Ladder Smogon Triples

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the orchestra plays the prettiest themes
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Smogon Triples
approved and implemented by yay The Immortal

Since its implementation in Generation V, many users have clamoured for the implementation of Triples onto Pokemon simulators. Pokemon Showdown! is proud to announce that after finally overcoming numerous challenges, Triples is ready for play on the main server (and probably other servers too)! At the moment, it's a challenge-only format. Once we've ironed out the main bugs, prepare for a ladder as well!

Besides the standard Battle Spot Triples, whose banlist falls under the jurisdiction of TPCi and Nintendo (and which can be discussed here, we're also going to be introducing an experimental metagame known as Smogon Triples. Some of you may be familiar with Smogon Doubles; similarly, we're also going to be starting from an OU-like banlist and seeing where the metagame goes from there – if it goes anywhere at all, of course!

THE RULES

Note that, rather than following many of the conventions which Nintendo and TPCi have laid out, we will be experimenting and setting new rules and bans, so many things are slightly different. Here are some noteworthy difference from the ruleset of current Battle Spot Triples:

1) Pokemon default level 100 instead of level 50
2) Item Clause OFF
3) OHKO Clause ON
4) Evasion Clause ON
5) Soul Dew Clause ON
6) Moody Clause ON
7) The following moves are banned from play
  • Dark Void
  • Perish Song
8) The following Pokemon are banned from play
  • Mewtwo
  • Lugia
  • Ho-oh
  • Kyogre
  • Groudon
  • Rayquaza
  • Dialga
  • Palkia
  • Giratina, Giratina-O
  • Arceus
  • Reshiram
  • Zekrom
  • Kyurem-White
  • Xerneas
  • Yveltal
As you may have figured out by now, this will be a drastically different metagame from the more familiar Battle Spot Triples metagame. Current knowledge will certainly be beneficial, but a handful of new additional battle pieces will certainly alter the face of this new Triples Format.

What works well in Triples? What works only in Triples? Now's your chance to find out!
 
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Oh boy, so hype ^.^ Anyways, I feel like Greninja will be very useful w/ Mat Block and two setup sweepers. This is very exciting, can't wait to play!
 

Snaquaza

KACAW
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An interesting mechanic is that most move can only hit adjacent Pokemon. This causes you to think about which Pokemon to put where. Pokemon with spread moves are probably the best in the middle, but if they hit your own team too, it might be better to put them at a side. Or if your opponent has a Thundurus in one corner and you have a Gyarados, you better put it where Thundurus can't hit you.

Sometimes if you have 1 Pokemon left, the opponent can't do anything with his Pokemon as it can't hit any of your mons.
 

Pyritie

TAMAGO
is an Artist
Sometimes if you have 1 Pokemon left, the opponent can't do anything with his Pokemon as it can't hit any of your mons.
Triples has buttons for "swap left mon with middle mon" and "swap right mon with middle mon", though the swapping uses up that mon's turn.
Also all flying-type moves can target anything on the field instead of just adjacent ones.
 

Anty

let's drop
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Oh boy, so hype ^.^ Anyways, I feel like Greninja will be very useful w/ Mat Block and two setup sweepers. This is very exciting, can't wait to play!
Tbh, i doubt it will. In the doubles meta mat block greninja is trash, so i doubt it'll be too much better here.

This will be similar and different from doubles, protect and intimidate will be amazing here as well, but spread moves will be even weaker which sux. The mechanics are annoying and it stresses even more on what poke you put in the middle, as it effectively controls the playing field.
Perish trap looks interesting as it can effectively fuck up the opponents team, and you can move mega gengar around the field

This looks really fun and i wanna try it out soon.
We need to suspect mega kanga 3 times imo
 
Weather is very potent- especially sun and rain. This used to be on somebody's server, so I have a bit of experience in this metagame. I remember using Charizard-Y on one of the sides to set up sun for Chlorophyll abusers and some other stuff I had. An interesting thing to remember is that mons on the far right or left with intimidate hit all of the opponent's team, this might also work for moves like teeter dance.
 

AWailOfATail

viva la darmz
Yea, I battled with asterat a little bit, and we came to the conclusion that Cresselia is actually really good. It can set up screens, recover, and all that jazz. On another note, Mega Manectric gets both Discharge and Flame Burst, so it could see some usage.
 
I think Aegislash will be fairly viable here with the ability to use Wide Guard to help support team mates. Bisharp looks like it will have some usage with its ability Defiant to counter Intimidate users.

I've been waiting for this metagame for awhile, and hopefully it will be successful.
 
Worry Seed Whimiscott + Rage Powder User + Skill swap trick room Carbink + Safety goggles Shedinja core = greatest gimmick of all time. Sure it never works, but when if it happens to work, you get to enjoy your opponents' priceless reactions as they fail to kill something with 1 HP.
 
Weather is very potent- especially sun and rain. This used to be on somebody's server, so I have a bit of experience in this metagame. I remember using Charizard-Y on one of the sides to set up sun for Chlorophyll abusers and some other stuff I had. An interesting thing to remember is that mons on the far right or left with intimidate hit all of the opponent's team, this might also work for moves like teeter dance.
asterat, the Intimidate thing was one of the bugs in that old implementation(*), which had to be fixed before releasing Triples in main. It actually only affects adjacent foes. Other notable mechanics include the fact that Helping Hand stacks upon its usage by both allies. Teeter Dance only affects adjacent targets, by the way. Remember that you may check the targetting of a move with the PS dex or with the /dt command.

Well, this is exciting :P

(*) Shoutouts to Nollan for the effort input on trying to fix it by the way.
 

Electrolyte

Wouldn't Wanna Know
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Interesting metagame! It's like Smogon Doubles, just even more extreme

One of the first things that come to mind are field effects. Obviously, controlling effects that can simultaneously benefit 3 of your Pokemon at once (Half your team!) will be very important in these kinds of battles. However, I say "field effects" because I'm talking about setup- not weather. Things like Trick Room and Gravity. Why not weather?

An interesting phenomenon happens in the Doubles atmosphere when it comes to weather. Autosetting is pretty much the only viable way of accessing Rain, Sun, Sand, and Hail, so people rely on Pokemon like Politoed and Mega Charizard Y to maintain their weather. The problem with this is that whoever's ability kicks in last is the one whose weather goes up. Due to the high probability of each Pokemon being on the field at once (because there are more Pokemon on the field; number goes up from 1/6 in singles to 1/3 in Doubles to 1/2 in Triples) losing the initial weather war will be extremely disadvantageous; not only have you lost the weather war but you can also do absolutely nothing about it until you switch your own inducer out and then back in.

The problem with weather is that there can only be one active weather on the field at once. This will force weather inducers to act less as Pokemon but more as weather controllers- they are always more useful off the field, just in case the weather is changed, so that they can be switched back in to reset the weather in just one turn. In Doubles, this isn't as annoying because there are 4 other inactive Pokemon to choose from, but in Triples, that number dips down to three, further decreasing the possibility that there is even a suitable Pokemon to switch in.

Thus, I believe that unchangable field effects like Trick Room and Gravity will quickly dominate. Once it's set up, there really is nothing the opponent can do to remove the effect besides unsetting it (in TR's case). In Gravity's case, you just have to wait it out. Manually setted field effects are much more reliable, they last longer, and don't require that a whole Pokemon is made unusable. I expect to see a lot of these kinds of strategies, which is certainly interesting.
 

chimp

Go Bananas
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Yea, I battled with asterat a little bit, and we came to the conclusion that Cresselia is actually really good. It can set up screens, recover, and all that jazz. On another note, Mega Manectric gets both Discharge and Flame Burst, so it could see some usage.
Is Flame Burst any good? Im not really familiar with doubles but the 1/16th damage doesn't seem worth it when because of the 70 BP.
 
Is Flame Burst any good? Im not really familiar with doubles but the 1/16th damage doesn't seem worth it when because of the 70 BP.
It's actually worth it since it hits multiple targets enabling it to get free damage off. It could also help help its partners to get a secure 2HKO, possibly. (I could be wrong though)
 
So basically, every threat in Smog Doubles is good in this metagame. I can see Protect being a little bit less dominant in this format since it's likely for a Pokemon to not even get threatened enough to warrant Protect's use.
 

Da Pizza Man

Pizza Time
is a Pre-Contributor
Talonflame might be pretty good here, its priority can pretty much hit any pokemon it feels like, does not matter if its adjacent or not. I would kinda also like to see how Mega Blastoise fares here, since all of its boosted moves from its ability can hit non adjacent pokemon. But yeah most threats in doubles are going to be threats here
 
Dunsparce has a serious niche: It is the slowest user of Rock Slide with Serence Grace. Under Trick Room, it will outspeed almost everything. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it has a 93.6% chance to flinch one Pokemon, a 65% chance to flinch two and a 21% chance to flinch three pokemon. This looks like a niche.
 
First I want to say that this is similar to doubles and everyone should try out doubles as well as triples

I really hope Spread moves aren't nerfed again, as they are a joy to Doubles. If they are nerfed I can see Pokemon like Heatran running single target moves as the spread move damage output could be too weak. If that happens, I guess Lando-T will be a little worse.

Follow Me and Rage Powder could be great in this meta. If it could tank all three hits, you'll be getting an almost guarenteed KO. Amoonguss, Jirachi, and Togekiss, 3 already great threats could be even better in this meta.

I want to se how Protect would end up here. I think it will be just as useful as it is in Doubles. I would like to hear people's opinions on it.
 
okay so far in triples I've played a few different teams, mainly a sun team, a rain team, and a perish trap team (bc fuck you thats why), and here's what I've learned (having never played triples before)
  1. wide guard and quick guard are amazing in this format since everyone will be spamming spread moves
  2. hitmontop is probably the best pokemon to lead middle position because it can fake out, feint, intimidate all 3 opponents, and can use wide/quick guard
  3. positioning is SUPER important, in my perish trap replay, notice how I switch my shadow tag pokemon from left to right to avoid checks, and all of the damage middle position can take
  4. weather/trick room/tailwind are extremely powerful
  5. switching is roughly as common as you would see in vgc, switching needs to be done extremely carefully
  6. choice items are dangerous to carry due to the switching point I made, I nearly lost a game because I was choice locked into a move
  7. Charizard Y is the strongest mega (imo) in the format, although I haven't tested a team with mega absol or aggron to be fair ...
here are 3 of my best replays, all demonstrating what I've learned so far (and some mistakes I've made)
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/triplescustomgame-140282847 vs Roxer123
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/triplescustomgame-140276156 vs AuraRayquaza
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/triplescustomgame-140269530 vs finally

I should mention running Double Edge on Kangaskhan will easily become the new standard triples moveset
 
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