Other Metagames Archetypes
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Introduction
Have you ever wanted to manipulate the types, moves, stats, abilities, mechanics, or aspects of the Pokémon games? Like what if Scizor had Flash Fire or if Sableye gained access to Prankster Topsy-Turvy and Dark Void? Well, that is the goal of Other Metagames. Each of these unique changes have come to form archetypes within Other Metagames that can benefit or nerf certain Pokémon and make for fun and interesting metagames.
Type-Based Metagames
Type-based metagames are arguably some of the most popular OMs, appealing to players for all the different things manipulating a Pokémon's type can do. It could be for defensive reasons, trying to increase the number of resistances or decrease the number of weaknesses. It could be to turn your coverage options into powerful STAB moves. An example of a type-based metagame is Hidden Type, where Pokémon get an extra type depending on their IVs. Pokémon such as Dragonite and Scizor enjoy this change because of the variety of new types they can gain, whether it be Fire for Dragonite or Scizor for burn immunity or Steel for Dragonite for basically the best defensive type in the game, giving it more setup opportunities. It's just a multitude of types that allow them to become a better version of the Pokémon they already are, whether Scizor goes for an extra Dark typing for STAB Pursuit or Knock Off or Fire for both a burn immunity and a decrease in its 4x Fire weakness. Another rather popular example is Monotype, where players have to use one type shared throughout all their Pokémon. However, its limitations lead to a lot more diversity, where teams tend to use many RU, NU, or PU Pokémon to fill in holes usually filled in OU teams. Some examples could be people using Electivire or Luxray to fill the physical attacker slot on an Electric-type team or Torkoal as a hazard remover for Fire-type teams. All in all, the appeal of type-based metagames is that people enjoy all the variables that can be changed for a Pokémon by changing the type.
A successful type-based metagame usually relies on a few factors. First of all, it really needs to change something about how the type plays into the metagame, whether it adds a new one like Hidden Type or changes the team mechanics like Monotype. Next off, it needs to really set itself apart from other metagames, whether it's a first-of-its-kind type of metagame like Enchanted Items for item-based metagames or just an extremely fun concept. Of course, successes always come with their downsides.
One of of said downsides for a type-based metagame is that for metagames like Hidden Type, you may be adding a type to help your Pokémon gain access to many different things, but you may also lose out on resistances or gain more weaknesses because of it! An example of this is giving Clefable the Steel-type. Sure it now has one of the best typings in the game, but it's now lost its Fighting resistance, as well as gaining more exploitable weaknesses to Fire and Ground. For type-based metagames such as Monotype, you're forced to keep the same weaknesses, meaning that any type-based team super effective against your type-based team is probably going to win unless you overprepare for it.
Move-Based Metagames
Move-based metagames are popular because they allow a player to potentially give Pokémon moves that they wouldn't normally have in standard play but would very much appreciate. Many Pokémon such as Heatran and Tyranitar would appreciate the ability to gain recovery, while other Pokémon may benefit from being able to use another Pokémon's signature move, such as Greninja's Water Shuriken, Darkrai's Dark Void, and Malamar's Topsy-Turvy. Take STABmons for example, where every Pokémon is able to learn every move so long as it matches their typing, allowing Mega Blastoise to learn Origin Pulse for the powerful STAB backed by the Mega Launcher boost or allowing regular Sableye to use Topsy-Turvy to cripple any setup sweepers that may threaten a team. Sketchmons, while similar to STABmons, allows any Pokémon to have access to any one move. This means Heatran can learn Recover and be able to run a very effective tank set or that you can give better setup moves such as Tail Glow and Quiver Dance to those that don't learn them naturally. However, these Pokémon are only allowed to learn Sketch once. The reason such metagames appeal to the playerbase is because of the massive number of possibilities learning nearly every move provides.
There are some key components, however, that make a move-based metagame successful. A simple yet effective change is the main component of a successful metagame such as with STABmons allowing a Pokémon to learn all moves that coincide with its primary and potential secondary typing or Sketchmons giving any Pokémon access to any one move. For a move-based metagame to be successful, one must keep in mind how to give Pokémon moves in a simplistic way while providing a ton of variety.
The downsides of a move-based metagame mean that while a Pokémon may benefit from its new moves, it still has to deal with its potentially lackluster stats, ability, or typing. This means Pokémon that benefit from gaining access to more moves must already be viable thanks to these other factors. Another downside to move-based metagames is the centralization of moves with low distribution such as Parting Shot and Topsy-Turvy, being a bit predictable as to what moves a Pokémon will get either because of the way they gain the moves (STABmons) or the restrictions placed on the change (1 move in Sketchmons).
Stat-Based Metagames
Stat-based OMs appeal to players because of their ability to completely change the role a Pokémon plays in competitive battling. In metagames like these, Pokémon like Flareon can go from the bottom of the barrel to being a powerful force in the metagame, whether it be offensively or defensively based. Take Averagemons for example; by turning a Pokémon's stat into base 100 across the board, any Pokémon can be anything, whether it be offensive, defensive or fast! People have their favorite Pokémon become viable in this type of metagame because of the Mew-like stats, causing people to gravitate towards it over other stat-based metagames. Another metagame, Stat Switch, swaps the highest and lowest stats of a Pokémon; this metagame transforms some defensive threats such as Regirock and Carbink into extremely powerful offensive threats, with Regirock getting 200 Special Attack and Speed in exchange for 50 Defense. On the defensive side, Breloom trades 130 Attack for 60 HP, Special Attack and Speed, ending up with a statline of 130/60/80/130/130/70 coupled with Poison Heal and Giga Drain. Competitive Pokémon players get to see Pokémon they've categorized transform into Pokémon that fill completely different roles with Breloom, Carbink, and Regirock only being a small selection of what's possible.
A successful stat-based metagame usually has a few of the same items. Starting off, they tend to completely change a Pokémon's role, instead of giving Pokémon one dedicated role you get either a completely changed one or many different ones for you to pick from, whether it be speedy hazard setter or a wall that no Pokémon can break. The other one is that they tend to give lesser-used Pokémon a huge niche in the metagame such as Wooper in Averagemons, transforming from a terrible Pokémon to an Unaware wall that must be prepared for.
The potential downsides to metagames such as these really depend on the playstyle you use. For offensive players, metagames such as Averagemons are extremely stall-oriented because with every Pokémon getting 100 in every stat, it becomes very hard to break past walls without setup moves such as Swords Dance and Calm Mind; in addition, most good stall teams carry Unaware, making those moves useless. For stall players, they potentially have to deal with huge powerhouses such as Stat Switch Regirock or Carbink, and if they don't carry ways to deal with them, they will just be swept by the Pokémon.
Ability-Based Metagames
Ability-based metagames appeal to a wide variety of players because these metagames allow the use of a ton of sparsely distributed abilities such as Poison Heal, Unaware, Refrigerate, Pixilate, Aerilate, and so on. These abilities are sparsely distributed because, for the most part, they are very, very good. But Pokémon that hate their abilities or don't necessarily benefit from them such as Doublade, Entei, and Skarmory can now use a more powerful ability to become a massive threat. This is what AAA, or Almost Any Ability, tries to accomplish by allowing any Pokémon to pick whatever ability they want, within reason of course. This means Doublade can now run an ability to make it stick around in a match such as Flash Fire to gain an immunity to Fire-type moves, Levitate to avoid Spikes + Ground-type moves, or Regenerator to allow it to heal up as it switches out, since it is forced to have a lack of passive recovery by running Eviolite. Entei can now forgo its useless ability in Pressure to gain coverage with its Extreme Speed thanks to Refrigerate or Pixilate or power up its STAB moves with Desolate Land. Skarmory now gets to play a more offensive role, as it gets the combination of a great ability in Gale Wings as well as a great typing and access to reliable recovery. Most other ability-based metagames aim to do what AAA does, but with restrictions hoping to guide players with ease, since AAA can be a bit overwhelming with so many possibilities. The right combination of giving a Pokémon an ability while having a nice restrictive feature, such as Ability Unity, where a Pokémon can have access to any ability from Pokémon they share their typing with, can possibly appeal to more players, as they don't get overwhelmed like they might in AAA.
A successful ability-based OM is made up of a couple ingredients. The first one is the most common throughout one most of the popular OMs and that is the fact that the change is very simple. For example, with AAA, almost any ability is allowed to be used by any Pokémon, which makes for tons of versatility while not opting for a massively complicated change or multiple changes. The other thing that makes for a successful ability-based OM is being able to give less distributed abilities to already-massive threats like Poison Heal Snorlax in AAA or Regenerator Chansey in Ability Unity.
The downside of such a meta is that depending on how the abilities are distributed, there tends to be a playstyle polarization. With access to abilities such as Poison Heal and Regenerator, bulkier Pokémon become the go-to option for a lot of these abilities, and being able to sustain themselves means they can continuously prove to be a nuisance throughout a match, making matches potentially longer than they should be. Although, the same can be said for offensive abilities, as Tough Claws, Sheer Force, and Adaptability allow offensive powerhouses such as Terrakion, Tyranitar, and Landorus-T to power through the newly buffed bulky Pokémon with ease and potentially forcing a big creep in power, making the diversity of playstyles less abundant.
Mechanic-Based Metagames
Mechanic-based metagames are arguably one of the more popular changes due to the fact that they can be a fresh new outlook on the competitive scene and the Pokémon games in general. The first major example of this was the Inverse OM, which was directly taken from the Inverse Battles introduced in X and Y, where type effectiveness is reversed so an Ice-type is now only weak to other Ice-types while resisting Steel-, Fire-, Rock-, and Fighting-types. Another big stepping stone was when the Mix & Mega OM came to fruition as a way for (almost) every Pokémon to allow them to Mega Evolve using the currently available Mega Stones or Primal Orbs. The most recent stepping stone was taking a concept that has been around since Generation Three and finally making an OM based around it, and that concept is contests. Most notably, Balanced Hackmons, the most popular mechanic-based OM, allows almost any Pokémon to have nearly any ability as well as every move imaginable, even the moves that are currently unreleased such as Thousand Waves and Thousand Arrows. The reason these OMs are so intriguing is that they add an almost unique feature to competitive Pokémon, as they can take from competitive or gameplay aspects and proceed to tweak it to the community's liking.
The makings of a successful mechanic-based OM can come from nearly anywhere in the Pokémon universe, but the commonly successful ones have been based on in-game mechanics, whether they transfer over to the competitive scene or not. The most successful mechanic-based OM to date is Mix and Mega for the fact that, while it does seem complex on the outside looking in, it is very simplistic on the inside. The basic idea in this Uber-based metagame is that certain OU and lower Pokémon can afford to run any Mega Stone they want to. Where the complexity comes from is the fact that quite a few Pokémon can run a lot of Mega Stones reliably, leaving their sets to be a bit of a surprise; this also can make it hard to account for every potential threat when teambuilding.
The downside of these types of metagames is that they are very hard to get into. The complexity and flexibility of these changes leaves this archetype with a lot of room to breathe, which can overwhelm newer players wanting to learn these OMs. These kinds of OMs tend to be more intricate than others, which can turn some players away that would rather enjoy a more simplistic OM such as STABmons.
Aspect-Based Metagames
Aspect-based metagames appeal to players because of the differences they provide compared to other metagames, where they take the aspects of moves, abilities, etc. and place them somewhere else to create a different effect that completely invigorates the metagame in radically changing ways. An example of an aspect-based metagame is VoltTurn Mayhem, where the aspect of Volt Switch and U-turn is taken from those two moves and placed onto every move that targets the opponent! VoltTurn Mayhem appeals to players for its fast-paced offensive nature, where both playstyles manage to shine in their own different ways. Pokémon in these types of metagames usually find their usual sets changed to fit in with the metagame. If we take a look at Dragonite, it usually carries Inner Focus + 4 Attacks, which is completely different from its usual set of Multiscale + Dragon Dance / Extreme Speed / Outrage / Earthquake. Aspect-based metagames are extremely different compared to other metagame archetypes, changing how the teams look, how the metagame is played, and how Pokémon have their sets arranged.
A successful aspect-based metagame requires a few different things. First of all, you need to take the aspect from one part of the metagame and place it somewhere else, whether you're taking the aspect of a move and giving a wider distribution or taking the aspects of abilities and placing them everywhere! (e.g. Protean for every Pokémon.) Secondly, it has to change the metagame in a way that makes it interesting. VoltTurn Mayhem does that by turning the metagame into an extremely fast-paced metagame compared to the OverUsed tier's varying pace. The final variable needed is a balanced idea. It can't be overly complex or too simple so it can appeal to as many players as possible. It really needs to find a good balance in between those two so it can stand out.
The downsides to aspect-based metagames are dependent on the idea itself. For metagames such as VoltTurn Mayhem, it completely takes away a popular strategy in boosting, which suddenly becomes useless because you're switching out as soon as you attack the opponent. For metagames such as Protean Palace or No Guard Galaxy, you find that the tier begins to use the same setup to counter other teams of the same setup. All in all, these downsides can really take away from the experience of the metagame itself and can turn away players who simply don't enjoy the metagame.
Pet Mods
These kinds of "OMs" tend to follow one guiding change ("Make everything OU viable") but still apply more than one change to satisfy the need of the creator/s or the community such as giving all Pokémon Mega Evolutions, fusing Pokémon together, or completing the Pokédex.
Conclusion
Each of these changes brings overall creativity to the competitive scene and can appeal to any player who may wish for a Pokémon to have a certain move, ability, stat spread, or typing or who wishes the mechanics or certain aspects were manipulated to benefit specific Pokémon or playstyles.
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