#genvuu & challenges

[Psychotic]

While Pokemon related discussion is encouraged to take place in #pokemon, no matter what the tier, #genvuu is still a place you should undoubtedly have on your auto-join list.

#genvuu will be the spot for any IRC Senate discussions, and much like #pokemon challenges, #genvuu challenges will also start being a common occurrence. When the first challenge starts, I'll open this thread for discussion purposes.

Challenges!

Jabba has given me the go-ahead to run these challenges from now on, so here it goes:

#genvuu challenges will test your knowledge of the UU tier, battling skill, and teambuilding prowess. Every round you will be given a set of teambuilding guidelines that you must follow to compete. The rounds will last approximately two weeks, and whoever achieves the highest ladder rating at the end of each round will be declared winner. Whoever wins will receive temporary hops in #genvuu, and there is a Hall of Fame where the names of the winners are displayed. You are encouraged to discuss these challenges in both IRC and in this thread; they are meant to generate as much activity and discussion as possible. If you have any challenge that you would like to see happen, feel free to contact me on Smogon or IRC with suggestions.

Also, make sure you join #genvuu on IRC, this is where most Senate meetings and discussions about the UU tier take place. Participating in these discussions is a great way to get more involved with the tier and UU community.

Hall of Eternal Fame and Glory

Round 1: Monotype-Won by Ninjacalibur

His team:Hippopotas (F) @ Eviolite
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Slack Off

Swampert (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Atk / 176 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Stone Edge

Flygon (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

Gligar (M) @ Eviolite
Trait: Sand Veil
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Substitute
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Toxic

Nidoqueen (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Poison Point
EVs: 236 HP / 252 SDef / 20 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Toxic Spikes
- Roar
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power

Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Round 2: All-Choice Team-Won by Flareblitz

Crobat (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SDef / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Cross Poison
- Roost

Heracross (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge

Empoleon (F) @ Choice Specs
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 192 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 60 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Grass Knot
- Stealth Rock

Darmanitan (F) @ Choice Band
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- U-turn

Flygon (F) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Fire Punch

Swampert (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Ice Punch
- Rain Dance

 

[Psychotic]

#genvuu Challenge #2: Choice Items

For this challenge, every member of your team must be holding either a Choice Band, Choice Specs, or Choice Scarf as their item. If you wish to compete, post your fresh alt in this thread or PM me here or on IRC, and I will add you to the alt list.

The challenge will end on June 26th at 11:59 PM, whoever has the highest rating at that time wins. The winner will receive temporary hops in #genvuu and a permanent spot in the Hall of Fame.

Edit: I forgot to add this earlier, but your alt post should not just be one word, it should include other content as well (i.e. what sets you are interested in using, what cores will function well together.)

Alts:
Detroitlolcat- I Choose You
Kokoloko-Madeon
Flareblitz-FlareChoice
Ginku-Lychee
Heysup-ChoiceSup
Fairytale-Malleus
S3rris-Iron Rain
Destiny Unknown-Choice Pants
Psych071c-The Choice is Clear
Iridium-brosephiroth
Santuga-FearlessDude
Zarco-ZarcoChoice
Demist-GreenRin
spuds4ever-set-up's 4 noobs

Good luck!

 

[DetroitLolcat]

Alt: I Choose You

EDIT: Observations.

I've been having moderate success with my team and I find that Stealth Rock is far too important to the UU metagame not to have. Even with a Choice Item, Stealth Rock needs to be on a team. UU's a pretty balanced tier, so it's only natural that a team of Choice users will not be able to generate much momentum without resorting to Volt-Turn (which is hard to pull off since it pretty much mandates the use of Choice Xatu). To mitigate this problem, it's necessary to get help with hazards. I've been using Band Bronzong myself, but it's interesting to see what everyone else is using with Choice Items.

On a similar note, momentum is everything in Pokemon and Choice Scarfers are notorious for surrendering momentum (by virtue of their revenge-killing nature). For those reasons, I believe that Band and Specs are better than Scarf in most cases. Every team should carry one or two Scarfers, but loading a team up with too many Scarves can be problematic when it's time to sweep or be swept/stalled. One way to "merge" Band and Scarf is with Krookodile, who gets Attack boosts and Scarf Speed. Another way to do this is with using Attack/Special Attack boosting natures on Scarfers. Adamant Scarf Heracross, Adamant Scarf Flygon, Adamant Scarf Darmanitan, Modest Scarf Raikou, Modest Scarf Zapdos, etc. I'd still stick to Jolly on Krookodile though.

 

[kokoloko]

Madeon

 

[SJCrew]

rofl, people can start gaming the ladder with three Protect users to a team lolol

and by people, I mean me

I will not be participating, but good luck! :)

 

[FlareBlitz]

Jesus christ how many alts are you guys going to make me register

FlareOfChoice

 

[Mazinger]

Excellent

I will be competing as Lychee

 

[Heysup]

ChoiceSup

Regenerator time!

 

[fairytale]

gonna try dis :O

alt name is Malleus

oh and i'm going to assume we're allowed to use moves like trick and fling until told otherwise.

 

[S3rris]

Sounds like a lot of fun.

alt: Iron Rain

Going to start by working around the double dragon core, Band Flygon, and Specs Kingdra.

Also, I'm interested in seeing if a combination of the different choiced items, or simply and overload on one side of the attacking spectrum is more effective. Isn't a 6 choice band team a thing in NU now?

 

[Psychotic]

oh and i'm going to assume we're allowed to use moves like trick and fling until told otherwise.

Of course you are. The only rule is every mon must be carrying one of these three items.

 

[destinyunknown]

Alt: Choice Pants

Gonna use gay sets, no joke.

 

[Iridium]

alt: brosephiroth

So how does this work? Is the team set in stone once I start battling, or can I change it as I go so long as everyone is choiced?

Also, I'm interested in seeing if a combination of the different choiced items, or simply and overload on one side of the attacking spectrum is more effective. Isn't a 6 choice band team a thing in NU now?

I don't know what's best, but I do know that all-CB teams are fun

 

[Psychotic]

alt: brosephiroth

So how does this work? Is the team set in stone once I start battling, or can I change it as I go so long as everyone is choiced?

Yup, use as many teams as you like as long as they all follow the guidelines.

 

[TheSpecialOne]

Count me in
alt: FearlessDude

 

[Zarco]

I'm assuming trick is fine? And count me in, alt ZarcoChoice

 

[FlareBlitz]

Broke 1300 a little while back. I'm running a very very unique all-choice team and it's exceeded my expectations so far.

A few tips for those who are doing this - Pursuit is your friend, stick to choiced attacks without type immunities (you can't predict perfectly every time), type synergy is huge on a choice team, bulky offense is the way to go (frail offense means one turn of set up for the opponent's RD kingdra or something = gg for you).

 

[Heysup]

Slowking + Tangrowth working wonders for me (got to 1250 but started disconnecting and got frustrated and stopped, probably around 1180 now).

I've also been using Scarf Cham + Krookodile and Specs Chandelure + TrickBand Bronzong (with Stealth Rock, EQ, and Gyro Ball).

I basically have checks for everything (though Zapdos is really annoying) and Slowking + Tangrowth are amazing pivots even though they don't use Synthesis or Slack Off. I'm starting to regret not using Sleep Powder though, thinking about that.

 

[Demist]

I guess, I'll give it a shot.
alt:GreenRin
Will share my experiences later. ^^

 

[spuds4ever]

I think I'll give this a go.

Alt: Set-up's 4 noobs

Edit: have had to change my alt to Setups for noobs

 

[TheSpecialOne]

I am currently at 1146 and only lost to Heysup I think (haven't battled much tbh) but something that has been very beneficial for me is to have a faster Scarfer aka Raikou. I am running a bulky core of Rhyperior/Trick Sableye (and Azumarill to help at times) and then Scarf Raikou to beat other Scarfers such as Flygon, Specs Chandelure, and Scarf Zoroark for a surprise factor. Not the best team definetly but I really like the concept of being able to switch around and revenge kill with Azumarill and Raikou

 

[FlareBlitz]

All right, I think I've run into enough people on the ladder now to share my team concept.

Basically I figured right at the beginning that an all-choice team would have a lot of problems with substitute users, speed-boosted attackers, and bulky pokemon with instant recovery. After attempting a (pretty poor) volt-turn team, I realized that one playstyle solved all of the problems above: sand.

Stoutland means you don't actually have to run a scarfer, and the residual damage from sand means you can maintain immense (and I do mean immense) offensive pressure on your opponent. Everything on my team hits ridiculously hard. Here's an example:

Darmanitan used Flare Blitz!
It's not very effective...
Flygon lost 100% of its health!

What this means is that your opponent has to scramble to regain momentum through revenge killing / revenge setup, which is difficult when you have good type synergy and the super-fast Stoutland in the wings. It's also difficult to wall your Pokemon's assaults because sand damage eliminates leftovers recovery and makes eviolite Pokemon a lot less durable. I'm pretty happy with the strategy, although it is severely vulnerable to bad luck (powerful moves tend to have imperfect accuracy).

 

[Heysup]

Quick lets ban Sand stream it makes pure choice teams broken!

 

[Iridium]

the problem with sand is you only have 5 pokemon, since a choiced hippo is hilariously useless

I've just been trying to use things that hit so hard that I don't need to switch. They switch in a resist? kill it anyway.

 

[S3rris]

Alright, I haven't laddered at all since about 2 days after I signed up (Dota2). I've never been a fan of Flygon, still don't like it. I feel like it's never quite powerful enough. Specs Kingdra on the other hand is a beast, draco meteor owns pretty much everything in the tier. Was also running specs Yanmega, because if it gets in for free something dies. Seeing as Snorlax is pretty much the only special wall in the tier, powerful special attackers seemed like the way to go. Just have to predict around Snorlax switch-ins.

Have a couple of different ideas I just started testing out, Zweilous is tons of fun. Also Tangrowth provides an all-choice team with something to take hits, being a good switch-in. Things with Moxie, Krookodile and Honchkrow, being great at mid/late-game sweeps.

Also, I think teams who utilize Trick probably have the best shot at winning the challenge, by nature of being able to completely cripple their respective counters. Started testing a Trick Mismagius, with good results so far, as the Trick hasn't been predicted yet. However I might drop her as I feel that Trick breaks the spirit of the challenge, even though it's allowed.

That's pretty much all I've got to say, not sure how much i'll be laddering as I'm trying to learn another game right now. Really hilarious challenge though.