Format Discussion Metronome Battle

Personally, I prefer Wonder Skin as Magic Bounce is overused and you still get debuffed on one of your 'mons with MB if it's an all-hit move.

Doesn't Wonder Skin have the same problem, given that accuracy rolls on multitarget moves are made independently of each other? And Magic Bounce has an advantage there, if I'm not mistaken, in that an opponent's multitarget move will be used against them twice.

The main advantage of Wonder Skin over Magic Bounce is that you're less screwed if your opponent's status move thrown at you *benefits* them when bounced back -- most commonly Swagger/Flatter, Heal Pulse/Floral Healing, or a stat reduction move used by something with Contrary.
 
Perish Song user didn't have Liquid Voice?

Ah I see, that was the key I was missing... I sort of moved away from that build already too anyways.

Personally, I prefer Wonder Skin as Magic Bounce is overused and you still get debuffed on one of your 'mons with MB if it's an all-hit move. Also, it's just more satisfying to imagine opponents getting salty over their Toxic missing.

Personally I like Magic Guard here. You may still be SOL to non-damage status effects, like para or physical moves damage reduction from a burn, but imo the worst part (the consistent damage is countered) you are protected from.

I actually just threw this team together because I didn't have a Magic Guard team atm. Won 5/5 games I tested it in, could be pretty solid, I plan to test more haha.

Heracross-Mega (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Magic Guard
Hidden Power: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Heracross-Mega (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Magic Guard
Hidden Power: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Edit: So I did a few more matches and won 6/6 of them and thought I would share them, some aren't that great and for the most part I guess it just more or less shows how strong a choice banded Mega-Heracross can be, given the amount of physical attacks in this meta and 774 attack out the gate is pretty nice. Plus he has pretty respectable defensive stats I am liking it more and more.

This one was a nail biter, I knew better than to under estimate Mega-Amphy lol.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-995950193

This one felt like it came out of nowhere.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-995943276
 
Last edited:
If you want mixed attackers or to be able to use multiple turn moves (of which there are quite a lot, including a few that are situationally instant win conditions, so I think that is a meaningful downside of Choice items), Life Orb is a good choice with Magic Guard since the recoil is negated.

It's a liability if your ability gets negated somehow, and probably not that great on Mega Heracross because its special attack is garbage regardless, but it's an option worth considering. The ~13% power drop on physical moves might be a worthwhile tradeoff for getting full mileage out of moves like Fly, Ice Ball and Outrage.
 
If you want mixed attackers or to be able to use multiple turn moves (of which there are quite a lot, including a few that are situationally instant win conditions, so I think that is a meaningful downside of Choice items), Life Orb is a good choice with Magic Guard since the recoil is negated.

It's a liability if your ability gets negated somehow, and probably not that great on Mega Heracross because its special attack is garbage regardless, but it's an option worth considering. The ~13% power drop on physical moves might be a worthwhile tradeoff for getting full mileage out of moves like Fly, Ice Ball and Outrage.

This is what I came up with specifically for life orb.

Puke (Landorus-Therian) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
Hidden Power: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

Puke (Landorus-Therian) @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Shiny: Yes
Hidden Power: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

Edit: Not sure I like this team, lost a lot already. 4x weakness to ice really stinks and losing Magic Guard is almost a death sentence.
 
Last edited:
In the long run I think Magic Guard saves you a lot of damage. It's not bad at all especially with how consistent some passives can be (Binding moves for 50%/62.5%, weather for 25%, status forever). Even though they're only a handful of moves it feels surprisingly common, or maybe just their effect is more potent/noticeable when it does happen.

I think the team would work with a bit more balance. Losing abilities isn't too common though the Life Orb makes it sting more than usual.
-----
I've tried out some interesting teams lately. Here are some analyses + highlight replays.

Max Accuracy: :ampharos-mega: :victini:
Max accuracy (Ampharos-Mega) @ Zoom Lens
Ability: Compound Eyes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Victory Star (Victini) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome

This team gets a 1.2 * 1.3 * 1.1 = 1.716x total boost to accuracy. No Guard is a thing but this lets us dodge on our own terms. The Pokemon choices don't really matter but Victory Star fits Victini.

Highlights: doubly accuracy debuffed , I hit a blizzard, I miss a sing, 7 turns under imprison, nice ally switch (turn 3), Unstoppable rollout.

It's not really a noticeable effect when you hit moves instead of missing them though I guess it's more consistent.

Imposter tests: :silvally-ghost: :pikachu-starter:
testy (Silvally-Ghost) @ Mystery Berry
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quirky Nature
- Metronome

PEKACHU (Pikachu-Starter) @ Light Ball
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quirky Nature
- Metronome

I made this to test a bug and with the talk of Lucky Punch/Eviolite, I thought I could try out another signature item. I use Pikachu-Starter from Let's Go because it has slightly higher HP. PEKACHU was surprisingly effective with its Struggles. Marowak(-Alola) may have similar performance.

Highlights: +1 Pikachu-Sableye does 31% to Sableye w/ Struggle, big hits, Pekageomancy, gambit, Pekachu's prophecized end

It was nice to watch, but struggling to death got old so I decided to test PEKACHU's performance in his true form.

Pekachu: :pikachu-starter: :pikachu-starter:
z (Manectric) (F) @ Manectite
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Metronome

PEKACHU (Pikachu-Starter) (M) @ Light Ball
Ability: Download
Happiness: 128
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Download allows Pikachu to hit hard from the word go, resulting in a possible 3x and 2x boost to attacking stats. This is basically a glass cannon, but its stats actually end up better than the typical mortars of Deoxys and Deoxys-A at base. I thought Manectric would be a fitting partner, easily passing as a Pikachu and Intimidate helping survivability.

Highlights: synchronize and powder mattered, 58% to Snorlax with Focus Blast, quick Zam kills, strong Fire pledge, +1 outrage sweep, A bitter loss

At this point I felt like Manectric wasn't doing enough for me. Speed is nice, but it was also dying like a Pikachu. What I needed here was a powerful/bulky partner, so I resorted to the classic Ampharos. One to outspeed and one to underspeed.

Pekachu rising: :pikachu-starter: :pikachu-starter:

suffer (Ampharos) (F) @ Ampharosite
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

PEKACHU (Pikachu-Starter) (M) @ Light Ball
Ability: Download
Happiness: 128
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hardy Nature
- Metronome

The sequel is better. A lot of the time Ampharos ended up alone on the battlefield, usually Pikachu got some good hits in when it could. In practice I actually didn't feel like Mega Ampharos's Mold Breaker was doing much, though that may be similar to the Accuracy strat where you don't notice what you're ignoring.

Highlights: Prism Laser ohkos Marshadow, +1 Prism Laser ohkos Gigalith, Heal Bell matters, choke, long battle, Interesting Blissey/Imposter dynamics, big confusion hit turn 4, beaten down

The best thing about playing this team is seeing 2 pikachus wreak havoc and actually keeping up in the big leagues. Sure the actual pikachu can die quickly, but if you get a power move you capitalize on that with huge attack stats and outspeed most of the time (120 base). Light Ball is probably the best offensive effect you can get on an item. You could run Brave on Pikachu to augment the higher Attack stat for not much of a loss since the speed tiers aren't that close and you'll still outspeed 100s with a raw 305. Speaking of Speed, the next team also focuses on that.

Sudden Downpour: :slowbro-mega: :suicune:

SPEEDBRO (Slowbro-Mega) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Swift Swim
Happiness: 128
Hidden Power: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Metronome

Quest quecest (Suicune) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
Happiness: 128
Hidden Power: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Weather isn't really a thing in this meta, and when it is it's likely Delta Stream. Drought can be used for 100% Harvests at least, and Drizzle doesn't have much of anything of note. Hydration and Swift Swim don't seem viable on paper, but you don't know until you try... This is how I ended up trying to make Slowbro fast. It's not the most optimal strat but I liked it and I got to experiment with rain in general.

At maximum, Slowbro hits 348 speed in rain, being able to outspeed up to neutral base 124s. I went hasty because I thought he could live without the Def though the raw stat loss ends up bigger. Suicune's minimum speed is 157, outslowing base Slowbro. Unlike Pikachu, these two aren't offensive monsters (until the Weakness Policy procs), though STAB water moves in the rain can pack a punch. On the other hand this team is tanky and usually does outlive the rain's 8 turns.

Tracers actually ended up being an issue. They trace Drizzle but not my rock, so I only end up with 5 turns of rain. Still it's usually the vanilla mAlakazams doing the deed so they outsped anyway.

Highlights: Speedbro sweeps, Water Spout, opportune hurricane turn 7, Water Spout 2, Ending spout, Magnet rise mattered, eventful turn 1, weather war, 21 turns, clutch, 3ohko, Muddy water, 3x prism laser on turn 8, turnaround, Ingrain op (19 turns), passive attrition, never give up

Bonus replay: Psycho Shift (turn 10) matters.

-----
Any news on Normalium Z? The "consensus" post tournament seemed supportive, then again Gen 8 is right around the corner. At least balance seems healthy enough as is. As always, cheers to the present and the future of metronomes. This ladder is like coffee.
 
Last edited:
Wow! Nice to see the new strats you found.

As for myself, just wanted to point out how interesting this set is...

Max Type immunity for one mon:
Code:
Golurk @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Hidden Power: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome

Sableye-Mega @ Bright Powder
Ability: Storm Drain
Hidden Power: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome

I chose Golurk because ghost obviously has the most type immunities, and I found out that ground has the second most. Then, I chose flash fire instead of sap sipper because there are more offensive fire type moves than grass type moves. Storm drain is to cover water, and the air balloon is to have an extra immunity for as long as possible.

Best replay https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1003012253
 
Last edited:
Then, I chose flash fire instead of sap sipper because there are more

These abilities also absorb Status moves though -- are there still more fire mives than grass when that's considered? Between turning a weakness into an immunity and a significantly more useful effect when the ability triggers (+1 Attack is vastly more useful than a buff to fire moves which doesn't stack), Sap Sipper feels like the better choice here.
 
Ha, only thing I have been amused with that I have come up with is this team. I saw a guy doing Psychic Terrain and the Psychic seed so I thought this might be a more optimal version for me and it turned out to be shockingly consistent.

Regirock especially shines here with both defensive stats just shy of 500. Also funny is I didn't start with Mega Gardevoir, she just happens to be one of if not the strongest fairy types under the 625 BST lol.

Smack my (Regirock) @ Misty Seed
Ability: Misty Surge
Shiny: Yes
Hidden Power: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Metronome

B*** up (Gardevoir-Mega) (F) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pixilate
Shiny: Yes
Hidden Power: Ice
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome
 
Last edited:
testy (Silvally-Ghost) @ Mystery Berry
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quirky Nature
- Metronome

PEKACHU (Pikachu-Starter) @ Light Ball
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quirky Nature
- Metronome
I still think Blissey is better.
 
Ha, only thing I have been amused with that I have come up with is this team. I saw a guy doing Psychic Terrain and the Psychic seed so I thought this might be a more optimal version for me and it turned out to be shockingly consistent.

Regirock especially shines here with both defensive stats just shy of 500. Also funny is I didn't start with Mega Gardevoir, she just happens to be one of if not the strongest fairy types under the 625 BST lol.

Cool team! Shame Misty Terrain doesn't boost fairy moves.

I tried this out myself with a Symbiosis Snorlax WeaKness Policy partner to try and stack buffs on Regirock. The strat wasn't the best, but Regirock did become a tank when it worked and Snorlax's pure stats had a surprisingly decent performance. Also learned today that Misty Terrain blocks confusion while Flower Veil doesn't.

Seems like the only +Def option here would be the Electric Seed since Grassy Surge is banned for healing. Although the Kee berry may work better if you're looking to the long term.

Wow! Nice to see the new strats you found.

As for myself, just wanted to point out how interesting this set is...

Max Type immunity for one mon:

I chose Golurk because ghost obviously has the most type immunities, and I found out that ground has the second most. Then, I chose flash fire instead of sap sipper because there are more offensive fire type moves than grass type moves. Storm drain is to cover water, and the air balloon is to have an extra immunity for as long as possible.

Best replay https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1003012253

Neat idea and a very clean replay. Normal, Fighting, Electric, (Fire/Grass), Water, and ~Ground all covered. Nice to find a use for an uncommon mon. Reminds me of the old days, I think people were running Flash Fire/Levitate on Magearnas or Lightningrod + Storm Drain in general (Celesteela?) just to make their steels even more steely. Nowadays I see less immunities and more general abilities, unless it's a severe weakness like Camerupt. Protecting the whole side is helpful though.

These abilities also absorb Status moves though -- are there still more fire mives than grass when that's considered? Between turning a weakness into an immunity and a significantly more useful effect when the ability triggers (+1 Attack is vastly more useful than a buff to fire moves which doesn't stack), Sap Sipper feels like the better choice here.

I've counted 30 fires (w/o Burn Up) and 35 grass moves (w/o Aromatherapy). I have to agree here, along with ability effect and patching weakness, there's also the fact that Grass has more status moves and effects that could be nice to avoid.

I still think Blissey is better.

Pretty much, impostors don't have much room for innovation to in their archetype (other than illusions). Hard to pass up on the Maximum health when you have to give up an item slot/5PP for a mere sidegrade into offense/defense. At least it's better in the Struggling phase.

EDIT: Quick note on the MysteryBerry I ended up confusing myself twice about before posting, so here's an edit. Gen 2 items like Polkadot Bow and Berserk Gene can't be flung/Natural Gifted (lol), but the Gen 2 berries apparently inherit the powers of their modern berries. At the least I think MysteryBerry is optimal for imposters if they get Plucked or something, not that it's much of a difference.
 
Last edited:
Cool team! Shame Misty Terrain doesn't boost fairy moves.

Heh, oops I actually didn't notice that, still it was a nice set of defensive effects. I was originally trying to stack Fairy buffing effects tho lol. Hmm, I guess that is even more interesting that it did so well than.

edit: In an attempt to re-capitalize on these effects I have come up with this team.

Bros. (Ampharos-Mega) (M) @ Magnet
Ability: Galvanize
Hidden Power: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Dragon (Goodra) (M) @ Electric Seed
Ability: Electric Surge
Shiny: Yes
Hidden Power: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome

Honestly that team was pretty underwhelming. Trying to hope for a normal/electric attack in the 5 or so turns your get Terrain for seems to be too much to ask for. Here are some highlights tho.

 
Last edited:
Today is datamine day, so this post will be about my first impressions of all this new Gen 8 stuff (spoiler alert). Now we don't know some things like Metronome's callable moves or deep mechanics like how abilities work exactly, but there's still plenty of information to go on. How will these new factors play out?
Pokemon
Additions
Just BST-wise the strongest (legal) new face is Dragapult and its 600 BST. However, 142 of that is Speed. Nothing else really pushes the magic 625 cap so I expect the op teams to be similar, but there's some viable choices.​
Rillaboom: Technically not totally outclassed for a Grass type thanks to its HP and Attack, but its special stats are lacking.​
Cinderace: Entei is pretty much better, except with 1 less attack and slower.​
Inteleon: Very poor defenses.​
Greedent: It's fat. Feel like Snorlax or Type Null wins out.​
Coalossoal: Probably better than Magcargo... Probably Worse than Mega Camerupt​
Appletun: More defensive than Exeggutor-Alola?​
Cramorant: Has an ability to itself and that's pretty much it. Imagine starting off with one of these ready to paralyze on hit.​
Centiskorch: More balanced Volcarona? Rocks for days.​
Hatterne: It's ok outside of HP, and it's nice and slow. Psychic/Fairy, could compete with Gardevoir. Actually the typing itself isn't really that defensive so it's not really important to compare with the same type.​
Grimmsnarl: Unique typing. Unfortunately it can't rely on STAB in Metronomes. Usable stats​
Cursola: Slow powerful ghost. This thing would appreciate hitting first.​
Sirfetch'd: Because it can hold the Stick/Leek in the wild I hope it can wield it to full effect but the item description says otherwise. Much bulkier than Farfetch'd... The power​
Mr. Rime: Lol ice type. I don't feel much towards it, though I don't have any experience using ice types to compare to so I guess it could pull off a weakness policy. It has stats Actually Mega Glalie is probably better.​
Pincurchin: It's slow at least, slowest Electric type. Decent other than HP but the slow Electric role is occupied.​
Stonjourner: Why imbalance doesn't work. Metronome tests all aspects not just one half of your stats.​
Eiscue: The penguin I was looking forward to. Sadly its noish form gets better speed for lower defenses and it doesn't even have the good typing/stats of Mimikyu (assuming it works like Disguise). Meh unless Snow Warning is free.​
Fossils: They look cool. 500+ bst is nice.​
Dragapult: There's a CAP of this typing (Ghost/Dragon) that I've seen sometimes. It's a ghost + has stats so it'll definitely be a choice.​
Eternatus Eternamax: Now that Blissey's gone, this can be the Impostor user of choice! Thank you gamefreak​
Galarian Darmanitan: The strongest physical Ice type, dreaded snowman. It's cool​
tl;dr Pokemon are stat blobs that have a typing that decides resistances and weaknesses. Think for yourself​
Removals
Irrelevant since PS has everything.

Abilities
Additions
Intrepid Sword: Free +1 Attack (I assume). Like Download, but for physical attackers. Seems alright, you immediately get power so it's good for the short term.​
Dauntless Shield: Same thing but for Defense. Harvest Kee Berry may be better boost wise, but again it's a good short term/immediate boost.​
Gorilla Warfare: Apparently this is Choice Band, but as an ability. You can choose between this or +1 Sword, if you're concerned about your ability versus the volatility of stat stages, though I haven't done the math so it might work out either way. Assuming Choice + Metronome mechanics are the same, you also lose out on multi turn moves which can be pretty helpful. If you're making the sacrifice you can run Choice Specs/Band at that point for even offensive boosts or a 2.25x Attack boost.​
EDIT: This is actually better than Hustle Band, as Ivy pointed out with the new Heracross strats.​
Wandering Spirit: Could be fun. This will probably reactivate abilities like Intimidate or Download like Skill Swap does. A simple strategy is to run Protective Pads so you steal abilities and keep them for yourself. Kind of like Mummy then, but with less spreaders.​
Perish Body: I feel like this will be banned. This ability seems very lame and would lead to very short games. Unlike Cursed Body it has to be a contact move, but the description makes it seem like it's a 100% perish. It kills the user but you have a chance to activate it again within the time you have to live. Plus you can just put this on two slow Pokemon, and force outslowing to be a win condition.​
Neutralizing Gas: Abilities are neutralized as long as you live. This sounds okay in general, its actual utility will have to be tested.​
Ripen: The concept sounds interesting, though Harvest strats may be better for most berry uses​
Sand Spit: If Sand Stream is banned, then this will be banned. If you can take a hit you create sand.​
Punk Rock: Ups offense and defense with Sound moves. Unfortunately the only important one is a status move.​
Power Spot: Vague effect, but I'm predicting an offensive Friend Guard. Hopefully better than battery​
Mimicry: This may be the one way you can actually control changing your type, the usefulness seems limited. No steel terrain​
Ignore draw-in effects: Mold Breaker seems better. Moves still get drawn in, but it'll probably draw into something with a weakness and you ignore a lot of other abilities like Magic Bounce.​
Libero: From what we know it's Protean. I don't agree with the initial ban but I'll point it out.​
Gulp Missile: Pretty sure this will be Cramorant exclusive. Actually activating its form change will seldom happen, but it's based on formes so hopefully you can start with a gulp form and be able to paralyze on the first hit or something. The damage probably won't be too high.​
Steam Engine: No immunity, speed bad.​
Ice Scales: I don't know how good it will be but judging from Fluffy and Fur Coat it won't get a chance.​
Steely Spirit: At best it could make your ally steel moves ohko everything. At worst it might make steel beam go from 90% to 100%.​
Pastel Veil: Poison isn't much​
Hunger Switch: I dont think this matters if you dont even have the move​
Ball fetch: Another illuminate clone. Thank you game freak​
tl;dr I don't think anything is on Magic Bounce's level/will be the new meta, but Perish Body sounds op​
Removals
None. I guess they could get away with removing moves since they're in changeable slots and you can 'keep' them while being useless, but abilities always exist.​

Moves
Additions
Clangorous Soul is an omniboost that costs HP. Nice​
Decorate is a +2 to offenses on a target. If it's your teammate that's great, if the opponent then it's funny.​
2x damage on Dynamax moves: I'm pretty sure these will be Metronome callable but not 100% confident. Will have good power in general, but Dynamax itself does not seem worth using. More on that later​
Life Dew: Not that great but if it's callable I think this may be the only teammate healing move you can get.​
Octolock: Now this is something. Lowering defenses every turn, very consistent.​
Snipe Shot: I guess this can avoid a Storm Drain, if it actually has its effect when called via Metronome unlike the Alola legend sigs.​
No Retreat: A 1 use omniboost. Very nice​
Magic Powder: Another type changing move. Psychic isn't much compared to Grass and Ghost though, those are very defensive/weak.​
Spirit Break: Another Fairy move to hit Sableye super effectively. Free pokestar spirit​
Body Press: Looks usable with all the defense in this metagame.​
Overdrive/Breaking Swipe: Spread moves. Always nice​
Dragon Darts: It sounds cool​
Eternabeam: If Prismatic Laser was callable, this might be callable. At the same time I doubt it, they always hide some legendary move.​
Teatime: 90% of the time it's useless, 9% of the time it foils an Imposter+Leppa strat, 1% of the time it fuels an actual Berry strategy.​
EDITS: Stuff Cheeks is another move that consumes your berry. I can't tell if it will give you the effect of the berry when you 'eat' it via the move because that sounds pretty good but if you're using a berry then it's usually easy to activate.​
SNAP TRAP is another binding/free 50% damage move to replace Clamp. And it has 100% accuracy​
Removals
Relevant because Metronome calls moves in the game. Let's Go, Z-moves, and past uncallable moves are irrelevant for comparing with the current [Gen 7] Metronome Battle. The loss of Return, Frustration, and Hidden Power is a mighty blow - no longer do we have to care about happiness values and setting a Hidden Power type in the teambuilder. In general some of these moves were kind of weak, which might make Weakness Policy 'riskier'. Rolling Ice Ball was basically a win if you could survive and hit the full 5 turns, especially with it being Ice so that'll be missed. Foresight and Odor Sleuth means that Ghosts are slightly better. Natural Gift will let berries be more consistent I guess. I'm mixed about Bide, on one hand it could be a big hit and on the other hand you're open for 3 turns (though not using PP). Embargo also makes your item usage more consistent? Barrier is an actually 'good' move that's gone. So is Clamp, with its major passive damage.
All in all we didn't lose that much of the move pool, but we did lose some classics and niches and Metronome will be lesser as a result. Thank you gamefreak. I'll miss the occasional Silver Wind omniboost, bugged Synchronoise, Rototiller buff, or Ion Deluge play. There's probably some strong moves that I looked over because of not having secondary effects to mention. At this moment we're still waiting on move data for buffs/nerfs.
EDIT!!!!: There is a "CanUseMove" flag that may be implying that a ton of past gen sig moves are unusable but their descriptions weren't cut and caught. We may say goodbye to the useless duo of Dark Void and Lunar Dance, but this could mean major losses of high-damage moves. The actual mechanics of Metronome still have to be tested though. Also, Sunsteel Strike/Moongeist Beam/Nature's Madness may have been removed from the pool itself.​
Items
Additions
Room Service: Better off using that CAP ability Persistent if you want something to happen with rooms​
Throat Spray: Sound moves are not very useful to play around​
Blunder Policy: It boosts speed when you miss.​
Utility Umbrella: Not very clear on what "effects of weather" it protects from​
Eject Pack: Useless​
Rusted Sword: According to Zacian's dex entry, this is known as the "Fairy King's Sword". How much weight can you handle?
The new items are not very game changing for Metronome Battles. Thank you gamefreak
Dynamax/Gigantamax
Megas and Z-moves died for this. And what is it? Making you big/doubling your HP for 3 turns, but also turning Metronome into basically Protect and making you useless. And they run off the same PP counter too so you don't even save anything by doing it. Maybe it could help stall if you can use it after getting Taunted/when you're forced to Struggle but I doubt it. Gigantamax doesn't even make a bit of difference since it only affects offensive moves. At most you can put a big pikachu in your party and get to see a broken square sprite (remember Melmetal?). The most accessible mechanic, but also the most useless one. We don't actually know all about how it works, but it doesn't look like Metronome is getting any special treatment.​
EDIT: Actually Max Guard does directly help with a strategy, the dumb shedninja strategy because it lets you live turn 1 and they will not give shedinja more than 1 hp. Damn​

This thread will probably be more active/discussing new sets once [Gen 8] Metronome Battle actually exists, but for now it's just theorymonning. Feel free to provide any thoughts or corrections, a lot is really just what first came to mind for "competitive" viability.

Aside from that, I made a team for the end of Gen 7 by using some Gen 7 mons. At first I wanted to finally try Minior :minior:out with its signature Shields Down and see if Weakness Policy would work well with it. I found two of them to be frail, so I put a Type Null :type-null: with Friend Guard + Eviolite as a partner. Unfortunately I lost some data including my saved highlights, but my recent replays all use that team. It's too bad you can't do something like have Minior get hit and pull out a Delta Stream midway to block it further. In the end it was kind of fun. Rock typing helped with resisting moves and sometimes the strategy actually worked with getting hit and changing forme. It's nice that Shields Down changes your form at the end of the turn, so if the opponent hits you twice it's with your full defenses up. Though if you're due to attack after getting a boost that turn, you still have to do it with Meteor form's attacking stats. At this point I think what I wanted was Stance Change.

It's a shame [Gen 7] Metronome Battle never got to see Z-moves in ladder play, being the mechanic of the generation. We'll see how PS handles gen 8 and the universal format. Technically we could leave the format as is and shove these Gen 8 mons/abilities into this illegal Gen 7 world. See you again when Gen 8 drops for real and we see how things go down.
 
Last edited:
Very hype to pack twin Gorilla Warfare Band Mega Heracross; that looks absolutely bonkers.
Also of interest is having a Neutralizing Gas user to basically go "no fun allowed" and foil fun synergies like Flower Veil and Storm Drain while also preventing your own team from doing anything interesting. I can see this being really nice in the gimmicky custom tournaments like Neckboys and Spooky Metronome (exeggutor-a only and ghosts only, respectively) to stop the Refrigerate and Scrappy based cteams.

And yeah, certain things like that sand summoning ability and 1125 BST Eternomatomax are shaping up to be day 1 bans lmao.
 
Hello, I am excited for the new changes so I would like to chime in and add my opinions.

Abilities

Gorilla Warfare: Gorilla Warfare looks really really nice for physical attackers.
Neutralizing Gas: basically a much better version of mummy. I imagine it could go well with a faster intimidate user or some other ability that triggers at the very beginning of the battle like the new intrepid sword.
Edit: It seems like Neutralizing Gas activates first regardless of speed.. Oh well. Take if if you don’t like fun I guess.
Perish body: I don’t think Perish body will be necessarily overpowered because it also takes down the user but I can see 2 Perish body slow bulky mons being pretty powerful.
Ice scales: This ability will probably be quickbanned because fur coat is also banned but if not, it’s probably a very solid option.

Mons

I honestly think that most of the new mons are pretty meh compared to what we have now. I think Dracovish (Water/Dragon) and Dragapult (Ghost/Dragon) have potential because they have excellent defensive typing. Dragapult’s spread is unfortunate though.

Items

The items are pretty useless except mayyyybe Blunder Policy. I’m not a fan of speed in metronome battles though.
 
Last edited:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1006845573 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1009281043 The final days of the final replays of Gen 7 I want to share. Anything can happen, in the spirit of metronome.

Gen 8 has literally just arrived on PS, and as all first days go, this one is just like any other. Jank and chaos galore. Dynamax and Gen 8 Moves are Not a thing because we still live in a Gen 7 format, though it's a custom game too so teambuilds will get along just fine. And of course there's no bans on the new stuff for the time being. Try all the abilities while you can!

This is my first game I played just now. Apparently Gorilla Warfare and Band makes you use struggle after turn 1, lol. Finally sadisticmystic's team concept from page 1 can see the light in this crazy temporary world. Good luck have fun
CH'DUX (Sirfetch'd) @ Blunder Policy
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

BIG hit (Heracross-Mega) @ Choice Band
Ability: Gorilla Tactics
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

EDIT: Disregard that, Gen 8 "moves" are here lol. I just noticed my guy gave him veil with the g-move too. Already love this new shakeup

EDIT 2: Ending my first trial of this broken meta here. Thoughts: Gorilla Warfare just makes you Struggle in general, I think Heracross was 2HKOing or 3HKOing at most usually. Libero/Protean was nice to have another offensive ability option, I still don't think it's op. Perish Body was kind of cheap to use but not guaranteed, and the contact move requirement can be noticeable. Sand Spit is basically infinite sand. Go wild with Sand Veil, passive damage everything out. Neutralizing Gas + Imposter strats? Gengar-gmax can megavolve into regular Gengar. New abilities like Ice Scales don't show their effects on stats when hovering, but I think they do work. I thought Blunder Policy was useless but after thinking about it after fwqefs post it's probably the best speed raising item, which isn't saying much. Wandering Spirit and Neutralizing Gas are weird, it's like counter strategies instead of doing something proactively.

Issues: I noticed Intrepid Sword did not reactivate when a roleplayer copied it though that's probably just Showdown, as all of this is currently. When using an Imposter Blissey + Neutralizing Gas Gengar @ Gengarite, I was up against a Galarian Rapidash and got poisoned, so I transformed and got Pastel Veil but it didn't heal my poison. That crazy Octolock move did not lower any defenses. I think I saw steel beam hit everyone like a spread move once and it had this nifty message about cutting hp. These will probably be all fixed at some point since it's glitched in general and not just metronomes.

Metronome the move seems to act as "pure Gen 8", you can't use any snapped moves (at the moment sig moves are still usable) and all the (g-)max moves are there (along with every single other Gen 8 move). They are all 1 BP like base Z moves but their effects can be crazy for hitting/buffing your whole side, as well as safely activating Weakness Policies. Torment on both mons, passive damage, status conditions, it's all there. Very interesting. A few moves were all lowercase and some even had !data descriptions.

Not much really changed in the end, we still have all the old mons but it was fun to play around with some new options. The more the merrier, except dynamax. I actually wouldn't mind keeping this format as is, we need more of this fresh new gameplay and it basically has all the Gen 8 we really need. Thank you game freak.

Highlights: Getting destroyed, Flower Veil, Sand Veil, gmax op, struggles

EDIT 3: To elaborate on Libero/Protean...

You do gain STAB/1.5x multiplier on everything, however it comes at the cost of your type (and ability slot). And I think that's more than enough of a tradeoff, typing is a big deal defensively. To put it in words, I would say this ability benefits things like Weavile or Abomasnow more than it does the defensive stars like Mega Sableye. In this meta if you have an immunity you're much better off on average than someone without. I still think stats > typing, but it's really having the stats in the right place and typing isn't that far behind in my opinion. Fairy/Steel Magearna was broken, but a Dark/Ice Magearna may not have been and a Fairy/Steel Weavile might've been better than most non steels. Though you have to at least have stats, Sunkern and Magikarp's typings are the least of their concerns. What I'm getting at here is that Libero/Protean is a neat ability and it might promote more usage of different mons with unfortunate typings. Or just make the current offense better. At the least, I think Liberotean is less powerful than the likes of Storm Drain and their ilk and I don't see it being overpowered enough to take over the metagame such as how Magearna/Spirit/Melmetal did once ago. Plus you don't even get any dual types and it's about as defensively powerful as Color Change. This is mostly my theorymon + the limited use I saw last night, so I will be testing a dedicated team to try it in practice.. Abomasnow seems like a very strong pick that's been limited by a very frail type combo. How well can it do unbound?

edit: It's about your personal focus on offensive moves vs status moves in general pretty much. Liberotean does change your type even if you use a status move, but it (mostly) defensively matters only when the opponent hits you with an attack.
 
Last edited:
So Gen 8 is out! With it comes, well... A lot of weird things.

Naturally, I wanted to try out some of the new Pokemon and abilities. So:

Leek Duck (Sirfetch'd) (M) @ Wide Lens
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

slither.io (Centiskorch) (F) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Libero
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Metronome

So Sirfetch'd is best served with its own HA, Scrappy. Wide Lens is sorta obvious, but you can sub in Expert Belt or Weakness Policy if you want. Centiskorch runs Bright Powder for mostly the same reason. Libero is fancier Protean, so why the heck not?
And some replays, maybe?
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1010936548
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1010941896
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1010944668
 
Quick update: Alas and forsooth, the Gen 8 moves from Metronome are no more, but the new teams are still here to stay and remain free for the time being. I can't confirm, but I strongly believe the removed moves of Gen 8 are still uncallable so it isn't back to pure Gen 7 games just yet, though it's a hint of things to come. Just some turbulence to be aware of. Libero Light Ball Let's Go Pikachu is an extreme glass cannon, OHKOs can happen any time on either side. Eviolite Type: Null is a nice tank. Maybe Weakness Policy + Libero for fun? Gorilla Warfare still makes you struggle. Sirfetch'd doesn't have 100% crit with the leekstick yet.
 
Here a few fun teams I played.

Beasts of the Underworld- The plan is to stall and take down the opponent with Slow Perish Body. A lot of games I ended up beating the crap out of the opponent with weakness policy tho. Performance is not as great as I thought but it’s decent. If you really want to annoy your opponents, you can try out super passive mons like shuckle because losing to shuckle feels awful.
Shuckle is very barely more resistant to neutral hits than Guzzlord but Guzzlord has a far superior typing that makes it resistant to to fire, water, grass, electric, ghost, dark and immune to psychic while shuckle has two resistances in normal and poison. The 4x fairy weakness is really not that bad because there aren’t many fairy moves so you rarely ever see them. Also Guzzlord has actual offenses so it’s not a useless mold that will accomplish nothing in life when it gets stripped from its ability.

0 Atk Mew Fly vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Guzzlord: 75-89 (11.5 - 13.6%) -- possible 8HKO
0 Atk Mew Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Guzzlord: 51-60 (7.8 - 9.2%) -- possibly the worst move ever

0 Atk Mew Fly vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Shuckle: 28-33 (11.4 - 13.5%) -- possible 8HKO
0 Atk Mew Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Shuckle: 19-23 (7.7 - 9.4%) -- possibly the worst move ever
Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011119885
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011123937
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011145428 (kee berry shuckle version)

And yes I love doing cringy roleplay with my opponents, sadly I didnt get to troll flametix


AWAKEN MY MASTERS- The plan is to chip away at opponents with sand while getting a neat spdef boost. I decided to use two pillar men for the sand abusers of choice, but diancie should be a good option too, probably even better than regirock. I put friend guard on the second regirock but any ability should be fine. This one is matchup reliant but it is a pretty strong and reliable strategy when opponents have no rock or ground types. Sadly nobody got the jojo reference.

Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011130653
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011131887


Double Dong Offense- Liberio is probably the best unbanned offensive ability there is right now. It is very powerful since it’s essentially a 1.5x boost on every attacking move and you can nuke opponents with every attack. Performance is very satisfactory.

Replays:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011128189
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011128916

It works pretty well with Specs Ampharos as well (Don’t use gengar since you are throwing away the ghost typing):
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011137013
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7metronomebattle-1011137468
 
I just saw metronome battles move up to gen 8. Are pkmn supposed to be using g-max moves?

Damn, it's here already! Thanks devs. My first [Gen 8] Metronome battle. RIP teambuilder auto-EVs by the way. Here's to a new era of vanilla teambuilder mons to be found... Alakazam may be gone, but Mew, Gengar, Snorlax, and Sableye remain, with new faces like Grimmsnarl. Though we might be seeing less natural megas. Tested just now, you can still mega evolve but can never dynamax with that option. Hopes high for Normalium Z.
EDIT: This only applies to the case of using a base forme holding a megastone, having a mega in your party seems to dynamax fine. I don't know what happens with a base mega holding a megastone.

Regarding g-max moves: probably not. We saw a glimpse of this bugged Metronome earlier when Gen 7 was still able to call Gen 8 moves, PS still needs to iron all this general gen 8 stuff out and then some. There are still actual moves that shouldn't be usable in Gen 8 (mostly the good legendary moves) and moves that should be usable in Gen 7 among other things.

Actually, at the moment I believe that max moves just don't have any effects when non-dynamaxed now, and they have 10 BP now. Unfortunate

EDIT: Max Flare is 100 BP for some reason, so there's another good fire move in the pool. It shocked me at Turn 7 here.

Dynamaxing seems like it should obviously be disallowed in a gen 8 Metronome meta, since it stops you using Metronome and there are plenty of situations where effectively being allowed to skip 3 turns is powerful.

I have to agree and disagree. Sure you can skip some turns if you don't want to memento in a checkmate scenario, or want to stall out some passive damage turns, but that makes me feel bored instead of powerful. I don't care about it and it hasn't been making a big impression on me, so I guess I wouldn't mind a ban or unban either way. At least it costs PP, so it's not the optimal choice to sit through 3 turns of this every match. My preferred alternative of basically 3 free z-moves may not have been healthy either.

(So it turns out in the current state of Gen 8 on PS, you can get Taunted and just Dynamax through all your Struggle turns, while not costing any PP for your failed Max Strike attempts. Wouldn't help for Imprison but that's a pretty nice bonus for the time being, and it's free too.) For the record I'm pretty sure this is not how it works on cartridge, where it (likely) automatically makes you Struggle.

-----
Recently been playing around with Ice Scales and I have a hard time judging where it would make a difference. It's probably worth the ability slot, but I'm not really feeling it personally. For now I'm trying a directly defensive team (Eviolite Type Nulls with Dauntless Shield/Ice Scales) to test the strategy in general. Though the lack of ladder doesn't give a good judgment on how well it would fare against fellow statboost meta teams like Weakness Policy or Defiant/Competitive, that could power through more easily.

Shedinja's clean sweep.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ivy
That Taunt-Strike combo definitely can't be accurate to cart. If a Dynamax clause becomes a thing (because of the main metagames) then we may add that as a temporary fix until the mechanics get ironed out. Because, yeah, it's actually a cool new strategy, being able to reliably stall out 3 turns at your leisure. We'll see what other sorts of wacky interactions happen in the meantime.
 
Back
Top