Mostly outclassed by its hisuian form, it actually gets stab on its gigaton hammers and gyro balls that way
also where is ur recovery, and why are u using inferior acid armor
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Metagame Alphabet Cup
- Thread starter Eli
- Start date
also where is ur recovery, and why are u using inferior acid armor
Yeah this works on the hisuian forme better. So i wouldn’t say outclassed, just wrong forme
Goodra-Hisui @ Leftovers / Rock Helmet
Ability: Gooey
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Mild Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Acid Armor
- Sacred Fire / Draco Meteor / Thunderbolt
- Giga Drain
I think this works better. Still love the fact that it can thrive off of both G and S
if your answer is slaking then you're not looking hard enough
The council has decided to do a Sacred Fire suspect test!
The Alphabet Cup council has decided to suspect test Sacred Fire!
SUSPECT REASONING
With the release of Scarlet and Violet's DLC, various new moves have been added from previously locked legendaries. While the majority of these have been relatively balanced (Fusion Flare, Sunsteel Strike, etc), Ho-Oh's signature move Sacred Fire is extremely controversial among the playerbase.
Sacred Fire offers a much-needed Fire-type coverage to S, which is already the strongest letter, and it has already somewhat contributed in getting Meowscarada...
SUSPECT REASONING
With the release of Scarlet and Violet's DLC, various new moves have been added from previously locked legendaries. While the majority of these have been relatively balanced (Fusion Flare, Sunsteel Strike, etc), Ho-Oh's signature move Sacred Fire is extremely controversial among the playerbase.
Sacred Fire offers a much-needed Fire-type coverage to S, which is already the strongest letter, and it has already somewhat contributed in getting Meowscarada...
I find it interesting that Hydriegon has H, D, and Z but doesn’t gain much from the Z, which is a bit sad. Though on the flip side, it opens up a lot of opportunities for Hydriegon to be either a physical or special attacker.
(SPECIAL)
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dazzling Gleam / Draining Kiss
- Heat Wave
- Dark Pulse / Hurricane / Flash Cannon
- Draco Meteor
(PHYSICAL)
Hydreigon @ Leftovers / Roseli Berry / Choice Band
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Dragon Dance / Dragon Ascent
- Double Iron Bash / Headlong Rush / Fire Fang
- Outrage / Dragon Darts
- Darkest Lariat / Drain Punch
Both of these sets have STAB and coverage so that Hydreigon doesn’t have to worry about a bad match-up/switch-in
Double iron bash isnt in gen 9
also specs prob needs uturn over dgleam
physical just looks like shitty rmoon even with the new stuff
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Welcome Back to BS Posting!
A once a month series on smogon where I post the most unothordox, unasked for, stupid sets, unexplained, with a singular replay of an OKAY AT BEST MATCH where the team wins!
This month we got alphabet cup with Choice Band Alomomola, and the Magical Priority Forretress that has Normal Gem Explosion, for some reason.
I've made a lotta teams this month, and mon ideas, but they're all kind of unserious on purpose, here's the team I used and my 3 boxes of ideas that I made day 1 and 2 of august! Enjoy the garbage mons and silly strats!
Yours truly - Styles ~
CB Alo + Anti-Everything Propaganda Forretress
https://pokepast.es/bbc0bb6a598b46fa
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9alphabetcup-2420135988
The Alphabet Cup Ideas Boxes
Funny Ideas 1
https://pokepast.es/071a899bf2eba3af
Funny Ideas 2
https://pokepast.es/bad0dc12367a332e
(Notice how "bad" is at the start of the second link; this is proof that all of these sets are supposed to be bad. WAIT a minute! I was supposed to have signed off ignore me. Parentheses are not real, this is all a dream.)
Funny Ideas 3
https://pokepast.es/a24cdd8003c15559
Honorable Mentions of monsters that could've lived:
Kung-Pao-Fu! (Blaziken) (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Speed Boost
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Burning Bulwark
- Bitter Blade
- Triple Arrows
- Tidy Up
Sarge (Sceptile) (M) @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spicy Extract
- Gigaton Hammer
- Triple Arrows
- Leaf Blade
A once a month series on smogon where I post the most unothordox, unasked for, stupid sets, unexplained, with a singular replay of an OKAY AT BEST MATCH where the team wins!
This month we got alphabet cup with Choice Band Alomomola, and the Magical Priority Forretress that has Normal Gem Explosion, for some reason.
I've made a lotta teams this month, and mon ideas, but they're all kind of unserious on purpose, here's the team I used and my 3 boxes of ideas that I made day 1 and 2 of august! Enjoy the garbage mons and silly strats!
Yours truly - Styles ~
CB Alo + Anti-Everything Propaganda Forretress
https://pokepast.es/bbc0bb6a598b46fa
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9alphabetcup-2420135988
The Alphabet Cup Ideas Boxes
Funny Ideas 1
https://pokepast.es/071a899bf2eba3af
Funny Ideas 2
https://pokepast.es/bad0dc12367a332e
(Notice how "bad" is at the start of the second link; this is proof that all of these sets are supposed to be bad. WAIT a minute! I was supposed to have signed off ignore me. Parentheses are not real, this is all a dream.)
Funny Ideas 3
https://pokepast.es/a24cdd8003c15559
Honorable Mentions of monsters that could've lived:
Kung-Pao-Fu! (Blaziken) (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Speed Boost
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Burning Bulwark
- Bitter Blade
- Triple Arrows
- Tidy Up
Sarge (Sceptile) (M) @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Unburden
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Spicy Extract
- Gigaton Hammer
- Triple Arrows
- Leaf Blade
tbf Hydreigon IS bulkier. Also yeah U-turn looks better
okay but like 10 of the mons are running moves are either banned or dexited
A and C are great letters that can actually help Armarogue. They both give it more coverage and set up options to make up for its frailty, turn it into either a somewhat bulky utility user or a very dangerous sweeper that can threaten a quite a lot of things.
(CALM MIND SWEEPER)
Armarouge @ Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Armor Cannon
- Astral Barrage / Shadow Ball
- Aura Sphere / Energy Ball
(PHYS BULK UTILITY)
Armarouge @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Acid Armor
- Chilling Water
- Psychic / Psyshock
- Clear Smog / Armor Cannon
i want to say this makes the most sense putting this together. but probabl…y won’t be seeing much usage because it probably gets outclassed.
Wait I forgot tera is banned ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
So we're just lying about resists now? Volcanion doesn't resist Grass, go study the type chart again.
Played 5 games with Ogerpon-Flame on my team and even I wanna call an instant ban on it. Btw @Seto kiba 1 duler
Oger has access to stomping tantrum to hit Volcanion super effectively.
Oger has access to stomping tantrum to hit Volcanion super effectively.
When given access to O, hell DOES break loose….
Banning both Blaziken and Espathra outright in this metagame for what I assume is their ability Speed Boost, in my opinion, is frankly unjustifiable. Unless alternative reasoning for why their usage is not allowed, I do not see why they continue to be banned. And even if Speed Boost is the justification, it's evident enough that case by case banning is indeed capable. As certain Pokemon are allowed to keep moves if they natively have them despite the move being banned otherwise, and some moves are banned outright. Is keeping Blaziken and Espathra banned entirely worth Yanmega getting Yawn. Actually, no, thanks to the Sleep Clause, Yanmega doesn't even get that. So, why exactly are we preserving a Speed Boost mon' that gets nothing new, over two Pokemon that would get interesting new options instead of just banning Speed Boost as a whole.
Blaziken and Espathra were both banned not just because of Speed Boost, but because of their access to new coverage and utility moves. Blaziken gets Burning Bulwark, Collision Course/Combat Torque, Bolt Strike, Bitter Blade, Taunt, Triple Axel, etc, and Espathra gets Fusion Flare, Flip Turn, Encore, Esper Wing, Electro Shot, Earth Power, etc. I find these new moves on both Blaziken and Espathra to cause them to be too broken for the metagame. Blaziken can easily create mindgames of using Burning Bulwark or Swords Dance on an opposing physical attacker, with guessing wrong either crippling a Pokemon or resulting in an immediate sweep. Espathra is probably less broken than Blaziken, but its new moves allow it to actually hit Steels with Fusion Flare, pivot out and attempt to sweep again with Flip Turn, earn free setup using Encore, or immediately boost using Electro Shot.
I'm not really understanding how you interpret us (more like Eli, but whatever) banning Blaziken and Espathra as an act to "preserve" Yanmega, and I don't understand how that relates to restricted moves.
gets a multitude of buffs from ABC move legality which allows it to run all of the below, but is not limited to these, to pick and choose its checks:- Combat Torque
- Clanging Scales
- Bitter Blade
- Bolt Strike
- Burning Bulwark/Baneful Bunker (over Protect)
- Bullet Seed
- Tera Starstorm
- Thunderbolt
- Thunderclap
- Triple Axel
- Torch Song
- Taunt
an extreme amount of coverage and flexibility on top of what it already gets, which makes it a nightmare to try and predict what category of moves it'll use in-battle. If you predict the wrong category of moves, you're probably getting swept on the spot. Even if you do get what category of moves its using, you still don't know what set of moves it could be using specifically which could get you instant swept anyways, between bulky Burning Bulwark + Bulk Up and Bitter Blade, the usual Swords Dance + dual STABs, Torch Song + Throat Spray and Thunderbolt/Clap to smoke Waters and other priority users (the watchlisted Hisuian Typhlosion can wield a similar set but is purely special,) and so on and so forth.As for
, it's already dumb enough as-is with the fact it has Speed Boost, Calm Mind and Stored Power alongside Tera Blast, and it was banned from standard OU play for doing exactly that. With ABC move legality it gets those exact moves it wanted for its Tera Blast slot to nail what checks would be left to play around the combinations of Protect, Calm Mind, Roost and Stored Power moves it usually runs.- Fickle Beam
- Fiery Wrath
- Fiery Dance
- Fire Blast
- Fleur Cannon
- Focus Blast
- Fusion Flare
- Freeze-Dry
- Earth Power
- Electro Drift
- Electro Ball (it can genuinely afford to run this with enough speed boosts)
edit: according to inky blaziken started off not banned apparently. whoops
edit 2: forgot belly drum and clangsoul are restricted, whoops 2
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I do see your point in it's versatility, but I believe certain moves it has access to, are an issue in themselves, Burning Bulwark and Baneful Bunker are practically always a 50/50 risk to be burned or poisoned by anything that has access to the letter 'B'. (I personally feel getting rid of these two options from Blaziken's repertoire would make it much more manageable. As those are it's main disruptive answers to what I feel what would otherwise have the capability to check it. Clangorous Soul is another issue all in it's own, though, I'm not sure how one would answer that reasonably).All of these moves give
In response to this, I do not wish for their allowance with Speed Boost, I understand how broken of an ability that is. Which is why:As for
I had said this, although seeing Espathra's coverage does make me realize the issue that comes about from its coverage even without it. I do not particularly see a way to get around it within this format aside perhaps being forced to run a special wall, and I can see how that would limit playstyles.
I interpreted it as such because I did not have the full information why it was banned, and admittedly, I'm just annoyed at the fact that Blaziken in particular is so commonly banned or restricted in some way within formats. It was meant to be an example, in the case Speed Boost was the only reason. That if you can restrict moves on certain Pokémon and allow them on others, then the same could be applied to problematic abilities, such as Speed Boost.
Though I do still feel it's unfortunate that these Pokemon are banned regardless, thank you for your responses.
Burning Bulwark and Baneful Bunker have both neither yet been proven to be banworthy. Primarina can pull off annoying burns against physical attackers, but that usually means sacrificing Choice Specs or another move it wants (Flip Turn, Calm Mind, Moonblast, Psystrike).
Clangorous Soul is restricted.
Is this supposed to be advocating for a complex ban or for a total ban of Speed Boost, just for clarity's sake.
With that being said-
I've been doing some messing around with terrain teams for the second go-around with this OM, and I've found a personal favorite set for
that's been doing some serious heavy lifting when it comes to cleaning up teams within mid to end games.
(excuse the EVs, I'm not the greatest with them so they could likely be optimized)
The Defense boost from Electric Seed is more than enough to allow to set up on multiple defensive mons that would normally force it to switch out, chief among them being 
which is liable to be run through if not played around correctly. Even with Electric Terrain up, it's more often than not going to survive some of the stronger physical Electric moves running around the tier, assuming they don't thud into Burning Bulwark first.
Burning Bulwark notably allows Primarina to 1v1 the two relevant Terrain setters (
and physical 
) and ruins most physical attackers by virtue of the auto-burn, giving the seal even more opportunity to greed Calm Minds. Grassy Terrain is also enough of an active boon for that you can afford to swap to Grassy Seed to make this set even more annoying to deal with thanks to the passive recovery paired with Bulwark making it harder to take down in a timely manner, but I personally prefer Electric Seed due to the extremely threatening Quark Drive pokes you can pair it with, like SD 
and Specs 
.
Draining Kiss becomes a genuine problem to contend with once one or two CM boosts are picked up, allowing it to quickly snowball out of control in combination with Boomburst if not immediately respected by the other player.
Psystrike is primarily just the preferred sauce to lock in matchups vs
, 
and stall as a whole alongside some fat teams that I've seen running around.
As with every setup mon, Thundurus, Ting-Lu, Toxapex and other assorted Topsy-Turvy mons are usually a massive thorn in the side when it comes to pulling off sweeps. Unfortunately, not even these mons will ever want to switch in more than twice as Boomburst even at negative stages and Psystrike will still sting like hell, if not threaten kills outright.
As far as replays go, this one is the primary highlight of how this set can shred teams if given more than one turn to setup, i'm not willing to gather more replays at 3 in the morning
as seen here: Primarina facetanks a sun-boosted Choice Band V-Create and steals this TR player's soul
I've been doing some messing around with terrain teams for the second go-around with this OM, and I've found a personal favorite set for
that's been doing some serious heavy lifting when it comes to cleaning up teams within mid to end games.(excuse the EVs, I'm not the greatest with them so they could likely be optimized)
Primarina @ Electric Seed
Ability: Liquid Voice
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Boomburst
- Burning Bulwark / Psystrike
Ability: Liquid Voice
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 108 Def / 148 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Draining Kiss
- Boomburst
- Burning Bulwark / Psystrike
The Defense boost from Electric Seed is more than enough to allow
to set up on multiple defensive mons that would normally force it to switch out, chief among them being which is liable to be run through if not played around correctly. Even with Electric Terrain up, it's more often than not going to survive some of the stronger physical Electric moves running around the tier, assuming they don't thud into Burning Bulwark first.252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force 
Thunder Punch vs. +1 252 HP / 108 Def in Electric Terrain: 312-369 (85.7 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252 Atk
Fusion Bolt vs. +1 252 HP / 108 Def in Electric Terrain: 232-274 (63.7 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Thunder Punch vs. +1 252 HP / 108 Def in Electric Terrain: 312-369 (85.7 - 101.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO252 Atk
Fusion Bolt vs. +1 252 HP / 108 Def in Electric Terrain: 232-274 (63.7 - 75.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKOBurning Bulwark notably allows Primarina to 1v1 the two relevant Terrain setters (
and physical ) and ruins most physical attackers by virtue of the auto-burn, giving the seal even more opportunity to greed Calm Minds. Grassy Terrain is also enough of an active boon for that you can afford to swap to Grassy Seed to make this set even more annoying to deal with thanks to the passive recovery paired with Bulwark making it harder to take down in a timely manner, but I personally prefer Electric Seed due to the extremely threatening Quark Drive pokes you can pair it with, like SD and Specs .Draining Kiss becomes a genuine problem to contend with once one or two CM boosts are picked up, allowing it to quickly snowball out of control in combination with Boomburst if not immediately respected by the other player.
Psystrike is primarily just the preferred sauce to lock in matchups vs
, and stall as a whole alongside some fat teams that I've seen running around.As with every setup mon, Thundurus, Ting-Lu, Toxapex and other assorted Topsy-Turvy mons are usually a massive thorn in the side when it comes to pulling off sweeps. Unfortunately, not even these mons will ever want to switch in more than twice as Boomburst even at negative stages and Psystrike will still sting like hell, if not threaten kills outright.
-1 148+ SpA Liquid Voice Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD 
: 183-216 (50.5 - 59.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-1 148+ SpA Liquid Voice Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Vessel of Ruin 
: 272-324 (52.9 - 63%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
148+ SpA Psystrike vs. 248 HP / 8 Def : 150-178 (49.5 - 58.7%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO
-1 148+ SpA Liquid Voice Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 24 SpD 
: 144-169 (38.5 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD : 183-216 (50.5 - 59.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO-1 148+ SpA Liquid Voice
Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Vessel of Ruin : 272-324 (52.9 - 63%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery148+ SpA
Psystrike vs. 248 HP / 8 Def : 150-178 (49.5 - 58.7%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO-1 148+ SpA Liquid Voice
Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 24 SpD : 144-169 (38.5 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKOAs far as replays go, this one is the primary highlight of how this set can shred teams if given more than one turn to setup, i'm not willing to gather more replays at 3 in the morning
as seen here: Primarina facetanks a sun-boosted Choice Band V-Create and steals this TR player's soul
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Wanted to share this Palossand set I made as a slow pivot / perish trapper.
ShovelHat (Palossand) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Compaction
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spirit Shackle
- Perish Song
- Parting Shot
- Strength Sap / Shore Up
It's a pretty great switch in to most physical attackers, like Great Tusk and Salamence, and Strength Sap keeps them at bay.
It's a very slow mon that has many immunities, so when you switch in to counter, you can slow pivot out pretty freely.
Spirit Shackle is to have some sort of attack on it, and also combos with Perish Song to trap the opponent.
Pivoting on the last Perish Song turn is very nice to avoid damage on other mons for their final attack.
most of the time, it's just a good momentum mon, you don't get to Perish Song a lot with so many pivoting moves and good normal types, but can also be used to force switches against stuff like VD Slaking.
ShovelHat (Palossand) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Compaction
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spirit Shackle
- Perish Song
- Parting Shot
- Strength Sap / Shore Up
It's a pretty great switch in to most physical attackers, like Great Tusk and Salamence, and Strength Sap keeps them at bay.
It's a very slow mon that has many immunities, so when you switch in to counter, you can slow pivot out pretty freely.
Spirit Shackle is to have some sort of attack on it, and also combos with Perish Song to trap the opponent.
Pivoting on the last Perish Song turn is very nice to avoid damage on other mons for their final attack.
most of the time, it's just a good momentum mon, you don't get to Perish Song a lot with so many pivoting moves and good normal types, but can also be used to force switches against stuff like VD Slaking.
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So I thought I was cooking with this set, and while it has performed amazingly against bulkier teams, it felt like a complete liability against offensive teams, So i’m just gonna put this here incase someone better than me can do something with it
@ Life Orb
Ability: Poison Puppeteer
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Power Trick
- Poltergeist
- Gunk Shot
- Recover
@ Life Orb Ability: Poison Puppeteer
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 252 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
- Power Trick
- Poltergeist
- Gunk Shot
- Recover
sand veil cannot prevent the alomomoment https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9alphabetcup-2423325841
why exactly is the video unavailable to me (i get that is says cos my region (or pretty much (im uk))) but why was it made unavailable?The council has decided to do a Sacred Fire suspect test!
The Alphabet Cup council has decided to suspect test Sacred Fire!
SUSPECT REASONING
With the release of Scarlet and Violet's DLC, various new moves have been added from previously locked legendaries. While the majority of these have been relatively balanced (Fusion Flare, Sunsteel Strike, etc), Ho-Oh's signature move Sacred Fire is extremely controversial among the playerbase.
Sacred Fire offers a much-needed Fire-type coverage to S, which is already the strongest letter, and it has already somewhat contributed in getting Meowscarada...
