Online Competition 2017 No Holds Barred

Thick Fat Azumarill

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So do you Scarf it and hope to outspeed Marshadow? Or do you put a Sash on it and survive a hit regardless? :/
You don't use Darkrai to check Marshadow, you use it against other stuff. Darkrai risks a speed tie with it if it's not scarfed, and even then Sash Marshadows wins with CC + Shadow Sneak.
 
Shouldn't Mega Lopunny deserve some consideration in this format?

Off the top of my head it outspeeds Marshadow and can guarantee 2HKO with Fake Out and High Jump Kick. And it's immune to Shadow Sneak.

It also kills Darkrai.
 
I really want to use volcanion but what would be a good move set for him? Definitely steam eruption but other than that I don't know.
 
Played about 30 games on the ladder and while the meta is still far from developed I have to say this is really fun and fast paced. Marshadow feels just as broken as people expect it to be. Sash spam is incredibly good here, Rocks are also incredibly good here because of that. Stealth rocks + a couple sash mons of your own feels really insane in this meta. Magearna is also a nice answer to all the marshadows and fast stuff around.

Here's my favorite core in the meta right now that i've brought to at least half of my games:

Marshadow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Swagger

Marshadow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Last slot is probably really interchangable. But yeah 2 marshadows is ridiculous lol. Sash marshadow almost always gets at least one kill or really hurts any Marshow check and then the next one comes in to do the same. This is something every team should be looking to stop really well imo.
 
Played about 30 games on the ladder and while the meta is still far from developed I have to say this is really fun and fast paced. Marshadow feels just as broken as people expect it to be. Sash spam is incredibly good here, Rocks are also incredibly good here because of that. Stealth rocks + a couple sash mons of your own feels really insane in this meta. Magearna is also a nice answer to all the marshadows and fast stuff around.

Here's my favorite core in the meta right now that i've brought to at least half of my games:

Marshadow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Close Combat
- Shadow Sneak
- Swagger

Marshadow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Spectral Thief
- Shadow Sneak
- Close Combat
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Last slot is probably really interchangable. But yeah 2 marshadows is ridiculous lol. Sash marshadow almost always gets at least one kill or really hurts any Marshow check and then the next one comes in to do the same. This is something every team should be looking to stop really well imo.
*shudders*

I'm now actually looking forward to try to use it in Anything Goes to see how it works. Sounds nasty. Say, using Swagger on Mega Rayquaza as it Dragon Dances, then stealing all boosts on with the second Marshadow and going +3/+1.

Still wondering if they are going to release Marshadow before this tourney starts. Otherwise, we non-japanese players will be at a big, big, BIG disadvantage.
 
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Who would be a good Rock setter for this? Aside from Deoxys-S (and possibly Deoxys-D) I really can't think of anything else.

...although I could be too inexperience to think of one.
 
Who would be a good Rock setter for this? Aside from Deoxys-S (and possibly Deoxys-D) I really can't think of anything else.

...although I could be too inexperience to think of one.
I like Deo-A. Its really fast and functions well as an offensive mon too, sometimes you dont need rocks and its still a ridiculously strong mon.
 

Theorymon

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So I played a tiny bit (mostly with Arcticblast ), and here is my quick impressions and speculation!

- Stealth Rock is gonna be even bigger than usual in this tournament. With no Item Clause, Focus Sash spam is a very real, scary threat! I wonder if this makes auto weather set ups involving Alolan Ninetales or Tyranitar more appealing as well. Because of this, I'd advice against getting too crazy with Focus Sash spam, since I think it's good to be able to prepare for Stealth Rock. I sorta wish I could use Mega Diancie to screw with that... I guess I could try Espeon lol.

- Deoxys-A is pretty scary if its sash is up, it damn near 2HKOs the entire metagame! It can clean up stuff well too, though Mimikyu and Marshadow are gonna be issues in those regards. Maybe pair it with Tapu Lele, though that might lead to some annoying overlap.

- I tried Marshadow, and holy shit this thing rocks! It's an excellent user of Focus Sash, since it can mess up sweepers with Spectral Thief, and Shadow Sneak makes it great at picking off weakened Mimikyu and smashing Deoxys-A that lack Focus Sash. I've been a bit of a rebel and actually using two Marshadow as well, with one using Choice Scarf. Choice Scarf seems a bit weird when it has Shadow Sneak, but it's nice for revenging stuff when Stealth Rock is up, and outspeeding and OHKOing Scarf Tapu Lele is awesome!

-I saw a few Genesect. Not sure what to think of it. Download is great, but I haven't seen it do much yet. They all seem to be Scarfers, any thoughts on this thing thus far?

-Tapu Fini seems especially good to deal with Blaziken, and it does good against Marshadow too. Hell, I don't even think Deoxys-A OHKOs it!

-Me and Articblast noticed a lot more Trick Room shenanigans than usual, mostly coming from Mimikyu and Magearna. I imagine with high speed threats like Deoxys-A and Marshadow, Trick Room is more powerful than usual. I bet Porygon2 is good at doing it too!

-I haven't really had much experience with Zygarde yet, but Arcticblast swears by it. I imagine its bulk makes it pretty good at stopping certain mons, though the large amount of Mimikyus and Marshadow (it can steal boosts if sash is up and then smash with Ice Punch) can be worrying.

-I'm interested in trying out Shaymin-S (I think gen 7 fixed the bug with the battle box thankfully), which I haven't seen yet. Skymin outspeeds Marshadow which is really nice, and it cacn screw up Tapu Fini's day too. It does rely on moves that don't always hit though, which is a bit scary.

Something I want to raise up: the lack of species clause is dampened a bit by choosing 3 Pokemon, but I think running two of the same Pokemon could be a deadly strategy. I've tried two Marshadows so far, but I think there are better choices in mind for this. Blaziken sticks out to me, since the mixed or Z-Solarbeam set could clean way for Mega and physical attacking variants to sweep. I can see double Mimikyu being very annoying as well, though since it can be rather weak, I imagine bulkier teams can screw that strat up pretty badly.
 
So I played a tiny bit (mostly with Arcticblast ), and here is my quick impressions and speculation!

- Stealth Rock is gonna be even bigger than usual in this tournament. With no Item Clause, Focus Sash spam is a very real, scary threat! I wonder if this makes auto weather set ups involving Alolan Ninetales or Tyranitar more appealing as well. Because of this, I'd advice against getting too crazy with Focus Sash spam, since I think it's good to be able to prepare for Stealth Rock. I sorta wish I could use Mega Diancie to screw with that... I guess I could try Espeon lol.

- Deoxys-A is pretty scary if its sash is up, it damn near 2HKOs the entire metagame! It can clean up stuff well too, though Mimikyu and Marshadow are gonna be issues in those regards. Maybe pair it with Tapu Lele, though that might lead to some annoying overlap.

- I tried Marshadow, and holy shit this thing rocks! It's an excellent user of Focus Sash, since it can mess up sweepers with Spectral Thief, and Shadow Sneak makes it great at picking off weakened Mimikyu and smashing Deoxys-A that lack Focus Sash. I've been a bit of a rebel and actually using two Marshadow as well, with one using Choice Scarf. Choice Scarf seems a bit weird when it has Shadow Sneak, but it's nice for revenging stuff when Stealth Rock is up, and outspeeding and OHKOing Scarf Tapu Lele is awesome!

-I saw a few Genesect. Not sure what to think of it. Download is great, but I haven't seen it do much yet. They all seem to be Scarfers, any thoughts on this thing thus far?

-Tapu Fini seems especially good to deal with Blaziken, and it does good against Marshadow too. Hell, I don't even think Deoxys-A OHKOs it!

-Me and Articblast noticed a lot more Trick Room shenanigans than usual, mostly coming from Mimikyu and Magearna. I imagine with high speed threats like Deoxys-A and Marshadow, Trick Room is more powerful than usual. I bet Porygon2 is good at doing it too!

-I haven't really had much experience with Zygarde yet, but Arcticblast swears by it. I imagine its bulk makes it pretty good at stopping certain mons, though the large amount of Mimikyus and Marshadow (it can steal boosts if sash is up and then smash with Ice Punch) can be worrying.

-I'm interested in trying out Shaymin-S (I think gen 7 fixed the bug with the battle box thankfully), which I haven't seen yet. Skymin outspeeds Marshadow which is really nice, and it cacn screw up Tapu Fini's day too. It does rely on moves that don't always hit though, which is a bit scary.

Something I want to raise up: the lack of species clause is dampened a bit by choosing 3 Pokemon, but I think running two of the same Pokemon could be a deadly strategy. I've tried two Marshadows so far, but I think there are better choices in mind for this. Blaziken sticks out to me, since the mixed or Z-Solarbeam set could clean way for Mega and physical attacking variants to sweep. I can see double Mimikyu being very annoying as well, though since it can be rather weak, I imagine bulkier teams can screw that strat up pretty badly.
What about Sticky Web if this meta turns out to be very fast-paced (given Marshadow's domination)? Or is it too much of an opportunity cost in a 3v3 metagame?
 
So I played a tiny bit (mostly with Arcticblast ), and here is my quick impressions and speculation!


- Deoxys-A is pretty scary if its sash is up, it damn near 2HKOs the entire metagame! It can clean up stuff well too, though Mimikyu and Marshadow are gonna be issues in those regards. Maybe pair it with Tapu Lele, though that might lead to some annoying overlap.



Blaziken sticks out to me, since the mixed or Z-Solarbeam set could clean way for Mega and physical attacking variants to sweep.
I haven't really played in GEN 7 so I was wondering what set exactly do you use on blaziken an deoxys?
 
What about Sticky Web if this meta turns out to be very fast-paced (given Marshadow's domination)? Or is it too much of an opportunity cost in a 3v3 metagame?
Sticky Webs would be pretty potent in this meta, but I don't expect it to be used because pretty much everything that learns it is pretty bad. I would imagine that the best user would be Shuckle because of its insane bulk and being able to take a hit thanks to sturdy. Everything else that learns it is way too frail. Even by running Shuckle you would have to be able to beat your opponent's team with your remaining 2 mons, since after it sets up webs it's going to go down. But, if you could pull it off then I'd imagine it would be pretty amazing.
tl;dr: It's a high risk, but a potentially amazing reward
 
Ugh...I want to run Darkrai, but I don't know how to go about it. Dammit GameFreak why did you nerf Dark Void?
Because schmucks abused the hell out of it, Game Freak apparently got tired of that, and so now we're all paying the piper! Too bad, since I thought using Dark Void on Kartana would be a good idea, since Spore doesn't work on Grass types. Now Hypnosis is more accurate (but sadly not any better)!

Since there aren't any Mega Stones involved, I think I'll just sit this competition out. I have other teams to build, and can probably earn 50 Battle Points faster using the Battle Tree.
 
Would Mega Metagross be a good way of setting up Stealth Rock? It's bulky enough to take a hit first turn and then follow up with Bullet Punch next turn if need be

Or perhaps Mew or Jirachi?
 
Someone else brought this up already, but what do people think of Mega Lopunny in this meta? It outspeeds dang near everything short of Deoxys and has Fake Out to break Sashes. It also bullies Marshadow if you can get it in safely or switch into Spectral Thief.
 
Someone else brought this up already, but what do people think of Mega Lopunny in this meta? It outspeeds dang near everything short of Deoxys and has Fake Out to break Sashes. It also bullies Marshadow if you can get it in safely or switch into Spectral Thief.
Wouldn't it have a hard time against Zygarde-C or Magearna though?
 
Someone else brought this up already, but what do people think of Mega Lopunny in this meta? It outspeeds dang near everything short of Deoxys and has Fake Out to break Sashes. It also bullies Marshadow if you can get it in safely or switch into Spectral Thief.
I've been using a team that utilizes Mega Lopunny on the ladder. It does great against fast, frail threats like Marshadow and Tapu Koko. In particular, Fake Out + High Jump Kick koes every Marshadow. It does however, have a rough time against physically Defensive threats, so consider a stallbreaker like Tapu Fini.

As for a side note, what are your thoughts on Pheromosa in this metagame? It's the only viable form faster than Deoxys-A, and can hit Zygarde Shaymin-S , and Koko for huge damage.
 

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