The Single Battle Metagame (GBU)

I am sat here waiting for an opponent to turn up!

You see I'm eager to test SDChomp, ScarfToed, LOKingdra, SashPlotThund, MixedBlaze [HP Electric] and SpecsLatios
thats almost my same comp...minus the sdchomp
im trying a SS baton pass smeargle as a lead, with a band scizor in case of a sand team setup
 
That team is probably almost the same as a lot of other people's...
I've maybe been seeing even more Thundurus' recently (with Politoed & Kingdra, obviously), but I seem to be able to deal with them quite well, surprisingly.
 

Taylor

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just my own version of a standard in-game wifi team to be perfectly honest. blaziken is often one of three different fighting-types that i will bring to gbu. either that or i go with scizor and dragonite over latios and blaziken.
 
I've changed my team around a bit recently, and it seems to be doing really well, although it does have problems with a simple Kingdra in the rain and bulky Yawn/Roar users...

The members are Gyarados, Mow-Rotom, Mamoswine, Reuniclus, Scizor and Gengar at the moment.

Gyarados is working well with the Rotom and Mamoswine, both easily taking electric attacks... although it is funny when my Gyarados comes across a Jolteon and I predict them to over-predict and use something else while I Earthquake them...

This is a new Reuniclus to the one I posted on the last page too, this one Trick Rooms with Life Orb and is actually super-dangerous...

The Scizor and Gengar are the two that I've had since I started battling in this generation, but I don't really get much use out of them any more. The Scizor sometimes comes in handy with Superpower, but maybe I would just do better with an actual fighting type... I'm also thinking perhaps something along the lines of Breloom with the Toxic Orb (which would also stop Yawn/other sleep moves... I had a battle a few days ago where they put all my Pokémon asleep with Sleep Powder and Roar, that was annoying...) I would be so tempted to have Mach Punch on the Breloom, but maybe that wouldn't be for the best.

I really should train some form of rain counter too... but I don't really know what... suggestions anyone? Are Gastrodon/Lanturn actually useful? What about Storm Drain Cradily even?
 

cosmicexplorer

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Ferrothorn is an excellent rain counter, as is Gastrodon, although Gastro loses to Ferro and Ludicolo, while Ferro is useless against opposing Ferrothorn. Lanturn and Cradily aren't good.
 
I have a Ferrothorn that I trained as an offensive one designed for Trick Room... max Attack & HP, as slow as possible... Power Whip / Bulldoze / Gyro Ball / Curse...

I gave it a little go on the wi-fi a while ago, but it didn't really win me over... maybe I just didn't use it as I should have... but in theory it should work well with my Reuniclus.

Maybe I'll give it another go...
 

cosmicexplorer

pewpewpew
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No, a far more effective rain check is standard defensive Ferrothorn, with Leech Seed/Power Whip/Thunder Wave or Gyro Ball/Spikes or Stealth Rock or Protect, with a fully specially defensive spread, although you can always add a bit more physical defense. It can stall out many Swift Swimmers, Thunder Wave the ones that can beat it, and set up hazards to weaken opponents and break Focus Sashes.
 
This amazes me, everytime I've ever seen Guillotine used it has gotten it's OHKO. I know there's no way to cheat it to perfect acc but I've seen it used somewhere in the double digits within the past couple week (all on Gliscor btw) and they've all hit. For a 30 acc move it's really doing a number on me.
 
Now the spooky Manor is open, I wonder if any of these will become used a bit more...
Magic Guard Alakazam is pretty cool, Dry Skin Jynx is tempting, Technician Mr Mime could be interesting, Moody Smeargle could get annoying... I would imagine Prankster Volbeat and Sableye will get used quite a bit too...
 
For GBU singles......


An annoying tank?

Sableye @ Sitrus Berry/Leftovers
Nature: Impish/Bold
Ability: Prankster
IVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpDef
Moveset:
-Will-O-Wisp
-Calm Mind
-Recover
-Toxic/HP Ice

Buly as it can be + priority
Recover, + either Toxic stall, or HP Ice (since Ice can hit everything for at least a little damage).
 
A Modest 252 SpA, Choice Spec'd Gastrodon will 2HKO a SpD natured 252 HP / 252 SpD Ferrothorn with Earth Power after a Storm Drain boost, so Gastrodon can effectively stop a Ferrothorn on a Rain team if you correctly predict and eat a Water move.

Scenario sometimes goes like:
Pokemon_weak_vs_water is sent out.
Politoed is sent out.

Pokemon_weak_vs_water is called back, Gastrodon gets sent out.
Politoed uses Hydro Pump!
Gastrodon +1.

Politoed is called back, Ferrothorn gets sent out.
Gastrodon uses Earth Power! Ferrothorn loses 54.7-64.6% HP.
Whatever they do next still should put you ahead.

The trouble is that some people seem to run a designated Gastrodon/Quagsire/Rotom-W/Grass weak Pokemon counter nowadays either in a Pokemon by itself or something with a strong Grass coverage move. I would say if the person you get matched up against is pretty good and runs a Rain team and sees that you have Gastrodon on your team of 6, don't expect the first move from a typical Water move user to actually be that Water move. For this reason I've switched from using a Choice'd Special Attacking Gastrodon into a Counter/Mirror Coat Rindo Berry bulky Gastrodon and have scored some pretty unexpected (for my opponent) wins from it. Also, I see a ton of Latios on Rain teams and this sort of screws the Earth Power idea and puts you in a guessing game of using Ice Beam/Earth Power on what you think is coming in next, with Ice Beam and Earth Power being useless if you incorrectly predict.

Can get a lot of mileage from the Counter/Mirror Coat Gastrodon by doing something like first predicting a Water move to grab a Storm Drain boost, then:

Pokemon_that_used_Water is called back, Grass_move_user is sent out.
Gastrodon uses Surf! (Not very effective)

Grass_move_user uses Grass_move!
Rindo Berry activates, Gastrodon lives and uses Counter/Mirror Coat!
Grass_move_user faints.


Also for people frustrated by Guillotining Gliscors and Sub/SD Garchomps, give Mamoswine with Icicle Spear a try! Breaks subs and will more than likely force both Gliscor and Garchomp to switch out, giving you some momentum.
 

cosmicexplorer

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I haven't seen too much discussion on Abomasnow in this thread, and I'm not too familiar with its use. What sets are most commonly used, and what Pokemon or team archetypes does Abomasnow do best against?
 
I haven't seen too much discussion on Abomasnow in this thread, and I'm not too familiar with its use. What sets are most commonly used, and what Pokemon or team archetypes does Abomasnow do best against?
I don't see too much Abomasnow use. The few times I have seen it it's had time to hit me with Wood Hammer before dying to whatever I have available. Think I saw one with leech seed. It seems like it's used just to screw with enemy weather. Anytime I've run my rain team and my opponent they used it. Anytime I run my non-weather (which gets less D/Cs....go figure...) and they have Abomasnow it's never used.
 
I guess people just appreciate battles without weather more... I do.
I only see Abomasnow as a weather/Dragonite counter too. I don't use weather, so I hardly ever see Abomasnow - but I used to use a Dragonite, which was OHKOed by it's Blizzard.
 
I guess people just appreciate battles without weather more... I do.
I only see Abomasnow as a weather/Dragonite counter too. I don't use weather, so I hardly ever see Abomasnow - but I used to use a Dragonite, which was OHKOed by it's Blizzard.

I don't think weather battles are nearly as bad in GBU as they are in Standard. You only get three guys and if I see Toed/Kingdra or Ttar/Drill on preview well that's two mons right there that I know will be used and I can plan accordingly. More often than not it helps me predict their team right and work around it.
 
This was incredibly weird:

So I'm playing this guy on rating and he comes out with Cobalion. I bring out Starmie and try to trick specs on it (this particular Cobalion having Protect/Subs/Toxic/SacredSword) and I hit his Rotom instead which had specs already. So enter Dragonite who gets a dragon dance off and kills Rotom without taking too much damage himself. Now here is where things get awkward. When I first tried tricking Cobalion Starmie was faster. So now all of a sudden his Cobalion can outspeed a +1 Dragonite (Cobs was holding Lefties btw) AND can outrun Starmie when it gets brought in next turn.

I know you can't cheat GBU but I'm still wondering how all of a sudden this base 108 mon can outrun a max speed base 115 mon after just a switch out holding lefties.

EDIT: Just for laughs the next guy I played lost a Ferrothorn to my Specs Starmie. He switched I hit it with Surf in the rain (his rain). Next turn I hit it with Surf again and he hits with......bullet seed..... Next turn my third Surf kills it. I didn't think it was possible for Starmie to beat Ferrothorn without running HP Fire just to handle that mon.
 
This was incredibly weird:
So now all of a sudden his Cobalion can outspeed a +1 Dragonite (Cobs was holding Lefties btw) AND can outrun Starmie when it gets brought in next turn.

I know you can't cheat GBU but I'm still wondering how all of a sudden this base 108 mon can outrun a max speed base 115 mon after just a switch out holding lefties.
Once I had my Modest Hydregion outsped by a Scrafty holding leftovers. And i had a tailwind still up. Another time, My scrafed Meinshao was outsped by a flying gem gliscor, and then my Adamant Torandus outsped it. GBU is really weird...

EDIT: Just then, A Porygon2 managed to outspeed my TIMID hydreigon (I changed the nature) 4 times and recoverd. on the 5th turn, i outsped as he went for the ice beam. Umm, how? Also, how the helll does Crobat survive an Adamant stone edge form Meinshao after switching in to SR. Sense, it makes none.
 
Lorenz, are you sure there was no Quick Claw?

252Atk Mienshao (+Atk) Stone Edge vs 252HP/252Def Crobat (+Def): 51% - 61% (194 - 230 HP).
Crobat can be quite bulky.
 
Lorenz, are you sure there was no Quick Claw?

252Atk Mienshao (+Atk) Stone Edge vs 252HP/252Def Crobat (+Def): 51% - 61% (194 - 230 HP).
Crobat can be quite bulky.
He was getting lefties recovery. I'm starting to think maybe I screwed up EV training it maybe. But at the same time Starmie has been outrunning everything else you would expect it to so I'm not entirely sure. Just chalked up to odd GBU occurrence I guess.
 

cosmicexplorer

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From your original post, it looks like Cobalion and Starmie never actually attacked each other, Cobalion just switched out while Starmie used Trick. And your Dragonite apparently doesn't have much Speed investment if it's bulky enough to take on Rotom without taking significant damage. With 0 Speed EVs, +1 Dragonite reaches 150 Speed at level 50, slower than Cobalion's 179. For mewcario, like Progeusz said, it could easily be a Quick Claw that you just didn't notice.
 
For mewcario, like Progeusz said, it could easily be a Quick Claw that you just didn't notice.
Lol, nah, the only time there was a quick claw involved was on a rotom-h.
The quick claw message showed up, saying 'the foe's quick claw let it move first'. Then thunderus used tailwind before rotom used t-bolt, thanks to prankster. The quick claw message must have higher priority than the quick claw itself. it was quite funny. Also, none of those used quick claw. Scrafty was leftovers, gliscor was flying gem and porygon2 was shell bell (0.o)
 

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