Black/White RarelyUsed Metagame Primer

Composition

RU (RarelyUsed) is Smogon's third usage-based tier. All Pokémon that are not UU or higher by usage and are not banned to Ubers, UUBL, or RUBL can be used in RU, including Pokémon from NU. While any of the aforementioned Pokémon can be used in RU, only those Pokémon that make up at least ~3.41% of total weighted usage in the tier are designated RU. A Pokémon is truly RU 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 RU Pokémon and those with RU analyses for the BW era are found on the dex page.

Play Restrictions

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

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 his or her 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 move combinations on the same Pokémon: