zapzap29
The obssessive man of passion
Bummer. Good luck in the competitionI started playing, unfortunately.
Bummer. Good luck in the competitionI started playing, unfortunately.
This gets frustrating for me.First post, and first time ever trying to put together a competitive team for a specific meta, and I think I failed pretty bad... All of my Pokes are either improperly equipped or are just things I threw together at the last minute from random stuff in my box and thus they don't have the right nature/ability (see Skarmory).
Out of everything, the one that I'm actually the most impressed with is the Starmie, because I just had it lying around and decided to train it up. It hits pretty hard with Psyshock. I haven't had much luck with Kangaskhan or Heracross, and Stealth Rock Tyranitar is way too slow as a lead. Zapdos seems pretty par for this competition, but since mine's not EV trained his HP Ice is more like a gentle winter breeze against all the bulky Dragonites.
Other than obvious problems (bad natures/items) that can be solved by looking up their smogon dex entries, I'd love any tips/tricks for how to make this team better/viable.
Bad natures on Tyranitar, Skarmory & Heracross kill any great chances because I assume you haven't bred for IVs. You have to assume that everything you face us perfect.First post, and first time ever trying to put together a competitive team for a specific meta, and I think I failed pretty bad... All of my Pokes are either improperly equipped or are just things I threw together at the last minute from random stuff in my box and thus they don't have the right nature/ability (see Skarmory).
Out of everything, the one that I'm actually the most impressed with is the Starmie, because I just had it lying around and decided to train it up. It hits pretty hard with Psyshock. I haven't had much luck with Kangaskhan or Heracross, and Stealth Rock Tyranitar is way too slow as a lead. Zapdos seems pretty par for this competition, but since mine's not EV trained his HP Ice is more like a gentle winter breeze against all the bulky Dragonites.
Other than obvious problems (bad natures/items) that can be solved by looking up their smogon dex entries, I'd love any tips/tricks for how to make this team better/viable.
Tyranitar @ Nothing (accidentally took off his Leftovers...)
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Quirky Nature
- Crunch
- Roar
- Rock Slide
- Stealth Rock
Zapdos @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Static
EVs: None
Modest Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Roost
- Hidden Power Ice
Heracross @ Focus Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Sleep Talk
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
Starmie @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Psyshock
- Recover
- Rapid Spin
Kangaskhan @ Life Orb
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Power-Up Punch
- Double-Edge
- Fake Out
Skarmory @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD
Rash Nature
- Toxic
- Spikes
- Roost
- Taunt
I ran a DD Tyranitar with DD, Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Crunch. I for some reason gave him a Smooth Rock and I am glad I did. I think I had 2 matches out of 21 battles where sand ran out. My 22nd battle I did not lead or bring Ttar and I lost a stall war with Snorlax. 3-3 loss due to the game timer running out.I've only started playing today due to being super busy irl yesterday (got home at 10pm last night and was too tired to do anything), hopefully I can fit in a good amount of games today because I can't stay up all night like I usually do with these.
Had a pretty rough start, going 4W:3L. First loss was to a crit KO on my Ttar so I couldn't reset sand, which allowed him set up his CM + Grass Knot Espeon (Sandslash swept his team under sand otherwise), then I ran into a very interesting team of lead Butterfree with Stun Spore and Flash, followed up by Sub + Double Team + Baton Pass Jolteon passing to King's Rock Cloyster. If I managed to avoid the flinch from Icicle Spear and hit through +2 evasion he had a dead Cloyster and a loss next to his name, but unfortunately he got away with it. Last loss was to a standard MiniClef that I had nothing for. I haven't brought my Persian core at all yet, but it would have won all the games I lost, so I think I need to be more confident in choosing it.
All my wins so far have been dominated by Zapdos. Haven't seen a Ground-type in my limited battles...
We did it DragonWhale. The legend is here.
Heracross @ Focus Band
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Sleep Talk
- Earthquake
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
That really suck to hear, I saw all the effort you were putting into your prep and it's been awesome having you around, I hope this doesn't dishearten you too much. If you could find a way to fix your internet and play I would definitely encourage you to keep going, even just for the experience as you'll learn a lot. But I'm sure you can break out of it and get higher...After going a disappointing 10-5 day one, my internet has shit the bed and tacked on 2 more wins with 4 more losses, (1 to a BP chain, 1 dc mid match, 2 dcs at team preview). I feel really terrible about my performance right now so I think I'm going to drop for the tournament at a really awful rating of like 1550ish.
This is honestly the most disheartened I've been playing Pokemon probably ever. Prepping for Johto Cup is probably the most I've prepped for any competition since a regional back in 2012. I clocked in a lot of practice on PS, talked with several circles of friends about the rule set, but sadly, not much is showing for it. That coupled with some really soul crushing defeats (losing to a guy with three Pokemon, among them a Swagger Murkrow that got the three confusion flips it needed to win the game against a Raikou at full health) makes it feel really hard to keep going.
Still, no excuses I guess. This is the first time I've taken competitive Pokemon a little seriously since... exactly a year ago (2015 Athens Regional which was a year ago two days from now) and I've played no games of regular BSS. Rust / no prior experience from other 3v3 formats coupled together for an underwhelming performance I should have seen coming. I think I'll try getting a firm grip on normal BSS sometime this summer to be a competent competitor next time around.
It's a really sour note to go out on for what has otherwise been a very, very pleasant experience. Talking with everyone on the battle spot forums, both on here and on PS, is the most "at home" I've felt on Smogon since I was hanging around with all the cool folks in OI super frequently back in 2013-14. Thanks to all of you who made this ruleset a joy to play and learn, big shoutouts especially to nerd, Nelson Tangela, and Theorymon for being great playtesting partners and idea springboards.
I guess there's a little bit of a silver lining to the weekend too. I went to Momocon's TCG tournaments on Friday, borrowed a friends deck, and went 5-0, won the whole thing, and got $67 cash. Haven't played the TCG since like February so I guess I'm just better at mons when I don't practice at all???
(accidentally posted this in the viability rankings thread and moved here because its almost 3am)
Seems like you've just been having some bad luck man. It's the nature of the game for better or worse. I know it's frustrating but just try to shake it off.I wanted to know if anybody else is on the receiving end of a crap ton of BS in this competition. Out of the 29 Battles I've played I've had 24 Crits against me, My Focus Sash stopped working for a good 5-6 Battles. I've counted a total of 21 Misses of Rather low Accuracy Moves but if I use Focus Blast 10 Times reason would have me believe it'd hit roughly 7 times out of those 10 give or take (and yes I understand it's RNG but the accuracy levels are based on data from the RNG If they really didn't matter they wouldn't be there). One of the reasons is I got practically stalled by a Snorlax and I could've taken it out with my Alakazam's Focus Blast. Yet I wasted 5 PP all Misses and Snorlax wakes up to hit me thus ending the game (Also another instance of my Focus Sash not working). Honestly, Idk what's going on but It's really starting to irk me. Anybody else finding similar results?
This may be a stupid question, but how do I use those codes to view your replays? I tried up the Vs. Recorder but that didn't seem to be the way lol. Thanks in advance.I finished 28-17. Most of my team probably isn't even considered viable, but I just felt like having fun with this competition
View attachment 62742
I felt like using Gligar because it looks cool to me, and its only usable set it stall and it did a good job checking physical attackers even if they had ice type moves. Knock off was used over Earthquake because my team is really weak to gengar and most things weak to eq switched out anyway. Guillotine was fun for sniping machamp and eventually hitting anything immune to toxic or simply as a last ditch attack before fainting. Since Gligar checked physical attackers, I needed something for special attackers, so since Gligar took up the eviolite I used Blissey to absorb special attacks and do more toxic stalling while also providing heal bell support. Obviously steel types are immune to toxic so I added Magneton to trap and remove them with HP Fire. Early bird Kangaskhan was for fake out and also a Venusaur check and my own Venusaur was for more stalling and also a rain check. I also needed something for checking setup sweepers, and since the whole team already has quite a few flaws, I decided not to use a phaser, but instead I used ditto. Sweeping entire teams with ditto has to be one of the most fun and hilarious things ever and its actually quite easy to pull off by allowing the foe to get easy boosts and then turning it against them. It probably wouldn't have worked as well if I got into the higher ratings, but ditto actually the most fun member of the team.
Here's some ditto highlights
C3CG-WWWW-WW46-88WP
EQXG-WWWW-WW46-87RS
BT5G-WWWW-WW46-8838
MEKW-WWWW-WW46-87NQ
I wish I hadn't seen any Piloswine or Donphan. It felt like I never had a good answer for Piloswine, at least not with me when they picked it lol.We did it DragonWhale. The legend is here.
Also finally started my games really later but I've got a solid record at the moment, I believe 14-2 or 15-2 and some pretty competent opponents showing up now. My two losses were pretty dumb, the first was a supposed 3-0 but Suicune got crit and then I misclicked with Magneton against a weakened Scizor and he was lucky enough to barely survive Flash Cannon. Still very mad about that loss, the second one was a good matchup for me but I lost solely because of an disadvantageous lead matchup which bugged me a bit.
Interestingly enough, the only Grounds I've seen are Steelix, a Dugtrio and the Nidos with 0 Piloswine or Donphan in sight. Aside from a rain team with Omastar and Politoed, the only Waters I've seen on real teams so far are Suicune, Lapras and Starmie, the latter of which being the only one I saw beyond Team Preview which proved to be a bit of a nuisance. I've also seen no Baton Pass setups. The only one Clefable I've seen so far was in my last game, which was promptly ruined by Crobat despite its Kee Berry (dude was like 1750+ which was probably a good 70 points above me). An ugly stall team with Sub/Toxic/Protect/Sacred Fire shiny Entei and Chansey, with Dugtrio, Scizor and Articuno at team preview, but it turns out my team has the tools to combat stall and it was over in under 15 minutes.
Taking a break now though given I've ended on that great note, I'll finish the rest later or end early depending on how I'm doing.
Usually it says "Communication interrupted with the other Trainer" which it's a rage quit or their internet crapped out. When it's on your end, it's "An Error Occurred".Hey all! I hope everyone's having fun with the competition. For those who had their opponents disconnected from the Johto Classic match (or ragequit), what error messages have you been getting on your DS? Thanks!
Cool, thanks for the info! I just had one opponent "disconnected" during the animation of my finishing move. However, I got an error that said "A communication error has occurred". It was the first time I got that error and my Internet has been working well. Also, I am not sure whether the errors are the same as a normal Wi-Fi battle. I think I was still connected and remember the game brought me to the blue screen. Has anyone in this thread experienced this?Usually it says "Communication interrupted with the other Trainer" which it's a rage quit or their internet crapped out. When it's on your end, it's "An Error Occurred".
Speaking of which, I'm 7-2 with one loss being my internet DC'ing on me. I hope they don't DQ me for it like last time, bit I honestly doubt I'll have time to fit every battle in anyway since I had tons of last minute training to get done.
I had Thunderbolt miss 3 times in a row and cost me a battle. I assume my opponent had Bright Powder, as Thunderbolt is 100% accuracy, or he used Double Team and I just missed seeing it.I wanted to know if anybody else is on the receiving end of a crap ton of BS in this competition. Out of the 29 Battles I've played I've had 24 Crits against me, My Focus Sash stopped working for a good 5-6 Battles. I've counted a total of 21 Misses of Rather low Accuracy Moves but if I use Focus Blast 10 Times reason would have me believe it'd hit roughly 7 times out of those 10 give or take (and yes I understand it's RNG but the accuracy levels are based on data from the RNG If they really didn't matter they wouldn't be there). One of the reasons is I got practically stalled by a Snorlax and I could've taken it out with my Alakazam's Focus Blast. Yet I wasted 5 PP all Misses and Snorlax wakes up to hit me thus ending the game (Also another instance of my Focus Sash not working). Honestly, Idk what's going on but It's really starting to irk me. Anybody else finding similar results?
Nah man, it's no big deal at all and your result isn't even the worst. Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to forget about getting a high ranking and just concentrate on enjoying each match individually. If you're constantly worrying about losing and fucking up your score, then you're definitely gonna choke and make bad plays—I know I did. Hopefully we'll see you around in future competitions!Very disappointing competition end for me, I started off so well but the last two days were simply disastrous. I honestly wasn't even going to post here again
oh my god, yes. This happened so fucking much, even as I progressed in the ladder it still happened. I had to get near 1800 to have people stop setting up in front of Quagsire and just straight up nuke it with Choice Item-powered moves. Quagsire was definitely my MVP as well, I wouldn't have won plenty of my matches without it.My absolute MVP was without a doubt Unaware Quagsire... ...and a lot of people simply didn't understand the nature of the Unaware ability and gladly set up on Quagsire...