By Wildcatdad17
For the second Devon Corp meta we leveraged a traditional type-based approach, but with a spin. While designing this meta the team was focused on keeping everything neutral and highlighting some Pokémon that many people may not play often. The idea for this meta was based on a joke someone made about a past meta developed by Wildcatdad17 being too RPS. From this, idea of the Sovereign Cup meta was born.
Our Thinking
When designing Sovereign Cup, we took care to ensure that no typings would be super effective against other Pokémon. This led us to start with Normal typing because it only takes super effective damage from Fighting Type. We then looked for other neutral typings and came to a list of Electric, Ice, Fairy, and Psychic. Once the primary types were chosen, we then looked at what dual types might present issues. Immediately, Steel, Ground, and Rock jumped out to us as causing many polarizing matchups and allowing many Pokémon to be walled.
After testing the meta and reviewing our bans, we noticed that tackle was going to be very good. Since that would result in Ghost Pokémon being overpowered, we also added Ghost to the typing ban list.
Pokémon Bans
After some initial sims, our development team confirmed that many of the tackle users were quite bulky and would be potentially dangerous if paired. Additionally, some of these tackle users were very common Pokémon and were also at the top of the rankings. So, in order to highlight some other Pokémon, we decided to ban Greedent and Munchlax. We also discovered that a couple additional Pokémon, Charjabug, Cresselia, Lanturn, and Milktank, had too much overall bulk to allow for quickpaced neutral play. We then turned our eyes to the major outlier of the meta, Litleo, which we also banned both because of its overall bulk and how amazing Incinerate performed in the pool. The final set of bans was based on availability, and that is why the Arctibax family, Belibolt, and Zangoose were banned.
Banning Moves
Banning moves has never been done in a global grassroots meta.This idea came about because there are many Pokémon that posses great neutral play, so long as they don’t have their primary move. With that in mind, the first moves to be banned were Counter and Charm. After some additional testing, we noticed these bans freed up Pokémon like Dubwool and Girafarg to use the fighting type move Double Kick for super effective fast moves with extremely quick energy. Double Kick had to go too. The final move we banned, Dynamic Punch, was done so to specifically target the overuse of Medicham during the last few years of competitive play. We didn’t want to ban Medicham or the other Pokémon, as they still have play with other move types. For example Tackle Dubwool still has a great chance to be a meta Pokémon, as does Psycho Cut Medicham.
Final Thoughts
We hope to see everyone enjoying this month’s meta and the fast-paced neutral play that is the Sovereign Cup. The Devon Corporation looks forward to hearing your feedback as we look to make our metas as best as possible.
Gym Breakers Sovereign Cup Remix
As many of you know, the Sovereign Cup was used by Gym Breakers in their World Cup format. The World Cup involves multiple rounds that are separate from and extend beyond the individual ranked play in Devon’s solo format. As trainers play a meta for an extended period of time, they begin to see limitations and flaws in the distribution. For that reason, our Devon meta staff and our friends at Gym Breakers developed a Sovereign Cup remix. The changes made were based off survey level data from Gym Breaker’s trainers, our own meta team at Devon, and from the meta team at Gym Breakers. Although we don’t intend to write up a full set of developer notes, we do want to ensure you can find the updated flier and rules below.
