Multi Gen Rules, General Information, and Helpful Links

Status
Not open for further replies.

Fireburn

BARN ALL
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Welcome to Ubers! Here is some information below to get you started. Most of the information here pertains to Gen 6, but discussion of past gen Ubers metagames is allowed and encouraged as well. You are expected to read these rules before posting a thread.



Rules and General Information
As I'm sure you're aware, this is part of Competitive Discussion, which means that the main forum rules still apply here. Be sure to read those, as well as the rules in this thread, before posting in the subforum.

Any questions that can be answered in a single post should go in Simple Questions, Simple Answers.
  1. This is the Ubers subforum, so please make sure that anything you post is relevant to the Ubers metagames. Do not discuss whether Uber Pokemon should be allowed in other tiers. Ubers viability has no relevance on OU tiering, so even if something is bad here, it does not mean that it should automatically be tested in OU.
  2. Bringing the topic of banning a Pokemon / Item / Move from Ubers will result in an infraction.
  3. All threads must be approved by a moderator before being posted.
Battle Clauses:
- Sleep Clause Mod: Limit one foe put to sleep
- Species Clause: Limit one of each Pokemon
- Moody Clause: Moody is banned
- OHKO Clause: OHKO moves are banned
- Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
- HP Percentage Mod: HP is reported as percentages
- Swagger Clause: The usage of the move Swagger is prohibited
- Mega Rayquaza Ban Mod: You cannot mega evolve Rayquaza
- Evasion Clause: The moves Double Team and Minimize are banned.


Ubers Leadership:

Don't forget that the rules are subject to moderator discretion. If you have questions about the rules or their interpretation, then feel free to contact an Ubers moderator via PM. The following is a list of the current Ubers staff members:
For more Ubers discussion, come join us in the PS! Ubers room!


On Mega Rayquaza's Ban:
For the last 3 or so generations there has been some tension over what exactly Ubers is. Is it a tier? Is it just OU's banlist? Is it OK to ban things from Ubers? Well, thanks to GameFreak and Power Creep, we have some answers for you.

- Ubers is now the name for the tier above OU. It is no longer just a banlist.
- We are adding a new metagame called Anything Goes (AG). AG has no bans, and no clauses, except for Endless Battle Clause. AG is the spiritual successor to (old) Ubers.
- Mega evolving Rayquaza will not be possible in the Ubers metagame.


Redefining the tier system

When I first started playing competitive Pokemon, there was no point in playing the Ubers metagame, as there simply weren't enough Ubers for its metagame to be distinct enough from OU. In RBY, the only Ubers were Mew and Mewtwo. In XY, there are currently 50 Ubers--compare that to the 56 strictly OU Pokemon we have at the moment! Next generation we may have MORE Ubers than strictly OU Pokemon, which is a really weird thought. Anyway, the point is: we have enough to try to make a workable metagame out of this set, and considering Ubers to be just a banlist is doing a disservice to the community.

Here is how I am constructing the tier system:
  • OU is the most fundamental tier. It is defined by removing Pokemon from the metagame until the metagame is "not overcentralized" (where the threshold for centralized is kinda arbitrary). In practice, removing all of the fanservice-y cover legends is a good heuristic. We run suspect tests to ban/unban anything that the heuristic fails on.
  • We consider it desirable to have, for each Pokemon, at least one metagame where it is reasonable to use that Pokemon. Since many Pokemon will be unusable in OU, we stratify the rest of the Pokemon by how often they are used. Each tier is balanced in a similar way to OU (except for experiments like UU). You can expect tiers lower than OU to not be overcentralized.
  • Anything above OU by definition will be overcentralized. Ubers is the first tier above OU. Assuming M-Ray is banned from Ubers, you can expect the metagame to revolve around Primal Groudon (my best guess, anyway). One could imagine stratifying Ubers by usage similar to OU, although at the moment there aren't enough Pokemon in the tier for this to make sense.
  • "Anything Goes" (Ubers+) is a philosophically-motivated metagame that does not have any clauses or banned Pokemon. Its existence is enough to ensure there is always a metagame where you can use a particular Pokemon. We do not intend to ever allow Anything Goes matches count towards a Smogon trophy.
What are some criteria for banning things from Ubers? We don't quite know yet, but here are some warning signs:
  • This Pokemon/ability/etc unreasonably raises the volatility of Ubers. Think Moody or OHKO spam.
  • This Pokemon is ~unreasonably~ centralizing. Think 70%+ usage. Even Xerneas was (I think) ~45% usage.
  • Related to the above point: This Pokemon is obviously in a different power bracket than most of the other Ubers. I argued earlier that M-Ray was in a different power bracket because it is the first ~800 BST Pokemon with a useful ability and unrestricted item.
  • It is no fun to play or watch matches with this Pokemon/ability/etc (henceforth just Pokemon) allowed. Having this Pokemon in Ubers makes me want to play some other meta. I would be bored as fuck to watch a match with this Pokemon allowed. This is a subjective criterion, but an important one I think: if everyone hates Ubers, then why have it? It is our obligation in such a case to try to fix it.
Until Ubers has stabilized (and because of the Shadow Tag gaffe) I will personally be overseeing the development of this metagame.

Banning M-Ray

There is a lot to say about M-Ray but I will try to keep it short. In general, the Ubers Pokemon hover around ~700 BST; anything higher has either a wasted ability slot (Multitype) or a restricted item slot (Orbs, Plates, Mega Stones). What separates Mega Rayquaza from the rest is the fact that it is the first unrestricted ~800 BST pokemon. As a result, it is able to easily overpower most Pokemon in Ubers.

Useful Links, Helpful Data Threads, and Forum Projects

ORAS Viability Ranking

Multi Gen Sample Teams

Tournament Stats

Multi Gen Speed Tiers

Teambuilding Workshop

Creative / Underrated Ubers Sets

UPL IV Replay Archive

Multi Gen Replay Archive

Multi Gen Cores

ORAS Teambuilding Compendium

Gen 5 Viability Ranking

Gen 4 Viability Ranking

Gen 3 Viability Ranking

Credit to Minority Suspect for putting this together!
 
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

On behalf of the staff of Smogon University, we sincerely apologize for the ongoing redesign to our website. In order to keep the website fresh and ever-changing, we have edited this thread with humorous art from an unknown source. We hope this art helps make your Smogon browsing experience more aesthetically pleasing.

That is all.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top