[Online Competition] ~Spooky~ Cup (Halloween 2015)

[cant say]

Official announcement on the PGL​

~Spooky~ Cup​

Looks like again we'll be having a Halloween-themed competition just like last year, however instead of being restricted to Ghost-types, Pokemon deemed 'Halloween-themed' are allowed. The roster of eligible Pokemon is quite weird / ambiguous and doesn't seem to follow any rules so I'll post a list below (it's pretty much Ghost-, Dark-, and Poison-types (but not all) with a few who fit thematically). It's going to be standard doubles played at level 50, the biggest thing though is that mega stones are not allowed! Also, only Pentagon Pokemon are allowed (no transfers!)

★ Participation Reward:
10 Rare Candies

■ Compatible Games:
Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

■ Entry Period
October 15, 2015 (Thursday) 14:00 to 23 (Fri) 8:59 [JST]

■ Competition Period
October 23, 2015 (Friday) 9: 00 ~ the 26th (Mon) 8:59 [JST]

■ Rules
※ Pentagon only (no transfers)
※ Doubles (bring 6, pick 4)
※ Anything above level 50 will be dropped to it
※ No Mega Stones
※ Item clause
※ Species clause

Eligible Pokemon

• Rattata and Raticate
  
  
• Ekans and Arbok
  
  
• Pikachu
  
  (obviously)
• Zubat, Golbat and Crobat
  
  
  
• Paras and Parasect
  
  
• Grimer and Muk
  
  
• Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar
  
  
  
• Cubone and Marowak
  
  
• Smogon and Weezing
  
  
• Tangela and Tangrowth
  
  
• Mr. Mime
  
• Ditto
  
• Kabuto and Kabutops
  
  
• Hoothoot and Noctowl
  
  
• Spinarak and Ariados
  
  
• Umbreon
  
• Murkrow and Honchkrow
  
  
• Misdreavus and Mismagius
  
  
• Unown
  
• Gligar and Gliscor
  
  
• Granbull
  
• Sneasel and Weavile
  
  
• Houndour and Houndoom
  
  
• Mightyena
  
• Dustox
  
• Shiftry
  
• Shedinja
  
• Whismur, Loudred, and Exploud
  
  
  
• Sableye
  
• Mawile
  
• Gulpin and Swalot
  
  
• Carvanha and Sharpedo
  
  
• Cacnea and Cacturne
  
  
• Seviper
  
• Lunatone
  
• Baltoy and Claydol
  
  
• Shuppet and Banette
  
  
• Duskull, Dusclops, and Dusknoir
  
  
  
• Absol
  
• Snorunt, Glalie, and Froslass
  
  
  
• Drifloon and Drifblim
  
  
• Stunky and Skuntank
  
  
• Spiritomb
  
• Skorupi and Drapion
  
  
• Croagunk and Toxicroak
  
  
• Rotom
  
  
  
  
  
  
  (no mention of formes, assuming they'd be fine)
• Purrloin and Liepard
  
  
• Woobat and Swoobat
  
  
• Venipede, Whirlipede, and Scolipede
  
  
  
• Basculin
  
• Krokorok and Krookodile
  
  
• Sigilyph
  
• Yamask and Cofagrigus
  
  
• Garbodor
  
• Zorua and Zoroark
  
  
• Gothita, Gothorita, and Gothitelle
  
  
  
• Frillish and Jellicent
  
  
• Joltik and Galvantula
  
  
• Elgyem and Beheeyem
  
  
• Litwick, Lampent, and Chandelure
  
  
  
• Golurk
  
• Zweilous and Hydreigon
  
  
• Volcarona
  
• Espurr and Meowstic
  
  
• Honedge, Doublade, and Aegislash
  
  
  
• Malamar
  
• Phantump and Trevenant
  
  
• Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist
  
  
• Noibat and Noivern
  
  

So yeah, what do you think could be good in this competition? A couple of regular doubles staples are eligible, ie: Hydreigon, Rotom-W, Sableye, Volcarona, Aegislash and Murkrow, so they will be interesting here.

Discuss!

 

[DragonWhale]

I checked this earlier today, and the event calendar of countries outside of Japan didn't have this competition on it. It might be possible it's Japan-exclusive.

 

[NOVED]

No Bisharp :(

Hydreigon looks like it'll be having fun this tournament, really not much to stop it. Volcarona and Weavile will probably be really good, Weavile is pretty vulnerable in dubs but not much in the format is gonna like taking a hit from this thing. Not too many viable intimidators so thats kinda neat, Granbull could be cool against all the dark types. This competition should be interesting, not as awkward as the mono ghost one where everything was SE against each other.

 

[Demantoid]

The post on nuggetbridge says they chose "scary" pokemon to participate like Pikachu. I'm looking forward to another doubles competition but I'm in the masters division now so I can't beat up all the little kids. Hydreigon and Volcarona will obviously be huge in this competition. I'm probably going to be using niche pokemon like Golbat or Tangela as support.

 

[cant say]

I checked this earlier today, and the event calendar of countries outside of Japan didn't have this competition on it. It might be possible it's Japan-exclusive.

This is pretty normal as those calendars only update when stuff is announced (which they haven't been yet), Japan always gets these announcements first so I'd expect an English one in the next week or two. Halloween is a western holiday so it wouldn't make sense for us not to get it haha

 

[DragonWhale]

Yeah I guess it's true.

Anyway, from a quick glance at the list of pokemon I figure these will be some of the obvious stuff:
Fake out users: Liepard, Meowstic, Shiftry, Weavile, Sableye
Tailwind users: Crobat, Golbat, Shiftry
Trick Room users: a whole lot of them

Going off of that I have a feeling Trick Room would be a pretty viable strategy, especially since there are a lot of decent fake out support pokemon available in this meta for them to do their thing. Though it's important to note that fake out isn't as effective with all these ghost types around, ghosts wouldn't want to take their STAB dark type attacks either. I feel like Aegislash and Marowak can put in A LOT of work under TR.

Liepard is probably the better choice over Meowstic being the faster pokemon and Dark types being a great pokemon in this meta. The usual encore stuff to scare status users or maybe even torment to stop choice locked pokemon can be an interesting strategy (stuff like hydreigon are probably going to be scarfed to beat gengar)

Scolipede might be pretty good too. It outspeeds, OHKOes Hydreigon (if it hits), and gets access to the fastest Rock Slide in this meta (and OHKOes Volcarona with it). But it will struggle against ghost types and TR I guess, but ghost types don't seem too hard to stop.

 

[6tennis]

How on earth is Galvantula spooky

No Mega Stones is gonna be huuuge, considering a lot of these mons thrive with their Mega Evolutions (i.e. Mawile, Banette). Speaking of, does it say if there's item clause? Or is that just assumed?

Hydreigon's gonna have a field day in this tour. Granbull might be a useful anti-meta tool, countering Hydreigon, Sableye, and Weavile. Volcarona will be a force to be reckoned with, as always. Aegislash will probably be commonplace, as it's already a staple in Doubles because it gets Wide Guard.

Trick Room will indeed be huge, considering all these slow mons (cough cough Dusclops cough cough). I'm guessing there will be quite a few counters to it on each team, such as Liepard (Taunt, Fake Out support).

All around, this is hype.

 

[NOVED]

How on earth is Galvantula spooky

Spiders are pretty halloweeny

 

[6tennis]

Spiders are pretty halloweeny

I guess you're right. Some of these other entries are kinda weird though. Like Basculin for instance.

 

[Hulavuta]

This is an interesting and arbitrary ruleset, but I like it! At least we're not forced to use Gourgheist on every team. I'm gonna try to participate in this one too, but my weekends are pretty unpredictable, so who knows. I think this will be way less stressful than the last one though, as the general power of the Pokemon is quite a bit lower.

Kinda sad you didn't highlight some Pokemon I want to use, cant say. I think I'll definitely probably use Krookodile, as there's never really a use for him in any other format. He can take care of those pesky Ghost-types. I might even use Dusknoir too, but gotta find a way to justify him over Dusclops. Sitrus Berry or Mental Herb maybe?

Kinda excited for this, it's gonna be cool to not have all these super overpowered Pokemon running around for once!

 

[6tennis]

This is an interesting and arbitrary ruleset, but I like it! At least we're not forced to use Gourgheist on every team. I'm gonna try to participate in this one too, but my weekends are pretty unpredictable, so who knows. I think this will be way less stressful than the last one though, as the general power of the Pokemon is quite a bit lower.

Kinda sad you didn't highlight some Pokemon I want to use, cant say. I think I'll definitely probably use Krookodile, as there's never really a use for him in any other format. He can take care of those pesky Ghost-types. I might even use Dusknoir too, but gotta find a way to justify him over Dusclops. Sitrus Berry or Mental Herb maybe?

Kinda excited for this, it's gonna be cool to not have all these super overpowered Pokemon running around for once!

inb4 sorry for nitpicking, but fix your grammar

Krookodile seems pretty cool. What item would you run? I'm assuming he'd work with a Banded set. He could also get Tailwind from the likes of Crobat.

 

[Hulavuta]

inb4 sorry for nitpicking, but fix your grammar

Krookodile seems pretty cool. What item would you run? I'm assuming he'd work with a Banded set. He could also get Tailwind from the likes of Crobat.

lol the "definitely probably" was a joke http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=definitely+probably

Anyway, I was thinking Band or Scarf could both work. Sort of like a makeshift Landorus-T. I have Pursuit on it now, but I don't know if I'll drop it for something else. I'd have to switch immediately after using it, whether it succeeded or failed, but it could be useful with all the Ghosts running around. Not to mention it would be a sick play.

 

[lucariomaster2]

I was all excited that I would get to use the Banette I bred for last year's Halloween competition again, but Megas are banned. Alas, I guess it's doomed to rest in peace in the box.

Jumping on the Hydreigon bandwagon here - it's going to be really, really good. Because of the limited number of Pokemon available, it really only needs Dark Pulse as an offensive move, which would free up the rest of its moveslots for things like Tailwind, Taunt and Roost. Also, Malamar is legal, so a possible (albeit gimmicky) strategy would be to spam Draco Meteor with Hydreigon while Malamar uses Topsy-Turvy on it to reverse the SAtk debuff.

I'm actually really liking the look of Trick Room in this meta - with most of the overpowered Pokemon out of the picture, less used TR abusers such as Parasect and Marowak have a chance to shine. Maybe a team of Dusclops/Dusknoir, Chandelure, Parasect, Marowak, Spiritomb, and Hydreigon?

One final note: Liepard, Sableye, Froslass, and Murkrow are all legal. Be prepared, because there WILL be shenanigans.

 

[GroudonEmpire]

inb4 sorry for nitpicking, but fix your grammar

Krookodile seems pretty cool. What item would you run? I'm assuming he'd work with a Banded set. He could also get Tailwind from the likes of Crobat.

Why you gotta be so stern for?
I wonder if Perish Trap... lol perish trap hahaa
HAHAHAHAH
Won't be trapping any scary ghosts apparently. Btw is the scariest-looking pokemon in existence, Gothitelle, allowed to be used?

 

[Kong Harald]

This seems like a very fun competition! Teambuilding should be hard though, I have waay to many ideas in my head with all these pranksters and tricky pokes around. If anyone wants to practice during the next hours, contact me (Kong Harald) on showdown.

I guess you're right. Some of these other entries are kinda weird though. Like Basculin for instance.

A bunch of these would tear your body apart in minutes, and eat it. I guess that makes it worthy of this competition :)

 

[Dragsol]

I think it's worth mentioning that there's a lot of Ghost and Dark types. While the Ghost types have enough to hit them with super effective STAB moves, the only pokemon that can hit a dark type for super effective STAB moves are Scolipede, Toxicroak, and Mawille.

Also, regarding Rotom forms, if my washing machine started to levitate and move towards me, I'd be pretty freaked out, so I'd say they count as scary.

 

[Kong Harald]

I think it's worth mentioning that there's a lot of Ghost and Dark types. While the Ghost types have enough to hit them with super effective STAB moves, the only pokemon that can hit a dark type for super effective STAB moves are Scolipede, Toxicroak, and Mawille.

...and most importantly, Volcarona. Which also happens to outspeed Hydreigon by 2 BS points.

 

[Raykov]

I think it's worth mentioning that there's a lot of Ghost and Dark types. While the Ghost types have enough to hit them with super effective STAB moves, the only pokemon that can hit a dark type for super effective STAB moves are Scolipede, Toxicroak, and Mawille.

...and most importantly, Volcarona. Which also happens to outspeed Hydreigon by 2 BS points.

And Galvantula, Mr. Mime, Parasect, Ariados, Grunbull, Shedinja and Dustox (and Skorupi)... But I see your point.

With the ensemble allowed, I feel ghosts would be vaguely seen which is very ironic considering it's Halloween themed... I can see myself building a team of Galventula, Krookodile, Crobat, Mr Mime, Gourgeist and Weavile

 

[Korados]

Okay, I really don't get why Pikachu is in here. Maybe because it's scary that it appears everywhere.
The list of the eligible Pokemon is widely spread, isn't it? No Mega Stones stops Gengar, of course. Mega-Gengar is just to powerful. And it takes the wind from the sails of the other
Pokemon which can Mega Evolve... Don't know if I like that.
I guess I'll go at least with a Galvantula and maybe an Ariados, too. I like spiders. I'm looking forward to some team suggestions!

 

[Demantoid]

Do you guys think the competition that was voted for going to be next month or will they ignore it?

 

[Theorymon]

I think Volcarona looks pretty incredible in this metagame: It slams most Dark-types with Bug Buzz, outspeeds Hydreigon, has an awesome, damn near unreisted spread move in Heat Wave, Rage Powder, and a lot of Rock Slide spammers are banned! Makes me wonder if Volcarona is gonna add more incentive to use Krookodile and Scolipede since they look like they're among the few viable Rock Slide spammers.

Also, while I fully expect Trick Room to be dangerous, note that most Trick Room users are actually weak to Dark and Ghost-type attacks, and I expect plenty of those to be flying around, and the one Trick Roomer that isnt is 4x weak to Bug (Malamar) x_x.

 

[NOVED]

Okay, I really don't get why Pikachu is in here. Maybe because it's scary that it appears everywhere.
The list of the eligible Pokemon is widely spread, isn't it? No Mega Stones stops Gengar, of course. Mega-Gengar is just to powerful. And it takes the wind from the sails of the other
Pokemon which can Mega Evolve... Don't know if I like that.
I guess I'll go at least with a Galvantula and maybe an Ariados, too. I like spiders. I'm looking forward to some team suggestions!

I was thinking that pikachu is included because the costume pikachu kinda follows the spirit of halloween with dressing up and everything.

Also because its pikachu.

 

[Dragsol]

Yeah I forgot about Valcarona, but I think some like Dustox might not be seen a lot. Venomoth would be nice to add to the list, but I'll just use the Sun Moth.

Also you see mice/rats with Halloween stuff, so it's included because it's a small mouse

 

[Ursarox]

I'll have a pretty tough time beating my primal battle performance, so I'll probably use an underdog team to take the pressure off, maybe Mr. Mime and Granbull.

Do you guys think the competition that was voted for going to be next month or will they ignore it?

That vote was for the November competition so we'll have to wait a month for that.

 

[Rechi]

Drapion looks pretty interesting to me. This competition is loaded with Dark, Ghost, and Poison types and Drapion walls all three of them. Also, since Aegislash is the only real Steel type allowed (sorry Mawile), there really isn't much stopping Exploud from spamming Scrappy Boombursts all day.