Pet Mod Name: Clauses Clans
Pet Mod Concept: Involves around making two new custom Clauses, then a tag team tourney plays to determine a Clause replacing one of the two. Take place in a region with randomly picked Pokémon, new regional forms and perhaps new evolutions.
Explanation:
This Pet Mod takes inspiration of @Beaf Cultist’s Hide and Seaking, more specifically the special Clause slates where players make new clauses, and then the Seakers find them out until only one clause remain. Clause Clans will do the concept very differently.
You are most likely familiar with the term “clause” within the Smogon community, and this Pet Mod revolve around two custom clauses made in the first slate. These custom clauses can be almost anything as long as it is impactful (i.e. doesn’t signficiantly impact too little Pokémon), interesting, competitive and respectful of Global Smogon rules. The Grand Masters cannot participate in order to avoid directly spoiling the Regional Dex, though they can provide feedback and veto any problematic or unhelpful claise.
Once the first slate’s done, we reveal the Regional Dex. In scenarios that a winning clause ended up benefiting too little Pokémon in the Regional Dex making it a lot less useful than we expected, then it’ll be adjusted to be a bit more applicable. Likewise, if it turned out too many Top Tiers (in several tiers or so) benefit too much from it, the clause will be toned down. It will be done through Test Fieldings (free battles) based on Top Tier (more details below) to determine if the clauses work as intended or not, and to do bugfixes.
For the Regional Dex, the Pokémon are randomly picked through this random Pokémon generator (as in like a randomizer, not the other kind of generation), with Legendary, Mythical, Ultra Beast, and Paradox Pokémon disabled, and then randomly genetated Pokémon from the first two groups until we get at least two Legendary groups and two Mythical Pokémon. Then, Regional Forms out of a few more randomly picked Pokémon are created to fill the gaps between types. Individiual Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokémon may be randomly added later on depending on the poll’s most voted answer.
The Regional Dex will be privately revealed to the Grand Masters (Council), determine the additional Pokémon with regional forms alongside the original, then release to the public to determine the “Tier List” with the public not unlike the official Smogon tiers. We go from Ubers, Top, High, Middle, Low, Bottom and Unranked, with Pokémon being adjusted individually so they have a niche within each tiers except Ubers, which plays more like traditional Ubers formats. Unranked is not an actual tier, but rather a dishonorable designation; think of the unofficial “Untiered” or Pokémon that received blunt “Do Not Use” reviews.
New evolutions are given to a few Unranked Pokémon in their only or first stage evolution and lower than average BST as a last resort in order for them to shine, all without rising the original’s BST too much and potentially messing up with one’s memory muscle. For Untiered Pokémon already reaching a second stage evolution (i.e. Beedrill, Wigglytuff), those instead have more drastic adjustments while staying mostly true to their base stat distribution. Untiered Pokémon that are clearly benefitting the new custom clauses will be exempt until further notice.
Then, people can participate in a single-elimination Bo3 tournament with “clans”, with one member being picked to represent each clan. Each round of a tournament picks a random Tier, including Ubers, but excluding Unranked, and no tier are picked twice in a single tournament. Pokémon from lower tiers can be used for the selected tiers, but not higher ones, just like the Smogon tiers. The 1st place player of the tournament consults with their clanmates privately (either Discord or Smogon DMs) to determine their new custom clause that replaces one of the current two custom clauses.
In events of the representating player not available or will not be for any disclosed reason, any of their teammate can substitute. If no teammates subs the absent player on time, the team is disqualified for the tournament. This is to prevent the tournament from dragging on. Additionally, in an event that either of the finalists’ team got disqualified, a “battle for third” take place to allow both lost semi-finalists for a redemption and to prevent an easy victory for the finalist.
New adjustments are made based on feedbacks, and the cycle repeats, allowing for an ever evolving metagame.
Miscellaneous:
Pet Mod Concept: Involves around making two new custom Clauses, then a tag team tourney plays to determine a Clause replacing one of the two. Take place in a region with randomly picked Pokémon, new regional forms and perhaps new evolutions.
Explanation:
This Pet Mod takes inspiration of @Beaf Cultist’s Hide and Seaking, more specifically the special Clause slates where players make new clauses, and then the Seakers find them out until only one clause remain. Clause Clans will do the concept very differently.
You are most likely familiar with the term “clause” within the Smogon community, and this Pet Mod revolve around two custom clauses made in the first slate. These custom clauses can be almost anything as long as it is impactful (i.e. doesn’t signficiantly impact too little Pokémon), interesting, competitive and respectful of Global Smogon rules. The Grand Masters cannot participate in order to avoid directly spoiling the Regional Dex, though they can provide feedback and veto any problematic or unhelpful claise.
Once the first slate’s done, we reveal the Regional Dex. In scenarios that a winning clause ended up benefiting too little Pokémon in the Regional Dex making it a lot less useful than we expected, then it’ll be adjusted to be a bit more applicable. Likewise, if it turned out too many Top Tiers (in several tiers or so) benefit too much from it, the clause will be toned down. It will be done through Test Fieldings (free battles) based on Top Tier (more details below) to determine if the clauses work as intended or not, and to do bugfixes.
For the Regional Dex, the Pokémon are randomly picked through this random Pokémon generator (as in like a randomizer, not the other kind of generation), with Legendary, Mythical, Ultra Beast, and Paradox Pokémon disabled, and then randomly genetated Pokémon from the first two groups until we get at least two Legendary groups and two Mythical Pokémon. Then, Regional Forms out of a few more randomly picked Pokémon are created to fill the gaps between types. Individiual Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokémon may be randomly added later on depending on the poll’s most voted answer.
The Regional Dex will be privately revealed to the Grand Masters (Council), determine the additional Pokémon with regional forms alongside the original, then release to the public to determine the “Tier List” with the public not unlike the official Smogon tiers. We go from Ubers, Top, High, Middle, Low, Bottom and Unranked, with Pokémon being adjusted individually so they have a niche within each tiers except Ubers, which plays more like traditional Ubers formats. Unranked is not an actual tier, but rather a dishonorable designation; think of the unofficial “Untiered” or Pokémon that received blunt “Do Not Use” reviews.
New evolutions are given to a few Unranked Pokémon in their only or first stage evolution and lower than average BST as a last resort in order for them to shine, all without rising the original’s BST too much and potentially messing up with one’s memory muscle. For Untiered Pokémon already reaching a second stage evolution (i.e. Beedrill, Wigglytuff), those instead have more drastic adjustments while staying mostly true to their base stat distribution. Untiered Pokémon that are clearly benefitting the new custom clauses will be exempt until further notice.
Then, people can participate in a single-elimination Bo3 tournament with “clans”, with one member being picked to represent each clan. Each round of a tournament picks a random Tier, including Ubers, but excluding Unranked, and no tier are picked twice in a single tournament. Pokémon from lower tiers can be used for the selected tiers, but not higher ones, just like the Smogon tiers. The 1st place player of the tournament consults with their clanmates privately (either Discord or Smogon DMs) to determine their new custom clause that replaces one of the current two custom clauses.
In events of the representating player not available or will not be for any disclosed reason, any of their teammate can substitute. If no teammates subs the absent player on time, the team is disqualified for the tournament. This is to prevent the tournament from dragging on. Additionally, in an event that either of the finalists’ team got disqualified, a “battle for third” take place to allow both lost semi-finalists for a redemption and to prevent an easy victory for the finalist.
New adjustments are made based on feedbacks, and the cycle repeats, allowing for an ever evolving metagame.
Miscellaneous:
Q: “Wouldn’t that be too similar to Trainer Classes?”
A: The difference between Trainer Classes and the custom clauses is that the latter affects both sides and are constantly active, while most Trainer Classes only affect the player and comes in a wide variety, but only one is used per battle.
Q: “What would you describe as unhealthy and / or uncompetitive?”
A: Any clause that would shift the tide of the battle too drastically or make a well-liked mechanic useless (i.e. Knock Off on switch-in, as it invalidate items), would cause the battle to lose it’s pace (i.e. Regenerator on top of Pokémon’s Ability), or adds even more impactful RNG would be considered as either unhealthy or uncompetitive. Overtly complex clauses, as well as those very difficult to code, are discouraged from being submitted as well.
Q: “What happens if Smeargle’s in the Pet Mod?”
A: Due to fundamental issues Smeargle represents through it’s move Sketch, it’ll be permanently be placed in Bottom so it won’t receive special treatments. It will also likely to be exempt from any custom clause if it would proved too troublesome by that clause (i.e. all have Prankster and banning Sleep isn’t enough) or can cause loophole abuses.
Q: “Is <generational gimmick> in this Pet Mod?”
A: None of them is in the Pet Mod initially, but can be implemented through custom clauses, and only to specific Pokémon to prevent already high-tier Pokémon from spiraling out of control. Making the custom clause only bringing a generational gimmick to all Pokémon would not be interesting, and making “Mega Evolution for all” would end up becoming a nightmarish chore for coding, and we rather not take risk ripping off Mix-and-Megas.
That said, if a clause that involve Mega Evolving certain species in different ways, or provide access to ONLY Gigantamaxing or signature Z-Moves, then a few more may be added to help out some high BST Untiered Pokémon.
Q: “Can my clause be based on <insert Other Metagame here>?”
A: I prefer if it affects only specific species or type to avoid overlapping too much with that OM. As an aside, we try not to overlap too much with Super Smash OMs in terms of Pokémon benefitted or hindered by the clauses.
Q: “What’s the process behind regional forms?”
A: They are decided by the Grand Masters to fill in the gaps of severely underrepresentated types, especially if a type has a few Pokémon that are quickbanned to Ubers. Which Pokémon are picked up for regional forms are either random or hand-picked.
Q: “Should we expect Ultra Beast and / or Paradox Pokémon in this Pet Mod?”
A: Not in the first tournament because of their absurd power level compared to even non-Ubers Legendary Pokémon, but a poll will be made in the meanwhile to either allow a few of them (randomly picked of course), or all of either of the group. Past Paradox and Future Paradox Pokémon are considered as seperate groups.
Q: “Why some Pokémon’s name being underlined in the spreadsheet?”
A: There are Pokémon that aren’t in the result, but added nonetheless due to being an important counterpart to a Pokémon. This also applies to Legendary Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon, but not necessarily Ultra Beasts nor Paradox Pokémon.
A: The difference between Trainer Classes and the custom clauses is that the latter affects both sides and are constantly active, while most Trainer Classes only affect the player and comes in a wide variety, but only one is used per battle.
Q: “What would you describe as unhealthy and / or uncompetitive?”
A: Any clause that would shift the tide of the battle too drastically or make a well-liked mechanic useless (i.e. Knock Off on switch-in, as it invalidate items), would cause the battle to lose it’s pace (i.e. Regenerator on top of Pokémon’s Ability), or adds even more impactful RNG would be considered as either unhealthy or uncompetitive. Overtly complex clauses, as well as those very difficult to code, are discouraged from being submitted as well.
Q: “What happens if Smeargle’s in the Pet Mod?”
A: Due to fundamental issues Smeargle represents through it’s move Sketch, it’ll be permanently be placed in Bottom so it won’t receive special treatments. It will also likely to be exempt from any custom clause if it would proved too troublesome by that clause (i.e. all have Prankster and banning Sleep isn’t enough) or can cause loophole abuses.
Q: “Is <generational gimmick> in this Pet Mod?”
A: None of them is in the Pet Mod initially, but can be implemented through custom clauses, and only to specific Pokémon to prevent already high-tier Pokémon from spiraling out of control. Making the custom clause only bringing a generational gimmick to all Pokémon would not be interesting, and making “Mega Evolution for all” would end up becoming a nightmarish chore for coding, and we rather not take risk ripping off Mix-and-Megas.
That said, if a clause that involve Mega Evolving certain species in different ways, or provide access to ONLY Gigantamaxing or signature Z-Moves, then a few more may be added to help out some high BST Untiered Pokémon.
Q: “Can my clause be based on <insert Other Metagame here>?”
A: I prefer if it affects only specific species or type to avoid overlapping too much with that OM. As an aside, we try not to overlap too much with Super Smash OMs in terms of Pokémon benefitted or hindered by the clauses.
Q: “What’s the process behind regional forms?”
A: They are decided by the Grand Masters to fill in the gaps of severely underrepresentated types, especially if a type has a few Pokémon that are quickbanned to Ubers. Which Pokémon are picked up for regional forms are either random or hand-picked.
Q: “Should we expect Ultra Beast and / or Paradox Pokémon in this Pet Mod?”
A: Not in the first tournament because of their absurd power level compared to even non-Ubers Legendary Pokémon, but a poll will be made in the meanwhile to either allow a few of them (randomly picked of course), or all of either of the group. Past Paradox and Future Paradox Pokémon are considered as seperate groups.
Q: “Why some Pokémon’s name being underlined in the spreadsheet?”
A: There are Pokémon that aren’t in the result, but added nonetheless due to being an important counterpart to a Pokémon. This also applies to Legendary Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon, but not necessarily Ultra Beasts nor Paradox Pokémon.
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These Pokémon have a form-changing Ability, and with their forms removed, they had to be compensated in different ways, such as by having such Ability to work differently if given back to it’s original owner.
Pokémon relying on their Signature Move to function, or have found success because of such move, may have to find a new one or, in a few cases, be boosted in a different way.
Pokémon that received an evolution in a later generation must either get a new and different one, or linger as potential trashmon unless compensated with something else.
On one hand, Pikachu losing Light Orb may kill what viability it has, how small it may be. On the other, Pichu being removed does give a possibility of Raichu evolving further. This also applies to the Jigglypuff line with Igglybuff removed.
New Evolutions for Eevee may be kept for a special slate with a bit strict rule as to not make the new ones vastly overshadowing the trio of Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon.
