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INTRO:
So, I'm not exactly new to competitive battling, but it's been a while and I'm certainly pretty new to S/M. I've got a few friends who mess around on showdown and maintain semi-viable wifi-battle teams, but that's about it, so I've spent the last week or so learning my way around Pokemon Showdown. After all of the effort of obtaining PorygonZ back in some of the earleir gens, I'm a little sentimental. Plus, Z-Conversion looked super interesting, so I decided to give a Shadow Ball Porygon Sweeper set a go. Been having some semblence of success on the (super-low rating) ladder, and I've definitely been enjoying myself, but the team definitely isn't "good". I'll elaborate in the relevant section, but I've been having a lot of trouble with my lead, Azelf, in particular. The metagame surrounding "lead" pokemon seems to have changed way more than I thought since Gens three and four, so it might be that I'm just using him wrong, but my lead plays so far have been underwhelming at best and outright throws at worst. Here's hoping I can just blame the team :D
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PoryGOD (Porygon-Z) @ Normalium Z
Ability: Adaptability
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Discharge
- Recover
- Conversion
Pretty self explanatory, this one. Suprise suprise, it's the Porygon. Normalium Z for Z-Conversion, of course (haven't had to Z-recover yet, thank god). Shadow ball because Smogon says so, although I kind of get the whole "tears through more things than Thunderbolt will" thing. Discharge covers a fair chunk of the things that Shadow Ball doesn't, and the paralyse chance is nice against anything that threatens to outspeed me. Recover, finally, just to have a chance against any stallmons that I haven't already managed to break through with other pokes. Porygon is the poke I've tried to build the team around, and a lot of the other choices I've made at least attempt to support the idea of a Porygon sweep.
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Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Focus Blast
So this is the first example of my pathetic attempts to create team synergy. I threw PorygonZ into a few other random teams of mine and went into games against friends, only to find that he gets completely dumpstered by anything with a priority move or three. So... Tapu Lele! I haven't always been able to actually get a psychic terrain down before attempting to sweep, but it's presence usually means that I don't have to worry about Bullet Punch and the like so much. Psychic for STAB, honestly haven't tried Psyshock and don't even know if it's viable anyway. Moonblast for more STAB, doesn't benefit from Psychic Surge but helps for coverage. As for Hidden Power Fire; I've had some major trouble with steel walls, Ferrothorn in particualr, and Hidden Power Fire 2HKOs every Ferrothorn I've come across. Focus blast, finally, because Smogon says so and I had absolutely *no* idea what else to run.
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Mess with the Crabbo (Pinsir-Mega) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack
Mega Pinsir. God damn I love this thing. Weird typing, annoyingly fast and even gets the occasional chance to set-up sweep if I fuck up with Porygon. I suppose I've been running it as a revenge killer so far; it's pretty good at cleaning up anything that Tapu Lele can't deal with. Swords Dance just in case my noobish-ass mind manages to predict a switch and I have a chance to set up a bit. Return because it's the highest damaging "flying" move I could find. Earthquake just for coverage and Quick Attack to deal with scarf users (or anything else that's fast.)
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inb4 Aeroplane (Skarmory) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Toxic
- Counter
Apparantly Skarmory is pretty good, and I need some form of Phazing to facilitate for all the setup baits I lose to. Roost so that I can be a dickhead and stall. Defog to stop people from setting up on me. Toxic over Toxic Spikes because I'm terrible at setting up entry hazards anyway, and to help with the occasional final 1v1 where I have to stall-scum to win. Counter over Brave Bird because I feel like I have answers to Skarmory's special threats, wheras Counter has the advantage of not recoiling you to death.
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what even is this thing (Toxapex) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Haze
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes
Alright, so uglu-mc-spike-thing. I straight-up just copied this from Smogon because I had no idea how to run a Toxapex, but it seems to have been working alright so far. Scald because it's pretty much my only fire counter. Haze to stop Porygon or Tapu or whatever from getting ripped apart by the inevitable entry hazard sweep teams. Recover just for a little more stalling dickishness and Toxic spikes because Smogon says so. Honestly, I've been considering running Toxic instead just because of all the late-game stall battles that I seem to get into.
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This guy (Azelf) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Skill Swap
- Explosion
Right, so, this guy seems to be my biggest issue. I don't know if I'm playing him wrong, or missing some glaring oversight but it seems like he's useless unless he stops a turn 1 entry hazard or takes out a squishy threat. This is the second poke that's been almost directly copied from Smogon.com, and the friends I've asked have been at a loss. Right now, I'm just leading with Toxapex unless the team preview shows an obvious set-up lead.
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INTRO:
So, I'm not exactly new to competitive battling, but it's been a while and I'm certainly pretty new to S/M. I've got a few friends who mess around on showdown and maintain semi-viable wifi-battle teams, but that's about it, so I've spent the last week or so learning my way around Pokemon Showdown. After all of the effort of obtaining PorygonZ back in some of the earleir gens, I'm a little sentimental. Plus, Z-Conversion looked super interesting, so I decided to give a Shadow Ball Porygon Sweeper set a go. Been having some semblence of success on the (super-low rating) ladder, and I've definitely been enjoying myself, but the team definitely isn't "good". I'll elaborate in the relevant section, but I've been having a lot of trouble with my lead, Azelf, in particular. The metagame surrounding "lead" pokemon seems to have changed way more than I thought since Gens three and four, so it might be that I'm just using him wrong, but my lead plays so far have been underwhelming at best and outright throws at worst. Here's hoping I can just blame the team :D
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PoryGOD (Porygon-Z) @ Normalium Z
Ability: Adaptability
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Discharge
- Recover
- Conversion
Pretty self explanatory, this one. Suprise suprise, it's the Porygon. Normalium Z for Z-Conversion, of course (haven't had to Z-recover yet, thank god). Shadow ball because Smogon says so, although I kind of get the whole "tears through more things than Thunderbolt will" thing. Discharge covers a fair chunk of the things that Shadow Ball doesn't, and the paralyse chance is nice against anything that threatens to outspeed me. Recover, finally, just to have a chance against any stallmons that I haven't already managed to break through with other pokes. Porygon is the poke I've tried to build the team around, and a lot of the other choices I've made at least attempt to support the idea of a Porygon sweep.
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Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Focus Blast
So this is the first example of my pathetic attempts to create team synergy. I threw PorygonZ into a few other random teams of mine and went into games against friends, only to find that he gets completely dumpstered by anything with a priority move or three. So... Tapu Lele! I haven't always been able to actually get a psychic terrain down before attempting to sweep, but it's presence usually means that I don't have to worry about Bullet Punch and the like so much. Psychic for STAB, honestly haven't tried Psyshock and don't even know if it's viable anyway. Moonblast for more STAB, doesn't benefit from Psychic Surge but helps for coverage. As for Hidden Power Fire; I've had some major trouble with steel walls, Ferrothorn in particualr, and Hidden Power Fire 2HKOs every Ferrothorn I've come across. Focus blast, finally, because Smogon says so and I had absolutely *no* idea what else to run.
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Mess with the Crabbo (Pinsir-Mega) @ Pinsirite
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Return
- Earthquake
- Quick Attack
Mega Pinsir. God damn I love this thing. Weird typing, annoyingly fast and even gets the occasional chance to set-up sweep if I fuck up with Porygon. I suppose I've been running it as a revenge killer so far; it's pretty good at cleaning up anything that Tapu Lele can't deal with. Swords Dance just in case my noobish-ass mind manages to predict a switch and I have a chance to set up a bit. Return because it's the highest damaging "flying" move I could find. Earthquake just for coverage and Quick Attack to deal with scarf users (or anything else that's fast.)
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inb4 Aeroplane (Skarmory) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Sturdy
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Roost
- Defog
- Toxic
- Counter
Apparantly Skarmory is pretty good, and I need some form of Phazing to facilitate for all the setup baits I lose to. Roost so that I can be a dickhead and stall. Defog to stop people from setting up on me. Toxic over Toxic Spikes because I'm terrible at setting up entry hazards anyway, and to help with the occasional final 1v1 where I have to stall-scum to win. Counter over Brave Bird because I feel like I have answers to Skarmory's special threats, wheras Counter has the advantage of not recoiling you to death.
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what even is this thing (Toxapex) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Regenerator
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Haze
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes
Alright, so uglu-mc-spike-thing. I straight-up just copied this from Smogon because I had no idea how to run a Toxapex, but it seems to have been working alright so far. Scald because it's pretty much my only fire counter. Haze to stop Porygon or Tapu or whatever from getting ripped apart by the inevitable entry hazard sweep teams. Recover just for a little more stalling dickishness and Toxic spikes because Smogon says so. Honestly, I've been considering running Toxic instead just because of all the late-game stall battles that I seem to get into.
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This guy (Azelf) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Skill Swap
- Explosion
Right, so, this guy seems to be my biggest issue. I don't know if I'm playing him wrong, or missing some glaring oversight but it seems like he's useless unless he stops a turn 1 entry hazard or takes out a squishy threat. This is the second poke that's been almost directly copied from Smogon.com, and the friends I've asked have been at a loss. Right now, I'm just leading with Toxapex unless the team preview shows an obvious set-up lead.
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