Metagame Triples

[Cuddly]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9triples-2206932732
10/10 get water spouted

Actually found new busted "Spouter" if you will
252+ SpA Charcoal Flash Fire Tera Fire Beads of Ruin Typhlosion Helping Hand Eruption (150 BP) vs. 4 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey in Sun: 652-768 (101.5 - 119.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Typhlosion is so strong it can literally just OHKO the blob straight up if they aren't max bulk
252+ SpA Charcoal Flash Fire Tera Fire Beads of Ruin Typhlosion Helping Hand Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Chansey in Sun: 596-702 (84.6 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You can get Torkoal to use Lava Plume and also use Helping Hand, then use Beads of Ruin to give yourself even more fire power.
Being a Sun based strategy, you can use After You Lilligant on the side and use Torkoal itself if need be.
You can also use Hisui Typhlosion as well, being part Ghost means you're immune to Fake Out before Tera, and really you don't need that much Fire Power in a game.

 

[Clefable]

Psychic Surge leaving gives priority users a lot more breathing room. I've played around with some disruption mons and here are my favorite sleeper picks:

Murkrow plays very differently from other PrankWind users like Tornadus and Whimsicott. Quash helps you win the Tailwind mirror match even if you are running slower sweepers. It makes a great partner for Gholdengo, with good defensive synergy and Haze to reset SpA after Make It Rain.

Tinkaton is slept on but I think it's 100% the best support partner for spread move users. Mold Breaker lets it bypass anti-priority abilities and freely spam Feint, leading to checkmate situations with 150 base power nukes. Regidrago especially appreciates its ability to delete Fairy types with Gigaton Hammer.

Here's the team I built around these pairings. No huge innovation when it comes to the sweepers, but I think it's cool that you can get away with 3 choiced mons with no Protect or Wide Guard anywhere on the team.

I also want to give a shoutout to another underrated Prankster user. Some genius brought Eerie Impulse + Scary Face Thundurus and Contrary Enamorus versus me on the ladder which was an absolute menace.

 

[urkerab]

finally my hundreds of games of triples hackmons cup experience vs abyssal bot will have some use besides knowing what every move in the game does

Out of interest, which gen? (On ROM I created Gen 7 Triples Hackmons Cup just so I could play it against *Abyssal Bot; I didn't bother with Gen 8 or 9 though because I didn't like their gimmicks. I have added Gen 9 Random Triples Battle though, just because of this OM, although it's just doubles sets with triples gameplay.)

(Also, with this ban, we're unbanning Deoxys-Attack)

(Please also update the banlist in the first post)

 

[shadowpea]

Out of interest, which gen? (On ROM I created Gen 7 Triples Hackmons Cup just so I could play it against *Abyssal Bot; I didn't bother with Gen 8 or 9 though because I didn't like their gimmicks. I have added Gen 9 Random Triples Battle though, just because of this OM, although it's just doubles sets with triples gameplay.)

yes it was indeed g7 triples hackmons cup i spent many hours being bored during covid on that.

 

[Zmr56]

This is a beginner team I'd like to imagine it as being, that I used to gain somewhere around a 12-1 starting winning streak.

The basic idea was actually having Tailwind and Helping Hand support to ensure Dragon Energy moved first with Prankster and Armor Tail further ensuring the reliability of such a strategy. This catches novices who aren't accustomed to using Wide Guard off guard.

With three special attackers decided on, I then decided a FWG core of physical attackers might be a good starting point. I was already familiar with Swampert's access to Wide Guard and Rillaboom seemed like good insurance as ever for terrain control. The initial team used Incineroar as a safe pick but I eventually found it to be unsatisfying. I then replaced it with that Entei thing, forgot the name already. Howl support is really nice for a FWG core like this.

Usually my thought process when starting games is quite simple. I either lead with the three physical attackers or the three special attackers in the order that they are depending on the opposing team composition. I find against more experienced players, the physical half will be the safer option. The special half will make decisive work out of teams lacking in resists or Wide Guard counters to Dragon Energy. As of posting this message my record stands at 24-14 thus far. I'm sure there's room for improvement to be made and I'm still regularly losing to the highest ranking users here.

https://pokepast.es/85ffcf1033dedd00

 

[Clefable]

With September drawing to a close, here are my takes on the Triples meta and what performed better or worse than expected.

Stronger than expected:

• Spread moves
  Going in, I thought spread moves were going to be really good. Turns out, they are really, really, really meta-definingly good. A spread move from the central slot deals 75% × 3 = 225% of its usual damage. With that kind of output, you just don't care if one or several of your opponent's Pokemon resist or are immune. Spread move users are also naturally enabled by support mons, who want to be on the sides for protection.
  
  
• Neutralizing Gas
  I posted a team in this thread with Galarian Weezing + Toedscruel for fast Spore -- I thought it was a gimmick, but turned out to be my best team. Without abilities, half the teams I faced crumbled, even at high ladder, since many strategies for speed control and damage output rely on abilities. No Armor Tail, Drought/Drizzle, Protosynthesis, or Prankster leave a lot of teams vulnerable.
  
  
• Raging Bolt
  The giraffe is insane. My hot take is that Raging Bolt is the second best mon in the tier after Chi-Yu. It always puts in work, whether in the sun or rain, and can run any combination of moves and items it wants. It has ludicrous bulk while still able to outspeed in Tailwind. It has access to STAB priority, spread, and pulse moves off of 137 base SpA. Sprinkle this on any team and it will just work.

Weaker than expected:

• Physical attackers
  I'm not the only one who's noticed that a good fraction of teams are heavily special leaning. It comes down to spread moves -- Rock Slide and Earthquake aren't as strong as the ten trillion special spread moves given to Chi-Yu/Gholdengo/the genies/Torkoal/the list goes on. Chien-Pao and Gouging Fire are good, but it still seems like special damage is easy to dish out while physical attackers need to work harder.
  
  
• Fake Out/redirection
  This is an interesting one. I thought Fake Out would be really, really, really meta-definingly good -- instead it's just good. The problem is positioning: Fake Out users want to be on the ends, but then they can't reach the diagonally opposite enemy mon. This makes you unable to protect the central mon from attacks from that side. Add in the prevalence of Ghost Tera/Covert Cloak/Armor Tail and Fake Out can be a risky click. It's a similar story with Follow Me/Rage Powder.
  
  
• Incineroar
  Demon cat kinda sucks in triples. Its dominance in doubles (which is on the decline in reg H anyway) is due to Intimidate cycling and Fake Out pressure. Well, Fake Out is worse in triples, and Intimidate is worse too due to no physical attackers and limited range. Switching is punished hard in Triples which doesn't suit Incin's style at all. Maybe I'm using it wrong but I haven't gotten it to work at all.

I had so much fun this month! The council did a great job ensuring a wide variety of playstyles are viable with no clearly dominant archetype. I still have tons of ideas that I'm excited to try next time this OM rolls around.

If I could suggest anything to make the tier more balanced, perhaps banning Chi-Yu and unbanning Annihilape could bring the balance back towards the physical side a little bit.

 

[Zmr56]

With September drawing to a close, here are my takes on the Triples meta and what performed better or worse than expected.

Stronger than expected:

• Spread moves
  Going in, I thought spread moves were going to be really good. Turns out, they are really, really, really meta-definingly good. A spread move from the central slot deals 75% × 3 = 225% of its usual damage. With that kind of output, you just don't care if one or several of your opponent's Pokemon resist or are immune. Spread move users are also naturally enabled by support mons, who want to be on the sides for protection.
  
  
• Neutralizing Gas
  I posted a team in this thread with Galarian Weezing + Toedscruel for fast Spore -- I thought it was a gimmick, but turned out to be my best team. Without abilities, half the teams I faced crumbled, even at high ladder, since many strategies for speed control and damage output rely on abilities. No Armor Tail, Drought/Drizzle, Protosynthesis, or Prankster leave a lot of teams vulnerable.
  
  
• Raging Bolt
  The giraffe is insane. My hot take is that Raging Bolt is the second best mon in the tier after Chi-Yu. It always puts in work, whether in the sun or rain, and can run any combination of moves and items it wants. It has ludicrous bulk while still able to outspeed in Tailwind. It has access to STAB priority, spread, and pulse moves off of 137 base SpA. Sprinkle this on any team and it will just work.

Weaker than expected:

• Physical attackers
  I'm not the only one who's noticed that a good fraction of teams are heavily special leaning. It comes down to spread moves -- Rock Slide and Earthquake aren't as strong as the ten trillion special spread moves given to Chi-Yu/Gholdengo/the genies/Torkoal/the list goes on. Chien-Pao and Gouging Fire are good, but it still seems like special damage is easy to dish out while physical attackers need to work harder.
  
  
• Fake Out/redirection
  This is an interesting one. I thought Fake Out would be really, really, really meta-definingly good -- instead it's just good. The problem is positioning: Fake Out users want to be on the ends, but then they can't reach the diagonally opposite enemy mon. This makes you unable to protect the central mon from attacks from that side. Add in the prevalence of Ghost Tera/Covert Cloak/Armor Tail and Fake Out can be a risky click. It's a similar story with Follow Me/Rage Powder.
  
  
• Incineroar
  Demon cat kinda sucks in triples. Its dominance in doubles (which is on the decline in reg H anyway) is due to Intimidate cycling and Fake Out pressure. Well, Fake Out is worse in triples, and Intimidate is worse too due to no physical attackers and limited range. Switching is punished hard in Triples which doesn't suit Incin's style at all. Maybe I'm using it wrong but I haven't gotten it to work at all.

I had so much fun this month! The council did a great job ensuring a wide variety of playstyles are viable with no clearly dominant archetype. I still have tons of ideas that I'm excited to try next time this OM rolls around.

If I could suggest anything to make the tier more balanced, perhaps banning Chi-Yu and unbanning Annihilape could bring the balance back towards the physical side a little bit.

I agree with what you're saying about Incineroar. I used it on the first iteration of my team because I thought, obviously, Incineroar is super good in doubles so it should be good in triples right?

I think it was a decent starting point but eventually I found myself wanting something that could apply more immediate offensive pressure and so I swapped it out for Gouging Fire. Gouging Fire being much faster is also a big deal for me, you still get the option to punish physical attackers via Burning Bulwark (or Breaking Swipe) and Howl to boost all your other physical attackers.

 

[smokeyinferno]

Kyurem is an even bigger ball of stats than Raging Bolt!!! plus, it's neutral to Fire-type attacks and can slam Heat Wave/Eruption bots with Earth Power (on that note, it's a good Tera Ground candidate).
most of all, Kyurem just has a lot of good buttons to click: EP/Freeze-Dry are unresisted coverage (unresisted STABs if you decide to Tera), and Glaciate is a useful spread move. definitely a pick worth exploring