[Online Competition] Scrappy Skirmish

[Demantoid]

Already had someone ragequit on me; they must've flipped their wifi switch cause they were losing, as it counted as a win for me (and my Wifi was fine). -_-

I don't get why people do that. If you're gonna lose, either play till the end of forfeit. Sheesh.

Went 8-2 on the first day...not bad. One loss was due to my opponent getting 4 crits in a row. O.o I was like "okay, I can still win this as long as they don't get back to back crits"...next thing I know, back to back crits. -_-
Oh, well...I don't think it's a bad score for the first day. At least all my items worked properly this time.

I've seen a couple Ditto, and a lot of Arcanine and Serperior.


Edit:
So...I have a question/problem. I did careful calcs before the tourny started, and determined that my normal-type 'mon, with the EV spread I had on it (248 HP/96 Def, Adamant Nature...I like bulky + hard hitting)...
...should have lived various fighting type moves.

In one of the battles I lost, an Arcanine used Close Combat on me, and OHKOed my pokemon without a crit when my HP was at 100%.
According to the calcs, the highest roll possible for a 252 Atk Adamant Arcanine with Close Combat (with Life Orb, and this one wasn't Life Orbed) is 95.8%. Yet, it one-shotted me.
Any possible explanation on how that happened?

I'm still scratching my head on that one.

The Arcanine could have been Choice Banded would be my guess.

Edit: 8-2 after the first day. One loss to hax and the other to BD Azu.

 

[mdchan]

Your EV's aren't calibrated for Level 50 - either 252 or 244 will give full stat points, assuming an HP IV of 31.

You might also have not done your calculations for Level 50 Pokemon. I recommend using Nugget Bridge's Damage Calculator, as it sets Pokemon to Level 50 by default.

I did all the calcs for level 50 mons.

The Arcanine could have been Choice Banded would be my guess.

Ah...forgot about Choice Band. Come to think of it, the opponent withdrew it afterwards. Though, it'd have to be Adamant nature to have even a chance of OHKO (Jolly nature's highest is 97.5%), and an OHKO is the highest roll. Man...I guess I was unlucky on that one.

 

[Mishimono]

Ah...forgot about Choice Band. Come to think of it, the opponent withdrew it afterwards. Though, it'd have to be Adamant nature to have even a chance of OHKO (Jolly nature's highest is 97.5%), and an OHKO is the highest roll. Man...I guess I was unlucky on that one.

speaking of luck me and Demantoid have been doing a few games and we seem to be getting quite a bit of hax (one game I had a double crit and he seems to be missing will-o-wisp) the hax has only cost me one game so far ao I'm sitting 5-3 cause some of the weird sets that keep appearing like Shadow Ball Latias, Sludge wave Goodra

 

[mdchan]

Got critted like it has a higher chance again today...but still managed to pull through. I only battled twice, and it pushed my score into the 1600s, so I might pull out. Part of me wants to see how far I can go with this team (as I'm currently 10-2), but the other part of me knows that beyond the 1600s are the highly competitive folks, while I just participated for fun. I dunno.

 

[Moody Magikarp]

10-5 now, but I started off with 7 straight wins, so I went on a bit of a slide. I'll probably quit for a bit now. No clue if I'll play all 45 games seeing that means I'll have to play 30 matches between now and the ending time...I'll probably just play in burst of 3-4 games depending on how I'm going.

One interesting thing though: haven't seen one Zapdos. But I did see a few Raikou's and one Latias. With all the biggest Meta game breakers gone, this is probably the widest range of Pokemon I've seen in a tournament to date.

 

[Demantoid]

10-5 now, but I started off with 7 straight wins, so I went on a bit of a slide. I'll probably quit for a bit now. No clue if I'll play all 45 games seeing that means I'll have to play 30 matches between now and the ending time...I'll probably just play in burst of 3-4 games depending on how I'm going.

One interesting thing though: haven't seen one Zapdos. But I did see a few Raikou's and one Latias. With all the biggest Meta game breakers gone, this is probably the widest range of Pokemon I've seen in a tournament to date.

According to the PGL it's only 10 per day. I also haven't seen as many Zapdos as I thought I would but Azumarill is still everywhere.

I'm now around 1625 with 15-5 or something.

 

[Moody Magikarp]

According to the PGL it's only 10 per day. I also haven't seen as many Zapdos as I thought I would but Azumarill is still everywhere.

I'm now around 1625 with 15-5 or something.

They usually let you catch up if you didn't play your previous day's matches. It's extremely tedious playing 2 day's worth all in one day though.

 

[Ursarox]

I played better yesterday, but I still ended up 7-3 due to hax and a bad lead matchup. I'm trying to do my day 3 matches now, but the server is undergoing maintenance! Fantastic timing in the middle of a competition lol, and there wasn't even any warning of maintenance today since it's usually only on Monday's. I wonder if some people were cheating/hacking or there was a glitch in the competition and they needed to release an emergency patch.
Edit: maintenance is finished now, but it's still weird how they had an unscheduled maintenance.
Edit 2: I figured out it was a nintendo "technical difficulties" problem, not a PGL problem, even though it had the exact same maintenance message in game, so I was a jumping to conclusions a little too quickly.
Edit 3: I finally got to battle, but then... more maintenance of course right when I was about to win. That maintenance ended, but then I connected before I could even hit battle and then again when I tried a free battle as a test all with the same "communication failed" message which I've never seen before. I checked the nintendo website and there is a real problem and it's not just my internet, so I'm waiting until morning I'd advise everyone else to wait a few hours before battling as well if you don't want to waste battles on disconnects. Nintendo really needs to get their act together.

 

[Mishimono]

I played better yesterday, but I still ended up 7-3 due to hax and a bad lead matchup. I'm trying to do my day 3 matches now, but the server is undergoing maintenance! Fantastic timing in the middle of a competition lol, and there wasn't even any warning of maintenance today since it's usually only on Monday's. I wonder if some people were cheating/hacking or there was a glitch in the competition and they needed to release an emergency patch.

Nice to see everyone doing well :) I myslef am 12-4 which would be 14-2 without hax (Knock Off crit in game 1 and Heat Wave miss game 2) but since hax is in the game I have to live with it. Lots of players don't seem to have alot for Gastrodon which I bring to almost all my games, Goodra and Mega Metagross have also been quite useful.

EDIT: Okay alot of these guys suck this guy was rated 1617 and just watch the battle. After I miss two 90 percent attacks and I still win smh FYMG-WWWW-WW33-P7ZY

 

[PumpedAaron]

I'm super close to finally starting my matches! But I haven't decided between Sableye (with Mega Stone) or Clefairy.


I don't want to spoil the team, but I put effort into good type cores, I've got a Grass Fire Water core, and with Sableye, I'd have a Psychic Dark Fighting core as well. Sableye gives me Wisp, Taunt, and Mega to bounce back stuff, (I would have two potential Megas as well if I used Sabl). Clefairy would give me Follow Me, Snatch, and Friend Guard. I could technically teach Sableye Snatch as well but... I don't want to get rid of Recover, do I??

 

[ethan06]

I'd go with Clefairy, it's support options are generally more useful (redirection, speed control with Icy Wind/T-Wave, Friend Guard > Magic Bounce, WoW, Snarl imo) and Fairy is a very solid defensive typing. If you have a Dragon and a Steel type then Fairy/Dragon/Steel is one of the more famous type combinations (nice n synergy with things like Metagross, Latios, Ferrothorn). Plus Sableye takes up your mega slot, and that's better used on an offensive mon than a support mon. There's a reason Mega Audino is so awful :[

 

[Mishimono]

Feeling pretty down now :(. I lost like 4 games in a row first one was to some guy who was 1730 and just played really well. Second one he got an Ice Beam freeze which allowed him to get a Belly Drum. 3-4 were just me playing crappy as I was pretty mad about the previous game. I hope I can do better

 

[PumpedAaron]

Oh well. I did super awful in this tournament. I ended up going with Mega Sableye instead of Clefairy. I'm not sure how much that cost me in particular, but overall, I noticed my team lacked enough offense to OHKO my Pokemon. I relied too much on Scald burning so Jellicent could use Hex afterwards, and honestly, my only two remotely offensive Pokemon were Hariyama and Camerupt.

I thought that because of all my finesse and elegance involved in building an all-new Trick Room team, I'd win pretty well. But I lost horribly. I should've just winged it so that I'd have more time to do my Battles and study them a little, instead of entering at the last second.

My team most likely would've consisted of Pokemon I already raised, instead of Pokemon that I was required to raise: Whimsicott, Lucario, Azumarill, Clefairy, Octillery, Machamp.

 

[Moody Magikarp]

Finished 19-11. I'm a little miffed since not using Leaf Storm on a Gastroon cost me 20 wins and the 1600's, but I'll take it.

I also missed the note where this tour was only 30 games. I team built for the full 45, but it doesn't matter. This was still the most fun I've had playing in these tours yet. Something I attribute to not seeing the same 6 Pokemon in every match (although I assume some of the truly "scrappy" teams still got hammered with things like MegaGross and Raikou running around).

I really hope we see this format again or at least something similar once or twice a year.

 

[mdchan]

Final day, 12-4...I decided to go a couple battles further, and sure enough, started to run into the same teams (as much as I love the pokemon, I would have screamed if I saw one more Arcanine). My score got knocked down by the two losses (one due to hax, and the other because the Self-Destruct must have been predicted and the person skilfully outplayed me), but back up when I managed to beat someone with a score of 1675 (no clue how I managed...I have the battle video saved, and I'm still not sure how I won).
1607 (ironically, higher than I was when I was 10-2), so I think I'm done. It was fun, but I realize that my team lacks in a couple areas (and I have three mons weak to electric, for example), so to continue would be suicide (that, or a trade-off in wins to losses).

So, I'd say...if I'd built the rest of my team a little better to follow the leads, I would have had a slightly better time against later matchups in the "competitive" ranks (I consider anything past 1600 to be highly competitive) and might have been able to continue. Though, I'm proud of Snorlax for just being an exploding boss, Mega Sableye for matching pace, and really the rest of my team even though I brought really strange 'mons with too many common weaknesses and could have done better with building the rest of said team.

I'd also like to see a format like this again...except I wish they'd nix the legendaries completely. Though I didn't struggle against teams with legendaries or MegaGross on them (ironically), up in the 1600s I started seeing a lot more Zapdos, Raikou, Virizion, and Latias (and MegaGross). I give props to the person I faced who used a Farfetch'd (they lost, but still get props for bringing it and its crit-stick).

 

[Mishimono]

I finished under 1600 (maybe depends on that last match) sadly with 20-10. My loss streak in the end really costed me. However I did poorly mostly to hax and just the weird stuff people were running and me not having a great answer to Swampert (Should've ran Power Whip Goodra lol) i lost about 3 games to hax so that was a thing and another 3 to just some weird sets, others I just got outplayed but I am happy I got a positive record considering I didn't put alot of thought into my team. Well here is the team if anyone wants to try it :)

Importable

Gastrodon @ Expert Belt
Ability: Storm Drain
EVs: 204 HP / 100 Def / 196 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Metagross-Mega @ Metagrossite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Zen Headbutt
- Protect
- Ice Punch

Hitmontop @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Feint
- Wide Guard
- Fake Out

Volcarona @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Heat Wave
- Bug Buzz
- Quiver Dance
- Protect

Goodra @ Life Orb
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Draco Meteor
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Rainy Days (Zapdos) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 184 HP / 60 Def / 252 SpA / 12 SpD
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Tailwind
- Rain Dance

 

[mdchan]

I managed to get over the 1600s (and beat someone close to 1700) with this team, but I'd appreciate if anyone is willing to give feedback on it of how I could have made it better (since I'm still learning).
Mega Sableye and Snorlax were my leads, and typically Kecleon and Togekiss were the other two I chose (though, depending on the situation, Tentacruel would take the place of one of the latter two).

A BD Snorlax can OHKO a Megagross and MegaScizor; two battles I lost were due to hax, one due to excessive crits, and the last was due to being outpredicted when my opponent double-protected second turn so Snorlax's sacrifice was in vain. Though, I did still managed to get the Psych-Up on MSableye and OHKO the opponent's MegaGross. Azumarill didn't see much play.

 

[ZyFlux]

Finished 23-7 with my Mega Gallade team. Had a rough start with several hax-y matches, then managed to pick up a win streak that lasted 16 matches, which was abruptly halted by the return of the hax. Although, I can't blame all my losses to RNG; some teams were really good and just caught me off guard (an offensive HP Fire Vaporeon wrecked me). Taking a break between matches helped keep me at ease and able to continue my streak. I can post my team if anyone's interested.

I have to say, this competition was a real breath of fresh air, and probably the most fun I've had in a Wi-Fi tournament so far. I saw a lot of diverse strategies and Pokemon I haven't seen used in double battles in ages. If only this is how VGC '16 could be.

 

[Mishimono]

Finished 23-7 with my Mega Gallade team. Had a rough start with several hax-y matches, then managed to pick up a win streak that lasted 16 matches, which was abruptly halted by the return of the hax. Although, I can't blame all my losses to RNG; some teams were really good and just caught me off guard (an offensive HP Fire Vaporeon wrecked me). I can post my team if anyone's interested.

I have to say, this competitive was a real breath of fresh air, and probably the most fun I've had in a Wi-Fi tournament so far. I saw a lot of diverse strategies and Pokemon I haven't seen used in double battles in ages. If only this is how VGC '16 could be.

I wouldn't say VGC 16 should be like this (they banned hydreigon) but I think no mega would be really cool and still more intersting.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

I managed to get over the 1600s (and beat someone close to 1700) with this team, but I'd appreciate if anyone is willing to give feedback on it of how I could have made it better (since I'm still learning).
Mega Sableye and Snorlax were my leads, and typically Kecleon and Togekiss were the other two I chose (though, depending on the situation, Tentacruel would take the place of one of the latter two).

A BD Snorlax can OHKO a Megagross and MegaScizor; two battles I lost were due to hax, one due to excessive crits, and the last was due to being outpredicted when my opponent double-protected second turn so Snorlax's sacrifice was in vain. Though, I did still managed to get the Psych-Up on MSableye and OHKO the opponent's MegaGross. Azumarill didn't see much play.

I love your team.
Only suggests I could offer, are T-wave over Dazzling Gleam on Kiss, Dazzling Gleam only OHKOs Hydreigon, and Azumarill would better handle every other Dragon. T-Wave would let your fairly slow mons (mostly Kecleon) tear things apart with Speed advantage. Even with Tailwind you're not going anywhere.
Does Kecleon need that much Priority? :P

 

[Demantoid]

I finished 23-7 with a rating just above 1700. Here was my team:

This was the second time I actually practiced to find a team I was comfortable with, and it took me a long time. I wanted to use Ferrothorn for a while but decided that too many teams were prepared with fire type attacks sometimes on random pokemon. This team was built around Sableye after deciding I wanted to try it in regular vgc. Its Prankster WoW made it a very anti-meta pokemon in this format neutering most physical attackers in the format. This team has ended up being one of my favorite teams I've ever built due to it having, at worst, a neutral match up against nearly all teams in the Scrappy Skirmish.

Importable

Sableye @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 220 SpD / 36 Spe
Calm Nature
- Swagger
- Will-O-Wisp
- Recover
- Taunt

Lucario @ Lucarionite
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 44 Atk / 212 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Flash Cannon
- Vacuum Wave
- Protect

Goodra @ Assault Vest
Ability: Sap Sipper
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 100 SpA
Modest Nature
- Feint
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Rock Slide

Cradily @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Storm Drain
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 220 Def / 4 SpA / 28 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Protect
- Earth Power
- Giga Drain
- Stone Edge

Azumarill @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower
- Protect

Arcanine @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 20 SpA / 4 SpD / 108 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Morning Sun
- Snarl
- Toxic

Yes I did have to get three 6 iv pokemon on my team.

I used WoW and Swagger on Sableye because they severely limit my opponent's total damage output. Recover was used because Sableye could have many free turns where it could Recover. Sableye was also very threatening to my opponent's teams, and along with damage control from Arcanine it could stay on the field for a long time. I ended up going with Taunt over something like Quash, Fake Out, or Foul Play in the last slot and it was a very good decision. Taunt was able to stop things like minimize and other Prankster pokemon. It ended up being most helpful during the competition against redirectors. The ev spread outspeeds my own Azumarill so I could Swagger it before an Aqua Jet. The rest was put in Special Defense since WoW patched up its defense. Despite its low base defenses it was surprisingly bulky.

Next I wanted something to deal with Fairies. I originally had Metagross but due to worrying about a strategy known as VoidCats hiss I used Lucario since it could kill Liepard with priority.
Flash Cannon is strong but doesn't kill fairies that invest heavily in defenses. Vacuum Wave was used to deal with Liepard, and Close Combat was used as its strongest attack. The ev spread ohkos 252 hp Mega Altaria almost all the time with rest in attack.

Next I added Arcanine to help deal with the fire weakness on the team. Flamethrower was used over Overheat to have a more lasting presence. Snarl was very useful for increasing the special bulk of my team. Morning Sun was for recovery. Toxic was used over WoW because that was on Sableye and I needed a way to deal with bulky fire types and otther bulky things. Rocky Helmet was used since my other defensive items, besides Sitrus which I didn't want, were already taken. The ev spread outspeeds Adamant Excadrill and positive Smeargle, and I don't remember what else. My most common lead was Arcanine next to Sableye.

Cradily was then added to the team to have a check to rain. Recover was originally supposed over Earth Power but my in game one didn't have it as an em. Stone Edge was used to ohko Volcarona. Weakness Policy was very helpful was very helpful since opponents often underestimate its bulk and target it with weak ice attacks. The ev spread lives a jolly Mega Metagross' Iron Head. I also only forgot Storm Drain redirects my own attacks once during the competition.

Azumarill was added to complete a Fire/Water/Grass core and add my only fully physical attacker. This is the only pokemon's set I would probably change. I decided against a Belly Drum set because I thought people would be overly prepared for it. I went with Superpower to hit Ferrothorn which was unnecessary because my team did fine against it and I only saw it once the whole competition. Lum Berry was usefukl for dealing with Scald Burns and opposing WoWs, but it was most useful for allowing my Sableye to Swagger Azumarill to double its attack. This was very helpful as it allowed me to boost and attack in the same turn unlike BD. At +2 Azumarill killed most pokemon weak to it and over half to most others. I do not remember what the ev spread does.

Goodra was added as another softer rain check and to complete a Dragon/fairy/Steel core
(even though Lucario can't really take a hit). Fire Blast ohkos some Ferrothorn and was helpful coverage in general. Draco was the STAB move but it ended being the least used move. Rock Slide hit Volcarona hard which my team had problems with. Feint was a very useful move in the competition mostly used to allow Sableye to WoW things that didn't want a burn. It could also be used to pick off pokemon that survived with very little health remaining. The ev spread ohkos 252/52 Ferrothorn with the rest in defense.

Replays showing how the team works:
KGEW-WWWW-WW33-VB5U: Showcases how well Sableye does in this meta completely shutting down many of my opponent's pokemon.
RLLW-WWWW-WW33-VB7S: Displays the Swaggering my Azumarill strategy and more Sableye action.
P36W-WWWW-WW33-VBEN: This was the only Voidcats team I faced but made me glad I prepared well for it.

Overall I enjoyed this competition although I felt that at some points it was diverse to the point of random bad things. Some of my battles were lost to pretty bad hax against me but a few were to my opponent outplaying me. I don't know how good this score is but i never battled anyone higher than 1700, so I guess it's good.

 

[Ursarox]

I finished 4-6 on the last day due to some hax and my bad interpretation of some unusual strategies, and I'm 18-12 overall around 1570. Surprisingly, I got to redo the battles that ended due to maintenance (but that was still annoying). Here's my final team:

Thanks to project titan for the suggestions.

Houndoom was my main mega because it has solar power to do heavy damage in the sun. Heat wave could OHKO a lot of things in the sun, but imperfect accuracy lessened its effectiveness, and loss of hp every turn really shortened its time on the field. Solar beam was for water types and dark pulse was a reliable STAB move.

Jumpluff was my lead to get sun up a lot since I was struggling to use Ninetales effectively. Spamming chlorophyll sleep powder is really fun, but again low accuracy hurt. Helping hand was to help allies pick up KOs and giga drain was to pick off weak opponents and break sashes/sturdy. Mental herb prevented it from be shut down by taunt.

I used ninetales if it looked like Jumpluff might not be able to safely get sun up or it looked clear that there was going to be a weather war. Fire Blast was its main attack and Solar Beam was coverage. Sunny Day helped win weather wars, and I couldn't get role play to work effectively and will o wisp was used over protect because it wasn't really good for anything besides drought so fainting wasn't that big of a deal.

Exeggutor was a chlorophyll attacker and it surprised a few people. Solar Beam, psychic and protect were basically mandatory and Leaf Storm was so it had a powerful attack without sun up.

Rhyperior was a late addition that worked well in the sun since it can take water attacks with solid rock. It was a physical wall and has good attack power. Iron tail was for M-Altaria which checked the rest of my team. I wish I gave it lum berry though because it was severely crippled by burn.

M-Camerupt was an alternative mega that was used against trick room team, because without it I was always wrecked by trick room teams. However, there were a lot fewer than I was expecting so unfortunately it barely got used.

Here are a few videos
FUCG-WWWW-WW33-VL3P This is why I wish I used higher accuracy moves lol.
R8PG-WWWW-WW33-VL92 I see an Abomasnow under trick room, and I figure I can switch in Ninetales for sun to shut it down, but it mega evolves restoring the hail and it wrecked me from there with Blizzard. After experiencing this I think M-Abomasnow might be a very underrated pokemon in this competition or it may just have been me getting got off guard.
YMVW-WWWW-WW33-VM4Q Jumpluff and Exeggutor dominate after recovering from a bad lead lead matchup

Overall, I'm still happy with this competition, even though my performance wasn't great since there was nothing centralizing and I still had fun.

 

[Mishimono]

I finished 4-6 on the last day due to some hax and my bad interpretation of some unusual strategies, and I'm 18-12 overall around 1570. Surprisingly, I got to redo the battles that ended due to maintenance (but that was still annoying). Here's my final team:
View attachment 52998
Thanks to project titan for the suggestions.

Houndoom was my main mega because it has solar power to do heavy damage in the sun. Heat wave could OHKO a lot of things in the sun, but imperfect accuracy lessened its effectiveness, and loss of hp every turn really shortened its time on the field. Solar beam was for water types and dark pulse was a reliable STAB move.

Jumpluff was my lead to get sun up a lot since I was struggling to use Ninetales effectively. Spamming chlorophyll sleep powder is really fun, but again low accuracy hurt. Helping hand was to help allies pick up KOs and giga drain was to pick off weak opponents and break sashes/sturdy. Mental herb prevented it from be shut down by taunt.

I used ninetales if it looked like Jumpluff might not be able to safely get sun up or it looked clear that there was going to be a weather war. Fire Blast was its main attack and Solar Beam was coverage. Sunny Day helped win weather wars, and I couldn't get role play to work effectively and will o wisp was used over protect because it wasn't really good for anything besides drought so fainting wasn't that big of a deal.

Exeggutor was a chlorophyll attacker and it surprised a few people. Solar Beam, psychic and protect were basically mandatory and Leaf Storm was so it had a powerful attack without sun up.

Rhyperior was a late addition that worked well in the sun since it can take water attacks with solid rock. It was a physical wall and has good attack power. Iron tail was for M-Altaria which checked the rest of my team. I wish I gave it lum berry though because it was severely crippled by burn.

M-Camerupt was an alternative mega that was used against trick room team, because without it I was always wrecked by trick room teams. However, there were a lot fewer than I was expecting so unfortunately it barely got used.

Here are a few videos
FUCG-WWWW-WW33-VL3P This is why I wish I used higher accuracy moves lol.
R8PG-WWWW-WW33-VL92 I see an Abomasnow under trick room, and I figure I can switch in Ninetales for sun to shut it down, but it mega evolves restoring the hail and it wrecked me from there with Blizzard. After experiencing this I think M-Abomasnow might be a very underrated pokemon in this competition or it may just have been me getting got off guard.
YMVW-WWWW-WW33-VM4Q Jumpluff and Exeggutor dominate after recovering from a bad lead lead matchup

Overall, I'm still happy with this competition, even though my performance wasn't great since there was nothing centralizing and I still had fun.

Haha lol I fought this exact team online :) If it was you I was using the same team I ended up bringing but with Clefable>Goodra.

 

[mdchan]

I love your team.
Only suggests I could offer, are T-wave over Dazzling Gleam on Kiss, Dazzling Gleam only OHKOs Hydreigon, and Azumarill would better handle every other Dragon. T-Wave would let your fairly slow mons (mostly Kecleon) tear things apart with Speed advantage. Even with Tailwind you're not going anywhere.
Does Kecleon need that much Priority? :P

I nearly put T-wave on Kiss instead of Tailwind...I rarely got to use Tailwind, anyway, by the time Kiss came in.
For the priority on Kecleon, I wanted Shadow Sneak to mess with/predict fighting types, plus Sucker Punch made up for its horrible base speed. Fake Out came in handy many times when I was testing the team, so I kept that...my main idea was to get around Kec's poor base speed as best as possible.
Only one team I faced used Quick Guard, though a slow Sucker Punch did wind up failing a couple of times; didn't really hurt much in the end.

 

[cant say]

So I wasn't all that keen on playing this but thought I'd sign up anyway just in case, but then messed up and thought it was this weekend coming up so I legitimately hadn't prepared anything at all. I really wanted to try sun with Mega Houndoom, but I ended up just throwing together stuff that A) I had on cart already, and B) looked like good choices based on the usage stats from Season 11's Special (which had a very similar banlist). I have a great Metagross that I caught in the Friend Safari and since it was the no.1 most used I figured it'd be a good opportunity to show it off a bit. Zapdos and Azumarill were obvious choices, then I added the Volcarona and Murkrow from my Spooky Cup team, then I threw in Raikou as suggested by Esmeya (it was a Klefki so I could have dual Pranksters, lol). I ended up only having enough time on Sunday night to play 12 battles, but I reached my mini goal of 10 wins and/or >1600 rating with 10:2 and about ~1615. I wish I had more time for these, hopefully I can play the next one from the start and get all the battles in!

Importable

Xenon (Metagross) @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 8 HP / 248 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 30 Atk / 26 Def / 27 SpA / 31 SpD / 31 Spe
- Iron Head
- Bullet Punch
- Zen Headbutt
- Protect

Kenickie (Zapdos) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 252 SpA / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 3 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Roost

Pikablu (Azumarill) (F) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Aqua Jet
- Waterfall
- Superpower

Facebook (Volcarona) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Protect
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Giga Drain

Adelaide (Murkrow) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Foul Play
- Feather Dance

Riebolt (Raikou) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 16 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Snarl
- Reflect
- Protect

I went with STABs on MegaGross but could probably have replaced Iron Head with Ice/Thunder Punch. I guess I just didn't wanna rely on Zen Headbutt's imperfect accuracy as a main STAB move but needed it to hit stuff neutrally that Iron Head couldn't touch... Iron Head was really good against Togekiss and stuff but yeah..

I was originally going to use Thunder Wave on Zapdos coz it's the best move in the game but figured Tailwind would work against stuff like Mega-Swampert / Mega Metagross / Mega Blaziken etc. that want to Protect turn 1 so I can outspeed them the next turn without needing to Protect my own Metagross. So I just stole the VGC set from our Strategy Dex.

I was lazy and went with standard AssVest Azu, not much to explain.

Went with Sash Volc so all I had to change was Hidden Power Rock > Giga Drain, lol. It was actually really good here, it was really fun surprising Swamperts with Giga Drain. Bug Buzz was good for Ludicolos and stuff, and Fiery Dance gave me a way to take out Metagross while fishing for a boost. I still don't get why I see so many Quiver Dance + Heat Wave Volc, it does look scary on paper but it just never seemed to do anything against me. Like I said I used this similar set in the Spooky Cup and I wouldn't change anything about it.

OK yeah so everyone knows I like to use a bit of hax in my teams so Murkrow got the call up again, only change I did from Spooky Cup was Protect > Foul Play so I could actually take advantage of the attack boosts I was dishing out and also bop MegaGross. ethan06 pointed out to me that Feather Dance was kinda redundant with Swagger so incase anyone else was thinking the same thing; I was using Swagger against special attackers, and crippling the phys hitters with Feather Dance.

Like I said, I was gonna use Klefki for more shenanigans but it was pointed out to me that Raikou would be a cool fit for my team, and indeed it was (lucky I had one!). Thunderbolt was great in this meta where rain was everywhere (very few resists / immunities) so it was fine as a pseudo-mono attack. Snarl and Reflect for buffing the team a bit, and Protect coz it's doubles.

---

I think I'm slowly getting a little bit better at doubles. I lost one game to a guy running Hyper Voice Aurorus which I thought would Protect against my Metagross (it def wasn't Scarf, was doing less damage than what I thought Specs would do, and didn't get LO recoil) so I left it alone while it proceeded to kill my mons. The next loss was to a really cool team of Mega Sceptile + Discharge Zapdos with Arcanine in the back (and repeatedly switching in on me to cripple my Metagross). I had absolutely no answer to that and in hindsight it's something I would have loved to try out myself.

Replays:

VS

G6LW-WWWW-WW34-VXEF
My very first battle! I had a horrible start, misplaying on turn one (can't remember my mindset, might have been fearing Sash Mamo?) and getting severely haxed. Murkrow does some work, but then Raikou saves the day. This one went right down to 0:00 as the guy was timerstalling after he had his 'wincon', then he couldn't choose his move faster once I was leading the HP race.

VS

MLAW-WWWW-WW34-2X6Q
Giga Drain Volc earning its place in the team at the start. They must have had a Timid+max speed Zapdos as it outsped my Volcarona (damn you HP Rock IVs!) but it would have been nice to keep it around for the Ferro. Luckily my Azu could pull through in the end.

VS

HQ9G-WWWW-WW34-22JZ
Gotta include an obligatory hax match! This guy was easy to read from team preview, obviously going to lead with Meowstic + Houndoom and get sun up so I brought Murkrow to pester both of them and Raikou to help soften the blows that got through, luckily that went exactly to plan! His backups managed to bring it back to 2v2 but the matchup was entirely in my favour (they seemed like the obvious picks from TP so it was an easy choice for me). I'm not sure how it would have gone if I didn't get the coin flips but I prefer to not think about that stuff