I did initially intend to make a huge post expressing my thoughts in regards to this test, but upon further consideration, I realized that the message I initially wanted to post would be pointless, as what defines an "enjoyable metagame" is entirely subjective anyway, and from my own personal experience with this site, the people don't seem to like to listen to the ideas of a single person either, even when discussing matters that are far more objective than that which this thread pertains to.
But in any case, I'll post just to say that I am in support of the removal of the OHKO Clause, the Evasion Clause and the Moody Clause for two very simple reasons:
1. Innumerable laddering experiences tell me that even with the aforementioned clauses, the game of Pokémon is still, in a nutshell, nothing more than a gambling game anyway. We all know that critical hits, freezes, paralysis, and other things that people commonly refer to as "hax" contributes to luck's impact on the outcome of any battle. But little do many people realize that even if "hax" does not occur in a battle, its outcome could
still have been influenced by two more subtle forms of luck: Namely, team matchups and predictions. Even in this current metagame, there is no such thing as a single team that can have at least a 50-50 matchup against every single other team in existence, and unless both trainers in a battle are using the
exact same team, it is probably extremely rare, if even possible at all, to find a battle in which the two trainers' teams have exactly a 50-50 matchup with each other. Though the trainer with the team advantage obviously isn't guaranteed to win the battle (as the other trainer could make up for their team's disadvantage through skill, "hax" or predictions), it is undeniable that as soon as a Pokémon battle begins, luck has already had its impact on the game by giving an advantage to the trainer with the team advantage, regardless of how slight it may be. And while the process of an experienced trainer completely reading and outpredicting the moves of a less competent battler is undeniably a show of skill, the concept of "predictions" becomes nothing more than a game of guessing in a battle between two trainers of similar skill. For example, in a battle between two experienced trainers, someone with a Zekrom out against a Kyurem-W, as well as an Arceus-Steel in their team, may leave their Zekrom in to launch a Dragon-type attack at the Boundary Pokémon, due to predicting that the opponent will predict a switch to Arceus-Steel and therefore use Fusion Flare. But Kyurem-W's trainer may use Ice Beam or a Dragon-type move, predicting that the opponent will predict a Fusion Flare and therefore stay in. Since there is no way to be absolutely sure of what the opponent may do in this situation, what both trainers are ultimately doing is just guessing the opponent's move, and therefore depending on luck to win. So since luck in Pokémon is not just exclusively observed in the phenomenom people commonly refer to as "hax," but is also an inextricable part of both team matchups and predictions (both of which, especially the latter, are extremely central to what "competitive" Pokémon even is in the first place), I see nothing wrong at all with the luck that one-hit KO moves, Evasion-enhancing techniques, as well as the Moody Ability introduce to the game, as luck is absolutely nothing new to the metagame anyway. And while one may argue that pointing out the fact that luck already exists in the game is not a justification for adding even more luck into it, such an argument assumes that the metagame was "competitive" in the first place with the OHKO Clause, the Evasion Clause and the Moody Clause, but would lose said "competitiveness" upon the lifting of the aforementioned clauses. But the way I see it, as much as anyone would want to deny it, there is
already so much luck in the game that
even now it is very uncompetitive, with events like
this,
this and
this (note: the Groudon lead in that last log had Jolly and maximum Speed, so it was far from unreasonable to assume that my opponent's Ho-Oh had a Choice Scarf, as not only did it have just a 50% chance of attacking first, but very few Ho-Oh actually have Jolly and maximum Speed) easily occurring, and costing a huge number of points on the ladder, or even worse, eliminating one from a tournament. I realize that the creation, promotion, and study of a competitive Pokémon metagame is the heart of Smogon itself, but my laddering experiences tell me that this was a futile pursuit to begin with, and that it would be far better if people would accept that Pokémon is largely a luck-based and uncompetitive game, with or without the OHKO, Evasion and Moody Clauses.
2. The vast majority of people seem to be absolutely fine with the existence of a Pokémon with a base stat total of 720, the Ability to be any of the 17 types (and not even Team Preview provides any information about that type), and by far most importantly, the access to Swords Dance + Same Type Attack Bonus ExtremeSpeed with 120 base Attack and absolutely insane bulk as well as only one weakness, in a metagame where the most reliable method of burning fails 25% of the time (to put this into perspective, this is
even more than the chances of a move with 100% accuracy missing against Garchomp in the sand. Why people constantly complained about Sand Veil Garchomp in OU, and yet have no problem with Will-O-Wisp missing Arceus remains a complete mystery, especially since Will-O-Wisp's failure rate against Arceus-Normal is increased to
a whopping 44% if it just carries the very common Lum Berry), and overcentralizing it and dominating it left and right.
Given the premise that a Pokémon like Arceus is considered to be "OK", then by that logic, as far as I'm concerned, Sheer Cold Kyogre, Guillotine Gliscor, Fissure/Horn Drill Excadrill, and Moody Smeargle would be absolutely fine and not overpowered either. So what if Fissure Excadrill's ability to easily get past Spin-blockers, as well as Sheer Cold Kyogre's ability to easily eliminate Ferrothorn on the switch seriously hamper the viability of stall? None of this is even anything at all compared to the way Arceus-Normal has singlehandedly almost completely crushed the viability of hyper-offense in Übers, and people are completely cool with that, yet for some reasons, even the slightest prospect of something threatening stall makes many people unhappy, and I don't know why that is the case.
As for Sleep Clause and Species Clause, I am personally against their removal for two basic reasons:
1. I just do not think that a metagame without them would be very fun for some reasons, but this is completely subjective. I personally would not mind the removal of the Species Clause in any metagame barring Übers though, ironically, because no other metagame has a Pokémon as overpowered relative to every other Pokémon in its tier as Arceus is to the Übers tier, and no other metagame has a Pokémon which can be of any of the 17 types. The fact that Arceus is clearly a cut above every other Über in the game, combined with the possibility of being able to make completely viable teams where at least half of its members are Arceus Formes is why I think that the removal of the Species Clause would be undesirable in Übers, but not in any other tier.
2. Unlike the OHKO, Evasion and Moody Clauses, both the Sleep Clause and the Species Clause have actually been official clauses in some Pokémon games, such as Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2.