Happy May Day! I really don't have much to say about the month here other than 2025/05 being aesthetic, but April still felt like a positive yet eventful month for me though. Not particularly because of the Nintendo Switch 2 news, since it doesn't seem like SV's free Switch 2 update will add any new content, and thus it probably has no relevance to how Metronome Battles will be played. In other news, the new CAP 36 in progress will have a Fire/Ice form, while the other is Fire/Steel which makes it banned. Anyway, it's nice to get back in the flow of just writing whatever comes to mind while reading too much into these usage stats, just for the sake of it without anything at stake, so let's have at it once more.
The usage stats for April 2025 will mark 7 years since the
first Metronome usage stats of April 2018, which would end up as the only one of its kind for a while.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2025-04/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2025-04/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
The battle count has fallen back a bit to
29602, but is still higher than January and February of this year so far.
April 2025: 1630-weighted top 10 + last month positions
#1: Pecharunt (no change)

#2: Mega Heracross (no change)

#3: Mega Venusaur (#5)

#4: Mega Ampharos (#3)

#5: Blissey (#4)

#6: Ting-Lu (#7)

#7: Mega Sableye (#10)

#8: Mega Abomasnow (#30)

#9: Mega Gengar (#8)

#10: Regirock (#24)
Compared to last month, there have been a lot more shuffles and upsets. And even within the top 2, Pecharunt notably boasts a strong weighted usage percentage of 48.9%, over double that of Heracross's 23.3%, despite their very close raw usage (10133 and 10497 according to the moveset file). The most popular picks of Ice Scales/Weakness Policy/Relaxed 0 Speed/Tera Stellar/Pecharunt teammates have pretty much barely changed either.
Someone can correct me if I missed something here, but based on searching through this thread (and then going through the usage stats myself to double check), I believe this is Regirock's very first debut appearance in the top 10. There's certainly been plenty of regitalk in this thread over the years as having a rock-solid meta niche,
MattC (Banned) potentially being the most prolific Regirock poster here, and Regirock as a mon has probably made top 20 quite a bit, but I am pretty sure this is the first time I have had to type out Regirock's name in this top 10 list. So Regirock fans, this is for you, good job representing the new top 10 with Regirock. History can still be made in some ways, I guess. Apparently the main Regirock ability is Ice Scales, the items are mainly Weakness Policy with some Choice Band/Mirror Herb, they go Relaxed to max Defense, tera Ghost, and its main teammate is Ting-Lu (as well as Ting-Lu's highest teammate being Regirock). Interestingly Tera Grass and Fairy are both more popular than Tera Rock, which I guess shows how little Regirock is used by casuals.
Aside from that, Mega Abomasnow coming back from the depths is also kind of interesting. The top abilities of Purifying Salt and Comatose and top items of Choice Specs/Band are really not what I expected, having pretty much nothing in common with last month, and you would think status immunity kind of overlaps with Flower Veil, but I guess people could just be running this mon with tera Ghost for the raw stats. Looking around, Purifying Salt usage on some mons is actually kind of noticeable despite not having been posted about in this thread for a year, like it's 2nd for Slowbro, Type: Null, and Garganacl itself (though pretty far behind their main options), on top for Hoopa. Diancie, Tyranitar, Regidrago, Regice, Articuno, Tangrowth... well, maybe you shouldn't be applying salt to your ice or plants, eh.
Back to the main usage stats, Slowbro itself is the lead dark horse on the list, being just below Regirock at #11 with less than 4-digit uses (810 from the moveset file). The rise of Darkrai has continued since last month, making it up to #18 and still rolling with Ice Scales/Mirror Herb/Pecharunt, subsequently followed by fellow special attackers Blacephalon and the lower used Volcanion, both beating out Mega Gardevoir and Gallade. On the other hand, Iron Hands has fallen back since last time down to #23. The forementioned Hoopa has actually made a rare high appearance for itself at #26 with 385 uses as well, seems like it's mainly teammates with Slowbro and some Abomasnow, and this has made me notice that Normalium Z also counts towards having a "Nothing" tera type which also makes sense. Lastly, Shox is back to a more typical #30 placement after it somehow managed #11 last month.
Moving onto the moveset file, though I've pretty much gone into some highlights already, so this will just be ending off with looking through the top few viability ceilings (highest GXE of a player of that mon). Starting off at 82 is Pecharunt, leading two lists in one post, but also tied with Iron Hands similarly running Ice Scales/Relaxed shenanigans but with Mirror Herb.
Next up is a skip down to 80 with Mega Heracross (usual Intrepid Sword/Choice Band, but with Adamant leading over Brave and prime Pecharunt teammate) and Mega Banette (leading with Orichalcum Pulse and Poison Touch, Choice Band, and Lonely nature with Sableye/Heracross teammates).
Mega Ampharos has 79 to itself, representing Plus/Minus with more favour towards Plus, followed in 78 by Mega Gallade, also alone but similarly running Intrepid Sword, though with more Defiant representation and themed Gardevoir teammate preference.
Filling the rest out to just over 11 mons is a 5-way tie at 77, with Mega Venusaur (Flower Veil leading as Magic Bounce drops off behind Good as Gold, and Weakness Policy barely edging out over Choice Specs and Mirror Herb, with Pecharunt partner also leading), Mega Sableye (usual Magic Bounce but Covert Cloak takes a notable lead over other options like Mirror Herb, Bright Powder, and Sablenite), Necturna (sample team Thick Fat/Brave 0 Speed), Guzzlord (Pickup/Mirror Herb), and Snorlax (Dauntless Shield/Mirror Herb lead), which is kind of a nice weird pick to end off on, though its spot here is probably more due to wins with a Venusaur partner. Thanks for your reading.
EDIT: Oh yeah, this happened last month (though I was avoiding the letter h so it was kind of unclear) but hippobotas is not around based on Rotom-Wash usage being nonexistent.