Metagame [Gen 9] Modern Gen 3

[SwordIsBored]

Discord Server Here!

What is Modern Gen 3?
Modern Gen 3 (MG3) is a solomod that allows every move, type and Pokemon from Gen 9 National Dex in Gen 3, creating a distinctly unique metagame. Mechanics are taken from gen3customgame on PS! and are not defined by the council.

Challenge Code

/challenge gen3customgame @@@ !! Max Level = 100, !! Max Team Size = 6, !! Max Move Count = 4, Obtainable Formes, Sleep Clause Mod, Endless Battle Clause, OHKO Clause, Evasion Moves Clause, Species Clause, -Arceus, -Basculegion, -Basculegion-F, -Calyrex-Ice, -Calyrex-Shadow, -Chi-Yu, -Darkrai, -Deoxys, -Deoxys-Attack, -Deoxys-Speed, -Dialga, -Eternatus, -Genesect, -Giratina, -Groudon, -Ho-oh, -Iron Bundle, -Koraidon, -Kyogre, -Kyurem-White, -Lugia, -Lunala, -Magearna, -Marshadow, -Miraidon, -Naganadel, -Necrozma-Dusk-Mane, -Necrozma-Dawn-Wings, -Palkia, -Pheromosa, -Rayquaza, -Reshiram, -Shaymin-Sky, -Solgaleo, -Walking Wake, -Xerneas, -Yveltal, -Zacian, -Zamazenta, -Zekrom, -Zygarde, -Aerodactylite, -Alakazite, -Salamencite, -Blastoisinite, -Gengarite, -Kangaskhanite, -Lucarionite, -Bright Powder, -Lax Incense, -Kings Rock, -Razor Fang, -Soul Dew, -Assist, -Baton Pass, -Shed Tail, -Arena Trap, -Battle Bond, -Moody, -Power Construct, -Sand Rush, -Sand Veil, -Shadow Tag, -Snow Cloak, EV Limit = 510

Here's a rundown of MG3's mechanics:

• Field effects (hazards, weather, etc), items and abilities are all present unlike other Modern Generation metagames.
• Moves and Pokemon that existed in ADV are unchanged. This includes things such as Clefable's Normal-typing and Drain Punch having 60 base power. Moves from future generations usually behave the way they do the generation they were introduced. As well as this, mega evolution works whilst Z-Moves do not.
• Standard ADV mechanics, such as no physical / special split (even for future gen moves), weather abilities set eternal weathers, etc...
• Some stuff behave in a quite unexpected way, more infos here. Most notably, Steel does not resist fairy.
  
  Council:
  Clastia
  Copen
  SwordIsBored

 

[SwordIsBored]

Ruleset:
Banned Pokemon
Arceus
Basculegion
Basculegion-F
Calyrex-Ice
Calyrex-Shadow
Chi-Yu
Darkrai
Deoxys
Deoxys-Attack
Deoxys-Speed
Dialga
Eternatus
Genesect
Giratina
Groudon
Ho-oh
Iron Bundle
Koraidon
Kyogre
Kyurem-White
Lugia
Lunala
Magearna
Marshadow
Mewtwo
Miraidon
Naganadel
Necrozma-Dusk-Mane
Necrozma-Dawn-Wings
Palkia
Pheromosa
Rayquaza
Reshiram
Shaymin-Sky
Solgaleo
Xerneas
Yveltal
Zacian
Zamazenta
Zekrom
Zygarde

Banned Moves

• Assist, Baton Pass, Shed Tail

Banned Abilities

• Arena Trap, Battle Bond, Shadow Tag, Sand Veil, Snow Cloak, Moody, Sand Rush, Power Construct

Banned Items

• Aerodactylite, Alakazite, Salamencite, Blastoisinite, Gengarite, Kangaskhanite, Lucarionite

Clauses

• HP Percentage Mod: HP is shown in percentages
• Sleep Clause Mod: Limit one foe put to sleep
• Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
• OHKO Clause: OHKO moves are banned
• Evasion Moves Clause: Evasion moves are banned
• Species Clause: Limit one of each Pokémon

 

[SwordIsBored]

reserved

 

[SwordIsBored]

reserved

 

[SwordIsBored]

reserved

 

[Yoshiblaze]

Hello!

Unfortunately, MG3 hasn't been approved to have its own thread yet (only MG1 and MG2 were approved at the beginning of the generation, and they chose to have separate threads for each rather than 1 MG Megathread), so I'll have to lock this for now. Just let us know when/if you want to apply for thread approval and I'll talk with the other mods about it.

Have a nice day!

 

[Yoshiblaze]

In accordance with this post, I am now unlocking this thread and your regularly scheduled MG3ing may resume.

Have fun!

 

[Turtlek]

Hi! Wanted to say you did an awesome work! I got softlocked while using Revival Blessing, is it known?

 

[SwordIsBored]

Hi! Wanted to say you did an awesome work! I got softlocked while using Revival Blessing, is it known?

Thank you! Also no this isn't known, thank you for discovering this. I don't know what you mean by "soft lock" exactly though.

(Also I saw you wanting to be a sub for the tour, sadly you can't anymore but if you want to play games I highly recommend you join the discord!)

Edit: (This is confirmed to be true and now Revival Blessing is banned.)

Edit2: (Revival Blessing is unbanned.)

 

[SwordIsBored]

At the beginnings of the metagame, Sand was the most prevalent weather by far with Rain falling short behind it. However, with Sand Rush banned Rain quickly rise to the top and many people are conflicted with their opinions on how to answer it. Many disagree with which Pokémon they think are the problem, whether weather abilities should be banned as a whole or if Swift Swim should be banned.

I would like to discuss all of the staples of Rain individually and explain why they are problematic I encourage you to also say your thoughts on the topic in the thread if you are interested.

THE BIG THREE OF OFFENSIVE RAIN

Iron Bundle

Iron Bundle immediately sticks out as a potent abuser of Rain, despite it's limited coverage the combination of Hydro Pump, Ice Beam and Freeze-Dry make this Pokemon's attacks impossible to resist. The most seen counter play to this Pokemon's high power is to whittle it down with hazards or hope that it locks itself into an unideal move with Choice Specs. This Pokemon's weakness to hazards and inability to switch moves can be solved with Heavy Duty Boots however and the choice of item makes it hard to handle, Booster Energy is also a valid item. Flip Turn becoming special also gives it a powerful pivoting option.

Greninja

Greninja has garnered a lot more attention in the past few days, many vocally speak of wanting it to be banned and its obscene power with an incredibly high damaging priority move encourages people to think this way. It is prominently used with Choice Specs in which it can fire off high damaging Hydro Pumps, Dark Pulses and Water Shurikens. The main way to handle this powerful frog is to bring a Ferrothorn, Ferrothorn is naturally powerful against Rain and resists both of Greninja's STAB options.

Mega Aerodactyl

Much like Greninja, people believe this Pokemon is a problem when combined with Rain. Due to Hurricane receiving 100% accuracy under Rain, Mega Aerodactyl gains an incredibly powerful Flying-type STAB option which is hard to switch into due to its 30% confuse chance and high base power. Though this is a great trait, it mainly shines in its speed stat and powerful Rock-type moves to hit Fire-types under Sun.

These are what I think are the main problems with Rain, Rain has many utility and defensive options such as Tapu Koko and Ferrothorn but they are no where near as overbearing as these offensive threats. This is my opinion though and you are free to disagree, for now the council is thinking about taking action on Iron Bundle first and maybe restricting Battle Bond.

 

[SwordIsBored]

The menace Iron Bundle is now banned! Magearna, Chi-Yu and Battle Bond are being considered for bans next. More info on Discord.

 

[SwordIsBored]

Shaymin-Sky, Basculegion and Shed Tail have now been banned from MG3!



Shaymin-Sky was seen as more balanced because of its Flying-Type STAB being physical in MG3, which gives it less options to attack. As well as this, the move it abuses, Seed Flare only has 8 PP which can be taken advantage of through stalling it out and work around the Special Defense drop with Clear Amulet. Overall, it was restricting on teams and could break through defensive should be checks like Corviknight and Ferrothorn.



Last Respects is more problematic on Basculegion for many reasons, it ends up having more Speed than Houndstone and fitting a Normal-Type on your team is a lot more difficult than it was before. More Speed and Attack makes the move a lot more threatening off of the Pokémon.



Shed Tail allows recipients to often take advantage of a free turn, passing a substitute to the selected Pokémon similarly to Baton Pass. A quirk that Shed Tail has in MG3 is that it allows the recipient to be immune to hazards upon switching in, allowing it be powerful with Dragonite and Chi-Yu especially who can setup with the Substitute and are free to run whichever item they desire and aren't restricted to Heavy-Duty Boots. Cyclizar was also exceptional as a lead, since this is a metagame without team preview.


My post above the one before this is still apparent and opinions on Greninja and Mega Aerodactyl are wanted, Greninja seems pretty likely to be banned at the moment. Other Pokémon such as Magearna, Reuniclus and Chi-Yu have been asked by some for a ban also.

 

[SwordIsBored]

Adding that Shed Tail is banned, not Cyclizar dkffksdlfldnmsfdjnjnmsd

 

[SwordIsBored]

Battle Bond, Chi-Yu, Mega Aerodactyl and Magearna have all been banned.



The boons of Battle Bond are the same as I've posted before, it becomes nigh impossible to switch into when Greninja achieves this form and is capable of preventing even Ferrothorn to not switch into it with hazards up. Spikes from teammates such as Roserade and Tentacruel, on offense and slower teams respectively, Toxapex and Ferrothorn lose their advantages and find it difficult to switch into Dark Pulse.



It seems obvious why this Pokémon would be a threat, Beads of Ruin allows it to reach incredible damage potential especially with the combination of permanent sun. Though many people compare it to Houndoom-Mega, it achieves the same damage whilst not taking chip damage over time and is allowed to hold an item while freeing up a valuable mega slot. As well as this, it is capable of maintaining its damage in other weathers - particularly Snow/Hail and Sand because of Rain's Fire-type attack debuff.



This Pokémon has been brought up time and time again for a while, Flying/Rock/Ground coverage being almost impossible to switch into and naturally paired well with Rain to never miss its devastating Hurricanes and take down defensive Pokémon some of its teammates' couldn't.



When you see Copen actually vote ban on a Pokémon, it's pretty obvious to tell that it's a problem. Shift Gear with Fleur Cannon, Flash Cannon and Focus Blast was devastating to switch into when it was set up and paired with Weakness Policy for boosted damage, Leftovers for regeneration or Heavy Duty Boots to switch safely into Spikes it was impossible to take it down. Though Focus Blast isn't one shotting Steel-types it easily achieves that after said Steel-types take a neutral Fleur Cannon and lose almost half their health due to MG3 Fairy-type moves only being resisted by Fire-types and Poison-types

PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE:

I think Rain is still going to be the best archetype by far; Kingdra, Omastar and Swampert-Mega are powerful Swift Swimmers that reach devastating speeds while dishing out huge amounts of damage which makes it difficult to switch into. This should be balanced by good defensive Pokémon like Ferrothorn, Toxapex and Clodsire but could still be a problem. Dragonite with DD + Hurricane is a unique option which I think will find a place and niche Water-types to replace Greninja's role like Manaphy and Inteleon could be explored.

 

[SwordIsBored]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KrAI9NA5gWcQ4qsbjeilHKigPylmSjRDaSfTCsoIX_s/edit#gid=0 Leaving the speed tiers made by aninjadude here for now, will add them to the main post later

 

[Runo]

My one and only larp post here, I will be talking about my experience playing Modern Gen 3 for Solomod PL

Week 0

The lack of official resources made things annoying when first starting out since building seemed like the wild west out here. That's not a huge deal since I kinda assumed that stuff would be dated / non-existant going in but wish we could've had a VR at the very least. What was very annoying was the shitty and inaccurate challenge code on the thread (its been updated now iirc) but some the issues with it included things such as Magearna and Shed Tail being legal. There was also no challengable format to work with (Modern Gen 1 and 2 and all of the other Solomods had something to work with iirc) and the biggest side effect to resorting to a challenge code was that there was no way to verify abilities were legal on mons, which forced us to run with !showteam during tournament battles, which killed some of the fun to playing a gen with no team preview. I and my teammates also got some misinformation (from who idk so nobody is at fault I guess) that Gems and Mail where legal when they weren't, Hidden Abilities were banned for some reason???, and that Last Respect was illegal (apparently it was on the thread banlist but I could never find it). I know it was an inactive tier but overall it was just a really bad first impression into the maintenance of this metagame.

Early insights, Iron Valiant seemed pretty scary to face off against due to Moonblast being a now insanely spammable STAB to sweep with. Also saw some experimentation with Shadow Ball to take down Reuniclus and Aegislash easily. Other Fairy-types like Mega Diancie and Enamorus seemed hella scary. I think I also hypothesized Belly Drum Slurpuff being potentially broken albeit cheesy. Also was conscious of Sand and rain teams being strong potentially so we did a lot of messing around with that. Although I never wanted to build Rain Offense in this tier tbh it definitely has a lot of options to choose from, Volcanion, Walking Wake, and Manaphy are all very strong on Rain. Sand on the other hand we had just messed around with the Sand Balance side of things with HippoSkarm but that core alone can support a lot of diverse threats. Stall also looked very nice with lowered Knock Off usage and Boots Spam being really good.

Week 1

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...en3-3076-5l64b1o9lkitdb4oi5ocdxohvk4iunkpw?p2

Relevant image

I had built this stall before the week started and felt it was consistent enough to pass muster. Didn't really know who the opponent was, all I know is that he was an ADV guy so didn't have anything specific for them. Just loaded something I was comfortable with.

Some other builds I had created
This was before I realized gems were banned, replaced Ice Gem is Life Orb or smth
Shitty team dont use ever
Blacephalon Spread is incomplete lol
^

Again I didn't realize Gems were banned just run defensive explosion or smth


Dedicated Hail teams are awful and so are most of the setters, wouldn't even try with them. Rain and Sun teams on the other hand seemed very dumb and mandated you shoehorn counterplay to deal with them or you would just get mauled in seconds. Sand Offenses also seemed strong although I haven't yet figured out the best way to go about it. Shedinja paired with a mon that can clear Sand seems very solid.

Week 2

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3customgame-765216

Relevant image

Didn't prep this week since the Rain stall was still broken as fuck and I was confident that the hard cteaming wouldn't start until week 3 or 4. What followed was probably one of the silliest games to come out of this slot. It was probably going to be a long ass stall vs stall game but I cashed out due to having Knock Off on one of my mons and Seroo having a grand total of zero.

This week's insights featured a lesson to the benefits of Knock Off to shut down bulkier playstyles. Also looking at the other games people had played, Sun and Hyper Offense were all the rage right now, Sun and Walking Wake make for such a dangerous partnership that its very difficult to properly handle without defaulting to an opposing weather to win the matchup fish essentially. Meanwhile HO has so many options to work with in the builder that is impossible to truly account for them all in the builder as the number of offensive options vastly outnumber our defensive ones.

Week 3
(There's no paste for this team I can't seem to find it)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3customgame-2121950829-2i2b99hhnlbd47i5lsch3j0vs38og2spw

Relevant image

We knew that the opponents this time would try to counter team my Rain stall so I wanted to bring something to essentially bluff a fatter playstyle but in reality it was just Hyper Offense, unfortunately that idea didn't really pan out so I just loaded broken sweeper spam and it worked. Also helped that my oppo threw away his Excadrill for some reason.

Again no team pastes, most of these were just drafts anyways.






In terms of insight this week I started to understand how powerful Reuniclus could be from facing a bunch of Anique sand fats during testing. Knock Off Reuniclus is insanely good into the metagame even if its not always sweeping since it's an excellent progress maker. Noglastica was also right, Aegislash is incredibly mean and insanely annoying to deal with, although he tended to load Choice Band for its absurd power. Landorus was also another mon we thought was stupid since Swords Dance combined with Sheer Force Life Orb made it nearly impossible to wall. Sand Force variants also proved to be threatening at times although not as consistent. Arctozolt also can be a threat at times but I hadn't make the connection to use Glowking yet while others had already. Tyranitar and its Mega form is also not as good as we originally believed when we first went into the tier.

Week 4

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3customgame-2125560930-58opypyt4i52aw6w8ehhv8j2wp2zryipw

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Cheesehead Sword had done nothing but load cheese and win, and I was determined to cteam him with Ditto, unfortunately it came down to a Ditto speed tie after I accidentally let it get Knocked and I lost the game. Luckily I saved face by pretending that I knew all along that my Ditto was Knocked and blatantly fished for a Speed Tie. No big deal since this loss is mainly just because I played poorly and could've optimized the team better (having Tentacruel outrun Excadrill for instance).

Metagame insights for this week...idk Diancie is broken, Skeledirge is quite funny. Nog was right Tentacruel is a mid bitch. I don't think it's enough to just have one Knock Off user on most teams. Stacking Knock Off users makes hazard stacking a lot more potent. Still don't know what a good sand offense looks like but Gigalith + Excadrill + Reuniclus is definitely a good start. Also Explosion is a broken move but thankfully none of the abusers of Explosion are dumb.

Week 5

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3customgame-2130514783-pmiuoq56lwskb5jo6wke9v2ublxw7ykpw?p2

Relevant image

Idk I just decided not to speak for that entire week or something lol

I forgot why I loaded this prep-wise but it was pretty broken unless you loaded into some really shitty cancer mon that you couldn't possibly account for while also prepping for a lot of the other playstyles here. Well....SURPRISE!!!! I LOADED INTO ESPATHRA SCREENS and lost the cheese off. Also didn't help that I loaded into a Wisp Dragon Dance Mega Altaria which killed any potential to have offensive outs into Espathra (A mon i couldn't possibly predict coming out until it was too late). Who could've possibly seen this happening wow what a massive upset! I can't believe this would ever happen in the perfectly balanced tier of Modern Gen 3. Honestly I'm less mad about getting trolled by some brokemon and more mad at the conversation I had with a council member right after, quick snippet below that particularly aggravated me:

i think if you dislike mg3
it is more like you don't enjoy unsolved tiers
idk
imo at least i don't see much problem with the stuff that are strong

ngl i think blaming the players for "not enjoying the tier" is a pretty shitty take when its practically everyone but council saying its not good

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

?????, I wanted to cancer this tour so badly just to spite the echo chamber that is council after that conversation, but my good friend and modern gen 3 brother Ani Noglastica brought me back into the light and I dedicated a lot of time to make sure I could run this tier as the unofficial leader and bring about peace to the great but ravaged lands of modern gen 3 or whatever idk I fully cut the bullshit about liking this tier and just did nothing but hatepost and shitpost in the prep channel from there on out.

Another side-note: R8 heavily suggested for a kokoloko ban slate in order to see major improvements to the state of the tier quickly, I was hesitant at first because it seemed like overkill but honestly yea do this. Way too much stuff to account for in the builder in order to make a truly consistent team.

In terms of insight, I was confident that Sun teams were broken as hell and some sort of action needed to be taken on them. Rain Teams were not that bad of a broken however and I had no issue fitting counterplay onto that. Still constraining but its whatever, Sun is the bigger issue.

Semi-Finals

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3customgame-771829?p2

Relevant image

Although I abhorred Sun I knew that I would finally have to load this for prep since funkybean loaded nothing but HO and Stall teams (he just like me frfr) so I figured I could slam him with a nice Sun offense and thought of Air Balloon Heatran to act as an anti-lead. In practice the Anti-lead idea didn't work out that well since I couldn't guess the intentions of a lead Thundurus so switched out, Amoonguss also performed great even as others were telling me to drop it for Toxapex. Nasty Plot Ninetales was a Rain lure but it ended up mauling the entire team lol. Life lesson to never run Mega Banette in this tier ever, Sableye is simply better in most scenarios.

Alternate Version with Torkoal

Insights, Heatran is underrated as hell, Torkoal is mid as hell just use Ninetales, Amoonguss also underrated, Zoroark does nothing for a team aside from being cheesy. If people started making real teams instead of playing unseriously then you could understand why someone would not like building in this tier. Like I know this is supposed to be a fun tour and all but don't be shocked when garbage is loaded and it doesn't work.

Finals

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3customgame-2139593410-pd78ge7ktyhov69lfdmgbofplgbczdlpw?p2

Insane hateposting

I chose to stall Sword again in the rematch since I got very close to beating him with it last time bar some user error, Stall was still great into his scout of cheese offense and rain spam so I stuck with it. Still wanted to go Shedinja since it could blanket a lot of annoying mons that I can't ever think of possibly appearing but Pelipper partner was probably not the best idea this time around however since it gets pressured by Gigalith and Excadrill too hard. So I opted to run Galarian Slowking instead after seeing Funkybeangamer load it twice. Also wanted to make sure that my MU into sand and rain was stellar so I chose to run Skarmory and Pyukumuku, Skarmory stonewalls Excadrill and Gigalith which were big roadblocks, while Pyukumuku allowed me to turn Ferrothorn into a non-issue by forcing it to Explode on me and giving me a really favorable trade. What actually happened might be even funnier as I trapped his Toxapex (A massive blunder by Sword in a stall MU) and burnt it of all of its attacking moves, leaving Sword with a deadweight and with my Pyukumuku still alive to trap another mon if needed.

Alternate Trick Room build that also could've trolled

No real insights aside from Trick Room could potentially be valid, stopped trying to save this tier around Week 4.

And that's the entire tour experience for me! Just a whole bunch of matchup fishing and complaining while nothing gets done. I believe it was Dr. Modern Gen 3 Jr. who said it best, "I have a dream that one day playstyles of all types can be consistent and skill based" but unfortunately that will never happen due to incredibly controllable factors such as not listening to feedback and what not. None of these council members are really doing it out of malice or smth like that and they are all really nice people to talk to outside of this tier, it's just incredibly frustrating when they shrug off every complaint about this tier and say "oh well". Like come on nearly every tier besides Modern Gen 3 (and I think Modern Gen 2 but they are literally constantly active and are have a fairly transparent council) has had tiering action (sometimes even multiple times) as a result of this tour, but you're telling me a tier that has barely any metagame development and a player retention rate of 1 member per year has ZERO issues?? You're lying to yourselves!!!

Personal VR

S Rank
Best mons in the tier, insanely splashable and impossible to overlook in the builder (regarding using or prepping for them)

S
Pick a playstyle, it probably fits on it and is near guaranteed to make some sort of progress for a team, seen on every weather archetype, weatherless, stall and even hyper offense and its never lackluster.
This is 100% the reason Toxic Spikes has such a strangle hold on the metagame, incredibly difficult to remove unless you have some mon with absurd power or trade with explosion (can even live it from certain mons anyways lol). Scald and Knock Off are both incredibly punishing as well and the typing is stellar for the tier (very easy way to give a team an out against both sun and rain at the same time) and the broken Toxic Spikes gives it such an absurd defensive profile that you can find on any team comp not named HO.

S-
About that mon with absurd power, yea this is it! Nearly nothing switches into this safely and it easily fits on 2 of tiers most powerful and common archetypes: Sun and Rain. Use this mon if you just want to stop thinking and get free wins.

A Rank
Metagame staples for various reasons (very easy to fit on teams, versatile, capable of handling a large chunk of the metagame with little support, capable of overwhelming many of the tier's defensive staples with little support, etc).

A+
Staple Steel in this tier and probably the best user of Explosion in the tier. Excels on Rain teams and at the same time is great for checking rain on other playstyles.
Great check to Toxapex and premier role compression due to being both a Ground and Electric immune while also setting every hazard including Toxic Spikes. Also has really good set diversity but I find myself using U-turn a lot while others prefer Swords Dance, all are great sets
Booster Energy Swords Dance and Choice Band are insanely broken lol
Stellar wallbreaker on rain teams only truely annoyed by Blissey and well played Amoonguss/Ferrothorn
Easily shreds a lot of the fat mons that rain might have issues with
For a basic sun setter, you can do a lot with Ninetales surprisingly. Wisp Encore is a good disruptor for sun, while Nasty Plot on the other hand can dish out obscene power for a mon with only 261 special attack for instance.
Staple rain setter, Knock Off and U-Turn is why you should be using this over Politoed 9/10 times
A pivot that also cancels the two most broken weathers in the tier while also absorbing Toxic Spikes and setting its own is so damn good

A
Incredibly powerful defensive typing to setup on a lot of mons in addition to unnerfed King's Shield, absurd power with its buffed moves and coverage to maul everything. Choice Band and Swords Dance are incredibly dumb to deal with
Err so nothing really likes switching into this and it has Explosion as icing on the cake
Swords Dance is brokey
Still has great utility as it does in standard natdex formats (or any format where its legal lol)
Only really seen this excel on Sun teams but it's never unreliable
Unburden is broken, Dire Claw is also insanely cancerous
Great offensive pivot and helps to enable a lot of the broken stuff in this tier

A-
Very strong fatbreaker on Rain teams, also gives rain a way to run Rocks if they want more flexibility with Mega Swampert or not running it at all.
Great on those Hippo Sand Fats since the insane utility movepool trumps the shitty typing (plays like DPP Clefable)
Great role compression option for Ninetales sun teams, underperforms a little bit tho but still definitely solid
Stack this with Sneasler and you just win games on the spot lol
Hippo Sand fats are nice and you have a lot of routes to go with it, Whirlwind Spam with Skarmory is really annoying into bulkier structures if you pair that with some Knock Off users like Reuniclus
Doesn't really need Psychic Stab to be threatening, Swords Dance is insanely threatening with that speed tier
Solid Pivot on a lot of the weatherless comps
Mega Speed Mechanics fuck it over alot in addition to no Psychic Fangs or Knock Off, but still a solid choice thanks to Explosion saving it
Offensive Spikes Roserade is pretty mean since those Leaf Storms can hit really hard in addition to punishing with Sleep Powder
Priority is nice when facing Iron Valiant and Diancie-Mega
Great on a lot of fat compositions as the premier spiker and phazer, IronPress is also very strong into HO teams

B Rank
Also good mons but harder to justify on teams unless their specifc uses are needed due to being harder to fit, requiring more team support, easier to overwhelm/check, and just being more inconsistent in general.

B+
Great abuser of Glowking and the physical special split doesn't hurt it that badly
Blissey's ranking is about where I would cap stall's viability in the metagame but it could very well be an A rank playstyle with more optimizations, the inherent matchup fishing environment doesn't do it any favors however
Powerful sweeper on Rain teams, great bulk to setup with coupled with a 100% accurate Hurricane is scary as hell
Moonblast, Draining Kiss, and Earth Power being Physical means that Contrary because very terrifying to face
There are no good dark types in this tier, legitimately a broken matchup fish and rather unfun to face off against
Gigalith sand offences are good but not fully optimized yet, we're getting closer however
Mixed Air Balloon Lead and Boots are probably its best sets and it has a weirdly high amount of longevity to dish out some nasty ass Eruptions, run Taunt or Toxic over Solar Beam if you're not playing Sun. Magma Storm also makes this insanely good into the stall matchup as you can just trap Toxapex, Blissey, and Glowking and explode on any of them
It lost Aura Sphere but Tyranitar isn't a good mon anyways so no harm no foul
Easily sits on nearly every good physical attacker in the metagame and punishes back with nasty burns, the top grass type never useing Grass moves is also great for it
The butcher of SMPL, Pelipper and Glowking Stall comps give this mon insane leg room into sand and in return Shedinja can very easily sit on a lot of common breakers like Raging Bolt and Manaphy unless they prep specifically for Shedinja
Great on Rain and Sun comps alike, Explosion and Flame Charge are two things it can add to its arsenal

B
Dragon Dance sets are nightmare fuel with the Fairy-type buff
Very reliable rain check in the tier, Spore is great for more offensive teams looking to get momentum fast
The iconic HO lead, very powerful explosion with taunt, what more could be asked of this?
Skarmory is just flat out better a lot of the time but U-turn is nice for some Bulky Offenses, Sub Bulk Up is also a scary wincon
Incredibly threatening sand breaker with Swords Dance, just wish it wasn't so slow at times
^
The only decent Pursuit trapper in the tier and it only exists on sun teams lol
Beats nearly ever steel in the tier including Aegislash because ghosts can't escape magnet pull this gen
Does exactly what it did in its standard formats just that wake being everywhere is rather annoying
Great spinblocker for fat teams since Strength Sap is good at shutting down most of the spinners
Its a side-grade option between Pex and Glowking, but side-grades are still decent
Its a funny wincon and gives offense teams outs against HO spam
Boots + Unnerfed Gale Wings is such a godsend.
Gives Rain teams Tspikes and Hazard Control

B-
Doesn't need Ghost STAB to be scary + it can easily just run a Mixed set since Boom is great at trolling standard checks. Also I could never test this but if Mind Blown counts as an Explosion based move then this gets really interesting (forces trades vs nearly everything)
Mixed Pivot sets are alright
Can set w/e hazards it wants, punishes other explosion leads, clears their hazards, and then Explodes
Specs and Life Orb are damn near impossible to switch into safely
Clanger and Belly Drum are still dumb lol
Seems incredibly easy to revenge kill
(Referring to every Rotom-form) pretty nice spin blocker on bulker teams, very difficult to actually pressure with the spinners on hand
Unblockable Wisps, Taunts, and Encore are insanely funny
Sun breaker
Water STAB on the physical side in addition to losing Ice Punch sucks but its not terrible since it can still pivot and rock pretty well
Idk this mon just always seems to underperform even if its one of the few Pursuit trappers in the tier. Dragon Dance isn't half bad tho

C Rank
These are pretty bad mons a lot of the time but specific usage cases can justify them on teams (read: playstyle specific / 1 in 1000 chance to see mons).

C+
Scary on certain HOs
Decent wincon for stall teams but Quag having near infinite recovers and hazards and toxic and scald makes me want to use that instead a lot of the time
Focus Blast hits on the Physical Side so its not awful, also Toxic Spikes!!!!
Apparently Perish Trap and Specs are decent
Traps and kills annoying fat mon #5 for Stall teams, particularly most of the Knock Off users, don't worry about smth like Ferro exploding on you, your whole job is to trade to enable the rest of the walls anyways
Mega Ttar except I don't want to waste the Mega Slot for some reason
Glowking + Ursaluna seems incredibly scary
Sun Sweeper

C
Pex is just way too good and stacking waters is hella ugly
Demon sets have to be one of the most cancer things I've ever seen, but Reuniclus is omnipresent and setting this mon up is not exactly easy when it needs Leftovers or Helmet
Lead that Spin Blocks is nice
You just maul any team lacking a Fairy
Good sweeper on Rain, Dnite is a bit better on more standard Rains imo
Untauntable Hazards
Insanely threatening sweeper on any non-skarm mu for HO teams, Lead sets with Tspikes are also probably good because Tspikes are broken
This is just a worse Slowking esp with no pivoting
Its too frail for the tier to function well defensively but it still does Spin so
Cteams Pex for Rain
Hail Setter with absurd damage output and Explosion
Choice Band....Scary...

C-
This is a pretty shitty Spikes Lead imo but people like this I guess
Trick Room
Would rank this higher if we had actually good hazard control
Sets up Trick Room but instead of blocking hazards and clicking Healing Wish, it sets off an absurdly powerful Misty Explosion and almost always gives insane momentum to breakers like Conkeldurr and Ursaluna
It cleans on Sun and I think Koko teams
Trick Room
Azelf but it gets Spikes and Toxic Spikes
Unnerfed Disguise is cool on some HOs and Trick Rooms
This sucks as a setter, but HO Screens is probably ok enough
Nice to have on some Sun comps for some extra defensive backbone and longevity
Literal cheesemon luckmon but it just wins with Belly Drum if you get lucky rolls
Trick Room Cleaner
Sucky setter compared to Ninetales, good if you need a rocker and a spinner on the same slot (and don't want to use Great Tusk for some reason)
probably works on hyper specific Sun teams as a fat wincon
If you have a team that loses to Zoroark, even caught off guard, then you are bad at building. If you lead with this mon then you are equally bad. Shit is completely nicheless aside from being able to troll in a long game when a team is already weakened

Theoretical A
Probably great mons except for the very very tiny issue of me never seeing them do anything at all and having near zero usage for some reason.

Grouping these three together because the changes from current gen to modern gen 3 are incredibly minor and they pretty much function exactly the same as they did before. Better even with a changed landscape

Theoretical B
Same deal except just for B mons, probably like half of them shouldn't even be B but just a preliminary finding

Feels like u can maul teams with Sun as a cleaner
PhysDef with Boots can probably do something? That or straight up Choice Band
Actually can pressure Fairy-types + has Explosion
it has Unnerfed Libero and Swords Dance so broken probably
It checks rain
Its broken on Rain apperently but I have never seen it ever
Booster Energy Rocks Spin might be the best lead ever?
Lost good coverage but those STABs are probably still obscene especially since it has a more powerful typing then usual
It checks rain
Defensive sets probably still do something
Wake check and you farm Stall and Sand Balance, and Pex in general
Still a regen pivot with Knock + can't imagine the Physical / Special split hurts it that much

Theoretical C
Oh my god these mons have to be terribad, BUTTTT they probably farm a team once in a while IF THEY WERE EVER USED.

Fastest Rocks lead with Taunt in the game
It checks Raging Bolt, Koko, and Archuladon, think it soft checks Iron Valiant + its a Toxic Spikes user which automatically makes it viable of course
Unblockable Taunt and unblockable Parting Shot, with screens
I guess you're still unwallable or something
About as consistent as my actual dog is at following basic instructions, there is probably a broken comp with this so LR can finally be banned someday
Screen Setter with Spikes, Swagplay might super trolling with the Prankster buff but idr if that is legal or not and to be honest I don't care enough to find out lool
Rain is a broken playstyle and this checks rain most of the time
Clears hazards for HO while still being semi-threatening
Lead Spikes is still something I guess, Protean Nasty Plot is also probably scary
Thunder Boom rain :drool:, Screen setter with Boom :droolier:
Webs are probably ok ig?
Goofy Rain cleaner, probably can do something on weatherless offense
Ok so like surely this cheeses enough teams with SubCMTect right? Barely see any good roar mons here anyways and Haze Pex ain't that great tbh
It has Knock Off and Sleep Powder with Regenerator
Treasure trove of utility in a tier where Dark types are not that great
Calm Mind + V-Create under Sun and with its coverage is probably nasty

Lead Metagame VR

A

Basically these leads are pretty consistent and hard to shutdown + team structures vary a lot with these leads as well (Minus like Hippowdon) so leading with these mons aren't revealing some thing major

B

Yea with these guys you kinda are being obvious about what you're doing (oh "wow generic HO lead #5, wonder what the playstyle is"). They also just aren't as consistent so

C

Now these ones gotta be so obvious and borderline bad its not even funny but sometimes the situation calls for them and that's just the way the cookie crumbles

D
Anything else
Unless its like really specific to your team then not a huge reason to be running something like Reuniclus or Skeledirge, save those for later in the game bro. Not revealing them early only makes their presence more impactful when they finally need to show up

Thank you to anique, Copen and R8 for helping me test on occasion and giving me new insights as I learned the tier, special thanks to my Vice President of Modern Gen 3 Noglastica for being up to test constantly, always bringing new ideas and techs, and hating on the tier with me as I began my descent into madness. Thank you to cyclonez_ and Noglastica again for drafting me and putting up with my bitching and moaning about my hate for this tier. Thank you to Gekokeso, GhastlyPixie, and Orangesodapop for helping turn the prep chat into a shitposting channel.

If another individual tournament happened then I would probably participate since it is still a nice concept but if you haven't been reading any of what I said, I hate this tier and and heavily disapprove of how its being managed. @Council I do hope this was a humbling tournament, if not then I see no reason for this tier to be included in next year's SMPL aside from novelty. Certainly not competitive.

Hyper Realistic Shrug Emoji wearing Shoes

 

[SwordIsBored]

Walking Wake has been banned!!! This guy was a super strong force in the metagame due to permanent weather which allowed it to be bolstered by both sun AND rain???? How did we not ban this fella sooner?!??!