Classic Elements

canno

formerly The Reptile
This sounds really gimmicky, but do you think a Hone Claws set would be any good? Charizard has plenty of low accuracy moves to abuse like Focus Blast, Dragon Rush, Fire Blast, Overheat and Inferno. I think I'll test this out at the very least to see if it's effective and consistent enough.
Honestly, I'd just run Dragon Dance, since it gives you +1 Speed while letting you bypass the blobs easier. In fact, you could run 80 Atk EVs to get an OHKO after rocks.

+1 80 Atk Mega Charizard X Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 626-738 (87.6 - 103.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
+2 80 Atk Mega Charizard X Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 610-718 (86.6 - 101.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

This is probably the best CharX can do for the blobs, which is unfortunate.
 

Albacore

sludge bomb is better than sludge wave
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This sounds really gimmicky, but do you think a Hone Claws set would be any good? Charizard has plenty of low accuracy moves to abuse like Focus Blast, Dragon Rush, Fire Blast, Overheat and Inferno. I think I'll test this out at the very least to see if it's effective and consistent enough.
Hone Claws + Focus Blast seems pretty good in general. For instance, a set like this can probably do quite well :


Tyranitar @ Leftovers / Tyranitarite
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def (or SpA)
Adamant Nature / Brave Nature
- Hone Claws
- Stone Edge
- Focus Blast
- Stealth Rock / Blizzard / Fire Blast / Iron Tail / Whatever

Nidoking also seems like an amazing user of FocusClaws:


Nidoking @ Life Orb
EVS: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Focus Blast
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave

Other notable Pokemon who can use this include Aggron (especially suited with Iron Tail and Head Smash), Archeops, Bisharp, Chesnaught, Dragonite, Druddigon, Haxorus, and Kyurem.
 
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Hone Claws + Focus Blast seems pretty good in general. For instance, a set like this can probably do quite well :


Tyranitar @ Leftovers / Tyranitarite
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Def (or SpA)
Adamant Nature / Brave Nature
- Hone Claws
- Stone Edge
- Focus Blast
- Stealth Rock / Blizzard / Fire Blast / Iron Tail / Whatever

Nidoking also seems like an amazing user of FocusClaws:


Nidoking @ Life Orb
EVS: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Hone Claws
- Focus Blast
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave

Other notable Pokemon who can use this include Aggron (especially suited with Iron Tail and Head Smash), Archeops, Bisharp, Chesnaught, Dragonite, Druddigon, Haxorus, and Kyurem.

Dragonite @ Weakness Policy/Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Hone Claws
-Hurricane
-Focus Blast
-Agility/Dragon Dance/Earthquake

Double Dance anyone? With Multiscale and Dragonite's threatening presence, it shouldn't be hard to get both a Hone Claws and an Agility/Dragon Dance up. Fighting/Flying has great coverage already - the only relevant defensive threats it misses out on are Aegislash and Zapdos. Agility is better because +1 Attack should be sufficient to sweep with the high base power moves, and there's also potential Weakness Policy boosts. Dragon Dance can be used if you don't have Weakness Policy and want +2 Attack. Earthquake can be used to hit Aegislash if you have Sticky Web support to make forgoing Speed boosting less of an issue (which would be hard to provide because the only decent user, Galvantula, sucks now that one of his main STABs is Physical)
 

Albacore

sludge bomb is better than sludge wave
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus

Dragonite @ Weakness Policy/Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Hone Claws
-Hurricane
-Focus Blast
-Agility/Dragon Dance/Earthquake

Double Dance anyone? With Multiscale and Dragonite's threatening presence, it shouldn't be hard to get both a Hone Claws and an Agility/Dragon Dance up. Fighting/Flying has great coverage already - the only relevant defensive threats it misses out on are Aegislash and Zapdos. Agility is better because +1 Attack should be sufficient to sweep with the high base power moves, and there's also potential Weakness Policy boosts. Dragon Dance can be used if you don't have Weakness Policy and want +2 Attack. Earthquake can be used to hit Aegislash if you have Sticky Web support to make forgoing Speed boosting less of an issue (which would be hard to provide because the only decent user, Galvantula, sucks now that one of his main STABs is Physical)
Since this is a Weakness Policy set, you should probably slash ESpeed in the final slot. Or maybe even Draco Meteor to take advantage of the WP SpA boost.
 

Arhops

Professor Layton's Little Brother
is a Smogon Discord Contributor
So I played one round and found probably one of the best mons in this meta Thundurus


Thundurus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Knock Off
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Basically use Nasty Plot and click Knock Off and Thunderbolt, thankfully my opponent had priority to take it down.
 

cyanize

Mantra Good I Casted So Many Spells U Idiot
is a Community Contributor
I was just considering the kind of stuff that could come out of this and realized: Espeon gets special Bite. this may not seem very good at first, until you realize all of the things Espeon would want to hit with this don't have the best of Special Defense (besides Shield Forme Aegislash) and with Calm Mind it could become aforce to be reckoned with.

also special Flareon Skuntank now gets slightly more powerful Poison STAB in Sludge Bomb, and Bisharp became quite unviable

Edit: I realized that bite is essentially the same as Hidden Power Dark. Also, knock off in genral has lost a place in the meta, given that the main users of it are physical.
 
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cyanize

Mantra Good I Casted So Many Spells U Idiot
is a Community Contributor
Other notable Pokemon who can use this include Aggron (especially suited with Iron Tail and Head Smash), Archeops, Bisharp, Chesnaught, Dragonite, Druddigon, Haxorus, and Kyurem.
I dunno about Archeops; maybe on a forced switch, but generally he wouldn't have the bulk. Also, if Kyubey gets hone Claws, that'd be pretty good. However, he wouldn't get his STABs on physical.
 
Just something I noticed.


Scizor now has Fighting type priority in Vacuum Wave.
Heracross now has STAB Vacuum Wave.
Gallade can now run Vaccum Wave+Shadow Sneak for unresisted Dual priority alongside a bulk up set.
Machamp gets a STAB priority move over his old Bullet Punch

Blastoise now gets Aqua Jet priority whilst losing Aura Sphere

Mons that can use Sucker Punch to greater effect:
Rotom forms, Gengar, Cacturne, Liepard, Galvantula, Houndoom, Zoroark, Heatmor, Victreebel, Electrode, Celebi, Latias and Drifblim.


As for the current norm change

Mons that can use Knock Off to greater effect:
Alakazam, Thundurus, Tangrowth, Tentacruel, Pelipper, Swoobat, Venusaur, Pika/Raichu, Gengar, Empoleon, Serperior, Samurott, Elemental Monkeys, Liepard, Zoroark, Reuniclus, Accelgor and Tornadus.
 
Yeah, so shameless plug telling people to vote for this for OMotM. Interest for this meta has kinda dropped and I'd like to see it get some attention.
 
I know now is probably not the time to suggest this, but why not remove team preview for this meta? I feel like it would make it more true to it's idea, given how there wasn't TP in gen3
 
This meta only focuses on the category changes of moves and not on other mechanics from earlier gens, even though the name (which is fucking terrible) implies otherwise. There's already a no preview meta anyways.

someone please help come up with a better name
 
Basic Elements?
or even Classical Elements?

I dunno, something that refers to the way the 'elements' or types used to function.
I'll probably go with "Classic Elements." Not going to change it now though because voting is in progress and it already has a fair number of votes. When voting is over, it'll change regardless of whether or not it wins. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Bumping this from the netherworld because I coincidentally came up with the same idea and The Eevee General linked me here. Overall it's a pretty interesting meta and I hope it will pick up steam.

Anyway, this has probably been mentioned before in this thread, but you know how so many random pokes get vacuum wave but don't get the opportunity to use it because they have a shit special attack stat? Well, because all fighting moves are physical, this is no more. Pokemon like Medicham, Heracross, Machamp and Toxicroak now are able to use it over a less optimal priority move (or in Heracross's case, none).

Also, Knock off and Sucker Punch are special now. Take Zoroark: many people run a Swords Dance set just because of the usefulness of Knock Off and priority. Since those moves are Special here, people can take full advantage of Zoroark's special attack stat:

Zoroark @ Focus Sash
Ability: Illusion
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- Flamethrower/Extrasensory

So, what do you guys think of this meta? I don't want it to die off like so many other good ideas. Post your thoughts!
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Zard-X's good mixed attacking stats give it a few things over Zard-Y. IMO the best set would probably be Flare Blitz, Dragon Claw, Brick Break/Earthquake and Roost/Will-O-Wisp tbh. The contact of Flare Blitz and Dragon Claw is neat, and the coverage allows it to hit what it struggles to beat with only its STABs. Its interesting to say the least, but whether it is outclassed by other things I do not know.
 

Maleovex

Lt. Col. of The Kyergrzstan Killer Beez
Ominous Wind Scizor is now viable, and probably the better option over bug bite
 

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