They've taken a much better turn now that I know it's coming. If anticipating a close combat, I simply switch out to Azumarill or another fighting resist (if in singles). Brave bird's a little tougher since not as much resists flying and it hits so damn hard with that, with stab and all. (Although you bulleted that it had no STAB? Maybe I'm confusing sets?)
Correct, you're thinking of Sets 3 (the Choice Band one) & 4 (the Sitrus holder who seems to be oriented towards being Reckless).
I've always considered Water/Ice Set 4s to be more dangerous than the third variations because both Slowthings pack TR and Walrein4 has traditionally always been a bigger problem than Vanilluxe/Cryogonal3, the other users of Sheer Cold.
For that matter, I don't consider them among the worse of the Set3s, either; there are numerous Choiced Set3s which can be extremely dangerous and problematic if you face them under even slightly unideal circumstances, while I've never felt that with the Water/Ice Set3s. Slowking3 holds the Specs but I've yet to have a bad warstory focusing around it. Haxorus3 and Archeops3 on the other hand. The latter is much faster and a bit stronger than Tyrantrum4 and while the recoil from Head Smash will usually activate Defeatist, the sheer power behind it along with that CB can still be enough to take down a second uninvested poke. It's the reason I get nervous when a Roller Skater leads with one.
Set 4s more dangerous than Set 3s? Yes.
Individual Set 3s more dangerous than individual Water/Ice Set 3s? Certainly, though debatable and context-sensitive.
Water/Ice Set 4 trainers more dangerous than Water/Ice Set 3 trainers? Yeah, the former have weather strategies in mind, and the latter have nothing beyond "load up on bulky species, a good defensive typing, a good offensive typing, and cross your fingers"
I can't speak to the overall threat of Archeops3--while I've certainly run into it many times in The First 40, I don't think I've ever run into it post-Dana.
My specific theory is that the Water/Ice Set 3
trainers are the most dangerous
trainers (or
rosters, I guess) among the
pre-41+ trainers ("The First 40" is a thinly-veiled reference). That same lack of strategy is still better than what all of the other pre-41+ trainers have got going for them. (Personal side note: the Set 2 Rising Stars do occasionally catch me off guard when I'm not paying attention, me thinking they're Set 1 Rising Stars and acting accordingly until it's too late and they already gain the upper hand on me. Still, in general, Bunnie & Berger take the cake before the real Maison begins.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- RE: Page 160 and the short discussion about the Eject Button/Symbiosis Florges glitch as applies to the Maison
I found the talk to be amusing, although at the end of the day it came off like a lot of hoop-jumping and effort necessary to get one very specific trick to work. At the end of the day, it still requires one to incorporate Florges into a team--I'm more than willing to use Florges Maison sets, but I can't think of any serious players being so gung-ho. It would like theorymonning "Fidgit in the Battle Maison"--fascinating in a vaccum, but nothing more.
- RE: All of Page 154
A couple of awesome Triples teams, an awesome theorized Triples team that sadly never got off the ground, and the whole tantalizing prospect of banlist removal (remember, possible in Mock Battle!)...an awesome page overall.
- Wish Chansey has been enough of a trouble-maker on this thread that it got me thinking as to what lengths one would have to go through in order to provide acceptable proof of legality of event Pokémon players legitimately receive. In the case of the trouble-maker, or really any of the Wish Egg 'mons...perhaps a long-ass video showing the Wish Egg making the journey from Pal Park-->PokeShifter-->Transporter? PokeCheck has not seemed like enough of a marker in this specific case.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- So, after my most recent post I began to seriously ponder getting a couple of those missing Eeveelutions on the leaderboard. In the process of doing that, I stumbled into a couple of battles that got me thinking...deeper.
Battle #7 of my most recent attempt wasn't anything particularly special: Megazard-Y/Typhlosion/Leafeon/Manectric/Imperfect Pyroar2/Heatran vs. Lass Kana (Ambipom/Kangaskhan/Porygon-Z/Exploud/Miltank/Tauros) (Set 1) was pretty much what you would expect Sun vs. Set 1 Mono-Normal to be. It was the process of getting there and the aftermath, though, that got me thinking.
See, Kana was the trainer who ended my first serious Super Triples attempt way back when in early, pre-Bank X. I was using Imperfect Zapdos3/Imperfect Articuno3/Noivern/Imperfect Gourgeist3/Goodra/Hawlucha; she used Lopunny/Kangaskhan/Staraptor/Unfezant/Slaking/Tauros (Set 1). The battle itself was a mishmash of factors culminating in me being owned quite handily:
- My team was EV-trained, but not IV-bred
- Between two Intimidators, two Fake Out users, two U-turn users, and my general unwillingness to switch, the opposition was effectively able to dance around me until Slaking1 was ready to clean up (not like it needed to do much)
- This was before I printed out the Maison set lists and began referring to them regularly; while I had used all of these guys at some point or another in Rental Masters, I was mainly going off of memory and ended up forgetting a few things (most crtitically, Unfezant1 having Tailwind)
- Too much setup involved (dual screens between the Legendary birds, Tailwind on Noivern, Swords Dance on Hawlucha) against an opponent that absolutely was not going to give me the time of day
- The mostly-Flying-type dealie
That was only one of several battles that guided me along on the path to improvement, but it sticks out in my memory particularly painfully. I actually PokeGen-ed that team some time later in White 2, figuring that if could whip my ass so thoroughly, in the hands of a human player (with perfect IVs) it might be able to do some damage in PWT. There was a period afterward where I would relish battling Lasses in Super Triples, seeking eternal revenge ("awwww, y'all dead now!"). It fooled me into thinking--for quite a while, in fact--that Tauros is viable in the Maison.
As you can see, this recent battle triggered flashbacks and a lot of other shit in my head: how I've grown as a player, how far this thread and its regulars have come, the daunting enormity of what else the Maison experience can still offer, etc. It made me realize how much I missed out on by not becoming a Smogonite sooner, simply because I was intimidated by the sheer knowledge this crowd possesses:
Eppie being a regular here, the early days of hilarious and fun-looking pre-Bank teams, the fascinating-in-retrospect
~Mercury~ post of "Tyrantrum4 vs. Chansey in Super Singles", etc. It made me all the more thankful that this thread exists here to begin with: no way do I feel as "at home" anywhere else in these forums (even on the
Battle Subway Records thead), and, as mentioned previously, it will make for a hell of a read when it hits 200 pages and I print this sucker out.
The whole " growing as a player" bit might be the most important aspect of these ponderings. This time around, I double-switched on Turn 1, used Knock Off on Porygon-Z1, and basically sacked Leafeon to let the Fire-types start the slaughter *smile*. I then proceeded to lose the streak at Battle #17 to Aurorus2/Aerodactyl2/Excadrill2/Ferrothorn2/Golurk2/Escavalier2. Don't Maison and watch NBA games at the same time, kids *wink*.
Always learning, mostly always enjoying, occasionally shouting.
[/HIDE]
