Welcome! (read me)

Welcome to The NU Forum! The purpose of this thread is to introduce new members to the NU project and hopefully answer any questions.

What's NU?

NU stands for "Never Used" which refers to the lowest tier of Pokemon, below "Under Used". However, that doesn't mean these Pokemon are never used, but rather that they have the lowest usage of all Pokemon. An NU battle is a battle where only Pokemon on our NU Tier List are allowed.

How is the NU list decided?

If Pokemon have low enough usage in UU, they will drop to NU and be legal here. Usage statistics are collected from Smogon's Shoddy Battle server. At the same time, if an NU Pokemon suddenly becomes popular in UU, it will be banned from NU. Pokemon may also be banned for other reasons, such as causing extreme centralization in the tier (more on this later).

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

"Our goals in having an NU ladder and tournaments is to play-test a brand new metagame. We will try out different Pokemon and sets to find out what works and what doesn't. At the same time, we will ban Pokemon or moves if needed. These kinds of changes will be group decisions, although the NU Committee will have the most say." -November 19th, 2008

How did NU start?

Technically, NU started years ago, but there was never really an "official" NU metagame. "NU" tended to be a sort of dumping ground for the worst Pokemon. While there were some NU players, the metagame as a whole tended to be ignored and there were no goals of balance. I took the idea of having a metagame where the lesser-seen Pokemon could be used and tried to take it to the next level--that is, basing it on actual statistics and play-testing. This project started in November of 2008 on a forum called Shuten Dojo, who we are affiliated with.

What exactly is the point?

It's fun! NU is an interesting and unique metagame that is really rather entertaining once you get the hang of things. Unlike some of the other "faux" metagames (such as Ubers), we ban Pokemon if needed and always try to have balance in mind. Part of NU's charm is being able to use Pokemon that you'd never even see otherwise, including NFEs ("Not Fully Evolved"). Ever wanted to try out Mightyena? Think it would be fun to play a metagame where Pikachu is actually dangerous? Want to see what Golduck is capable of? NU might just be the place for you!

How are bans decided?

If anyone believes a Pokemon may be too centralizing/powerful for NU, they should first start a discussion topic. When I say "powerful", I don't necessarily mean attack, as a Pokemon can be "powerful" defensively too. If a Pokemon can sweep the majority of teams with little effort, can defeat most Pokemon one-on-one, can wall out most of NU, and/or can easily provide those opportunities for another Pokemon ("support" Pokemon), it may be banned. After the Pokemon has been discussed in detail, a thread will be started in the NU Committee Forum. The members of the committee will then vote on whether or not the Pokemon should be considered for banishment. If they vote yes, a poll will be started in the General NU Discussion. This poll will be open to anyone who plays NU and will be the final decision on whether or not a Pokemon should be banned. However, regardless of what happens, a Pokemon can always be tested again in the future (either for banishment or re-admittance into NU).

What's the NU Committee?

The NU Committee is a group made up of active NU battlers. In order to stay in the committee, these members must turn in a certain amount of battle logs per month and make useful contributions to discussion topics and Rate My Team threads. The NU Committee has a lot of say in what happens rule wise.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me or another staff member (staff members have either an Arceus icon or a Raichu icon).