If you want it to be evenly bulky on the physical and special ends, you aren't using Calm Mind, and you don't need any SpA EVs to hit a certain OHKO/2HKO/whatever, then X-Act's Defense Effort Values applet suggests 252 HP / 20 Def / 236 SpD with a +SpD nature. However, in the on-site analysis (which is, of course, for level 100 singles), they use 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA with a Bold nature. If you want Slowbro to be a physical tank (which is what it's best at), then that's what I'd use.
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Ask a simple question, get a simple answer - VGC edition
- Thread starter makiri
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Max Defense was my first thought, since it's primarily meant to be a Fighting counter, but I wasn't sure if I should give it some special bulk too. I guess I'll just keep it simple.
I swear, this year I'm going to the top 8. I lost last year first round, but since this is going to be swiss this year, I'll be sure to play carefully.
Also, 2 years ago, I remember there was this one guy(can't remember if it was world's, or nationals) with a team centred around Discharge Lanturn. Does anyone have any details about his team(e.g- what other pokes were on his/her team)?
Also, 2 years ago, I remember there was this one guy(can't remember if it was world's, or nationals) with a team centred around Discharge Lanturn. Does anyone have any details about his team(e.g- what other pokes were on his/her team)?
What's a good EV/nature spread for a Trick Room Jellicent? I don't know if I should go with a Quiet 252 HP 252 Sp Atk Jellicent or something else.
I used Metalkid's stats calculator on a level 50 Weavile with 30 Def IV's and no Def EV's, and I got 85 Defense. With 31 Def IV's, it also says 85 Defense. I recently just RNG'd a Jolly Weavile that's 31/31/30/10/31/31 with Fake Out. I will definitely have the 85 Defense, right? I would hate to have to RNG this in Platinum again!
I think this was T-DOM (not sure) and i think he had Groudon/Rotom-C/Lanturn/kyogre (again not 100% sure)
At level 50, the stats from EVs and IVs are cut in half and rounded down. So an IV of 31 with no EVs would give you 15.5 points, rounded down to 15 which is the same as an IV of 30 would give you.
But if you added, say, 4 EVs, then 31 would give you 16 and 30 would be 15.5, so it would matter then.
You need decent Synergy, like Politoed + Ludicolo, Ludicolo is a wall, with Leftovers + Rain Dish for awesome recovery, as well as that awesome STAB + Rain Boost Hydro Pump hitting over 200 base.
I've heard of an obnoxious team with Moody and Stored Power Musharna. I haven't faced such a team before... how exactly does it work? Moody Pokémon stall to gain stats (possibly with Fake Out / Follow Me support), then Musharna uses Psych Up? Moody Smeargle uses Skill Swap to give Moody to Musharna, then it stalls while gaining stats?
Something like Moody Smeargle who tries to stall around for as long as possible to gain stat boosts, then Baton Passes off to Stored Power Musharna. Or Musharna comes in and uses Psych Up.
It can be a real pain if you can't handle your team being shut down with Sleep moves and if luck isn't going your way. But its probably not very practical to use in actual VGC matches due to the battle timer. You'd get at most about 10 turns, which really isn't enough to get the boosts you are looking for. And you'd end up losing by tie-breaker if you spend too long on your set up.
Best way I've seen it set up was having Smeargle use Entrainment on Musharna.
Well, as R Inanimate said, it's still not practical for a real VGC tournament. I've also seen some quite reliable stall teams. They would actually be viable if not for the timer because most offensive teams nowaday lack in sheer power since they usually want to cover everything there is in this metagame so a Minimize Chansey + Cresselia can eventually wear down its opponents by toxic stalling much like it was done in 2010. But yeah the timer. I wouldn't for the life of me rely on a stall team because if your opponent is smart, he WILL take the maximum time (60s) for move selection and you won't be wearing down an opponent in 10 turns or so. Also most of the time you're forced to stall out two opponents at once with your Chansey being the last woman standing. Works on PO but won't work in actual tournaments, so don't do it.
With that said, I believe massive damage output is the way to go this year. Of course you'll need some kind of weather and speed control but that's a given for any team honestly. Goodstuff and Rain are obviously the best playstyles for that with rain being probably the best way to plough through randoms. I left full TR teams out of the equation because I think team preview destroys it, the TR user is ALWAYS fighting an uphill battle because one wrong prediction means he'll probably lose that match. It's an easy win against fast and frail goodstuff teams but bulky goodstuff is able to take those hits by being bulky, switching, protecting and whatnot. Trick Room splashed on goodstuff teams still do work but that's more because Trick Room is merely another option for those teams to carry out speed control. But heavy TR as a legit style of play I consider to be dead and yeah, I know Wolfey won 2011 nats with it...
With that said, I believe massive damage output is the way to go this year. Of course you'll need some kind of weather and speed control but that's a given for any team honestly. Goodstuff and Rain are obviously the best playstyles for that with rain being probably the best way to plough through randoms. I left full TR teams out of the equation because I think team preview destroys it, the TR user is ALWAYS fighting an uphill battle because one wrong prediction means he'll probably lose that match. It's an easy win against fast and frail goodstuff teams but bulky goodstuff is able to take those hits by being bulky, switching, protecting and whatnot. Trick Room splashed on goodstuff teams still do work but that's more because Trick Room is merely another option for those teams to carry out speed control. But heavy TR as a legit style of play I consider to be dead and yeah, I know Wolfey won 2011 nats with it...
yes but not on the turn that tailwind goes (ie when the speed is calculated)
About stall: Moody is so much less reliable than regular baton passing: a boost in Attack and a lower in Special Defense or something can absolutely screw you (and your crummy strategy) over. If you're gonna run stall just do something silly like toxic stall with a chansey and blissey heal pulse passing.
TR is not dead: moves like Magic Coat and Fake Out destroy TR hate (excepting imprison). TR also has a lot of things to deal with weather, such as Cradily and Gastrodon. And TR doesn't have any more problems with team preview than Rain does. I think heavy TR will make a good showing this year.
Good man duck, correct opinions there.
Trick room on its own is just an inefficient strategy to use in tournament, especially in this metagame where there's much more speed, power and co-ordination than last year. And as for wolfey winning with heavy TR, it was more to do with his playing ability and sheer balls than the strategy, at nats anyway. I think he's the only dude who was able to take heavy TR to a high level actually.
This year's winning team styles are essentially either ones that spam massive damage, the ones that counter those teams, and then ones that do both, which are the teams the champions will be using.
Magic Coat really? That stuff is way too situational, what if they just attack? Anyway, with team preview goodstuff doesn't even need specific (and unreliable) means top stop TR anymore, just massive damage output and being bulky basically enables goodstuff to get through these four rounds. And as I previously said, dealing with weather is a necessary requirement for every team but I don't see how TR can handle weather with shit like Gastrodon and Cradily. I can see Gastrodon working in some kind of random rain TR with Surf abusers but to be able to keep with the pace in damage output that goodstuff teams have, using things like those isn't a good solution IMO.
I would say it's the other way round, TR is worse. Of course you can come up with TR Azelf and whatnot but this year unlike last year we have again those typical bulky goodstuff Pokémon at our disposal. Need examples? Zapdos, Cresselia, Metagross, the Rotoms and many more. There's a lot of stuff in the format that just survives the hits and retaliates which is even more threatening for TR teams if they lack in power because they use stuff like Gastrodon... What I'm trying to say is that you don't need (unreliable) ways to stop TR like Taunt, Imprison and such because a good team should be able to overcome the speed disadvantage anyway.
No offense to anyone, I'm just playing the advocatus diaboli right now ;D
Random question: Which of the 5 weather inducers is the best one in your opinion?
Gotta be Tyranitar. Politoed and Ninetales are entirely outclassed by other Water/Fire types aside from their abilities, Hippowdon is bad because stalling is impractical in most cases and all of the strong special attackers (especially Water-types), and lolAbomasnow.
Strong agreement from me here. Aside from his obvious fighting weakness that you would have to cover up, he doesn't become dead weight like the other users. You could make the argument for Abomasnow, but aside from blizzard spam, I mean how useful is he?
Tyranitar's the best weather inducer, but rain's the best weather. Politoed is surprisingly good too, since it has kind of um hard to describe but, it works in a similar way to ryuzaki, everyone's favourite worlds-winning gothitelle. Since politoed's a pretty shit pokemon usually it tends to be ignored by dumber players, giving huge advantage if you do something like protect+surf since the toad doesn't attract many attacks (apart from thunders etc).
And lol duck no need to apologise because you're completely correct, those are exactly my opinions on the matter. Remember people, the idea is to WIN BY KNOCKING OUT THE OPPONENT'S POKÉMON, what use are moves like taunt and imprison when they don't do any damage. Every move where you're not directly doing damage to the opponent is a wasted move unless it actually makes up for it by its user doing more damage before it dies than it would've otherwise. More often than not, especially with shitty moves like taunt and imprison, you end up doing less damage.
Probably the best way to put this clearly is: it's better to have that trick room user dead than it is to have it remain slower than you. If you run a bulky team, being slower than usual isn't even a big deal anyway and sometimes it can even help you more than the TR team using it. Therefore, pure TR with dumbass pokémon sucks and nobody should use it. And Cradily?!?! Unreality dude you're a good player what are you thinking lol. If it doesn't do damage it's a bad pokémon and doesn't contribute to your winning. Champions go for offense; just look at all the winning teams.
And lol duck no need to apologise because you're completely correct, those are exactly my opinions on the matter. Remember people, the idea is to WIN BY KNOCKING OUT THE OPPONENT'S POKÉMON, what use are moves like taunt and imprison when they don't do any damage. Every move where you're not directly doing damage to the opponent is a wasted move unless it actually makes up for it by its user doing more damage before it dies than it would've otherwise. More often than not, especially with shitty moves like taunt and imprison, you end up doing less damage.
Probably the best way to put this clearly is: it's better to have that trick room user dead than it is to have it remain slower than you. If you run a bulky team, being slower than usual isn't even a big deal anyway and sometimes it can even help you more than the TR team using it. Therefore, pure TR with dumbass pokémon sucks and nobody should use it. And Cradily?!?! Unreality dude you're a good player what are you thinking lol. If it doesn't do damage it's a bad pokémon and doesn't contribute to your winning. Champions go for offense; just look at all the winning teams.
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