Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

[Lando-San]

Suspect-test related question:

This is my first time trying hard to get reqs, so i don't understand well how GXE works.
Can somebody to explain me how it works?
After 12 games, the alt is going 10-2...is it doomed or still i have a chance to make it in 50 games or less?

Good luck everyone with your laddering

 

[Red Raven]

Is nasty plot Tornadus Therian worth using outside of rain? Because you know, hurricane never hits when you absolutely need it to hit. If yes, what's the usual moveset for a non rain Tornadus Therian? Does it just use np, hurricane, focus miss and a random fourth move or is there another moveset it uses?

 

[Zneon]

Is nasty plot Tornadus Therian worth using outside of rain? Because you know, hurricane never hits when you absolutely need it to hit. If yes, what's the usual moveset for a non rain Tornadus Therian? Does it just use np, hurricane, focus miss and a random fourth move or is there another moveset it uses?

I would say that it is, even though the accuracy can be a pain, its Speed tier combined with U-turn and Regenerator makes Tornadus-T very threatening even outside of rain. An accurate Tornadus-T has the potential to sweep teams and Regenerator allows it to outlast Pokemon like Magearna. It took a slow start but it really started to shoot up in viability and effectiveness very recently.

For reference, you can look through the week 1 replays of SPL, which can be seen here.

Hope this helped!

 

[Jordy]

Is nasty plot Tornadus Therian worth using outside of rain? Because you know, hurricane never hits when you absolutely need it to hit. If yes, what's the usual moveset for a non rain Tornadus Therian? Does it just use np, hurricane, focus miss and a random fourth move or is there another moveset it uses?

It absolutely is worth using. It's got a really strong Speed tier and is one of the hardest Pokemon to switch into. The typical set looks something along the lines of this:

Tornadus-Therian @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast / Heat Wave
- U-turn / Knock Off

However, I am personally a very big fan of running Substitute, as Tornadus-T gets ample opportunities to set one up against Pokemon like Toxapex, and it grants you more freedom with the potential to miss. Here's what that looks like:

Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane
- Focus Blast
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot

 

[shadowpea]

Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 88 Def / 28 SpD / 144 Spe
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Mystical Fire
- Scorching Sands
- Roost

Besides outspeeding Magearna, what's this EV spread all about?

 

[Zneon]

Moltres @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 248 HP / 88 Def / 28 SpD / 144 Spe
Bold Nature
- Defog
- Mystical Fire
- Scorching Sands
- Roost

Besides outspeeding Magearna, what's this EV spread all about?

For the defenses, 248 HP / 88 Def allows Moltres to live a +2 Knock Off from Kartana at full HP, and the rest is put into SpD I’m pretty sure.

Hope this helped!

 

[Hurpleshmurple]

Doom Desire Jirachi:

With the recent surge of Future Sight brought into the meta by Slowbro/Slowking, I decided to take a look into the capabilities of Doom Desire Jirachi. Given the ability for Jirachi to serve as a pivot I decided to focus this set on dealing powerful hits to help cover the counters of other pokemon. Notable uses I've thought about are aiding Spectrier in combating Tyranitar, Regieleki combating Landorus, as well as encouraging Heatran to stay in on strong ground moves. In my experiences using this on ladder this usually ended up with the opponent taking a trade or a heavy hit while keeping my pokemon in good condition. I was wondering if anyone else had decided to look into Doom Desire Jirachi given the recent surge of Future Sight, and was also wondering if there were any significant factors holding this strategy back?

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet/Modest Nature
- Doom Desire
- U-turn
- Protect/Body Slam/Iron Head/Future Sight
- Wish/Future Sight

 

[Katy]

Doom Desire Jirachi:

With the recent surge of Future Sight brought into the meta by Slowbro/Slowking, I decided to take a look into the capabilities of Doom Desire Jirachi. Given the ability for Jirachi to serve as a pivot I decided to focus this set on dealing powerful hits to help cover the counters of other pokemon. Notable uses I've thought about are aiding Spectrier in combating Tyranitar, Regieleki combating Landorus, as well as encouraging Heatran to stay in on strong ground moves. In my experiences using this on ladder this usually ended up with the opponent taking a trade or a heavy hit while keeping my pokemon in good condition. I was wondering if anyone else had decided to look into Doom Desire Jirachi given the recent surge of Future Sight, and was also wondering if there were any significant factors holding this strategy back?

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet/Modest Nature
- Doom Desire
- U-turn
- Protect/Body Slam/Iron Head/Future Sight
- Wish/Future Sight

While Doom Desire-Jirachi sounds not bad on paper it is held back by plenty of factors in the current metagame, given the rise of Knock off on a lot of teams to remove annoying items such as your listed Leftovers and moreso Heavy-Duty Boots the strategy won't pay off that much as Future Sight would. Slowbro, Slowking-Galar, and even regular Slowking can do that job better, due to having a better typing and a better defensive movepool to come with them, such as Slack Off and Regenerator to use this strategy in a long term and to pressure consistently.

Jirachi just doesn't have these traits and moreover its typing isnt the best given the recent rise of Ground-types in the current metagame such as Landorus-t, Garchomp, Nidoking, and other more fringe options. Moreover Jirachi fears strong faster attackers such as Cinderace. Also the recent popularity of Blissey and also Dark-types such as bulky Roost-Hydreigon and Mandibuzz mean that Jirachi has issues against them and Jirachi also faces the surge of Corviknight as a great slot in bulky team variants and Doom Desire won't do too much to Corviknight with Doom Desire nor Future Sight and Corviknight can just Roost that damage taken off.

Jirachi faces too many issues in the current metagame to act like a great Future Sight / Doom Desire-user and that slot is taken away mainly by Slowbro, Slowking, and the super popular Galarian Slowking as they provide a better defensive typing, pressure more Pokemon with better coverage and having the longterm in sense of Slack Off and Regenerator with the former two and Regenerator for the latter.

I just think, when you look for a potent Future Sight-user you should keep your eyes open for these 3 Pokemon.

 

[BoomFantastic]

What are some good spinners for a Spikes team?

 

[SuperiorTroodon]

What are some good spinners for a Spikes team?

Perhaps the best is excadrill, which is especially good with sand support since it not only makes excadrill very powerful, sandstorm and spikes do a great job of wearing down opponents. If you dont want that, regieleki is the fastest spinner in the game, tentacruel and starmie are good on rain and balance teams, and torkoal is good spinner for sun teams.

 

[musiquepkmn]

Doom Desire Jirachi:

With the recent surge of Future Sight brought into the meta by Slowbro/Slowking, I decided to take a look into the capabilities of Doom Desire Jirachi. Given the ability for Jirachi to serve as a pivot I decided to focus this set on dealing powerful hits to help cover the counters of other pokemon. Notable uses I've thought about are aiding Spectrier in combating Tyranitar, Regieleki combating Landorus, as well as encouraging Heatran to stay in on strong ground moves. In my experiences using this on ladder this usually ended up with the opponent taking a trade or a heavy hit while keeping my pokemon in good condition. I was wondering if anyone else had decided to look into Doom Desire Jirachi given the recent surge of Future Sight, and was also wondering if there were any significant factors holding this strategy back?

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet/Modest Nature
- Doom Desire
- U-turn
- Protect/Body Slam/Iron Head/Future Sight
- Wish/Future Sight

The main thing that I think holds Doom Desire back is its typing. Many pokemon that struggle with pokemon who are weak to steel like Clefable and Tyranitar also struggle with other non-steel weak mons. The prominence of the water typing means anything that can't break through water types can't gain anything major from Doom Desire, and any special-attacking threat looking to profit will often fall flat against Blissey and Slowking-galar due to their sheer special bulk.

Examples:
Garchomp and Dragonite struggle with Clefable, but they also struggle with Corviknight unless they're running Fire Blast
Spectrier struggles with Tyranitar but it also struggles with Blissey, and if it's a special set that can beat Blissey it won't be able to feel the effects of Doom Desire
Regieleki also benefits the same amount from Future Sight coming off a much better mon in Slowbro (who has the same Special Attack stat as Jirachi)


In general Doom Desire often doesn't have the type matchup it needs to differentiate itself from Future Sight, since Future Sight hits Pex super effective and has a lot more synergy with mons like Fighting types who need help versus Pex, and who can blow through most special walls and resists like Corviknight. Slowbro being an amazing pokemon outside of Future Sight doesn't help Doom Desire's case, either.

 

[CadmusRhodium]

The main thing that I think holds Doom Desire back is its typing. Many pokemon that struggle with pokemon who are weak to steel like Clefable and Tyranitar also struggle with other non-steel weak mons. The prominence of the water typing means anything that can't break through water types can't gain anything major from Doom Desire, and any special-attacking threat looking to profit will often fall flat against Blissey and Slowking-galar due to their sheer special bulk.

Examples:
Garchomp and Dragonite struggle with Clefable, but they also struggle with Corviknight unless they're running Fire Blast
Spectrier struggles with Tyranitar but it also struggles with Blissey, and if it's a special set that can beat Blissey it won't be able to feel the effects of Doom Desire
Regieleki also benefits the same amount from Future Sight coming off a much better mon in Slowbro (who has the same Special Attack stat as Jirachi)


In general Doom Desire often doesn't have the type matchup it needs to differentiate itself from Future Sight, since Future Sight hits Pex super effective and has a lot more synergy with mons like Fighting types who need help versus Pex, and who can blow through most special walls and resists like Corviknight. Slowbro being an amazing pokemon outside of Future Sight doesn't help Doom Desire's case, either.

Agreed. In fact, the CAP project Equilibra was specifically built around abusing the move Doom Desire, and a big talking point was that Jirachi is not the best user of the move. You’ll probably get a better idea by reading through the archives but basically, it seems like slow bulky pivots are your best bet for delayed attack abuse, and oh look, guess what strategy is running rampant in OU! Jirachi is not a slow bulky pivot. It doesn’t have excellent special attack, and using Calm Mind to boost that isn’t the best option for a Doom Desire set for fairly obvious reasons. Probably best to stick to Iron Head flinching for now...

 

[Ehmcee]

What is the standard spdef defog hydreigon set?

 

[Finchinator]

What is the standard spdef defog hydreigon set?

Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 164 HP / 92 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Dark Pulse / Snarl
- Earth Power
- Roost

This is the standard Defog set, but a lot of people have been dropping speed and ramping up bulk. Here is an example of that:
Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 132 SpD / 128 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse / Snarl
- Roost
- Earth Power
- Defog

 

[Red Raven]

Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 164 HP / 92 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Dark Pulse / Snarl
- Earth Power
- Roost

This is the standard Defog set, but a lot of people have been dropping speed and ramping up bulk. Here is an example of that:
Hydreigon @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 132 SpD / 128 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Dark Pulse / Snarl
- Roost
- Earth Power
- Defog

What's the reason for the speed evs on both sets if I may ask?

 

[Finchinator]

What's the reason for the speed evs on both sets if I may ask?

First one is the standard analysis spread. It is able to check NP Wisp Spectrier, live Ice Beam from LO Nidoking 15/16 times after SR, and eat 2 bulky Tornadus-Therian Hurricane after SR and Leftovers.

Second one drops speed to only outrun Heatran, Adamant Landorus-Therian, Blaziken, Dragonite, Modest Tapu Lele/Kyurem, and Adamant Obstagoon while maximizing special bulk for Spectrier and Heatran.

 

[BoomFantastic]

What are some good EV spreads for AV Slowking? I'm running 252 HP / 144+ SpA / 112 SpD to match Slowking-G's offensive power, while making Nidoking's Sludge Wave a 4HKO

 

[Katy]

What are some good EV spreads for AV Slowking? I'm running 252 HP / 144+ SpA / 112 SpD to match Slowking-G's offensive power, while making Nidoking's Sludge Wave a 4HKO

Hello BoomFantastic Slowking usually runs the following set and spread:
Slowking @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Future Sight
- Teleport

I feel this set is the best set currently as Assault Vest doesn't allow you to do numerous of keyaspects which Slowking aims to do, it can't come in constantly on entry hazards and therefore has to always be wary about Stealth Rocks, Spikes, and the although less common but still existent Toxic Spikes set by Toxapex. This is something Slowking doesn't want. Furthermore Slack Off gives it some much needed longevity, which Slowking really appreciates in the long run of the game and to use Future Sight and Teleport in a more safe way. To add onto that, Slowking really loves to punish switches with Future Sight-chip, even for bulky Steel-types such as Magearna, the chip-damage can make a difference between an 3HKO or an 2HKO aimed at it. It also serves a great role as a slow Teleporter to give its teammates a safe and welcomed way to go onto the battlefield. I just feel like Assault Vest feels very redundant on Slowking.

Hope this helped :)

 

[shadowpea]

What is the best moveset and EVs for a Thundurus-Therian on a rain team? I want Thunder and Weather Ball on it but am not sure what else should I ise (leaning towards an AoA set of Thunder/Weather Ball/Focus Miss/Sludge Wave).

 

[Finchinator]

What is the best moveset and EVs for a Thundurus-Therian on a rain team? I want Thunder and Weather Ball on it but am not sure what else should I ise (leaning towards a set of Thunder/Weather Ball/Focus Miss/Sludge Wave).

You tend to want to run a set-up move like Nasty Plot (or even Agility); Sludge Wave is not worthwhile as it really only hits Rillaboom and the occasional Tapu Bulu. The other moves are fine.

 

[eevee sq]

is spectrier boy or girl

 

[Baloor]

is spectrier boy or girl

genderless

 

[SaveMeJebus]

Will Ditto always lose the speed tie?

 

[Finchinator]

Will Ditto always lose the speed tie?

no, it's a speed "tie", not a speed lose.

also, Ditto tends to run Choice Scarf, thus meaning that it outruns opponents lacking a Choice Scar.

 

[SaveMeJebus]

no, it's a speed "tie", not a speed lose.

also, Ditto tends to run Choice Scarf, thus meaning that it outruns opponents lacking a Choice Scar.

Guess I might just be unlucky. I've never once outrun a scarf user. Just asking because I don't understand the new mechanics. It wouldn't surprise me if they added a mechanic where the winner of the tie is determined by total stats or something