Metagame Battlefields

[Imperator Romanum]

Temporary art by me:)

Permanent Field Conditions

Playable on: rom.psim.us​

It's a new meta so there might be unforseen glitches on the rom.psim, if something doesn't work please let us know. There is also no visual confirmation for certain field conditions still being active. It will look like tailwind has run out, but you will still get the speed increase, if not then let us know.

What is battlefields?
In Battlefields, any battlefield condition with a timer becomes permanent once activated, unless directly replaced, removed, or reversed. This includes all effects that apply to one side of the field, both sides, or the entire battlefield. Specifically, the following conditions become permanent:

• Weather (e.g. Sun, Rain, Sandstorm, Snow)
• Terrain (Grassy, Electric, Psychic, Misty)
• Room effects (Trick Room, Wonder Room, Magic Room)
• Gravity
• Screens (Reflect, Light Screen, Aurora Veil)
• Tailwind
• Safeguard
• Mist
• Quick Guard
• Wide Guard
• Magnetic Flux
• Fairy Lock

Available only in past gens or otherwise illegal

Lucky Chant, Pledge Move, Crafty Shield, Mat Block, Water Sport and Mud Sport

Battlefields echoes the Gen 5 weather wars, which shaped an entire generation and gave rise to unlikely threats. But Battlefields goes much further—extending permanence to Screens, Tailwind, Gravity, and much more—creating a dynamic metagame where control of the field is both the foundation and the endgame.

Banlist:
Clauses: Species Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Clause, Sleep Moves Clause
Abilities: Shadow Tag, Arena Trap, Moody, Sand Veil, Snow Cloak
Moves: Fairy Lock, Baton Pass, Shed Tail, Last Respects
Items: King's Rock, Razor Fang
Pokemon:

• Annihilape
• Arceus
• Calyrex-Ice
• Calyrex-Shadow
• Chi-Yu
• Deoxys-Attack
• Deoxys-Base
• Dialga
• Dialga-Origin
• Eternatus
• Giratina
• Giratina-Origin
• Groudon
• Ho-Oh
• Koraidon
• Kyogre
• Kyurem-Black
• Kyurem-White
• Lugia
• Lunala
• Mewtwo
• Magearna
• Miraidon
• Necrozma-Dawn-Wings
• Necrozma-Dusk-Mane
• Palkia
• Palkia-Origin
• Rayquaza
• Reshiram
• Shaymin-Sky
• Sneasler
• Spectrier
• Zacian
• Zacian-Crowned
• Zamazenta-Crowned
• Zekrom

Watchlist:

• Trick Room
• Tailwind
• Chlorophyll
• Swift Swim
• Slush Rush
• Sand rush

Strategy
Pokémon that benefit from consistent terrain, weather, or speed control—such as Swift Swim sweepers or Trick Room abusers—are significantly strengthened. With no timers limiting effects, strategies built around field synergy can define entire matches.

Offensive teams can stack multiple field effects to enhance their offensive prowess. Sun + Trick Room can support slow, hard-hitting threats such as Torkoal or Ursaluna. Gravity and sandstorm can be paired for fast and unavoidable ground attacks. Rain & Electric Terrain combine to create perfectly accurate boosted Thunder.

Defensive builds can lean on tools like permanent Screens, Safeguard, and Misty Terrain to mitigate status and chip damage over the long term. Pokémon like Alomomola, Corviknight, and Galarian Weezing provide valuable utility and disruption, especially when field denial becomes as important as field setup.

Victory in Battlefields will come down to who can seize, maintain, and adapt around field control—both in team preview and throughout the match.

Resources:

To be determined

Q&A:

To be determined

Council:

• Imperator Romanum
• Snaquaza

 

[Imperator Romanum]

Reserved

 

[InkyDarkBird]

Why are Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur allowed, especially with Snow being able to participate in the weather wars?

 

[VannAccessible]

It lives! Congratulations Imperator Romanum!

I’m glad you applied the clause to screens so Gravity and Trick Room can have a proper check. Given the crazy power level we’ll see here, that’s a good call.

Specifically to Gravity, I am worried about Landorus-T specifically being overbearing if Tera is also allowed, as Tera STAB Flying will allow it to hit Grass and Bug, the two remaining Ground resists, for SE damage.

Edit-Edit: I just learned both Safeguard and Mist can be Defog’d. They should be alright.

 

[Imperator Romanum]

Why are Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur allowed, especially with Snow being able to participate in the weather wars?

It's a good question and I'll take the opportunity to elaborate on the banlist as a whole.

We debated between two approaches when determining the inital banlist. We could take the SV OU banlist as our baseline or the traditional OM approach by unbanning *most* non-box legendaries such as Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur. Usually the latter is preferred when the OM is so all-encompassing that it's difficult to determine what will be too overpowering. Will Chien-Pao be overpowered in a metagame with permanent reflect and trick room? Will snow be able to compete with rain and sun? It's an inherently presumptive excercise to make such predictions. Chien-Pao was allowed in Trademarked and it wasn't particularly good - while Ogerpon-Heartflame was still way too strong.

However, as you might notice, some non-box legendaries are still banned. Notably Annihilape, Shaymin-S, Magearna, Annihilape, Sneasler, Chi-Yu and Last Respects. I outlined our reasoning for this in the submissions thread, the excerpt of which I've attached below

I also wanted to quickly mention the inital banlist I suggested. Fairy Lock is the only field condition I would suggest quick banning. Fairy Lock prevents both sides from manually switching for the rest of the game, which is easily abused by running pivoting moves - a devestating tactic if your opponent doesn't. I won't linger on it further.

On the initial pokemon banlist I considered going for the standard OU list, or something similar to trademarked. However, after discussion with Snaquaza we ended up making an executive decision to unban everything with the exception of the box legendaries and certain mons which I personally believe will be broken. These are Magearna, Shaymin-Sky, Annihilape, Sneasler, Chi-Yu and Last Respects. I assume everyone here knows what these pokemon do and why they are so strong. All of them, except perhaps Annihilape, benefit directly and immensely from terrains/weathers (Sneasler Unburden, Sun Chi-Yu, Swift Swim, Last Respect, Grassy Terrain Shaymin-S or Magearna in grassy terrain & rain having very few exploitable weaknesses). I won't dwell on it more. It's of course my own opinion here, and if you feel strongly about it then I wont push it, though they will probably be banned swiftly regardless.

This is of course a subjective and presumptive argument, but the line had to be drawn somewhere. Clearly Chien-Pao and Baxcalibur also benefit from permanent snow and we will keep a close eye on them. I think there's going to be a lot of overpowered strategies, broken combinations and overwhelming pokemon. However, we felt it was best to unban as much as possible, while still banning pokemon we believe to be either annoying to face or those which we're almost certain would be banned eventually . Once the metagame has time to stabilize, and if there's support for it, we could always suspect test them. In essence, we attempted to craft a banlist which would be as fun to play as possible. Not everyone will agree with the particulars, and that's of course fair. We'll ask for your patience until the metagame has seen some plays and a proper evaluation can be made.

It lives! Congratulations Imperator Romanum!


Specifically to Gravity, I am worried about Landorus-T specifically being overbearing if Tera is also allowed, as Tera STAB Flying will allow it to hit Grass and Bug, the two remaining Ground resists, for SE damage.

Edit: Oh Safeguard is being permitted? That one has no counter and will be a great fit on offense against fat.

Thank you! VannAccessible gets credit for the suggestion of expanding the premise to include asymmetrical effects.

It might be and it might not be, it's too difficult to say before the meta is played. Landorus-Therian would need to run Stomping Tantrum, EQ is stopped dead by Grassy Terrain and Wide Guard. We're going to be very hesitant to ban any of the field conditions, as they are the core of the metagame. Fairly Lock is the except, for reasons outlined earlier. From (limited) experience you do run into opportunity cost eventually. Finding space to run screens, safeguard, terrains etc gets quite difficult after a while. We will keep an eye on them of course, but the threshold for removing a field conditions is high - as it should be.

 

[VannAccessible]

Some other random thoughts.

I edited my post above, but Dunfan pointed out that Safeguard (and Mist) are removed by Defog. They should both be balanced as a result. :)

Defog is absolutely pivotal in this format, as it removes those as effects, as well as screens and terrains.

Ice Spinner will be a great move for terrain control.

Snow teams are a valid answer to Gravity as well, with Ice types getting a def boost to counter Ground spam.

Brick Break and Psychic Fangs should be very handy for offense, again, as they remove perma-screens. I noticed Solgaleo is absent from the ban list. Should be a nice thick Trick Room setter/unsetter with STAB Psychic Fangs.

These guys also get through those screens with crits or Infiltrator.

Misty Terrain is a nice check to the Guts mons like Conkeldurr and Ursaluna that Trick Room teams will want to spam. Magic Room also works for this role, and Magic Room hazard spam just sounds fun.

Will be curious to see if the weather speed abilities, Tailwind and Trick Room will make it.

Quick Guard gets extended? That one seems iffy, if it cannot be canceled, it completely neutralizes priority as counterplay to all the speed control options.

Probably too early to say on this guy, but we found Giratina to be a pretty balanced defensive piece in Twisted Dimension. It lacks consistent healing so it gets worn down over time, but since it can both counter Rain and Sun and Terrains with Defog, while being also more vulnerable to Snow and Sand, maybe it would be worth considering freeing as a healthy part of the meta.

 

[Clas]

what do you do versus gholdengo like real talk here.

i literally have nothing to add what do you do versus gholdengo

 

[Dawn's Piplup]

Lucky Chant, Pledge Move, Crafty Shield, Mat Block, Water Sport and Mud Sport

Just to add to this, Ion Deluge and Plasma Fists also belong here and we're robbed of them...

EDIT: Also Magnetic Flux might have been added there by mistake. Despite targeting user's side, this move is actually not turn based.

what do you do versus gholdengo like real talk here.

i literally have nothing to add what do you do versus gholdengo

You Wide Guard, then it's RIP MIR.

Some other random thoughts.

I edited my post above, but Dunfan pointed out that Safeguard (and Mist) are removed by Defog. They should both be balanced as a result. :)

Defog is absolutely pivotal in this format, as it removes those as effects, as well as screens and terrains.

Ice Spinner will be a great move for terrain control.

Snow teams are a valid answer to Gravity as well, with Ice types getting a def boost to counter Ground spam.

Brick Break and Psychic Fangs should be very handy for offense, again, as they remove perma-screens. I noticed Solgaleo is absent from the ban list. Should be a nice thick Trick Room setter/unsetter with STAB Psychic Fangs.

These guys also get through those screens with crits or Infiltrator.

Misty Terrain is a nice check to the Guts mons like Conkeldurr and Ursaluna that Trick Room teams will want to spam. Magic Room also works for this role, and Magic Room hazard spam just sounds fun.

Will be curious to see if the weather speed abilities, Tailwind and Trick Room will make it.

Quick Guard gets extended? That one seems iffy, if it cannot be canceled, it completely neutralizes priority as counterplay to all the speed control options.

Probably too early to say on this guy, but we found Giratina to be a pretty balanced defensive piece in Twisted Dimension. It lacks consistent healing so it gets worn down over time, but since it can both counter Rain and Sun and Terrains with Defog, while being also more vulnerable to Snow and Sand, maybe it would be worth considering freeing as a healthy part of the meta.

Feint, Hyperspace Hole and Hyperspace Fury seem like the only counter-play against Wide/Quick Guard, so they can be reversed.

 

[InkyDarkBird]

You Wide Guard, then it's RIP MIR.

Pretty sure Clas meant how do you prevent Gholdengo from simply switching in and blocking Defog from removing screens, Safeguard, Mist and/or a favorable terrain. The only 2 other options are Mold Breaker Defog (Hawlucha is horrible) or Psychic Fangs (also horrible and niche).

Ice Spinner can remove terrain, but it is also a relatively niche move only really used on Great Tusk and Iron Treads.

 

[Dawn's Piplup]

unrelatedly was testing my favorite thing to test in singles and came across this bug:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rom-gen9battlefields-2462058

 

[Rex]

its not in the list, but is perish song a field move? Would be absolutely nuts.

 

[Dasuma]

its not in the list, but is perish song a field move? Would be absolutely nuts.

I would think perish song is a status effect where the move targets all mons, rather than something effecting the field itself. in fact the bulbapedia article on status conditions includes perish song

 

[Imperator Romanum]

its not in the list, but is perish song a field move? Would be absolutely nuts.

It’s as Dasuma said yeah, though the thought of an infinitely long perish song countdown is pretty funny.

View attachment 746983

unrelatedly was testing my favorite thing to test in singles and came across this bug:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/rom-gen9battlefields-2462058

Wow I didn’t know it was technically possible to active the pledge moves in singles. They’re definitely field conditions so we’ll update the code accordingly. Perhaps we could hold a tournament on PS with a doubles format in the future, it would be fun to try!