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Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

Are we allowed to ask for some quick team feedback or is that too deep a subject for a 'simple questions, simple answers' thread?

To clarify, I mean questions like "What would go well with x," or, "I have x and y, what whould I add?"
 
What's the best tips on making a Hyper Offense team?
from my experience, the two most important things when building HO are:
  • making sure you’re as solid as reasonably possible against faster attackers like zeraora, weavile, dragapult, and scarfers like tapu lele/kartana/urshifu
    you’ll have a ground almost always in lando/garchomp to hold off the electrics but it helps to make use of the defensive utility given by birds/darks/steels to hold ur team together against these mons defensively. for example, moltres-g is often a really solid option against pult and kartana while volcarona or heatran offers a moonblast resist and dragon dance dragapult can take advantage of shifu. in addition to the defensive synergy these mons provide for each other, they break really well for each other offensively, which leads into the next thing
  • making sure your offense is systematic and synergistic in how it targets and breaks through specific defensive obstacles
    it’s good to follow a general structure of setup sweepers that can wallbreak and enable each other. for example, sticking with the same example above: np moltres-g can sacrifice itself to take out a tapu fini, clefable, or melmetal so dragapult has an easier time cleaning up. a different one would be bisharp taking out a toxapex or ferrothorn and enabling something like cloyster
here’s a solid example that shows a lot of these traits. there have been like 20 variants of this type of similar offense since OLT but the most recent use is probably separation vs ajna in w1 of this SPL
:cloyster::dragapult::garchomp::moltres-galar::heatran::ninetales-alola:(click sprites for import)
 
What are some good Volcanion sets, and some good teammates?
Depending on the set, you will have different possible teammates, but there are a few things you want either way to support Volcanion
- Pivots that give Volcanion entry against bulky Steel and/or bulky Ground types
- Speed control / cleaners that appreciates pressure being put on special walls and/or bulky waters
- Stealth Rock to help it wallbreak / pick up kos
- Reliable defensive counterplay for fast Electric and Ground types

mons that fit one or more of these criteria are lando-t, torn-t, tapu koko, weavile, ferrothorn, garchomp, clefable, zapdos,...
also specs volcanion can be a good rain abuser since it spams powerful water stabs without fearing ferrothorn, tapu fini and toxapex thanks to flamethrower, sludge wave and earth power, respectively

:choice specs::volcanion:
Volcanion @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest or Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave

choice specs volcanion has nuclear power by itself but needs a good Defogger by its side to do its job properly, without getting worn down quickly by rocks

:heavy-duty boots::volcanion:
Volcanion @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave / Substitute / Defog

boots 4a, sub+3a or defog+3a are more self sustained but don't pack enough power to wallbreak effectively without spikes. small note, the defog set should NOT be your primary defogger unless you're running this on some extreme offensive teams and even then, both 4a and sub+3a are better imo. the defogger set should most likely be timid to outspeed modest heatran and pretty much every variant of bulky landorus-t.
other niche sets might include situational moves such as flame charge or toxic, but those haven't been nearly as consistent or even relevant as the two I mentioned.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...nion-submissions.3660737/page-37#post-9112105
you may also want to keep an eye on this thread since the timing of your question ended up being perfect with my choice for the featured mon on this project. stay tuned for the next days to hopefully see some more inspiration for your Volcanion team and, maybe, you could submit it there as well.
 
kinda a dumb question, but how do you watch games of recent tournaments; I wanna learn the meta?
1643933443936.png

the biggest tournaments have their own sections in the tournament subforum here, while smaller ones are contained in unofficial/circuit tournaments/live tournaments

most of the team tours have dedicated threads to replays and usage stats within their forum: for example, for SPL, the ongoing team tour right now, the thread is pinned in the Smogon Premier League subforum. once SPL ends you just have to navigate to the next larger team tour's subforum where there will be a similar thread
1643933967677.png


(here's the link also: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/spl-xiii-replays.3695657/)
 
What is the spread for defensive Kommo o? Is it still the one in its analysis page? I wanna try something with it
 
Here is the only one I'm aware of (s/o HydreigonTheChild)
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Def / 40 SpD / 68 Spe
Impish Nature

What does that ev spread accomplish?

And in Lele's analysis page, it says that it only runs 248 spa. Is there any particular reason it doesn't max out spa on the calm mind set?

Edit: And what does the 252 hp / 124 def / 132 spd+ ev on Ferro accomplish?
 
Last edited:
And in Lele's analysis page, it says that it only runs 248 spa. Is there any particular reason it doesn't max out spa on the calm mind set?
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 8 Def Tapu Lele: 237-280 (84.3 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 238-282 (84.6 - 100.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
:blobshrug:

lets u position endgames better i guess
idk how much this roll rly matters but tmk no offensive rolls are changed by losing 4 evs so whatever

What does Celessteela like to run on HO?
Celesteela @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Autotomize
- Meteor Beam
- Air Slash
- Flamethrower

double dancing sweeper with meteor beam + autotomize that can snowball with beast boosts. interesting option for HO because it's a bulkier steel that can take on lele, kart, garchomp etc while being a pretty scary offensive presence
 
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 8 Def Tapu Lele: 237-280 (84.3 - 99.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Tapu Lele: 238-282 (84.6 - 100.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
:blobshrug:

lets u position endgames better i guess
idk how much this roll rly matters but tmk no offensive rolls are changed by losing 4 evs so whatever


Celesteela @ Power Herb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Autotomize
- Meteor Beam
- Air Slash
- Flamethrower

double dancing sweeper with meteor beam + autotomize that can snowball with beast boosts. interesting option for HO because it's a bulkier steel that can take on lele, kart, garchomp etc while being a pretty scary offensive presence
And are physical sets generally inferior? I kinda wanted to run EQ for heatran, possibly.
 
And are physical sets generally inferior? I kinda wanted to run EQ for heatran, possibly.
feels like it'd struggle vs the hugely popular ferrothorn/slowbro, not to mention that a large portion of heatran are running air balloon atm and would wall u
if ur struggling with heatran: one of the most common partners to meteor beam celesteela is meteor beam nihilego, which can help out by heavily chunking heatran by itself and clearing the way so celesteela can win
 
What does that ev spread accomplish?

And in Lele's analysis page, it says that it only runs 248 spa. Is there any particular reason it doesn't max out spa on the calm mind set?

Edit: And what does the 252 hp / 124 def / 132 spd+ ev on Ferro accomplish?
It looks like the Kommo-o spread is to avoid the 3HKO from Choice Specs Blacephalon's Flamethrower and Choice Band Crawdaunt's Crabhammer while outspeeding Choice Band Tyranitar (actually it's for 128 Speed Heatran, which no longer exists and so you should drop to 64 Spe to be optimal):

252 SpA Choice Specs Blacephalon Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 40 SpD Kommo-o: 114-134 (32.2 - 37.8%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Adaptability Crawdaunt Crabhammer vs. 252 HP / 148+ Def Kommo-o: 113-134 (31.9 - 37.8%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

I think the Ferrothorn spread is meant to live +2 Jolly Weavile's Low Kick and avoid the 3HKO from Choice Specs Tapu Lele's Psychic:

+2 252 Atk Weavile Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 124 Def Ferrothorn: 296-350 (84 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 252 HP / 132+ SpD Ferrothorn in Psychic Terrain: 112-132 (31.8 - 37.5%) -- 0% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
 
Okay, I have some Sun-related questions:
  1. How hot is the sun?
  2. How far exactly is the sun from the Earth?
Okay, in all seriousness:
  1. Is Sun viable?
  2. Is Exeggutor-A viable on Sun?
  3. If yeah, I'm imagining it's a Harvest set. What berry would be run?
  4. What other niche chad Pokemon benefit from Sun?
 
Okay, I have some Sun-related questions:
  1. How hot is the sun?
  2. How far exactly is the sun from the Earth?
Okay, in all seriousness:
  1. Is Sun viable?
  2. Is Exeggutor-A viable on Sun?
  3. If yeah, I'm imagining it's a Harvest set. What berry would be run?
  4. What other niche chad Pokemon benefit from Sun?

1. Surface temperature of the Sun is 5778K

2. The Sun is 147.5 km from the Earth

Afaik

1. Yes, sun is viable but very... volatile, I guess is the right word for it

2-3. Absolutely not. The only reason to ever use sun teams is Venusaur. If you're not using Venusaur, don't use sun teams. Simple as that. Even if you use Exeggutor, it's not a particularly good idea because Venusaur exists and if you're not using chlorophyll, then you're only making your team more vulnerable. Not only that, Eggy is a psychic type while its Alolan form is dragon, both types which are destroyed by Dragapult, a pokemon who is notorious from ripping sun teams apart

4. Sun doesn't really have too many options for its team. Most sun teams would consist of Torkoal, Venusaur, Mandibuzz and a sun abuser like specs Heatran, Charizard or Volcanion, band Victini, Entei or Darmanitan. The last two would usually consist of a ground type and the last is just whatever as long as there is a guaranteed method of breaking past Heatran especially the air balloon variants
 
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