Metagame Free-For-All

[Nuclearstomp]

Just my own opinion: I don't feel like a ban on all support moves in general is necessary. Sure, they can all be used to troll by assisting other players but some don't have as good an impact as others.

Like Flatter still causes confusion and Follow Me / Rage Powder is more annoying than anything. Only time I can see someone using Follow Me for a strat is maybe a situation where you want to be hit to activate an item / status but in a FFA that's a lot of damage rolling your way. I don't think it's consistent enough / trolly enough as a "support move" to be banned because it forces EVERYONE to attack. Aromatic Mist is kind of underwhelming as a move and not on a lot of Pokemon in general, especially ones that have decent healing to stay in if the opponents decide to remove them for buffing.

I totally agree with a Coaching / Decorate / Heal Pulse / Floral Healing ban though. It's an easy way to make allies and make people not want to attack you so they can get boosts / healing too. It ALSO forces other players to either focus on the mon being given stats and constant healing or kill the healer / buffer, which gives the healed / buffed mon more time to cause issues. This can make the game a slog and rather unbalanced at times. Plus Coaching / Decorate are REALLY strong buffs compared to Aromatic Mist.

Most people don't even consider that people can use this as a game plan to make others not want to attack or focus them so they have more mons left in the late game after everyone else has ignored them to focus on each other. Of course, most of the time it's either trolling or a gimmick team but I think this is a genuine win-con that isn't at all fun to play against.

As for Urshifu / Melmetal, I think Urshifu is in the boat where it's just a mon that when it comes in, it can start dealing tons of damage right away and there's not much you can do to stop it without ganging up. If you keep it around till late game like Dracovish you can just start dropping mons and theirs's not much your opponents can do about it.

Melmetal is super duper bulky and strong but it's really slow, and doesn't have a reliable recovery move. Still, maybe I could like, run rest chesto berry or rest sleep talk on it, maybe leftovers + protect. I can see how this mon could cause problems but I think it would be worth giving it a chance to see how it affects the meta.

I'm terrible at explaining things so if what I said about Urshifu / Melmetal doesn't make much sense or is dumb I'm sorry.

*Extra note before I post: Aromatic Mist could be used for the same reasoning as Coaching / Decorate so I can see why you would want it gone, I just don't think it's as powerful or good.

 

[Darvin]

It is a discussion for the council to have as I know Darvin has a different opinion on Acupressure.

Indeed; I've always felt the primary problem with this move wasn't the ability to boost other players but rather to fish for Evasion boosts.

Acupressure hasn't been banned under the Evasion Clause in other formats primarily because it's so inconsistent and the chances of actually getting repeated Evasion boosts is quite small. If you allow someone 6 turns to boost to fish for it, then you deserve what you get. In Free-For-All, I do not feel that is a reasonable presumption. Other players can act as distractions or otherwise prevent you from pressuring an Acupressure user, not just for a key moment but for protracted periods of time. With other threats on the field, an Acupressure user can realistically fish for Evasion boosts and semi-consistently get them.

The counter-argument that it is an inconsistent and often ineffective strategy in my view misses the point. Evasion clause exists because it takes agency away from the players, and allow someone who runs these moves to turn the game into a glorified snakes and ladders that will be won or lost based on the accuracy rolls rather than the quality of play. Acupressure is not consistent or even good; when I was testing it out I only managed to get a snowball of Evasion boosts less than half the time, and even then it could still fail due to bad luck with accuracy. However, the fact remains that I was able to take a very large percentages of matches where I brought Drapion (just one Acupressure user; if you're going full troll you can run up to 6) into essentially luck-based accuracy games where the outcome would be decided by RNG.

The second counter-argument that there are no good abusers, and in my view this is the reason why we're even having a discussion. Acupressure would have been quickbanned months ago if something like Clefable got the move (dear Arceus, could you imagine Clefable with an omni-boosting move even if it is RNG-based?). The best Acupressure users in FFA right now are Drapion and Toxicroak, neither of which have any viability whatsoever otherwise. However, they have all the qualities they need to turn the match into an accuracy roulette if they get traction. Going back to my previous paragraph, the problem isn't how good they are, the problem is that once they're in position and get that evasion boost the game very quickly starts to hinge on luck rather than skill and plays.

This brings us the final point, which Haze, Roar/Whirlwind, and Unaware which are very good options for dealing with setup in general in FFA. They are not completely reliable; Acupressure users can carry Taunt in a pinch, and a specific Acupressure user might just beat your countermeasure anyways (for instance, Unaware Clefable losing to Gunk Shot Acupressure Toxicroak). I don't think it's healthy to just presume these are things that all meta teams will be carrying all the time, but I can definitely see this as the strongest counterargument. There are hard countermeasures to Acupressure that are commonly used in the FFA meta.

Aromatic Mist is a move that's only on the chopping block out of principle. If this were the only move of its type, we wouldn't be having this conversation. In my view, Aromatic Mist is simply not relevant; even the trolls don't run it and I see no reason to bother carving out an exception for it if we're going to be voting on a general ban for these moves.

For Flatter, my personal thought is that it's really no different than Swagger. I feel that if Flatter is fine, so is Swagger. They are certainly volatile moves due to the confusion, but for a troll this volatility is a feature and not a bug. I feel that we lose little by getting rid of it, and once again I'm in favor of just having a general ban on these sorts of moves.

Heal Pulse and Floral Healing are in my opinion the worst of the bunch. One of my biggest concerns with the FFA meta is the "gridlock" problem, where no one feels they can make an offensive play without being punished for it. These situations can result in dozens of turns where little if anything happens. I don't feel there's any obvious solution to alleviate this issue, as every gridlock is unique based on the specific teams people brought. However, t]he mere presence of Heal Pulse and Floral Healing drastically increases the chances of a gridlock occurring. This in my view makes these moves incredibly toxic.

Helping Hand is a move I am on the fence in regards to. While it can create volatility with a sudden spike in power for a specific Pokemon, it's not really much stronger than just doubling into the same slot. Moreover, the effect only lasts one turn so if the Helping Hand user is removed then the recipient is no longer gaining bonuses, whereas a move like Decorate continues to accrue bonuses and doesn't go away when the Decorate user switches out or is KO'd. I'm on the fence on this one, leaning towards no-ban. In my view just being a troll move isn't enough, it has to be disruptive to the format as a whole and Helping Hand just isn't that bad.

Follow Me and Rage Powder are moves I am less concerned about. They are troll moves, to be certain, and can absolutely disrupt key turns. However, they are ultimately self-resolving in that Pokemon that use these moves often only get to do so once. Ia m not yet convinced they are banworthy so I am currently no-ban on these two.

I would also note that Court Change is another move being voted on for a ban. You may or may not be aware, but Court Change does not have any established in-game mechanics for how it functions in a Free-For-All battle. Generation 7 were the most recent Pokemon games with a FFA battle format, while Court Change is a generation 8 move. Moreover, Court Change is not a targeted move, it is a status move that affects the entire field. This means it's not clear how it should work and move hazards around when there are multiple sides of the field. The current implementation rotates the hazards (clockwise, iirc) between the different positions, but this is a purely speculative implementation. It is not an intuitive effect, it is not obvious to an observer what happened when Court Change is used, and I would have several dollars by now if I got a nickle every time I saw someone use /dt Court Change after having used it in FFA. I don't think this confusion is worth saving a move that doesn't have any metagame relevance anyways. I think this one has sort of slipped through the radar of discussion because it feels administrative, but it's still something the council will be voting on and I felt it important to list the reasons for that here.

Now, moving along: Urshifu-Single-Strike: I think much has been made of the fact that Urshifu has no counters in the current FFA meta. The closest thing to that is Dracovish, a Pokemon that is actually being discussed as a possible ban candidate and capable of 2HKO'ing almost all of its so-called "counters" with its secondary STAB. However, Dracovish can be scouted with Protect and has to contend with outright immunities to both STAB moves. While Urshifu can 2HKO anything in the meta, it has to get the call right. Sure, Close Combat will OHKO an Umbreon but if you click Wicked Blow you get nothing. Even if you call it "right", a lot of those are 2HKO's so the opponent can switch out the injured Pokemon and try to bring it back later. In a format where just about everything has reliable recovery and Wish support is very common, this is an important distinction when compared with Dracovish which just straight up OHKO's much of the meta with its main attacking STAB and won't give you the chance to bring them back if you call it wrong.

While offensively devastating, it's also important to remember that Urshifu is not particularly bulky and is actually rather frail on the special side. Just as it places opponents into 50/50's when it attacks, those same 50/50's also apply defensively. If an opponent correctly calls that they are not the target of Urshifu's attack, they can take advantage of the situation to launch a devastating attack against the relatively frail wallbreaker. The risk/reward doesn't run one way here and Urshifu itself takes much the same kinds of risks when it hits the field. While I have seen much analysis on its offensive capabilities, little has been said of just how many things can simply stay on the field and threaten Urshifu anyways.

Now, with all that said, I feel there is one factor that is tilting me towards the ban camp and it's actually one that hasn't really come up in discussion: the defensive qualities of Urshifu's Dark-typing. I just finished talking about how Urshifu isn't exactly a great defensive Pokemon, and yet I cannot deny that Dark is a superb defensive typing in this meta. We have few relevant and strong Bug, Fairy, and Fighting (speak of the devil) types that can seriously take advantage of Dark's weaknesses, but Dark, Psychic, and Ghost are very common offensive types with all too few good resistances (once again, speak of the devil...). While Urshifu may not be the bulkiest thing around, there is no denying it has an excellent defensive typing which it can use to its advantage. When the main argument for unbanning is its defensive vulnerability, I feel that is a huge obstacle for any unban argument to overcome.

 

[nojaa]

Acupressure
I do agree with ban of it.
In addition I think Haze can be countered by Acupressure Toxicroak without Taunt.

For example, Toxicroak could just spam Acupressure and Thunderpunch and threaten Haze users that way. Burn isn't concern due to Toxicroaks Dry Skin.
0 Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Mantine: 204-244 (54.5 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Invested in Attack, it can fish for attack boost and threaten common Hazers with Thunderpunch.
+2 252+ Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Vaporeon: 306-362 (65.9 - 78%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Vaporeon: 154-182 (33.1 - 39.2%) -- 11.3% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 132-156 (33.5 - 39.5%) -- 20.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252+ Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 260-308 (65.9 - 78.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
Toxapex is bulky enough, but it needs to be some health even with Regenerator.
252+ Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 84-100 (27.6 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
+2 252+ Atk Toxicroak Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 168-198 (55.2 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You would need to use fasters Hazers to reliably counter, which are pretty niche otherwise.

 

[Darvin]

The Free-For-All council has concluded its first voting slate. These are the results:

Rage Powder, Follow Me, Heal Pulse, Floral Healing, Coaching, Decorate, Flatter, Aromatic Mists, Court Change, and Acupressure are now banned in FFA.
Helping Hand will remain unbanned in FFA
Melmetal will be unbanned in FFA
Urshifu-Single-Strike will remain banned in FFA

You can find the full voting record of the slate here

Tagging Kris to implement

 

[Kurt Godel's Poison]

Share My Team: Melmetal Build [FFA 0.2.0]

Greetings everyone. It has been three days since the unban of Melmetal and release of FFA 0.2.0! To view the changelog of FFA 0.1.0 and 0.2.0, check the spoilers above. I have been eager to test Melmetal for awhile now — because FFA 0.2.0 is playable on Pokemon Showdown's server now, I've had the opportunity to do so. I'm here to share my results with you today.

[0.1.0] - 2021-04-30

### Added
- Standard Doubles
- Sleep Clause Mod
- Dynamax Clause

### Removed
- Calyrex-Ice
- Calyrex-Shadow
- Dialga
- Eternatus
- Giratina
- Giratina-Origin
- Groudon
- Ho-Oh
- Kyogre
- Kyurem-White
- Lugia
- Lunala
- Magearna
- Marshadow
- Melmetal
- Mewtwo
- Necrozma-Dawn-Wings
- Necrozma-Dusk-Mane
- Palkia
- Rayquaza
- Reshiram
- Solgaleo
- Urshifu-Base
- Xerneas
- Yveltal
- Zacian
- Zacian-Crowned
- Zamazenta
- Zamazenta-Crowned
- Zekrom
- Zygarde-Complete
- Moody
- Power Construct
- Baton Pass
- Swagger

[0.2.0] - 2021-08-25

### Added
- Melmetal

### Removed
- Acupressure
- Aromatic Mist
- Coaching
- Court Change
- Decorate
- Flatter
- Floral Healing
- Follow Me
- Heal Pulse
- Rage Powder

*note: we're using Semantic Versioning for our numbering system; in short, because the metagame is undergoing a development phase and is not considered "fully developed", we are only incrementing y (from x.y.z) until the metagame is fully developed, which will jump the version number to 1.0.0 once it is considered to be in a fully developed state.

The Team + Teambuilding Process


*note: click on the icon of a Pokemon to be redirected to the export of the team; click on the spoilers below for an explanation for each team member.

Melmetal

Melmetal @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 204 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Heavy Slam
- Thunder Punch
- Superpower

Melmetal has a lot going for it. 144 Base Power STAB with a 51% flinch rate, complimented by Electric and Fighting (or Ground) coverage Steel resists do not want to switch into, some superb stats (135 HP, 143 Attack, 143 Defense), breaking through most of the tier's best defensive Pokemon with its strongest move or coverage options.

It isn't without its flaws, however. Since Steel is commonly resisted, Melmetal is often put in situations where it has to predict switch-ins as Choice Band locks you into one move; this is not good when your main attacking move only has 8 PP. Melmetal is also obviously not a fast Pokemon, it has the options of opting for 52 speed in order to speed creep 44 speed Melmetals and 8 speed Gastrodons, or going all out on speed which makes it frailer against Special Attacks.

That being said, most if not all Pokemon will have their upsides and downsides. This didn't deter me from Melmetal, as it is a Pokemon with great advantages and manageable disadvantages. If played right, this Pokemon can demolish defensive cores incredibly hard. Therefore, Melmetal is the Pokemon this team will be built around.

• Double Iron Bash is the most powerful move in Melmetal's arsenal, it would be foolish to exclude it in its moveset.
• Heavy Slam is a secondary STAB option to preserve PP of Double Iron Bash if needed, or if Double Iron Bash's PP is depleted. It is not as powerful as Double Iron Bash, but in this defensive meta where there are also 3 opponents rather than 1, Double Iron Bash isn't going to be around for long, Heavy Slam allows some usability once it's drained or perseverance of it.
• Thunder Punch is a must-have, you cannot forgo this coverage option. You need to have it in order to punish Water types that are rampant due to Dracovish (Vaporeon, Mantine) or popular in general (Toxapex, Slowbro), Steel/Flying types such as Corviknight, Skarmory, and Celesteela which resist Steel + Ground and can manage Steel + Fighting.
• Superpower is the fourth move of choice to hit Steel types, specifically Ferrothorn that is neutral to High Horsepower and one of the most relevant Steel types that otherwise counters Melmetal very hard. Superpower may lower your attack and defense, but your goal is to delete Ferrothron with the move (if it tries to switch in on you) and get out, so this is not a big issue.
• 252 Attack EVs along with an Adamant nature and Choice Band ensures you are doing the most damage as possible.
• 52 Speed EVS speed creep 8 Speed Gastrodon and in addition 44 Speed EVs Melmetals that attempt to spreed creep 0 Speed Gastrodon. Speedcreepception.
• The remaining EVs are dumped into Special Defense to mitigate the poor 65 Special Defense stat.

Vaporeon

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flip Turn
- Toxic
- Wish
- Protect

Your team must have a Pokemon with Water Absorb or Storm Drain in Free For All 0.2.0 if you wish to have any chance against the menace Dracovish. My Water Absorber of choice on this team is Vaporeon because it is the only Dracovish switch-in besides Cradily that is able to come in on Dragon Rush or Crunch from Dracovish and not get 2HKO'd (w/o Rocks; w/ Rocks Dragon Rush requires you to either Protect or Wish on the switch), in addition it offers the best Wish Passing someone could ask for.

Melmetal has respectable staying power due to its good bulk for the tier's standards, but it can't recover by itself. With Vaporeon as a partner, Melmetal is able to stay alive for significantly longer. All-in-all, when considering Dracovish's terror and the benefits of Wish Passing, Vaporeon was going to be on the team without question.

• Flip Turn is needed to pivot out with Wish (additionally escapes trapping moves, such as Magma Storm); Wish is important for healing other team members and for Vaporeon's recovery option. Protect is used alongside Wish for guaranteed safe Wishes if Vaporeon itself needs to heal.
• Toxic is ran for Vaporeon to be less passive and cripple others.
• 0 Speed IVs with a Speed lowering Nature allows Vaporeon to get the slowest Flip Turns possible; this is important for safely Wish into Pokemon that need to be healed with Wish and cannot take any more attacks.
• Max HP with Max Defense and Defense boosting Nature is important for maximizing Vaporeon's Physical bulk which allows it to wall Dracovish to its best capactiy, in addition Vaporeon's Special Defense is already acceptable enough, while Vaporeon's Physical Defense is not without boosting.

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Spikes

The combination of Melmetal + Vaporeon is weak to Zapdos as it is capable of walling Melmetal and Vaporeon doesn't appreciate being poisoned and hit by Volt Switches. Ferrothorn is a Pokemon that takes care of Zapdos for us, as spread moves are unfavorable in this metagame (power halved) and consequently Zapdos never carries Heat Wave, instead opting for a Volt Switch + Toxic + Roost + Defog set, which Ferrothorn doesn't care about whatsoever (cannot be poisoned, resists Volt Switch, threatens Zapdos with Knock Off).

In addition, Ferrothorn improves our matchups against Melmetal, Nihilego, and Outrage Dracovish in 1v1s, while providing the team with hazards (preferably in the form of Spikes).

• Ferrothorn does not fear any non-Superpower Melmetal variant as it walls all other moves Melmetal throws at it and chips it a lot with Iron Barbs. With Vaporeon as a partner with Ferrothron, your matchup against Melmetal is safer as you have Vaporeon in case Melmetal goes for Superpower and Ferrothorn in case it goes for Thunder Punch.
• Ferrothorn resists all of Nihilego's moves and is able to kill it via Knock Off and Leech Seed. This is important because Nihilego is a competent and potent sweeper.
• In 1v1 situations, since Outrage is guaranteed to hit the only other opponent remaining, Vaporeon gets 2HKO'd by Outrage and has to be played conservatively. Having Ferrothorn eases the threat of Outrage in situations where you're backed into a corner.

Ferrothorn's Set:

• Knock Off is one of the best moves in the game, removing the items of other Pokemon is detrimental. The lack of Leftovers recovery adds up noticeably (especially on Pokemon without recovery such as Heatran), loss of hazard immunity via Heavy Duty Boots hurts a ton, the loss of bulk from Eviolite hurts for Chansey, etc.
• Leech Seed and Protect are must-haves. Leech Seed is your option for recovery that also chips opponents, while Protect allows you to get safe and free Leech Seed recovery and scout for potential coverage someone may have for Ferrothorn.
• There are only two other notable Spikes users, it is a trade-off Hazard that doesn't affect Flying types but can stack more and as a result hurt grounded Pokemon a lot more. In my opinion, I prefer Spikes because of its stackability and that Rocks are likely going to be set-up by another player.

Here's a funny replay of Ferrothorn doing what it does best. :)

Dragonite

Dragonite @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Defog
- Roost
- Heal Bell

Our team is looking weak to Heatran and Kartana, we need a form of hazard removal on the team, who else to add but Dragonite? Dragonite is a phenomenal Defogger which enables Vaporeon to afford Toxic over Heal Bell to be less passive and as mentioned helps with our Heatran/Kartana matchup. Dragonite is able to avoid a 2HKO from +2 Kartana and 2HKO Kartana with Body Press while also pairing well with Vaporeon to resist Heatran and damage it with Body Press (and Vaporoen's Flip Turn respectively).

If Multiscale is in-tact, Dragonite is also able to switch into non-Ice Punch Melmetal and PP stall its Double Iron Bashes via Roost, making it another Pokemon that improves our matchup against Melmetal. If it really comes down to it, Dragonite is also able to Roost off Fishious Rends in the rain to stall out Rain turns, but I doubt this will ever be needed due to Vaporeon already being on the team unless Vaporeon is put in a situation where it must be knocked out.

• Max HP, Max Defense, and a Defense boosting Nature enable Dragonite to be a physical tank, which is needed against its adveraries such as Kartana, as well as the last two boosting the power of Body Press to 2HKO Kartana and do as much as possible against Heatran.
• Roost is mandatory reliable recovery.
• Hazard removal is crucial to any team, Dragonite is the most suitable Defogger on this team, therefore it opts to run Defog.
• Status removal is important as well, Dragonite chooses to be the cleric of this team to allow Vaporeon to afford to run Toxic instead.

Slowking-Galar

Slowking-Galar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 132 SpA / 128 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Psychic
- Flamethrower
- Future Sight

What is a Pokemon that is able to remove Toxic Spikes on switch-in and makes sure the team isn't Naganadel food? Why, Slowking-Galar, of course. It also provides us a special wall for the team, less passivity, and incredibly useful utility in the form of Future Sight. It pairs well with Dragonite in order to have a good matchup against non-Brave Bird Zapdos-Galar, Dragonite eats Zapdos-G's hits and can pivot out to Slowking-Galar if it gets its defense dropped twice from Banded Thundurus Kick in order to threaten out or kill Zapdos-Galar.

• Assault Vest is required to switch into Naganadel as consistently as possible and survive +2 Draco Meteors.
• 132 EVs into Special Attack ensures you always OHKO 72 HP 12 SpD Naganadels; this is important because if you bring out Slowking-Galar on Naganadel pressing Nasty Plot, it can Nasty Plot again and kill Slowking-Galar with Draco Meteor after, since Slowking-Galar couldn't OHKO it.
• We maximize our HP with 248 HP EVs for obvious reasons, then put the rest into Special Defense and give it a Special Defense boosting nature on top of that.
• Sludge Bomb is a STAB option that has a 30% to poison foes, very nice to have.
• Psychic is needed to OHKO Naganadel immediately.
• Flamethrower allows you to hit through non-Heatran Steel Types such as Ferrothorn and Skarmory.
• Future Sight allows you to have more offensive pressure, put your opponents in bad situations, support Melmetal, and general utility.

Clefable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind

Our team seems weak to set-up Pokemon such as Spectrier, Hydreigon, Buzzwole, and Magic Guard Calm Mind Clefable to name a few. Add an Unaware Clefable on your team and your problems are fixed. Yep! It's that simple. Unaware Clefable saves you from most set-up sweepers, such as the ones we've mentioned.

Melmetal synergizes with Clefable quite well to have countermeasures to Kyurem-Black. Kyurem-Black is notably hard to have countermeasures for, the two popular options are Umbreon and Buzzwole, but you can't fit that on every team. Having Melmetal + Clefable makes the Kyurem-Black matchup feasible at the very least.

Clefable is such a splashable Pokemon with an amazing matchup spread and saves you from so many nasty set-up threatening situations. It's hard not to include it on a team, along with Vaporeon.

• Moonblast is Clefable's strongest attack and primary attacking option.
• Flamethrower enables you to hit non-Heatran Steel Types for immediate damage and break through them, in addition it allows Clefable to check/revenge kill Kartana.
• Soft-Boiled is Clefable's mandatory viable recovery.
• Calm Mind enables Clefable to be a win condition when the time is right and also handle Special Attackers better.
• Since Clefable's Physical Defense is the lower of its defensive stats and it has a way of boosting its Special Defense, we opt to maximize Clefable's Physical Defense which also enables it to blanket counter things such as Zeraora most optimally.
• Max HP for max bulk; the rest goes into Special Defense.

The Results

It's difficult to gather high-quality replays as there are often only two other active competitive players to face in different timezones. However, I've had the pleasure of testing Melmetal against Darvin. Even if the other opponents dropped early, this replay still demonstrates how defensive teams with little-to-no Melmetal answers can get beat down so brutally by Melmetal once it comes in safely at the right time.

Melmetal vs Darvin

Currently, the team has an 100% success rate (in the 9 battles I have used it in), but the replays usually consist of uncompetitive players, so I don't feel it's worth adding here. Overall, I will say that Melmetal has impressed me and I've been happy using it. I would definitely give it an A ranking, it is extremely powerful but its drawbacks make it shy of A+. This team has also proven to me that it is also great in practice and not only on paper.

Unfavorable Matchups

It's impossible for a team to have reliable counterplay for everything, so I will quickly list Pokemon this team struggles against most which have some viability in the format.

• Landorus-I: A set with Earth Power, Focus Blast, Sludge Bomb, and Calm Mind is difficult for this team to handle as it hits everything for too much damage and has set-up opportunities to destroy the team. Toxic on Dragonite and Heal Bell Vaporeon could be an alternative to try to thwart this weakness as much as possible.
• Genesect: A set with Iron Head, Thunderbolt, and Flamethrower is not something this team is equipped to deal with, the most we have is Slowking-Galar that is able to check Genesect and Dragonite to Roost stall while it takes Life Orb damage but Slowking-Galar is 2HKO'd by Iron Head and Genesect can be Wished back to full and also may run Ice Beam coverage.

While these Pokemon are rare to encounter, they are still weaknesses you need to be fearful of. Overall, I'd say that the unfavorable matchups for this team look fine, as it doesn't consist of any popular meta threats and only two obscure breakers. I'll take it.


Conclusion

To conclude, Melmetal is a great Pokemon worthy of A ranking. I would say that this is currently my best team for Free For All [0.2.0] and that if anyone out there is looking for any teams to use, I'd recommend giving this Melmetal build a try! I'm glad Melmetal ended up being unbanned as it is a good addition to the metagame.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Darvin]

A quick one today to discuss some of the things the council is keeping an eye on and may vote on in the future. I'd like to stress that we do not have any vote scheduled at this time and all these issues are in a discussion phase. We would love to hear the input of other players in the FFA format as to how they feel about these things:

Dracovish
Dracovish has always been a terrifying presence in the Free-For-All format, and as the metagame has developed Dracovish has been shaping the meta in many ways. The power of Dracovish has lead to an abundance of water immunities, which has severely hurt the viability of water as an offensive typing. Moreover, at the highest level of play Vaporeon has proven to be far and away the best Dracovish check, leading to an absolutely ridiculous amount of usage on council teams.

There are several factors driving the increased threat level that Dracovish presents. The first is the meta shift away from stall and towards bulky offense and balance with Wish support. Dracovish fits perfectly on these types of teams, utilizing the extra power of Future Sight to land KO's while also staying healthy throughout the match and not getting worn down so it can come in and terrorize opponents repeatedly. In a slow and bulky meta, Choice Band Dracovish is fast enough to get the job done and almost nothing that lacks an outright immunity can safely switch in. There's also the issue that the most popular Dracovish answers in the current meta - Vaporeon and Mantine - don't threaten it back with anything other than status. This means that Dracovish often faces little risk when hitting the field as everyone switches to passive immunities. If you're the odd one out without a water immunity then you're in big trouble since Dracovish is very safe to just beat you into submission while the other players are playing passively.

When we look at the list of Water Absorb and Storm Drain users, the selection is not particularly great. There are broadly only six viable choices: Vaporeon, Mantine, Cradily, Lapras, Jellicent, and Gastrodon. The viability of Gastrodon has fallen off as the meta has developed, as it matches up poorly against many of the top threats and cannot answer newcomer Melmetal as it is easily flinched to death. Cradily has always been more of a hard stall selection, and while it's not as bad as Gastrodon it still matches up poorly against many of the best Pokemon in the format. It's the closest thing to a true counter to Dracovish, as every other Pokemon takes excessive damage from at least one of Dracovish's secondary moves. Jellicent is an underexplored Pokemon in this format, but it's a very shaky Dracovish check since it is destroyed by Crunch. It does have the advantage of being untrappable since it's a Ghost-type, however. Mantine is a good pick for a defogger and you can fit it on most team archetypes, but it's otherwise a fairly passive pick and its physical defense isn't strong enough to take any non-resisted attacks from Dracovish. Lapras is a solid Perish Trapper, but it lacks reliable recovery and it's hard to fit on most team compositions. However, Vaporeon with its slow Flip Turn Wish passing is something that would be very good in the meta even if Dracovish didn't exist. Access to a pivot move gives it a way to escape traps, which is a huge deal. This means it's often the choice by default.

Overall, I don't feel this situation is healthy for the free-for-all format. While we do need powerful wallbreakers, we have other viable and less metagame warping choices like Melmetal and Zapdos-Galar to fill those niches. Dracovish brings a great deal of unhealthy dynamics that these other options do not. Removing Dracovish would just lead to other good wallbreakers filling its niche, water absorb ceasing to be overcentralizing leading to more flexibility in team compositions, and with water absorb being less omnipresent other offensive water-types will become more viable.

Shadow Tag
Trapping is an integral part of the Free-For-All meta, with moves like Magma Storm, Block, Infestation, Whirlpool, and Fire Spin being incredibly valuable tools to lock down opponents and remove their Pokemon. Shadow Tag goes further, however, and traps all three opponents at once without requiring the use of a move. This can lead to a lot of paranoia as players are careful not to leave themselves vulnerable if Goth or Wobb switch in unexpectedly. Moreover, the most reliable trapping moves - Magma Storm and Block - have severely limited PP and must be used carefully in longer matches. Gothitelle can act as a win-condition with Cosmic Power, potentially turning a single good trap situation into an outright win as no one can switch in their countermeasure to stop it. Gothitelle can also run a Scarf Trick set, leaving very little counterplay to stop the Trick even if you see it coming. Shed Shell is also largely unviable in Free-For-All; it's not a reliable option since Knock Off is so common, and the opportunity cost of running anything other than Leftovers is massive.

Part of what makes preparing for Shadow Tag so difficult is that you're not preparing just to be trapped with Wobbuffet or Gothitelle, but rather need to anticipate what other Pokemon might be trapped with you. This makes it far more volatile in some respects, both for the trapper and the trapped. Overall this has made Shadow Tag more manageable in many circumstances, as Gothitelle cannot consistent get work done without becoming a target itself. However, the council believes that Gothitelle is under-explored and there's more potential to use it to trap and remove key threats to open things up for other teammates or to simply win the game on its own. Gothitelle is likely far more dangerous than it appears in the current meta.

However, one of the biggest reasons for a ban on Shadow Tag is the gridlock problem. I've talked about the gridlock problem previously, situations where all four players feel that if they made an offensive play that they would be punished for it, leading to protracted periods where everyone just plays passively and only makes safe moves that will never result in a KO, and the game state remains relatively stale for dozens of turns. Shadow Tag can create or exacerbate gridlock situations; maybe you can use the trap to KO an Umbreon with your Body Press Corviknight, but doing so means a free switch to Heatran and your Corviknight is now trapped and removed. Gridlock is especially bad with Wobbuffet, which discourages attacking into it with Counter and Mirror Coat.

Even if we do not vote on Shadow Tag in the near future, it is something that we will be keeping an eye on as it is likely to get more dangerous as it is further explored. Arena Trap and Magnet Pull are also something we are keeping an eye on, but they are both underexplored and their only users (Magnezone and Dugtrio) are of questionable viability at best. I am personally concerned about Magnet Pull, as it can trap Pokemon that would normally not fear it in OU. This is because there are other Pokemon on the field, and Magnezone can use their presence to remove its target. This makes counterplay much less consistent and much more circumstantial.

Sleep
This is probably a surprising one to see on this list, because Sleep has almost no place in the Free-For-All metagame, with Amoonguss and its Spore being the only relevant user in the format, and Amoonguss itself isn't exactly common and doesn't always carry Spore. So why is Sleep even up for discussion? Well, it's because of Sleep Clause Mod.

The Sleep Clause Mod is a bit of a compromise, deviating from the official rules of the games to find a middle ground where sleep moves are allowed but not overpowering. While Free-For-All is inherently a speculative format without any official analogue in Generation 8, we should still be striving to hold as closely as possible to the official game mechanics. All rules modifications should be justified, and where the balance of equities weighs too heavily we should just ban the mechanic rather than have a rules modification. This has already happened with Court Change, where the council unanimously elected to ban it rather than tinker with speculative mechanics.

In the case of Sleep in Free-For-All, we are talking about one move that one Pokemon sometimes runs. This makes it more metagame relevant than Court Change, but only by a hair. Sleep isn't a part of this format in any meaningful fashion, and a rules mod is quite frankly disproportionate overkill to keep it around. While Sleep Clause Mod may have a long history in competitive singles, this does not free it from scrutiny. In the Free-For-All format I do not feel that Sleep is meaningful enough to merit the continued existence of Sleep clause, and a ban on Sleep moves is a preferable solution.

Viability Rankings
No, we're not looking to ban Clefable, although the council is unanimous that it is the best Pokemon in Free-For-All. We are working on our viability rankings. We still have about 40 Pokemon to discuss and rank, as well as some discussion on fine tuning the rankings already decided upon (for instance, A+ ended up being a little large so we're probably going to split it up and send a few down to A and create an S- rank for some of the others). However there are a few Pokemon that the council agreed have not seen enough play. Some of these Pokemon are probably minor low-viability Pokemon that really haven't seen any experimentation, while others are potentially high-viability Pokemon but we want to see more of them before putting them into A rank. I'd like to talk about a few of these "underexplored" Pokemon:

ghost is a superb offensive typing free-for-all, and steel is an excellent defensive typing. Thanks to Stance Change, Aegislash can be both very bulky and very offensive, and with the rise of Wish passing as a metagame staple it fits very well onto meta teams. Unfortunately it's seen next to no usage in recent months, and the council member with the most experience with it (that would be me) primarily ran it back in June which is ancient history now given the metagame developments.
libero is an absolutely excellent ability, and Cinderace has the movepool and speed to revenge-kill and wallbreak. It can be ran either with a Bulk Up set or with a Choice Band. We'd like to see more of it before placing it, as it often falls short of breaking through key walls and struggles with its own meager bulk.
please for the love of Arceus stop using its terrible physical sets. Phantom Force is just a bad move in free-for-all; it gives your opponents a free turn to switch out to a better option to take the hit, and those who can take the hit and are slower know that they have an open opportunity to hit into Dragapult with no interference. Dragapult's niche is its good speed, offensive typing, and Infiltrator ability that lets it reliably revenge-kill most fast Pokemon in this meta. The council feels its Choice Specs set is quite threatening, but has seen very little play and would like to see more of it before ranking Dragapult.
this is a wildcard Pokemon with a huge list of move options. It's also one of the few viable Life Orb users due to its generally decent bulk, semi-reliable recovery in Leech Life, and threatening mixed offensive coverage. A great deal of its threat comes from its unpredictability and diverse movepool, which means we really need to see more of it as part of successful team compositions.
as mentioned previously in the Shadow Tag section, we feel Gothitelle is underexplored and has so much untapped potential.
this trapper can potentially remove Corviknight and other steel-types. It can even potentially trap something like Heatran, though it will rely on trapping it with other Pokemon that can remove it as Magnezone loses 1 on 1. Overall we feel it is very matchup dependent as it's not a very impressive Pokemon other than its trapping niche, and that will really depend on what teams you're up against.
ghost/fire is virtually perfect neutral coverage in this format, and with Swords Dance and Flame Charge this looks like a very dangerous wallbreaker indeed. However, while the entire council agreed it has potential none of us have actually used it or seen it used. You'll probably see council members using this in the coming week as it's something we all agree needs testing.
has a very broad move pool and a lot of interesting options, but no one has made any of these combinations work. However, it should be noted that the exact same thing was said of Dragonite before its support set was explored and developed. We don't know what direction (if any) this Pokemon will go in the Free-for-All format, but I personally feel we could be sleeping on a metagame defining set given just how much this thing can do. All it will take is someone to try some crazy combination and realize it actually works.
basically a slower and weaker Landorus-Incarnate without Calm Mind, but with way better coverage and the bonus of being a grounded poison-type so it cleans up Toxic Spikes. On paper it just straight up 6-0's a lot of slower meta teams if it's carrying the right coverage. It is very frail and its speed tier falls short of the fast Pokemon in the meta, but its offensive qualities look good enough to merit exploration.

 

[OffMetaEnjoyer]

Since the recent ban of support moves, the trolling from "bad actors" didn't really stop, it just shifted to other, arguably more unenjoyable tactics. As these players do not care about winning and simply derive their joy from ruining other people's games, the newest "strategy" I encountered is having a "suicide team", where they hard focus on one player with no fear of losses. The focused player will most likely lose because... well they are being focused, which will of course ruin their game. The focusing player will most likely also lose, but as I mentioned earlier, this type of player doesn't care about that. There are other ways they can troll as well and it is just genuinely annoying.

What this showed me is that free for alls just can't be seen a as competitive mode, as there wasn't a single game where one player didn't immediately dc or troll others. There are way too many variables to consider in a free for all that would need to influence a ranking. If even one player decides to basically throw the match to spite another player, that player has no more chance to win, even if they were in the lead before.

I think there should be an "anything goes free for all". I assume most of the trolls would go there as all moves and mons would be available and the "real" free for alls might become slightly more competitive and less troll infested.

 

[randomarsename]

I think there should be an "anything goes free for all". I assume most of the trolls would go there as all moves and mons would be available and the "real" free for alls might become slightly more competitive and less troll infested.

an "anything goes" FFA won't exactly solve the problem either -- the true problem lies in a lack of players looking for battles on the "ladder". even if there was a true ladder for FFA, that'd probably just further encourage suicide teams since they could just give a free boost in points to their buddy, and, again, due to the lack of players, going high up on the ladder would exactly stop them from getting in with their suicide team buddy.

in short, the real solution to getting rid of suicide/support teams is just somehow having a way to have more players looking for battles at most times of the day. i'm not exactly sure how the "searching" queue works for FFA either, like if a suicide team and their buddy were to just hit "Battle" at the same time, they would get locked in together. finding any way to scramble that would also be a decent idea, if possible.

 

[Darvin]

The matter of ladders and matching in FFA is something that's been on my mind but hasn't yet been broached in council discussions. At the current point in time, I do not feel we have a large enough playerbase for a ladder system to function effectively. Because a FFA requires you to find 3 opponents rather than just 1 this can already take quite a while to find an unranked game, and at off-hours searches can run over 30 minutes for a game if you can find one at all. What good is a matchmaking system if there aren't enough players online to match everyone up into their appropriate cohort? While we don't have hard data, the subjective indication is that our playerbase is growing. We are seeing more and more matches being played simultaneously at peak hours, and it's now actually possible to find games in the first place during off-hours. This is why we won't be considering splitting the format into FFA-AG or FFA-Ubers or even FFA-LC as was suggested on Discord; the format is still in its infancy and has yet to reach the critical mass it needs to overcome its issues.

I don't believe that griefers are necessarily a problem to a ranked ladder. You need to have a slightly different mindset for a FFA ladder anyways; you don't think about individual matches, but rather long track records. Better players will have statistically higher chances to win games, and over the long run this will show. Having someone in the match who is out to get you is going to make it less likely for you to win, but this won't be every match and even when it does happen a good player can still position themselves to have a chance to win. Over the course of dozens or even hundreds of matches this can actually provide a good picture. However, there's also the consideration that a ladder may not be necessary. I've played multiplayer strategy games that have small communities (a few hundred active players) but no matchmaking, and you build a reputation based on the quality of your play rather than what your profile says. Just because we don't have a good matchmaking system doesn't mean we can't have a community that plays this format competitively.

As to the actual mechanics of how a ladder is to be implemented, that's going to be a difficult discussion. I feel it's a bit premature at this point due to the small size of our playerbase, but if we continue to grow I do see it happening eventually. There will also be moderation considerations; the difference between ladder-abuse team-ups and legitimate team-ups is mostly a matter of intent and while there will be some pretty obvious cases, most are probably going to require investigation of a player's game logs. One of the council members brought the issue up with Smogon moderation, and there just isn't good moderation precedent for this sort of thing and they don't really want to touch it while it's an unranked ladder. If we ever get a ranked ladder, this is going to need to be addressed. I do think the vast majority of people are playing in good faith and I appreciate that.

I also would add that we do have a Discord ( https://discord.gg/YVaZHqYs74 ) where people can ask for matches. We have had some high-quality challenge matches with serious teams, and the more people interested in these kinds of games the easier it is to set them up. Moreover, council members will often search at the same time as each other so we can match up even if we don't have enough players to do a 4-persona challenge match. This can greatly increase the chances of getting a serious game.

 

[Darvin]

The council has held its second vote on the three issues I outlined last week. The results are in:

Dracovish will be Banned in FFA
Shadow Tag will be Banned in FFA
Sleep Moves will remain Unbanned in FFA and the Sleep Clause will remain in effect

Tagging Kris to implement

Click here to see the full voting record

Please note that the Sleep vote was a tie, meaning the status quo prevails.

To provide some more insight as to the council's reasoning on these two new bans, this council replay is indicative of the issues. BuluSimp is council member Critical_Fail, while Redripoff is council member Kurt Godel's Poison. Here we can see how Dracovish was able to exert incredible pressure with Wish/Future Sight support in spite of both opposing teams having Water Absorb. Dragon Rush nearly KO'd Ripoff's Vaporeon, and would have been eliminated had Bulu attacked that slot on either turns 18 or 19; had this occurred, Dracovish would have easily 6-0'd Ripoff's team. Later, Dracovish was able to win a mind-game and get a KO against Bulu as the threat of Dragon Rush made him switch to Clefable. These are teams that are already under team-building constraint to include Water Absorb, and Dracovish is still an existential threat that can dismantle them with good prediction. We can also see its bulk is not insubstantial, as it takes powerful hits and is easily brought back by Wish passing.

Meanwhile, Gothitelle was able to trap my Toxapex with a Landorus resulting in its removal and leaving me without the tools to properly handle Clefable later in the game. Once the game was down to a premature 1v1, Goth had me pinned and I was constantly playing 50/50's where a single bad prediction would lose me a Pokemon at best or the match at worst. I was also unable to bring in Dragonite to use Heal Bell (as Dragonite can do nothing against Gothitelle and it just sets up and wins) and bring back my frozen Naganadel, leaving it as sack fodder when I otherwise had the tools to bring it back to perfect health. Overall, this is not healthy in a meta where there are already a plethora of threats to prepare for.

 

[Nuclearstomp]

Very happy with Shadow Tag and Dracovish bans. Getting blown back or trapped is always annoying. Honestly the worst part of Shadow Tag for me was the "you may be trapped" or whatever message that prevents you from undoing your moves.

 

[Darvin]

By the way, the official Free-For-All Viability Rankings are now up. We were waiting until the Dracovish ban announcement, as its departure directly affects the viability of a number of Pokemon.

I'm not going to write a long post describing our deliberations on each of these Pokemon, but I would like to quickly point out the specific sets that put Dragonite in A- and Dragapult in B-, as they are not the sets that are most commonly run. Dragonite's viability comes from its bulky defogger set, which serves as a check to Kartana and Heatran (two Pokemon that are quite difficult to check defensively) thanks to carrying Body Press as its offensive move. It can carry a variety of support moves in its last slot, including Heal Bell, Haze, and Dragon Tail. Dragapult, on the other hand, has its viability from its specially-offensive Infiltrator sets, letting it serve as a blanket revenge-killer and cleaner. Its physical sets struggle since Phantom Force gives the other teams free turns to pivot around Dragapult and prevents it from doing its job consistently, and it really needs to be run special to be effective.

 

[Kurt Godel's Poison]

I'm not going to write a long post describing our deliberations on each of these Pokemon

Good news, I will be doing that instead. At the very least, I will be analyzing Pokemon from the S to B range as I feel the Pokemon in those ranks are the most well-established, relevant, and easy to cover. Since I can't write an analysis for every Pokemon in one sitting, I'll publish S to A+ first, then update the post every update I make. Here we go.


S:

Clefable

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind

The S rank is reserved for the very best Pokemon in the tier competitively. There is complete concordance among every council member that Clefable is the one that holds the title of best Pokemon; this is for a few simple reasons.

Role Compression

The main set of Clefable (Calm Mind Unaware) provides any team a fantastic late-game win condition and blanket answer to several metagame Pokemon.

• Once anything that can kill Clefable or anything that can stall out Clefable such as Toxapex is eliminated, Clefable is able to become a threatening win condition as far as it can avoid being Poisoned (unless it is Magic Guard).
• Clefable is able to answer a lot of metagame threats and trends at once. Those include Spectrier, Zapdos-Galar (without Brave Bird), Hydreigon, Buzzwole, Corviknight, Zeraora, Calm Mind Clefable, Thundurus-Therian (without Sludge Bomb) and more.
• There are matchup bonuses such as Flamethrower revenge killing Kartana and threatening Ferrothorn that makes Clefable's matchup spread even more impressive.

Unaware

The Free For All format can get wild and stormy; with good positioning, one of your opponents can set-up and sweep the entirety of your team easily. Clefable was gifted with the prodigious Unaware ability very few others can claim to have; it is by far the best user of Unaware due to its stats, moves, typing, and roles combined. The opponent setting up isn't always in your control due to the choatic/unpredictable nature of a four-player environment. That's why Clefable's Unaware is so valuable, it can rescue you from many detrimental situations that no other Pokemon can.

Versatility

Due to a variety of different viable sets Clefable can opt for, Clefable is not always predictable. Its versatility further adds to its already unparalleled utility. Beside its Unaware Calm Mind set, here are additional sets Clefable can run:

• Magic Guard Calm Mind is an alternative to Unaware if you want to be a better win condition in exchange of your ability to safeguard against positional sweepers and certain matchups such as Spectrier. This is also an option if your team needs to mitigate a Toxic Spikes weakness as much as possible while being unable to afford a Poison type on the team to absorb them away.
• Clefable is one of the few Pokemon with Wish + Teleport up its belt and it may opt for this option for teams that need the safest possible Wish-passing and the benefit of being immune to passive damage (hazards, Poison). Wish is already scarce in the tier, while Wish + Pivoting is limited to 3 Pokemon overall (Clefable, Jirachi, Vaporeon).
• Albeit regarded as overall inconsistent and the least viable in Clefable's arsenal, Cosmic Power + Stored Power is a niche alternative win condition option that still needs to be respected as it could be devastating if there's nothing to answer it.

Criteria

Clefable checks all the boxes for what a good Pokemon in Free-For-All should look like. Paramount reliable recovery option, passable defenses, merited roles, passable matchups, and splashability. Adding all of those elements together, Clefable excels the most out of any other Pokemon, which is how it has found itself in the S placement.

A+:

Chansey

Chansey (F) @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Stealth Rock / Aromatherapy / Wish

Even with a crippling allergy to Knock Off, Chansey is at the top of the food chain. Her bulk is next to unrivaled, movepool options are fantastic, roles are suitable for any type of team, and passivity isn't bad due to Seismic Toss. Chansey is one of the best Stealth Rock setters in the tier and can opt to be a cleric or Wish passer instead. Chansey has the bulk to call herself the bulkiest Sponge (Pokemon that can take many strong unboosted hits at once) and tools to take advantage of that title (Toxic, Seismic Toss, Soft-Boiled).

She covers some important matchups such answering Nihilego, Hydreigon, Unaware Clefable, and Dragapult, while giving other Special Sweepers such as Landorus-I and Thundurus-T a hard time by having to rely on Focus Blasts to kill it sometimes. She's able to exploit defensive Pokemon that do little to it such as Zapdos, Mantine, Rotom-Heat, etc. by statusing them, tossing them, and getting hazards up.

All-in-all, Chansey finds herself in A+ for her resilience, utility, splashability, and matchups.

Corviknight

Corviknight @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Body Press
- Iron Defense
- Roost
- Defog / Spite / Light Screen

Corviknight is the safest Defogger to use. It is not susceptible to Knock Off as other Defoggers (that are usually weak to Stealth Rock) are thanks to its part Steel typing removing the weakness to Stealth Rock; it is not susceptible to Poison thanks to this too. Poison and Knock Off are two different tools Defoggers usually hate to see, but not Corviknight, it doesn't care so much.

Along with a unique and excellent defensive typing, it comes with great defensive stats which enable it to Roost off many attacks, the ability Pressure which enables it to deplete PP of other players (even moreso if in tandem with Spite), and the combination of Iron Defense + Body Press which allows it to stay in against physical attackers for much longer and deal great damage to non-Fighting immune/resisting Pokemon.

It is mainly good against defensive Pokemon. Some include Chansey/Blissey, Toxapex, and Ferrothorn. It is able to sit on all of those Pokemon and PP stall them, get rid of their hazards, have most of them do nothing against Corviknight (the most is being Knocked Off and Leech Seeded, which is just a nuisance than anything else, while it does have to be careful if Toxapex has Infestation).

Its offensive matchups are far less impressive. It can soft check Melmetal, Tapu Lele, and sometimes help against Kartana. Corviknight has to not be chipped whatsoever to live a Thunder Punch from banded Melmetal and Roost it off, Tapu Lele is rather uncommon and can also carry Thunderbolt, while Corviknight does not beat Kartana late-game and at best slows it down.

In spite of that, Corviknight proves itself to be an A+ Pokemon by being the safest Defogger, having good matchups against defensive Pokemon, PP depleting abilities, being splashable, and having additional utility with Iron Defense + Body Press.

Hippowdon

Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- High Horsepower
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock / Toxic

Viable Ground types with recovery are a rare sight. Hippowdon is unique in this regard, capable of dealing with Electric threats such as Zeraora, Regieleki, Thundurus-Therian (without Grass Knot) and Dracozolt. Hippowdon is the premier Electric immunity of choice as a good portion of the metagame finds itself to be weak to Electric and not have many good answers to Electric threats.

Besides that, Hippowdon is one of the best good Stealth Rock setters for any team that Slacks Off most attacks because it's an incredible sponge. In addition, Whirlwind is very effective in this metagame. Not only does it prevent set-up, chip opponents with hazards, but it makes it incredibly hard for a player in a bad position against another player to survive (e.g. they try to send out something that helps against the bad position they're in, as it's sent out, it gets Whirlwinded and gets replaced by another team member, hurting the Whirlwinded player a lot).

Sand Stream is a double-edged ability. On one hand, you're removing Leftovers from most Pokemon or making them take extra damage every turn, but on the other hand this can hurt you as well depending on the situation. Fortunately, Hippowdon is often out for enough turns to not have to worry too much about it.

High Horsepower is chosen over Earthquake due to Earthquake being a move that its all opponents which means its power is halved. High Horsepower is the preferable option as a general STAB attacking option which hits Toxapex, Heatran, Slowking-Galar, and the Electric types. It is able to deal good damage against a lot of the metagame.

Overall, Hippowdon's ability to answer many Electric threats, be a good Stealth Rock setter, Whirlwind out set-up Pokemon in emergencies, chip, or having players trip over, be an excellent sponge, and splashable makes it an A+ Pokemon.

Kyurem-Black

Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 104 HP / 252 Atk / 152 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Icicle Spear
- Fusion Bolt
- Roost
- Dragon Dance

Kyurem-Black is the best sweeper in the tier. Teravolt allows it to bypass Unaware or Electric-immunity abilities, it has enough speed to outrun Spectrier after a Dragon Dance, conveniently enough HP to make the most out of Leftovers recovery, it does a ton of damage with its hard-to-resist Ice + Electric coverage, has great natural bulk, and access to reliable recovery.

Specific counterplay options include Buzzwole, Umbreon, Melmetal, Rotom-Heat, Registeel, Magnezone, and Stakataka. Of those, only 2 get reliable Recovery (Buzzwole and Umbreon), making the rest of the options hard checks as opposed to true counters. It's not necessarily easy to fit a Kyurem-Black counter on a team, doing so may come at some compromise.

Kyurem-Black ends up in A+ due to its good longevity for a sweeper, the fact it's difficult to counterplay, and overall power. Granted, it still has to worry about hazards and it is often perceived as a threat by all competitive players which therefore often makes it become the main target of focus for competitive players once it's out. Icicle Spear is also an RNG-based move.

Toxapex

Toxapex @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Toxic Spikes
- Recover
- Haze

Toxapex is the best Toxic Spikes setter and absorber in the tier thanks to having the most bulk for any Poison type, a movepool that gives it reliable recovery + item removal + setup removal abilities or trapping (Infestation/Block), and the ability Regenerator all together.

Being the best Toxic Spikes setter is a huge merit; it is a very potent hazard that demands teams run a grounded Poison type to get rid of it or very likely have a lot of trouble dealing with it throughout the match. Haze is quite important because of how dangerous set-up can be in this metagame, having Haze also enables Toxapex to beat the likes of Clefable and Buzzwole.

Despite Toxapex being passive and susceptible to Taunt, it has proven to be very troublesome to deal with for other players because of Toxic Spikes, removing crucial items (Heavy Duty Boots, Leftovers, Eviolite), and being hard to kill due to its bulk and ability.

Even though Toxapex doesn't offer any matchups against the premier offensive threats of the meta, it certainly has to be A+ for the importance Toxic Spikes setting and removing is, along with Regenerator + Item Removal + Set-up Removal and potential to be a dangerous trapper with Infestation/Block.

A:

Blissey

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam / Shadow Ball
- Toxic / Stealth Rock / Aromatherapy / Wish
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled

While Chansey is considered overall better than Blissey due to Chansey sponging hits better and having more bulk for other threats, Blissey has a few quirks that can justify using her over Chansey. Blissey does lose a good amount of bulk in comparison to Chansey, but it is not noticeable when you put Blissey up with a lot of the same attackers as Chansey (Nihilego and Hydreigon, for example). This mainly just makes its sponging abilities worse.

Chansey will take hits better overall, but Blissey handles and survives hits that matter in the same fashion as Chansey. Leftovers is Blissey's big selling point. This means she can take Knock Offs and does better against passive damage such as hazards, status, and weather; making it harder to wear her down overall.

Upon evolving, Blissey gains 40 Special Attack points. This means she has enough power to run Ice Beam or Shadow Ball, but why would you want to? Both of the aforementioned Special moves improve different matchups that certain teams may need.

Ice Beam enables Blissey to deal with Landorus-I far more reliably than Chansey, OHKOing it after a little bit of chip, which is easy to get on Landorus-I because it doesn't have good bulk nor Leftovers.

Focus Blast from Landorus-I to Blissey is always a 3HKO. Blissey switching in on an Earth Power means Lando-I does not want to stay in. If it stays in, Ice Beam is still a 2HKO, it cannot kill Blissey with a +1 Focus Blast. Otherwise, it has to risk 2 Focus Blasts landing, getting the right rolls with those Focus Blasts, and a roll from Blissey's Ice Beam to not kill it.

However, if Blissey comes in on a Calm Mind instead, the most it does is weaken Landorus-I or kill it if at least 1 out of the 2 Focus Blasts miss. While Blissey is overall a shaky answer to Landorus-I, it softens the matchup for many teams significantly.

Ice Beam allows Blissey to be a shaky answer to Naganadel as well. If Naganadel is slightly chipped, Blissey is able to win against Naganadel and guarantee prevent a sweep. With three other players, this is very likely. While this doesn't seem like a good merit, keep in mind the Naganadel counters in the tier are Heatran, Assault Vest Slowking-Galar, and Assault Vest Stakataka. Counterplay to Naganadel is extremely limited (and all trapped by Dugtrio), so Ice Beam Blissey is a lot more merited than it may seem because of that, especially when it is paired with a Naganadel revenge killer.

On the other hand, Shadow Ball is used to hit Spectrier and Aegislash. If a team is weak to either of them, Blissey is an option over Chansey to deal with both respective Pokemon, or if the team needs something to answer both Spectrier and Nihilego for example.

Blissey is ranked A because while she's outclassed by Chansey, she still functions very similarly and has important teambuilding quirks that could still justify her over Chansey on a team.

Ferrothorn

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Spikes

Ferrothorn is the best Spikes setter, one of the few Steel types with acceptable recovery options, has item removal in the form of Knock Off which Chansey, Pokemon with Heavy Duty Boots, or Leftover-reliant Pokemon like Heatran do not want to take, and a typing that allows it to handle Melmetal, Nihilego, and Zapdos while making it resist Stealth Rock on switchin, immune to Toxic/Toxic Spikes, and Sandstorm damage.

Ferrothorn is ranked A because while it has many great details about it, Leech Seed is not an entirely reliable form of recovery, it is passive, and Ferrothorn always has to be careful not to get bopped by Fire coverage or Melmetals that carry Superpower for it. We feel it is not in the same ranks as the Pokemon in the A+ ranking.

Heatran

Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Protect

Heatran has been gifted a Fire/Steel Typing with Flash Fire and the best binding move in the game, Magma Storm. Being the strongest binding move at 100 Base Power, along with a STAB boost, is exclusive to Heatran alone which fires them off with 130 Special Attack. This move deals damage equal to 1/8 of the target's maximum HP at the end of each turn for 4–5 turns. Factoring all of that together, Heatran's Magma Storm will be doing good damage against virtually anything.

The scariest aspect to Magma Storm is that it is a binding move, meaning it prevents Pokemon that do not have a Ghost typing or Shed Shell equipped from hard switching. Being trapped in Free-For-All can be devastating as there are other players that can take full advantage of this, the trapped Pokemon is left vulnerable to death by the hand of other players or setup opportunities. Since Heatran is carrying Taunt, trapping is also critically effective along with Taunt because it can be used to prevent Pokemon from using status moves and by extension preventing recovery. Taking a powerful Magma Storm and losing 1/8 of your health for 4–5 turns without being able to recover means that you will be weakened at best and dead at worst. This is only not an issue if you have a pivoting move (Flip Turn Vaporeon, Volt Switch Rotom-Heat) or a way to threaten Heatran out (Earth Power Hydreigon).

Earth Power needs to be ran on Heatran to hit opposing Heatrans, Naganadel, Nihilego, and Pokemon that may resist Magma Storm. It is a secondary attacking option for Heatran since it wants to preserve Magma Storms as much as possible. Heatran is the only reliable Naganadel answer in the tier beside Assault Vest Slowking-Galar and Assault Vest Stakataka, which is a significant defensive trait.

Most powerful binding move in the game, good stats, one of the very few reliable Naganadel answers, how is Heatran not A+? Unfortunately, Magma Storm's 8 PP and 75% accuracy hold it back a lot as Magma Storms will be missing periodically thanks to probablity theory and gets burned out of PP quickly, especially in a format with 3 opponents instead of 1. This is not even Heatran's biggest drawback, its actual A+ incompatibility comes from its lack of reliable healing. It runs Protect to get the most out of Leftovers recovery because it has no reliable healing option. Therefore, even with Heatran's incredible power and trapping + taunting abilities, its shortcomings make it shy of A+, making it A.

Melmetal

Melmetal @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 204 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Iron Bash
- Heavy Slam
- Thunder Punch
- Superpower / High Horsepower

Melmetal has become the tier's most powerful wallbreaker ever since the ban of Dracovish in Free-For-All 0.3.0. It has a 216 Power move along with 143 Attack, which is 2HKOing or OHKOing non-resisted Pokemon, while it has coverage up its belt to hit those that do resist Double Iron Bash. Superpower grants it the ability to hit Steel types like Ferrothorn and Heatran, while High Horsepower is a safer alternative that hits Jirachi and additionally Electric types (except for Rotom-Heat, which hard checks you), although you lose the option to hit Ferrothorn super effectively. It carries Thunder Punch for Water Pokemon such as Mantine and Vaporeon, as well as the Steel/Flying types such as Corviknight, Celesteela, and Skarmory.

Zapdos, Ferrothorn, and Rotom-Heat are the 3 reliable Melmetal counterplay options on a team. While Pokemon like Quagsire and Gastrodon can technically take all of Melmetal's attacks, they are vulnerable to Double Iron Bash's 51% flinch rate. They are also very niche picks on any team without a lot of viability in the tier to begin with, so they are not considered reliable Melmetal answers when considering the flinch rate and their viability in the tier overall.

Zapdos is the safest out of the 3. Unlike Ferrothorn, it does not have to avoid Superpower. Unlike Rotom-Heat, it can use Roost instead of Pain Split which is far better, also does not get hit by Superpower hard. In addition, Zapdos has two abilities to hurt Melmetal significantly: Pressue and Static. Melmetal struggles with Double Iron Bash only having 8 PP, Zapdos makes that problem even worse for Melmetal thanks to Pressure halving Double Iron Bash's PP. Static, on the other hand, has a good chance of paralyzing Melmetal, which is unpreferable for Melmetal. Ferrothorn has its painful Iron Barbs that make Melmetal take 1/4 of its health if it goes for Double Iron Bash into Ferrothorn.

Melmetal has the strongest wallbreaking capabilities, good coverage, superb stats, and a great typing. However, due to the 8 PP limitation of Double Iron Bash, Steel-Typing being commonly resisting forcing Melmetal in many prediction-based situations, and lack of reliable recovery, Melmetal finds itself A, just shy of A+ like Heatran.

Naganadel

Naganadel @ Black Sludge
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 12 SpD / 172 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Nasty Plot

One of the most restrictive Pokemon for teambuilders, yet the preferred sweeper for teambuilders, it's Naganadel. It is restrictive for teambuilders because there are not many things in the tier that can reliably answer Naganadel. Your three options are Heatran, Slowking-Galar, and Stakataka. Slowking-Galar is the only one with acceptable recovery, but all three of them also get trapped by Dugtrio. It is the preferred sweeper for teambuilders because it absorbs Toxic Spikes, is in the best speed tier which enables it to be a cleaner and revenge killer (i.e. Kartana), and is difficult to always answer for teams.

There aren't many offensive revenge killers for Special Attack Beast Boost Naganadel. Your options are scarf Latios, Dugtrio, Cinderace, Dragapult, and sometimes Regieleki.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Regieleki Hyper Beam vs. 72 HP / 12 SpD Naganadel: 286-337 (93.7 - 110.4%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
(with Hyper Beam accuracy taken into account, it's a 56.25% chance because (0.625 * 0.9) * 100 = 56.25)

There are no offensive revenge killers for Speed Beast Boost Naganadel, although Naganadel has to pay the price of losing some of its potency as a sweeper just to avoid being revenge killed by any offensive Pokemon.

Even though it has found itself to be more preferred than Kyurem-Black, on its own it's not more viable than Kyurem-Black. Naganadel is still frail, lacks recovery, and Draco Meteor is not exactly consistent when it tries to sweep. Naganadel is currently in A, but I believe it has potential to be in A+ in the future. For now, however, with all of that being said, Naganadel is A.

Umbreon

Umbreon @ Leftovers  
Ability: Synchronize  
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD  
Bold Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Foul Play  
- Heal Bell / Toxic 
- Wish  
- Protect

First-class bulk, Wish passing, cleric, favorable matchups against Kyurem-Black, Spectrier, Aegislash, and Dragapult, as well as a great defensive typing for the Free-For-All tiers due to its weaknesses being uncommon. While it lacks a pivoting move like Vaporeon, Jirachi, or Clefable, it is still able to function as a Wish passer positionally. Being one of the only Kyurem-Black answers with reliable recovery (beside Buzzwole) is significant to have the most consistent matchup against Kyurem-Black possible.

Umbreon was ranked A in Free-For-All 0.2.0 because at tbat time, Vaporeon was the most popular Wish passer thanks to Dracovish, making Umbreon hard to fit on a team when most Clefables already took care of the Spectrier matchup, Aegislash and Dragapult were uncommon, Kyurem-Black was hard to fit on teams and Melmetal was getting high usage which further helped against Kyurem-Black. However, with FFA 0.3.0 banning Dracovish, Umbreon could potentially find itself in A+ with Vaporeon's usage declining, Kyurem-Black becoming easier to fit on teams, and Dragapult/Aegislash are being more used.

For the time being, Umbreon remains A.

Slowking-Galar

Slowking-Galar @ Assault Vest  
Ability: Regenerator  
EVs: 248 HP / 132 SpA / 128 SpD  
Calm Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Sludge Bomb  
- Future Sight  
- Flamethrower  
- Psychic

The only reliable Naganadel counteroption to have some acceptable form of manual healing, that being Regenerator. While it could opt for Slack Off + Leftovers instead, that variant of Slowking-Galar can not beat Naganadel. Slowking-Galar needs Psychic with 132 SpA to OHKO Naganadel, which it needs to do if it wants to beat Naganadel because if it doesn't, Naganadel can get another Nasty Plot and KO it, Slack Off means you have to get rid of Sludge Bomb, Future Sight, or Flamethrower, which you don't want to do because all of them are extremely valuable.

It would die to Draco Meteor after +2 without SpD investment; it needs 240 SpD to guarantee live a +2 Draco Meteor without Assault Vest. Slowking-Galar can still be chipped, even with Regenerator, and 20 SpA with a Modest nature is not a 100% chance to OHKO 72 HP and 12 SpD Naganadel, like 132 SpA is. That's why Slowking-Galar must have Assault Vest if it wants to beat Naganadel, as a result only having Regenerator as a form of recovery.

However, Regenerator is still a good and manageable recovery option. Slowking-Galar can be considered the best Naganadel answer on a lot of teams due to its recovery and Toxic Spikes removal abilities. It proves itself further useful by launching powerful Future Sights, not being passive, having other great attacking moves, and incredible Special bulk. For those reasons, Slowking-Galar is A. Regenerator alone is still not the best type of recovery by any means, it is weak to Knock Off, and not impressively physically bulky, which is why it's not A+.

A-:

(Work In Progress)

B+:

(Work In Progress)

B:

(Work In Progress)

 

[Darvin]

Kurt's writeup on Clefable makes it sound like we had long and detailed deliberation on just how amazing Clefable is.

Reality (actual excepts from Discord logs):
Kurt: Would you like to initially go over some Pokemon right now, in that case? We could get the easy ones out of the way such as Clefable, maybe wait for the others to be online once the discussion becomes more controversial.
Darvin: Yeah, I can talk now. Clefable was unanimous as S-rank the survey, so unless you want to play devil's advocate I think that's a done deal.
Kurt: Clefable, S tier.
(later)
Kris: clef s+++++++++

And that was the entirety of the council's deliberations on Clefable. We did an initial survey to gauge our starting positions, then discussed them in order of average overall rank (which did not necessarily correspond to where we placed them in the end after deliberation, although in the handful of unanimous cases like Clefable there was little to discuss). There were some Pokemon we actually spent a lot of time on, but the things like Clefable and Toxapex were uncontroversial.

Edit: I'd also emphasize with Hippowdon that it's by far the most reliable Stealth Rock setter in the format. Keeping rocks up takes a certain amount of tenacious persistence since when one opponent uses defog it removes rocks from two sides of the field, so it takes a really fat and immovable Pokemon to keep rocks up, and the Hippo most certainly delivers.

 

[Kurt Godel's Poison]

Edit: I'd also emphasize with Hippowdon that it's by far the most reliable Stealth Rock setter in the format.

With the reasoning you've provided being:

it takes a really fat and immovable Pokemon to keep rocks up, and the Hippo most certainly delivers.

To me it would seem Chansey fits the same description you've provided here. Certainly, if both Hippowdon and Chansey fit this description, there has to be more reason for Hippowdon being deemed the best out of the two.

I am willing to rephrase:

Hippowdon is one of the few good Stealth Rock-setting options for any team

To: "Hippowdon is one of the best Stealth Rock-setting options for any team."

I do agree there should be some emphasis since those two are regarded as the best Stealth Rockers in the game by both of us. I will also add this to Chansey's analysis.

 

[Darvin]

Kris has resigned as FFA Leader. I'd like to thank him for his contributions and helping me transition into the role of leader.

I've also updated the main post of this thread. You will now find more up-to-date strategy information and sample sets there. These are not the only viable sets for these Pokemon; for instance Toxapex has a viable trapper set using Block or Infestation, and Heatran's best set runs Taunt to allow it to beat Pokemon like Chansey after catching them with a Magma Storm. I'm discussing with the other council members to get some sample teams in the main post that are up-to-date and represent a range of playstyles.

 

[death dreigon]

Q:why is altaria ranked?

 

[Darvin]

Q:why is altaria ranked?

Fire Spin and Perish Song to trap and eliminate targets. Very few Pokemon get access to this combination, and it's a very effective way of dealing with hard stall. If you're dealing with players who know the meta, Altaria simply coming onto the field can force switches, since something like Toxapex can do nothing against a Perish Trap.

 

[death dreigon]

Fire Spin and Perish Song to trap and eliminate targets. Very few Pokemon get access to this combination, and it's a very effective way of dealing with hard stall. If you're dealing with players who know the meta, Altaria simply coming onto the field can force switches, since something like Toxapex can do nothing against a Perish Trap.

Ty it explains a lot . Never thought of that combo!

 

[Darvin]

The council has selected four of our teams to serve as sample teams. You can find these in the main post in this thread, and I'll also include them here for discussion purposes:



Aegislash Stall by Kurt Godel's Poison

Aegislash Stall

Stall is an easier archetype for beginners when entering the Free-For-All format, as you do not need to actively create openings for your more offensive team members to put in work without getting KO'd. Everything here is designed to survive. This team uses an Ice Punch/Body Press Dragonite to check dangerous Pokemon such as Heatran, Kartana, Landorus-Incarnate, as well as threatening opposing defensive Dragonites. Dragonite has proven to be one of the best Defoggers in the format thanks to serving as an excellent check to dangerous threats such as Heatran and Kartana, which this team appreciates greatly. Umbreon has strong type synergy with Aegislash while keeping it healthy with Wish. Toxapex and Chansey give a strong defensive backbone that can provide hazard support and spread the Toxic status. Finally, this team is rounded out with the utility of Choice Scarf Latios which serves as an emergency revenge-killer that can also shut down defensive setup Pokemon such as Clefable with Trick.

Buzzwole + Jirachi by Critical Failure

Buzzwole Jirachi

This is a semi-stall team using the power of Buzzwole, Slowking-Galar, and Jirachi to avoid being overly passive as a full stall team would. Buzzwole and Slowking-Galar are much less passive than typical defensive Pokemon, while Ferrothorn and Dragonite round out the core to provide hazards and Defog support. We see here Unaware Clefable serving both as the primary win-condition of the team as well as a way of defeating opposing setup Pokemon. Finally, a Wish/Future Sight Jirachi is used to round out the team and provide a pivot option that can either exert pressure or heal teammates depending on the needs of the situation.

Melmetal Balance by Darvin

Melmetal Balance

This team uses a similar defensive core to the semi-stall team above, with Ferrothorn to set hazards, Dragonite to remove them, and Jirachi to serve as a flexible passer. However, it uses these qualities to support a more balanced team. We see a Choice Band Melmetal which can take advantage of the Future Sight to enhance the pressure it can exert, and a Naganadel that can remove faster threats and serve as a powerful win-condition. Hippowdon rounds out this team by providing phasing support to disrupt opponents. This team is somewhat more advanced to play with, as it required careful exploitation of openings to keep its team members healthy and put in the work necessary to position yourself for a late-game Naganadel sweep.

Landorus Offense by Darvin

Landorus Offense

This is a more offensive team utilizing the power of Landorus-Incarnate to break through opposing teams. Choice Specs Dragapult is used as a revenge-killer against more offensive threats. Vaporeon serves to keep the more offensive team members healthy, while Rotom-Heat serves as a more offensive pivot that can deal damage while also serving as Defogger. Chansey and Aegislash serve as a defensive backbone that you can fall on if it's unsafe to play aggressive. As with most offensive teams, this one thrives when you can control the pace of the game and keep opponents switching.

One of the discussion points that came from this was that Dragonite is seeing a lot of usage on council teams. Both Kartana and Heatran have excellent matchups against the meta in general, and Dragonite provides a solid check to both of them while also providing invaluable support with moves like Defog, Heal Bell, and Dragon Tail. Its typing naturally gives it good synergy with the Steel-types that are so common on cores in this format. This means Dragonite often is able to slot in effortlessly in team-building, and its high usage on council teams is indicative of this.

 

[Darvin]

There are a couple of moves coming up for a potential ban vote in the council in the near future: Final Gambit and Flower Shield. As always, I want to give an opportunity for anyone to express their opinion on the subject before the council actually votes.

Final Gambit is a self-KO move that deals damage to a single target equal to the user's remaining hit points. Barring Protect, this means you can eliminate your own team in only 6 turns, and potentially cripple another player in the process, turning a Free-For-All into a 1v1. We can see an example of that in this replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8freeforall-1427480466

This game is indicative of how Final Gambit has a negative effect on the enjoyability of the Free-For-All format. It allows a player to very quickly bully one opponent if they so choose, and barring very specific counterplay (Ghost-types, Blissey/Chansey, etc) there's not actually that much you can do but try to mitigate the damage and weather the storm. In a traditional format this is hardly a problem; if the other player eliminates themselves you win. But in Free-For-All this is not the case and very quickly leaves both the user and the victim knocked out of the game early.

I have not seen Final Gambit used very much; in fact I have not personally encountered it in several months. However, even if it is rare it is having a negative effect on the format. Whether it has any legitimate use is very debatable and I have yet to see this move used on a serious team. Overall, this looks like a case where a ban is merited.

Flower Shield is a move we missed in our previous vote regarding moves that can boost other Pokemon on the field. It is very situational, only working on Grass-types, but the council's perspective in the previous vote was to ban these sorts of moves on principle. As a result, this move should be banned as well.

 

[Nuclearstomp]

There are a couple of moves coming up for a potential ban vote in the council in the near future: Final Gambit and Flower Shield. As always, I want to give an opportunity for anyone to express their opinion on the subject before the council actually votes.

Final Gambit is a self-KO move that deals damage to a single target equal to the user's remaining hit points. Barring Protect, this means you can eliminate your own team in only 6 turns, and potentially cripple another player in the process, turning a Free-For-All into a 1v1. We can see an example of that in this replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8freeforall-1427480466

This game is indicative of how Final Gambit has a negative effect on the enjoyability of the Free-For-All format. It allows a player to very quickly bully one opponent if they so choose, and barring very specific counterplay (Ghost-types, Blissey/Chansey, etc) there's not actually that much you can do but try to mitigate the damage and weather the storm. In a traditional format this is hardly a problem; if the other player eliminates themselves you win. But in Free-For-All this is not the case and very quickly leaves both the user and the victim knocked out of the game early.

I have not seen Final Gambit used very much; in fact I have not personally encountered it in several months. However, even if it is rare it is having a negative effect on the format. Whether it has any legitimate use is very debatable and I have yet to see this move used on a serious team. Overall, this looks like a case where a ban is merited.

Flower Shield is a move we missed in our previous vote regarding moves that can boost other Pokemon on the field. It is very situational, only working on Grass-types, but the council's perspective in the previous vote was to ban these sorts of moves on principle. As a result, this move should be banned as well.

I find it very funny that the replay that got brought up was the same game I was in with my Mono-Ghost team.

But yeah I agree FG should 100% be banned. There where at least two people on ladder today at some point spamming FG teams and the only intent (seemingly) was to troll. I have never once seen FG used outside of this as it's honestly a bad move because, well it makes you lose. It just ruins the game for other people. You can't even properly "counter" it because who in the right mind expects people to run Final Gambit?

 

[Darvin]

The council has concluded its third vote, and here are the results:

Final Gambit will be banned in FFA
Flower Shield will be banned in FFA

Tagging Kris to implement

Click here to see the (unanimous) voting record

You can read the reasoning for these bans in this previous post

 

[Darvin]

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts, so let's talk about some Pokemon that the council has been playing around with lately that have shown promise in the FFA format:

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Bomb
- Flamethrower/Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

In many ways, Nidoking looks like a less impressive version of Landorus-Incarnate. It has the same ability and the same primary STAB move, but much lower Special Attack, a somewhat unfortunate speed tier, and no access to boosting moves. However, Nidoking has a number of qualities that make up for this. Its secondary STAB in Poison is quite useful, while the combination of Flamethrower and Ice Beam provides much superior coverage to the rather inaccurate and unreliable Focus Blast that Landorus relies upon. Nidoking's broad coverage makes it much harder to handle even before it has a boost. Nidoking is also a grounded Poison-type, which is something very useful to have on your team as insurance against Toxic Spikes, while also giving it a superior defensive typing overall to Landorus. This comes together to create a Pokemon that actually doesn't play like Landorus, being less reliant on setup and more able to exert immediate pressure with its broad coverage. The one thing holding back Nidoking is that it has no good way of dealing with Chansey or Blissey, whereas Landorus can at least hope to break through with Focus Blast. As a result, Nidoking should be paired with Pokemon that can take advantage of the pink blobs.

Modest is preferred over Timid here, as Nidoking's speed tier doesn't let it outspeed anything particularly relevant and the extra power is appreciated. Flamethrower is preferred over Thunderbolt to give a more consistent option to deal with Ferrothorn. Flamethrower will deal with the steel birds, and Earth Power will deal with Toxapex.

Mandibuzz (F) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk, 30 Spe
- Roost
- Defog
- Foul Play
- Whirlwind

Dark is a superb defensive typing in Free-For-All, and Mandibuzz brings the right combination of qualities to take full advantage of that. It's a reliable defogger that can threaten with Foul Play and with Whirlwind, a simple yet potent toolkit that gets the job done. The reduced Speed IV's are to safely roost on Body Press Dragonite. Minimum speed Dragonite speed tiers with Mandibuzz, so dropping your speed ensures your Roost will always be second so you are neutral to Fighting. Body Press Dragonite is featured on several of the sample teams, and the council members do use it in teambuilding fairly regularly, so it's worth preparing for.

While Overcoat should be the standard ability, it should be noted that Big Pecks is actually a possible selection here. Zapdos-Galar with Thunderous Kick is a legitimate threat in Free-For-All, but ignoring defense drops allows Mandibuzz to handle this attack fairly well. Ignoring passive damage from sandstorm and being immune to powder moves is the more generally useful, but if your team is very weak to Zapdos-Galar then Big Pecks might be worth consideration (which is something I didn't think I'd ever say).

Grapploct @ Leftovers
Ability: Limber
EVs: 208 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def
Adamant Nature
- Octolock
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
- Pain Split

Octolock is an incredibly threatening move in the Free-For-All format, trapping victims with rapidly escalating defensive debuffs. Grapploct doesn't necessarily have to threaten the trapping victim itself, and other players will often be more than willing to finish off the trapped and vulnerable Pokemon. While Grapploct itself is a fairly terrible Pokemon, Octolock is so good in Free-For-All as to make it a viable pick anyways. It's fascinating to see a Pokemon that failed so badly in both singles and doubles actually find some success in Free-For-All.

We can see the remaining moves are focused around helping Grapploct's survivability and give it some semblance of recovery. Drain Punch with maximum Attack investment prevents it from being passive, while the rest of the EV's are put into bulk. You could run more speed on Grapploct if desired, which can be very useful with Substitute and Pain Split. However, there are not many Pokemon around it speed tier and it needs a significant amount of investment to outspeed things like Chansey and Blissey.

 

[cheesesir]

Grapploct @ Leftovers
Ability: Limber
EVs: 208 HP / 252 Atk / 48 Def
Adamant Nature
- Octolock
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
- Pain Split

Octolock is an incredibly threatening move in the Free-For-All format, trapping victims with rapidly escalating defensive debuffs. Grapploct doesn't necessarily have to threaten the trapping victim itself, and other players will often be more than willing to finish off the trapped and vulnerable Pokemon. While Grapploct itself is a fairly terrible Pokemon, Octolock is so good in Free-For-All as to make it a viable pick anyways. It's fascinating to see a Pokemon that failed so badly in both singles and doubles actually find some success in Free-For-All.

We can see the remaining moves are focused around helping Grapploct's survivability and give it some semblance of recovery. Drain Punch with maximum Attack investment prevents it from being passive, while the rest of the EV's are put into bulk. You could run more speed on Grapploct if desired, which can be very useful with Substitute and Pain Split. However, there are not many Pokemon around it speed tier and it needs a significant amount of investment to outspeed things like Chansey and Blissey.

I must say, I'm loving the fact that Grapploct has some usefulness. I've played around with it a bit, with a slightly more passive set. I've found quite a bit of use for it with taking out Toxapex and Ferrothorn, if you can get an octolock up when they aren't protecting. One of the best uses of it from what I've experienced is convincing other players to target the trapped pokemon. The defense nerfs tend to place a target on a pokemon's back, so you can often take out a threat without needing to K.O. it yourself. Beyond that though, Grapploct doesn't serve much use in anything. It can occasionally switch in to take a resisted hit in a pinch, but nothing else. It is very funny seeing a Toxapex getting taken out by PU pokemon though

John Cena (Grapploct) @ Leftovers
Ability: Limber
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Octolock
- Protect
- Dive
- Drain Punch