With the recent quality enhancements to playing RBY with Tradebacks on PS, I thought I would make a thread with resources for those interested in the metagame. With team folders, various legality fixes, and more now available, it is now more accessible than it ever has been. Tradebacks OU is often said to be this monolithic unexplored metagame, but hopefully, this thread and those fixes will take that excuse away!
Feel free to discuss anything in this thread; interesting findings, potential metagame threats, tiering action, how to deal with various aspects of the game, etcetera! This is something largely untapped by even hardcore RBYers, so chances are there's a lot for you to discover!
Introduction & History
"Tradebacks" is a term for trading RBY Pokemon with GSC to get better DVs and more moves that are otherwise unobtainable. This has been a massive morality and legality nightmare for many an RBYer, resulting in them being banned from standard play for over 20 years. However, a format allowing Tradebacks has quietly persisted ever since. I personally hold this metagame up alongside RBY and Stadium OU, making a kind of triad of formats. As a general rule, Tradebacks generally adds a lot more elemental punches and setup moves to the game, making for more "modern" movesets. This makes the game significantly more aggressive than your regular RBY OU, which is a nice change of pace, but this isn't to say stall isn't still a very potent force. There's a lot of back-and-forth interaction!
Viability Rankings
This VR was last updated on October 25th 2023. A Google Sheets document with each of the submitted rankings can be found here.
S:
Snorlax
Tauros
Alakazam
A:
Chansey
Starmie
Gengar
Exeggutor
Persian
B1:
Zapdos
Rhydon
Cloyster
Hypno
B2:
Slowbro
Jolteon
Jynx
OU/UU CUTOFF
C:
Lapras
Nidoking
Moltres
Vaporeon
D:
Articuno
Nidoqueen
Golem
Victreebel
Dragonite
Clefable
Sandslash
Porygon
Role Compendium
Since a lot of Pokemon get new moves, the roles you can see in a game are changed significantly. This role compendium aims to fix that.
Moves gained through Tradebacks are separated by an upper bar ( | ), so you can tell what Pokemon has been directly buffed to be capable of fulfilling this role. All ordering is specified and will be from left to right. If it's important, I'll also note % chances for stuff to hit/status and other details.
I can add more roles on request.
Sleepers
Ordered by Speed.
All Pokemon with sleep moves are cited, in the case that multiple Pokemon are in a tier, the higher accuracy moves are listed first. If a Pokemon gets the same move and has the same Speed, I default to alphabetical. I also removed any "worse" moves from here as well; eg. Jynx gets Lovely Kiss and Sing but you're really only using Lovely Kiss.
- Hypnosis (59.8%): |
- Lovely Kiss (74.6%): |
- Sleep Powder (74.6%):
- Sing (54.7%): |
All Pokemon with sleep moves are cited, in the case that multiple Pokemon are in a tier, the higher accuracy moves are listed first. If a Pokemon gets the same move and has the same Speed, I default to alphabetical. I also removed any "worse" moves from here as well; eg. Jynx gets Lovely Kiss and Sing but you're really only using Lovely Kiss.
Speed | Applicable Pokemon |
115 | (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
110 | (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
105 | (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
100 | (Sing, 54.7%) (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
95 | (Lovely Kiss, 74.6%) |
90 | (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
85 | (Lovely Kiss, 74.6%) (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
80 | (Sleep Powder, 74.6%) |
76 | (Lovely Kiss, 74.6%) |
70 | (Sleep Powder, 74.6%) (Lovely Kiss, 74.6%) |
67 | (Hypnosis, 59.8%) |
60 | (Sleep Powder, 74.6%) (Sing, 54.7%) (Sing, 54.7%) |
55 | (Sleep Powder, 74.6%) |
50 | (Sing, 54.7%) |
30 | (Lovely Kiss, 74.6%) |
Setup
Ordered alphabetically. Excluding Pokemon that get a better boosting move in the same stat.
Stat Boosts:
Stat Boosts:
- Agility (+2 Speed): |
- Amnesia (+2 Special): |
- Barrier (+2 Defense): |
- Growth (+1 Special): |
- Meditate (+1 Attack): |
- Swords Dance (+2 Attack): |
- Agility + Swords Dance: :farfetch |
- Reflect (+2 Defense during damage calc):
- Light Screen (+2 Special during damage calc): |
- Mist ("Tail Whip Flareon is scary"): |
- Focus Energy (+Crit but only in Stadium): |
Critical Hits
Ordered by numerical strength.
- Slash:
- Razor Leaf: |
- Crabhammer:
Speed Control & Paralysis
Ordered alphabetically.
- Speed Debuffs:
- Bubble Beam (-1, 33.2%):
- Paralysis:
- Body Slam (30.1%):
- Glare (74.6%):
- Thunder (10.2%):
- Thunderbolt (10.2%):
- Thunder Punch (10.2%): |
- Thunder Wave (99.6%):
- Stun Spore (74.6%):
Partial Trapping
Ordered by Speed.
- Clamp:
- Fire Spin: |
- Wrap:
- Bind:
- Agility + Fire Spin: |
- Agility + Wrap:
- Swords Dance + Wrap:
- Swords Dance + Bind:
Explosion & Self-Destruct
Ordered by strength, then alphabetically. No Pokemon gains anything here, so it's the same pool as OU. Pokemon that get Self-Destruct but also get Explosion are omitted from the Self-Destruct section. Note that Snorlax has the strongest Self-KO move in the game.
- Self-Destruct:
- Explosion:
Misc. Stuff I can't put anywhere else
Ordered alphabetically.
- Counter:
- Haze: |
Resources
While this metagame is generally underexplored, there are some resources out there that can help you!
Smogon Strategy Pokedex
With the help of Caetano93, Sample Sets for Tradebacks OU have populated the dex, though the moves learned through GSC haven't been put into their movepools yet. If you're not sure where to start with building, look no further than here!
RoA Sample Teams
Teams from experienced players will be stored here, pick one up and play right out of the box!
A Beginner's Guide to RBY Tradebacks (2021)
A somewhat old guide to Tradebacks OU produced with the assistance of players like Caetano93 and Enigami. Largely considered to be definitive for the time, featuring sample sets, every Tradeback move, and some surface-level metagame analysis. While the sets generally hold up, most metagame analysis is outdated.
An Introduction to Tradebacks OU (2015)
While a touch outdated these days, this is a solid introduction to the metagame that gives a (somewhat incomplete) list of Tradeback Moves to look out for. This is often the first guide people read before getting into the format. It overstates the relevance of some additions (like Hypno and Alakazam).
A somewhat old guide to Tradebacks OU produced with the assistance of players like Caetano93 and Enigami. Largely considered to be definitive for the time, featuring sample sets, every Tradeback move, and some surface-level metagame analysis. While the sets generally hold up, most metagame analysis is outdated.
An Introduction to Tradebacks OU (2015)
While a touch outdated these days, this is a solid introduction to the metagame that gives a (somewhat incomplete) list of Tradeback Moves to look out for. This is often the first guide people read before getting into the format. It overstates the relevance of some additions (like Hypno and Alakazam).
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