Online Competition Galar Beginnings

[cant say]

https://swordshield.pokemon.com/en-gb/gameplay/online-competition/​

The very first online competition has been announced; Galar Beginnings! The rules are basically the same as BSS, except Gigantamaxing seems to be allowed! Here's the info directly from pokemon.com:

• Sign-Up Period: Friday, 15 November, at 00:00 UTC, to Thursday, 5 December, at 23:59 UTC
• Competition Period: Friday, 6 December, at 00:00 UTC, to Sunday, 8 December, at 23:59 UTC
• Battle Format: Single Battle
• Eligible Pokémon: Pokémon obtained in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield
  • Certain special Pokémon will not be allowed.
  • Register three to six of your Pokémon to your Battle Team.
  • All Pokémon in this competition will automatically become Lv. 50 for the duration of each match.
• Ranking Results Announcement: December 2019

Notes:

• Membership in the Nintendo Switch Online (paid) service is required for Online Competition participation.
• You’ll be able to join the competition by opening the X menu in your game and selecting VS, Battle Stadium, and then Online Competitions. There’s no need to register on the Pokémon Global Link.

What do you think to excel in this with its Gigantamax allowed?

 

[DreamPrince]

When will this be on Showdown?

 

[cant say]

When will this be on Showdown?

The better question is “when will gen 8 be finished being implemented on Showdown?”

We don’t have an answer, I don’t suspect we’ll get a lot of practice for this competition on the sim because there’s a lot to fix up. The hardest part is Gigantamaxes so I’m told, which this competition allows.

 

[Theorymon]

If it means much, Gigantamax Butterfree. Corviknight, Drednaw, and Sandaconda are plentiful atm, so we can probably network some of those around if needed. Honestly though of the gigantamaxes, Butterfree is the only one that stands out to me, and that feels like basically "well Vivillon is gone so lol". Drednaw is not a good gigantamax, Sandaconda is fine though its dynamax is also fine, and for Corviknight, I'd honestly rather get the speed boost, especially on Bulk Up sets!

We've been raiding on the Smogon discord for days now, and haven't seen a single Grimsnarl or Gengar, which are among the more relevant Gigantamax for sure.

 

[DreamPrince]

If it means much, Gigantamax Butterfree. Corviknight, Drednaw, and Sandaconda are plentiful atm, so we can probably network some of those around if needed. Honestly though of the gigantamaxes, Butterfree is the only one that stands out to me, and that feels like basically "well Vivillon is gone so lol". Drednaw is not a good gigantamax, Sandaconda is fine though its dynamax is also fine, and for Corviknight, I'd honestly rather get the speed boost, especially on Bulk Up sets!

We've been raiding on the Smogon discord for days now, and haven't seen a single Grimsnarl or Gengar, which are among the more relevant Gigantamax for sure.

My big problem with Butterfree is that it has an awful base speed stat of 70 compared to Vivillon’s 89. That’s unfortunate because that’s huge drop in speed, So threat like Gyarados, Kommo-o, and Goodra can all outspeed it ( the latter being a really hard answer). I’m thinking of Sticky Web/Dual Screen support t patch up its mediocre stats.

 

[ASMRxism]

If it means much, Gigantamax Butterfree. Corviknight, Drednaw, and Sandaconda are plentiful atm, so we can probably network some of those around if needed. Honestly though of the gigantamaxes, Butterfree is the only one that stands out to me, and that feels like basically "well Vivillon is gone so lol". Drednaw is not a good gigantamax, Sandaconda is fine though its dynamax is also fine, and for Corviknight, I'd honestly rather get the speed boost, especially on Bulk Up sets!

We've been raiding on the Smogon discord for days now, and haven't seen a single Grimsnarl or Gengar, which are among the more relevant Gigantamax for sure.

I'm aware this is anecdotal and I didn't take a picture, but I saw a Ycomm stamp with a completed Gmax Gengar raid.

 

[Ullar]

PSA: Eternatus is legal in this format, and afaik it is to be fixed on PS!

 

[Theorymon]

PSA: Eternatus is legal in this format, and afaik it is to be fixed on PS!

Holy shit, where did this come from?! I just want to be sure (I think its possible to test this with download rules right?), because man if Eternatus is allowed... this tournament just got a lot wilder lmao

 

[Ullar]

Holy shit, where did this come from?! I just want to be sure (I think its possible to test this with download rules right?), because man if Eternatus is allowed... this tournament just got a lot wilder lmao

update: it seems that upon testing, eternatus is NOT legal, despite their lack of presence on the written ruleset. carry on, all

 

[raychap]

Can you use rental team for this tournament?

 

[Ullar]

Can you use rental team for this tournament?

unconfirmed, but despite cant say leaning into old gens, I’m thinking you can due to the layout of rentals being in the same menu as your own teams in BT and online matches. jury’s still out though, and I’ll be sure to let people know asap

 

[cant say]

unconfirmed, but despite cant say leaning into old gens, I’m thinking you can due to the layout of rentals being in the same menu as your own teams in BT and online matches. jury’s still out though, and I’ll be sure to let people know asap

it was in the same menu in gen 7 battle spot too?

 

[Charisma]

I've lucked out and caught a fair amount of Gigantamax; but my main ones with good / useable natures are Drednaw, Sandaconda, Butterfree, Charizard, and Copperajah. I'm not sure how practical it is, but I recently thought about Gigantamax Charizard possibly being able to use a Belly-zard set with Max Airstream.

Oh and don't forget that Gigantamax Snorlax releases tomorrow. It's gmax move being the one that recycles berries.

 

[CataclysmRising]

I'm totally new to competitive pokemon (first game since gen 2) so I've got a few questions:
Does this event allow Baton Pass teams?
If so would that be the clear best choice for the event? I assume for it to have been banned in OU it has to be pretty broken, so would it be a good choice to run?
If so what would a good team be? Ninjask + some other baton passer + a sweeper? Which sweeper has the best coverage?

Before I started looking at the competitive aspects I was having a lot of fun with my Ninjask so a chance to use him competitively would be fun.

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

Yes it does allow Baton Pass, it probably wont be the best team archetype for the event. Losing blaziken as a baton passer did hurt BP. If you want to use it nowadays I do suggest looking into Dubwool.

 

[cant say]

I'm totally new to competitive pokemon (first game since gen 2) so I've got a few questions:
Does this event allow Baton Pass teams?
If so would that be the clear best choice for the event? I assume for it to have been banned in OU it has to be pretty broken, so would it be a good choice to run?
If so what would a good team be? Ninjask + some other baton passer + a sweeper? Which sweeper has the best coverage?

Before I started looking at the competitive aspects I was having a lot of fun with my Ninjask so a chance to use him competitively would be fun.

Well first of all, Baton Pass chains were banned from OU because with 6 Pokémon you can fit A LOT more specific tech in a team to make it work. You usually have a way or boosting every stat reliably, and you can pass to any of your 6 at any time to continue the chain against something threatening. However, in BSS where you only bring 3 of your 6 each game, you can’t actually fit enough of the roles required to make it anywhere near as strong. Instead, these teams revolve around a flowchart of “dedicated lead” > “set up + baton pass mon” > “sweeper.” An example of this last gen was Tailwind > Memento Whimsicott + Evoboost Eevee + sweeper. Those teams had alternative sweepers and leads, and generally a goodstuffs mon to bail them out of bad matchups... So an example of a full team like this was:

• Leads:
  • Whimsicott (fast mode)
  • Dusknoir (slow mode)
• Sweepers:
  • Espeon (Magic Bounce for phasing moves)
  • Clefable (Magic Guard for Curse users)
• Set up:
  • Eevee
• Backup:
  • Mega Gyarados / Mega Kangaskhan / Mega Alakazam (zam also worked as an alternative lead vs rain teams or Blaziken)

There were also other variations of Baton Pass, like setting terrain for an Unburden + seed Drifblim to spam Minimize and passing those evasion boosts to a sweeper, or lead Glare Serperior setting Light Screen for a Weakness Policy, Double Team Blaziken or Scolipede (access to Speed Boost). A lot of these teams were really obvious at team preview and popularised certain sets like Curse Mimikyu, or Roar on random Pokemon like Mega Gyarados or Tapu Koko. But since the lone sweeper you are able to bring has to beat 2-3 Pokemon on its own (albeit with crazy stat boosts on its side), when that Pokemon went down, a dedicated lead + eevee in reserve meant the game was over.


Baton Pass is in a weird spot this gen. On one hand, BP being a TR now gives WAY more Pokemon access to it than previous generations, and several Max moves boost stats. However, successful Baton Pass teams rely on speed passing, and Ninjask is the only mon with reliable access. This means it's painfully obvious what's going to happen at team preview. There's also way too many strong moves getting thrown around courtesy of Dynamax, so surviving the Baton Pass turn is harder than ever, and Max moves also ignore accuracy checks, so passing evasion isn't anywhere near as reliable anymore.

I think pulling off BP in BSS this gen is the least viable it's ever been. I've seen very few attempts so far, and they were all bad. Maybe someone can do something cool, and if they do I want the team for streaming purposes lol.

 

[Theorymon]

I think pulling off BP in BSS this gen is the least viable it's ever been. I've seen very few attempts so far, and they were all bad. Maybe someone can do something cool, and if they do I want the team for streaming purposes lol.

Well Dragonwhale just posted this in the discord a few hours ago, seems like someone got to #1 with what looks like Baton Pass Solrock lol

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1202227321534443520

Dude hid the items so we can't tell exactly whats happening, but it seems like Solrock passes.. something (maybe Rock Polish + Iron Defense?) to Butterfree or Bisharp, while the other 3 mons are some sort of toxic stalling mode, probably with Salazzle so Steel-types can be toxic stalled.

The main "BP" mon I mostly saw in BSS was Dubwool, it'd mostly pass Defense boost while taking advantage of it on its own with Body Press. It wasn't really anything like Blaziken BP, but it was the most common form of BP I've seen at least.

 

[Kikuichimonji]

Are there any rewards for ranking well, or is it just a flat "50 BP participation prize" across the board?

 

[Theorymon]

Are there any rewards for ranking well, or is it just a flat "50 BP participation prize" across the board?

Just a flat 50 BP. Well worth particpating in for that alone, but the only incentive to get high on the galar beginings tournament is pride.

 

[CataclysmRising]

Yes it does allow Baton Pass, it probably wont be the best team archetype for the event. Losing blaziken as a baton passer did hurt BP. If you want to use it nowadays I do suggest looking into Dubwool.

Great advice

Thanks so much for such informative posts!

I really want to use my new GMax Snorlax I worked all night to get, so I'm thinking to try a set like this:
Ninjask w/ What item? (Speed Boost)
-Swords Dance
-Protect
-Substitute
-Baton Pass

Dubwool w/ Leftovers (What ability?)
-Cotton Guard
-Substitute
-Zen Headbutt (To catch out Fighting)
-Baton Pass

Snorelax w/ Berry (Gluttony)
-Body Slam
-Crunch (For Ghosts)
-Recycle
-Belly Drum (To try to recover from broken chain) / Substitute

Then again I don't know how Substitute works against DMax moves.

I figure one thing baton pass has going for it is that you can predict a phaser with DMax/Gmax and get a free max attack. (I'll still probably fail to predict it every time tho lol.)

Anyway input would be appreciated! Thanks so much!

 

[Observious]

Thanks so much for such informative posts!

I really want to use my new GMax Snorlax I worked all night to get, so I'm thinking to try a set like this:
Ninjask w/ What item? (Speed Boost)
-Swords Dance
-Protect
-Substitute
-Baton Pass

Dubwool w/ Leftovers (What ability?)
-Cotton Guard
-Substitute
-Zen Headbutt (To catch out Fighting)
-Baton Pass

Snorelax w/ Berry (Gluttony)
-Body Slam
-Crunch (For Ghosts)
-Recycle
-Belly Drum (To try to recover from broken chain) / Substitute

Then again I don't know how Substitute works against DMax moves.

I figure one thing baton pass has going for it is that you can predict a phaser with DMax/Gmax and get a free max attack. (I'll still probably fail to predict it every time tho lol.)

Anyway input would be appreciated! Thanks so much!

- Ninjask w/Sitrus Berry is useful for recovering from any rocks damage on its return trip (or substitute recovery in general). My own Ninjask is running: Jolly / EVs: 244 HP / 12 SpD / 252 Spe, with Acrobatics instead of Swords Dance. While this isn't our dynamax pokemon, it's good to have an out to a prankster taunt opening, though you can scout it with a Protect. Additionally, acrobatics hits fairly hard, and can surprise finish a pokemon wounded by the lead, if they disrespect a flying STAB in general, or clean up afterwards. Substitute eats all of the Dynamax move's attack - no bleed over like Protect, no enemy boost, so a somewhat healthy Ninjask can "waste" 2-3 turns of Dynamax and still pass those speed boosts safely. Just beware Infiltrator Dragopult and Pass after the first Protect.

- The Dubwool being discussed on the OU forums is using Fluffy with Body Press/Cotton Guard. While it's a sleep/talk build, running Body Press with Cotton Guard is great synergy, though it does mean you probably need to cut Substitute so ghosts can't safely set up on you. Their nature and EVs should still be safe: Calm; 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD.

- I'm also attempting to get G. Max Snorlax to work. I've found in practice that even with a +3 Spe from Ninjask, Snorlax (without speed investment) is still outsped by the majority of threats, and even with Bold nature 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD, gets broken by other set-up sweepers, Guts-boosted damage, or a solid STAB crit (if you try cutting Body Slam for Stockpile), so Recycle isn't too usable in the current meta (though maybe with Cotton Guard support vs physical?).

If you swap Recycle with Rest, and run a Chesto Berry w/Thick Fat, you can attempt a somewhat risky Belly Drum -> Rest -> Dynamax attack/get Chesto back, so you can fully recover after dynamax. This does mean needing to survive Belly Drum + 2 attacks, so the Belly Drum is definitely situational. Dynamax Snorlax is quite tanky, so you can survive hits you wouldn't expect with max defensive investment. That said, without Belly Drum his damage output is quite low, so I've been running him as a clean-up sweeper on a Ninjask -> Dracovish -> Snorlax team, cleaning up what fast Fishious Rend can't handle and after whatever speed or damage support Ninjask can provide. If you have to hard swap Snorlax in, or after a fast baton pass, Snorlax is probably going to have to Rest -> Dynamax immediately to get back into the fight, where the max moves can still swing a decent amount of (my admittedly few tournament prep) games with a free Rest in the back.

 

[CataclysmRising]

Great advice

Wow that's some really good feedback! Thanks so much!

Re: The speed thing. Maybe go Trick Room?

What about starting Dubwool instead of Ninjask, and having Ninjask replaced with a Musharna or Hatterene? Could be like this:

Musharna w/ some item (Synchronize)
-Amnesia
-Psychic
-Trick Room
-Baton Pass

Or

Hatterene w/ Big Root/Life Orb (Magic Bounce)
-Calm Mind/Substitute
-Draining Kiss
-Trick Room
-Baton Pass

It would lock Snorelax into Belly Drum to get his attack high enough to kill things, but the first would lead to him having really good special defense and the second would crush the things he's bad at fighting and just be a good lead for him in general..

The increased defense might make a healing berry good enough, but with Hatterene he'd probably need to do the rest/Chesto Berry build.

What do you think?

 

[cant say]

I started writing this before the competition started but got busy at work and then distracted at home.... hopefully the advice is still useful.

Thanks so much for such informative posts!

I really want to use my new GMax Snorlax I worked all night to get, so I'm thinking to try a set like this:
Ninjask w/ What item? (Speed Boost)
-Swords Dance
-Protect
-Substitute
-Baton Pass

Dubwool w/ Leftovers (What ability?)
-Cotton Guard
-Substitute
-Zen Headbutt (To catch out Fighting)
-Baton Pass

Snorelax w/ Berry (Gluttony)
-Body Slam
-Crunch (For Ghosts)
-Recycle
-Belly Drum (To try to recover from broken chain) / Substitute

Then again I don't know how Substitute works against DMax moves.

I figure one thing baton pass has going for it is that you can predict a phaser with DMax/Gmax and get a free max attack. (I'll still probably fail to predict it every time tho lol.)

Anyway input would be appreciated! Thanks so much!

So what I’m thinking is you want to use EITHER Ninjask OR Dubwool, but not both. Swap one for a lead that can allow them to boost and pass more safely. Im thinking that if you want to use Snorlax the play is to use Ninjask but change the set slightly.....


Ninjask @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 68 HP / 188 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Double Team
- Baton Pass
- U-turn


What you would do is pair this with a lead that can paralyse / speed control, then come in and spam Sub with Ninjask until you get a full para, then double team, and pass out whatever stat boosts you got before dying. Snorlax with evasion boosts will be an absolute PAIN for your opponents to take down, allowing it to Belly Drum relatively safely and sweep. The speed boosts are just a cute extra. I’d pair this Ninjask with this lead:


Sandaconda @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Glare
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb / Sand Attack


This mon is already a sick lead in its own right, but it’s also an excuse to potentially use its Gigantamax forme. Sand Attack is an option for easing setup with Ninjask.


I’m not entirely sure what the best supporter for Dubwool is, I think when I’ve run into it it’s just lead on its own and tried to get the setup going from turn 1. so guess in that case you just want something like Gyarados or Dragapult to switch into Fire (coz Fluffy) and Fighting type attacks.

 

[Shmoo]

finished my 15 games for the day and i think i did pretty well, too bad you cant use rental teams

EDIT: Also you can't see your W/L record which is inconvenient. I think I went 10-5 though?

 

[CataclysmRising]

I started writing this before the competition started but got busy at work and then distracted at home.... hopefully the advice is still useful.


So what I’m thinking is you want to use EITHER Ninjask OR Dubwool, but not both. Swap one for a lead that can allow them to boost and pass more safely. Im thinking that if you want to use Snorlax the play is to use Ninjask but change the set slightly.....


Ninjask @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 68 HP / 188 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Substitute
- Double Team
- Baton Pass
- U-turn


What you would do is pair this with a lead that can paralyse / speed control, then come in and spam Sub with Ninjask until you get a full para, then double team, and pass out whatever stat boosts you got before dying. Snorlax with evasion boosts will be an absolute PAIN for your opponents to take down, allowing it to Belly Drum relatively safely and sweep. The speed boosts are just a cute extra. I’d pair this Ninjask with this lead:


Sandaconda @ Focus Sash
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Glare
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Rock Tomb / Sand Attack


This mon is already a sick lead in its own right, but it’s also an excuse to potentially use its Gigantamax forme. Sand Attack is an option for easing setup with Ninjask.


I’m not entirely sure what the best supporter for Dubwool is, I think when I’ve run into it it’s just lead on its own and tried to get the setup going from turn 1. so guess in that case you just want something like Gyarados or Dragapult to switch into Fire (coz Fluffy) and Fighting type attacks.

Well considering I just got a GMax Sandiconda yesterday that idea sounds pretty good!

I wonder how my baton pass trick room idea would be tho. I'll probably try both out eventually. :)