VGC 2016 Rules - "Uber" legendaries are back!

[Demantoid]

Yeah that's what I am running, but I typed Jolly for some reason. Really no reason to not run -Atk with a 0 IV if you're not using physical attacks (unless you want min Speed for Trick Room and Gyro Ball).

Is it just me, or is pretty much every battle in this format decided by hax? Origin Pulse, Precipice Blades, and WoW misses, Swagger fishing for hax, random crits taking your Pokemon out when it should have survived, etc.

I feel like that the battles have less hax overall. However the hax that do happen seem to effect the game a lot more than last year. It feels like every game I bring Precipice Blades Groudon I lose because it misses at least once during each game.

 

[Pigeons]

I'm bored so I'll share this fun team I've been using. It's not anything particularly amazing but it's pretty fun and incredibly dangerous under the right circumstances.

Team Importable

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Eruption
- Protect

Reshiram @ Choice Specs
Ability: Turboblaze
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Blue Flare
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse

Gengar-Mega @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fake Tears
- Encore
- Tailwind
- Taunt

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Heat Wave
- Roar
- Protect

Team Description

Pretty much a Fire spam team. I decided to use Reshiram for no real reason other than wanting to try it out, and the rest of the team is built around allowing it to do as much damage as possible. Groudon is a natural pick for the second Legendary slot because of the Sun it provides, and it also has an extremely powerful Eruption to throw around. Mega Gengar helps to control the weather and isolate threats to Groudon and Reshiram so they can be removed. Whimsicott pairs nicely with Gengar to form an annoying duo and also provides Speed control and helps against Xerneas with Encore. Thundurus is the only thing on the team that can do significant damage to Primal Kyogre and is also one of the only ways it can combat Mega Rayquaza. Air Baloon Heatran is pretty funny, a lot of Primal Groudons (including my own) only run STAB moves, and this Heatran walls them entirely. It also checks Xerneas very well with Roar. This team has quite a few weaknesses, mainly against Kyogre (try to hit it with Thundurus and play smart with Groudon) and Mega Rayquaza (try to paralyze it or get Tailwind up so Reshiram or Thundurus can hurt it), but it's really fun to play and if the opponent lacks a Primal Kyogre, their team can often get turned to a crisp very quickly. Again, this team definitely isn't something I think will do well in the meta, but it's fun to use and I thought I'd share it.

 

[Vengeance417]

I'm bored so I'll share this fun team I've been using. It's not anything particularly amazing but it's pretty fun and incredibly dangerous under the right circumstances.

Team Importable

Groudon-Primal @ Red Orb
Ability: Desolate Land
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower
- Eruption
- Protect

Reshiram @ Choice Specs
Ability: Turboblaze
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Heat Wave
- Blue Flare
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse

Gengar-Mega @ Gengarite
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

Whimsicott @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Fake Tears
- Encore
- Tailwind
- Taunt

Thundurus @ Life Orb
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Heat Wave
- Roar
- Protect

Team Description

Pretty much a Fire spam team. I decided to use Reshiram for no real reason other than wanting to try it out, and the rest of the team is built around allowing it to do as much damage as possible. Groudon is a natural pick for the second Legendary slot because of the Sun it provides, and it also has an extremely powerful Eruption to throw around. Mega Gengar helps to control the weather and isolate threats to Groudon and Reshiram so they can be removed. Whimsicott pairs nicely with Gengar to form an annoying duo and also provides Speed control and helps against Xerneas with Encore. Thundurus is the only thing on the team that can do significant damage to Primal Kyogre and is also one of the only ways it can combat Mega Rayquaza. Air Baloon Heatran is pretty funny, a lot of Primal Groudons (including my own) only run STAB moves, and this Heatran walls them entirely. It also checks Xerneas very well with Roar. This team has quite a few weaknesses, mainly against Kyogre (try to hit it with Thundurus and play smart with Groudon) and Mega Rayquaza (try to paralyze it or get Tailwind up so Reshiram or Thundurus can hurt it), but it's really fun to play and if the opponent lacks a Primal Kyogre, their team can often get turned to a crisp very quickly. Again, this team definitely isn't something I think will do well in the meta, but it's fun to use and I thought I'd share it.

Finally, a Reshiram team. I respect that :)

I can make a suggestion for you that can help out your matchup vs Kyogre and even Xerneas.

Remove Heatran and add:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 228 Atk / 180 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Protect

I know it's weird to use this on a Tailwind team, but having Ferrothorn as a backup mon in case Xerneas gets the Geomancy up is pretty nice. The bulk allows you to take a LO Mega Ray's Dragon Ascent and retaliate back with Gyro Ball, while the attack investment OHKOs 0/4 Primal Kyogre with Power Whip. The rest goes in to special bulk.

Your team could also use a secondary Tailwind user in case yours runs out and Whimsi is dead. I recommend not running Specs Reshiram and running LO Tailwind because being locked in on a move that certain Pokemon have an immunity towards in a potential 1v1 situation (Kyogre vs Fire STAB and Xerneas/other fairies vs Dragon STAB) means you automatically lose. With that, you'll have to give Thundy a new item. You can opt for a bulkier set with Sitrus Berry.

 

[Pigeons]

Finally, a Reshiram team. I respect that :)

I can make a suggestion for you that can help out your matchup vs Kyogre and even Xerneas.

Remove Heatran and add:

Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 228 Atk / 180 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Protect

I know it's weird to use this on a Tailwind team, but having Ferrothorn as a backup mon in case Xerneas gets the Geomancy up is pretty nice. The bulk allows you to take a LO Mega Ray's Dragon Ascent and retaliate back with Gyro Ball, while the attack investment OHKOs 0/4 Primal Kyogre with Power Whip. The rest goes in to special bulk.

Your team could also use a secondary Tailwind user in case yours runs out and Whimsi is dead. I recommend not running Specs Reshiram and running LO Tailwind because being locked in on a move that certain Pokemon have an immunity towards in a potential 1v1 situation (Kyogre vs Fire STAB and Xerneas/other fairies vs Dragon STAB) means you automatically lose. With that, you'll have to give Thundy a new item. You can opt for a bulkier set with Sitrus Berry.

I was using Ferrothorn before Hetaran actually, the problem is it made my Primal Groudon matchup even worse than it already was. Having only one Tailwind user hasn't been a problem but I might give LO Reshiram a try for the heck of it. Usually Primal Kyogre is manageable anyways, I just have to play extremely cautiously.

 

[viperGTS]

I've been playing the meta for a bit now, and I have a question:

Do you guys feel that 0 speed IV's on Primal's aren't as important as they seemingly are? For the most part, I've found that switching my Primal at the right time is much easier and more effective than trying to speed tie and win the weather war on the first turn, especially since you can just predict incoming Fire/Water moves to negate them and get your weather up at the same time.

Just my two cents so far! This meta is so much more fun than 2014 :)

 

[Esmeya]

Was talking with some others and on the subject of VGC I'd like to address something here then it will be in the hack check thread's OP at Wifi's subforum [here]. This may not apply to any of the frequenters or a good majority of them, please do not reply to this post with questions if you have any PM me.

Maxsoft Shiny Rayquaza's (aka Singapore Summer 2015 Rayquaza) OT name is one character too long for any of the games to register correctly - OT: SG Summer'15 . It is flagged as a hack because of this reason, Maxsoft - the distributors and makers of this event coupled with Nintendo of SEA region have been contacted numerous times by many people to fix this. They deemed "nothing was wrong" with the event or that people were in the wrong for this to occur.

This one character too long issue has also happened with two Nintendo of Korea events, most notably Jirachi for their release of the Wishmaker movie (after almost a decade of NA, JPN and EU/PAL) receiving the event. The difference is NoK actually paid attention to the response of customers and fixed it within the week of its release, but they too kept sending messages back to complainers that there was nothing wrong with the event and that it was made untradeable on purpose. Maxsoft still doesn't care at all about the fallacy.


You cannot trade Maxsoft Rayquaza in any other way other than local trade. It's flagged as a hack at tournaments for this reason - the games programming registers it as an invalid combination because the number of characters is "impossible" through normal means. This is very much like having a Japanese OT/Nickname on an English language save, but less dubious. Don't use the event Rayquaza with the OT: SG Summer'15; if you do you risk being DQ'd. All other Gen 6 Rayquaza are valid, however until TPCi, Maxsoft or Nintendo "SEA" address the issue with their Rayquaza, which is looking like never, Maxsoft Rayquaza will always be ineligible. All of these Rayquaza are shiny.

Eligible:

Winter 2015 World Hobby Fair Japanese Rayquaza - OT: ＷＨＦ１５ ID: 01185
CoroCoro Rayquaza - OT: コロコロ ID: 03145
Pokémon Spring Carnival 2015 Korean Rayquaza - OT: 포켓몬타운15 ID: 05025 (also had character issue, but was fixed)
Galileo Rayquaza - OT: Galilée or Galileo ID: 08055
Nintendo Hong Kong Rayquaza - OT: Nintendo HK ID: 09115

Not eligible:

Maxsoft Rayquaza (Singapore Summer 2015 Rayquaza) - OT: SG Summer'15 ID: 03145

 

[Demantoid]

For those that have not heard special season 14 on battle spot will be vgc 16.

 

[Nitrojuju]

My favorite set to use in VGC by far is:

Mr. Mime @ Focus Sash
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quick Guard
- Wide Guard
- Dazzling Gleam
- Magic Coat

Using wide guard and quick guard can help your Xerneas get set us against things like Kyogre and prankster users since quick guard completely cripples things like Liepard and Whimsicott. The only big downside I have found so far is Crobat because unless it goes for Mr. Mime first, it can taunt your Xerneas. A scizor comes in and wants to bullet punch your Xerneas? Lol, no. But i can be useful without Xerneas also against things that almost always use area attacks like kyogre and groudon's primal forms.

 

[Pyritie]

My favorite set to use in VGC by far is:

Mr. Mime @ Focus Sash
Ability: Filter
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quick Guard
- Wide Guard
- Dazzling Gleam
- Magic Coat

Using wide guard and quick guard can help your Xerneas get set us against things like Kyogre and prankster users since quick guard completely cripples things like Liepard and Whimsicott. The only big downside I have found so far is Crobat because unless it goes for Mr. Mime first, it can taunt your Xerneas. A scizor comes in and wants to bullet punch your Xerneas? Lol, no. But i can be useful without Xerneas also against things that almost always use area attacks like kyogre and groudon's primal forms.

Use soundproof over filter. You're already just going to use the sash against most attacks, and soundproof protects you against all of the salamences running around. And it might come in handy if you happen to go against a gravity + grasswhistle whimsicott team, for example.

 

[Derivatives]

Mr. Mime has no room dealing damage and dazzling gleam is weak as fuck, you should use something like fake out or like light screen so that mr mime is more useful. I would also advise against using this because mr mime gets OHKOd by Kangaskhan and is free af setup bait for geoxern/dv smeargle/combination of two, etc

 

[Nitrojuju]

Use soundproof over filter. You're already just going to use the sash against most attacks, and soundproof protects you against all of the salamences running around. And it might come in handy if you happen to go against a gravity + grasswhistle whimsicott team, for example.

I do use soundproof that was my error when I typed that out sorry

Mr. Mime has no room dealing damage and dazzling gleam is weak as fuck, you should use something like fake out or like light screen so that mr mime is more useful. I would also advise against using this because mr mime gets OHKOd by Kangaskhan and is free af setup bait for geoxern/dv smeargle/combination of two, etc

I like having at least one attacking move on a pokemon and after a life orb mega ray uses dragon ascent dazzling gleam will actually kill

 

[nicholascookie]

My most hated set to use in VGC by far is:

Mr. Mime @ Focus Sash
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Quick Guard
- Wide Guard
- Dazzling Gleam
- Magic Coat

Using wide guard, quick guard and magic coat on the same set can help me with being absolutely fucked if I do not 100% predict my opponent's moves. It's also pretty useless outside of a lead because my opponent would have probably set up against my probable easy to counter cheese lead and my moves are meant to seal up a winning game through option restriction. I really like its Kangaskhan matchup because I automatically have one less Pokemon on my team. All in all I recommend this mon to lose u games when u hopefully battle me. Cheers.

 

[GundamExia]

back in dec when the new vgc 16 rules were introduced, i thought it was for some silly competition. but now i realize i was wrong, very wrong.

gj nintendo, letting the weather trio in only ruined the vgc meta.

 

[nightwolf]

back in dec when the new vgc 16 rules were introduced, i thought it was for some silly competition. but now i realize i was wrong, very wrong.

gj nintendo, letting the weather trio in only ruined the vgc meta.

Why would you think it was only going to be for a "silly competition"? It was titled "2016 Video Game Championship Ruleset." Not "Blahblahblah monthly online friendly competition ruleset."

 

[GundamExia]

Why would you think it was only going to be for a "silly competition"? It was titled "2016 Video Game Championship Ruleset." Not "Blahblahblah monthly online friendly competition ruleset."

bro i literally skimmed over it and probably went full retard while reading it lol

 

[LLewis]

After few months, do you prefer VGC 2015 or VGC 16? :)
Discuss.

 

[Demantoid]

After few months, do you prefer VGC 2015 or VGC 16? :)
Discuss.

I greatly prefer vgc 15. I feel like vgc 16 is much more centralized with only around 25-30 making up at least 95% of teams. Vgc 15 also had less Smeargle which is a huge plus for me. Ban Dark Void plz I also prefer more defensive/balanced styles of play which is much harder to do now.

 

[Psynergy]

I'm actually one of the fewer people who likes VGC16 more than VGC15, and it's mainly because I found myself getting bored of VGC15. I was actually hoping a legendaries format would be exactly the format we ended up getting, and it's fun being able to abuse broken legendaries like this. I don't really mind the centralization though, since I feel like diversity is far from necessary for an enjoyable format, but it's easy to see why many people dislike it (but people disliking things isn't some new thing). I do find the effects of legend restriction interesting though, especially when compared to Doubles Ubers where you have few reasons to run a Mega other than Ray. And of course the emphasis this places on your 4 other slots to support your restricted slots.

My only real issues with the format are Smeargle, and how many people think that nobody good actually enjoys VGC16 because that's just pretentious. I've gotten my enjoyment out of VGC16 though, and I'll definitely miss it when it's over.

 

[Take Azelfie]

I really enjoy VGC 2016, first of off there is actually quite a bit more diversity this year than last year which is always cool. But the thing is the meta has been constantly adapting, first reign Groundon + Xern, then RayOgre and even now Yveltal and Kyurem-White are picking up popularity. Now to mention we haven't even screwed around with Giritina-O and Kyurem-Black yet.

 

[GundamExia]

well primal/mega ray and other legends made most of the chalk member irrelevant. not sure if i like vgc 16, but 15 did have a stale meta compromising the same teams. who remembers the worlds, top 6 players had the same team with exception of maybe 1.

 

[cityscapes]

Just... Smeargle.
It seems like the meta these days revolves around sleep turns, Dark Void hits, and Moody rolls thanks to this ridiculous dog. Guys, fast Taunt necessity shouldn't have to be a thing.
Between these three factors, along with Origin Miss and its brethren, VGC 2016 seems to be rapidly devolving into Skill Cup Doubles. Now, don't get me wrong, Skill Cup Doubles was great, but it involved too much... *cough* skill.
I like how as far as Smeargle goes, TPCi seems to be telling us "Deal with it" and giving us some fast Taunt users to use. "Oh, as long as it doesn't have a way to block the obvious Taunt coming from this commonly seen Pokémon that your opponent has an answer to, you should be all right!"
Also, I hope that the person who designed Crafty Shield gets hit with one. In the face. At a relatively high speed.
I don't know how bad VGC '15 was with CHALK, but tbh I'd take anything else over this ludicrous dogspam / Big Six (which is everywhere).
Conclusion: Legends are fun, but VGC 2016 is not. And take Smeargle off your team, you chump.

 

[GundamExia]

but doesn't prankster safeguard stop dark void tactics in it's tracks.

 

[Take Azelfie]

It does but there are may other factors to involve since this is a doubles format and the Pokemon that are able to actually use Prankster + Safeguard

Cottonee, Klefki, Meowstic, Whimsicott
here is also a list of applicable Pokemon with Prankster + safeguard fyi

 

[GundamExia]

you guys are right team diversity in vgc 16 is just as bad as 15 if not worse

look at this primal spam
http://nuggetbridge.com/blogs/entry...m-vgc16-regionals-and-national-championships/

i saw one team with zekrom and few with palkia, rest had petty much the same team

 

[Pyritie]

but doesn't prankster safeguard stop dark void tactics in it's tracks.

Fake Out says hi