Format Discussion Metronome Battle

[vermillionbedsheet]

Gen 7 Metronome veteran here, I've been trying out the gen 8 meta but haven't visited the thread until now. Here are a couple teams I've had success using:

Cramorant OP

GOD HELP ME (Cramorant-Gulping) @ Jaboca Berry
Ability: Gulp Missile
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Slowbro-Chargable (Slowbro-Mega) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

I've been having some fun with this team on the ladder. I don't normally like using Flying types, but Cramorant has exclusive access to the Gulp Missile ability, which lets it do 25% to the first thing that hits it and drop their defense by 1 stage, and Jaboca Berry helps stack the recoil even higher. Mega bro does what it usually does but with lightning rod to absorb electric attacks that would for sure one-shot Cramorant while boosting its SpA and still having plenty of weaknesses with which to activate Weakness Policy. I've considered using Cramorant-Gorging instead to paralyze opponents instead of dropping their defense, but I was still worried about Shedinja and running out of PP, so defense drops seemed like the better option. Now that the ladder is full of Mega Heracross and Defiant is replacing Mold Breaker again, I'm starting to think the paralysis might be better. (Side note: Jaboca Berry is currently bugged on sim, as according to DaWoblefet it should activate even when the holder takes a lethal blow, which is making this Cramorant set just a little worse than it ought to be).

GAME OVER RETURN OF MAGEARNA

horce 1.0W0 (Glastrier) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Water Bubble
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Magearna 3.1 (Altaria) (F) @ Altarianite
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

This was my main team for a while before I started running Mummy/Poison Point Type:Null on every team to fight Shedinjas. It got to number 1 on the ladder once, and for good reason. Water Bubble is a great ability for Glastrier that I really haven't seen anyone else using. It effectively removes the fire weakness without preventing Weakness Policy from activating, the burn immunity is often useful, and the double damage from water attacks isn't half bad either. As for Altaria, I actually pioneered the Pixilate Magearna set way back in gen 7 when that was the best counter to Pokestar Spirit, and this is the spiritual successor to that. Well, I actually tried Mega Gardevoir first, but its stats just didn't work well in metro, which is why this is version 3.1. I'm running the base forme with a mega stone, because as I see it, Pixilate is a good ability, and Intrepid Sword is a good "item", and it is a good set so long as I don't forget to mega evolve on the first turn.

These two aren't a team, but they're interesting sets pulled from bad teams

(Type: Null) @ Eviolite
Ability: Power Spot
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Carnival Might (Blacephalon) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Download
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

Power Spot Type:Null is something that I really wanted to work, but it just didn't have a good partner as Download Ampharosite Ampharos had the wrong stat spread for metro even with Mold Breaker, and the equivalent Gyarados set is banned for having just a little to high of a BST. I haven't really tried it since, but I think the right partner is out there. Ideally, it's something decently tanky with an anti-meta ability.

Blacephalon is just your basic Deo-A stand-in, but with a much better defensive type and actual bulk. I never could find a good item for it, trying Kee Berry initially, but it was supposed to be on a team with Mummy Type:Null, so maybe it could run Magic Guard Life Orb or something, I dunno. Personally, I think Normalium Z and choice items are bad in general, but Blacephalon could probably pull them off.

It's really cool to see this meta still kicking after my time away from PS!, and it's been really fun playing this again!

Yoooooo I've used Water Bubble Glastrier a bit too. It's uncannily good, and I've found that the random boosts to Water type attacks is nice.

 

[Ivy]

Water Bubble Glastrier and Thick Fat on grasses kind of have a similar useful effect in reducing certain types of SE damage while also allowing WP to get activated on those weakened hits. Compare them to something like Delta Stream Flying-types, where the SE damage is gone outright and no WP activation can happen. Cool stuff.

 

[fwqef]

RANK 2,3, and 4 BABYEYEYEEEEE
how TF is rank 1 so high


This is the team I used for most of the matches:

Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Unaware is a very solid ability that can let dusclops easily tank weakness policy and defiant/competitive abusers that dusclops would normally have problems outlasting. That being said, it is a pretty matchup dependent ability so I swapped to magic guard instead when there was 0 setup on ladder.

Another thing I like about this team is that I feel like how I use Dynamax really impacts the results of the game. You can use it to stall 3 turns safely if you are at a PP advantage, you can use it at 1PP to stall beyond your PP limit, you can use it to preserve HP against 2-turn moves or passive damage like Sand tomb or Hail, the possibilities are endless.

My views on Eviolite stall have completely changed. They are definitely not as passive as I thought, and I noticed that they can pick up wins by taking very little damage and hitting harder back. Even a pokemon with meager offensive stats like Dusclops have no problems killing 2 bulky opponents within their 16PP. Try the team out, you’ll get hate on for being a staller but at least you get that juicy elo

 

[Lectrys]

That reminds me, Dynamaxing is also pretty good at getting mons to survive through Perish Song turns, especially if you have the slowest mon (e.g. Brave, 0 Speed IVs, 0 Speed EVs Glastrier) and will therefore win once Perish Song mass KOs mons.

In the meantime, I swear I pushed Aurumoth to 10th place in those last October stats. Here's the Aurumoth team I use:


Aurumoth @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Download
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome


Glastrier @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Glastrier almost has the perfect stats for a Weakness Policy sweeper in Metronome battles except for its low Special Attack. I wanted a Weakness Policy partner with substantially higher Special Attack, so I filtered legal mons on Showdown and soon hit upon Aurumoth. With its 5 (or more?) weaknesses, no 4× weaknesses, great HP, good defenses, and better offenses on both sides than those all-100 mythicals, Aurumoth has definitely pulled its weight on ladder.

This team gets you past low-ladder subpar teams and Flower Veil teams fairly easily (especially since Download and Intrepid Sword let you immediately get the jump on them), but Heracross-Mega is a big problem, Imposter is shockingly dicey for a Weakness Policy team, and Unaware stall is fairly hard to get through.

I've found that this team patches up some of the above weaknesses, and I sometimes play it instead:


Glastrier @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome


Blissey (F) @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Imposter
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

The aim is for a well-balanced team with enough offense to make the stall match-up more even than double Imposter ever will, while performing better against opposing double Heracross-Mega teams.

 

[jeffdaboss]

Well, since I haven't seen a post in this forum in a hot second, I thought I would talk for a bit about a little experiment I did for the month of November. This experiment will not contribute at all to the meta, but it could be interesting. Basically, when the October usage stats came out, I had an idea, where I tried to see how much I could influence the usage ranking of two pokemon. So I scrolled down to the bottom, and in place 811 and 812 out of 814, I found the two pokemon I was going to use for the entire month of November, those being Passimian, and Silvally-Dragon. Here is the sets I finished with.

#812 in Usage (Passimian) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

#811 in Usage (Silvally-Dragon) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Dancer
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Metronome
Now before you say anything, I know, these are kinda scuffed sets. For the first half of November, I tried really hard to make a good final set for when the month ended. Then, when I realized the mons were not gonna win consistently, I decided to have a little more fun. This is why I have dancer on Silvally. I had defiant on there at one point, but dancer is much more fun, and isn't the most useless ability. It was satisfying whenever I just got an extra stat boost on a turn when my opponent used Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance, etc. I kept Ice Scales on Passimian for the majority of the month, just to make up for the lower stat. So now all I need for the experiment is the usage stats for the month of November, which I am anxiously awaiting. I frankly have no idea how this will effect the usage ranks, but I'm sure it will be interesting nonetheless. Also, I did switch teams at one point, but it wasn't for ladder. I only switched teams to win 2 Metronome Battle tours in the VGC chat room. I am also hoping that this sparks some more conversation in this forum, because I could use some. I was debating doing this for another month, but I am kinda tired of just staying in the 1100 ELO range.

 

[doipy hooves]

So now all I need for the experiment is the usage stats for the month of November, which I am anxiously awaiting.

Well, the November usage stats have been out for a few days. The stats were split in half at the start, so I hadn't actually got to checking for a while. Remember that you can always hit up https://www.smogon.com/stats/ at the start of the month or so to get all these links and stuff, if you didn't know. But while I'm here, I may as well talk about the Metronome stats.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2020-11/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2020-11/moveset/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt

We hit 64679 battles which is nice, a tidy increase of 3000 over last time. The games have been pretty consistent over both halves of November, with 31274 and 33405 for each. Personally I wasn't able to play as much in the later half, but it seems like Metronome Battles are still going strong.

1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (#2)
#2: Mega Heracross (#3)
#3: Necturna (#5)
#4: Glastrier (#13*)
#5: Blissey (#1)
#6: Dusclops (#4)
#7: Dragapult (no change)
#8: Mega Sableye (no change)
#9: Mega Ampharos (#11)
#10: Mega Gengar (#9)

*Glastrier didn't exactly exist for all of October, but this is its overall rank. It was #1 for the brief period in October after Crown Tundra released.

This is looking pretty normal. We have a nice balance of megas and non-megas, and the top has really just shuffled a bit. Heracross is actually winning in raw usage, but I guess Venusaur is winning more consistently at higher ranks and thus being weighted more. Wishiwashi is surprisingly high compared to its usage, and so is stuff like Brycen Man hitting in top 25 with 1000 appearances.

For what it's worth, Sturdinja existed for 10 days and got #13 for the month. Not bad. Shedinja got #3 in raw usage for the first half of November too, so that goes to show how popular the strat was and how often one might see a Shedinja.

As for sets, Prism Armor Venusaur is rising up. Shedinja probably raised Mold Breaker/Teravolt/Turboblaze usage by a bit, and I think the bot was running the top 2 megas with that too.

Since I've been out of touch I didn't have a lot to say here, but jeffdaboss's post inspired me to actually make this post. I think the experiment did have an interesting result. Silvally-Dragon (#245) and Passimian (#457) are actually pretty far apart in both weighted usage and viability ceiling, probably because of the weighting and/or someone else playing Passimian. The raw counts are pretty similar anyway, sitting in the 150 range. For what it's worth, based on the moveset file the most successful weighted Silvally ability is Effect Spore at 98%, compared to its 1.974% in raw usage. I'm not an expert on stats, but I'm guessing that means that one Silvally set performed well enough for a bit to push it higher.

 

[AV Cosmoem]

stupid teams i've been using

Lopunny-Mega @ Choice Band
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Metronome

Moltres-Galar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Prism Armor
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Metronome

adapt cb lop is pretty cool, i picked lop specifically to use adaptability because there's a lot more damaging normal moves than any other type. lop isn't perfect of course, it loses pretty hard to dusclops and flower veil. enter moltres galar, who beats both of them pretty handily. prism armor takes out the threat of most super effective moves so weakness policy can shine.



Pidgeot-Mega @ Choice Specs
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Metronome

Absol @ Absolite
Ability: Delta Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Metronome

stream isn't a popular archetype in this meta because it takes out super effective hits, meaning weakness policy won't proc. that being said, mega pidgeot is a monster under stream regardless. high speed and special attack alongside no weaknesses and two immunities is always great, and most special hits will do high damage while mega pidgeot fears little in return. previously i had used stream on pidgeot, but honestly unaware is best to ignore the opponent's boosting, making mega pidgeot that much more threatening. it also appreciates the extra defensive utility. surprisingly, absol is one of the better stream users. i wouldn't say one of the best, but it's proved itself a handful of times. this is because normally, stream users would miss out on a self-support ability, but not absol. after mega pidgeot dies, or whatever other time you feel is necessary, absol can mega evolve and gain magic bounce, being able to support itself after mega pidgeot's death.


Thundurus (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Aerilate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Mild Nature
- Metronome

Terrakion @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Metronome

aerilate was always cool to me, so i decided to build around it. i decided thundurus was the best pick for aerilate, because electric flying is really good and it resists an imposter's flying moves. alongside it i originally had band isword m-hera, since it busted through walls which is something thundurus struggled with, but i feared it falling to a move like boomburst from thundurus or a flying move from an imposter. it also wasn't that fast. because of that, i replaced it with terrakion, which has a flying neutrality and is therefore a more solid version against imposter. it's a lot faster than m-hera too (108 vs 75) which helps vs offensive teams. that helped ease a bunch of matchups more than mega heracross did.

 

[fwqef]

I got Rank 1,2, and 3 simultaneously! This has been a long term goal of mine and I’m really happy I achieved it.


Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Dusclops @ Eviolite
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

This team really is King in terms of consistency. However, it is weak against extremely strong special attackers like Choice Specs Plus M-Ampharos. Therefore, I switched the abilities to Ice Scales whenever I thought I was going to play against a special attacking team. By scouting users to predict which team I was going to face next and adjusting my abilities accordingly, I was able to get some good winstreaks and put all of my accounts on top!

 

[doipy hooves]

Happy New Year! Hopes for the best of luck in future metronome battles for all. Congratulations to fwqef on finally getting past JoJo Biden 2020. AV Cosmoem, I like your creative teams and they've made me think about how speed is actually pretty good as an offensive stat. I've casually tried some memes like Swift Swim/Primordial Sea, though not to much success. Let's take one last look back at the final trends of 2020 with December's usage stats.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2020-12/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2020-12/moveset/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt

We hit 61176 battles, which is less than before but still a pretty consistent number. There were 29009 for December's first half and 32167 for the latter, maybe due to the holiday season.

1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Mega Heracross (no change)
#3: Necturna (no change)
#4: Mega Ampharos (#9)
#5: Mega Sableye (#8)
#6: Glastrier (#4)
#7: Blissey (#5)
#8: Dragapult (#7)
#9: Dusclops (#6)
#10: Mega Gengar (no change)

Basically a minor reshuffling of the previous top 10, with mostly megas rising up to set the top mons of 2020 in stone. A honourable mention goes to dark horse Zarude rising up to #11 from #33. Type: Null and Slowbro swapped places, with Slowbro ending up at #12 and Null at #17. Banette has fallen off to #40 since the Neutralizing Gas ban, no longer in the limelight of the meta. As for Shedinja? #13 to #137. Meanwhile, Abomasnow takes full advantage of its newly unbound power in Primordial Sea, jumping from #44 to #20. The top megas have dropped slightly in raw usage, though still remain dominant. Speaking of raw numbers, Sableye's are actually pretty similar (8576/8569).

Finally, I may as well have some kind of countdown for the new year. Originally I was counting each hundred milestone from the weighted file, but it ended up not really meaning anything due to how low the numbers got, so I'll be using the raw usage instead (https://www.smogon.com/stats/2020-12/gen8metronomebattle-0.txt). #100 is Rampardos (486), probably because of its high attack stat. #200 is Darmanitan (200). Yes, its rank matches its usage count somehow. #300 is Gogoat (78), which I guess is good by nature of being a Grass-type. #400 is Rotom-Mow (30), and now I am thinking about if Gogoat is better than Rotom-Mow. I kind of want to say yes because of that Speed and HP difference. #500 is Raticate (16/17 according to the moveset file). #600 is Huntail (8), and at this point mons stop appearing in the moveset file. #700 is Buizel (3), which can use Eviolite. #800 is Fraxure (1), whose evolution also has a pretty good attack stat. Lastly, smogon stats have decided to put Cubone in last at #825 tied with all the other 1 use mons. This really goes to show how many Metronome players are really part of the silent majority just having fun using random mons, which is not a bad thing at all.

Looking through the moveset file, I noticed that the viability ceilings (highest GXE of a player using a Pokemon) have universally slightly gone down since November. The highest is Dusclops at 81 now, which by the last post we have "metronome fwqef" to thank for. I'm not really sure of what this means other than that there are probably less dedicated laddering alts around.

As the new year rings in, old bugs are swept away. The ability to Max Guard at 1 PP and doing nothing for 2 turns is now gone... though it's still optimal to use Max Guard at 1 PP (if possible) to Dynamax and take half recoil damage from Struggle for 2 turns, effectively granting you an extra turn of survival than normal. This example demonstrates the mechanic starting from Turn 5. From what I can tell, Conversion 2's type change (buggedly Ghost/Rock/Steel based on Metronome's normal type) and other such interactions with submoves like Metal Burst might also be fixed, but I personally haven't seen them in action yet and can't confirm.

 

[Cabneet]

This duo been doing good for me so far


Camerupt-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Victini @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Metronome

You could maybe replace the victini with a lando or something but when I get that turboblaze heat wave/lava plume off vs metronomerbot's leaf guard it feels so good

 

[Bisabone]

I finally did it again. 1st. Yaaay.
This is the team I used:

Z (Zarude-Dada) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

V (Venusaur-Mega) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Flower Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Quiet Nature
- Metronome

I found this team to be really consistent.

Zarude is just a beast (600BST with 120 Atk & great defensive stats aswell) and with its typing it's easy to get your WP triggered. It's one of the best, if not THE best simple + flowerveil (ab)user. Benefiting from powered up stat changes while avoiding any negative changes the enemy throws at you is just brutal.
Flower Veil is also a nice counter to any magic bounce set.

Furthermore I found an offensive nature on Venusaur didn't hurt at all.
At first I experimented with defensive natures + choice specs but it's not necessary, tbh. The extra punch a quiet Venusaur packs is plenty enough imo. It's tanky enough as it is.

Combining this team with smart usage of dynamaxing is crucial, tho.

 

[urkerab]

Camerupt-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Desolate Land

Is Weakness Policy really useful on something with only one weakness?

 

[pyuk]

This duo been doing good for me so far


Camerupt-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Victini @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Metronome

You could maybe replace the victini with a lando or something but when I get that turboblaze heat wave/lava plume off vs metronomerbot's leaf guard it feels so good

I would say to use Pokestar White Door over Victini since it has the same base stats but doesn’t have that awful Psychic typing. Psychic type in metronome is really bad, like Ice type bad. Fire/Psychic has two more weaknesses than pure Fire, and only one extra resistance.

 

[doipy hooves]

This duo been doing good for me so far


Camerupt-Mega @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Desolate Land
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
- Metronome

Victini @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Turboblaze
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Metronome

You could maybe replace the victini with a lando or something but when I get that turboblaze heat wave/lava plume off vs metronomerbot's leaf guard it feels so good

Nice to see some use of the permaweather abilities. STAB usually isn't reliable to get, but I do agree that it's fun to stack it with high damage and multipliers. Others have already made their points about the team, so I'll talk about my recent experiences with Desolate Land. In the past I've tried a Starf+Harvest strat with Drought and Snorlax or something, but it was pretty bad. Now Gen 8 has brought in some great options that actually make this kind of viable. My Starfer of choice was Dragapult because it has good stats, but defences low enough so that it'll likely get into 25% HP in a match, and also nice resistances/immunities to keep it alive despite that fact, and most importantly amazing Speed to actually take advantage of possible offensive boosts. Gen 8 also provides another buff to this strategy in the form of Dynamaxing for more boosts, so with the initial berry activation, re-activation by Harvest, and 3 dynamax turns, that's 5 boost chances assuming everyone lives. Unfortunately being at sub-25% HP is still a bad position in general. Overall this strategy is really good at putting a lot of green numbers on screen, even though only the offensive stats really matter at that point.

With a new year brings new change, and so let's check out January's usage stats.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2021-01/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2021-01/moveset/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt

Right off the bat, 2021 is already breaking the mold with a massive 91480 battles, about a 50% increase compared to the usual figures around 60k. What's going on? If you've played on the ladder recently, you may have some idea of the cause, but first let's investigate the Top 10 for some possible context.

1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Type: Null (#17)
#3: Blissey (#7)
#4: Mega Heracross (#2)
#5: Necturna (#3)
#6: Mega Sableye (#5)
#7: Mega Camerupt (#15)
#8: Mega Slowbro (#12)
#9: Swampert (#19)
#10: Snorlax (#18)

Well, these ranks have changed significantly. To be fair, all the newcomers were pretty high up already, but to manage such a breach of the top 10 all at once? 2021 is starting off with upheaval, though not too drastic as most of the former top 10 are also still hanging around the top 20. Another observation is that Heracross remains #2 in raw usage, while Type: Null has about half that amount and so it has to have some really great results to be weighed that much higher. So who's behind this inhuman feat? Well, if you've played a few games and got out of 1000 club, you've probably encountered at least one bot. If you haven't, here's an explanation on what's going on.

The ladder has had 2 main bots fighting constantly for dominance, MetronomerBot and hippobotas. MetronomerBot has been around for a few months and it's had some mentions in the thread, like bringing Blissey up the ranks back in November or using Mold Breaker against the Shedinja menace. From my experience, I would say MetronomerBot is the more meta of the two, usually going for Unaware Type: Nulls, 2x Mega Venusaur, or Blissey, though there may be others I've overlooked. MetronomerBot seems to be more consistent in its team usage and rolls with one squad for at least a day from what I can tell, but does seem to switch teams at some point. I feel like the creator just changes its team manually every so often, but I've heard other scarier theories on the matter.

hippobotas is more of a wild card that's gone unmentioned in the thread so far. It seems to have a pool of random mons that it chooses 2 of to make a team of such as Mega Heracross, Mega Venusaur, Blissey, Mega Sableye, Mega Camerupt, Mega Slowbro, Snorlax, Rotom-Wash, Landorus-Therian, and Regice... sound familiar yet? Even some of those mons not in the top 10 are hanging around top 20 this time around, bringing a notable rise from December. Most of these mons have definitely had standard usage before, but a clear example of bot influence on the ranks is Rotom-Wash rising up from #353 with 70 uses in December to the present #14 with 5416.

With their constant 24/7 presence, it's safe to say that bots have taken over the Metronome Battles ladder, pulling the metagame along with it. I have personally seen MetronomerBot rise to #1 more than a couple of times, though always falling back down eventually. On the other hand, I observed firsthand that the current #1 player on ladder, "Coronacation 2020", reached that position mostly by adapting to a MetronomerBot on Blissey mode. Now I do want to point out that even though these bots have mastered the classic strategy of only picking Metronome, they are still not the most optimal players. I believe they can't consider any other options other than clicking the button, so no manual megavolution, Z-move usage, or the crucial strategy of dynamax stalling (though megas have no access to the latter). Even in these dark times, the spirit of humanity can still yet prevail, if for nothing else than pressing the advantage against these unfeeling, unstoppable automatons. Another limit I've witnessed is bot vs bot battles occasionally ending with one hitting some sort of rate limit and timing out. At some point I even brought my own bot back up for 2000 battles, though not with serious teams. Pikachu-Starters got 406 Ws/592 Ls and a Normalize team (with a chance of choosing a separate Scrappy team each battle) actually got a clean 500/500 win ratio.

The influence of bots even extends to the detailed moveset data, where you can basically pick out a bot set just by the raw usage. There are decisions I didn't see coming such as Venusaur's highest weighted ability being Friend Guard and Sassy on Heracross. Something else I noticed about Heracross is that Naughty has overtaken Adamant and Brave. This is probably because Naughty is the nature suggested by the Showdown teambuilder, with the most raw usage in the past for that reason, but it's a surprise for me to see it higher in weighted usage as well. Storm Drain has a huge lead on Desolate Land on Mega Camerupt, and I'm actually not sure how much that would change if stats ignored bots, since Storm Drain does have some benefits over Desolate Land.

Looking for the highest viability ceiling, I noticed that three mons reached a viability ceiling of 82: Mega Heracross, Mega Slowbro, and... Slowking, with a raw count of 49. I guess some high ranked player used it for a bit or something. The honour of highest viability ceiling belongs to Arghonaut and Caribolt at 83. It doesn't say much about consistency or even when it happened, but I think it's neat to know that some player at that GXE had actually played with those pokemon at some point.

One last thing I noticed is that the 1760 stats have a top 10 that actually fits the historical norm more, though the strict weighting brings its own other oddities like Mega Gengar at #9. I'm guessing that the bots having played so long has made their performance consistent enough for their raw usage to be treated seriously, but with enough losses at times to not be weighed as the elite of the elite.

Like everything else about the stats, this monthly post was pretty different, but I'm glad to have more to talk about than what the top 10 looks like. Battling a robot is an experience that probably every Metronome Battle player has shared in 2021, and their presence definitely leaves an impact on the metagame. Personally I find the bots interesting. I definitely appreciate being able to play fast games with instant actions, and I've bounced back from losing streaks sometimes by beating a relatively high Elo bot. Of course, sometimes the bots have caused those losing streaks, but such is the nature of Metronome.

EDIT: Shoutout to hippobotas for putting nicknames on every mon by the way.

 

[Pharnapus]

Wanted to share my meme team that I've been playing with recently, coming back into the meta

Introducing what I've called The Ice Pack

AvaThugg (Avalugg) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Abomasnow Man (Abomasnow-Mega) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

I feel like Avalugg deserves some more recognition for its tankiness, ice scales and a maxed out SpDef helping to patch up its weaker side. It's SpAtk is something less than desired but this poke wants to use its awful defensive typing of ice to proc the weakness policy so it can do some work.

Abomasnow is always a solid pick on many teams such as flower veil, although lesser so than it's mega cousin, Venasaur. Primordial sea helps both pokémon with their fire weaknesses while still having enough to proc weakness policy. And lets be honest, weakness policy is probably top three in item usage so why not slap it on for extra power.

Now a problem with this team is the standard overwhelming power of something like double mega heracross or an imposter blissey becoming an even tankier version of Avalugg but this whole meta is rng so don't feel bad if you lose. The fun comes from the ridiculousness.

Lemme know what you guys think and any changes I should make, one being that I may swap Abomasnow with Venasaur so there isn't the double weakness threat in moves like fighting and especially rock moves.

 

[AV Cosmoem]

Wanted to share my meme team that I've been playing with recently, coming back into the meta

Introducing what I've called The Ice Pack

AvaThugg (Avalugg) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Ice Scales
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

Abomasnow Man (Abomasnow-Mega) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Primordial Sea
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

I feel like Avalugg deserves some more recognition for its tankiness, ice scales and a maxed out SpDef helping to patch up its weaker side. It's SpAtk is something less than desired but this poke wants to use its awful defensive typing of ice to proc the weakness policy so it can do some work.

Abomasnow is always a solid pick on many teams such as flower veil, although lesser so than it's mega cousin, Venasaur. Primordial sea helps both pokémon with their fire weaknesses while still having enough to proc weakness policy. And lets be honest, weakness policy is probably top three in item usage so why not slap it on for extra power.

Now a problem with this team is the standard overwhelming power of something like double mega heracross or an imposter blissey becoming an even tankier version of Avalugg but this whole meta is rng so don't feel bad if you lose. The fun comes from the ridiculousness.

Lemme know what you guys think and any changes I should make, one being that I may swap Abomasnow with Venasaur so there isn't the double weakness threat in moves like fighting and especially rock moves.

I think you should use Flash Fire over Primordial Sea, since Avalugg wants Fire moves for its Weakness Policy.

 

[Pharnapus]

I think you should use Flash Fire over Primordial Sea, since Avalugg wants Fire moves for its Weakness Policy.

Will do, thanks for the feedback.

 

[bonk]

Somebody stop me I'm using ring target chansey again

 

[AV Cosmoem]

Somebody stop me I'm using ring target chansey again

but why

ok so this isnt a one liner time to post a funny!

Pangoro @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def / 252 SpA / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Metronome

very epic panda, dark and fighting stabs hit a lot if it gets them, including dusclops, type null, mega bro, glastrier, and aboma. between this and urshifu, they basically have the same stats except very epic panda has a better matchup vs flower veil cause its slower. urshifu is the harder counter to offense tho cause its physically fatter, also it outspeeds some stuff like mega hera which is pretty epic

 

[bonk]

but why

I've posted it in the thread before but for anyone that wants it

Ring Target Chansey

Chansey (F) @ Ring Target
Ability: Innards Out
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 SpD
Lonely Nature
IVs: 0 Def / 0 Spe
- Metronome

Pray a physical move KOs Chansey. Ring Target allows you to be hit by Ghost moves. 0 HP investment because Chansey naturally has enough HP for everyone except an opposing Chansey or a Blissey. Max Atk so you can pray Foul Play KOs you (it doesn't at full smh). Pair with anything better than this to clean up.

 

[fwqef]

Who is the better stall mon, Type: Null or Dusclops? I ran a ton of tests to find out.


NullStall and DuscStall are double unaware with eviolite and Relaxed nature. Sevag PP = poison point cresselia/tyranitar team made by my friend sevag. The rest should be self explanatory.

WINNING BENCHMARK = 2570/5000 (The probability of exactly, or more than, 2570 (K) out of 5000 (n) is p = .02465793)

NullStall won 2843 / 5000 against WPFlowerVeilVenu

NullStall won 2062 / 5000 against MBLumSableye

NullStall won 2454 / 5000 against BandIntrepidHera

NullStall won 3060 / 5000 against LeppaImposterBlissey

NullStall won 2477 / 5000 against DuscStall

NullStall won 1951 / 5000 against Sevag PP

NullStall won 3042 / 5000 against WPSimpleVenuGuzz

NullStall won 1748 / 5000 against SpecsMinusAmphy

NullStall won 2426 / 5000 against DesoLandCompetitiveCamerupt

NullStall won 3334 / 5000 against WPIntrepidGlastrier

--------------------
DuscStall won 2453 / 5000 against WPFlowerVeilVenu

DuscStall won 2167 / 5000 against MBLumSableye

DuscStall won 2604 / 5000 against BandIntrepidHera

DuscStall won 3582 / 5000 against LeppaImposterBlissey

DuscStall won 2468 / 5000 against NullStall

DuscStall won 1853 / 5000 against Sevag PP

DuscStall won 2602 / 5000 against WPSimpleVenuGuzz

DuscStall won 1503 / 5000 against SpecsMinusAmphy

DuscStall won 2000 / 5000 against DesoLandCompetitiveCamerupt

DuscStall won 2921 / 5000 against WPIntrepidGlastrier

--------------------
Type: Null is the more overall solid choice because it has a far better matchup against special attackers, but it is worth noting that Dusclops has a better matchup against Imposter Blissey and Mega Heracross. The Null vs Dusclops matchup seems to be pretty even. So it seems like I've been using the wrong stall mon all along. Use Type: Null guys!

I'm running another test right now with Type:Null + Dusclops to see if pairing those 2 mons together creates a synergy effect. I'll update this post in an hour with the results.

EDIT: Here are the results

Mixedstall won 2766 / 5000 against WPFlowerVeilVenu [this took 534.6770417690277 seconds]

Mixedstall won 1944 / 5000 against MBLumSableye [this took 1140.3149914741516 seconds]

Mixedstall won 2573 / 5000 against BandIntrepidHera [this took 1681.1987643241882 seconds]

Mixedstall won 3490 / 5000 against LeppaImposterBlissey [this took 2485.1392674446106 seconds]

Mixedstall won 3155 / 5000 against WPIntrepidGlastrier [this took 3185.989958047867 seconds]

Mixedstall won 1889 / 5000 against Sevag PP [this took 3836.456573486328 seconds]

Mixedstall won 2912 / 5000 against WPSimpleVenuGuzz [this took 4524.965439796448 seconds]

Mixedstall won 1651 / 5000 against SpecsMinusAmphy [this took 4995.646050930023 seconds]

Mixedstall won 2187 / 5000 against DesoLandCompetitiveCamerupt [this took 5557.819394350052 seconds]

Mixedstall won 2568 / 5000 against NullStall [this took 6441.00454044342 seconds]

Mixedstall won 2476 / 5000 against Duscstall [this took 7386.995676994324 seconds]

--------------------
The results just seems like the rough average of the 2 teams. It does noticably worse against special attackers but better than double dusclops, but it can also get a positive matchup against Mega Heracross. It seems 2 Nulls and 1 Null/1 Dusclops are both viable.

 

[bonk]

I'm still using both on the same team ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Will edit this in an hour or so when the using both results come in.

EDIT: That's what I'm talking about baby!!!

 

[Low-Key]

Nice to see some use of the permaweather abilities. STAB usually isn't reliable to get, but I do agree that it's fun to stack it with high damage and multipliers. Others have already made their points about the team, so I'll talk about my recent experiences with Desolate Land. In the past I've tried a Starf+Harvest strat with Drought and Snorlax or something, but it was pretty bad. Now Gen 8 has brought in some great options that actually make this kind of viable. My Starfer of choice was Dragapult because it has good stats, but defences low enough so that it'll likely get into 25% HP in a match, and also nice resistances/immunities to keep it alive despite that fact, and most importantly amazing Speed to actually take advantage of possible offensive boosts. Gen 8 also provides another buff to this strategy in the form of Dynamaxing for more boosts, so with the initial berry activation, re-activation by Harvest, and 3 dynamax turns, that's 5 boost chances assuming everyone lives. Unfortunately being at sub-25% HP is still a bad position in general. Overall this strategy is really good at putting a lot of green numbers on screen, even though only the offensive stats really matter at that point.

With a new year brings new change, and so let's check out January's usage stats.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/2021-01/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt
https://www.smogon.com/stats/2021-01/moveset/gen8metronomebattle-1630.txt

Right off the bat, 2021 is already breaking the mold with a massive 91480 battles, about a 50% increase compared to the usual figures around 60k. What's going on? If you've played on the ladder recently, you may have some idea of the cause, but first let's investigate the Top 10 for some possible context.

1630 Top 10 + last month positions:
#1: Mega Venusaur (no change)
#2: Type: Null (#17)
#3: Blissey (#7)
#4: Mega Heracross (#2)
#5: Necturna (#3)
#6: Mega Sableye (#5)
#7: Mega Camerupt (#15)
#8: Mega Slowbro (#12)
#9: Swampert (#19)
#10: Snorlax (#18)

Well, these ranks have changed significantly. To be fair, all the newcomers were pretty high up already, but to manage such a breach of the top 10 all at once? 2021 is starting off with upheaval, though not too drastic as most of the former top 10 are also still hanging around the top 20. Another observation is that Heracross remains #2 in raw usage, while Type: Null has about half that amount and so it has to have some really great results to be weighed that much higher. So who's behind this inhuman feat? Well, if you've played a few games and got out of 1000 club, you've probably encountered at least one bot. If you haven't, here's an explanation on what's going on.

The ladder has had 2 main bots fighting constantly for dominance, MetronomerBot and hippobotas. MetronomerBot has been around for a few months and it's had some mentions in the thread, like bringing Blissey up the ranks back in November or using Mold Breaker against the Shedinja menace. From my experience, I would say MetronomerBot is the more meta of the two, usually going for Unaware Type: Nulls, 2x Mega Venusaur, or Blissey, though there may be others I've overlooked. MetronomerBot seems to be more consistent in its team usage and rolls with one squad for at least a day from what I can tell, but does seem to switch teams at some point. I feel like the creator just changes its team manually every so often, but I've heard other scarier theories on the matter.

hippobotas is more of a wild card that's gone unmentioned in the thread so far. It seems to have a pool of random mons that it chooses 2 of to make a team of such as Mega Heracross, Mega Venusaur, Blissey, Mega Sableye, Mega Camerupt, Mega Slowbro, Snorlax, Rotom-Wash, Landorus-Therian, and Regice... sound familiar yet? Even some of those mons not in the top 10 are hanging around top 20 this time around, bringing a notable rise from December. Most of these mons have definitely had standard usage before, but a clear example of bot influence on the ranks is Rotom-Wash rising up from #353 with 70 uses in December to the present #14 with 5416.

With their constant 24/7 presence, it's safe to say that bots have taken over the Metronome Battles ladder, pulling the metagame along with it. I have personally seen MetronomerBot rise to #1 more than a couple of times, though always falling back down eventually. On the other hand, I observed firsthand that the current #1 player on ladder, "Coronacation 2020", reached that position mostly by adapting to a MetronomerBot on Blissey mode. Now I do want to point out that even though these bots have mastered the classic strategy of only picking Metronome, they are still not the most optimal players. I believe they can't consider any other options other than clicking the button, so no manual megavolution, Z-move usage, or the crucial strategy of dynamax stalling (though megas have no access to the latter). Even in these dark times, the spirit of humanity can still yet prevail, if for nothing else than pressing the advantage against these unfeeling, unstoppable automatons. Another limit I've witnessed is bot vs bot battles occasionally ending with one hitting some sort of rate limit and timing out. At some point I even brought my own bot back up for 2000 battles, though not with serious teams. Pikachu-Starters got 406 Ws/592 Ls and a Normalize team (with a chance of choosing a separate Scrappy team each battle) actually got a clean 500/500 win ratio.

The influence of bots even extends to the detailed moveset data, where you can basically pick out a bot set just by the raw usage. There are decisions I didn't see coming such as Venusaur's highest weighted ability being Friend Guard and Sassy on Heracross. Something else I noticed about Heracross is that Naughty has overtaken Adamant and Brave. This is probably because Naughty is the nature suggested by the Showdown teambuilder, with the most raw usage in the past for that reason, but it's a surprise for me to see it higher in weighted usage as well. Storm Drain has a huge lead on Desolate Land on Mega Camerupt, and I'm actually not sure how much that would change if stats ignored bots, since Storm Drain does have some benefits over Desolate Land.

Looking for the highest viability ceiling, I noticed that three mons reached a viability ceiling of 82: Mega Heracross, Mega Slowbro, and... Slowking, with a raw count of 49. I guess some high ranked player used it for a bit or something. The honour of highest viability ceiling belongs to Arghonaut and Caribolt at 83. It doesn't say much about consistency or even when it happened, but I think it's neat to know that some player at that GXE had actually played with those pokemon at some point.

One last thing I noticed is that the 1760 stats have a top 10 that actually fits the historical norm more, though the strict weighting brings its own other oddities like Mega Gengar at #9. I'm guessing that the bots having played so long has made their performance consistent enough for their raw usage to be treated seriously, but with enough losses at times to not be weighed as the elite of the elite.

Like everything else about the stats, this monthly post was pretty different, but I'm glad to have more to talk about than what the top 10 looks like. Battling a robot is an experience that probably every Metronome Battle player has shared in 2021, and their presence definitely leaves an impact on the metagame. Personally I find the bots interesting. I definitely appreciate being able to play fast games with instant actions, and I've bounced back from losing streaks sometimes by beating a relatively high Elo bot. Of course, sometimes the bots have caused those losing streaks, but such is the nature of Metronome.

EDIT: Shoutout to hippobotas for putting nicknames on every mon by the way.

WOWIE, THATS ALOTTA BATTLES THIS YEAR!!

 

[sumwun]

Are either of the Pokestar UFOs viable?
Why do people use magic bounce Sableye more than magic bounce Chansey or Dusclops?

 

[Ivy]

Are either of the Pokestar UFOs viable?
Why do people use magic bounce Sableye more than magic bounce Chansey or Dusclops?

Electric/flying is a good type combo and it's overall a slightly better zapdos on average. They're so similar that you can use either of them to suit your mood; they're best in something like a Delta Stream team.
Because m-sableye has mbounce by default and many people don't know you can change abilities. It's that simple LOL. More often than not they leave the mega stone equipped too.