court change frameworks:
i’m not good at mons rn because i didn’t win seasonal so i can’t guarantee that i have 100% answers to things. i can however try several different frameworks and you can choose the one you like the best!
main issues with court change
hazards as portfolio management
court change and tempo
court change vs magic bounce
hazards in a cc-less meta
free veil
i’m not good at mons rn because i didn’t win seasonal so i can’t guarantee that i have 100% answers to things. i can however try several different frameworks and you can choose the one you like the best!
main issues with court change
- cc makes hazard games extremely volatile and prone to wild imbalances
- instead of being slightly helpful in a wide variety of situations, cc is extremely strong in very specific situations and useless otherwise. (even if they have hazards, cc can still be stopped by insufficient mobility if active or invalidated by imposter if passive)
- hazard-based teams are extremely relevant in the metagame and preparing for them is extremely difficult even with court change factored in (see above point).
hazards as portfolio management
- this framework involves each team creating a “portfolio” with hazards, spin/defog, and court change, each of which can be invested in to various extents. for example, a team might have heavy hazard investment, some spin, and no cc.
- in general, hazards beat spin/defog, which beat court change (slightly less hard than the other matchups), which beats hazards.
- therefore, the portfolios of two teams are extremely vital in determining the outcome of the game. for example, hazard spam will run over defog/spin. i shouldn’t even have to provide replays for that.
- dealing with the wide assortment of possible opposing portfolios as well as the many offensive threats in the metagame is simply unrealistic. decent consistency in any playstyle is not something i’ve been able to find.
court change and tempo
- a tempo is defined as the time it takes a player to make one move. court change results in a massive transfer of tempi between players cause you get 0 hazards and they get all of em.
- nothing else in bh really works like this. court change actively punishes a player for making progress even if they aren’t using a hazard-invested team.
- as a result, “progress”, especially in the sense of offensive teams, has become rather muddled as a term. how do you make progress now? set up with a broken sweeper (lil kiss)? paralyze everyone (paraspam)? nothing can really come close to how universal hazards are in their light impact but buildup over time.
- this tempo transfer is likely to win the game on the spot for the cc user if they aren’t already lost due to hazard setters being extremely good. this is because hazard-heavy teams thrive on mobility and being able to operate without hazards impeding them, so if they can’t easily spin away the hazards (even if it’s just 1 spike) the resulting position is extremely bad.
court change vs magic bounce
- the primary difference between cc and bounce is that bounce mons have to throw themselves in front of the hazard setter and must be played actively. court change is better played as a reaction to hazards already being on your side.
- because of this, bounce can be consciously prepped for. covering all possible bouncers with 2 hazard setters creates a strong offensive core with many possible counterplay methods but no immediate weakness. closed (working with cycles, fighting for weird objectives, making progress by walling) and open (trading mons to gain an advantage, identifying which of several wincons is strongest, fighting for key damage to break through) lines are both common and reward skill.
- court change allows you to technically wall out an opponent without actually having to wall them out: the reversal of progress is simply too much to handle if they commit at all to it. good teams like those made by stresh don’t commit to hazards and accept that they can simply go away.
hazards in a cc-less meta
- hazards on defensive mons come back into fashion, and are counterbalanced by magic bounce.
- similar to how shed and its hazard denial punished unsound hazard spam last gen, this gen we have boots as a less polarizing way to not get run over. aggression by the hazard setting side is necessary, rather than just sitting there and clicking hazards.
- ph mons can freely run hazards again, making paraspam worse and less necessary.
- defog returns to punish people for setting up 3 spikes, rocks, webs, and a single tspike without being ready to fully capitalize on them. it doesn’t give the other side an instant win if they’ve spent the last 6 turns doing nothing, though.
free veil
- free veil
- free TOWER OF POWER
- this is my strongest point so i put it at the end
As the team lacks Ghost-types and relies on Ho-Oh and Tapu Fini to clear opposing stat boosts, they both fail to live a +3 or more Extreme Speed. This is because Extreme Speed acts before Prankster Topsy Turvy. The only way around +4 or +6 Regigigas is through gambling for an outspeed with Chansey, but after that, a +6 Chansey can win the game.
The defensive core relies on each other to cover their weaknesses, but Pokémon with a variety of coverage can take down the core. Bolt-beam coverage is especially detrimental to this core, as all 3 Pokémon are weak to Kyurem’s Ice STAB + Bolt Strike. However, Xerneas’ Extreme Speed can take care of non-Extreme Speed variants whilst Chansey can hopefully outspeed and KO boosted Kyurem.
And is there any benefit of Volt Switch over Teleport, Parting Shot and U-turn? I feel like Volt Switch is the most blockable pivot move.
