Welcome back to another edition of The Dark Horse Project, where players are tested in their ability to build unique teams and to play well. In this project, you will ladder as high as you can using a team that is restricted in the overall usage and viability of each Pokemon. Specific details on the restrictions can be found below.
Restrictions
- The most important restriction of this project is that you must have at least one Pokemon with usage below 2% in the month of July. NU usage statistics for July can be found here.
- You are also not allowed to have any Pokemon that are S rank in the NU viability rankings thread. For a current list of Pokemon that meet this qualification, please see the bottom of the post. S rank will be frozen at the start of each month, which will begin when usage stats are dropped. As such, even if we move Pokemon into or out of S rank, the restrictions will remain the same until the following month begins.
- Finally, you may only have two Pokemon on your team that are below S rank and above B+ rank. If this were not the case, players could essentially bypass the true challenge behind the project and use Pineco hyper offense or something equally non-intrusive. As with S rank, A+ through A- ranks will be frozen for the purpose of this project at the start of each month. You can find a list of Pokemon that are currently considered part of A rank at the bottom of this post.
- The aggregate usage of each Pokemon on your team must be below 37%. Plenty of Pokemon fall below S rank but offer so much to a team in just one slot. This is the best way to offset the effectiveness of these Pokemon and force players to take some sort of penalty for using these Pokemon.
Rules
- You must use a fresh alt at the start of your laddering session. If you choose to change your Dark Horse Pokemon during your run, you must use a new alt for this purpose as well. However, if you choose to change Pokemon other than your Dark Horse Pokemon, you may continue on the same alt.
- Once a person has entered the Hall of Fame with a certain Dark Horse Pokemon, that same Dark Horse Pokemon remains off-limits for the remainder of the month. The purpose of this project is to explore lesser-used options in NU and to see how those Pokemon can fit into our metagame. Little is accomplished if everyone uses the same few underrated but effective Pokemon.
- Choose one Dark Horse Pokemon at your time of registering. You are allowed to use more than one Dark Horse Pokemon on your team, but only your chosen Pokemon will count for the purpose of the Hall of Fame and restricting other players' choices.
- At its forefront, this project is a learning experience for everybody. As such, players found to be purposely cheating will be disqualified and infracted if necessary. Use this as a fun way to ladder and discuss the metagame—not as a way to stroke your ego with the highest ranking via gaming the system.
Restricted and banned Pokemon
For the month of August, the following Pokemon are banned from usage:
- Jynx
- Tauros
In addition, you may only use up to two of the following Pokemon on your team:
Restrictions
- The most important restriction of this project is that you must have at least one Pokemon with usage below 2% in the month of July. NU usage statistics for July can be found here.
- You are also not allowed to have any Pokemon that are S rank in the NU viability rankings thread. For a current list of Pokemon that meet this qualification, please see the bottom of the post. S rank will be frozen at the start of each month, which will begin when usage stats are dropped. As such, even if we move Pokemon into or out of S rank, the restrictions will remain the same until the following month begins.
- Finally, you may only have two Pokemon on your team that are below S rank and above B+ rank. If this were not the case, players could essentially bypass the true challenge behind the project and use Pineco hyper offense or something equally non-intrusive. As with S rank, A+ through A- ranks will be frozen for the purpose of this project at the start of each month. You can find a list of Pokemon that are currently considered part of A rank at the bottom of this post.
- The aggregate usage of each Pokemon on your team must be below 37%. Plenty of Pokemon fall below S rank but offer so much to a team in just one slot. This is the best way to offset the effectiveness of these Pokemon and force players to take some sort of penalty for using these Pokemon.
Rules
- You must use a fresh alt at the start of your laddering session. If you choose to change your Dark Horse Pokemon during your run, you must use a new alt for this purpose as well. However, if you choose to change Pokemon other than your Dark Horse Pokemon, you may continue on the same alt.
- Once a person has entered the Hall of Fame with a certain Dark Horse Pokemon, that same Dark Horse Pokemon remains off-limits for the remainder of the month. The purpose of this project is to explore lesser-used options in NU and to see how those Pokemon can fit into our metagame. Little is accomplished if everyone uses the same few underrated but effective Pokemon.
- Choose one Dark Horse Pokemon at your time of registering. You are allowed to use more than one Dark Horse Pokemon on your team, but only your chosen Pokemon will count for the purpose of the Hall of Fame and restricting other players' choices.
- At its forefront, this project is a learning experience for everybody. As such, players found to be purposely cheating will be disqualified and infracted if necessary. Use this as a fun way to ladder and discuss the metagame—not as a way to stroke your ego with the highest ranking via gaming the system.
Restricted and banned Pokemon
For the month of August, the following Pokemon are banned from usage:
- Jynx
- Tauros
In addition, you may only use up to two of the following Pokemon on your team:
- Archeops
- Audino (Mega)
- Aurorus
- Barbaracle
- Charizard
- Combusken
- Floatzel
- Garbodor
- Gastrodon
- Hariyama
- Hitmonchan
- Kabutops
- Kangaskhan
- Lanturn
- Lilligant
- Ludicolo
- Magmortar
- Malamar
- Mesprit
- Mismagius
- Musharna
- Omastar
- Pyroar
- Rhydon
- Rotom
- Samurott
- Scyther
- Shiftry
- Skuntank
- Steelix
- Swellow
- Vivillon
- Weezing
- Xatu
- Audino (Mega)
- Aurorus
- Barbaracle
- Charizard
- Combusken
- Floatzel
- Garbodor
- Gastrodon
- Hariyama
- Hitmonchan
- Kabutops
- Kangaskhan
- Lanturn
- Lilligant
- Ludicolo
- Magmortar
- Malamar
- Mesprit
- Mismagius
- Musharna
- Omastar
- Pyroar
- Rhydon
- Rotom
- Samurott
- Scyther
- Shiftry
- Skuntank
- Steelix
- Swellow
- Vivillon
- Weezing
- Xatu
![[TR] ViOLaTE](/forums/media/data/avatars/m/284/284856.jpg?1440795621){kind=avatar}
