3v3 Singles Metagame Discussion Thread [The Pentagon is back!!]

Id talk about tr but I have over 10 vids of me using tr in bss (successfully at that) and I still have at least 6 more coming atm so I'd let those vids do the talking alone :)
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Hulavuta

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Anyway, I can confirm Cresselia + Mawile Trick Room teams are pretty good. Cresselia can use Lunar Dance after setting up Trick Room to get Mawile in for free and it pretty much just wrecks from there. The great part is that Mawile is pretty bulky itself and doesn't go down to most priority, so it is quite hard to stop. I haven't used it myself yet, but I have been destroyed by it.

I've been wanting to try Reuniclus and even Tyranitar in Trick Room, although these would obviously be much harder to pull off.
 
Nuh, fuck Trick Room, this is how a real man sweeps:

Y8NW-WWWW-WW3W-F67F

Retarded team aside, is a Char-Y + Garchomp core reasonable in Singles? Amazing Doubles synergy, but we're talking apples and trucks here.
I figure I need something for Mega Mence (Rocky Helmet Rough Skin Chompy handles Khan adequately) and opposing Garchomp, since ScarfChomp looks very prevelant on the PGL stats. Is Bronzong still the unholy terror it was in Gen 4 or Gen 5?
Or am I going to have to delve into the depths of Pokemon Hell to conjure some obscure counter to both?
Or maybe that's what people use Cresselia for.
 
Nuh, fuck Trick Room, this is how a real man sweeps:

Y8NW-WWWW-WW3W-F67F

Retarded team aside, is a Char-Y + Garchomp core reasonable in Singles? Amazing Doubles synergy, but we're talking apples and trucks here.
I figure I need something for Mega Mence (Rocky Helmet Rough Skin Chompy handles Khan adequately) and opposing Garchomp, since ScarfChomp looks very prevelant on the PGL stats. Is Bronzong still the unholy terror it was in Gen 4 or Gen 5?
Or am I going to have to delve into the depths of Pokemon Hell to conjure some obscure counter to both?
Or maybe that's what people use Cresselia for.
Mamoswine? P2?
 

ethan06

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Sash Weavile could be a fun one, especially since you get fun things like Low Kick and Knock Off to basically counter the rest of the meta as well. Charizard and Garchomp have a very similar speed tier, so having Weavile's speed to take care of things like Raikou and Greninja is also handy.
 
Sash Weavile could be a fun one, especially since you get fun things like Low Kick and Knock Off to basically counter the rest of the meta as well. Charizard and Garchomp have a very similar speed tier, so having Weavile's speed to take care of things like Raikou and Greninja is also handy.
Weavile @ Focus Sash
Jolly, 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Pressure

- Knock Off
- Ice Shard / Taunt
- Low Kick
- Icicle Crash

I assume? Both abiities are quite useless.

3 mons should be enough for me to build a team on, just have to think of the other half. lol.
 

Psynergy

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I've been more of a fan of Life Orb Weavile given it misses out on so many KOs otherwise, but Sash makes it better at revenge killing. Fake Out is also pretty standard as an option over either Ice STAB but Ice Shard and Icicle Crash together is fine too. Taunt gets very little use comparatively though (like 2%).

So now that Refresh Salamence is out, do you guys think it will be more viable as a bulky DD sweeper?
I don't think Refresh really offers much for Salamence, and it doesn't seem like people have really bothered with it too much given it's not in the top 10 most used moves for it. It's a bit tough to make room for it on existing sets, but it's even tougher to ever find an opportunity to use it in a format where finding an opportunity to use Dragon Dance isn't so simple.

On top of that, Substitute is already relatively common on Salamence and that does the same that Refresh would accomplish while punishing switches and shielding it from a potential revenge killer.
 
came back to singles again and realized just how mega kanga and garchomp are everywhere.
like before, i can't EVER get to 1800+ but got to 1700+.
at least on 1700+, i'm still not seeing THAT many mega mences.
quick question to the avid battlers, what are the most common garchomp and mega kanga set nowadays?
 
quick question to the avid battlers, what are the most common garchomp and mega kanga set nowadays?
Most Mega Kanga sets I've seen run fake-out into a power up punch, then hide behind sucker punch for faster threats and Double-Edge against slower mons for just the stupid damage.

you see variants running different coverage options too like Earthquake for Aegislash, Ice Punch for genies/dragons, but that's about it.

As for Garchomp, I see most people sticking with the tried and true all out attacking set, Earthquake, Outrage/dragon claw, Stone Edge or Fire Fang for coverage, and Swords Dance for the overkill boost.

Tankchomp is out there too, but I don't see it being all that popular in 3v3. but I've come across it more than once.

and I guess you don't see Mega Mence as often because Mamoswine's risen to become that wide-ranging answer to threats like Garchomp, the Genies, Mega Mence, etc. and many other mons are now packing that Ice-coverage to keep them all down.
 
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cant say

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came back to singles again and realized just how mega kanga and garchomp are everywhere.
like before, i can't EVER get to 1800+ but got to 1700+.
at least on 1700+, i'm still not seeing THAT many mega mences.
quick question to the avid battlers, what are the most common garchomp and mega kanga set nowadays?
Use the Pokemon Global Link to check stuff like this. Garchomp and Kangaskhan are the number 1 and 2 most used Pokemon and have been literally forever. Chomp's most common set is the Scarf set, but he also uses a Sash set quite a lot with Swords Dance and/or Stealth Rock. I have to disagree with what teamjohto has said though, Fake Out is only used on about 30% of Khan, and in my experience they rarely carry Power-Up Punch with it. Double-Edge, Earthquake and Sucker Punch with Power-Up Punch is the most common, but they sometimes forego either Sucker Punch and Earthquake for moves like Ice Punch or Rock Slide (have seen RS paired with Secret Power for paraflinching).

Salamence is the 11th most used, and his usage seems to fluctuate all the time. Like teamjohto said, the metagame is quite harsh towards it so it isn't that popular.
 

cant say

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Thanks nouthuca

I don't have a chance to make another one of those charts that compares s12 usage to s11 until next week but I'll make some observations now anyway...

Is Serperior hype on the down swing now? He's dropped a few places in both regular and special as compared to s11. I was calling that he could be the next top 12 newbie after we saw him peak at #13. I would have thought that with the increase of Suicune usage that he would rise as a result.

Heracross usage is slightly up, I'll put that down to us making DragonWhale use it in his streams.

Raikou is slightly up too. GroudonEmpire raves about this guy and I'm gonna try him out ASAP (just trained and used one in the Scrappy Skirmish). Para is being thrown around on every team these days so being a (really) fast Electric-type is amazing for fighting that. He also beats Thundurus pretty handily which is massive.
 

cant say

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Ok wow, I saw 6 identical teams consisting of Mega Slowbro / Chansey / Gliscor / Tyranitar / Skarmory / Mega Venusaur, a seventh swapped out Ttar for Mega Aerodactyl, and a few others had a few changes but all had the Bro/Chans/Glis core going on. Having used it myself I can attest to its effectiveness.

I also saw a few Theorymon cores (MegaGar / Wobbuffet) going on which is interesting, can't remember seeing a single one in last season's teams.

There's also a heap of Mega Hera / Cres / Heatran cores. There were even a few with P2 + MegaMaw thrown in as well.

A concerning trend is the rise in popularity of Thund / Klefki / Ditto / Glalie teams, I think I've scrolled past about 5 of them, one is right at the top too! Most, if not all, have MegaKhan as a backup for something reliable incase their hax doesn't go so well.

---

One team I really like the look of is a VoltTurn core (26th down, 2196 points) with Mega Manectric and Landorus-T, it also has Dragonite, Mega Lopunny and Aegislash so I really wanna try it out. Here's my try at translating it:


Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice
- Overheat

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 228 Def / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Tomb
- Stealth Rock

Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 196 HP / 236 Atk / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Extreme Speed

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Toxic
- Encore

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 60 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield


The one thing I'd change is Lopunny, unless Google Translate has messed me up, Toxic / Encore doesn't really appeal to me (I would run Fake Out / Ice Punch instead)
 
Ok wow, I saw 6 identical teams consisting of Mega Slowbro / Chansey / Gliscor / Tyranitar / Skarmory / Mega Venusaur, a seventh swapped out Ttar for Mega Aerodactyl, and a few others had a few changes but all had the Bro/Chans/Glis core going on. Having used it myself I can attest to its effectiveness.

I also saw a few Theorymon cores (MegaGar / Wobbuffet) going on which is interesting, can't remember seeing a single one in last season's teams.

There's also a heap of Mega Hera / Cres / Heatran cores. There were even a few with P2 + MegaMaw thrown in as well.

A concerning trend is the rise in popularity of Thund / Klefki / Ditto / Glalie teams, I think I've scrolled past about 5 of them, one is right at the top too! Most, if not all, have MegaKhan as a backup for something reliable incase their hax doesn't go so well.

---

One team I really like the look of is a VoltTurn core (26th down, 2196 points) with Mega Manectric and Landorus-T, it also has Dragonite, Mega Lopunny and Aegislash so I really wanna try it out. Here's my try at translating it:


Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightningrod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Hidden Power Ice
- Overheat

Landorus-Therian @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 212 HP / 4 Atk / 228 Def / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Rock Tomb
- Stealth Rock

Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 196 HP / 236 Atk / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Extreme Speed

Lopunny @ Lopunnite
Ability: Limber
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Return
- Toxic
- Encore

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 132 Def / 60 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest

Aegislash @ Leftovers
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Shadow Sneak
- King's Shield


The one thing I'd change is Lopunny, unless Google Translate has messed me up, Toxic / Encore doesn't really appeal to me (I would run Fake Out / Ice Punch instead)
I actually think toxic/encore sounds pretty nice for dealing with aegislash, and bulky stuff like cresselia and hippowdown.
 

Psynergy

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So this was something NOVED pointed out recently, and we thought it was interesting to note that Blaziken is actually rising up in usage this season. It's pretty much always hanging around 6th for most of every season, but it's recently risen up to 4th (overtaking two of its best offensive checks ironically, Thundurus and Talonflame). Interestingly enough, with this we noticed a rise in Will-O-Wisp usage on Blaziken, replacing Overheat in the 10th most used move at about 9% in usage. There's probably some sort of connection there.

Given Blaziken is always pretty static in usage I think it's pretty cool to see it rise up in usage more. I'm actually interested in trying Wisp on Mega Blaziken now since the third move always felt pretty flexible and it nails a ton of things that hate residual damage, Gyarados and Azumarill especially.
 

cant say

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^^ Aegislash is a prime target for that, as NOVED said it's way safer to do that on a predicted King's Shield than to try and whiff it with Superpower / Rock Slide. I feel like I would struggle to fit it onto a set though, Protect + 3 attacks or 2 attacks + Swords Dance to me is way better...
 
I think Lando-T is another major target for wisp as well. Salamence could be another one if its not Facade or just special. Rotom-W definitely hates the residual from burn too. And i dont think wisp is all that bad compared to protect + 3 attacks. Similarly to running rock slide to nail talon switchins, you run wisp to nail lando, gyara, azu switchins. And going for wisp on a predicted switch if you're up against something like kanga for example, is a lot safer than going for a knock off, rock move, or SD if they do happen to stay in.

I still think blazikens other options like SD and HP ice are usually gonna be better. But wisp is definitely something cool to consider.
 
Guys, big news from the global link website: suicune has left top 12! And a newcomer has token its place: mawile! this is the first time mawile is in the top 12. I think this is proof suicune does not deserve to be S rank in battlespot singles after losing sheer cold. Cresselia has risen also, because it is mawile's most used partner because it can lunar dance mawile back to heal it. What do you guys think about it, is hyper offense getting stronger maybe? Why do you think mawile rose this much?
 
Guys, big news from the global link website: suicune has left top 12! And a newcomer has token its place: mawile! this is the first time mawile is in the top 12. I think this is proof suicune does not deserve to be S rank in battlespot singles after losing sheer cold. Cresselia has risen also, because it is mawile's most used partner because it can lunar dance mawile back to heal it. What do you guys think about it, is hyper offense getting stronger maybe? Why do you think mawile rose this much?
I think it is too early in the season to look at the top 12. It's only been like 2 days since the start of season 14 and I think it will climb back to the top 12 within 2 weeks.
 

cant say

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Yeah I agree that's it's way too early to tell what the stats will look like when everything settles. One way I used to think about it was that the early season stats were a reflection of what good players are using / what will be used in the higher ladder since they'd be the first to crack 1600 points and therefore have what they use counted towards usage stats. We've had things like Serperior pop up in the top 12 in the early days of the season (as well as Garchomp dropping below first place!!) so I wouldn't think too much about it though.

Cresselia sitting at 9th is interesting though, it did break the top 12 at the end of last season so for it to be up even higher, even though it's likely to drop down as the ladder settles and more people get above 1600, is pretty cool.
 
Weavile @ Focus Sash
Jolly, 4 HP, 252 Atk, 252 Speed
Ability: Pressure

- Knock Off
- Ice Shard / Taunt
- Low Kick
- Icicle Crash

I assume? Both abiities are quite useless.

3 mons should be enough for me to build a team on, just have to think of the other half. lol.
What are you doing here? You're the doubles person! The only change I'd make to the set is Pickpocket>Pressure. Both abilities suck, but Pressure is completely useless on something so frail that isn't using Substitute, while Pickpocket can get you an item if the foe takes you to your sash w/ a contact move(at least that's what I read somewhere,) though it's obviously not gonna work on Megas, so, like I said, really limited use. Better than Pressure though.

Wow, just checked the usage stats on the PGL and they're quite a bit different. Pretty surprised less than half of Blaziken's go mega. Maybe it's a cart thing-I've barely ever seen non mega Blaziken on PS.
 

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