Format Discussion Pokemon Sword & Shield Random Battle Sets

[Forsh]

body press body slam miltank is nice and all until ur opponent summons a ghost type, its set is set up for failure

 

[shaoda]

had already fainted but here’s my marowak-a set:

correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Shadow Bone outclassed by Poltergeist in like every way? Also flare blitz would have been nice but I can see the flame charge niche i guess

 

[thatcameguy]

I think ninjask should have acrobatics replaced with dual wingbeat and have HDB as it’s item even if acro is stronger, not having an item kinda sucks

 

[snubsnub]

Petition to transform Froslass into a physical mon - replace shadow ball with poltergeist and ice beam with triple axel. Froslass has 80spa and 80atk, so higher BP moves would be better?

Ideal moves: poltergeist, triple axel, spikes, dbond, taunt, (ice shard/sucker punch? great speed tier but to kill the ultra fast- or boosted mons)
Ideal items: sash, LO
I have one of the greatest randbats minds on my side so yeah. Not messing around >:0

 

[idea]

Pokemon with a priority move shouldn’t roll scarf. Scarf Rillaboom is a totally fine set, but not if its only stab move is grassy glide.

 

[The Immortal]

Petition to transform Froslass into a physical mon - replace shadow ball with poltergeist and ice beam with triple axel. Froslass has 80spa and 80atk, so higher BP moves would be better?

Ideal moves: poltergeist, triple axel, spikes, dbond, taunt, (ice shard/sucker punch? great speed tier but to kill the ultra fast- or boosted mons)
Ideal items: sash, LO
I have one of the greatest randbats minds on my side so yeah. Not messing around >:0 View attachment 257576

Triple Axel is too inconsistent to give up Ice Beam imo. The chance of hitting three times is 72.9%.

I don't mind Poltergeist, I suppose.

Pokemon with a priority move shouldn’t roll scarf. Scarf Rillaboom is a totally fine set, but not if its only stab move is grassy glide.

Fixed.

I think ninjask should have acrobatics replaced with dual wingbeat and have HDB as it’s item even if acro is stronger, not having an item kinda sucks

I love Boots but that is a large power drop for a weak mon like Ninjask.

had already fainted but here’s my marowak-a set:
View attachment 257398

correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t Shadow Bone outclassed by Poltergeist in like every way? Also flare blitz would have been nice but I can see the flame charge niche i guess

The consensus seems to be that Shadow Bone is preferred given Knock Off being so common. Additionally, it is 100% accurate with a useful secondary effect.

body press body slam miltank is nice and all until ur opponent summons a ghost type, its set is set up for failure

Curse Miltank should always have Scrappy now.

 

[DracoRage]

I know Hitmonlee with Curse and Unburden used to be a somewhat good set back in gen 7... but, why, for the love of God, does it get a sitrus berry?

 

[RSB]

I know Hitmonlee with Curse and Unburden used to be a somewhat good set back in gen 7... but, why, for the love of God, does it get a sitrus berry?

It's supposed to be white herb but TI is bad.

 

[Tommaniacal]

Why does Thievul often have both Nasty Plot and Parting Shot? It should be one or the other in my opinion. It gets other moves like Shadow Ball, Psychic, Grass Knot, and even Mud Shot so I think it has enough options to be either-or

 

[thatcameguy]

I think maybe sandslash could have spikes as an option for its movepool, maybe a chance of spikes over rocks on the defensive set

 

[Tommaniacal]

Please replace the awful perish trap Azumaril set with its doubles Huge Power set, maybe replace protect with Belly Drum. All perish song azu does is lose momentum and die

 

[The Immortal]

Please replace the awful perish trap Azumaril set with its doubles Huge Power set, maybe replace protect with Belly Drum. All perish song azu does is lose momentum and die

Belly Drum Azumarill is trash in this Dynamax metagame. The PerishTrap set is fine. If your don’t know how to use it, that’s on you. It forces switches better than anything. The only one that loses momentum is your opponent.

 

[AllTerrainVen0moth]

Tangela Randbat set
Ideal moves: energy ball, giga drain, knock off, leech seed, sleep powder, swords dance, synthesis, toxic
Ideal items: eviolite

 

[pokeblade101]

Tangela Randbat set
Ideal moves: energy ball, giga drain, knock off, leech seed, sleep powder, swords dance, synthesis, toxic
Ideal items: eviolite

There's no physical moves to use with swords dance and what exactly does tangela offer that tangrowth doesn't? If we add an nfe pokemon to Randbats, they have to be different enough from their evolution.

 

[AllTerrainVen0moth]

There's no physical moves to use with swords dance there and what exactly does tangela offer that tangrowth doesn't. If we add an nfe pokemon to Randbats, they have to be different enough from their evolution.

totally forgot about swords dance, and tangela has much better bulk due to eviolite.

 

[thatcameguy]

I think skarm could have body press over brave bird on some sets to hit other steels and other things like ttar etc

 

[Tommaniacal]

Please don't give U-Turn to Swords Dance mons

 

[A Cake Wearing A Hat]

Please don't give U-Turn to Swords Dance mons

Scizor is a special case. Last gen, as well as this gen, I'm sure, Scizor often runs U-turn + SD. Scizor is mostly a cleaner with Bullet Punch that can pivot out real hard with U-turn. This won't be changed.

 

[Shadows4]

Assuming I'm not missing something, Eiscue's hp should give it 1 hp after 4 substitutes when it rolls reversal. Getting an extra sub in is usually possible with minimal prediction, since you'l send Eiscue in on a physical attacker, which will activate Salac Berry and more than double reversal'ls power. 200 bp reversal goes a much longer way than 80 bp after a belly drum.

 

[pokeblade101]

Assuming I'm not missing something, Eiscue's hp should give it 1 hp after 4 substitutes when it rolls reversal. Getting an extra sub in is usually possible with minimal prediction, since you'l send Eiscue in on a physical attacker, which will activate Salac Berry and more than double reversal'ls power. 200 bp reversal goes a much longer way than 80 bp after a belly drum.

The problem with that is when you substitute + belly drum you will not get salac berry boost. I find reversal mediocre anyway

 

[Shadows4]

I think Scolipede should go back to its gen 7 set, if not losing one support move altogether. I just got a Scolipede with Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Protect, and Megahorn. Scolipede is definitely helpful in support roles if you can force a switch, but it works better overall offensively. It also appreciates poison jab's coverage if it's trying to sweep (SE on fairies, neutral on flying/fire/fighting).

I know there's the issue of getting a set that's really bad against steel (rock slide, poison jab, megahorn, no eq), or something similar, but I would much rather get that set (or, better put, rather have an increased likelihood of getting that set) than the set I just got.

I know giving it Poison Jab also opens the door, potentially, to the first set I mentioned with Poison Jab instead of Megahorn (which could be even worse) but at least that type of set will be less likely in the long run.

I also know Poison Jab sucks as a dmax move for it, but all the other stuff I said. It pairs well with Megahorn, and Scolipede won't be nearly as good a dmaxer anyway if its coverage is stunted.

 

[Shadows4]

The problem with that is when you substitute + belly drum you will not get salac berry boost. I find reversal mediocre anyway

Still, so long as it has Reversal I would rather have to mess around for one more turn to get Salac than have 80 bp Reversal. In my experience, Eiscue interactions go like: (1) Eiscue is in against physical attacker. (2) They switch, Eiscue uses sub. (3) They send out a special attacker. (4) Eiscue uses Belly Drum, and activates Salac.

But if I can sub down to 1 hp, all I need to do there is use sub again after (3) in anticipation of their special move breaking my sub.

And if they stay in and break Ice face, I can likely sub again freely after a hit with my increased speed to reach the 200 bp reversal.

I think the only downsides there are being slightly more vulnerable to priority and niche situations (maybe they predict you're going to use sub again while you're still in ice face and they use their own sub, idk).

 

[Sylveon used calm mind]

Alright, im going to try and give ya'll my opinion on the ability 'Moody' in Gen 8 Randombattles:

Moody is only avilailible on glalie and octillery atm (in singles only glalie has it), I personally think that both Glalie and octillery can live without moody - Glalie can be full support with taunt/hazards/super fang/freeze dry and octillerys current set (specs) is way better than moody. The thing with moody is, a lot of the times its absolutely luck-dependant, you either get a good boost/drop or you dont. This often ends up in either glalie being absolutely useless and not getting anything done or it gets some good boost and youre lucky enough your opponent doesnt have anything to stop your protect/substitute spam. I dont really like that the whole set revolves around being lucky + glalie has to be on a lower level as well (level 76 instead of level 88) just because you have the option of sweeping with luck. Imo the support glalie would fit right into randbats even if it wouldnt to that much damage - there are other support mons that do almost no damage and still get the job done (for example audino, shuckle...)

In addition some pokemon absolutely counter glalie even if you somehow get +6 in all stats, for example unaware clefable, articuno, avalugg (can pp stall freeze dry) etc.; meaning that hard-counters to moody glalie still exist. With being weak to hazards and not being able to switch that freely, glalie most of the times is just useless if your opponent gets one of these pokemon.

In gen 7 Moody was also removed from glalie cause it was too luck-dependant, the current gen 7 set for non mega glalie is taunt, super fang, ice beam, ice shard; which is better than relying on luck with moody and having to give up 2 (or sometimes even 3) of your attacking slots for substitute, protect and disable.

All in all i suggest removing Moody Glalie entirely from gen 8 Randbats and replacing moody with inner focus (that ability is at least not entirely useless) and replacing Moody-Glalie with a support set.

Even if its rands, the battles shouldnt be that luck-dependant, "random" doesnt have have anything to do with "luck".

 

[Adeleine]

Moody wasn’t removed from Glalie in gen 7 because it was too luck dependent. It was removed because Moody was banned in Uber, and random battle uses Uber legality. I’d have a hard time expecting the very mediocre icebeam/spikes/superfang/toxic/taunt or ice shard set to outperform the Moody set in the long run. Maybe the same isn’t true for Octillery, especially with how slow it is, but I haven’t really seen moody octillery in action so I don’t know.

 

[Shadows4]

I don't think Moody is completely luck dependent, because you sometimes have to predict their prediction (they'll often change their move if they think you're going to use protect or disable or something). And there's still scouting for bad matchups and sending it in when it has the most potential to sweep.
I think the real question is whether it's worth it at level 76. Personally, I think it's still worth it on Glalie, but not on Octillery. It's very annoying to go up against, but I wouldn't call it completely luck dependent.