(8) Tiers - An alternative

[Underboss]

Now, I understand when people tell me to be patient for an 8 tier system, and I will be. It's almost certain I won't be on much for the next 5 weeks while I'm on my trip, so I'd like to leave RBY2K10 with my blueprint for an eight tier system I've been thinking about. I think it's important that people can visualize what I'm talking about so they can understand it better.

My eight tier system has 4 competitive tiers and 4 ban tiers. One can also play by allowing ban tier pokemon to play with the corresponding tier below it (for example letting NU Ubers like Poliwhirl play with Never Used or OU Ubers Mewtwo and Mew play with Over Used).



Like the other tier systems, placement in a tier is based on Usage and Power. A pokemon is first tested in OU, and then moved or not moved based on its performance.

If the pokemon is useful then it stays in OU; if it's too good for OU, it goes to OU Ubers, the ban tier.

If a pokemon is not so useful, then it gets moved down into the next competitive tier, which is Medium Used.

The metagame is then tested again with ALL of the pokemon that are not in OU and OU Ubers tier. The result of this new metagame
then follow a very similar process to OU. It should result in the MU tier having about 10-15ish pokemon who dominate the non-OU metagame and 0-4 pokemon in the MU Uber tier.

If the pokemon is useful in Medium Used, then it stays in MU. If it's too good for MU, it moves up to MU Ubers.

If the pokemon is not useful in MU then it gets moved down into the next competitive tier, which is Under Used.

Again, the competitive metagame is tested with the above tiers banned. The pokemon that are too good for Under Used are moved to UU Ubers while the pokemon that are not that good in UU get moved down to Never Used.

And finally, a few pokemon will be taken out of Never Used and placed in NU Ubers because they overcentralize the NU metagame.

A pokemon gets placed in the Uber category of his tier if he overcentralizes the tier he ended up in. If a pokemon becomes lesser used in his tier, but is still considered too good for the competitive tier below it, then it gets placed in the lower tier's Uber tier. (For example, Jolteon used to be OU, but then was less used and got moved to the UU Ubers because he would dominate UU)

The tiers are based on making balanced, competitive, and diverse metagames.

Over Used Ubers (OUU) (aka Ubers)
Mew
Mewtwo

Over Used (OU)
Alakazam
Chansey
Exeggutor
Gengar
Golem
Jynx
Lapras
Persian
Snorlax
Starmie
Tauros
Zapdos

Medium Used Ubers (MUU) (aka Top BL)
Articuno
Jolteon
Rhydon?
Slowbro ?

Medium Used (MU) (aka BL)
Cloyster
Dodrio
Dragonite
Dugtrio
Gyarados
Hypno
Kadabra
Moltres
Mr. Mime
Nidoking
Raichu
Tentacruel
Venusaur

Under Used Ubers (UUU)
Clefable
Haunter ?
Kangaskhan ?
Nidoqueen ?
Sandslash
Victreebel

Under Used (UU)
Charizard
Dewgong
Electabuzz
Golduck
Graveler
Kabutops
Kingler
Magneton
Poliwrath
Porygon
Raticate
Tangela
Vaporeon
Venomoth

Never Used Ubers (NUU)
Poliwhirl
Ninetales ?

Never Used (NU)
Aerodactyl
Arbok
Beedrill
Butterfree
Ditto
Electrode
Farfetch'd
Fearow
Flareon
Golbat
Hitmonchan
Hitmonlee
Lickitung
Machamp
Magmar
Marowak
Muk
Omastar
Onix
Parasect
Pidgeot
Pinsir
Primeape
Rapidash
Scyther
Seadra
Seaking
Vileplume
Weezing
Wigglytuff

[Crystal_]

Ten people changing the 15-year RBY metagame? I am sorry, but I have to say that I don't like this.

I think that what we have to do if what exist in the other gens and have existed in RBY.
Uber - OU - BL - UU - [BNU] - (NU). 4, 5 or even 6 tiers is my opinion.

And BTW the Ban NU tier is called Limbo I think. It existed in DP few months ago I believe but now it does not exist.

[Underboss]

Well, look we can have 5 tiers here if we combine OU with MU Ubers and call it OU, MU with UU Ubers and call it MU/BL, and UU with NU Ubers and call it UU.

Then we would have OU Ubers - OU - MU/BL - UU - NU

That would give you 5, just like smogon does it.

But it would acknowledge that MU/BL is on equal footing with OU and UU in that they encompass different metagames.

And EVERY tier would be the ban tier of the tier below it. That means OU would be the ban tier of MU/BL.

[Crystal_]

Yeah, this is what I think is better. Really, this is what you said in the fisrt post but inversely. The main problem is that Poliwhirl isn't used in UU...

[Underboss]

It would be UU in a 5 tier system, just one of the lesser used UU. Some people might want to use Poliwhirl for a lack of Fighting or higher speed or maybe just for kicks cause they are tired of Poliwrath. It's kind of the same argument that Jolteon shouldn't be in OU but rather MU Ubers because Zapdos would be used more. If we combined OU with MU Ubers, it wouldn't matter. Jolteon would be OU, but just one of the lesser used OU.

[t3h Icy]

I don't know what I want anymore. ;_;

[posthuman]

If 5 tiers will work for you, then I'm fine with that. BL can be competitive if OU is used as its ban tier (is there anything in there that centralizes BL? idk if there is now that jolty and arty are gone). It could work.

UU still needs to be fixed.

[Underboss]

When we were doing the BL mini tourney, it didn't seem like Jolteon and Articuno overcentralized the BL metagame. But they were the two best. Hmm, I would say it was very close. So I wouldn't mind if they were both put in MU Ubers or OU or the combined OU, or kept in BL. I'm good either way cause the BL metagame would still be good if they were gone. But yeah, I would say we should go fix UU and then then the leftovers on top will be MU/BL.

[posthuman]

I'm fine with developing a BL metagame, I just think 8 tiers is too many. And yeah let's fix UU first.

[Crystal_]

BL is pretty balanced, it does not need changes, fortunately.

[Underboss]

Cool then