Metagame Metagame Discussion Thread!

[Merritt]

I'm pretty sure it's not legal yet.

"This distribution will be obtained via a Serial Code that can be retrieved from the Global Link from Tuesday March 31st." From Serebii.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/w...in_Generation_VI#Enter_the_Dragon_Type_Amaura

Says the same thing there, if you look under the ranking information.

So don't go telling the mods PS! is wrong quite yet.

 

[Berks]

idk where else to put this so

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Enter_the_Dragon_Type_Wi-Fi_competition_announced

"Participants that battle three times and record a win or loss in each battle will receive Amaura with its Hidden Ability Snow Warning. It will be level 10 and will have the moves: Growl, Powder Snow, Thunder Wave and Rock Throw. After the rankings are released on March 27, Amaura will be available for participants."

I think it's legal now.

Amaura is here to start blizzards and kick ass

Bulky Amaura has some interesting resists which are couple with many unfortunate weaknesses. However, many similar weaknesses are shared by Amaura Hail counterpart Snover, and it can still be effective (again, snoVANHA). Will Amaura be able to perform similar roles as Snover, or is it better off simply nuking stuff with Refrigerate? We'll see!

 

[Heysup]

I think the real strongth of Amaura is the residual damage - breaking sash and putting more pressure on its switch-ins.

 

[Holiday]

Apparently SW Amaura isn't released till 31st but it's still good to talk about since it'll be decent soon enough.

 

[boo836]

I think the real strongth of Amaura is the residual damage - breaking sash and putting more pressure on its switch-ins.

Moreso concerning Sturdy. Magnemite and Tirt face IMMENSE pressure from residual damage, which isn't cleared away like hazards are.

 

[Celestavian]

Honestly, I think Amaura will be underwhelming and rare with Snow Warning, just like it is now. Blizzard does slightly more damage than Hyper Voice with a higher freeze chance, and the residual damage is cool, but you lose out on a nuclear Hyper Beam and deal residual damage to your team as well. I also think we're overhyping the residual damage of Hail just a tad. It was occasionally helpful in Gen 5, but it definitely didn't make or break battles often enough to have an actual niche. Sashes are rare, and limited mostly to Gastly and Abra, one of which is immune to hail anyway. And of course, it only lasts 5 turns. I say it's going to be business as usual in Little Cup after the initial hype wears down.

 

[Pikasohn]

I don't think SW Amaura would be 'that' bad since it can shut down bellsprout's sun sweep. It would be another sort of chespin, but more useful since it can perform in other areas too while dealing quite some dmg with STAB blizzard with no worries of missing. Even though sashes and sturdies are sort of rare, I think it might still be a factor that could give possible advantages to your team, or even become an important win factor. Sturdy mons such as tirtouga or sash mons such as diglett are not going to like switching in, and if they do, they will become crippled since they cannot have the guaranteed survival that they were supposed to have. Also, Amaura is an effective check for flying, grass, and ground types which are pretty common in the tier. This means that will have to be switching out. Looking at all the switches Amaura would be making, hail will deal considerable total damage over time, and this could be actually wearing down opponents for another mon to effectively sweep. Well obviously SW isn't going to give you a super big advantage, but I still think it'll be quite a niche.

 

[Holiday]

The thing about SW Amaura is that it has the ability to beat Fletchling and Sun at the same time. Unless I'm missing something, I think that's unique to it only.

 

[blarajan]

I am a huge fan of Snow Warning lol. Just because Hyper Voice or whatever hits slightly harder, Hail adds approximately 2 damage to everything, naturally breaks Sturdy from Tirtouga, Dwebble, and Magnemite without hazards or wasting a turn to do so, and prevents Sun from sweeping you, while still acting as an offensive Fletchling check like Amaura currently does. Snow Warning is way better IMO and I am pretty excited to use it!

 

[Pikasohn]

The thing about SW Amaura is that it has the ability to beat Fletchling and Sun at the same time. Unless I'm missing something, I think that's unique to it only.

Well, those two are good enough niches for Amaura to be used imo

 

[Celestavian]

This thread has been dead for a while, so how about a new topic?

The ladder tournament has just begun, so I'd like to know: What is, in your opinion, the most solid ladder strategy and team style? Should you stick with the standard sets, or are less traditional sets better for laddering (Mambo "innovations" don't count)? Is one of balance, or VoltTurn, or stall, or hyper offense better than the other for laddering? Or is there no one dominant strategy or playstyle, making skill the most important factor?

 

[doomsday doink]

This thread has been dead for a while, so how about a new topic?

The ladder tournament has just begun, so I'd like to know: What is, in your opinion, the most solid ladder strategy and team style? Should you stick with the standard sets, or are less traditional sets better for laddering (Mambo "innovations" don't count)? Is one of balance, or VoltTurn, or stall, or hyper offense better than the other for laddering? Or is there no one dominant strategy or playstyle, making skill the most important factor?

On mobile, so I'll elaborate later.

Bulky Sandile and Tailwind (not necessarily on the same team) are really fucking cool right now. I plan on using the latter for the majority of the Ladder Tour.

 

[Celestavian]

I said that Mambo innovations don't count

 

[doomsday doink]

On mobile, so I'll elaborate later.

Bulky Sandile and Tailwind (not necessarily on the same team) are really fucking cool right now. I plan on using the latter for the majority of the Ladder Tour.

Ok I am home.

Bulky Sandile is, as I said, really fucking cool. That Scarf Moxie bullshit is dumb and you're generally locking yourself into Earthquake which a variety of prominent Pokemon are immune to or frankly just don't care about. The ability to take multiple hits and check quite a few different physical attackers with Intimidate is much nicer imo and the utility of Stealth Rock and Pursuit is pretty helpful. Apparently there's also a surprise factor because almost everybody assumes you're running a Scarf even after Intimidate goes off. I've been running this lately with Snubbull to form a sort of "Intimidate core" which serves as a solid check to almost every single physical attacker in the meta, alongside some Fighting spam which can easily check Pawniard and put in some work offensively as well. I've found myself relying on Scraggy + Timburr a lot, but I've also found some success with Croagunk + Scraggy to deal with Scald and its stupid burns (although Heal Bell on Snubbull remedies this rather well).

I honestly think Tailwind is the best playstyle currently (which a lot of people probably won't agree with) and it's all because of some nerd named fatty. I watched fatty test his Tailwind squad on the ladder when we were teammates for SPLC and I was kinda baffled at how easily he was winning games (his skill probably helped this but still). He passed me the team after he peaked and I've been using it on occasion, mainly in private matches with some friends and such, and it's really fucking strong. Common Pokemon can easily splash Tailwind onto their moveset (i.e. Cottonee, Fletchling) and it's extremely beneficial to a lot of slow, strong Pokemon such as Skrelp, Pancham, Bunnelby, etc. I've built a couple of variants myself and although most of them are rather average teams, the surprise factor of Tailwind coupled with amazing utility it provides for a team can generally snag me a win against tried-and-true playstyles like VoltTurn and FWG Bulky Off shit. The playstyle's probably not for everybody, but I definitely think that you should give it a go if you have the opportunity.

I said that Mambo innovations don't count

I liked you better when you were a SkyClan leader.

 

[mad0ka]

Sun's matchup vs the meta is getting kinda bad, mainly because new bulky threats like Skrelp & Pancham, and also others like Drifloon have a field day versus Bellsprout, so it's not exactly the best ladder strategy right now :{ Hyper offense seems to be the way to go, as not much of the meta wants to be taking on a life orb Drilbur or other similar threats.

 

[Holiday]

As stereotypical as it is, EleSkit is pretty awesome on the ladder. Webs itself has the potential to be a dominant play style when used correctly but Elekid's natural ability to outspeed everything and OHKO-2HKO all relevant spinners and defogger is pretty awesome.

 

[apt-get]

Flailtch is a really great threat for nabbing sweeps on the low ladder, allowing you to get into the 1300's - 1400's easily. More elaborated teams work pretty well afterwards. I've had success running SD drilbur, among others.

 

[tazz]

Been using SD corph to great affect, offensive teams hate +2 priority. I've decided to run a balance team instead of an offensive one to try to have as many good matchup as possible.

 

[Heysup]

I think until you're around the top players its always been pretty simple for a quickpass, TR, tailwind, or fletchtrap team to climb the ladder. Once you're consistently against good players, it doesn't matter so much. Anti-meta stuff works.

 

[kingmidas]

As mambo said tailwind is great, I've been laddering with two teams, one is for consistent strict laddering while the offense is for like 1 hour spam matches. Tailwind + NP gunk is great and its won 7 matches in like a half hour (vs decent players it won like 5 vs shit ones in 20).

 

[TheFenderStory]

I think we've reached a point in the current meta where it's a great opportunity for players to start exploring. I often hear people complain about LC being a stale metagame. I think this is just a result of people not being willing to try things. I'm glad to see that things like tailwind are being discussed and looked at as potentially viable. I also have been experimenting with more offensive and unique playstyles and find it very fun to play. So I'll say good job LC for starting to explore a little bit

 

[TUO]

after wasting my life on ladder i think the strategy you use rarely matters if you are focused enough. i just played random different teams i never got the opportunity to try and had a little fun with it and was still pretty effective. There's no real "pubstomping" style since if you are good enough you'd win against lower ranked players most of the time anyway

 

[Holiday]

So after some cross checking and whatnot some users found that Fletchling can't get Endure at all so RIP Flaitchling. There could be more of these mistakes so I'll try to keep y'all posted.

 

[Pancham]

Uhhh, I would like to say that Parafusion Chinchou is really good on low (and high) ladder, and that Sticky Webs is awful and anyone who uses these teams should feel awful. :)

Imma def try out Tailwind + Snivy sometime tho cuz I am literally cancer.

 

[antemortem]

So after some cross checking and whatnot some users found that Fletchling can't get Endure at all so RIP Flaitchling. There could be more of these mistakes so I'll try to keep y'all posted.

There shouldn't be any more of those errors, and it was, like, all XY mons that had that issue lmao 9.9 but it's been fixed and should be updated soon.

I've been experimenting with Snow Warning Amaura and the fact that it breaks Sun is one of the only redeeming qualities, and Sun hasn't even been that common in my runs thus far. i'm using it on a team for casual laddering as well as the ladder tour and it's really impressive with a LO + Rock Polish set, and I will give that LO boosted, perfect acc Blizzard hits fuckin hard. no examples of WHAT it hits atm because i've just been trying to give it a workout without straining to make mental notes but it's quite nice