SINNOH CLASSIC

The Immortal

The Immortal

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Return to the era of Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl with the Sinnoh Classic!​

Sign-Up Period
Thursday, July 14, 2016, at 00:00 UTC, through Thursday, July 21, 2016, at 23:59 UTC

Competition Period
Friday, July 22, 2016, at 00:00 UTC, through Sunday, July 24, 2016, at 23:59 UTC

Participation Gift
All qualified participants in the Sinnoh Classic will receive a Garchomp just like the one Cynthia used as the Sinnoh League Champion in Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl. To qualify, players must earn a place in the rankings by completing at least three battles.

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Garchomp
Lv. 66
OT: Cynthia
Ability: Sand Veil
Moves: Dragon Rush, Brick Break, Giga Impact, Earthquake

Ranking Results Announcement
August 2016 (announcement time subject to change)

Compatible Games
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire

Competition Rules
• This competition uses Double Battle format.
• Players may use Pokémon with National Pokédex number 1 through 493, with the exception of the following: Dragonite, Mewtwo, Mew, Tyranitar, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Heatran, Giratina, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus.
• Pokémon brought over from Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, Pokémon Black 2, or Pokémon White 2 via Poké Transporter may participate in this competition.
• Register six of your Lv. 1–100 Pokémon to your Battle Box.
• All Pokémon above Lv. 50 in this competition will automatically become Lv. 50 for the duration of each match.
• Four of the Pokémon you register to your Battle Box may be used during each match.
• Mega Stones are not allowed.
• The item Soul Dew is not allowed.
• A 30-minute time limit for each match will automatically be enforced in-game, beginning at the start of each battle. If the outcome has not been determined when the time limit expires, the game will automatically apply tiebreakers to determine a winner.
• At the beginning of each battle, players have 90 seconds to select four Pokémon with which to battle.
• At the beginning of each turn, players have 60 seconds to select a move or change the Pokémon in battle. If a player has not made his or her selections at the end of this period, the game will automatically make selections for the player.
• Players may battle up to 15 games per day of the competition. Any unplayed games will carry over to the following day. A new day begins at 00:00 UTC.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In short,
  • Doubles
  • Pokédex number 1 through 493 only
  • Banned Pokémon: Dragonite, Mewtwo, Mew, Tyranitar, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Heatran, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus
  • Non-pentagon allowed
  • No Mega Stones
  • No Soul Dew
Playable on Pokémon Showdown!

How to sign up < a guide
 
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I wonder if this reward garchomp will have the same 6 flawless IV's that cynthia's actual garchomp had. The seemingly random bans are very interesting.
 
Oh shit, did not see that coming! Very interesting that they chose doubles this time, guess it wasn't like that for Johto Classic because Doubles didn't exist yet.

Guess I better start thinking about what to bring. All I got on my mind atm is that without Landorus-T, I guess its time to bust out the Garchomps!

Also, I imagine Dragonite and TTar are banned because in gen 4, it was impossible to get them without events at level 50. Heatran is weird though so Platinum enabled you to pull it off.
 
Got sniped while making this thread. D:

Theorymon said:
Heatran is weird though so Platinum enabled you to pull it off.
Click to expand...

This can be answered with the fact that they appear to be following VGC08 rules which was before Platinum came out. So legal Heatran was still not possible then. Doesn't explain why Regigigas isn't listed but I guess it's just Regigigas...
 
I can see Azumarill+Redirection being one of the dominant strategies in the format; possible redirectors are Blastoise, Tangela, Togetic, Clefs, Pachirisu, Tangrowth and Togekiss.

Garchomp could also see usage since there is no lando
 
It's funny because Tower Tycoon Palmer had first Dragonite and then Heatran both at level 50. lol (you'd have National Dex by then already tho)

So glad that this competition is finally coming. Cynthia's Garchomp is a sweet gift, though I don't think it's worth to use on serious competitions because of its ability. Anyway, it's perfect for the nostalgic fans who love these characters.

I'm glad that we can make Double Battles again like in the Battle of Hoenn competition, yet I'm kinda disappointed that the format isn't restricted to Platinum's Sinnoh Dex. That opens the possibility of at least 4 or 5 original Pokémon from regions other than Sinnoh will cover your team, so it wouldn't feel "Sinnoh Classic" at all, just like Johto Classic did. Battle of Hoenn was restricted to ORAS' Hoenn Dex and it felt more of an actual tribute, a 'Hoenn party'.

At least I know very well that Sinnoh Pokémon may not be underestimated.
 
I'm pretty hyped for this. I've been waiting for the sinnoh classic since I couldn't participate in the Johto Classic due to exams. Also any meta where infernape is amazing, count me in.
 
You know with Tyranitar banned I bet Rain is going to be VERY popular in this metagame, since we got stuff like Politoed, Ludicolo, Rotom-W, and Kingdra. Could see some people running Ninetales + Venusaur too (in fact that's what my first team is trying lol). However for an anti rain pick, I imagine Abomasnow works better. Its slower than Politoed, and even if something uses Rain Dance (guess they'd be paranoid about sun), Abomasnow defeats most of the rainmons.

Main issue is that Abomasnow has a lot of really bad weaknesses, and is gonna lose to most mons with Fire-type moves (maybe Scarf is viable I dunno). Still though, I think it might be worthy of merit if the weather wars rage on like I predict they will!
 
Theorymon said:
You know with Tyranitar banned I bet Rain is going to be VERY popular in this metagame, since we got stuff like Politoed, Ludicolo, Rotom-W, and Kingdra. Could see some people running Ninetales + Venusaur too (in fact that's what my first team is trying lol). However for an anti rain pick, I imagine Abomasnow works better. Its slower than Politoed, and even if something uses Rain Dance (guess they'd be paranoid about sun), Abomasnow defeats most of the rainmons.

Main issue is that Abomasnow has a lot of really bad weaknesses, and is gonna lose to most mons with Fire-type moves (maybe Scarf is viable I dunno). Still though, I think it might be worthy of merit if the weather wars rage on like I predict they will!
Click to expand...
Maybe trick room wil work on abomasnow since it is doubles and this will led abomasnow move first so those weaknesses are less a problem?
 
Theorymon said:
You know with Tyranitar banned I bet Rain is going to be VERY popular in this metagame, since we got stuff like Politoed, Ludicolo, Rotom-W, and Kingdra. Could see some people running Ninetales + Venusaur too (in fact that's what my first team is trying lol). However for an anti rain pick, I imagine Abomasnow works better. Its slower than Politoed, and even if something uses Rain Dance (guess they'd be paranoid about sun), Abomasnow defeats most of the rainmons.

Main issue is that Abomasnow has a lot of really bad weaknesses, and is gonna lose to most mons with Fire-type moves (maybe Scarf is viable I dunno). Still though, I think it might be worthy of merit if the weather wars rage on like I predict they will!
Click to expand...

Lack of Mega on Venusaur is actually another reason too; Mega Venusaur would be damn near untouchable in the meta. Non-Mega still works though, I have not forgotten the ever-raining days of Gen 5.
Staraptor might see use too. Intimidate, Tailwind, Ground Immune, and vicious STABs (also possibly buffed by Reckless) are no joke, and with Talonflame out of the book it isn't seeing much competition.
This is going to be so fucking fun. I will almost certainly bring back my ancient but legendary Ninetales.
freekhoorn said:
Maybe trick room wil work on abomasnow since it is doubles and this will led abomasnow move first so those weaknesses are less a problem?
Click to expand...

No, fuck HailRoom, I fucking hate HailRoom. Its retarded and I have had waaaay too many narrow victories against it.

Also, with TTar gone and things like Volcarona not existing, Cresselia is almost certain to be THE S-rank support and a nightmare with CM. Scizor and Heracross guys.
 
This looks like a cool competition where weather will dominate a good chunk of battles. I'm curious is smeargle will start to corrupt the metagame since it already has this year in VGC and triples and there are far fewer prankster users to stop it. Unforunately, I likely won't be able to participate myself since I'll be on vacation that week.
 
Doubles so gonna have to pass on this one. Also they forgot Soul Dew from the regulations page again, or what?
 
freekhoorn said:
Maybe trick room wil work on abomasnow since it is doubles and this will led abomasnow move first so those weaknesses are less a problem?
Click to expand...

Hahaha oh wow, I feel foolish for forgeting about good old Hailroom! Guess the hype shut down the thinking parts of my brain :P. Yeah, I imagine Hailroom would be a nightmare for Rain teams even if you don't have Mega Abomasnow's power. That and CM Cresselia make me think that Scizor is probably a good idea to carry on rain, just watch out for HP Fire Abomasnow >_>.

ProjectTitan313 : I wonder if some people are gonna use that Scarf Final Gambit Staraptor too. Granted, With some certain annoying mons gone, I'm sure Reckless Brave Bird could be worth it too.

Brian12345 : I'm sure Smeargle is gonna cause some ragequits, but on the bright side, I imagine its way easier to carry Lum / Chesto Berry in this metagame than it is in VGC at the moment, so maybe not having that Primal / Xerneas pressure will make Smeargle more manageable this time around!
 
After consulting with VGC expert TheFourthChaser, VGC08 was the Latios/Metagross/Garchomp metagame, so I'd expect those three to be among the biggest threats here too. Metagross unfortunately does not have its killer Explosion like it did back then (though Normal Gem exists), but Fairy-types existing is a thing. Metagross was also on at least 3 of the Top 4 Worlds teams that year (it was Single Elimination back then and no team preview so the 4th team which was rain may have had it too). Other threats included Snorlax, Infernape, Gyarados, Crobat, Hitmontop, Yanmega, Abomasnow, Staraptor and possibly Heracross, I'd assume most of them are still relevant here.

Redirection was also apparently not a big thing, and given that none of the redirectors here are really Jirachi or Amoonguss tier alongside Azumarill (they mostly share weaknesses with Azumarill and don't really check the stuff that beats Azumarill) along with the lack of Mega Kangaskgan, I doubt it'll be nearly as crazy as it is in other Doubles formats.
 
Psynergy said:
After consulting with VGC expert TFC, VGC08 was the Latios/Metagross/Garchomp metagame, so I'd expect those three to be among the biggest threats here too. Metagross unfortunately does not have its killer Explosion like it did back then (though Normal Gem exists), but Fairy-types existing is a thing. Metagross was also on at least 3 of the Top 4 Worlds teams that year (it was Single Elimination back then and no team preview so the 4th team which was rain may have had it too). Other threats included Snorlax, Infernape, Gyarados, Crobat, Hitmontop, Yanmega, Abomasnow, Staraptor and possibly Heracross, I'd assume most of them are still relevant here.

Redirection was also apparently not a big thing, and given that none of the redirectors here are really Jirachi or Amoonguss tier alongside Azumarill (they mostly share weaknesses with Azumarill and don't really check the stuff that beats Azumarill) along with the lack of Mega Kangaskgan, I doubt it'll be nearly as crazy as it is in other Doubles formats.
Click to expand...

Eviolite Clefairy, Clefable, Togekiss and Eviolite Togetic exist; bad with Azumarill, yes, but they exist. BD was always shit for me anyway.
Metagross will probably be pretty good despite the lack of Mega. Mega would of been over-the-top.
Theorymon said:
ProjectTitan313 : I wonder if some people are gonna use that Scarf Final Gambit Staraptor too. Granted, With some certain annoying mons gone, I'm sure Reckless Brave Bird could be worth it too.
Click to expand...

Cress is among the few things toting high HP in the meta so yeah, Scarf Gambit is probably a thing. Reckless Brave Bird / Double-Edge aren't exactly light either lol.
 
Wait a second, where is the ban on Soul Dew...... I have nasty plans if it isn't banned for whatever reason. :)
 
WreckDra said:
Wait a second, where is the ban on Soul Dew...... I have nasty plans if it isn't banned for whatever reason. :)
Click to expand...

They'll probably add them in an update (and I bet they'll ban Regigigas and Phione too since those weren't allowed in VGC08). They usually forget to mention that Soul Dew is banned the first day these tournaments go up :P
 
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