I forgot about Parting Shot. Porygon2 can potentially become an even bigger pain to deal with.
Will-O-Wisp can turn Whimsicott into a less defensive but priority-using Trevenant.
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Alphabet Cup
- Thread starter Martingale
- Start date
Will-O-Wisp can turn Whimsicott into a less defensive but priority-using Trevenant.
Parting Shot is very interesting. Slow-pivoting Porygon-2 is very useful, particularly if you knock the opponent's attacking stats down a peg or two. Priority Parting Shot from Purrloin gives it a niche with the downside of having to use Purrloin.
In P, the hacked cyberduck Porygon-Z gets an interesting combination: Psycho Boost and Power Swap. Bomb with a powerful attack, take a special attack drop... And then evilly pass the drop to your opponent.
In P, the hacked cyberduck Porygon-Z gets an interesting combination: Psycho Boost and Power Swap. Bomb with a powerful attack, take a special attack drop... And then evilly pass the drop to your opponent.
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SpartanMalice
Y'all jokers must be crazy
I don't think Carracosta will be good enough to compete with most of these other mons still, but it does gain some advantages: Crabhammer , Close Combat, Crunch etc. With Water/Rock coverage being good enough already, extra fighting or dark coverage doesn't hurt much.
Edit: Oops, the second half of my post wasn't supposed to be posted here. My bad.
Edit: Oops, the second half of my post wasn't supposed to be posted here. My bad.
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SpartanMalice
Y'all jokers must be crazy
Anyone noticed Judgement and Techno Blast? These pretty much offer a mon with these letters an extra coverage move. For J, they get any option, while T gets only three, but all good options.
Yeah, but you have to sacrifice an item for it. For Judgement, that's understandable, since a 120 BP (including the actual boost from the plate) move of any type is quite good, but Techno Blast just isn't worth it. Life Orb alone boosts HP up to 78 BP, which is just 7 less than Techno Blast.
I think we might have ourselves a weather-dominated metagame, particularly Sun, what with the availability of V-Create and Sacred Fire (although the latter will probably get banned). Physical Victreebell with V-Create, Power Whip, Volt Tackle and either Swords Dance or Sleep Powder seems deadly. You could also go with Venusaur if you want to forgo power for bulk and being able to hit Fire-types harder. Rain could also be pretty good thanks to Aqua-Jet. Sand doesn't seem great, mainly because the Steel-types who benefit from it don't enjoy the increased availibility of Close Combat, Earthquake and V-Create (and also Land's Wrath, which is a move I litteraly just heard about). Still, Tyranitar is still good thanks to its access to Trick Room, which should rise in usage due to the fact that now, not every single TR user gets mauled by Ghosts. Additionaly, a lot of pokemon who appreciate Trick Room don't mind sand, although Trick Room teams are so incredibly offensive that sand doesn't really matter anyway.
Suddenly, I'm getting the idea of a V-Create based Sun TR team with Ninetales, Victini and Mega-Venusaur. Although I have very little time to do much at all and I'll have to switch Ninetales to Victini and then set up TR and then U-Turn or Final Gambit to Venusaur. and even then I'll only have 3 turns to sweep... If only there was an item which made Trick Room last longer...
Umm. If I'm not wrong, I think Techno Blast itself got buffed in gen 6. From an 85 BP to 120 BP making it on par with Judgement (incl. plate) except for the fact that it has 5 PP, but with the nerfs to Fire Blast and Hydro Pump and the kind, it might actually be pretty nice since it's also 100% accurate.
Oh. Well, in that case, Techno Blast seems pretty good after all.
I keep learning new things today...
Some other interesting things are:
Rhyperior gets Recover and Rapid Spin, as does Rhydon. A dangerous tank, Eviolite Rhydon with recovery moves.
Dragonite gets Drain Punch to get his Multiscale back up.
Machamp gets Mach Punch (Should already have this though)
Victreebell with sun could be an extremely good sweeper, with Chlorophyll and sunboosted - V-Creates.
Charizard-X with Close Combat & Crabhammer for good coverage.
Also, after S, what is the best letter to have?
Rhyperior gets Recover and Rapid Spin, as does Rhydon. A dangerous tank, Eviolite Rhydon with recovery moves.
Dragonite gets Drain Punch to get his Multiscale back up.
Machamp gets Mach Punch (Should already have this though)
Victreebell with sun could be an extremely good sweeper, with Chlorophyll and sunboosted - V-Creates.
Charizard-X with Close Combat & Crabhammer for good coverage.
Also, after S, what is the best letter to have?
Probably either B for the BellyPass combo or V for V-Create and Volt Switch, which can create great momentum together. D seems pretty great, too.
On a side note, Thundurus can now learn Topsy-Turvy, making it the Prankster Topsy-Turvy user we've all been waiting for. You can now stop a sweeper with even less risk than before!
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Thundurus is so anti-meta. Boost rules the roost in Alphabet Cup, that having a tool like Prankster Topsy-Turvy is reason enough to use Thundurus. Hell, if that combination was given to a Sunkern it would be amazing. What makes Thundurus even better is newfound access to Tail Glow and powerful special moves, combined with lightning fast Speed and high Special Attack. Thundurus is very good.
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SpartanMalice
Y'all jokers must be crazy
Yeah, I wouldn't have mentioned Techno Blast at all if I hadn't known that, I had noticed it only recently on Showdown. And thanks Gerard, I had forgotten. Hell, Thundurus could probably use it on his Tail Glow sets for coverage, as even without LO that's gonna hit hard, and boltbeam coverage is better when you have 120 BP moves as opposed to HP.
Well, Thundurus is now high on my list of Pokemon I want to try, along with Dragon Dance Darmanitan, Close Combat Cloyster, V-Create Volt Tackle Victreebell, and any S-mon.
This metagame looks really exciting. Hoping for OM of the Month!
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There are some amazing combinations available now which I didn't even notice before. Things I really want to try are Geomancy Genesect, Dragon Dance Doublade (with Dynamic Punch!), Pivot Porygon2, Memento Murkrow, and Role Play Regigigas.
Edit: Screw the above paragraph, Alphabet Cup has 14 nominations to Middle Cup's 17 at the time of posting. We can bloody do this. If you haven't voted yet, please do!
Vote Alphabet Cup!
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Again, S. Salamence gets not only Sacred Fire but Shift Gear too, which isn't much of an improvement from Dragon Dance but still.
Honestly, Salamence is probably one of the least improved S-mon. As somebody else pointed out, even Sunkern is somewhat viable.
So after testing with few guys and all, let me tell you guys a few circus of horrors:
SSSSS
Sashed Shell Smash Simple Swoobat.
This thing is just terrifying. It gets stored power and Secret Sword + Filler to deal absolutely unwallable insane damage.
You pretty much have to run few priority users to take this down otherwise its game over.
Lava plume Landorus-I.
Focus blast is replaced by lava plume. That coverage and accuracy is a big help with Landoruses already insane sheer force boosted special attack power, this makes it really hard to stop after rock polish.
Less horrifying but still neat:
Tail Glow + Technoblast Typhlosion.
Screw eruption. This set dishes out all the damage you ever need. Techoblast ice/water, thunderbolt and flamethrower and start recking.
Drapion. Just Drapion.
Dark void, Dragon tail, Defog... Learns knock off naturally too and other fine tools! A+ support.
SSSSS
Sashed Shell Smash Simple Swoobat.
This thing is just terrifying. It gets stored power and Secret Sword + Filler to deal absolutely unwallable insane damage.
You pretty much have to run few priority users to take this down otherwise its game over.
Lava plume Landorus-I.
Focus blast is replaced by lava plume. That coverage and accuracy is a big help with Landoruses already insane sheer force boosted special attack power, this makes it really hard to stop after rock polish.
Less horrifying but still neat:
Tail Glow + Technoblast Typhlosion.
Screw eruption. This set dishes out all the damage you ever need. Techoblast ice/water, thunderbolt and flamethrower and start recking.
Drapion. Just Drapion.
Dark void, Dragon tail, Defog... Learns knock off naturally too and other fine tools! A+ support.
Chandelure and Cofagrigus get Camouflage.
Torkoal, Throh, Tangrowth, Torterra, Tyrantrum, and Tyrannitar all get Trick Room.
Metagross, Magnezone, and Machamp get Moonlight and Morning Sun.
Torkoal, Throh, Tangrowth, Torterra, Tyrantrum, and Tyrannitar all get Trick Room.
Metagross, Magnezone, and Machamp get Moonlight and Morning Sun.
Moonlight and Morning Sun are pretty much outclassed by Milk Drink anyway.
Swoobat is gay, the best counters are like Topsy-Turvy Thundurus and probably Spore Sableye.
Swoobat is gay, the best counters are like Topsy-Turvy Thundurus and probably Spore Sableye.
I'm actually excited for parting shot Politoed lol. With a scarf, you could reliably set up rain and switch out to a rain abuser.
I love gen 6, but I kinda miss being able to run a rain team effectively :/
EDIT: eh, someone already mentioned this a while back. Damn, you guys have picked up pretty much everything viable!
Also, regarding the S move ban, by banning status moves do you mean banning only moves that inflict status, or all non attacking moves?
I love gen 6, but I kinda miss being able to run a rain team effectively :/
EDIT: eh, someone already mentioned this a while back. Damn, you guys have picked up pretty much everything viable!
Also, regarding the S move ban, by banning status moves do you mean banning only moves that inflict status, or all non attacking moves?
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Oh wow, that's true. Breloom looks amazing now, with Belly Drum, Mach Punch, Bonemerang, and Rock Tomb, it can pretty much wreck everything. I guess you could fit Spore in there, but you'll miss on crucial coverage.
Still, that awful bulk means it can almost never set up, and unlike Shell Smashers, you can't use it as a lead Focus Sash user and try for a 6-0.
You can pretty much say that about every Shell Smasher.
Thundurus is starting to look like this metagame's equivalent of Avalugg in Inverse. I can see it getting top usage, especially if the letter S gets banned. Forget Shell Smash, Belly Drum will be almost unviable if Thundurus becomes popular
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