Special Season 15: Metronome Battle



https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/information/f4dfc61a-7f85-4e79-b305-ef63c1ceca3c (JP side, put up a week before the season went live)
https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/information/dc05eac3-b309-4a73-a57c-42c90198b030 (EN side, put up the same day it went live)

Season 15, beginning next week, will be a really wacky one. Single battles (bring up to 6, pick 1), all moves except Metronome are banned. Mewtwo, Dusclops, and Dusknoir are also banned (for being uber in the first case, but more relevantly for having access to Pressure and shrinking everyone's PP supply that much further), as are mega stones.

Previous-gen transfers are allowed, and are pretty much mandatory to be able to fill out a full team--of course, unlike Smogon's own Metronome format, you're limited to legal sets. Get those duped TM35s from RBY ready.

It doesn't look like there's any prohibition on using Z-Metronome, if you want to basically change your ability to super-Sheer Force for a turn in case you roll an attacking move there. Or you could simply bring Assault Vest Machamp and take all the dice-rolling out of your equation, just jump right to Struggle. Note that gen 7 changed the mechanics of Choice items a bit: if your Metronome calls a 2-turn move like Sky Attack or Dig, it will fail on the second turn (as you're supposed to be choice-locked into Metronome, not Dig), so maybe that possibility is enough of a discouragement to drive you away from using those items. Metronome (the item) doesn't work here at all, unless you get extremely lucky and call the same move multiple times in a row.
 
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Ivy

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Looking forward to Protean Kecleon, Moody Smeargle, and our mythical buddies Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi.

Also, seems like only mega stones are banned, so rev up those pinch healing berries, Rocky Helmets, and Leftovers!
 

Oglemi

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As a veteran of Metronome Cup, Gengar is an absolute must here. He's no longer immune to Ground, but being immune to Normal is so ridiculously good considering a nice chunk of change of attacks are Normal. Bonus, he's also immune to poison, which considering how many attacks inflict poison is a good thing. He's also not too frail if you beef him up a bit. I would also recommend Sableye and Banette but they are quite frail themselves and can't use their Mega :/ Jirachi is the other must-have. Steel is just wayyyyyy too good to pass up here.

Other good team choices include Togekiss, Medicham, Machamp, Primeape, Ursaring, Granbull, Miltank, Mew, Hariyama, and Snorlax. Basically, you want as few weaknesses as possible, and mons with Speed, power, and bulk.

Mons that appear good but actually aren't: Golem, Mr. Mime, Jynx, Alakazam. The latter three are just way too frail despite them also having good damage output (well Mr. Mime isn't THAT frail but more than half of the damaging attacks in the game are physical iirc). Golem is a nice replacement for Jirachi when Steel-types are banned, but the weaknesses and super low special bulk way outweigh the benefit of resisting Normal.

I would also place Celebi on the mons that appear good but aren't due to being weak to almost literally half the attacks in the game but the stats can make up for it, and if you can switch out in this format Natural Cure is a fucking godsend (you couldn't in Smogon's Metronome Cup).

The mon i'm most intrigued about is Chansey. That bulk is ridiculous, but if you opt for Eviolite you have no passive healing, and having no offenses sounds like a killer. I think Blissey might outclass it here.
 

DragonWhale

It's not a misplay, it's RNG manipulation
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Quick thoughts:

It's bring 6 choose 1, so Celebi's Natural Cure niche is completely worthless here.
Same goes for Chansey, but Chansey are more than likely going to end in a Struggle war in order to win. Blissey actually has a chance to beat opponents, and Serene Grace is actually good.

Sableye is immune to 139 attacks and only 6 are super effective against it, but keep in mind you don't get access to Prankster. Also likely to end in struggle wars.

Clefable @ Leftovers is probably the MUST bring in the format, as Magic Guard is just so good. Has good odds vs most Pokemon probably.

Rocky Helmet and Leftovers/Black Sludge are the best items in the format most likely. Tough to decide what to give to whom.

Bring min speed on Pokemon likely to lead to struggle wars in a mirror so that you have a chance to take fewer struggle recoil than your opponent. Or give it a Leppa Berry if you're confident enough to survive 16 attacks.

Personal Top 3:
Clefable @ Leftovers
Jirachi @ 50% Berry
Mew @ Rocky Helmet

Might be worth using:
Magmar @ Eviolite
Gengar @ Black Sludge
Snorlax (Immunity) @ Leftovers
Blissey (Serene Grace) @ Leppa Berry
 
Given the ostensible reason for the three species bans, it's a wonder that Gengar is even allowed here, as a Cursed Body trigger will put the opponent in immediate Struggle range, and given the mechanics of Z-crystals, you don't even get to use Z-Metronome for a one-turn reprieve from the Disable effect. (Banette, at least, can't have Cursed Body if it wants Metronome.)
 
How does Cursed Body work here? Will the opponent's metronome be disabled?

edit: from what I can read, it only disables the move selected by metronome, not metronome itself. Confirmation would be nice, though.
 
For me, this is what I expect to run:

Smeargle (moody is good)
Sableye (nice typing)
Clefable (too many times screwed by poison)
Jirachi (if I can find one) (serene grace, steel, and stats) or togekiss (similar reasons)
Chansey
Gengar
 

DragonWhale

It's not a misplay, it's RNG manipulation
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Damn didnt realize Cursed Body worked like that, that's really dumb lol. The Cursed Body solution is Mental Herb but you might as well just use a Gengar of your own at that point.
 

Theorymon

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Wow I'm shocked Gamefreak did Metro cup of all things! I think its a bit silly since its pretty much mostly luck based (especially since you can only chose one mon), but hey its cool that its also a format that requires no real thought outside of teambuilding for once :P

Gengar sounds incredibly nasty with Cursed Body. In fact, outside of Mental Herb, I have no idea what could possibly be done about that thing. I guess the downside is that its easier to KO than something like Jirachi or Blissey, but if Cursed Body activates at the wrong time, you're pretty screwed!

Anyways, what are people thinking about for EV spreads for Gengar? This is going to sound super silly, but I almost wonder if 0 Speed Gengar is worth cosidering with Relaxed. It's pretty much because hypothetically, if your Gengar gets hit by Cursed Body, the slower Gengar may still have a chance if the other Gengar gets hit by Cursed body the following turn. Assuming something like a figgy berry here so you can outlast the struggle war. Main issue is, I can see instances where underspeeding Mew and Jirachi is dangerous.

Oh yeah since most of these Pokemon require transfers: nice thing is, I've been breeding stuff in Emerald lately, so tonight I'll focus on the important Metronome mons, and give them out to wifi folks so they can make sure anyone here gets mons they need! I even have a Pokemon Collseum Bonus Disc somewhere in my house, so once I find that again, I have unlimited Jirachis too! Granted... SRing for that thing is the worst thing in the world, so no gruantees I'll get something good to give away there lol
 
Low Speed does have the benefit of winning when someone rolls Perish Song (and no one gets speed-changing moves or Trick Room in the mean time to compensate).

228 HP/220 Def Gengar (or 228/148 with +Def nature) has less than 1% chance of being 4HKO'd by Machamp's Struggle, relevant for both Cursed Body and if someone actually decides to try the Assault Vest approach, to let it kill itself faster than it does you.
 
Is there any imaginable reason why you shouldn't just field Gengar every time, considering the number of contact moves in this format and the fact that Ghost/Poison is a very good defensive typing here? The only disadvantage is that there are more physical moves than special which makes its low Attack a bit of a liability.
 
Cursed Body doesn't even care if a move is contact or not. Anything that's not a status move and not an immunity has a chance of hitting the tripwire.
Oh, wow. That makes preparation for this format a lot easier, since there is literally no reason to bother with the other five team slots.
 

Ivy

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If Cursed Body cared about contact, you could at least run Protective Pads to counteract it. But, no dice.
 

Theorymon

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So just to confirm: me and Blueforce tested out Cursed Body, and yes, it does disable Metronome, so expect Gengar to be huge! Here's the replay as proof: 4UBW-WWWW-WWX4-SNMT

Anyways, something that's come up in discussing how to deal with Gengar: some powerful Choice Banded Pokemon can actually 4HKO it with Struggle. Machamp, Ursaring, and to a lesser extent, Hariyama, are good choices here, since they also have guts, which will REALLY punish Gengar if they get statused. Snorlax also pulls it off, and has more bulk than the others at the cost of being vulnerable to being burned. Granbull can do it too if you want that Intimidate.

Interestingly enough, while its much more frail, Choice Band Medicham actually 3HKOs Gengar with Struggle, so that's pretty neat!
 
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Funbot28

Banned deucer.
So since Metronome Ladder left I decided to start playing this meta and I have been having a blast! Gengar is by the far the best option to use in the majority of games due to Cursed Body being just that good and can often decide games and skew an already extremely lucked-base metagame to your favour. Here are some sets me and Theorymon had thought of:


Gengar @

Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 228 Def / 60 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Metronome

Helps against more prolong games as the extra residual recovery helps against most struggle wars and is overall better in the mirror matchup due to this compared to a 50% berry. The EVs allow Gar to avoid the 3HKO from CB Ampibom Struggle and Snorlax. Min Speed is preferred for Struggle wars against other Gars.


Gengar @

Ability: Cursed Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
Bold Nature
- Metronome

This is another cool set I theorized to help vs most rest of the metagame, helping Gar outspeed certain stuff like Non Scarf Medicham and cause a more immediate nuisance with the Aguav Berry which can really help in certain cases over Black Sludge. The Defense EVs still help for stuff like CB Lax as I believe it puts it into recovery range after 2 Struggles.

Counterplay to Gar does kinda exist but is not that secure, referring to stuff like Scarf Medicham, CB Ambi, Mental Herb (which only works once so eh). At least Gar does not have the best bulk and can't really abuse physical attacks it can pull off, but still I see little reason not to use it on the majority of teams.

Here is a fun squad I got p good w/l with (although luck ofc plays into it)
 

Lego

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DGUG-WWWW-WWX5-2F6S

Just confirmed with Theorymon that Cursed Body does not activate with immunities, so it might be a good idea to run HP Fighting on stallier pokemon so you don't accidentally get disabled vs Gengar.


E: If people are struggling to get some of the rarer mons for this, check out this thread!
 
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cant say

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QR CODE: https://3ds-sp.pokemon-gl.com/rentalteam/usum/BT-C3F4-4C73

If it's easier for you to use this than obtain Pokemon of your own (not that that's an issue with Theorymon's giveaway) then log into the Pokemon Global Link first, then click the link above for the QR code. If you've never used a QR code team on Battle Spot before you go to the part where the game asks you to choose a battle team, scroll to the left past your party and the option to scan is there.


This format is obviously really silly, but the way the individual Pokemon match up is interesting. Assuming everyone gets similar luck via Metronome itself, there's a bit of a rock-paper-scissors "metagame" at team preview itself, Gengar is so overwhelming due to cursed body, but things like Choice Band Medicham / Technician Ambipom have a somewhat favourable matchup due to their Struggle doing considerable damage to Gengar, and are faster than bulky Gengar (Snorlax and Machamp are also good choices here but are slower which makes you slightly more prone to Metronome shenanigans). So Gengar teams need to have bulky options like Intimidate Granbull, Helmet Jirachi, or generally fat mons like Clefable / Chansey / Blissey. But they all lose to Gengar so you also need your own strong Gengar "check." So you do need to try to pick correctly at team preview to give yourself the best odds of winning the match.


One thing that's disappointing is that Z Metronome isn't actually usable as a hail mary when Cursed Body activates on you to bypass it for a turn. Since you only have one move on your set, when Metronome gets disabled the game autopicks for you when you click "Fight." It's still pretty nifty for avoiding all the 50% berry activations and fishing for a KO at the end of a fight, instead of risking a weak move when your opponent is at 30% health. The most common Z move user so far seems to be Mew which makes sense due to its high mixed offensive stats, and Jirachi preferring Rocky Helmet and Celebi preferring Weakness Policy. The one I have on the QR team is 252 Atk / 252 SpA Quiet lol.


I haven't had many hilarious wins yet, the most interesting so far were me getting Soak against a Black Sludge Gengar to slowly kill it, a game where my Mew rolled Geomancy and then KOed with Z Electro Web against a Jirachi, and my Jirachi rolling Swords Dance vs Choice Band Medicham, which then set up Grassy Terrain only to get hit by +2 Secret Power the next turn and get the sleep affect thanks to the terrain + Serene Grace.

I have however gotten totally destroyed. I've heen hit by Fissure from a Smeargle, a Clefable 2HKOed my Gengar with Bonemarang (which didn't activate Cursed body on 5 hits) into Prismatic Laser, a Togekiss OHKOed my Gengar with Z Psychic, a Snorlax bopped my Jirachi with Heat Crash > Blast Burn, and I've called Final Gambit 3 times lol.


As silly as it is I'm having fun despite the salt on stream/discord, I'll be streaming this as much as I can during the season so come drop by if you wanna hang!
 
Interesting note: If you trip Cursed Body with a 2-turn move like Dive or Sky Drop, the actual damaging move there (instead of Metronome) is what gets disabled. This is obviously a pointless impediment, and even gives you the security of knowing Cursed Body can't trigger again within the next three turns. Note that Choice users will not be able to receive this breather, because such moves fail for them before they can ever hit at all, and thus before they have any chance to trip Cursed Body.
 

Theorymon

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I added it in my giveaway thread recently: I recently RNGed a Brave Hidden Power Psychic Mew, and tested it out as a Choice Bander.

This thing is DAMN good. It may not have the power of other Choice Banders, but unlike any of the others, its good Special Attack stat means Mew is often dealing pretty consistent damage. I like this mofo quite a bit! Also, I'm strangely tempted to test out Magic Guard Life Orb Clefable, anyone use that yet?

Well regardless, hope my luck gets better soon, I need to crawl back to the 1700s lol.

Oh yeah, Since there really isn't much to discuss in this metagame, I wonder if we should dump our favorite replay codes here, and get someone with a way to capture 3DS footage (looking at you cant say or chemcoop or DragonWhale ) to upload a Smogon Metronome compliation as a fun send off to this season in June. I got about 60 replays so far just from this so I probably got some good stuff I can sift through later :P
 

cant say

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I'm okay with going through replays on stream but with how tedious entering codes are and then actually watching them, I only want the best of the best sent my way. And I'm not talking "I landed Sheer Cold!!!" unless you rolled Lock On the turn before it. Perfect move combinations are interesting to watch.

Also nice I have some moveset changes I can try now. The hardest thing is shuffling items since the items tier list is like: Rocky Helmet > Leftovers / Berry > Choice Band, so I'll probably do:
  • Snorlax: Choice Band > Leftovers
  • Mew: Normalium Z > Choice Band
  • Clefable: Leftovers > Life Orb
Lefties Lax was originally my favourite set and I've been missing it ever since changing it to Choice Band in favour of Lefties Clef. Losing the health on Clef will probably sacrifice its favourable matchup vs Helmet Jirachi but the power output is appealing.
 

Theorymon

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After spending a month getting Metronognomed, I FINALLY got back to the 1700s!

I know normally that isn't a great score, but I'm tempted to settle, because good lord I didn't expect it to take a month to even get back in that zone rofl

So yeah, CB Mew has been rocken it, Clefable has BSed quite a few Jirachis, but Smeragle is weird. See, I actually haven't used Smeargle at all, but it seems to tempt people to use Gengar a lot more often, letting me use CB Mew without risky as many Rocky Helmet hits!
 

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