Format Discussion Pokemon Sword & Shield Random Battle Sets

[Forsh]

Once again not sure where to put this:

but maybe for a month randbats can host a pokedex competition and see who encounters the most unique pokemon in a month via randbats formats in ladder


idk how it will work exactly but maybe a bot will record encounters with pokemon u use/battle against

not skill based but could be a fun thing to do once a year.

not sure if this idea makes sense but let me know which areas need more clarification

 

[Irpachuza]

Once again not sure where to put this:

but maybe for a month randbats can host a pokedex competition and see who encounters the most unique pokemon in a month via randbats formats in ladder


idk how it will work exactly but maybe a bot will record encounters with pokemon u use/battle against

not skill based but could be a fun thing to do once a year.

not sure if this idea makes sense but let me know which areas need more clarification

Iirc, before going public, the room hosted some events like that. I think gc had something like that too. The issue with those kind of events is that trigger people opening a lot of battles and insta-forfeiting, or, at best, playing a million battles at a time and without real competitive intentions, which really becomes an issue for people actually wanting to ladder.
Regarding where to post, for the next time, there is a simple questions and answers thread on this subforum for stuff like this.

 

[Forsh]

Iirc, before going public, the room hosted some events like that. I think gc had something like that too. The issue with those kind of events is that trigger people opening a lot of battles and insta-forfeiting, or, at best, playing a million battles at a time and without real competitive intentions, which really becomes an issue for people actually wanting to ladder.
Regarding where to post, for the next time, there is a simple questions and answers thread on this subforum for stuff like this.

Maybe have it be an alt with a minimum GXE requirement and limit it to select formats

 

[Marconidass]

I think Sand Rush CBand is extremely unreliable to be used just because team has one sandstorm user. Unlike other sand rush mons who usually can setup their own with Max Rockfall and who are also immune to T-Wave due to Ground-typing.

 

[A Cake Wearing A Hat]

View attachment 395093

I think Sand Rush CBand is extremely unreliable to be used just because team has one sandstorm user. Unlike other sand rush mons who usually can setup their own with Max Rockfall and who are also immune to T-Wave due to Ground-typing.

The item is completely unaffected by the ability in this case. Choice Band can appear with or without sand rush and is perfectly fine. Sand Rush is only generated because a Hippowdon generated first. This is unlikely to change.

 

[Forsh]

Future sight slowbro is just hard to pull off and even if u do so what? Why is it better than psyshock?

 

[Forsh]

I think we should remove Future Sight from the Slowking/Slowbro family. I understand how it's useful in tiers where you can build a team that has great synergy w TeleSight, but in rands I've found it very underwhelming. It's only gotten me once--every other time I've found it easier to play around than the immediate damage provided by Psyshock or Psychic. And on the flipside, I find myself wishing I had Psychic or Psyshock in most situations where I get Future Sight.

Future Sight is a move that greatly benefits from teambuilding. In OU, for example, you can use Future Sight then Teleport to switch in to something like Clefable or Urshifu, which may have a good matchup against things with advantages against Psychic type moves. It's also useful against Toxapex, which is big. And if you see something that Future Sight is useless against in team preview, you can avoid using it/be more careful using it in that match. In rands you don't get to build your team, and you don't know what's on the other team, so the uncertainty of using Future Sight generally makes it a worse option than going for immediate damage.

I'm not even saying it's bad, but the alternative is better. We should keep Teleport either way though.

I agree with this fella. Sound logic.

 

[Forsh]

Moot point, why? Because knowing future sight is coming is the entire point of the move, to apply pressure. Future sight is undoubtedly better than clicking a psychic move on a dark type, or clicking scald and burning a tanky mon that you would like to poison more. Future sight is definitely superior to psychic/psyshock

ur arguement is "future sight is undoubtely better than psychic/psyshock" :((( applying pressure in rands can be done by threatening psyshock and forcing a dark switch in tbh more effective than the 2 turn move with future sight, especially in end game. future sight tele might work in other formats but not as ewell in rands

 

[DTAKOP]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8randombattle-1484290187-mfyd1mdw6nkao87kt3c4acj42iqu177pw

Nasty Plot Gengar, and Dynamax Max Terror Gengar is broken and lucky in Randomized battle. All my pokemons are too slow, the only fast one was too frail to survive one dynamax form. Its a waste of dynamax if I dynamax my barra since its choice banded and I have no bulky pokemon to deal with mega gengar to survive other opposing threats.

 

[i want a lamp]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8randombattle-1484290187-mfyd1mdw6nkao87kt3c4acj42iqu177pw

Nasty Plot Gengar, and Dynamax Max Terror Gengar is broken and lucky in Randomized battle. All my pokemons are too slow, the only fast one was too frail to survive one dynamax form. Its a waste of dynamax if I dynamax my barra since its choice banded and I have no bulky pokemon to deal with mega gengar to survive other opposing threats.

if you had just air slashed gengar t1 then it wouldnt of been a problem, making misplays doesnt mean a mon is op

 

[DTAKOP]

if you had just air slashed gengar t1 then it wouldnt of been a problem, making misplays doesnt mean a mon is op

Disagree, I have no speedy pokemons to flinch gengar. I have no choice scarf togekiss.

 

[Celever]

Disagree, I have no speedy pokemons to flinch gengar. I have no choice scarf togekiss.

Random Battles are where you get 6 random Pokémon. If you want Pokémon with more engineered sets that are within the same Smogon tier, play Battle Factory. Bad matchups are a part of the game in any tier, though, and there's nothing that can or will be changed to alleviate that. It's more hype to win when you began with the disadvantage, and this is possible 99.9% of the time.

 

[Irpachuza]

Please do not post:
- One-liners. This includes suggestions without any backup reasoning.
- Complaints of illegal Pokemon or sets.
- Requests to add the National Dex.
- Posts complaining about unfairness, demanding certain Pokemon should be "banned" from the format, or complaining about hax.
- Screenshots of movesets that are not actually bad.
- Doubles suggestions, which should instead go here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/pokemon-sword-shield-random-doubles-battle-sets.3663063/

Also this. Don't post calling a Pokémon "broken" again, plase. If the Pokémon in question has an abnormal win percentage, we'll know, and it will get nerfed in level to equilibrate.

 

[pokemonisfun]

Life orb Lantun sucks especially when it has Toxic (and I think it can have Volt Switch too with Life Orb which sucks). Leftovers is generally much better as Lanturn can use it's typing and ability to pivot into stuff a lot and needs Leftovers to do it over the course of a game

 

[Irpachuza]

Life orb Lantun sucks especially when it has Toxic (and I think it can have Volt Switch too with Life Orb which sucks). Leftovers is generally much better as Lanturn can use it's typing and ability to pivot into stuff a lot and needs Leftovers to do it over the course of a game

Checked, it doesn't happen with Volt Switch, only on Scald, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Toxic. Tbf, that isn't the worst, and it only happens 10% of the times. We could discuss if it's worth rejecting Toxic and Life Orb in general, although it may affect other mons making it not worth.

 

[Zaide]

Disagree, I have no speedy pokemons to flinch gengar. I have no choice scarf togekiss.

What he means is that :
Lvl 96 84 SpA Vespiquen Air Slash vs. Lvl 80 84 HP / 84 SpD Gengar-Gmax: 97-115 (42.7 - 50.6%) -- 2.3% chance to 2HKO
Lvl 80 84 Atk Choice Band Barraskewda Psychic Fangs vs. Lvl 80 84 HP / 84 Def Dynamax Gengar-Gmax: 254-300 (55.9 - 66%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 Lvl 80 84 SpA Gengar-Gmax G-Max Terror vs. Lvl 96 84 HP / 84 SpD Vespiquen: 229-271 (78.9 - 93.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

You didn't even need to dynamax to counter it, and in fact, using air slash on turn 1 followed by u-turn on turn 2 (to switch to barraskewda) means that your opponent wasted his dynamax without getting a single KO. It was an objectively massive misplay (or bad assessment of the risks involved) on your part. Obviously, it's highly possible your opponent doesn't dynamax with their Gengar had you used air slash.

Are there situations where the matchup is such that it's virtually impossible to win against even just a semi-competent opponent? Yes, but that wasn't one of those situations.

Gengar, even with his life orb + NP set, isn't as overpowered as you think it is. It is extremely frail, meaning it has a hard time setting up safely and is very vulnerable to priority moves, it's fast but not broken-tier fast, and it is easily counter-dynamaxed.

And as Irpachuza mentionned, the team behind this format does a great job in terms of level balancing. There isn't nearly as many "autowins" now as there were a year or two ago.

 

[sasol]

I think the kanto moltres set could use some minor adjustments, yeah it's a good pivot but it'd be a better pivot with flame body > pressure. I also feel like it could afford to have toxic or substitute or something, especially if it's going to have pressure. It's really hard to do anything to special walls so toxic could help that. I know sub toxic is not always the best set in random battles but considering how oppressive fairies seem to be in particular, it could be neat.

 

[pokeblade101]

I think the kanto moltres set could use some minor adjustments, yeah it's a good pivot but it'd be a better pivot with flame body > pressure. I also feel like it could afford to have toxic or substitute or something, especially if it's going to have pressure. It's really hard to do anything to special walls so toxic could help that. I know sub toxic is not always the best set in random battles but considering how oppressive fairies seem to be in particular, it could be neat.

I agree with the first point and that only occurs when you have Defog. I disagree with adding Sub because I'm pretty sure Fire Blast and Air Slash will always be on the set so Toxic/Sub will never work. I agree with Toxic being added because it really struggles vs Water and Rock types and could do with some Utility (like Barbaracle is literally free setup on it). The reason it was never added was because it makes Defog quite rare to get and lessening the occurrence of hazard removal in the format might not be good.

 

[LoveisDitto_]

if you had just air slashed gengar t1 then it wouldnt of been a problem, making misplays doesnt mean a mon is op

I agree with Celever in saying that you should consider playing Battle Factory if you want Pokémon with engineered stats, but did you have no type advantages over gengar? Or did all your pokemon get 1 shotted by it.

 

[Add1subtract1]

What happened to cosmic power magic guard sigilyph? The set was iconic.

 

[RSB]

What happened to cosmic power magic guard sigilyph? The set was iconic.

It wasn't consistent enough where it would either 6-0 or be useless and in the dynamax meta it was shown to be not as good as it was in previous gens. Having a flying type move in its sets for max airstream is much more useful and consistent in the current meta.

 

[Add1subtract1]

It wasn't consistent enough where it would either 6-0 or be useless and in the dynamax meta it was shown to be not as good as it was in previous gens. Having a flying type move in its sets for max airstream is much more useful and consistent in the current meta.

but why delete the set entirely?

 

[RSB]

but why delete the set entirely?

Sets in random battles generate from a pool of moves to choose from and in gen 8 right now sigilyph's move pool is " Air Slash, Defog, Energy Ball, Heat Wave, Psychic". If we added psycho shift, stored power, and roost it wouldn't generate specifically with the old set. It would take 4 moves from the whole pool (with rejections and couples together) to make the set so it would be extremely rare to have that specific set ever generate. We don't have a system in place that generates whole sets to give to each pokemon so adding the extra moves isn't worthwhile.

 

[TGA]

why doesnt dubwool always get fluffy? I might see the use of bullet proof for taking some special moves but in most conditions fluffy is better. Not sure if it can be implemented to always have fluffy.

 

[Celever]

why doesnt dubwool always get fluffy? I might see the use of bullet proof for taking some special moves but in most conditions fluffy is better. Not sure if it can be implemented to always have fluffy.

Bulletproof is actually amazing on Dubwool because many teams' best (or only!) way to break it is Focus Blast or Aura Sphere from something. Fluffy is nice but becomes less useful once it's set up one Cotton Guard, which it should usually do as soon as it switches anyway.