Other PranksterSwag Teams

[PenguinKnight]

Are they really that popular as to make sure you always have to consider it when building a team? I guess we should see if klefki/liepard/sableye usage has gone up this month. I don't think is THAT popular.

Yes, they are popular. People who have no skills and want easy wins love using pranksterswag- literally just win by luck. Seriously, fuck pranksterswag. The team can become really balanced, as people above me have mentioned: put in a Ditto, use Attract on the pranksters, and watch your opponent struggle to hit you with less than god knows how many percent chance.

You bet I'm angry, I just met three prankster swag teams in a row and that dropped my hard earned ranking points by a hundred. If this keeps going I'm going to sac a member of my team just to put in Sylveon or Blissey. It's not good for my temper.

 

[SoulRed12]

Yeah, I'm noticing a trend in this thread. People are looking for incredibly gimmicky and costly sets as long as they can deal with prankster. This thread, by now, should have ended with this summary:

While PranksterSwag teams run rampant, a good idea is to run a Blissey or Chansey, which does not take any abuse from this technique. It can switch in, heal all previous paralyzed members, and then stall it, while doing great damage via Seismic Toss. There are many other ways of dealing with it, but most of those require strange and hard to use movesets that likely aren't worth it. This strategy may or may not be a trend, so always consider it when building a team.

Your observation that people are going for gimmicks is somewhat correct, but that alone shouldn't end the thread. The point is to find non-gimmicky team-building tweaks, i.e. things you can do with your team to make the strategy less effective without sacrificing synergy. The same way you don't build a team around thwarting Baton Pass, but you do things like include a phazer or a fast taunter. Trying to end the thread with "always consider it when building a team" ignores the point of the thread in the first place--discovering ways to "consider" it and sharing them for everyone's discussion and/or benefit.

You bet I'm angry, I just met three prankster swag teams in a row and that dropped my hard earned ranking points by a hundred. If this keeps going I'm going to sac a member of my team just to put in Sylveon or Blissey. It's not good for my temper.

This is the type of thing I'm talking about. Sylveon's a good pokemon anyway. It's not gimmicky, and it can find its way onto many teams, so if there's a spot for it you should seriously consider putting it. It helps with many things, one of which being swagplay, rather than the only reason for its existence being swagplay. Another similar option is ro-dub thanks to volt switch's ability to eliminate confusion AND sub at the same time.

Yet another option is to make sure you have a taunter, since even though you have to win one roll of the dice, you don't have to win any more after that and you get a free turn when the opponent switches. Having a fast non-swagplay taunting pokemon like Thundurus (who is also immune to paralysis) is even better, since it's faster than all swagplayers (except itself) and it too can perform a very good non-swagplay support role or a special attacking role.

 

[Toljik]

You bet I'm angry, I just met three prankster swag teams in a row and that dropped my hard earned ranking points by a hundred. If this keeps going I'm going to sac a member of my team just to put in Sylveon or Blissey. It's not good for my temper.

There's plenty of viable choices, like Rotom-W, the #1 Pokemon in OU.

 

[Quaily]

I'm not really sure what the difference between minimize and swagger is. they both rely excessively on luck.

 

[kefkakrazy]

I'm not really sure what the difference between minimize and swagger is. they both rely excessively on luck.

The primary difference is much the same as the difference between minimize/double team and sand attack (which I don't believe is banned, but I could be mistaken).

You can switch out of the swagkeys and reset both confusion and the attack boosts, but a minimized pokemon can only be dealt with by either deploying something capable of ignoring evasion boosts (of which, the only two in common use are Aura Sphere and No Guard pokemon) or by rolling the dice until they come up in your favor. There are costs to this, of course (probably getting paralysis spread to another pokemon in the meantime), but there are options which you can take on the receiving end of swagplay.

(This is slightly less true now, in fairness, because Whirlwind/Roar now bypass accuracy checks too, but the point is still valid)

 

[Double Electric]

I'm a bit disappointed how Swagplay seems to have given Sableye a bad name these days. I've had people flame and ragequit right off the bat against me just because they thought my Sableye was the swagger set, even though the standard support set (whose only real luck-reliance is on Wisp's accuracy) is still arguably the more viable overall.

I'd think that people who non-Swagplay Klefki probably feel the same way.

 

[Scorpiopt]

I'm a bit disappointed how Swagplay seems to have given Sableye a bad name these days. I've had people flame and ragequit right off the bat against me just because they thought my Sableye was the swagger set, even though the standard support set (whose only real luck-reliance is on Wisp's accuracy) is still arguably the more viable overall.

I'd think that people who non-Swagplay Klefki probably feel the same way.

I agree, i am running dual screens + safeguard dazzling gleam Klefki
People usualy think its a swag twave set witch to be fair i see that very very offen

 

[Alejandro36]

Some people have mentioned attract. How does that even work when the standard gender option in PS is random? Attract will be a wasted moveslot more than 50% of the time (since there are also genderless pokemon).

I remeber back in gen IV (I think) when male was the standard gender in shoddybattle. Some trolls started making pokemon female and spamming attract. It got so popular that many people where using female as gender just to combat that strategy. Random gender kind of fixes that problem.

 

[Scorpiopt]

you can manually choose gender on showdown, but yeah your argument is correct

 

[TooMuchSugar]

well gardevoir has better things to do than using encore or taunt...

Encore and Taunt really are pretty good on Mega Gardevoir (that's what I'm using) anyway. You hit just about everything you need to with Hyper Voice / Psyshock / Focus Blast, so the last slot is kinda up for grabs anyway. They're still useful when you don't trace prankster or something - for example, Skarmory walls Mega Gardevoir pretty effectively, but with Taunt, you can make Skarmory basically useless and switch to a sweeper or wallbreaker for free.

In addition to this, it only works once in a match. If the Prankster switches out and comes back in later, what do you do?

Um... switch it in again? If I needed my Trace Gardevoir to counter a Prankster Klefki on my opponent's team, I just wouldn't mega evolve it until Klefki was dead, so it can pull the same trick off as many times as I need.

I'm not trying to say this is the best answer available or anything, but it's a decent option against Prankster spam using a pokemon that will be good anyway. I certainly didn't go out of my way to find a niche check - I discovered this by accident while playing against a Prankster team with my Gardevoir, and I figured I'd share it.

 

[HackerKing]

Ok, so I've tested this team and essentially gone 6-0 with it.

Hide

Maverick (Thundurus) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Impish Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Substitute
- Taunt

Lieutenant (Sableye) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 120 Def / 136 SDef
Careful Nature
- Swagger
- Substitute
- Recover
- Foul Play

General (Liepard) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 144 HP / 56 Def / 60 SDef / 248 Spd
Timid Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Foul Play

Admiral (Murkrow) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 188 SDef / 68 Spd
Careful Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Foul Play

Mate (Klefki) @ Leftovers
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk
Impish Nature
- Swagger
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Foul Play

Captain (Pinsir) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Quick Attack
- Close Combat
- Return
- Swords Dance

Ignoring the obvious troll aspect of this team, I feel like adding M-Pinsir really deals with a lot of threats. If I get para-fusion on something, I can bring him in and set up a swords-dance.

The main thing that inhibits M-pinsir is his speed. It's really slow compared to other top-tier sweepers. This is where paralysis-spam becomes really important. A +2 Pinsir sweeps a paralyzed team, OHKOing/picking up weakened pokemon like a garbage truck.

I was thinking of dropping Liepard (it can't take hits) for another revenge-killer or late-game sweeper. Perhaps special-oriented like Alakazam @ Focus Sash.

 

[U-Ralph]

Encore and Taunt really are pretty good on Mega Gardevoir (that's what I'm using) anyway. You hit just about everything you need to with Hyper Voice / Psyshock / Focus Blast, so the last slot is kinda up for grabs anyway. They're still useful when you don't trace prankster or something - for example, Skarmory walls Mega Gardevoir pretty effectively, but with Taunt, you can make Skarmory basically useless and switch to a sweeper or wallbreaker for free

Well first Hyper Voice / Psyshock / Focus Blast don't manage aegislash, skarmory didn't ever wall gardevoir and won't never do it:
252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Skarmory: 209-247 (62.5 - 73.9%)

 

[Zebstrika]

I was thinking of dropping Liepard (it can't take hits) for another revenge-killer or late-game sweeper. Perhaps special-oriented like Alakazam @ Focus Sash.

Scarf Ditto? Copies attack boosts but not confusion or paralysis. Also Liepard's niche as a piece of swagger crap is that in can priority Encore, which means it gets setup opportunities by blocking status with sub and then Encoring, or switching in on set-up moves, or whatever.

 

[TooMuchSugar]

Well first Hyper Voice / Psyshock / Focus Blast don't manage aegislash, skarmory didn't ever wall gardevoir and won't never do it:
252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Skarmory: 209-247 (62.5 - 73.9%)

You're switching out of Aegislash anyway (Shadow Sneak is almost certain to OHKO), so Shadow Ball is only really worth it if you can catch it on the switch. You are right about Skarmory, though, I should remember to always calc stuff I'm not absolutely sure of. Although that was a bad example, I'm still convinced that Taunt is a very good general use move on Mega-Gardevoir, just because it can screw up so much stuff, but if it's not, one moveslot is a relatively small space to dedicate to stopping Prankster spam.

 

[Aragorn the King]

TooMuchSugar: 252+ Atk Aegislash-Blade Shadow Sneak vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Gardevoir: 228-270 (82 - 97.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

While, Gardevoir can OHKO back.

252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Blade: 360-424 (111.1 - 130.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO


The KO on Gardevoir is never given, provided no prior damage. However, with SR,

252+ Atk Aegislash-Blade Shadow Sneak vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Gardevoir: 228-270 (82 - 97.1%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

----------

Well, back to Swagplay. My Mandibuzz has been a decent check to these teams, as Swagger damage does practically nothing. Also, Mandibuzz holds a Rocky Helmet, which makes opposing Foul Play does damage to the user. All in all these teams are difficult to manage, but it is doable if you aren't running Hyper Offense/or a lot of Psychics or Ghosts. Pokemon with immediate offensive pressure, like Entei, can also cut Klefki's reign of terror short with Sacred Fire.

 

[Alejandro36]

Ok, so I've tested this team and essentially gone 6-0 with it.

Whats your rank? The win-loss ratio by itself doesn't say anything, really. I can go 20-0 with my regular team if were to battle only noobs. And due to the luck-based nature of prnakaster teams, you need to play more games than usual to test a team in order to get statistically significant results

I have been using dragon dance MegaTTar as the OP mega set up sweeper of choice for my prankster team and it seems to do well so far. It benefits a lot from paralysis and after two or even one dragon dance it can destroy weakened teams completely. In this replay the oponent had some pokes that give prankster trouble: a blissey, another couple of pranksters, and I didn't get particulary lucky. He had me 4 vs 2 until TTar got a dragon dance and just OHKOed everything.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-91272427

This is also a good example of what I said earlier about some people who get irrationally angry at you for using prankster-swagger and start hurling insults. Be prepared to get a lot of shit if you want to use these teams. I don't usually taunt them back like I did but there are few things I like more than defeating someone who has been insulting you the whole match and then rubbing it in his face.

 

[Shion SinX]

Just a note, not sure if stated before:

Sableye can have thunder wave only from an old event, so its impossible to have a thunder wave + swagger with hidden ability (prankster) on it.

 

[SoulRed12]

This is also a good example of what I said earlier about some people who get irrationally angry at you for using prankster-swagger and start hurling insults.

IMO it's only as irrational as it is for someone to get angry at the opponent for spamming minimize. The differences of course is that the latter never happens because the move is banned.

Although, I don't think even running swagplay makes you deserve verbal abuse. It's just that I understand why it pisses people off to the point that they'd want to.

 

[Rotosect]

Since the suspect test topic was moved to the VR section, I'm going to ask this here: is there a way to know through the PS stats how often these teams induce a rage quit?
In my experience this happens roughly 25% of the time on average (obviously more on the low ladder), but more accurate numbers would be nice.

 

[Ninja Charizard]

Since this thread is about Swagplay counters, I'd like to say I've noticed Keldeo is a pretty good way to deal with these teams. It resists Stealth Rock, resists Foul Play, has mediocre attack (which can and should be lowered by natures and IV), decent bulk, and can spam super powerful special attacks that the swaplay mons don't like. Both Sableye and Liepard are OHKO by Secret Sword, Thundurus and Whimsicott and Murkrow don't enjoy Icy Wind, and only Klefki can't be taken by super-eefective attacks, but it doesn't like eating Keldeo's super-powerful moves either. It's not exactly a counter since it can't avoid the coinflip, but it takes a long time to kill and can punish the opponent hard if the coin flip goes wrong for them. I was playing with a Swagplay team in the supect ladder other day and I got swept by a Keldeo.

 

[JMackerl]

I've found lefties Togekiss is a pretty good counter for Swagplay. It has low base attack and really nice bulk with super hard hitting special attacks (Dazzling gleam for most users: Thundrus, Sableye, Liepard, Murkrow, etc... And Flamethrower for Klefki) add roost for when your health manages to dip below 50% (which is not likely) and you're set.

Honestly I don't find Swagplay all that intimidating but I had never seen a full Swagplay team until I fought this one today (Not sure why the view is reversed but oh well): http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-99657194

That was definitely a long, grueling battle. All hax aside I think this battle shows just how luck-based Swagplay teams are, sometimes they'll crush you and sometimes they'll fail horribly (most of the time they lean to the fail horribly side somewhat from my experience). So imo if you want to run a team that is literally just seeing how far you can push random chance in your favor then by all means go for it.

 

[Aragorn the King]

I've found lefties Togekiss is a pretty good counter for Swagplay. It has low base attack and really nice bulk with super hard hitting special attacks (Dazzling gleam for most users: Thundrus, Sableye, Liepard, Murkrow, etc... And Flamethrower for Klefki) add roost for when your health manages to dip below 50% (which is not likely) and you're set.

Honestly I don't find Swagplay all that intimidating but I had never seen a full Swagplay team until I fought this one today (Not sure why the view is reversed but oh well): http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/oususpecttest-99657194

That was definitely a long, grueling battle. All hax aside I think this battle shows just how luck-based Swagplay teams are, sometimes they'll crush you and sometimes they'll fail horribly (most of the time they lean to the fail horribly side somewhat from my experience). So imo if you want to run a team that is literally just seeing how far you can push random chance in your favor then by all means go for it.

Wow. Cnorth26 ... WHY?

 

[D-Ssain]

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-99837127

I battled a team with 4 swagplay users, Deo-D and Gyrados. The other guy forfeited, but after going through this battle I will change my side to banning Swagger+Prankster combination. While I was battling I realized that the other guy wasn't doing anything but spamming swagger and twave and trying to hax me. Ban it.

 

[Waster0fTime]

From Feb usage stats

swagplay...................... 0.21642%

So on average you have to play over 450 games to play one of these teams. I've said this before and I'll say it again this is a legitimate strategy. Is it in "the spirit of the game"? No but neither is para flinch jirachi and people haven't decided to dedicate nearly as much hate to that as they have to this. I've always thought Smogon had good reasoning behind bans but this goes to far. There is a strategy here not like with evasion or OHKO moves nor is it completely overcentralising. If this gets banned I'll loose a lot of faith in Smogon.

 

[Flamedood]

Lum+Sub Garchomp destroys this strategy and adores the +2. Outside of prankster abusers it is a great safeguard against burns and revenge killers and with earthquake+ dclaw coverage, all you need is something to handle togekiss