UMotM Spotlight: NFE
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Art by DaWolfKid.
What is the Unofficial Metagame of the Month?
Unofficial Metagames serve as a catch-all term for a wide range of formats that are cart-legal but otherwise do not stand on their own as a fully-fledged format for any number of reasons. The Unofficial Metagame of the Month serves to provide some of these metagames that can't support full year-round ladders with a monthly spotlight ladder. This month, the UMotM is NFE!
What is the Concept of Not-Fully-Evolved?
There are so many Pokémon that see no use, being incompatible with LC yet not evolved enough to see regular use in usage-based formats. Some exceptions exist, for certain, with all lower-tier formats below UU having at least one NFE to call their own, such as Porygon2 in PU or Bisharp in RU. These are the exceptions, however, and the overwhelming majority of these first- or middle-stage Pokémon languish in obscurity beyond being someone's favorite.
NFE solves that, limiting the selection process to exclusively Pokémon that have yet to evolve. Terastallization was removed early on to avoid the ever-present threat of offensive sweepers deleting defensive counterplay by sidestepping Eviolite-boosted defenses with a surprise super effective hit; this made NFE a bulkier metagame where even boosted threats can often be responded to with some margin for error, rather than a single Swords Dance or Shell Smash suddenly ending a game. Filled with Pokémon that'd never see the light of day outside of a format specifically for them, NFE provides a new angle on competitive play that can often go overlooked..
Threats in NFE
Offense
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Piloswine @ Choice Band
Scraggy @ Eviolite
Drakloak @ Heavy-Duty BootsOffensive sets in NFE can take a wide range of forms. Whether it's a more utility-oriented Drakloak that blocks Rapid Spin and spreads status while threatening serious damage, a snowballing Scraggy that combines Rest and Shed Skin alongside Drain Punch to make it impossible to keep status or damage on it reliably as it sets up, or the ever-threatening raw damage of Piloswine's Choice Band-boosted, high-Base Power moves off of a contextually high base 100 Attack, there is no shortage of options for offensively-minded teams for any number of niches needed.
Plenty of other Pokémon have strong offensive presences; Servine and Ivysaur are scary special attackers, while the Fire / Fighting trio of Monferno, Pignite, and Raboot (Libero High Jump Kick counts!) require some sort of response plan in the builder for a team to be at all viable. Thwackey comes with its own healing, powerful attacks, and priority; Frogadier outspeeds nearly everything and hits like a truck; and the normally utility-focused Wartortle can pull out Shell Smash and suddenly threaten a sweep. When just starter types are enough to fill a paragraph without even touching on the various Dragon-, Ground-, and Normal-types that can often trade at worst equally, the format has plenty of damage factories ready to slot into a team as needed.
Defense
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Unsurprisingly, in a format where the qualifying mechanic is "can evolve," the single most useful item is the one that boosts the defenses of all Pokémon that can evolve, Eviolite. This creates a much bulkier metagame, ensuring that even the strong offensive Pokémon mentioned earlier aren't overbearing. Tinkatuff is an item manipulation master, between Knock Off (unsurprisingly popular given the item metagame) and Pickpocket alongside solid defensive typing and stats. Dunsparce has plenty of set variety, but it uses Serene Grace and Body Slam to spread paralysis while remaining difficult to remove. Koffing disables powerful abilities like Hattrem's Magic Bounce and Dunsparce's Serene Grace while bringing powerful utility to the table with a reasonable defensive profile.
It's somewhat of a pattern for most formats that receive tiering to ban powerful offensive threats. With Eviolite, most Pokémon can be somewhat defensive in nature, as it grants a mostly free boost to both defenses without requiring EV investment. However, with Eviolite's presence as a backbone of the format, NFE actually sees plenty more Pokémon removed for being defensive powerhouses. Once you exclude the evergreen bans (nobody actually thinks that Chansey or Ursaring belong in NFE), most of the ban discussion focuses on Pokémon that refuse to go down, with Dusclops, Misdreavus, and Vigoroth all featuring as recent bans that warped the metagame around their defensive profile. While Eviolite's defensive boosts doesn't save some Pokémon, and there are reasons to run items like the Choice item trio or Heavy-Duty Boots, you can expect Eviolite to be the default option for any Pokémon that doesn't have a specific reason to run another item.
Entry Hazards
Due to Eviolite's influence, Heavy-Duty Boots is considered an alternative item choice rather than the default. Thus, one can logically conclude that entry hazards are incredibly useful. A number of Pokémon are buoyed or sunk by their interactions with hazards. Stealth Rock is incredibly popular, as just about any Pokémon that can justify it will happily run it. The Pokémon listed above in the Defensive section are two good examples, but setters range from utility-focused options like Tinkatuff to offensive powerhouses like Piloswine and Krokorok. Spikes are less common due to distribution issues, but Pokémon like Glimmet, Frogadier, and Quilladin are plenty capable of adding them to the battlefield. Sticky Web from Charjabug or Cutiefly exists, but it is somewhat committal and can run into a lot of problems, such as removal, Hattrem, or Servine.
Toxic Spikes, however, has its own paragraph, as it is arguably the most important entry hazard, even if Stealth Rock is more common. Toxic Spikes removal is a mandatory consideration for every team, and not having any response to it going up will result in a swift loss. Koffing's use of Neutralizing Gas rather than Levitate, the presence of Pokémon like Ivysaur and Mareanie, and the mandatory nature of carrying either Defog or Rapid Spin are in no small part (or entirely!) due to the presence of Toxic Spikes. With only two viable Steel-types in Tinkatuff and Hisuian Sliggoo, relatively few Flying-types, and a lack of default Heavy-Duty Boots usage, most teams are going to interact with Toxic Spikes in some manner and as such must be able to prepare for seeing Koffing or Glimmet in Team Preview.
With how powerful entry hazards can be, it's unsurprising that Pokémon that can remove those entry hazards have risen to the occasion. However, the lack of truly strong removal options further shows how ingrained hazards are in NFE's power structure, with Toxic Spikes even considered for tiering action on occasion. While Rapid Spin gives Quaxwell high usage due to its good defensive profile letting it use the move regularly, and the move somewhat directly caused the ban of Misdreavus and Dusclops due to their ability to spinblock and protect hazard stacking strategies, Rapid Spin itself is often a bandage response rather than a balancing force. For all intents and purposes only Fletchinder can run Defog, and Hattrem exists as a somewhat shaky deterrent thanks to Magic Bounce, but entry hazards rule the roost in NFE due to the setup vs. removal imbalance.
Knock Off
The other conclusion about Eviolite's power is that Knock Off is an incredibly potent move. Your Pokémon might only be able to 3HKO your opponent's Quaxwell under normal conditions, which allows it to use Roost and Rapid Spin to functionally hard counter your sweeper. However, if Eviolite was removed earlier in the battle, suddenly Quaxwell would be kept in a 2HKO spiral, as it would constantly need to use Roost against powerful hits that it no longer has the bulk to reasonably tank, thus limiting its ability to use Rapid Spin. It's easier to list off viable Pokémon that get the move but aren't likely to run it in NFE, but writing out a blank list doesn't make a whole ton of sense.
Having something that can reliably switch into Knock Off is very important, whether that'd be Tinkatuff, which resists the move and can steal an Eviolite with Pickpocket; Fletchinder, which can threaten foes with Flame Body in games where Stealth Rock isn't present, which allows it to lose Heavy-Duty Boots; or even just a defensive Pokémon like Seadra, which threatens Knock Off users back with Poison Point and can heal up with Rest. Given how valuable Eviolite is to so many Pokémon, loading into a game without a plan to utilize or respond to Knock Off will result in your team struggling to deal the same amount of damage it is taking. Thief also plays a significant role in NFE, with several Pokémon like Dunsparce and Koffing running it to function as Pokémon willing to take a Knock Off hit, knowing they can later steal a foe's item in return.
Conclusion
With all the moving parts that make up the format, from entry hazards to Knock Off to Eviolite, NFE is a very deep metagame with many Pokémon able to run multiple sets or set variants with effectiveness. As a result, scouting and proper prediction are rewarded more than usual, but the defensive nature of the format and lack of Terastallization limit catastrophic snowballing off of a single error. Despite this, top-level players with proper play can turn a small advantage into a mountain for their opponents to overcome in order to claw back a win. NFE is a wonderful format featuring many Pokémon that would otherwise not see the light of day, and it is the UMotM for the month of May and can be found as a ladderable format in the Ladder Spotlight section. You can discuss it in the forum, Unofficial Metagames Discord, and the Unofficial Metagames room on Pokémon Showdown! See you on the ladder!
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