Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
In Scalemons, every Pokemon's stats, barring HP, are scaled to give them a BST as close to 600 as possible, meaning that some BSTs might be a bit lower or higher than 600, with all recalculated stats being rounded down. This is all done using the following formula:
Stat * (600 - HP) / (BST - HP)
For example, using this formula, Toxtricity would go from 75 / 98 / 70 / 114 / 70 / 75 to 75 / 120 / 86 / 140 / 86 / 92 with the following calculations:
Mechanic: A formula is used for every Pokemon's stats, barring HP, to give every Pokemon a BST of about 600. Clauses: [Gen 8] Ubers, Dynamax Clause, Overflow Stat Mod Banlist:
Items
Eviolite
Light Ball
Thick Club
Heat Rock
Damp Rock
Moves
Baton Pass
Pokemon
Abra
Carvanha
Darmanitan-Galar
Gastly
Shedinja
Abilities
Arena Trap
Drizzle
Drought
Huge Power
Moody
Shadow Tag
Strategy
Coming soon!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is HP affected by the formulaic changes? A: No.
Q: Why aren't Ubers banned? A: With a metagame that gives Pokemon like Blipbug more bulk and Speed than Zamazenta-C after their stats are scaled, I don't believe any Pokemon needs to be banned from the get-go.
Q: Is every Pokemon's BST guaranteed to be 600? A: No. The goal of this metagame is to allow Pokemon to have BSTs as close to 600 as possible to make everything as close to equal as possible, not have everything be the exact same.
Q: Why do some Pokemon have lower BSTs than others? A: If a Pokemon has a stat that exceeds the base 255 stat cap, the excess is removed. For example, if the stat cap didn't exist, Onix's Defense would be 258, and it would have a BST of 598.
Q: Why is only Huge Power banned? A: Meditite doesn't exist.
Resources
Playability: None (yet) Stats?: To view a Pokemon's stats, do /scale [Pokemon] on PS! Council: Apathetic Inaction (co-leader) Anaconja (co-leader) Kris
This looks really interesting and from a glance darm already looks broken, 184 attack and 125 speed. But at the same time a lot is probably gonna have absurd defenses.
58/136/83/100/83/139
Fast offensive Rapid Spinner that has access to Parting Shot and a 110 BP Electric or Dark type type STAB. I Think this Pikachu clone has the tools needed to make a impact in this metagame.
70/85/79/164/118/85
With Ice Scales, Frosmoth has the highest natural SpD in the game, with having roughly the equivalent of 254 SpD when uninvested. Unfortunately it still has its same issues with having poor defensive typing and lacking movepool, however, it can find good setup opportunities against many special attackers.
50/150/85/85/85/146 or 80/134/87/75/87/138
Scorbunny has the better offensive stats, however Cinderace is still probably the better choice thanks to access to Pyro Ball and Court Change, in addition to it's notably higher bulk.
A metagame where Zacian is not broken nor is the Crowned forme easily better than the regular. Zoo wee mama!
...Though the regular one can wear a band, it's still at least nowhere close to as absurd as G-Darm would have been.
Oh man, and if Eternamax were allowed, it would be totally garbage. How quaint!
Indeedee becomes a straight upgrade over good old Lele here. I could see this re-surging in popularity a tad.
Dragapult, being a pseudolegend, stays the same, but it loses the huge Speed tier advantage it has in OU. Might get kicked down a notch in this metagame.
People have already pointed out a lot of other goodies, like Barraskewda being obscene. This was definitely quite fun and incredibly fast-paced in gen 7, and I'm looking forward to a similar experience again here. I can't see this winning OMOTM for March, but it's still exciting to contemplate nonetheless!
Darmanitan-Galar, Arena Trap, Huge Power, and Shadow Tag are banned!
Trapping is generally a broken mechanic, especially when the premier users of the abilities are extremely fast and strong (Diglett). Huge Power is banned because every Pokemon with access to it, specifically Bunnelby, have stats and move distribution that make it too strong of a combination. Darmanitan-Galar's stats and abilities, similarly, are extremely overpowered.
I'm excited to play this meta, I've been building a sun team and Unova-Darmanitan seems incredibly powerful under sun. I'm excited to see how this meta turns out and where it will be in a few weeks.
Generally, the first move is to ban the Pokemon, only banning moves and abilities if it’s proven that the ability/move is the source of the problem (breaks multiple mons IIRC) and not the user.
I'm not going to ban just the ability when it's exclusive to one Pokemon. Not to mention, Zen mode Darm-G is looks very broken purely off of stats and movepool as well.
This could possibly due to Ubers have Moody legal, and since Scalemons uses Ubers Clause rather than OU Clause. I think it might get banned soon or something i don't know/
Gastly is very powerful but not worthy of a quickban. Levitate means it can’t take advantage of Psychic Terrain, and its power is a little underwhelming with Focus Sash, especially because it doesn’t get any setup options.
Shedninja gets base 229 Atk and can choose between sash and boots. It’s limited in terms of set variety but is still a good revenge killer.
Ferroseed is very bulky, and its low HP makes Leech Seed heal for more %. Great for hazard stacking and checking offensive threats.
Pawniard is a powerful wallbreaker with SD, counters Gastly, and has a powerful sucker punch. Pretty much just a better Bisharp.
I feel like we should really talk about Gastly, because it's bringing up a lot of problems in Scalemons with or without proper implementations.
Simply put: Gastly is a terrifying sweeper that forces players into lopsided situations with no real way to play around. I'll explain the last part in a moment.
With the Base Stat buff that Scalemons grants it, Gastly is less of a glass cannon and more of a glass nuke. Even though its defenses are pathetic, its crazy-high Special Attack coupled with its typing and dual STAB coverage of Shadow Ball and Sludge Wave blasts almost everything on sight for stupidly high damage with little risk off an incredible speed tier. Not only that, but its auspicious typing allows it to reliably switch into stray Normal, Fighting, and Ground attacks on top of Toxic for free and wreck havoc on the poor switchin. Sludge Bomb is a serviceable substitute for Sludge Wave that trades slightly more damage for a higher Poison chance on hit, which can make more of a difference in the long-run rather than the short-run. The third slot is reserved for a filler slot that tackles most of the first switchins you'd think of when trying to deal with Gastly, such as Thunderbolt to wreck bulky Flying types and Water types and Dazzling Gleam to kill Dark types. You could also make the room for utility slots such as Taunt to shut down stall, Focus Sash to potentially scout a move and deal free damage, Psychic to murder Fighting and Poison types, Energy Ball or Giga Drain for Ground types and specific matchups, Trick with a Choice item to cripple switchins, a status move to provide useful team support, or Substitute to punish fleeing opponents. All of these possibilities make Gastly very difficult to figure out what its doing on its own and requires preparation to fully deal with most Gastly sets because they may just run the one move or item your dedicated check cannot deal with.
However, the big problem with Gastly and what I think makes it so broken is oddly enough something I don't hear a lot of people talking about: Destiny Bond. While the greatest threat to a frail and strong sweeper my be revenge killing it with either something reliable or surprising for the sweeper, Gastly becomes the one exception because Destiny Bond turns the possible surprise dynamic an opponent may have against Gastly against them by forcing sets into unwinnable situations where they lose their check for even attempting to one-up Gastly. It forces Sucker Punch into a lose-lose situation where they will die no matter what next turn, it forces slower sturdier tanks to fall down with it, and can scout out cheese sets such as Mirror Coat or Focus Sash that would normally rely on taking a hit against Gastly and force them to crash into Gastly and gain no net advantage. Destiny Bond means the only way to reliably take out Gastly is to be faster than it or to have reliable priority, but because those are so easily choreographed, it means someone can just switch Gastly out knowing full well what is coming for it, comepletely negating the surprise method of taking out Gastly.
So, what does this all mean for Gastly?
Well, this unusual resilience to standard revenge killing means that it is theoretically impossible to take Gastly out of the equation against a smart player. If they notice something off with your switchin, they can click Destiny Bond to either reliably scout the set or force the stalemate. If it's an obvious revenge kill, simply switch to something that is better suited for the situation, or call their bluff and kill it on the spot if nothing seems fishy. This is made further difficult with the fact that there are no real ways you can safely revenge kill Gastly unless you're naturally faster or have a reliable priority move (they'll see it coming and just switch out), run something so out of left field that nobody would even think to predict it (not a valid excuse), or are running a random Choice Scarf (this is assuming the Gastly itself isn't deciding to run Scarf that day of the week). This, combined with its already-dominating presence against most of the metagame with the ability to at least 2HKO most of everything in sight, turns Gastly into possibly the biggest menace looming the tier with very few reliable answers to.
So, what we have here is a sweeper that kills half of the meta on the spot, is easily adaptable, can be dangerously versatile, and is downright infuriatingly difficult to work around even if you play perfectly. To me, this is enough to warrant being banned if not at least suspected because it forces players to redesign entire teams just to have a better chance at not outright losing to Gastly.
Made and played with this team while streaming and got top 12. Honestly most of it was just Polteageist sweeping, since bulky dark types kinda don't exist you pretty much run rampent once prio users are removed. Scarf Drilbur is a really really nice mon, hyper-consistent and takes most Gastlys by surprise.
I just want to mention Ninjask (and sorta diglett and taillow and a few others, but mostly ninja bug), and not only because I will always mention Ninjask if I can, but because that thing outspeeds literally everything relevant, with a respectable damage output considering the frailty of most of the sweepers.
I also think there is potential for a trick room team abusing trapinch and solos is considering the meta tends towards speed abusers.
Also, Smeargle univested outspeeds a LOT. And with mild investment, out speeds gastly, allowing it to switch in on shadow ball and spore.
And even if they use a different move...
252 Spa Gastly sludge wave vs. 252 HP / 208+ Smeargle: 44.2 - 52.5% giving it a 20% chance to 2HKO Smeargle, if they don't recover, spore, etc. Because Smeargle outspeeds Timid variants with the remaining speed evs. Modest gastly fair a bit better. Netting a 55% chance to 2hko after leftovers, but again, you are slower, meaning Smeargle gets do whatever it wants for a turn.
I just want to mention Ninjask (and sorta diglett and taillow and a few others, but mostly ninja bug), and not only because I will always mention Ninjask if I can, but because that thing outspeeds literally everything relevant, with a respectable damage output considering the frailty of most of the sweepers.
I also think there is potential for a trick room team abusing trapinch and solos is considering the meta tends towards speed abusers.
Also, Smeargle univested outspeeds a LOT. And with mild investment, out speeds gastly, allowing it to switch in on shadow ball and spore.
And even if they use a different move...
252 Spa Gastly sludge wave vs. 252 HP / 208+ Smeargle: 44.2 - 52.5% giving it a 20% chance to 2HKO Smeargle, if they don't recover, spore, etc. Because Smeargle outspeeds Timid variants with the remaining speed evs. Modest gastly fair a bit better. Netting a 55% chance to 2hko after leftovers, but again, you are slower, meaning Smeargle gets do whatever it wants for a turn.
Gastly is very powerful but not worthy of a quickban. Levitate means it can’t take advantage of Psychic Terrain, and its power is a little underwhelming with Focus Sash, especially because it doesn’t get any setup options.
That's why you don't run Sash on Gastly, it doesn't need to live a hit since it already OHKOes 80% of the slower Pokemon and gets broken by SR. Also Levitate is more a blessing which gives Gastly more opportunities to come on the field. Psychic Terrain is extremely rare, I got two accounts in top 5 and I only faced once Indeedee (which isn't particulary good or bad), so it's not that bad for Gastly not to be able to use it.
NidoTheKing already expressed some complains on Gastly, but I'd like to go a bit deeper. Imo, Gastly warrants a quickban because there is no reliable counterplay to it.
Gastly is one of the fastest Pokemon available, the only relevant Pokemon that outspeed it are: (65/85/85/107/92/164), (40/73/73/133/73/206), (40/95/84/116/84/178), (60/73/80/126/93/165), (61/154/75/75/62/170), (67/84/81/114/81/169) and (55/138/79/50/109/167). All die to Sludge Wave and only Persian and Sneasel aren't OHKOed by Shadow Ball. Additionally, Ribombee, Swoobat and Cutiefly need to run Psychic to threaten Gastly, and unlike Gastly, these Pokemon raw power is limited and it is easy to switch into them with any decent defensive core.
In fact, the biggest issue with Gastly is that it lacks reliable defensive counterplay unlike other fast threats. Gastly has 203 base Special Attack which allows it to OHKO with its STAB everything not defensively invested and that doesn't resist it. And with that Speed, Gastly doesn't have to predict since even if you predict the right move and switch to your Ghost resists on Shadow Ball, Gastly can then just Sludge Wave and take the KO.
Also there are only few Pokemon that resists Gastly STAB combination which are: (45/159/131/75/75/112), (65/157/125/75/88/88), (100/134/110/95/100/61), (63/127/94/82/82/149), (103/122/88/93/80/111), (70/110/135/73/92/117) and (85/85/117/76/117/118).
Pawniard and Bisharp aren't very reliable swich since LO Shadow Ball 2HKO them and Pawniard can even be OHKOed by LO Thunderbolt. Also they are reliant on Sucker Punch, with which Gastly can play arround thanks to Substitute.
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pawniard: 152-179 (65.8 - 77.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pawniard: 227-269 (98.2 - 116.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 200-237 (73.8 - 87.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Bisharp: 133-157 (49 - 57.9%) -- 97.7% chance to 2HKO
Tyranitar takes very little damage from Gastly but Tyranitar is a niche Pokemon and isn't the kind of Pokemon you can slap in any team (it's slow and has very common weakness).
Stunky is the same deal as Pawniard but without the Poison immunity and without Knock Off, and specially defensive Skuntank works I guess but it is still 3HKOed by Thunderbolt and gets destroyed by Substitute varriant.
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Stunky: 140-166 (52.4 - 62.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Stunky: 212-250 (79.4 - 93.6%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Stunky: 168-198 (62.9 - 74.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Sludge Wave vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Skuntank: 170-201 (48.9 - 57.9%) -- 62.1% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Skuntank: 144-170 (41.4 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Skuntank: 149-177 (36.4 - 43.2%) -- 98.6% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Drapion is just a worst Skuntank, and Diggersby will be trash tier once the Huge Power ban gets implemented.
Since LO and Specs Sludge Wave hits extremely hard, other defensive counterplay that I have seen are Specially Defensive Pokemon that resist Poison or Ghost and Assault Vest Steel-types. These are (50/77/187/65/175/43), (65/85/147/100/147/54), (44/106/193/51/183/21), (74/119/166/68/147/25), (135/155/72/72/155/9), (98/110/132/67/107/84), (110/79/128/67/116/98), (65/157/125/75/88/88), (122/164/87/101/87/37) and (135/143/143/80/65/34).
However most of the defensive Mon only have one move to touch Gastly and therefore get destroyed by SubDisable, but also struggle with SubSplit, and are easily crippled by Trick. Furthermore, Pex, Corsola, Mandibuzz and Corviknight gets 2HKOed by Thunderbolt and can be 2HKOed by Specs Shadow Ball (LO Sludge Wave in case of Mandibuzz). Melmetal, Ferroseed and Ferrothorn don't have reliable recovery and gets 3HKOed by Specs Shadow Ball. This only lets AV Copperajah, AV Bisharp and Munchlax as reliable switch in. However, Copperajah and Bisharp sacrifice most of their offensive presence for this task and have no recovery at all. Munchlax also can be 3HKOed by LO Sludge Wave and has no reliable recovery outside of Rest.
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 174-205 (57.4 - 67.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 133-157 (43.8 - 51.8%) -- 69.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Corsola: 151-178 (45.3 - 53.4%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Corsola: 198-234 (59.4 - 70.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Corviknight: 247-291 (61.9 - 72.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Corviknight: 189-223 (47.3 - 55.8%) -- 24.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Mandibuzz: 234-276 (55.3 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Mandibuzz: 185-218 (43.7 - 51.5%) -- 7.4% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Ferroseed: 127-151 (43.6 - 51.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Ferrothorn: 151-178 (43 - 50.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Sludge Wave vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Munchlax: 149-177 (31.5 - 37.4%) -- 87.4% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Thunderbolt vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Bisharp: 108-128 (32.4 - 38.4%) -- 98.3% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Copperajah: 126-149 (28.1 - 33.3%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Gastly Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Melmetal: 174-205 (36.7 - 43.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
So, if I sum up the counterplay to Gastly:
-faster Pokemon that can't switch into it, and which are mainly Scarfer.
-Tyranitar and Specially Defensive Skuntank, two niche Pokemon
-AV Bisharp, AV Copperajah which are suboptimal sets (Bisharp is normally outclassed by Pawniard and Copperajah would prefer to run more Attack)
-Munchlax and other Specially defensive Pokemon without reliable recovery.
Last gen Gastly was already banned when the tier still had Pursuit and Muk-Alola. So please ban it, there is no reason to keep this little monster here.
Also, I'd like to share some teams I had fun with and allowed me to get two accounts in top 5 (Tuthur1 and AbomasnowTheTitan).
Thick Club
Heat Rock
Damp Rock
Abra
Carvanha
Darmanitan-Galar
Gastly
Shedinja
Anaconja (co-leader)
Kris
(65/85/85/107/92/164), 
(40/73/73/133/73/206), 
(40/95/84/116/84/178), 
(60/73/80/126/93/165), 
(61/154/75/75/62/170), 
(67/84/81/114/81/169) and 
(55/138/79/50/109/167). All die to Sludge Wave and only Persian and Sneasel aren't OHKOed by Shadow Ball. Additionally, Ribombee, Swoobat and Cutiefly need to run Psychic to threaten Gastly, and unlike Gastly, these Pokemon raw power is limited and it is easy to switch into them with any decent defensive core.
(45/159/131/75/75/112), 
(65/157/125/75/88/88), 
(100/134/110/95/100/61), 
(63/127/94/82/82/149), 
(103/122/88/93/80/111), 
(70/110/135/73/92/117) and 
(85/85/117/76/117/118).
(50/77/187/65/175/43), 
(65/85/147/100/147/54), 
(44/106/193/51/183/21), 
(74/119/166/68/147/25), 
(135/155/72/72/155/9), 
(98/110/132/67/107/84), 
(110/79/128/67/116/98), 
(122/164/87/101/87/37) and 
(135/143/143/80/65/34).
