Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Scrabblemons is a specific tier at the beginning of the tournament or challenge. The viability rankings would have to fall under each tier (AG, Ubers, OU, UU, RU, NU), since every mon would have a different "role". It also depends on what word you and your opponent have to build off of. It would take some time, for sure, to make a VR for Scrabblemons because of what mons can check/counter. For shits and giggles, let's say the only mon Mega Sharpedo could defend against in all of OU/UU/RU/NU was Gliscor. Now let's say Gliscor is the Lando-T of Scrabblemons. If the tier is UU, then the only mon Mega Sharpedo counters is banned. Now Mega Sharpedo has no use, and therefore could be a F rank in UU and B rank in OU.
that probably didnt make a lot of sense but whatever
With Gen 8 come some slight changes to Chessmons and Scrabblemons. Mostly they are the same metagames you know and love from Gen 7, with some slight changes.
1. Chessmons will be played in the Gen 8 Ubers format. Dynamaxing is illegal in Chessmons.
2. Scrabblemons will be played in the Gen 8 Nat Dex OU format. This way we retain the largest number of Pokémon to be used for each letter!
Without any further ado, here are the official rulesets for each metagame:
Your team must consist of the following:
1. a King (a legal pseudo-legendary Pokémon, so either Tyranitar, Hydreigon, Goodra, Kommo-o, Dragapult, Salamence, Metagross, Dragonite, or Garchomp)
2. a Queen (a legal* Ubers (or below) mon. Calyrex-S is banned.)
3. a Rook (a legal* OU (or below) mon.)
4. a Bishop (a legal* UU (or below) mon.)
5. a Pawn (a legal* Little Cup mon, excluding LC Ubers.) The pawn may be level 100
6. a Knight (The final stage of your Pawn. For example, if Riolu is the Pawn, then Lucario is the Knight). Additionally, Knights have to be legal in the OU tier.
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Your Pokemon is legal if its move set and ability is allowed in the respected tier. (eg Arena Trap is allowed on a Pawn, but not a Knight). The exception is that Pawns are allowed to be level 100.
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Gameplay Rules:
1. The winner is the first person to knock out the opponent's King.
2. Only the Queen may be Ubers-tier.
3. Pokémon must have nicknames matching their roles (name your King "King", etc.).
4. Standard Smogon clauses minus certain exceptions for STAG on Uber Pokémon apply.
To challenge an opponent, select their username and challenge them using the "Gen 8 Uber" tier.
Point of Clarification: Wobbuffet cannot be used as a Knight if it has STAG, but Wynaut can be used with STAG as a Pawn because STAG is allowed in LC.
Scrabblemons Guide
In Scrabblemons, every Pokemon on your team must be ordered in a way such that it spells out a legal Scrabble word.; for example: If your word is SPOOKY, your team could contain Sableye, Pinsir, Octillery, and Omastar, Kyurem, and Yanmega. Scrabblemons battles should be played with OU tiering and standard OU rules unless otherwise specified.
Scrabblemon Formats:
1v1
In a 1v1 format, the rules are the same as standard. However, the letters of the word need only be 3 letters long (as 1v1 only lets the player use 3 Pokemon). The player spells the 3 letter word with their Pokemon and picks one of the Pokemon to battle. Scrabblemons Roulette
In the Roulette format, you still use a 2-6 letter word. To spice things up a bit, you are also given random Pokemon for each letter, provided by the host of the tournament. You may not choose your own Pokemon in this variation of Scrabblemons, you must use the Pokemon given by the host. The host may also decide to give players another random set of Pokemon for each round but is not required to do so.
To challenge an opponent, select their username and challenge them using the "Gen 8 National Dex OU" tier.
We don't have ladders, so right now you can play Chessmons by challenging someone to Gen 8 Ubers or Scrabblemons by challenging to Gen 8 Nat Dex OU. There's no special team validation so please bring legal teams!
In the next couple days I'm hoping to have Scrabblemons and Chessmons tournaments in the Board Games room on Pokemon Showdown!
Pawn (Larvesta) @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Morning Sun
- Will-O-Wisp
- Flamethrower
- Toxic
This is a version of a team I made before with a Dreepy-Dragapult pawn-knight combo, but it didn't work since Dreepy is really bad, so I replaced it with Larvesta-Volcarona which is one of the best pawn-knight combos imo. QD Volcarona is everything you'd expect but Eviolite Larvesta can easily switch into Zacian and is a very sturdy Fairy resist, which provides a lot of support. Corviknight beats Sand, by virtue of its typing, and Body Press devastates Sand teams. It's also the main Fairy resist and can Defog for Larvesta. Tyranitar was chosen as the king because it was a Dark-type, and I had no Ghost resist at the time so I was weak to Dragapult. Zacian is the best queen hands down, because every king is weak to Fairy, so STAB Play Rough mows them down. Choice Scarf was chosen to beat other Choice Scarf users, and Dragapult. If the opponent is using Dragapult as their king, getting a surprise kill wins the game, so it's very important. The bishop slot was difficult to figure out, but I went with Gastrodon since it has Water Absorb for Dracovish, Clear Smog for setup, and Earth Power to 2HKO Toxapex. It was also a special wall, which I didn't have yet.
in the board games discord, there's been a little chessmons tour going on. i've built a bunch for it, and seeing as how it's crown tundra meta, i thought i'd dump all my old isle of armor teams. they all saw use in the tour, except for the team i posted above.
King (Tyranitar) @ Chople Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch
- Crunch
Queen (Zacian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Play Rough
- Wild Charge
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
Rook (Corviknight) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Body Press
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
i already covered this so i'll be brief but yeah sand is really good. also zac isn't actually the best queen due to its inability to dyna, but its really good anyways cause it's just really strong and it has variety/unpredictability alongside it. probably top 5.
so this is pretty standard balance, mostly about pivoting with porygon. magearna is actually the best queen because it's a super deadly offensive threat, seeing as how every king was weak to fairy at the time, being able to abuse all sorts of ridiculous sets basically for free since steel/fairy is also a busted defensive type that allows it to easily pivot on even queens. specs is a go-to breaker which hits as hard as it did in ou, or even harder, since teams are limited to only one ubers pokemon. it has a great synergy with toxapex, which takes on a lot of things that threaten magearna such as cinderace, and palossand rounds out the defensive coverage by beating rock- and ground-types like excadrill, and setting stealth rock. dragapult was added as a fast pivot to spread paralysis, clean with hex, and for overall speed control. tho in all honesty it should be kommo-o since this team gets razed by krookodile especially if it's scarf. finally porygon is a big special glue, tanking most neutral hits, and then teleporting out to the answer. it also spreads paralysis for pult and mag. well porygon-z also exists but its not super good, tho it does pull weight.
King (Dragapult) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast
- U-turn
Queen (Dracovish) @ Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Outrage
- Low Kick
- Psychic Fangs
Rook (Pelipper) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Roost
- Defog
- U-turn
Bishop (Drednaw) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
Pawn (Mareanie) @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Scald
- Recover
- Toxic
- Knock Off
vish is super threatening in this meta. usually i roll my eyes every time vish is viable and someone explains why fishious rend is good again, but in chessmons there isn't really room to fit counters to certain pokemon. this instead influences role compression and blanket checks, which is the perfect setting for vish. anything less than a counter will get screwed over by vish, and almost no teams will actually have a full-fledged counter since vish has a bunch of other flaws to exploit and isn't a top-tier mon, therefore flying under the radar. to show cb vish's power, fishious rend does an average of 140% to max hp goodra in the rain. then there's the rest of the team next. jk lol, ill explain them. drednaw seems like a weird choice, but drednaw was the last thing i added and at tde time i had no stealth rock or swift swim, and drednaw compresses those two traits well. mareanie + pex is prob the best pawn-knight core, and if it's not the best it's certainly the most common, seeing tons of use in tour. regen core and being able to have physdef and spdef is amazing. finally pult was for a pseudo-swift swim and also to beat other dracovish trying to mooch off of rain, and again general speed control. plus it's a grass and electric resist which helps when 5/6 of the team is water.
King (Dragapult) @ Life Orb
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Phantom Force
- Substitute
- Dragon Darts
Queen (Zacian) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intrepid Sword
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Play Rough
- Close Combat
- Psychic Fangs
- Fire Fang
yeah i know pult again. also its torkoal but not on a sun team, and it still has drought, because lava plume in sun does a lot. plus it has rocks and spin, and resets weather to stop rain and sand. no, hail is not real. skarmory is there because you get murdered by sand even though torkoal is there, mostly due to sand rush exca, and it sets spikes giving it the advantage over corviknight. as for the abusers, cb zac is ridiculously strong in hazard stack teams, since playing around cb is about making the right switch, and the right switch is punished by hazard stack. and yes i'm using pult again, but sub dd pult also takes advantage of hazard stack really well since going to something like urshifu is costly. mareanie-pex makes a return so we can add tspikes, and defend against tspikes.
King (Kommo-o) @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Body Press
- Rest
ditto is the rook because it was ou at the time. anyways etern and larvesta have a good synergy since larvesta beats zac for etern, letting it be a physical blanket. rotom-wash and kommo-o are also handy teammates, with rotom-wash beating ndm and cinder, who larvesta can't touch, and kommo-o taking on darks most darks and setting rocks. if any queen does muscle past this core, ditto is ready to reverse sweep them. volcarona is a really useful qd sweeper to take advantage of things like pex and gastro that can trouble the defensive core. this team mostly struggles with goodra, since it hard stops volcarona and nothing really wants to switch in on a draco, but i've pulled wins against it before.
King (Dragapult) @ Life Orb
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Substitute
Knight (Krookodile) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
screens is always a free win. sandy-krook is underrated, sandile makes for a decent rocks setter with intim and krook is really good now that walls have been nerfed. grimmsnarl is a neat screens setter, and then it's just 3 setup sweepers. nothing that you haven't seen before, well except kyurem black who is just a really broken mon in screens. nothing much more to say.
and that's the dump, enjoy not using these cause it's crown tundra now
Hey all, a few updates to Chessmons since the last post:
1. Previously the post had said that "Only the Queen may Dynamax or Gigantamax, and only if it is not on the Ubers Dynamax Banlist." Dynamaxing/gigantamaxing is now banned outright in Chessmons.
2. The list of legal queens has been expanded to include pseudolegendaries added to the game since game release (Kommo-o, Metagross, Salamence, Dragonite, Garchomp). Hisuian Goodra is not legal (yet)!
Update: Calyrex-Shadow is banned in Chessmons! It’s already shaky in Ubers, and when you can’t run an Yveltal on every team to counter it it gets silly.
Zacian-C was previously banned in chessmons, but since that is AG now the ban is redundant.
This ban will take effect before the start of the Scrabblemons and Chessmons tour series, held each Wednesday and Saturday in the Board Games room on PS at 3 PM EDT starting on July 20! For more information, see the Board Games discord server.
