It's nearing the end of June 1st, so may as well get into May's usage stats. Crazy to think it's almost been a year that I've been doing this now.
(EDIT:
It actually has been a year since June 1 2020 when we found out that Metronome Battles surpassed the requirement of 10,000 battles for the format to survive, but it didn't pop up in my search because I didn't actually talk about the usage stats in that post. Happy anniversary to Gen 8 Metronome Battle's permanent ranked existence.)
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2021-05/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2021-05/moveset/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
The count has dipped a bit with
61698 battles, but honestly it's not a relatively big loss (and probably a rise in human players) and still higher than a lot of the rest of the other well known formats, like
Gen 8 CAP 1v1 Camomons or
Gen 1 Custom Game or
Gen 6 VGC 2016. I have no idea why or how these are in the stats.
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Mega Heracross (#4)
#3: Mega Sableye (#7)
#4: Necturna (#5)
#5: Glastrier (#12)
#6: Dragapult (#10)
#7: Blissey (#2)
#8: Mega Gengar (#11)
#9: Type: Null (#3)
#10: Dusclops (#6)
Stall has taken a fall with Type Null, Dusclops, and Blissey falling from the limelight. I suppose this is what the meta looks like without the influence of the usual bots; at the least I didn't notice any on ladder. Heracross has returned to #2 for the first time in a while and Sableye, Glastrier, and Dragapult have also made some impressive rebounds. Still, even Mega Venusaur and Heracross have gone from raw uses in the 20ks to the 10ks. New CAP mon Chromera is in a modest 12th with 3747 raw uses. The dark horses of this month are Dhelmise at #20 and Drifblim at #29, both having raw usage in the hundreds among mons in the thousands (473 and 502 respectively).
As for moveset data, you can see just what the bots contributed looking at the differences between the months. Friend Guard on Mega Venusaur falls from 46% to 5%, while Simple actually rises up to 2nd most used. Intrepid Sword on Heracross goes from 83% to 56%, with uprise in Defiant and Simple. Most significantly, Type: Null's highest ability is now Magic Bounce and Unaware falls to 3% from 86%. Dusclops also has Magic Bounce in first place, though Friend Guard is still a contender and Unaware usage wasn't that high to begin with. The viability ceilings are pretty low all around, with only Dusclops ending above 80 with 81.
This month I mostly tried out
bonk's Innards Out Chansey strategy, along with some shaymin games. I liked it and actually prepared a draft earlier this month, but unfortunately it has disappeared. Nevertheless here is my version of the Innards Out team:
The Chansey set is straight out of
bonk's post except with one change (aside from nickname). Level 99 Chansey forfeits the ability to land OHKO moves and some damage overall, but in exchange loses 7 HP and most importantly 1 point of Defence, going from 13 to 12. The next defence loss threshold is at level 89 which is too impractical to sacrifice without major performance loss. In hindsight I might have wanted to go +SpD since special moves are kind of a problem, but in the end a lot of the mons I saw on ladder didn't have a high HP stat to begin with and it was funny to see Chansey do 50% with a confusion hit.
I had the exact calc in my draft, but I believe that I chose level 99 after this scenario cost me the game:
252 Atk Sableye-Mega Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0- Def Chansey: 592-697 (92.3 - 108.7%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Sableye-Mega Bullet Punch vs. Lvl 99 0 HP / 0- Def Chansey: 641-755 (101.1 - 119%) -- guaranteed OHKO
The key to this team lies in the partner, Soul-Heart Dragapult. The original strategy does not specify any partner in particular, but this idea was too great on paper to pass up. This is probably the best synergy you can have as Innards Out will usually force a 1v1 situation on activation, and having 2 mons die instantly lands you the maximum +2 SpA boost from Soul-Heart, perfect for cleaning up. I chose Dragapult because it has high stats (specifically Speed is very powerful in a 1v1), decent defensive typing, and most importantly it can dynamax. Dynamaxing on turn 1 allows you to hopefully not take a hit while Chansey dies and start the true battle with a stat advantage. BrightPowder is used because it has an easy activation condition and a reliable effect while not having any drawbacks. I use a Brave nature because I like mixed attackers and you can't always rely on winning via special moves.
Here are some highlights:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1343875754-w6khlqwwvt4jrrhjmplaghn88dfsnzgpw - 2x Chanseys, the first attempt
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1343913816 - ideal clean game
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1344254181 - Confused Chansey
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1344265462-xogimyw0z4hzrbfumwqrvkcw3lhorukpw - long close game
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1345163904 - The Yanma
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1348751875-l0gezyd92iv9gaz6v0w66mul526qf4kpw - Curse
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1349671620 - clean non-special kill
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1349673052-vi5gotzbkcc00ll7ay80ewp6p8kl4oqpw - whittling down Spiritomb
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1349674566 - dodging dark moves
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1349676960-wy1isw3x342wfhhemkvsx86mujjhywupw - 2 consecutive 3 turn sleeps
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1349680706-858c2pwi4r8egtumdeaiacujdg9hq9gpw - The Speed Boost Hydreigon (
I actually do accept his rematch challenge and it's another close game)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1348750601 - Chansey gets a kill
Overall I found this strategy makes for an interesting playstyle and was refreshing to play, even being decent for ladder when I got a win streak going. Dragapult is not a SpA nuker and won't be OHKOing with neutral special moves like Mega Ampharos, but it can handle itself in a 1v1 rather nicely with its solid resistances and stats. This team reached turn 16 more than I was expecting, but in the end it's still metronome battles and anything can happen. You could probably get away with not dynamaxing turn 1 and saving it for stall, but I prefer to stay on the safe side and avoid taking damage early. This team does lose to Magic Guard and there's always the possibility of losing Innards Out, but more likely than not things will usually go as expected. Crazy to think that this was possible since the beginning.
EDIT:
Just for fun I'm going to compare May 2021 1630 usage stats top 10 with May 2020, marking a full year since the beginning of Gen 8 Metronome Battle usage stats.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2020-05/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 from last year:
#1: Mega Venusaur
#2: Mega Heracross
#3: Necturna
#4: Mega Ampharos
#5: Dragapult
#6: Mega Sableye
#7: Gourgeist-Super
#8: Mew
#9: Mega Gengar
#10: Dusclops
First of all, the Flower Veil hype was real for Gourgeist to even be there lol. Second of all, interesting to see that the top has mostly stayed in the top, aside from stall growing stronger, Mew never really breaching top 10 anymore, and Glastrier newly existing since then. It's also funny to see that if you switch tabs between the two stats you can notice things like Dhelmise and Swampert still being #20 and #21. Corsola-Galar was actually relatively high in 2020, still sitting at 87 today. A lot of the generally popular mons have retained their popularity it seems, though not to the degree of success they may have had back then. Raw usage has generally lowered though I'd say percentage has kind of smoothed out among the top.
EDIT 2 (June 2):
Bonus game I just played:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8metronomebattle-1351953547 - The true fastest game, ended in 1 action
via teamkill. First time this happened to me.
Other Chansey will survive the Innards Out because of uninvested HP. Also -6 Dragapult outslows Shuckle.