Online Competition Water Paradise

[ekbaseball]

idrk, im more suprised with relincanth getting 6th. rock head gets killed by the FOUR MONS WITH THE MOST USAGE, while sturdy doesnt have the firepower to KO them back because it cant headsmash without dying itself. COULD see where its worthwile to trade relincanth and gyrados tho.

Lead reli sets up rocks/Yawns, and custaps to headsmash something, which can either trade 1v1, or kills itself putting major damage on the opponent, which can let Gyara max airstream, setting up chance for sweep. And as you said some relis can 1v1 a dynamax gyara.

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

Lead reli sets up rocks/Yawns, and custaps to headsmash something, which can either trade 1v1, or kills itself putting major damage on the opponent, which can let Gyara max airstream, setting up chance for sweep. And as you said some relis can 1v1 a dynamax gyara.

oh ok.
Anyways, at first i was a bit suprised that rotom-W>lapras for usage, but when you don't need a scarf to beat the best mon in the tier, i guess it makes sense.
Octillery is super annoying and i have no clue how it didn't make top 10

 

[Theorymon]

I’m really surprised at the Seismitoad usage. Never seen one in like 70 games. Anyone used or faced it? What does it do? I thought for sure it would be lower than Lanturn at least. Tentacruel is interesting, I’ve been seeing more of them which seem to be a way to offensively answer Ludicolo. It can be EVed to live some big hits and Mirror Coat back, or Tickle Gyara if it’s in against that for some reason.

I faced a few of them, but it was sorta hard to get a read on a consistent set (are there set usage stats included with these?)

The main consistent thing is that they all had Power Whip though. I did see some Stealth Rockers, but there's also the swift swimmer set. I didn't feel like the swift swimmer set was as dangerous as Ludicolo (and also isn't the most fond of Ludicolo itself), but not being weak to Max Airstream ain't bad, and it does much better against Tentacruel. I also saw some special sweeping swift swimmers that used Grass Knot + Sludge Wave + Earth Power.

However, remember that alot of key threats like Rotom-W are actually pretty light, so Grass Knot isn't the best move out there. I think most Swift Swimmers I saw were physical because of that.

 

[Aaron101]

Curious what starmie have been running?

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

i used this pokemon for a bit and it worked pretty well.
Introducing choice specs arctovish .w.
Arctovish @ Choice Specs
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Hydro Pump
- Ancient Power
- Ice Beam
litteraly 3 of the moves here are fillers, there wouldn't be alot of difference if i only used freeze dry
arctovish can actually live power whip from gyrados uninvested, but with the max hp arcotovish can even live max overgrowth (base power whip) from gyrados, and denies it oppurtunity to ddance (you have to dmax to live the freeze-dry), and since it wont be speed boosted, you can pretty easily revenge kill it.
lapras beats you, yes, but you just so happen to eat volt switches from rotom wash, and lapras repeatedtly switching into arctovish is hard.
after those 3 mons, you hammer everything else bar milotic. you nearly always 2hko thick fat azumarill (and most will prob run sap sipper/huge power, which it usually ohkos). you 2hko primarina, do respectable damage against the RU waters (2 of the better walls to arcto that are water are banned), flat out harass the NU waters, crash through NUBL waters not named kingler, 2hko lanturn, we know what happens to poor quagsire.

 

[cant say]

I signed up for a random friendly competition and streamed about 2 hours of it (10 matches, I think i went 6-4 or 7-3. it’s late…)

VIDEO LINK (embed is broken)

I had a strong start, then get in a rut against some strong opponents, then when I went to end the stream I got raided by a Korean player so I played a few more and had a good finish (the last match is pretty epic!)

I’m looking forward to the real thing even more now

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

I faced a few of them, but it was sorta hard to get a read on a consistent set (are there set usage stats included with these?)

The main consistent thing is that they all had Power Whip though. I did see some Stealth Rockers, but there's also the swift swimmer set. I didn't feel like the swift swimmer set was as dangerous as Ludicolo (and also isn't the most fond of Ludicolo itself), but not being weak to Max Airstream ain't bad, and it does much better against Tentacruel. I also saw some special sweeping swift swimmers that used Grass Knot + Sludge Wave + Earth Power.

However, remember that alot of key threats like Rotom-W are actually pretty light, so Grass Knot isn't the best move out there. I think most Swift Swimmers I saw were physical because of that.

actuaally gyrados and lapras are both heavy and grass knot is 120 BP against both, so there is that.

 

[Marty]

Totally going to steal Marty ’s thunder

Speaking of thunder, Gyarados has taken a bit of a hit since then:

 Total battles: 18835
 Avg. weight/team: 0.101
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- +
 | Rank | Pokemon            | Usage %   |
 + ---- + ------------------ + --------- +
 | 1    | Rotom-Wash         | 90.93015% |
 | 2    | Lapras             | 87.83179% |
 | 3    | Gyarados           | 83.59259% |
 | 4    | Ludicolo           | 52.18811% |
 | 5    | Relicanth          | 41.18174% |
 | 6    | Starmie            | 34.93737% |
 | 7    | Tentacruel         | 25.71989% |
 | 8    | Lanturn            | 21.74422% |
 | 9    | Sharpedo           | 16.07228% |
 | 10   | Seismitoad         | 15.81482% |

Attached are the full usage stats for this format from July 1st through the 13th. Good luck to those entering!

 

[Q The Dragonite]

The next online competition on Battle Stadium is 3v3 singles, WATER MONOTYPE!

Rules:

• Bring 6, Pick 3 at team preview
• Item clause
• Species clause
• all Pokemon become level 50
• eligible Pokemon:
  • Pokemon with the Water-type from the Galar, IoA, and CT dexes, as well as Swampert and Primarina.
• Dmax/Gmax is ALLOWED

Signup between now and 23:59pm UTC July 15. Competition runs from:

UTC: 00:00 July 16 - 23:59 July 18
EDT: 8:00pm July 15 - 7:59pm July 17
AEST: 10:00am July 16 - 9:59am July 18

So what creative strategies are you planning to use to beat Freeze-Dry Lapras, Power Whip Gyarados, Lanturn and Rotom-W?

The next online competition on Battle Stadium is 3v3 singles, WATER MONOTYPE!

Rules:

• Bring 6, Pick 3 at team preview
• Item clause
• Species clause
• all Pokemon become level 50
• eligible Pokemon:
  • Pokemon with the Water-type from the Galar, IoA, and CT dexes, as well as Swampert and Primarina.
• Dmax/Gmax is ALLOWED

Signup between now and 23:59pm UTC July 15. Competition runs from:

UTC: 00:00 July 16 - 23:59 July 18
EDT: 8:00pm July 15 - 7:59pm July 17
AEST: 10:00am July 16 - 9:59am July 18

So what creative strategies are you planning to use to beat Freeze-Dry Lapras, Power Whip Gyarados, Lanturn and Rotom-W?

Best way i have been able to is unaware puyukumu wall. Toxic protect recover counter. Full HP special D. Can counter the power whip and poison stall special attacks. Eventually you get crit or paralyzed but get them low enough where they cant take a max airstreem from gyrados or max knuckle from dracovish.

 

[Aaron101]

Went 10-5 on day one. Been using a meme weakness policy physical ludicolo, caught a few sap sipper azumarill off guard. I ev'd it to survive max Airstream from adamant gyarados when dynamax'd. Most gyarados I've run into have been running life orb, was expecting more wacan berry.

 

[G50]

Best way i have been able to is unaware puyukumu wall. Toxic protect recover counter. Full HP special D. Can counter the power whip and poison stall special attacks. Eventually you get crit or paralyzed but get them low enough where they cant take a max airstreem from gyrados or max knuckle from dracovish.

Problem with that set is that Lapras and Tentacruel destroy it. Lapras learns safeguard which is huge to outstall Tox, Pyukumuku, and Tentacruel which all go second.

 

[Q The Dragonite]

Problem with that set is that Lapras and Tentacruel destroy it. Lapras learns safeguard which is huge to outstall Tox, Pyukumuku, and Tentacruel which all go second.

Went 12-3 with the muku lead did lose to a safeguard lapras lol i didnt see that one comimg

 

[Aduro]

Did alright today, think it was 10 wins and 5 losses. Plus one of the losses was a freeze.
Moody Octillery did really well, except once when it didn't. Kept getting speed and physical defence boosts against a lapras.
Bulky Rotom-W has also been a fantastic lead, with electroweb will-o-wisp and light screen. Helps me go into something that needs room to set up usually octillery or gyarados. Gyardos is taking thunderbolts surprisingly well, especially with +1 sp.def from bulldoze.

Perish trap has also been pretty strong as an alternate win condition, Azumarill is my main user, but perish song has been a solid coverage move on lapras.


My one big mistake was that I brought a lapras that isn't dynamax... Its more offensive than bulky anyway. Octillery and Gyarados are my most common dynamaxes and I have light screen and burn on rotom. But it might have cost me a game at one point.

Also I got hit hard by a ludicolo that managed to outspeed by lapras even though it was at -1 and life orb. I really gotta bring sap sipper Azu for those things.


Here's the team that I went with in the end.

Hide

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Sap Sipper
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 Def / 92 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Whirlpool
- Perish Song
- Protect
- Charm

Lapras-Gmax @ Life Orb
Ability: Shell Armor
Level: 50
Gigantamax: Yes
EVs: 172 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 76 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Freeze-Dry
- Thunder
- Perish Song
- Whirlpool

Gyarados @ Wide Lens
Ability: Moxie
Level: 50
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Bounce
- Power Whip
- Bulldoze

Primarina @ Choice Specs
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpA / 84 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Draining Kiss
- Energy Ball
- Moonblast
- Psychic

Octillery @ Lum Berry
Ability: Moody
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 220 Def / 36 SpD
Bold Nature
- Protect
- Energy Ball
- Gunk Shot
- Thunder Wave

Rotom-Wash @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 44 Def / 60 SpA / 108 SpD / 52 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Light Screen
- Will-o-wisp
- Electroweb

 

[-Takumii-]

I went 15-0 today got me 2nd Place atm. Definetely Gyarados is a beast. I will share after i got my 45 matches

 

[Pikachu_fan4820]

lol just thought of a trash lure ludicolo set to suprise attack gyrados on the switch
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 72 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- thunder punch
- Energy Ball
- Surf
- Blizzard
brief: you thunder punch gyrados on the switch, and it shouldn't dynamax here because it will waste it on the tpunch knocking it out (minimum roll still gets a 2HKO even after dynamax). prob bad idea but whatev.
you can be a dumbass and use this:
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Thunder Punch
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Seed Bomb
to OHKO gyra as it comes in if your a coward ig

 

[Aaron101]

9-6 on day 2.

Had some awesome matches, faced a suicide lead quilfish that caught me off guard. Head smash missing constantly caused me to lose some matches.

I've been enjoying using some unconventional sets. I'm in it for fun.

Good luck to everyone else participating.

 

[cant say]

I went 10-5 yesterday and then 8-7 today, for 18-12 overall… I’ve been caught leading poorly at team preview. It’s hard to tell whether your opponent is good and will counterlead the obvious Relicanth lead from me, or lead with something totally random that loses to Relicanth. Since the meta is so heavily offensive, and revolving around Lapras/Gyarados positioning, getting the lead wrong is instant death.

Tentacruel, Lanturn and Ludicolo have been really good. I need to trust myself to lead Tentacruel more often with Relicanth and Lanturn/Ludicolo in the back. My losses were pretty much all me just over thinking team preview and trying to catch the opponent counterleading me… Hopefully day 3 will go better. I peaked at 1628 today before falling back down to 1570something.

I haven’t seen anything too innovative so far. Just what you’d expect (brainless Gyara / Lapras spam). I think the most interesting were the Lapras running Scarf or Custap Berry + Endure. I also lost to a lead offensive Tentacruel.


I don’t regret how I built my team, but unfortunately Yawn spam into Sub+Belly Drum Poliwrath hasn’t worked once yet in this (despite being quite strong on Showdown and the online friendlies). I’ve had to bench it and play with 5 (well essentially 4 because Yawn Kingdra only works on Poliwrath mode). Ah well!

 

[Aaron101]

I went 10-5 yesterday and then 8-7 today, for 18-12 overall… I’ve been caught leading poorly at team preview. It’s hard to tell whether your opponent is good and will counterlead the obvious Relicanth lead from me, or lead with something totally random that loses to Relicanth. Since the meta is so heavily offensive, and revolving around Lapras/Gyarados positioning, getting the lead wrong is instant death.

Tentacruel, Lanturn and Ludicolo have been really good. I need to trust myself to lead Tentacruel more often with Relicanth and Lanturn/Ludicolo in the back. My losses were pretty much all me just over thinking team preview and trying to catch the opponent counterleading me… Hopefully day 3 will go better. I peaked at 1628 today before falling back down to 1570something.

I haven’t seen anything too innovative so far. Just what you’d expect (brainless Gyara / Lapras spam). I think the most interesting were the Lapras running Scarf or Custap Berry + Endure. I also lost to a lead offensive Tentacruel.


I don’t regret how I built my team, but unfortunately Yawn spam into Sub+Belly Drum Poliwrath hasn’t worked once yet in this (despite being quite strong on Showdown and the online friendlies). I’ve had to bench it and play with 5 (well essentially 4 because Yawn Kingdra only works on Poliwrath mode). Ah well!

GG I believe I fought you twice, I was the one with the weird sharpedo.

It was an anti relicanth set, Taunt to stop rocks, bite to break sturdy and to fish for flinches and close combat to finish it off, I didn't take endure into account though

 

[Piloufis]

8-2 on Day 1 due to work. I faced nothing special except a Dymax Inteleon (non GMax) and a Poliwrath that confused itself, because of holding a wrong berry, which won me the game tbh*. The only thing I regret so far ist the EV Spread of my Ludicolo

Ludicolo @ Coba Berry
Ability: Own Tempo -> because I don't expect that many Drizzle or Max Geyser
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 252 Atk / 116 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Thunder Punch
- Fake Out
- Synthesis

+2 252 Atk Gyarados Max Airstream vs. 140 HP / 0 Def Coba Berry Dynamax Ludicolo: 288-339 (83.7 - 98.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

*fun fact, I won this match without using Dymax lol

 

[cant say]

I went 10-5 yesterday and then 8-7 today, for 18-12 overall…

Frustratingly, I went 9-6 today to finish 27-18 overall. I peaked at 1630 today before going on a big losing streak to finish off my 45 matches, finishing again somewhere in the 1570s (where I started AND finished both day 2 and 3, despite winning more than losing. That’s matchmaking for you).

In the end my Eject Button + Yawn into Substitute Poliwrath idea was not successful at all. It worked really well on Showdown and the cartridge friendlies, but the real thing was brutal for trying to get a Belly Drum off. It took a lot more brainpower to set up correctly without losing to Max Lightning or a straight Gyarados swap on the Sub turn, and I misplayed those situations plenty of times which was pretty frustrating. There also seemed to be way more Starmie and Sharpedo at team preview which scared me out of leading Kingdra for turn 1 Yawns, and I was either not utilising Lanturn to absorb Max Lightnings, or my opponents letting the sleep happen for no reason and bopping me on the switch.

Ludicolo, Tentacruel and Lanturn were amazing though and I wish I just focussed on using them more. Stockpile Lanturn won games on its own and I’m glad I went with it. Tentacruel was a really good metagame call, especially with Tickle. But Ludicolo was definitely my MVP and I think if I built around it instead of Poliwrath I could have gone much better.

If I could rework the team and keep playing I would probably make Lanturn a Weakness Policy set instead, and swap Kingdra + Poliwrath for something like Electroweb Rotom + Moody Octillery, or keep Lanturn as-is and use Weakness Policy Azumarill and/or Swords Dance Kabutops. I also faced a couple Dragon Dance + Spark Whiscash which were pretty epic.


All in all, I’m disappointed at my result but I did really enjoy using some Pokémon I’ve literally never used before (and probably never will again, unless I figure out how to make Ludicolo or Tentacruel viable in BSS because I kinda like them now lol).

 

[Aaron101]

Finished day 3 with a 10-5 with an overall 29-16 record.

The only two things I regret was not running coppa berry like I originally planned on my ludicolo and replace seed bomb with dive to set up swift swim.

The other being sharpedo, the idea was to use it as an anti relicanth set with taunt to stop yawn and stealth rock. Bite was for fishing for flinches while breaking sturdy. Never used rock tomb once. I should of stuck with my original set of Crunch, taunt, destiny bond and close combat.

Starmie and Azumarill did alot better than I expected them to. Azu is my favorite pokemon so I'm glad it put in some work.

This was my first time in a long time participating in one of these competitions. Monotype is one of my favorite formats I found out.

 

[Piloufis]

30 battles done, after having a 8-2 and 7-3 record at the first two days, I crashed horribly today with 4-6, so I have a final record of 19-11. (I know I still would have 15 battles left^^)
Since my game is set in german, I uploaded my team, so you can see the english names of the moves and abilities (or you can find it here )

I think my team isn't that special, Toxapex was kinda funny to wall Shell Smash users or physical attackers in generell (had to Dymax it once, just to wall +4 Cloyster, fortunatley I played Venoshock, so at least I had one move to attack)

What I should have changed was, putting the 116 Speed EV of Ludicolo into HP, and maybe another Item on Seismitoad, maybe CB or Expert Belt and maybe running Water Absorb instead of Poison Touch
Sorry, if there are some grammar mistakes

 

[Burning Justice]

Decided to participate in this competition! First time I've participated in one in SwSh.

Ended up with 1607 points. Max score I had at any point was 1628. I did pretty well days 1 and 3, but lost quite a few matches day 2, a number due to bad luck (like missing Will-o-Wisp twice in a row allowing a Cloyster to sweep me, or getting paralyzed by Thunderbolt and being fully paralyzed right after several times) but also a few due to some bad play on my part.

The team I used was:

Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 76 Atk / 180 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Hydro Pump
- Thunder Punch
- Knock Off

Kabutops @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet
- Flail
- Swords Dance

Starmie @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Analytic
Level: 50
EVs: 180 HP / 196 SpA / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Grass Knot
- Tri Attack
- Protect

Lapras @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
Gigantamax: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 156 SpA / 68 SpD / 28 Spe
Calm Nature
- Freeze-Dry
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Shard
- Horn Drill

Rotom-Wash @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 192 HP / 64 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Will-o-Wisp
- Reflect
- Light Screen

Arctovish @ Petaya Berry
Ability: Slush Rush
Level: 50
EVs: 124 HP / 252 SpA / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Freeze-Dry
- Super Fang
- Substitute
- Hail


I ended up leading with Rotom, then backing it up with Arctovish and Lapras almost every battle. I used Ludicolo and Starmie a few times, Kabutops I hardly used at all.

Arctovish was pretty crucial to my team; a bunch of people I faced had no idea how to handle it. Hail had multiple benefits; it both made me faster and helped break Sashes. It also got rid of rain in the rare event my opponent was using it. Super Fang helped break down walls; that and Freeze-Dry were really the only offensive moves it needed. Really underrated in this format IMHO.

Assault Vest Lapras is *really* bulky, I loved it. Even now I'm not completely sure if I should have invested even more in general bulk, though.

My main regret was not having more physical attackers on the team. I was usually able to get around special walls with Super Fang and Horn Drill, but having more physical attackers would've helped for sure.

 

[Kong Harald]

Does anyone know what to search for in japanese to find teams on twitter? Always fun to see whatthe top players used.

I went 15-0 today got me 2nd Place atm. Definetely Gyarados is a beast. I will share after i got my 45 matches

How did your other days go, and do you mind sharing your team? :)

 

[-Takumii-]

Does anyone know what to search for in japanese to find teams on twitter? Always fun to see whatthe top players used.


How did your other days go, and do you mind sharing your team? :)

I dropped at day 3 after 36 Matches. 24 wins 12 losses, 1604 Rating, Place 1128.
The glory of day one was probably just luck.
This was the Team
https://pokepast.es/89d5147bc889eff3