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Tournament BW AAA Occasional (Won by IUPLC)
- Thread starter Betticus IV
- Start date
well dont let it happen,,,
Dw they are not getting to finals
Won vs donmarto ggs. Looks like it's Betticus and me for finals?
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5almostanyability-2607586086-em4nxnfnt3qrxvul9nap7hy25x7i2dkpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5almostanyability-2607579184-16fooj6cjke39ws8rd3ji3rabv9my70pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5almostanyability-2607574946-sagtt1o2kt31cur3k8iel8h2axp8d36pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5almostanyability-2607586086-em4nxnfnt3qrxvul9nap7hy25x7i2dkpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5almostanyability-2607579184-16fooj6cjke39ws8rd3ji3rabv9my70pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5almostanyability-2607574946-sagtt1o2kt31cur3k8iel8h2axp8d36pw
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Congrats to IUPLC, thanks for playing everyone! Hope everyone was able to have some fun games with this very different AAA meta. Don't know the next time this tier will played, but could potentially see play during PL if there is enough support? Idk tho. Also special shoutouts to dhelmise for creating a temp tour challenge, really appreciated!
(Will lock the thread in around ~24 hrs if people want to share their thoughts/teams since there is no post-tour thread)
(Will lock the thread in around ~24 hrs if people want to share their thoughts/teams since there is no post-tour thread)
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I'd like to share some thoughts about what I found strong/what I found myself building with:
A Pokemon I found myself using every team I made was Weavile
, using this set:
Weavile @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
- Beat Up
- Low Kick
I mostly play BW OU as far as vanilla tiers go, and Latios is extremely dominant there, making Pursuit very good to have. When I saw that Latios wasn't banned in AAA, I knew Pursuit would be more important than ever. Weavile also provides Ice Shard support for other dangerous dragons, Thundurus-T/Zapdos, and Landorus-T/Gliscor. Both stay-in Pursuit and Ice Shard are boosted by Technician, both OHKOing Latios from full now, and better yet, individual Beat Up hits are boosted as well, meaning early in the game before anything goes down, Weavile has a near-automatic kill button to click. Steel resisting Dark still makes it less insane than it would be in later gens, but even reasonably bulky neutrals just get shredded by the full 6 hits of Beat Up. Low Kick is there for Steel types and the occasional Tyranitar.
An ability that anyone familiar with BW knows is extremely potent is Magic Guard, which not only makes anything hazard/weather immune, it also cancels recoil including from Life Orb. Anything can make good use of this ability, but the most tempting options would be Stealth Rock weak Pokemon that love the power boost from Life Orb: I brought
Salamence and 
Tornadus. Betticus brought similarly potent options like 
Thundurus and 
Dragonite. There was even a 
Staraptor from Pooshi, which benefits from not taking recoil at all.
Another option that I think I wasn't the only one who tried was
Blissey, who normally struggles with residual damage from hazards or status or weather, making it nearly unkillable without set-up.
A fun aspect of BW AAA was the ability to experiment with rain and sun setters better than Politoed or Ninetales. For Drizzle, I used
Slowbro while Betticus used 
Slowking, and I theorized other bulky water options like 
Milotic and 
Jellicent. If something like a Band 
Victini is a concern, then Water/Ground types like 
Gastrodon could be an option for a guaranteed Victini Swap.
There's plenty of options for good Rain abusers, too: the genies with Magic Guard or another good ability for them are obvious, but stuff like Hydration set up guys like Curse 
Swampert can also be great. Shout-outs to Dry Skin 
Excadrill for the guaranteed Latios switch-in.
For Sun, it gets more interesting. Taking inspiration from how good of a sun setter
Groudon is in Ubers, I tried Drought 
Gliscor, for a bulky pivot that can set Stealth Rock and has reliable recovery. It's Scald-weak against rain is the main issue. The non-Scald weak option that would take inspiration from Ninetales in OU would be defensive 
Infernape, as insane as that sounds, given its access to Stealth Rock, U-turn, and Slack Off.
Sun abusers are also plentiful. The obvious ones are Banded Fire types like Victini and Infernape, with either Adaptability or Mold Breaker. Specs 
Heatran is also an option. There's Calm Mind 
Cresselia with either Poison Heal or Magic Guard in tandem with boosted Moonlights, and even something as simple as dragons with fire coverage like 
Garchomp, Salamence, Dragonite, or 
Hydreigon can be terrifying.
Conclusions:
Either way, I didn't get to play that many games because the first few rounds were all activity wins, but I was excited to try this out given my love for Gen 5 mechanics and how neat AAA can be and am happy to have won. The games I did play were very fun. GGs everyone.
A Pokemon I found myself using every team I made was Weavile
, using this set:Weavile @ Choice Band
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pursuit
- Ice Shard
- Beat Up
- Low Kick
I mostly play BW OU as far as vanilla tiers go, and Latios is extremely dominant there, making Pursuit very good to have. When I saw that Latios wasn't banned in AAA, I knew Pursuit would be more important than ever. Weavile also provides Ice Shard support for other dangerous dragons, Thundurus-T/Zapdos, and Landorus-T/Gliscor. Both stay-in Pursuit and Ice Shard are boosted by Technician, both OHKOing Latios from full now, and better yet, individual Beat Up hits are boosted as well, meaning early in the game before anything goes down, Weavile has a near-automatic kill button to click. Steel resisting Dark still makes it less insane than it would be in later gens, but even reasonably bulky neutrals just get shredded by the full 6 hits of Beat Up. Low Kick is there for Steel types and the occasional Tyranitar.
An ability that anyone familiar with BW knows is extremely potent is Magic Guard, which not only makes anything hazard/weather immune, it also cancels recoil including from Life Orb. Anything can make good use of this ability, but the most tempting options would be Stealth Rock weak Pokemon that love the power boost from Life Orb: I brought
Salamence and Tornadus. Betticus brought similarly potent options like Thundurus and Dragonite. There was even a Staraptor from Pooshi, which benefits from not taking recoil at all.Another option that I think I wasn't the only one who tried was
Blissey, who normally struggles with residual damage from hazards or status or weather, making it nearly unkillable without set-up. A fun aspect of BW AAA was the ability to experiment with rain and sun setters better than Politoed or Ninetales. For Drizzle, I used
Slowbro while Betticus used Slowking, and I theorized other bulky water options like Milotic and Jellicent. If something like a Band Victini is a concern, then Water/Ground types like Gastrodon could be an option for a guaranteed Victini Swap.There's plenty of options for good Rain abusers, too: the genies
with Magic Guard or another good ability for them are obvious, but stuff like Hydration set up guys like Curse Swampert can also be great. Shout-outs to Dry Skin Excadrill for the guaranteed Latios switch-in.For Sun, it gets more interesting. Taking inspiration from how good of a sun setter
Groudon is in Ubers, I tried Drought Gliscor, for a bulky pivot that can set Stealth Rock and has reliable recovery. It's Scald-weak against rain is the main issue. The non-Scald weak option that would take inspiration from Ninetales in OU would be defensive Infernape, as insane as that sounds, given its access to Stealth Rock, U-turn, and Slack Off.Sun abusers are also plentiful. The obvious ones are Banded Fire types like
Victini and Infernape, with either Adaptability or Mold Breaker. Specs Heatran is also an option. There's Calm Mind Cresselia with either Poison Heal or Magic Guard in tandem with boosted Moonlights, and even something as simple as dragons with fire coverage like Garchomp, Salamence, Dragonite, or Hydreigon can be terrifying.Conclusions:
Either way, I didn't get to play that many games because the first few rounds were all activity wins, but I was excited to try this out given my love for Gen 5 mechanics and how neat AAA can be and am happy to have won. The games I did play were very fun. GGs everyone.