Santa Showdown

[Twix]

Approved by Eevee General and The Immortal
Santa Showdown

Premise:

This metagame is based upon the mechanics of Present, which can be found here (Can be edited if you feel the need):

Damage with 40 base power |40%
Damage with 80 base power |30%
Damage with 120 base power |10%
Heal the target by 80 HP |20%

What is this metagame?

The theme of this metagame is that no move actually has a set base power, it is determined by luck of the draw. Every time you or your opponent picks a move it is subject to randomization which produces an outcome. The type of the move will be determined by the original move it was supposed to be so Tackle would be Normal-type and Flare Blitz would be Fire-type.

Clarification + Clauses:
- Standard OU Clauses.
- Status moves work as normal and are not subject to the ramifications.
- Protean changes types in accordance to the move used.
- Secondary effects such as recoil and stat drops will still be connected to that move, making moves like Lava Plume preferable over Flamethrower.
- Multiple hit moves will have the same damage as they had before, but still have a chance to heal the opponent once.
- Abilities such as Blaze or Serene Grace still factor in.
- Accuracy of all moves stay the same.
- Moves with set damage won't be altered.
- Moves that lock you in, such as Outrage or Petal Dance will have different effects each turn.

Examples:

Examples

Altaria-Mega @ Altarianite
Ability: Pixilate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rage
- Dragon Claw
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

Rage is an attack which can actually become very good in the metagame, especially when matched with an Altaria. It gains the Pixilate boost, a STAB boost, and raises Altaria's attack when it is damaged by an opponent.


Chatot @ Choice Specs
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Chatter
- Echoed Voice
- U-turn
- Heat Wave

Chatot surprisingly gains a buff in this metagame as Chatter doesn't always deal the weak 65 BP and can even hit at 120 BP with STAB and confuse a foe. Echoed Voice works well in combination with Choice Specs as it does gain double damage per turn, as well as the randomized damage roll.

 

[MegaGallade]

Looks like a very haxy metagame o_o

EDIT:

I think stall would be very good in this game due to the healing and 40BP chances (which, put together, happens 60% of the time) added the fact status moves are completely unaffected.

 

[Twix]

MegaGallade added the approval, and I could take suggestions from others as towards balancing the metagame.

 

[Snaquaza]

MegaGallade added the approval, and I could take suggestions from others as towards balancing the metagame.

Honestly, I think that this metagame will stay haxy when you keep to its idea. It's probably the best to try to live with it and find out how it helps some things and see how the metagame develops from there. I agree with MegaGallade that stall will be good because they're mostly unaffected, and most Pokemon will want to use non-damaging attacks now. Even more offensive teams will use a stallbreaker rather than a wallbreaker, seeing how unreliable wallbreakers are now.

 

[xJownage]

I think its the other way around, actually. Anything with recovery can just keep slapping defensive threats until eventually they break through. Status and secondary effects make it easy to get around walls, and two high rolls means the death of a defensive threat. Bulky sweepers with recovery will utterly dominate this meta.

 

[canno]

Here's a scary set-up sweeper (although no recovery)

Pinsir @ Pinsirite
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Quick Attack
- Storm Throw
- Bulldoze / Fury Cutter / Knock Off

Storm Throw (and Frost Breath) is one of the strongest moves in the game, since it always crits no matter what the BP is, meaning it's either a 60, 120, or 180 move depending on the Present Effect put on it. Also, due to the fact that both Return and Quick Attack can be the same BP now, there's no need to run Return. This leaves room open for both Storm Throw and Bulldoze. Bulldoze doesn't actually hit much that Storm Throw doesn't, so it's the more disposable of the two coverage. I'm not entirety sure how Fury Cutter would work here. If it works how I think it does it's stupid - doubling whatever power your move is at each time you use it. However, if it doesn't work that way use Bug Bite. Koff is also an option.

Sadly not a lot more that seems viable gets Storm Throw or Frost Breath, but there's other cool moves. Power-Up Punch is now the premier fighting coverage for the large group of mons that get it. Mega Lopunny could also be a threat, with Quick Attack or Facade / Fake-Out / Power-Up Punch / Encore or Ice Punch.

 

[MK]

A bunch of moves get buffed here. Off the top of my head, they include:
Fell Stinger
Pretty much all priority
Venoshock
Charge Beam
Multi-hit moves (they probably need to be nerfed or left alone)
Moves with a high crit ratio
Rock Smash
And many more I'm forgetting.

Also there's not much reason to use high base power moves now, as they are inacurrate and easily replaceable with moves with more PP and side effects.

 

[motherlove]

Wait so if multi hit moves have the same damage as they had before does that mean they still hit at 125 with 5 hits? If yes mega hera could be nice since you're sure to have significant damage and you can run power up punch as your fighting stab (he gets it right?).

 

[I like donkeys]

No matter how many times i reread this thread i have no idea how this works lol can someone please elaborate?

 

[vanderlylic]

No matter how many times i reread this thread i have no idea how this works lol can someone please elaborate?

From my understanding, everything is the same except that when you select an attacking move, the base power is random. 40% of the time, the base power will be 40BP, 30% of the time, the base power will be 80BP, 10% of the time the base power will be 120BP and 20% of the time, instead of doing damage, the move will instead restore the target by 80HP.

 

[SpartanMalice]

If I'm getting this right, with the exception of Seismic Toss, Storm Throw, Frost Breath, etc, every move's effects remain the same, but the damage output is varied. For instance, Tyranitar's Smack Down - it's BP should vary from 40 - 120 (40 % to 10%) but it's intended effect of grounding the opponent should remain the same. Charizard could use Flame Charge, and Heatran wouldn't have to choose between Lava Plume and Fire Blast, as with Volcarona's Fiery Dance/Fire Blast.

 

[Twix]

If I'm getting this right, with the exception of Seismic Toss, Storm Throw, Frost Breath, etc, every move's effects remain the same, but the damage output is varied. For instance, Tyranitar's Smack Down - it's BP should vary from 40 - 120 (40 % to 10%) but it's intended effect of grounding the opponent should remain the same. Charizard could use Flame Charge, and Heatran wouldn't have to choose between Lava Plume and Fire Blast, as with Volcarona's Fiery Dance/Fire Blast.

Basically it.

 

[SpartanMalice]

It could make for a fun metagame. 30% is a decent number for middling damage, 20% is pretty lulzy, and 10%, well, just pray you're lucky.

 

[zerobreaker000]

Just like Move Equality, moves with a guaranteed secondary effects are going to be useful here. Quoting a list of such moves:

Lower-power moves with definite side effects:

• Wrap/Bind/Infestation/Whirlpool/Sand Tomb/Fire Spin/Clamp (trapping)
• Nuzzle (paralysis)
• Leech Life/Absorb/Mega Drain/Parabolic Charge/Draining Kiss (drain)
• Power-Up Punch (+1 Atk to self)
• Acid Spray (-2 SpD)
• Struggle Bug (-1 SpD)
• Flame Charge (+1 Spe to self)
• Snarl/Mystical Fire (-1 SpA)
• Mud Shot/Icy Wind/Electroweb/Rock Tomb/Low Sweep/Glaciate (-1 Spe)
• Chatter (confusion)

As well as Mud-Slap.

Acid Spray may be the best special poison move here, with the chance to weaken the opponent's SpA, making it much easier to break through. Struggle Bug isn't bad too, and Mud-Slap, oh god, is going to be everywhere.

 

[Gleeb]

Wait, so every move can either have 40, 80, or 120 bp, regardless of how much bp it had originally? If that is the case, I'd like to make a suggestion to keep it a bit more balanced, in that rather than setting every move to have the same potential powers, setting each move to have the potential to do a percentage of its original base power. So for instance, using the same percentages from present and assuming present has an standard base power of 80 (I think), applying that to a 60 base power move would mean that move would instead have a 30% chance to hit for its regular base power of 60, a 40% chance to hit for 1/2 of its original power and have 30 base power, a 10% chance to do 3/2 of its original power and have a base power of 90, and apparently have a 20% chance to heal the opponent in some way. Seems to me like having this applied would still add the sense of luck I think you're going for with this OM while not completely making moves with high power not even worth using compared to weaker moves of the same type that have side affects and higher accuracy.

 

[Zukrad]

This seems very like a very fun Dice-Rolling War.

And since everything has the same base power (40, 80 or 120), moves like power-up punch and twineddle seems really threatening.

btw, how this will work with the expert ability?

 

[urkerab]

how this will work with the expert ability?

Do you mean the Technician ability? (I tried and failed to find out whether Technician affects Present.)

 

[Twix]

Wait, so every move can either have 40, 80, or 120 bp, regardless of how much bp it had originally? If that is the case, I'd like to make a suggestion to keep it a bit more balanced, in that rather than setting every move to have the same potential powers, setting each move to have the potential to do a percentage of its original base power. So for instance, using the same percentages from present and assuming present has an standard base power of 80 (I think), applying that to a 60 base power move would mean that move would instead have a 30% chance to hit for its regular base power of 60, a 40% chance to hit for 1/2 of its original power and have 30 base power, a 10% chance to do 3/2 of its original power and have a base power of 90, and apparently have a 20% chance to heal the opponent in some way. Seems to me like having this applied would still add the sense of luck I think you're going for with this OM while not completely making moves with high power not even worth using compared to weaker moves of the same type that have side affects and higher accuracy.

I think this would be an interesting idea, but it seems like it would be a bit confusing to add in. If you could provide some examples, I will consider it.

 

[Zukrad]

Do you mean the Technician ability? (I tried and failed to find out whether Technician affects Present.)

Ups yeah, i mean Technician LOL (Im spanish and Technicianis translated to "Experto")

 

[Gleeb]

I think this would be an interesting idea, but it seems like it would be a bit confusing to add in. If you could provide some examples, I will consider it.

Basically I was thinking every move's damage would randomly be multiplied by 0.5, 1, or 1.5 when you attack so they could either do less, the same, or more damage than they originally did. So like a 20 base power move would either have 10 bp, 20 bp, or 30 bp, a 45 bp would either have 22.5 bp, 45 bp, or 67.5, and a 70 bp move would either have 35 bp, 70 bp, or 105 bp. And I suppose to make the moves more like present, they should also have the possibility to heal the opponent. Is that all you meant by providing examples?

 

[En Passant]

Moves would heal the opponent equivalent to their base power if we did this, because the logic behind it is that Present would have 80 BP and it heals for 80 HP.

 

[NabboCheTesta]

Lol. This meta is lulzy. In my opinion, stall will make for the best strategy out there, as they count on the still good and reliable res. damage.