Metagame Full Potential

[KaenSoul]

Month is about to end but the banner is finally done!

badly drawn Talonflame

 

[PQRDG]

Don't have my screenshot of when I was higher on ladder, but I do have some Pokemon that I think should be worthy of more attention:



Population Bomb is already a threatening move with Wide Lens. But, thanks to either Agility or Trailblaze, that speed makes the move even more oppressive. Add moves like Super Fang and Beat Up, and you have a Pokemon that can tear holes in several teams. If you don't trust that you will survive a move thrown at you, Focus Sash is still a safe choice, though you will be rolling the dice on your Pop Bomb



I don't think enough people are talking about this mon. Thanks to the Tera ban this machine completely invalidates Electrode and threatens most other fast, frail electric types. Being the only Ground/Steel Pokemon in the game right now gives it useful offensive and defensive potential. It has access to a solid speed tier and Rapid Spin, solid coverage moves in Ice Spinner and Knock Off, and a useful surprise tool in Volt Switch (I have lost to a pseudo-Donphan more than once because I forgot it had this). If you bring this in at the right time, it is entirely possible to clean sweep someone's team with this.



Even without Sun, this Pokemon is still great with an Assault Vest. Access to priority in First Impression, strong STAB in Superpower, and recovery in Giga Drain, this Pokemon has many good tools. It has a lot of coverage options, including Earthquake, Wild Charge, Flare Blitz, Heat Wave, and Hurricane. This thing still acts as a serious threat and should not be under-estimated.

Happy Holidays to you all, and cannot wait to see how this changes when it is playable again in 2023.

 

[kenn]

So with the month coming to an end, I wanna wrap up things as well as take a look ahead to post-HOME Full Potential as HOME compatibility should be available the next time this is eligible for OMotM/LCotM so without further ado, let's get into it!

First off, I have the VL here so that everyone can see what has made/is making the biggest impact on the current metagame

Viability List

(all in alphabetical order)

High

Goodra
Iron Treads
Meowscarada
Sylveon
Talonflame
Tinkaton
Toxapex
Tyranitar

Mid

Avalugg
Barraskewda
Bisharp
Blissey
Chansey
Cloyster
Dragonite
Electrode
Garganacl
Iron Valiant
Jolteon
Noivern
Ting-Lu

Low

Bronzong
Coalossal
Corviknight
Dragalge
Forretress
Kingambit
Orthworm
Pincurchin
Roaring Moon
Slowbro
Slowking
Toedscruel

Secondly, I wanna take a moment to say that I thank and appreciate everyone (council and players) who have helped shape and enjoyed this OM as it has been an absolute blast despite this month being one of the craziest irl and here lol.

Now for the fun part...a look ahead to things coming once HOME is compatible. I drummed up some sample sets to showcase some potential threats once HOME drops.

Sample Sets

Diancie

Diancie @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
Tera Type: Rock
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Body Press
- Trick Room
Talonflame will absolutely hate Diancie's return as it not only has the Speed control of Trick Room but it resists both of its STABs and can fire off a Diamond Storm with ease.

Hisuian Goodra

Goodra-Hisui @ Assault Vest
Ability: Gooey
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heavy Slam
- Draco Meteor
- Earthquake
- Thunderbolt
While slower than Kalosian Goodra, Hisuian Goodra has a way better defensive typing and isn't weak to Fairies allowing it to potentially thrive better.

Hisuian Electrode

Electrode-Hisui @ Focus Sash
Ability: Static
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Electro Ball
- Leaf Storm
- Bullet Seed
- Agility
Direct upgrade to Kantonian Electrode as it now has Grass STAB to take on Ground types although still kinda falls to Dragon types lol

Meloetta

Meloetta @ Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Relic Song
- Psychic
- Drain Punch
- U-turn
This looks intriguing as it can utilize its great SpD stat as Meloetta-A and then transform to Meloetta-P if it needs the Speed instead without really losing too much power

Tornadus-T

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ No Item / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 232 HP / 24 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Acrobatics / Hurricane / Air Slash
- Heat Wave / Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Agility / U-turn
This is gonna be a very versatile Pokémon once it is made available. Can't set up and sweep with Agility or be a pivot bot to gain momentum while also hitting hard and keeping itself healthy thanks to a base 121 Speed and Regenerator respectively

There are definitely more but these are some I have found myself and am excited to use post-HOME.

All in all, this month was a fun one and while it is ending, I am just excited for this to be back and that you all have enjoyed it this past month so until it is eligible again, let's continue messing around with room tours and challenges (idk if this will be a challengeable OM or just room tours only yet but we'll see)

Thanks again to all of you guys

 

[Fracterra]

so i heard you like suffering
Harpoon (Barraskewda) (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Propeller Tail
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Agility
- Liquidation
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs

Apex (Toxapex) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Ice Beam
- Hydro Pump
- Sludge Bomb

Sweet Silver Bells (Bronzong) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Calm Mind
- Gyro Ball
- Psychic
- Earthquake

Sizzle (Salazzle) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Corrosion
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Gunk Shot
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Agility

Paladin (Palafin-Hero) @ Choice Band
Ability: Zero to Hero
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flip Turn
- Surf
- Boomburst
- Aura Sphere

Gambit (Kingambit) (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Supreme Overlord
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Grass Knot
- Kowtow Cleave
- Iron Head

What can i say except, your welcome

 

[kenn]

Hey guys! It's been awhile but we got some important news now that HOME has finally officially released and that is an update to our current banlist!

First up, is the one and only planned unban for now which is

We figured that Chien-Pao deserved a second chance as while it is still incredibly fast, Choice Scarf and Tailwind are both gone now and so it may fare okay in the meta as it doesn't learn Agility and its ability can only work if it uses physical moves.

Next up are the bans, which should be obvious, and they are as follows:

The one that may look a tad out of place is Regieleki as it is OU but base 200 Speed coupled with means to boost that stat (Agility and Rapid Spin mainly) means that it could be even more overbearing than say Electrode and would basically mandate a Ground team on every team just to counter it and that just doesn't feel right to allow in this wonderful OM.

Lastly, I wanna highlight a couple of cool Pokémon that I feel like would absolutely thrive in this OM so without further ado...

Sets

Uxie @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Amnesia
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Drain Punch

OR

Uxie @ Assault Vest
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Drain Punch
- U-turn

I think Uxie is gonna be a fantastic addition to Full Potential as it has some pretty good variety within its movepool and it can setup or just go all out with an Assault Vest.

Sets

Slowking-Galar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Gunk Shot
- Future Sight
- Earthquake / Flamethrower
- Flamethrower / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt

OR

Slowking-Galar @ Black Sludge
Ability: Regenerator
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Amnesia
- Gunk Shot
- Psychic
- Flamethrower / Earthquake

Slowking-Galar seemingly fits perfect into an OM like Full Potential as it tends to usually run an Assault Vest to sponge special attacks while keeping itself healthy with its ability, Regenerator but now it can use that power offensively. It could also set up with Amnesia should someone wanna go that route too.

Anyways, I hope we have some fun now that HOME is out and we can build some fun stuff and revisit threats to see if they still hold up such as Talonflame (Diancie now says hi) or Iron Treads (Uxie says hello as well) lol

 

[Gimmicky]

SET

Braviary-Hisui (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 120 HP / 244 SpA / 144 Spe
Timid Nature
- Close Combat
- Esper Wing / Psychic
- Brave Bird
- Calm Mind / Roost.

Brave Bird is a stronger, more reliable STAB than Hurricane, and Close Combat is great coverage for Steels-- your STAB moves carry you hard, but a super effective hit is nice. It's EVed to outspeed 252 Adamant Tyranitar, but you could invest fully in bulk or to hit speed tiers more catered to your team.

Esper Wing and Calm Mind should usually be used together; The extra speed from Esper Wing is nice, but it's not as strong as a CM boost. Both are useful and the boosts are both nice, though, and the variety makes Braviary-H worth the teamslot.

Psychic and Roost, likewise, pair well together. You don't have much snowball potential, but you stick around for a surprisingly long time and still deal quite solid damage. Other options like Defog, Heat Wave, and U-Turn also have merit on Bulky sets.

SETS

Enamorus (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cute Charm
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Agility
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Mystical Fire / Grass Knot

Enamorus (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Superpower
- Moonblast
- Sludge Bomb
- Grass Knot / Earth Power / Mystical Fire

Enamorus (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe OR 252 HP / 252 Spa / 4 Spe
Bold Nature OR Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Earth Power

Why is this free again?

Jokes aside, Enamorus has insane versatility and coverage. While Superpower + Contrary looks obvious, it's hardly the only set available.

Agility has immediate power and the fastest boosts, giving it the most sweeping potential. Fairy/Ground is amazing coverage, only further complimented by Mystical Fire to erase Corviknight or Grass Knot to tear Dondozo in half. This set has very little defensive utility, relative to the others, but insane snowball potential.

Superpower is another powerful sweeper, trading away the fast boosts of Agility for a strong coverage move that also raises its stats. Sludge Bomb gives you an edge against other Enamorus as well as Hatterene and Diancie. The last move is up to you, but it's important to note that you're always walled by something. Grass Knot eats through Dondozo, Earth Power eliminates Toxapex and Heatran and chips away at Glowking and Clodsire, and Mystical Fire shreds Corviknight.

Calm Mind Dkiss is going to be my favorite set, personally. It's much more suited for BO teams, but on those teams it will perform excellently. The option to invest in physical defense gives you surprisingly decent physical bulk; you're not a paper bag anymore, now you're made of cardboard! This set is walled by Corviknight, at first, but with enough boosts you just might be able to break through any Corv that isn't Spdef.

I don't think Enam is lasting very long, even with its non-Contrary sets not having a useful ability slot most of the time.

SET

Electrode-Hisui @ Focus Sash
Ability: Soundproof
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Agility
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Foul Play / Thunderbolt / Taunt

This is just a better Electrode. Grass STAB really helps against Great Tusk and other Grounds, though you do wish you had moves for Dragons. This does the same thing Electrode does, but it doesn't auto-lose to Grounds! This might be a problem!

 

[Crowned Mlvluu]

SET

Braviary-Hisui (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: 120 HP / 244 SpA / 144 Spe
Timid Nature
- Close Combat
- Esper Wing / Psychic
- Brave Bird
- Calm Mind / Roost.

Brave Bird is a stronger, more reliable STAB than Hurricane, and Close Combat is great coverage for Steels-- your STAB moves carry you hard, but a super effective hit is nice. It's EVed to outspeed 252 Adamant Tyranitar, but you could invest fully in bulk or to hit speed tiers more catered to your team.

Esper Wing and Calm Mind should usually be used together; The extra speed from Esper Wing is nice, but it's not as strong as a CM boost. Both are useful and the boosts are both nice, though, and the variety makes Braviary-H worth the teamslot.

Psychic and Roost, likewise, pair well together. You don't have much snowball potential, but you stick around for a surprisingly long time and still deal quite solid damage. Other options like Defog, Heat Wave, and U-Turn also have merit on Bulky sets.

SETS

Enamorus (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Cute Charm
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Agility
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Mystical Fire / Grass Knot

Enamorus (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Superpower
- Moonblast
- Sludge Bomb
- Grass Knot / Earth Power / Mystical Fire

Enamorus (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe OR 252 HP / 252 Spa / 4 Spe
Bold Nature OR Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Taunt
- Draining Kiss
- Earth Power

Why is this free again?

Jokes aside, Enamorus has insane versatility and coverage. While Superpower + Contrary looks obvious, it's hardly the only set available.

Agility has immediate power and the fastest boosts, giving it the most sweeping potential. Fairy/Ground is amazing coverage, only further complimented by Mystical Fire to erase Corviknight or Grass Knot to tear Dondozo in half. This set has very little defensive utility, relative to the others, but insane snowball potential.

Superpower is another powerful sweeper, trading away the fast boosts of Agility for a strong coverage move that also raises its stats. Sludge Bomb gives you an edge against other Enamorus as well as Hatterene and Diancie. The last move is up to you, but it's important to note that you're always walled by something. Grass Knot eats through Dondozo, Earth Power eliminates Toxapex and Heatran and chips away at Glowking and Clodsire, and Mystical Fire shreds Corviknight.

Calm Mind Dkiss is going to be my favorite set, personally. It's much more suited for BO teams, but on those teams it will perform excellently. The option to invest in physical defense gives you surprisingly decent physical bulk; you're not a paper bag anymore, now you're made of cardboard! This set is walled by Corviknight, at first, but with enough boosts you just might be able to break through any Corv that isn't Spdef.

I don't think Enam is lasting very long, even with its non-Contrary sets not having a useful ability slot most of the time.

SET

Electrode-Hisui @ Focus Sash
Ability: Soundproof
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Agility
- Energy Ball
- Volt Switch
- Foul Play / Thunderbolt / Taunt

This is just a better Electrode. Grass STAB really helps against Great Tusk and other Grounds, though you do wish you had moves for Dragons. This does the same thing Electrode does, but it doesn't auto-lose to Grounds! This might be a problem!

Energy Ball? Why not Leaf Storm?

 

[kenn]

So with The Teal Mask DLC officially dropping last night, I thought it would be time to hit a sort of reset button in Full Potential!

What this means is that some things are gonna be unbanned but first let's go over the only ban coming from the new Pokemon in the DLC: Shaymin-Sky.

Skymin is already generally fantastic thanks to having Serene Grace boosted STAB Seed Flare and Air Slash and when you apply that to Full Potential where it gains a slight power boost from 120 to 127, thanks to utilizing its Speed now as an attacking stat, it becomes way too much in a meta where Speed thrives. This is especially true when it can flinch bulkier Pokemon downwind Air Slash or even drop their attacking stat via Seed Flare. For that reason, the council has decided to not allow this heinous monstrosity to grace us with its presence and therefore will be banned.


Another thing that kinda leads into at least one of the unbans is...Speed Boost! Prior to DLC, Espathra was banned due to it and Flittle being the only ones able to utilize this ability and Flittle was a niche pick at best (though I do remember Kris nailing me with it in a roomtour during Full Potential's LCotM reign) but thanks to DLC, Yanmega is now able to be used and therefore the council has made the decision to BAN Speed Boost and UNBAN Espathra! Maybe Espathra will actually utilize Opportunist, but also be able to use some of the cool moves that it has such as Lumina Crash and Low Kick, which can now use its Speed to deal damage instead of its meh Attack stat.

Last but most certainly not least, we have the other unbans that are going to occur with the DLC drop. While it is only 2 mons, the council and I felt that these mons deserved to shine (and in the case of Cyclizar come back). For Cyclizar, a lot has changed since it was free and we feel like giving it another shot is warranted as it was banned by a super close vote. We are also BANNING Shed Tail so that should be a big change in how Cyclizar can at least support its team as it can't hand out free Substitutes anymore. As for Flutter Mane, this is more for optics/consistency in the sense that while it started off banned initially, it probably should have been freed as it is almost exclusively a "special attacker" as it's physical movepool is Astonish, Phantom Force, and Giga Impact. This means that it may have a hard time breaking through AV users and Amnesia setup sweepers and therefore is gonna be given a chance to prove it is good (or maybe bad) in the meta itself.

As for mons that came with the DLC, there are quite a few that stand out as potential threats and I figured I would go over them.​

The big boi has made his return and I am super pumped to see this thing as it has a fantastic Special Defense of 110 coupled with a plethora of moves at its disposal, making an AV set easily plausible. I also could potentially see an Amnesia set although I don't think that Snorlax has any redeeming qualities to make that set as worthwhile as the AV set.

I know someone cough Gimlaf cough that is very happy to see this join the ranks of Full Potential. Dusclops is a beast that has high defenses a la Toxapex but does lack a means of recovery whether it be ability or a move outside of Pain Split. It is also weak to Knock Off because it doesn't want to lose its Eviolite on top of the Dark weakness. Despite that, it is definitely gonna be a fun threat that can use STAB priority in Shadow Sneak and good amounts of coverage with access to things like Earthquake and Ice Beam to hit things fairly hard.

This one seems like it would be fun if it gets Flip Turn back to have a STAB pivot move and potentially slow pivoting into the faster frail Speed Pokémon that Full Potential has to offer. It can easily run an AV or even like Lefties/Boots if it wants to run Recover instead. It does, however, have an exploitable Defense stat which is probably gonna be the biggest thorn in its side.

tl;dr Ban Speed Boost, Shaymin-Sky, and Shed Tail
Unban Cyclizar, Espathra, Flutter Mane

Tagging Kris to implement <3

 

[kenn]

So with Full Potential missing the cutoff to be voted on for OMotM, the council decided to have a quick vote on a certain Pokemon that cannonballed its way to the top of the watchlist with its introduction in the HOME meta and has only gotten better with tools from DLC1, so without further ado...

Hisuian Goodra is now BANNED in Full Potential!​

	kenn	KaenSoul	ponchlake	Result
Hisuian Goodra	BAN	BAN	BAN	3-0-0

Another quick announcement! You may have noticed that Kris and in the hills didn't vote and that is because they have stepped down from council a little bit ago and I just never got around to actually announcing it. We appreciate all they did in helping get this OM off the ground at the start of the generation and wanna give them a big thanks! <3

And with that, this concludes tonight's update of Full Potential! I wanna try and cultivate some resources such as an actual VR and maybe some sample teams down the line, but until we potentially get OMotM or LCotM, it will be slow to get there as we only have room tours to help shape the OM lol.

I already tagged you above Kris but please implement this whenever you get the chance. :D

 

[Superior Serperior]

So with Full Potential missing the cutoff to be voted on for OMotM, the council decided to have a quick vote on a certain Pokemon that cannonballed its way to the top of the watchlist with its introduction in the HOME meta and has only gotten better with tools from DLC1, so without further ado...

Hisuian Goodra is now BANNED in Full Potential!​

I don't normally speak on this side of the forums often, but I just kinda wanna know why specifically Hisuian Goodra got banned. I'm aware of its base 150 spdef and access to AV giving it incredible power, and its movepool giving it plenty of options, but what pushed it over the edge compared to regular Goodra?

 

[KaenSoul]

I don't normally speak on this side of the forums often, but I just kinda wanna know why specifically Hisuian Goodra got banned. I'm aware of its base 150 spdef and access to AV giving it incredible power, and its movepool giving it plenty of options, but what pushed it over the edge compared to regular Goodra?

Steel typing comes with a nice set of resists and a stab to hit fairies with, combined with its great coverage it didn't have many defensive answers, it also has much better physical bulk which isn't just useful to take hits as it let it use Acid Armor.

 

[Dareal_Bingoxz]

Is the banlist updated as of DLC 2?

 

[KaenSoul]

The update would be now, it includes Ho-oh, Kyurem-B, Kyurem-W, Lunala, Lugia, Deoxys, Deoxys-Attack, Deoxys-Defense, Deoxys-Speed, Necrozma-DM, Necrozma-DW, Solgaleo and Zekrom as bans. And as you may notice...


Reshiram will be allowed for the time being, so will be Terapagos, don't expect much from this one, but Reshiram in the other hand seems like it may end up being a problem, but stuff like Toxapex, Goodra, Electrode and Florges have a similar offensive, without having to invest in an actual offensive stat. We will closely look at it and depending on how it goes it may be quickly banned, or we could study similar cases to bring down.
What makes Reshiram less crazy than the banned mons is that it doesn't really take much advantage of the gimmick of the format, it still uses Draco Meteor with its SpA, if it goes AV it becomes too weak to hazards, and has no boosting options for its highest stats, is mostly regular Reshiram.

 

[Crowned Mlvluu]

h-electrode makes one drool