All Gens Retro Other Metagames Index

Ransei

Garde Mystik
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With the popular idea of trying out something new on Smogon, OM has been a staple to the rise of innovation in Smogon's community. Many fun, unique formats have been created and enjoyed upon by the Other Metagames community, with dedicated playerbases running resources and competitive tours for them. With each new generation, a new batch of OM formats are made. New gen OMs tend to take more spotlight in the present moment, leaving many players' experiences with old gen OMs only left to be cherished in their memories. Many notoriously favored old generation OM formats become unpopularized and removed from PS ladder whenever a new generation gets released and they are often overshadowed by old gen official tiers or Unofficial Metagames in public monthly ladder voting. In order to give more recognition to our most favored past gen OMs and have them playable again, I bring to you, Retro Other Metagames!

Retro Other Metagames are a group of old gen OM ladder formats that have proven to be notoriously favored by players in the past and are at least somewhat competitive. This project aims to maintain old popular OM formats, expand both Other Metagames and Ruins of Alph further through integration, and increase OM's representation on Smogon.
Retro OM ladders are divided into three categories:
Core Retro Ladders - These are the main OM ladders of this project. They each represent a core factor to what makes an OM valuable and set a baseline for old gen OM representation in Ruins of Alph. These ladders have a place of high importance on Pokémon Showdown and will stay as ladders indefinitely. They are as follows:
Pure Hackmons is recognizable for being one of the most heavily fantasized Pokémon battling concepts in any community. It is a complete sandbox format where existing Pokémon can be customized to have any move and any ability within their respective Pokémon game. An extraordinary amount of Pokémon fans love theorymonning Pokémon, wondering what would happen if X (Pokémon) had Y (move and/or ability) and wanting to use these theorymons in practice. This is the very basis of what Other Metagames was built upon. Pure Hackmons is the grandfather of OM as it was one of the first ever OM formats released and its concept most accomplishes the aforementioned basis of OM. The latter also why Pure Hackmons has remained a consistently popular concept in the Smogon and Pokémon Showdown communities. In addition, Pure Hackmons is the only possible Pokémon format able to exceed Anything Goes's limitations while still functioning as a Pokémon-based metagame, allowing players to battle with Pokémon to the absolute fullest.

Gen 6 has been chosen to represent Pure Hackmons as a Core Retro Ladder because it is the freest and most competitive generation of the metagame. While Pure Hackmons isn't the most competitive format, all of the most broken and centralizing things balance each other out very well, and all the most uncompetitive mechanics of Pokémon are either outclassed or neutralized by more consistent mechanics (Wonder Guard and No Guard make evasion almost entirely pointless but are more competitive on their own). This makes Gen 6 Pure Hackmons an easy metagame to strategize around beating anything in. Generation 6 Pure Hackmons has also proven to allow players to successfully run many of the most popularized theorymon ideas (think about Wonder Guard Spiritomb, No Guard Sheer Cold Deoxys-Speed, and Sturdy Shedinja), while having the most room for creativity in a Pure Hackmons format.
Balanced Hackmons is the head flagship OM. It most successfully combines the theorymon basis of Other Metagames with the philosophy behind official Smogon tiering. This by definition means that any mechanic considered to be excessively broken, unhealthy, or uncompetitive can be removed from the metagame. This is done in an effort to make the metagame as free and competitive as it can be. The primary aim of Balanced Hackmons is simply to create a less centralized variant of Pure Hackmons and have the metagame set to where it can permanently have a sustainable future. If something too overbearing gets introduced to the metagame in a new game or new generation, Pure Hackmons cannot remove it, but Balanced Hackmons can! Despite this, Balanced Hackmons does not fully replace Pure Hackmons as it sacrifices all of the most appealing aspects about the theorymon basis for its sustainability. This sacrifice allows for Balanced Hackmons to be used as the front of OM's competitive scene and makes the metagame more appealing to players wanting to explore the more competitive side of OM. Competitive players who are more interested in finding a balance between theorymon basis and Smogon tiering tend to have interest in Balanced Hackmons and become part of its valuable playerbase. The Balanced Hackmons playerbase is highly valuable and is one of the largest within the OM community.

Gen 7 was chosen to represent Balanced Hackmons because it was the most complete and popular generation of the metagame during its peak. Gen 7 Balanced Hackmons is an extremely diverse metagame with an active playerbase dedicated to contributing to the format. It is tiered cautiously by Balanced Hackmons experts. This metagame was popular enough to receive an incredibly high demand for its return and a continuous amount healthy discussion of its metagame following Generation 7. It is also fitting as the difference in generation allows the format to stay in separate barriers from Gen 6 Pure Hackmons.

Permanent Retro Ladders - These are for formats that have received a permaladder through traditional matters and have shown consistent success for the Other Metagames community. They remain as ladder formats until they either consistently die out in plays or their current gen format becomes independent and becomes their unique subforum. The generation of these formats can be changed through community demand. Permanent Retro Ladders are decided by OM forum leaders.

Temporary Retro Ladders - These are ladders of concepts that have shown success, but not enough during their peak to predict it would consistently succeed as an old gen ladder. These do not have to be in the same generation they were successful in nor do they have to exist in the current generation. They are cycled away after ~3 months, or sooner if they hit below 500 games a month. If they become highly popular during their 3 month duration, they may transcend to Permanent Retro Ladder status in the future. There cannot be more than one Retro OM ladder of the same format at a time. Temporary Retro Ladders are decided by the OM forum moderation team. Future tiebreakers are settled by OM forum leaders.
- The remaining old gen OM formats can still become RoA Spotlight ladders in any gen of which they aren't currently Retro OM Ladders in. They can be selected as RoA Spotlight through community choice or staff pick.

Core Retro Ladders:
Permanent Retro Ladders:
Temporary Retro Ladders:


Anyone can use this thread to ask questions about Retro OM and its formats.
 
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Ransei

Garde Mystik
is a Forum Moderatoris a Community Contributoris a Battle Simulator Moderatoris a Battle Simulator Admin Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnus
It's been a while since this thread was last used, but I have a couple of announcements to make.

Firstly, Old Gen Independent OMs can now be Retro OM Ladders! This decision was made to increase the popularity of Retro Other Metagames overall. If the Independent OM becomes an Official Metagame in the future and the Retro OM Ladder for its format is permanent, that format can just simply be moved to a different category on ladder searches.

Secondly, to accommodate for the 512 player BW ZU Breadwinners Tournament, BW ZU has become a Temporary Retro Ladder! It can be found with the other Retro OM ladders on the far right center of the formats search. OM Staff will be looking into how popular this metagame becomes during the months during and after this Breadwinners Tournament.

Enjoy :blobwizard:
 

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