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Professor Kink here to present to you Week 18 of the ORAS edition of Research Week!
Keep the following things in mind during every Research Week:
Be open-minded, don't just say something is terrible and walk away; look at its stats and typing and think something up!
Feel free to theorymon early in the research period, but make it clear you're doing so. Later in the period though, you will be expected to back up your posts with hard evidence like logs, actual sets, perhaps even teams.
Just because an analysis has been done for a Pokemon doesn't mean there isn't more to explore; it's very likely that something has gone unnoticed.
Do not post in this thread complaining about the Pokemon or movesets I choose and / or suggesting ones we should do for future weeks. Feel free to VM / PM me these suggestions, but don't expect me to always listen to you.
A few things to clarify:
Sign-ups can be as late as you want, but the week will end on Sunday.
Early period means the first three days of the Research Week, so let's keep the theorymoning to a minimum after this period. The late period refers to the last four days of the research week, where raw evidence and discussion should become the basis of the thread.
The prizes for Research Week have been decided; winning a Research Week will grant you half-ops on our IRC channel, #xyuu. Don't forget, participation in projects like Research Week help towards earning the Community Contributor badge!
I'm implementing a mandatory discussion in order to be considered as a winner of Research Week. If you do not post one somewhat-coherent post that describes the Pokemon that you're using, their roles, and their niche in the metagame, you will be disqualified from winning this week. Please post about your experiences no matter if you think you've got a chance to win or not.
Finally, I'd like to implore you to all please remember to post and save your replays. Often, these replays are the most informative sources of information about RW Pokemon - you can write a full two paragraphs about the role of a Pokemon, but often that can all be summed up with a video and an explanation of it.
This Week's ORAS Selection
Victini
How useful are these Pokemon in ORAS UU? What gives them trouble?
What advantages do they have over other Pokemon?
How well do they work in the metagame?
If you have anything to say about any of these Pokemon, please post about them! Remember, discussion is not limited to this topic, you are encouraged to talk about these Pokemon in #xyuu and the Viability Ranking Thread as well.
In order to participate you must do the following:
Post here with a fresh alt and the name(s) of the Pokemon you will be using.
Use at least one of the Pokemon being researched.
Post your experiences with the Pokemon you're using, participate in the discussion!
Post logs of this Pokemon in action against other teams - don't just tell us, show us
The winner of the challenge will be the person who has the highest peak ladder ranking on the Pokemon Showdown UU ladder on the alt they registered.
PLEASE post your updated rank with your updated analysis, otherwise you will not win.
Not my peak, but I just haven't been able to play much Pokemon for the last few weeks so I've decided to at least post my current Ranking so I could talk about what I did experience with Victini. First off I used a standard Choice Band set of the following:
Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn
- V-create
- Zen Headbutt
From there I went with the really cool Double Dogz (Arcanine and Entei) concept from DaSpoofy, but using Victini over Arcanine. This created a very strong offensive duo on the team and it worked well. The one thing I did not like in my experiences with this Suspect Test is it seemed everyone who did use Victini ran the same set, which made things a) Pretty boring. and b) Didn't allow the full testing of Victini in relation to the UU tier. With that said, what I have found, is that having Victini on your team when your opponent doesn't is often an advantage right there from the start. I believe that if you are playing offensive or balanced then you HAVE to consider it at the very least as a member of your team and if you are playing anything you have HAVE to consider it possibly on your opponent's team. With that said, V-Create is not going to automatically win you the game against most skilled team builders and players so I do think Victini would be fine in the tier. I'm not expecting it to come back down though because people do know about its versatility even though I didn't see much of it when I was playing. For that reason my guess is it will be voted to stay BL in the end. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If it does come down, then we do have another excellent wallbreaker in the tier.
Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn
- V-create
- Zen Headbutt
Entei @ Choice Band
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- ExtremeSpeed
- Flare Blitz
- Sacred Fire
- Stone Edge
Just an update that I've decided that the best way to go about this is to try to have it last as long as possible due to the suspect ladder, so I'll be extending the deadline for this RW until Next Sunday, May 31st
Aite so like, in order to win this, we have to keep the momentum of competition high - keep in mind that participation in these projects and the others listed help you get noticed for Community Contributor. Don't expect to be noticed if you don't put in the work.
This has been extended until Friday, as I will only accept high-calibre analyses and ranks as a win.
The first set I used was the Life Orb Mixed Victini on a spike stack team with Refresh + Work Up Pidgeot. I liked how MixTini could both lure in it's own checks (often 2HKOing stuff like Swampert, Dragalge, and Salamence that like to come in on the Banded or Scarf sets) and still scare off Pidgeot's checks with a decently powerful LO V Create, racking up entry hazard damage in the process. Overall though I found that Psychic from only 100 SAtk sometimes just didnt cut it on neutral hits and not having anything to really switch in on Hydreigon was troublesome since this set pretty much invites it to come in after a kill or on an obvious Psychic or Bolt Strike, so much so that I actually changed Kyurem to Scarf for a while so I at least had a more solid RK option for Orbed Hydra. This set just relied a lot more on prediction I feel than the other ones, but it got me through the lower ladder just fine.
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Spikes
- Rapid Spin
- Volt Switch
- Gyro Ball
Second set I used was Scarf, using basically just a variation of the team above with Specs Kyurem instead of SubRoost I believe. Tbh I didn't like ScarfTini much at all, it's barely a decent RKer and it's not a good cleaner at all because V Create lowers speed and every other move was weak af. When I had Scarf Kyurem it RK'ed almost everything ScarfTini could just fine, was by far more consistent in terms of power, and it could actually clean late-game, not to mention ScarfTini is complete Mence fodder. The only move on this set that actually did much damage at all was V-Create, to the point where I questioned why Zen Headbutt was even on the set and I changed it to Trick so I could at the very least get some more utility out of it, it was that weak.
Then came the Banded set, imo the most dangerous one by far. I explained this in the suspect thread also but basically there are very, very few scenarios in which just clicking V Create will cost you at all, no matter how many checks your opponent thinks he has (remember, if you get Pursuit trapped that almost always means you already killed something, so you most likely didn't lose that exchange, your opponent did).
This is where I really started to see Victini's 100/100/100 bulk come through for it, for example, even at -1 defenses it can actually still take a Jolly Banded Pursuit from Krookodile at full if you stay in, and then you just got another kill. As shown in one of the replays below, I predicted my opponent to predict me to switch out of his M-Aerodactyl after a V-Create and I ended up tanking the Aerial Ace and KOed Aerodactyl from 75%. BandTini's power is just absurd, and I found it was pretty much tailor made for Mega Amphy VoltTurn offense.
This particular team went through many variations but basically began as straight up heavy offense, and with each change I made it became more and more balanced. This was the last team I used and got me my reqs to vote in the end.
Team:
Machamp @ Assault Vest
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- DynamicPunch
- Ice Punch
- Bullet Punch
- Knock Off
Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt
- U-turn
Crobat @ Choice Scarf (courtesy of King UU for showing me how good this is for ladder)
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- U-turn
- Tailwind
- Pursuit
- Brave Bird
Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Scald
- Rest
- Calm Mind
- Sleep Talk
Forretress @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Def / 244 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Volt Switch
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin
- Gyro Ball
This is one of the few instances in which I preferred Machamp over Heracross simply because it could take on both LO Hydreigon and Snorlax for Victini which was really cool, nothing appreciated getting confused by Dynamic Punch and it's a lot tankier than other Fighting types, managing to get at least a 1 for 1 most of the time.
Ampharos was an amazing partner for Victini to really put the pressure on Water types as well as check opposing Victini, while Victini checked Fairies and special walls for it in return. I chose to run a very fast Ampharos to outspeed other Mega Ampharos and take them out for my Victini as well as getting the jump on annoying crap like Umbreon and Empoleon. Standard Crocune was a cool addition to the team over the Feraligatr I had before since it gave me a blanket check to stuff like Mamoswine and Aerodactyl to lift some of the pressure from my Forretress as well as have something other than Mega Ampharos to combat double Fire cores (most commonly Victini + Entei) that were just killing me every time I came up against one. Victini threatens a lot of the things stopping Crocune from just sweeping while Cune takes down opposing Fires and Aerodactyl, so the two have pretty decent synergy.
And lastly, ScarfBat is a godsend against heavy offense and kept me from getting swept in case something set up on Suicune or Forretress while also taking some pressure off my Victini to check Fighting, Grass, and Fairy types, really solid mon for the ladder.
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uususpecttest-237328193 I played really poorly overall in this one and I thought I was gonna lose but Kyurem came through for me in the end thanks to the damage I got on Slowking on Turn 1 with Victini
