[DONE] JOHTO CLASSIC - Post your results!

I had a lot of fun with this competition but I wish I'd done better. I finished today with 29-16. Many losses come from bad decisions, and horrible luck but that's life.
JohtoClassicTeam.png
This was my team:
Dragonite @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch

Initially I was gonna use Lum Berry but thanks to the amazing article that was published here, I changed the item to Weakness Policy at the last minute. It was amazing, it got to sweep entire teams with ease. I decided also to not use Extreme Speed, and I can say that I didn't miss it.

Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 12 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Waterfall

Sometimes, I didn't even need to use Belly Drum. Azumarill is bulky enough that it can beat Scizor one on one with Waterfall and a little luck (85.5% chance to 2HKO with no boost).

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 132 HP / 252 Atk / 124 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spear
- Fissure

EVd to maximize both defenses. It can take hits just fine but Fissure was a wasted slot. I only got it to hit in a game that was already lost.

Scizor @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
- Superpower

Superpower should have been Roost. Other than that, Scizor really pulled of this weight, killing Gengar, Espeon, and crippling Eviolite users.

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Leech Seed

In hindsight, Sludge Bomb was a waste of a slot. Substitute would have been helped me win more games.

Espeon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball
- Trick

I never got to use Trick but I don't think I even needed a 4th attack. 90% of the time I used Psychic to cause lots of damage to basically anything not Steel or Dark. It even swept and entire team once.
 

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Well this tournament was a disaster for me. I had a strong start, hitting 1600 after ~12 games, but then I just went on a huge tilt due to some of the absolute worst Pokéluck I've ever had. So many game ending crits / low damage rolls for me / high damage rolls for my opps / status procs against me / not getting status procs myself. Don't get me wrong, I had a few legitimate losses in good, entertaining games, but I was in a winning position so many times only to be lucked out of it...

I mean it's probably the universe getting back at me for using an Assist strat, but I didn't even get to bring the Persian core to many games at all, since there were way too many Espeon / Venusaur / Scizor / Jolteon to take advantage of it. I had to default to the sand core a lot, but even then I found myself with very positive 3v3 matchups a lot (Zapdos alone was ridiculously strong) but I just kept getting unlucky :(

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I played all my games on the Sunday as I was crazy busy with work / sport on Friday / Saturday (these end on Monday morning for me coz timezone). I got 39 games in and went for 20W-19L. I kept notes as I went which I'll CP here so you can see what happened.
1: WIN - Zapdos swept 3-0

2: WIN - same

3: loss - Calm Mind + Grass Knot Espeon beats Tyranitar so I can't reset send for Sandslash to sweep. A specially defensive and/or Assault Vest Scizor in the back tanks a Heat Wave from Zapdos with ease and KOes with Knock Off + Quick Attack.

4: loss - Stun Spore + Flash Butterfree lead | Double Team + Substitute + Baton Pass Jolteon | Cloyster. lol. If Cloyster didn't flinch Zapdos on the last turn I won.

5: WIN - simple Sandslash sweep

6: loss - Minimize Clefable. Why did I not bring anything for it..?

7: WIN - Toxic Furret lead with Venoshock Crobat. lol.

8: WIN - simple Sandslash sweep

9: WIN - lead Dual Screens Raikou dealt with by Sandslash, Dragonite and Scizor beaten by Zapdos

10: loss - The guy saved his Cloyster until last which ofc got the flinch on Zapdos to win the 1v1 at the end.

11: WIN - team of Snorlax / Starmie / Gengar beaten by sand

12: WIN - lead Sash Cloyster beaten by Thunderbolting then switching to Tyranitar to finish with sand damage. Skarmory + Venusaur were handled by Swords Dance Sandslash and a nice Rock Slide flinch, even though Zapdos could beat both anyway...

13: loss - tried the Persian core, needed to use Smeargle + Ditto early to beat a Murkrow. Ended up in a 1v1 with Scizor, it woke up after one sleep turn to break my Sub while I Swaggered it, then it hit through confusion to KO me. If it had stayed asleep the extra turn or hit itself and gave me the free turn, I could have used Assist / Spore the next turn safely and then KOed with Foul Play...

14: loss - I (mistakenly) lead Zapdos against a Tyranitar, I switch Sandslash in expecting to tank a Stone Edge or Ice Punch (or him set up Dragon Dance) only to be OHKOed by a crit Crunch. Calcs show it had to be Choice Band. That left his Ttar to sweep unhindered.

15: loss - Tyranitar + Skarmory stall core that got all the predicts right so I could never have what I wanted infront of him, lol. Whirlwind also stopped me fighting through with Swords Dance.

16: loss - Guy brings Ditto in on my weakened Tyranitar and KOes it with crit Foul Play, Sandslash comes in to revenge but Focus Sash saves it from a OHKO and gets the Freeze from Ice Beam to stop me from finishing it off and OHKOing the Nidoking waiting in the back. Zapdos ofc loses to it.

17: WIN - a team of Ttar / Dnite / Gengar easily handled by Sandslash

18: loss - lead Vaporeon freezes Zapdos with Ice Beam on the switch while in range of a Thunderbolt KO

19: loss - bodied by RestTalk + Cosmic Power Clefable

20: WIN - level 1 noncompetitive team that DC'd turn one.

21: loss - DC, my internet dropped out, I don't remember the team but it was crazy Sandslash weak (I had chosen my sand core and was waiting for the match to start)

22: loss - lead Alakazam and their Vaporeon were paralysed by Tyranitar after Zapdos beat his Donphan. I needed damage on Zam to break his Sash (determined by damage done to Zapdos), but he OHKOed with crit Focus Blast. I send in Sandslash and take him down to Sash, but he OHKOes with Energy Ball. Zapdos finishes Zam but then gets 1v1'd by a paralysed Vaporeon that wasn't fully para'd once in about 6-7 turns, while hitting all its Hydro Pumps (and Ice Beams when I wasn't Roosting).

23: WIN - full 6-mon rain team beaten easily by Persian

24: WIN - DC at team preview, prob didn't like the look of Persian lol.

25: loss - PhysDef Arcanine and Scarf Heracross make life tough for Sandslash and Tyranitar, especially when Nidoking beats Zapdos. Could have won it if I got rid of Hera but he made good predicts.

26: loss - As I go for the final KO my internet drops out :pirate:

27: loss - a Minimize Muk at +4 evasion avoids 6 Earthquakes from Sandslash. I had boosted to +4 attack to beat his +3 Def from Curse and would have swept if Muk went down. I got poisoned from a Poison Jab which took me down faster than the damage he was doing with the attack itself. Obviously neither Tyranitar or Zapdos could beat it.

28: WIN - This guy lead with his Focus Sash + Double Team + Reversal Scyther, which got to +2 evasion and I had Swaggered to +4. It woke up and snapped out of confusion the same turn to break my Persian's Sub with full power Reversal (at 1hp from a Foul Play hit the turn before), I then missed the Spore and it KOed me. I sent in Ditto and managed to hit, I then swept him.

29: loss - I didn't leave notes about this one, it must have been bad lol

30: WIN - I get a lead Machamp to +6 attack before it fights through confusion and KOes my Persian with Bullet Punch before I can sleep it again. Ditto comes in to take advantage, I misclick Dynamic Punch instead of Stone Edge (he had a Dragonite and Gengar at team preview so I didn't wanna be locked into D Punch and Machamp was in range of Stone Edge) under pressure from the timer. D Punch obviously kills and out comes Dragonite. I go for another to get free confusion and he goes for Dragon Dance. I switch to Smeargle and he 2HKOes. Ditto comes back in to revenge and beats the Porygon2 in the back.

31: loss - Quagsire stalls the shit out of me

32: WIN - Feraligatr / Scizor / Alakazam is dealt handily by Zapdos and some Static.

33: WIN - Gengar / Suicune / Zapdos. Tyranitar beat Gengar easily, switched Zapdos into Suicune to get damage on it and finished with Sandslash.

34: loss - Scizor / Specs Zapdos / PhysDef Arcanine. Managed to beat the Scizor and Arcanine with some good play, but it cost me Tyranitar and so Zapdos destroyed with HP Ice.

35: WIN - Porygon2 / Entei / Donphan. Persian sweep

36: WIN - Espeon / Dragonite / Clefable. This team looked like a complete counter-team at team preview so I basically wrote it off as a loss and brought the Persian Core. Smeargle Mirror Coated the lead Espeon to death after sacking Ditto to get it in safe. Persian proceeded to destroy the Dragonite, then I had to resort to a timer win against the Clefable who had Wish + Protect.

37: loss - Slowbro / Espeon / Nidoking. This one really frustrated me as I thought I had it locked up. I thought he'd lead with Espeon so I went with Tyranitar, but Slowbro come out first. I switch to Zapdos and he ofc crits Ice Beam. I need to Roost so I don't die from the next one before I 2HKO him, he goes for another Ice Beam and gets the freeze! I stay in because neither Ttar or Sandslash are doing anything here and I stay frozen until being KOed... For some reason he switches to Espeon after I bring Tyranitar in and I KO it with a couple of Foul Plays, then Nidoking revenges. Sandslash KOes Nidoking but it's all in vain as Slowbro OHKOes with Scald...

38: WIN - Didn't take notes, don't remember him having a great team.

39: WIN - Arcanine / Cloyster / Zapdos. I bring Persian and try to hax a win, this was a really long, drawn out battle and I needed to think a lot to make the right plays, as he was constantly switch stalling my Swagger PP and the confusion that came with it. He kept his Arcanine in to try and Snarl me (bypasses subs) but hit with confusion and I went for Foul Plays while he was at +2 as he always switched after I got him to +4 which took him out. I had to make some predicts with Cloyster and Zapdos remaining as he kept to his strategy, his Cloyster was around 10% after all the unboosted Foul Plays he was copping and so I tried to just spam Swagger hoping he'd bring him back in so I could send Ditto in and sweep, but he hit in confusion which knocked Cloyster out, allowing me to easily beat the Zapdos 1v1.

after that match it was way too late and I needed sleep


So yeah, really disappointed with how this panned out given the amount of preparation I put in practicing / breeding / writing my RMT / making a deal to obtain the Zapdos I needed (shoutouts Albus - the Zapdos was amazing, I was not). I don't wanna get all melodramatic but given this and my extremely similar performance / same bad luck in season 15, I think I might take a break from playing mons for a bit to clear my head. I'm honestly that pissed lol.
 
I had a lot of fun with this tournament, though I could have done a lot better - finished 25-20. Here's my team, which had some failings in itself:


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I intented to give Nidoking Sucker Punch and literally forgot until I locked in my battle box, and the dark typing and priority would have made things a LOT easier for me I think. Though in retrospect, Nidoking was one of my MVPs just because of the sheer coverage it offered. I also meant to train up a Machamp but didn't have time (I was still EV training my Venusaur when the competition had begun and didn't feel like doing it again for Machamp), and tbh having Machamp would have been REALLY useful. Instead I added Clefable last minute and used it maybe once or twice, the minimize strategy had mixed results and I honestly would rather have used the sixth slot for something else, as much as I love me a Clefable.

Nidoking/Quagsire/Dragonite was my core, and Quagsire was simply spectacular. Barring grass moves or sheer power, it's pretty unkillable if you play right, and I think Rest Suicune was the only thing I didn't manage to toxic stall. Venusaur had good synergy with Quagsire in the right match-up, though it didn't get as much play-time as the other three.

Dragonite's Lum Berry didn't come into play as much as it did on Smogon, honestly in this format it would have benefitted a lot more from a power boost - this metagame was really about type coverage, sheer power and speed. But it worked well with Nidoking, Outrage is pretty good at breaking through the likes of Quagsire and Gengar (I really missed that Sucker Punch), though being locked into it caused problems a few times when I really needed a priority move.

Espeon didn't get as much usage as I was expecting. I never encountered entry hazards, only encountered sleep once or twice, and having Espeon in my team preview seemed to discourage anyone bringing a fighting type. The prospect of Trick and Magic Bounce usually discouraged Smeargle too, the only one I encountered was a Baton Pass set (and I led with Quagsire like a doofus...). Trick also wasn't as successful as on Showdown, it's a lot harder to predict sets and item choices so sometimes you end up, say, locking Umbreon into Foul Play and killing yourself. But Choice Specs Psychic swept a few times. A good powerhouse, but I didn't rely on it as much as I thought I would.

Lessons learned are basically, don't underestimate the basics of coverage and priority, don't make assumptions about movesets and items because it's not as unified as Showdown, and sometimes picking the right lead pokemon is REALLY important. Trying to switch into something that's unexpectedly sweeping is rough.

Anyway. Long post, sorry guys. But for my first tournament, I'm happy. Knowing that it's a different beast from showdown is important, and I think if I spend more time on my team next time I can probably get towards 30 wins. But, lots of fun, really enjoyed it. :D

______________________________
cant say edit: Sheer Force + Moon Ball Nidoking is an illegal combination.
 
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So, this competition went really really bad for me, i didn't have time to build a proper team so I had to "recycle" almost half of the Kanto Classic team;
I have to say I've got horrible luck in this competition for instance Steelix was brought in 14 out of 18 matches and even though it was winning, it got critted like 10 times out of 14 matches, crazy right !?
However in some matches I encountered some really strange and obscure sets like a Corsola with : Surf/Mirror Coat/Protect/Explosion which destroyed my Porygon2 XD ,heck I've seen even a Choice Band Forretress!

Anyway here's some info on my team :

Venusaur (M) @ Black Sludge
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 144 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 28 Atk
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Leech Seed
- Sleep Powder

This Venusaur was used during past years in VGC as you can see from the EV spread ,it did fantastically during the Kanto Classic, not so much in this competition however.
Standard set it lacks synthesis which I didn't deem necessary in a 3vs3 format

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Thunderbolt
- Tri Attack

The true "star" of the team it helped in really awful situations managing sometimes to win the match all by itself.
Funnily enough it was absolutely destroyed in the 1st match against a Corsola which endured the T.bolt and striked back with Mirror Coat, go figure...

TOBYBRO (Slowbro) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 26 Atk / 28 Spe
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Psychic

Helped a lot against the opposing Dragonites and Azumarrils, which were somewhat problematic to handle for my team, but sadly it couldn't do much when it was the last one and the opponent had an Espeon, guess why... ... yes,Shadow Ball...

Nidoking @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 28 Def / 24 SpD
- Sludge Bomb
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Flamethrower

Ughhh this thing! Between it and Dugtrio I don't know which one did worst...
Go Nidoking!... Nidoking used whatever... foes PKMN lost 50% Hp... foes PKMN used Move... ...RIIIIIIIIPPPP!!!

Steelix (M) @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 136 Atk / 128 SpD
Impish Nature
IVs: 28 SpA / 11 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

Man I can't be too harsh on the guy at least he tried, now to be fair this was a decent in game Steelix which I choose just beause I didn't have a battle ready Steel type so it had to do.
So its original random evs were erased through the white punching bag, it was re-evsed and its moves change accordingly buttttt... Stealth Rock in retrospect wasn't a good idea ,with Crunch instead of "the rocks" I could at least stand a chance against Espeon with Assault Vest equipped to my Steel snake.
Yes I know Weakness Policy is gymmicky but so is Assault vest.

Dugtrio (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Veil
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 24 SpA
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Fissure

No comment on this thing...

Anyway what else can i say i just got DUNKED ON!

PS: I't just me or Japanese players have a different playstyle?

_______________________________
cant say edit: Porygon2 cannot be in a Moon Ball
 

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In the end I just fought on the first day. Next time, in competitions where it's 15 or more battles per day, I'll try 7/8 in the morning and the rest in the afternoon/night. Here are some of the battles that I fought, only missing other seven:

RBZG-WWWW-WW46-GQ8Z = Clefable doesn't care about setup
ZDQG-WWWW-WW46-GS7D = Easy match, but Miltank rocks
LJLW-WWWW-WW46-GQAU = Girafarig's Energy Ball proves to be decisive
VHWG-WWWW-WW46-GTN3 = DAT CRIT DONPHAN!!
486W-WWWW-WW46-GQYJ = MilTANK and Tauros, perfect couple
A4YW-WWWW-WW46-GQNW = Ursaring sweep
36RG-WWWW-WW46-GQZ6 = Stall battle, mostly Clefable & Blissey vs Clefable & Wobbuffet

I'm sure Whitney would be proud of all of you guys.
 
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Eisenherz

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So, I went in the competition with 2 different teams on my 2 carts. One was more serious and had been tested on Showdown quite a bit; the other one was more of a fun team made from some of my favourites I had already trained in my boxes. Unsurprisingly, I did better with the team that had gone through some testing, but I've had a lot of fun with both of them really! However, it does feel overall a little bitter right now... yesterday, after doing about 5 battles on each cart, I took a long break to run some errands, with the idea of doing the rest of my battles in the evening. Little did I know, the competition ended at midnight UTC, which meant much earlier for me. Obviously 100% my bad for not giving it more thought and verifying, but it's pretty disappointing, because I had ended on 3 salt-inducing losses to very low odds RNG in a row, from which I assumed I could have recovered at least a little bit with the next few. Anyways! Here's a quick preview of both of my teams and how they performed :



This is my main team with which I practiced on Showdown. Overall, I was very satisfied with it. I don't remember what my final ranking or record was, but I think it's somewhere between 1650-1670. I peaked around 1710, but those 3 losses in a row at the end surely cost me.

- Raikou was excellent. I started building it with a Calm Mind set, but noticed the occasions I had to use Calm Mind were very rare and that I often found myself simply attacking after making a sub, so I switched to 3 attacks. Extrasensory proved extremely useful, as I handled at least 4 Venusaurs with it.

- For Azu, I juggled a lot between the Belly Drum set and the Choice Band set in the last days before the competition. I went with Belly Drum, still unsure if that was the best option, and though I got a few Belly Drum sweeps along the way, I should totally have gone Choice Band. The instant power boost is just too valuable in such a fast-paced competition (also, people seemed to expect the Belly Drum set, which made it easier for them to predict).

- Heracross got a few sweeps of his own, even getting one when locked into.... Bullet Seed?! I know most people preferred Guts for this competition, but I don't think someone statused him a single time during my matches (got lucky on a few Scalds!), so I was happy with Moxie. I think I may have preferred a sash set, but the sash was too important on Alakazam to give it up, so scarf worked as well.

- Alakazam was the MVP against all teams using shenanigans, which is what he was built for. It was brought to probably half of the matches, if not more. As useful as Taunt is, Encore was the real life saver in a few occasions.

- Entei is very straightfoward wallbreaker. There are very, very few switch-ins to a banded Sacred Fire, I saw many people switching in their Chansey, Clefable, Gyarados, Feraligatr, Azumarill, etc. only to find out they can't take 2. Even T-tar, with the 50% burn chance, was a very risky switch. I do wish I had an Extreme Speed variant of Entei, but he did what he was there to do nonetheless.

- Piloswine has been praised as an amazing Dragonite-slayer by many since the competition has been announced, and with good reason. I would never have thought of using it without people suggesting it here, so I must give a big thank you for it! The only real dilemma I faced was with the 4th move, and unlike my Azu dilemma, going for Roar was 100% the right choice. It straight up saved me 4 different times, 4 wins that would have otherwise been losses.

I found that practicing on Showdown, while beneficial, also had its drawbacks. I feel like a specific meta slowly developed on Showdown as the weeks went by, and people adjusted to that meta and prepared for it perhaps too specifically. BS had more variety. As others mentioned, I didn't see a single Smeargle + Espeon core. Gengar was extremely prominent, and so was Espeon, often with Specs. I haven't witnessed any Minimize Clefable, but then again, a lot of people actually tried to switch their Clefable into my Entei, which means I never got to see their moveset. Zapdos was everywhere, and unsurprisingly Dragonite too. I also saw many Donphan, Umbreon, Typhlosion, Raikou (though it was rarely brought against me), Tyranitar, Chansey and Lapras.

A lot of players tried to Toxic stall me with a wide array a Pokemon. Some of them I expected (Chansey, Zapdos, Umbreon, Raikou)... but Starmie, Gyarados, Entei, Arcanine, Miltank and Articuno all trying to Toxic stall, that took me by surprise.

On to my second, more fun team:



The main idea is to go for a sun sweep with Victreebel. To my own surprise, it actually went pretty well! Acid Spray on Victreebel was amazing. I chose it over Sleep Powder kind of last minute, and it paid off big time against all the stalling opponents (a few Suicune and Umbreon come into mind). I also used it a lot to handle Dragonite. Most of the time, Acid Spray + Sludge Bomb was a KO, so with the Sash, it was able to handle those without Ice Punch (they couldn't Extreme Speed since they were usually locked in Outrage). Quagsire was there as a standard Unaware safehold, and Umbreon I mostly used as a Phazer thanks to Yawn. Starmie, like Alakazam on my other team, was there to stop shenanigans or just cripple something. It was a last minute addition and, to my surprise, was way more useful than Quagsire in the end. Hitmontop was there to handle 2 specific threats: T-tar and Smeargle. I didn't expect much from it, but every time it was brought (not so often really), it ended up clutching a victory for me with one of the priority moves, usually not against the threats it was intended to handle.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't do as well with this team. It started horribly wrong with 5 losses in a row, bringing me down to the low 1400s. However, I turned it around afterwards and ended somewhere in the low 1600s, which I'm mostly satisfied with. Honestly, just sweeping some "standard" teams with Victreebel was enough to make me happy; it's all I really wanted for this team (though the Hitmontop clutches were satisfying as well) :P

All in all, a really fun competition. I am not the biggest fan of 3v3, though I don't hate it either. Unlike many others, I did prefer the 6v6 of the Kanto Classic, but in the end I'm just happy to see some Singles official competitions, and it makes me really wish Pokemon would do more of them!
 

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So I didn't end up finishing all of my games, still had 12 I didn't do but I went 25-8 which is pretty solid considering at least half of those losses happened solely because of awful reasons (I actually lost a game because my opponent missed Heat Wave against me, crazy as that sounds). Ended somewhere in the 1700s which is decent, was aiming for 1800 which I probably would've reached in those 12 games but eh, I didn't even test my final team much so I can't really complain about not reaching 1800, part of it is my own fault for not being motivated enough to do those last 12 games.


Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Def / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Volt Switch

Crobat @ Choice Band
Ability: Infiltrator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Cross Poison
- U-turn
- Sleep Talk

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Avalanche
- Earthquake
- Fissure

Venusaur @ Life Orb
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 50
EVs: 248 SpA / 12 SpD / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest

Dragonite @ Lum Berry
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Dance
- Extreme Speed
- Earthquake


Best Magneton set honestly, Timid Specs is way too strong and Electrics are borderline broken in this, so many teams had no Ground-type so it was easy enough to lead Magneton and nuke stuff. Hidden Power Grass proved near useless since almost nobody used Quagsire but oh well. HP Fire would've been neat since everyone seems to think Magneton would be Magnet Pull and didn't try switching out their Steels even though Magnet Pull is the least useful ability. Crobat was insane too, the VoltTurn core was just as good as nerd had theorized, it definitely paid off since these two were my most used picks by far. Sleep Talk and Sub sniping never came into play but being able to take huge chunks out of Tyranitar and Raikou with U-turn is impressive.

Dragonite was pretty "meh" honestly, I rarely had trouble against them and I rarely felt the need to bring my own, though it did clean up really well in the games I felt it was a good pick, especially against weather teams (which I think weren't particularly great honestly). Maybe my team is just super anti-Dragonite but that thing was not a problem.

Piloswine was also fantastic since nobody used Magneton. Avalanche OHKOs Dragonite through Multiscale and Fissure is a god's move, glad I went with it since there were no times where Stealth Rock felt like a good idea. People apparently don't realize this thing has Thick Fat since lots of people tried to hit it with Fire.

Venusaur is something I probably would've replaced if I knew nobody was going to use Azumarill, but my lazy decision to rebreed a Chlorophyll one turned out in my favor since I ran into a few Sun cores and my Timid Venusaur put in work against their likely Modest ones. I do think this is the coolest Venusaur set out there, but HP Ice might have been a better idea to beat non-Lum Dragonite. HP Fire made Scizor less scary though.

Suicune was a god, few people expected CM Chesto Rest which is weird since that's one of the best Suicune sets. Unfortunately never got my hands on a shiny one to bluff Sheer Cold but that's fine, it put in a ton of work anyway and sometimes won entirely on its own.

Liked the team, not a bad run with it considering I left out 12 games entirely, though I feel our expecations from the Showdown ladder definitely didn't reflect the actual competition as accurately as expected, at least in my experience. Definitely made me want to go ladder BSS so now I'm off to reset forever for a Bold HP Ice Static Zapdos.

A few replays though:
A8VG-WWWW-WW46-8GXE - The only stall team I saw, Demantoid also ran into this team apparently and it was definitely a threat, won it pretty convincingly though.
2UYW-WWWW-WW46-CXHS - Piloswine tears stuff apart here, highlights the importance of measuring risk vs reward and judging if the situation is still acceptable even if the risk doesn't pay off. In this case it definitely did.
GH4G-WWWW-WW46-C6SV - A game against a sun team, this was actually a rematch but unfortunately for him his adjustments didn't help.
Z58G-WWWW-WW46-HNX3 - The only rain team I saw, seems like a scary situation until you realize Sturdy Magneton is god and paves the way for an easy clean.
VT3G-WWWW-W46-HMVV - Fissure I
8E2W-WWWW-WW46-HN27 - Fissure II
 
So, I went in the competition with 2 different teams on my 2 carts. One was more serious and had been tested on Showdown quite a bit; the other one was more of a fun team made from some of my favourites I had already trained in my boxes. Unsurprisingly, I did better with the team that had gone through some testing, but I've had a lot of fun with both of them really! However, it does feel overall a little bitter right now... yesterday, after doing about 5 battles on each cart, I took a long break to run some errands, with the idea of doing the rest of my battles in the evening. Little did I know, the competition ended at midnight UTC, which meant much earlier for me. Obviously 100% my bad for not giving it more thought and verifying, but it's pretty disappointing, because I had ended on 3 salt-inducing losses to very low odds RNG in a row, from which I assumed I could have recovered at least a little bit with the next few. Anyways! Here's a quick preview of both of my teams and how they performed :



This is my main team with which I practiced on Showdown. Overall, I was very satisfied with it. I don't remember what my final ranking or record was, but I think it's somewhere between 1650-1670. I peaked around 1710, but those 3 losses in a row at the end surely cost me.

- Raikou was excellent. I started building it with a Calm Mind set, but noticed the occasions I had to use Calm Mind were very rare and that I often found myself simply attacking after making a sub, so I switched to 3 attacks. Extrasensory proved extremely useful, as I handled at least 4 Venusaurs with it.

- For Azu, I juggled a lot between the Belly Drum set and the Choice Band set in the last days before the competition. I went with Belly Drum, still unsure if that was the best option, and though I got a few Belly Drum sweeps along the way, I should totally have gone Choice Band. The instant power boost is just too valuable in such a fast-paced competition (also, people seemed to expect the Belly Drum set, which made it easier for them to predict).

- Heracross got a few sweeps of his own, even getting one when locked into.... Bullet Seed?! I know most people preferred Guts for this competition, but I don't think someone statused him a single time during my matches (got lucky on a few Scalds!), so I was happy with Moxie. I think I may have preferred a sash set, but the sash was too important on Alakazam to give it up, so scarf worked as well.

- Alakazam was the MVP against all teams using shenanigans, which is what he was built for. It was brought to probably half of the matches, if not more. As useful as Taunt is, Encore was the real life saver in a few occasions.

- Entei is very straightfoward wallbreaker. There are very, very few switch-ins to a banded Sacred Fire, I saw many people switching in their Chansey, Clefable, Gyarados, Feraligatr, Azumarill, etc. only to find out they can't take 2. Even T-tar, with the 50% burn chance, was a very risky switch. I do wish I had an Extreme Speed variant of Entei, but he did what he was there to do nonetheless.

- Piloswine has been praised as an amazing Dragonite-slayer by many since the competition has been announced, and with good reason. I would never have thought of using it without people suggesting it here, so I must give a big thank you for it! The only real dilemma I faced was with the 4th move, and unlike my Azu dilemma, going for Roar was 100% the right choice. It straight up saved me 4 different times, 4 wins that would have otherwise been losses.

I found that practicing on Showdown, while beneficial, also had its drawbacks. I feel like a specific meta slowly developed on Showdown as the weeks went by, and people adjusted to that meta and prepared for it perhaps too specifically. BS had more variety. As others mentioned, I didn't see a single Smeargle + Espeon core. Gengar was extremely prominent, and so was Espeon, often with Specs. I haven't witnessed any Minimize Clefable, but then again, a lot of people actually tried to switch their Clefable into my Entei, which means I never got to see their moveset. Zapdos was everywhere, and unsurprisingly Dragonite too. I also saw many Donphan, Umbreon, Typhlosion, Raikou (though it was rarely brought against me), Tyranitar, Chansey and Lapras.

A lot of players tried to Toxic stall me with a wide array a Pokemon. Some of them I expected (Chansey, Zapdos, Umbreon, Raikou)... but Starmie, Gyarados, Entei, Arcanine, Miltank and Articuno all trying to Toxic stall, that took me by surprise.

On to my second, more fun team:



The main idea is to go for a sun sweep with Victreebel. To my own surprise, it actually went pretty well! Acid Spray on Victreebel was amazing. I chose it over Sleep Powder kind of last minute, and it paid off big time against all the stalling opponents (a few Suicune and Umbreon come into mind). I also used it a lot to handle Dragonite. Most of the time, Acid Spray + Sludge Bomb was a KO, so with the Sash, it was able to handle those without Ice Punch (they couldn't Extreme Speed since they were usually locked in Outrage). Quagsire was there as a standard Unaware safehold, and Umbreon I mostly used as a Phazer thanks to Yawn. Starmie, like Alakazam on my other team, was there to stop shenanigans or just cripple something. It was a last minute addition and, to my surprise, was way more useful than Quagsire in the end. Hitmontop was there to handle 2 specific threats: T-tar and Smeargle. I didn't expect much from it, but every time it was brought (not so often really), it ended up clutching a victory for me with one of the priority moves, usually not against the threats it was intended to handle.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't do as well with this team. It started horribly wrong with 5 losses in a row, bringing me down to the low 1400s. However, I turned it around afterwards and ended somewhere in the low 1600s, which I'm mostly satisfied with. Honestly, just sweeping some "standard" teams with Victreebel was enough to make me happy; it's all I really wanted for this team (though the Hitmontop clutches were satisfying as well) :P

All in all, a really fun competition. I am not the biggest fan of 3v3, though I don't hate it either. Unlike many others, I did prefer the 6v6 of the Kanto Classic, but in the end I'm just happy to see some Singles official competitions, and it makes me really wish Pokemon would do more of them!
Dude, props for using Victreebel, he's one of my OG favorties. A lot of folks view him as a poor man's Venusaur (even I went with Venu over Victri this tournament) but people fail to realize the two things that make Victreebel appealing: Acid Spray and Weather Ball. Have any replays to share? Would love to see it in action.
 
Just wanted to drop by and give props to anyone using their favorites in these types of competitions, win or lose. I regret not using Jolteon in both the Kanto and Johto competitions, I probably would have had a lot more fun sticking with my OG favorites from when I was kid but instead got too uptight trying to stick to the top tier Pokemon for better results.

That said I think I'm going to hit up some giveaways or something in hopes of finding some of my favorites that are or at least close to being battle ready.
 
Just wanted to drop by and give props to anyone using their favorites in these types of competitions, win or lose. I regret not using Jolteon in both the Kanto and Johto competitions, I probably would have had a lot more fun sticking with my OG favorites from when I was kid but instead got too uptight trying to stick to the top tier Pokemon for better results.

That said I think I'm going to hit up some giveaways or something in hopes of finding some of my favorites that are or at least close to being battle ready.
Looking for anything in particular? I have some good IV, EM, HA rejects from this competition that are just sitting around doing nothing (Heracross and Swinubs, and I *think* two Vulpix). Let me know.
 

Eisenherz

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Dude, props for using Victreebel, he's one of my OG favorties. A lot of folks view him as a poor man's Venusaur (even I went with Venu over Victri this tournament) but people fail to realize the two things that make Victreebel appealing: Acid Spray and Weather Ball. Have any replays to share? Would love to see it in action.
I wish!! Sadly, my memory was still full from me saving every single match of the Kanto Classic... I never went to sort out the good ones, and I couldn't find a way to delete them in bulk (if there is one please tell me, I'm a VS Recorder noob). I didn't have the patience to delete them one by one at that point, so I gave up and could only save 3 matches, none of them with this team. It's a shame, because a couple matches really deserved to be saved! In one, Victreebel as my lone remaining Pokemon swept through Zapdos, Scizor, and a (previously burned) Dragonite. I would have loved to see the face of my opponent at the end :P

I get what you mean about Venusaur, I hesitated a lot before picking Victreebel too. Weather Ball was the selling point for me... other than the fact I really like it, and no one ever gives it any love :(
 
I wish!! Sadly, my memory was still full from me saving every single match of the Kanto Classic... I never went to sort out the good ones, and I couldn't find a way to delete them in bulk (if there is one please tell me, I'm a VS Recorder noob). I didn't have the patience to delete them one by one at that point, so I gave up and could only save 3 matches, none of them with this team. It's a shame, because a couple matches really deserved to be saved! In one, Victreebel as my lone remaining Pokemon swept through Zapdos, Scizor, and a (previously burned) Dragonite. I would have loved to see the face of my opponent at the end :P

I get what you mean about Venusaur, I hesitated a lot before picking Victreebel too. Weather Ball was the selling point for me... other than the fact I really like it, and no one ever gives it any love :(
Ah. Shame, but it is what it is. Unfortunately there's no way to mass delete replays, so you gotta clear them one at a time. Definitely tedious. Hopefully Sun & Moon rectify that somehow.
 

Demantoid

APMS Founder
is a Top Tiering Contributor
I ended up playing on a second cartridge after a bad day 2 on my first one. I originally registered the second in case I got a lot of disconnects, but I'll probably do it in the future to have more chances to do well. I changed Venusaur to a Alakazam, Magneton's Hidden Power to Ground, and Entei's EV spread between the two cartridges. On Padparadscha I ended somewhere around 1750 think. I also turned my notes into usage stats.
Johto Classic May 2016 Battle Box Demantoid.jpg
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Iron Head
- Extreme Speed

Azumarill @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 188 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 44 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Waterfall

Venusaur @ Black Sludge
Ability: Overgrow
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 92 Def / 140 SpA / 156 SpD / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sludge Bomb
- Sleep Powder
- Leech Seed
- Substitute

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 156 Def / 12 SpD / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Avalanche
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Fissure

Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon

Entei @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 36 Atk / 108 Def / 124 SpD / 100 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Protect
Johto Classic May 2016 Battle Box Padparadscha.jpg
Dragonite @ Choice Band
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Fire Punch
- Iron Head
- Extreme Speed

Azumarill @ Lum Berry
Ability: Huge Power
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 28 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough
- Knock Off
- Waterfall

Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Energy Ball
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

Piloswine @ Eviolite
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Atk / 156 Def / 12 SpD / 28 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Avalanche
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Fissure

Magneton @ Choice Specs
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 4 hp / 4 def / 248 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Thunderbolt
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon

Entei @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 20 HP / 4 Atk / 164 Def / 180 SpD / 140 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Substitute
- Toxic
- Protect
upload_2016-5-30_15-36-30.png

Replays

Most of these were very close games
PZ8W-WWWW-WW46-7DJY Pilo/Entei/Mag vs Raikou/TTar/Skarm
XFAG-WWWW-WW46-YMMG Entei/Pilo/Mag vs Scizor/Suicune/Zapdos
JBLG-WWWW-WW46-CBPV Azu/Pilo/DNite vs DNIte/Machamp/Azu
G58W-WWWW-WW46-CULA Mag/Pilo/Alakazam vs Ampharos(!)/Gyarados/TTar
 
...
A lot of players tried to Toxic stall me with a wide array a Pokemon. Some of them I expected (Chansey, Zapdos, Umbreon, Raikou)... but Starmie, Gyarados, Entei, Arcanine, Miltank and Articuno all trying to Toxic stall, that took me by surprise.
I lost to a fast Sub/Protect/Toxic user more than once so I can definitely second this. Also loving your two teams, I really should've kept a disruptive Zam or maybe an Espeon on my team. Sadly you don't have any replays, I would've loved to see some action from these!

On a second thought an Infiltrator Pokemon (Crobat) or something with strong multiple-hit moves (that isn't Piloswine bc it had to handle enough stuff how it originally was) would've probably won me quite a few matches I lost bc I couldn't break a Sub fast enough. Damn seeing you all being more creative than me really makes me wish to get a second chance attempting this competition :D
These usage statistics are great, thanks for sharing Demantiod! Specifically seeing Politoed & Lanturn getting two wins against you reminds me of how good they were against me when I faced them, if it weren't for big Hax in my favor I guess I would've lost my matches against them too. There is much stuff going on that I can relate to from my own experience, but listing and commenting on it would probably be boring...

I just have to say it again, GameFreak/Pokemon is on a very good way with these competitions, let's hope we get more of that!
 

Eisenherz

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I lost to a fast Sub/Protect/Toxic user more than once so I can definitely second this. Also loving your two teams, I really should've kept a disruptive Zam or maybe an Espeon on my team. Sadly you don't have any replays, I would've loved to see some action from these!
I do have a few replays with my first team! If anyone is interested, here they are:

9FFW-WWWW-WW46-JVK2 : My very first battle, Raikou sweep with all the hax on my side, I felt bad for the guy!
BL2W-WWWW-WW46-JVGP : Loss against a mono water team. Mad props to him, he was something like 1670 with that team!
R6PG-WWWW-WW46-JVMR : One of my rare encounters with Smeargle. Roar on Piloswine is the difference maker.

I've had more interesting battles than these, but they're the only ones I could save before running out of room.
 
PKMN johto.PNG


Had great fun participating in the competition. Gengar was straight up useless in almost every game i used him unfortunately due to me not having enough time to make a good set. Such a shame I forgot Lum on Dnite, which I only found out after Arcanine used WOW on me and no lum activation afterwards. Otherwise it was super strong after 1 or often 2 dd's.

Crobat was a beast, but did got koéd a few times by scarf Espeon. I really liked Machamp as my special absorber for things like Zapdos or other special attackers. Lastly Scizor / azumaril won many games by just BP or AJ. I hated to face arcanine which was really good against my team :).
 
Capture.PNG

I had almost the exact opposite situation as Can't Say. While he brought a well put together and competitive team and had the worst of luck with it, I brought a slapped together team and had some pretty great luck with it. My team is kinda an anti-metagame team. While JC is mostly a fast and hard hitting metagame, I brought the bulk and stall mons to slow things down. My formula was pretty simple:

1. Upon team preview, count the number of physical vs. special offensive mons that the Foe has. If they had 3 or more physically offensive mons, I would lead with Umbreon. He was built to take on physical attackers and punish them with Foul Play (took out many unsuspecting Scizor this way, 2HKO usually), has a Bold nature 252 HP and 252 Def.

2. Next, I would focus on the special foes. If they brought 3 or more I had to bring Chansey. But, if they only brought 1 or 2, then I would gauge their speed and effectiveness against my team. Gengar outspeeds a lot of mons in this metagame. She was very effective at taking out Zapdos which was a threat to my wincon's (Dnite and Azu). If they had a Scizor, I would likely bring Umbreon, but I would also consider Clefable as she was designed to lure out Scizor and OHKO with Fire Blast. Because I had Clefable and Azumarill, I knew that the Foe would likely bring Scizor or Machamp w/ Bullet Punch, and likely any ELC types. Therefore, It was a trade off whether or not to bring Gengar or Umbreon. Gar could take on Zapdos, Raikou or Machamp, but not Jolteon, and Umbreon could take on Scizor and put dents in ELC types with Swag Play, but was generally more effective against physical foes, baring Machamp and other FTG types. So, while the toss up for my lead was usually between Umbreon and Gengar, my next mon was almost unanimously Chansey with sometimes Gengar getting the second slot (usually to avoid a double FTG weakness w/ Umbreon and Chansey).

3. Then I'd pick my wincon: Dragonite or Azumarill. I would check for Fairy's on the Foes team and count how many potential Ice type moves they had. I would also look for ELC and (too a lesser extent) GRS moves. Starmie could wreck my team and usually meant a lose for me as it outspeeds Gar, packs Ice Beam for Dnite, can have Thunderbolt for Azu, and packs STAB Psychic for Gar. My only hope against Starmie was Chansey, which meant she was a MUST BRING whenever I saw one. If they had any ELC types, especially a Jolteon, or GRS types then I was less inclined to bring Azu and usually brought Dnite. Most of the time I brought Azu, as his coverage is just better. But, with Azu being such a huge threat for most people, I found that bringing Dnite was often times more beneficial as my Foes often seemed to prepare for Azu at team preview.

Results: My win/lose spread was on average 2/1 throughout the tourney, and my last ranking before winning my final battle was 1626 or 1629 (it was in the 1620's at least). This is a great improvement from Kanto Classic, where my win/lose spread was closer to 1/1.

The roles of each of my mons are pretty straight forward with their given movesets. The only anomaly is Umbreon, who is Bold and has 252 HP/252 Def/4 SpDef. He was build unusually defensive for the purpose of punishing physically offensive mons with Foul Play and Rocky Helmet. He would then go toe to toe with specially offensive mons by confusing them with Swagger, which would then increase their Atk and subsequently, Umbreon's Foul Play as well. I could then attempt to chip away at them with Foul Play or switch into Chansey.

Chansey's set is exactly the same as her De Blob OU set. Mostly used as my special sponge, and sometimes, unfortunately, a physical one.

Clefable's set is exactly the same as her Stealth Rocks OU set. She has just enough HP and Def investment to tank a Bullet Punch from a Banded Scizor, and just enough power to OKHO said Scizor, unless they are running an unusually specially defensive build. She has Leftovers because without it, she wouldn't meet certain defensive benchmarks. I used her to setup Stealth Rocks, which did help at times, but was generally not used. She was mainly used as a lure to bring out and kill foe Scizors. Once I discovered that Umbreon was better suited for this, I pretty much didn't use Clefable at all. I wish I had brought my Zapdos in her place.

Gengar's set is also a pretty standard set and has been for generations. I opted for Protect over Sludge Bomb (I don't have access to a Sludge Wave Gar, so don't ask) as it allowed me to scout and gave me a free turn of Black Sludge recovery, which was a life saver at times. Protect's scouting feature allowed me to make better use of Disable as well. There were a few times that I was able to Disable a Choiced foe and bring them to their knees. As long as I saw at team preview that I could outspeed, I brought Gengar and she never disappointed. I ran with a Timid 12 HP/246 SpAtk/252 Spe spread. This allowed Gar to get 4 subs with 1 HP remaining without Black Sludge, and didn't deter from her overall power noticeably. Special thanks to Fable1456 for inspiring me to use this Gar. Here is a link to the PS battle that inspired me: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/johtoclassic-370423129

Dragonite was pretty much the same as her OU Dragon Dance set. I chose Iron Head over EQ because of Fiaries. Even against Azumarill, Iron Head was a 3HKO, and usually got the flinch on one of the first 2 hits. This usually netted a win for Dnite, even if it was a risky move. I also ran Dragon Claw over Outrage, as I didn't want to get locked into an Outrage and then have a foe Azumarill switch in or worse, get Disabled by a foe Gengar. One or two DDance's was usually enough to sweep the foe with Dragon Claw, as long as they didn't have any super bulky mons like Scarmory.

Azumarill was also pretty much the same as his OU set: Belly Drum. I opted for Ice Punch over Superpower or Knock Off, as it is more effective against Dragonites than Play Rough and gave me an option against foe GRS types. I decided against Knock Off because I had Umbreon. Although, I wish I had went with Knock Off, as Ice Punch gave me limited utility once in the tournament. Azu's HP investment should have been perfect to activate Sitrus Berry after a Belly Drum at full health, but I must have been a couple EV's off because this did not happen. I'll have to get myself a Reset Bag and EV train him again.

Checks/Counters: As already stated, Starmies gave me a run for my money, but were manageable when Chansey was brought. Crobats were a nasty Foe to go up against as I didn't have anything bulky enough to tank 2 Brave Birds, it outsped Gar, and would kill Clefable or Azu with ease (I should have brought Zapdos over Clefable for this reason). Skarmory was one of the few bulky guys that I saw and walled the crap out of my team. A Fire Blast from Clefable would have taken it out in 2, if not 1 hit. But, Clefable's usefulness was very thin otherwise. Again, another reason I should have brought Zapdos (with Heat Wave) over Clefable. Machamps and other FTG types gave me some issues, but were easily managed when Gengar was brought. I would usually choose Azumarill as my wincon when I saw a FTG type at team preview too. Zapdos would have helped against FTG types as well.

Special Note: I am still pretty new to competitive battling and I am a cart loyalist. Therefore, I wanted to breed and make pokemon that would also work pretty well in other formats. I used OU as a baseline. Therefore, if most of my team seems pretty generic build-wise, its on purpose. I wanted to build a team that I could play with in JC and have lots of fun (which I did!), but still be able to use the mons afterwards. All in all, i didn't want all of my efforts to go to waste once JC was over, as I spent a lot of time breeding these guys. Also note, I did not complete all of my matches due to time constraints.

So, I went in the competition with 2 different teams on my 2 carts. One was more serious and had been tested on Showdown quite a bit; the other one was more of a fun team made from some of my favourites I had already trained in my boxes. Unsurprisingly, I did better with the team that had gone through some testing, but I've had a lot of fun with both of them really! However, it does feel overall a little bitter right now... yesterday, after doing about 5 battles on each cart, I took a long break to run some errands, with the idea of doing the rest of my battles in the evening. Little did I know, the competition ended at midnight UTC, which meant much earlier for me. Obviously 100% my bad for not giving it more thought and verifying, but it's pretty disappointing, because I had ended on 3 salt-inducing losses to very low odds RNG in a row, from which I assumed I could have recovered at least a little bit with the next few. Anyways! Here's a quick preview of both of my teams and how they performed :



This is my main team with which I practiced on Showdown. Overall, I was very satisfied with it. I don't remember what my final ranking or record was, but I think it's somewhere between 1650-1670. I peaked around 1710, but those 3 losses in a row at the end surely cost me.

- Raikou was excellent. I started building it with a Calm Mind set, but noticed the occasions I had to use Calm Mind were very rare and that I often found myself simply attacking after making a sub, so I switched to 3 attacks. Extrasensory proved extremely useful, as I handled at least 4 Venusaurs with it.

- For Azu, I juggled a lot between the Belly Drum set and the Choice Band set in the last days before the competition. I went with Belly Drum, still unsure if that was the best option, and though I got a few Belly Drum sweeps along the way, I should totally have gone Choice Band. The instant power boost is just too valuable in such a fast-paced competition (also, people seemed to expect the Belly Drum set, which made it easier for them to predict).

- Heracross got a few sweeps of his own, even getting one when locked into.... Bullet Seed?! I know most people preferred Guts for this competition, but I don't think someone statused him a single time during my matches (got lucky on a few Scalds!), so I was happy with Moxie. I think I may have preferred a sash set, but the sash was too important on Alakazam to give it up, so scarf worked as well.

- Alakazam was the MVP against all teams using shenanigans, which is what he was built for. It was brought to probably half of the matches, if not more. As useful as Taunt is, Encore was the real life saver in a few occasions.

- Entei is very straightfoward wallbreaker. There are very, very few switch-ins to a banded Sacred Fire, I saw many people switching in their Chansey, Clefable, Gyarados, Feraligatr, Azumarill, etc. only to find out they can't take 2. Even T-tar, with the 50% burn chance, was a very risky switch. I do wish I had an Extreme Speed variant of Entei, but he did what he was there to do nonetheless.

- Piloswine has been praised as an amazing Dragonite-slayer by many since the competition has been announced, and with good reason. I would never have thought of using it without people suggesting it here, so I must give a big thank you for it! The only real dilemma I faced was with the 4th move, and unlike my Azu dilemma, going for Roar was 100% the right choice. It straight up saved me 4 different times, 4 wins that would have otherwise been losses.

I found that practicing on Showdown, while beneficial, also had its drawbacks. I feel like a specific meta slowly developed on Showdown as the weeks went by, and people adjusted to that meta and prepared for it perhaps too specifically. BS had more variety. As others mentioned, I didn't see a single Smeargle + Espeon core. Gengar was extremely prominent, and so was Espeon, often with Specs. I haven't witnessed any Minimize Clefable, but then again, a lot of people actually tried to switch their Clefable into my Entei, which means I never got to see their moveset. Zapdos was everywhere, and unsurprisingly Dragonite too. I also saw many Donphan, Umbreon, Typhlosion, Raikou (though it was rarely brought against me), Tyranitar, Chansey and Lapras.

A lot of players tried to Toxic stall me with a wide array a Pokemon. Some of them I expected (Chansey, Zapdos, Umbreon, Raikou)... but Starmie, Gyarados, Entei, Arcanine, Miltank and Articuno all trying to Toxic stall, that took me by surprise.

On to my second, more fun team:



The main idea is to go for a sun sweep with Victreebel. To my own surprise, it actually went pretty well! Acid Spray on Victreebel was amazing. I chose it over Sleep Powder kind of last minute, and it paid off big time against all the stalling opponents (a few Suicune and Umbreon come into mind). I also used it a lot to handle Dragonite. Most of the time, Acid Spray + Sludge Bomb was a KO, so with the Sash, it was able to handle those without Ice Punch (they couldn't Extreme Speed since they were usually locked in Outrage). Quagsire was there as a standard Unaware safehold, and Umbreon I mostly used as a Phazer thanks to Yawn. Starmie, like Alakazam on my other team, was there to stop shenanigans or just cripple something. It was a last minute addition and, to my surprise, was way more useful than Quagsire in the end. Hitmontop was there to handle 2 specific threats: T-tar and Smeargle. I didn't expect much from it, but every time it was brought (not so often really), it ended up clutching a victory for me with one of the priority moves, usually not against the threats it was intended to handle.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't do as well with this team. It started horribly wrong with 5 losses in a row, bringing me down to the low 1400s. However, I turned it around afterwards and ended somewhere in the low 1600s, which I'm mostly satisfied with. Honestly, just sweeping some "standard" teams with Victreebel was enough to make me happy; it's all I really wanted for this team (though the Hitmontop clutches were satisfying as well) :P

All in all, a really fun competition. I am not the biggest fan of 3v3, though I don't hate it either. Unlike many others, I did prefer the 6v6 of the Kanto Classic, but in the end I'm just happy to see some Singles official competitions, and it makes me really wish Pokemon would do more of them!
Lol, this is hilarious to me, because My team was kinda built to take on your first and arguable the more competitive team, while your second team would sweep right through me. We should battle sometime.
 
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I don't want to sound like a hardass, but please do not use the Nidoking or Porygon2 you two used in this competition again. Hidden Ability + HGSS exclusive Pokeball is an illegal combination. A few of your opponents likely thought your Nidoking lacked Sheer Force before eating a surprise Sheer Force boosted hit. Porygon2 in a Moon Ball is illegal period which is less offensive than convincing your opponent you lack something you have, but still. I think most people are fine with using legal hacks, but please be a little more thorough in making sure your hacks are completely legal.
 
Whoever has the most non-fainted pokemon wins, if it is a tie then whoever has the higher sum of HP wins. Thank the f#cking lord none of my battles got this far.
Once I saw him starting to setup I knew I did not bring the team that could handle Snorlax. And then I thought, I have never been in a battle like this and lets see if he can sit as long as I can.

So about halfway through the battle I was like, this guy is determined. I honestly think I lost because my Scizor had damage done to him. I know he was running out of PP. His Sleep Talk was gone by the end.

Frustrating loss, but there was 1 round I almost had him, but as soon as sleep wore off he Rested again. So every time after that I would use Yawn and he would Rest right away. So I kept spamming it hoping he would run out of Rest.

I was also thinking, why or why did I get rid of Quiet Mixed attacker Quagsire. Had I been physical I think I could have won also. Unaware Quagsire has zero f#cks to give. haha
 
MY TEAM

First time at Smogon and it helped me do better than I thought I would for a first competition there were a lot of ups and downs meaning I had 24 wins and 21 losses.

I decided to use the big three and it helped vary a cross which I should use scizor being helpful most of the time and gengar was the ultimate destroyer to azumarill.

Gligar was just their to surprise players that had raikou as they got beat pretty hard.

Oh and how do you attach an image
 
I don't want to sound like a hardass, but please do not use the Nidoking or Porygon2 you two used in this competition again. Hidden Ability + HGSS exclusive Pokeball is an illegal combination. A few of your opponents likely thought your Nidoking lacked Sheer Force before eating a surprise Sheer Force boosted hit. Porygon2 in a Moon Ball is illegal period which is less offensive than convincing your opponent you lack something you have, but still. I think most people are fine with using legal hacks, but please be a little more thorough in making sure your hacks are completely legal.
I didn't know that, clearly I don't really understand how balls and hidden abilities are both passed down... I'm not naive enough to think that shiny perfect IV pokes aren't hacked, but I didn't think anything about it was not possible. o_o Believe it or not, I got Nidoking randomly on wondertrade and it's one of my favourite pokemon, so, that sucks... :/
 
I didn't know that, clearly I don't really understand how balls and hidden abilities are both passed down... I'm not naive enough to think that shiny perfect IV pokes aren't hacked, but I didn't think anything about it was not possible. o_o Believe it or not, I got Nidoking randomly on wondertrade and it's one of my favourite pokemon, so, that sucks... :/
As a rule, it's safe to assume all shiny battle ready or battle ready pokemon are hacked from GTS/WT.
 
As a rule, it's safe to assume all shiny battle ready or battle ready pokemon are hacked from GTS/WT.
What's the status on using legal hacks in tournaments? In this Classic I've fought quite a few shinies that seemed to have the right IVs where they needed them.
 

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