Format Discussion Metronome Battle

[doipy hooves]

Well pyuk has pretty much summed it all up on point, so I may as well elaborate where I can out in the open.

As Pecharunt has fallen from the format, its rival Ogerpon rises in fitting fashion, so I may as well take this opportunity to write up an updated reference for Weird Ogerpon Mechanics that are surprisingly relevant, since my original 2023 first impression coverage would now be outdated in a couple notable aspects.

Choosing Ogerpon-Hearthflame-Tera and terastallizing makes you an unmon that has no stats. Don't do this.

Ogerpon tera formes terastallizing and having no stats is one half of the key behind that replay, and is not a thing anymore as of the changes made in https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/pull/10814. Now Ogerpon's tera formes can properly terastallize themselves, so as far as I know there shouldn't be any gameplay difference between picking a base masked forme versus the corresponding Tera forme to start. Or aesthetic difference as of now, since the PS models have no difference, other than how long your name is before you tera.

Only the form you pick in the teambuilder matters for most of Ogerpon's gameplay aspects, and for demonstration, you could try to represent all four elements in one Ogerpon set through forme/item/ability/tera type even if it's completely inefficient:

AWARE (Ogerpon-Cornerstone-Tera) @ Wellspring Mask
Ability: Embody Aspect (Teal)
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Metronome

In practice, this Ogerpon will just be a Grass/Rock type with no mask or stat boost, that will be able to go Tera Fire and get a Defense boost from Embody Aspect afterwards.

Ogerpon needs to hold the actual mask corresponding to its forme for the 20% power boost, and the Embody Aspect abilities can't trigger at the start of battle because the user has to be terastallized, so you can't double up on stat boosts like this.

I don't have much to add about the masks, but I did find in testing that there are some cases when the power boosts of these items may not actually affect damage compared to not having them. That is, when the 60 BP tera STAB floor kicks in either way after item boosts according to PS and the damage calc. So that's kind of a caveat but you still come out ahead for the most part.

252 SpA Wellspring Mask Tera Grass Ogerpon-Wellspring-Tera Absorb (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Ogerpon-Cornerstone: 66-78 (18.1 - 21.4%) -- possible 5HKO
252 SpA Tera Grass Ogerpon-Wellspring-Tera Absorb (60 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Ogerpon-Cornerstone: 66-78 (18.1 - 21.4%) -- possible 5HKO

The way Embody Aspect works now is that you get the Embody Aspect boost corresponding to the forme you pick in the teambuilder regardless of Tera type, so Rock/Cornerstone will always get Embody Aspect (Cornerstone) and raise Defense, and the same goes for Fire/Attack, Grass/Speed, and Water/Special Defense.

This is pretty much how it's worked before, except the Ogerpon formes were always forced into their respective tera types. Now, Ogerpon can freely choose between Grass/Fire/Water/Rock under normal circumstances, which would show up ingame with the respective special tera model. As mentioned, probably the most notable application of this is letting the Ogerpon formes stay as Grass types for Flower Veil while still keeping their respective boost, but it's options that Ogerpon didn't have before nonetheless.

But you can still choose other tera types in the teambuilder, and you can even still try to tera. It's just that (usually) in the actual SV game you would enter a softlock by doing so, so instead PS politely alerts with a public message that you tried to softlock the game and doesn't actually tera your Ogerpon.

(Both players attempting to tera an Ogerpon.)

This doesn't use up your tera option though, so you can keep failing to tera on every turn if you want like a taunt.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2374093105

But as also mentioned, there are certain other ways to get around this tera type limitation, involving not having Ogerpon's model on the field. This can be done through being an Imposter Ogerpon, which doesn't make you go tera form (and you can't tera if transformed into Ogerpon in general), or more relevantly being an Illusion Ogerpon, which allows you to make use of your own stats and is the other half of the mystery of that replay.

Overall Ogerpon may end up relatively limited in terms of its options in Metronome depending on how things go, since it will be the only mon physically unable to go Tera Ghost

So this particular quote is also untrue now, though it requires a very specific setup. But it is pretty satisfying to say that Illusion is now actually relevant for a mon's performance in a way other than just countering Imposter. Now I probably like Illusion a lot more than it deserves, and have made a point to acknowledge it over the years if you search in the thread. Some of it due to Illusion megas not breaking Illusion due to not having Illusion anymore being a meta thing in hackmons, and some more due to how it names your Illusion when you mega evolve which is still fun to see, and a little bit of Imposter anti-meta as long as you're in slot 1. But ultimately there's just something to having people bear witness to an impossibility when they least expect it with little explanation, and I think that's what Illusion is really all about.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373899806?p2

(Naming the mega stone still pretty much spoils the surprise, but still.)

But yeah, Illusion Ogerpon is free to go Tera Ghost or Tera Stellar or anything as long as its illusion is still up (and it's not also Illusioned into an Ogerpon because then your Illusion would disappear before tera goes through, which is how Zoroark works normally, but if you're also an Ogerpon underneath then you would softlock the game still, I think.)

Thankfully it is pretty obvious from Embody Aspect proccing when you are dealing with an Ogerpon (if you're already aware), more so than if it wasn't a thing, but otherwise the UI doesn't do you many favours here. Also, Illusion doesn't break on hit anymore since the ability is gone, not even on death. Instead, you create a red error message when you faint instead, which I would say is also as good as creating a hint message about not softlocking the game.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373419305?p2
(I think it was longer in the actual battle and also bug reported as I started unleashing it on ladder last night.)

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2374103153

From the tera user's POV, you see yourself as a normal Stellar/tera whatever mon when hovering over your mon, with the default ability of the illused Mega Venusaur as a supposed base, though Embody Aspect revealing itself should clear that up.

The opponent sees a similar view, though if it's Stellar they would see the (fake) base typing of the Illusion repeated.

Hovering over the minisprites, both players will see Thick Fat as the base ability and Grass/Poison as the current type.

But the switchout display will remind Ogerpon of its true identity if you forget you're playing Ogerpon, not that it really makes a difference at that point.

So this has already added much more options for Ogerpon and Illusion, even if they're not particularly relevant, but also it gives me an excuse to get into more weird Illusion interactions now that it's arguably a meta option as the only way for Ogerpon to use certain tera types.

Illusion Ogerpon Tera + Imposter manual mega evolution:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373890698

- You can go from seemingly 2 Pidgeots on a field with no actual Pidgeots to seemingly 2 Mega Pidgeots within the first turn and I just think that's pretty neat.
- Ogerpon's second tera update animation actually updates Ogerpon's base forme illusion into the mega evolution if you check out the replay.

Another note I stumbled upon is that Ogerpon is illusioned as a mon that is currently transformed into an Ogerpon forme, Ogerpon is still subject to its natural Tera type limitations despite not having an Ogerpon sprite, so it can't tera outside of Fire/Grass/Rock/Water. I couldn't tell you if this is exactly accurate behaviour but it's a thing and probably won't come up naturally enough to matter.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373896503

Otherwise if your Imposter partner is not currently an Ogerpon then you can use Illusion-exclusive teras just fine, though Ogerpon does not update into whatever the Imposter has become. I would guess it would only reflect natural form change updates in that sense?
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373893208

If you have an Illusion mega and an Imposter mon instead, you do get some name confusion with the Imposter's current species when you mega evolve:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373897810?p2
Well, this is actually kind of getting off track, because it has nothing to do with Ogerpon and is just a general Illusion Mega with Imposter partner thing that I was playing with back in 2018, which doesn't actually happen on cart but it's funny.

Again, running Imposter on Ogerpon doesn't make anything special happen when you tera (compared to Imposter on any other mon), but it means you have another option to run different tera types with Ogerpon if you want to. Though if you needed to win with an off-type tera Ogerpon for a self-imposed challenge or something, I imagine just going Illusion would be easier and more in the spirit of actually using Ogerpon.

So I think that's all I have to say about Ogerpon's new mechanics and niche Illusion setups for now, feel free to let me know if there's anything else I missed.

Ogerpon is the only Pokémon in the format that can change its ability without the use of an item like a mega stone

I wanted to point out Shaymin-Sky getting frozen into land Shaymin and getting Natural Cure, but thinking about it that case is more getting your ability/form changed completely involuntarily and unintentionally rather than changing your ability by choice (and the resulting ability has no use). But I still want to point it out because it is another case of a Grass legendary having an innate form change mechanic to it, and I like Shaymin. I'm pretty sure this did happen to me once in Gen 7, as unlikely as it was for Skymin to live an ice move at a point of the battle with Flower Veil down, but that replay is physically lost if it still exists.

EDIT:
Adding on to the "Illusion illusioned as an Imposter mon that is Impostered into an Ogerpon" case, using a valid tera like Grass will force the Illusion to wear off as if you were illusioned as Ogerpon directly.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2373892155

This Illusion wearing off bit also happens if your Illusion mon isn't even Ogerpon to begin with.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2374142244

But if your Imposter happens to be able to mega evolve and not be an Ogerpon anymore, then it's fine.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2374143676

So I guess Ogerpon can kind of mess up how this Illusion Imposter combo works against itself to boot, though I feel like there's some kind of uncharted edge right now to PS treating the Illusion as if it was a direct Illusion of Ogerpon because the Imposter being illused is currently an Ogerpon even though the original/current Illusion wasn't of an Ogerpon at any point.

 

[sunlightbear]

with the evil peach gone i'm gonna see if mr. bowlhead (ting-lu) has the sauce to replicate the ice scales abusing demon that pecharunt was - results will hopefully be promising

stinkier (Ting-Lu) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Stellar
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

smellier (Ting-Lu) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Stellar
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

 

[doipy hooves]

Happy June! The Switch 2 releases soon, and news updates and the release date for Legends Z-A are set for the year in July and October, hopefully yielding some more speculation as a sort of personal cue to the road less taken. It's been a little while, but I'm still battling.

Late but miscellaneous updates I noticed: Metronome Battle (and other current gen formats) have dropped the [Gen 9] prefix in the client. And also the popular items section of the teambuilder is more attuned to the format. Shoutouts to pyuk.

So I wasn't really expecting to have more meta news to follow up with after wiping all out with Ogerpon, but it turns out something pretty timely occurred right at the start of the month.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2377177235

Being able to set either gender indicator on genderless/gender unknown and genderlocked mons manually through Import/Export has been brought up before as a novelty and minor Attract-enabling tech that goes both ways.

However, a recent Showdown change (https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/pull/11161) has essentially made it so that the --/Random/default teambuilder option for non-genderlocked mons will now default to setting your mon as genderless/gender unknown if you don't set a gender. In practice this will probably just mean rolling Attract (the only move impacted by gender since Captivate got removed) will generally have less of an effect, as most players probably don't set specific genders deep inside the teambuilder to begin with, though I guess now it'll stand out more so. Personally I wouldn't compromise just for the love, but that's just a way of life.

Genderlocked mons are still a different case, but for the most part I expect that most mons like Blissey or Necturna will probably still be running their default genders on the ladder. You could always set them to Male by editing in the gender indicator in the personal/team importable view, but that's a bit more out of the way for something which will have less of an impact from now on anyway.

Though in the example I show above, there is a genderless Blissey in play, but you have to go even more out of the way to pull this off because the client does not naturally allow this as far as I can tell, so I don't expect it to be used that much for little gain.

If you manually validate a team with /utm (you can kind of see examples if you open Developer Tools in the browser and open the console) and set your gender to N there, you can set even genderlocked mons to be genderless, and I think this might have already been possible but oh well, it's relevant to mention now. Honestly, I feel like Blissey might still appreciate the possibility of getting Attracted to stall turns anyway.

tl;dr:
- The default gender for non-genderlocked mons is genderless now.
- I expect that this will probably be what most mons will be running on ladder now, more so because it's the default than out of Attract optimality.
- Genderlocked mons technically can be genderless, but probably won't unless you are locked in enough to care about it.
- But yeah, Attract will probably have a much lower success rate in practice from now on, and Cute Charm is doomed to be a much nicher ability than it already was, to say nothing of the chances of Destiny Knot ever successfully proccing (another unlikely self-imposed challenge to look for).
- I guess Rivalry doing nothing most of the time until it targets genderlocked mons might be better than having a coinflip to become weaker. Though I guess if you were fighting Imposter Blissey, you could try to give it Male Rivalry and lower its damage output to stall. I don't know.
- I think this tl;dr has become its own paragraph at this point, but I guess that's what happens when there's uncertain space you need to fill in with rambles and you're suddenly given three more dots to connect into rectangles.

---

Moving on into the usage stats of May 2025, this one's going to be an interesting preview of sorts as the harbinger peach Pecharunt was sealed away this month as an invitation to freedom, but we're not out of the danger zone just yet as it was only banned on the 20th/the last third of the month. There may not be a perfect time for any big change, after a year and a half of existence, more time under the influence making it all the more brutal to keep going with the flow or forcing it without determination. But the trigger was pulled, dropping the ban hammer down for its demolition, and it'll take another month to wait and see the full ramifications of how players play it on without it.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2025-05/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2025-05/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt

The battle count remains about steady with a slight drop to 28182, though I would say it's still pretty respectable compared to the year so far considering the absence of a certain hippobotas bot recently. Though there was an upsurge in March when it dropped off to begin with, so maybe I'm not giving enough credit to the human spirit's contribution.

May 2025: 1630-weighted top 10 + last month positions
#1: Mega Heracross (#2)
#2: Pecharunt (#1)
#3: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#4: Mega Ampharos (no change)
#5: Ting-Lu (#6)
#6: Mega Slowbro (#11)
#7: Blissey (#5)
#8: Mega Abomasnow (no change)
#9: Dragapult (#12)
#10: Dusclops (#13)

Even in its death throes before being sealed in stasis for a third of the month, Pecharunt still manages a 2nd place showing (and 3rd in raw usage) with its final soul phrase. Pecharunt, what a peach you are... May you never bear fruit again.

Not too much to say regarding how the meta has shifted in response yet with the mixed samples as of this month. Since last time, Sableye, Gengar, and Regirock have ducked out to let the next 3 places up instead. Mega Abomasnow is still hanging on though and has changed its set up again, now leading with Good as Gold and Weakness Policy/Covert Cloak/Choice Specs/Mirror Herb all over Choice Band, though most of its representation seems to come from partnering up wiith Ampharos. And Ting-Lu moved up a place for once, we'll be seeing if it really can be a worthy alternate protagonist to follow in Pecharunt's cinematic tale.

There are a few triple-digit use dark horses hanging around the top 20 like Iron Hands (Ice Scales with mainly Mirror Herb and Sassy leading over Relaxed now, and Abomasnow leading as a teammate), Ursaluna (mainly Choice Band, Scrappy, Impish leading over a distant Defiant, mixed on tera Ghost/Grass), and Pokestar UFO (Delta Stream x2). Also Ogerpon-Hearthflame hit exactly #100.

Going over the moveset file and viability ceilings (the top GXE a player using a mon had) next, the leader of this month is surprisingly not Pecharunt but the similarly pink, round, and morally-questionable food-based meta-ravaging mon Blissey at 83. What is there to say? It's Imposter Blissey with Leppa Berry. Sure, people seem to be running minspeed more often than not, and tera Ghost as well, but yeah. I guess keep an eye out for the potential resurgence of Imposters among us.

Now moving down to 82, Pecharunt finds itself at #2 twice in one post, fittingly after its #1 appearances last time. Even when it's bitter and in defeat, Pecharunt stands right back to its spot, go figure. The last hurrah for Pecharunt finds it with its well known Ice Scales set, with Weakness Policy leading more over Mirror Herb, primarily with minspeed Relaxed, tera Stellar, and a Pecharunt teammate. I find it worth noting that tera Poison has more named usage than tera Ghost, which goes to show how well keeping the Poison/Ghost type combo can work out on a tank rather than a glass cannon.

Next up at 80 are Mega Ampharos (leading with Plus, followed by Galvanize, followed by Minus, Hadron Engine, and Competitive) and Rhydon with a raw count of 84 but partnered up with Ampharos leading to this moment, seeming to be a Sap Sipper/Eviolite/minspeed Relaxed build. Another duo lies at 79 with Mega Heracross and Mew (Magic Bounce/Specs leading just over Competitive and Weakness Policy, neutral natures and double Mews barely leading).

Lastly but not quite rounding out to a top 11, there's a 5-way tie at 78 with Mega Venusaur (Flower Veil leading but Simple and Competitive over Magic Bounce, with Weakness Policy still taking a majority), Ting-Lu (Ice Scales still leads but Unaware has gained notable ground since last month), Iron Hands (mentioned earlier), Snorlax, and Marshadow (with both of those last two leading with Pickup Mirror Herb sets). Thanks for your reading and stay positive thinking.

 

[BunkBed_Junction]

How many games does it take to break someone?​

Well, it sure wasn't 18. Hey, I'm Gibbacchio and I've been playing Metronome Battles for a while. Ever since I perused that little OM section of teambuilder and stumbled across this metagame, I was enthralled by how much I could do with it.
I have done a ton of different teams, ranging from the quaint off-beat teams that can """Counter""" the most common threats to me just having fun with the new Pokémon. The ladder is what happened to me with a little berry team using only CAPs, which I'll share now.

Glass Tony (Aurumoth) @ Starf Berry
Ability: Harvest
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Metronome

Mutant Tony (Shox) @ Ability Shield
Ability: Desolate Land
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

I've been watching a lot of Nubby's Number Factory. I wanted to capture the feel of the game as well as I could through random chances and a teambuilder. What got churned out was a fun little Desolate Land team (with mons that didn't naturally benefit from it) and a niche berry that brought a ton of buffs when activated. While it took a minute for the Aurumoth to get low enough to get its berry procks, having a means of near-infinite buffs in the sun sounded appealing and I wanted to roll with it. I also opted to go with Shox because of its unique typing, CAP status, and slow-bulk stat distribution that gave me what I value a lot in Metronome Battles: Survivability.
Of course, the team isn't that good to really compete with fully optimized teams. The lack of reliable support that Desolate Land gives my team naturally leaves it vulnerable for all of the other weaknesses a Tera-Fire and Normal/Electric type would have. Not only that, but the issue of Water-type moves not existing could lead to my team not having a reliable move to use against the opponent; A double-edge sword that was only integral for one part of the team and most of the time led to more of a hindrance than a boon.

But, much like a boy driving a classic hot rod down a lit city street in the 70s, I was blinded by the light. I climbed by way up to the 1300s, which was the highest I ever made in any format before! The team was unique enough to have a novelty behind it and still have the power to burst through the metagame! I was rooting for those two Tonys like I was coaching snails and having the time of my life. It also helped that I made this team around the time I had exams and needed a way to destress, and this along with Nubby's Number Factory eased my worries entirely.
That is until some fateful day in June. I don't know when it happened, but the team just... fell apart? It wasn't even because of a horrible game that spelled disaster; I just started having really bad luck and all of the team's flaws started getting picked out one-by-one. I went from the top of my game to a string of unusual losses. And they just kept piling up! First 3, then 5, forward to 10; I had an 18-game loss streak-- maybe more if I didn't lose count-- and fell all the way back down to 1002 ELO, leaving me both bewildered and at a loss for words.

I write this post now after the streak had ended. I now stand right back where I started: A small team builder putting down their faith at the spin of a wheel. Was the team a failure? Absolutely not. I loved this team even on its worst days and I will stand by it being one of my favorites to use. But, is it time to put an end to an existence defined by a futile struggle, doomed from the very start? Perhaps. I'll explore this team when I feel like it, but I think it's time to shelve the Tonys for another day. It was a fun time and I can't wait to see what comes out of it once I get back on the teambuilder.
May this team rest easy as the sun burns for another day.

 

[Tapler]

Hey guys. So I am here with a quest: Make an entirely NEW Top 10 for this metagame. I know it sounds ridiculous, given the extreme popularity of every regular top 10 Pokemon. AND I'm making a post about this, so people could quite honestly just not use anything. But if there's anything I know about this tier, it's that people test things out every now and then. I wanna test out something new as well, so I give you the following Top 10 Pokemon, in no particular order.

So I thought this was cute, and I've been toying with making my own version of it since. Tragically, I'm also a massive tryhard, so instead of getting 10 experimental mons, I'm only giving 3 tools, which I firmly believe are all underexplored top tier threats. To put my money where my mouth is on that (and also compensate for the lack of quantity), I'm also giving pastes for a team with each tool, all among my favourites to use on ladder at present.

---

Silvally-Ghost
Mega Sableye is a fraud - if you're looking for a generic bulky Ghost, this is the first mon that should come to mind. 95 across the board might not sound that impressive, but that's damn near mythical; In fact, if I've run my rough numbers right (which you should never trust but if), factoring in natural typing and stats plus averaged move pulls, this is the single bulkiest base Pokemon in Metronome battle. 95/95 offences aren't bad at all for a mon this defensively-geared either, only really outdone by physically-biased tanks like Iron Hands and Ursaluna, and the Speed stat, while obviously the format's least important, does outrun every single other mon I'd call a threat. It's incredibly versatile, but that's also Silvally-Ghost's main struggle, as it's somewhat difficult to slot over other bulky mons with a clear niche: Ting-Lu with Weakness Policy, Iron Hands with an incredible attack stat, Dusclops for higher bulk in exchange for its item slot, and so on.

Sample Team

Fat Scales
A team that uses raw stats and typing to outvalue the opponent. Silvally-Ghost is a perfect non-Tera Ice Scales mon due to Ghost's immunities making it take a higher percentage of hits on the Special side. Iron Hands is used over the slightly tankier Ting-Lu because, on a team without strong scaling, high attacking stats are useful to close out games - this is also another benefit of Silvally here. Hands' high attack makes Band consistent value, while Silvally uses Mirror Herb to abuse its rounded stats, and even out early setup pulls or Defiant/Competitive/Weakness Policy procs.

---

Gourgeist-Super
I have spammed Necturna since SM. Even when the ladder was flooded with Steels that were blatantly stronger, I stood by it, pushing to 1500 with nothing but blood, sweat, and two thorny friends by my side. However, my understanding of Metronome has improved greatly over the past six years, and so finally, I've had to accept the truth: Gourgeist-Super is the best non-Tera Flower Veil abuser in Metronome, and it always has been. The reason is simple - off of typing and stats, it's the tankiest Grass type, and Flower Veil teams, between the RNG mitigation of Veil and near-mandatory use of Weakness Policy to justify double Grass, inherently benefit from drawing games out as long as possible. Its offences aren't impressive, but aren't bad either, with 100 attack as the main source of damage helping to offset a mediocre 58 special attack. There is no reason to ever use this outside of Flower Veil, but its niche is, in my eyes, uncontested.

Sample Team

Tryhard Veil
Gourgeist has the highest bulk of any natural Grass-type, and Ting-Lu has the highest defensive base stats available for the Tera slot, making them the ideal pair for a Grass-locked strategy that benefits from long games. Flower Veil always goes on the fatter mon if possible, since it supports both. Weakness Policy is vital on Flower Veil builds as a way to generate value from Grass's horrific set of weaknesses. While Ice Scales gives more bulk overall, Dauntless Shield is preferred here as a way to proc opposing Mirror Herb, clearing the way for Weakness Policy to activate safely.

---

Unaware
This is, perhaps fittingly, the most slept on ability in the format. It's similar to the likes of Good as Gold or Lightning Rod in that it shuts out a portion of the opponent's move pulls, in this case nullifying the benefits of stat boosting moves that can often snowball over longer games. Unlike the others though, it doesn't just give passive value via Metronome RNG - it's among the most anti-meta abilities in the format. Intrepid Sword, Dauntless Shield, Weakness Policy, Mirror Herb, Defiant, Competitive, Simple, and more, are all nullified on the spot. It's this duality that makes it so unique and potent. Anti-meta strategies like Mummy and Pickup Herb tend to struggle into anything offbeat that doesn't play into their shenanigans. Passive value strategies like the aforementioned Good as Gold and Lightning Rod tend to struggle into more meta strategies that outscale them or blitz through them. But Unaware? It plays both sides. And that makes it one of the most consistent abilities in the entire game.

Sample Team

Unaware WP
Ting-Lu's incredible natural bulk and high number of weaknesses (and immunities) are tailor made for Weakness Policy. Unaware runs quadruple duty here, shutting down booster move pulls, shutting down many scaling strategies, shutting down Mirror Herb for safe use of Weakness Policy, and shutting down Intrepid Sword to give you a chance against some fast teams that normally wipe this sort of scaling build with ease. Tera is very flexible here - sometimes you pop it turn 1 to survive longer such as against HO or Imposter, sometimes you use it immediately after Weakness Policy goes off to maximize the value you get from the boosts, sometimes you use it after getting another broken pull like Magma Storm or Shell Smash - it's weirdly got a lot of room for skill expression, and honestly, that's solidified it as my favourite Metronome Battle team of all time.

---

One last little aside, this mon is so cool as a Weakness Policy abuser on paper, but it's just never clicked in practice for me. Maybe someone else can crack the code on it?

 

[doipy hooves]

Silvally-Ghost
Mega Sableye is a fraud - if you're looking for a generic bulky Ghost, this is the first mon that should come to mind. 95 across the board might not sound that impressive, but that's damn near mythical; In fact, if I've run my rough numbers right (which you should never trust but if), factoring in natural typing and stats plus averaged move pulls, this is the single bulkiest base Pokemon in Metronome battle.

I think I can kind of support this as well for what it's worth, because I remember fwqef telling me a similar result about how Silvally-Ghost ranked defensively back in 2019, even pre-Gen 8 when Silvally formes were still item and ability locked. Now the exact details elude me, but it does sound about right and I do still have a fond opinion of it looking back. Plus it has the niche of being naturally immune to type changes, though now I suppose you can have any single mon pull that off with Tera. But yeah, this post was a pretty nice shout in hindsight looking ahead at June's usage stats..

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While the Pokemon Presents is still to come later this month, in other Smogon news, the new CAP 36 (Ramnarok, officially named just hours ago) has settled upon a stat spread (or two), though only its Fire/Ice forme can be used because the other one is Fire/Steel and banned, which is a shame because they are both 600 BST and the unusable one is actually fairly bulky with a 110 HP / 63 Atk / 104 Def / 104 SpA / 134 SpD / 85 Spe spread.

Instead, the usable Fire/Ice forme has 110 HP / 63 Atk / 85 Def / 134 SpA / 54 SpD / 154 Spe, ramping up Speed and Special Attack while sacrificing a lot of Special Defense and some Defense, kind of like Shaymin-Sky but more lopsided. In terms of where this stands relatively, 154 Speed notably puts it as the 4th fastest option in the game at least according to a quick teambuilder sort. Not that having really high Speed and leaning towards Special Attack is that great or demanding of an archetype to join, but it at least has pretty high HP compared to its competition which mostly doesn't even hit 100+ HP.

In terms of other base Fire/Ice types, the only other one for reference is Darmanitan-Galar-Zen and its 105/160/55/30/55/135 spread, which is actually kind of similar but more minmaxed and arguably better by focusing on Attack? Not that being Fire/Ice is a great defensive typing to work with either over being a pure Fire-type, but on the offensive side, you do get both STAB boosts even post-tera, so you could double down on tera Fire and hit a Grass type really hard? I wonder if that actually does anything relevant.

252+ SpA Tera Fire Ramnarok (134 SpA) Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 308-364 (84.6 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

So I guess you can OHKO a neutral nature Venusaur if you get the max damage roll on tera Fire Flamethrower. Though other Fire types with >134 SpA can do the same, of which there are quite a few. But with Choice Specs you don't even need the Tera and could also hit that with Ice Beam too.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Ramnarok (134 SpA) Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Venusaur-Mega: 344-408 (94.5 - 112%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

And the other neat thing you can do with faster mons is run King's Rock and Serene Grace for 20% flinches on top of introducing more hax... I might be trying too hard to find something to talk about here for a fast mon unfavoured by fate, but it looks cool at least.

Also speaking of speed, I don't know if I've ever noticed this, but Zeraora and Dragapult have very similar stat spreads with single-digit differences, which is a bit interesting when one appears in the monthly top 10 occasionally and the other is barely discussed at all. That natural dual Dragon and Ghost typing goes a long way for the latter to stand out, and maybe also being shown earlier in the teambuilder when sorting by both base alphabetical order and BST. (Also I think Dragapult is cooler than Zeraora, or at least proven to be more popular being the #1 Galar mon in that 2020 popularity contest.)

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Getting back on track to the usage stats of June 2025, this past month will show the complete ramifications of a new world without Pecharunt, marking a full year since Pecharunt's first #1 ranking back in June 2024. Which reminds me to say, happy Bidoof Day and/or halfway mark of the year, depending on when I finish this post, eh. It's coming pretty close to midnight as of writing, but either way this also marks 5 years of posting about usage stats, 35 pages/~876 posts later.

In a way, everything has changed yet nothing has changed since then, but all remains dynamic and ever-changing by the day. I could say some selfish or sentimental stuff about this whole series and style of regular long-form posting, the small slice of the old forum culture's Internet it still stays on for now, and the serendipitous but somewhat relatively stable place it's inscribed into my life; but instead, I'll give a shared thanks to all the contributors and players and readers of this format and thread over time, even those just playing a single battle for fun that may never return or see this post, because there wouldn't be something to read or write about otherwise. It's always nice to see thoughts going around, as well.

So with that, back to getting back on track.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2025-06/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2025-06/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt

The battle count dips again to 23752, lower than the start of the year, but actually more than the same month last year.

June 2025: 1630-weighted top 10 + last month positions
#1: Mega Heracross (no change)
#2: Ting-Lu (#5)
#3: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#4: Mega Ampharos (no change)
#5: Blissey (#7)
#6: Mega Slowbro (no change)
#7: Dragapult (#9)
#8: Dusclops (#10)
#9: Iron Hands (#17)
#10: Necturna (#12)

Notably, Pecharunt is gone, and Ting-Lu has indeed reclaimed its former claim to fame as The bulky mon among mons, absorbing Pecharunt's leftover raw uses for major gains (2911 to 4586, moveset file stats) when most other mons have dropped with less games.

Regarding its variety of potential sets, it seems that Ice Scales has pushed a further lead over Unaware, almost gaining the majority of weighted usage at 47.5%. Minspeed Relaxed seems to still be going strong, and a main difference from last month is that tera Stellar has barely overtaken Ghost for prime tera type usage 44% to 41% (only under weighted usage, not raw where Ghost wins 42% to 34%, but still closer than last month's raw stats when Ghost had 46%, Grass was 18%, and Stellar was 16%), most likely due to the sunlightbear post above aiming to simulate Pecharunt, but it's still interesting to see the practical change in action.

Also despite having 6% Flower Veil usage, there is still 10% tera Grass usage, which goes to show the usage of Flower Veil on a different mon supporting a potentially fat Ting-Lu, I guess. Goes to show the flexibility and selflessness of Flower Veil and its power of role compression in one effect across the whole team that you can still further stack another ability onto. I still find it so neat how this usually forgettable ability just feels like it fits perfectly for a particular niche in this environment, while still having an unignorable requirement. Man I love Flower Veil.

Not much else has changed within the top 10, but since last time, Blissey has risen in place and usage as well, and Abomasnow has also fallen, and Iron Hands and Necturna have stepped back up into the limelight. The former is a notable dark horse here with 635 raw uses, mainly with both Mega Heracross and Silvally-Ghost as partners.

Indeed, the other immediately noticed dark horse of Silvally-Ghost made it to #14 (277 raw uses from the moveset file), right under Mega Gengar's 2000~ uses, even with just only being publicly mentioned again a week ago. The linked Fat Scales team seems to be the most popular version, though it has a fair bit of alternate Ting-Lu teammate use as well. Also from the same post, Gourgeist-Super shows up at #25 with an even lower 134 raw uses, with 2/3rds represented by the Dauntless Shield/Weakness Policy set and the remaining being Ice Scales/Mirror Herb, with both still being Relaxed and partnered with Ting-Lu, though I notice there's conversely more usage for Tera Ghost than Stellar.

I would also like to shout out Glastrier making #11 with quite a bit of raw uses (2685), because it's been doing pretty well for itself just outside the top 10 as well, and that puts it at #6 in terms of just raw usage, above even the popular ghosts like Gengar, Dragapult, Sableye, and Hisuian Zoroark. Though it seems like it's commonly being run as a Ghost itself, and an Unaware one at that, though the Defiant and Simple usage combined rival it.

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Moving into the moveset file and looking towards the viability ceilings (max GXE of a user of a mon), once again the leader of the month is not who you would probably expect like last month's Blissey or the new riser Ting-Lu or old Heracross, but is instead Mega Slowbro alone at 86, significantly ahead of all others. Ability usage seems to be mainly split between Competitive/Ice Scales/Unaware, though Weakness Policy has a major lead over Mirror Herb. Tera Ghost (39%) leads over Stellar (27%).

For some reason, the spreads show Quiet with 240 Speed EVs as the highest usage just over minspeed Relaxed, and I have no idea what that (140 raw Speed stat) would hit over minspeed or 252 Speed (143 speed). Maybe because the viability ceiling is only for one mon, this is some double Slowbro team and they want one to act first consistently, or at least have one minspeed for Perish Song while having a faster one to still take advantage of speed drops, while still underspeeding 252 Speed Slowbro? I really don't know, but all I can say is that last month, 252 Quiet was in the majority lead and this month it's nowhere to be seen. Maybe it is just to stand out.

Going forward and skipping a few steps, the next highest viability ceiling is 83 tied between Ting-Lu and Mega Camerupt (mainly Storm Drain, but split between Clear Amulet/Weakness Policy and Quiet 252 Speed/Brave minspeed). Tera Ghost leads as well (35%), but Ground and Fire are surprisingly split at 24%/22% and both above Stellar.

Skipping another step takes us down to 81 with Imposter Blissey, and Imposter set usage has gone up, along with Blissey teammates, tera Ghost usage, and also Relaxed minspeed is in the lead compared to last month's Sassy minspeed, though the combination of Quirky and Hardy would be greater than it. Now I suppose Relaxed is all right for Blissey vs. Blissey showdowns, but I don't know what brings someone to pick one neutral nature over another. Personally the nature I associate neutral natures with is Serious, probably because it was chosen for the Serious Mint.

Viability ceiling 80 has a 5-way tie between Heracross (typical Attack stuff, but notable 12% Defiant and 7% Mind's Eye and Pixilate usage...), Venusaur (still majority Flower Veil, but Good as Gold is over Magic Bounce and WP still over Herb, and mainly Heracross partners), Necturna (still typically sample Thick Fat with Brave minspeed, also Venusaur's 2nd main partner), Pokestar UFO (Delta Stream/Mirror Herb), and Enamorus-Therian (Delta Stream, but Choice Band leading over Mirror Herb).

Lastly, we can round out to a nice list of 10 mons, just one point down at 79 with Mega Ampharos alone (Plus/Minus both with more of a lead over Hadron Engine, Competitive, and Galvanize, but also Mega Heracross barely being more of a partner than fellow Ampharos). Thanks for your reading.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about Dragapult again, and there has been some new weird stuff going on with it that I've admittedly overlooked. It's been running mainly Fluffy/Mirror Herb for the past three months/since April (though Fluffy usage has been going down from 54% to 37%) instead of its typical potpourri of viable abilities and items, and seems to be with a Ting-Lu partner and Dragon tera (assuming it's not the designated tera user of the party). Also, it's been leading with a Naive (+Speed/-SpDef) nature, and I assume it's been the same person consistently for that reason. So I guess my tangent about speed could actually come full circle here.

 

[Game Brain]

Don't plan to return to the format anytime soon, just because someone created/moderates it coming in and banning mons on whim with no suspect or anything like that hit me the wrong way and was gone for a while. I was by far the most active player during pecha meta earlier this year, getting multiple teams with different combinations into 1500 and posting everything here (there was a point where about half of the top 10 accounts were mine). I even developed a bot with a friend to help test team combinations. Most active players recognized ice scales as the problem. I had dmed Ivy over 5 months ago about setting up some greater community, to this day no response. Just show up, ban something because there's a few posts on the most recent page saying it should be banned, and don't talk again for months on the format. I understand these are side formats, but I don't understand how I'm supposed to be invested in something moderated like this. Sorry if this post comes off as toxic, but I wanted to post something instead of just disappearing. I tried hard to get some type of discord idea going beyond these forums to create some larger community sense. I tried to emphasize that forums don't reflect the ladder, as the two consistent best teams weren’t double pecha, and the double ampha team which usually had the fastest climb team didn't have pecha in it at all. It didn't matter I guess. Don’t care to try much anymore.

 

[sunlightbear]

back at #1 on the ladder (again :3) and figured i'd share the team that got me there

homer (Ampharos-Mega) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Plus
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

pink homer (Ampharos-Mega) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Minus
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

i never really gave much thought to mega ampharos before trying this team, figuring since double m-heracross teams never gave me much success that this'd be about the same, but WOW, these fluffy fellas are super good in this format. their very respectable bulk and decent physical attack combined with utterly monstrous special attack means that walling them even with stuff like the ice scales ting-lu team i cooked up really just doesn't work all too well.

plus & minus actually make for a much better combination than i thought, considering stuff like entrainment tends to just leave whoever gets targeted with a useless ability. (also the rare magnetic flux pull is nice!)

as for the tera type i think i'm again realizing how valuable having a ghost type really is, especially considering that the boost from tera stellar really hasn't been as impactful as i'd like it to be.

i'm hoping the metagame continues to evolve with new tech getting discovered, and i look forward to the shenanigans that ensue :3

 

[Wearth]

back at #1 on the ladder (again :3) and figured i'd share the team that got me there

homer (Ampharos-Mega) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Plus
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

pink homer (Ampharos-Mega) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Minus
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

i never really gave much thought to mega ampharos before trying this team, figuring since double m-heracross teams never gave me much success that this'd be about the same, but WOW, these fluffy fellas are super good in this format. their very respectable bulk and decent physical attack combined with utterly monstrous special attack means that walling them even with stuff like the ice scales ting-lu team i cooked up really just doesn't work all too well.

plus & minus actually make for a much better combination than i thought, considering stuff like entrainment tends to just leave whoever gets targeted with a useless ability. (also the rare magnetic flux pull is nice!)

as for the tera type i think i'm again realizing how valuable having a ghost type really is, especially considering that the boost from tera stellar really hasn't been as impactful as i'd like it to be.

i'm hoping the metagame continues to evolve with new tech getting discovered, and i look forward to the shenanigans that ensue :3

I used this post as inspiration, but I swapped the second Ampharos-M for Gengar-M, as I found two ghost types to be more valuable than the additional bulk. I would alternate between this, and an ice scales Iron Hands/Silvally-Ghost team to claim the new #1 ladder spot! Fun gamemode and I'm sure ill keep checking in every once in awhile.

 

[InkyDarkBird]

Hey all, I decided to make a giant spreadsheet of all Metronome moves with some graphs because I was bored.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GYJoKB_k3FO9XkdoWc-Pmlxnq49s318aB4VVseEcoUw/edit?usp=sharing

(sneak peek)

"EFFECTIVE BP" refers to the base power of a move multiplied by its accuracy in most cases.

Moves that always have an undefined base power (Sheer Cold, Counter, etc) are not included in the graphs.
The base power of multihit moves is their average base power, assuming the first hit is 100% accurate.
I took the Triple Kick and Triple Axel values from Bulbapedia for effective BP because I was lazy.
Moves that have variable base powers (Crush Grip, Heavy Slam, etc) I tried to make have the base power be correct for the majority of scenarios or be the average. For example, Beat Up's base power is 35 because 17.5 + 17.5 = 35 (dual Ting-Lu, somewhat common, also is close to Mega Venusaur + Heracross)
Spit Up has 0 BP because a Pokemon using Stockpile and then Spit Up in that order is ridiculously rare.
Sucker Punch and Upper Hand both have 0 BP since they are unable to be used (besides Upper Hand hitting a protective status move or Prankster)

If you guys have any other graph ideas or want to nitpick my base power values, feel free to suggest them.

 

[BunkBed_Junction]

I remember when I was scared of this
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2406776753-8u9m3shs311ksygpxm4wfwgliqxt4w3pw

 

[Wearth]

Hey all, I decided to make a giant spreadsheet of all Metronome moves with some graphs because I was bored.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GYJoKB_k3FO9XkdoWc-Pmlxnq49s318aB4VVseEcoUw/edit?usp=sharing
View attachment 757250
(sneak peek)

"EFFECTIVE BP" refers to the base power of a move multiplied by its accuracy in most cases.

Moves that always have an undefined base power (Sheer Cold, Counter, etc) are not included in the graphs.
The base power of multihit moves is their average base power, assuming the first hit is 100% accurate.
I took the Triple Kick and Triple Axel values from Bulbapedia for effective BP because I was lazy.
Moves that have variable base powers (Crush Grip, Heavy Slam, etc) I tried to make have the base power be correct for the majority of scenarios or be the average. For example, Beat Up's base power is 35 because 17.5 + 17.5 = 35 (dual Ting-Lu, somewhat common, also is close to Mega Venusaur + Heracross)
Spit Up has 0 BP because a Pokemon using Stockpile and then Spit Up in that order is ridiculously rare.
Sucker Punch and Upper Hand both have 0 BP since they are unable to be used (besides Upper Hand hitting a protective status move or Prankster)

If you guys have any other graph ideas or want to nitpick my base power values, feel free to suggest them.

Out of curiosity, would sucker punch work if the opponent is using struggle?

 

[InkyDarkBird]

Out of curiosity, would sucker punch work if the opponent is using struggle?

Yes, but this situation is extremely rare and if the opponent is in a position where their Pokemon are Struggling, then it is likely that they will lose the game anyways.

 

[doipy hooves]

(Not the monthly stats post; sorry in advance. I have to admit that I've started late (relatively even for me) and am probably not due to finish writing the rest at a reasonable time tonight, but all the preambly ramble already above below could have probably been a reply earlier last month just as well, so I've cut my losses here and should hopefully get through August's stats proper over the weekend. In fact this should probably be at the top of the post. You can probably tell that my stream of consciousness shows in these posts to a degree, and trying to word well and clean it up is another aspect I usually try to do at the same time, which does take longer and it's not really coming together as smoothly. I think this paragraph alone has taken noticeably more time since when I first intended to stop at, so I'll call it there.)

Sucker Punch and Upper Hand both have 0 BP since they are unable to be used (besides Upper Hand hitting a protective status move or Prankster)

Interesting to see the move data laid out for reference like this through various graphs. I like the offensive type pie chart as a reference for type distribution.

The only thing that comes to mind as a nitpick right now is that Thunderclap is a Sucker Punch clone too, and both can also potentially hit on multi-turn attacking moves like Outrage, which is at least more likely to succeed in a battle than Upper Hand's matchup specific proc. Also, Fickle Beam is marked as 80 on the sheet while its average base power is 104 because of the 30% 160 BP effect.

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I also want to correct myself on the state of Illusion Ogerpon. According to the battle mechanics thread, it turns out that Ogerpon should actually break its illusion when activating Tera, and so most of those confusing visual interactions detailed about permanent Illusions staying up should not actually occur ingame.

I believe this means that Ogerpon shouldn't actually be able to terastallize into non-Fire/Water/Grass/Rock types anymore either, because breaking the illusion would (hypothetically) still softlock the game afterwards trying to load a non-existent form change, so it turns out that Ogerpon's one weird niche to be less niche is back to still being niche. Oh well.

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In terms of official game news from the Presents, Legends Z-A has revealed the possibility of new megas with Mega Dragonite, which is very likely to be irrelevant to this format because it will have 700 BST following the +100 BST mega stat trend, but it adds more validity to a certain leak that I won't comment on further because there's not much else to go on. I will just say that I hope the game truly does release with more than 1 new mega that is usable in Metronome Battles, though I also hope they reveal more than one in the next 2 months too, maybe at Worlds.

Also Champions seems to only have the Serious nature as a neutral option, which is kind of timely after my last post mentioning the Serious nature. At this point I can only wonder if Metronome (the move) will even exist in Champions, seeing as the "rentals" seem to have competitive movesets at base and they've seemingly removed the other "fun" flavour from teambuilding like IVs and EVs in favour of raw stat points (though gender still exists and is visible in the rental screen and team preview still and is seemingly unchangeable).

Not that it matters too much but that's probably the main thing about the game I would be interested in checking. The main reason I feel like they wouldn't bother with including Metronome is because move descriptions in Champions seem to be more specifically mentioning exact percentages for power boosts and move procs, and so I feel like a proper competitive move description for Metronome should be like Showdown's and mention every move it can or can't pick if they want to be specific. I don't think this is something that will be confirmed until release though unless they show a mon's full moveset list.

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