Other Metas Room
Introduction
Other Metas is a room on Pokémon Showdown! that is dedicated to 'Other Metagames'. Submitted by users of the Smogon forums, Other Metagames are metagames that are completely different than anything you've ever seen! In this room, tournaments are held very often and are all about Other Metagames – I'll go more in-depth about this later. All of the Other Metagames can be found here. Pet Mods, which are also a part of Other Metagames, are tweaks to already existing Pokémon and are equally creative! Feel free to submit an Other Metagame here; we'd love to hear your ideas! Be sure to read the rules and check the index before sending in an idea! Every month a new metagame is selected and voted upon, and this metagame is then added to the official PS! server for a month to play. For example, June's OMotM was STABmons, meaning that STABmons could be played for the entire month of June. Please do note that tiers other than OU are not Other Metagames; just because it is the most popular metagame does not make any of the others an 'other' metagame.
Popular Other Metagames
- Balanced Hackmons
- Balanced Hackmons is probably the most popular Other Metagame on Smogon. In this tier, Pokémon are allowed to use any move and ability, and all unreleased Pokémon are allowed. To prevent threats from being too strong, the following things are banned: OHKO moves, Wonder Guard, Pure Power, Huge Power, Shadow Tag, Arena Trap, and Parental Bond. This is where the 'Balanced' part of 'Balanced Hackmons' comes from. Hackmons is a similar tier, but with no restrictions. This metagame has a large playerbase and many supporters and is discussed often in the Other Metagames room. Recently, a change was made that you may only use 510 EVs on each Pokémon, and Team Preview was recently added to this metagame as well. This metagame is led by verbatim.
- STABmons
- STABmons is a metagame that allows every Pokémon to gain access to any move of their type. For example, Meloetta can now learn all Normal- and Psychic-type moves such as Boomburst, Psystrike, and Shell Smash. Pokemon can also gain movepool additions from their pre-evolutions; for example Espeon can learn all Normal-type moves in addition to all Psychic-type moves, as it evolves from Eevee, a Normal-type. This tier follows the ruleset of OU, along with Sylveon and Porygon-Z being banned. This metagame is very diverse and has a large playerbase. This metagame is led by The Eevee General.
- Tier Shift XY
- Tier Shift is a very popular metagame that focuses on buffing Pokémon in lower tiers to become OU threats. Pokemon in the BL / UU tiers gain +5 to each base stat, those in BL2 / RU gain +10, and those in BL3 / NU gain +15. Some Pokemon like Hitmonlee really enjoy buffs to all of their stats, allowing the metagame to become very diverse and powerful. Tier Shift is coded into Pokémon Showdown! as a permanent tier thanks to its support and large playerbase. This metagame is led by eriados.
- Almost Any Ability
- Almost Any Ability is a metagame where Pokémon are allowed to have almost any ability, as the title implies! The current banlist includes Kyurem-Black, Slaking, Regigigas, Archeops, Simple, Contrary, Fur Coat, Huge Power, Pure Power, Speed Boost, Imposter, Shadow Tag, Arena Trap, Aerilate, Parental Bond, Wonder Guard, Prankster Smeargle, and Sturdy Shedinja. This allows for a plethora of interesting options while not making it completely overpowered. This tier has many great features and tournaments for it are held often. This metagame is led by asterat.
- Monotype
- Monotype returns in XY with a new type to select from! In Monotype, all Pokémon on a team must share one type. Mega Evolutions do not count, so you can use Charizard on Fire- or Flying-type teams, but not on Dragon-type teams, despite its Mega Evolution being part Dragon-type. Talonflame is banned from this metagame as well. This metagame is playable on the main server as it has a permanent ladder! This tier is led by Hollywood.
- 1v1
- 1v1 is a tier where each player brings three Pokémon and selects one to battle an opponent's. This is a new change this generation, as last generation, you only brought one Pokemon. This generation, there is team preview and you may only select one Pokémon to use. This adds another layer to the battle and makes it a thinking game that makes the player really have to think about which matchup will be most beneficial! This metagame has a permanent ladder on the main server and is currently led by The Immortal.
- Random Battles
- Random Battles is one of the most popular battle formats on the main server. This metagame generates a team of six randomly selected Pokémon. Movesets are composed of random viable moves, levels are balanced by tier, and stat spreads are 85 EVs per stat with a Hardy nature. It does not have Team Preview either, so you never know what is going to happen! This is also a metagame with a permanent ladder, and it also has an unrated option for those who are not concerned with rankings or just want to have fun playing around! This tier is mainly led by upper staff of Showdown.
- Metagamiate
- Metagamiate is a metagame where all Pokémon get -ate abilities corresponding to their primary typings. For example, all Pokémon with primary Ice-typing will receive Refrigerate. This metagame won OMotM of August and had a ladder for that month. It does not have one anymore, but it is still available to play via challenge! Be sure to pack some checks for Extreme Speed in this metagame! This tier is led by Pikachuun.
- PU
- PU is a tier that is not official but goes off of official usage stats. PU is technically the 'NU of NU', as many refer to it. All Pokémon that received 3.406% or lower in the 1630 usage stats of NU are eligible to be used. This allows many Pokémon that aren't even good in NU to shine and allows for many new and interesting combinations of certain Pokémon! This metagame was very popular last generation and came back with a splash this generation as well! The PU council consists of dedicated members and people who know the tier well, and it is led by WhiteDMist.
