The State of the Uber Metagame

Train Man

For a long time now, i've wanted to emulate something along the lines of Surgo's Metagame Analysis, itself being a continuation of McGraw's Advance analysis, a user before my time, (though I do believe he created the SubPunching "McGar"). Well, my favourite metagame, Ubers, in which i'm fairly proficient and active, is the metagame i've chosen to analyse.

With Shoddy statistics as a basis and evidence to build off of, i'll be addressing the Top 5 Ubers in some detail, as well as try to generate some explanations to their popularity. Several other "oddity" pokemon, those that have an unusual position in usage will also be addressed.

A Brief History of Ubers:
The dawn of RSE greatly expanded the "broken" metagame of Ubers. In the days of GSC, only 4 pokemon were considered truly Ubers: Lugia, Mewtwo, Ho-oh and Celebi. Outside of Stadium mode this didn't even constitute an entire team. Looking even further back to RBY, there was only Mew and Mewtwo.

How times have changed. Since the Advance generation, Ubers has grown into a respectable metagame, still an "unbalanced" one, albeit one with greater variety. RSE brought about abilities and traits, fairly ground-breaking characteristics that further seperated similiar-looking pokemon and gave several an entirely new purpose.

Some of the most "game-breaking" traits were those given to Kyogre and Groudon. With the ability to create an everlasting weather effect, an explosive movepool and the stats to back them up, these new pokemon were truly Uber. Latias and Latios, and their amazing Soul Dew came in to ferry away Kyogre and continue the trend of high-powered Special Attackers and very bulky Special Defenders. Rayquaza, a dominating physical sweepers, alongside Groudon also stepped into fray picking on physical frailty. Deoxys, the epitome of mixed sweeping, shifted the metagame. Different forms dependent on different Games definitely a change to the norm. However this would be greatly out done in DP...

Flash forward, to the release of DP, Palkia! Dialga! Darkrai! Giratina! Four new formidable pokemon, staples or centrepieces to several Uber Teams, these pokemon changed the Game. And to add to this growing pot of power and unpredictability came Arcues. Still, illegal in-game Shoddy and Theorymen have seen several sets arise already. With a new highest base stat total of 720, the ability to switch types as easily as items and a movepool that fitted a tank, a sweeper or a wall, Arceus easily defined "Uber".


Well it's been a year since then and let's see what's happening.

The BIG 5:

Kyogre - The introduction of Choice Scarf turned this bulky beast into a speed demon. In a metagame where speed is so tight, this shook the barrel. ScarfOgre tore apart damn near everything with Water Spout (BS 150 power) backed by STAB and Drizzle. As the metagame developed Latias and Blissey grew ever popular. Dialga too was discovered as a decent switch-in. Several UUs like Quagsire and Lanturn even rose to stop this beast. This shows the centralisation of Kyogre in Ubers. At a definitive No. 1 spot in terms of usage, Kyogre doesn't even need a Scarf to survive anymore. CM/STalk sets are running amok, capable of switching in and defeating Blissey.

Dialga - When DP first came out, little attention was payed to Dialga. Everyone ogled Palkia and it's speed and typing. Dialga however is having last laughs as it enjoys being the 2nd most used pokemon in Ubers. The two most common Bulk Up and Mixed sets are capable of ravaging entire teams. The fact that a primarily special and an all-physical set already encompassed a sense of unknown. If I switch my Blissey into this, will I be eating a Draco Meteor or a Dragon Claw? Or even a Brick Break? Lugia can handle BU... until it Thunders you in the face, paralyzing your Lugia and busting through your defences. It's variety, makes it very hard to switch into while it's typing and defences make it very easy to switch in. Dialga is an obvious 2nd choice in raw power.

Blissey - Blissey, Blissey, Blissey. In a metagame, filled to the brim with special attackers, the ultimate special wall definitely plays a part. CM Bliss is a lot less popular this generation as the metagame will rarely leave you time to set up. WishBliss and Para/Icy Wind support seem to be the more popular sets at the moment acting more as Team Support rather than a generic special wall. CounterBliss and ToxicBliss are also rising to work against MixDialga's and Groudons that think they are untouchable.

Rayquaza - The boon of a much more powerful STAB move in Outrage has boosted the popularity and power of Dragon Dance sets. This alone has spiked the usage of Lugia, being one of the few pokemon able to take a Life Orb'd Outrage coming from a Dance'd Raquaza. Even then it's a sketchy counter factoring in residual damage from the likes of Stealth Rock. And with an influx of popularity in one set, counter-sets like SpecsRay and CB Ray have developed to counter that initial Lugia switch-in.

Lugia - Despite initial debate to whether Lugia will still remain the Great Wall of Ubers, as Giratina barks for the title, Lugia has displayed amazing staying power in terms of popularity and in the game. Despite a weakness to Stealth Rock and Status, it's speed and neutrality to dragon more than make up for this. It's ability to support the team through Phazing and Screens allow it to multi-task while serving it's purpose as a physical wall.

And the Rest of em':

Groudon - Preying on the physical frailty present in Ubers, Groudon has always had a role as a physical sweeper. In recent times, support sets have been created as it's speed has generally kept it at bay from being a true physical powerhouse.
Darkrai - Speedy, a useful STAB, the second most reliable sleep move in the game and it's ability to run mixed allow it to take Gengar's unpredictablity and Breloom's annoyingness.
Latias - One of the BEST counters to Kyogre, capable of taking on Specs, Scarf and CM Sets. Also a very viable special sweeper that can CM itself to phenomonal proportions.
Palkia - Hyped but still very useful. Palkia's popularity mainly stems from Kyogre's being it's ideal partner in the rain.
Metagross/Scizor/Tyranitar - If Latias is a Team's counter to the nearly unstoppable Kyogre, a nearly unstoppable counter to Latias seems a good idea, eh? With Pursuit this trio can trap Latias between hard hitting, high BP moves and SE Base 80 attack on the switch. With their own advantages and disadvantages these guys are primarily used against special walls like the aforementioned Latias as well as Blissey.
Mew - Being able to BP +2 bonuses to all any stat whilst being able to sleep and taunt those that attempt to phaze or block your path. Very underrated, very underrated.


New Moves, the Special/Physical Split and Items

Stealth Rock - This move alone has created several shifts in the metagame. With the near omnipotence of Rayquaza and Lugia, Stealth Rock is a pretty easy and nifty way to cut their durability and longevity. This also has an enormous effect on pokemon like Ho-oh and Shedinja as shown by usage statistics. With Giratina, still a popular threat, it makes it very hard to spin away.
Pursuit - Trapped, anyone? Pursuit has greatly damaged the staying power of Latias, Mewtwo and any psychic type. Not to mention the physically frail Blissey. Now, physical, this completely stops the idea of a free switch-out.
Choice Scarf/Specs - Choice Items further the power of prediction in Ubers. The bevy of special sweepers can use Specs to boost their already phenonemal power. Likewise Scarf adds to the unpredictability of the metagame, messing up pre-conceived notions of speed tiers and the like.
Focus Sash - Amazing boon to both Shedinja and Deoxys-A (F), practically giving them a "second life". The aforementioned Stealth Rock is a fail-safe to this though.


Any further analysis of pokemon, items, moves, etc. will be most welcome. I might add more later, but that's enough for tonight.
 
Great analysis, Train Man. I myself have only just started playing Ubers and I must say it is far more fun than I had initially expected it to be.

I URGE MORE OF YOU TO GIVE IT A TRY! Do not be put off by your lack of experience. Most people on the ladder at the moment lack the general skill that us Smogoners have and it is therefore not that hard to climb up the rankings whilst quickly picking up on the common strategies and trends. I started playing less than three weeks ago and am already 8th on the ladder. It is not nearly as hard as it seems, and what's more it's a lot of fun.

Anyways, enough of my shameless advertising. I agree on everything you've already mentioned TM, but I'd like to add a bit more on some of the Pokemon you have mentioned, particularly Mew.

This guy is so underrated it's not funny. Not just for its Baton passing abilities but the fact that it can provide a multitude of roles at once to fit the team, pretty much the ultimate support Poke barring Wish, whilst at the same time possessing very few glaring defensive weaknesses. Sure, it's weak to the common Dark/Ghost moves, but they possess relatively weak Base Power compared to other types and with 100 Defenses across the board it is difficult to OHKO even in Ubers. Another useful trick I have found, and you Train Man will already be well aware of this, is the old Lum Berry/Synchronize combo. With the ever increasing popularity of Toxic/T-Wave and other status moves to try and cripple the opponent's walls/sweepers, Mew's unique-to-Ubers trait really comes into its own and can easily turn the tables on the opponent just by switching in at the right time. Once again, underestimate at your peril.

CounterBliss is also a very deadly and overlooked tactic that I have found useful. With so many Pokemon relying on CB Pursuit/other neutral attack or the highly predictable odd physical move on <insert special sweeper> to deal with it, as well as the general lack of strong STAB Fighting attacks that can genuinely OHKO Blissey, CounterBliss is capable of screwing up the majority of its counters (no pun intended) with a bit of prediction. Swords Dancers/101 HP Subs can bypass it, but good luck getting past the Lugia/Giratina that comes in to thwart your plans.

Now I wish to talk a little bit about a very obscure and underrated Pokemon that has brought me a lot of success thus far:

Toxicroak - Toxicroak in Ubers is no joke. I have already given an in-depth analysis of the set I have been using in the Creative Movesets thread, which was largely ignored, so I’ll only give a brief overview of the key points here. The set is Focus Punch/Substitute/Poison Jab/Taunt. In the rain, Toxicroak restores 19% of its health w/Leftovers thanks to Dry Skin, and can therefore recover three quarters of the lost health from Substitute in one turn. Dry Skin also offers complete Water immunity, meaning it can easily switch in on choiced Water attacks, most notably Kyogre’s Water Spout, and set up, not to mention laugh at the common CM/RestTalk ‘Ogre. Focus Punch does massive damage to anything that doesn’t resist, whilst Poison Jab covers most other things in Ubers except Giratina and also has a good chance of poisoning. Taunt prevents PHazing and general set up tactics and proves very useful against common walls. In particular, with enough EV investment in special defense, Toxicroak’s Subs can withstand an Ice Beam from 0 Sp Atk Lugia, and thus can easily stall out the PP and force Lugia to struggle to death. The special defense investment also allows it to counter certain forms of Darkrai with its impressive set of resistances.

Groudon is easily the best counter to Toxicroak in Ubers with its high Defense and ability to turn the weather against Toxicroak, but if you do not carry one, beware. Toxicroak can easily checkmate teams as early as mid-game and with Kyogre support (fairly easy given its popularity) it is NOT to be underestimated. You have been warned.

That's all I have to say for now.
 
Yeah, Toxicroak scored pretty high in uber usage.

I, having little experience in DP ubers, was surprised by the top 5 (although everyone knew Kyogre and Blissey would the up at the top).
 
The Uber Metagame is great, but most Ubers are Usually physically weak. This makes me wonder why noone ever uses something w/ alot of physical attack other then Deoxy-A

BTW, you forgot to say, "You stay classy planet Earth"

Props to anyone who gets the joke^
 
You missed one of my favorites, Deoxys-A
EDIT: forgot to say great read

Deoxys-A: 180 in each attack stat and enough speed to outrun CS kyogre makes Deoxys-A one of the best cleaners in the game. Since RSE, CB and sub petya berry seem to have lost use but, DP has given Deoxys-A a bunch of new items to toy with. Choice Specs murders things with moves like psycho boost, Life Orb giving it even more killing ability, and when you hear the phrase "you need prediction or something with a priority move(bullet Punch)to remove deoxys," you might need a back up plan encase its holding a Focus Sash! making Deoxys-A an even more deadly cleaner. Unfortunately, aside from its fantastic defense, Deoxys-A has new threats it has to deal with. Stealth Rock is easy to set up, mostly used to wear lugia out, ruins its sash, DP adding 4 more priority moves as well as Extreme Speed Arceus popularity, Sucker Punching, and Pursuits increased usage all get in the way of its sweeping but near the end of a match, it does its job better than almost another pokemon in the game. Deoxys-A can make a fine lead with Focus Sash but is usually more effective if saved for late game play; like in this warstory lol.
 
A good read, and great thread, Train Man. I tried picking up ubers a couple of months ago, although I just really wanted to abuse Groudon + Exeggutor. :P

I thought the hardest thing about ubers was learning the new Pokes' popular sets in D/P, like Palkia and such. I still have no idea what the fuck kind of set it runs, so it always rapes me. Dialga used to be the same, but most are the anti-lead Brick Break sets from what I've seen. Also since I wasn't playing competitively during Emerald, and had no idea there were even Deoxys, I'm not too sure about them either, although I know Deoxys-D can support with Knock Off, Spikes, etc, and Deoxys-A can just hit fucking hard. But I don't know what kind of set they're running like I would know what to expect from Snorlax is if I happened to be facing one. So yeah, this helps a lot.

Lemmiwinks MkII said:
Most people on the ladder at the moment lack the general skill that us Smogoners have and it is therefore not that hard to climb up the rankings whilst quickly picking up on the common strategies and trends.
Click to expand...
Don't assume that because you are a Smogoner you are better than everyone else. I know that's what you didn't try to say, but that part kind of came off as "elitist" if you know what I mean. =\
 
Lemmiwinks MkII said:
Most people on the ladder at the moment lack the general skill that us Smogoners have and it is therefore not that hard to climb up the rankings whilst quickly picking up on the common strategies and trends.
Click to expand...

I took semi offense to that -.-
I'm not active enough to be considered a true smogoner; I'm much more part of ign.



Anyways, the big five does surprise me a bit. Imo, groudon is being highly underrated if it isn't in the top five used. Yes, it was just about complete garbage in adv, but in this generation, groudon is one of the most handy of ubers available. Nobody else can survive a dd rayquaza's outrages, ttar's cb crunches, metagross's meteor mashes, thunder waves, and thunders like groudon can. In return, groudon can outclass bulk up dialgas, stealth rock, toxic, etc etc. Actually, I've seen people being forced to resort to lugia because of some of the groudons I've seen lately (and this is good because lugia doesn't actually fit in with most teams well).

I also took note that the game's biggest setup target made it in the top five lol.
 
Don't assume that because you are a Smogoner you are better than everyone else. I know that's what you didn't try to say, but that part kind of came off as "elitist" if you know what I mean.
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry about that. In hindsight I can see the unintentional suggestion of 'elitism' you were talking about.

What I was trying to say was that people who have plenty of good competitive experience but are a little apprehensive about Ubers should not feel intimidated, as while many players read the analyses and know most of the standard sets, in general they don't usually make the smartest decisions in the heat of battle and therefore the average Smogoner would generally have an advantage in the skill stakes.

When I say 'Smogoner' it could in essence apply to a regular member of any other competitive battling site, I was just using Smogon as an example since, well, that's where we are. I hope that clears things up a bit.
 
Needs more mention of SubSalac Groudon. That almost always will sweep you if you rely on Roar-less Giratina to stop Groudon.
 
Thanks Sandman and Lemmiwinks for your additions. I did leave alot of pokes out but sleep was too tempting.

For those that play, please list your own views on the current state of Ubers and for those that want to, feel free to inquire and ask. Some quick predictions for next month:

Latias usage will surge to combat Kyogre.
This in turn will see alot more Meta/Scizor/TTar.
Teams reliant on weather will go even lower as multi-weather teams become more popular.
Jirachi, courtesy of Jeb, the current No. 1 of the Uber Ladder will also rise up as a prominent wish-passer.
 
wow really good job^^.
But I have to say that I think it's strange that Deoxys-A and Mewtow are not listed in your list.I don't play Uber ,but I think that they're both dangerous Sweeper.
 
Excellent read Train Man. I agree with everything on the list, however, I'm am surprised that nobody has realized the power of Mewtwo yet.

For a few days, Maniac and I were talking and decided to try out different Mewtwo sets, and I was astonished at the results. Mewtwo has the defenses to get 2+ Calm Minds, and the offense to make good use of that. Blissey is set up bait, considering Mewtwo has the ability to make 101 HP Substitutes. There are only a few select pokemon that can stop Mewtwo, and none of them that I can think of are actually in the uber tier, meaning they can be used in OU.

Taking a look at the top five, Mewtwo really only has trouble with Kyogre, since it has the ability to CM up against it. However, Thunder can quickly solve this. Dialgia falls to Aura Sphere, Blissey is Mewtwo bait, Rayquaza is OHKO'd by Ice Beam, and finally, Lugia is weak to Ice Beam, Thunder AND Shadow Ball.

EDIT- I'm going to make a Mewtwo team now, as I just convinced myself to play ubers again.
 
I've had some experience in Ubers and in some odd cases I've found UU/BL fairing better in Ubers than they do in standard. One thing comes to mind is Qwilfish, seldom seen even in UU and yet it has more usuage than its more popular likeness Tentacruel.

Qwilfish@Focus Sash
Swift Swim
-Explosion/Destiny Bond
-Toxic Spikes
-Thunder Wave
-Flail/Waterfall

A surprisingly effective utility Pokemon whos purpose is to take advantage of Swift Swim. Lay the Toxic Spikes and if its still alive, you can try sneak in some crippling paralysis or Explode/D-Bond and try take the thing down with you. Spikes over T-Wave is a option here if you want to try add to the passive damage. Flail or Waterfall is for a attack and in some situations it may be enough to finish off some weakened Ubers.

Difference between this and Tentacruel is that after doing its job it can suicide and leave a mark. It even has an advantage over Forretress in that its actually fast enough to explode before dying.

Other non-conventionals which come to mind as fairing well in Ubers.

Solrock/Lunatone- Trick Room than Explode. Or in the case of Lunatone he can even afford to sleep someone in exchange for a weaker explosion.

Banette- The ammount of options this guy has which screws over a bulk of Uber's options is amazing. It has the advantage of options like Trick, D-Bond, Trick Room, WoW, priority modifiers and powerful physical STAB which is effective in this environment.

Exeggutor/Tangrowth- These guys are the ideal perfect partner for Groundon able to paralyze, leech seed or sleep. Powerful grass STAB hurts Kyogre switches and being able to take advantage of Groundon's Sunny Day is always a bonus. Though Exeggutor has the added bonus of a second STAB and Explosion to deal with Blissey's.
 
Hooking in on UU's in Uber, thought about Shiftry? He may not be able to throw around status like Eggyboy can, but his Dark STAB can arguably be better thanks to the amount of psychics in Ubers, as well as the Ghost. Also, his Explosion is considerably more powerful as Eggy's.
 
Really an helpful analysis for people like me who hasn't any uber experience, i'm looking forward the next update.
 
Uber is kind of weird, you can simply win against ubers team with a pure OU team. For a while my Uber team was just simply Agility Zapdos Baton Passing to Garchomp, Heracross, and Tyranitar, all with attack boosting moves. Then you finish it up with a multi purposeful Registeel, and slap whatever you wanted in the last spot (Rhyperior and Kabutops are amazing here but hard to pull off).
 
Lou Cypher said:
Hooking in on UU's in Uber, thought about Shiftry? He may not be able to throw around status like Eggyboy can, but his Dark STAB can arguably be better thanks to the amount of psychics in Ubers, as well as the Ghost. Also, his Explosion is considerably more powerful as Eggy's.
Click to expand...
Having only 5 more attack than Eggy isn't exactly what I'd call considerably more powerful. Especially when Eggy has higher stats in everything cept speed which is fixed by the Sun. Not to mention Shiftry has considerably mroe problems attempting to switch in.
 
Jeb got me to use Jirachi in ubers (lol I beat him with his own set) and its pretty amazing, defitinely getting more use soon. Sometimes Physical walls seem pointless when all you wanna do is counter Metagross when you can use Groudon for that with Wish support.

Mewtwo seems kinda overrated to me. Its actually pretty hard to set up and its defenses aren't really too great. There will definitely be a decline of Blissey in ubers also since it doesn't actually wall any sweepers now so it loses its main setup oppurtunity.

I noticed to that sometimes regular OU teams can sweep ubers. Its not because the uber player was bad, but they didn't try to counter stuff like Lucario which can end up sweeping them.

Overall it was a pretty good read Train Man. I think that we definitely need to wait for May stats and a boost in uber ladder before we determine too much.
 
FieryKai said:
The Uber Metagame is great, but most Ubers are Usually physically weak. This makes me wonder why noone ever uses something w/ alot of physical attack other then Deoxy-A

BTW, you forgot to say, "You stay classy planet Earth"

Props to anyone who gets the joke^
Click to expand...
I have no clue about Ubers but doesn't Dark Paladin on Pojo say that at the end of this articles? I should know, I use to play but it just got to be too expensive.

Forsety said:
I've had some experience in Ubers and in some odd cases I've found UU/BL fairing better in Ubers than they do in standard. One thing comes to mind is Qwilfish, seldom seen even in UU and yet it has more usuage than its more popular likeness Tentacruel.

Qwilfish@Focus Sash
Swift Swim
-Explosion/Destiny Bond
-Toxic Spikes
-Thunder Wave
-Flail/Waterfall

A surprisingly effective utility Pokemon whos purpose is to take advantage of Swift Swim. Lay the Toxic Spikes and if its still alive, you can try sneak in some crippling paralysis or Explode/D-Bond and try take the thing down with you. Spikes over T-Wave is a option here if you want to try add to the passive damage. Flail or Waterfall is for a attack and in some situations it may be enough to finish off some weakened Ubers.

Difference between this and Tentacruel is that after doing its job it can suicide and leave a mark. It even has an advantage over Forretress in that its actually fast enough to explode before dying.

Other non-conventionals which come to mind as fairing well in Ubers.

Solrock/Lunatone- Trick Room than Explode. Or in the case of Lunatone he can even afford to sleep someone in exchange for a weaker explosion.

Banette- The ammount of options this guy has which screws over a bulk of Uber's options is amazing. It has the advantage of options like Trick, D-Bond, Trick Room, WoW, priority modifiers and powerful physical STAB which is effective in this environment.

Exeggutor/Tangrowth- These guys are the ideal perfect partner for Groundon able to paralyze, leech seed or sleep. Powerful grass STAB hurts Kyogre switches and being able to take advantage of Groundon's Sunny Day is always a bonus. Though Exeggutor has the added bonus of a second STAB and Explosion to deal with Blissey's.
Click to expand...

Since Qwilfish is viable, how about Seaking? It can use Swiftswim, and its attack isn't too bad. CB'ed Megahorn hurts anything not resistant, since there are a ton of Psychics in Ubers.
 
In regards to some prior posts:

SubSalac Groudon - Giratina is barely used as a general weakness to STAB Dragon moves is a pretty bad trait in Ubers. And, all Giratinas i've seen pack Roar, primarily to shuffle (alongside Forry who covers it's weakness) either forgoing Dragon Claw or Sleep Talk. Lugia is almost an ultimate counter to SubSalac Groudon as well, outspeeding, then phazing predicting a stat-boost, putting a faster reflect anticipating an attack or roosting if it's come in on an attack.

Quilfish - I find most Quilfish sets utterly walled by either Giratina, Dialga or Groudon. It does have Sash + Very fast TSpikes going for it though, which is always helpful. And DBonding against faster opponents (in the sun) gives you another free turn to setup TSpikes.

Exeggutor, Tangrowth - Speedy Grass types just aren't seen as often as they were in Advance. Perhaps it's Kyogre's omnipresence, but it's primarily their defenses. Exeggutor dies to nearly any sort of hit with it's middling defenses while Tangrowth's lower SpDef lets itself down from being a star. Celebi is currently the best Grass-type in Ubers with access to T-Wave instant recovery regardless of weather and U-turn for scouting while hitting several pokemon for SE Damage.

And just some more BL/UUs to mention:

Floatzel - Search up, "UberFloat" for a full thread regarding Floatzel's power but it's BP/Bulk Up set is quite phenomenal in Ubers. Taunt nullifies anything Giratina will throw at you as it can BU against those repeated Dragon Claws while it's handy ice resistance does wonders against a standard Lugia's Ice Beam. Even without the rain, it'll still be outspeeding anything that comes in changing the weather besides the rare ScarfQuaza. Finally it can pass off to powerhouses like Dialga (whom resists Grass and Electric) or Groudon (immune to Electric but shares the rarely seen grass weakness) or even Giratina (who also resists Grass/Electric).
 
Lemmiwinks MkII said:
Another useful trick I have found, and you Train Man will already be well aware of this, is the old Lum Berry/Synchronize combo. With the ever increasing popularity of Toxic/T-Wave and other status moves to try and cripple the opponent's walls/sweepers, Mew's unique-to-Ubers trait really comes into its own and can easily turn the tables on the opponent just by switching in at the right time. Once again, underestimate at your peril.
Click to expand...

This is not supposed to work in DP according to an old post. Apparently, the Berry activates before Synchronize, so it doesn't pass along status. I'll get this tested again if I can't find the old post. Have you actually used this on Shoddy?

/edit: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=692944

The evidence is a Japanese video. Someone claimed the opposite is true, however, so what you said could very well work.
 
Obi said:
This is not supposed to work in DP according to an old post. Apparently, the Berry activates before Synchronize, so it doesn't pass along status. I'll get this tested again if I can't find the old post. Have you actually used this on Shoddy?

/edit: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=692944

The evidence is a Japanese video. Someone claimed the opposite is true, however, so what you said could very well work.
Click to expand...
Now that is interesting, because Shoddy seems to work it somewhere in between, which is obviously a bug. By this I mean it does reflect the status effect back onto the opponent, but the whole effect of the status doesn't always take place. Poison works normally, however Burn doesn't inflict any damage despite still halving attack. Paralysis definitely cuts speed but I've never seen the opponent become fully paralyzed under this special case, although that may just be good luck from the opponent's point of view.

Stranger still, I once managed to burn a Giratina via this method, then later managed to poison it with Toxicroak whilst stalling it out with Sub and Taunt. Only then did it start to take residual damage and die. This is clearly a bug as never in the history of Pokemon have you been able to inflict two status effects at the same time.

If you're right though about the Lum Berry mechanics it would be wrong for me to continue abusing it that way. I mainly use Lum Berry to avoid sleep and scout the opponent, and Synchronize is just a bonus, so in some cases it is unavoidable. Should be fixed though.
 
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