POKÉMON CENTER

[obtuse ravine]

now that's a name I've not heard in a long time

[pliant violet]

arcanine using espeed to confirm ko isn't unheard of either

[obtuse ravine]

thanks for the info!

[arctic dagger]

It turns out +6 attack 80bp priority kind of kills everyone kinda regardless of base stats

[pliant violet]

the ominous ghost type:

good news is it probably won't be of much concern in champions for the moment, since you're mostly gonna see special dragonite

[arctic dagger]

Yeah Dragonite is mostly on rain as thunder/hurricane and a second tailwind after pelipper

[obtuse ravine]

belly drum does WHAT

wow.

[arctic dagger]

Yeah LMAO

[pliant violet]

wolfey did something else with it but he's wolfe, we don't count him

[pliant violet]

also a move that gets very limited distribution, also for good reason

[arctic dagger]

Dragonite also has a pretty strong supportive pool

[manic kindle]

Inner focus tailwind dragonite is fun

[obtuse ravine]

huh, didn't even think of using tailwind on a second mon

good to know that dragonite can learn it

[obtuse ravine]

[pliant violet]

backups are helpful and a lot of mons only really need their dual stab and protect, and then you're debating whether coverage or tailwind or some other support tool is gonna pay off best

[manic kindle]

Where them friend codes at...

[pliant violet]

here's mine

[manic kindle]

Murdoc champions trainer id: 1785 2680 0352

[obtuse ravine]

i can send mine when i get home tonight 🙂‍↕️

[obtuse ravine]

unsure of if i'd want to replace gardevoir's draining kiss with another move, if i already have dazzling gleam

i guess wide guard exists, but I do have psychic for single target.. dunno if there's anything that's weak to fairy and resists psychic

[manic kindle]

Dark types!

[snow wren]

neat team, lots of mons I like there

[obtuse ravine]

will try this my dragonite is kinda just the stock one rn..

it has like

fire blast and ice beam 😭

[obtuse ravine]

is usage based on presence in teams or in matches?

[snow wren]

more than half of all teams use incin jeez

[manic kindle]

Teams!

[manic kindle]

He's really good

So much role compression in one cool cat

[obtuse ravine]

👏

[snow wren]

And then sneasler crushes the cat

[obtuse ravine]

i gotta get one of those

[manic kindle]

Defiant kingambit and competitive milotic are fun incin punishes too

[obtuse ravine]

[manic kindle]

Milotic is in a really nice spot imo i expect to see it more

[obtuse ravine]

i kinda wanna try beat up whimsicott + justified lucario.. that sounds really funny

I suppose you wouldn't want to mega on the first turn, which means you wouldn't get tailwind or the mega speed boost for it

there are so many fun sounding synergies, but you still have to build a team around em 😵‍💫

[manic kindle]

Yeah! it gets intricate

[versed sand]

Could go for the "look up establish teams of my favorite blorbos" approach

Hard for me to fully wrap my head around the nuances of competitive Pokemon

[obtuse ravine]

yea, i might try that

just need to get my favourite blorbos first!

so in the meantime i'll play around with what i have

[manic kindle]

always around to answer questions

Wolfey's videos are pretty neat insofar as seeing his explanations of why he picks the mons he does

can put you in a good mindset on looking at your own team

[snow wren]

the first step is accepting you can't win with your favorites

[manic kindle]

False! You can! But it may be a lot harder than winning with something Better in other ways

I will have to work harder to make my Mega Skarmory team win, but I'm okay with that

[snow wren]

I wonder how mainstays like landorus and dracovish showing up will change the meta

I also wonder if champions will nerf mons to play with the meta

[manic kindle]

Landorus would shake up a lot for sure; powerful ground/poison special moves would dethrone a lot of the current threats

[snow wren]

landorus really benefits from ice pokemon being such a terribledefensive typing huh, makes the thing that worries him so much easy to cover

[arctic dagger]

If you're not already using a mega, Dragonite a pretty decent choice too

[languid lichen]

god i wish skarm had gotten something other than stalwart

[manic kindle]

funny enough stalwart is Kinda Nice for doubles purposes given the number of meta redirectors rn

no good for the singles experience womp womp

but its at least a niche i can use unlike poor mold breaker boar

[languid lichen]

fair

moldy emboar is just for flash fire

which

is good against exactly heatran??

which it already has its other STAB for

[manic kindle]

he is also the Exact Answer To Shedinja Nonsense which i think is so funny

nice air balloon electric shedinja or w/e go my earthed quake

[languid lichen]

lol

air balloon actually beats mold breaker

item not ability

you would just hit it with a heat crash or whatever

[manic kindle]

ive been bamboozled by my own joke

im a fake fan

[obtuse ravine]

that's what i have on it rn

i just haven't customized the moves at all

[manic kindle]

You can't go wrong with Draco Meteor (or Dragon Pulse) and Protect as two of the slots, for sure

[obtuse ravine]

[manic kindle]

The last two slots get a little trickier because you have to pick them based on the rest of your squad and all that

[arctic dagger]

Yeah. Hurricane/Thunder/X/X, some mix of draco meteor, tailwind, protect, and extreme speed is normal

iF it's mega I'd probably go more selfish, like draco/protect

For the supportive non-mega I like something like Breaking Swipe/Protect/Tailwind/Hurricane|Extreme Speed|Thunder

[manic kindle]

The real thing you have to work around is The Weather; i think its both m-dragonite's strength and weakness that both sides will be playing around

since the common m-dragonite set just suffers outside rain, but if you build to work outside of rain your punch is lighter

not that any of this is unique to the big guy

[obtuse ravine]

ah i see

[manic kindle]

so many possibilities! its both wonderful and intimidating

[obtuse ravine]

yeah...

looking forward to checking out some videos and building teams when i'm not in exams

[obtuse ravine]

is body press archaludon used, or do people always use rain electro shot

[manic kindle]

It was used a lot, but in Champions Archaludon doesnt learn it anymore, so now its usually Electro Shot

[obtuse ravine]

ah ok

[arctic dagger]

Mega Crab is so neat.

I love that it's actually turning out to be quite good

[glossy umbra]

Yeah, the old strat was something like Stamina Archaludon with a Maushold buddy (buddies).

[arctic dagger]

Oh my god did it population bomb its ally

[glossy umbra]

Where you'd use population bomb into Archie to essentially max out their defense.

[arctic dagger]

That's so funny oh my god

[glossy umbra]

Yup. Been a while but believe that was the strat yeah.

But since they lost body press folk have started experimenting with sturdy again, since a free focus sash is good (plus immunity against OHKO moves).

Beat up was also used for this purpose I think.

Or scale shot (had forgotten about that one, but found it with a refresher).

[languid lichen]

scale shot is a lot worse there

actually has base damage, for one

and also a miss chance

[glossy umbra]

Yeah, it's not optimal but it was an option.

Population bomb or beat up were still the primary choices, with the former hitting more/weaker and the latter being available on more Mons.

[arctic dagger]

What song do people think Perish Song is

Ok so I've actually seen some successful psyspam at this point using MegaZam

Using Meowstic to set

Instead of Farig

[obtuse ravine]

psyspam?

[arctic dagger]

Psychic Terrain using multiple Expanding Force users

It was screens + psychic terrain and expanding force on male meowstic

Although I think it'd be justifiable to do like, protect+helping hand instead of screens maybe?

[manic kindle]

Im still using stamina archaludon w leftovers in champions

[obtuse ravine]

i've seen some of those, what can you do with the extra def?

[obtuse ravine]

i seeee

[versed sand]

I feel I should start a team from scratch with at least the Gardevoir and Toxicroak I have, but I've been feeling attached to Starmie and Gliscor too.

[arctic dagger]

Mega Gard seems really good to me right now

[obtuse ravine]

👀

what does it do

[arctic dagger]

Pixilate Hyper Voice, mostly

[obtuse ravine]

wait it's 90 bp

i had it in my head that it was 50 for some reason 😭

wow..

[arctic dagger]

117 for MegaGard

😄

[pliant violet]

teams and part of the reason is just having something as an option on your team can discourage the opponent even if you never bring it

[obtuse ravine]

mhmm

[versed sand]

Huh, hadn't heard about Pixilate before. It's that good?

[arctic dagger]

30% power boost is pretty strong, yeah

[obtuse ravine]

i think it's 20% in champions, i spotted it on my sylveon

[arctic dagger]

Hyper Voice hits through substitute, which is sometimes relevant

[pliant violet]

any of those ate abilities are good

[languid lichen]

20%

it was only 30% in gen 6

[arctic dagger]

Ah, my b

[pliant violet]

I run primarina with liquid voice which is essentialy liquidate

[languid lichen]

well

effectively liquidate but without the part that matters

(1.2x power)

[pliant violet]

doesn't it give a bp bump?

[languid lichen]

no

converts sound moves (any type) to Water

no other effects

[pliant violet]

a shame

still worth running hyper voice though

[languid lichen]

yeah

[versed sand]

Got myself a Alolan Ninetales and a Hisuian Zoroark, nice nice

Also Torterra, love that big guy

[near flower]

👀

[languid lichen]

wait what

huge?

i didn't realize anyone on the planet still cared about pokemon ranger

much less guardian signs

[pliant violet]

mega scizor in my h decidueye idea, good typing, benefits from tailwind a bunch, has good priority options

oooh got my first shiny in champions

[manic kindle]

Swords dance scizor or 3 attacks protect?

[pliant violet]

3 attacks protect, bullet punch, dual wing beat, pounce

[obtuse ravine]

trying pelipper

ceruledge is here too

[pliant violet]

the gang

they seem like a bit of a non-bo

[obtuse ravine]

pelipper’s mostly here for dragonite idk what ceruledge is really for tho it just seems cool

but maybe i should keep gardevoir

[pliant violet]

it is cool, true

[obtuse ravine]

oh my goodness i’m so not used to having prankster

my tailwind did not come up

[versed sand]

Retrained my Gardevoir with Pixilate + Hyper Voice / Psyshock / Will-o-Wisp / Focus Blast

[obtuse ravine]

heyyy, rolled a toxicroak

and got to bp 27 for my meganiumite

[pliant violet]

thinking about blastoise for my tailwind decidueye team

are there any good electric types in game atm?

[wispy yarrow]

the rotom electric one is p good I hear

immune to fake out and earthquake

[snow wren]

torterra is great
shame they're so meh

one of my absolute favorites
hopefully they get a super strong mega but it'll probably get some flavorful new special ability thats utterly useless

[versed sand]

TIL Hisuian Samurott exists. Rolled one.

[pliant violet]

yep! much better than original

triple arrows is an absurd move

[languid lichen]

h samurott doesn't have triple arrows lmao

it does however have ceaseless edge

which is also very good

[pliant violet]

yes I know, that was brought up because of me using h decidueye

and hitting all 3 of it's additional effects

[languid lichen]

ah

good thing it's on a base 65 mon

[pliant violet]

yeah no one would fully invest in speed and use tailwind to try and make it work

[languid lichen]

i mean, at least you have to tailwind it

[pliant violet]

h decidueye is interesting because if it had more speed or more bulk and less speed it'd be quite good imo, it's got decent to good attack, typing is fine, gets some good moves, scrappy is one of the abilities of all time

[obtuse ravine]

don't think i really know how to play around rain 😔

tried some new things and some didn't work out, I think I need to tighten up the team a bit

my trainer ID is: 4810 4604 9593 @manic kindle

[languid lichen]

rain is historically very strong when it's at all viable

one of those give an inch, take a mile archetypes

[obtuse ravine]

good to hear

i’m thinking of using dragonite or toxicroak with my pelipper

haven’t gotten a chance to try mega meganium yet, don’t want to try too many new things at once

stuck weather ball on it though

[pliant violet]

and it's usually somewhat viable

[languid lichen]

i imagine you can't go wrong with hurricane thunder meteor protect mega dragonite

[pliant violet]

I think it's historically the most successful archetype in pokemon, depending whether you count all the rain variants as one thing

[languid lichen]

yeah

certainly in doubles

[pliant violet]

I think it's cause water is generally a stronger type than fire, and that sun tries to support too broad a scope

[obtuse ravine]

yea that’s what i’ve got! just dunno what else to use

[pliant violet]

you mean alongside it?

[languid lichen]

also that rain lets you run both on-type haymakers and very common coverage that hits things you care about, through hurricane and thunder

[pliant violet]

pelipper, archaludon, basculegion is a fairly common rain core

[languid lichen]

esp. with the latter being -%

[pliant violet]

yeah fire speeds up grass moves, which tend to be single target, while rain makes strong other type moves hit and includes spread

[languid lichen]

water walls have a really hard time switching in because you always have dudes with ice or flying coverage for grass, electric coverage for enemy waters, and ice again for the rare dragon

and also all of your swift swim is on the main type

unlike chlorophyll

[snow wren]

what does archaludon bring to rain teams?

[languid lichen]

and similar philosophies follow into singles

[pliant violet]

electroshot, being hard to remove

[languid lichen]

harder to wall, better defensive type, more internal synergy

and also regular influxes of shit like dracovish and basculegion

[pliant violet]

yeah I saw someone mention dracovish and I generally think basculegion outclasses it in doubles

[snow wren]

really

[pliant violet]

fake out immunity and wave crash

and last respects for cleanup

[languid lichen]

oh yeah rain also just

has pelipper

sun has no good equivalent setters

and sand and snow are a joke, except for AVmaxxing alolatales

[pliant violet]

torkoal is better in terms of setting and using it itself

[languid lichen]

torkoal is not a better user than pelipper 😭

[snow wren]

what do people think of champions doing patches with buffs/nefs? most competitive games do that but poemon has actively avoided that

[pliant violet]

and mega frosslass is cracked but a mega

[languid lichen]

unless lava plume is on that fucking demon time in doubles

[pliant violet]

eruption

Torkoal has made tr viable in multiple formats because of TR

[languid lichen]

ah, right, doubles can protect it

[pliant violet]

ally uses tr torkoal protects t1, nothing is faster than torkoal in tr so it uses eruption every turn after that until it takes some damage

[languid lichen]

yeah TR being viable in doubles is a vastly different experience from what i'm used to

[snow wren]

trick room is neat

[obtuse ravine]

mhm!

[pliant violet]

it's not always but if it is torkoal is probably part

[languid lichen]

in singles pelipper having a decent spatk + hydro pump hurricane is a lot better

• uturn and recovery

[pliant violet]

I heavily associate tr and sun for that reason

[languid lichen]

u-turn is huge

[manic kindle]

Torkoal and T-tar are scary af weather setters in doubles

[pliant violet]

pump not weatherball?

[languid lichen]

usually yeah

[pliant violet]

interesting

[obtuse ravine]

ran into this with aurora veil and sinistcha earlier

[languid lichen]

pow > acc is the unfortunate truth of singles

[obtuse ravine]

very funny

[manic kindle]

Doubles peli is on hurricane, weather ball / muddy water, tailwind, wide guard

[languid lichen]

up to a certain point

[pliant violet]

sometimes tailwind goes

depends what you're doing

[obtuse ravine]

[languid lichen]

Pelipper @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
IVs: 0 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Roost
- Surf / Hydro Pump / Knock Off

is what you usually see in smogon singles

[pliant violet]

0 speed so it can set weather second?

[languid lichen]

dunno why people run surf over weather ball

[obtuse ravine]

tyty...

[manic kindle]

So different from champions lmao

[languid lichen]

THIS IS NOT FOR CHAMPIONS

lmao

[obtuse ravine]

oh 😭

sry I'm sleepy..

[languid lichen]

0 speed for a slow u-turn

[manic kindle]

Peli here is max spAtk/speed focus sash

[languid lichen]

no worries i realize it was a problem

[pliant violet]

also makes sense

[languid lichen]

not sure what's up with the surf, i've always just seen & used pump

oh wait hm.

does weather ball not get the 1.5x in rain/sun?

[pliant violet]

slow weather and slow pivot are the same idea

[manic kindle]

Works outside of rain as water stab

[obtuse ravine]

do i put rain dance on pelipper, how do i contest other weather

[languid lichen]

hm, nope

works as normal

zero clue then

not like pelipper exists outside of rain time

[languid lichen]

0 spe

[pliant violet]

yeah it's 150 bp

[manic kindle]

Dont do 0 speed peli in Champions

It will die uselessly

[obtuse ravine]

but what if weather comes in later

[manic kindle]

You switch out or have a backup setter

Sometimes its a game of Protect The Bird

[languid lichen]

ah fair, don't listen to me for doubles, i play tuoys with singles bulky offense

[manic kindle]

If i see a torkoal or t-tar on team preview ill hold my pelipper back in slot 3 or 4

[pliant violet]

I'd also like to mention the second best regular rain setter, politoed

[manic kindle]

The Froge

[pliant violet]

the froge will sing you to death

[languid lichen]

also known as: the only other drizzler

legends don't count

[pliant violet]

if you see the froge and gengar on a list, be wary

[languid lichen]

fuckin perish trapping

[pliant violet]

kyogre is the most winning pokemon of all time

[languid lichen]

yeah and i hate it

bastard fish

[pliant violet]

I don't know that that's true tbh but it feels true

[obtuse ravine]

i seee

yeah i did put u-turn on it..

[manic kindle]

It takes time but learning when to keep your weather guy in/out will win games

Especially against the mega evo weather nerds

Charizard Y my nemesis

[pliant violet]

weather wars make whole ass metagames and you either gotta get good at them or find a way to ignore them

[manic kindle]

When im not tucked into bed i can explain more of my Cool Pelipper Strategies

I love that bird

And i love Rain

[pliant violet]

I'm a bater

bird hater

hurricane one shots hydrapple, cruel

[languid lichen]

based

down with the apple

pluck and bug bite should instantly kill hydrapple

berry: consumed

[manic kindle]

https://tenor.com/view/pelipper-pokemon-gif-11822071509640320217

[pliant violet]

why the hate for my lovely fellows

also I think I'm gonna put blastoise (with mega stone) and alolan raichu in my tailwind team to round it out

[manic kindle]

Eager to hear results

[pliant violet]

I think that's one thing folks don't get when first starting but matters so much, the importance of speed control

[manic kindle]

Im still trying to decide between feint and upper hand for my sneasler

[pliant violet]

(A Raichu gets electroweb which is part of what cinched it for me)

[manic kindle]

Electroweb and icy wind are nasty

[pliant violet]

(still umming and ahhing on whether empoleon might be more useful than blastoise tbh)

[pliant violet]

upper hand to catch sucker punch king gambit?

[languid lichen]

is mega raichu in?

the two fucks

[pliant violet]

nope

[languid lichen]

gotcha

[manic kindle]

Also hits a lot of midgame fakeouts like incin

[languid lichen]

i hope that mega raichu x gets a useless ability

specifically an electric immunity

not because i'm a hater, although this is also true

but for smogon meta reasons

[manic kindle]

The main problem with Feint is i keep outplaying myself

[languid lichen]

lol

[pliant violet]

I didn't realise upperhand was high enough prio to catch fakeout

[languid lichen]

prio 3!

same as

[pliant violet]

so you have to call it and be faster but it's sneasler so you are faster

I think you go upperhand, it's higher impact on success than feint imo

I have my 3rd attack on sneasler as u-turn

[manic kindle]

Yeah, but nothing feels as good as turn 1 feint + wave crash into floette

Both have nice mind game elements too

Same reason i like ally switch spiritomb

[pliant violet]

I would like ally switch a lot more if it didn't have the risk of failing on subsequent turns

[manic kindle]

It is sad

[sullen mesa]

cbat

[pliant violet]

one thing I like in a team is having good bait weaknesses on a pokemon, that draw attacks for safe switch ins

[wispy yarrow]

Mega Gengar is so fucking troll dude

Just sit there and fuckin protect and substitute

Boring ahh

[pliant violet]

Doubles or singles?

[wispy yarrow]

Doubles

[pliant violet]

Have you considered the majesty of ground type moves

[umbral hound]

…you know what Mon I wish was better? Cursola. Its biggest impact on anything was letting Galarian Corsola use Eviolite and that’s kind of sad.

[wispy yarrow]

I have, but when I can't swap out into my ground types it's kinda annoying

[pliant violet]

Yeah it do be like that

You basically have to swap when they switch gengar in, before it megas

[quiet galleon]

On the weather convo tyranitar is so good. The spdef bulk goes crazy

And mega ttar is the best setter imo even just for denying sun/rain

Just cause they can set on the switch or on mega if you call it

[quiet galleon]

Won my first battle with mega lopunny :3

Encore is kinda cracked

[pliant violet]

yep

encore whimsicott is a nightmare to deal with

give it tailwind encore taunt and boom, you've turned your opponent frothing mad

[quiet galleon]

Idk abt my team tho

Ik garchomp should have stomping instead of protect with scarf but I just didnt feel like training him

Ppl are running triple axel on lop but idk thunder punch has been doing work

And doesnt miss

[pliant violet]

idk if incin needs protect

[quiet galleon]

Fair, lariat would be nice to have

[pliant violet]

ooh I might run milotic instead of blastoise in my tailwind team

[quiet galleon]

My thinking with milotic is that it discourages an incin lead

[pliant violet]

ye, I was considering empoleon for the same reason

[quiet galleon]

Which is nice because then lopunny can get scrappy up before being intimidated

Empoleon is cool :3

[pliant violet]

ye, competitive

[quiet galleon]

I think one reason I put protect on incin was because I was thinking about running dual wingbeat on corv instead of protect

And I was worried about the amount of protect on the team at large

Team building hard

[pliant violet]

team building hard

[manic kindle]

I like throat chop over lariat personally to really make farigirafs sad

[snow cobalt]

https://bsky.app/profile/doodlelotl.bsky.social/post/3mjsaozbqmc2i

doodlelotl (@doodlelotl.bsky.social)

wrmpl

Reposts

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2050

Bluesky · Apr 18, 2026, 8:10 PM

[versed sand]

Am I cooking here?

[manic kindle]

focus punch politoed is killing me (positive) thats so funny

i am not sure you will get to pull it off given how slow that toad is / how focus punch works with belly drum but it tickles me

[azure crane]

I feel like Focus Punch and Hypnosis are both things to try and catch would be counters being switched in, but I'm curious what the former hits.

[manic kindle]

now that i have a better moment at work
if this is for doubles:

• Politoed's set might suffer in a world where you may never get to launch Focus Punch or use Belly Drum; esp since there's no team protection or redirection to assist
• three megas might be a bit much; usually two is the breaking point for useful mega-to-item-slot ratio on your pokemon
• meganium and dragonite might want Protect in some way in the sets for better positioning and other doubles uses, as they are high priority targets
• toxicroak should look into Sucker Punch, as it really puts the hurt on a lot of threats

Incineroar might want to re-evaluate its stat spread; HP instead of SpDef would be generically more useful into a wider array of matchups for a very vanilla set, tho incin is one of those pokemon that historically likes weird complicated mixed spreads

[trail bridge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVJRLq1eNH0

mmm

victe

[versed sand]

Did consider Empoleon at one point, though idk if Iron Wall is even in Champions atm

[manic kindle]

Empoleon is in!

[wild prairie]

I think Tracing Sand Veil might be my new favorite piece of MZam tech

[manic kindle]

MZam is such a funny guy

trace itself is really funny

Was helping a friend ladder, she knock off'd on their switch, they switched into Gard which traced Sneasler's unburden, knocked off the choice scarf... to activate unburden

[glossy umbra]

In Champions? Mainly just extra bulk.

Previously you could also use Body Press I believe it is, but that's no longer available on Archimedes

[wild prairie]

Ultra 2 got hands. I lost a 15 win streak and now I'm struggling to get a win streak going at all

[manic kindle]

yeah ultra is where people start Learning and Adapting against you

[wild prairie]

I had to stop myself from continuing the grind after I lost 3 consecutive games to Focus Blast misses

Also I've found that my psyspam setup is pretty weak to Trick Room and opposing Tailwind, so I want to make adjustments to fix that

[arctic dagger]

Yeah you really need your own tailwind vs tailwind

Or to use trick room yourself

[manic kindle]

I like having both for my team

[wild prairie]

Yeah I've been trying to counteract enemy Tailwinds with TWave on my Farigiraf, but it's been inconsistent

[pliant violet]

problem with both is your team likely isn't good at either

[manic kindle]

True in most cases; i only use tr when i know i cannot stop the enemy tailwind

Its been working thus far

[pliant violet]

what are you using as tr setter?

[wild prairie]

Would it be insane to run Slowbro as an anti-TR/anti-Incineroar Eforce spammer?

[pliant violet]

explain the logic, and possibly the set

wish it was easier to see the pokemon available to the opponent

[snow wren]

didn't realize you can't just freely trade pokemon in go, was planning on using that to get what I wanted for my first team
not to mention that since mimikyu is so new amy brother doesn't have one since he's fallen off of it recently

[pliant violet]

alcreamie kinda a menace huh

[obtuse ravine]

NOOO

i got typhlosion and lopunny in the same pull....

bun it is, i can probably get a typhlosion easier

[pliant violet]

do you know how to use type tickets on a pull?

they guarantee, I think, the left 3 pokemon on a pull will have the type of the ticket

[obtuse ravine]

type ticket?? i don't believe so

[pliant violet]

so you're in the screen after hitting meet a new line up of pokemon, I think hitting x makes the menu pop up to use them

https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-champions-affinity-tickets-how-to-get-use-recruit/

one of the few things the game does not tutorialise well imo

[obtuse ravine]

gwuh

i see

[wild prairie]

It's still just an idea at the moment, but likely something like Eforce/Hydro Pump/Fire Blast/Protect, or possibly Ice Beam instead of Protect to cover for dragons.
Pump for Incineroar, Fire Blast mainly for Aegislash

[pliant violet]

why slowbro though

[languid lichen]

oh, is aegislash in champs

[pliant violet]

ye

[languid lichen]

seems sketchy as fuck to keep in on it though

i cannot imagine wanting to eat shit to shadow ball

unless aegi just never runs that

[pliant violet]

of the sets it runs that's one of the main moves

oh also when you're training a pokemon you can make it highlight the most popular stat distributions, natures, abilities and moves, by going into that category and hittin x

[languid lichen]

that makes sense!

the sets i'm used to seeing are sball/sneak/[steel move]/[king's shield or steel beam]

toxic + king's shield bastard machines

and then sd sneak iron head cc

[obtuse ravine]

ah, i hadn't gotten any until now

just got the ones from 50 fairy moves

tyty for the info

got my first win with megameganium, it persisted through a thunder wave to shoot a solar beam and then they sent out a hydreigon, maybe assuming my whimsicott was just gonna try to set tailwind? but I moonblasted its ass and they forfeited

I kinda like that it has big grass move and also big fire move, that's fun and helps a lot against.. ice and bug?

[languid lichen]

more steel

grass/fairy is hardwalled by steel

so having a hard-hitting weather ball to punish them is really useful

punishing enemy grass, bug, and ice switches is also very helpful, don't get me wrong

but dazzling gleam hits all of those for neutral, so the big prize is nugging things like scizor or (who i now know is relevant) aegislash

[pliant violet]

also other grass types like venusaur

especially if you're pairing meganium with a water type

[languid lichen]

oh yeah, grasses with fairy resist are also big

and just poison types in general, which also hardwall its stab

doesn't help you with opposing fires, though, which is what your water-type buddies are for

[pliant violet]

and rain

[manic kindle]

you also ohko a lot of archaludons

important for the mirror

[languid lichen]

oh fr? with weather ball?

[pliant violet]

important for feeling good

[languid lichen]

does "it counts as sun" mean including for buffing it to 150 bp?

[pliant violet]

fuck that bastard ass bridge

[pliant violet]

yes

[languid lichen]

hot fucking diggity

[pliant violet]

it counts as sun

in all possible ways

[languid lichen]

dunno why i thought that part specifically would be excluded!

nice

[manic kindle]

its so fuckin cool as an ability

[pliant violet]

and unique

nothing does anything like it, the closest is weather setting abilities but they're not the same

[languid lichen]

yeah they cooked so fuckin hard

i feel real bad for emboar in comparison

[arctic dagger]

Yeah, M-Meganium is really fucking cool

It needed something really fucking cool to be even slightly worth doing though

[pliant violet]

you know what it also does really well that's not come up yet but might?

walls water bear

[languid lichen]

oh shit it does

except for ice spinner but who cares, you nuke it on the return

[pliant violet]

yeah in a megas meta with urshifu rapid I think a core of urshifu mega meganium and like, incin, to be solid

[languid lichen]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/1spkz4n/how_ttar_and_excadrill_were_moving/

[pliant violet]

so true unfortunately, pelipper

[wispy yarrow]

If two pokemon come in with weather abilities, does the one whose is slowest stay?

since the faster one would come out first?

[pliant violet]

ye

nailed it

[wispy yarrow]

Trying to figure out the best ways to get my snow and/or sandstorms to fuckin stick

[pliant violet]

slow setters, switching them in, mega evolving into a setter

[wispy yarrow]

so I need to make my ttar slower

I'm not using mega ttar either

my team atm sets up for either blizzardsweeps or sandstorm shenanigans

G-Slowking, A-Ninetales, Mega Lopunny, Garchomp, Excadrill, Tyranitar

Lopunny for fakeout and fighting coverage, triple axel for Ice
G-slowking has chilly reception for snow, ninetales has snow cloak but might be worth snow warning even with slowking
very standard tyranitar and excadrill shenanigans, Garchomp is replacing my Kommo-o since I have fighting coverage elsewhere

[pliant violet]

might be worth making two separate, more focussed teams?

also what sorta speed control are you using?

[wispy yarrow]

Maybe, yeah. I like the ability to pivot

Choice scarf on excadrill is really what I've got

Mega Lopunny and Ninetales are otherwise my fastest pokemon, and usually act first before MOST things

[pliant violet]

might be worth having something like electroweb or icywind on something

[wispy yarrow]

Icy Wind could be useful as a non-snow blizzard alternative

right now ninetales is focus sash, blizzard, moonblast, protect, and aurora veil

Hmm

maybe a snow trick room team

[glossy umbra]

Emboar is similar in that they're able to count things as never moldy

Great for resale value on your house.

[glossy umbra]

Yeah, it's my favourite mega so far. I kinda would've expected Greninja to get something fancier, but that's because it's a very popular starter so thought they'd want to make it good.

[quiet galleon]

Being able to redo protean now that its once per switch in is kinda neat

Though that makes it vulnerable to stuff thats faster and kills water

[pliant violet]

I forgot they made it once per switch

[glossy umbra]

It is, I was just moreso expecting something like old protean (though as I've said before there's a reason why they probably didn't do that).

[glossy umbra]

Yeah, used to be quite solid until then.

[pliant violet]

my favourite is mega golisopod and I hope it doesn't get anything fancy, because if they give it something fancy it will be negative

[glossy umbra]

See them give it Schooling.

[pliant violet]

in a perfect world it gets water bubble and is the strongest mega in the game

[glossy umbra]

Lmao, yeah water bubble would be a tad strong.

[quiet galleon]

It isnt a water type funnily enough

Tho water bubble is better than stab anyway

[glossy umbra]

Was it bug/steel, or?

[quiet galleon]

Ye

[glossy umbra]

If so one can make an argument for water bubble at least

[quiet galleon]

Red card as an ability would be funny

[pliant violet]

no, but it makes it's one weakness 2x instead of 4x, and lets it's moveset be a bit nicer

[quiet galleon]

Yeah it would be like

Bombirdier

But way cooler

Damn it now im gonna be sad if it doesnt get it

[pliant violet]

it already has absurd enough stats and typing that so long as it doesn't get another draw back ability it'll be really good in at least TR teams

[glossy umbra]

Here's to hoping

[pliant violet]

though if it gets tough claws like was leaked in a semi-reliable leak, it'll be pretty solid still

tough claws would be tied for ability on most megas with magic bounce then

[wispy yarrow]

Maybe something like this

maybe swap sneasler for incin

[pliant violet]

I'm a big believer in sneasler but intimidate is strong

sneasler and incin are my picks for two strongest pokemon in champions, and part of why sneasler is so high is it's ability to check incin

[wispy yarrow]

That was my thought

check incin before it uses a fire move to beat up my ice types

[glossy umbra]

Believe that's a fairly popular top 2 right now, with a certain flowery mega being up there too amongst the megas.

[pliant violet]

aerodactyl probably deserves a special mention

[wispy yarrow]

Toxapex with wide guard for my two rock and 3 ground weaknesses to protect me from rock slides and earthquakes

[pliant violet]

you are in trouble vs psychic types

[glossy umbra]

Yeah, been nice to see it shine again

Ironically in part because it's good against sneasler

[pliant violet]

faster non-priority tailwind setter is a strong niche too

[wispy yarrow]

Only two psychic weaknesses to worry about, slowking is resistant

[pliant violet]

especially when there's only two priority setters

[wispy yarrow]

and they're not the ones I'm worried about keeping alive the longest

[pliant violet]

it'd be neutral right?

anyway fair enough, there's no way currently to make an expanding force team work

[wispy yarrow]

or yeah, neutral

was looking at the wrong chart lol

my biggest worry is like

earthquake

and rock slide, the two most common spread moves I've encountered

[pliant violet]

a reasonable concern

[wispy yarrow]

but yeah kinda my thought process on openers is like

g-king + sneasler or toxapex, toxapex if I see powerful earthquake users

hit recover for the incoming damage + trick room to set up, or wide guard if I see earthquake pop up

chilly reception slowking into alolan ninetales(or froslass if I think it'll be safe), put toxic on something or recover

aurora veil if Ninetales, or blizzard if mega froslass, keep using wide guard to protect where possible, or just use protect

but using toxapex or sneasler to help protect slowking so it can survive to pull off trick room

Sneasler fake-outs the threat

The gremlin urge to try and make toxic spikes happen

[pliant violet]

there's a pokemon for that

[wispy yarrow]

Poison is my favorite type

[pliant violet]

glimmora

[wispy yarrow]

unfortunately ground exists and is fairly strong so I gotta be mindful when I try to run poison types

[wild prairie]

Slow enough for TR, resists Torkoal's Eruption and can sit on most physical threats, including likely tanking and beating Incineroar.
I haven't actually tried using it yet, so it's all theory. I'm sure there's some key matchup it loses that I'm forgetting

[pliant violet]

good theory though, did you run the calcs about eruption and incin using throat chop or darkest lariat?

[wild prairie]

Not yet, this is entirely vibes-based as the idea came to me while walking around a TJMaxx

[timber vale]

I could get behind this tbh

Water bubble M-Golisopod please

[pliant violet]

the fount of all pokemon wisdom

[pliant violet]

it would slot in perfectly into my TR team, I'm not even running a mega currently

[timber vale]

Rooting for water bubble golisopod so you can wreak havoc upon all teams

[pliant violet]

bless

[timber vale]

I will pray to Hatsune Miku for good fortune for you 🙏

[manic kindle]

Aerodactyl is just Tornadus 2 rn

[glossy umbra]

At least paralyze got nerfed again, didn't it?

[obtuse ravine]

aww, as soon as i saw farigiraf i should have known to not use tailwind

still managed to get a win with some switching

5/6 of my team are special attackers at the moment though..

[snow wren]

Why is aerodactyl so good roght now?

[versed sand]

Really, now?

[manic kindle]

Fast tailwind and taunt, rock slide access, good matchups into other leads

Dual Wingbeat is a good ass move

Unnerve has nice uses in the limited item meta

[quiet galleon]

i wish unnerve let you know when it did something

but yeah berries abound

[manic kindle]

Pressure is nice too, in this reduced pp world

[manic kindle]

im so happy champions is bringing back some of the better vgc memes

[azure crane]

Regular Aerodactyl, or Mega?

[manic kindle]

I have not seen a mega aero at all

but im sure someone could cook with it

theres something to be said for having a really fast and strong rock slide, and tough claws is solid

[glossy umbra]

It's been a long time since I saw its mega be talked about

But overall what people are using Aero for doesn't really require its mega. As such you can just use your mega on something else

[manic kindle]

ough lost a game because the guy skill swapped mega sol off my meganium i was ROBBED he stole from me he stole my fizzy lifting drinks

[round perch]

https://bsky.app/profile/winonaparadise.bsky.social/post/3mjwy36cjjk2s

★ winnie ★ (@winonaparadise.bsky.social)

come on man.

-# Scotty Ray (@theterminizer.bsky.social)
You know my ass be falling in every time

Reposts

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Bluesky · Apr 20, 2026, 5:20 PM

[snow wren]

that place looks familiar to me

[pliant violet]

I'm thinking of running bright powder on sneasler, to avoid the dual wingbeat and rock slides I know are coming

[azure crane]

Doesn't Sneasler resist Rock Slide?

[pliant violet]

oh probably, but flinching is death

ok so I've come around and think mega delphox is very cool

I think it's the extra brooms

[manic kindle]

Rock slide flinch truly is evil

[quiet galleon]

mega delphox is cool I think

it's kinda subtle

but she's not just delphox on a broom but cooler delphox on a broom

so at first you're like delphox is kinda meh and this is just delphox and then you look closer and you're like oh I wish this was what regular delphox looked like

[manic kindle]

and then you eat a heat wave and go oh mega delphox Hurts

[arctic dagger]

Cool note: Sableye is seeing increased usage specifically as a prankster anti-weather

Fake Out/Encore/Sunny/Rain

[karmic imp]

https://myrfing.tumblr.com/post/799246643863175168/norizc-designing-pokemon-alters-again-we-win

big boy store special

norizc designing pokemon alters again we win forever

-# #still remembering when they made a saria silence ifrit fakemon set. so good

Tumblr · Nov 4, 2025, 1:49 AM

[timber vale]

This would be so peak

[mellow robin]

@umbral hound the legend of sableye as a weather answer has come to pass

[umbral hound]

it is very funny to me that it's running both weathers but... yeah that sure is a weather answer.

[quiet galleon]

you gotta

I was running sunny day to counter rain teams and then I kept getting matched into sun teams 😭

[umbral hound]

But, yeah, "slow prankster weather setter" sure is a niche filled by Exactly Sableye.

[arctic dagger]

I mean it's for teams that aren't doing weather

Just to fuck with enemy weather

The goal isn't to set your own weather

It's to make the enemy not have THEIR weather

Rain vs sand and sun, sun vs rain

And you run some stuff that might incidentally benefit vs the enemy if you set that one

Like "A water type" and "A fire type"

Or move coverage in those anyway

[manic kindle]

same with why i have trick room on my spiritomb

its mostly to turn off trick room

[languid lichen]

poor motherfucker

[manic kindle]

focus miss strikes again

[arctic dagger]

...Mega deoxys?

[near flower]

deoxys's zygardite is reacting to the key stone
the opposing deoxys has mega evolved into mega deoxys
whar

[arctic dagger]

I assume its'' some niche smogon modded thing

[snow wren]

Downloading champions

[timber vale]

could be mix n mega

lets any mon use any form change item

applies all changes and stat increases

[jovial rampart]

I don't know how to phrase this but is Champions "worth it" if you don't have anything from Home to transfer?

[arctic dagger]

I think so

You gotta be ok with kinda just vibing with what you get for a bit, and you gotta like playing pokemon comp

[languid lichen]

oh, yes, it's that

mix and mega, letting any* pokemon mega evolve with any* evolution stone

-# *bans apply

[arctic dagger]

But if you play regularly you pretty quickly can play anything you want

[languid lichen]

zygardite is very silly

you press one button

it is a good button

[timber vale]

...okay this sounds. fucked on deoxys attack

if you can support it so it doesn't get killed by priority

[languid lichen]

three things there

deoA is banned from stones

atespeed is one of the strongest things in the meta

[timber vale]

wait so then- how.

[languid lichen]

and deoA is wasting like

99% of the stat bonus

because 255 is the stat cap

[timber vale]

oh

damn

[timber vale]

how did deoxys evolve?

[languid lichen]

that was deoD

which i question immensely

deoS is the one that people actually use

because its spread looks like this

it and dragapult

[arctic dagger]

And then someone hits it with Extreme Speed? XD

[languid lichen]

neither is actually super busted because a lot of the strongest things in the meta are altarianite dragonite/regieleki/hisuian arcanine

and if you're running two at a time, pinsirite for your second

[arctic dagger]

Yeah there we go

Are we still limited to one mega per team?

[languid lichen]

nah

ubers meta, six megas, most ubers can't mega evolve

[snow wren]

First match is cpu huh

[languid lichen]

restricted stones are red orb (i miss it sometimes but I Understand), pidgeotite (jesus christ), the huge power stones, gengarite, beedrillite, blazikenite, kangaskhanite, and now scovillainite

[snow wren]

I actually didn’t realize at first since their name was kanji

[arctic dagger]

Oh, do the stones also give you their ability?

Not just their stats?

[languid lichen]

yeah

and types

[arctic dagger]

Yeah ok

Ohhhh

[languid lichen]

well

type, if it changes

[arctic dagger]

So all you're keeping is your moveset and base stats?

[languid lichen]

so altarianite, as a stone that gives altaria 40 atk, 40 spatk, pixilate, and Dragon/Flying -> Dragon/Fairy

gives 40 atk 40 spatk, pixilate, and fairy secondary

[arctic dagger]

Gooooooootcha

[languid lichen]

(oh and 20 def, that's the rest of it)

[arctic dagger]

So your main type would still be whatever it was before

[languid lichen]

yeah

Latiasite, meanwhile, doesn't change latias's type

and it "keeps" levitate

so latiasite just gives you levitate and 20 atk/spatk, 30 def/spdef

etc. etc.

it's a really fucked tier but it's super neat, because there are some nightmare nukes and absurd walls

[arctic dagger]

Huh.

[languid lichen]

there're a lot of viable strategies

[arctic dagger]

Yeah this sounds like a fun thought exercise but IDK if I'd actually want to play it ever lmao

[languid lichen]

i really enjoy it

Scovillainite was just banned for uh.

being scovillainite on things that aren't scovillain

[arctic dagger]

Shrug I'm a preferring of lower power formats in general

So in a similar way I prefer UU to OU a lot of the time even

I definitely am not gonna enjoy an Ubers+ format

XD

[languid lichen]

i miss mnm ZU

i think it still exists just nobody plays it

[timber vale]

ohhhhh okay I'm lowk stupid lmao

[snow wren]

Ok azumaril is decent

Carrying me against others with beginner teams

Played an hour before realizing I was signed in on my brother’s switch account by mistake

Agh

I even pulled a basculegion

[wild prairie]

Alright I've calced it finally and regrettably Slowbro doesn't seem like it will work as part of the psyspam gameplan.
It seems to guaranteed 2HKO and get guaranteed 2HKOed by everything I'd like it to check while pretty much always moving second

[versed sand]

Ideally, I've wanted to do the hypnosis > belly drum > focus punch route with my politoed, but actually pulling that off's proven to be difficult in practice

Drizzle's been useful, at least

[snow wren]

Champions is pretty money grubby huh

Everything wants vp and those are super limited

[pliant violet]

I've not found that to do be the case, training using training tickets is super efficient, and you get like 2+ free pulls a day, one from time and one from dailies

[pliant violet]

wolfe used to play up the incin hate but I think now goat recognises goat

[arctic dagger]

Yeah I don't agree. It can feel that way at the start a little, but tbh you just play some and you get all the points you want.

[pliant violet]

you get 300+ for a win, which is what, over an eighth of a pull

[snow wren]

Wait what
Ok somehow missed that

[pliant violet]

yeah no tickets are relatively easy to come by

may not drown in them but they're not scarce

[arctic dagger]

Yeah like it can take a little bit of time to get the perfect team but

You can get a moderate team immediately

And it's not that much time to make a quite strong one

[pliant violet]

especially if you do the tutorials and get all those mats

and once you get settled on a team, you're just accumulating resources till you decide to change something

[snow wren]

Thought it was just dailies
Explains why it’s‘victory points

[manic kindle]

the nerf to sleep makes it harder

[manic kindle]

and once you get a team built you dont spend as much

[languid lichen]

nerf to sleep?

what'd they do to it

[jovial rampart]

Having gotten lucky to get a decent rain team setup for doubles just starting today it's not as pay to win as I was expecting.

[pliant violet]

the picking from 10 options helps a lot

[manic kindle]

always wake up within 2 turns instead of 3

[languid lichen]

oh thank god

[manic kindle]

33% chance to wake up turn 1

paralysis likewise is now 1/8 freeze instead of 1/4

[languid lichen]

yippee

para is already good enough with just the speed drop

random hax is fucking unbearable

[manic kindle]

yeah, most people use para for the speed drop

[languid lichen]

they should just cut full para entirely and bring twave back to 100% acc

[manic kindle]

a lot of hax got hit in a lot of waves which is why its funny rock slide is untouched

[versed sand]

Didn't know about the hypno nerf, fuck 😔

Well, at least I'm starting to have a semblance of a competitive team

(Even if I'm stuck at great ball rank 2 doubles)

[manic kindle]

freeze also got nerfed, 3 turns max

you'll get there! great into ultra is a sweet spot for learning

good time to watch some vids and read up on the popular teams

[pliant violet]

I'm interested in seeing what they do with future champions formats, I hope they don't just escalate ad infinitum

[manic kindle]

yeah, i think having lots of public in-game stats means you can get away with some funkier formats

[wild prairie]

The "Rank up to Ultra 1" -> "Lose 6 games in a row" combo is kicking my ass

[pliant violet]

dw getting hard stuck at ultra for a bit seems the norm

[manic kindle]

master 3 into 4 into 3 into 4 is my current cycle

[pliant violet]

I've yet to crack 3

but I was tooling around with that secondary team, that I know is much worse than my tr team

[wild prairie]

Milotic seems to slot surprisingly well into psyspam. Scarf Garchomp and Incineroar have both been giving me trouble and Milotic does pretty well at answering both simultaneously

[pliant violet]

leftovers?

[quiet galleon]

Just went into a match against a basc sableye lead and was expecting fake out wave crash but also thought they would have encore so I kinda panicked and just went for knock off into basculegion hoping to take it in exchange for aerodactyl. But then they just used will-o-wisp on ttar, prankster immunity goes off, tailwind goes up and the ttar kos basc for free. Immediate forfit 😅

[wild prairie]

Sitrus Berry, only because my Aegislash runs Leftovers.

[manic kindle]

prankster into dark types is always a killer early knowledge check

[pliant violet]

farig also does funny stuff with prankster mons and talonflame

[wild prairie]

Would it be a bad idea to sacrifice my team's capacity to reliably deal with Aegislash in favor of packing a good Scarf Garchomp counter? Thinking of swapping my Scarfed Armarouge out for a Scarf Starmie

[pliant violet]

I think having a solution to garchomp is more likely to come up often

but if your team otherwise really struggles with aegislash that might be worth it despite being less common

also up until ultra teams are a lot less consistent so teambuilding accounting for counters is a lot less relevant

[wild prairie]

I think my team struggles more with Garchomp than with Aegislash, but I feel like that's more of a failure to keep speed control than an individual matchup problem

[pliant violet]

sounds like a garchomp counter will cover weakness and provide data on matchup vs speed control issues

[manic kindle]

i know one of the reasons i compressed a slot into spiritomb is will o wisp helps tackle both of those issues for me

[pliant violet]

ally switch shenanigans are also objectively hilarious

and do some amazing things with any sort of set up mon

[wild prairie]

I'm currently struggling with the fact that nothing learns both Psychic Terrain and Tailwind, so I can't compress my Farigiraf out of a job

[pliant violet]

can't you just build fast and bank on the fact terrain turns off prio?

[wild prairie]

That's what I've been doing, but I don't currently have a good way to stop opposing Tailwind and Scarf Garchomp outspeeds everything I have

[pliant violet]

lot of psychic types have access to taunt, is this something?

scarf chomp is a tougher one though yeah

[wild prairie]

Potentially, but turn 1 Tailwind is just brutal for my team, and there are surprisingly few options that learn both Psychic Terrain and Taunt. Crucially, Farigiraf and Meowstic don't get Taunt

[pliant violet]

do they have to learn both?

one lead with one, one with the other

Zam learns taunt iirc and you were running if my memory is right

[wild prairie]

Well Zam needs 3 attacks plus Protect to function imo, plus I don't think it's usually safe to lead with it.
I might ditch Sneasler for lead Aerodactyl and run Taunt + Tailwind alongside Farigiraf, since with Milotic on the team I'm much less scared of Incineroar

[obtuse ravine]

me

[pliant violet]

sounds reasonable, sorry if it sounds like I'm disregarding what you're trying to do, I do not mean to

[obtuse ravine]

i'm chilling in ultra 4

[wild prairie]

No not at all, you're good

[pliant violet]

dw este I got hard stuck at ultra 4 and ultra 2, for a few days each

[obtuse ravine]

🙂‍↕️

my bestie who is quite into pokemon has started playing so on thursday we're gonna spend all my quick tickets and see if we can't get a more coherent team for me

[wild prairie]

What are you currently running?

[obtuse ravine]

choice scarf garchomp is scary.. i didn't know that was why it was getting all those earthquakes off so quick

[pliant violet]

hell yeah, if y'all want any thoughts I have so many opinions

and am at least not terrible at the theory of the game

[obtuse ravine]

basically what I got in my initial pull/gift with some modifications..

• ttar
• prankster whimsicott
• mega dragonite that's half built for a rain team (which I wanna make)
• gardevoir
• megameganium
• delphox

it's been ok for fundamentals but doesn't quite lean into any synergy/strategy other than counterpicking types on character select screen, and denying weather with ttar

[obtuse ravine]

[pliant violet]

ok so if you're building rain you're probably gonna want to decid which mega you want to run for it

[obtuse ravine]

just gotta make it through 2 more exams.... in 33 hours I will be FREE

[obtuse ravine]

yeah, main contenders are thinking megameganium or dragonite

i do have a pelipper and a toxicroak

and then idk what else, don't have an archaludon yet

[pliant violet]

as much as I love toxicroak I think he is not him

[obtuse ravine]

aww

surf dry skin sounded very funny

[pliant violet]

archaludon, basculegion, maybe sinistcha

[quiet galleon]

toxicroak is more like anti rain aiui

[obtuse ravine]

i'm learning so much about this series

[pliant violet]

incin and sneasler are not exactly synergistic but they are just generally very good

[obtuse ravine]

like i learned about swift swim and the sandstorm equivalent excadrill has

[obtuse ravine]

[pliant violet]

iirc toxicroak is the only poison type pokemon to win a world championship

[obtuse ravine]

OH i have mega lopunny now too, might build a team around that after the rain

[pliant violet]

sand rush

[obtuse ravine]

ya

☺️

[quiet galleon]

mega lopunny is really fun but I'm struggling to build a team for her haha

[obtuse ravine]

https://klipy.com/gifs/rabbit-flops-into-wall-rabbit--k01KPTSD0S0T5H5KNPTXG86DFB2

say it isn't so..

[quiet galleon]

but she's really fast and has cool moves :)

[pliant violet]

scrappy is a really good ability for a bunch of reasons!

immunity to inimidate, being able to fake out ghost types, making it so your normal fighting ass isn't hardwalled by ghost types

[wild prairie]

Could probably aim for a Basculdgion. A Fake Out-immune Swift Swimmer is nice to have

[obtuse ravine]

[quiet galleon]

haha unless 👯‍♀️

[obtuse ravine]

@ sifyro

I underestimated the power of a bee and a screaming cat

[pliant violet]

nah you go scarf and adaptability

[obtuse ravine]

yesterday i learned what round actually does..

i'll definitely keep asking questions as i keep playing, thanks for the advice y'all

[pliant violet]

funny this is your gif choice cause kang also gets it

I love pokey mon

[pliant violet]

this is an emoji, I need to sleep at some point

[obtuse ravine]

but for now i'm battling with databases instead of pokey mon... studyin time

sleep is good..

[pliant violet]

sleep is probably the strongest status effect in pokemon it's true

well, frozen is stronger but so much harder to inflict that it's worse

[wild prairie]

True but Scarf still gets outsped by other scarves and the fastest few Megas, plus I like Scarf Rotom Wash for Rain

[pliant violet]

fair enough, I just like the punch adaptability gives

[manic kindle]

i do like mega lopunny; i think having a strong fake out and good speed tier helps it

[wild prairie]

Yeah Adaptability is probably better in general, especially with good enough base bulk to survive a hit from most other choiced things, and Mega Zam, Beedrill, and Aerodactyl aren't going to come up that often and I think those are the only 3 megas that outspeed scarf basculegion

Also now that I've said it I don't think any of those 3 actually win the Basculegion matchup anyway unless it's choiced into a bad move

[pliant violet]

flip turn, wave crash, last respects, protect

[wild prairie]

Yeah actually I don't think any of those 3 survive an Adaptability Wave Crash, and I think only Aerodactyl would have a real chance of OHKOing before the Wave Crash comes out

[pliant violet]

adaptability wave crash in rain

[manic kindle]

after testing both i prefer to scarf my basc because it works outside of rain better

[pliant violet]

true

[obtuse ravine]

normal speed swim

[quiet galleon]

Over investing in weather makes you super vulnerable to it being disrupted which like everyone is trying to do

I just drew for the first time with the dumbest corviknight endgame ever

[manic kindle]

every weather team should be able to win without bringing a weather setter

at least thats one of my teambuilding goals

like i should be able to bring, say, sneasler-basculegion-spiritomb-archaludon w no rain and nab the W

[snow wren]

I wish you had a bit more control and knowledge over your first champions team, the game doesn't tell you what five mons will be gifted to you

[arctic dagger]

Aero also does well vs incin tbh

[wild prairie]

Is intimidate not a significant problem in the matchup?

[manic kindle]

The initial Intimidate hurts

[arctic dagger]

It does. But rock slide hurts a lot anyway

[manic kindle]

-1 32 Atk Aerodactyl Rock Slide vs. 32 HP / 14 Def Incineroar: 54-66 (26.7 - 32.6%) -- 1.58% chance to 4HKO after Sitrus Berry recovery

It makes me so sad

That cat is so bulky

[obtuse ravine]

[quiet galleon]

Its a decent chance to flinch one of the opponents tho

And just chip while your other pokemon positions or does stjff

[manic kindle]

30% flinch is always nice

Sometimes you just click rock slide twice for your turn

[snow wren]

I can’t seem to give my mind mega stones

Moms

Close enough autocorrect

[manic kindle]

Do you have them purchased or earned from tutorials?

[obtuse ravine]

they're in their own category to the far right

the game doesn't indicate well that there are more than 2 tabs of held items

[manic kindle]

Yeah def one of my little ui gripes

[snow wren]

I never realized how cool glimmora looks

I can only equip them through auto build

Pulled a torterra which is a fav of mine even if they’re not great

They are struggling to pull weight sadly

[obtuse ravine]

huh so you have em.. did you try going to the right in the items

lemme grab a clip

[snow wren]

I figured it out thought recent as all
Why is there no all

[obtuse ravine]

:(

[snow wren]

TORTERRA SWEEP WOO

I need a mom who can check paladin and Nilotic but torterra can’t

[earnest nacelle]

Torterra is good now?

[manic kindle]

Its not a meta choice, if thats an ok answer

[earnest nacelle]

Naruhodo

[snow wren]

Not at all

I mean is terra good

They aren’t but turns out they can outspeed and one shot mega charizard of built with a choice scarf

My team’s biggest weakness point is water types and torterra isn’t the best into those

Also mega dragon it’s is scary

The heck May’s hood is scary

Maushold

[earnest nacelle]

Oh

[snow wren]

Woo got the mimikyu

What’s the best offensive grass type to deal with palafin and Nilotic?

[snow wren]

Mamoswine and gliscor would probably do better in the niche im using torterra in, big scary guy deceptively fast with choice scarf

[manic kindle]

Meowscarada, Rotom Wash, Mega Meganium, Venusaur, Scovillain

[snow wren]

Is scovillain great at that? Feels like their fire typing woukd hurt them there

[wispy yarrow]

What kind of things is Milotic running right now?

[snow wren]

I’m not at the high enough tiers to know im afraid

[manic kindle]

Scovillain leaf storm is a big whammy and they dont want to hit it or get burned

[manic kindle]

A few notable sets

But largely defensive scald+icy wind, hypnosis and coil/gravity, recover and protect

With the Competitive ability

Its a team preview check vs Incineroar and a bulky icy wind user is scary over time

Plus Scald is a scary move for a lot of the meta

[snow wren]

I wonder how contrary serperior woukd fare against those two

[wispy yarrow]

Had a fun pokemon idea just now

A liiiittle bit grim but I'm thinking like

The idea of "Canary in a coal mine"

rock/flying or ground/flying, something like that

Possibly even poison/flying

[manic kindle]

If you can protect Serperior, in theory he's strong, but his limited movepool hurts

[snow wren]

Issue is they carry ice beam ans serperior takes time to grow
And then has such attrocius coverage they can’t break through anything once set up

Well anything not weak to grass

[manic kindle]

Do poison flying and then make a mine gator pokemon that lets it clean its gunky teeth

[wispy yarrow]

ooh

I had another one years ago that was steel/poison based on schrodinger's cat

like a liquid metal cat thing

Purrous and Ferroline

[snow wren]

Hmm putting together a doubles trick room team. Got mimikyu and golurk as the main setter/sweeper duo and then basculegion and sneasler for some brute force. Need to figure out which of the remaining mobs in my box I’ll put in as the last two. Abomasnow maybe to deal with water, and then maybe arcanine to intimidate or glimorra for trap setting

Hlimmora is a non I disnt really think about but they look so strange ans unique, look like they belong in slay the spire

They’ve grown on me

[manic kindle]

some of the top dogs for trick room damage rn are torkoal, kingambit, t-tar, (mega) scizor, primarina, kangaskhan

[pliant violet]

did not realise sandaconda was in chamions

[manic kindle]

adef video?

[pliant violet]

saw the thumbnail of it yeah

[manic kindle]

my fiance and i are watching it rn over dinner lmao

[pliant violet]

it's not a popular pick but hydrapple is slower than basically of them and hits hard, just doesn't have spread

[manic kindle]

i knew i was forgetting someone

[obtuse ravine]

oh huh, I've only seen adef in multi-game randomizer videos, didn't know he was big on pokemon

[pliant violet]

he's big on educational content using pokemon as a vehicle

data science using pokemon as a topic, it's clever

[wispy yarrow]

Adef is cool

[obtuse ravine]

i’ll check his vids out in the coming week

that’s my jam

[wispy yarrow]

Oh yeah if you like math and analytics

adef is dope for that

[obtuse ravine]

shell yeah

is shell bell run on anyone?

[pliant violet]

might be in champions due to the lower item pool but generally I believe not

[obtuse ravine]

[manic kindle]

its slightly less good than sitrus berry and leftovers

so its like the 3rd Healing Item, so to speak

[obtuse ravine]

hmm yeah, i guess you would have to do half of your health per turn on average to beat leftovers

[pliant violet]

And leftovers let’s you protect and still heal

Which is not massive but it is useful

[obtuse ravine]

mhm

[pliant violet]

Thinking on it something like garchomp with decent bulk that hits hard with spread moves is probably the best potential user

[obtuse ravine]

yeah i was thinking a tank-ish pokemon that consistently outputs good damage, like maybe archaludon

but spread is probably helpful 🙂‍↕️

[manic kindle]

one of the things to consider is if a little healing is better than knocking out the other guy a little faster with one of the damage boost items

[pliant violet]

ye

or the reliability of going faster with scarf

[obtuse ravine]

yeah, pokemon battles are so volatile

i have seen some stall/sustain setups, but it's a lot more of a killing game than a lot of other turn-based and strategy stuff i play

mindset change

[pliant violet]

also it's a like, opportunity cost thing too, since using an item on one thing might be worth using the second best item on another

oh yeah vgc is a killing game through and through

like game can be over at team select, with proper leads and such

[manic kindle]

its kinda neat cuz Stall just cant truly exist in doubles as it is now

in singles you can grind the game down to your speed depending on format/era/etc

but for doubles you always have two potential attackers

[timber vale]

notably, one of the stallbreaking strats in singles is just

having two attacks in one turn

(future sight)

[manic kindle]

https://tenor.com/view/hyper-beam-pokemon-sylveon-garchomp-pokemon-champions-gif-14659119572912388360

yippee someone made a hyper beam gif now

[pliant violet]

leading empoleon talonflame into opponent incin pelipper lead, for example

[manic kindle]

the Competitive users are having a pretty nice time rn

ive seen a lot less incin the last two days

[timber vale]

sylveon hyperbeam on garchomp is diabolical

[pliant violet]

I prefer sneasler as my fakeout bot of choice for a reason

even with direclaw nerf

[manic kindle]

also watching someone build and test a neat team; mega clefable follow me paired with earthquake garchomp

[wild prairie]

Man I like Milotic. I wasn't even going to pull it initially but my partner went "hey you should take the cool one" and now it's on my main doubles team

[pliant violet]

bulky and has competitive, it's nice

[obtuse ravine]

i saw one in a team that poisoned me and used recover on the milotic

very funny

[pliant violet]

one thing I like with empoleon, in tail wind mirrors, is that it owns aerodactyl if I get my wind up first and with talonflame I should

[snow wren]

I got a rental but it doesn’t have grass moves

[pliant violet]

unfortunate

[quiet galleon]

Coil milotic is scary

[pliant violet]

gravity is even better

and gravity lets mega delphox use the better expanding force

thanks footoofoo for that info

[manic kindle]

gravity is funny because you can then guarantee some dumb partner moves

[pliant violet]

hypnosis is the big one I think