Metagame Linked

Endeavor seems hella busted in this meta. I wonder if it'll get banned from linking after the meta gets coded.
Considering using it requires your own HP to be comparably bad, it's less immediately harmful than something like Super Fang + Seismic Toss. Still, definitely a chance that it could manifest in some really annoying ways.
 
Considering using it requires your own HP to be comparably bad, it's less immediately harmful than something like Super Fang + Seismic Toss. Still, definitely a chance that it could manifest in some really annoying ways.

Well that's not always the case, as proven by the Endeavor>Final Gambit Staraptor from a couple of pages ago. Not to mention substitute>endeavor links are always doable. But yeah there are drawbacks, so I guess we'll have to wait until we can playtest them.
 
Considering using it requires your own HP to be comparably bad, it's less immediately harmful than something like Super Fang + Seismic Toss. Still, definitely a chance that it could manifest in some really annoying ways.
I would say it can be more than annoying. Consider this team:
Magearna @ Mental Herb
Ability: Soul-Heart
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Explosion
- Flash Cannon
- Fleur Cannon

Cresselia (F) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 76 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Lunar Dance
- Moonlight
- Toxic

Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Trick Room
- Explosion
- Power Gem
- Moonblast

Smeargle @ Focus Sash
Ability: Own Tempo
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Endeavor
- Sonic Boom
- Foresight
- Destiny Bond

Murkrow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 1
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Haze
- Taunt
- Perish Song
- Foul Play

Tyranitar @ Choice Band / Black Glasses / Expert Belt / Life Orb
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Pursuit
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Strategy is very simple: turn 1 use trick room, turns 2-4 Smeargle kills half the opposing team. Turn 5 switch to Murkrow. If Murkrow doesn't immediately die, use Haze+Taunt (to make sure the opponent doesn't have any boosts set up when you bring in your second trick room user). If they still haven't killed you, use Perish Song, then spam Haze+Taunt until Murkrow dies. The next turn use Trick Room again, then take the next three turns to kill the remainder of the team with Smeargle. Magearna and Cresselia were chosen because they are among the bulkiest suicidal trick room users and they don't have any shared weaknesses. Diancie was chosen because it's still fairly bulky if you don't mega, but also has the option to mega if you expect Taunt and/or hazards (having hazards on the field makes Smeargle more vulnerable to priority). So you have three suicidal trick room users, and you can pick whichever two you want for any given battle (you can also replace one of them with a more offensive mon to deal with teams that can handle this strategy). Tyranitar is there to pursuit trap any ghosts that Smeargle can't kill.

I'm not positive, but I get the impression that many teams won't be able to handle a team like this unless they've specifically prepared for it. Endeavor might be banworthy.
 
I would say it can be more than annoying. Consider this team:
-snip-

You can prevent non-mold breaker rocks but you can't prevent a sack with helmet/iron barbs chip into a priority move, let alone linked priority moves. So that might not be banworthy. But then again this is all theorymon until we can play the meta... I suppose we'll find out if its actually broken eventually.
 
Destiny Bond Memes
Gengar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Counter
- Shadow Ball
- Destiny Bond
- Sludge Bomb

Banette-Mega @ Banettite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
- Trick Room
- Shadow Claw
- Destiny Bond
- Knock Off

Basically use destiny bond, then move slower with counter or trick room. EVs could probably be better.
 
No longer does it need to evolve:
Phanphy @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 1
- Foresight
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Filler/Sandstorm

With Endeavor as an Egg Move/Move Tutor, and Ice Shard as an Egg Move in Gen 7, Forsight removes a Ghost’s Immunity to Endeavor while Shell Bell heals HP from Endeavor. Ice Shard keeps Priority since it is not part of the link, and the final move can be Filler.

Sandstorm can be used when the foe has Leftovers.
The reason to use it over Aron is priority via Ice Shard and Foresight.
Only Donphan gets Sturdy. Phanpy has Pickup.
 
Only Donphan gets Sturdy. Phanpy has Pickup.
Ah, I knew there must have been something
Post is corrected and input here.

Donphan @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 25
IVs: 0 HP, 0 Def, 0 SpD
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Foresight
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Filler/Sandstorm

With Endeavor as an Egg Move/Move Tutor, and Ice Shard as an Egg Move in Gen 7, Forsight removes a Ghost’s Immunity to Endeavor while Shell Bell heals HP from Endeavor. Ice Shard keeps Priority since it is not part of the link, and the final move can be Filler.

Sandstorm can be used when the foe has Leftovers.
The reason to use it over Aron is priority via Ice Shard and Foresight.
 
Let's post something else other than bad FEAR gimmicks
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
This set fixes the main issue of Defog as a move, which is removing your own rocks. It foregoes a powerful offensive link, but the utility is great. Rocky Helmet is for checking contact move links, such as V-Create+U-turn Victini.
 
A few kind of gimmicky sets I thought of.

Breloom @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spore
- Wake-Up Slap
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch

Granbull @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Smelling Salts
- Heal Bell
- Play Rough

Drifblim @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Hex
- Acrobatics
- Destiny Bond
 
Remember when in Gen 1 we used encore + disable for fun? Well it's back.
Gallade-Mega @ Galladite
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Disable
- Mean Look
- Destiny Bond/Something
Unexpecting people will die. After Encore + Disable, go for Mean Look to trap either the active or replacement pokemon.
 
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definitely an interesting concept, could see some things being interesting to play with such as nuzzle with iron head on todegamaru or how ever you spell that mons name... or watching the ghosts link a status move with hex... although many of these likely wouldnt be overly used it does open up some options.
 
Really glad to see the meta being so well received and nominated for April OMOTM! There's a good chance it'll be high on the nominations list for voting. Thanks for your interest.
 
Really glad to see the meta being so well received and nominated for April OMOTM! There's a good chance it'll be high on the nominations list for voting. Thanks for your interest.

From my own count, Linked currently has the 3rd most amount of eligible nominations at the time of this post, behind 350 Cup (no surprise) and Sketchmons.
 
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Victini @ Normalium Z
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Fusion Flare
- Celebrate
- Glaciate
Fusion Bolt powers up Fusion Flare and give special Victini love tbh

Porygon-Z @ Normalium Z
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Beam
- Conversion
- Shadow Ball
- Filler
Im p sure this would work out as you could z the conversion and just spam hyper beam, filler for coverage in whatever

just be viable (Bisharp) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Knock Off
- Iron Head
I just want this

Togedemaru @ Leftovers
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Zing Zap
- Iron Head
- Nuzzle
- U-turn/Spiky Shield
I just want this too
 
Just theorymoning things:

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Thunder Wave
- U-Turn

No idea about the viability of this but it sure looks awful. If I did the maths right (probably didn't, it's almost 4am) but ~90% chance for opp to fail on their first move is... not fun.
 
Just theorymoning things:
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Thunder Wave
- U-Turn
No idea about the viability of this but it sure looks awful. If I did the maths right (probably didn't, it's almost 4am) but ~90% chance for opp to fail on their first move is... not fun.
Yep, this is in the OP along with the relevant statistics. It's a 76% flinch chance (more with Heart Stamp).
 
Victini @ Normalium Z
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Fusion Bolt
- Fusion Flare
- Celebrate
- Glaciate
Fusion Bolt powers up Fusion Flare and give special Victini love tbh
would be nice if there was an event which gave victini bolt, flare and celebrate, but for now, they are unfortunately incompatible
 
The whole link would have -3 priority, though I'm not sure when the "____ is tightening its focus!" message would appear.
That still appears at the beginning of the turn no matter where in the link Focus Punch is, at least I believe that's how it worked last gen. Focus Punch itself is good for providing negative priority, yeah, for pivoting or other purposes.
Is this metagame playable somewhere?
Not before April, no. And unfortunately the servers that hosted gen 6 Linked are offline.
 
Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Swords Dance
- Megahorn
- Poison Jab
This set might not be particularly interesting, but scolipede can get off some free swords dances with protect. It can make use of all the speed it gets from speed boost to go first, since protect loses it's priority when linked with swords dance. This way you can get off a free swords dance at least every other turn.

Found out protect is banned for linking, pay no attention to me. '3'
 
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