Thank you! The only problem is that I live in Australia wont be able to get up at 5am for an online tournament.
Looks like ill stick to trading and SR then :)
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VGC 2015: Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer
- Thread starter idiotfrommars
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Looks like ill stick to trading and SR then :)
Since you wont be able to join us for tourneys, this guide can help you with getting good IV'd legends faster.
Replace Flamethrower with Heat Wave and change Focus Blast to either Overheat (to fry whatever you're targeting) or Hidden Power Ground (for Heatran).
I placed FlamT cause this weekend on US Nationals all Zard y run Flamt instead of Heat Wave, ty for the tip on HP
Id's say bulky offense is the most common playstyle.
I'm not a Doubles player, just asking:
1) I heard that the base power of spread moves decrease in doubles. Exactly how much is the drop in power?
2) Why is spread moves like Heat Wave and Rock Slide so popular? They seem to be much weaker than say, Fire Blast or Stone Edge and you don't get the nerf to their power. Are you missing significant OHKO / 2HKOes there?
1) I heard that the base power of spread moves decrease in doubles. Exactly how much is the drop in power?
2) Why is spread moves like Heat Wave and Rock Slide so popular? They seem to be much weaker than say, Fire Blast or Stone Edge and you don't get the nerf to their power. Are you missing significant OHKO / 2HKOes there?
1) 0.75x. Earthquake for example: 75 Power (Assuming no STAB/etc). Yes, Char-Y's Heat Wave is not nearly as strong as its Fire Blast (151 vs 247), but Heat Wave tends to murder at least 1 target and and inflict heavy chip damage to the other, while Fire Blast murders 1 target and leaves the partner sighing in relief.
2) Because hitting half of your opponent's entire team in one shot is kinda nice. Hitting two targets for 75% of your normal damage output often returns higher overall damage dealt than hitting just one foe 100%. Rock Slide is popular because even the most absolutely certain victory or defeat can be straight up thrown out of a fucking window and off a cliff in ways 98% of the human population cannot even comprehend, and because Talonflame seriously dies to an unSTAB'd attack with 56 base power so you really don't need Stone Edge.
1) The base power of certain spread moves like say Heat Wave or Rock Slide receive a power drop of about 25%. So a base 95 Heat Wave (assume no STAB) would damage both Pokemon with at 71 base power.
2) In double battles every form of chip damage matters so you'll expect to see moves like Heat Wave, Rock Slide (which has ungodly 30% flinch factor), Pixilate/Aerilate Hyper Voice, etc used significantly more often. In VGC, most Pokemon are EV'd to live certain attack, but most of the time being at full health. Spread moves can help provide necessary chip damage so you're certain you can take out a a Pokemon without having it live by 1 fucken HP. Spread damage can help punish potential switch ins so your opponent cannot switch into say Charizard or Talonflame without having it die to Rock Sliding pebbles. Well there are certain cases where you'd like to take out a target like Charizard Y going for Overheat on 4 HP Mega Mom/Aegislash or Landorus-T going for Stone Edge on a Charizard Y.
Not really going to address the questions as those have been answered, What I'm going to address though is the whole "missing out on the ohko/2hko" portion. While being able to get guaranteed OHKO's are always nice to get, moves like rock slide and heat wave will always be more popular over fire blast and stone edge because the accuracy and the chip damage make up for it. Fire Blast has 5% higher chance of missing compared to heat wave and stone edge has a 10% higher chance of missing than rock slide. So instead of missing once every 10 times, you're more likely to miss once every seven times or once every 5 times
It should also be mentioned that single target moves are easier to play around because the target could just protect itself.
And to add to this, they're also useful to get around redirection like Rage Powder or Follow Me.
Few simple questions here :]
1. Earthquake, and spread moves like it, deal spread damage (that is, x0.75 damage if I'm not mistaken) to your own ally Pokémon correct?
2. What are good places to familiarize myself with more uncommon Pokémon of the metagame? I'm familiar with the most popular threats and stuff, but I find myself not really knowing what to do against unfamiliar/uncommon Pokémon and their degree of threat.
Thanks in advance!
1. Earthquake, and spread moves like it, deal spread damage (that is, x0.75 damage if I'm not mistaken) to your own ally Pokémon correct?
2. What are good places to familiarize myself with more uncommon Pokémon of the metagame? I'm familiar with the most popular threats and stuff, but I find myself not really knowing what to do against unfamiliar/uncommon Pokémon and their degree of threat.
Thanks in advance!
1. I am pretty sure that is correct.
2. The Pokemon Global Link has usage statistics for almost all Pokemon so you can check there.
Well, not all spread moves damage your ally. There are some who do, Earthquake, Teeter Dance, Boomburst, Surf, and others. And some only damage the opponent, like Rock Slide, Heat Wave, and others. It depends from spread move to spread move.
As mentioned above, only some spread moves will deal damage to your teammate as well, but there are abilities/ type matchups which can circumvent this (Telepathy prevents you getting hit from your teammates spread moves, Water Absorb/ Motor Drive/ Volt Absorb will let you absorb spread moves of those types, Ghosts won't get hit by normal type spread moves and Ground types won't take damage from Discharge).
If you want to check up on which pokemon are viable but perhaps low ranking, Nugget Bridge has a tier list in their forums which is updated often. Also the Smogon Dex has been updated as of late with movesets for each tier, including VGC.
Hey guys,
I've been trying to figure this out but I still have no clue. In the final turn of this game, my opponent's Ice Shard failed. If it hit, it would've won him the game, but for some reason it didn't and I won. Can someone please explain?
I've been trying to figure this out but I still have no clue. In the final turn of this game, my opponent's Ice Shard failed. If it hit, it would've won him the game, but for some reason it didn't and I won. Can someone please explain?
He might have targeted his partner's slot by accident.
Yeah he just targeted his ally slot, presumably by accident.
Given Marowak's low speed, it would definitely need TR to run. Though to be honest, it's only good stat is its defense. You'd be much better off running Landorus-T instead.
In regards to Nidoking, probably something like thisr:
Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Protect
Marowak wants TR, yes. Bonemerang / Protect / Rock Slide / EQ or Fire Punch with a simple 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Sp. Def Brave spread would most likely do just fine. Bonemerang allows you to be more flexible in teambuilding, by striking a single target very hard (and crushing Substitute / Focus Sash / Sturdy); EQ lets you spam powerful STAB spread with an ally like Musharna or Cresselia, Fire Punch nails Ferrothorn/Escavalier which are huge threats to TR. Rock Slide is the best move ever in Doubles, crushing Flying types immune to Ground, and is a good move to spam in moments where you're unsure of what your opponent may switch in to.
T-Wave spam, yes, it's a good answer; even LO Modest Thundy-T fails to OHKO with Grass Knot / HP Ice (both have 60 power against Marowak) and Thundurus has a hard time surviving 2 Rock Slides. Klefki can Prankster Magnet Rise, so be a bit careful around that one (but you still troll its T-Wave spam). Keep something handy for Intimidate and WoW though, Marowak is very open to both and Lando-T. Reuniclus can absorb WoW / Intimidate, with Magic Guard. Overcoat can stop Amoonguss like no other, but tbh there's other ways around Amoonguss and you probably want Cresselia or Musharna on TR Ground spam.
Nidoking, I'll be frank: I adore Nidoqueen in Doubles, and haven't tried the King yet, but I'd use one of these:
Nidoking @ Life Orb
Naive, 20 Atk, 252 Sp. Atk, 236 Speed
Ability: Sheer Force
- Poison Jab
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
Poison Jab is better than Sludge Bomb if you need Fairy killing - higher base stat, and aside from Granbull, Fairies have higher or equal Sp. Def (Gardevoir, Azumarill, Sylveon, Florges, Togekiss, Clefable, etc). Beyond that, it's mainly a Special attacker, by virtue of Ice Beam being massively superior to Ice Punch and Earth power being ally-friendly. Also stops you from being useless against intimidate and burns. Speed outruns max Speed Gyarados and neutral 95 (Arcanine); max Speed ties with Modest Hydreigon so not much point going max. Poison Jab OHKO's Sylveon by quite a bit:
20 Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Poison Jab vs. 188 HP / 68 Def Sylveon: 203-242 (104.6 - 124.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoking Sludge Bomb vs. 188 HP / 0 SpD Sylveon: 159-190 (81.9 - 97.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Could go physically oriented and use Earthquake + Poison Jab + Ice beam too I guess. Ice Beam will murder any 4x weak you want uninvested anyway.
Rock Slide could be used to OHKO Charizard-Y / Talonflame, but both deal very high damage to Nidoking and can outspeed with a neutral nature and 252 Speed. Or less.
But if you don't need to use Nidoking to kill fairies... just use its classic Special set.
Nidoking @ Life Orb
Timid, 20 HP, 252 Sp. Atk, 236 Speed
Ability: Sheer Force
- Earth Power
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
Same spread as above; just a tad bulkier.
Ground + Ice is great coverage in the current metagame, slamming a lot of common Pokemon super effectively. Thunderbolt hits Charizard, Talonflame, Suicune, Milotic, Gyarados, and
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