OMotM/LCotM Spotlight: Trademarked and Partners in Crime
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Art by anundeadboy.
What is an OMotM/LCotM?
The OMotM, or Other Metagame of the Month, is the metagame that is voted by the players to have a ladder for a specific month. The LCotM, or Leader's Choice of the Month, is a second ladder that is chosen specifically by OM Forum Mods. For the most part, the LCotM is a metagame that needs more love, as it may not be able to compete with the others that get nominated for the OMotM voting.
For May, the OMotM is Trademarked, while the Leader's Choice is Partners in Crime!
Introduction to Trademarked
Trademarked is a metagame where a Pokémon can exchange its ability for any status move they naturally learn, causing this effect to trigger upon every switch-in. This allows endless creative strategies to take hold: free Haze on switch-in, free Bulk Up or Calm Mind activation, Spikes or Stealth Rock with no commitment, you name it. Defensive Pokémon may choose to set up a free Iron Defense, Charm, or Amnesia, throw out a safe entry hazard, or even spec into more niche options like Haze, Leech Seed, or screens. Offensive Pokémon, meanwhile, can go for the safe option of free Howl or Calm Mind on switch in, but may also elect to invest in niche choices; Kyurem, for example, can viably run Snowscape for extra bulk and accurate Blizzard, Scary Face to neuter opposing sweepers, or Sunny Day with Weather Ball to beat Steel-types like Gholdengo. Keep in mind, however, that some Trademarked abilities are restricted for being too overwhelming, such as Trick Room, powerful boosting moves like Swords Dance and Focus Energy, and Thunder Wave and Will-O-Wisp.
Threats in Trademarked
Ogerpon-Wellspring (F) @ Wellspring Mask- Ability: Rain Dance
- Tera Type: Water
- EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Ivy Cudgel
- - Horn Leech
- - Low Kick / Play Rough
- - Swords Dance
Rain-boosted Ivy Cudgel. That's the Pokémon. With the power boost from Rain Dance and even Tera Water, Ogerpon-W is incredibly hard to switch into. Horn Leech allows Ogerpon-W to stay healthy while still shredding through Water-types, and Low Kick hits Roaring Moon, with Play Rough as an option to beat defensive sets. Ogerpon-W has several other notable Trademarked options as well: Spikes and Synthesis all give it some much needed utility as an offensive pivot, and Growth lets it get a free boost to its offenses. One thing to note about Ogerpon-W: Terastallizing it overwrites its ability, so make sure you get all the use you can out of Rain Dance!
Sinistcha @ Leftovers- Ability: Iron Defense
- Tera Type: Fairy
- EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
- Bold Nature
- IVs: 0 Atk
- - Strength Sap
- - Calm Mind
- - Matcha Gotcha
- - Shadow Ball
With an automatic +2 Defense, a great set of resistances, and the ever-fishy Matcha Gotcha, Sinistcha is the tier's premier spinblocker. With Focus Energy banned as a Trademark, Sinistcha becomes incredibly difficult to remove on the physical side, especially in tandem with Strength Sap to lower the foe's damage output even further. Calm Mind, on top of making Sinistcha a terrifying wincon, also helps to shore up its weaker Special Defense, ensuring it's still not easy to revenge kill. Tera Fairy is used to gain a resistance to powerful Dark-type attacks while maintaining a great matchup into Fighting-types. Sinistcha has a few alternative Trademarks, like Strength Sap to recover health, Calm Mind to trade being a wincon for being a raw special tank, and Grassy Terrain for a boosted Matcha Gotcha and extra recovery.
Roaring Moon @ Assault Vest- Ability: Roost
- Tera Type: Fairy
- EVs: 252 HP / 72 SpD / 184 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Knock Off
- - U-turn
- - Dragon Tail
- - Stone Edge / Earthquake
Behold, RegenVest. With Roost as a Trademark, great bulk bolstered further by an Assault Vest, and an excellent Speed tier, Roaring Moon is an excellent fast pivot, able to switch in and reliably check the tier's many special attackers. Knock Off is excellent utility while still being threatening even without investment, and U-turn is ever-useful pivoting. Dragon Tail allows Roaring Moon to force out sweepers like Iron Crown, Sinistcha, and non-Low Kick Ogerpon-W. Stone Edge is useful to hit bulky Flying-types like Zapdos, while Earthquake keeps the pressure on Steel-types like Iron Treads. Roaring Moon can also run some incredibly potent offensive sets, but Roost still stands out as the best Trademark with Focus Energy's ban.
Introduction to Partners in Crime
Partners in Crime is a Doubles-based metagame where both active Pokémon share their abilities and moves between them, having access to both sets of traits at the same time. For example, pairing Excadrill and Latios will give both Pokémon concurrent access to Levitate and Sand Rush while sharing up to eight moves between them. If any moves are on both Pokémon's base set, they won't stack; you only get one! This allows a ton of strategies to form, from sharing Intimidate to double up on the Attack drop, to sharing Protosynthesis or Sheer Force between teammates and create ludicrously strong wallbreakers, to creating intricate balance teams by sharing abilities like Regenerator, Unaware, and immunities, there's no limit to the creativity here! Keep in mind a few bans, however: Dancer, Contrary, and other obviously broken abilities aren't allowed.
Threats in Partners in Crime
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Tornadus @ Focus Sash
Landorus @ Life OrbTornadus and Landorus are maybe the most quintessential pairing in the tier for their near-perfect synergy. Sharing Sheer Force and Prankster between them makes both Pokémon simultaneous beacons of utility and ludicrously powerful threats. Sheer Force-boosted Bleakwind Storm from both of these attackers at once is incredibly hard to switch into, especially if one or both has a Nasty Plot boost. Tailwind is incredible in a doubles format, as powerful wallbreakers like Kyurem and Volcanion can now find themselves with both doubled Speed and a Sheer Force boost from Landorus, making them incredibly tough to deal with.
Rain Dance is an alternative to Protect on Tornadus, making it slightly more reliant on Landorus in exchange for making both Bleakwind Storm and the niche Sandsear Storm fully accurate spread moves and boosting the power of teammates like Kingdra and Archaludon. Imprison is a somewhat niche move, but it allows either genie to shut down opposing Tornadus + Landorus duos as well as opposing Tailwind and Taunt users. Tera Ghost lets Tornadus ignore Fake Out, and Tera Poison lets Landorus dodge super effective Ice-type moves while boosting the power of Sludge Bomb.
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Iron Hands @ Clear Amulet
Gholdengo @ Metal Coat
Latias @ Covert Cloak / Safety GogglesIron Hands, Gholdengo, and Latias are a great example of excellent synergy, all perfectly working together like one fluid machine. Sharing Levitate and Good as Gold is the standout factor here, giving all three an immunity to status moves and Ground-type attacks, depending on which is on the field. Iron Hands can notably run both Fake Out and Swords Dance here, especially with teammates like Ogerpon-W and Chien-Pao to give it some extra coverage, making it a premier disruptor and sweeper at the same time. Clear Amulet allows Iron Hands to ignore Intimidate, which is huge for a physical attacker in such an Incineroar and Landorus-T-heavy metagame. Ice Punch is an alternative over Thunder Punch to more immediately threaten Landorus, especially in tandem with Ice Beam from Latias. Tera Grass is used to bypass Rage Powder, become immune to Spore, and turn Iron Hands's Ground weakness into a resistance.
Gholdengo runs a relatively standard Nasty Plot set, with the given bulk allowing it to survive Landorus-T's Stomping Tantrum and Flash Fire Heatran's Lava Plume while outspeeding Choice Scarf sets in Tailwind. Metal Coat boosts the power of Make It Rain to stupendous levels even as a spread move. Gholdengo is the dedicated Protect user of the core, giving either Iron Hands or Latias free access to it as long as it's on the field at the beginning of that turn. Tera Dragon is used to give Gholdengo a resistance to both common Ogerpon formes's attacks, allowing it to beat them in a 1v1 situation.
Latias ties the whole core together, with Tailwind to double the Speed of both of its teammates and Recover to generously give them, well, recovery. Ice Beam is the coverage move of choice here for its ability to snipe either form of Landorus and chip Ting-Lu. Covert Cloak is the primary item of choice, giving Latias an immunity to Fake Out's flinch as well as any other pesky secondary effects that might prevent it from getting Tailwind off, but Safety Goggles is an option to ignore Rage Powder and Spore. Tera Steel allows it to effectively wall any variety of Landorus while also being able to take Extreme Speed plus Icicle Crash from Dragonite + Chien-Pao in an emergency.
Final Thoughts
From the many ability options of Trademarked to the incredibly unique Partners in Crime, this month has no shortage of options for any trainer to enjoy. Why don't you hop on over to the Other Metagames room on Pokémon Showdown or the official Other Metagames Discord to discuss these metagames and endless more?
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