Online Competition Battle of Legends

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RULES: https://battle.pokemon-home.com/regulation/000000105/en
  • 4v4 Doubles (bring 6 to team preview)
  • everything becomes level 50 for battle
  • Allowed ONE of the following on your team:
    • Mewtwo, Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Magearna, Marshadow, Zeraora, Meltan, Melmetal, Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Zarude.
  • Item clause

NOTE:

As usual; there are some discrepancies between the English and Japanese descriptions of the rules. It appears that all Pokemon are legal for this. Some reports state that it is series 6 + legends and mythicals. However from my testing CInderace and Mimikyu were allowed so I'm going with that.


What are you thinking of using in this??
 

Theorymon

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Just from my experience with stomping children in unrated, Dusk Mane Necrozma is normally absoloute menace to face, that thing just refuses to die while Dynamaxed! What we need to test though, is if Prism Armor ignores Gmax Cinderace's mold breaker attack or not. If I remember correctly, normally, Prism Armor actually is immune to that kind of stuff unlike Filter and Solid Rock, but it'll need to be tested!

Zaican is dangerous too, but I actually think it's not gonna be as good as you'd expect: It's actually very vulnerable to random sashes screwing with it in my experience. It is at least hard to revege without sashes. Maybe running some bulk might work for Zacian here, with Stealth Rock set up to avoid sash cheese.

Actually in general, a ton of stuff is weak to Ground, so maybe Sand Rush Excadrill can come clutch too, just don't expect Dusk Mane Necrozma to care too much!

EDIT: Forgot this was doubles. Zacian might actually have some trouble with double targeting, so maybe Follow Me strats with it can work? Also, might want to watch out for Intimidate cylcing when using Dusk Mane Necrozma.
 
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Hey there, wanted to share some of my thoughts on the meta and the team I'll be using.

:solgaleo: :dragapult: :incineroar: :amoonguss: :kangaskhan: :torkoal: (click)

I think that Bulldoze + Solgaleo is a really strong strategy, this speed tier allows it to outspeed Mewtwo after a speed drop. Kangaskhan is an amazing support, 1v1ing Lunala very solidly and baiting Close Combats from Zacian and being able to fight back with counter. Turbo Foul Play Shroomer just seems pretty neat, U-Turn over Parting Shot for more mileage on Solgaleo and Lunala.

Overall, I think almost every single team should be running Incineroar and Amoonguss. They were dominant in VGC 2019/GS Cup last gen and I don't think the smaller restricted pool makes them any worse. Dragapult and Excadrill also seem like very solid Pokemon to build with max in mind, Defense drop + phys attacker can sweep easily, and Steelspike/Quake boost could make Dusk-Mane/Eternatus unkilleable.

Oh yeah, and Zacian is mid.

Looking forward to the comp!
 
That was my first though as well, Ika Ika Musume. Magearna is the slowest viable legend, and does not care about burn or intimidate. The ability is insane. With Steel Beam, it now has access to two 140 BP STAB moves in dynamax, as well as an additional nuke outside dynamax. Low BP moves was its main drawback last gen, which is why it almost always used a Z move. With dynamax, this problem is solved. It can even set up misty terrain to prevent amoongus from stopping it. Several of the top teams in a USUM online competition used it (almost same format, 4v4 doubles with legends), and at that time its worst nemesis Primal Groudon was widely used as well. I think Life Orb could be great on it, even if it chips away at its bulk - it is not that powerful without a soul heart boost, so it needs all the power it can get.

Dusk mane is also ridicolously bulky, as theorymon said, and this bulk can be further increased with steel- and ground max moves. Weakness policy is a natural fit on it, all this considered. It is worth mentioning, though, that incineroar is problematic for it with intimidate and burning jealousy.

Another legend I think could be good is Solgaleo. It has slightly less bulk than Dusk Mane, but comes with great speed (97), better coverage (For example, powerful fighting and fire moves against the steel types that dusk mane struggles with), and most importantly: Full Metal Body. Being immune to intimidate could be huge here. I also thought of one specific combo I wanted to share: Max speed WP Solgaleo + a faster Bulldose user (edit: great minds think alike, joey hassam!). Bulldose's speed drop takes effect immediately, but Solgaleo is immune to it. So you break sashes or shadow shield, slow down the opponents, and attack immediately after with a +2 Solgaleo. Perhaps something that can be built around?

(On a sidenote, I would be absolutely shocked if Incineroar is not the most used pokemon in this competition. Such a great matchup against many of the legends)
 
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Any ideas for teams around Eternatus? It and Zamazenta are the only ones I own.

In talking with some friends earlier today, I think Cosmic Power Eternatus is really strong. So I spent some time in the builder trying to make a six that would be great for its potential. I ended up coming up with this:
:eternatus: :excadrill: :tyranitar: :gyarados: :cinderace: :amoonguss: (click)

Cosmic Power Eternatus is quite strong if you can survive your opponent's Dynamax. To help aid with this, I built triple status (double Twave and Spore) into this team. General gameplay should be to use either Cinderace or Excadrill to feed Eternatus some juicy stat boosts that it can stack with CP and win games. Went with Goggles Gyara over Incin so the type synergy wasn't any worse than it already was. Amoon is just a nice glue.

EV Spreads:
Eternatus outruns Cinderace and takes minimal Sand damage while still having good physical bulk.
Excadrill outruns +1 Cinderace, KOs 4 hp Zacian with Max Quake, and survives +1 Zacian Close Combat.
Gyarados outruns 252+ Dragapult after Paralysis.
TurboShroomer outspeeds most Incineroar.

Hope this team is helpful and/or can point you in the right direction

E: realized my Exca actually speedties bunny. Added 8 more Speed EVs.
 
Be prepared for a million Magearna TR teams.

With how much stat-boosting is going on, I can actually see Focus Sash Marshadow with Spectral Thief having somewhat of a niche, but it'll have stiff competition with the bulkier + stronger restricted mons.
 
So yeah, the Alola Legends are hella busted especially solgaleo and dusk mane due to them being easily splashable Pokémon and perfectly built for weakness policy cheese (solgaleo is immune to any stat drops while dusk mane takes super effective moves better). I’ve been messing around on my Tytoki account with solgaleo psi spam with rain to help with fire types and it’s just truly a force to be reckoned with. I say that the relevant doubles weather archetypes (being sun and sand) are some of the most consistent ways of dealing with the Galar and Alola ubers as well as everyone’s favorite, incineroar.
 

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I sense that Reshiram could have a niche due to the fact that tons of people are using Magearna, Zacian-C, and the Alola Legends. With a set consisting of: Blue Flare, Earth Power, Dragon Pulse/Draco Meteor, and Shadow Ball, with 252 Special Attack EVs, 252 Speed EVs, Reshiram can hit all the Ubers super effectively. With a Choice Scarf, It can outspeed The Alolan Legends, Cinderace, and tie with Eternatus and Mewtwo. With some Choice Specs it can KO Pokémon that it couldn't before, since it doesnt need a Scarf to outspeed Magearna, Excadril, Incineroar, and Amoonguss. Turboblaze will ignore all other Abilities, Including Prism Armor and Shadow Shield, Making it a hard Pokémon to switch into. Since it is a Dragon-Fire type, Its a dragon who is not threated by Fairies. It can even live a +1 attack from Zacian-C and Magearna.
Although, Reshiram will have flaws. Even with a Scarf, it can't outspeed Zaican-C, Dragapult, and Scarfers Above base 90, and since it needs a Choice item to not be useless, it can be switched around easily. Blue Flare's accuracy is only 85%, so it could lose to Zacian if one misses. Reshiram's type makes it weak to Ground, Rock, and Dragon. If Reshiram is not Scarf, its weak to Pokemon like Scarf Excadrill, Scarf Tyranitar, Eternatus, Earth Power Mewtwo, and Both Kyurem Black and White, making its type more of a double edge sword. Stealth Rock will also make it hard for Reshiram to switch in. If it is Paralyzed, it will be useless, especially if its Specs.
Overall, Reshiram has a ton of good and bad traits for the meta, so untrained players cant get its full value, but if wielded by a smart player, the power it brings to the table can wreck unprepared teams that count on their Zacian, Magearna, Solgaleo, Necrozma-DM, Lunala, or Amoonguss too much. What do you think about Reshiram in the meta? Will it be good or bad? Please let me know!
 
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Necrozma-DM with Earth Power as coverage hits almost every restricted mon (exceptions: Kyurem, Zarude, and the weapon-less doggos) for super effective damage. Combine it with Indeedee-F and you have an incredibly dangerous psyspam team that can set up Trick Room against faster teams and roll over slower ones with sheer offense. Lunala is better for guaranteed TRs but doesn't get Earth Power, is faster and weaker, and is an awkward fit with Life Orb invalidating Shadow Shield. I decided to build a four-mon core, combining Necrozma and Indeedee with Incineroar for intimidate and a Dark/Ghost resist and Conkeldurr to pressure sand and bulky Dark types.

https://pokepast.es/7f166dc21fa17ec9

indeedee-female.png
necrozma-dawn-wings.png
incineroar.png
conkeldurr.png


Indeedee's EVs let it survive a Jolly Behemoth Blade 94% of the time, making it almost impossible to OHKO with the Psychic Seed boost. Necrozma is max SpA (it's main selling point over Lunala) while underspeeding min-speed Solgaleo/Lunala and minimizing sand/LO damage. Incineroar survives a Zacian-C Close Combat and a Max Quake from Venusaur while maximizing berry recovery. Conkeldurr is a standard AV spread.

To round out the team I'm thinking of adding Togekiss because Sash Urshifu is a nightmare to deal with and extra coverage against Dark types (especially outside of Trick Room) and Rillaboom (who messes with my terrain) is always appreciated. More redirection and potentially Yawn can never go amiss. Still thinking on the last mon.

Necrozma-DW may be Dusk Mane's little brother, but don't overlook it's powerful Expanding Forces with Indeedee support.
 
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cant say

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There was a Korean friendly competition over the weekend with this ruleset and the winner posted a blog about it, they also topped the showdown ladder:



you can rent the team to get the english moves or translate the blog post.

There was also a Japanese tournament but the first place team only has this picture to go off



You can also use this hashtag on Twitter to find more posts about the Japanese tournament

#ラムカップ

Basically all the posts just show the 6 pokémon with the items cropped out.

The teams I’ve seen both on Showdown and Twitter seem to just be standard VGC builds (trick room with rhyperior swapped for melmetal, dusk mane, magearna), or sun/sand/rain with zacian slapped in. I haven’t seen any cool gimmicks which is a bit of a shame. people really are out there tryharding for a competition we’ll forget about in a month and not doing something wacky with their legend of choice. Like that’s fine, I haven’t been able to come up with anything unique myself, so what I’m saying is if you’re stuck for ideas but want to play, just go look on trainertower or victoryroad and slap a legendary on a rental team lol.
 
Hey there, wanted to share some of my thoughts on the meta and the team I'll be using.

:solgaleo: :dragapult: :incineroar: :amoonguss: :kangaskhan: :torkoal: (click)

I think that Bulldoze + Solgaleo is a really strong strategy, this speed tier allows it to outspeed Mewtwo after a speed drop. Kangaskhan is an amazing support, 1v1ing Lunala very solidly and baiting Close Combats from Zacian and being able to fight back with counter. Turbo Foul Play Shroomer just seems pretty neat, U-Turn over Parting Shot for more mileage on Solgaleo and Lunala.

Overall, I think almost every single team should be running Incineroar and Amoonguss. They were dominant in VGC 2019/GS Cup last gen and I don't think the smaller restricted pool makes them any worse. Dragapult and Excadrill also seem like very solid Pokemon to build with max in mind, Defense drop + phys attacker can sweep easily, and Steelspike/Quake boost could make Dusk-Mane/Eternatus unkilleable.

Oh yeah, and Zacian is mid.

Looking forward to the comp!
Do you think NDM works better? It's ability is much better (Prism Armor).
 
What are people's thoughts on Melmetal for this?
I think it can have some roles, but has powerful Steel-Type competition with Solgaleo, Necrozma-DM, and Magearna. Sure, it might have 143 Attack and 143 Defense, Which is Higher than Solgaleo's Attack and Defense and Necrozma-DM's Defense (It is also higher than Magearna's Sp.Attack on their respective sides.), But Solgaleo has way better HP, Necrozma-DM has Better Attack, Magearna has better Special stats, and all 3 have Better Speed, Sp.Defense, and a better Ability.
Solgaleo's Full Metal Body preventing stat drops is huge where Incineroar in on almost every team and Dynamaxing is EVERYWHERE.
Necrozma-DM's Prizm Armor lowering damage from super effective hits can save it from a death threat, so it is a lot harder to kill.
Magearna's Soul-Heart boosting Sp.Attack after a KO can be huge if not dealt with correctly.
Melmetal's Iron Fist is good, But it doesn't compare to the Abilities of the other Steel-Types. Its Sp.Defense and Speed are just trash(60 Sp.def and 34 Spd). Like I said above, all 3 have better speed, and the slower ones (Necrozma-DM and Magearna) have a lot more Sp.Defense. Melmetal's movepool cant even save it. Double Iron Bash is powerful and has around 51% to flinch, but good luck trying to get flinches when you are slower than basically everything. It has decent coverage in Thunder Punch, Body Press, and Earthquake, but all 3 have better coverage. I could see it on Trick Room teams, but those are gimmicks at BEST. It can also run on Stall, but Stall is not good in general when there are so many Wallbreakers around. So,(in my opinion,) Melmetal is not worth it when there is a lot better Steel-Types running around. If it was not Ubers, then it would be good, but that isn't the case. It can only be used (Effectively) on Stall and Trick Room, which is not consistent. So, if you need a Steel-Type, use Solgaleo, Necrozma-DM, or Magearna.
Have any Questions? Please let me know!
 
That's far from obvious in my opinion. Clear Body is really good, makes it immune to intimidate (Incineroar is everywhere) and dynamax drops. On the specific team you quoted, it is a necessity to avoid the speed drop from bulldoze.
Bulldoze may, under Trick Room, be beneficial to NDM. Besides, it is true that Incineroar can be annoying, and that is a point for using Solgaleo. Personally to stop Incineroar, I'll probably run a Bisharp or Contrary user.

However, personally Solgaleo can be slayed by Bulldoze + Flare Blitz/Snarl. Prism Armor can stop that so I prefer Necrozma.

For me, Necrozma can work on a partial Trick Room team with another Pokemon (Dusclops?) setting up to Trick Room, with Defiant user Bisharp switching in on Incineroar or Max Wyrmwind. Also, Parting Shot.
 
Hopefully you guys feel like being helpful! Looking to fill a spot on a team. I need someone to trigger Weakness Policy reliably well on Necrozma DM. Here is the 5 I have now: https://pokepast.es/ac9bd8f458869ff5

Been sending out Corviknight and incineroar out, Dynamaxing Corvi and u-turning into Necro(speed EVS let Incin outspeed Corvi), and getting some boosts in with Gmax moves. I am looking to fill my last spot with someone who can very easily set up my Necros Weakness Policy, as well as add some nice utility(Status control, hazards, defog etc). Any pointers would be great, as doubles is by no means my strong suit.
 
Finally we get a gen 8 tournament that allows Zacian and friends. I've been using this team with nice results so far:

https://pokepast.es/914a07a38f1f5faf

The Charizard and Venusaur are G Max, btw. Focusing on pure literal firepower to be prepared against the steel types, as well as two sleep users for dynamax sweepers. Adamant Zacian plus Steely Spirit Perrserker....the power output is insane. And P2 is there to check TR teams and mess up with Ally Switch, especially Lunala.
 

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Went 12-4 on stream today, had a few really tough games that I was able to clutch out. Very first game I got to show the Rain Dance tech on Riolu to beat a Whimsi+Reshiram team. Only got to use Coaching a couple of times.

Urshifu-S is on literally every team which is making Solgaleo hard to use but the team seems to be working okay. Hopefully this wasn't all a fluke and I can keep doing well tomorrow

stream VOD
 

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This competition is now over. Hopefully Showdown publishes some new news soon so it gets pushed off the first page. I’ll be locking this thread now because it keeps getting spammed with questions.


I ended up 29-16 with the Solgaleo / Indeedee / Drifblim team. It was super weak to Urshifu-S and it was likely the most-used in the actual competition (there were hardly any on Showdown whole practicing). I got within a game of 1700 and then lost a bunch of games to crits and scald burns so that was disappointing, but the competition was really fun overall.

The next competition has been announced so I’ll be posting a new thread shortly.
 
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