Format Discussion Metronome Battle

[doipy hooves]

flower veil with tera is kind of insane this gen, i've run two teams with it so far

flower veil stall

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

flower veil double wp

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

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.

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.

--

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.

 

[adriancosmoem]

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.

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.

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.

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:

natural veil

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

I haven't tested this team at all and it's very much a skeleton. There is probably something better to use than Shaymin, or a more efficient MVenu set.

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.

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.

Despite this, there is still one key berry type that 1.2.0 Cud Chew has an edge over Harvest with.

A "key" berry...

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.

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.

 

[snorlax142857]

Hit 1400 (top 100) on ladder a short while ago with

this team

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

and

this record

then switched to a type of team I was losing against

unfun

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

and broke 1500 (top 4)

not too much later

.

Thoughts

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.

 

[BeaterGames]

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.

Proof of rank

Team

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

Thoughts/explanation

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.

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 ^^

 

[doipy hooves]

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.

 

[AngryBootySmuggler]

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

 

[ausernamethatithoughtof]

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

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.

 

[AngryBootySmuggler]

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.

I was just giving an example, but ok

 

[doipy hooves]

HELLO METRONOME BATTLES! IM BACK

Time to find some underrated bullshit

Welcome back. Speaking of underrated, you may be interested in the team I cobbled together today.

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.

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 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

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.

 

[Alex Rose]

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?

 

[ControlCoreAngel]

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.​

 

[doipy hooves]

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.

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?

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.

 

[adriancosmoem]

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

 

[doipy hooves]

Happy June! The usage stats for May are out, and as the northern summer equinox arrives and the HOME compatibility for SV finally arises, Metronome Battle is still gaining new options as well. Will the new trend of legal Hisuian pokemon across Showdown lower the appeal or reinvigorate the usage trend? Only time will tell.

A new CAP was added recently and is now usable, the unique Fire/Fairy type Hemogoblin. By design, it has slightly below average stats of 90/99/89/99/97/55 (529 BST), but fortunately its speed being weak is an acceptable trade off for this format. Fire/Fairy is actually a relatively solid defensive type combination with the synergy of both types being able to share their good resistances without much conflict, so it's probably ideal to avoid terastallizing to make the most out of it especially since there is no other Fire/Fairy mon. On the defensive side, it has 8 advantageous matchups by resisting Bug, Dark, Fairy, Fighting, Fire, Grass, and Ice, while also being immune to Dragon. It has a few scattered weaknesses to Rock, Ground, Water, and Poison though, which is in a mixed spot where it makes Weakness Policy a viable choice but not the most likely to activate compared to the usual Grass type users. Just on paper, I think trying to go all in on bulk and relying on resistances to survive may be the key to working with this mon.

This month's battle count hit 55865, and continuing with the trend of last month not changing much, this is only 6 less than last month's 55871, which is still relatively high.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-05/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2023-05/moveset/gen9metronomebattle-1630.txt

1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Ting-Lu (#2)
#2: Mega Venusaur (#1)
#3: Mega Heracross (no change)
#4: Glastrier (no change)
#5: Blissey (#6)
#6: Mega Ampharos (#5)
#7: Hisuian Zoroark (#17)
#8: Baxcalibur (#11)
#9: Mega Sableye (no change)
#10: Iron Hands (#20)

Upsets have been made in the top 10 for this month. Heracross has barely managed to overtake Venusaur for most raw usage (10723 vs 10614), with both just above 10000 which is an improvement for Heracross and a fall for Venusaur compared to last month's 15733. However, Ting-Lu has risen over both former kings of the hill to retake the #1 spot. Even with less raw usage (7970) than the megas, it's still #4 overall just behind Hisuian Zoroark (9227), who is also notable for returning to the top 10 and taking its highest spot ever this month, despite usually having a consistent high raw usage. Other such major risers/returners include Baxcalibur slowly but steadily making an impact, and Iron Hands who is actually kind of a dark horse here with only 1076 raw usage compared to everyone else, and just beating out Mega Gengar in #11 with 5286 raw usage.

Some other dark horses of the month include the literal dark types Tyranitar (#27/744 uses) and Guzzlord (#32/967 uses), mainly because they have triple digit uses but are still going pretty strong with their bulky builds, as well as Mega Slowbro (#12/1462 uses) falling short of the top 10 but still a threat in its own right that I'll discuss later on. Meanwhile, Mew and Snorlax remain in the exact same positions as last month, their archetypes going unchanging as vanilla but solid Metronome users for new players, and in a similar vein Enamorus-T and Landorus-T have been next to each other as well. One miracle of raw usage I just noticed writing this is that Glastrier and Blissey have the exact same amount of raw usage, but I guess that just goes to show how much better Glastrier has been over Blissey, even when Blissey is the one rising up.

Moving over to the moveset file, I want to take a closer look at the recent risers and what they're doing differently. Ting-Lu's Unaware and Magic Bounce weighted usage has dropped from about a combined 58% to 35%, while Pickup rises from 6% to 14%, Mummy from 6% to 9%, and Ice Scales making a new appearance with 8%. It seems like item choices rank about the same, and Ting-Lu's teammates are pretty varied with Glastrier still leading, though Heracross teammates have made an upsurge over even double Ting-Lu.

Hisuian Zoroark seems to be succeeding most with Magic Bounce and Good as Gold to protect against status while its type handles the common attacks it will take. The item pool is still a complete mess with almost any item you could think of in the mix, but the dominant items seem to be Mirror Herb, Choice Specs, and Normalium Z. Hasty and Hardy are top picks for EV spreads at about 70% combined weighting, which all goes to show that Hisuian Zoroark is a real wild card pick and you may not know what kind of person you're facing with it. Its teammates are also pretty varied, with Venusaur, Sableye, double Hisuian Zoroark, Ting-Lu, and Landorus-T making up the top 5 picks. I guess having a partner to attacks off of you is one way to make it survive a little longer.

Baxcalibur is partly named after Excalibur, the iconic sword of King Arthur in mythology, and its ability choices stay true to the legend with the most common being Sword of Ruin and Intrepid Sword, with also some Defiant following closely in 3rd. It's clear that Baxcalibur is going all in on its Attack stat and the item choices follow through as well with Choice Band predominantly leading with 59% usage, rather far ahead of Mirror Herb's 21% usage and leaving the rest of the single digit items behind. To carry on this legacy of strength, Baxcalibur takes on a Brave nature (~45%) almost doubly more than Adamant (~23%), and teams up with fellow heroic warriors like Mega Gallade, Iron Hands, and Silvally-Ghost.

Iron Hands itself is still mostly Galvanizing with Mega Ampharos but with Baxcalibur as a common comrade now. Other ability choices include Intrepid Sword, Good as Gold, Sword of Ruin, and Scrappy, but one thing is for certain than Choice Band is the item of choice with a universally agreed 91% usage.

Going through the viability ceilings (the highest GXE that a player using that pokemon has reached), we see the peaks staying around 81 starting with the #1 Ting-Lu and also Mega Slowbro who isn't far off in 12th and is still overperforming as I mentioned earlier, who has Ting-Lu as a main teammate with 56% usage. Slowbro is still primarily running Unaware/WP like last month, but to a lesser degree as Purifying Salt has actually risen up to about 18% usage out of nowhere, which I guess would defend against a weakness and common status that could wear Slowbro down. The next viability ceiling is 80 with Glastrier (Intrepid Sword/Refrigerate/Simple/Magic Guard and WP/Band/Mirror Herb/Life Orb as scattered picks above 10%) and Mega Ampharos (Competitive/Hadron Engine/Plus and Specs/Herb as the higher picks) with the Iron Hands combo being its primary teammate (18%), but not by as a large margin as Slowbro.

The last few viability ceilings to round it out will be 79 featuring Blissey (classic Imposter) and Dragapult, who is still pretty varied but seems to be mainly running Fluffy/Competitive/Good as Gold with Mirror Herb and Chioce Band being main items and Normalium Z slightly behind. Lastly, at 78 we have a 3-way tie of the classic meta mons in Mega Venusaur, Mega Heracross, and Necturna, who are all mostly up to the same tricks. Necturna still seems to be mainly based on the Thick Fat sample set, but even Primordial Sea has more usage than Flower Veil which I didn't see coming.

Interestingly Mega Venusaur's teammates are very varied but double Venusaur still beats out Ting-Lu and sample Necturna. Heracross is the same way with double Heracross over Ting-Lu as the most common picks, and with Ampharos in 3rd it goes to show that Heracross doesn't really care what its partner is. Meanwhile, Necturna has a 70% Venusaur partner rate, mainly due to the forementioned classic sample team from the thread OP, but also has no visible Ting-Lu teammate, which goes to show how it seems to be perceived as less generalist than Venusaur and working more around Flower Veil than standing on its own. Thanks for your reading.

 

[doipy hooves]

You know, the biggest offenders I see are Heracross with immaculant physical damage, and Flower Veil. In Metronome Battles, you wanna limit counterplay such as using Ghost tera's and Good as Gold - but also have high damage output for an easier, less RNG based game. But those mons are just so common it's hard to justify other strats and mons

Then you got the Ghost types such as Mega Sableye and Gengar and Dusclops with incredible bulk and power (power being Mega Gengar). I'll try and find some "counters" to this stuff, because a) I made Regirock top 10 usage last gen b) I hate meta stuff, and c) I'm confident as shit

Usage stats be too tuff

This brings up some fair points about the current meta, but also reminds me of something I realized while writing and wanted to touch upon further. It may be true that Heracross and Venusaur are still dominating, but I think you shouldn't count out Ting-Lu for the reason that it is #1 with a presence that we haven't seen before, which I would say could be the antimeta pick to what we've seen established in Gen 8, making the biggest impact of Gen 9 by sort of creating its own niche in the meta of being a safe pick for nearly any team combination.

To compare and contrast, Heracross's game revolves around hitting fast and hard to end the match as soon as possible. Flower Veil plays a delicate balance of trying to outlast while also set up for the bulky statboost, but risking a common weakness. Ting-Lu offers a more bulk-focused style that is reminiscent of the days of Eviolite stall, but not requiring the same amount of investment. Like you mentioned that you want to have high damage output to raise consistency, Ting-Lu embraces being the extender of games, causing more of a chance that anything can happen. You can't particularly prepare for it, you can only just hope you can break through the living wall that could no-sell your statboosts or bounce away any passive status you try to inflict, and that's not even getting into the other mon still beside it, which brings me to my main point about why I think Ting-Lu's dominance is on a different level.

Something I mentioned a lot but didn't fully link together in my first post is that Ting-Lu's main value on the field is being able to survive to split up attacks and keep 2 Pokemon active, and it says a lot that many top mons appreciate having it around, including Glastrier as its main partner as a fellow bulky statbooster. Even when it seems haphazard, frail mons and bulky mons alike can synergize just fine with Ting-Lu's power to continue existing in the battle, which can make even the most random team comp feel like something to watch out for compared to if you threw on Heracross or Venusaur instead.

Where Heracross is more of a selfish superstar that would rather have two of itself to finish the job, and Venusaur appreciates having full support from Flower Veil to really get going, Ting-Lu is more like the old mentor type that's seen it all and can still take a beating. I think the splashability of Ting-Lu is what sets it apart from the rest of the top 10, as a partner that can tag team with the best and worst of them and still make it work out, having more potential for variability in teammates compared to other mons that would prefer to double up or stick with static strategies, giving it the flexibility to be #1 through the more diverse spread of teams relying on it for a path to victory.

 

[Irpachuza]

Hi hi, it's time to update the teams available with /sampleteams, as we did for Gen 8 last year. Before I have the time to actually check the thread since the introduction of SV, feel free to suggest teams yourselves! Let's aim at the most variety of strategies possible (like, one representative team for each strat, not 5 magic guard options), as long with a minimum of competitive viability.

 

[pyuk]

I think other people probably have better versions of standard archetypes, so I’ll share the more unusual ones I have that have found the most success.


Walking Wake @ Choice Specs
Ability: Beads of Ruin
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

Xurkitree @ Choice Specs
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

This is the best version of Ice Scales + Beads of Ruin I’ve tried and it’s quite effective. Ice Scales more than offsets the downside of Beads of Ruin and lets Xurkitree be reasonably bulky while firing off monumentally powerful special attacks. Unlike Ampharos, Xurkitree can Terastallize, so naturally I gave it the best type: Ghost. However, it has a naturally good defensive type, so against Scrappy or more defensive teams where chip damage will be more important, Walking Wake has the option to Tera Poison instead. I will also sometimes Terastallize Walking Wake against teams with powerful dragon types, though I do that less often now than when it was Tera Fairy.


Ting-Lu @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Silvally-Ghost @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome

Weakness Policy Ice Scales Tera Ghost Ting Lu needs no introduction, so I’ll focus on the Silvally set instead, which provides Intimidate support to help Ting Lu take more hits to activate its item. Intimidate was somewhat infamous last gen for losing hard to Defiant and Flower Veil, some of the most dominant strategies of the meta. This gen, Mirror Herb turns those matchups on their heads by copying the boosts those strategies get without copying the stat drops or super effective hits that they need to take to proc them. I do have an Unaware Silvally variant that matches up even better against Flower Veil, but the Intimidate version has the better matchup against a wider variety of teams. Mirror Herb still doesn’t work nearly as well on Showdown as it would in-game and an update to fix it is probably not coming any time soon because of technical limitations and lack of research, but even as is it’s still quite strong as support for Intimidate. Silvally is Tera Normal so it can dodge Phantom and Shadow Force, which it will sometimes have the opportunity to as WP Ting Lu doesn’t Tera immediately so it has more weaknesses to activate its item with. I did also see a Tera Ghost Dusclops on ladder recently that beaned the heck out of my own ghost with a Poltergeist roll, so it might be worth dodging those super effective super-STABs from time to time.

 

[Lectrys]

This has been my favourite offence team to use lately:


Tyranitar @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome


Baxcalibur @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sword of Ruin
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Always Terastallize Tyranitar on Turn 1 - Tyranitar's plentiful weaknesses are pretty unpleasant, and its 4x Fighting weakness is horrid and will hand you losses to variance otherwise. Baxcalibur is a rare 145 base Attack mon that doesn't need Tera to fix a 4x weakness, can use Weakness Policy, and still has passable Special Attack.

Otherwise, this team lets Tyranitar deal unreal amounts of damage while Baxcalibur still has reasonable offences if Tyranitar goes down, and Tyranitar has enough bulk to not worry too much about its teammate's Sword of Ruin making its Defence go down.

I've enjoyed Weakness Policy on Baxcalibur letting it use charge attacks instead of making them fail like Choice Band does.

 

[Ivy]

Yeah my samples in the OP are slightly out of date, lacking the more popular Ting-Lu pairing, so thanks for that one pyuk. And ttar being a great example of tera giving previously scary 4x weakness mons a new chance to shine.

 

[jeffdaboss]

I definitely haven't been as active this gen, but I would love to contribute a very solid team I've been using since the Opportunist ban, and hopefully get it added as a sample.

Ting-Lu @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Purifying Salt
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Ting-Lu @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Purifying Salt
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome


This combination of Clear Amulet + Purifying Salt forms a "Flower Veil" type of build, with status and stat drop immunity, and it only makes sense to use it with the most used mon right now. This also fits in very well with Tera Ghost, as Purifying Salt's Ghost-type damage reduction essentially removes the Ghost weakness, making a Ghost Ting-Lu only weak to Dark.

 

[BeaterGames]

For new samples I'd like to suggest Alex Rose's Aerilate strategy, been seeing it quite a bit recently and i think it gives a good suggestion to new players on one of the ways to work around the very common ghost types, also an answer to Flower Veil strategies.

Aerilate + Delta Stream

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

Enamorus-Therian @ Choice Specs
Ability: Delta Stream
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

Another one I thought maybe should be represented is the immunity stacking strategy. It's more popular lower on the ladder in my experience, but also suggests that usual pokemon weaknesses (or attacks in general) can be worked around using various abilities. When people run this strategy, it's usually double Hisuian Zoroark or a Hisuian Zoroark and another pokemon with an immunity or two which run abilities that add another type immunity.

Type immunity stacking

Zoroark-Hisui @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

Ting-Lu @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Sap Sipper
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

 

[doipy hooves]

I wanted to post a quick update about the new DLC reveal of the Toxic Chain ability. So far it reads similarly to Poison Touch adding a random secondary effect to moves (without knowing the exact chance), but without the contact hit requirement (working on any offensive move) and inflicts Toxic poison instead of regular poison, which will deal more damage after 3 turns and outpace recovery if left for long enough. When DLC1 comes out, I feel like this ability could become a pretty common option on ladder as a new toy and more reliable status spreading option, depending on the proc chance. Despite being more likely to activate, I'm not sure if the ability will end up making a place in the meta where Poison Touch or even Poison Point haven't been able to, since passive damage and status still have its general counters like Flower Veil and Magic Guard, and specific picks like Poison types or Covert Cloaks will also block its main effect.

 

[Lectrys]

A shockingly small fraction of moves are contact moves, so abilities like Poison Touch, Flame Body, and Pickpocket have performed disappointingly poorly for me (and even Fluffy has been a flake at times - dang you, Earthquake). At the very least, Toxic Chain should completely take over Poison Touch's slot regardless of how much Flower Veil, Venusaur-Mega, Gengar-Mega, and Tera Poison there is in the meta. And yes, I remember quite a few teams in this thread with Poison Touch.

 

[MattC (Banned)]

I wanted to post a quick update about the new DLC reveal of the Toxic Chain ability. So far it reads similarly to Poison Touch adding a random secondary effect to moves (without knowing the exact chance), but without the contact hit requirement (working on any offensive move) and inflicts Toxic poison instead of regular poison, which will deal more damage after 3 turns and outpace recovery if left for long enough. When DLC1 comes out, I feel like this ability could become a pretty common option on ladder as a new toy and more reliable status spreading option, depending on the proc chance. Despite being more likely to activate, I'm not sure if the ability will end up making a place in the meta where Poison Touch or even Poison Point haven't been able to, since passive damage and status still have its general counters like Flower Veil and Magic Guard, and specific picks like Poison types or Covert Cloaks will also block its main effect.

Oh man, Toxic Chain. IF on the rare chance it just always badly poisons the target, then it might actually be threatening. See, here's the thing about the top pokemon:

The sheer boosting factors of , Sword of Ruin, Intrepid Sword, and 's overwhelming 185 attack make it the absolute strongest physical attacker in the tier. The strongest special attacker is a polar oppsite , Beads of Ruin, Download [special attack boosting] , but it too is frail to even be a glass cannon - it's just glass

Now with that being said, Let's look at Mega Venusaur's stats

It's the best Grass-type by an unreasonably large margin, with runner-up being in most cases. Looking at its stats, it's... not actually bulky. Or has that much attack honestly. It's just the only tool Grass-types have. Terastillization could help it, but turning into a Grass-type isn't ideal in the long run, and reverting from a Grass-type with a Flower Veil partner has moments before disaster written all over it. Even in using vs a duo, a super effective - say Metronome Fire Lash from (not STAB btw) with the boosting of , Intrepid Sword and an ally Sword of Ruin, that's going to KO. Maybe even Flame Wheel would KO and it's 20 BP weaker than Fire Lash. The only thing holding it back is the fact that it can't terastallize - but Grass-Poison is known for having bulky behemoths such as . But hey thats how the cookie crumples ig

UNFORTUNATELY, the absolute physically bulkiest mon in the game is Mega Steelix. BUT WE CAN'T USE IT due to it being a steel type. (in all fairness tho, it would be incredibly annoying to face) Guess what the physically bulkiest thing we can use is?

Rhydon. Fucking. Rhydon. Not Avalugg. Not even Ting-Lu. With this armored rhino is ~5% bulkier than . Does it matter? No. Why does it not matter? Because has HORRENDOUS special bulk.

Ok, it's not as bad as 's which isn't saying much, but it's something. It is astonishing how much wasted potential this thing has. It's even stronger than by a good margin. Good thing is decent enough to use


If we look at the other side of the spectrum, we have the specially bulkiest pokemon in the game being without a doubt

But you and I both know that it doesnt even use that amazing special bulk. No. Instead, it uses its ridiculous Eternamax-Eternatus equal HP stat (albeit by 5) with to make the best use of Imposter. It does it well yes, but if it could make use of that it would be hell.

So now that we've gone over this duo of + , what if you were to use it in a Metronome Battle? You would fail miserably. Because Chansey ALSO has equally bad physical bulk. In fact, it has the lowest physical defense stat in the entire game.

5 defense with and 250 HP means it can [sometimes] tank a Close Combat. But it's not by much. And don't even get me started on its offensive stats. (just look at them) And you might be thinking, "Oh, what about terastallization?" Well I agree it's the fact that only 1 can use it in a match. They might have the best raw bulk we got, but PLEASE don't use this duo unless you are confident enough you can win games.

The next best raw bulk duo of / + as a duo isnt good either. It's the same thing, but they can use an item. But the same issue remains of only 1 using terastillization.

Now, how does everything above relate to Toxic Chain? Well as I said in a prior post, the name of the game is minimizing randomnes factors y using Ghost-types and Fllower Veil to make yourself immune to things. But also, the other half of this is raw damage output. The multipliers a can get is unprecedented and the same can be said for on the special end of it. Now Toxic Chain miiiight be hard countered by a Magic Guard, but what if you simply can't outlast your opponent? This is the case more often than not, and the in-between of is moreso bulk than attack. That being said, I could see using it to great success if it were to be used. Matter of fact, anything can use it - so we could see a tiny spike in Tera Poison and Magic Guard/Purifying Salt.

Thank you so much for reading this wall of text. I'll be back when the usage stats are up by doipy hooves on July 2nd ish. And with all of that being said, goodbye.


TL;DR: If Toxic Chain always inflicts a badly poison, we are going to have a problem. Anything can use it. Sure Magic Guard or Purifying Salt and the like stops it, but is still terrifyingly powerful. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out

 

[Ivy]

Oh man, Toxic Chain. IF on the rare chance it just always badly poisons the target, then it might actually be threatening. See, here's the thing about the top pokemon:

The sheer boosting factors of , Sword of Ruin, Intrepid Sword, and 's overwhelming 185 attack make it the absolute strongest physical attacker in the tier. The strongest special attacker is a polar oppsite , Beads of Ruin, Download [special attack boosting] , but it too is frail to even be a glass cannon - it's just glass

Now with that being said, Let's look at Mega Venusaur's stats
View attachment 529149
It's the best Grass-type by an unreasonably large margin, with runner-up being in most cases. Looking at its stats, it's... not actually bulky. Or has that much attack honestly. It's just the only tool Grass-types have. Terastillization could help it, but turning into a Grass-type isn't ideal in the long run, and reverting from a Grass-type with a Flower Veil partner has moments before disaster written all over it. Even in using vs a duo, a super effective - say Metronome Fire Lash from (not STAB btw) with the boosting of , Intrepid Sword and an ally Sword of Ruin, that's going to KO. Maybe even Flame Wheel would KO and it's 20 BP weaker than Fire Lash. The only thing holding it back is the fact that it can't terastallize - but Grass-Poison is known for having bulky behemoths such as . But hey thats how the cookie crumples ig

UNFORTUNATELY, the absolute physically bulkiest mon in the game is Mega Steelix. BUT WE CAN'T USE IT due to it being a steel type. (in all fairness tho, it would be incredibly annoying to face) Guess what the physically bulkiest thing we can use is?
rhydon:
Rhydon. Fucking. Rhydon. Not Avalugg. Not even Ting-Lu. With armored rhino is ~5% bulkier than . Does it matter? No. Why does it not matter? Because has HORRENDOUS special bulk.
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Ok, it's not as bad as 's which isn't saying much, but it's something. It is astonishing how much wasted potential this thing has. It's even stronger than by a good margin. Good thing is decent enough to use


If we look at the other side of the spectrum, we have the specially bulkiest pokemon in the game being without a doubt

But you and I both know that it doesnt even use that amazing special bulk. No. Instead, it uses its ridiculous Eternamax-Eternatus equal HP stat (albeit by 5) with to make the best use of Imposter. It does it well yes, but if it could make use of that it would be hell.

So now that we've gone over this duo of + , what if you were to use it in a Metronome Battle? You would fail miserably. Because Chansey ALSO has equally bad physical bulk. In fact, it has the lowest physical defense stat in the entire game.
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5 defense with and 250 HP means it can [sometimes] tank a Close Combat. But it's not by much. And don't even get me started on its offensive stats. (just look at them) And you might be thinking, "Oh, what about terastallization?" Well I agree it's the fact that only 1 can use it in a match. They might have the best raw bulk we got, but PLEASE don't use this duo unless you are confident enough you can win games.

The next best raw bulk duo of / + as a duo isnt good either. It's the same thing, but they can use an item. But the same issue remains of only 1 using terastillization.

Now, how does everything above relate to Toxic Chain? Well as I said in a prior post, the name of the game is minimizing randomnes factors y using Ghost-types and Fllower Veil to make yourself immune to things. But also, the other half of this is raw damage output. The multipliers a can get is unprecedented and the same can be said for on the special end of it. Now Toxic Chain miiiight be hard countered by a Magic Guard, but what if you simply can't outlast your opponent? This is the case more often than not, and the in-between of is moreso bulk than attack. That being said, I could see using it to great success if it were to be used. Matter of fact, anything can use it - so we could see a tiny spike in Tera Poison and Magic Guard/Purifying Salt.

Thank you so much for reading this wall of text. I'll be back when the usage stats are up by doipy hooves on July 2nd ish. And with all of that being said, goodbye.


TL;DR: If Toxic Chain always inflicts a badly poison, we are going to have a problem. Anything can use it. Sure Magic Guard or Purifying Salt and the like stops it, but is still terrifyingly powerful. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out

Whoa, you're right, Rhydon beats out everything else I covered in the physical bulk analysis chart I posted a while ago. Can't believe I missed that bugger.