Project Metagame Workshop

[Schpoonman]

[Shufflemons/Draftmons - open to name suggestions!]

Something in the back of my mind tells me that this has already been invented, but I looked and couldn’t find anything. If someone can correct me then I’ll delete this post and try to revive the old OM instead.

Premise: Teams use a shared pool made from the natural learnsets and abilities of all six Pokémon, freely shuffling and swapping these moves and abilities among teammates, with each individual move and ability usable by only one Pokémon at a time

Metagame Explanation ​

In this metagame, your team’s moves and abilities function as a shared resource rather than something locked to individual Pokémon. All six abilities and all 24 moveslots from your team form a single communal pool that can be freely redistributed among teammates. Any Pokémon may inherit any number of moves as long as a teammate originally learns them, and may also inherit one ability from the pool. However, every move and every ability can only be claimed once: once a move is given to a Pokémon, no other teammate may use that move, and once an ability is assigned, no other Pokémon may take it. These swaps effectively reshuffle your team’s entire movepool and ability pool, allowing you to build creative, synergistic combinations while respecting strict one-time drafting limits.

@ Choice Band
Ability: Drizzle < From Pelipper
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn < From Pelipper
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Knock Off < From Pelipper

@ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim < From Barraskewda
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane < From Gyarados
- Ice Beam < From Barraskweda
- Thunder
- Volt Switch

@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate < From Gyarados
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Flip Turn < From Pelipper
- Scald < From Gyarados
- Hurricane

@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb < From Thundurs-Therian
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Brave Bird < From Pelipper


In this example, each Pokémon takes moves and abilities from teammates, with every option usable only once. Barraskewda claims Pelipper’s Drizzle, U-turn, and Knock Off; Thundurus-T takes Barraskewda’s Swift Swim, plus Hurricane from Gyarados and Ice Beam from Barraskewda’s movepool; Pelipper picks up Intimidate & scald from Gyarados and Flip Turn from Barraskewda, and Gyarados grabs Volt Absorb from Thundurus-T and Brave Bird from Pelipper. Every move and ability appears exactly once, showing how the team’s learnsets and abilities can be freely shuffled into new, creative combinations. You can also choose to keep your abilities and moveset if you want as well, you don't have to swap.

This format offers the creativity of move- and ability-swapping metas without the usual chaos, because every option can only be used once. You’re constantly balancing power and opportunity cost—yes, you can run Comfey just to give Primarina Triage Draining Kiss, but doing so means your Comfey becomes a dead slot without its signature ability. Building a team becomes a puzzle: how do you shuffle your shared pool of abilities and moves to maximize synergy without wasting resources? The result is a highly strategic, combinational metagame where smart drafting, clever role compression, and imaginative set design are rewarded.

Potential bans and threats.
- OU banlist, alongside the usual suspects that get banned in OMs where abilities and moves are changed around, such as and ".
- Abilities like Huge Power, Pure Power, Water Bubble, Imposter etc.

Questions:
- Has this been invented already?
- I was also considering being able to swap type combinations around as well. For example, by nicknaming your pokemon to that of your teammate you could swap around their typing. It could be a bit too much though.

I posited this a few gens back as "Melting Pot" without the Ability swapping (I myself got the idea from a chatter on Showdown), and while I do think the teambuilding element offers merit, we're getting pretty dense on OMs.

Also Mew and Smeargle would need to go.

 

[Clas]

[Shufflemons/Draftmons - open to name suggestions!]

Something in the back of my mind tells me that this has already been invented, but I looked and couldn’t find anything. If someone can correct me then I’ll delete this post and try to revive the old OM instead.

Premise: Teams use a shared pool made from the natural learnsets and abilities of all six Pokémon, freely shuffling and swapping these moves and abilities among teammates, with each individual move and ability usable by only one Pokémon at a time

Metagame Explanation ​

In this metagame, your team’s moves and abilities function as a shared resource rather than something locked to individual Pokémon. All six abilities and all 24 moveslots from your team form a single communal pool that can be freely redistributed among teammates. Any Pokémon may inherit any number of moves as long as a teammate originally learns them, and may also inherit one ability from the pool. However, every move and every ability can only be claimed once: once a move is given to a Pokémon, no other teammate may use that move, and once an ability is assigned, no other Pokémon may take it. These swaps effectively reshuffle your team’s entire movepool and ability pool, allowing you to build creative, synergistic combinations while respecting strict one-time drafting limits.

@ Choice Band
Ability: Drizzle < From Pelipper
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn < From Pelipper
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Knock Off < From Pelipper

@ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim < From Barraskewda
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane < From Gyarados
- Ice Beam < From Barraskweda
- Thunder
- Volt Switch

@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate < From Gyarados
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Flip Turn < From Pelipper
- Scald < From Gyarados
- Hurricane

@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb < From Thundurs-Therian
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Brave Bird < From Pelipper


In this example, each Pokémon takes moves and abilities from teammates, with every option usable only once. Barraskewda claims Pelipper’s Drizzle, U-turn, and Knock Off; Thundurus-T takes Barraskewda’s Swift Swim, plus Hurricane from Gyarados and Ice Beam from Barraskewda’s movepool; Pelipper picks up Intimidate & scald from Gyarados and Flip Turn from Barraskewda, and Gyarados grabs Volt Absorb from Thundurus-T and Brave Bird from Pelipper. Every move and ability appears exactly once, showing how the team’s learnsets and abilities can be freely shuffled into new, creative combinations. You can also choose to keep your abilities and moveset if you want as well, you don't have to swap.

This format offers the creativity of move- and ability-swapping metas without the usual chaos, because every option can only be used once. You’re constantly balancing power and opportunity cost—yes, you can run Comfey just to give Primarina Triage Draining Kiss, but doing so means your Comfey becomes a dead slot without its signature ability. Building a team becomes a puzzle: how do you shuffle your shared pool of abilities and moves to maximize synergy without wasting resources? The result is a highly strategic, combinational metagame where smart drafting, clever role compression, and imaginative set design are rewarded.

Potential bans and threats.
- OU banlist, alongside the usual suspects that get banned in OMs where abilities and moves are changed around, such as and ".
- Abilities like Huge Power, Pure Power, Water Bubble, Imposter etc.

Questions:
- Has this been invented already?
- I was also considering being able to swap type combinations around as well. For example, by nicknaming your pokemon to that of your teammate you could swap around their typing. It could be a bit too much though.

Despite OMMs and Convergence existing, I think this just barely stands out enough. HOWEVER, this really needs examples via custom game to be shown off. I'm down to showcase this throughout the next 2 weeks or so, since the teammate restriction definitely helps solidify this idea as unique. The idea feels like a successor to Chimera 1v1, something without representation this gen, which is cool.

Testing in CG also helps test if this is actually a good idea haha, usually restrictions don't work too well so we'll see :)

 

[Imperator Romanum]

Despite OMMs and Convergence existing, I think this just barely stands out enough. HOWEVER, this really needs examples via custom game to be shown off. I'm down to showcase this throughout the next 2 weeks or so, since the teammate restriction definitely helps solidify this idea as unique. The idea feels like a successor to Chimera 1v1, something without representation this gen, which is cool.

Testing in CG also helps test if this is actually a good idea haha, usually restrictions don't work too well so we'll see :)

Thank you!

I've made a team, hit me up on ps and we can get some examples. Preliminary banlist of all ubers, usual broken abilities (huge power, imposter, water bubble) and pokemon (smeargle/mew)!

 

[Cuddly]

Almost Every Ability​

Metagame Premise: Almost every single ability is active at once, except for banned/restricted abilities and you can remove 6 abilities from your opponent by nicknaming your Pokemon the ability you want to restrict.

Details:
-Restricted abilities are abilities that will not apply to all Pokemon. Only Pokemon using that ability will have that effect. So for instance, Huge Power will be restricted for obvious reasons, but any Pokemon like Azumarill can put Huge Power in their ability slot and get the effect of Huge Power.
-Banned abilities will be entirely absent from the meta. They won’t be applied to every Pokemon and can’t be used on native Pokemon. So a Gothitelle using Shadow Tag will not be allowed.

Bans:

Right off the bat, all the usual suspects are being banned outright.
Restricted:

To make the metagame actually playable, all the actively hindering abilities will be restricted. A metagame where all your Pokemon have Truant and Slow Start would be miserable to play.
This is a rare moment where Truant gets restricted on a metagame.
Abilities like Dry Skin, Fluffy, No Guard could also be restricted if they end up being too hindering, even though they are mostly positive abilities.


The remaining “usual suspects” that in most metagames get restricted will also be restricted here too. These are your Huge Powers, your Mold Breakers, your Magic Guarders. This isn’t a comprehensive list but these abilities will definitely be restricted.


To make things simple, all abilities override each other like Weather or Terrain will also be restricted. This is so that we don’t have to decide which weather/terrain gets set when switching in.


Also all immunity abilities are going to be restricted. Eliminating multiple types for every Pokemon would be pretty bad to say the least. Weaknesses and the type chart are a core part of Pokemon. Allowing type immunity abilities would break the type chart.

Questions:
-Is the nickname restriction rule necessary?
-How should abilities that are identical interact?
-What are some other changes you’d want to see?

 

[chartung17]

Almost Every Ability

Metagame Premise: Almost every single ability is active at once, except for banned/restricted abilities and you can remove 6 abilities from your opponent by nicknaming your Pokemon the ability you want to restrict.

Details:
-Restricted abilities are abilities that will not apply to all Pokemon. Only Pokemon using that ability will have that effect. So for instance, Huge Power will be restricted for obvious reasons, but any Pokemon like Azumarill can put Huge Power in their ability slot and get the effect of Huge Power.
-Banned abilities will be entirely absent from the meta. They won’t be applied to every Pokemon and can’t be used on native Pokemon. So a Gothitelle using Shadow Tag will not be allowed.

Bans:

Right off the bat, all the usual suspects are being banned outright.
Restricted:

To make the metagame actually playable, all the actively hindering abilities will be restricted. A metagame where all your Pokemon have Truant and Slow Start would be miserable to play.
This is a rare moment where Truant gets restricted on a metagame.
Abilities like Dry Skin, Fluffy, No Guard could also be restricted if they end up being too hindering, even though they are mostly positive abilities.


The remaining “usual suspects” that in most metagames get restricted will also be restricted here too. These are your Huge Powers, your Mold Breakers, your Magic Guarders. This isn’t a comprehensive list but these abilities will definitely be restricted.


To make things simple, all abilities override each other like Weather or Terrain will also be restricted. This is so that we don’t have to decide which weather/terrain gets set when switching in.


Also all immunity abilities are going to be restricted. Eliminating multiple types for every Pokemon would be pretty bad to say the least. Weaknesses and the type chart are a core part of Pokemon. Allowing type immunity abilities would break the type chart.

Questions:
-Is the nickname restriction rule necessary?
-How should abilities that are identical interact?
-What are some other changes you’d want to see?

Effectively, everything has:

1. Speed Boost
2. Battle Armor
3. Sturdy
4. Damp
5. Oblivious
6. Cloud Nine
7. Color Change
8. Own Tempo
9. Suction Cups
10. Clear Body
11. Magnet Pull
12. Soundproof
13. Pressure
14. Thick Fat
15. Pickup
16. Hustle
17. Sticky Hold
18. Liquid Ooze
19. Overgrow
20. Blaze
21. Torrent
22. Swarm
23. Rock Head
24. Rivalry
25. Heatproof
26. Download
27. Iron Fist
28. Adaptability
29. Skill Link
30. No Guard
31. Technician
32. Aftermath
33. Anticipation
34. Forewarn
35. Unaware
36. Tinted Lens
37. Filter
38. Scrappy
39. Solid Rock
40. Reckless
41. Pickpocket
42. Sheer Force
43. Contrary
44. Unnerve
45. Cursed Body
46. Weak Armor
47. Multiscale
48. Regenerator
49. Analytic
50. (Probably about 50 more)

I'm only halfway through the ability list and I don't feel like finishing it, but already you've eliminated way too many aspects of the game, including critical hits, status conditions, secondary effects, weather, the type chart (Tinted Lens and Filter + Solid Rock effectively negate everything but x4, x1/4, and x0 effectiveness), and stat boosts (apart from speed). Also, you're not even living up to the name of the meta; about two thirds of the abilities are either banned, redundant (e.g. Big Pecks is useless when you have Clear Body), or neutralized by other abilities (e.g. several abilities give immunity to Intimidate). This does not sound like a fun meta.

 

[Hiusi guy]

Cheerleadermons (WIP) ​

Premise: Everytime a pokemon switches (manual or pivot) or faints, they give the incoming pokemon their 2 highest raw stats (excluding hp) and their ability. Stats higher than ones passed aren’t replaced, switches don't stack.

Examples:

:cheers:

(Colors denote what would be passed)

If mew were to switch into jirachi, jirachi’s Atk and Spe would be replaced by mews and it would gain synchronize until it switches out

Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe [341 / 299 / 236 / 212 / 237 / 328]
Jolly Nature
- U-turn


Ability: Serene Grace + Syncronize
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD [404 / 299 / 237 / 212 / 328 / 328]
Careful Nature
- U-turn
If jirachi then Switched to celebi, celebi would gain serene grace and have it’s def and spdef replaced

Ability: Natural Cure + Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe [341 / 184 / 237 / 328 / 328 / 299]
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- U-turn

Moving away from the pixies, if a pokemon has a higher raw stat than the pokemon passing the stat, the stat isnt passed

Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe [1 / 279 / 189 / 86 / 159 / 196]
Jolly Nature
- Wave Crash
- Flare Blitz
- Volt Tackle
- Wood Hammer


Ability: Multitype + Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 Atk [381 / 372 / 276 / 248 / 276 / 276]
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Healing Wish

(Unrefined) Initial Banlist: Ubers, Huge / Pure Power, Shadow Tag, Arena Trap, Moody, Baton Pass, Shed Tail, Last Respects. Restrictions: Magnet Pull, Neutralizing Gas
Possible Bans / Restrictions: Blissey, Chansey, Hoopa-U, Regenerator, Unburden, Weather Speed / Weather Rock, prolly some others i haven't thought of yet

Meta Prediction: The meta id assume would lean towards being bulky due to bulk being more applicable to every pokemon as apposed to offense's which could require using up a move slot to abuse. A possible later restriction could be regen for the fact that it can be very easily chained when built around, and create games that last forever or are oppressively in favor of the regen user

FAQ (probably):
Q: How do restrictions work?
A: Only Abilities are restricted, restricted abilities can’t be passed any teammate

Q: What if multiple stats are the highest?
A: Whichever stat comes first, similar to how beast boost works, as shown with arceus

Q: What happens if a passed ability is the same as the new mons ability?
A: Preferably this would result in the ability activating once when applicable

Questions for community:

• Is this too similar to other om(m)s? Closest i can think of is Godly Gift and Shared Power, but stat / abilities aren't permanent.
• Any other things that are possibly broken?

That’s all, bye

 

[Lectrys]

Almost Every Ability​

Metagame Premise: Almost every single ability is active at once, except for banned/restricted abilities and you can remove 6 abilities from your opponent by nicknaming your Pokemon the ability you want to restrict.

Details:
-Restricted abilities are abilities that will not apply to all Pokemon. Only Pokemon using that ability will have that effect. So for instance, Huge Power will be restricted for obvious reasons, but any Pokemon like Azumarill can put Huge Power in their ability slot and get the effect of Huge Power.
-Banned abilities will be entirely absent from the meta. They won’t be applied to every Pokemon and can’t be used on native Pokemon. So a Gothitelle using Shadow Tag will not be allowed.

Bans:

Right off the bat, all the usual suspects are being banned outright.
Restricted:

To make the metagame actually playable, all the actively hindering abilities will be restricted. A metagame where all your Pokemon have Truant and Slow Start would be miserable to play.
This is a rare moment where Truant gets restricted on a metagame.
Abilities like Dry Skin, Fluffy, No Guard could also be restricted if they end up being too hindering, even though they are mostly positive abilities.


The remaining “usual suspects” that in most metagames get restricted will also be restricted here too. These are your Huge Powers, your Mold Breakers, your Magic Guarders. This isn’t a comprehensive list but these abilities will definitely be restricted.


To make things simple, all abilities override each other like Weather or Terrain will also be restricted. This is so that we don’t have to decide which weather/terrain gets set when switching in.


Also all immunity abilities are going to be restricted. Eliminating multiple types for every Pokemon would be pretty bad to say the least. Weaknesses and the type chart are a core part of Pokemon. Allowing type immunity abilities would break the type chart.

Questions:
-Is the nickname restriction rule necessary?
-How should abilities that are identical interact?
-What are some other changes you’d want to see?

I expect you're going to do something about these abilities you didn't mention?

• Stall (hindering)
• Mycelium Might (Stall + Mold Breaker for status moves...more benefit than hindrance?)
• -Ates (all override each other)
• Normalize (net negative)
• Defeatist (hindering)

On another note, Prankster and Gale Wings (and Triage to a certain extent) vs. Dazzling and friends will be...interesting.

 

[AintTellingUNothing]

Wait do moves get transferred as well? (also why are you giving recoil moves to a mon with 1HP?)

Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe [1 / 279 / 189 / 86 / 159 / 196]
Jolly Nature
- Wave Crash
- Flare Blitz
- Volt Tackle
- Wood Hammer

 

[Hiusi guy]

Wait do moves get transferred as well? (also why are you giving recoil moves to a mon with 1HP?)

Moves arent transfered, i gave all of the pixies uturn to repersent pivoting and gave shed and arc self ko moves to repersent fainting

 

[Dawn's Piplup]

Your pokemon have found favor with Arceus with a tiny fraction of the power of Legend Plate bestowed upon them.

Premise​

With an held plate item, pokemon can have an additional coverage on their primary type STAB moves, where the offensively advantageous type is picked between the plate type and the primary type against the active opponent. However, the immense power of holding a budget Legend Plate comes at the cost of losing STAB from secondary types (if available), while defensively keeping that type.

Rules​

• Only Pokemon's primary-type moves will have the double coverage, receiving both x1.5 STAB and the x1.2 plate boost regardless of move's damage type.
• Between the held plate type and a pokemon's primary type, the primary type STAB moves will pick the type that is most effective against the active opponent prioritizing x4 super effectiveness. If both types are equally effective, then the user's primary type will be picked.
• Moves whose types are different from pokemon's primary type but match the held plate's type will only receive ordinary x1.2 boost and will not have the additional coverage.
• Plates will not affect pokemon's defensive typing.
• Plates cannot be knocked off.
• Held plates will be revealed upon entry to the field.

Example​

Great Tusk @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Headlong Rush (Ground) OR Headlong Rush (Ice) - x1.5 STAB boost and x1.2 plate boost
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat (No STAB)
- Rapid Spin

In this example, Headlong Rush becomes either ground or ice type depending on the opponent (i.e against a it's Ice, while against a , it's Ground). However, Close Combat no longer receives x1.5 STAB boost.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Q: What happens if my primary type matches my plate type?
A: You only get the x1.2 plate boost while losing your secondary STAB offensively. Why would you do that?

Q: What happens if my secondary type matches my plate type?
A: You lose the secondary STAB without losing the defensive typing. But now, that type is compressed into your primary STAB type where you can deal damage in either one depending on which one is more advantageous while also keeping your secondary STAB that way.

Q: What if my primary type changes through Protean/Libero or other means, do I still get the perks?
A: All damaging moves will have the additional coverage from the plate. Unclear which check comes first for the typing change of the pokemon itself.

Q: What if the opponent makes a switch when I click on my move?
A: Coverage takes into account the typing of the new active pokemon that is about to take the damage.

Q: What happens for charge moves like Solar Beam or Phantom Force that take two turns?
A: Same as above, new pokemon will be taken into account.

Q: How about abilities that give immunity?
A: Abilities aren't taken into account, only the type matchups.

Q: What about moves like Thunder Wave or Glare, where ground and ghost types can be immune?
A: Status moves will be exempt from the mechanics.

Banlist & Clauses​

Starting with OU Banlist + Standard OMs + Plate reveal upon entry clause

Questions for the community: Any broken elements? Do you think advantageous type coverage would be hard to implement? Should there be a team-preview for held plates?

 

[Elurkii]

[Name in progress]

Premise: Basically, for whatever status move you select for the fourth slot on each of your pokemon, the move's effect is applied to all of your other moves.

Example: ( is banned but,)
@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Quiver Dance

So, every attack does, it uses quiver dance after the attack, allowing it to functionally use choice items as a setup sweeper.

Rules:

• Moves such as SD, Calm Mind, etc. will stack, but moves like WOW or T-wave won't.
• For status moves w/ priority or negative priority, the move with lower priority will have, well, priority.

Bans: Likely most, if not all, OU bans, but also protecting moves, moves that give many boosts, like Clangorous soul, and stuff like encore, disable, and destiny bond, but if I'm missing anything tell me.

 

[Dawn's Piplup]

[Name in progress]

Premise: Basically, for whatever status move you select for the fourth slot on each of your pokemon, the move's effect is applied to all of your other moves.

Example: ( is banned but,)
@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Bug Buzz
- Giga Drain
- Quiver Dance

So, every attack does, it uses quiver dance after the attack, allowing it to functionally use choice items as a setup sweeper.

Rules:

• Moves such as SD, Calm Mind, etc. will stack, but moves like WOW or T-wave won't.
• For status moves w/ priority or negative priority, the move with lower priority will have, well, priority.

Bans: Likely most, if not all, OU bans, but also protecting moves, moves that give many boosts, like Clangorous soul, and stuff like encore, disable, and destiny bond, but if I'm missing anything tell me.

This seems like a mix between Linked and Automagic, both of which were past gen OMs. You might consider submitting either for this gen.

 

[PrincessGardevoir]

• Only Pokemon's primary-type moves will have the double coverage, receiving both x1.5 STAB and the x1.2 plate boost regardless of move's damage type.
• Between the held plate type and a pokemon's primary type, the primary type STAB moves will pick the type that is most effective against the active opponent prioritizing x4 super effectiveness. If both types are equally effective, then the user's primary type will be picked.
• Moves whose types are different from pokemon's primary type but match the held plate's type will only receive ordinary x1.2 boost and will not have the additional coverage.
• Plates will not affect pokemon's defensive typing.
• Plates cannot be knocked off.
• Held plates will be revealed upon entry to the field.

Double checking that I fully understand this,
Holding a plate removes secondary STAB, allows the Primary-type's STAB moves to optimally pick between the primary type and the plate type, and the secondary type if the same type as the plate will nerf the power of non-Primary-type secondary-type moves to only gain the plate bonus?

So, for the Great Tusk example, holding a Fist Plate with the moves Headlong Rush/Close Combat, Headlong Rush will optimally pick between Ground and Fighting, always getting the 1.5x STAB and 1.2x Plate boost regardless of which types it chooses, but Close Combat, as the non-primary type, will not get STAB, but will get the 1.2x Plate boost because it is the Fist Plate, correct?



Personal notes:

- What applies to moves like Revelation Dance or Raging Bull, which are Normal type but are forcibly changed to deal the user's form's type of damage? These moves aren't actually STAB moves in-game, afaik, and are still displayed as Normal-type until the damage calculation. Are they affected by the Plates? Are the Oricorios sort of out of luck here? What about Weather Ball on Pelipper? It's not Form Change-related, so if a Pelipper holds a Zap Plate, and it's raining, does Weather Ball optimize between Water/Electric, or does it never do so because it's a Normal move?

- If both types apply Neutral damage, which type is prioritized? If Great Tusk with Ice/Ground Headlong Rush clicks it into a Terapagos, does it always prefer to choose the user's Primary type? It's not super relevant, but it is somewhat so for mons like the Lake Spirits, whose Levitate ability would make them ignore Ground moves, Fighting/Ice moves potentially being neutered attacking into Thick Fat, multiple types+Fire moves into Flash Fire Heatran/WBB Dachsbun, any mon who isn't weak to Ground but holds an Air Balloon etc.

Q: How about abilities that give immunity?
A: Abilities aren't taken into account, only the type matchups.

- So, in the Tusk example, given Ground and Ice of Headlong Rush, the simulator will automatically select Ground Headlong into, say, a Levitater who resists/is neutral to Ice but whose typing is weak to Ground, like base Rotom, Weezing-Galar, or Bronzong? If so, that's... really, really unfortunate for mons with Ground as their main/chosen coverage type.

Questions for the community: Any broken elements? Do you think advantageous type coverage would be hard to implement? Should there be a team-preview for held plates?

- Rapid Spin's much better specifically for Cyclizar and Terapagos, which now can safely spin in the face of mons like Gholdengo and Pecharunt. I could see hazards taking a backfoot and Cyclizar itself becoming a very, very useful pivot with Regen, and Terapagos with Wish support saving the world from hazards.

- Anything with some of the best offensive types in the game - Moonblast from Enamorus, all of the Draco Meteors, and Poltea might have to go, same with Light Clay and Heat Rock/Drought to stop Protosynthesis mons from choosing STAB/Flame Plate. No need to have them freely doing massive damage with little effort, or enabling offense to an unreasonable degree.

- Zamazenta shouldn't be allowed from frame 1, because giving Body Press the ability to hit Ghosts, Psychics, and Fairies with 'Ghost STAB' is terrifying. We're in luck that basically none of the other Fighting types that would be good with it are pure Fighting. I think it's in the camp of 'borderline Ubers that are on the banlist day 1', but warrants saying.

- Priority mons need to be on a watchlist, because we don't need things like SD Scizor being able to choose Ground as a secondary type and delete (most of) its resists to Bullet Punch. Same for Azumarill Aqua Jet and Gambit Sucker.

- No need for Preview on Plates, imo, especially because you still have good incentive to not run Plates on all of your team, like those who value both STAB (Dengo, Iron Valiant with Physical sets, (maybe) Ceruledge), mons who wouldn't want to risk having an immunity ability (Grounds) or mons forced into using a held Item already (just all of the Ogerpon forms). Unlike Fortemons, where you really were missing out on a major, major advantage by not running a move in the item slot, the new Legend Plate(s) are useful mostly just on very offensive mons, or those who want to click one type and that's it.



Cool idea, but it gives me headaches to think about.

 

[Cuddly]

Your pokemon have found favor with Arceus with a tiny fraction of the power of Legend Plate bestowed upon them.

Premise​

With an held plate item, pokemon can have an additional coverage on their primary type STAB moves, where the offensively advantageous type is picked between the plate type and the primary type against the active opponent. However, the immense power of holding a budget Legend Plate comes at the cost of losing STAB from secondary types (if available), while defensively keeping that type.

Rules​

• Only Pokemon's primary-type moves will have the double coverage, receiving both x1.5 STAB and the x1.2 plate boost regardless of move's damage type.
• Between the held plate type and a pokemon's primary type, the primary type STAB moves will pick the type that is most effective against the active opponent prioritizing x4 super effectiveness. If both types are equally effective, then the user's primary type will be picked.
• Moves whose types are different from pokemon's primary type but match the held plate's type will only receive ordinary x1.2 boost and will not have the additional coverage.
• Plates will not affect pokemon's defensive typing.
• Plates cannot be knocked off.
• Held plates will be revealed upon entry to the field.

Example​

Great Tusk @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Headlong Rush (Ground) OR Headlong Rush (Ice) - x1.5 STAB boost and x1.2 plate boost
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat (No STAB)
- Rapid Spin

In this example, Headlong Rush becomes either ground or ice type depending on the opponent (i.e against a it's Ice, while against a , it's Ground). However, Close Combat no longer receives x1.5 STAB boost.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Q: What happens if my primary type matches my plate type?
A: You only get the x1.2 plate boost while losing your secondary STAB offensively. Why would you do that?

Q: What happens if my secondary type matches my plate type?
A: You lose the secondary STAB without losing the defensive typing. But now, that type is compressed into your primary STAB type where you can deal damage in either one depending on which one is more advantageous while also keeping your secondary STAB that way.

Q: What if my primary type changes through Protean/Libero or other means, do I still get the perks?
A: All damaging moves will have the additional coverage from the plate. Unclear which check comes first for the typing change of the pokemon itself.

Q: What if the opponent makes a switch when I click on my move?
A: Coverage takes into account the typing of the new active pokemon that is about to take the damage.

Q: What happens for charge moves like Solar Beam or Phantom Force that take two turns?
A: Same as above, new pokemon will be taken into account.

Q: How about abilities that give immunity?
A: Abilities aren't taken into account, only the type matchups.

Q: What about moves like Thunder Wave or Glare, where ground and ghost types can be immune?
A: Status moves will be exempt from the mechanics.

Banlist & Clauses​

Starting with OU Banlist + Standard OMs + Plate reveal upon entry clause

Questions for the community: Any broken elements? Do you think advantageous type coverage would be hard to implement? Should there be a team-preview for held plates?

I think a better spin on this idea would be to have it be more like Aura Wheel, where the typing of moves alternates between the original type and the new type.

Raging Bolt @ Icicle Plate
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 20 Atk
- Thunderclap
- Discharge
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
Like right here, this would be absolutely absurd with the current system. You give Raging Bolt here unwallable Thunderclaps and any Electric coverage you want. You don't need coverage since Thunderclap and Electric move of choice (here it's Discharge since you can paralyze Ground types now) hits almost everything.
Another example

Iron Valiant @ Earth Plate
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind
- Encore
- Filler
All you need to attack with is Moonblast really since you can just spam it and it'll convert to a ground move for any of Fairy type's resistances.

This mechanic is somewhat similar to Legends Plate and Hidden Power from PLA, which if brought to turn based games would make Arceus the most busted Pokemon of all time. All you'd need to do is use Judgement, Calm Mind, Taunt, and Recover, and you beat pretty much everything.
This is like a slightly worse version of that, but you apply it to any Pokemon, which is gonna make the whole metagame revolve around 1-2 attacks with set up move and best filler you got. It also makes it way too easy to sweep. All you have to do is mindlessly spam your only attack which is going hit majority of the game neutrally or super effectively after a boost.

If you make the game more like Aura Wheel, sure you can use mostly 1 attack, but that's less encouraged and there is more mindful play. You have to actually time your attacks. It also provides actual defensive counterplay.

 

[Imperator Romanum]

[Shufflemons/Draftmons - open to name suggestions!]

Something in the back of my mind tells me that this has already been invented, but I looked and couldn’t find anything. If someone can correct me then I’ll delete this post and try to revive the old OM instead.

Premise: Teams use a shared pool made from the natural learnsets and abilities of all six Pokémon, freely shuffling and swapping these moves and abilities among teammates, with each individual move and ability usable by only one Pokémon at a time

Metagame Explanation ​

In this metagame, your team’s moves and abilities function as a shared resource rather than something locked to individual Pokémon. All six abilities and all 24 moveslots from your team form a single communal pool that can be freely redistributed among teammates. Any Pokémon may inherit any number of moves as long as a teammate originally learns them, and may also inherit one ability from the pool. However, every move and every ability can only be claimed once: once a move is given to a Pokémon, no other teammate may use that move, and once an ability is assigned, no other Pokémon may take it. However, if you have Gyarados, Pelipper and Thundurus you can use Hurricane on Thundurus by taking it from Gyarados, while Pelipper can still use its own hurricane as both Pelipper and Gyarados learn Hurricane. These swaps effectively reshuffle your team’s entire movepool and ability pool, allowing you to build creative, synergistic combinations while respecting strict one-time drafting limits.

@ Choice Band
Ability: Drizzle < From Pelipper
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn < From Pelipper
- Liquidation
- Close Combat
- Knock Off < From Pelipper

@ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim < From Barraskewda
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane < From Gyarados
- Ice Beam < From Barraskweda
- Thunder
- Volt Switch

@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate < From Gyarados
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Flip Turn < From Pelipper
- Scald < From Gyarados
- Hurricane

@ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Volt Absorb < From Thundurs-Therian
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Brave Bird < From Pelipper


In this example, each Pokémon takes moves and abilities from teammates, with every option usable only once. Barraskewda claims Pelipper’s Drizzle, U-turn, and Knock Off; Thundurus-T takes Barraskewda’s Swift Swim, plus Hurricane from Gyarados and Ice Beam from Barraskewda’s movepool; Pelipper picks up Intimidate & scald from Gyarados and Flip Turn from Barraskewda, and Gyarados grabs Volt Absorb from Thundurus-T and Brave Bird from Pelipper. Every move and ability appears exactly once, showing how the team’s learnsets and abilities can be freely shuffled into new, creative combinations. You can also choose to keep your abilities and moveset if you want as well, you don't have to swap.

This format offers the creativity of move- and ability-swapping metas without the usual chaos, because every option can only be used once. You’re constantly balancing power and opportunity cost—yes, you can run Comfey just to give Primarina Triage Draining Kiss, but doing so means your Comfey becomes a dead slot without its signature ability. Building a team becomes a puzzle: how do you shuffle your shared pool of abilities and moves to maximize synergy without wasting resources? The result is a highly strategic, combinational metagame where smart drafting, clever role compression, and imaginative set design are rewarded.

Potential bans and threats.
- OU banlist, alongside the usual suspects that get banned in OMs where abilities and moves are changed around, such as and ".
- Abilities like Huge Power, Pure Power, Water Bubble, Imposter etc.

Questions:
- Has this been invented already?
- I was also considering being able to swap type combinations around as well. For example, by nicknaming your pokemon to that of your teammate you could swap around their typing. It could be a bit too much though.

Me and Clas played some games! Here are some replays

Belly drum E-speed Ursaluna, Contrary deoxys-speed and Guts Dragapult doing work
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9purehackmons-2491759494-69fulists32mvmugmcm07fpce6e6fsppw

Sheer force Jolteon massacre
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9purehackmons-2491762555-gnrqtpnwyer1kddca2rn7rt4ibyeo6cpw

Imposter Chansey stall vs HO
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9purehackmons-2491765200-nydft9bbs3wv9aavsw3kibdjisvnhympw

Initial thoughts
This is a complicated and complex meta to build for! A lot of give and take choices during teambuilding, it's quite interesting - though a bit challenging. Lots of room to explore here. You can see both of us throwing on a lot of trash mons, essentially making it a 4v6 or 5v6. Trading a team slot for some very, very strong combinations (Imposter Chansey for example). It's difficult to tell how broken this would be tbh. Losing an entire slot to run imposter Chansey is a huge hit, but the rewards are self-evident for anyone who has played hackmons.

Clearly, some things are a bit problematic. Contrary isn't that hard to use with Enamorus being fine without it. Lots of things can abuse it, Dragapult, Deo-S etc. Belly Drum Extreme speed Ursaluna is another very problematic mon (obviously).

It doesn't feel like Convergence in teambuilding and playing, it's got its owns thing going on.

If anyone wants to build a team and test it further then hit me up!

 

[Clas]

To add on to what IR put, the meta feels like you're actively exchanging upgrades and downgrades, and that's honestly the best part of the meta. It's not purely buffing Pokemon and it's not like Inheritance where the exchange is basically an upgrade; instead you are actively trying to balance what gets buffed and what gets nerfed on your team. I don't think I've ever played a meta like this before, and the closest is either Camomons or Godly Gift but they are obviously incredibly different.

For example, let's take this Jolteon build
Braviary is not that good a Pokemon itself, but by using Landorus's Intimidate it's actually quite an effective defensive pivot. Volt Switch was originally over Flip Turn, but that was changed after Alo was added to allow the latter to pivot more easily. Landorus was the intended TLens reciever, and it's pretty self-explanatory. Jolteon was the SFLO user I settled on, and dear god is this thing strong. SF is one thing I highlighted that should be at minimum watchlisted because it's just so strong. However, I didn't have any Ice Beam user yet to truly make it go nuclear. This is where I at first had Darkrai, since it doesn't fully need Ice Beam to succeed. I'll come back to Darkrai. Ting-Lu and Alomomola were added last to round out the team; the core of Ting-Lu, Alomomola, and HBrav covers most of the tier, and the rest is covered by either Tera or are pressured offensively, excluding DrumSpeed. All of these 5 mentioned actively benefit in some way from the tier; Ting-Lu gets recovery from Alo and Alo gets Ruination in exchange, while Braviary, Landorus, and Jolteon all help each other.

However, Darkrai doesn't really gain much on this team. It still does stuff because it's Darkrai, but it's left with the scraps. It doesn't have a good Ability and Volt Absorb is unironically the best one remaining, it doesn't have a great available movepool, and it's only truly pressuring thanks to Knock Off + Will-O-Wisp from its base kit. It's still really valuable on the team, but this is a shining example of what I mean by exchanges. You're almost always going to have one Pokemon that is worse off overall than the rest of the team, and you really have to maximize your teambuilding skills to the fullest to neutralize that issue as much as possible.

If I haven't said it enough, this is a really fun meta and I really want to see it go further. It obviously needs bans, like Contrary, one of ESpeed/BDrum, and probably Dragapult, SF, and GaG, but overall it's a highly functional tier with a ton of depth.

Here are the other two teams I used versus IR:
Poison Spread Spam Balance
Imposter Chansey Stall