Metagame Scootopia

Scoopapa

Scoopapa

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Scootopia V.2
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​

Welcome to Scootopia Version 2! This metagame is currently in the Solomod PL. This thread is mostly for me to post about any balance changes that may happen, although anyone is free to post their thoughts on the metagame if they want.

New Mechanic: Super Types
crystalorb.png
feralorb.png


Super types allow a pokemon to replace their secondary type with one of two powerful new types: Crystal or Feral.​

- A pokemon's secondary type will change if they are holding either a Crystal Orb or a Feral Orb.
- This change happens right before the first time they switch in.
- Only one pokemon on a team can gain a Super Type.
- These items cannot be removed in battle. They also boost moves of their corresponding type by 20%.
- Crystal- and Feral-type moves can only be used by pokemon with the matching type.
crystal.png

Crystal is a defensively inclined type. It shares some matchups in common with Rock, and some of its matchups are based on its light-scattering properties. Water and Ground are resisted because they play crucial roles in forming various kinds of crystals.

Defensive:
Immune to: Burn Status, Sandstorm
Resists: Normal, Water, Fire, Ground, Rock, Dark, Crystal, Feral
Weak to: Electric, Fighting, Steel
Offensive:
Strong Against: Fire, Dark, Ghost
Resisted By: Electric, Fighting, Steel, Crystal

feral.png

Feral is an offensively inclined type. Its matchups mostly revolve around wreaking havoc on the environment, while being weak to natural hazards and particularly fearsome beasts. The mutual resist between Feral and Ghost references the Normal type.

Defensive:
Immune to: Sleep Status
Resists: Ice, Ghost, Fairy
Weak to: Fire, Poison, Dragon
Offensive:
Strong Against: Normal, Grass, Water, Flying, Bug, Fairy
Resisted By: Fire, Ghost, Dragon, Crystal
These moves can only be used by pokemon with the corresponding Super Type.

crystal.png

Crystal CutterPhysical50 BP | 15 PP | Always Crits, User recovers 50% of damage dealtContact, Slicing
Crystal TailPhysical120 BP | 5 PP | 85% Acc. | 20% to Drop AtkContact
Crystal BashPhysical100 BP | 10 PP | 10% to drop AtkContact
Crystal BeamSpecial90 BP | 15 PP | 30% to drop SpA
Crystal CageSpecial85 BP | 10 PP | 80% Acc. | Traps and damages for 4-5 turns.
Crystal BurstSpecial120 BP | 5 PP | Lowers user's SpA by 1 stage.
Crystal HealingStatusCures the team's Status and starts effect similar to Aqua Ring
Crystal FortificationStatusUser gains +1 Def and +1 SpD, clears negative stat changes
Crystal ShardStatusSets a layer of Spikes

feral.png

Feral BitePhysical90 BP | 15 PP | 30% chance to PoisonContact, Biting
Feral ShredPhysical20 BP | 15 PP | Hits twice, lowers Def by 1 on each hitContact
Feral RushPhysical120 BP | 10 PP | User takes 1/3 recoil, 20% to drop DefContact
Feral ShriekSpecial90 BP | 15 PP | Sound move | 20% to lower foe's SpDSound
Feral PowerSpecial110 BP | 5 PP | Lowers user's SpD by 1
Feral BreathSpecial80 BP | 15 PP | 60% to lower SpD by 1Wind
Feral HealingStatusUser recovers 25% HP and heals its status conditions
Feral SprayStatusFoe: Poisoned, User: +1 Atk, +1 SpA
Feral ResilienceStatusUser: Status cured, +1 Atk, +1 SpA
Sleep: Sleep-inducing moves only last 1 turn, but are more accurate. Rest and Yawn last 2 turns. Sleeping pokemon have halved Spe. No Sleep Clause.
Freeze: Special variant of Burn, essentially Frostbite from PL:A. Sheer Cold is now a Will-o-Wisp clone that inflicts Freeze.
--Spreadsheet--
(You may find the "Super Type Defensive Combos" page to be quite useful when building)

--Discord Server--​
 
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Week 1 Recap:

soleron.png
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The major takeaway from this week was Soleron being the unequivocal best mon in the format. It appeared on most teams and usually put in a lot of work. However, while Soleron is not easy to deal with, most of its theoretically best countermeasures never hit the field this week. While I consider it suspect-worthy, it's not enough to stray from my plan of allowing 2 weeks between any major patch. I'd like to see how people adapt to Soleron next week before potentially nerfing it. It's not like the tier is stagnant already - it should still be an interesting week.

Post Week 1 Balance Patch:

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-Corundell gains Lightningrod

I don't expect this to be a major change, but as I said before, I'm not looking to make a major change at the moment. This should give another way of blocking Volt Switch, though, on a Pokemon that walls Soleron's other moves. Nobody used this pokemon this week (it simply doesn't look that good on paper) but with a good matchup vs. the best Pokemon in the tier, I think it will be worthy of consideration now. It has good Special Rock-type moves (Meteor Beam and Revelation Dance) if you're wondering what to do with it.

Other Options to check Soleron:

cinnastar.png

SpD Cinnastar:
While it can't block Volt Switch, it will not get chipped down by it thanks to Regenerator. Cinnastar offers Stealth Rock and Mortal Spin support. It also has a good coverage and utility if running Assault Vest.

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SpD Electangle:
Although it doesn't appreciate Heat Wave and doesn't block Volt Switch, it's won't get 2HKOed by Heat Wave and takes nothing from the other moves. Electangle has been very consistent as a defensive pivot in my experience, so it shouldn't be a drag on your team and will improve your matchup. It also sets Stealth Rock. Despite its low offenses, attacks like Gyro Ball, Body Press, and Volt Switch serve it well.

zeploom.png

Wind Rider Zeploom:
Another Pokemon that people understandably didn't go for, but it hard walls Hurricane, Heat Wave, and Electric moves. It may seem toothless but it has slow U-turn, a signature move with percentage-based chip damage, and Toxic. It also provides Stealth Rock or Defog support. In my experience it is much better in practice than it looks on paper, and can certainly be slotted into a bulkier build.

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Elemadillo:
Elemadillo is not a safe switch-in, despite walling Soleron's STABs, but it's here because it outspeeds both forms. Specs is viable, but if you're really trying to punish Soleron, Feral Elemadillo will OHKO it and in general should make for a strong Feral type, having good coverage alongside Feral in STAB Flash Cannon for Crystal types and Earth Power for Fire and Poison types. It can also boost SpA while Poisoning the opponent with Feral Spray.

None of these are perfect counters. They either have flaws in their ability to deal with Soleron (Electangle, Elemadillo, Cinnastar) or are pokemon you might not otherwise run (Zeploom, Corundell), but I think the tools may be there to build teams that aren't walked all over by Soleron. At any rate I want to see what preparing for Soleron looks like before I decide what needs to change.
 
Edit: These changes are pending for Week 4. They won't be active in week 3.

Week 2 Recap:
If I'm honest no particular trend was spotted. Soleron didn't really pop off, and when talking to players, opinions on it are mixed. I've gotten pretty different opinions on other specific pokemon (such as Crystal Krachiten) and some players have called out pokemon that nobody else seems to have noticed. I don't want to say too much about those pokemon but these changes should (slightly) mitigate most concerns I have.

Post Week 2 Balance Patch:
All that being said I had a Pokemon in the wings that addresses almost every public and private concern that me or others have had. That plus a couple small buffs seeks to address the issue with Ground-type options. I hope this isn't too much to drop in a mid-tour patch but here it is anyway:

eleqwill.png

New Pokemon: Eleqwil
Type: Electric / Ground
Abilities: Mold Breaker / Iron Barbs | Bulletproof (HA)
Stats: 78 / 101 / 91 / 45 / 108 / 37
Notable Moves: Earthquake, Wild Charge, Volt Switch, Knock Off, Dragon Tail, Slack Off, Spikes,

There was just an issue with the Ground-type options we had, specifically when it came to dealing with the available Electric types. There are some other Pokemon on my radar that this helps against as well. If this bricks Soleron I could roll back some other changes, but I want to try it for now.

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Nunopod

Typing is reordered to Ground/Bug

Allows it to run Ground/Crystal or Ground/Feral.

zeploom.png

Zeploom

Energy Siphon Duration increased to 5 turns.

I just want to see this move used :(
 
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I've decided not to do the above changes, for a few reasons:
- Opinions are heavily split on anything considered a suspect.
- Some Pokemon or sets have gone crazy in a game or two but none have been consistently crazy (although some made their first showing in Week 3)
- I don't want to shake things up if it's not necessary.
 
Hello fellow Scootopians. Gonna do a tour breakdown post now that Suicunes have been knocked out (we were robbed!!) I'm pretty happy with my record overall. I think Scoot was easily one of the most stacked metas in the tour player-wise, so going 3-2 in a meta I had no prior experience with (and building all my own teams, too!) was a very acceptable result for me. Anyway, let's get into the games.

Week 1 vs Snak [W]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3148-ejzk47yl2z7jagq6nrtqf0skpip6w91pw

MuabBoa was the first mon that stood out to me upon opening the builder. Originally, I had intended on bringing a Feral Orb set, but I didn't realize Feral Orb & Crystal Orb shared the same "one per team" restriction, so I swapped it out for a Life Orb set (equally unwallable). Soleron ended up stealing the show on both sides this game tho, with Snak's almost running away with the game only to be stopped by an unlucky speed tie with my own. Forgive my insane Jaegorm set - fsr I was dead set on pairing Future Sight with Muab.

Week 2 vs Gekokeso [L]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3304-12hr8gvrqe2q3diu7pnbi3o69g0twp4pw

Coming off the Soleron hype from Week 1, I was pretty confident that everyone would be prepping for it, but my mistake was assuming that my Super Heat Tech of running U-Turn over Volt Switch would be enough to get past Geko's Soleron cteam. Without offensive pressure from Soleron, my team had no real way of handling Krachiten, so the game was pretty much decided on preview. This was also the game that convinced me Cinnastar is a shitmon.

Week 3 vs Paulluxx [L]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3429

Not too much to say about this week. I wanted to build stall, but the team I made was untested and ended up being pretty shit, so Feral Platypad (brokemon btw) cleaned me up pretty handily.

Week 4 vs M0onstarr [W]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...pia-3533-26cxvokp04kv7yvm34fr8vrb1u1juv2pw?p2

After two losses in a row, I wasn't feeling very willing to experiment, so I threw together a nice, simple screens HO team, featuring the Feral MuabBoa set I'd had to drop from my Week 1 team. Moon ended up bringing a Snow offense squad, and the offense mirror went about how you would expect it to (with Muab once again doing jack shit!!!) This game was super close, and I definitely feel like my opponent could've won with just a few different plays, but finally taking another dub helped buoy me into Week 5.

Week 5 vs dex [W]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3869-l74rmt6rdal2psvbqbd8h7tg78vezfvpw

The stall player in me felt absolutely horrible about my performance in Week 3, and I really wanted to revisit that squad at some point in the future. Well, dex pretty much exclusively runs offense, so this week gave me the perfect opportunity for that! After some test games and a few movepool tweaks, the squad felt much better put together, and I was able to pilot it to victory against dex's Snow offense squad (what is it with folks bringing these teams against me?) Leech Seed Cobracotta was a super last-minute addition but ended up being hugely useful, so shoutouts to that mon.


That's all I've got for my performance, but I also wanna rattle off some quick-fire thoughts on the meta as a whole, and some particular mons that caught my attention, so here's that.

- Soleron and Elemadillo are probably broken. Electric resists are few and far between and both of these mons pretty much mandate hard counters on every team in order to prevent them from making progress. This also isn't helped by the fact that much of their more reliable counterplay (Cinnastar, Electangle, etc.) are either pretty terrible mons or are locked to bulky playstyles.

- The one exception to the above is Zeploom. Mon isn't nearly as passive as you would expect and is also the most consistent counterplay for both of the above, so you can generally just slap it on a team if you're struggling with the Electrics.

- Jaegorm is a very good mon, and anyone who says otherwise just isn't running it right.

- Brawnkey is stupid, mainly for how it completely invalidates mons like Cinnastar. Would be very open to a nerf for this mon in the future.

- I couldn't get it to work, but MuabBoa is absolutely broken, and I'm waiting for the right player to come along and prove it so I can brag about being the first guy to discover it.

- Crystal Orb Kodokai is a CRAZY good defensive mon. Mon hard carried my stall squad to the point where I literally don't know if stall would be usable in the meta without it (Feral Orb moment).

- Rantler is absolutely terrifying. Snow offense in general seems very consistent and Rantler is by far the best abuser, with its perfect coverage - and Slush Rush when weather wars are essentially nonexistent - being extremely hard to prep for.

- There are a lot of mons that seem pretty subpar in my opinion. I think post-tour if there was interest in a big meta shakeup, these are some mons I think have underperformed and could use a buff: Aurorowl, Blunderbusk, Carapex, Fenreil, Flocura, Lumoth, Minillow, Pythos, Roscenti.


In conclusion, I enjoyed playing Scootopia a lot! There are definitely some things I think could be changed from a balancing standpoint, but overall I had fun both building teams and playing matches, and I'd definitely be willing to play more Scoot in the future. If other Solomods are this good I might seriously consider giving them a try lol.
 
With the Solopl over I would like to make a post with teams for metabuilding purposes, but unfortunately some of my teams got axed.

Week 1 Vs Paul [L]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3078-slztrnoilpis8rjej9lxd3atk0gx3pkpw

This was the first team of the tournament I made. At the time me and cyclonez had discovered just how busted elemadillo was, but paid little attention to Soleron, hence why this team is so horrendously weak to it. Orchille, Cellsius and Scalaron were a core of mons I recognised from restrictions that seem to support Soleron decently, Axolcred had feral type to be a bulky dragon pivot that could pivot into the electrics but I overestimated his potency. I also had Muadboa with very specialised evs for its scarf set that I ended up abandoning later in the tournament. The soleron weakness cost me the win, but I still had my eyes set on elemadillo as a bigger threat.

Week 2 Team got stuck in petmodsdh server, but for some reason I keep getting redirected to another version of it.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3304-12hr8gvrqe2q3diu7pnbi3o69g0twp4pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/dragonheaven-gen9scootopia-3303-h9ct2v6dqvw2l0r4r4f3pb0ju63jh1lpw

Week 2 was where I finally was able to get the talents of Elemadillo shine. The team was centered around specs elemadillo and Crystal Karchiten (which funnily enough Beaf brought), alongside pivots in Zepbloom, Brawnkey and Scalaron. Scarf Worm was the team's revenge killer. with how Beaf seemed like the most well versed player of the tier I thought that all his talk for actions to be taken against Soleron was solely a front to try and get me with the actually stronger electric type, but it turns out he genuinely didn't know. This fight solidified my opinions on brawnkey being the best defensive steel of the meta, being able to just completely kill a lot of beaf's momentum and allowing me to get my mons in, I think beaf's general lack of knowledge of the tier ended up in his loss due to not being confident in the abilities of his own Karchiten, allowing mine to dismantle his team.

Week 3 vs Moonstar [W] / Week 5 vs Mushroomtester [W]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...pia-3428-u7nxu5ua9gbq4eivr982or3jkw84bympw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...pia-3815-zy91fwymebrscc7jiwknxsnbdvx4f86pw?p2

Easily my favourite team in the tournament. Given that Scoop was gonna implement a couple of changes that would have made this team irrelevant (which ended up not happening) I revealed the main tech of the team: Feral Albatrygon. I chose Albert because it felt like a very strong option against very common options in the meta such as soleron, elemadillo and brawnkey, with the later being a very important target to setup on. At +1 it outspeeds the spa boosting cellsius set, Soleron, Elemadillo and among other. Speaking of the Spa boostin Cellsius set, I used it as a secondary breaker and sweeper on the team, with the set given to me by Paul after we tested together and it giving good results. It would then prove to be the biggest wincon of the team, giving me the win in both week 3 and in week 5. Noxtrice and Brawnkey are both good pivots with very different roles, while Flocura is my own counter to other cellsius and elemadillo, while Corundell is my Soleron check and also breaker. I was going to build something different for week 5 but got frustrated by the bad results I was getting during testing, so I just loaded this team again.

Week 4 vs Dex [L]
Replay not saved properly moment.

This team was just standard Soleron specs, trying to potentially catch an Zepbloom with Air Slash instead of Hurricane. I had defog Quadringo cause I saw Dex spam a lot of Dolphena, but generally speaking this team was just okay at most. I choked cause I assumed Crystal resisted grass which ended in my KArchiten dying early, and not being able to properly wall break their team afterwards.

Semifinals vs Paul [W] / Finals vs Dex [L]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...pia-4145-sufiqb1jru9djukfq2wb8zk5tqxqmwvpw?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/...pia-4291-7kh8sqsxt9b6re5q1tr37g55p7datg9pw?p2

Once again I recycled teams, this time because I had a Dracoil Feral Ddance team that I decided to not bring cause Beaf dogwalked me with Crystal Kodokai during testing. My thought process for this team was that I was busy with travelling preparation and Paul was gonna have way more prep than usual due to Beaf joining the gourgs for testing, so I just went "Fuck it we ball" mode and just brought every broken mon I could fit. I mostly copied Feral Elemadillo from games in week 5 cause that mon is broken, and then realised that Solreon and it don't type overlap due to feral typing, so I just loaded both. Muab for speed control, Noxtrice and Dracoil for pivoting and Flocura as a special wall and potential sweeper. I was able to leverage the team against Paul well, but did a couple of mistakes against Dex that costed me the game.

Extra: Scrapped Dracoil Team

Overall I had a lot of fun in this meta, reminds me of the fun I had supporting my teams during both PMPLs in Restrictions. It got its kinks just liked they did but it was by far the most enjoyable meta of the tournament and a joy to play in. Shoutouts to Beaf Cultist, cyclonez_ and Paulluxx for the help testing.
 
Gonna dump a couple teams here because I got into this tier a lil bit towards the latter stages of the tournament:

Crysaphor Electangle Crocsius Balance (Used by Dex vs MushroomTester (W))
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The first Pokemon that game to my mind was Cellsius. It was a bulky Calm Mind user with the perfect base stats to run 252+ and be one point ahead in sp.def. This Pokemon fit perfectly in the bulky water category, and I built the team around it. Saphor with Crystal Orb functioned decently as the physical sweeper of the team, with moves like Horn Leech and Crystal Cutter as surefire healing options. Electangle had solid utility and typing, which helped in the Soleron matchup (would need to watch out for Heat Wave). Quadringo felt kinda meh but had the typing and utility to work out. Cinnastar was a fine Pokemon for this team purely on a bulky regenerator standpoint, and EdgeQuake helps it coverage-wise. Scalaron was a solid special wall that helped fend off Cindoe, Kodokai and Flocura. Slow pivoting was solid in this situation as it was easier to bring in a Pokemon like Cellsius in. Cinnastar unfortunately gets dogged to oblivion by Brawnkey but a few of these mons do fine vs Brawnkey anyway.

Jaegorm UtiliCred Salamalix Balance (Did Not Bring)
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Dex wanted another balance this week. I noticed in a couple replays throughout the tour how silly Jaegorm is with moves such as First Impression, Knock Off, potential pivoting and great STAB options in general. This got me thinking of wanting to build around this Pokemon massively. Kodokai was the Wish Passer to help support Jaegrom, as well as Salamalix and Saphor. Cellsius and Saphor have the same sets (purely because 1) I was kinda lazy, 2) The alternate options made the team weak to something else or were kinda poor in general). Salamalix is a Swords Dance sweeper but with special bulk and rocks to make it multi-functional. My inspiration was the specially bulky Rhydon set in SV ZU at a time (very strange crossover). Axolacred I wanted to experiment with and with neither Revival Blessing nor Shed Tail this Pokemon might've been viewed as kinda iffy but the roles on this Pokemon were essential to this Pokemon's help on the team. Wasn't brought as Copen brought a more offensively oriented team and Dex preferred that (fair plays he won innit).
(Alternate Version of this team)
One is iffy vs Dojodo, the other is iffy vs Jamborai. Nonetheless, both are fine enough teams on their own.

Harzodia Screens Kelven HO (Did Not Bring)
1718322237975.png

The final team I had built / will showcase for today. My first thought of interest was this specific Kelven spread of 132/124/252+ for Beast Boost Speed. The slight bulk additions combined with Swords Dance and a nasty offensive typing / coverage allows for Kelven to be a really fun sweeper in the tier. Paltypad had been a bulky offense monster, but it fit well in the HO as it brought a much needed water resist and had triage for priority. Jaegorm has returned! I wanted to experiment a little bit with Fenreil with Nasty Plot and a decent offensive typing + coverage and it did fine during testing. Specs Elemadillo has coverage which makes it significant as a fast offensive pivot. This team is somewhat mediocre I feel, but it gets the job done and the sweepers here are solid enough on their own that they should be able to break through with Screens. This was a personal team of mine that I had built but considering Dex had also used screens previously, it wouldn't be ideal using it again.

I'm looking to continue building for this tier as changes get implemented, but I'm glad I've been able to enjoy the tier during the times I played it during SoloMods. All love, let's hope for a bright future!
 
I've waited long enough that most people from SMPL probably forgot what's in this mod, but I did finally finish the balance changes that I wanted to. If you're on the Discord, most of this is old news.

Post PMPL Balance Changes:

These are the important changes:
Elemadillo:
- Earth Power removed
- Feral Spray Removed
Muab-Boa:
-Attack reduced to 100
Axolacred:
- Typing changed from Dragon/Flying to pure Dragon
- Stats changed from 60/75/85/95/95/75 to 85/90/85/95/95/65
- Abilities changed from Regenerator/Shield Dust/Beads of Ruin to Magic Guard/Levitate
- Gains Core EnforcerEdit: forgot to mention this lol, Flip Turn
- Loses U-turn, Revival Blessing
Shed Tail:
- Self damage inflicted reduced from 50% to 12.5%
(Shed Tail heals the recipient 25% and reduces damage they take on this turn - it doesn't pass a sub in Scootopia)

And there were some less important changes:
Nunopod:
-Typing is reordered to Ground/Bug
Fenreil:
- Typing is reordered to Dark/Normal
- Wild Charge, Iron Head, Iron Tail added to movepool
Carapex:
- Acrobatics, Tailwind added to movepool
Salaos:
- Aura Sphere, Focus Blast added
Morndos:
- Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, Tailwind added
Pythos:
- ability changed to Marvel Scale
- Aura Sphere added
Cinnastar:
- Focus Blast added
Flocura:
- Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, Leaf Storm, Seed Bomb, Bullet Seed, Psycho Cut added
Faerenheit:
- Crystal Cage and Lava Plume added
Salamalix:
- Accelerock added
Orchile
- Sleep Powder added
Embuck, Cindoe, Woolora
- Wild Charge Added
Muab'Boa and Elemadillo were nerfed as they were considered to have too little defensive counterplay despite their high Speed tier. Axolacred was reworked to provide a blanket check to Feral attackers, as Feral checks were not common enough and many were weak to common coverage options. A pure Dragon type should handle most Feral types. The rest of the changes are small buffs or flavor things that I noticed were off during the tour.

Huge thanks to everyone who played this back in the tour btw, it was a really great experience to see the meta unfold and get everyone's thoughts along the way!
 
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