Do you think it is possible for the worst team to win against a "normal" team by luck? Or would the worst team be so bad that it could never possibly win?
It’s definitely possible — both of the opponent’s Pokémon could use Memento Turn 1, for example.Do you think it is possible for the worst team to win against a "normal" team by luck? Or would the worst team be so bad that it could never possibly win?
On a related topic I did a personal challenge in Gen 7 to try winning with each level decreasing after a win using Simple Shaymin and got down to level 75 before I decided to stop (replay), though I think a lot of people may not have been using full EVs still so that might be harder today. It would be interesting to see how far a point you can still put up a decent fight with, but as mentioned luck can definitely force a win like with a T1 Explosion OHKO as well.Do you think it is possible for the worst team to win against a "normal" team by luck? Or would the worst team be so bad that it could never possibly win?
lmao sry ab that here's my take on my bot. pls lmk y'alls thoughts
pros: def shortens queue time, esp in deader hours / is funny (to me)
cons: poisons usage stats / can be annoying if it's all you can play vs
i've been trying to limit it to 1 match at a time and also not have it laddering all the time (i'd estimate maybe like 70% of the time it was laddering). should I reduce frequency? most of the sets in there are relatively 4fun. should this change? are there other issues i've overlooked?
i will confirm that it picks 2 sets uniformly at random w/o replacement from a pool. if it makes analysis too annoying i can make it stop lol
btw the bot had ~10k battles this month (and peaked #2!! wow!!)
I don't mind the statistical anomalies; the work you're doing to keep the format alive more than makes up for it my friend (:lmao sry ab that here's my take on my bot. pls lmk y'alls thoughts
pros: def shortens queue time, esp in deader hours / is funny (to me)
cons: poisons usage stats / can be annoying if it's all you can play vs
i've been trying to limit it to 1 match at a time and also not have it laddering all the time (i'd estimate maybe like 70% of the time it was laddering). should I reduce frequency? most of the sets in there are relatively 4fun. should this change? are there other issues i've overlooked?
i will confirm that it picks 2 sets uniformly at random w/o replacement from a pool. if it makes analysis too annoying i can make it stop lol
btw the bot had ~10k battles this month (and peaked #2!! wow!!)
btw where is the team that has hippopotas in it should make one just for the memeslmao sry ab that here's my take on my bot. pls lmk y'alls thoughts
pros: def shortens queue time, esp in deader hours / is funny (to me)
cons: poisons usage stats / can be annoying if it's all you can play vs
i've been trying to limit it to 1 match at a time and also not have it laddering all the time (i'd estimate maybe like 70% of the time it was laddering). should I reduce frequency? most of the sets in there are relatively 4fun. should this change? are there other issues i've overlooked?
i will confirm that it picks 2 sets uniformly at random w/o replacement from a pool. if it makes analysis too annoying i can make it stop lol
btw the bot had ~10k battles this month (and peaked #2!! wow!!)
Got #1 on ladder with this team too after a crazy run this evening, this setup feels great with the Pecharunts having enough bulk to take hits that proc weakness policy even against intrepid sword mega cross or other 2x atk/spec atk pokemon.Recently hit #1 on the ladder so i figured i'd share my team
stinky (Pecharunt) @ 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
smelly (Pecharunt) @ 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
pecharunt is essentially made for this format in my opinion - immune to normal moves, immune to toxic, decent attacking stats and insane bulk (especially with ice scales)
weakness policy is the main win condition but even in match ups where it doesn't matter much (mostly against imposter blissey) these two still tend to win because it takes a big hitter to knock them out effectively
really been loving this format, has been fun playing against y'all :3
I think in nearly every circumstance immediate tera is best. Let's say you tera turn 6. Even if the expected value from your "well-positioned" tera is 2x the value generated from a turn 1 tera mon, you won't outpace the turn 1 tera until after turn 11. There's never any guarantee that metronome games last that long, and claiming a well positioned tera generates 2x EV from your turn 1 tera is also a stretch.Also just got back into this format since gen 8, what's the game plan with tera?
I get Stellar or ghost is ideal but is it better to activate at the start of each duel or is it more ideal to use it midway though on a pkm that has better positioning for the end game.
I commonly late Tera with a mon using Weakness Policy (e.g. Ampharos-Mega on double Mega Amph teams). Weakness Policy's value plummets on mons with few weaknesses (e.g. every single mon that has gone Tera Ghost), and I prefer the safety net of Tera Ghost over the damage bonus of Tera Stellar (which encourages Terastallizing ASAP).I think in nearly every circumstance immediate tera is best. Let's say you tera turn 6. Even if the expected value from your "well-positioned" tera is 2x the value generated from a turn 1 tera mon, you won't outpace the turn 1 tera until after turn 11. There's never any guarantee that metronome games last that long, and claiming a well positioned tera generates 2x EV from your turn 1 tera is also a stretch.
Basically there are two competing effects here: Early tera = more turns * lower value per turn, Later tera = less turns * higher value per turn
No matter when you do this "late tera," I claim (based on vibes) that the effect of more turns always, on average, outweighs the higher value per turn from late tera.
I was playing some double Stellar tera offense earlier this month and I was thinking about this dilemma often. It might just be a fallacy, but my purely vibe-based approach in that case was waiting for turn 2 to see which mon looked healthier to make myself feel better than just deciding randomly turn 1 and feeling like my arbitrary choice was a waste. On the other hand, the bot seems to do well enough just pushing stellar tera on everything turn 1 all the time, so maybe it's just a mental barrier with the additional click, I don't know. It's a good question though.Also just got back into this format since gen 8, what's the game plan with tera?
I get Stellar or ghost is ideal but is it better to activate at the start of each duel or is it more ideal to use it midway though on a pkm that has better positioning for the end game.
By Boogity you're right. I requested the /formathelp entry on PS, but it looks like these were added too. I've submitted a description for the smogdex page that should hopefully be implemented soon.I was playing some double Stellar tera offense earlier this month and I was thinking about this dilemma often. It might just be a fallacy, but my purely vibe-based approach in that case was waiting for turn 2 to see which mon looked healthier to make myself feel better than just deciding randomly turn 1 and feeling like my arbitrary choice was a waste. On the other hand, the bot seems to do well enough just pushing stellar tera on everything turn 1 all the time, so maybe it's just a mental barrier with the additional click, I don't know. It's a good question though.
Something pretty interesting I just noticed as well is that the teambuilder now links to this thread, as well as the format's new Smogon dex page, which seem to be recent additions within the month.
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Yeah, this is an interesting prospect. I think there is some advantage to be gained for good strats people already use like Weakness Policy sets that wait to Tera, especially for teams that aren’t using something like Dauntless Shield to pop Mirror Herbs early. I think there’s a lot of potential for Normalium Z in particular to utilize this, but rather awkwardly, the best users of Normalium Z are the ones least suited to waiting a few turns, and holders of Normalium Z can’t Terastallize. I think having one HO mon like Intrepid Sword Mega Heracross or Download Blacephalon and one support mon like Friend Guard/Power Spot Type: Null would be the best way to try that.So I was having a nice night getting ready to wind down, until I was nerdsniped by this thread claiming Metronome is the prime way to reverse engineer Showdown RNG seeds and predict every random outcome of a battle.
If you use the move Metronome 8-9 times in a battle, you have enough information to reverse engineer the RNG of Pokemon Showdown, and then you can predict all future random events:
Wasting time on Metronomes is of course quite bad, but being able to predict the RNG can give a huge advantage, so maybe this can be made into a viable strategy in the future.
Edit:
I've now also managed to reverse the RNG using 16-17 damage rolls from normal attacks:
Edit2: All of this has now been patched: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/on-rng.3758023/...
- Myren Eario
- Replies: 59
- Forum: ADV Archive
(Also before that, I found out Metronome is in a team tour which was also interesting and kind of led to finding this but wasn't really related directly.)
Notably there are some varied takes on how it would affect the Metronome Battle meta, from having no effect to breaking everything. Like most dichotomies, the true answer is neither yet lies somewhere between the two, though you can probably figure for yourself which side it falls more towards just by thinking about what Metronome gameplay is. But personally I wanted to see it for myself because it sounded neat.
So based on the instructions in the video, I played around for a while locally to get a feel for how the calls work, and you can see the fruits of my efforts with a proof of concept replay on main here kind of predicting stuff like this: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9metronomebattle-2271400207
(Fun fact: There are 581 Metronome eligible moves as of the current end of Gen 9.)
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Also I just want to show Azumarill getting the clutch win in this demonstration, even though I didn't press tera to change the outcome at all.
Putting together my rambling thoughts overall:
It's a fun party trick when it works. I don't think it really affects much for this format in practice but in theory maybe it does something.
Firstly it takes 2 turns to get enough info to work with, which is sometimes enough for the match to be decided anyway. I specifically set up the optimal conditions of having no speed ties and every mon actually getting an action for this to work out too.
The added effects of speed ties on random calls are very undocumented, which could also be said for many other interactions in the doubles format as I discovered on the fly, but speed ties especially seem to add a ton of frame advancements everywhere, which I believe includes when Intrepid Sword procs, which causes many edge cases that I just didn't want to bother with accounting for. Also mons can change speeds mid match and you have to account for that too.
In this test battle I was lucky to have a very simple T1/T2 to calc calls off of simple attacks and buffs/debuffs. Immediately after on T3 spread moves kind of messed me up, and I didn't really know what RNs are tied to proc chances or other things that could affect future outcome orders (though target choice seems pretty clear).
Maybe if you put in a lot of time in you could figure more patterns out, but even I don't think it's worth it, because there's just not that much to do other than show off and mess with people on ladder, if you have the time and correctly get the calls from the first 2 turns right. Ultimately the outcome is still mostly decided from the start of the battle.
Technically you do have one possible influence on the battle of pressing tera or Normalium Z or mega evolution at one point, but to actually take advantage of it you need to give up on pressing that button until you know it can matter, which by turn 2 may be too late. So there's already an explicit tradeoff you make by going this route to affect the battle later, by giving up a turn 1/2 tera to not affect the battle earlier, and running Normalium Z/a mega stone arguably doesn't make up for the item slot on its own either.
You also need to be able to predict future calls accurately too and the amount of future future calls that will be affected which I also would not want to bother with. Ultimately I just feel like the potential return on the outcome of a single game is too low for the effort put in, compared to just playing more games in the same time. But if there is ever a point that someone does manage to actually take advantage of this information to influence the outcome of an arbitrary metronome battle in practice, then I would respect the effort at least.
Even if you have a bot simulate the battle from that seed, you also can't account for the enemy's exact set or when they will press whatever button they have unless they already did it, and if we ever reach the point of Metronome 20XX where everyone is perfectly predicting each other then neither player will have pressed their button anyway. This was actually kind of similar to a thought experiment I had in Gen 8 with dynamax once.
So as of now I would say the "counterplay" is basically just having any speed ties involved, or Imposter, or something like Quick Claw or King's Rock that adds a unrevealed random call until it procs to throw people off, or just not bothering at all.
tl;dr I want to sleep. But I also wanted to figure out what this all means in practice. In conclusion I think this is neat and funny but probably won't practically affect anything, feel free to prove me wrong though with another example or anything I'm missing. Hopefully now you have a more informed idea of what this all means for Metronome Battles, because I don't know where to start with anything else. Maybe Showdown will do something about it and render this all irrelevant anyway before it even matters again. Who knows? These are interesting times. Even just Metronome (the move) getting a spotlight for something is nice and noteworthy enough for me.
Also the smogon dex description seems to be up, looking good.
EDIT: Expanded on the possible point that you could have to give up the impact of an earlier turn 1/2 tera just to potentially get something out of a tera later if you want to have an informed impact on the battle's outcome with this exploit, which is pretty timely to bring up regarding the recent question.
Overview
The main premise of Metronome Battle is one of tomfoolery and jest: you simply click Metronome with your two Pokémon and hope you survive longer.
Resources
Metronome Battle is a Custom Game-based Unofficial Metagame in 2v2 format. Pokémon are only allowed one copy of the move Metronome each. Teambuilding is often a choice between stall, hyper offense, Flower Veil, Imposter, and various other fun pairings. Pokémon above 625 bst, Steel-types, residual healing, guaranteed passive damage, Pressure, and other centralizing mechanics are barred from use.
That’s me! I was trying to make Rhydon work on various teams last month, though apparently my usage of this one is what shines through the most by farNot much else to highlight in particular, though I saw Rhydon at #39
2 years later and I’ve finally gotten around to doing this refactor for Mirror Herb’s sake, and I indeed fixed a bunch of other things at the same time. Admins are still not quite back yet from the holidays to review the pull request, but this could finally go through some time this month, so Mirror Herb might get a considerable buff soon.On the topic of to-be-implemented mechanics, Mirror Herb should actually be substantially stronger than it is. It’s supposed to wait until certain intervals (after almost all switch-in related events, after moves, and probably somewhere in residuals? Needs more research) to actually activate, only then copying all the boosts it’s tallied up. For example, Mirror Herb vs. double Intrepid Sword should copy a total +2 Attack, not just +1. In the silliest case scenario, double Intimidate @ Mirror Herb vs double Defiant should result in each Mirror Herb copying a total +8 (capped at +6) Attack, while the Defiant Pokemon get a measly net +2 each. I’m currently trying to get this right on PS, but it needs more than just research. The event structure to support this kind of behavior isn’t really there, so I pretty much have to fix a bunch of other things at the same time in order for Mirror Herb Intimidate to really scare Defiant back into whatever hole it crawled out of after Opportunist’s de facto ban.
Honestly, though, that will probably be a nerf for Mirror Herb, not a buff. +1 critical hit ratio is nice and all, but popping a Mirror Herb for that before rolling Earthquake/Bulldoze/Brutal Swing/Sandsear Storm into double WP Ice Scales Pecharunt will definitely happen to someone, and it won’t feel good for them.Mirror Herb and Opportunist can copy the increase in critical hit ratio from Dragon Cheer (see cartridge footage).
Dragon Cheer is the only move in the move data dumps that has a value of 8 in the first element of the StatAmps column. So I imagine that's what is causing it to behave like other stat boosting moves that Opportunist can take advantage of.
- Mirror Herb / Opportunist can't copy Focus Energy.
- When Dragon Cheer is copied, if the original target of Dragon Cheer was a Dragon-type, Opportunist will copy +2 in critical hit ratio.
- If the Pokemon is already at 3 stages of critical hit ratio from Dragon Cheer, Opportunist will announce itself, but not attempt to copy any more.
- Psych Up can copy the Opportunist-copied Dragon Cheer critical hit boosts.
0 = no stat change
1 = Attack
2 = Defense
3 = Special Attack
4 = Special Defense
5 = Speed
6 = Accuracy
7 = Evasion
8 = Critical hit rate
9 = Omniboost (Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed)