(Tournament) All Star Cup

[Redtype]

So... is anyone taking part in this?

I just signed up to the Masters division as you can see in the picture.

Any tips on strategies, counters etc?

I theorymoned that the most popular teams would be Ninetales + Reshiram, Tyranitar + Excadrill and various teams involving Kyurem-W (lol Kyurem-B).

I'm using the latter, but I have literally no experience in using it, so I'm not sure how it will pan out. If there's anyone who would like to play, please drop me a VM.

[Sol64]

I'm going to bump this because I've just entered (Masters division). I've TRIED entering with White Kyurem using a Black 2 cart but it kept saying there was a problem with it. So I tried Black Kyurem and it decided to register. I wtf'd but I guess I won't be flinging draco meteors around the tournament with DAT special attack stat, I would have liked to though.

Since I'm using Adamant scarf Kyurem-B. I have to watch out for Jolly/Timid Kyurem formes, otherwise I think i'm good.

[TheMantyke]

I really hope this tournament comes to the rest of us; it's just too much fun theorymonning up cores with Uber Pokemon! Obviously the big dogs in town are Kyurem-W and Reshiram with those ultra power Special Spread attacks. I can forsee Terrakion being everywhere just to deal with these monsters, maybe even Metagross to a lesser extent to help against the Kyurems.

We still have Sun and Hail for auto weather, so I guess sun gets its best chance to shine with Reshiram, Kyurem-W, and lack of Drizzle. Sand has a few things going for it, but I think it will again be used primarily as a disruptive tool rather than a centerpiece set up (although the addition of Iron Head to Excadrill's movepool could mean otherwise...) I can see manual Rain still working when you have excellent inducers and users like Tornadus and Thundurus but I'm pretty sure manual Hail will see next to no use. Gravity gives you those same perfectly accurate blizzards, gives Ground-types a major boost, allows you to fling around a few deadly but inaccurate attacks, and even got a distribution buff with the move tutors.

This the part where I theorymon more than likely terrabad cores I'd like to try in the tournament.



Special Gravity Landorus + (Choice Scarfed) Kyurem-W

As I mentioned earlier, Gravity sounds pretty cool to throw around Blizzards with and what better Pokemon to activate it than a Pokemon that can abuse it without hurting its partner! Sheer Force LO Earth Powers are going to hurt when only Grass-types can switch in. Those Grass-types certainly won't be enjoying the force of unearthly powerful Blizzards from Kyurem-W. The set up is simple, protect or attack with Kyurem-W turn one while Landorus sets up Gravity, then smash everything. The core is kind of slow on its own, so a Choice Scarfed Kyurem could be an option to smash stuff out of the gate. The only downside would be dealing with marginally less accurate blizzards for a turn.



Meinshao + Tailwind Reshiram

Hitmontop and just about every other cool Fake Out user is gone, meaning we're stuck with these rather lackluster ones again. Meinshao is second only to Weavile and Sneasel for the fastest Fake Out users around. Fake Out can buy some time for Reshiram to set up a Tailwind, allowing Reshiram to spam Heatwave while Meinshao Low Kicks any pesky Tyranitars.



Terrakion + Skill Swap Meloetta

Originally Posted by Fat TheMantyke

Skill Swapping to Terrakion not only restores Terrakion to his former glory of hax king in VGC 2011, but it could also make your opponent reluctant to attack you with Dark-type attacks when you could be carrying Relic Song. From there, it's a simple matter of spamming Rock Slide and Hyper Voice until the opponent's down. What's best is that this core doesn't rely on Skill Swap at all to be effective so it might actually be viable!

Without a doubt the most gimmicky option, but Meloetta might just have enough Special Defense to be viable. Terrakion is a cool cat when Rock Slide deals with Kyurem-B/W and Reshiram and Skill Swap can make him super duper annoying. Meloetta can also throw around paralysis for speed control, or you could just try a Scarfed Terrakion.

[Sol64]

The tournament has actually started.

[Baz Anderson]

Would be interesting to hear which common combinations people are using in this tournament.

[Sol64]

Ok, i've compiled some notes from notepad, they're brief but to the point:

Trick room is still present
Conkeldurr is a boss to take down
Kyurem formes mainly White forme are being used, Reshiram is there too, no sign of Zekrom/Kyurem-B yet (i'm using it Kyurem-B though)
Metagross is not too far from the tree, it's still being used despite the potential fire risk
Terrakion and mienshao are rampant
Sun teams are definitely on the market
Victini is starting to show up, none were scarfed however

I also battled a guy with Fire Gem Zebstriker and then used me first on my terrakion to use close combat (which is fricken smart) and brought me to 23hp from Max (Had sash though)

I know not to underestimate it, it's very underrated in the right conditions. So far done 4 battles and it's pretty weird. I expected a lot more legendary spam but I guess it's early. No sign of genesect and meloetta as of yet. I'll add more notes later as I go on.

[Redtype]

Played some matches. From what I observed:

• Trick Room is VERY popular
• Tailwind is pretty popular as well
• The most popular Fake Outers are Weavile and Mienshao. I'm the only person using Scrafty so far, which surprised me quite a bit...
• Keldeo is surprisingly popular. Also most Japanese players flat-out cheat and use Regular Keldeo with Secret Sword, so beware. The only other Musketeer used is Terrakion.
• Genesect usually has Normal Gem + Explosion.
• a LOT of genies. Most teams have at least one, but 2 or 3 genies are not unheard of. All forms are used, although Landorus-t, Tornadus-i and Thundurus-i are by far the most popular.
• from the tao trio, the most popular are Kyurem-W, Reshiram and Zekrom (in that order). Kyurem-B and Kyurem are not used.
• thanks to the new DC rule and Battle Point prizes, disconnections are very rare

This is one of the better battles I had, showing off my Landorus-t + Yanmega combo.

22-18886-78576

Overall it's probably the most fun PGL tournament I've participated in, topping International Challenge due to lack of DCs.

Hope it comes to the West.

[Redtype]

I'll dump some more battle vids for y'all to see. BW2 recommended, otherwise you won't be able to see the new Formes.

79-75229-55504

68-64118-44404

35-31885-11234

37-40961-83753

28-22011-04187

[Sol64]

Originally Posted by Fat Redtype

Played some matches. From what I observed:

• Trick Room is VERY popular
• Tailwind is pretty popular as well
• The most popular Fake Outers are Weavile and Mienshao. I'm the only person using Scrafty so far, which surprised me quite a bit...
• Keldeo is surprisingly popular. Also most Japanese players flat-out cheat and use Regular Keldeo with Secret Sword, so beware. The only other Musketeer used is Terrakion.
• Genesect usually has Normal Gem + Explosion.
• a LOT of genies. Most teams have at least one, but 2 or 3 genies are not unheard of. All forms are used, although Landorus-t, Tornadus-i and Thundurus-i are by far the most popular.
• from the tao trio, the most popular are Kyurem-W, Reshiram and Zekrom (in that order). Kyurem-B and Kyurem are not used.
• thanks to the new DC rule and Battle Point prizes, disconnections are very rare

This is one of the better battles I had, showing off my Landorus-t + Yanmega combo.

22-18886-78576

Overall it's probably the most fun PGL tournament I've participated in, topping International Challenge due to lack of DCs.

Hope it comes to the West.

The ones i've bolded are the ones I find true. Although not facing a lot of Meloetta, i've seen a lot of them uploaded on the PGL. Also my team has Scrafty so you're not the only one, he is a BOSS though. I think i've seen ONE Verizion, otherwise terrakion every day.

I haven't seen many Genesects at ALL and also there's a LOT of Feint around.

Here's one match i've had managed to upload; Most times they're shown that "there was a problem with the pokemon in this video" so yeah...

69-42839-19812

[Dark Arceus]

Originally Posted by Fat Redtype

Played some matches. From what I observed:

• Trick Room is VERY popular
• Tailwind is pretty popular as well
• The most popular Fake Outers are Weavile and Mienshao. I'm the only person using Scrafty so far, which surprised me quite a bit...
• Keldeo is surprisingly popular. Also most Japanese players flat-out cheat and use Regular Keldeo with Secret Sword, so beware. The only other Musketeer used is Terrakion.
• Genesect usually has Normal Gem + Explosion.
• a LOT of genies. Most teams have at least one, but 2 or 3 genies are not unheard of. All forms are used, although Landorus-t, Tornadus-i and Thundurus-i are by far the most popular.
• from the tao trio, the most popular are Kyurem-W, Reshiram and Zekrom (in that order). Kyurem-B and Kyurem are not used.
• thanks to the new DC rule and Battle Point prizes, disconnections are very rare

This is one of the better battles I had, showing off my Landorus-t + Yanmega combo.

22-18886-78576

Overall it's probably the most fun PGL tournament I've participated in, topping International Challenge due to lack of DCs.

Hope it comes to the West.

Just want to point out the section I bolded (The first one) because I believe that is incorrect. If you teach Keldeo Secret Sword via B/W1 and transfer it it maintains it's normal form (I am relatively positive, if someone can confirm or deny that it would help).

Also what's that part about dc's your saying? I'm still hearing a fair amount of dc's for people with the Japanese version, but it may just be their opponents. Maybe people haven't tried finding a way around it like the one already discovered.

Hoping this tournament comes to the U.S. and/or is the vgc 2013 rules.

[Redtype]

Although not facing a lot of Meloetta, i've seen a lot of them uploaded on the PGL.

Yeah, I faced some Meloetta as well, but I found them to be underwhelming each time. Most run Trick Room or some random gimmick set (Japanese love gimmicks). Although I admit I got scared shitless when I found out that Relic Song hits 2 Pokemon in Double Battles. Fortunately none of my Pokemon fell asleep.

Also my team has Scrafty so you're not the only one, he is a BOSS though.

Indeed he is. I'm running a pretty defensive set, so he can survive Kyurem-W's Draco Meteor. I've seen some Scrafty on Battle Videos, but I've yet to fight one.

I haven't seen many Genesects at ALL and also there's a LOT of Feint around.

That might be a reason why Mienshao is by far the most popular fake outer. The third battle in my previous post has Feint Mienshao. Needless to say, he was a major pain in the ass.

Just want to point out the section I bolded (The first one) because I believe that is incorrect. If you teach Keldeo Secret Sword via B/W1 and transfer it it maintains it's normal form (I am relatively positive, if someone can confirm or deny that it would help).

Ah, thank you. I started thinking this might be the case. That's pretty cool actually, I plan to swap my Terrakion with Keldeo IF this tourney comes to the English versions of BW2, and I hate Keldeo's Resolution forme lol.

Also what's that part about dc's your saying? I'm still hearing a fair amount of dc's for people with the Japanese version, but it may just be their opponents. Maybe people haven't tried finding a way around it like the one already discovered.

Well, you get a 1 hour ban if you disconnect from the battle. I know there is a way to avoid this (unfortunately), but the people I played with rarely DCed. For about 30 matches I played, only 4 or so ended with DC. Also, you get Battle Points for each match you play in the tourney (even if you lose), same as with BW2 Random Match-ups.

Also, a new battle video!

83-06527-49023

Probably the haxiest team I've played against in this tournament.

[Sol64]

Well the tournament has just ended at 4PM GMT (That translates to an hour after the midnight time in Japan on the 24th)

I've seen a few more Genesect and Meloetta this time round, Virizion is still popping up. I had one match that I got frozen by a Genesect Blizzard, at the last point where I could lose, his blizzard missed my own frozen Genesect and thawed allowing it to flamethrower it to death and then Scrafty cleaned up house on the other pokemon. I was unsure to keep it because there was lots of (poorly) hacked pokemon from my opponent's side making it hard to upload battles that were good.

I faced one guy who had 1801 and I somehow managed to win, but he dc'd so clearly there are dc'ers around but he was the only true one that did. (Hope he gets DQ'd.)

Things i've learned through playing through the tournament more:

• Keldeo is a powerhouse with Hydro Pump omdz

• Metagross is on nearly every team

• Kyurem-W, Reshiram and Zekrom are used (in that particular order[Deja-vu])

• Flamethrower > Flash Cannon on Genesect all day, every day

• Terrakion should ALWAYS be sashed (I had sash myself)

• Superpower LO Thundurus owns Terrakion.

• Scrafty is BOSS

• Kyurem-B is actually not as bad as you think but I may go Zekrom alongside Kyurem-W next time

• Kyurem-W usually are scarfed or Haban Berry

• Landorus as a whole is uncommon

• Tornadus is pretty common

• Excadrill isn't that much of a threat

• Serperior isn't very useful, I probably may use Starmie next time (Dual screeners)

• Thundurus using swagger (at least for me) is crap

• There was lots of Brongzong (with Heatproof)

Well this was my team:



I was going more for experience over rating but I think i've done pretty well under the new dc rule, would have liked to be at least 1700 but i'll definitely place. This was the VERY last match of the tournament I did: 15-28749-61263

[Redtype]

Nice rating Sol. I scored much lower, around 1600~ cause I lost a lot, haha. My team was Scrafty, Yanmega, Landorus-t, Metagross, Kyurem-W and Terrakion.

Fuuuuun tournament, that's all I have to say.

[Sol64]

Thanks, and yeah the international tournament (and then going to Birmingham and France) were the most fun tournaments i've participated in but this tournament definitely is fun. All Star up tournament more fun? Give or take but I did really enjoy it still. I can take this experience for "future western tournament rules" that use the same settings as this one.

I wish I got more battle videos up though but like I mentioned in some posts above, plus I was getting tired of going in and out trying to upload a battle I may not even be able to get up.

Originally Posted by Fat Redtype

68-64118-44404

Lol at the end. He shouldn't have EQ'd at the end but I guess he didn't predict protect like all Metagross carry.