Black/White NeverUsed Metagame Primer

Composition

NU (Neverused) is Smogon's fourth usage-based tier. All Pokémon that are not OU, UU, or RU by usage and are not banned to Ubers, UUBL, RUBL, or NUBL can be used in NU, including Pokémon from PU. While any of the aforementioned Pokémon can be used in NU, only those Pokémon that make up at least ~3.41% of total weighted usage in the tier are designated 'NU.' A Pokémon is truly 'NU' if a typical competitive player is more than 50% likely to encounter that Pokémon at least once in a given day of playing (20 battles).

A list of the current NU Pokémon and those with NU analyses for the BW era are found on the dex page.

Play Restrictions

Players cannot use Pokémon from the Uber tier, OU, UUBL, UU, RUBL, RU, or NUBL.

Players must abide by the following clauses:

  • Sleep Clause: If a player has already put an opposing Pokémon to sleep using a sleep inducing move and that Pokémon is still sleeping due to that sleep inducing move, the player cannot put another opposing Pokémon to sleep using a sleep inducing move.
  • Species Clause: A player cannot have two of the same species of Pokémon on their team, based on the National Pokédex Number. For example, a player cannot have two Koffing on their team.
  • Evasion Clause: Players cannot use Double Team or Minimize in any of their Pokémon's movesets.
  • OHKO Clause: Players cannot use Horn Drill, Guillotine, Sheer Cold, or Fissure in any of their Pokémon's movesets.
  • Timer Clause: If a player exhausts the timer, he/she loses.
  • Moody Clause: Players may not start a battle with the ability Moody on their team.

Players cannot use the following moves:

Players cannot use the following ability/move combinations on the same Pokémon: