Hmm, well I did some testing today for about 2 hours using my upgraded hax team. People seem to think that triple dragon is cool, but hell, triple serene grace + parafusion is cooler. :D (I must be the only one not using a Dragon...)
Right now, the only suspects I'm using on my team are Deoxys-S and Skymin, I do plan to make other teams with the other suspects though.
Anyway, here are some of my observations so far:
- People are making teams that are loaded with suspects, but I seriously expect this to die down very soon. I suspect that people are just trying to get re-acquainted with the old suspects (and getting SEXP easier obviously). But people will probably start experimenting more.
- Garchomp is on every team I see, but honestly, it's not as overwhelming as it used to be (though I voted it OU before). As others have said, the Swords Dance set isn't nearly as good as it used to be, and this was the set that was truly broken back before it was a suspect. CB Scizor rips off 50% from Garchomp with Bullet Punch, so he's a lot easier to revenge-kill in that sense. The ChoiceChomp sets are still annoying though, as they switch into any Thunder Waves and land a big hit; however, it's not a daunting task to beat them IMO. The only thing I really hate about Garchomp is Sand Veil, but at least that requires a Sandstreamer.
So far, I believe that I have come across: SD YacheChomp, SubChomp, ScarfChomp
- Shaymin-S is one of the pokemon I use, and I used it a lot in the previous test too. They've actually been a lot more common than I thought they would, but I suppose they are the most important suspect here for SEXP. I've been seeing a lot of Scarfmin-S around, which is expected since they have the potential to beat DX-S leads. I've found Skymin to be an easy opponent though. When he uses Seed Flare or Earth Power, he turns into Scizor food, and frankly, he takes a lot of damage from neutral hits. I haven't seen any pull off the SubSeed strategy yet, because I use Encore Support Togekiss on my team, so they don't get a chance.
I personally use the Substitute version with Expert Belt, and it works very well at securing those OHKOs. I don't like Life Orb, since I like flinching the hell out of my opponent, and that doesn't work very well when you're losing 10% every turn.
So far I've seen: Scarfmin-S, LO Skymin, SubSeed Skymin
So far I've used: Submin-S
- Latios has shown up quite a bit in my battles, mostly of the Choice/LO variation, which is to be expected. It usually ended up being Scizor food for my team, but that Draco Meteor is extremely painful, and if I didn't have a Steel on my team I would've been toast. I didn't participate in the Latios test before, so this guy is new to me. He's not that difficult to kill/cripple, but he certainly does leave quite a mark before he goes down.
So far I've seen: Choice Specs Latios, Choice Scarf Latios, LO Latios
- Latias has been pretty much non-existent, and for the 2 or so battles that I did see it, it was just a worse Latios (LO version). I suspect that people will eventually find a way to differentiate the two, but for now, people don't seem to be changing their regular OU sets. Thus, I can't really comment much on it.
So far I've seen: LO Latias
- Manaphy has also been pretty much non-existent. I saw a couple of Tail Glow, and a couple of Calm Minders (I can only assume they were, whenever they subbed, I encored them). They were very poor against my team, since Skymin can rip Manaphy apart with Seed Flare, and is faster, plus it can't take on my Lanturn very well (obviously not every team has a Lanturn, so this is only my own opinion). I have yet to see a Crocune though, and I'm frankly surprised that there have been so few Rain Dance teams, since they could do very well against these suspects (especially ones with Kabutops since it rips all the suspects besides Manaphy itself a new one).
So far I've seen: LO Tail Glow Manaphy, Calm Mind Manaphy, Choice Scarf Manaphy
- Deoxys-S has been on pretty much every team I've faced. It's no doubt the #1 lead right now, and that should be obvious to anyone playing. Right now, I see the Spikes/Stealth Rock set a lot more than DS-DS. The Spikes/Stealth Rock set is just like any other suicide lead, Taunting the opposition and setting up hazards. However, the DS-DS set is actually quite annoying, since it's pretty much guaranteed to set up the screens unless the opposing lead is a ScarfGar/Scarfmin-S/opposing DX-S, and the opponent takes very little damage for 8 turns, giving many opportunities for setup. I saw one mixed sweeper, but my team has 3 members that are pretty much unfazed by it (Jirachi, Scizor, Lanturn), so it was easy to beat. I haven't seen a staller yet.
So far I've seen: Spikes/SR Lead, DS-DS Lead, LO DX-S
Anyway, those are my observations so far, but things may very well change, since it is the first day of the test.
