Generation 9 Free-For-All

[CraftyPuddle]

Since the new bans have finally gone live I've spent the last few days putting together a collection of teams to post here. Since half of the sample teams have been wiped out as a result of the bans, I wanted to make some teams that cover most of what's viable in FFA, are fairly easy and fun to play, and can serve as a "starting point" if players want to change things about a team (I use Heal Bell Blissey a lot even though Calm Mind is pretty good too, for example)

That said, let's get into the teams. I've tried to order them from easiest to play to hardest.

Zamazenta Semi-Stall

This style of team is something that I've always found pretty fun. 5 stall mons bring you into the late game through hazard control, item removal, and heavy use of the Unaware ability. Once you're down to the last opponent, you can sacrifice a Pokemon to bring in Zamazenta, which is able to clean up easily with Choice Banded Close Combats. Zamazenta's natural bulk and Dauntless Shield ability can also allow it to switch in in some scenarios and it can also act as a revenge killer in the midgame if a threat becomes too much for your stall core. Pretty much all of the sets here can be tweaked according to personal preference, such as changing Blissey's Heal Bell for Calm Mind. I've found that this composition of moves makes for a team that's able to stay healthy for a long amount of time and stay threatening even without Zamazenta with setup moves on Corviknight, Clefable, and Skeledirge.

Deoxys Sun Balance

None of the Pokemon with the Drought ability are particularly good in this format, so this sun team utilises Sunny Day Teleport Deoxys-Defense to set up sun and get sun abusers in for free. Gouging Fire hits incredibly hard in the sun and is able to heal for a lot with boosted Morning Suns and Choice Specs Walking Wake hits incredibly hard on the special side. The defensive core of Corviknight, Blissey, and Clodsire covers hazards (both setting and removing them), status with Heal Bell and helps to wall setup sweepers with Unaware Clodsire.

Alomomola Rain Balance

Rain Dance Alomomola is a great pivot and setter for rain teams thanks to its Regenerator ability healing it while it keeps its rain abusers healthy with Wish. Archaludon has incredible bulk and power with Electro Shot powering up all of its special attacks and Stamina boosted Body Press to hit targets like Blissey. Ogerpon becomes a powerful physical attacker with the help of rain and also switches in against water-type attackers taking advantage of your weather. I used a defensive core of Clefable, Blissey, and Corvknight here for item removal on top of hazard control and of course Blissey's ability to remove status from any key Pokemon.

Maushold + Kyurem Offense

I haven't used Kyurem-Black for the previous few teams because I've been showing the power of weather, but this thing is one of the most powerful Pokemon in the format period. 170 base attack is huge and once it gets one or two Dragon Dances Kyurem easily starts to outspeed everything and get OHKOs. With investment in HP and Wish support from Alomomola, we can start to build an offense team capable of staying healthy throughout the match while we eliminate teams one by one.
Zamazenta is immediately fast and threatening. I opted for life orb to easily select the right coverage move against switch-ins. I went with Calm Mind Blissey on this team for once, since sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice some Pokemon to save others, status isn't as relevant, and we're ending games much earlier, too.
Instead of Corviknight, I opted for Tidy Up Maushold to remove hazards. Maushold is capable of threatening ridiculous damage and can use its boosts from Tidy Up to KO hazard setters after removing hazards, or just KO anything. It's obviously much frailer than Corviknight, but with help from Alomomola (and HP investment) it can come in for long enough to do what it needs to do and either faint or switch out.
I needed a special attacker and a fighting resist, so I went with Skeledirge last. Since this is an offensive team, I maxed out the Special Attack EVs and used the less common Shadow Ball/Earth Power set to be more threatening against would-be switch-ins like Garganacl.

In Conclusion,

 

[Darvin]

why was baton pass banned?

Baton Pass chains allow for stat boosting combinations that would otherwise be impossible, or would require so many moveslots as to be impossible. For instance, if you want to boost Defense, Special Defense, and Special Attack on Clefable you will need to run both Charge Beam and Cosmic Power. Along with Moonlight, this means you have to give up either Moonblast or Stored Power limiting its coverage. With Baton Pass chains, you can bypass those limitations and pass boosts that would otherwise be impossible. This can also allow for Pokemon to run moves like Taunt that they otherwise wouldn't be able to fit to stop things like Haze. There are just too many possibilities opened up by Baton Pass, and it would be impossible to answer them all in the builder.

Just because Free-For-All teams are better equipped to handle runaway sweepers doesn't mean that runaway sweepers are automatically okay, and Baton Pass is by far the most extreme version of them.

Zamazenta Semi-Stall

I normally like running Wish passing with Zamazenta so it can put in work in the mid-game and be brought back up to healthiness later, but using it strictly as an end-game cleaner can also work. I like the triple Unaware core. Having both Clefable and Skeledirge gives you switch-ins to Overheat, Leaf Storm, and Draco Meteor (which can take advantage of Unaware spam since your own Unaware ability ignores the stat drops).

Deoxys Sun Balance

I've been running a very similar team, using Shed Tail Cyclizar as my Sun setter and Wish Alomomola to pair with it for double regenerator pivots to get the offensive Pokemon into place. The problem with my approach is that it gives up hazards and Unaware, which can be a big issue and can easily screw me over. However, the double regenerator gives a very sturdy defensive core that can bring in Walking Wake repeatedly throughout the match to get KO's. I really feel like this team composition just can't fit everything it needs with only 6 slots, and really wants one more Pokemon to make it all work.

Alomomola Rain Balance

I've been procrastinating on building a Rain team. I just might take this one for a ride.

Rain Dance Alomomola is a great pivot and setter for rain teams thanks to its Regenerator ability healing it while it keeps its rain abusers healthy with Wish. Archaludon has incredible bulk and power with Electro Shot powering up all of its special attacks and Stamina boosted Body Press to hit targets like Blissey. Ogerpon becomes a powerful physical attacker with the help of rain and also switches in against water-type attackers taking advantage of your weather. I used a defensive core of Clefable, Blissey, and Corvknight here for item removal on top of hazard control and of course Blissey's ability to remove status from any key Pokemon.

Maushold + Kyurem Offense

I haven't used Kyurem-Black for the previous few teams because I've been showing the power of weather, but this thing is one of the most powerful Pokemon in the format period.

Absolutely; I actually don't think you even need Dragon Claw here, as there's practically no situation you will ever click it over Fusion Bolt or Icicle Spear. I'd suggest running Substitute instead. While not having Leftovers kinda sucks, Substitute can still stop a lot of counterplay and since its a above 404 hit points, Blissey can't break the sub with Seismic Toss.

 

[gregdawiz]

Hey dk if this is the place to ask about FFA Random battles, if not please guide me to the right location. My big question is can we ban t-spikes there too lmao. I see its banned in base FFA so clearly we see its broken but getting a team with no grounded poison vs tspikes is very very painful. And often times due to the more stall-y nature of this meta can make for some really unwinnable scenarios. I play the tier decently often and man if i play against tspikes I will 100% of the time sink a tera into tera poison if I can just to combat this.

 

[Darvin]

FFA Random Battles is handled by the Random Battles team, and we have no direct involvement with them. The random battles forums would be the best place to inquire about this, possibly the Random Battles Sets thread. Random battles very rarely bans things (even Dynamax survived the ban hammer last generation) so I'm not sure how much success you'll have in convincing them that Toxic Spikes needs to go, but do I encourge people to speak up if they feel something is a problem. The only way change happens is if enough people speak up about it.

Certainly you're preaching to the choir that Toxic Spikes are overbearing and lack good counterplay in Free-For-All, but Random Battles does things differently

 

[Darvin]

So it recently occurred to me that we never did update our viability rankings for the last DLC, and it's time to correct that oversight. The council has discussed the various Pokemon we wanted adjusted, and come to our conclusions. These are the additions and changes to the Free-For-All viability rankings

Additions

Kyurem-Black to A. I'm going to be honest, I'm a bit surprised that we didn't at least have a vote on this, but the entire council was leaning no-ban so there was nobody to lead the charge of a pro-ban argument. It's still one of those Pokemon we're uncomfortable with because it is legitimately very strong and very hard to deal with, but it's also unreliable due to its lack of recovery and its reliance on Loaded Dice which leaves it without Leftovers. This makes it easy to chip down, and reliant on Wish support which is a problem for a Pokemon that wants to set up and stay on the field rather than just get a Choice-locked hit in then switch out. It also relies heavily on tera for both offense and defense. Overall this is a scary offensive threat tempered by reliability issues.

Archaludon to A. This is another scary offensive threat, but hitting on the special side with the Stamina/Body Press combo to deal with non-Tera Blissey. Archaludon hits like a truck with the durability of a tank. However, it has some pretty severe 4MSS and is much less devastating without Rain support. The fact that the format is very bulky also gives it trouble in landing KO's, and it has to choose between Leftovers recovery on Power Herb to get rolling quickly and deal damage. However, it runs into the problem that it's hard walled by Tera Ghost Calm Mind Blissey which has near 100% usage on meta teams. Absolutely devastating, but unfortunately countered by a metagame staple. We may revisit this later, as this looks a little like a case of "broken checking broken", but Blissey would be nearly mandatory on meta teams with or without Archaludon so it's not such a clear case.

Gouging Fire to A-. Another brutal attacker that has some specific issues in the Free-For-All format that hold it back. Booster Energy is just not a good item in a format where your game plan needs to be flexible and you will be switching in multiple times per game, and Earthquake is not a good move in a format where its power is halved and Gouging Fire does not get High Horsepower. This leaves it without good coverage options. However, the combination of Morning Sun and Dragon Dance is invaluable both for cleaning late-game and putting in work throughout the game. Being immune to burns is always good on a physical attacker.

Raging Bolt to A-. You put Choice Specs on this thing and you Volt Switch around for big damage. Honestly, it's very straightforward and devastating offensive pressure. Pair it with a Wish passer like Alomomola or Jirachi to keep it healthy, and it really does put opponents on the back foot.

Deoxys Defense to B. Teleport, Future Sight, Recover, and whatever fourth move tickles your fancy. This is what Deoxys does, it's a great defensive pivot. It's very solid, but its bulk often falls short due to its poor defensive typing. While Deoxys does have a few other interesting sets like Cosmic Power, they are niche by comparison.

Cresselia to B. It has very good stats and a very good movepool. For most purposes, this is just a better Deoxys-Defense.

Pecharunt to B. With good defensive typing, a good movepool, and the ability to spread poison very effectively, Pecharunt can rack up a lot of damage against enemy teams. It's not completely passive, either, as it his reasonably hard with Shadow Ball. Reliable recovery rounds out a decent Pokemon. However, there's plenty of good counterplay to Pecharunt and with Malignant Chain banned it loses a lot of its luster. It's definitely very annoying with Poison Gas, but not an A rank threat.

Hydrapple to B. Offensive regenerators are quite good in FFA, and this one has solid bulk, a solid movepool, and a great attacking stat. Too bad it has an atrocious type combination, holding it back.

Palafin to B. It hits hard, it can Taunt to shut down defensive Pokemon, and has a positive type matchup against 2 of the 3 unaware Pokemon if it wants to bulk up. But it's held back by a lack of reliable recovery and poor type synergy with Alomomola.

Mamoswine to C. It's a solid wallbreaker; Ice/Ground is a great offensive type coverage, and it has really solid bulk and can deal with faster but frailer cleaners with Ice Shard. Knock Off is great for item removal.

Changes

Alomomola to A+; this is just the premier wish passer in Free-For-All. Wish is very important to keep offensive pieces healthy throughout the game, as they will often be needed to handle threats on multiple opposing teams. Alomomola's Regenerator and Flip Turn combination lets it reliable keep itself healthy while reliably delivering wishes. Scald makes it non-passive and potentially threatening. Overall, a huge improvement from the start of the generation and it has just become a central feature on many good teams.

Amoonguss from A to A-; being walled by Corviknight remains a big problem for Amoonguss, and while it can severely pressure a wide variety of things the banning of Dondozo really did steal one of its big niches.

Zapdos-Galar from A- to B; while Thunderous Kick is still a great option for putting on pressure, Zapdos faces strong competition from other powerful physical fighting-type wallbreakers and simply doesn't stand out enough to merit such a high rank.

Kingambit from C to B; the banning of Dondozo removed Kingambits hardest counter, and made it a much more tenable pick. Unreliability remains its biggest problem, as with 3 opponents it's much harder to position to win with Supreme Overlord. It's still devastatingly powerful, but doesn't quite rise to A rank material due to these reliability issues.

Quaquaval from C to B; another beneficiary of the Dondozo ban, Quaquaval has naturally advantaged type matchups against two of the three remaining Unaware users, but can still be thwarted by strong defensive walls or by terastallization.

Empoleon from B to C; while not a bad Pokemon, Empoleon really has failed to stand out among the crowd. It has reliable recovery and good bulky offensive stats, but really nothing else going for it.

Primeape from B to C; Rage Fist is still a devastatingly powerful tactic, but it's incredibly unreliable and Primeape still suffers from being deathly allergic to Knock Off, as well as having a severe case of 4MSS.

Sylveon from B to C; overall, it's just proven to be outclassed by Clefable. It's not a bad Pokemon, but there's not a big reason to use it over the better fairy.

Baxcalibur to unranked; with Kyurem-Black legal in the format, at least for now, Baxcalibur is just outclassed.

Vaporeon to unranked; it has become clear that Alomomola is just the better Water-type Wish passer.

 

[Darvin]

So today, I'm going to be talking about the "standard" team composition in the Free-For-All metagame, why this composition is so dominant, and why certain specific Pokemon are standing head and shoulders above the rest. Now, this isn't to say you have to use this composition, there are very effective teams that don't fit this mold, but the further you deviate from the less consistent your team will be. Free-For-All is a chaotic and unpredictable format, and good teams are ones that can find consistency in a maelstrom. So let's talk about the elements that add consistency to your team:

1. The Pink Blobs
I've mentioned a few times that Blissey or Chansey is nearly mandatory on serious teams in this format, but I don't think I've ever properly expanded on why that is. In a format where there are three separate opponents each trying to pivot around you and bring in dangerous offensive threats, you can't rely on predictions or momentum to keep you safe. You need to have defensive answers, or you'll just crumple any time a strong attacker comes into the field. You also cannot afford to sack Pokemon freely; with 18 opposing Pokemon, you need at least 3 opposing Pokemon to be knocked out for every one of your own, and with three opposing teams you will need to cover a very broad range of threats. All this is to say that even very offensive teams need strong defensive switch-ins.

Blissey and Chansey with their Normal-typing form a catch-all switch-in to a broad range of threats that can carry unpredictable coverage, allowing you to devote a single team slot to handling specially-offensive threats rather than having to carry multiple Pokemon of complementary typing. Aura Sphere and Focus Blast have very limited distribution, and Focus Blast is a very unreliable move to begin with. Psychic Noise and Psyshock are the best options for special attackers to pressure the pink blobs, which means that Blissey and Chansey just need a good Steel or Dark-type to complement them defensively. With Tera Ghost, you aren't even necessarily forced out by Fighting-types. Tera Ghost serves another purpose as well, as it also prevents Blissey and Chansey from being trapped. If an opponent surprises you with an unexpected Infestation or Fire Spin, you have a way out.

Natural Cure is also incredibly valuable, and allows Blissey and Chansey to switch into status moves without being permanently crippled. Unlike in Generation 8 Free-For-All, most teams cannot afford to fit Heal Bell in this generation so status is usually permanent, and having an option to absorb it can really help when pivoting around these kinds of threats. This just gives more value to having one of these two on your team, allowing you to keep the rest of your team safe and healthy to come onto the field at more opportune moments.

Blissey is the preferred of the two, since with Calm Mind and Shadow Ball it can threaten dangerous ghosts such as Gholdengo as well as beng a surprisingly non-passive presence on the field. It can also serve as a win-condition in its own right once Unaware Pokemon and physical wallbreakers are removed. Blissey's mere existence forces opponents to play carefully lest they find themselves checkmated by it, but it doesn't idly sit by on the back bench and is instead working throughout the match to serve as a valuable defensive pivot.

Overall, it's very difficult to make a consistent FFA team that does not utilize Blissey, and those that don't usually are using Chansey

2. Defog
Hazard control is quite important in Free-For-All. With 3 opponents all potentially trying to set hazards against you, it's very difficult to keep your field clean. You need very reliable and consistent answers that can stay on the field long-term and are not easily chipped down. Pokemon like Great Tusk or Iron Treads that are used for hazard control in OU simply don't do their job well here, where your field is constantly being littered with hazards and your cleaner is being subjected to a constant barrage of chip damage. You need something that has the bulk and reliable recovery to weather that kind of chip damage and consistently do its job. Now, as tall an order as that may seem, we do have one relief: we don't need to worry about Gholdengo. Since Defog is a targeted move, you can just target a different player. In fact, using Gholdengo can actually be a disadvantage in the hazard game, as opponents are less likely to choose you as their target for Defog (clearing away hazards from your field for free) because they don't want to risk that you'll switch to Gholdengo.

All this is to say we have two and only two viable forms of primary hazard control: Corviknight and Mandibuzz. Nothing else really has the bulk and reliability to pull it off. Between these two, Corviknight has the better bulk and defensive typing, and since it is neutral to Rock it can use Leftovers instead of Heavy Duty Boots to better weather chip damage. Another huge advantage of Corviknight is Pressure. This ability is a bit niche in other formats, but Corviknight often finds itself in drawn out hazard wars that are won by conserving PP better than your opponent, and Pressure's is invaluable to winning that. It's also relatively common to see Corviknight mirrors in the end-game, which come down to PP stall as neither can switch out to lose their Iron Defense boosts. The existence of Terastallization also means that Magnezone is largely unused; while it can potentially trap a Corviknight, all it really does is force terastallization and this is not worth losing a team slot for an otherwise outclassed Pokemon (Magnezone without Analytic does not hit hard). Mandibuzz's claim to fame is being the only viable Corviknight alternative, and having a reasonably fast Taunt. It should also be noted that these Pokemon have excellent synergy with Blissey, as they both handle Psychock very well.

Once you have lost your defogger, you are at an enormous disadvantage. If there are any hazard setters left in the match, your side of the field will quickly become choked with spikes and rocks which limits your ability to switch. Losing your Defogger can greatly tie your hands and can quickly lead to your elimination from the game. Heavy Duty Boosts can help, but these can be knocked off and many Pokemon rely on leftovers as they can spend 20+ turns on the field over the course of the game which is an enormous amount of healing. Preserving your defogger until end-game is paramount, which is part of why the Corviknight mirror end-game I discussed previously is so common.

Now, there is nothing wrong with carrying a secondary form of hazard control. Many teams have things like Rapid Spin on Regieleki or Cyclizar, but these Pokemon are not consistent at handling hazards and are more of a last resort backup. When it comes to primary hazard control, Corviknight and Mandibuzz are the only ones that really shine and playing without them puts you at a huge disadvantage. I have actually seen "Boots on everything" teams trying to get away without Defog, but they are just dismantled by Knock Off.

3. Unaware
With three opponents on the field pivoting around, it's not uncommon for someone to find an opportunity to pivot into a setup sweeper and get a free turn to set up. In fact, it can be nearly impossible to proactively prevent this when multiple opponents are actively positioning to do so. As a result, carrying an Unaware Pokemon is a very popular choice to guard against this possibility. Unaware allows you to avoid falling prey to opposing win conditions, and means you don't necessarily need to worry about someone setting up. You can set some hazards, defog, recover, or pivot around to scout with the peace of mind that you have an Unaware Pokemon and you won't get steamrolled if you allow a moderate amount of setup. This can also pressure other opponents, as the fact that you have an Unaware user means you aren't worried about this dangerous setup sweeper. It's a bigger threat to the others, not you.

With three top-tier choices for Unaware user, there's basically no composition that doesn't have a good option available. They have versatile movepools and can fulfill a variety of roles. Clodsire can be a setup sweeper with Curse, or it can be a hazard setter, or even carry Haze so it can just neutralize the danger and get out of there. Clefable has a wide range of utility, is a setup sweeper itself who beats other Unaware users with Stored Power, and if you're carrying multiple unaware users it's also unclear from team preview whether Clefable is using Magic Guard or Unaware (Unaware is definitely the better ability in FFA, but Magic Guard is still very viable). Skeledirge threatens to snowball out of control with Torch Song very quickly, but offers a great deal of diversity with its options in Will-o-Wisp, Hex, and Roar.

Having an Unaware Pokemon on your team really does help you in a lot of realistic situations, and alongside Regenerator is one of the impactful and useful abilities in Free-For-All. It's not uncommon to see teams that use two or even all three of the (viable) Unaware users on the same team.

4. Hazard Setter
Unlike the previous three categories, which have a very small list of viable contenders that I could talk about individually in detail, this is one category where there is a huge wealth of options. There are so many good hazard setters available in generation 9. Having hazard setters places your opponents under constant pressure. It forces them to pivot into their Defoggers or else rack up large amounts of damage. And it's one of the best ways to pressure everyone at once, since hazards are set on all sides of the field simultaneously. Having a good and reliable hazard setter is one of the best ways to get the flow of the match in your favor. At the same time, hazard setters do have a bit of a problem, and that's that when an opponent uses Defog it removes hazards from two sides of the field. This can clear away a lot of your hazards very quickly when there are multiple opponents all trying to defog with very bulky Pokemon like Corviknight. This means hazard setters need a bit of tenacity to stay on the field and reset those hazards. The hazard war is a big part of Free-For-All, and a big consideration in your team composition.

5. Wish Support
Keeping your team healthy throughout the match is paramount. You might need the same wallbreaker to break through multiple opponents, and it lacks reliable recovery. A key Pokemon might get too injured to come in safely and heal itself. You might need to safely pivot into something without it taking too much damage on the turn it switches in. Or you might need additional healing beyond the 8 PP limit that healing moves have in generation 9. The move Wish has you covered, and really fulfills a critical glue on any team composition. Offensive compositions need Wish to keep their breakers healthy, as many wallbreakers rely on a Choice item given the prolific use of Unaware. Stall enjoys the extra PP that Wish has over other recovery moves. Even if it's not needed on your composition, it's a useful tool to have in your back pocket when you find a free turn to heal up an injured teammate. Adding Wish to your team in Free-For-All always improves it. While there is a decent distribution of strong Wish users, Alomomola and Jirachi offer the best role as they have pivot moves to deliver a safe Wish.

6. Wallbreaker/Stallbreaker
In such a stall-heavy environment that encourages very defensive cores, having a strong wallbreaker or stallbreaker that can pressure and punish defensive play is a powerful inclusion on your team. With Wish support to stay healthy and defensive fallbacks for when you lose momentum, this approach can find opportunities to get you KO's while making it as hard as possible for your opponents to do the same to you. It is important that your wallbreaker be able to pressure Unaware users. This is often achieved by using Choice items, Taunt, Psychic Noise, or through abilities.

So with all six roles described, we can now see the shape of the "standard" Free-For-All team. A powerful defensive core with reliable recovery, hazard control, and hazard setting. But also many of the Pokemon I've described have setup options and can be win conditions in their own right. Iron Defense Corviknight, Calm Mind Blissey, and every Unaware Pokemon potentially has ways of snowballing out of control once their checks are removed. This means this composition despite being very defensive is quite passive-aggressive. It threatens that if you lose the wrong checks, you can find yourself in a deeply unfavorable end-game. This is what really makes this composition so strong, that by its nature it naturally finds itself in winning end-games because each of the defensive pieces gives you a win-con. Even passive Pokemon like Alomomola can stall out an enemy in an end-game that comes down to healing.

In our council discussions, there is one comment that I feel really embodies team-building in our format: "Free-For-All is a format where almost everything is viable, but very few things are optimal". If you want to play something that can win, you can use almost anything you want and it can work. But if you want to win consistently then your options are very limited.

 

[timeflow]

sorry if this isn't the right place to put this, but deoxys, deoxys-attack, ho-oh, lugia, lunala, necrozma-dm and dw, reshiram, solgaleo, terapagos and zekrom are absent from the banlist in the op despite being banned on ps

 

[Darvin]

Thank you for bringing this oversight to my attention. It is now fixed.

 

[Ferroseed]

Got temporarily banned from showdown because I used full Explosion and Memento teams to troll players and repeatedly lose battles. Why is this against the rules?

 

[Nuclearstomp]

Got temporarily banned from showdown because I used full Explosion and Memento teams to troll players and repeatedly lose battles. Why is this against the rules?

It is not. Whatever you did to get banned was unrelated.

 

[Ferroseed]

It is not. Whatever you did to get banned was unrelated.

This is the ban reason listed

 

[Samirsin]

Got temporarily banned from showdown because I used full Explosion and Memento teams to troll players and repeatedly lose battles. Why is this against the rules?

I think I remember you
The issue was that after losing you forfeited, but with Timer on, however FFA has a timer glitch that prevented the rest of the people who were in the room from keeping playing, people told you about it and you kept doing it.
If you think you don't deserve the ban you can appeal it.
(Also maybe I am wrong and you are not that person, in that case, sorry and ignore this)

 

[Ferroseed]

I think I remember you
The issue was that after losing you forfeited, but with Timer on, however FFA has a timer glitch that prevented the rest of the people who were in the room from keeping playing, people told you about it and you kept doing it.
If you think you don't deserve the ban you can appeal it.
(Also maybe I am wrong and you are not that person, in that case, sorry and ignore this)

I have had people forfeit ffa matches with timer on after losing all their pokemon and I don’t ever recall having an issue wit the timer glitch. I often turned timer off after a while and I don’t think anyone ever sent me a dm either. If I did cause trouble with the timer glitch then I wasn’t intentionally doing so either

I did have someone complain about me going on FFAs to annoy people instead of playing the game and they noticed that all of my pokemon could learn memento but nobody else complained about me

 

[Darvin]

https://pokemonshowdown.com/rules

Moderators have discretion. Moderators can punish anything they think is wrong, even if it's not on this list. If you disagree with a moderator ruling, appeal using the appeal form.

One or more of the moderators decided that your behavior was unacceptable and banned you. You have to take it up with the moderation team by filing an appeal. This has nothing to do with us or what we do and don't ban in the format, and everything to do with your conduct. It's not illegal to own a baseball bat, but it is illegal to run down the street smashing mailboxes. It's your conduct that got you banned, not the specific moves you using.

I'm not a Smogon moderator, I'm a tier leader responsible for deciding what game rules are best for the format I oversee (with the helpful judgement of my council). We do ban some trolling moves depending on their severity, but Explosion and Memento are really no different from just mass forfeiting so it's not really within our power to do anything meaningful about that problem. Honestly, I agree with the moderator's judgement here. You were trolling, you were intentionally degrading the game experience for other players, you were told to stop, and when you kept doing it anyways they banned you.

Take it up with the moderation team by filing an appeal if you want to. This ban has nothing to do with us or our rules, but you won't find any sympathy here.

 

[Darvin]

With respect to ganging up on people, this is a discussion I have had with the moderation team. The problem is there's a lot of subjectivity in determining what constitutes teaming. Often times players will end up coordinating with each other for legitimate reasons; because the target player is the biggest threat, because the players are positioning for their own win condition that just so happened to align, or just by sheer coincidence. What we want to ban are cases where people are undermining the integrity of the format, for instance if two friends search for a game at the same time and play it like a 2v1v1. Teasing out what is natural teaming and strategy within FFA from impermissible team-ups only seems obvious when we look at obvious situations, but quickly becomes nuanced and subjective if it's not competely obvious.

The Smogon moderation team largely doesn't play FFA (we're a niche format with niche appeal) and doesn't really have the metagame knowledge to make these kinds of determinations. Even if they did, it would be an incredibly subjective and fraught determination, and there would be a huge number of false reports of people who are just butthurt about losing but have a semi-plausible way to accuse their opponents of cheating. In an ideal world we would have an enforceable policy on this, but as it stands it's too subjective and too much work. While I hope that moderators would take action against the most flagrantly obvious cases of teaming (ie, two players with the same IP in the same game clearly cooperating) that is ultimately the moderation team's purview and I respect that they are volunteers with limited time who don't have expertise in our format.

TL;DR: the moderation team is the one that makes the determination of what is banworthy behavior, not us

 

[Darvin]

I've got two things to share today!

First, we've been tinkering on a set compendium for common Free-For-All sets. This is still a work in progress with different contributors, but I've made sure everything for S and A ranked Pokemon is in a good state, but a lot of the B rank and especially C rank sets are incomletely. You can find our set compendium here

In other news, we have updated our viability rankings:

Cyclizar from C to B: as the metagame has developed, it's become apparent that the relative frailty of Cyclizar is not as big of a problem as was originally believed. With EV investment and Regenerator it's bulky enough to survive throughout the match, and it brings enough utility that it's not just about Shed Tail. It's still a very big opportunity cost to put it on your team, but Cyclizar is definitely head and shoulders above the rest of C tier and belongs more with the B tier Pokemon.

Regieleki from C to B: another frail Pokemon that is able to put in work throughout the match. It's very high-risk/high-reward and can easily be KO'd on a misprediction if you Volt Switch into a Protect or a Ground-type pivot and get blindsided by an attack. However, it's capable of exerting a lot of pressure and teams that have room for it and the pivot support it requires can get a lot of utility. However, it does face heavy competition from Raging Bolt which offers a high level of power, a secondary STAB, and trades off speed for bulk.

Amoonguss from A- to B: while this is still a good Pokemon, it faces a lot of competition as a bulky regenerator. Most of its status moves are not very useful in this format (even before the Sleep ban, Spore was more of a gimmick) which means it often just runs 4 attacks with an Assault Vest, and this means it directly competes with Slowking-Galar which offers a similar bulky regenerator role but with a more threatening offensive profile. While Slowking can threaten Blissey with Psyshock and Corviknight with Flamethrower, Amoonguss really has no way of touching either of the S rank threats. Its primary niche is still Clear Smog, a move that has very poor distribution but can stop setup sweepers in their tracks, and along with its other generally positive qualities is enough to keep it in B

Gallade from B to C: this Pokemon still is offensive difficult to handle, but there are many other Pokemon that are just as hard to switch into that are significantly less frail and more consistent. With both Zamazenta-Hero and Zapdos-Galar available, there are just generally better options out there.

Zamazenta-Crowned from B to C: while Zamazenta-Hero has carved out a niche as our format's premier Choice Band wallbreaker, the Crowned forme has failed to stand out. It just doesn't do well in a format where Iron Defense/Body Press is a very common threat and every team is carrying multiple checks and counters to it. Almost everything weak to Fighting is potentially carrying Tera Ghost, and the format is filled with fighting-resistant walls. Corviknight and Garganacl offer much better Iron Defense users due to bringing other useful qualities to the table, with Corviknight being the best hazard control in the format and offering Pressure stall utility, while Garganacl chips things down with Salt Cure. Zamazenta-Crowned is lackluster by comparison. This is a fascinating example of how different formats can have radically different experiences with the same Pokemon; where Zamazenta-Crowned proved too strong for OU and was sent back to Ubers, in FFA it has proven lackluster and fallen into obscurity.

Rabsca from C to unranked: overall, Revival Blessing is a niche but viable team structure. However, as it's been developed it's become apparent that the archetype does not run two Revival Blessing users and that Pawmot is the strictly superior of the two. As a result, Rabsca is being moved to unranked.

Espathra from C to unranked: this Pokemon had a lot of potential. Opportunist allowed it to steal boosts, Speed Boost allowed it to rapidly accumulate Stored Power, and Lumina Crash can put defensive switch-ins under incredible pressure as their special defense stat is rapidly drained away. However, it has 4MSS and really wants both its abilities and can't present all these threats at the same time. Its bulk and defensive typing are poor. Its coverage is non-existent and it relies on Tera Blast and Terastallization too heavily. Overall this is a Pokemon that is extremely hard to handle on paper, but in practice just doesn't come together in a reliable teammate.

 

[Darvin]

After a period of observation and discussion, the Free-For-All council has voted on three problematic moves. In a unanimous vote, all three moves on the slate were banned:

• Fling is banned in Generation 9 Free-For-All
• Skill Swap is banned in Generation 9 Free-For-All
• Heart Swap is banned in Generation 9 Free-For-All

Tagging dhelmise and Marty to implement, thank you in advance

Each of these moves is banned for fundamentally the same reason: they are being used to circumvent other bans we have already made. The move Toxic is banned, but by flinging a Toxic Orb you can still inflict the toxic status. Moves that can boost an opponent's stats (such as Coaching) are banned, but Fling can be used to fling a starf berry to achieve this effect. Skill Swap can be used with Huge Power to boost opponents, or as part of a combo with Contrary and stat-reducing moves. Heart Swap can be used to boost yourself, and then give those boosts to an opponent.

Originally at the start of Generation 9 we felt that the collateral damage of banning Fling outweighed its problematic elements. Since then more abusers have been added to the game, and in particular Fling + Recycle is now a legal combo. The situation has changed, and we now feel that the negative qualities of the move outweigh the collateral damage and a ban is justified.

We are aware that some players enjoy Skill Swap spam teams, and are mindful of the collateral damage of this ban. A lot of people use Free-For-All as a format to enjoy funny gimmick teams, and we are mindful of this. However, this is a case where the move degrades the enjoyability and fairness of the match for everyone else. Skill Swap teams also have a tendency to slow down the game, as everyone repeatedly switches to get their abilities back. Overall we feel the ban is justified.

Manaphy and Smeargle are the only users of Heart Swap, and both of them can use boosting moves to increase their own stats then give it to an opponent. Smeargle in particular can run very powerful moves like Cotton Guard and Quiver Dance to pass an omniboost to an opponent. Manaphy can run this move legitimately as an anti-setup move, so there is some collateral damage here. However, we feel preserving this niche option isn't worth the problematic elements when the move is used to troll. As a result, we elected to ban it.

 

[cheesesir]

Absolutely Huge! Very good bans IMO, should make random matchmaking much more enjoyable

 

[Imbion]

There was also a shift in our viability rankings too, so here are the details:

Slowking-Galar from A- to A: Best bulky offensive regenerator. Can be thrown on pretty much any team.

Zamazenta from A- to A: Obviously a metagame defining wallbreaker and cleaner. Has a notable downside in that it wants wish support, but that's not hard to supply since Jirachi or Alomomola are good options.

Gliscor from B to A-: Relative recent discovery through testing in non-ladder matches that Gliscor is an incredible anti-meta threat. Most high ranked pokemon struggle to scratch it. Previously overlooked somewhat due to poor performance on ladder.

Slowking and Slowbro from UR to B: Unranked status was an oversight. They're overshadowed by SK-G, but not bad.

Pelipper from UR to C: Rain Dance has always been a viable approach to weather setup, but Pelliper provides good role compression for rain teams. It fits best on aggresive rain teams.

Hippowdon from UR to C: Very steep competition with clodsire, but even though its significantly worse in gen 9 than gen 8 it's a decent pokemon. Sets up hazards and does phasing.

Dragapult from UR to C: Suffers in FFA because of the bulk of the meta and lack of speed. But it has very good mixed attacking potential and notebly outspeeds Zamazenta.

Iron Crown from UR to C: Threatening attacker that must be respected.

Cresselia from B to UR: Ranking abnormality. It's certainly useable, but it was deemed as a non-meta pokemon by the council. There's better pokemon that can do its stored power gimmick, like Deoxy-D.

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I'm also happy to report that the Set Compendium is progressing nicely! There's a select few pokemon missing, primarly the newer tier additions above. I can make sets for them, but if anyone has any sets for the following pokemon, I'd love to add them: Hatterene, Iron Moth, Slowking, Slowbro, Azumarill, Braviary-Hisui, Dragapult, Hippowdon, Iron Crown

Next step after we have all the sets is to proceed doing write-ups, so if anyone would be interested about writting for particular pokemon they like to use, I'd love to see your thoughts. I am also looking for feedback to see if we're missing anything, so if you notice any oddities please let me know either on here or on the FFA discord.

Finally, I'm very intrested in making an expanded compendium for gimmicky niche sets, so if you have any unranked pokemon with fun gimmicks that you like to use or weird sets in general, I'd love to have them along with any explinations you'd like to give.

The next resource I would like to develop is a guide on building different FFA team archetypes, so information about how people build their teams would be much appreciated.