Looking back: Reflecting on the BW RU Metagame over time.

Molk

Godlike Usmash
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Idea stolen from skylight's NU thread, looked like a good/fun idea so lgi.

So now that X/Y are just around the corner (only a little more than a month until we get a whole new generation and things get shaken up). The generation 5 metagame is coming to a close, and we're looking into the future to see what X/Y brings us. But before that, i kinda want to backtrack for a second and look at the RU tier as a whole. RU has definitely gone through quite a few changes, and has had its highs and lows with suspect testing and tier changing and stuff, some people (such as me) have been here from the very start, some people have only started with the tier a matter of months ago, and there are a whole bunch of people in between. Some people might have preferred some metagames to others, or might looks back fondly at the early stages of BW1 RU. So, i have a few questions for all of you, not all of them need to be answered, so if you don't have an opinion on something feel free to leave it out.

1) what metagames do you think were the best/most exciting/most balanced, why?
2) what metagames weren't exciting/good for you, and why?
3) what are some of the general highlights through the metagames you played
4) what are some of the metagame trends you've seen reflecting on your experience with RU?
5) what do you think was the single most dangerous Pokemon to ever be RU? why?
6) what was the toughest RU battle you've ever had, why was it so fun/challenging? do you have any logs/replays?
7) what got you into RU in the first place, why did you decide to choose to play the tier, why did you continue?
8) out of all the metagames you've ever played, what was your favorite? Why was it your favorite?

As for the final question, i might run a poll right before the start of Pokemon X/Y to see what everyone's favorite metagame was, feel free to discuss your reasoning on why a specific metagame was your favorite with the other users in this thread!

happy posting :)
 
1) Now is most balanced. Mainly getting rid of the Bug Trio, Porygon-Z, Cresselia, and Alakazam early BW1 was a big part. BW2 made a lot of Pokemon better, and it was mainly random annoying stuff like Nidoqueen and Snow Warning very recently, and once they were banned, you have the perfect metagame.

2) In BW2, I mainly had hate of Keldeo, Torn-T, and Genesect in OU, Kyogre in Ubers, and Heracross in UU. But here? Nope.

3) My teams are generally pretty versatile, so I never use one thing, per say, in five out of six of my teams. But I did enjoy Nidoqueen.

4) Before Nido and Hail were banned, I had it stuck in my (noobish at the time) head that I had to go for balance to win in order to not get decamated. I've only began playing intelligently very recently, so that really doesn't count :p

5) Alakazam, hands down. I wasn't there for it, but it's dangerous in OU, which is saying how broken this thing is in RU, where they're weaker and frailer. It's Focus Sash set could be so broken here! Magic Guard is the cause of it. Magic Guard is one of the best abilities in the game imo, just look! The reason Reuniclus and Alakazam are in OU is because of it!

6) I do remember a really good replay! I was in Battling 101, and I was the first tutee of EonX-, and I have a replay! HailRUs is EonX, and I'm on the other side, sorry. This was prior to Hail ban, but it isn't relevant.

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ru-40321131

7) I got into RU just wanting to try a tier! I contienued due to the insane balanced state this metagame has.

8) I love this meta. Everything is viable, and hell, even some NU pokemon are good!

EDIT: First Post!
 
Cool thread, I'll reply for what I can reply =)

1. As I only expirienced 2 metagames, the Hail Meta and the Hail-less Meta, I found RU very fun to play in after hail was gone, as I simply lost to every hail team, wether it was stall or offense (derpme).
2. Well, the Hail Meta was annoying to me, for reasons I already mentioned.
3. I ended up using Magneton quite a lot in my teams, starting of with the DragMag team that looked very interesting after Oglemi made an DragMag RMT, and recently I started to use a Swellow+Magneton core, that works very well synergistic both offensively and defensively(even thou swellow has teh defenses of an piece of paper, it cans witch into EQ's) and have VolTurn =)
4. I started off by making balanced team, however I found out I do like a little more offensive orientated teams and RU has quite a lot of offensive treats so that was good.
5. Can't say anything 'bout this ;-;
6. Well, I don't really remember a tough/good battle, derp
7. I started off in UU, but I didnt like the tier due to every team containing about the same pokemon, mainly Chandelure and Victiny, so I decided to move down a Tier and settled in RU. After looking through the forums and defining the threats and good 'mons of the tier, I made a team and... Utterly failed. However, at that point I decided to join the IRC reguarly and I asked people on there like Molk and AtomicLlamas to help me improve my teams and now I can say I do understand the tier quite good =)
8. This one is definitely the most balanced tier on Smogon, with OU having weather all the time, UU having 'standard' pokes and Ubers being spammed with weather and Ekiller. Also I like how it uses 'mons that normally suck/aren't used much but get a chance to shine here. Druddigon is a perfect example.
 

EonX

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Great thread idea. Guess I'll answer with what I can:

1. I feel that the current meta is the most balanced, and thus, the most exciting. As someone who prides himself on finding new things and having fun trying out different stuff, this current metagame is fantastic. Every playstyle is viable (to varying degrees of course!) and there are so many Pokemon to look out for. Even lesser seen Pokemon are quite effective. This is highlighted the best by Mesprit imo. Despite being barely inside the top 50 in usage (which is totally bs btw) it has 7 viable sets on its analysis! If that doesn't show the versatility this tier has right now, idk what will. (heck Braviary, a NU Pokemon, has 4 viable sets)

2. Hail was annoying. Perhaps the biggest reason I started playing in RU in the first place was that it was free of perma-weather. For me, I've always believed that perma-weather is broken due to a couple of things; the primary reason being that a Pokemon has to take advantage of weather to be viable. A look at the current OU tier shows this perfectly with Pokemon such as Venusaur and Toxicroak being OU only for being able to abuse sun and rain respectively. When Hail was here, Glaceon and Walrein received usage to make RU only because they could abuse Hail. To me, that just screams broken on the basis of overcentralizing, but I digress.

3. This will again go back to me priding myself on being an "innovator" of sorts. A little over a year ago, I started using Scarf Emboar on one of my teams and a lot of people started using it afterward. Whether I was the first to discover this or if I made others realize how good it could be is debatable. Of course, Eagle Sparks was/is the team that I pride myself on the most, but discovering Substitute + 3 Attacks Gallade was also a neat quirk.

4. I seem to be the first to notice trends, or at least that's what it feels like. The Scarf Emboar team I still use today was about 5 months ahead of its time, but the metagame has slowly shifted to revolve around bulky offense. This was signaled with the rise of Bulky Swords Dance Gallade and Choice Scarf Emboar imo, but I've generally always made balanced/bulky offense teams since I started in RU as I like being able to go from offense to defense and vica versa.

5. CRESSELIA. My god, anyone who never played a Cresselia metagame should count themselves lucky. That thing was THE single biggest threat to ever grace (or terrorize) RU. The fact that it got banned not once, not twice, but three times should indicate that it was the single biggest threat to ever come to RU. There were plenty of others such as Honchkrow, Porygon-Z, and Alakazam, but Cresselia was the biggest, by far.

6. This dates back to when I was in Battling 101 when I was facing @SilentVerse for the first time. It was during the early stages of the Nidoqueen meta and I remember it being really close. I felt I had it... until I missed a Fire Blast with Moltres. Still, that battle gave me the confidence that I belonged here and that I could battle with some of the best in RU.

7. I can't remember the full reason as to why I started RU, but I know the tier looked like a lot of fun and so I gave it a shot. The versatility of the tier has kept me around. Although some might be turned off by the sheer amount of Pokemon you have to prepare for, that's just part of the fun to me. I view it as a challenge to overcome with every team I build and it adds to the fun of the tier as you never fully know what to expect when you head into battle. In OU, you can expect weather, in UU, there are a couple of standard threats you absolutely have to be ready for (Chandelur and Victini) but RU really doesn't have that one Pokemon you absolutely have to prepare for. Slowking comes the closest, but there are many viable Pokemon that can handle it. Ranging from very common Pokemon like Sceptile and Rotom-C to lesser seen Pokemon like Torterra and even Zweilous.

8. I love the current RU metagame. It's more than it just being based around my favorite playstyle. The sheer versatility and amount of Pokemon you can use is just incredible. For me, there's never a dull moment. If I get tired of using one team, there's 3 or 4 others I can start using again. It's easy to make a new team and you never know when you'll discover a new threat/Pokemon/set when you're trying stuff out just for fun. To me, that's the most important thing when I play in a metagame and it's why I love RU so much right now.
 

SilentVerse

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Man, this thread is making me feel all nostalgic :(. For what it's worth, here are my responses:

1. The last RU metagame with Honchkrow / Claydol / Sharpedo / Gligar. I feel this metagame is simply the most balanced metagame RU has ever had. Everything was sort of kept in check perfectly by other things that were in the tier, lots of stuff were viable, nothing was really overly dominant, and there was tons of room for creativity.

2. I think this is obvious for anyone who knows me, but...I think the metagames where Nidoqueen was in the tier were probably the least fun I've had playing RU in a long, long time. I'm not going to debate why I felt Nidoqueen was such a terrible influence on RU, but I will say that the way it limited so many things and teamstyles due to its combination of good typing + amazing coverage + ridiculously powerful special attacks + perfect Speed tier considering the state RU was in at the time kinda took away from one of the reasons why I had loved RU so much before the arrival of Nidoqueen; the feeling that you could pretty much use anything and succeed. With Nidoqueen in the tier, I definitely didn't feel that I was able to really build teams that I would have liked to play, and as a result, RU just didn't really feel that fun for me when Nidoqueen was in the tier, simply because I felt teambuilding was so limited. I mean, I guess I adapted to it over time, but even during stuff like SPL, I felt that trying to teambuild in RU was a chore...

3. If there's one thing that I've absolutely adored about RU throughout most of its metagames, it's the fact that in most RU metagames that I have played, pretty much everything is viable and has a solid niche in the metagame. That has always been one of the key reasons why I have mostly enjoyed playing RU throughout its lifespan.

4. FWG cores have naturally always been really big, as well as the use of Spikes and other hazards. Bulky offense / balance have generally been "the best" teamstyles in RU I feel, aside from in like Nidoqueen-era RU and certain times in the tier where stall has been dominant and people hadn't discovered an effective answer to it yet.

5. Cresselia. I didn't really play RU until after zam / sableye / the bugs were banned so I can't really comment on those, but of the Pokemon that were in the tier after those things were banned, Cresselia was easily the most dangerous in my opinion. While it didn't outright sweep through you in the way stuff like zam / sableye / yanmega / venomoth could, every single time Cresselia was in RU, it shifted the dynamic of the tier in such a ridiculous way simply by being a fat, bloated wall that never died ever. If you were running a more offensive team and didn't have something, or multiple things that could take a Thunder Wave and threaten Cresselia, you could easily risk just being walled by this thing as it sat on its ass and just alternated between Moonlight and weak attacks until all your Pokemon died.

6. I can't really remember any specific battles that I've had that were particularly amazing, but playing against Avira stall with my Butterfree team was probably the most challenging and aggravating, but somehow surprisingly fun, set of battles I have ever had. idk if it's because I'm crazy or something, but even though the team matchup was absolutely TERRIBLE (like, pretty much auto-loss bad), trying to come up with a way to actually overcome the absolutely terrible team matchup and win was kinda fun for me in some sick way, even though getting matched up with Avira all the time sucked because I'd lose so many ladder points on PO :<.

7. I got into RU because I wanted to play a metagame where I could dick around with shitty bugs like Butterfree and win. At the time, I had been playing UU extensively, and honestly, I wasn't really enjoying myself playing the tier. Somehow, I ended up doing really well with that shitty Butterfree team, and ended up talking a bunch in #rarelyused with some encouragement from user @Nails . Afterwards, I realized that I was really enjoying my time with the whole #rarelyused community and playing the tier, and I just eventually stopped playing UU and stuck around with RU. And, as many times as I have tried to quit playing this tier (and game), the #rarelyused community somehow keeps managing to pull me back, so yeah, #rarelyused is just 2gud.

8. Honestly, while I do think that the metagame with krow / Claydol / pedo / gligar was the best metagame objectively, the metagame I enjoyed the most was the one after all of those Pokemon left. While stuff like Cofagrigus and Tanking before more dominant with those Pokemon gone, to be completely honest, I actually really enjoyed the more centralized feel of the tier at this time. While Cofagrigus and Tanking were very strong, it also felt hilariously easy to come up with anti-metagame stuff that utterly demolished the core (like Choice Specs Mothim or Magmortar~), or creative stuff that countered the counters to the core (like Sdef Camerupt). I felt that in this metagame, the tier was constantly in a state of change since all the time, people were developing ways to beat common things or ways to beat those counters, and all in all, it was just a really fun time to be involved in the tier. RU right now is still a fun metagame and probably the best BW2 metagame imo, but idk, it just doesn't really replicate the magic of the tailend of BW1 RU for me :/.
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

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Guess I'll chime in :)

1. I'd say the most balanced RU metagame is the current RU metagame; you can viably run any playstyle from hyper offense to stall, and nothing stands out in the tier as extraordinarily broken. Many NU/Lower RU Pokemon have a lot of potential to do well; these include Samurott, Mesprit, Scolipede, Klinklang, Tauros, and so many others. I can fit a lot of Pokemon into my team. I love the variety; and overall it's a very enjoyable metagame atm.

2. I'd say every metagame that had Cresselia in it was by far the worst. Cresselia was the most broken Pokemon to ever step foot into the Rarelyused tier; seriously it's just so impossible to kill, even though we had Bugs in like every meta with it; Cresselia could still wall 90% of RU without any effort by virtue of its titanic bulk and recovery, plus its support movepool and immunity to Spikes. It was never fun to face Cresselia.

3. The fact that you could viably run a lot of Pokemon, even those from the NU tier, is something that I've always liked about RU. I've always used things like Charizard, Ludicolo, etc. to good success. I've also used Mesprit and liked it before it was cool, along with Absol and Emboar. (Mesprit has always been an overlooked mon throughout RU, it's always been great even in BW1). It's just really fun that I can be really diverse in my teambuilding.

4. Spikes users are really prominent in RU. There are a fuckton of viable Spikers in RU; the whole list here: Qwilfish, Smeargle, Omastar, Roselia, Scolipede, Accelgor, and Crustle. Balance and Bulky Offense are by far the best playstyles in RU and are the most effective in my opinion.

5. As I said before, Cresselia was by far the most broken and most dangerous Pokemon to ever step foot into RU. It has absolutely titanic bulk, and reliable recovery in Moonlight; Levitate means it's immune to Spikes, for fucks sake! This means Cresselia is so damn hard to kill; even super effective hits won't OHKO. Along with this; Cresselia provides ridiculous amounts of support to its team; it spreads paralysis, and it can be the best sun supporter or set up Dual Screens like no other. Cresselia was just so dangerous, and it deserved its banishment to BL2.

6. I don't really remember any aggrevating battles; although facing well made hail teams; especially Blue Hail, was pretty challenging.

7. When I first started competitive battling; I was merely an OU player and nothing else. Eventually someone told me that I should give the lower tiers a try; so eventually I asked a lot if I should try the lower tiers, and almost everyone I asked said that I should. So I hopped into the lower tiers, and RU (along with UU too) really hooked me up; how enjoyable RU was and its balance got me loving the tier in no time. So I kept playing the tier, and as I eventually started getting better knowledge of RU, I started getting more competent, and even with common threats like Druddigon and Slowking that you've gotta prepare for, it's still enjoyable. (and RU, when I joined, had plenty of my favorites; namely Mesprit, Scolipede, Sceptile, Escavalier, Cofagrigus (RIP), and more).

8. This metagame is probably the most balanced. I've just explained, but it's a lot of fun and nothing's broken.
 

Honko

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1) December 2011, when Krookodile, Honchkrow, Sharpedo, and Gligar were still RU and Spiritomb was still UU. Krookodile and Honchkrow were both really good influences on the tier because of their ability to check so many other offensive threats, without making any of them unviable (Rotom was an excellent Pokemon at the time even though Krookodile is practically a perfect counter to it). They put pressure on offensive teams to adapt and play smart, and it helped the metagame diversify and made matches more fun. This meta was especially great for Fighting-types, with Gallade, Medicham, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, and Primeape all being excellent options with multiple viable sets each (except maybe Primeape). Sub + Bulk Up Gallade was perhaps the most popular set in the metagame, but the other Fighting-types each had roles where they were clearly worth using instead, and you could even be successful with a Fighting spam team (against much stronger competition that we have now). When Spiritomb joined and we lost Krookodile, Sharpedo, Gligar, and Porygon-Z, it meant that Hitmonchan and Primeape lost most of their viability, and Medicham and Hitmonlee became much more limited in what roles they could play, leaving Gallade as the only one with a clear place in the meta. RU still has a lot of good variety and options to choose from now, but I think it was at its peak in the Krook meta.

3) GATR TIME

5) Either Yanmega or Alakazam. Yanmega had two sets that were both completely ridiculous and required completely different teams to counter. People used Probopass and Rock Slide Munchlax because of Yanmega, and they were justified in doing so. (j/k Probopass sucked even then, sorry Ogles). Alakazam was more predictable but still pretty much unstoppable unless Focus Blast missed against your Dark-type.

7) I started playing RU because Oglemi was leading it. I also liked that it was kind of a mix of some of my favorite DPP NU Pokemon with cool upgrades (Hitmonchan with stronger Drain Punch, Quagsire with Unaware, Manectric with Volt Switch, Slowking with Regenerator, Gligar with Eviolite) plus some of my favorite DPP UU Pokemon mostly unchanged (Feraligatr, Clefable, Primeape, Qwilfish, Steelix). The people were cool and the metagame was fun, so I stuck around.

I only answer odd-numbered questions. That's just how I roll.
 

Molk

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I guess i should answer the questions myself while i have time lol.

1) I liked a lot of RU's past metagames, although i'd have to say that my favorites overall are the metagame Silentverse mentioned in his post with Krow/Gligar/Claydol etc, The very end of BW1 RU, and any time between the end of the Nidoqueen meta and now. I found these metagames all at least somewhat balanced and they were all pretty enjoyable to play, tbh i miss a lot of the Pokemon from the former meta. Free Krow and Gligar :<.

2) Pretty much any metagame with Cresselia in it wasn't very fun to play at all :<. I'd argue that Cresselia was probably one of the most annoying Pokemon to face in the entirety of RU, and it just centralized the metagame so much tbh, there were only a select few Pokemon/sets that could outright kill her, and if you didn't pack these or an alternative method you just wouldn't be able to break through her at all (made matters worse that the majority of her checks were completely walled by wrath lol). A lot of the time matches vs Cresselia would turn into incredibly boring stallwars that while were good at times, really didn't appeal to me and got really tedious over time. I don't think i'd ever want to play RU with cresselia again, even in X/Y if it ends up being there (although the metagame might change to make her manageable :eek:).

3) I just really like the diversity RU's had for the majority of its existence. A huge amount of Pokemon are viable and its pretty easy to build effective teams around lesser used threats. Its also really fun to find really silly Pokemon (Scraggy, Murkrow, Stunfisk back in krow meta, etc) and see just how well you can make them work, pretty much anything that has even a shred of viability can work in the RU tier from my experience, and some silly gimmicks people at #rarelyused have used have actually become solid RU Pokemon as they got more and more well known, despite not being relevant before.

4) Champion Slowking. Throughout pretty much all of RU's metagames Slowking has been an incredibly good and popular Pokemon, and i think its one of the Pokemon that defines BW RU as it is today. Slowking has just been incedibly solid over the years between its typing, bulk, coverage, versatility, and Regenerator, and even holds the tier together in a way imo, forming great Regenerator cores and serving as a great check/counter to various top threats such as Entei, Emboar, Hitmonlee, etc all in one teamslot! I honestly can't imagine an RU tier without Slowking tbh, it'd just seem so different >.>.

5) Probably a tie between Cresselia and Yanmega. As i mentioned earlier, Cresselia was just incredibly annoying to face, and could often win entire games by herself simply because the opponent had no way to break through her and none of the select Pokemon and moves that could even hope to do so. It was just so easy to set up a win condition it wasn't even funny :/. Yanmega was one of the first Pokemon to be banned from the RU tier, and for good reason too! He had very few checks or counters at all, and both Speed Boost and Tinted Lens sets were very effective and hard to deal with, with the former cleaning up offense nicely and the latter giving defense/stall trouble, respectively. Yanmega was so powerful that even with its 4x Stealth Rock weakness, it still proved to be wayyy too powerful for the RU tier, and i think that goes to show how threatening it really was.

6) Battles against august's various BW2 RU Stall teams (hail or otherwise) were always pretty challenging and fun for me. Stall can be quite tough to crack if you're not careful (especially hail stall x_x), and august is a pretty good player, which made things even more challenging. I had to play pretty well to stand a chance at winning, and i had to think quite a bit about his possible game plans and how to break/play around his Pokemon (especially Alomomola and Walrein), if i misplayed at all it could cost me the match at times, which put a lot of pressure on me but hey, a good challenge is always fun. Out of all the matches i played i won some, i lost some, and a lot of them were really close and came right down to the wire (i think there was one where his last mon won the match with like 12% lol). Really cool guy, really tough opponent to face.

7) I actually started off as a (bad) wifi player that played mostly OU, but eventually i ended up battling against somebody who wanted an RU match, i was pretty interested so i took a look at the list of allowed Pokemon and threw together a team, needless to say, the match was pretty fun, and i wanted to play a little more, so i went on the PO server, got active on the forums and irc (whether it was a good thing or not >_>), and eventually ended up making the RU council and stuff.

8) Overall i'd probably say the metagame right now is my favorite metagame out of all of BW RU, everything's pretty balanced, a lot of things are viable, teams are easy to build and battles are fun to play, and this was when i was contributing to the tier the most (Final BW1 was a close second, but i only played for RU Metang 2012 lol).
 
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complete legitimacy

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Not gonna answer all the questions mainly because I'm lazy.

1/8 (they're kinda similar): I have to agree with SilentVerse that the end of BW1 was my favorite RU metagame of all time. I only started playing RU in early 2012, so I can't really comment on what Honko said, but I have always felt that no BW2 RU metagame will ever be as good as the metagame we had in BW1. I think that this is mainly for three reasons. One, I think that Nidoqueen's stint in the tier and and the unbanning and rebanning of Cresselia and Snow Warning really slowed the development of the metagame, where as soon as one was rebanned, there was always another broken thing waiting to be used and we were kinda back to square one. Two, I think that the lack of tier shifts at least partially caused by the move to PS meant that we were stuck with the same metagame after every opportunity and there wasn't an incentive to get playing again. Three, I think that community interest in the tier kinda waned as BW2 went on, so people weren't doing what SV described as happening in BW1; coming up with creative ways to counter common strategies and coming up with counters to those counters, and so on. I feel that the most talked about teams now are joke teams kinda says something.

5: Gothitelle. I probably would have quit RU if UU didn't ban it. Gothitelle was honestly the perfect trapper for the metagame, it was bulky and could take out almost any wall in the metagame. It also shat on literally every defensive Spiker (and spinners kinda, not sure how well it takes on Kabutops off the top of my head). I hate trappers in general so I'm at least a little biased, but I believe that Gothitelle wass the worst mon for the metagame that there ever has been in my time playing RU.

7: I got into the tier for the first time because I wanted to vote on the council so I could get a checkmark and not be labeled as a random badplayer. I had only been on Smogon for a little more than a month at that time so I made a ton of bad posts including a post on why CP Sigilyph was broken (I was the first, gg) and also an extremely long post on why Uxie was broken near the end of the round (check the Stage 5 np thread if you want to see them). I think I got started on IRC after that round ended, and #rarelyused was a great place where I got to know a bunch of good friends. Like I said, I really enjoyed the BW1 RU metagame in all of the stages that i played, so that kept me around for then. However, when it got to BW2, I was enjoying the metagame less and so the community aspect became my main reason to stay. Any time I have thought about stopping playing RU, the community and now even the nostalgia of how great things used to be have kept me around until now.

fuk this post is still long

edit: More on the community thing, I think that RU was a lot more fun when you played a bunch of the same people on the ladder who were at the top of their game and were always looking to get the jump on the next best thing. The way it is now, it's just mostly people who are oblivious to the state of the metagame and you hardly ever play the same person more than once, and even if you do it's likely not a good player, so the same old stuff will likely be enough to beat them.
 
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atomicllamas

but then what's left of me?
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Hmm, well, I got into competitive pokemon around January 2013 and I initially played UU (I know, the shame). But, eventually I got bored of UU and went looking for a new metagame, obviously OU sucked, so I said hey why not try RU? I played it for like 2 days, Cresselia made the meta so shitty, lol, I almost never played RU after that again. When I saw that Cressy had been banned, I decided I would give the new meta a try and it was awesome. RU was the first metagame I had ever peaked in the top 100 for, and I couldn't get enough of it. That was around the time I first started becoming more active in smogon and Rarelyused in particular, I probably was a really shitty contributor at the time, lol. I first went on IRC because of an NU tourney actually, @Lasagne21 asked me to go on there because we had timezone difficulties, and eventually I got to know all the awesome people on #rarelyused, who are seriously some of my favorite people on this site. Well enough about me, let's talk about RU.


1) what metagames do you think were the best/most exciting/most balanced, why? 8) out of all the metagames you've ever played, what was your favorite? Why was it your favorite? (3) is also answered here and above).

Okay, right now, I would say the metagame is the most balanced it has ever been in terms of when I have played the tier, so many things are viable in RU that you never know what to expect. However, I would say the most exciting meta (for me at least) was the queen meta just after the Cressy ban before hail was common (was it banned?). That's right IRC haters, Nidoqueen was awesome, it may have something to do with the fact that RU was so new to me, but I honestly have never had more fun in RU than during that meta.


2) what metagames weren't exciting/good for you, and why? 5) what do you think was the single most dangerous Pokemon to ever be RU? why?

Cresselia sucks. The ability to shit on every team in the tier unless it held like 3 counters to her just made RU unplayable for me.


4) what are some of the metagame trends you've seen reflecting on your experience with RU?

When I first started playing RU, one of the most common team building trend was Uxie+Queen+FWG core+filler, when Queen left the tier, the Uxie+FWG core build was still very popular and very good (it still is tbh). This lead to the rise of Druddigon, the best FWG core destroyer in the tier who only got better when queen left. The other trend I noticed, was that everyone and their mother started using hail when it was being suspected, it sucked balls.


6) what was the toughest RU battle you've ever had, why was it so fun/challenging? do you have any logs/replays?

There are so many awesome battles, but the most fun I ever had was when I met @Lolkomori on the RU ladder and we got into a Manectric vs. Manectric volt switch fight (we were both choice locked and fucked lol), I don't even think that we had ever talked before that, but now he is probably my best friend on smogon :). The battle that was the most challenging was also on the RU suspect ladder, when I beat @Molk despite him getting numerous hax against me, it was really awesome for me considering he had destroyed me the previous 4 times we met on the ladder (and is just better at RU than me, lol) ;-; (I actually have replay evidence of this one ;)).


7) what got you into RU in the first place, why did you decide to choose to play the tier, why did you continue?

Well, I decided to try RU because Quagsire and Lanturn were both in the tier, and my favorite mons in my youth. I think my first post in here was defending Quagsire being mid B in the viability ranking system, or something ridiculously noobish like that. What got me to stay, was the diverse meta game, all the cool people, and the fact that it was (and possibly still is) the only meta I was any good at :p.
 
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I'll answer what I can since I'm kind of new to RU, but I just have to post after playing so many games!

1) what metagames do you think were the best/most exciting/most balanced, why?

Well, I think this metagame now is THE most balanced meta in all of the tiers--ever. I've really only played this meta, but from what I can tell and replays I've seen, I can conclude that hail and Cresselia are both pains. Plus, I've played all tiers (sorry NU, I didn't get to you) pretty much and have seen that every team has the same Pokemon. Here, it doesn't matter.

2) what metagames weren't exciting/good for you, and why?

I can't really answer this since I joined RIGHT after hail was banned.

3) what are some of the general highlights through the metagames you played

I think the best part of the RU meta is that it doesn't matter if you use defensive teams or offensive. It could still go either way! UU was either hyper offensive or you''re setup fodder. In RU, every Pokemon is good in its own way.

4) what are some of the metagame trends you've seen reflecting on your experience with RU?

Well, once I joined I noticed the top 3--Slowking, Druddigon, and Entei. As I usually do, I hopped on the bandwagon and used all three of these--just to learn that none of them fit me. Instead, I found counters or checks to each of these. With the present trends, I've been able to go beyond the Pokemon I would have picked and choose different ones. I'm enjoying Specs Typhlosion more than Banded Entei. I also love how every Pokemon has its own counter. It's not broken. In my experience, I've been able to actually set up a couple of teams that have decent synergy because they can cooperate and each Pokemon has a niche of beating something. In UU, it's just attack, attack, attack, attack!

5) what do you think was the single most dangerous Pokemon to ever be RU? why?

I think the most dangerous Pokemon in RU is Yanmega. Yes, I didn't really get to see it, but even in UU it wrecks. Choice Specs Tented Lens literally like 2HKO's everything. It's not even funny. I don't see how Yanmega could ever have been RU.

6) what was the toughest RU battle you've ever had, why was it so fun/challenging? do you have any logs/replays?

The toughest battle I faced was against a Trick Room team with the infamous Smeargle set. If it wasn't for Uxie's paralysis and Kabutops' priority I would have lost. I do have the replay, but I'd rather not show it because...I just don't want to.

7) what got you into RU in the first place, why did you decide to choose to play the tier, why did you continue?

Well, OU is broken. Keldeo, Landorus, and whatever else made some core that beat me every time, and when I tried it I failed. I hate OU now. UU is amazing; I still love it, but it's just boring. Every team has Heracross, Chandelure, Kingdra/Flygon, Snorlax, Victini, Mienshao, or Blastoise. It gets depressing. RU, though, has so much potential in every Pokemon. I love the tier. If I wanted to, I bet I could even get Torterra to work. UU and RU will forever be my domains now...OU is just too mainstream.

8) out of all the metagames you've ever played, what was your favorite? Why was it your favorite?

This is my favorite, both in RU and...ever. I've been able to appreciate Pokemon I used to despise because it actually does work in the tier (Emboar). I'm just so impressed on how balanced it is. I've never seen any tier--any metagame--in my 5th gen battling career so balanced. As atomicllamas said, I'm actually at my best with this tier :D
 

Nails

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1) what metagames do you think were the best/most exciting/most balanced, why?

Post smashpass-ban pre bw2, except for the zam/sableye meta was the best time in ru. Maybe excluding those couple weeks where everyone discovered bulky agility peezy was broken. I didn't like sharpedo much either. But except for those mons the meta was essentially perfect, balance was dominant which let so many more pokemon be viable. I really think escavalier did bad stuff for the meta, before escav the strongest pokemon were entei, durant, and aggron, but I really just didn't like the shift it caused.

2) what metagames weren't exciting/good for you, and why?

Hail because fuk hail, cresselia because fuk cresselia, bug meta because munchlax was standard. I also don't like the current meta because stall is viable. And nidoqueen because lols.

Off the beaten path, I didn't like the sceptile spam phase of bw1, or the moltres spam phase. Both of those mons were extremely annoying to deal with, and if it were up to me I would've banned them both at the time.

3) what are some of the general highlights through the metagames you played

The gallade/rotom-n/krook meta was tons of fun. Gligar was surprisingly well balanced considering its broken physical bulk since it didn't have immunity + roost or sr yet. You could still toxic and roost stall an ice beam claydol if it didn't have toxic though, lol.

4) what are some of the metagame trends you've seen reflecting on your experience with RU?

Parroting what sv said, FWG has been really strong, and that kind of core is pretty central to the ideal metagame I was trying to build. The late 2011 meta with fighting/dark/ghost is a twist on FWG that's still an rps but just as good imo. Offensive tanks have been relatively strong through this gen, since most of the glass cannon pkmn are either too strong and get banned or aren't strong enough and aren't that useful. So, balance has been a fairly common theme in RU.

5) what do you think was the single most dangerous Pokemon to ever be RU? why? Cresselia, because it sweeps you and you can't do a thing about it. After cm moonlight stab you can beat anything you want with the last move, reflect lets you take under 50 from cb escav megahorn, twave team supports like a boss and sweeps, ice beam is a great all out sweeper, hp fire works too if that's your thing... It's not really close.

6) what was the toughest RU battle you've ever had, why was it so fun/challenging? do you have any logs/replays?

My mirror match with windsong in spl 2, my team was like 1-6 so we decided to have some fun and I made a team where every turn was a mindgame with about 3 appropriate counter moves depending on what the opponent did. I got absolutely stomped. And it was fun.
7) what got you into RU in the first place, why did you decide to choose to play the tier, why did you continue?

<Nails> when the tier was announced
<Nails> i rushed to irc and registered #ru #rarelyused and #genvru
<Nails> somewhat as a joke
<Nails> and oglemi joined the channel
<Nails> and said he was leading the tier
<Nails> and asked if i wanted to be a mod
<Nails> and then he did everything behind the scenes
<Nails> and said i could be his tiering assistant
<Nails> and a couple months later he posted a thread getting me mods

I put a lot of effort into setting up a tight-knit group of players when we were trying to gain a footing at the beginning of gen 5. Basically I wanted the core group of RUers to be like dpp LC had been. I also decided we should try to make the tier as fun to play as possible, again to get more people hooked, and so to accomplish that I decided to aggressively ban mons that made the game less fun. Which is obviously a subjective thing but whatever. After a while I realized that the tier was actually really cool (late 2011) and that I'd done good. With durant and cresselia banned, and my campaign against sharpedo finished, there was nothing left to do. I decided that my work was done, and since mons was getting boring I quit.

Then you all fucked up my perfect awesome tier by not banning everything. How could you? ;_;

8) out of all the metagames you've ever played, what was your favorite? Why was it your favorite?

December 2011 because qht, that team literally stomped everything. Nothing could touch it for about a month, it's the most dominant I've ever seen a pkmn team. RIP Gligar. <3

Special mention goes to pre-spooky manor zam, because pulling sub/encore shenanigans was so much fun. Also I miss Rhyperior, he fit so well into RU and it's a shame UU stole him.
 
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1) What metagames do you think were the best/most exciting/most balanced, why?I think this RU meta is one of the best metas in all BW/BW2. You can use basically every pokemon you want successfully, even NU pokes!
There is no overcentralization around any threat (Slowking is everywhere but he doesn't force you to use some pokes to deal with him) and you can freely try creative sets.
2) What metagames weren't exciting/good for you, and why?
I didn't like the last Cresselia retest which was coincidentally the first RU meta i had ever played and that kept me off from the tier for a bit. Cresselia just doesn't die EVER
3) What are some of the general highlights through the metagames you played?I have always loved the freedom in teambuilding, almost everything was viable.
4) What are some of the metagame trends you've seen reflecting on your experience with RU?
FWG cores are strong and after getting into RU i started using them also in other tiers with success.
5) What do you think was the single most dangerous Pokemon to ever be RU? why?
For what i had seen i say for the defensive spectrum Cresselia and on the offensive side Nidoqueen
6) What was the toughest RU battle you've ever had, why was it so fun/challenging? do you have any logs/replays?
I think it was a battle against an hail team, when i thought it was all lost i tried some crazy predictions that won me the game. Unfortunately i don't have any logs for it.
7) What got you into RU in the first place, why did you decide to choose to play the tier, why did you continue?
I got into RU because i was bored of the continuous wheater wars up in OU and i wanted to try Galvantula and Crawdaunt. I kept playing because i found a very fun tier with a lot of cool pokes
8) Out of all the metagames you've ever played, what was your favorite? Why was it your favorite?I really liked the NU meta immediatly after Amoonguss ban, double bird offense was just so much fun
 
Bumping to share my thoughts, and maybe provide a different spin to the way these questions are answered.

1/8) My two favorite/balanced metas are the current meta and the meta right after Honchkrow left. I think we've reached a good level of balance right now, and the other meta was the one around when I really started getting into RU so it has sentimental value.

2/3) I'm not sure how to react to this, but the most... unique day in RU history was July 1, 2012. Three notable things happened that day:
1. Nidoqueen descended from UU starting her controversial year-long reign.
2. Metang rose from the ashes of PU to force it's way into RU.
3. Most dubious of all, the now universally ridiculed Sandslash was top 3 in usage.

5) Cresselia, more because I wasn't around for all the early broken stuff. Interestingly enough, when the retest was first suggested, there was actually more support for retesting Cress than there was for the now happy Durant. I do want to give an honorable mention to Nidoqueen and Honchkrow, the two most threatening Pokemon that (arguably) were not broken.

7) There were several reasons actually, and unfortunately all of them were trivial, mainly because I was still a lurker when I got into the tier. First, as Poliwrath is my favorite Pokemon, it was nice to be in a tier where Poliwrath was useful. Second, it was a "new" tier which by default intrigued my interest. Third, since PU was never made official, it was the lowest tier with a definite floor. At the time, I liked the stability of it and thought I could hav the satisfaction of raising a Pokemon to RU (although I could not achieve what Molk did with Metang). Finally, I never really liked the pixie BST 600 legendaries, and this was the highest tier without them.
 

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