(Approved by Eevee General)
Overview:
Since the very beginning of Pokemon's multiplayer, back when you had to beg your parents for enough money to pick up a bulky Mad Catz link cable from the local EB Games, the game has always consisted of two core concepts: battling and trading. Showdown! cuts that down to just the battling (unless you count stealing people's teams off RMTs), but Hemiswap is about both...at the same time. Each match, your opponent graciously trades you half their team, and you trade them half of yours! Isn't sharing wonderful?
Here's how it works: think of your first three slots and your last three slots as separate "halves." Right before the match, Showdown! flips a metaphorical coin. Heads, it picks the first half of your team, tails, it picks the second half. Then, the Pokemon in that half are now a part of your opponent's team, and vice versa. Finally, the game progresses to team preview as normal.
This changes the entire concept of team-building. Ideally, you want to create two self-sustained, independent cores of three that not only support each other, but have options for dealing with your other core. After all, no matter which half gets traded, your two cores will always be going head to head. Your building skills will be put to the test, as your goal is not an unstoppable team, but a team that can stop itself...both ways. But don't forget that you'll also be using half of your opponent's team -- you might end up with half Stall and half Hyper Offense! You might even end up with two of the same Pokemon! Anything can happen in Hemiswap!
Ruleset:
- OU banlist, OU clauses
- Teams must have 6 Pokemon
- Half your team is traded to your opponent
Q&A:
Q: What's stopping me from filling half my team with garbage to screw over my opponent?
A: Well, you have a 50% chance of keeping that half. It might be funny if you trade a Magikarp, Caterpie and Unown to win a match, but your chance of doing that is the same as hitting Zap Cannon. Best case scenario is that you end up with a 50% win-rate, overall. Not a reliable strategy. Also, if you're playing against a friend, they not be your friend for very long. Fair warning.
Q: What if I end up keeping my Talonflame but losing my Defogger?
A: Your first three Pokemon and last three Pokemon will always stay together, so keep that fact in mind if you absolutely need to use two Pokemon together. If you have a Dragon-Fairy-Steel core, for instance, consider keeping them together in the first or second half.
Q: What if I end up with a Mega Manectric from my team and a Mega Altaria from my opponent's team?
A: You can use both of them, but only one can Mega Evolve, true to in-game mechanics. If you're using Mega Pokemon on your team, consider options like Scizor and Tyranitar, that work with or without Mega Evolving. You don't want to end up with a Beedrill and a Lopunny on the same team, because you'll have to choose one of them to be good and the other to be unusable trash.
Q: What if I end up with two of the same Pokemon?
A: Species clause does not apply in this case, so have fun with double Azumaril or whatever you end up with.
Q: So does that mean I can ignore Species Clause while team-building?
A: Nope. The challenge/ladder queue option will still stop you if you bring more than one of the same Pokemon.
Strategies:
Here are some tricks that could help you succeed in the magical world of Hemiswap!
#1:
Here are two thrown-together FWG cores. While putting both of these on the same team may seem foolish at first, keep in mind you'll only be hanging on to one of them. Each can adequately cover each others' weaknesses and can also function on their own. Notice the choices here: Blastoise can Rapid Spin for Talonflame, while Serperior can Leaf Storm through Suicuine's Calm Minds. You can even deliberately build with small details that might give you the edge, like giving Talonflame Safety Goggles to mess with Breloom or giving Heatran a Scarf with Stone Edge to surprise Talonflame. If you want Serperior to be more adequately walled by Heatran should your opponent get the Contrary snake, perhaps you should opt for Hidden Power Fire over Ground. If your opponent has Heatran, they won't know what coverage you have, and may even assume that since you made the team, you'd give it HP Ground simply to deal with Heatran. It's all up to you.
Lures can be very effective in standard play...provided your opponent actually brings what you're supposed to lure. In this metagame, however, you know at least half of your opponent's team, and can plan accordingly. Damage reduction berries can be especially evil, as if you end up with that Pokemon, your opponent won't know about the berry and may fall into your trap. But if you get that Pokemon traded to the opponent, then you'll know exactly what it's holding and how to play around it. Here's an example: if you bring Yache Berry Landorus on one half and Weavile on the other, then you can essentially bluff a Scarf and get off free U-turns or Stealth Rocks throughout the game without fearing Ice moves. If Weavile decides to stay in, you can invest yourself to survive any hit and get a kill in return. You can't be revenge-killed with Ice Shard either, allowing you to play Landorus much more recklessly. But if the opponent gets Landorus, you know not to fear Scarf or a damage boosting item. It's a win-win in either case.
While we're on the topic of lures, a more common sight in standard play is carrying an uncommon coverage move to destroy would-be counters. A famous one is HP Ice Terrakion, which with minimal Special Attack investment can 2HKO Physically Defensive variants of the dastardly Gliscor. Like the previous example, you will know about the lure no matter which side you get, but your opponent will only know if they end up with Terrakion. This means that if you're on the other side of the lure, you can toy with your opponent by switching an Ice resist into Terrakion.
"Speed creeping" is a well-established practice in standard play, where a player gives a Pokemon some unexpected Pokemon an uncommonly high number of Speed EVs to outpace Pokemon that would normally outspeed you. But "creeping" is taken to a whole new level in this metagame, as you can both intentionally invest positively and negatively to guarantee certain Pokemon to live or faint certain 2HKOs, etc. Maybe, in order to promote a Tail Glow Manapy sweep, you can spec Venusaur to die from a +6 Ice Beam. Or, in order to stop such a sweep, you can make a slow Manaphy that dies to Giga Drain. It's unlikely that opponent's will take note of your exact spread, so your knowledge of specific EV benchmarks could give you the upper hand in battle.
How to Play:
You can play it on pandora.psim.us, courtesy of Slayer95 who both coded and hosted it!
However, you can also play it manually on the main server, if you so choose. Here's how:
1) Create two separate teams in Teambuilder, each with only three Pokemon. These would normally represent the first half and second half of a single team. Designate one half-team as "hit" and one half-team as "miss." Maybe name them something like "Hemiswap 1 HIT" or "Hemiswap Trick Room HIT"
2) Click Export for each half-team and copy/paste the data on Pastebin as separate files. Post them and hold onto the links.
3) Challenge someone to an Ubers/custom battle using the following "team." Primal Groudon was chosen so you can't cheat the system by holding Bright Powder or Wide Lens. No weighted dice around here.
Coin Flip (Groudon) @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
- Dynamic Punch
If the first Dynamic Punch lands, you trade the half-team designated "hit." If it misses, you trade the one designated "miss." (NOTE: If you trust this person, you can save some time by flipping a real coin, and subbing in heads for hit and tails for miss. But isn't this way more fun?)
4) Send the person you challenged the Pastebin for the half-team that the "coin flip" chose.
5) Open the Import/Export menu in Teambuilder for the remaining half-team you didn't trade. Copy and paste the team data that was traded to you immediately under your current three Pokemon, with one line of space between Pokemon.
6) Highlight the entire team's data and copy it, but don't save. Instead, navigate out of that team and create a new one. Import the data you just copied, and save this as a team of six, naming it something like "Hemiswap TRADE A". This way, you can keep the half-teams for future trades without having to delete part of them.
7) Now, challenge the person to an OU or custom game using your completed team. If you ended up with a repeat Pokemon, then a custom game will be necessary to evade species clause. If you can, try not to pay too close attention to the Teambuilder data before battling. You normally wouldn't have the privledge of looking at the exact EV spreads. You can still see the stats by hovering over a Pokemon in battle, though!
8) Enjoy your battle! If you wouldn't mind posting a replay, it would be great if you shared them in the thread. I'll add them to the OP.
Replays:
[1]: [dusk raimon vs. AnybodyAgrees] = First legitimate Hemiswap game!
[2]: [AnybodyAgrees vs. Beta Ray Bliz] = Demonstration of HP Ice Landorus lure set
[3]: [Akumeoy vs. AnybodyAgrees] = Case study in the effectiveness of Pursuit
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