Pokemon Showdown

[Maf]

I don’t expect this will be a very popular thread but I watch a lot of Pokemon Showdown because I like the Pokemon multiplayer and, despite it being a ‘fake’ meta, is definitely my favourite league. 

 

For people who have never heard of it is a “Pokemon Battle Simulator”. Which is a very specific term to save the website being taken down by Nintendo/Gamefreak. 

 

I, well, I’ll let the trailer tell you it will make more sense

 

 

Anyway, 2 of my favourite YouTube Channels are PokeaimMD and ThunderBlunder777 who play online and the first one is very insightful and the second one is very funny. They’ve recently been doing a series called the BL Knights.

 

BL KNIGHTS 

 

 

The video above is them featuring Weavile AKA Agent 00 Santa Claus AKA Agent 00 Dark Meat in the OU Tier and it’s really cool.

 

Anyway, I just wanted somewhere to drop competitive Pokemon things that don’t fit into other Pokemon threads. Not to spam but just when I see things that are really cool and think might be worth sharing

[Bob]

Yo Maf I watched your trailer (no idea what's going on) and now this has happened to my recommended on YouTube. Y u do dis? 

[mmmark]

For a moment I thought I was in news and they’d announced a Pokemon stadium. 

 

Edit: I watched the trailer and it went from gameplay to an online maths spreadsheet. 

[Maf]

Lol, so this was a wi-if battle which was Ok until the sweep by weak armour, weakness policy, swords dance Kabutops. Ridiculous tech that would never, ever work outside this kind of format. But still fun.

 

Sweep starts at 31:40, turn down the speakers 

 

 

[Maf]

Game 1 turn 3 (Or 4:10) What a fucking prediction ?

 

 

[Maf]

I started to write this in news but got over excited and I think it’s better off here.

 

Continuing from the fact that the Ubers meta game is now extinct. Just for a fun fact, before gen 6 Ubers wasn’t even a tier. It was just a ban list where all the broken Pokemon went because they destroyed the meta game. But then there was one Pokemon that was so destructive it even got banned from Ubers, cementing Ubers as it’s own tier since it was effectively banned from the ban list. 

Because it was banned from all forms of multiplayer, official and unofficial as far as I know, they ended up having to make a whole new meta game for it called “Anything Goes”. As it sounds, it’s basically a meta game where you can do all the bad things, and cheats and you name it. 
 

Make sure you read it’s name quietly 

 

Mega Rayquaza

 

 

Reading it’s technical competitive breakdown is like reading about god.

 

Quote

Rayquaza's role had remained largely the same until the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. ORAS gave it a ludicrously strong Mega Evolution that, unlike all other Mega Evolutions, needs no Mega Stone. This lets Mega Rayquaza run any item, greatly boosting its already insane versatility and power. Access to a new, solid Speed tier, amazing Flying-type STAB move in Dragon Ascent, and unheard-of dual base 180 offenses broke the scale, making Mega Rayquaza the first (and as of now only) Pokémon to be outright banned from Ubers. It then found a home in the brand new Anything Goes metagame, where it quickly and undoubtedly showed why it deserved its spot there.
 

Depending on your team and ability to check it, stopping Mega Rayquaza from setting up a Dragon Dance is either important or life-and-death. After Dragon Dance, either Dragon Ascent or a coverage move will blast a gaping hole through all but the bulkiest Pokémon. Arceus doesn't appreciate taking a boosted Extreme Speed, but it avoids the OHKO at full health and can hit back with its own Extreme Speed. Lugia can tank a boosted hit reasonably well with Multiscale and nullify Mega Rayquaza's boosts with Whirlwind, but it struggles to do much other than that besides crippling it with Toxic, which can be deflected with Lum Berry. Skarmory is a reasonably safe answer that can also phaze with Whirlwind as well if Mega Rayquaza doesn't carry V-create. In reverse, Rock Arceus performs well as long as Mega Rayquaza does carry V-create and not Earthquake. Unaware Clefable can be used as an emergency check, surviving exactly one attack from non-Choice Band sets and doing good damage with Moonblast in return, but it can't OHKO Mega Rayquaza even after Special Defense drops from Dragon Ascent. There is a significantly larger number of offensive threats that can scare unboosted Mega Rayquaza, but these usually become less useful if Mega Rayquaza sets up a boost or if they take some chip damage. Dragon Arceus and Fairy Arceus outspeed Mega Rayquaza and hit it with super effective STAB Judgment; they can also always survive an Adamant Lum Berry +1 Dragon Ascent after Stealth Rock damage if they run a 252 HP / 0 Def EV spread. The former does fear the rare Draco Meteor, however. Mega Diancie can punish Mega Rayquaza with Moonblast, but it is outsped by Jolly sets and OHKOed by Earthquake or Waterfall. Choice Scarf Xerneas always outspeeds unboosted Mega Rayquaza and OHKOes with Moonblast, but cannot handle a boosted Dragon Ascent. Arceus Normal hits hard with its own Extreme Speed and can notably survive two of Mega Rayquaza's boosted Extreme Speeds

 

Because of its potential versatility and terrifying power, Mega Rayquaza in fact has no counters. Even though often it allows Mega Rayquaza to have some free turns (which is often very dangerous for a team), figuring out what set it is running and what coverage it has can be key to stopping it. Regardless, because of its insane power, expansive coverage options, and ability to set up, it really has no hard counters

 

[Maf]

Quick early impressions of the meta

 

A lot of the things I was hoping for from this meta have come to pass. The removal of a lot of the more dominant Pokemon from last gen has given a lot of older Pokemon honest viability as team options which I think is really good. In particular because of a new item that avoids hazard damage Charizard is actually a decent fire type to use now. Really not the best but you can now use Charizard and it isn’t automatically a joke.

 

Things I did not see coming were all the new Pokemon which also appear to be really good. It’s still early days so we will see how it shakes out but already Dragapult, Dreadnaw and specifically Dracovish. All getting a lot of usage, all of which are pulling their weight right now, there are some other good ones as well but these are the 3 new standouts as of right now

 

However the big con of the meta right now is Dynamax. After watching a lot of games I feel like this gimmick is close to being broken and unhealthy for the meta. Firstly to explain what Dynamaxing does.

 

• It gives a Pokemon a big HP boost
• Gives a Pokemon G moves (Big damaging moves each of which has it’s own secondary effect)
• Lasts for 3 turns

 

Simply it’s kind of brain dead and not only makes almost any offensive Pokemon an immediate threat that can start KO-ing left and right, but because of the secondary effect buffs even when Dynamax is over a Pokemon is already in an almost unstoppable position. 
 

There’s also very limited answers to Dynamax. The 3 options are predict around (Really quite hard), Dynamax your own Pokemon (Which at best scares the opponent out at worst you just get to waste one of the opponents 3 turns), or use Ditto to reverse sweep. 
 

To be fair there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Dynamax and I wouldn’t go as far to say it is entirely broken because it creates so many situations and I’ve seen Dynamax be beat, underwhelm, not work, etc. But I’ve also seen it flip games around in 3 turns, create annoying strategies (Such as guaranteed double Protect), and leave good players answerless to it. It is very situational and can go a lot ways, but even that point goes against it I think because it leaves a lack of consistency in strategy and is too erratic. 
 

Talk is right now is that Dynamax might be banned, but they said that about Z moves and Megas in the early days of those generations as well so who knows. But for me I think it removes a lot of skill, doesn’t have many good answers or responses and is too erratic because of how it changes battles too easily. Removed from the equation I think this meta could be really fun, and would have better longevity than other gens because, rightly or wrongly, Game Freak can start introducing batches of new Pokemon here and there to mix the meta up further, but even as it stands the food chain is completely shaken up and has lots of room for experimentation and new ideas. But at this point Dynamax is too much and over shadows any creativity or smart play with brute force. 

[Maf]

Just wanted to post this quick

 

 

I love that Clefable, Gyarados and Tyranitar don’t give a F. No matter the generation, the rule changes or the newcomers, they are always at the top lol

[Maf]

Aaaaaaand Dynamax is banned. Who’d a guessed?
 

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/dynamax-is-banned-from-ou-explanation-information.3657917/

 

Excerpt

 

Quote

While all of this is cause for concern, the biggest reason for banning Dynamax is perhaps the unpredictability that comes alongside it. moocows correctly identifies that we prioritize skillful play and minimizing guesswork and variance in his post here while also explaining that Dynamax being present allows for a lot of variance due to the nature of the mechanic and its unpredictability. As ABR has stated, the uses of Dynamax apply to any Pokemon at any time. No matter what specific Pokemon we try to get rid of (or even more narrowly prevent from Dynamaxing), the remaining set of Pokemon that can Dynamax will always be problematic. It goes way beyond "Gyarados and Hawlucha are terrifying sweepers due to their Dynamax moves." Anything with a choice item has the option of breaking the otherwise abusable lock by activating its Dynamax. Any concept of consistency or stability goes out the window when the Pokemon on the losing side of the 1v1 can flip that around with Dynamax. The existence of Dynamax lessens competitive strategy and rewards short term bursts of prediction. Without the thought or planning going into team deduction, set speculation, and how they relate to strategies regarding what beats what, the game cannot meet the standards of our competitive community.

 

[Maf]

Agent Gun is back lol I almost fucking died that’s so funny

 

 

[Maf]

I was thinking about the DPP remakes today which lead to this post.

 

Infernape is one of my favourite starters of all time. Obviously the first 3 are untouchable but if anyone is to compete it’s Infernape. In fact Infernape was the lead of my first ever competitive team I built in gen 5 which if I remember correctly was this

 

 

Aww, hey guys.
 

The things I really like about Infernape is it looks really cool, it’s a fire type, and when I was learning about competitive it had mix. Something that most Pokemon just don’t have or cannot do. These are it’s stats

By today’s standards this is not a welcome spread. 534 is a nice total but you don’t want balance in an offensive Pokemon, they are better when they can specialise. Add in the power creep Pokemon has every gen then 104 base is not great and 108 speed is fast but not quite fast enough.

 

A lot of the best Pokemon now have base stats of between 110-130. So Infernape was great back in the day but is certainly not a strong Pokemon anymore. 
 

To focus on what it is good at though is it can do either physical or special because of those 104’s. It can even be a mixed threat and do both at the same time (Although obviously if it does both it sacrifices damage on one for the other), it can be a good cleaner at the end of a battle, and a strong lead if you put a choice scarf on it. 
 

It also has good abilities in Blaze and Iron Fist. Blaze is standard for all starter fire types that when their health gets in the red they get a damage boost to fire type attacks. Iron Fist gives all punching moves a 1.2x attack boost. And since Infernape is a Fighting type it gets lots of punching moves. Most commonly are Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Poison Jab, and Mach Punch (which was a favourite of mine)
 

Also what makes Infernape so good is it’s move pool in general. It can learn moves like Thunder Punch (Electric), U-Turn (Bug), Acrobatics (Flying), Stone Edge (Rock), Earthquake (Ground), Grass Knot (Grass) just to name some of it’s best coverage moves. Actually Infernape has so many moves it starts to get 4 Move Slot Syndrome. Which means it has a move for everybody, but it just can’t have all of them at the same time. So picking your 4 moves becomes quite difficult and something that probably gets swapped around as the team comes together. 
 

The thing about Infernape being a mixed threat is since it can be an attacker or special attacker with such a wide variety of moves it’s great at keeping opponents guessing. If an opponent has strong physical defence then blow them back with Fire Blast. They have a Pokemon stronger on the Special side smash them with Close Combat. They send out a perfect counter U-Turn out to keep momentum. Swampert is one of the best Water tanks in the game. But it will run like a Wimpod if it sees Grass Knot. It has too.

 

Coming back to it’s Iron Fist ability it has a great priority move in Mach Punch. Usually a move with base 40 power. But with stab it gets 20% stronger and with Iron Fist it gets 20% stronger again. Coming off that 104 attack stat that’s nice. Late game when your opponents team is weak you can start picking them off, even if they’re faster because Mach Punch has priority.
 

Blaze ability is also great because Infernape can run Flare Blitz which does recoil damage. A strong move on it’s own but it means Infernape’s last Flare Blitz ensures it goes out with a bang, probably taking something with it.
 

Once I was playing Showdown and someone put out a Volcarona (Fire/Bug) against my Infernape and thought he would set up on me because I couldn’t do a super effective attack. But I didn’t need too. Infernape was Choice Band, I hit him with the fire move, killed it, and in the chat the guy just wrote “DAT FLARE BLITZ” lol

 

Anyway. I was thinking about the games and ready to hit reset with Pokemon and wash the taste of Sword and Shield out with a more classic style game. So I’m starting to look forward to these remakes and definitely Infernape is going to be my starter.