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Braviary (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SpD / 44 Spe
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Bulk Up
- Roost
- Brave Bird
First of all, keep in mind that I have no experience in RU/NU, which is effectively where these battles are going to be played for the first part of this challenge, so my knowledge of the relevant threats and capabilities of these Pokemon is close to nil.
Alright so I'm up against TFlame and Keldeo, and I have Politoed, Quagsire and Azumarill. Turns out Politoed is total ass. He needs Damp Rock to provide relevant team support, but I don't have a team for him to support. As a Choice Specs user or something he falls pretty flat, tbh I'd probably rather use Clawitzer, especially since the rain would be helping out my opponent's Keldeo, which is right out. So Politoed is probably not gonna come out of the ol' Poke Ball any time soon.
Quagsire, on the other hand, does work against Talonflame. It also beats Keldeo...if you run Water Absorb...which is bad...but also cheesy...and so that's what I've done. Hope there's no SD Talonflame in my future *crosses fingers*.
Azumarill is definitely coming in as a Keldeo check and a general fantastic Pokemon. The AV set to beat Keldeo. I considered Superpower to donk the random steel types that he's probably gonna have to use to check Azu, but decided to stick with the standard set because Azu isn't my win condition.
As far as BirdSpam checks go. I sure would love to use a bulky or fast electric type, since those are great against Keldeo and Talonflame. Unfortunately Raikou, Manectric, Rotom-W, Rotom-H and Mega-Ampharos are all ranked. Rotom-C doesn't resist Flying, so that's right out, and Rotom-F or -S just don't really provide any utility. I ended up on Specs Jolteon as a speedy Electric that still hits reasonably hard, it's basically a worse Mega-Manectric here.
Alright, this team is looking kinda like balance, but definitely skews toward the offensive side of things. Random Scald burns ruin Azumarill and Quagsire also doesn't like status, so I want some sort of cleric support, but not Wish/Heal Bell since those are pretty slow. I did a /ds for Healing Wish and came up with Mesprit, so a Scarf set seems reasonable with U-Turn for a nice little VoltTurn core with Jolteon, Thunderbolt which takes out Keld or TFlame and Healing Wish to recur something that got beat up in the early stages of the game.
Stealth Rock is good, I want it. We have the special side of things reasonably covered with AV Azu, so I want a physical tank. Regirock gives rocks, is a hard stop to Talonflame, and can explode to take out an annoyance. Sounds good to me.
Finally, I want a wincon. Rocks are gonna be important for me to beat Talonflame and wear down my opponent since I'm VoltTurning. BU Braviary has Defiant to discourage Defogging (although idk if Defog or Rapid Spin is gonna be more prevalent with the restrictions we have in place) and provides some inevitability. I can also weaken his checks by spamming Brave Bird in the early game and then Healing Wish him back up for a sweep. Sounds good to me, and there's 6.
The game went pretty well for me as my team pretty much shuts down Keldeo and Talonflame, and AV Azu probably handles Mismagius pretty well (idk) which was the only other big threat he was packing.
If anyone wants my lovely Mega Tyranitar and Metagross, I'm usually available from 3-10 PM Central Standard, the only exception will be on Friday as I'm out of town.
ForgottenOnes - can we please get a clarification on the status of ranked Pokemon that have not been allocated? Do they simply not exist for the purpose of this project? Will they be distributed later, when there are fewer challengers?
Edit: for example, it appears Mega Charizard-X is not allocated, but that doesn't mean we can use him right?
If there's no protocol in place for this yet I could offer a humble suggestion: wait until there are the same number of challengers remaining as unclaimed Pokemon in the viability rankings, and then distribute one to each remaining challenger.
right. Sorry if that wasn't clarified. The Pokemon that were not distributed WILL NOT get distributed. RIP them. Do not use them either since they are on the viability rankings. For the sake of the Conquest story, lets just say some team rocket jerk killed them all. :/
right. Sorry if that wasn't clarified. The Pokemon that were not distributed WILL NOT get distributed. RIP them. Do not use them either since they are on the viability rankings. For the sake of the Conquest story, lets just say some team rocket jerk killed them all. :/