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PBR, 3v3, and moveset variation.

Dreadite

A bit earlier today, while enjoying my brand new Nintendo Wii, I decided to copy my team to PBR and have a few random bouts.

Largely they went quite well, however, I noticed something interesting about the movesets that my better opponents used, and the subtle ways they differ from the movesets listed here. Which got me thinking: Why?

And I think I've stumbled upon it: With only three pokemon to choose from, your options for teambuilding are very limited.

Primarily, which pokemon are you going to sweep with? Leads seem largely unchanged: Fast pokemon which set up, and do a bunch of damage (Weavile seems particularly common, Gengar gave me fits as well). However, the sweepers I saw were largely mixed sweepers, many of whom pack a hard hitting (but stat lowering) move of the other type, such as Draco Meteor on a physical Mence, Close Combat on special Infernapes, etc.

So I figured I'd share a bit of what I've had some success with on PBR, hopefully with some insight as to why it works in a 3v3 environment. Specifically, I want to talk about Ninjask and Cresellia.

My team for reference: Ninjask, Cresellia, Electivire (usually), with Gyarados, Rhyperior, Weavile backup


Ninjask is a very interesting pokemon in 3v3, because many of the common movesets are either too fragile, or single minded. With that in mind, I wanted to use him because he's pimpalicious :pimp:. So I decided to use something along the lines of:

Ninjask (Adamant): 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP.
Item: Life Orb. Moves: Aerial Ace, U-Turn, Protect, Baton Pass.

This set I find works extremely well in 3v3. If he's in an unfavorable matchup (like a Choice Scarf sweeper lead), protect will allow him to pass speed to something designed to break the sweep, or U-turn can be used to dish out a small amount of damage and escape. The normal pursuit users take a huge amount of damage from U-turn, which is at least somewhat gratifying (although Pursuit in general can be a problem for him).


Cresellia (Bold/Calm): 252 HP, mixed defense EVs (I went with 80/176, but mine has funky IVs so it might be something different for another Cres), mine is Bold which I believe to be sub-optimal (+special defense might be better).
Item: Leftovers. Moves: Ice Beam, Calm Mind, Reflect, Moonlight

Mixed walling is incredibly valuable in 3v3, particularly because without being able to effectively predict early what form of Salamence you face, he becomes a GIANT threat. This Cresellia is meant to take at least one face-first hit from a 'mence and be able to hit back with Ice Beam, then wall whatever remaining threat you may encounter. Cresellia places the highest COMBINED on both defense tiers, although Blissey is certainly good and pretty close (with better special coverage bar none). Given the chance, this moveset can wall nearly anything with irritating success barring Sandstorm.

So let's see some PBR 3v3 thoughts, or at least tell me that I'm a giant noobular or whateva. =P
 
ThaPhantom07 said:
PBR seems to be more about sweeping from my experience. Less emphasis on walls because you can only choose 3 Pokemon.
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I disagree. Pick the right walls and you can shut down your opponent, since there's a good chance he ends up leaving his counter at home. I've had so many people throw in the towel when they realize I can wall them til the cows come home it isn't even funny. This is especially true if you bring Blissey and kill their one physical sweeper, essentially leaving them up shit creek. But then again, opponent quality is so over the board it may just be that I'm fighting really shitty players who don't know how to pick the right three Pokemon for PBR random battles.
 
Since there is no sleep clause in online PBR matches, I keep a Sing-Bliss or a Spore-Breloom with me at all times. If the guy's pokemon look hacked or he's using Ubers then I throw sleep at everything and sweep with the other two. But yes, 3v3 PBR is almost entirely about sweepers and how hard you can hit.
 
It's annoying to choose three physical sweepers just because a Blissey is on the opponent's team =|
But, japaneses people seems to like teaching weather moves on random things, like a shiny Machamp with Rain Dance that I fought other day.
The good thing about this is that it works, lol.
 
it's asll about how veritile and how well you can adapt to your opponent. IMO it's harder to prepare for a match then the actual match. You have a much better chance of winning if you can choose the 3 pokemon that counter the most of your opponents team istead of the 3 strongest pokemon or the best 3 walls in game. If they are packing 6 physical walls, you don't choose your Tyranitar,Heracross, and rhyperior(even tho they are strong enough to work), you choose Milotic, Skarmory(to Phaze) and Starmie, because they are versitlr enough to attack any of the other pokemon for solid damage.
 
I've noticed that Sandstorm teams become much more effective. My two best Battle Passes have Tyranitar and Hippowdon, respectively. Your opponent has fewer Pokemon to work with, making it harder for him to take advantage of the Sandstorm. You can essentially start the battle with a definitive edge each time and control the field for the whole game because other weather moves are so uncommon and you'll come prepared for the Sandstorm.

Yawn + Stealth Rock has become my favorite way to start battles, a la Hippowdon, Uxie, and Empoleon. Forcing switches when your foe only have three Pokemon to choose from helps you see what you have to deal with and makes it much harder for your opponent to send in a counter. I haven't seen this used much on me, if at all, but I use it all the time.

I've seen people use Focus Sash frequently. Very aggravating. Hence why my two best cards have Stealth Rockers and Sand Streamers.

So, anyway, I've found that the best way to win PBR battles is to find out what you have to deal with and then try to stay two turns ahead of your foe until you can pull off a decisive stat buff or something to shut your opponent down. Walls can help you screw over your opponent completely, but it depends on what they have in their party since only having three guys to work with forces you to improvise your walls, and wasting Pokemon is not something you don't want to do in 3 vs 3. Walls are situational in this environment, but I still try to always carry at least one real wall into battle.
 
I just fought some guy with a Crobat that uses Rain Dance.
Seriously, I used to admire japaneses, but the random weather moves in random Pokemon is getting annoying and predicable.
I'd rather play ocidentals.

Anyway, I just tested a Hail team there, it worked wonders. Looks like any weather team works on 3v3 lol.
 
Ramblings..

Well it's obviously attributed to the battling environment. As you said, 3 pokemon is very limiting as it makes it harder to counter your weakness and in general gives you less moves to make use of. I have PBR (won it at Gamestop) but don't actually own a Wii so I've played roughly 30 minutes in total on the ingame and spent zero time on WiFi. However, I've played enough 3v3 thanks to the battle tower and the older games like XD/Colosseum that I have a feeling what I would use would be pretty similar. Sure you get to see all 6 pokemon and pick 3 but that still doesn't mean I'd prepare my team any differently.

Experience has shown me in any 3v3 match that plain switching can do you a lot more harm than good if you guess wrong. There's nothing wrong with switching but the risk/reward is way greater in my opinion. Because of this, I tend to shy away from any Choice items because they lock you into a move that could be potentially resisted (or worse nullified) by an incoming pokemon giving your opponent a free turn. Other random thoughts:

I also like using things like Lum Berry as the free turn immunity to status gives (especially sleep) can be huge. The shorter battle time makes one turn items like that as well as the resistance berries much more viable. With Focus Sash running around I very much like the idea of Sandstream based teams as well. I don't feel like Stealth Rock would get enough usage to reach its full potential but you seem to be having great success with it Ishi-Goturi so to be cliched if it ain't broke don't fix it.
 
I could write a ten page article about the differences between 3v3 and 6v6, but ill keep it short.

IMO, 3v3 is much faster. With a smaller team, you cant cover nearly as much, so a lot of people go to the "sweep first, ask questions later". Because of this, this whole metagame has become fast and aggresive.
 
Carl said:
Because of this, I tend to shy away from any Choice items because they lock you into a move that could be potentially resisted (or worse nullified) by an incoming pokemon giving your opponent a free turn.
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The only two Choice Pokemon I typically use are CS Heracross and CB Slaking because they're both so powerful and scary and provide good coverage (not to mention Pursuit) that they usually KO whatever the opponent leads with or switches into as long as I predict right because of the general lack of walls being used.

I don't feel like Stealth Rock would get enough usage to reach its full potential but you seem to be having great success with it Ishi-Goturi so to be cliched if it ain't broke don't fix it.
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TBH, I always choose to use Yawn before Stealth Rock, but those Pokemon usually last long enough to use both anyway. The only problems I run into are when I lead with Hippo and my foe leads with some Porygon Z or Starmie or something. He can almost always get one Yawn in since most powerful Special Attacks 2HKO him (even if he does barely survive), and then the opponent has to choose between KOing Hippo or avoiding Sleep. This occasionally happens with Empoleon if I have a really bad matchup, but I never lead with it anyway. I don't really ever attack with those three (Hippo, Empoleon, and Uxie). They're just there to wall and Yawn and maybe get off Stealth Rock until I have an opening for something like Garchomp or Tyranitar or Salamence.
 
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