Full Effect
Premise: All items, moves, and abilities are immediately and always activated, bar Type based conditions.
The idea for this meta is that mechanics that rely on certain conditions can now be used without any set up needed. To be more technical, this meta automatically activates any single condition that would naturally work for the mechanic's favor. Here are some examples to get a full idea for the meta:
>Electric Seed: Normally, the seed items are consumed when the Pokemon holding it enters the corresponding terrain. Now, the terrain is no longer needed for the item to be consumed, and the item is used immediately.
It should be noted that if the user's defense is at +6, or if other bars like Embargo are present, then the item won't be used until these conditions are gone. The only conditions being avoided are the ones intrinsic to the item or mechanic itself.
>Acrobatics: Will always be the full 110 bp, even if the user holds an item.
>Earthquake: If you are unaware, Earthquake doubles power on Pokemon that are underground because of Dig. This meta removes that underground condition, and makes EQ always 200 bp. This move, among others, will probably need to be banned.
>Blaze: Will always be active, regardless of remaining HP.
>Aloraichium Z: No longer needed to be held by just Alolan Raichu, so any Pokemon with Thunderbolt can use this Z move!
So this is the idea of the metagame, as some strategies are immediately viable now. However, not everything is affected, and many things should be banned.
Some of the mechanics that are NOT affected are:
>Type based conditions: Under this premise, it would be easy to make abilities like Volt Absorb give immunities to ALL types, not just Electric type attacks. Thus, these abilities are not affected by this change. However, an ability like Flash Fire, which gives a unique bonus once hit by a Fire attack, has its Flash Fire status activated immediately and always. However, it still only gives immunity to Fire type attacks.
>Chance based conditions: Essentially, these conditions are always active anyways. They just have a chance of working or not, and there isn't a perfect "switch" to turn on to activate the effect.
>Gradient attacks: Moves like Reversal or Gyro Ball are not inherently maxed out to their highest potential, as they have a gradient of damage increases. Because there is not a single "switch" for these effects to be activated, they simply are not affected by this meta's rules
>Multi conditional effects: Much like gradients, if there exits multiple possible outcomes, the mechanic is not affected. This can be seen with the Pledge moves and Weather Ball, as while they do have conditions that make these moves stronger with different effects, there's no one condition technically better than the other. So, they remain unaffected.
Sets:
Jolteon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quick Feet
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Synchronoise
- Round
Quick Feet is always active, giving Jolteon a +1 even when healthy. Synchronoise now works on every Pokemon, not just targets with the same type. Lastly, Round's double power effect is also always triggered. Sychnronoise and Round gives Jolteon two nicely powered coverage attacks to take advantage of, and can be a considerable threat.
Gengar @ Life Orb
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Venoshock
- Hex
- Thunder
- Focus Blast / Dream Eater / Nightmare
A true monster of a set, Gengar has two 130 bp, 100% accurate STABs in Hex and Venoshock. Furthermore, Thunder is perfectly accurate, because it takes the condition as if it was in rain. Lastly, Nightmare and Dream Eater affect even non-Sleeping targets, but the unaffected Focus Blast may still be better for coverage. Still, such a beast.
Sharpedo-Mega @ Sharpedonite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Assurance
- Facade
- Protect
Strong Jaw's x1.5 damage multiplier affects all attacks, not just bite-based ones. This makes Sharpedo's 120 bp STAB assurance even stronger, and its also worth noting that on neutral hitting targets, Facade's 140 bp is stronger than Liquidation after STAB. With a Speed Boost secured from protect, this thing is a killer.
Aggron-Mega @ Aggronite
Ability: Heavy Metal
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Tail
- Stomping Tantrum
- Heavy Slam
- Avalanche
Mega Aggron's Filter makes it take 3/4ths damage from all attacks, not just super effective ones. This makes it an incredible wall, but with the implied HO nature of this meta, it's base 140 attack is considerable to be invested in. Stomping Tantrum is a nice 150 bp Ground attack, and Avalanche secures a good Ice coverage move. Dragon Tail is nothing special here, but with Filter's defense, it can be used for simple phasing. Heavy Slam also does double damage because of the Minimize quirk, so totally worth abusing.
Some Bans:
Items: Focus Sash, Red Card (would phaze immediately), Weakness Policy
Pokemon Specific Items (ban only affect Pokemon that are NOT normally affected by the item): Eviolite, Eevium Z, Deep Sea Scale, Deep Sea Tooth, Light Ball, Metal Powder, Quick Powder, Thick Club.
Abilities: Chlorophyl, Multiscale, Sturdy, Swift Swim, Tinted Lenses, Unburden, Slush Rush, Sand Rush, Sand Veil, Snow Veil, Surge Surfer, Wonder Guard, Wonder Skin (all moves have 50% accuracy), Magic Bounce.
Moves: Earthquake, Fake Out (works every turn), Fusion Bolt, Fusion Flare, Grudge (doesn't require user to faint), Magnitude, Surf (doubles on Dive targets, so always 180 bp), Extrasensory (160 bp, perfect accuracy), Dragon Rush (200 bp, perfect accuracy), Flying Press (200 bp, perfect accuracy), Body Slam (170 bp, perfect accuracy, 30% chance to para), Craft Shield (spammed Protect), Sleep Talk (evades phazing low priority), Spit Up, Magic Coat (bounces back attacks lol).
More Possible Bans:
Fluffy (halves all attack damage), Anger Point (+6 when surviving an attack), Prankster (+1 priority on all attacks, but Dark types are immune to it), Heavy Slam / Heat Crash / Magnitude (very powerful, but also variable power and lower distribution), Light Clay (Aurora Veil doesn't need Hail), Regenerator (activates once every turn).
Questions for Community:
-Does the premise make sense? Is it too convoluted? Is the name misleading?
-What are some cool sets you can think of? So many new moves / abilities / items are viable now!
-Any other bans or unbans you would suggest? What mons would be too good?
-Any mechanic you're on the fence to see if it would work or not?