SINNOH CLASSIC

Hi, i'm new here. I've actually participated in several of these competitions but I never got around to making an account on here until now.
Anyways, I ended up going 34-11 with a rating around 1730 I think.

This was the team I used:

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Claw
- Protect

Zapdos @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Static
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 180 Def / 52 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Heat Wave
- Tailwind
- Protect

Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Waterfall
- Aqua Jet
- Superpower

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Knock Off
- Protect

Arcanine @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Helping Hand
- Protect

Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Icicle Crash
- Ice Shard
- Fake Out

Not sure, but I think I might of actually played some of you guys. My IGN is Will just in case I did battle any of you.
 
God damn I love Sinnoh and I can't wait to use stuff like Infernape Garchomp Gliscor Gallade and others all on the same team....

But I will be back on August 9th. This is the one tournament I really wanted to join damn it.
 
I'm pretty happy i finished over 1700 with my Sun team
The idea behind was to braindeadly spam Heat Waves.
Anyway, when i started building the team, the words "braindead" and "firemoves" didn't match that well like they did in my head, so i had to put efforts to build a team that wasn't that braindead...

This is the team:




Ninetales @ Choice Specs
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Energy Ball
- Sleep Talk

I won a good 50-60% of the games with people underestimating the damage of this thing, not expecting the combination of max spa + specs + a spread move.
Totally the MVP of the tour for my team.


Hitmontop @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Wide Guard
- Feint

Classic and evergreen wide guard + intimidate supporter in the vgc tier, it worked perfectly for the tour and on my team. I felt that mostly none of the teams i faced that had Chomp or similar EQ/Slide spamming mons were enough prepared to deal with it. This surprised me since in vgc everyone has a way to avoid wide guard users. Anyway, also without wide guard, Intimidate support allowed my fire attackers to survive supereffective ground/rock moves most of the time.


Moltres @Characoal
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Tailwind
- Air Slash
- Heat Wave
- Protect

The other Heat Wave spammer and one of the three "speed control" mons of my team. I've choosen him over Solar power Charizard because of the superior bulk, he could survive chomp's rock slide with Friend Guard.



Clefairy @ Eviolite
Ability: Friend Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 3 Spe
- After You
- Follow Me
- Helping Hand
- Moonblast

Clefairy is amazing. Not only i could redirect attacks with FM, but i also had a way to control the speed under TR with After You, a way to lower incomming damage with Friend Guard and a way to increase my damage with HH.
Special mention: Moonblast dealt 50% damage to Kingra and 25% damage to a Moody Stored Power Latias, leading me to win both matches.



Salamence @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tailwind
- Heat Wave
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect


i used this over Moltres in matches where i needed double Intimidate. I had Heat Wave and not Fire Blast/Flamethrower just to have fun and spam that move as much as i could. Timid nature was just to speed tie with other mences. Dragon Pulse over Draco Meteor just because i had no guts :|


Ludicolo @ Absorb Bulb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Simple rain counter. Timid to outspeed/tie with other Ludi. Used this in 2-3 battle of the 30 i did, since i felt confident to fight water with fire in most games.


I had so much fun with this team that i think i'll write a RMT when i have time :]
 
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Garchomp was pretty standard, other than the slightly gimmicky Poison Jab, which I stuck on there to deal with opposing Azumarills. Unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to use it that often, but it did come in handy towards the end. Rough Skin + Rocky Helmet also helped net some additional KOs against physical attackers, but perhaps some additional survivability againt Ice type moves would have been better overall.

Scizor was definitely a strong asset on this team, with Technician boosted Bug Bite for opposing Ludicolo and Cresselia. Bullet Punch also helped me take out several Gardevoir and Weavile before they could make a move. It was definitely a huge target for WoW, so Lum Berry was probably the optimal choice here.

Arcanine was a really good supporter with Intimidate, Snarl, and WoW for damage reduction. Snarl was useful for weakening opposing special attackers and also commonly breaking sashes when I went for the KO with Scizor's BP right off the bat. Overheat was there to get the KO on Pokemon that were weak to fire, but I think Heat Wave might be better since it would still probably get the KO on Scizor and spread burns without the SpA drop. Also a great asset against the sun teams I faced, with boosted Overheat and Morning Sun healing more than normal.

Lapras was my anti-rain team member; AV allowed it to tank attacks from Ludicolo and fire back with a Freeze Dry and gobble up water attacks for health. Ice Shard also got off some critical KOs late in battles. Sometimes I used Sheer Cold for the lolz (I think my success rate was definitely lower than 30%) or as a last ditch effort, but I think the only notable time it worked was when it managed to take out a full-health Cresselia early on in the battle.

Raichu was for supporting against opposing Zapdos with Lightningrod, but was a bit hit-or miss in practice. Fake Out was pretty good for getting off some early KOs, but it was easily outsped by Weavile and Ludicolo under the rain. Would probably consider using Air Balloon instead of Focus Sash next time; Raichu had max HP/Spe so it actually ended up surviving almost all attacks with > 1 HP anyway, and could have really used the extra Ground immunity.

Cresselia definitely earned her reputation for being one of the mainstays of 4th gen OU. I had originally planned on using Moonblast over Ice Beam but was too lazy to level her up to 99, but I think Ice Beam ended up being more useful against the multitude of 4x Ice weak dragons like Salamence and Garchomp, as well as getting SE damage on opposing Zapdos. I remember in one of my battles, I was down 3-1 with only Cresselia left and managed to Toxic-stall all three of my opponent's pokemon down to victory. One thing I considered was giving her some form of recovery (Moonlight?) for better survivability, but I wasn't sure what move to replace here since they all ended up being used pretty frequently.

I think I played a little more sloppily than I liked some of the time. I ended at 29-13 I think in the low 1700s; didn't have time to play the last couple. I think the most trouble I had was with Crocune, didn't really have much on my team to handle it. I didn't really have an overarching theme for my team, but I think it generally worked together pretty well. One thing I think my team was sorely missing was a Taunt user, which would have been useful against Trick Roomers and stallish pokemon like Suicune. Overall it was pretty fun!
 
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My team was alright. However Togekiss and Crobat only entered battles in certain cases. I think I only used them two or three times each and never together. Most battles people couldn't handle a Lapras and Arcanine combo and normally lost 2 or 3 pokemon to them before one was knocked out and either Garchomp or Rotom cleaned up the rest since the remaining pokemon were slower from Icy Wind.

Sheer cold on Lapras was a last resort because I realized I was going to struggle with Cresselia and Suicune otherwise, it surprising hit first time most of the times I used it.

Rotom-Mow was probably my favourite of the team just because of the abundance of Rotom-Wash I saw and it just out sped the other Rotom and 1 hit KO'd it.

The only struggle I had was with Hail teams, the obvious Ice weakness was going to be a problem and the 4 matches that I officially lost were ll hail team (I'm not counting the disconnections)
 
Sadly no. Was hoping to run into you and have an Arbok v Raichu showdown ;) NEXT TIME
4 Atk Arbok Gunk Shot vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Raichu: 96-114 (70.5 - 83.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 4 Atk Arbok Gunk Shot vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Raichu: 144-169 (105.8 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Coil, lol)

252 SpA Raichu Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 156+ SpD Arbok: 57-67 (34.1 - 40.1%) -- 38.1% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery

It also works pretty good on Thundurus, which is usually what switches into it to avert the plague of Glare :P



Arbok won the coinflip, so she makes her usual Classic show with the same set as ever. Surprisingly hard to kill while she spews Glare and Intimidate everywhere, and then spreads the misery of Rock Slide. Most people tend to ignore Arbok and focus on far more dangerous team mates like Azumarill; which is exactly the wrong thing to do. lol.

Umbreon is adorable, but also giggles at Psychic attacks and spreads additional torture via Snarl and Swagger, while being fucking obnoxious to kill while it Foul Play's everything to death. Mostly a team mate for Arbok.

Azumarill is my bread and butter set I've ran for 3 months now and I had no reason to change it. Azu was quite worthy of its S rank in the meta. Absolutely forced the foe to bring WoW, Gyarados, or an Electric or Grass type which I was happy to abuse. Zero complaints, did most of the killing. Outruns everything up to Aerodactyl when paralyzed and flinches with Waterfall. huehuehuehuehuehue

Arcanine is an offensive set, straight out of my old BW2 team. It was designed as a mixed Sun + Flash Fire nuke, but I had to adapt it last minute. Still did really well; Heat Wave burned 5 out of 6 hits. xD

Zapdos: no I don't have a Static one, anyone have a spare? lol. Been using this one for months, just a solid bulky Zapdos with Heat Wave added for Scizor and Venusaur coverage.

Machamp was needed to break Zapdos and Steel mons, but mostly added to make my Cress matchup even worse. Dynamicpunch spam with Lum to eat obvious WoW or get a free Swagger buff.

I went 4-2, work ate my competition time. Should not of done nearly as well as I did. Had to Paralyze + Swagger + Flinchspam every Cress I saw LOL
 
My team: Garchomp(Lum Berry) Lopunny(chople berry) Smeargle(Focus Sash)Tauros (Kee Berry) Ludicolo (Absorb Bulb) Politoad (choice scarf) The main strategy was putting my opponent to sleep and confusing him (ludicolo and lopunny both had teeter dance, Lopunny had fakeout and afteryou too in order to support smeargle) Than I switch into tauros and crit tauros with smeargl e using storm throw that tauros gets + 6 atk thx of Anger point. Garchompnwas great to clean up after a tauros sweep and the rain mode was great agaibst other rainteams and fast teams in generell. It also gave me an option to quickly beat teams which wernt that competetive without having to rely on my gimmnick. I got top10 on the showdown sinnoh classic ladder with it but unfortunatly the tournament didnt go that well and I went 2-5 Day1 wgich pretty much destroyed all.my chances cause a ton of bad rng happend. However i still finished 21-7 slightly under 1700
 
4 Atk Arbok Gunk Shot vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Raichu: 96-114 (70.5 - 83.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 4 Atk Arbok Gunk Shot vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Raichu: 144-169 (105.8 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO (Coil, lol)

252 SpA Raichu Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 156+ SpD Arbok: 57-67 (34.1 - 40.1%) -- 38.1% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Nah nah nah I wasn't running Thunderbolt. Raichu existed for DisQuake strats under an Air Balloon alongside my Garchomp. Because I couldn't get a Zapdos.

252 SpA Raichu Discharge vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Arbok: 37-45 (22.1 - 26.9%) + paralysis because not once did that fail. Either Raichu really loves me or I'm a scumbag. Little of column A little of column B.
-1 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arbok: 116-138 (69.4 - 82.6%)

91.5% - 109.5% damage before Arbok even moves.

The only time that failed was getting outsped by a Charizard who popped the air balloon meaning I KOd my own Raichu with Earthquake (but not before he gave 'em hell). It was a sad moment. We held a tiny funeral.

Arbok is one of my faves though. Actually just wanted to see it which is why I was hoping to run in to you. I didn't use any of my faves this time out.
 
Finished 30-15 with a rating in the 1600s. I was surprised reading that people here finished with a record close to mine in the 1700s, must have just been beating lower ranked people. Ran into a lot of Japanese players and very few Europeans, which was odd given I am from UK. Overall I'm happy with my performance but am left feeling I could have done better. I choked a couple of games, got haxed a couple and was on tilt for the whole of the last day.

How do I show my team like others have done from the global link? and when do the results come out?
 
Some great results there, well done everyone! A lot of 1700+s which is great to see!

I too am happy to say that I can add my name to the 1700+ club. I peaked at 1762 and, annoyingly, I reckon I could've gone a lot higher. I only managed to play 30-35 of my matches (in part due to dodgy wifi on the first day and not knowing unplayed matches carried over) but only lost about 4 or 5 of those, once due to said connection error. And I did go 1-2 in my last three games, so I won't have finished such a high score, but I'm hoping for something ~1740. Even so, I'm happy with my performance!

Here's the team:



Team Commentary:

Weavile was the MVP of the team, providing excellent utility with Fake Out and dealing huge amounts of damage to many common threats with its powerful STAB moves and useful coverage move in Low Kick. I did miss Protect occasionally, but Low Kick helped me deal with things that would have otherwise have been very problematic (mostly Snorlax), so it was the better choice overall. Weavile is one of my favourite Pokemon as well, so it was great to use it to such success in this metagame.

Weavile's most common partner in crime was Zapdos, and it's amazing how much havoc these two could wreak on their own, having excellent coverage across many of the top threats. Tailwind provides all-important speed control and HP Ice provided extra coverage and often caught people unawares. I ran with a EV Spread of 100 HP / 48 Def / 204 SAtk / 100 Spd with a Modest nature, on a twist on Smogon's recommended BSD set. The extra 48 Def EVs (with the IV drop for HP Ice) ensures Zapdos survives an Icicle Crash from Focus Sash Weavile and, as I equipped it with the Magnet and generally only pointed HP Ice at things that are 4x weak, the drop in Special Attack EVs wasn't noticeable.

Arcanine was the last 'mon to make the team, providing support with Snarl and Helping Hand and great synergy with the team by absorbing Will-o-Wisps and taking out otherwise threatening 'mons like Scizor. Once again, I used a slight variant on Smogon's bulky BSD EV spread (can't remember the exact spread though - but I do remember I made sure it could OHKO Scizor in the rain with Overheat) which, in tandem with Leftovers, generally allowed Arcanine to just sit there not dying, annoying the opponent with Snarl, and supporting with Helping Hand.

Azumarill is a great choice in Doubles, as all the Fake Out shenanigans allow it to more easily set up a Belly Drum. Although it's quite a ballsy strategy, Azumarill would often accompany Weavile as lead and do significant damage - or, lower down the ladder, even sweep - before dying. Protect is essential on Azumarill as bait for when it has set-up and the opponent goes into panic "kill it now" mode. Aqua Jet and Play Rough are really the only attacking moves it needs. Azumarill also served as a decent rain check, as it appreciated the power boost to Aqua Jet.

Speaking of Rain checks, that is pretty much the only reason Toxicroak made the team but, unlike Azumarill, it is a pretty hard counter to most rain teams and always helped me defeat them whenever I faced them. I used an EV spread of 252 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SDef / 52 Spd with a Jolly Nature. This was to allow it to survive a Modest LO Kingdra's Draco Meteor (not that I saw many) and always outspeed Max Speed Neutral Base 70s like Breloom (not that I saw much either...), the rest was lumped into Attack. Gunk Shot is obviously the main move here, taking out Ludicolo. Fake Out support is always useful, as is Sucker Punch's priority, and Protect because doubles, and to help with Dry Skin recovery. Payapa Berry was a fantastic call on the item, allowing it to survive a Psychic from a Politoed which usually led to me getting the KO on Ludiocolo, with the opponent thinking Toxicroak wouldn't be around to attack. It's situational, but a situation that came up more than once, giving the obviousness of Toxicroak's role. Furthermore, no other item I tried seem to work. Black Sludge was my main other choice, but I found that either Toxicroak would be KO'd outright or have ample recovery with Dry Skin/Protect in the rain, and so it wasn't necessary.

Cresselia rounded out the team as a powerful, tanky set-up sweeper. I stuck it on the team after seeing what it could do on PS and I didn't look back. Cress can set up on so many things, especially with the recovery provided by Moonlight and proceed to sweep or deal huge damage. Like someone else in this thread, I had been using Moonblast over Ice Beam on Showdown during testing but I couldn't be bothered to level it up so high (I don't think I'd have had time anyway) so "made do" with Ice Beam, soon finding it proved to be the better option all along. It has that extra level of unexpectedness and did huge damage to many common threats even without boosts. Rocky Helmet rounds off the set, punishing the attackers who would attack Cress' unboosted side. Again, I can't remember the spread, but I think there were a few Def EVs in there to help tank certain physical hits, and a few speed EVs too, to help win ties against univested base 85s such as other Cresselia and Suicune.

Anyway, there's the team, thanks for reading and helping me revel in my (personal) glory ;) Once again, well done to all players!
 
340th in the world, 7th in the UK. Pretty good for my second competition, and an improvement from ~1000th in the Johto Classic.
 
For anyone interested the 1st place player has posted their team
http://marshmallows1105.hatenablog.com/entry/2016/07/25/233447
Wait, seriously?? That's the same exact team as Marshmallow...the guy who got fifth! I know because I played him twice!:

First battle: PBZG-WWWW-WW4Y-ULY8
Second battle: VNKG-WWWW-WW4Y-UMHE

Clearly it's the same guy using 2 different games.

For those who don't want to look up the battle videos... I lost in the end of the first one due to Heat Wave burning my Swampert and missing some crucial damage...and what also appears to be a low damage roll from my Garchomp's Rock Slide single-targetting Zapdos. 252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Zapdos: 114-135 (57.8 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I think he was rated around 1,817 when I played him.

But I got sweet revenge later on. I encountered him when he was at 1,867, and I managed to get some great predicitions once again. But mostly I won because his Zapdos and Garchomp were so weak to the teamwork of Swampert and Ninetales. Yeah, I beat the winner with a Swampert and Ninetales. I can barely believe it myself. Ninetales was my MVP throughout the entire tournament...but Swampert was the real star this time around. Glad I can still win using my favorites! :D

So apparently I beat the guy who won the entire competition. WOW. For a moment I thought this was one of my weaker competitions. Clearly not if I have that to show for it. Here's my somewhat wild team:

2016-07-24 (2).png


(LONG POST FROM NEW POSTER INCOMING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. :P)

Yup, I used Cherrim. Unfortunately not against Marshmallow, or even in half of my matches, but enough to make a difference. I knew that in a format without megas and a lot of weather control, Cherrim would be a really neat support Pokemon that could help the right teammates do a lot of work if I could keep the sun up. Glad I could fit it in this time around! It's a Pokemon I've been wanting to use for a while.

Once I had my Cherrim and Ninetales locked onto the team, I knew what to put on next. I knew that I was going to use Swampert, which I put on every team that it's legal since Swampert is my absolute favorite, and Garchomp, who was clearly one of the best Pokemon this format, as well as one of Cherrim's best teammates. Getting a Sp. Def boost to survive Ice attacks and a boost to its already great Attack is more than enough to make Garchomp a deadly force.

For my last 2 slots, I picked Pokemon that would fill in the holes that my 4 Pokemon had. I used Staraptor since I've had great experience with it in the past and was a fast check to a lot of Pokemon that were unprepared. The last slot was Togekiss, (this was based off of a team I made in Pokemon Battle Revolution,) but changed to Gengar real quick when I realized how much ground it could help me cover. Speed control, Trick Room trumping, and giving most support Pokemon trouble made it a worthwhile addition. I've used Gengar so many times in Doubles at this point that I find it hard not to include it. Having only Shadow Ball to deal decent damage with seemed like a hurdle at first, but considering what I used Gengar for in the first place, it pretty much did what I needed it to do. I have no regrets using the set I did, no matter how oddly Sash and support mixed with Gengar.

Another thing I have no doubt about is who my Most Valuable Pokemon was. It was easily Ninetales. Considering what the rest of my team was, I knew I wanted to use a more bulky Ninetales as opposed to a hyper offensive one. I had Flamethrower, Will-o-Wisp....and really couldn't think of anything else I wanted, so I slapped on Imprison and Protect. Sadly, I felt myself never using Imprison. Shame, too, because I've praised it in the past but never actually used it. Perhaps Ninetales is the wrong Pokemon to use it on?

The other problem I had is that Cherrim would only be supporting 2 Pokemon on my team, since I needed Ninetales to activate its ability. Using Sunny Day on Cherrim requires setup that isn't possible a lot of the time. I learned this when using Cherrim multiple times, since it's a hard Pokemon to use. This also means that I can't bring Gengar and Cherrim to the same battle, due to Gengar not being able to take advantage of Flower Gift, and only bringing one Pokemon from my team that appreciates Cherrim's attack boost. So since my Ninetales was all bulk, I switched to Flare Blitz to take advantage of Flower Gift. In the end, that's not where the move became an advantage over Flamethrower or Heat Wave. It was my fourth move: Pain Split.

Looking through all of Ninetales's moves to replace Imprison with, I was starting to lose hope. But one of the last ones I came across was Pain Split. I saw this move, and I immediately saw so many ideas running through my head. I put it on...and had decent results on Showdown. I figured that no other move would be better than it, and kept it on for the competition since Flare Blitz was helping me out a lot. Then I got to the real competition...and everything changed. Ninetales was just...perfect. Here was the spread I decided on, after having trouble deciding HP due to 2 usually counter-intuitive moves:

180 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe , w/ Careful Nature, and a Shuca Berry.

Countless numbers of Pokemon had so much trouble dealing with this thing. Water moves got nerfed by the sun, most Rock type attacks were Rock Slide, which meant less damage because spread moves, and Earthquakes were covered by my hold item: Shuca Berry. I'm not exactly sure what lead to this decision, but I put it on in Showdown over Heat Rock just to see if I would ever need a Heat Rock. I almost never did, so I kept it on. And like everything else about Ninetales transitioning from practice to the real competition...it worked so perfectly. 2 or 3 times I had to Earthquake into my own Ninetales, and Shuca Berry helped it live and then Pain Split. Shuca Berry allowed it to bulk so many Earthquakes, which were already nerfed by spread damage, and become even more of a nuisance. Cherrim's Flower Gift gave it a 50% boost to its already fantastic Special Defense stat. Combine that with Will-O-Wisp...and you've got one heck of a strange wall.

It might sound gimmicky on paper, but I can say with confidence that this thing alone won me at least 40% of my battles. I won 2 stall-wars thanks to Pain Split, Flare Blitz did more damage to Physically frail Pokemon like Ludicolo, (assuming I could control weather,) and when Ninetales barely lived, I could use a combination of those 2 moves to deal damage to one Pokemon and drain it back from another. After about 5 battles, I ended up realizing how great it was, and brought it to over 75% of my battles. If I ever make a team like this again with Cherrim...I'll know exactly what to do with Ninetales. It looks like Megas are going away next Gen, anyways. I think it's safe to say that Ninetales was a god. Which means I'll be nicknaming it to Helios. 8P

Overall, I flopped towards the end. I lost my last 2 battles, and the second one took one minute too long and ended right at 8 o'clock EST, which meant no more battles for me. Mostly because my Vulpix breeding took way too long, but it was totally worth it. 8D Additionally, my last battle was the only time I came across Abomasnow surprisingly. It was a Pokemon I thought a Ninetales team would have a blast going up against, but clearly I was wrong. :(

I finished 46th in the U.S. with 1700, even though I was somewhere around 1,736 when I beat Marshmallow. At first, I was disappointed considering I finished 27th in the U.S. during the Kanto Classic, and I had some battles that I absolutely should not have lost and were my own fault. But after seeing Marshmallow at #5, and then figuring out that he was also #1, I was ecstatic. I can't wait for another competition as balanced as this one! :D

P.S. If you got this far, thanks for listening to me, even though I'm new and posted way too many paragraphs praising Ninetales. :)

P.S.S. Here are some more battle videos I found on my competition page on the Global Link. Not sure what determines which battles get codes or not, considering the only 2 I saved were the ones against Marshmallow.

E9NW-WWWW-WW4H-28DV : Against AquaDragon, who ranked at 1,701...one more point than me! LOL...

QB5W-WWWW-WW4H-XU5T : Just like when I taunted Marshmallow's Zapdos, I read my opponent's gimmick and punished them for it. Goes to show how good Taunt on Gengar is. I'm just glad I didn't get haxed out by Umbreon, who has violated me in that past...
 
Wait, seriously?? That's the same exact team as Marshmallow...the guy who got fifth! I know because I played him twice!:

First battle: PBZG-WWWW-WW4Y-ULY8
Second battle: VNKG-WWWW-WW4Y-UMHE

Clearly it's the same guy using 2 different games.

For those who don't want to look up the battle videos... I lost in the end of the first one due to Heat Wave burning my Swampert and missing some crucial damage...and what also appears to be a low damage roll from my Garchomp's Rock Slide single-targetting Zapdos. 252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Zapdos: 114-135 (57.8 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I think he was rated around 1,817 when I played him.

But I got sweet revenge later on. I encountered him when he was at 1,867, and I managed to get some great predicitions once again. But mostly I won because his Zapdos and Garchomp were so weak to the teamwork of Swampert and Ninetales. Yeah, I beat the winner with a Swampert and Ninetales. I can barely believe it myself. Ninetales was my MVP throughout the entire tournament...but Swampert was the real star this time around. Glad I can still win using my favorites! :D

So apparently I beat the guy who won the entire competition. WOW. For a moment I thought this was one of my weaker competitions. Clearly not if I have that to show for it. Here's my somewhat wild team:

View attachment 66466

(LONG POST FROM NEW POSTER INCOMING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. :P)

Yup, I used Cherrim. Unfortunately not against Marshmallow, or even in half of my matches, but enough to make a difference. I knew that in a format without megas and a lot of weather control, Cherrim would be a really neat support Pokemon that could help the right teammates do a lot of work if I could keep the sun up. Glad I could fit it in this time around! It's a Pokemon I've been wanting to use for a while.

Once I had my Cherrim and Ninetales locked onto the team, I knew what to put on next. I knew that I was going to use Swampert, which I put on every team that it's legal since Swampert is my absolute favorite, and Garchomp, who was clearly one of the best Pokemon this format, as well as one of Cherrim's best teammates. Getting a Sp. Def boost to survive Ice attacks and a boost to its already great Attack is more than enough to make Garchomp a deadly force.

For my last 2 slots, I picked Pokemon that would fill in the holes that my 4 Pokemon had. I used Staraptor since I've had great experience with it in the past and was a fast check to a lot of Pokemon that were unprepared. The last slot was Togekiss, (this was based off of a team I made in Pokemon Battle Revolution,) but changed to Gengar real quick when I realized how much ground it could help me cover. Speed control, Trick Room trumping, and giving most support Pokemon trouble made it a worthwhile addition. I've used Gengar so many times in Doubles at this point that I find it hard not to include it. Having only Shadow Ball to deal decent damage with seemed like a hurdle at first, but considering what I used Gengar for in the first place, it pretty much did what I needed it to do. I have no regrets using the set I did, no matter how oddly Sash and support mixed with Gengar.

Another thing I have no doubt about is who my Most Valuable Pokemon was. It was easily Ninetales. Considering what the rest of my team was, I knew I wanted to use a more bulky Ninetales as opposed to a hyper offensive one. I had Flamethrower, Will-o-Wisp....and really couldn't think of anything else I wanted, so I slapped on Imprison and Protect. Sadly, I felt myself never using Imprison. Shame, too, because I've praised it in the past but never actually used it. Perhaps Ninetales is the wrong Pokemon to use it on?

The other problem I had is that Cherrim would only be supporting 2 Pokemon on my team, since I needed Ninetales to activate its ability. Using Sunny Day on Cherrim requires setup that isn't possible a lot of the time. I learned this when using Cherrim multiple times, since it's a hard Pokemon to use. This also means that I can't bring Gengar and Cherrim to the same battle, due to Gengar not being able to take advantage of Flower Gift, and only bringing one Pokemon from my team that appreciates Cherrim's attack boost. So since my Ninetales was all bulk, I switched to Flare Blitz to take advantage of Flower Gift. In the end, that's not where the move became an advantage over Flamethrower or Heat Wave. It was my fourth move: Pain Split.

Looking through all of Ninetales's moves to replace Imprison with, I was starting to lose hope. But one of the last ones I came across was Pain Split. I saw this move, and I immediately saw so many ideas running through my head. I put it on...and had decent results on Showdown. I figured that no other move would be better than it, and kept it on for the competition since Flare Blitz was helping me out a lot. Then I got to the real competition...and everything changed. Ninetales was just...perfect. Here was the spread I decided on, after having trouble deciding HP due to 2 usually counter-intuitive moves:

180 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe , w/ Careful Nature, and a Shuca Berry.

Countless numbers of Pokemon had so much trouble dealing with this thing. Water moves got nerfed by the sun, most Rock type attacks were Rock Slide, which meant less damage because spread moves, and Earthquakes were covered by my hold item: Shuca Berry. I'm not exactly sure what lead to this decision, but I put it on in Showdown over Heat Rock just to see if I would ever need a Heat Rock. I almost never did, so I kept it on. And like everything else about Ninetales transitioning from practice to the real competition...it worked so perfectly. 2 or 3 times I had to Earthquake into my own Ninetales, and Shuca Berry helped it live and then Pain Split. Shuca Berry allowed it to bulk so many Earthquakes, which were already nerfed by spread damage, and become even more of a nuisance. Cherrim's Flower Gift gave it a 50% boost to its already fantastic Special Defense stat. Combine that with Will-O-Wisp...and you've got one heck of a strange wall.

It might sound gimmicky on paper, but I can say with confidence that this thing alone won me at least 40% of my battles. I won 2 stall-wars thanks to Pain Split, Flare Blitz did more damage to Physically frail Pokemon like Ludicolo, (assuming I could control weather,) and when Ninetales barely lived, I could use a combination of those 2 moves to deal damage to one Pokemon and drain it back from another. After about 5 battles, I ended up realizing how great it was, and brought it to over 75% of my battles. If I ever make a team like this again with Cherrim...I'll know exactly what to do with Ninetales. It looks like Megas are going away next Gen, anyways. I think it's safe to say that Ninetales was a god. Which means I'll be nicknaming it to Helios. 8P

Overall, I flopped towards the end. I lost my last 2 battles, and the second one took one minute too long and ended right at 8 o'clock EST, which meant no more battles for me. Mostly because my Vulpix breeding took way too long, but it was totally worth it. 8D Additionally, my last battle was the only time I came across Abomasnow surprisingly. It was a Pokemon I thought a Ninetales team would have a blast going up against, but clearly I was wrong. :(

I finished 46th in the U.S. with 1700, even though I was somewhere around 1,736 when I beat Marshmallow. At first, I was disappointed considering I finished 27th in the U.S. during the Kanto Classic, and I had some battles that I absolutely should not have lost and were my own fault. But after seeing Marshmallow at #5, and then figuring out that he was also #1, I was ecstatic. I can't wait for another competition as balanced as this one! :D

P.S. If you got this far, thanks for listening to me, even though I'm new and posted way too many paragraphs praising Ninetales. :)

P.S.S. Here are some more battle videos I found on my competition page on the Global Link. Not sure what determines which battles get codes or not, considering the only 2 I saved were the ones against Marshmallow.

E9NW-WWWW-WW4H-28DV : Against AquaDragon, who ranked at 1,701...one more point than me! LOL...

QB5W-WWWW-WW4H-XU5T : Just like when I taunted Marshmallow's Zapdos, I read my opponent's gimmick and punished them for it. Goes to show how good Taunt on Gengar is. I'm just glad I didn't get haxed out by Umbreon, who has violated me in that past...
DUDE! I fought you! I quite enjoyed our match, I was not expecting that team setup at all! Your match with me was the one that went past 8 pm, haha. Great game, Nintetales is my 2nd favorite Pokemon ever so I love seeing it get some love. Small world!
 
Wait, seriously?? That's the same exact team as Marshmallow...the guy who got fifth! I know because I played him twice!:

First battle: PBZG-WWWW-WW4Y-ULY8
Second battle: VNKG-WWWW-WW4Y-UMHE

Clearly it's the same guy using 2 different games.

For those who don't want to look up the battle videos... I lost in the end of the first one due to Heat Wave burning my Swampert and missing some crucial damage...and what also appears to be a low damage roll from my Garchomp's Rock Slide single-targetting Zapdos. 252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 116 Def Zapdos: 114-135 (57.8 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
I think he was rated around 1,817 when I played him.

But I got sweet revenge later on. I encountered him when he was at 1,867, and I managed to get some great predicitions once again. But mostly I won because his Zapdos and Garchomp were so weak to the teamwork of Swampert and Ninetales. Yeah, I beat the winner with a Swampert and Ninetales. I can barely believe it myself. Ninetales was my MVP throughout the entire tournament...but Swampert was the real star this time around. Glad I can still win using my favorites! :D

So apparently I beat the guy who won the entire competition. WOW. For a moment I thought this was one of my weaker competitions. Clearly not if I have that to show for it. Here's my somewhat wild team:

View attachment 66466

(LONG POST FROM NEW POSTER INCOMING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. :P)

Yup, I used Cherrim. Unfortunately not against Marshmallow, or even in half of my matches, but enough to make a difference. I knew that in a format without megas and a lot of weather control, Cherrim would be a really neat support Pokemon that could help the right teammates do a lot of work if I could keep the sun up. Glad I could fit it in this time around! It's a Pokemon I've been wanting to use for a while.

Once I had my Cherrim and Ninetales locked onto the team, I knew what to put on next. I knew that I was going to use Swampert, which I put on every team that it's legal since Swampert is my absolute favorite, and Garchomp, who was clearly one of the best Pokemon this format, as well as one of Cherrim's best teammates. Getting a Sp. Def boost to survive Ice attacks and a boost to its already great Attack is more than enough to make Garchomp a deadly force.

For my last 2 slots, I picked Pokemon that would fill in the holes that my 4 Pokemon had. I used Staraptor since I've had great experience with it in the past and was a fast check to a lot of Pokemon that were unprepared. The last slot was Togekiss, (this was based off of a team I made in Pokemon Battle Revolution,) but changed to Gengar real quick when I realized how much ground it could help me cover. Speed control, Trick Room trumping, and giving most support Pokemon trouble made it a worthwhile addition. I've used Gengar so many times in Doubles at this point that I find it hard not to include it. Having only Shadow Ball to deal decent damage with seemed like a hurdle at first, but considering what I used Gengar for in the first place, it pretty much did what I needed it to do. I have no regrets using the set I did, no matter how oddly Sash and support mixed with Gengar.

Another thing I have no doubt about is who my Most Valuable Pokemon was. It was easily Ninetales. Considering what the rest of my team was, I knew I wanted to use a more bulky Ninetales as opposed to a hyper offensive one. I had Flamethrower, Will-o-Wisp....and really couldn't think of anything else I wanted, so I slapped on Imprison and Protect. Sadly, I felt myself never using Imprison. Shame, too, because I've praised it in the past but never actually used it. Perhaps Ninetales is the wrong Pokemon to use it on?

The other problem I had is that Cherrim would only be supporting 2 Pokemon on my team, since I needed Ninetales to activate its ability. Using Sunny Day on Cherrim requires setup that isn't possible a lot of the time. I learned this when using Cherrim multiple times, since it's a hard Pokemon to use. This also means that I can't bring Gengar and Cherrim to the same battle, due to Gengar not being able to take advantage of Flower Gift, and only bringing one Pokemon from my team that appreciates Cherrim's attack boost. So since my Ninetales was all bulk, I switched to Flare Blitz to take advantage of Flower Gift. In the end, that's not where the move became an advantage over Flamethrower or Heat Wave. It was my fourth move: Pain Split.

Looking through all of Ninetales's moves to replace Imprison with, I was starting to lose hope. But one of the last ones I came across was Pain Split. I saw this move, and I immediately saw so many ideas running through my head. I put it on...and had decent results on Showdown. I figured that no other move would be better than it, and kept it on for the competition since Flare Blitz was helping me out a lot. Then I got to the real competition...and everything changed. Ninetales was just...perfect. Here was the spread I decided on, after having trouble deciding HP due to 2 usually counter-intuitive moves:

180 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe , w/ Careful Nature, and a Shuca Berry.

Countless numbers of Pokemon had so much trouble dealing with this thing. Water moves got nerfed by the sun, most Rock type attacks were Rock Slide, which meant less damage because spread moves, and Earthquakes were covered by my hold item: Shuca Berry. I'm not exactly sure what lead to this decision, but I put it on in Showdown over Heat Rock just to see if I would ever need a Heat Rock. I almost never did, so I kept it on. And like everything else about Ninetales transitioning from practice to the real competition...it worked so perfectly. 2 or 3 times I had to Earthquake into my own Ninetales, and Shuca Berry helped it live and then Pain Split. Shuca Berry allowed it to bulk so many Earthquakes, which were already nerfed by spread damage, and become even more of a nuisance. Cherrim's Flower Gift gave it a 50% boost to its already fantastic Special Defense stat. Combine that with Will-O-Wisp...and you've got one heck of a strange wall.

It might sound gimmicky on paper, but I can say with confidence that this thing alone won me at least 40% of my battles. I won 2 stall-wars thanks to Pain Split, Flare Blitz did more damage to Physically frail Pokemon like Ludicolo, (assuming I could control weather,) and when Ninetales barely lived, I could use a combination of those 2 moves to deal damage to one Pokemon and drain it back from another. After about 5 battles, I ended up realizing how great it was, and brought it to over 75% of my battles. If I ever make a team like this again with Cherrim...I'll know exactly what to do with Ninetales. It looks like Megas are going away next Gen, anyways. I think it's safe to say that Ninetales was a god. Which means I'll be nicknaming it to Helios. 8P

Overall, I flopped towards the end. I lost my last 2 battles, and the second one took one minute too long and ended right at 8 o'clock EST, which meant no more battles for me. Mostly because my Vulpix breeding took way too long, but it was totally worth it. 8D Additionally, my last battle was the only time I came across Abomasnow surprisingly. It was a Pokemon I thought a Ninetales team would have a blast going up against, but clearly I was wrong. :(

I finished 46th in the U.S. with 1700, even though I was somewhere around 1,736 when I beat Marshmallow. At first, I was disappointed considering I finished 27th in the U.S. during the Kanto Classic, and I had some battles that I absolutely should not have lost and were my own fault. But after seeing Marshmallow at #5, and then figuring out that he was also #1, I was ecstatic. I can't wait for another competition as balanced as this one! :D

P.S. If you got this far, thanks for listening to me, even though I'm new and posted way too many paragraphs praising Ninetales. :)

P.S.S. Here are some more battle videos I found on my competition page on the Global Link. Not sure what determines which battles get codes or not, considering the only 2 I saved were the ones against Marshmallow.

E9NW-WWWW-WW4H-28DV : Against AquaDragon, who ranked at 1,701...one more point than me! LOL...

QB5W-WWWW-WW4H-XU5T : Just like when I taunted Marshmallow's Zapdos, I read my opponent's gimmick and punished them for it. Goes to show how good Taunt on Gengar is. I'm just glad I didn't get haxed out by Umbreon, who has violated me in that past...
I adore Ninetales, it was the star of my 5th gen escapades. The only reason I stopped using it is because Char-Y happened. It never did get the love and respect it deserved, no such thing as too much paragraph.
Shuca Ninetales was also my final, and best, set. Like you said, Water moves are handed by Sun and natural Sp. def, Rock moves are pretty much just unSTAB'd Rock Slides nowadays, and Shuca lets it eat any Ground move you'd ever want. Physical WoW 'Tales is pretty neat, I'll grant you that lol. I ran a Special based one built around... Role Play. Yes, this was the butt of many furry jokes.
Chlorophyll Ninetales? It's a blast. Copied intimidate and my own Levitate quite often too. Also grabbed Water Absorb / Storm Drain a few times; you'd be impressed at how hard a Storm Drain Ninetales can be to kill for a rain team xD
Did consider Cherrim, but eventually went with Lilligant. Believe it or not it was actually good in Gen 5 since everything was weak to Grass back then.
Most monumental usage though:
Scarfed Hydreigon. It's obviously going to use Earth Power. Shuca eats the EP, and then... I clicked Role Play on Hydreigon. Instant forfeit next turn. LOL

I miss that old team sometimes, the gimmiks were everywhere and it was criminally successful. Glad to see Ninetales wreaking havoc again. I strongly considered pulling the team out for this (since I still have all 6) but Arbok won the coin toss.
 

Demantoid

APMS Founder
is a Top Tiering Contributor
I placed 1st in the US and 28th in the world!
Sinnoh Classic US Results.jpg

Sinnoh Classic World Results.jpg

Sinnoh Classic Battle Box.jpg

Politoed @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Helping Hand

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SpD / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Waterfall
- X-Scissor
- Protect

Snorlax @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Return
- Facade
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 84 SpA / 132 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Tri Attack
- Trick Room
- Recover

Crobat @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Cross Poison
- U-turn
- Super Fang

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Protect

4 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 76+ SpD Politoed: 104-126 (52.7 - 63.9%) -- 3.5% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

252+ SpA Politoed Scald vs. 12 HP / 36 SpD Kabutops in Rain: 111-132 (81 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 132 HP / 124 Def Snorlax: 210-248 (83.3 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Ludicolo Scald vs. 252 HP / 132 SpD Eviolite Porygon2 in Rain: 54-64 (28.1 - 33.3%) -- Miniscule chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Life Orb Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon2: 159-190 (82.8 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Description

I had originally built this team on showdown to test a bunch of things I wanted to try (Kabutops Rain, CB Crobat, and Snorlax) and it did really well so I ended up using it. I wanted to use Kabutops rain because it beats Ludi rain and has fast Rock Slides. I wanted to try CB Crobat because it's kind of like Talonflame in that it outspeeds and OHKOs most offensive mons. I wanted to use Snorlax since it has a positive match up against a lot of the meta and hit pretty hard. I decided to use semiroom so Snorlax would have more opportunity to do well so I added Porygon2. Metagross was added for priority and a positive match up against Fariy and Fighting-types. The semiroom aspect of the team really helped deal with the more standard teams I saw. The Rain section of the team also helped me quickly crush low ladder players.

Politoed's moveset is pretty standard but I chose Helping Hand to increase damage output. I chose X-Scissor on Kabutops to have a high chance to OHKO most Ludicolo. The moves I chose on Snorlax give it good coverage in the meta while also increasing damage when affected by common status. Porygon2 was a more offensive TR setter than something like Cresselia and its recovery also wasn't affected by Rain. Shadow Ball was chosen to hit Metagross and Cresselia hard. I chose Lum Berry on Metagross to help with Smeargle.

Replays I don't know what any of these are like
JNZW-WWWW-WW4H-XYE5
BNGW-WWWW-WW4H-XFG8
XYRG-WWWW-WW4H-XCTZ[/hide]
 
DUDE! I fought you! I quite enjoyed our match, I was not expecting that team setup at all! Your match with me was the one that went past 8 pm, haha. Great game, Nintetales is my 2nd favorite Pokemon ever so I love seeing it get some love. Small world!
Oh shoot! You were the Abomasnow user?! Crazy how things work out in these competitions. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised since most people in the higher ratings would be online somewhere, anyways, since they're serious about the competition. You definitely played well. I can't exactly remember how the battle went, other than you conserved the right Pokemon at the right time to kill my sun, and my Ninetales's chances of living a Hydro from Rotom.

Although, I do have to ask you...why did you invest max HP into your Porygon2? I Final Gambit into it thinking I could one-shot it, since I figured it would be invested into defenses because of its eviolite. I always thought investing mostly into Defense and Special Defense was the best option on Eviolited Pokemon, since it gives you a bigger boost when it multiplies by 1.5. Were you just going for maximum physical bulk?

Edit: And now I see that Demantoid did the same thing. Is there something I'm missing? Am I misunderstanding how the Eviolite works?

And while I'm at it...crazy team there, Demantoid. You used a lot of stuff that I never would have guess would have been good. Shadow Ball Porygon2, Banded Crobat, and that entire Snorlax...all of it is stuff I've never seen before.
 
Last edited:
I placed 1st in the US and 28th in the world!
View attachment 66683
View attachment 66684
View attachment 66685
Politoed @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 12 SpA / 76 SpD / 12 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Helping Hand

Kabutops @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 36 SpD / 204 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Slide
- Waterfall
- X-Scissor
- Protect

Snorlax @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Return
- Facade
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 84 SpA / 132 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Tri Attack
- Trick Room
- Recover

Crobat @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Cross Poison
- U-turn
- Super Fang

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Protect

4 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 76+ SpD Politoed: 104-126 (52.7 - 63.9%) -- 3.5% chance to 2HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

252+ SpA Politoed Scald vs. 12 HP / 36 SpD Kabutops in Rain: 111-132 (81 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 132 HP / 124 Def Snorlax: 210-248 (83.3 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Ludicolo Scald vs. 252 HP / 132 SpD Eviolite Porygon2 in Rain: 54-64 (28.1 - 33.3%) -- Miniscule chance to 3HKO

252 Atk Life Orb Infernape Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 36 Def Eviolite Porygon2: 159-190 (82.8 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Description

I had originally built this team on showdown to test a bunch of things I wanted to try (Kabutops Rain, CB Crobat, and Snorlax) and it did really well so I ended up using it. I wanted to use Kabutops rain because it beats Ludi rain and has fast Rock Slides. I wanted to try CB Crobat because it's kind of like Talonflame in that it outspeeds and OHKOs most offensive mons. I wanted to use Snorlax since it has a positive match up against a lot of the meta and hit pretty hard. I decided to use semiroom so Snorlax would have more opportunity to do well so I added Porygon2. Metagross was added for priority and a positive match up against Fariy and Fighting-types. The semiroom aspect of the team really helped deal with the more standard teams I saw. The Rain section of the team also helped me quickly crush low ladder players.

Politoed's moveset is pretty standard but I chose Helping Hand to increase damage output. I chose X-Scissor on Kabutops to have a high chance to OHKO most Ludicolo. The moves I chose on Snorlax give it good coverage in the meta while also increasing damage when affected by common status. Porygon2 was a more offensive TR setter than something like Cresselia and its recovery also wasn't affected by Rain. Shadow Ball was chosen to hit Metagross and Cresselia hard. I chose Lum Berry on Metagross to help with Smeargle.

Replays I don't know what any of these are like
JNZW-WWWW-WW4H-XYE5
BNGW-WWWW-WW4H-XFG8
XYRG-WWWW-WW4H-XCTZ[/hide]
demantoid you witch, do you float like a duck? You had two Arbok counters just in case we matched, tsk tsk :P

I like max Def Snorlax myself:
252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 252 Def Snorlax: 182-216 (77.1 - 91.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Infernape Close Combat vs. 132 HP / 124 Def Snorlax: 210-248 (83.3 - 98.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

since it gives no fucks at all about Special hits. But I'm also a "AV Counter Snorlax" type of asshole too.
CB Crobat looks fun though, might be good in the Unova one coming up.

What's the offense on Porygon2 hit though?
 
Oh shoot! You were the Abomasnow user?! Crazy how things work out in these competitions. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised since most people in the higher ratings would be online somewhere, anyways, since they're serious about the competition. You definitely played well. I can't exactly remember how the battle went, other than you conserved the right Pokemon at the right time to kill my sun, and my Ninetales's chances of living a Hydro from Rotom.

Although, I do have to ask you...why did you invest max HP into your Porygon2? I Final Gambit into it thinking I could one-shot it, since I figured it would be invested into defenses because of its eviolite. I always thought investing mostly into Defense and Special Defense was the best option on Eviolited Pokemon, since it gives you a bigger boost when it multiplies by 1.5. Were you just going for maximum physical bulk?

Edit: And now I see that Demantoid did the same thing. Is there something I'm missing? Am I misunderstanding how the Eviolite works?

And while I'm at it...crazy team there, Demantoid. You used a lot of stuff that I never would have guess would have been good. Shadow Ball Porygon2, Banded Crobat, and that entire Snorlax...all of it is stuff I've never seen before.
Yup, that was me! Thanks; you also played well and were really fun to play against as I was completely thrown off by Cherrim. When I saw Ninetales I definitely got worried and even thought about not bringing Abomasnow but I chanced it because I felt it would be the best way for me to counter your Sun as long as I played smartly. As for Porygon 2, yes, I was aiming for maximum bulk because I wanted to survive certain STAB Close Combats, and I was very pleased with the results of my chosen spread because it somehow survived that Final Gambit, which I was not ready for! The sacrifice in defenses for HP really helped me in some of my battles by surviving just enough to set up Trick Room and therefor my wincon. If you want to rewatch our match, I have it uploaded! 5GZG-WWWW-WW4H-2JNL.
 

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