Smogon Shoddy Server Statistics - July 2010

[Korpandor]

How long was Scizor at the top? Can't remember the time before him.

[kokoloko*]

Originally Posted by Fat Korpandor

How long was Scizor at the top? Can't remember the time before him.

Pretty much as soon as he got Bullet Punch, which was when Platinum came out. So, a long long time.

Scizor is going to stay top 10 for sure, probably top 5. SpD CB Scizor and Scarf Scizor are useful for taking out Gengar and Starmie, who are big bitches to A LOT of teams.

[Urbanism]

Scizor dropped to #8 on Suspect last month, so I'm assuming it'll be hanging a little under the top 10 once things settle.

[Stellar]

Suspect has a much smaller and much different player base than standard OU. You can't really draw predictions about one from the other.

[PallyHeroRush52]

Ugh, Manectric is still doing poorly. Are UU players really content with Rotom as their only electric Pokemon?

[Jaysel]

Jesus i hate Machamp and he is gonna keep rising. That Kinda Blows

[probationsmack]

Bulky waters with recovery options are usually good switch ins against machamp. Really, the most 'damage' a machamp does to my team is that I might have to reveal 2 more pokemon to play around him.

[Ice-eyes]

How do bulky waters switch into Machamp? It's faster than Swampert and shrugs of hits from Vaporeon - Suicune can invest in Special Attack and actually damage it, but it can't actually get rid of the damage from DynamicPunch.

Basically you have to sack something to take out Machamp, and you probably won't get your Rocks up (at least not early-game).

[reeebok]

Hmm, I'd have to disagree with you Ice-eyes. Swampert has a decent chance of getting rocks up, along with Forretress and Bronzong.
Anyways, I feel like making a prediction of my own. Kingdra will rise in usage. He'll do this as soon as the chesto rest set truly catches on.

[probationsmack]

Slowbro and Gyra usually. Although you have to be careful with gyra. Usually I switch in gyra to take the dpunch or payback while providing the attack debuff, switch again to something that would resist stone edge and machamp is usually pretty manageable after that. Like I said, the biggest loss is that they know 3 of my pokemon.

edit: I think most people in general don't think beyond what other lead can deal with machamp effectively. It sucks, but its a lead you have to play around, but its possible to minimize the damage you do take.

[Fatecrashers]

If Machamp is able to scout and damage 3 of your Pokemon then I would say it's done its part for the team. Also, Slowbro is a bulky water with recovery options yes, but not Gyarados.

[petrie911]

Originally Posted by Fat PallyHeroRush52

Ugh, Manectric is still doing poorly. Are UU players really content with Rotom as their only electric Pokemon?

With Dugtrio around? Yes.

[connoisseur]

Haha my Lum Metagross is one of the few leads that does quite well against machamp tbh. It also manages to stop roserade, and smeargle cold too.

[cmurph]

Originally Posted by Fat connoisseur

Haha my Lum Metagross is one of the few leads that does quite well against machamp tbh. It also manages to stop roserade, and smeargle cold too.

hasn't that been one of the most common lead sets for months?

[D0nut Eater]

Originally Posted by Fat cmurph

hasn't that been one of the most common lead sets for months?

Yea it has. Normally Occa was standard but people swapped over to Lum cause of the Machamp shitstorm.

[Ice-eyes]

Originally Posted by Fat D0nut Eater

Yea it has. Normally Occa was standard but people swapped over to Lum cause of the Machamp shitstorm.

I ran Lum way before the 'Machamp shitstorm'. Basically, Occa doesn't actually do all that much for you since Azelf still doesn't KO with <Fire move>, Shuca/Specs Tran beat you anyway and you have to have EQ to do anything to Infernape. EQ + Occa lets you beat Infernape, Lum + Mash lets you beat Azelf, Roserade, Smeargle AND Machamp as well as letting you take random statuses.

[Hawkstar]

Originally Posted by Fat min min

Hmm. 5.2 out of 100 Shoddiers don't bother to set an ability or use a SKILL SWAP STARMIE.
Oh, and Magnezone dropping like a rock? Damn Scizor drop in usage.

I use a Skill Swap Starmie with some good success. However, with Electrivire and Lanturn being rare in OU, as well as Jolteon being hard to swap with (they have Motor Drive and Volt Absorb, if any of you need a refresher), it's a bit hard to boost Starmie like that. Either way, how would you like to make Flinchrachi only flinch 30% of the time, or to take Breloom's Poison Heal away (if you lack Psychic somehow or want to help dent its SubSeed technique or if you just like mindgames, of course)?

[Fatecrashers]

Originally Posted by Fat Hawkstar

I use a Skill Swap Starmie with some good success. However, with Electrivire and Lanturn being rare in OU, as well as Jolteon being hard to swap with (they have Motor Drive and Volt Absorb, if any of you need a refresher), it's a bit hard to boost Starmie like that. Either way, how would you like to make Flinchrachi only flinch 30% of the time, or to take Breloom's Poison Heal away (if you lack Psychic somehow or want to help dent its SubSeed technique or if you just like mindgames, of course)?

Skill Swap Starmie is such a bad gimmick.
Haha I crippled you by taking away your ability.
OK you just switched out nevermind.

Starmie could do loads of more useful things with that moveslot.

[Squirrel.]

Thanks for the stats!

I Knew tran would take #1 and damn champ leads

[Towelie]

Damn I thought Aerodactyl usage would go up a lot with the Life Orb set but it only went up like .2 percent :(
Anyways, thanks Doug!

[MetaNite]

Lol skill swap Starmie is a horrible idea. Starmie's counters have the same ability as it, I.e. Blissey. Shaymin, and Celebi.

[cosmicexplorer]

Originally Posted by Fat Towelie

Damn I thought Aerodactyl usage would go up a lot with the Life Orb set but it only went up like .2 percent :(
Anyways, thanks Doug!

Life Orb Aerodactyl is win. I was thinking the same thing.

[Shimrit As]

Originally Posted by Fat Towelie

Damn I thought Aerodactyl usage would go up a lot with the Life Orb set but it only went up like .2 percent :(
Anyways, thanks Doug!

Hmm one issue might be that Aerodactyl and Tyranitar sort of compete for slots, with overlapping weaknesses and the same ability to revenge Gengar/Starmie/Lucario, yet Aerodactyl really needs Tyranitar on the same team to thrive. Tyranitar is really popular now, and with that people might see Aerodactyl as a less-than-worthwhile teammate.

[kokoloko*]

What really hurts Aerodactyl, in my opinion, is having to rely on 80% accuracy to clean up. I guess he can choose the 90% accuracy Rock Slide, that's weaker than Weavile's Ice Punch, yeah.

[shrang]

Hm.

| Garchomp | Item | Choice Scarf | 55.4 |
| Garchomp | Item | Life Orb | 17.9 |
| Garchomp | Item | Other (6) | < 9.5 |

Looks like people have forgotten how great Choice Band Garchomp used to be.

| Palkia | Item | Choice Scarf | 53.6 |
| Palkia | Item | Lustrous Orb | 34.6 |
| Palkia | Item | Other (5) | < 4.1 |

Shrang's new mission: Popularise Choice Specs Palkia. Seriously, why does no one use that thing?? He has the "I have Base 150 SpA Draco Meteor" to brag along with Dialga, but also has "I can 2HKO Blissey with a special move" to play with Kyogre. Seriously, he is the fusion of those two, and while Blissey can easily switch into Specs Dialga, she can't with Palkia, while Latias can't easily switch into Palkia when she can with Kyogre.