10 Stages of Memories

skylight

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So we're now closing in on B2W2 and while the top 10 thread covered the mons that have been a driving force over these last 10 stages of NU, we haven't actually covered each metagame at all.

What I want out of this thread is for you to reply with discussion about:

a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why
b) which weren't as exciting and why
c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)
d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta
e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)

To see a summary of what each metagame was like, click here.

Last part is especially important. I'm going to be doing something special with this in around two weeks so your vote for your favourite meta (other than stage 10). Feel free to discuss with other users too, you don't just need to reply to those points - try to help us as a community piece together a picture of what Gen V NU was really like!
 

Celever

i am town
is a Community Contributor
I haven't played NU for every stage; in fact, I joined in on the fun around October last year.

From looking through the hub (see, it's good for something!) the main thing I noticed was having a trapper that's not Trapinch or Gothorita... #freedugtrio.

Now for the questions:
a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why -- Out of the metas that I played the one that has always been the most exciting is Stage 7. It was very diverse and less self-centred around certain Pokemon. Yes, Pokemon such as Cinccino, Emboar and Absol were top-tier, but finding Pokemon to counter them and even different ways to surprise your Pokemon by using unorthodox sets was all of the fun!
b) which weren't as exciting and why -- Stages 8 and 10. Stage 8 was chaos after so many Pokemon moved up and while I usually like using a bunch of weird and dumb stuff... that doesn't really work if you don't exactly know what's good. You guys quickly found Skuntank to replace Absol and they were loads of Grass-Types running around trying to replace the Amoonguss' on their teams, the premier ones being things like Vileplume and Tangela. Overall it was chaotic and difficult to build good teams, which I just find stressful... As for Stage 10, almost every team is stall. BOOOORING.
c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!) -- I don't really have any. Using sun at one point was something I totally loved actually. Particularly the sun stall. There was also a minitour of some other stage of NU (maybe gen IV actually) which I beat Tennisace in first round, which is another big highlight for me since I don't usually beat anybody actually...good..
d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta -- For the metas I have played Sucker Punch+Pursuit always seems to be around, and despite this strong Psychic-Type Pokemon always seem to be everywhere. These are usually what I think of when I think of NU.
e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite) -- Stage 7, without a doubt.
 
im rly not a very experienced nu player; i only started playing properly in april, so yeah. i dabbled in it beforehand, but dont expect this post to be very high quality

a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why
havent played many, but id say the one with absol, emboar, cinccino and amoonguss was the funnest (without snover tho). i didnt really like hail at all, and it just created a playstyle which was hard to beat, and boring to play with/against. while pokemon like absol, emboar and cinccino really did dominate, it was just fun coming up with new ways to beat them, such as rocky helmet amoonguss to beat cinccino. i feel like as soon as those 4 left, the meta became less interesting. it wasn't as fast-paced (thanks cinccino), and i believe that the speed of a metagame often adds to how fun it is to play, and that doesn't mean it has to be entirely offensive. it also made lots of different threats viable, and brought to light many under-looked and under-appreciated pokemon.

i actually also think that stage 9 was quite fun. the 3 big drops from ru (munchlax doesnt matter) made the tier more fast paced which, as i mentioned earlier, makes for a more interesting and fun metagame. the speed tier to beat rose from base 80/85 to base 95, the speed of jynx and primeape. scolipede is even faster, and this all contributes towards the rise of some faster pokemon. zebstrika became very popular very quickly, as it is able to outspeed all the drops and ko all of them with a little residual damage. however, zebs usage declined later on as people realised its lack of power and diversity. people acknowledged that it is generally subpar, and started using more powerful, bulky pokemon such as electabuzz instead. scarf tauros rose in usage for the same reason; it was able to outspeed and ohko all the drops. this, contrary to zebstrika, is a pokemon that stayed popular. it can even catch jynx on the switch out with pursuit. in this stage bulky offense rose to being the #1 playstyle, led by kangaskhan and scolipede. scolipede's bulky set has grown very popular as of late, and can easily set up spikes support, and deal its own damage with swarm boosted megahorns and swords dance if you want. kangaskhan rose from pu as the primary revenge killer of the tier, with access to 2 priority moves in fake out and sucker punch. its speed is also pretty good, so it can outspeed and hit loads of mons hard with double-edge or earthquake. ghosts are easy pickings cos of scrappy, which differentiates it from other normal types even moreso than it already was.

b) which weren't as exciting and why
hail for sure. as i mentioned previously, it wasnt very fun to have a playstyle which was hard to counter, and kinda annoying to play against. i played with it a couple of times, and i always felt bad. not sure why, but i did. there were a few things that could beat it right at the start, but once stuff like klinklang left, hail just went through everything. i dont really know much about it tbh since i didnt play too much then, but yeah thats basically it.

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)
i just feel that the 2 stages i mentioned in part a are so fun, theres no one particular thing i could pick out which makes them so fun. it might be that i love playing offensive while still having stall as a viable option, idk. spike stacking offense is brilliant in the current meta, and is great fun to play with. a dual flying core of swellow and drifblim wears down each others counters and basically kills everything. man nu is just so awesome its hard to pick out highlights :/

d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta
musharna and skuntank. these 2 have been at the forefront of like every nu stage, and for good reason. while skuntank is there mainly to stop musharna, it is still a good pokemon. skunk beats p much all ghost and psychic mons, which have been consistently good throughout nu (gardevoir, jynx, golurk, misdreavus etc.), so is a valued trait. musharna has just been really good for ages, and its calm mind set has been especially consistent. recently the pivot set has become more popular with the rise of bulky offense and voltturn. also fighting types, normal types, flying types and water types have stayed consistently good. a brilliant example of this is samurott, who has been one of the tiers best pokemon since nu's inception. it has continued being good since the start due to its unpredictability, and the fact that all of its sets are very effective as they are; the problem for the opponent is figuring out which one you are running.

e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)
stage 6/7 (not sure which). the one with cinccino, emboar, absol and amoonguss, but not with snow warning snover. the current stage would probably be my second favourite
 

skylight

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a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why

i think by far the most exciting one was stage 7. it was when i seriously got into laddering and at the time i had the goal to be better than our ex tier leader, zebraiken. back then i had a pretty good bulky offense team (i guess?? idk it had alomomola and amoonguss and other stuff but it worked perfectly <3) back in those days i played great on the ladder but yet against zebraiken i never really could overcome him. that's what really motivated me to keep playing and keep trying, so i explored a whole load of different things which made it more exciting to me. having emboar was so cool and i don't think sawk can ever really replace how great emboar was. whether it ran a physical or a special set (or mixed) it wasn't really easy to get around. hail i didn't mind at all really. i preferred nu without it, however being able to explore a new playstyle and emboar having another reason to be used, well, that just made hail even better. after a while it did get boring tho, so technically my favourite meta is just a little before hail. oh and! spore. that was one of the most awesome things about that stage, since guaranteed sleep allowed for so much

i also enjoyed stage 3, as that's the stage i stage i started in. back then i don't think jynx was really an issue, in fact, i found jynx less annoying to prepare for back then than now, and magmortar kind of made up for where jynx dominated. not having b2w2 stuff was awesome too because so many different things had a chance to succeed before amoonguss, alomomola and cinccino kind of came in and took over. things like weather worked really well (thanks to the drops @ the previous round) and i remember having a fun weather team which just... worked (and was pretty offensive because offensive didn't have -too- many stops at the time and when laddering i was playing mostly offensive teams). sawk could also abuse sturdy so sr was a necessity because sawk was powerful af. golem was also cool back then and didn't use custap as it does now. :'(

b) which weren't as exciting and why

the current stage (and the previous one - so 9/10) is somewhat boring. i have to use out of the box teams otherwise it just isn't as fun, which is why i've been trying out different teams. i really feel that the loss of amoonguss, emboar and cinccino specifically attributed towards this. ever since they left, nu hasn't really been the same for me. i enjoyed the psychic domination for the most part but ever since getting jynx, ape and scolipede it's all shifted towards what's fastest, rather than being balanced. like with cinccino, absol, emboar, amoonguss, they were all really balanced out with everything else in the tier. ever since those three (and mandibuzz) arrived it's just felt stale because you need certain ingredients on each team to survive in this meta. like you need something specific for jynx, and those mons are somewhat limited and don't fit on every team (forcing you to run certain playstyles or forcing you to not run one mon on a certain playstyle whereas you could before jynx was in nu), whereas back in stage 7 there were multiple ways around p much all the huge threats which fit on a variety of different teams. you also need to p hit a high speed tier now while back then you didn't really have to hit anything specific as long as you could counter things like cinccino (which were easy to take down with things like rocky helmet amoonguss and rocky helmet mushy). sure the same can be said for every meta but idk these days just can't compare to back then for me. ofc i'm not saying that this meta isn't balanced, no, but something about the current meta doesn't really sit right with me, unfortunately. but idm! that allows me to get creative and find fun ways around the stale offensive nature of the current meta.

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)

my personal highlights were using rocky helmet mushy because while ppl thought it was dumb, it was actually really awesome and made cinccino no longer an issue. n_n other stuff i enjoyed was various weather teams i've used to a great extent (and successfully). even sand stall right now it's really nice (and wouldn't have been as successful before, imo). idk personal highlights have also been that i have improved from losing like 5-0 to zebraiken to beating him which was always my goal, which is a great thing to end at tbh.

d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta

i agree with lasagne. however i want to mention something else. the types. fighting and fire has always been a dominating force, as has psychic. they are both things you actually had to prepare for in pretty much almost all metas.

e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)

stage 6 technically, but the start of stage 7 fits too (since i didn't really like gothitelle...). so actually! stage 7.

also, to reply to a point in another post,

You guys quickly found Skuntank to replace Absol and they were loads of Grass-Types running around trying to replace the Amoonguss' on their teams, the premier ones being things like Vileplume and Tangela.
that wasn't really the case honestly. skuntank had use beforehand, as gardevoir could definitely be an issue and absol couldn't reliably counter it or switch into it safely (especially if it was subcm) whereas skunk didn't have that much of a challenge stopping it from setting up on it. and as for replacing amoonguss, meh, most people just used roselia, musharna or alomomola for the most part. iirc tangela didn't rise too much in usage and vileplume was better off in earlier stages imo before the regenerators came along. the same thing can really be said now about mushy and alomomola because for the most part they're still the go-to physical walls in the tier and are both really good at it.

aaand iii thiink that's as much from the top of my head for now.
 

soulgazer

I FEEL INFINITE
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a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why

Even though it has already been said, Stage 6-7 were the most exciting metagame for me. Even though I also liked the previous stages (playing around with Magmortar & co was fun, but I always felt those Pokemon were too good for NU), I personally felt like Stage 6-7 was the most diverse metagame as nothing was really broken back then and any playstyle could work, except maybe stall (I've no experience using stall in that Stage). Ofcourse the metagame was centralizing a little bit around Amoonguss, Emboar, Absol, Cincinno, and Fighting/Dark/Psychic cores, but it was easy to play around them if your team was prepared for them, which everyone who knew the metagame could.

b) which weren't as exciting and why

Stage 8 was really boring to be honest. Peoples were looking everywhere to find a Pokemon that could fill the hole Amoonguss, Absol, Cincinno and Emboar made when they rose illegitimately to RU (Emboar's most used items in RU when it happened was Sitcky Barb), but nothing else could fill these roles, although people started to use Skuntank more when Absol left. With the lost of two Pokemon able to threaten Musharna, Absol and Emboar (Musharna hated taking a CB Flare Blitz from it), few Pokemon could take on Musharna. Psychic spam became a thing, with stuff like LO Destiny Bond Gardevoir/Haunter running around to lure Skuntank & Co to let Musharna sweep teams when they were removed.

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)

Hard to choose really, for example I always liked to use Piloswine because of its awsome typing and good neutral coverage with its STAB alone.
man nu is just so awesome its hard to pick out highlights :/
d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta

Psychic-, Fighting-, Water-, Normal-, Flying-, and Fire-types were and still are the best offensive types in NU. Unlike the rest, if you don't prepare your team against Sawk, Jynx/Musharna, Charizard, Swellow or Samurott, you'll have a lot of problems dealing with them as they all have amazing coverage, power or bulk making them hard to take on.
e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)

Like I said in a), Stage 6 and 7 were my favorite NU metagame.

I want Emboar back. :(
 

cb aaron judge

ALL RISE
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a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why

Definitely 6-7 (idk if i started before or after goth ban, but it was around then), but I laddered the most in this stage for sure, so i feel like i experienced it the most, and Absol/Emboar/Cinccino/hail were fun to use (i was never big on amoong), so hence my liking of stage 7 more. I also was a big fan of Stage 9 and currently 10, since the arrival of Jynx, Scolipede, and Primeape made those boring p/d/f cores much less common then before among top players

b) which weren't as exciting and why

Stage 8, it was boring facing all those random psychic/dark/fighting cores, and mushy and other psychics felt centralizing then (i felt like mushy was suspect-worthy at the time), and this made me quit NU even for a short period until Stage 9 began

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)

im not sure, but i liked laddering on with flcl hail in late stage 7 and doing well with a choice team early in stage 9, and going from losing to anyone good to sometimes besting them

d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta

basically the same types of pokemon have held a dominant force in nu ever since its inception, with most of what soulgazer pointed out previously being the dominant types and pokemon throughout nu's history

e) your favorite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favorite, list that and your second favorite)

its a close call between 7 and 9, but im gonna say 7 since i miss those pokemon and hail :(
 

ebeast

she's probably sexting nprtprt
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a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why
My favorite metagame was Stage 8. (The one after Hail went to RU and before Jynx/Scoli dropped) The reason for this was because I felt everything was at an even footing. Offense has always been one of the best playing styles in NU and the while the loss of Emboar, Absol, Cinccino, and Hail made it a little different (Dbond Gardy being discovered made Psychic spam easier), it was the same good old offense that has always been around, but without the tools that fucked over defensive teams as badly as it used to. Bulkier teams lost Amoonguss, but didn't have to deal with Emboar or Absol anymore, which is well worth the trade if you ask me. Stall became much more viable now that Emboar and Absol didn't shit on it and it was fun to use and destroy noobs such as FLCL and Annoyer with. Stall becoming more popular showed as well with RMT forums having more successful NU stall teams than it ever had before in any other rounds.

b) which weren't as exciting and why
Stage 7 (Hail) was the worst meta ever imo. I just disliked having a bunch of Pokemon's healing moves nerfed by the weather and having everything take 6% damage. (If you haven't noticed by now I'm a defensive player) That and it brought a ton of new threats to have to deal with such as Rotom-F, Glaceon, and Walrein/Dewgong. Rotom-F + Emboar/Sawk was the standard Hail core because it just shred things very easily; Rotom-F killed Alomomola for Emboar and destroyed almost everything with LO Tbolt and Blizzard while Emboar destroyed the special walls that beat Rotom-F with Choice Band Superpowers. Even though Hail had very exploitable weaknesses, it wasn't easy to take advantage of them when playing defense as it would playing offense. Basically offensive breeding more offense. Hail wasn't broken, but that doesn't stop me from disliking it.

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)
Uh my memory is nowhere near good to remember everything, but the thing I will never forget was during NUPL All-Star week when FLCL and I had a 100+ turn stall vs stall battle. It was very fun and tense, even though FLCL had Scraggy + Natu 9.9 Even then, Psych Up Metang was manly enough to take down Scraggy and let me win.

d)
trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta
Fighting/Dark/Psychic cores are still used as Sawk, Musharna, and Skuntank have always been around and always been good together. They did change up a little though with the addition of Primeape allowing itself and Musharna to make U-turn + Baton Pass chains so Skuntank can find the opportunity to trap or Primeape can Close Combat something that walls either. Something else I would say has continued was the use of using what would generally be considered defensive Pokemon into good offensive/tank Pokemon that use their defensive capabilities as a bonus. For example Lickilicky (SubSD takes advantage of its good defensive stats), Specs Altaria (It can use its typing and bulk to pivot), Seismitoad (Access to Stealth Rock and good bulk along with good BP moves like Hydro), and Metang (Great typing + bulk and good power STAB in Meteor Mash)

e)
your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)
Read what I wrote in a) for this. Stage 8 master race.
 
a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why

Well, I started playing in stage 9, and my favorite had to have been when Mandi did drop. It was the first time I had ever been using her, and it actually made me like her. Also, this was the stage where I was learning,so I ended up having the most fun in it while getting better. I had been playing before this,but I used to think I was good and I never improved. Also, the introduction to Mandi in the tier also brough one of the bulkiest defensive mons in NU to the tier, which pretty much can't be taken out by one super effective hit,most are either 2HKO or 3HKO, unless its like really powerful.

b) which weren't as exciting and why
I have only played 2,but I would say that 9 is the least exciting because it didn't really change that much imo.

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)
-Mandibuzz Dropping
-Stage 9 was the stage I had started learning back in May

d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta
I always tend to use Sawk or Primeape in all my teams because they are so good in this meta, because they can really take on a lot of threats,and deal with troublesome pokemon, like Regirock for instance to name just one. Also, Musharna is a mon I use a lot,because she can tank a lot of hits,even super effective ones aren't OHKO's,they 2HKO her. I tend to revolve around a varied core, so my cores are not always the same in my teams really. I tend to use some F/W/G cores in NU,but not really as widely used in this tier.
e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)

Stage 10,its where I really started having fun in the tier more than ever actually. Then Stage 9 comes second,because not much changed about it,but it also was the stage I started getting real into NU.
 
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@InsaneDragoniteHD

stage 10 is the stage in which Mandibuzz dropped, yet you call it your least favourite stage, while saying the stage when Mandi became available is your favourite. I smell a contradiction...
 
hi, i dont want to respond to every prompt, but i'd like to post my opinion

i have been playing nu for every single meta besides stage 9, and stage 10 is pretty similar to stage 9, so i'd say i have a lot of experience. i concur with ebeast that the hail metagame was pretty awful. hail limited the viability of so many pokemon and was way too restricting in teambuilding. it also pushed some pokemon like sawk over the edge, because musharna's recovery was much more limited and it's easier to break through mons like missy when they are faced with constant hail damage.

stage 1 was pretty fun because nu was starting out, but i didnt get to play it that much. the potential of a lot of mons weren't discovered, and slowking wasnt used nearly as much as it should have been used.

anyways my favorite stage is probably stage 8 or this stage actually. i didnt think emboar / absol were broken but them leaving was probably for the best. i like how stall became more viable even though i despise playing against it. this stage is pretty cool because imo it balanced the gap between bulky offense and offense teams -- i always felt bulky offense teams were too dominant in the other stages. i'd say it's still the "best" archetype now, but stall and offense are pretty close. jynx was really awful back in stage 3 and 100% broken but jynx now is pretty manageable. i find scolipede generally more annoying to deal with, but i think scoli is fine as well. this meta is pretty cool, but i pretty much liked all of the nu metas besides stage 7.

also what i like about every stage of the nu metagame is that the metagame adapts pretty effectively to new threats, and it's always changing even when there aren't many changes. the pokemon in nu right now is not that much different from the pokemon in nu back in stage 2, but the metagame has changed a whole lot since then. another thing i like about the nu metagame is there is a bunch of obscure mons that are at least somewhat viable on certain teams.

that's all i have for now

~ n_n ~ :toast:
 
You know, it's actually kind of funny to me that some people loved stage 8 and hated stage 7 because my feelings are quite the opposite. This probably has to do with me as a player in general and my personal development over time, though.

Back in the hail meta in stage 7, offense really ruled over other playstyles. Whether or not you were using hail, every team had to be prepared for it in one way or another. For some teams, this meant carrying Emboar, a huge offensive powerhouse. For others, it meant choosing Duosion over Musharna thanks to Magic Guard and a recovery move not dependent upon weather, Piloswine over other Stealth Rock setters thanks to its ability to check Rotom-Frost and to an extent BlizzSpam, or Rotom-Frost itself over other Choice Scarf users thanks to its then optimal Speed and its typing which kept it from taking hail damage. This was a pretty obvious hassle for more defensively oriented teams. Emboar was incredibly hard to check defensively. Compared to Musharna, Duosion was an inferior check to Fighting-types in general due to its inferior bulk. With offense as the more favorable playstyle, it was then preferable to my personal playstyle.

Stage 8 was really hard for me because my teambuilding was not nearly on the level that it is now. It was much more difficult for me to deviate from the things that I knew worked for me. Musharna, Skuntank, and Sawk (or Gurdurr) found their way onto the majority of my teams because of how consistent they were for me. Musharna in general was a lot harder to take down then compared to now (though it's still not a walk in the park). However, as time has past, I've learned how to support things much better, both defensively and offensively, and it has made it much easier for me to utilize different playstyles. As such, it's quite easy for me to say that stages 9 and 10 are now my favorites, simply because I'm a significantly better player and teambuilder than what I was in previous stages. However, considering myself as a teambuilder now, if I'd have had the same experiences back when I first started playing, I think my favorite metagame would have the same as skylights: stage 7 before hail. I loved to use Cinccino and Emboar, and I miss them much more now than what I did back then (even if the lack of Emboar is super friendly to defensive teams, which I have a soft spot for). Basically, stage 7 had a lot of the diversity that I see and enjoy in the current metagame but with lower Speed tiers, which means that even more things were viable back then compared to now.

To answer the specific questions: from my experiences stage 7 pre-hail was probably the most diverse with hail meta and stage 8 as the least diverse. Keep in mind that this was when I started playing on Smogon, and I played Gothitelle and before on PO. RIP Klinklang, the star of almost all of my PO teams before making the (great) decision to switch to Smogon.

Despite hail meta being one of the least diverse to me, it was still one of my favorites at the time because I personally favored offense. Conversely, stage 8 was a bitch for me because I pigeon-holed myself into using the same things because I couldn't find much else to get the job done as consistently.

General highlights for me are mostly just seeing my progress as a teambuilder (and consequently a battler). Back when I first started out on Smogon, I would have one or two good teams that I would always use. Nowadays, I've got anywhere from fifteen to twenty decent or better teams all at once. Minor highlights would be the gimmicky shit that I've used on the ladder that has worked for me. Special mentions go out to my recent Riolu offense team that has multiple gimmicky sets but still somehow manages to work even outside of the ladder; my sexy Baton Pass team that saw more ragequits than actual victories; and @Hot N Cold's hax team, packed with such goodies as Swagpard, Sub/Discharge/Air Slash Rotom-S, and ParaFlinch Regirock, that got me to #60 on the ladder.

I won't cover consistent metagame trends because I feel like everyone has covered it well (and I don't want to)!

And I don't really have a favorite metagame. I guess the answer for me would be stages 9 and 10 because those are the very same stages when I grasped the metagame and teambuilding the best. Playing and winning with a variety of teams is obviously a lot more fun than playing and occasionally winning with the same couple of teams over and over again. However, if I could go back to previous stages with this same understanding that I have now, my favorite metagame would undoubtedly be stage 7 pre-hail. There were some top-tier threats, no doubt about it, but there were no over-centralizing playstyles or Pokemon. The Speed tier was much lower then than what it is now, which in and of itself means that the metagame was more diverse then. I like using different things and trying out new playstyles, and I think that if there ever was a stage that I played that best allowed this, it would have for certain been pre-hail stage 7.

Phew, this was a much longer post than what I'd intended, but I kind of really like this concept. It's interesting to look back at BW NU and remember how the metagame has developed and how I've developed as a player. Fuck Musharna before I knew how to handle it without Skuntank; free Klinklang, Cinccino, and Emboar; and as always, @skylight sucks. :)
 
to be fair, that is still a contradiction. Its cool tho. Also, don't double post, just say it all in one post :/
 
to be fair, that is still a contradiction. Its cool tho. Also, don't double post, just say it all in one post :/
I didn't know I double posted..sorry...kinda didn't see the first post,so I thought I might have clicked Cancel..so then I hit it again.
Now I can't delete the first one :I

Well,it is a contradiction I guess,you're right.
 
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tennisace

not quite too old for this, apparently
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Shit I've been playing for too damn long.

I don't think I have a favorite stage to be honest. When this comes up every so often on IRC I lament about how cool Stage 0 was, but a lot of that was with how new everything was. There were a shitton of cool and diverse Pokemon that all promptly left the tier because people realized just how good they were in RU (or in Dugtrio's case, OU). We've only managed to get 2 of them back (Scolipede and Roselia, though Klinklang should have dropped but just missed), which shows what the power level in NU was like in that stage. Everything hit hard. Magmortar instead of Charizard, Rhydon instead of Golem, Magneton instead of Probopass, heck even Druddigon instead of Altaria (though they aren't directly comparable). Nowadays, we say Kangaskhan "has enough power to get past multiple foes" and praise its strength off its 95 base attack. Hail was kinda shitty too I guess but it was a lot more manageable since there were actually good Steel-types and Fire-types in the tier.

Another good meta was Stage 4. We had an actually decent spinner in the tier, Magmortar, Absol, Emboar, and Quagsire. It was a pretty diverse stage with a lot of variations of bulky offense (and even full stall that Karpman/Honus/VN. did).
 

WhiteDMist

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I've been playing NU since around Stage 1 (after a whole bunch of cool stuff moved up and all), so I've seen some interesting metas.
a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why
There are a few metgames which stood out, but I have mostly enjoyed all the different metagames. I'm an NU player solely because the metagame is always changing and adapting to bring out the potential of lesser used Pokemon. Stage 1 was particularly fun because I was quite new to BW (I stopped at the end of DP) and I wasn't used to the new mechanics of the game. I particularly enjoyed using Mesprit because of its sheer versatility, and this was the time when Scarf Rotom-S wasn't on every team to handle Gorebyss (it helped that Jynx was also in the tier of course). Still, the next round brought a bunch of weather sweepers to the table at the cost of the pixie so I can't complain because it made everything that much more diverse. Another particularly enjoyable metagame for me was Stage 4. Jynx was gone (though truthfully I rarely had a problem with it) mid stage, but we still had Cryogonal and Magmortar. Musharna was beginning to rise a lot in usage, and the metgame was able to support Stall, balanced, offensive, hyper offense, and weather pretty well.

b) which weren't as exciting and why
I actually found Stage 9 to be particularly boring. The metagame became so much faster and offensive, which sounds exciting and all. The thing is, seeing at least one of the 3 drops on all teams kind of began to take its toll on my interest in battling. Spikes because so easy to set, it is kind of ridiculous (still is though). To brighten things up, Research Week/Group was revived and I decided to start testing lesser used Pokemon (DD Scraggy was fun).

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)
Well, Stage 2 was the time when I started talking with players/members. I met @Ranger Dell @Sweet Jesus @Don Honchkrorleone @Majestic Electric @Incon (my posse) at that time. I also started rating teams more often, which led me to actually getting known by the top NU players. It was the summertime (Stage 4 I believe) when I recieved my first badge and someone (@Raseri @DTC I think) first asked me to come on IRC. I didn't :p. I don't think I first went on until Stage 5 actually, so that was another highlight since I met most of the people who are reading this! :toast:

d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta
Well I only want to mention two major trends. Certain types have always been popular (Normal, Fighting, Psychic, Water, Dark, Flying, Grass for the most part) and have maintained that popularity throughout all the stages. Some types, especially Ghost and Fire, are often quite popular as well (though less prepared for until the last couple of stages). The other trend I've noticed is that the metagame shifts on its own all the time, and what were once top threats were being adapted towards. For instance, Gorebyss was quite threatening but players started using Scarf Rotom-S as their general revenge killer. The last meta brought the addition of Bullet Punch to Metang's set to combat Jynx. Tangela rose a lot to combat Golurk dropping (it was still not as common as Amoonguss).

e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)
Stage 2 for the reasons I've already mentioned.

Edit: @Treecko <3 just because!
 
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this thread is cool - lets me reminisce earlier memories of fun metas
not doing the prompts cause w/e

I don't know which ones my favorite meta but its a really close tie between shroom, boar, absol meta and the meta after hail and prejynx which lasted quite a while. both were just really fun and rott reigned as supreme as spamming hpump for days. both were more oriented towards offense (nu as a whole is too) which is good for me and just having a plethora of cool mons to use. a lot of mons were still uncovered such as toad and other mons weren't nearly as popular as they are now such as kanga while others were really popular like goose. im not too sure for an exact reason why I liked these metas better but I think its mainly just because I had fonder memories of these metas. I wish I could just play these metas over and over again.

Other metas I liked were the quag, mortar, cryo meta which is basically the meta I first came to when I joined smogon so that was just like the start of nu for me. the mons were cool and having a spinner was nice for a while (!) and stall was pretty common too like djangos stall team with champ frillish. the current meta is good too but I just don't like it as much as the other metas atm just cause of mons are getting stale and imo the teams aren't nearly as fun to make or as diverse/cool as in previous metas. I wasn't there for the actual r0 meta but I have played matches in it for tournaments and stuff and it seems fun. some mons are kinda a huge notch above others such as druddigon and slowking and smeargle (which the hazards set apparently wasn't even that common until the latter parts of the stage).

My least favorite metas were definitely hail and gothitelle (altho the latter lasted only for a bit). hail teams were the same mons over and over again and others have also said why it wasn't fun in above posts. I didn't like gothitelle meta because well, I just didn't like gothitelle and thought it was broken (just my opinion).

Anyways nu has a whole has always been the best tier (as my only tier .cry) =)~
 
a) which metas were most exciting (and most diverse) and why

I'm not really sure which ones were the most diverse (NU has always struck me as a pretty diverse tier, regardless of which stage), but I think the beginning stages were the most exciting for me. I've always enjoyed playing lower tiers where some of the lesser Pokemon are viable or downright good, and so each time a lower tier was opened up, I started playing around with it. NU was the one I was most excited about since it was finally the last tier and many of the more powerful Pokemon had been weeded out by OU, UU, and RU. Since the tier was so new, there were a lot of things that were being tested out and as such, there was a lot of diversity and randomness. Hail was kinda annoying for a while, but the tier was so new that it didn't bother me much at the time.
b) which weren't as exciting and why

I didn't like the Hail metagame during Stage 7. I had always like the fact that for the most part, NU lacked the permanent weather that plagued OU, and Hail messed that up. I'm not sure I can definitely say that Hail was broken (although it didn't stick around for that long due to Snover rising to RU), but the chip damage and unnatural ease of BlizzSpam made the metagame less enjoyable for me.

c) your general highlights throughout each meta you've played (or just a few, it's up to you!)

As I mentioned in the OU thread, I'm not a big tournament or ladder player. There were a couple of high ladder peaks somewhere in there with one team making it to #1, but I can't remember for the life of me what it was, lol. I think it was an old team based around Dugtrio + Linoone and a couple of birds, but I my memory fails me.

d) trends you've felt have continued throughout each meta

The one trend that has always stuck out to me was simply the use of Fighting/Psychic/Dark cores. These obviously came in many shapes and sizes with several Pokemon fulfilling individual roles. One of my personal favorites back in the day was Special Combusken + CM BP Musharna + Skuntank, but there were plenty of others that would range from defensive to quite offensive in nature.

e) your favourite meta (other than stage 10, if stage 10 is your favourite, list that and your second favourite)

I'd have to say that my favorite was right before BW2 was introduced, so I think that would be Stage 4. I just felt that BW2 introduced a lot of stuff that increased the overall power level in NU more than I would have liked, but I digress. BW1 NU was a very balanced metagame with lots of variety (I even remember people complaining about how NU players would brag about the balance in NU. Magmortar was probably the most dangerous Pokemon in the tier, but it was still pretty manageable. Cryogonal, NU's best spinner, was also still around (I wish it was still around so that NU could really have a good spinner again). It was just...fun, I guess.
 
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