I've been running ice scales tera ghost, ursaring with protean has given me a higher win/loss than ursaring with anything else. Ice scales is undoubtedly better than fluffy, but the problem with tablets is it lowers zygarde's attack too. Finally, I don't think weakness policy pops enough with tera ghost, so I'm looking for a different item on zygarde.
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Format Discussion Metronome Battle
- Thread starter Ivy
- Start date
You can also tera after getting weakness policy activated but if you want an item while still using tera turn 1, use band.
Also use friend guard on ursaring to get better bulk for zygarde but not sacking it's own attack stat. As I said, I think protean is useless since ursaring is already a normal type, and protean just makes you a normal type if you already are one, so what are you trying to accomplish by using protean on a normal type?
If you're already the correct type then Protean doesn't even fire; this is particularly relevant given that it now only fires once per switch in. (Although Protean isn't supposed to fire for calling moves such as Metronome anyway; that's a known server bug.)
The protean doesn't fire when it's a normal move, and it's a bit more random with a luckier typing such as electric or steel, but there doesn't seem to be a bad type to be changed into on average
I didn't know that about protean in metronome battles, but there is more consistent abilities out there, like what if you get a bad defensive typing like rock or grass when you could be running something more consistent.
Even though with those flaws, I would like to make a team about protean and fixing it with tera if something goes wrong
The sheer percentage of grass and rock moves pales in comparison, to say fighting, flying, or psychic. Having experienced many games of protean, the most common types are probably water, fighting, or dark.
Been having some recent success using this team, don't know if thats down to luck or it just works well against the other players teams going around when I was playing lol. Any advice to clean up the rough edges would be appreciated, for example I was thinking about changing Ursaluna's ability to something like Intrepid Sword.
Ursaluna @ Choice Band
Ability: Scrappy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Donbozo (Dondozo) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ursaluna @ Choice Band
Ability: Scrappy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Donbozo (Dondozo) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Magic Bounce
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
The usage stats for February are here as our first look into a full new month of a metagame without Opportunist. Before that though, I have to cover some recent additions to the metagame since a few days ago on Pokemon Day, Scarlet and Violet version 1.2.0 released with some new content and even more to come in future DLC updates.
Walking Wake: Water/Dragon (99/83/91/125/83/109) 590 BST
Water/Dragon is a type combination with very few weaknesses (Fairy, Dragon) and resistances (Fire x2, Water x2, Steel), with both types cancelling out their usual resistances and weaknesses for better or for worse. Of the Water/Dragons, Walking Wake boasts the new highest BST of them all and has solid stats all around with having the highest HP, SpA, and Speed of them all. Will it be enough to redeem the type? BST-wise it still has a lot of competition among Dragons and other viable Water types with less speed, feeling similar to Keldeo in its stat spread.
(For some reason Dracovish shows up as illegal in Gen 9.)
Iron Leaves: Grass/Psychic (90/130/88/70/108/104) 590 BST
Iron Leaves brings another natural Flower Veil user to the table. Grass/Psychic has 7 weaknesses including an unfortunate double Bug weakness, but also a fair share of 6 resistances. The most notable trait of Iron Leaves is its specialized 130 Attack, being tied for the 3rd highest among Grass types while also being the fastest choice of its competitors. I feel like Iron Leaves is in a similar state to Zarude as a high BST fast and physical Grass type, but Zarude's higher HP and Def may be more preferable in general, and Brute Bonnet also rivals both of them in stats other than Speed.
Hisuian Zoroark and Kleavor got their old PLA stat spreads back. From now on Zoroark will have 55 HP/100 Atk/125 SpA/110 Speed and Kleavor has 135 Atk/70 SpD. For Zoroark I think it feels like a net loss to trade off HP and Attack for SpA and Speed that it already had plenty of, while Kleavor is in the same situation going for more Attack and less SpD, which is probably more preferable of a tradeoff to go all in for but Mega Heracross would probably do it better anyway.
Overall the most interesting change this update brings is introducing the new signature moves Hydro Steam and Psyblade, which are 80 BP Water/Psychic and get a boost in Sun/Electric Terrain, with Hydro Steam notably ignoring the usual water move in sun damage reduction for a niche but interesting new interaction to play around with. Surprisingly, these new signature moves are actually callable by Metronome. Thank you game freak.
The battle count reaches 58320 this month, declining but still relatively high.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-02/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-02/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Ting-Lu (#2)
#2: Mega Venusaur (#5)
#3: Mega Ampharos (#1)
#4: Blissey (#12)
#5: Mega Heracross (#3)
#6: Glastrier (#8)
#7: Tyranitar (#28)
#8: Ursaluna (#18)
#9: Iron Hands (#7)
#10: Mega Gengar (#6)
The top spots are still shuffling around and Ting-Lu barely becomes the king of the hill once again with 7744 raw uses and 36.7% weighted usage, while Mega Venusaur also makes a big rise back up the spots by dominating in pure numbers in 23123 raw uses and following with 27.6% weighted usage, double of Heracross's 10523 uses in the next best spot and also way ahead of Ampharos's 10.9% raw usage. Blissey, Tyranitar, and Ursaluna rise back up to the top 10 with their common traits of bulk and power. The dark horse of the month is Keldeo, once again barely outside of the top 10 in #12 with 438 uses, with other water types following similarly below like Toxapex (#29, 501) and Suicune (#31, 288). For all the recent Ursaring talk in the thread, it's done surprisingly alright at #36 (529 uses). Despite only existing for the last 2 days of February, Walking Wake managed #85 with 235 uses and Iron Leaves hit #157 with 208 uses.
Over in the moveset file, we can see that Pickup Mirror Herb has pretty much replaced Opportunist with having some usage all around, mainly on Ting-Lu but also Mega Gengar, Mega Sableye, Hisuian Zoroark, Cresselia, and Pokestar Giant among other mons have major usage of the ability and item. For Ting-Lu, Unaware still reigns with the items being split closely between Mirror Herb and Weakness Policy. Mega Ampharos favours Plus (42.7%) much more than Minus (12.5%). Heracross is back to Intrepid Swording most of the time now, while Glastrier has taken on the Sword of Ruin and Ursaluna is now the prime Defiant user. Tyranitar's sets are actually pretty varied with high usage of Simple, Defiant, and Solid Rock among Mirror Herb and Weakness Policy as the common items.
The viability ceilings (highest GXE of a player using the mon) for this month cap out at 79 with Blissey and Iron Hands. Blissey's sets are 90% Imposter-based as expected while Iron Hands actually has some variety going on with Flame Body, Magic Guard, Magic Bounce, Defiant, and Galvanize all with at least 10% weighted usage and a fair divide between Choice Band and Mirror Herb. The next highest ceiling is 77 with Ting-Lu and Ursaluna, and we end off the top 10 on a 6-way tie for 75 with Mega Venusaur/Mega Gengar/Necturna/Pokestar UFO/Zapdos/Alolan Muk for a pretty interesting combination of classic strong picks while Muk is still on the grind since last month. Thanks for your reading.
Walking Wake: Water/Dragon (99/83/91/125/83/109) 590 BST
Water/Dragon is a type combination with very few weaknesses (Fairy, Dragon) and resistances (Fire x2, Water x2, Steel), with both types cancelling out their usual resistances and weaknesses for better or for worse. Of the Water/Dragons, Walking Wake boasts the new highest BST of them all and has solid stats all around with having the highest HP, SpA, and Speed of them all. Will it be enough to redeem the type? BST-wise it still has a lot of competition among Dragons and other viable Water types with less speed, feeling similar to Keldeo in its stat spread.
(For some reason Dracovish shows up as illegal in Gen 9.)
Iron Leaves: Grass/Psychic (90/130/88/70/108/104) 590 BST
Iron Leaves brings another natural Flower Veil user to the table. Grass/Psychic has 7 weaknesses including an unfortunate double Bug weakness, but also a fair share of 6 resistances. The most notable trait of Iron Leaves is its specialized 130 Attack, being tied for the 3rd highest among Grass types while also being the fastest choice of its competitors. I feel like Iron Leaves is in a similar state to Zarude as a high BST fast and physical Grass type, but Zarude's higher HP and Def may be more preferable in general, and Brute Bonnet also rivals both of them in stats other than Speed.
Hisuian Zoroark and Kleavor got their old PLA stat spreads back. From now on Zoroark will have 55 HP/100 Atk/125 SpA/110 Speed and Kleavor has 135 Atk/70 SpD. For Zoroark I think it feels like a net loss to trade off HP and Attack for SpA and Speed that it already had plenty of, while Kleavor is in the same situation going for more Attack and less SpD, which is probably more preferable of a tradeoff to go all in for but Mega Heracross would probably do it better anyway.
Overall the most interesting change this update brings is introducing the new signature moves Hydro Steam and Psyblade, which are 80 BP Water/Psychic and get a boost in Sun/Electric Terrain, with Hydro Steam notably ignoring the usual water move in sun damage reduction for a niche but interesting new interaction to play around with. Surprisingly, these new signature moves are actually callable by Metronome. Thank you game freak.
The battle count reaches 58320 this month, declining but still relatively high.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-02/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-02/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Ting-Lu (#2)
#2: Mega Venusaur (#5)
#3: Mega Ampharos (#1)
#4: Blissey (#12)
#5: Mega Heracross (#3)
#6: Glastrier (#8)
#7: Tyranitar (#28)
#8: Ursaluna (#18)
#9: Iron Hands (#7)
#10: Mega Gengar (#6)
The top spots are still shuffling around and Ting-Lu barely becomes the king of the hill once again with 7744 raw uses and 36.7% weighted usage, while Mega Venusaur also makes a big rise back up the spots by dominating in pure numbers in 23123 raw uses and following with 27.6% weighted usage, double of Heracross's 10523 uses in the next best spot and also way ahead of Ampharos's 10.9% raw usage. Blissey, Tyranitar, and Ursaluna rise back up to the top 10 with their common traits of bulk and power. The dark horse of the month is Keldeo, once again barely outside of the top 10 in #12 with 438 uses, with other water types following similarly below like Toxapex (#29, 501) and Suicune (#31, 288). For all the recent Ursaring talk in the thread, it's done surprisingly alright at #36 (529 uses). Despite only existing for the last 2 days of February, Walking Wake managed #85 with 235 uses and Iron Leaves hit #157 with 208 uses.
Over in the moveset file, we can see that Pickup Mirror Herb has pretty much replaced Opportunist with having some usage all around, mainly on Ting-Lu but also Mega Gengar, Mega Sableye, Hisuian Zoroark, Cresselia, and Pokestar Giant among other mons have major usage of the ability and item. For Ting-Lu, Unaware still reigns with the items being split closely between Mirror Herb and Weakness Policy. Mega Ampharos favours Plus (42.7%) much more than Minus (12.5%). Heracross is back to Intrepid Swording most of the time now, while Glastrier has taken on the Sword of Ruin and Ursaluna is now the prime Defiant user. Tyranitar's sets are actually pretty varied with high usage of Simple, Defiant, and Solid Rock among Mirror Herb and Weakness Policy as the common items.
The viability ceilings (highest GXE of a player using the mon) for this month cap out at 79 with Blissey and Iron Hands. Blissey's sets are 90% Imposter-based as expected while Iron Hands actually has some variety going on with Flame Body, Magic Guard, Magic Bounce, Defiant, and Galvanize all with at least 10% weighted usage and a fair divide between Choice Band and Mirror Herb. The next highest ceiling is 77 with Ting-Lu and Ursaluna, and we end off the top 10 on a 6-way tie for 75 with Mega Venusaur/Mega Gengar/Necturna/Pokestar UFO/Zapdos/Alolan Muk for a pretty interesting combination of classic strong picks while Muk is still on the grind since last month. Thanks for your reading.
i'd say swap scrappy for defiant on ursa, intrepid sword/defiant are pretty interchangeable but i'd say the bulkier a mon is, the more it wants defiant compared to intrepid.
you don't need minimum speed for ursa since dozo is slower and is already your low speed mon.
you also should use band instead of WP on dozo since having 2 weaknesses isn't really worth running WP
swap out relaxed for brave on both, you could also go for sassy on dozo but i think brave would still be better
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flower veil with tera is kind of insane this gen, i've run two teams with it so far
this is the stall team
now that type: null can tera grass, you have an incredible option for a wall
flarelm is the best defensive grass imo, 90/95/70 defenses with eviolite is very hard to pass up
with flower veil protecting from most effects, and unaware protecting from stat boosters with intrepid sword and defiant, it's very hard to break type: null, and even if you do you still have to get through flarelm who is very bulky and has flower veil still up
this team is much more offensive
ttar kind of sucked last gen cause of its type, but with tera grass it can become an amazing pokemon for veil teams
ttar's stats are perfect across the board, making it a great candidate for wp, and with mold breaker it ignores common abilities like unaware and good as gold
mvenu also runs weakness policy and is also a pokemon with great stats across the board. i don't really like using mirror herb on it since it's very unreliable and you can easily copy something stupid like meditate
Flarelm @ Eviolite
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Type: Null @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Type: Null @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
this is the stall team
now that type: null can tera grass, you have an incredible option for a wall
flarelm is the best defensive grass imo, 90/95/70 defenses with eviolite is very hard to pass up
with flower veil protecting from most effects, and unaware protecting from stat boosters with intrepid sword and defiant, it's very hard to break type: null, and even if you do you still have to get through flarelm who is very bulky and has flower veil still up
Venusaur-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
this team is much more offensive
ttar kind of sucked last gen cause of its type, but with tera grass it can become an amazing pokemon for veil teams
ttar's stats are perfect across the board, making it a great candidate for wp, and with mold breaker it ignores common abilities like unaware and good as gold
mvenu also runs weakness policy and is also a pokemon with great stats across the board. i don't really like using mirror herb on it since it's very unreliable and you can easily copy something stupid like meditate
GOOD points. I think the potential for Tera Grass Flower Veil is pretty interesting since the Grass type notably doesn't have a lot of high bulk options at base outside of the usual Mega and Legendary territory, and the mentioned Type: Null and Tyranitar are pretty solid tanks for that purpose. I can see Glastrier, Cresselia, and Suicune as defensive mons that could also slot into similar bulky statboost roles and don't mind switching to the Grass type. As a side note, making use of tera for a bulky Eviolite user with Flower Veil reminds me that you could do the same thing with adding new type options to Imposter Blissey, Light Ball Pikachu-Starter, Thick Club Marowaks, and Leek Sirfetch'd among other things.flower veil with tera is kind of insane this gen, i've run two teams with it so far
Flarelm @ Eviolite
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Type: Null @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
this is the stall team
now that type: null can tera grass, you have an incredible option for a wall
flarelm is the best defensive grass imo, 90/95/70 defenses with eviolite is very hard to pass up
with flower veil protecting from most effects, and unaware protecting from stat boosters with intrepid sword and defiant, it's very hard to break type: null, and even if you do you still have to get through flarelm who is very bulky and has flower veil still up
Venusaur-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
this team is much more offensive
ttar kind of sucked last gen cause of its type, but with tera grass it can become an amazing pokemon for veil teams
ttar's stats are perfect across the board, making it a great candidate for wp, and with mold breaker it ignores common abilities like unaware and good as gold
mvenu also runs weakness policy and is also a pokemon with great stats across the board. i don't really like using mirror herb on it since it's very unreliable and you can easily copy something stupid like meditate
While looking for defensive mons, this reminded me that Darmanitan-Zen exists with its surprising spread of 105/30/105/140/105/55 that's both very defensive and minmaxed, going all in on dumping its physical Attack and Speed. I don't think this mon has ever been mentioned before in this thread, but it could honestly make for a solid pick with tera to go with any other typing now to reduce its weaknesses. Looking at its stats again, Zen Darmanitan may be the only mon in the meta with more than 100 HP/Def/SpA/SpD, just based off /nds and a quick scroll through the teambuilder sorted by SpA (ironically it does not show up here), so it's one of the bulkiest SpA nukers out there which is not a very bulky archetype to begin with. To compare, Mega Ampharos and Enamorus-T have more balanced offenses, but Darmanitan-Zen is still bulkier with Enamorus's HP dragging it down and Mega Ampharos can't use tera, so overall I think this mon has a real niche to itself that's been underlooked and there could be something interesting to make out of it that I want to try out. The low Attack might drag it down with physical moves being more common and most other minmaxed mons at least have more than 30 in their off-stat, but 140 SpA still makes for one impressive offensive side to rely on.
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In other news, Cud Chew may end up being really good. On release, Cud Chew was a mostly outclassed ability, being similar to Harvest without the longevity and Ripen without the burst. However, as found recently in the battle mechanics thread, Cud Chew in SV version 1.2.0 will reactivate a berry on every 2 turns until it no longer takes effect. Hypothetically this gives Cud Chew the longevity factor that it was lacking, making it more consistent than sunless Harvest, but still not matching its peak performance for most berries like Starf. Despite this, there is still one key berry type that 1.2.0 Cud Chew has an edge over Harvest with.
It is important to note that Harvest regenerates a berry in your hold item slot, while Cud Chew will directly reuse an eaten berry at the end of turn regardless of if its eat condition is met. This distinction notably affects the Kee and Maranga berries that boost Defense/Special Defense, but can only be eaten after being hit with their respective attacks.
Harvest + Kee/Maranga can result in a lot of bulk, but you would have to take a hit for every activation which would still wear you down over time and cancel out your gains. On the other hand, 1.2.0 Cud Chew can activate Kee/Maranga once and directly reuse it for the rest of the battle, potentially reaching +6 in a defensive stat after 12 turns. If 1.2.0 Cud Chew is implemented on Showdown before the next SV update in April when it may be fixed among other bugs, then it may be a force to be reckoned with as one of the strongest possible defense boosting setups, but for now it's just a hypothetical that may not come to pass.
True Glastrier and Cress are really good. I didn't consider Suicune but it just looks like worse Cresselia tbh:
Some other candidates could be Ting-Lu, for an emphasis on physical bulk, or Regirock, for a really big emphasis on physical bulk.
Imposter is too inconsistent for me to like it, I only see Blissey and Marowak out of this group working (and only Marowak because of its Struggles).
One thing I want to try out for veil teams is having two Grass-types like last gen, so that if the veil user dies early you can tera the other one. The team would look something like this:
Venusaur-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Shaymin @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Teravolt
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ability: Flower Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Shaymin @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Teravolt
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Darmanitan-Zen is a cool pokemon, but it's definitely gonna be inconsistent, 30 Atk is doom. It does have an outstanding Special Attack stat combined with its bulk, and there's nothing else like this with the ability to Tera: the closest is Meloetta, who offers noticeably weaker Defense and Special Attack, and 77 Attack is still bad. There's also the fish everyone forgets about
but he is held back by that horrendous 40 HP of his. I imagine Darm would be running an ability that assists with longevity, like Dauntless Shield or Good As Gold.A "key" berry...
I wonder how this interacts with Chilan Berry? Back in Gen 8 (before those pesky terastallizations) I used Harvest Chilan Berry Cresselia in order to "resist" the most popular type, Normal. Sadly Harvest does outclass this (or just using Tera Ghost or Rock) but it will be interesting to see how those two actually function together.
Speaking of Tera Rock, it's a tech for Kee Berry and Weakness Policy users that I have really liked recently. As I said earlier, Normal and Fighting are some of the most common attacking types, which is a big reason why Ghost is as good as it is. Specifically, Normal is much more common than the other types, and Rock is one of two Tera choices that resist it. Ghost usually outclasses it... unless you're holding a Kee Berry. With immunities to two of the most common types, Ghost can struggle to consistently get Kee Berry off, which is where Rock comes in. With a resistance to Normal, yet no immunities, it is the best type at proccing Kee Berry imo. Weakness Policy users appreciate the myriad of weaknesses Rock has, compared to Ghost who only has two weaknesses, with Ghost being an uncommon attacking type on top of that. Tera Water is another nice option for Kee Berry users due to the miniscule amount of physical weaknesses the type has.
Hit 1400 (top 100) on ladder a short while ago with
and
then switched to a type of team I was losing against
and broke 1500 (top 4)
.
Ting-Lu @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Heracross-Mega @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Metronome
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Heracross-Mega @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Metronome
then switched to a type of team I was losing against
Ting-Lu @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Pickup
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ting-Lu @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Pickup
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ability: Pickup
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Ting-Lu @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Pickup
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome
Kinda not that enlightening for this type of strategy to do so well, partially defeating the point of the Opportunist ban (which happened long before I started playing metronome this gen). I wonder if my former team can be modified to be more consistent in the 1400s (e.g. swapping Ice Scales for Unaware, though the former is pretty decent too); I might be trying some other strategies on another account if I have time in the coming days.
Hello! I hit rank 1 a few days ago, so I want to share how I got there and suggest (in my experience) a pretty unusual ability to use.
I thought of this strategy originally when Opportunist was running around everywhere and realized it works great against a lot of other strategies.
I invite everyone to give it a shot and try to climb higher ^^
Rider?? (Glastrier) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome
Illya von Einzbern (Ting-Lu) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Mummy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Metronome
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome
Illya von Einzbern (Ting-Lu) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Mummy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Metronome
In my opinion, Mummy is a very underused ability, it can completely stop some top strategies in just a few turns. It demolishes Good as Gold users, takes away Flower Veil/Thick Fat grass team strenghts, Aerilate/Pixilate users get taken care of too. I gave it to Ting-Lu because it's great bulk and 2 immunities let it live (pretty consistently) long enough to get Mummy off on the enemies. I would only switch the ability to Unaware if i was going up against double Mega-Heracross with Intrepid Swords.
Glastrier hits EXTREMELY hard with just 1 attack boost, that's why I gave it Intrepid Sword. I also chose this ability, as it works great with the Mummy strat - I get the boost at the start of the game and the ability is useless for the rest, so it really isn't a big deal when it inevitably gets replaced with Mummy. Opted to go for Weakness Policy over Choice Band, because I believe that getting those 2 turn attacks off is very useful, and Glastrier usually lives at least one super effective attack, which makes it's special attacks be more useful too after WP gets popped.
Glastrier hits EXTREMELY hard with just 1 attack boost, that's why I gave it Intrepid Sword. I also chose this ability, as it works great with the Mummy strat - I get the boost at the start of the game and the ability is useless for the rest, so it really isn't a big deal when it inevitably gets replaced with Mummy. Opted to go for Weakness Policy over Choice Band, because I believe that getting those 2 turn attacks off is very useful, and Glastrier usually lives at least one super effective attack, which makes it's special attacks be more useful too after WP gets popped.
I thought of this strategy originally when Opportunist was running around everywhere and realized it works great against a lot of other strategies.
I invite everyone to give it a shot and try to climb higher ^^
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Happy belated April fish! The usage stats for March are out, and this week coming up will mark 5 years of the Metronome Battles thread and format, and in that time the thread has hit 333k views and 1065 messages. Here's to another great upcoming year of advancements in the format as we see what the SV DLC has in store for us.
The battle count rises back up to 63787 battles, hanging strong and recovering from the slight decline of last month.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-03/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-03/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (#2)
#2: Ting-Lu (#1)
#3: Mega Heracross (#5)
#4: Glastrier (#6)
#5: Mega Ampharos (#3)
#6: Blissey (#4)
#7: Necturna (#19)
#8: Dusclops (#14)
#9: Type: Null (#11)
#10: Mega Gengar (no change)
Venusaur's influence catches back up to overtake Ting-Lu for the top spot once again, despite Ting-Lu rising up to 9027 raw usage and Venusaur falling with 20818 with about a 2000 swing for both mons, showing that the race for the top spot is still not settled in Gen 9, with even Heracross creeping back up from a brief dip. While the top 6 completely shuffle around, more of the old stallers are coming back around to make it look more like a classic top 10, while Gengar remains in its paradoxical existence of being the worst of the best. Looking at the new introductions from last month, Walking Wake has done pretty well for itself (#29/1797) with a lot of variety in its sets, while Iron Leaves fares more unfortunately (#131/654) with most uses being the default Quark Drive/Booster Energy. I guess even with 590 BST it doesn't stand out too much from the other Flower Veil options, especially with new opportunities opened with Grass Tera.
I would say the dark horse of the month is either Volcanion (#23/864) or Hoopa (#26/742), and the Gen 6 mythicals are rounded out with Diancie being behind both of them at #27 with more uses than both combined (2011). Interestingly, both Volcanion and Hoopa primarily run Fluffy, with Volcanion preferring Lum Berry and Mirror Herb for Hoopa's item slot, and both also have a majority of Ting-Lu teammates which probably says more about Ting-Lu's presence as a rising star that can complement just about anyone by staying alive. The next dark horse candidate for me would be Skeledirge (#35/575) as a mon I would not expect to see that high, and it has some pretty interesting set choices with Fluffy, Storm Drain, and Lightning Rod being more on the defensive side, which with the immunities seems to lean more towards Mirror Herb than Weakness Policy as the main item choices. Lastly Flarelm has the interesting niche of being the highest placing mon with 2-digit uses (#101 and 79 uses) after its brief mention in the thread, which is pretty neat.
Speaking of which, following up on my Darmanitan-Zen theorymonning and testing, it landed in #200 with 205 uses, just behind classic mons like Farfetch'd and Shaymin-Sky. In practice its performance was pretty much as you would expect with its 30 Attack being its Achilles' heel, which makes sense when you think about how much Heracross just wins matches off of physicals and then you invert that to get someone who loses all those matches instead. Still, it is interesting to play around a special nuker with bulk. I'm not sure if it's better to play into setup with Competitive and Weakness Policy, or raw power with Choice Specs and Plus/Minus here, or even lean into the defensive side and go for status blockers and immunities. Overall it was pretty satisfying to see big damage when you finally land a special move, but rough to see a lot of solid hits be reduced to chip damage. At least as a special attacker, you don't really care about losing out on 2-turn moves since they are almost all physical aside from Solar and Meteor Beam, though when Xerneas comes back then Geomancy will be something that you won't want to miss out on.
Over in the moveset file, we can observe the changing trends of Ting-Lu showing that an ancient embodiment of fear can still learn new tricks. Unaware continues its reign while Pickup has fallen out of favour which correlates to Weakness Policy's rise over Mirror Herb, though even just in practice from the recent posts in the thread we've seen different Ting-Lu sets reach the 1500s, so clearly it is a pretty flexible generalist that can handle just about any role with its bulk. Amusingly the effects of the Tera Grass Tyranitar post are also noticeable with Flower Veil being its top ability choice, and only Dondozo is in a similar position with relevant usage and it's still behind Magic Bounce for it.
With regards to the viability ceilings (highest GXE of a player using a pokemon), the numbers are still around the high 70s but more clustered, starting off with Ting-Lu alone at 78, followed up by Heracross, Ampharos, Iron Hands, and Keldeo at 77, and finally we end off with Venusaur, Sableye, Pokestar UFO, and Munchlax at 76 as a mon I never expected to genuinely mention here, but apparently someone with 76 GXE has used it successfully. I'm not sure how exactly, but it seems like Munchlax is carried by Ting-Lu partners like some other mons mentioned, and its sets seem to revolve around Eviolite + Fluffy/Dauntless Shield for maximum bulk with its respectable HP. Thanks for your reading.
The battle count rises back up to 63787 battles, hanging strong and recovering from the slight decline of last month.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-03/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-03/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (#2)
#2: Ting-Lu (#1)
#3: Mega Heracross (#5)
#4: Glastrier (#6)
#5: Mega Ampharos (#3)
#6: Blissey (#4)
#7: Necturna (#19)
#8: Dusclops (#14)
#9: Type: Null (#11)
#10: Mega Gengar (no change)
Venusaur's influence catches back up to overtake Ting-Lu for the top spot once again, despite Ting-Lu rising up to 9027 raw usage and Venusaur falling with 20818 with about a 2000 swing for both mons, showing that the race for the top spot is still not settled in Gen 9, with even Heracross creeping back up from a brief dip. While the top 6 completely shuffle around, more of the old stallers are coming back around to make it look more like a classic top 10, while Gengar remains in its paradoxical existence of being the worst of the best. Looking at the new introductions from last month, Walking Wake has done pretty well for itself (#29/1797) with a lot of variety in its sets, while Iron Leaves fares more unfortunately (#131/654) with most uses being the default Quark Drive/Booster Energy. I guess even with 590 BST it doesn't stand out too much from the other Flower Veil options, especially with new opportunities opened with Grass Tera.
I would say the dark horse of the month is either Volcanion (#23/864) or Hoopa (#26/742), and the Gen 6 mythicals are rounded out with Diancie being behind both of them at #27 with more uses than both combined (2011). Interestingly, both Volcanion and Hoopa primarily run Fluffy, with Volcanion preferring Lum Berry and Mirror Herb for Hoopa's item slot, and both also have a majority of Ting-Lu teammates which probably says more about Ting-Lu's presence as a rising star that can complement just about anyone by staying alive. The next dark horse candidate for me would be Skeledirge (#35/575) as a mon I would not expect to see that high, and it has some pretty interesting set choices with Fluffy, Storm Drain, and Lightning Rod being more on the defensive side, which with the immunities seems to lean more towards Mirror Herb than Weakness Policy as the main item choices. Lastly Flarelm has the interesting niche of being the highest placing mon with 2-digit uses (#101 and 79 uses) after its brief mention in the thread, which is pretty neat.
Speaking of which, following up on my Darmanitan-Zen theorymonning and testing, it landed in #200 with 205 uses, just behind classic mons like Farfetch'd and Shaymin-Sky. In practice its performance was pretty much as you would expect with its 30 Attack being its Achilles' heel, which makes sense when you think about how much Heracross just wins matches off of physicals and then you invert that to get someone who loses all those matches instead. Still, it is interesting to play around a special nuker with bulk. I'm not sure if it's better to play into setup with Competitive and Weakness Policy, or raw power with Choice Specs and Plus/Minus here, or even lean into the defensive side and go for status blockers and immunities. Overall it was pretty satisfying to see big damage when you finally land a special move, but rough to see a lot of solid hits be reduced to chip damage. At least as a special attacker, you don't really care about losing out on 2-turn moves since they are almost all physical aside from Solar and Meteor Beam, though when Xerneas comes back then Geomancy will be something that you won't want to miss out on.
Over in the moveset file, we can observe the changing trends of Ting-Lu showing that an ancient embodiment of fear can still learn new tricks. Unaware continues its reign while Pickup has fallen out of favour which correlates to Weakness Policy's rise over Mirror Herb, though even just in practice from the recent posts in the thread we've seen different Ting-Lu sets reach the 1500s, so clearly it is a pretty flexible generalist that can handle just about any role with its bulk. Amusingly the effects of the Tera Grass Tyranitar post are also noticeable with Flower Veil being its top ability choice, and only Dondozo is in a similar position with relevant usage and it's still behind Magic Bounce for it.
With regards to the viability ceilings (highest GXE of a player using a pokemon), the numbers are still around the high 70s but more clustered, starting off with Ting-Lu alone at 78, followed up by Heracross, Ampharos, Iron Hands, and Keldeo at 77, and finally we end off with Venusaur, Sableye, Pokestar UFO, and Munchlax at 76 as a mon I never expected to genuinely mention here, but apparently someone with 76 GXE has used it successfully. I'm not sure how exactly, but it seems like Munchlax is carried by Ting-Lu partners like some other mons mentioned, and its sets seem to revolve around Eviolite + Fluffy/Dauntless Shield for maximum bulk with its respectable HP. Thanks for your reading.
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I have an idea for a new type of Metronome Battle. It's called Metronome Triples, and as the name implies, the battle will consist of six Pokemon; three on one side and three on the other. Imagine the possibilities of Metronome battles with six Pokemon at once. Three Pokemon could use the same move like Doom Desire. You can even have ability combos that you couldn't before, like Drizzle, Rain Dish, and Dry Skin/Swift Swim all at the same time.
Let me know what you think
Let me know what you think
just seems like metronome battles but even more chaotic, you also don't seem to know too much about it since abilities that can heal you like rain dish/dry skin are banned.
HELLO METRONOME BATTLES! IM BACK
Time to find some underrated bullshit
Time to find some underrated bullshit
I was just giving an example, but ok
Welcome back. Speaking of underrated, you may be interested in the team I cobbled together today.
I was reminded of this point about Rock-types and their natural resistances when sorting by Attack and coming across Gigalith in one of the higher spots with a statline that looked pretty workable, so I played with some Gigalith/Hoopa today and hung around the 1300 range for a while, which was more fulfilling than Darmanitan-Zen for what it was worth. Why Hoopa? It is pretty much the opposite of Gigalith and I wanted to try it as well after noticing it in the stats, so I ended up with this balanced team going for offense and defense.
Hoopip (Hoopa) @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Fluffy
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome
the rock (Gigalith) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome
Gigalith is like a mini-Glastrier, with less in every stat but Defense and also being Rock-type, which Rhyperior can be compared to as well. However, Gigalith has the unique niche of being a pure-Rock type which actually has a fair share of resistances compared to pure Ice, and without the quad weaknesses of Rhyperior or other dual-type Rocks, which can help it be a little more tankier without tera. On Gigalith I put on Ice Scales to shore up its decent SpD some more and Weakness Policy to capitalize on being a rock, and for Hoopa I took the "meta pick" of Fluffy and Mirror Herb from the stats, which can actually help it take some physical hits, even with its weak point of 60 Def and two quad weaknesses:
+1 252+ Atk Choice Band Heracross-Mega Power Trip (40 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Hoopa: 278-328 (76.3 - 90.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Skeledirge Astonish vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fluffy Hoopa: 134-162 (36.8 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Overall the WP setup made for some memorable moments as usual. Gigalith was able to pull out some clutch victories against Ting-Lus, a quick win against Flower Veil, and even has a powerful Struggle when worst comes to worst. At times, Tera Ghost Hoopa in the 1v1 also managed to clutch out with the Bug resist or 2x STAB Shadow Ball. There were plenty of losses though; sometimes you just can't finish a mon off, a winning position can be lost in an instant, or Heracross just OHKOes you anyway from the start. Fluffy's Fire weakness didn't actually come into play too often, but an Alakazam Blast Burned me on Turn 1 once for one of the more regretful game starts.
Was it optimal? Probably not, but it still worked out when it did. For a mon that hasn't been mentioned before, Gigalith is still a unique choice in its own way as a pure Rock with its statline, and it gave me a better impression of how the Rock type can play out with Weakness Policy and pivot into tera Ghost later. It goes to show that even a Glastrier with less stats is still a threat to be reckoned with and that Gigalith is pretty cool.
I don't know much about how triples plays out other than the base differences like adjacent targeting, but I think in general this would make battles last longer and more driven to eventually running out of PP before HP with more mons on the field, or it might become more snowbally as having 3 mons alive leaves more chances to kill before a counterattack. Maybe Flower Veil and Aroma Veil gain more value in being able to guard more of the field at once and possibly at the same time on top of another ability, or in the same vein you could stack two Friend Guards to enhance stall. Personally I'm fine with the current balance of doubles, but I think triples would have a very different pace even if I can't predict what direction it would go in.
I've been having some success with Fliers.
Lando-T (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aerilate
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome
Han-T (Enamorus-Therian) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Delta Stream
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Metronome
Aerilate(+STAB+Tera+Band) has some nice anti-meta properties at the moment. Flying hits Flower Veil teams hard, hits M-Heracross spam really hard (Aerilated Tackle is an OHKO!), and hits all the ghosts running around. Delta Stream is obviously a worthwhile support ability by eliminating the tera-flier's three weaknesses, especially if the support mon is also benefitting.
I use Landorus-T as the tera-Aerilate nuker, with a huge attack stat+alright bulk+usable special attack. Dragonite seems like an acceptable alternative, with less power for more bulk, but the other candidates are kinda slim pickings: M-Pinsir unfortunately can't tera, Salamence trades 10 attack for speed, the other physical base fliers have less attack with nothing much to show for it, and non base-fliers don't get STAB.
Choice Band's quirks are more of a bummer than usual with three physical Flying charge moves, but with no weaknesses via Delta Stream and a locked-in ability I don't really see a better option. Maaaaybe Mirror Herb if you're really expecting Intrepid Swords and Weakness Policy Flower Veils (which would be a reason to use the bulkier Dragonite - stay healthier while you fish for WP)
I've liked Enamorus in the second slot. It's a bulky special attacker, slow enough to win much of the Perish Song-esque speedtest scenarios (and the occasional weather war), and it benefits from its own Delta Stream support. But this slot is a lot more flexible, and I can see running a non flier or just a strong non-Delta Stream mon doing its own thing (as long as it doesn't need tera). Any suggestions?
Lando-T (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Band
Ability: Aerilate
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome
Han-T (Enamorus-Therian) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Delta Stream
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Metronome
Aerilate(+STAB+Tera+Band) has some nice anti-meta properties at the moment. Flying hits Flower Veil teams hard, hits M-Heracross spam really hard (Aerilated Tackle is an OHKO!), and hits all the ghosts running around. Delta Stream is obviously a worthwhile support ability by eliminating the tera-flier's three weaknesses, especially if the support mon is also benefitting.
I use Landorus-T as the tera-Aerilate nuker, with a huge attack stat+alright bulk+usable special attack. Dragonite seems like an acceptable alternative, with less power for more bulk, but the other candidates are kinda slim pickings: M-Pinsir unfortunately can't tera, Salamence trades 10 attack for speed, the other physical base fliers have less attack with nothing much to show for it, and non base-fliers don't get STAB.
Choice Band's quirks are more of a bummer than usual with three physical Flying charge moves, but with no weaknesses via Delta Stream and a locked-in ability I don't really see a better option. Maaaaybe Mirror Herb if you're really expecting Intrepid Swords and Weakness Policy Flower Veils (which would be a reason to use the bulkier Dragonite - stay healthier while you fish for WP)
I've liked Enamorus in the second slot. It's a bulky special attacker, slow enough to win much of the Perish Song-esque speedtest scenarios (and the occasional weather war), and it benefits from its own Delta Stream support. But this slot is a lot more flexible, and I can see running a non flier or just a strong non-Delta Stream mon doing its own thing (as long as it doesn't need tera). Any suggestions?
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angel is back with AWFUL TEAMS THAT ARE BAD ON PURPOSE!!!
YIPPEE
"i miss spiky and you should too", aka "lesbian pichu power couple"
based on our favorite ship in the whole series, spiky-eared x pikachu-colored (shiny)
these two run levitate so ground moves dont explode them.
spiky runs bright powder for evasion, shiny runs eviolite to tank hits
ofc their stats are awful, even maxed out, but this is just a funny team i play because no one suspects them and i love spiky-eared with my life. metronome is one of the only formats that will accept spiky (though currently her sprite is glitched on the site)!
lightning rod / friend guard
this team was made for gen 8 metronome battles and may not be as effective as it once was!
archeops has a pretty nice stat balance i enjoy, and blisseys tankiness means these two can live for a decent while.
archeops is well-defended with lightning rod and friend guard, and blissey has all that health and a bright powder. this team was the subject of many peoples' annoyance in gen 8 metronome!
a change made for gen 9 to this team is giving archeops a flying tera! though this will mean rock attacks hit much harder that if you dont tera, it also allows for less weaknesses by removing all the worries of all those pesky water type moves!
though, it may be safer to leave archeops un-tera'd, because then theres a LOT more neutrals instead of super effectives.
lightning rod / friend guard, but weakness policy
this team was made for gen 8 metronome battles and may not be as effective as it once was!
a rehash of the above, but with azumarill for beef. combo azu with a weakness policy and suddenly you have a powerhouse!
of course, blissey has a bright powder.
YIPPEE
"i miss spiky and you should too", aka "lesbian pichu power couple"
based on our favorite ship in the whole series, spiky-eared x pikachu-colored (shiny)
these two run levitate so ground moves dont explode them.
spiky runs bright powder for evasion, shiny runs eviolite to tank hits
ofc their stats are awful, even maxed out, but this is just a funny team i play because no one suspects them and i love spiky-eared with my life. metronome is one of the only formats that will accept spiky (though currently her sprite is glitched on the site)!
lightning rod / friend guard
this team was made for gen 8 metronome battles and may not be as effective as it once was!
archeops has a pretty nice stat balance i enjoy, and blisseys tankiness means these two can live for a decent while.
archeops is well-defended with lightning rod and friend guard, and blissey has all that health and a bright powder. this team was the subject of many peoples' annoyance in gen 8 metronome!
a change made for gen 9 to this team is giving archeops a flying tera! though this will mean rock attacks hit much harder that if you dont tera, it also allows for less weaknesses by removing all the worries of all those pesky water type moves!
though, it may be safer to leave archeops un-tera'd, because then theres a LOT more neutrals instead of super effectives.
lightning rod / friend guard, but weakness policy
this team was made for gen 8 metronome battles and may not be as effective as it once was!
a rehash of the above, but with azumarill for beef. combo azu with a weakness policy and suddenly you have a powerhouse!
of course, blissey has a bright powder.
With version 1.3.0 of Scarlet and Violet out, the Cud Chew glitch has officially been fixed and so the maximum defense Kee Berry strategy will remain a hypothetical that did not come to pass.
Speaking of which, here are the usage stats for the month of April, marking 5 years since the original in 2018. As the world moves ever forward, the same game of chance still continues to play on.
This month reached a battle count of 55871, lowering back to around the dipping levels of March but still pretty high.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-04/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-04/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Ting-Lu (no change)
#3: Mega Heracross (no change)
#4: Glastrier (no change)
#5: Mega Ampharos (no change)
#6: Blissey (no change)
#7: Mega Gengar (#10)
#8: Tyranitar (#11)
#9: Mega Sableye (#12)
#10: Dusclops (#8)
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the top 10 for this month have barely moved, with even the new additions stepping up a small amount from 11th and 12th. While Venusaur maintains control as the top frog of usage, it also holds onto the sole raw usage above 10000 with 15733 as the battle count falls, with even the usual contender Heracross falling short of the milestone. It's interesting that Tyranitar is making moves into the top 10 and I would be interested to hear about its tera usage, whether it's just going for classic ghost strats or making use of the influence of Flower Veil, but considering that almost half of its weighted teammates are Venusaur, I think it might be more towards the latter, though it seems Mirror Herb and Magic Bounce are most popular as general choices.
Overall everyone in the top 10 has fallen in raw usage, though Baxcalibur in 11th actually improved from March going from 2479 to 2659.There aren't that many high upsets usage-wise, but for me the dark horses of the month include Pikachu-Starter (#21/2430 appearances) with a surprising upsurge in the ranks compared to its usual showings of sub-1000 usage, and also Mega Altaria (#34/879) and Hoopa (#35/612) as such examples of lower usage mons among high competition, though they are closer to the point where they're just outperforming suboptimal casual choices like Deoxys-Defense and Mega Alakazam. As a personal note, Gigalith is now at #118/209 after I posted about it earlier, which isn't that impressive on the surface but it's a relatively large increase over being barely used in months before and in the 600s. I don't know how much of those are my games that are weighed into this, but it goes to show that there's still viable niches that could be explored beyond the optimal meta that we may not see just from these stats until they are played out in practice. As an aside, I just noticed that Tornadus-Therian is in #100 with 92 uses and is the only mon around that area with double digit uses until Cetitan at #149 with 68 uses, then followed by Darmanitan-Zen at #156 with 95 uses, and then you have to look at Gorebyss in #184 with 15 uses who still beats Meowscarada at #185 with 350 uses, so I guess either Gorebyss is a dark horse or Meowscarada is dragged down by its popularity.
Over in the moveset file, there's not much new to say with how the top 10 hasn't changed much, but we can get an update on the trends observed last month, mainly the picks of Ting-Lu. For the abilities of Ting-Lu, Unaware still holds its increasing lead, but Magic Bounce has gained a lot of ground going from 9.787% to 22.879%. Pickup has actually less weighted usage compared to last month, but is still in 3rd now because the previous choices ahead (Fluffy and Good as Gold) have fallen off a bit, with Fluffy no longer in sight. Item-wise, Weakness Policy is still in the lead but decreasing, and Mirror Herb is actually giving it some strong competition with a 48% vs 35% split compared to last month's 58% vs 19%. Flower Veil is no longer the top ability on Tyranitar, and the trend of non-Grass Flower Veil setters seems to have quickly diminished down to Monferno.
Looking to the viability ceilings (the highest GXE of all the players using a certain pokemon), the peaks are back to higher territory, starting with Mega Heracross and Dragapult tied for 81 with Heracross still having the usual sample set and Dragapult still with a lot of variety but leading with Fluffy. Next up is Ting-Lu, Mega Slowbro (mostly Unaware/WP), and Annihilape (Defiant/Good as Gold leading abilities and predominantly Choice Band for the item slot, with Relaxed surprisingly leading the natures, and interesting teammates of Ting-Lu, Alolan Muk, and Annihilape itself). Pikachu-Starter stands alone at 79 with its Imposter Light Ball set, and we chase down to the top 11 at ceiling 78 with a 6-way tie between Glastrier (Mirror Armor/Refrigerate and Mirror Herb/Choice Band/Weakness Policy all above 20%), Mega Ampharos (Competitive/Plus and Specs with some Herb), Landorus-Therian (Aerilate/Choice Band as mentioned), Diancie (Magic Bounce/Pixilate and WP), Mega Abomasnow (leading Well-Baked Body much more than Primordial Sea, and still WP as well), and the return of the underdog Alolan Muk still managing to get some high level representation in these stats despite the surface appearance of its lower usage at #83/412 (mostly running Poison Touch with some Defiant/Serene Grace in the mix, and items divided between Lum Berry/Mirror Herb/Covert Cloak). Thanks for your reading.
In my experience trying Enamorus-Turtle with a Dragonite partner at the time of the Opportunist suspect, I've liked it as well but if there's one shortcoming I feel it has, it feels short in terms of bulk with its lower HP stat which can lead to it going down faster than you may expect. As an alternative suggestion, I would say Pokestar UFO is probably a classic option in terms of balanced stats with no real weaknesses, but Ting-Lu is also just fat and a splashable partner that is sure to stick around on the battlefield, as I've personally observed in the meta lately.
Speaking of which, here are the usage stats for the month of April, marking 5 years since the original in 2018. As the world moves ever forward, the same game of chance still continues to play on.
This month reached a battle count of 55871, lowering back to around the dipping levels of March but still pretty high.
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-04/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-04/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Ting-Lu (no change)
#3: Mega Heracross (no change)
#4: Glastrier (no change)
#5: Mega Ampharos (no change)
#6: Blissey (no change)
#7: Mega Gengar (#10)
#8: Tyranitar (#11)
#9: Mega Sableye (#12)
#10: Dusclops (#8)
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the top 10 for this month have barely moved, with even the new additions stepping up a small amount from 11th and 12th. While Venusaur maintains control as the top frog of usage, it also holds onto the sole raw usage above 10000 with 15733 as the battle count falls, with even the usual contender Heracross falling short of the milestone. It's interesting that Tyranitar is making moves into the top 10 and I would be interested to hear about its tera usage, whether it's just going for classic ghost strats or making use of the influence of Flower Veil, but considering that almost half of its weighted teammates are Venusaur, I think it might be more towards the latter, though it seems Mirror Herb and Magic Bounce are most popular as general choices.
Overall everyone in the top 10 has fallen in raw usage, though Baxcalibur in 11th actually improved from March going from 2479 to 2659.There aren't that many high upsets usage-wise, but for me the dark horses of the month include Pikachu-Starter (#21/2430 appearances) with a surprising upsurge in the ranks compared to its usual showings of sub-1000 usage, and also Mega Altaria (#34/879) and Hoopa (#35/612) as such examples of lower usage mons among high competition, though they are closer to the point where they're just outperforming suboptimal casual choices like Deoxys-Defense and Mega Alakazam. As a personal note, Gigalith is now at #118/209 after I posted about it earlier, which isn't that impressive on the surface but it's a relatively large increase over being barely used in months before and in the 600s. I don't know how much of those are my games that are weighed into this, but it goes to show that there's still viable niches that could be explored beyond the optimal meta that we may not see just from these stats until they are played out in practice. As an aside, I just noticed that Tornadus-Therian is in #100 with 92 uses and is the only mon around that area with double digit uses until Cetitan at #149 with 68 uses, then followed by Darmanitan-Zen at #156 with 95 uses, and then you have to look at Gorebyss in #184 with 15 uses who still beats Meowscarada at #185 with 350 uses, so I guess either Gorebyss is a dark horse or Meowscarada is dragged down by its popularity.
Over in the moveset file, there's not much new to say with how the top 10 hasn't changed much, but we can get an update on the trends observed last month, mainly the picks of Ting-Lu. For the abilities of Ting-Lu, Unaware still holds its increasing lead, but Magic Bounce has gained a lot of ground going from 9.787% to 22.879%. Pickup has actually less weighted usage compared to last month, but is still in 3rd now because the previous choices ahead (Fluffy and Good as Gold) have fallen off a bit, with Fluffy no longer in sight. Item-wise, Weakness Policy is still in the lead but decreasing, and Mirror Herb is actually giving it some strong competition with a 48% vs 35% split compared to last month's 58% vs 19%. Flower Veil is no longer the top ability on Tyranitar, and the trend of non-Grass Flower Veil setters seems to have quickly diminished down to Monferno.
Looking to the viability ceilings (the highest GXE of all the players using a certain pokemon), the peaks are back to higher territory, starting with Mega Heracross and Dragapult tied for 81 with Heracross still having the usual sample set and Dragapult still with a lot of variety but leading with Fluffy. Next up is Ting-Lu, Mega Slowbro (mostly Unaware/WP), and Annihilape (Defiant/Good as Gold leading abilities and predominantly Choice Band for the item slot, with Relaxed surprisingly leading the natures, and interesting teammates of Ting-Lu, Alolan Muk, and Annihilape itself). Pikachu-Starter stands alone at 79 with its Imposter Light Ball set, and we chase down to the top 11 at ceiling 78 with a 6-way tie between Glastrier (Mirror Armor/Refrigerate and Mirror Herb/Choice Band/Weakness Policy all above 20%), Mega Ampharos (Competitive/Plus and Specs with some Herb), Landorus-Therian (Aerilate/Choice Band as mentioned), Diancie (Magic Bounce/Pixilate and WP), Mega Abomasnow (leading Well-Baked Body much more than Primordial Sea, and still WP as well), and the return of the underdog Alolan Muk still managing to get some high level representation in these stats despite the surface appearance of its lower usage at #83/412 (mostly running Poison Touch with some Defiant/Serene Grace in the mix, and items divided between Lum Berry/Mirror Herb/Covert Cloak). Thanks for your reading.
My viewpoint of pickup mirror herb has changed a lot since first finding out about it, cause it looked broken at first since you can only counter boosts with unaware, but in actuality any consumable item beats it lol