't contain one of those qualities and manages to get suspected, it often raises eyebrows. One such recent example was Mega Aerodactyl, a Pokémon able to check other offensive threats while still putting immense pressure on defensive ones because of its combination of very high Speed, a usable Attack that only got better with Tough Claws, and a solid typing that resisted FakeSpeed. Most sets were wallbreaker and stallbreaker hybrids, running STAB and Tough Claws-boosted Head Smash and Dragon Ascent, with either Taunt to wear down walls or Roost to increase its longevity, and then coverage like Earthquake and Crunch.

PU

Congratulations to Raiza for becoming part of the PU council! He's been a valuable asset to many areas, including the forum, C&C, and the PU room itself. The community has appreciated Raiza's extensive metagame knowledge and commitment to the tier, and we're glad to provide him a position of great influence to the tier as he'll be involved in the decision-making process!

Meanwhile, as we get underway with our tier shifts, we lose two very viable Pokémon in Haunter and Prinplup while gaining nothing more in the process. While the two aren't as metagame-defining as other well known figures such as Ninetales, Poliwrath, or Roselia, both provided unique roles for certain teams to fulfill and they will be missed as a result. Haunter was effective at disrupting teams with its typing and good offensive presence, and Prinplup was among the most reliable sources of hazard control with its good defensive typing, bulk and support options. As we deal with the changes, we look forward to examining the current metagame! - Dell

Featured Art

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Classifieds

Wanted

An OM that bumps the +/- 10% natures to 50%. Mood Swings sounds good for name. Ring Jernmax or Ghoul King to discuss details.

For Sale

$100 OBO for Blindmons by qtrx and Srn. Only problem is you can't see Pokémon and most moves during battle. Works fine otherwise.

Free

Giving away the custom mod based on Super Staff Bros seasonal. Broken, can't fix. Grab it out of Pikachuun's truck before it goes to landfill.

For Sale

Mod that turns letters into new typing, abilities, and moves. Price discounted! Contact InfernapeTropius11 to pick up Lettermons.

Needs Work

Custom mod by DylanTubularK where most Pokémon are roughly A rank in OU. Work-in-progress.

Wanted

Need a pet mod without megas. Turn them into evolutions or separate formes instead. Stop by the someone's apartment, bring résumé.

Content by Eevee General and unfixable | Design and layout by Quarkz | Art by unfixable and other artists.