Online Competition Jump! Magikarp!

[cant say]

Finally a wacky ruleset for us to have fun with. This is 2v2 Doubles where one Pokemon has to be a Magikarp. You can have up to 6 Pokemon in your team, but one of the two you choose for battle has to be Magikarp.


RULES:

• 2v2 Doubles
  • Teams can have 2-6 Pokemon
• Magikarp must be selected for battle
• Item clause
• Open to all Pokemon usable in Sword Shield EXCEPTfor anything classed as a legendary
  • banned pokemon

    Articuno, Articuno-Galar, Zapdos, Zapdos-Galar, Moltres, Moltres-Galar, Mewtwo, Mew, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Latias, Latios, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Dialga, Palkia, Heatran, Regigigas, Giratina, Cresselia, Victini, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Tornadus, Thundurus, Reshiram, Zekrom, Landorus, Kyurem, Keldeo, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Diancie, Volcanion, Type: Null, Silvally, Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Nihilego, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Xurkitree, Celesteela, Kartana, Guzzlord, Necrozma, Magearna, Marshadow, Poipole, Naganadel, Stakataka, Blacephalon, Zeraora, Meltan, Melmetal, Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Kubfu, Urshifu, Zarude, Regieleki, Regidrago, Glastrier, Spectrier, Calyrex
• Pokemon become level 50 for the battle

Tagging Lego and Marty to get this on Showdown ASAP

 

[cant say]

The game FORCES you into picking Magikarp

example

If you time out at team preview the game selects Magikarp for you and the first non-Magikarp teammate from the top-down.

 

[Hera]

Considering Magikarp is a waste of a slot, this is basically just 1v1 with Dynamax and the spread move penalty and 5 potential partners. I'm excited to see how the meta pans out!

I can see Rain strats being passable. DMax your Magikarp first (preferably with a Sash), set up Rain with Hydro Pump, and let something like Ludicolo plow through everything. Of course, with 5 slots available, you can make all sorts of strategies that can hopefully counter your opponent.

 

[Photon]

Considering Magikarp is a waste of a slot, this is basically just 1v1 with Dynamax and the spread move penalty and 5 potential partners. I'm excited to see how the meta pans out!

I can see Rain strats being passable. DMax you Magikarp first (preferably with a Sash), set up Rain with Hydro Pump, and let something like Ludicolo plow through everything. Of course, with 5 slots available, you can make all sorts of strategies that can hopefully counter your opponent.

Sadly, I don't think there is a single Swift Swim mon who wouldn't want to just Dynamax and set rain themselves.

Furthermore, there are synergies to be had, even if they're limited. The biggest players here in my opinion are going to be Gastrodon , Cradily (Storm Drain users who can absorb Magikarp's Hydro Pump) and Coalossal (good old fashion Steam Engine / WP strats.) Coalossal will thrive because its basically the meta threat that can still abuse its doubles niche. Gastrodon and Cradily will rise with it because they can steal its Hydro Pumps and beat it back; they both get Earth Power and can live any unboosted move Coalossal can throw at them with minimal investment (yes, Gastrodon can live Max Overgrowth from Coalossal.)

 

[MeepBard]

To get the ball rolling, I had a lot of time to think about this meta (the #jump-magikarp channel on the Battle Stadium discord is 99% me and Photon theorymonning I am so sorry) so here are some early thoughts on Magikarp!

This metagame is not playable on PS! as of writing and everything below is how I think the metagame will play out with no frame of reference. What I expect the metagame to end up like may (and probably will) differ greatly from what it actually ends up being!

Magikarp might seem like deadweight because... well, it is. But Magikarp's uselessness is ironically its greatest strength in this competition — attacking a foe's Magikarp with anything but your own Magikarp is, in most cases, a waste of a turn since for the most part your gameplan should be to force a 2v1 against your opponent's Karp. Magikarp can take advantage of the extended turns it's been given of its very short life and can make use of it by say, setting up Airstream buffs or Max Geyser for its teammate to take advantage of, but I don't think this will be Magikarp's strongest asset since it eats up the team's Dynamax. What I think Magikarp's biggest and most frequent contribution in a battle will be is the ability to have effectively three turns of uninterrupted chip damage with a 110 BP move, which can add up even with Magikarp's pathetic offense and can be crucial for putting the opponent in range of a KO.

So what's the best moveset, considering everyone's gonna be lugging this stupid fish around? Well, the moves are pretty objective - Bounce / Hydro Pump / Flail / Splash, with Splash chosen over Tackle because Flail will outdamage Tackle early on (you won't click either anyways) and Splash can be powered up to Max Guard. As for spreads, to me, there's 2 that stand out that I think are the most viable:

• 228 HP / 252 SpA / 28 SpD, Modest, Focus Sash. This spread ensures that opposing max Special Attack Magikarp can only muster a feeble 3HKO on your superior Chad Karp, strengthening its bones so that Pidgeotto can't even lift it up for a quick meal. Personally, I think this one is generally the way to go. 0 Speed with a Quiet nature is a niche modification that can be ran alongside Azumarill so that your Magikarp dies after the opponent's in the event that your Azumarill faints before the Perish count is over.
• If you're running G-Max Coalossal alongside Magikarp for the ol' Steam Engine + WP, 228 HP / 28 SpD / 252 Speed, Jolly, Choice Scarf with minimum Special Attack investment achieves the same defensive calcs as the earlier spread, but ensures that you get off a Hydro Pump as early as possible and minimizes the damage that Coalossal takes from it. Wide Lens is also an option to avoid the pesky 10% miss.

Really excited to see how this meta develops! I think this is a really fun and unique competition and I'm kinda shocked it took them until nearly the end of the game's life to make one like it.

The game FORCES you into picking Magikarp

example

View attachment 435908

If you time out at team preview the game selects Magikarp for you and the first non-Magikarp teammate from the top-down.

I WOULD HAVE PICKED FUNNIER MONS IF I HAD KNOWN THIS IMAGE WOULD BE IN THE THREAD.... no one is allowed to make fun of the blipbug i found lying around in my box

EDIT: Also real quick — I think Coalossal () has potential but if you do plan on using one I can promise you that you're gonna get the 10% miss on Hydro t1 like 50 games in a row and enter your Joker Phase. I can taste the salt already

 

[DaWoblefet]

Format's up on Showdown.

 

[ImaginaryNeon]

It would be more based if Pichu was required.

 

[PlusC]

A Gyarados with Moxie killing both Magikarp with one Earthquake seems like a good strategy.

The dynamax in turn 2 and use Max Airstream for the speed.

 

[ihbst]

cradily is too op. Every team needs it because it is just sogood and really restricting, too. cradily beats gastro and coalossal and its coverage is really good and its just really powerful as you can boost yourself with storm drain. It takes a lot of hits and is just absurd and really hard to beat without resisting its dual stab

 

[Ze Banded]

ally switch, cinderace, and ally switch cinderace is making me unconditionally upset at this, but otherwise its a really fun format. Porygon Z goes "Max strike go brrrr"

 

[Evelyie]

Lapras is my favorite Pokémon in the format. It neatly takes +2 G-Max Volcalith from Coalossal, can set up the screens for a bulky endgame with my favorite tool so far, Perish Song

The fact that you're slower than Magikarp means that if they have another fast Pokémon, it will most likely be impossible to stop it.

Hydro Pump, Freeze-Dry, Thunder and Perish Song is my favorite set right now.



Durant is another Pokémon that I really like. It's fast, deals crazy damage and it's weak to Fire-types only, which my Lapras can pressure on Team Preview.


I don't think Cradily is that OP right now, but it pressures alot on Team Preview and I like that, but inside the match it doesn't do much.


Dragapult is a very oppresive Pokémon in my experience so far and I'd like to hear more from others. Max Phantasm is great for 2HKO's

 

[PlusC]

cradily is too op. Every team needs it because it is just sogood and really restricting, too. cradily beats gastro and coalossal and its coverage is really good and its just really powerful as you can boost yourself with storm drain.

Fun tech for Storm Drain team; Milotic gets Hydro Pump and Imprison, and outspeeds the Magikarp. You can then use Recover and Ice Beam/ Triple Axel (if you're extra spicy) to win 1 v 1

 

[elektriktoad]

Omastar has an interesting place, it beats Cinderace, Dragapult, and Coalossal, but can't win vs Cradily. I run weak armor omastar with scarf karp.

Cinderace: tackle omastar to outspeed cinderace. Life orb or expert belt pushes it into guaranteed OHKO.
252+ SpA Omastar Max Rockfall vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Cinderace: 306-360 (98.7 - 116.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

Dragapult: Tank the first hit and max hailstorm. Second turn you outspeed it either from pult's hit or tackle from scarf karp.
252+ SpA Omastar Max Hailstorm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Dragapult: 190-224 (58.2 - 68.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Coalossal: If you win the scarf speed tie, you OHKO coal. If you lose, max overgrowth knocks you out.
252+ SpA Omastar Max Geyser vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Coalossal: 528-624 (121.6 - 143.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[Marty]

Attached are the 1630 stats from when the format was implemented until yesterday. Good luck to those entering!

 Total battles: 15645
 Avg. weight/team: 0.027
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- + 
 | Rank | Pokemon            | Usage %   | Raw    | %       | Real   | %       | 
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- + ------ + ------- + ------ + ------- + 
 | 1    | Magikarp           | 100.00000% | 31290  | 100.000% | 8176   | 156.264% | 
 | 2    | Cinderace          | 59.78722% | 10396  | 33.225% | 1905   | 36.409% | 
 | 3    | Porygon2           | 41.78692% | 5239   | 16.743% | 814    | 15.558% | 
 | 4    | Cradily            | 36.67148% | 10703  | 34.206% | 2406   | 45.985% | 
 | 5    | Dragapult          | 36.04163% | 9241   | 29.533% | 1451   | 27.732% | 
 | 6    | Gastrodon          | 33.98597% | 8351   | 26.689% | 1253   | 23.948% | 
 | 7    | Primarina          | 23.15086% | 3663   | 11.707% | 531    | 10.149% | 
 | 8    | Dracozolt          | 20.98755% | 3123   |  9.981% | 493    |  9.422% | 
 | 9    | Ferrothorn         | 19.88553% | 4859   | 15.529% | 628    | 12.003% | 
 | 10   | Lapras             | 16.43717% | 4997   | 15.970% | 1054   | 20.145% |

 

[GarchompFan1512]

I think i"m going to join this

 

[Formally]

Fun tech for Storm Drain team; Milotic gets Hydro Pump and Imprison, and outspeeds the Magikarp. You can then use Recover and Ice Beam/ Triple Axel (if you're extra spicy) to win 1 v 1

The Magikarp might run scarf though, so I would be careful.

 

[Formally]

I think that this formats main thing are mindgames in team preview. On my team I've got a Maractus that kills Cradily and Gastrodon with Giga Drain and Drain Punch. But this Maractus does not have storm drain, but Water Absorb. If I have my Maractus out against a coalossal they will pretty much never go for the hydro pump strat because of the potential storm drain. What I do instead is to use Magikarp's Max to use Max Geyser on the opposing magikarp to set the rain up and one shot the enemy coalossal with rainboosted life orb weather ball for the safe one hit even through Max.

 

[GarchompFan1512]

This is my team which has the following 6

https://pokepast.es/506503b7b639f05b
Edit: I will be working on the team

 

[ihbst]

Kommo-o @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Bulletproof
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 212 Atk / 44 Def
Adamant Nature
- Reversal
- Iron Tail
- Outrage
- Protect

This is one of my favorite sets rn. It beats a lot of the meta, and I use it with power herb bounce magikarp to self proc. it is really good vs a lot of stuff and imo its really underrated as it can take a super effective hit then OHKO back a lot of the time

 

[zee]

Had nothing to do today so joined on a whim and just finished my day 1 games, 13-2 and number 2 worldwide at the time I finished

This is the team I'm using:

I live tweeted my run on twitter (and will do so again when I play next) but here's my matchups in table form if you're curious. Magikarps omitted for brevity.

games 1-5	games 6-10	games 11-15
vs Win	vs Win	vs Win
vs Win	vs Win	vs Loss
vs Win	vs Win	vs Win
vs Loss	vs Win	vs Win
vs Win	vs Win	vs Win

As far as my team's stats

pokemon	bring %	win %
	20%	100%
	33%	100%
	33%	60%
	14%	100%
	0%	N/A

 

[Kong Harald]

If multiple storm drain users are on the field, what determines which pokemon absorbs water attacks? Speed? Targetting? Or is it just random?

zee, thanks for sharing your progress! Durant is really interesting in this comp. (Also, I think you mixed up Rhyperior and Primarina's stats in the bottom table)

 

[Piloufis]

Does anyone know why my magikarp isn’t “battle ready?”

Has to be Galar Born, or it has to have the Battle Ready Badge which you can obtain at the Battle Tower

If multiple storm drain users are on the field, what determines which pokemon absorbs water attacks? Speed? Targetting? Or is it just random?

zee, thanks for sharing your progress! Durant is really interesting in this comp. (Also, I think you mixed up Rhyperior and Primarina's stats in the bottom table)

I'd say speed, I had a Cradily mirror, and I didnt got a single Storm Drain

 

[Evelyie]

Here's the team I plan to use. Switched off Lapras for Primarina due to the high usage of Dragapult and I wanted more damage output against Dracozolt. I pretty much just closed synergies with the 5 slots, Cradily set is a weird one but I like.​

 

[harmony96366]

https://pokepast.es/bf2643e851bdf833

Lowkey, garchomp is fun as hell
can anyone share opinions?

 

[Burning Justice]

Ended up with a 1622 rating after 26 battles. Don't have too much time left so I think I'm going to stop here. My team was:

Magikarp@Mystic Water
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Modest (+SpA -Atk)
EVs: 252 SpA, 204 HP, 36 SpD, 12 Spe, 4 Def
-Hydro Pump
-Bounce
-Flail
-Splash

Debate the item for a while. I thought about going with Eviolite but decided I wanted more offense. I didn't want to be locked into a move, so Scarf and Specs were both out, and something else on my team was already using Life Orb, so I went with Mystic Water to give Hydro Pump a little more power, allowing me to secure 2HKOs on other Magikarp without Eviolite or significant Special Defense investment. The Speed EVs are not only to outspeed other Magikarp with no Speed investment, but also actually because I wanted it to outspeed my own Blaziken on turn 1.

Clefable@Absorb Bulb
Ability: Unaware
Nature: Modest (+SpA -Atk)
EVs: 252 HP, 156 SpA, 60 Def, 36 SpD, 4 Spe
-Moonblast
-Fire Blast
-Meteor Beam
-Protect

I didn't use it too much, but it did help against a couple Dragapults.

Blaziken@Weakness Policy
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Adamant (+Atk -SpA)
EVs: 252 HP, 156 Atk, 60 Def, 36 SpD, 4 Spe
-Flare Blitz
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge
-Detect

One of the MVPs on my team. Decided to go for a more bulky spread, which most people did not expect. The downside was that I often needed more than one Speed Boost to outspeed certain Pokemon, but I was usually able to work around that. It's also weak to both Hydro Pump and Bounce, making it easy to have my opponent activate the WP.

Durant@Occa Berry
Ability: Hustle
Nature: Jolly (+Spe -SpA)
EVs: 204 Spe, 252 Atk, 52 HP
-X-Scissor
-Iron Head
-Stone Edge
-Protect

Only used it a couple times, but it worked out well those times. Went back and forth on the item, but ultimately decided to go with Occa Berry to give me a chance against Fire-types. Never ended up using the berry at all.

Cradily@Custap Berry
Ability: Storm Drain
Nature: Calm (+SpD -Atk)
EVs: 252 HP, 124 Def, 100 SpD, 28 Spe, 4 SpA
-Giga Drain
-Meteor Beam
-Earth Power
-Recover

Pretty standard Cradily, with a small amount of Speed investment to help deal with other Cradily. I only used it twice, but it held its own both times.

Rotom-Wash@Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest (+SpA -Atk)
EVs: 252 SpA, 164 Spe, 92 HP
-Thunder
-Hydro Pump
-Dark Pulse
-Hyper Voice

Another MVP of my team. I was originally going to use Barraskewda as my sixth, but made a list-minute swap to Wash Rotom after realizing how thoroughly it destroys Lapras. Definitely an underrated Pokemon here. I used it quite often, and I don't think many of my opponents expected it. Though it has a poor match-up vs. most Grass-types, there are lots of things it beats that you might not expect it to. Was even able to take down a Porygon2 with it. I do regret not carrying Protect though--I thought it would be a good idea to have access to Max Strike, but in practice I didn't ever use it, and there were a couple times where I lost but could've saved myself with Protect/Max Guard.

Overall Blaziken and Rotom were my MVPs, but I used everything on my team at least a couple times. Competition was super fun, really hope to see more silly competitions like this.