why is itchyy announcing the suspect for the council
This vote is a sham, my lack of DPP skills and strong dislike of the meta are both well-known, and I get to vote while community pillar deg (probably around back when DPP was current gen) doesn't.Why are we calling a vote of random people a suspect
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tournament-rules-and-general-guidelines.3642760/#post-8776866How do you not lock the tier for playoffs or like at least for the first round depending on when the vote is done
they're the goatwhy is itchyy announcing the suspect for the council
Ban | Do Not Ban | Abstain |
STABLE | Dj Breloominati | ACII |
PA | Neomon | Inkreativ |
HCTC | Urfgurgle | 187 Fan |
Crucify | Vrji | Mr. Mime Fan |
Close | Euphonos | Soulwind |
Jabiru | Synonimous | |
Jamez | ||
Itchy | ||
Zioziotrip | ||
Trashuny | ||
Gym Socks | ||
Morgan | ||
Elo Bandit | ||
Yami |
(1) Euphonos Updated Specs Cresselia (F) @ Choice Specs Ability: Levitate EVs: 152 HP / 76 Def / 208 SpA / 72 SpD Modest Nature IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe (if Fire) IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD (if Ground) - Psychic - Grass Knot - Ice Beam - Hidden Power [Fire / Ground] | 2) Synonimous Specs Cresselia @ Choice Specs Ability: Levitate EVs: 152 HP / 160 SpA / 68 SpD / 128 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk (if no Hidden Power) IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe (if Fire) IVs: 3 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD (if Ground) - Grass Knot - Ice Beam - Psychic - Shadow Ball / Signal Beam / Hidden Power |
(3) Compendium Scarf Cresselia @ Choice Scarf Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 12 Def / 100 SpA / 144 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Trick - Moonlight / Rest - Psychic - Ice Beam | (4) Compendium Calm Mind Cresselia @ Mail Ability: Levitate EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 SpD Bold Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Calm Mind - Rest - Psychic - Thunder Wave / Reflect / Shadow Ball |
I think that salamence still deserves A+ rank b/c of its versatility and many different sets. Being teched with hp ice isn't the biggest problem b/c mence is able to bulk hp ice from most mons and kill back with a dd boosted move. Between dd, band, and petaya you are able to beat a lot of mons, with the only hard counters for mence being like blissey and regice. It's also worth noting that cb zap doesn't actually beat barrier zam(lol lol), and regice rolls aren't great either(only beats the 252 252 regice lol lol)Salamence A+ to A:
Salamence, while being one of the two viable dragon types in adv(kingdra's on the rise rn), is unfortunately left unable to utilise its dragon typing well due to dragon types being special in adv, forcing it to use the so amazing hp flying as its primary stab. Even as a dragon, it loses to sceptile, being teched with hp ice, swampert with its huge bulk, and like any pokemon with ice coverage? I honestly believe salamence's dragon type is its biggest weakness, giving it a nasty 4x ice weakness, just like ttar's crippling 4x fighting weakness. Salamence is never a safe pick what with zapdos, arcanine, houndoom, blaziken, and anything else easily running hp ice to lure it. Additionally, band zapdos is in my opinion the better band flyer, gaining guaranteed matchups vs alakazam and sceptile while not worrying about hp ice, and having a chance to even beat regice.
imo this feels a lot like zyg in current ss, but zap has a decent amount of hard counters. You can obviously run regice and armaldo, but taunt dd ttar is also pretty reliable(if you ev for hp fighting that is also why is the current dd ttar so goddamn slow).Sets like band zapdos give up matchups vs mons like mence, zard(lol current cb zap is also super slow), ursaring(petaya usually beats it lol!), marowak(lol) etc. Petaya zapdos sets give up certain matchups like regirock and registeel(pressure stall zap loses asw unless rest i think but petaya zapdos ultra loses this matchup)Overall I think zapdos has enough hard counters and the opportunity cost for running something like band zapdos is very high.(i feel like cm ibeam blissey still beats zapdos cuz of amazing spdef lol)Honestly speaking of of Zapdos, imo it should get suspected at least, it’s the hardest hitting special attackers in the game, +1 petaya kills everything, the things that are supposed to beats it (besides Raikou) can’t even beat it reliably, the agility set is on the rise which can make Zapdos outspeed everything, metal sound is also busted for shit like Blissey and Dusclops can which without it, can wall it easily.
I honestly might be in agreement with this, when I was tryhard prepping for RoA and ADV Cup, I kept finding myself making new sceptiles sets bulked for different things and at different speeds etc. Its such a flexible mon, mainly all of its seeds variants. The one thing I really love about Sceptile currently is that when you DO decide to bulk for certain mons like a weaker Houndoom or Regice, you sacrifice the matchups vs hard physical attackers which I actually enjoy. Factor in what speed you run and you can start to lose to things like Starmie which I think is totally fair and awesome.Rises:
Sceptile S- to S:
Between its standard sets of band, petaya, spdef leech, and defensive leech, sceptile has an amazing team preview, beating nearly every pokemon and only losing to like regice, armaldo, aerodactyl, arcanine, and scizor.
Not sure exactly where I stand on Alakazam, but it is pretty damn great. I would be interested to test the rain matchups further because theoretically the offensive rain mons like colo and kingdra dont HAVE to rain dance t1, and or could sub themselves while you fail a sub. Would like to test that matchup further.Alakazam A to A+:
Between calm mind encore, petaya, and trick band, alakazam can beat a surprising amount of pokemon, and should absolutely be respected as the metagame beast it is. I recently also found that alakazam can beat rain dancers like ludicolo or kingdra by substituting turn 1 and spamming it till rain ends, then 2HKO'ing after. I explained that badly here's a replay: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen31v1-1457841141-qmtbv7gyotrd6gaog2wqhfz7mz3ktsbpw.
I believe that Swampert in theory could rise that high, but I don't think we have seen people flex its versatility and potential movesets enough for it to be anything above A-, especially because it will forever be weak to those hidden power grasses. And, spdef curse and spdef band are great, but I'd love to see Curse+Counter even or a max speed band swampert or the sub endeavor set tried out, salac even, mirror coat for a blastoise clicking surf t1, who knows!Swampert A- to A or A+:
I could see a rise this high, Blissey is amazing. The more techy and opened the metagame becomes, the more solid something like an all around special answer like Blissey becomes. max defense counter is a threat as well, could totally lure regirock. (with a roll) 252+ Atk Choice Band Regirock Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Blissey: 651-766 (91.1 - 107.2%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO. Ngl I didn't realize you could eat anything from a band tauros with max defense! Thats cool afBlissey A- to A:
After clefable was banned, the role of a tanky normal type opened up and blissey is the perfect fit. Blissey's large HP lets it beat leech+stoss stallers like sceptile and ludicolo, something that registeel can't do, and it's specially bulky enough to that it doesn't lose sleep over most zam sets, except for the rare trick band. counter, of course, lets it beat banders like tyranitar and aerodactyl, handedly living a band sky attack and non-adamant ttar's band dynamic punch.
Armaldo is definitely on the rise with sceptile and zapdos's prevalance. As zapdos cannot dodge the rock blast on sub, but rock blasts accuracy is quite annoying. Two things I'll add are Armaldo having Battle Armor is amazing because it adds to its solidness as a sceptile answer, no leaf blade crits, and one thing is Armaldo definitely struggles vs some Arcanine sets because of intimidate, and surely could lose to Blaziken with unfortunate rock blast rolls or bulk up into rock blast or a sub petaya/leichi on a band EQ. Seems like a pretty interesting and dynamic matchup on preview!Armaldo B- to B+/A-:
My absolute go-to sceptile check, incredibly solid mon right now. Anybody running the ever popular fire water grass or rock grass fire cores are instantly 2-0'd by armaldo, as no fire or grass type Pokémon could feasibly prepare for armaldo.
bro idk about that high LOL. I will say that I think Scizor will rise, it has great stats and a great typing. If you aren't a fire type in ADV you probably aren't running fire coverage as its pretty rare! I did appreciate that ur team in duo swiss utilized scizor wellScizor C+ to B+:
I am a Salamence defender, but sometimes I also doubt its place in A+. I will say that, a set people still forget about and underutilize is Sub DD 2 attacks. This allows you to beat those Sub petaya mons with hp ice because as they try to sub again, you can just Sub and now you are the faster mon behind a sub. I can see mence dropping to A, but I need to see more reasons for it to drop, perhaps a lot more games with mence in it! Also sorry but IMO band zapdos being the better band flyer is a ridiculous take. Ttar can still bulk for that hp fighting, and has to hard dedicate to bulk for a brick break from mence, and mence has a much more powerful flying attack with its base attack stat, Intimidate, Earthquake, etc.Salamence A+ to A:
Salamence, while being one of the two viable dragon types in adv(kingdra's on the rise rn), is unfortunately left unable to utilise its dragon typing well due to dragon types being special in adv, forcing it to use the so amazing hp flying as its primary stab. Even as a dragon, it loses to sceptile, being teched with hp ice, swampert with its huge bulk, and like any pokemon with ice coverage? I honestly believe salamence's dragon type is its biggest weakness, giving it a nasty 4x ice weakness, just like ttar's crippling 4x fighting weakness. Salamence is never a safe pick what with zapdos, arcanine, houndoom, blaziken, and anything else easily running hp ice to lure it. Additionally, band zapdos is in my opinion the better band flyer, gaining guaranteed matchups vs alakazam and sceptile while not worrying about hp ice, and having a chance to even beat regice.
Yeah the differences between the sub petaya waters like Starmie/Blastoise/Kingdra is interesting. I think Blastoises matchup spread is still too solid for it to go all the way down to B-, but I can 100% see a B ranking. I think what stoise has going for it is that it has the most defined path to the most powerful water attack, as kingdra and starmie don't have torrent. Furthermore, because of Blastoise's not so solid matchup vs Zapdos (Petaya), I think we can see stoises starting to run more speed so its not as creepable on its standard set.Blastoise B+ to B-:
Nah Meganium def isn't UR. Meganium is def this weird middle ground of grass types, like Celebi/Sceptile/Venusaur. Having some qualities of all of them. Its main selling point is Counter, which yes Sceptile has but Meganium is leagues bulkier. Meganium also has Overgrow, and a very powerful Frenzy Plant just like Venusaur, however its bulkier and isn't weak to Psychic. Little things like that. And then with all of that, you can still run a most likely solid sub protect leech set for opponets expecting something fancy from Meganium. Bottom line I can see the drop to C- but no way its UR.Meganium C to C- or UR:
I did some research?(if you can call it that) and it seems like meganium's niche is pretty much just 3-0'ing a sample team. Unfortunately, other pokemon can already do that, and beat other pokemon while they're at it.
This is some really cool stuff, I love seeing totally new mons and the ideas people have with them that aren't me. I would also love to see people try out Articuno more, honestly I might just try and make a team with it soon!Articuno is funny but like also viable:
https://pokepast.es/50fff2479338f3ae
Defense lives 3 band ursaring returns. Speed speed-creeps 252 adamant ursaring, I'm so good at EV's lol. Articuno's niche is regice but with pressure, and beating heracross/ursaring. Plus it's quirky which is all that matters. Articuno to me has a lot of upward mobility from here, I barely used it, and didn't even consider its pressure ability/great movepool(articuno gets stuff like haze, toxic, agility, and sleep talk, with some creativity it could have some really interesting sets imo). I'd say to put it in like C- tier with the knowledge that it can rise in the future.
Currently, I think Zapdos is fine as it wasn't seemingly busted in Duo Swiss, RoA, ADV Cup, Classic Playoffs, but I do feel your sentiment about its impact on the metagame. I think Band is still ultra slept on, and we are starting to see Metal Sound put in a lot of work as its such a unique move in ADV. Nothing else notably can give itself a +2 difference in ADV, as Nasty Plot doesn't exist and lol Tail Glow Volbeat. I've also seen that Agility set being used, what exactly is it supposed to beat again? It seems really threatening and annoying, id love to see its matchups.Honestly speaking of of Zapdos, imo it should get suspected at least, it’s the hardest hitting special attackers in the game, +1 petaya kills everything, the things that are supposed to beats it (besides Raikou) can’t even beat it reliably, the agility set is on the rise which can make Zapdos outspeed everything, metal sound is also busted for shit like Blissey and Dusclops can which without it, can wall it easily.
I am in awe at your love for Moltres and the pursuit of developing it when I once thought it was just worse Charizard/Entei/any other fire type. And I will say, Moltres is pretty damn hype the more I look at ur post and look into the mon myself. Its instant pressure with a base 125 attack stat as opposed to 109 from zard is intense, especially when running modest. I dont even have that much to add for Moltres you explained a lot really well with replays. That petaya set is cool af with Agility, and there is still a lot to test with sub protect morning sun pressure stall! I'm with you in that it doesn't belong in B-. Super cool stuff with lots of EV potential.Now for a nom of my own
Moltres from B- to B
I talked about a specific moltres set in here, but now I will discuss moltres as a whole. Imo moltres is pretty underrated, mostly for the reason that it is overshadowed in offensive capability by zard. However, moltres is able to run pressure stall sets, and utilize agility to more consistently beat threats like zapdos and leech scept(zard has to 50/50 spdef sceptile, either sub on your own expecting a sub on their end, or just blast burn t1 on a possible leech seed). Moltres feels like a more versatile zard, with pressure stall allowing you to beat cb regirock(lol), and petaya berry having great odds against zam, ursaring, registeel if you are running sunny day(goat move) and marowak. Also why is moltres in the same tier as jumpluff that mon sucks lol.
Primarily I take issue with the wording and subsequent implication that bringing Cresselia on a team was sufficient to provide those 13 wins, which is such an extreme oversimplification that I don't think it really adds to the argument but even taking it at its best and saying that it indicates an overwhelming strength at team preview, I still somewhat disagree. Earlier in this piece, I outlined 9 fairly reliable answers to all the various Cresselia sets, so the topic becomes a matter of whether said checks perform well into the rest of the meta/how well Cresselia can pair with mons to force an absurd amount of 1-2's or unfavourable matchups on preview which is a lot more detailed and nuanced coversation which I'd like to touch on a bit later. Similarly the fact that Cresselia won all 6 games where it was brought, whilst an impressive stat, is a bit misleading considering that five out of those six games was one specific set (particularly relevant is that this set is its latest advent, and to some extent I don't think the meta has as yet adapted to it at this point and particularly not earlier on in DPP cup) brought by one specific user (againt relevant because Euphonos is a top dpp player with a decent record in team tours (8/6 W/L, 57%), and the eventual winner of dpp cup) so it becomes an issue trying to separate the potency of Cresselia from the skill of the player.Cresselia was brought sixteen times, and its presence alone provided thirteen of those wins. The most fun part here is: when Cresselia gets picked six times, it was guaranteed to win a match. Most notably, I used this very Specs Cresselia set on five separate occasions:
vs. Close: G3 of DPP 1v1 Cup Quarterfinal - though I won because his Metagross missed a Meteor Mash which is actually boosted by Choice Band
vs. Dj Breloominati♬: G5 of DPP 1v1 Cup Final
vs. XSTATIC COLD: G5 of 1v1 Classic Quarterfinal
vs. pqs: G5 of 1v1 Classic Semifinal
vs. Jamez: G3 of 1v1 Classic Final