The Official Metagame Discussion Thread

[Dare]

I asked about it, and it seems that most people liked the idea. Come here to talk about what Pokemon are getting used a lot, what Pokemon are losing their usage, changes in the metagame, etc. A sticky is requested, as chaos even said that a stickied thread would work.

To start off the discussion, I would just like to comment on changes in the metagame as a whole. Since Skarmbliss and Skarmsnor are easily countered with great pogeys like Blaziken, it is clear that the metagame is leaning towards the offensive more than ever, although the Advance Generation is overall offensive. Do you guys think it's possible for the defensive Pokemon to make a comeback? By what means?

 

[RicepigeonKKM]

Boah died (I'm still pissed off about that), DDtar is back (even more pissed), and CBtar is seeing use now (it owns), Jirach is still up there, as is Celebi, Salamence, and an out of date metagame that doesnt have the XD moves.

 

[Dare]

We are getting XD moves in 9.07, right?

Metal Sound Zapdos *drools*

And I am very glad that Boah died, he pissed me off regularly. Overall, I hate TTar. But then again, I'm a fan of a defensive metagame rather than an offensive one. Skarmbliss will come back some day, I hope. Maybe the 4th gen will bring some defense with it.

 

[Raikage]

Celebi + Dugtrio is running amok.

 

[RicepigeonKKM]

i loved boah like it was my own porch monkey or something else related to me in a incestual manner.

EDIT: I fucking HATE Dugtrio

http://media.putfile.com/majorasspredicting

 

[Dare]

Celebi + Dugtrio is running amok.

This is why I find the OU Metagame to be very dry.

On a different note, do you think that the decline of Skarmory will be the decline of Magneton? He's always been my favorite electric, and I usually use him not even thinking about Skarm, but do you think he is versatile enough to survive SiKkO NaShTiEs like Sala?

 

[obi]

Overall, Snorlax seems to be replacing Blissey as the special tank of choice, which is one of the main reasons for the decline of Boah, imo. Suicune usage has gone down (for which I am thankful), and I rarely see Jirachi. Celebi is used fairly often, and Metagross is on most teams.

On a minor note, I noticed a spike in the number of Aerodactyls today (and my team had an Aerodactyl weakness. :( ).

Sub passing seems to be increasing (albeit slightly).

Salamence is still being used, with CBmence outnumbering DDmence, and the occassional Elemence is thrown in. DDMence usage is on the rise, however, with the decrease of foes like Suicune.

 

[Sir Spanky]

EDIT: I fucking HATE Dugtrio

http://media.putfile.com/majorasspredicting

lol. Who was that a recording of?

Spanky

 

[Dare]

No, no, FUCKING Dugtrio!

Yeah, I hate him as much as you do, but I haven't seen him as much lately. Same with Celebi, but maybe I'm just weird and don't challenge people packing them.

Props to Obi2Kenobi for an analysis of today's usage. I could probably do stuff like that during winter break, when I'll be on NB a lot.

 

[NZ-1337]

Metagross/Snorlax/Celebi seems to be the new Skarm/Bliss/Dol although I dont think it is as popular as SkarmBlissClay used to be. Seems to be more offensive than the older combination but not as defensively sound.

Milotic usage seems to be dropping, about a month ago every team seemed to have one.

I find Hypnosis Gengar here and there.

At least two of Metagross/Milotic/Zapdos/Snorlax/Celebi/Donphan/Salamence/Dugtrio/Swampert/Magneton/Heracross on every team.

Aerodactyl becoming more popular every day

 

[Raikage]

Zapdos/Snorlax/Celebi/Dugtrio/Bulky Water/Metagross/Salamence/Tyranitar/Heracross Pick six of that and you have the team most people have today.

 

[Jackal]

97.786% of teams today are zapdos lead, metagross, swampert, celebi, milotic, heracross. Zapdos is on every team. I am not kidding .__.

 

[jpchato]

Zapdos is on every fucking team now, all of mine have it. It's too fucking good to not use. I see a rise in DDmence again, I swear I saw so many yesterday and todya.

 

[giga]

I agree, Zapdos is everywhere lol. What I like about this metagame, and probably all, NOT using pokemon that most teams counter works...I find that my OU "UU" team works more often then a bog standard run of the mill team. And people still say " My team isn't made for those types of pokemon," which shows how the use of the big about 20+ pokemon SUCKS

i doubt this makes sense lol

 

[Nick [old]]

i havent been a zapdos fan in forever since it gets completely walled by blissey. exeggutor is a huge part of my current team though. psychic/sleep powder/synth/seed is crazy cool.

also mantine/claydol is a nice defensive combo, just get something like snorlax to suck up boltbeams.

 

[Amazing Ampharos]

Speaking of teams not being made to counter UUs, Jumpluff rocks a lot of standard teams. Many just plain can't do anything but stall it. Also, many OUs can seriously screw with teams when used in non-standard ways. You would be absolutely amazed how many people get owned by certainly non-standard stall-gars, and once my NB computer gets fixed, the glory of special sweeping Blissey shall shine forth. Basically, a metagame rule is that a set becomes a bit worse once it becomes standard.

EDIT: I'd just like to note that I got so sick of Zapdos owning me that I started using Cradily on all my teams. It is the best Zapdos counter in the game IMO.

 

[The.Lost.Hylian]

No, Regice is the best Zapdos counter in the game, and will continue to do so when XD changes are released.

I really hate that I use Zapdos so often, but he is effective :\

 

[Hipmonlee]

97.786% of teams today are zapdos lead, metagross, swampert, celebi, Snorlax, heracross.

I think you mean..

I don't like Zapdos so much, it hasnt got a lot of defensive value.. Spends a lot of time being dead weight.

Have a nice day.

 

[0rz]

I'm using Zapdos right now, and it's cool and all, but Raikou is seeming better to me, I always get screwed by Rest Talk and CM is too good to pass up...

EDIT: Also, I've seen like 4561891 Aerodactyl's today. All of which got PAWNS LIKE SWAMPERT/PREDICTION.

 

[bluelightstar]

Aero and Zappy have always been on my teams, but then again, my latest team is full of big fat standards. All kinds of things are using HP Bug to get Celebi and my Solrock got pawned in the face earlier by a Hydro Pump Gyarados. :[

 

[Vulcan Fury]

---Salamence leads are near dead (finally!!)
---Zapdos and Aerodactyl usage gone up a lot.
---Dragon Dance Salamence is unexpected and is making it's comeback.
---Skarmbliss is dead. I mean dead. I seriously haven't seen Skarmbliss all month (I still see Skarmory quite a bit but Blissey is dead).
---Snorlax/Celebi increased.
---More offensive in general.

---A lot of teams have Vaporeon now, and some people are starting to use Sceptile and Electric to counter bulky water leads now!

---Heracross is on a lot of teams, ditto for Metagross.

Random facts about today's metagame.

As for the future:
The Metagame in my opinion is offensive filled today with Snorlax/Zapdos/Salamence/Heracross/Metagross on a lot of teams do I'm hoping that it will continue to stay like that. Seriously I hate stalling like shit, I've even started using Trapping shit to counter it.

Predicting a rise in Regice when XD is implemented, a rise in Zapdos, and maybe a rise in Moltres.

 

[el_B]

I've seen some more Regice used lately. Also suprising sets seem to be popular right now (Saw a bunch of special Gyarados last time I battled and also EleMence)

And I have seen so many Fire moves on pokemon (Salamence, Dragonite, Flygon, Snorlax, ..), this is probably why Skarmory and Forry are used to a lesser extent.

 

[Hazerider]

rofl what the fuck are you talking about icy the metagame isn't boring at all blah blah blah

97.786% of teams today are zapdos lead, metagross, swampert, celebi, milotic, heracross. Zapdos is on every team. I am not kidding .__.

ANYWAY, I find it funny that people still complain about Blissey when about 10% teams have it. Snorlax and Regice (especially Snorlax) are MUCH more common. Also Celebi and Milotic are on about every team, as is Dugtrio. I'm surprised at the fact that I haven't seen a Tyranitar for ages (maybe because of Swampert, I'll explain that later), and even Salamences are becoming "less" common. On the other side all teams have Heracross :\
So I'll explain why this metagame sucks: first, you have Swampert, which only has a handful of counters, which makes this even more boring because according to certain people the only counter worth using is Celebi.
Celebi itself is barely counterable and should be fucking banned but I'm not going there. Well, if most teams have Celebi, and Metagross and Heracross are the only "good" Celebi counters according to certain people, all teams will have Metagross and Heracross. So what counters Metagross? Zapdos, Swampert, Suicune and Milotic. I've mentioned Swampert above, but what counters the other 3? Regice and Snorlax. And what counters Regice and Snorlax? Heracross and Metagross. I've said what counters Metagross, but what counters Heracross? Personally I've never found Heracross hard to kill, maybe because I always use Weezing. But Weezing isn't being used because certain people keep saying Skarmory is better because it can Spikes and blah blah blah. So other than Weezing, what can switch into Heracross? Well, it's very hard to switch anything into Heracross. Salamence can do it, which makes Milotic, Swampert and Suicune even more standard, so their counters will rise and so on. Then you have Dugtrio which is just used as a "filler" so you can sacrifice anything, send it out and kill shit without any effort.
As you can see, this is like an endless cycle.
So if you're making a team, even if you start using some... "original" stuff you'll end up being creamed by those standards I mentioned, which leads you to use them yourself, and so on. I hate the fact that such a fun game was ruined, but then again maybe it's Nintendo's fault for not making it more... balanced.
This shit I wrote probably doesn't make any sense but we all know luck wins at the end anyway.

 

[freaktron]

EDIT: I fucking HATE Dugtrio

http://media.putfile.com/majorasspredicting

Lol that's funny

 

[Somebody]

Most of what people have already said here is true. Zapdos, Snorlax, Metagross, Celebi, etc. are being whored to death. But I have seen quite a few people throwing in different and less seen pokes like Armaldo, Special Gyarados and Moltres (I myself am really starting to like Articuno). I don't think that the metagame is going to drastically change from its highly offensive, staple based nature any time soon, but people are proving (to me at least) that with some creativity you don't have to use the same boring team as everyone else to do well.