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Ruft

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Isn't this prediction reliant? Clefable doesn't really like to switch in Facade
Does a pokemon walling Conk exists?
A Conkeldurr check that I forgot to mention is Hippowdon. None of Conkeldurr's moves other than Close Combat can 2HKO it. Especially with a Rocky Helmet it's been really effective for me recently. Iron Defense Kommo-o also does a decent job against Conkeldurr.
There's also Mimikyu but it's a bit of a niche pick that only really fits on hyper offensive teams.
 
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R8

Leads Natdex Other Tiers, not rly doing ndou stuff
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If you're really desperate, Galarian Weezing hard walls it, but it's not very good in the metagame.
It doesn't have reliable recovery move, and resttalk can lose against facade. Levitate is 2HKOed by Facade, neutralizing gas 2HKOed by facade, even if fully invested in HP and def with +def nature.


A Conkeldurr check that I forgot to mention is Hippowdon. None of Conkeldurr's moves other than Close Combat can 2HKO it. Especially with a rocky helmet it's been really effective for me recently. Iron Defense Kommo-o also does a decent job against Conkeldurr.
There's also Mimikyu but it's a bit of a niche pick that only really fits on hyper offensive teams.
Yeah, but unfortunately, Close Combat exists...
Mimikyu seems an interesting choice though, i'll take a look. Maybe a resttalk set could do the work, spreading toxic and doing cheap damages with Play rough. But Earthquake, and the rare poison jab (10% usage) can deal a lot of damages (But it means that Conk miss a coverage move, so i could play around it i guess)
 
Clefable / Hippowdon / Ferrothorn / Excadrill / Rotom-H / Dragapult, a sand team built by FLCL, has been making some big waves lately and is by many considered to be the best sand team in the current metagame.
Thanks!:]
Do you have a PokéPaste of the team, btw?

EDIT: Nvm I just found it lol
 
Where do we post tested sets on ladder if we found some things to spice up ladder matches.
In my case: Vacuum Wave Lucario and Belch Hydreigon is something I found success with.
 
Hello, it is the first time I write on smogon. I want to participate to a tournament (semi official because I heard they were the easier). So, how can we participate ?
PS : sorry for my english, I'm french
 
Apparently the most used Incineroar set which then we could call the "best set" in Gen 8 OU according to stats is Jolly 0/252/0/0/4/252 and I just need to know.........why? I just can't see it. If anyone can explain me the genius behind the set, even if it's just "higher ranks just care about winning speedties", would really appreciate it.
 
I somewhat frequently hear people talk about using a type booster or Expert Belt to "bluff choice band/specs", with the most recent example being JTD783's post in the Next Best Thing thread. My question is how is this supposed to bluff a choice boost? A 50% boost is significantly higher than a 20% boost, such that even if the choice has a +speed nature while the 20% has a +(sp)attack nature, the choice item is still stronger. Shouldn't your opponent notice your Aegislash's Shadow Ball doing less than 55.2% to their Toxapex and immediately know you aren't Modest Specs? And if you do less than 50.3% (which is most of the time) they'll know you aren't Timid Specs either?
percent windows.PNG

Specs is green, Tag is red


This idea gets repeated often enough that I feel like I must be missing something, but I can't figure out what that is.
 
I somewhat frequently hear people talk about using a type booster or Expert Belt to "bluff choice band/specs", with the most recent example being JTD783's post in the Next Best Thing thread. My question is how is this supposed to bluff a choice boost? A 50% boost is significantly higher than a 20% boost, such that even if the choice has a +speed nature while the 20% has a +(sp)attack nature, the choice item is still stronger. Shouldn't your opponent notice your Aegislash's Shadow Ball doing less than 55.2% to their Toxapex and immediately know you aren't Modest Specs? And if you do less than 50.3% (which is most of the time) they'll know you aren't Timid Specs either?
View attachment 238268
Specs is green, Tag is red


This idea gets repeated often enough that I feel like I must be missing something, but I can't figure out what that is.
I THINK it's probably less because the damage ranges themselves are similar and more because you can gradually eliminate most other common items just by identifying when they trigger - HDB is obvious on entry, Leftovers and Life Orb have end-of-turn messages, the Choice Scarf is the only Speed-boosting item and is instantly revealed the moment a Pokémon outspeeds an opponent it seemingly shouldn't, and even just using certain moves can reveal that you're not holding a Choice item without cross-referencing any calculations at all. On the other hand, you can still avoid completely giving away one of the "subtler" damage-boosting items at all - played correctly, they're the hardest to distinguish from a Band or Specs other than raw damage output.
The assumption seems to be that your opponent won't actually be calculating your damage often enough to catch discrepancies in damage output; you're able to mislead them because "it's Band" or "it's Specs" is just a default assumption on certain Pokémon if it's clearly not holding the next most likely items, and I guess many opponents aren't going to take the time to double-check the ranges on the various other items? Especially when the timer is on and you can't make that many calculations at once, I think a lot of people will prioritize figuring out how the next turn will play out over cross-referencing possible sets for their opponent to see if previous turns check out - without prior knowledge of specific damage ranges, it might just be something you don't realize is wrong until too late.
You can also bait them into this assumption by playing as though you're Choice - switching out and actively avoiding changing moves even if it would appear to be the optimal play, right up until whatever pivotal moment you were trying to secure with the bluff in the first place.
Something like this probably won't work if your opponent is well informed or prepared and already knows the ranges for (for example) Timid Specs vs Modest Spell Tag, and expects you to pull a trick like that, but I think pretty much any lure set runs the same risk.
Someone who's actually experienced, please confirm or deny this? This is my best guess, though!
 
I THINK it's probably less because the damage ranges themselves are similar and more because you can gradually eliminate most other common items just by identifying when they trigger - HDB is obvious on entry, Leftovers and Life Orb have end-of-turn messages, the Choice Scarf is the only Speed-boosting item and is instantly revealed the moment a Pokémon outspeeds an opponent it seemingly shouldn't, and even just using certain moves can reveal that you're not holding a Choice item without cross-referencing any calculations at all. On the other hand, you can still avoid completely giving away one of the "subtler" damage-boosting items at all - played correctly, they're the hardest to distinguish from a Band or Specs other than raw damage output.
The assumption seems to be that your opponent won't actually be calculating your damage often enough to catch discrepancies in damage output; you're able to mislead them because "it's Band" or "it's Specs" is just a default assumption on certain Pokémon if it's clearly not holding the next most likely items, and I guess many opponents aren't going to take the time to double-check the ranges on the various other items? Especially when the timer is on and you can't make that many calculations at once, I think a lot of people will prioritize figuring out how the next turn will play out over cross-referencing possible sets for their opponent to see if previous turns check out - without prior knowledge of specific damage ranges, it might just be something you don't realize is wrong until too late.
You can also bait them into this assumption by playing as though you're Choice - switching out and actively avoiding changing moves even if it would appear to be the optimal play, right up until whatever pivotal moment you were trying to secure with the bluff in the first place.
Something like this probably won't work if your opponent is well informed or prepared and already knows the ranges for (for example) Timid Specs vs Modest Spell Tag, and expects you to pull a trick like that, but I think pretty much any lure set runs the same risk.
Someone who's actually experienced, please confirm or deny this? This is my best guess, though!
The part about playing as if you're choice locked until a pivotal moment makes sense, and is why using something like a resist berry to bluff scarf makes total sense to me. It's also easier to cleanly bluff a scarf, as if you don't outspeed even with the scarf, or would have outsped regardless, or if the opponent switches, then it's impossible to tell the item. But unless the 20% power boost pushes an attack into KO range, bluffing band or specs is much messier. Even if players aren't running calcs on every move, I assume that really good players have a general sense of how strong common attacks should be from experience, and will notice that something is up.

I know not everyone has that intuition or experience (I know I don't) but I would kinda disappointed if this trick relies on your opponent being inexperienced as opposed to actually obfuscating information.
 
I somewhat frequently hear people talk about using a type booster or Expert Belt to "bluff choice band/specs", with the most recent example being JTD783's post in the Next Best Thing thread. My question is how is this supposed to bluff a choice boost? A 50% boost is significantly higher than a 20% boost, such that even if the choice has a +speed nature while the 20% has a +(sp)attack nature, the choice item is still stronger. Shouldn't your opponent notice your Aegislash's Shadow Ball doing less than 55.2% to their Toxapex and immediately know you aren't Modest Specs? And if you do less than 50.3% (which is most of the time) they'll know you aren't Timid Specs either?
View attachment 238268
Specs is green, Tag is red


This idea gets repeated often enough that I feel like I must be missing something, but I can't figure out what that is.
You are correct in identifying that the opponent must have a lack of knowledge of the damage rolls. The strategy will most likely not work against top players, who will know from experience that a Modest Specs Shadow Ball would have a higher damage output. But as Hematite said, anyone not experienced or observant enough to detect the difference is likely to be caught off guard.

In the context of the set I posted, the bluff relies on the opponent being accurate and not precise. Specifically, the opponent will see that their Toxapex is at less than half (after rocks ) after a hit from Aegislash's Shadow Ball and realize that it is in danger of a 2HKO. Just about every special Aegislash is Specs, and a Shadow Ball from the SubToxic variant is nowhere near strong enough to hit that hard (and lefties will be revealed if rocks are up). So the opponent is accurate in this observation of damage output.

However, the precision is lacking. The damage output will be less than that of a Specs Aegislash, but without a precise knowledge of how hard Specs should hit, the opponent may think nothing of it. Alternatively, the opponent may notice the lack of power but chalk it up to a low roll. After all, doesn't every special Aegislash run Specs? It clearly isn't Life Orb, and it may have revealed Shadow Sneak earlier, which is standard on Specs anyway.

The set preys on inexperienced players and their non-precise knowledge, and fuels their biased assumptions of what they're dealing with. It is less likely to work against a top player but it is sufficient to surprise the average opponent.

Nice chart by the way.
 

Ruft

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There's also the scenario where your Pokemon finishes off an opposing Pokemon with its first attack. If your opponent sees that your Pokemon has taken hazard damage (or it just doesn't make sense for your Pokemon to be holding Heavy-Duty Boots), gained no Leftovers recovery, was not inflicted by Life Orb recoil, and it makes sense for it to hold a Choice item (and not something like Rocky Helmet), they will most likely assume you're choice-locked and they can't calc the damage to refute that assumption. This is where you can take advantage of the bluff.
 
Also the bluff can work better with Expert Belt since the 20% boost to a coverage move might make the damage roll seem more plausible for a Choice-locked set ("oh, the coverage move did that much because it's Specs").
 

Jerry the great

Banned deucer.
So since this has happened in OU before in the past and could possibly happen this gen too, which I'd like to prevent if I ever nominate a Pokemon...
What exactly does get a Pokemon in the blacklisted category that prevents you from nominating them?
 
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So since this has happened in OU before in the past and could possibly happen this gen too, which I'd like to prevent if I ever nominate a Pokemon...
What exactly does get a Pokemon in the blacklisted category that prevents you from nominating them?
Generally it involves a pokemon that is bad and has either no niche or a very small one, that is constantly nominated for rises by low effort poorly informed posts, and leads to large multi post arguments every time it's brought up
 
Why do people run Jolly Max Speed Incineroar? It´s the most used set in Gen8OU 1825 stats.
Isn't the point to be a bulky pivot?
 

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