OMotM/LCotM Spotlight: Shared Power and Protean Palace
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Art by anundeadboy.
What is an OMotM/LCotM?
The OMotM, also known as Other Metagame of the Month, is the metagame that is voted by the players to have a ladder for a specific month. The LCotM, or Leader's Choice of the Month, is a second ladder that is chosen specifically by OM Forum Mods. For the most part, the LCotM is a metagame that needs more love, as it may not be able to compete with the metagames that get nominated for the OMotM voting.
For November 2023, the OM of the Month is Shared Power, while Leader's Choice is Protean Palace.
Introduction to Shared Power
In Shared Power, each time a Pokémon enters the field, it will share its ability with the rest of the team for the rest of the battle, allowing each Pokémon in your team to have up to six different abilities active at the same time. This has a big impact on the way teams are built, and powerhouses with weak abilities such as Dialga are often overlooked in favor of Pokémon with stronger abilities. You could build around Talonflame's Gale Wings and then use Hisuian Arcanine's Rock Head to offset Brave Bird recoil, providing a dangerous priority tool; you could also use Hisuian Samurott to boost Air Slash and Aerial Ace with Sharpness or even mix Technician users that learn Aerial Ace, like Scizor, into the equation! While the viability of various niche Pokémon is improved thanks to them having strong abilities that few have in standard play, there are also strong Pokémon that are less viable because of lackluster abilities, like Darkrai and Mewtwo, which become quite difficult to fit in a competitive team despite their high stats.
Threats in Shared Power
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Lilligant-Hisui @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Lycanroc-Midnight @ Focus SashHustle is a strong ability that comes with a notable downside, but this downside is negated when paired with No Guard. Hisuian Lilligant can use Axe Kick with no worries of missing, and Lycanroc-N can attack with a much stronger Stone Edge. This, of course, affects the whole team, so you can try to find more Pokémon that can take advantage of No Guard; anything that could use inaccurate moves, like Power Whip, Head Smash, and Zap Cannon, may appreciate it.
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Luxray @ Flame OrbThanks to Galvanize, Electric-types can use Normal-type moves in place of their regular STAB moves, like Facade and Quick Attack. Luxray makes great use of this, as it gives itself and the rest of the team access to Guts- and Galvanize-boosted Facade. Just be careful when using this strategy, as you will be in a clear disadvantage against anyone using Volt Absorb or Lighting Rod users like Pawmot and Raichu.
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The combination of Corrosion and Merciless is ideal to hinder many defensive structures, as opponents will have to deal with both the poison and the guaranteed critical hits. Teammates that can reliably spread poison, such as Toxic Debris Glimmora, Toxic Breloom, and Dire Claw/Poison Touch Sneasler, can help with achieving this. This may seem like a weird use for Toxapex, but with Regenerator banned from the tier, this is among the best things it can do.
Introduction to Protean Palace
Protean Palace is a gen 6 OM that recently came to the current generation. Its premise is simple; every Pokemon stacks Protean on top of their current ability. However, this generation throws a spanner in the works with Terastallization, which overrides Protean's type switching when active. This OM also uses the new Protean mechanics, meaning one activation per switch, which benefits single-type Pokemon, as they can use their original STAB moves without using up the Protean activation. The metagame is very fast paced and offense oriented, where plenty of Pokemon have a chance to shine. What kind of Pokemon thrive in this kind of metagame? Let's see!
Threats in Protean Palace
Barraskewda @ Choice Band- Ability: Swift Swim
- Tera Type: Water
- EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Jolly Nature
- - Liquidation / Flip Turn
- - Close Combat
- - Poison Jab / Psychic Fangs
- - Crunch / Drill Run
Barraskewda, thanks to being able to get STAB on its other moves, can threaten most prominent Pokemon. It's one of the fastest attackers in the tier, outrunning dangerous threats like Noivern and Greninja and pivoting out via Flip Turn. It can also use Drill Run for an immunity to Electric-type moves.
Kingambit @ Leftovers- Ability: Supreme Overlord
- Tera Type: Ghost
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
- Adamant Nature
- - Sucker Punch
- - Swords Dance
- - Iron Head
- - Aerial Ace
Kingambit can use Aerial Ace on its first turn to gain a valuable immunity to Ground and resistance to Fighting. Additionally, Tera Ghost offers salvation against faster super effective attackers that can hit Kingambit before it can safely use Aerial Ace. Kingambit brings a lot of excellent offensive utility, such as the useful priority of Sucker Punch, which can nab a KO before the opposing Pokemon has a chance to change its typing.
- Cresselia @ Leftovers
- Ability: Levitate
- Tera Type: Electric
- EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
- Modest Nature
- IVs: 0 Atk
- - Thunderbolt
- - Calm Mind
- - Ice Beam / Stored Power
- - Moonlight
Cresselia's access to Levitate and an Electric-type move with Thunderbolt mean it has no weaknesses, and access to either BoltBeam coverage or Stored Power allows it to power through the opposing team, even when not aided by STAB.
Final Thoughts
Shared Power and Protean Palace are both metagames that reward a player's creativity and uniqueness and buff otherwise-uncommon Pokémon with the blessing of additional abilities. These are the metagames for the Month of November 2023. Enjoy these metagames, and check out the Other Metas room on PS! to discuss them.
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