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Sometimes i do and sometimes i dont : Inconsistent

Dark Azelf

Dark Azelf

☽𖤐☾𓃶𐕣
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Along with out current gen 5 suspects, there is something that is arguable more broken, the ability Inconsistent.

Inconsistent - at the end of each turn (including the turn the Pokémon was switched in), randomly increases one of its stats by 2 stages and decreases a different stat by 1 stage (including accuracy and evasiveness). Inconsistent cannot attempt to boost a stat at +6 or lower a stat at -6 (it can still lower +6 and raise -6, though).

Octillery
Bibarel (Dream World unreleased as of yet)
Smeargle
Glalie

These are the notable users of the move.

Spoiler:

Wichu of Smogon said:
This ability was overlooked at first, with many people claiming it to be inferior to the Pokémon's existing abilities (Suction Cups, Simple etc). However, Inconsistent has recently made a comeback, with its users even being discussed in the Suspect Testing thread. Why?
Simply because Inconsistent has a 1/7 chance of sharply increasing the user's evasiveness; a pseudo-Minimise. And we all know why Minimise is banned - after even a single boost, the Pokémon becomes difficult (and very annoying) to hit.
Inconsistent's second advantage over moves like Minimise and Acupressure is that it happens automatically at the end of each turn, freeing up your move choice. By far the most popular option here is stalling an opponent with Protect and Substitute; a switch in followed by Protect gives Inconsistent two chances to activate; if it boosts Speed or evasiveness, you're pretty much set. Leftovers is the preferred item here for the increased number of times you can use Substitute. An Acupressure or Minimise user is vulnerable during the turns it sets up; an Inconsistent user is not.

Ingrain-passing Smeargle greatly helps Inconsistent users, providing them with a second source of healing (allowing them to spam Sub + Protect until they run out of PP) and preventing them from being Roared / Whirlwinded out. However, it also stops them switching out against Unaware users, which can easily set up on them (Cosmic Power Clefable and Curse Quagsire or Bibarel).
Toxic Spikes are a great help, as they wear away the opponents' HP as you set up. They also mean you can run two attacking moves instead of one attack + Toxic, which means you have more type coverage and can avoid being walled.

However, Inconsistent also has its counters. As with any stat-increasing strategy, the moves Haze and Clear Smog are useful - Clear Smog also has the bonus of being a never-miss damaging attack, getting past Inconsistent's evasiveness boosts. Morobareru (the new Poké Ball mushroom) can learn Clear Smog, resists Water (the most common Inconsistent user attacking type), and is immune to Toxic, making it a great counter to the two available Inconsistent users. Murkrow, despite being NFE, gets good defensive stats through Evolution Stone, and can wipe the slate with a priority Haze (thanks to Mischievous Heart).
Roar and Whirlwind can work, but watch out as they can miss if the Inconsistent user has evasiveness boosts. These won't work against Ingrain Smeargle either.
Taunt blocks the opponent from stalling, but if the opponent has a few Attack boosts, it won't really help you otherwise. It also doesn't block Inconsistent's effect, so they'll still be getting stat boosts.
A Pokémon with Unaware, such as Quagsire, Clefable, or even opposing Bibarel, can ignore the Inconsistent user's defensive and evasiveness boosts, while taking measly damage due to ignoring their offensive boosts. Quagsire can even use Haze. However, all Unaware Pokémon have to beware of Toxic stalling movesets.
Pokémon with the ability Trace such as Porygon2 can switch in and set up alongside; as Trace users generally have higher stats than Inconsistent users, this can be quite an effective strategy. However, this shouldn't be left for too long after the Inconsistent user comes in, to avoid it getting too far ahead in stat boosts.
Heart Swap Manaphy yoinks the opponent's boosts, leaving them with nearly nothing. Its only problem is that it's not very useful against anything else.
In the Dream World metagame, if the Inconsistent user's (Sp.) Def stage is lower than their (Sp.) Atk stage, and their accuracy is at least as good as their evasiveness, Ditto can come in after their Sub is broken. However, they'll most likely set up Sub again, which would be troublesome to beat. Also, you could get screwed over if they get a Speed/evasiveness boost on the switch. Just make sure you don't switch Ditto in on a Sub.
Sandstorm and Hail severely limit the survivability of Inconsistent users, which usually rely on Substitute to avoid getting hit. Glalie (when it is released) is immune to Hail, however.
Speaking of Hail, Stallrein (and other stallers) can PP stall Inconsistent users out of Protect / Substitute PP; however, they still have to watch out for +6 Struggle!
Toxic Spikes also cripple Inconsistent users in the same way as damaging weather, hugely reducing the amount of time they have to set up.
Finally, Perish Song is useful for countering Inconsistent users, either KOing them or forcing them out. A switch is nearly as good as a KO, as their Protect and Substitute PP will have been depleted, meaning when it comes in again, it won't be able to stall for too long.

Smeargle, on the other hand, likes to use a Baton Pass set. This set can beat many of Inconsistent's usual counters:

Smeargle @ Leftovers
252 HP / 4 (Sp.) Def / 252 Spe
Timid nature
-Protect
-Substitute
-Baton Pass
-Taunt / Magic Coat / Gear Change

Protect and Substitute are again to stall for boosts. If your opponent sends in a Clear Smog user, Baton Pass to a Steel type; as Clear Smog is Poison, your stats will be safe. If your opponent sends in a Haze/Roar/Whirlwind/Taunt user, Taunt them back (watch out for Mischievous Heart Pokémon like Murkrow and Voltolos, though).
Magic Coat is an alternative for stopping Taunters and phazers. It's useless against Haze, but lets you beat Mischievous Heart Taunters.
Gear Change makes it easier to stall by boosting your Speed. You'll probably want Magic Mirror Espeon / Xatu to BP to against Taunters or phazers, though. Again, it's beaten by Haze.

Alternatively, you can run an Ingrain-passing set; this allows you to stall until you run out of PP (as Lefties + Ingrain heal back the health lost by Substitute over the two turns you use Protect and Substitute). This is especially evil if you pass to another Inconsistent user such as Octillery.


If you're still doubting Inconsistent, have a look at these logs by Stellar. With a bit of luck, Inconsistent becomes very hard to beat.
Click to expand...

I also have some logs of my own how deadly this crap is.

Spoiler:


Spoiler:


Now, ive played and lost against this on the ladder. It knocked me down from #4 to ~70th because i faced team upon team of this bs. :/ This also totally overshadows every other suspect, seriously. Its more broken than Darkrai, Skymin, Garchomp, Salamence, Latios etc combined.

Anything bar Haze (a useless, non required outclassed move otherwise) has a chance to fail against this due to the evasion. Bologo also says you can be swept with struggle because Octillery outstalled his +6 +6 Latios behind a sub due to the evasion and it pp stalled him to thus kill his Latios then beat his whole team with its own +6 struggles.

On smogon there is an uproar to ban this, include it with the evasion clause or just ban the pokemon. Agree, disagree, what should be done, thoughts ?

By all means post logs too.

Discuss.

EDIT : OH, i feel this is important. If you are in a tourney on pc where 5th gen is available, this is BANNED. So dont get ideas about using it lol.
 
Last edited:

Opposite Day

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I hate it with a passion of a thousand burning solarbeams.

(I'd say to ban it but apparently po mods can't do that, so I'll just post a picture and hope that it'll eventually come true <33)

banhammer2ug.jpg
 
Dark Azelf

Dark Azelf

☽𖤐☾𓃶𐕣
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Opposite Day said:
I hate it with a passion of a thousand burning solarbeams.

(I'd say to ban it but apparently po mods can't do that, so I'll just post a picture and hope that it'll eventually come true <33)

banhammer2ug.jpg
Click to expand...


Me said:
EDIT : OH, i feel this is important. If you are in a tourney on pc where 5th gen is available, this is BANNED. So dont get ideas about using it lol.
Click to expand...

<3 lol

Yeah i did this because i dont want it to make tourneys a total luck fest and until a non limiting flaw has been found in it really. Nothing has of yet has so its staying banned lol.
 

Zaroas

Dragon's Might
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Wow, this seems very, um, broken. I've never played against these, but I do remember reading somewhere about Bibarel getting some kind of big boost this generation via Dream World. I never expected it to be THAT broken though. Anyways, I think they should just ban the Dream World versions of these Pokemon, as the only way to get Inconsitent on them in the first place is Dream World. On your post the way you listed them made it seem like Bibarel was the only one to get in via Dream World (It being the only one with those words in parentheses next to it), but they all do. No Pokemon from previous generations got a new ability that's not from Dream World this generation. So, they should just ban Dream World variants. It's pretty simple, really.
 
Dark Azelf

Dark Azelf

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Zaroas said:
Wow, this seems very, um, broken. I've never played against these, but I do remember reading somewhere about Bibarel getting some kind of big boost this generation via Dream World. I never expected it to be THAT broken though. Anyways, I think they should just ban the Dream World versions of these Pokemon, as the only way to get Inconsitent on them in the first place is Dream World. On your post the way you listed them made it seem like Bibarel was the only one to get in via Dream World (It being the only one with those words in parentheses next to it), but they all do. No Pokemon from previous generations got a new ability that's not from Dream World this generation. So, they should just ban Dream World variants. It's pretty simple, really.
Click to expand...

Whoops thats meant to be released DW pokes haha. Ill change it.
 

.Aero

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I think that the ability itself should be included within the evasion clause. I don't see how this was overlooked quite honestly. Sure it's not a move, but because it does raise evasion, why isn't it already banned? @_@ It's ridiculous.

I woulda had a log, but didn't save it because I didn't check the box, but I battled Syndrome's troll team or whatever with a bunch of this generation's ubers and I still won with Octillery. @_@ All his phaze attempts (I think he had like one) missed, and other stupid stuff happened. Despite his team being built in 6 minutes or less, I feel like it definitely shows off how terrifying the pokemon is.

However, I did lose to a rain team. Starmie + Thunder + Rain = dead Octillery because of its perfect accuracy. However, that's just ridiculous that you have to run something like that just to beat him. :/ And I didn't even have high defenses or speed which probably would have changed the outcome.
 
Zeffy

Zeffy

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I remember facing one of those in my PO battles, but sadly I've outstalled my opponent with my novelty Desukan. It seems really broken though, what I say is ban Inconsistent, not the Pokémon. xD
 

kohei

Pizzaman.
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Honestly, I forgot about this trait since it's rather overlooked in the Japanese metagame.
But fought two today on PO, and lost against them both.

If only I was allowed Guillotine on my Ononokusu... I might have had a chance at out-lucking him.
 

scizor007

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In my opinion,there's only one sure-shot counter for that ***** ability .
Spoiler:


Yep,that's all I can think of,and fortunately,the number of pokemon getting unaware are MORE than those getting Inconsistent,namely-
Spoiler:

Only problem is,their usage is prolly less than zero lol.Clefable ALWAYS has magic guard.NO ONE uses Unaware on those beavers after the arrival of Inconsistent,and its partially inferior to Bibarel's Simple ability.And quite frankly, the two birdies SUCK.That leaves le good ol' Quaggy.This,probably,is the most effective counter for that ****ing ability.The other counters include-

~Perish Song - All it takes is one execution of this move and the opponent will be forced to switch otherwise it will faint.

This,of course,is effective,but the chances of having a Pokemon knowing this in a team is prolly less than the chances of gengar ohkoing blissey with focus blast.

~Haze - A great move to use as it eliminates stat boosts without being affected by Evasion boosts
~Clear Smog - Just like Haze it eliminates stat boosts and is unnaffected by Evasion boosts.

~Toxic Spikes - This stops Incosistent users immediatly in their tracks as all users possess Leftovers there is no Lum Berry to give them a one chance immunity. A Ghost type is very important to partner with a Toxic Spikes user though as Rapid Spinners are keen on knocking the spikes out.

But they have their disadvantages-

Toxic spikes are easily removed by a grounded poison. Any Inconsistent user not running a grounded poison is an idiot.
Unaware pokemon can be toxic stalled, especially if the inconsistent abuser has recovery from lefties and/or aqua ring/ingrain.
Haze and Perish Song are outclassed by other forms of phazing, as is Clear Smog albeit not as badly in theory, it is also made worse by its small user pool.
Click to expand...


EPILOGUE:So,as I se it,Unaware+rest quaggy is the only thing that's an effective counter to this (AND isn't dead weight on your team) and I agree with Oppo that Inconsistent should be another "Victim of the Banhammer" lol.

Edit: Terakion's Holy sword attack might be effective as well imo.

However, I did lose to a rain team. Starmie + Thunder + Rain = dead Octillery because of its perfect accuracy.
Click to expand...

Max SpAttack SpecsOgre Thunder does 29.38% - 35.03% on Octillery with +6 Special Defense lol.
 
Last edited:
Ninja Caterpie

Ninja Caterpie

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scizor007 said:

This,of course,is effective,but the chances of having a Pokemon knowing this in a team is prolly less than the chances of gengar ohkoing blissey with focus blast.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's more likely than Thunder hitting in rain.

okay, that's an exaggeration, but it's pretty close to the truth; every second team has a perish song somethingorrather to kick my Rankurusu in the behind. :( So much can set up and tank now that Perish Song is actually useful now lol.

Aside from that, this thing seems really OP and annoying. I mean, even if you don't get Evasion, getting a few defensive boosts basically means your tanking ability goes through the roof (especially if you were half-decent anyway). + the fact that this isn't a move is just a billion times better than Acupressure because you can stall until you get the good boosts then stall until you're +6/+6/+6/+6/+5/+6
 
Impo

Impo

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i've encountered a few inconsistent users. beat them all.

i used my politoed's perish song. i'm pretty sure it works through subs, and i usually have a set of toxic spikes too. so i stall them to death, or they switch. either way, by by stat boost :)
 
Dark Azelf

Dark Azelf

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Politoed loses to Octillery's Toxic.

The only GOOD Perish Song user who isnt worn down is Celebi against them. That and Perish Song has been useful since gen 2 so i dont quite get the "Now Perish Song is useful" comment lol.

Anyway, team mates of Inconsistent users: Magic Mirror Xatu and Espeon. Most good teams abuse these as partners so its ridiculously hard to set up ANY form of hazard. You set up Toxic Spikes here and you screw yourself.
 
Last edited:

blaQk

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I wasn't impressed.

The Magic Mirror user was more of a pain than the Inconsistent user.

Teams built around it seem to fall apart too easily.
 
Impo

Impo

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Dark Azelf said:
Politoed loses to Octillery's Toxic.

The only GOOD Perish Song user who isnt worn down is Celebi against them. That and Perish Song has been useful since gen 2 so i dont quite get the "Now Perish Song is useful" comment lol.
Click to expand...

and i forgot to mention my Starmie or Dragonite's Thunder dent them a little.
plus if i predict a protect i usually recover/roost/or swords dance if i have Kabutops out :)
 
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