RBY OTs: Introduction to Modern Gen 1 OU

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Introduction

With Pet Mods being metagames built directly by and for the community, enabling users to make a variety of arbitrary changes without being formally bound to a set rule or tiering policy like Other Metagames, Solomods have been a rising variety that skip the need for community involvement, being tiers made fully at the will of the council in charge, in practice being a catch-all for personal fangames and metagames with additional changes that wouldn't fit anywhere else to suit the desires of those responsible.

Eventually outgrowing its roots as a Solomod then becoming a whole RBY Other Tier of its own, Modern Gen 1 OU is played by using Pokémon Showdown! challenge commands, enabling the use of Gen 2-9 Pokémon and moves within a Gen 1 setting; this results in many unusual mechanics not found in other tiers. To maintain the feel of an RBY format and out of general preference by the council, field effects and entry hazards aren't present. All mechanics caused by forcing newer moves into RBY are accepted as part of the metagame, notably:

• - All Pokémon have the stats and typing of their debut generation, so quite a few Pokémon like Mantine have lower stats, but others like Cresselia have higher ones. Gen 1-5 Fairy-types also have their original typing rather than their current Fairy typing.
• - Special is not present, and it is separated into Special Attack and Special Defense like in every other generation, with this also applying to Gen 1 Pokémon. For example, Chansey has base 105 Special Attack and Special Defense. Moves that boost Special like Amnesia boost Special Attack and Special Defense simultaneously.
• - The type chart is slightly different: Fire does not resist Steel and Fairy, Poison does not resist Fairy, and Ghost and Psychic are not weak to Dark. All Gen 1 type chart differences such as Psychic being immune to Ghost, as well as the Gen 2-5 case of Steel resisting Ghost and Dark, are present too.
• - The physical / special split is not present, and all Fairy-type moves are physical, which has buffed Pokémon like Magearna and Tapu Koko by granting them viable physical Fairy-type STAB attacks, especially for the former, as Fleur Cannon has no drawback and had potent synergy with Shift Gear until it got banned, but hindered others like Flutter Mane.
• - Moves with a +1 increased critical hit ratio virtually always land as critical hits, enabling heavily offensive Pokémon with moves such as Stone Edge, Drill Run, and Psycho Cut.

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Top Threats

Iron Treads

• Iron Treads
• - Steel Beam
• - Earthquake
• - Volt Switch
• - Stone Edge

Iron Treads serves as a potent wallbreaker using its powerful dual STAB combination of Earthquake and... Steel Beam? In Modern Gen 1, moves with set recoil like Steel Beam have no recoil, resulting in a powerful STAB move that further encourages the trend of Steel-types in the metagame. Ground / Steel is powerful neutral coverage on nearly the entire tier, with Stone Edge doing more immediate damage against certain targets like Yveltal, and Volt Switch serving both as a useful pivoting option and as a way to wear down Starmie and Corviknight decently. Not only that, but with its good defensive typing and stats giving it plenty of switch-in opportunities, Iron Treads has very few exploitable weaknesses; counterplay usually consists of threatening it with strong Fire- or Water-type moves or taking advantage of its relatively low Attack stat.

Goodra-Hisui

• Goodra-Hisui
• - Draco Meteor
• - Steel Beam
• - Fire Blast
• - Thunderbolt / Blizzard

Hisuian Goodra is the single best defensive Pokémon in the format. It makes the most of its colorful coverage and strong STAB options to be insanely threatening to any Pokémon hoping to switch in while having a fantastic typing and bulk to ensure it sticks around a while. Being able to check a multitude of dangerous threats like Kyurem, Zeraora, Scream Tail, and many more makes this a desirable Pokémon on nearly every single team for its valuable defensive utility. As Fighting-types are pretty rare, Hisuian Goodra's main flaw lies in its Ground weakness; Pokémon like Iron Treads, Ursaluna, and Sandaconda can threaten it with huge damage or OHKOs. It can also sometimes struggle to break through foes with reliable recovery due to not learning Thunder Wave and its relatively low critical hit rate given its Speed, especially when it comes to using Draco Meteor. Despite this, Hisuian Goodra is near ubiquitous for its many, many good traits.

Scream Tail

• Scream Tail
• - Amnesia
• - Stored Power
• - Fire Blast
• - Thunder Wave / Blizzard

Saved from its lacking traits in SV, Scream Tail makes good use of both the extremely powerful Amnesia and Thunder Wave. Scream Tail is able to leverage its great bulk, good neutral defensive typing, and threat of setup to spread paralysis while potentially being able to sweep. Amnesia instantly giving +2 Special Attack and Special Defense makes Stored Power threatening after just one boost, and after two Amnesia Boosts, Stored Power can OHKO a good portion of the metagame. Scream Tail also has a good Speed tier of base 111, getting the jump on slower Pokémon such as Iron Treads and Latios and being faster than every Steel-type in the format, usually going down after hindering a revenge killer with paralysis. However, Scream Tail is still limited by its terrible base 65 Special Attack and being required to use Amnesia before doing meaningful damage.

Archeops

• Archeops
• - Stone Edge
• - Acrobatics
• - Heat Wave / Earthquake
• - U-turn

Archeops outputs truly absurd damage. It is not just a wallbreaker, it is a walldestroyer, with quite literally zero consistent switch-ins to its Earthquake variant and very few niche ones to its Heat Wave one. While most Pokémon can come in once, neutral targets all take upwards of 70% from Stone Edge, with U-turn chip on top if they're slower. Even relatively bulky switch-ins like Hisuian Goodra can take upwards of 50% from Stone Edge + U-turn. As a result, pressuring Archeops offensively and taking advantage of its poor defensive typing and bulk is required to disallow it from trampling through the opposing team. Of course, there is a second form of counterplay, which is just dodging Stone Edge; its inconsistency is the main reason why this Pokémon is only top 10 and not top 1.

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Role Reversals

Kartana

• Kartana
• - Swords Dance / Vacuum Wave
• - Steel Beam
• - Sacred Sword / Vacuum Wave
• - Synthesis

Kartana, despite its monstrous Attack stat, mostly serves as a defensive Pokémon due to its ability to switch into Iron Treads and Ursaluna reliably. However, it still outputs an insane amount of damage if given time to fire off attacks. Its main flaws offensively are that it gives a lot of free turns that are exploitable due to its pitiful special bulk, allowing nearly any faster Pokémon to force it out, and its reliance of prediction to keep momentum of note, as using Swords Dance as Zeraora comes in or attacking with Steel Beam while Corviknight enters the field leads to unfavorable outcomes. As a result, it's often delegated to be used to switch into Ground-types in place of Hisuian Goodra.

Chansey

• Chansey
• - Fire Blast
• - Blizzard
• - Thunder Wave
• - Soft-Boiled / Heal Bell

If you think you know Chansey, think again. Chansey is a powerful wallbreaker in this format, with its near perfect Fire / Ice coverage due to the lack of viable defensive Water-types. Of course, it's still Chansey, and it leverages its absurd special bulk to switch in and fire off attacks. Some sets even skip Soft-Boiled, giving their team extra support with the combination of Heal Bell and Thunder Wave. Its base 105 Special Attack ensures important damage rolls Blissey's poor base 75 Special Attack simply cannot, ensuring it reigns over its evolution in viability. Blissey maintains niche use on hard stall still, with an Ice Beam / Heal Bell / Thunder Wave / Soft-Boiled set, fulfilling the much more traditional pink blob role.

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Still Viable Pokémon

Starmie

• Starmie
• - Psycho Cut / Blizzard
• - Flip Turn
• - Thunder Wave
• - Recover / Blizzard

While defensive Water-types are underperforming, offensive ones are very threatening. Starmie is able to switch into Iron Treads and get momentum while threatening it with Flip Turn. Water / Ice is such good coverage that Starmie even sometimes drops the significantly stronger Psycho Cut for Blizzard, and Recover easing the matchup against Hisuian Goodra a lot. While its stat spread is lacking aside from Speed, it still has just enough Special Attack to do meaningful damage, just enough physical bulk to switch into Iron Treads twice, and just enough special bulk to avoid Volt Switch KOs from Tapu Koko and Zeraora after taking Iron Treads's Earthquake while also mostly dodging OHKOs from Volt Switch, even as a critical hit out of the Gen 1 mechanics making them fairly common. These factors make Starmie not just still viable but thriving.

Slowbro

• Slowbro
• - Surf / Stored Power
• - Amnesia
• - Thunder Wave
• - Slack Off

Slowbro heavily competes with both Scream Tail and Gastrodon as an Amnesia sweeper, but it has its benefits. Its Water typing means it feeds on rather than faints to Steel-types compared to Scream Tail, and its access to immediate paralysis spreading, Stored Power, and an important Psychic resistance for Psycho Cut over Gastrodon means it can maintain a slight niche.

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Unbanned Pokémon

Yveltal

Yveltal - Acrobatics - Heat Wave - Roost - U-turn

Yveltal - Oblivion Wing / Acrobatics - Heat Wave / Focus Blast - Hone Claws - Roost

Yveltal is a niche setup sweeper or pivot that uses its fantastic mixed bulk to either stay on the field, setting up with Hone Claws multiple times, or pivot out to its teammates. Dark is a near useless typing, being bad defensively and useless offensively, with four resistances and zero types being weak to it. Flying is a step up but not a great one, being weak to common types like Rock and Ice but being offensively threatening when combined with Fire- or Fighting-type coverage. Yveltal also is quite slow, and its coverage lacks power against neutral targets like Zeraora and Tapu Koko. It makes up for this with its excellent stat spread, putting it solidly in the B ranks viability-wise.

Zygarde

• Zygarde
• - Dragon Dance
• - Thousand Arrows
• - Stone Edge
• - Pain Split

Zygarde is a setup sweeper commonly paired with Steel-types to take advantage of the Ground-weak checks they invite in. Pain Split is a borderline broken move on a Pokémon immune to Thunder Wave, being able to heal and chip down foes into +1 Thousand Arrows range only to outspeed and do the same loop on the next Pokémon if it can't OHKO it. Its checks consist of Dragon-types like Latios and Kyurem and Pokémon with Ice coverage like Blizzard Scream Tail and Starmie.

Roaring Moon

• Roaring Moon
• - Stone Edge
• - Earthquake
• - U-turn
• - Draco Meteor

Roaring Moon is a powerful, fast Pokémon with perfect Ground / Rock type coverage and U-turn at the cost of having no spammable STAB move. Despite not having real STAB options, as both Dragon and Dark are special types, EdgeQuake + U-turn with its high Attack and Speed can be very hard to switch in to. Its fourth moveslot is dedicated to sniping Dragon-types like Zygarde as it doesn't have any better alternative. Its typing and great special bulk can be useful for Pokémon like Scream Tail and Starmie, but it's not good for much defensively outside of that.

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Outclassed RBY Pokémon

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Snorlax has been left in the past by not getting any new tools in the next eight generations while not having its good base 110 Special Defense of later generations either. Dudunsparce has a stronger physical STAB move in Boomburst, Thunder Wave or Glare, Coil, and Roost, and even if the STAB Self-Destruct niche may be appealing in a tier where Ghost-types are barely viable at all to easily force a trade, Silvally and Lickilicky have STAB Explosion to perform such a role better.

<

As sleep-inducing moves are banned, and Toxic poison is an irrelevant status condition to be immune to, Gengar is completely worthless, as relying on a weak Thunderbolt and Ice Punch for coverage with a bad defensive typing for the tier and no STAB attacks was only good five generations ago. Froslass comes with a much more relevant STAB Blizzard to more easily pressure the metagame while otherwise retaining the same utility moves Gengar has such as Thunder Wave and Destiny Bond.

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While Alakazam got actual new tools in Psycho Cut and the elemental punches, Azelf has Fire Blast to KO rather than tickle Steel-types, can blow up with Explosion, and uses U-turn to pivot with. While Alakazam does theoretically have some merit to pretend to wall things like Latios and Starmie, it's far too exploitable doing so, as it just gets slowly pivoted on with Flip Turn and is walled by both in return.

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Final Thoughts

Modern Gen 1 manages to find a niche for those that want something fresh based on a RBY setting that also rewards knowledge of later generations, turning it a solid metagame to try out for veterans in competitive Pokémon and an experience completely unique that isn't found anywhere else.

Modern Gen 1 Discord Server

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