Yes, It watches showdown matchesI guess its only the showdown usage.
Yes, It watches showdown matchesI guess its only the showdown usage.
Funny, I had hardly seen any of these and then encountered two yesterday. One used batton pass too.Is minimize Drifblim worth countering? I'm having a hard time trying to find something that hits that boosted, plus beats yawn/sing Skeledirge. 196 Spe Dragalge works, except then it's frail. Some flash fire sub Mon might work, but then I give up on drif completely(all I can do is trick it, and that has to hit.)
Kowtow Kingambit OHKO him.Is minimize Drifblim worth countering? I'm having a hard time trying to find something that hits that boosted, plus beats yawn/sing Skeledirge. 196 Spe Dragalge works, except then it's frail. Some flash fire sub Mon might work, but then I give up on drif completely(all I can do is trick it, and that has to hit.)
Yes definitely, it gets Defiant for strength sap so it's mostly perfect. Also was using it cause Metal Burst water Tera vs palafin h, takes fully boosted wave crash. Um but theni remembered it's common and I try to use less common where I can.Kowtow Kingambit OHKO him.
good drifblim sets should be running tera fightingKowtow Kingambit OHKO him.
Well that's informative. I was trying to think of a better Tera type, and that makes sense. You resist rock and dark without shared weaknesses with base, water resists ice but stays weak to electric for instance. If dark doesn't work I'll definitely change.good drifblim sets should be running tera fighting
edit:
here’s what i’ve been using
View attachment 486887
I think paradox pokemon are very good. Roaring Moon, Iron bundle, Flutter mane, and Iron hands are tier S for me. Iron Valiant has interesting things. and Great Tusk I see it very resistant with Bulk Up.How is preparation for Paradox in BSS going? Im curious to see how many paradox pokemon will be getting used and whether it will be viable to win without any.
Im considering making a team that is largely geared towards countering paradox (and some of the most common non-paradox threats) as I'm assuming there will be a lot of them. So far it looks like Scizor and Sylveon will be able to counter multiple each.
* PS: Not sure if this a question or discussion prompting, but the question thread seems dead so here I am.
Hi Pearl,I promised a RMT if I managed to accomplish my goal for the end of Season 2. Unfortunately, that did not happen, so a single post will suffice once again (maybe I should start a blog for this type of stuff, as that seems to be a common trend among BSS players in general. I'll think about it)
First things first, here is the main team I built this time around:
(note: Taunt on Hydreigon was changed in favor of Focus Blast towards the end of this team's lifespan, but I never made an updated Rental Code with this change)
Build was originally inspired by a Dudunsparce team that accomplished a very respectable result at the end of Season 1 and that I used in Season 2 to reach a single digit peak earlier in the season. My own team peaked somewhere around rank 56 on cartridge and also broke past the 1800 plateau on Showdown (and since the Series 1 ladder was taken down, that means I finished as the rank 1 player there, although that's honestly only worth so much). During this time, Pawmot and Dragonite's sets were changed to include Ice-type moves, while Dudunsparce was given Glare in order for it to have a safer move to click against Tera Garchomp (and also Hydreigon, as well as other Pokemon that have to be respectful of coverage options or run Tera Types that can abuse Normal-type moves).
The premise behind my own team was to use the lead Pokemon (which would usually be either Pawmot or Dudunsparce) to do one of the following two things (or sometimes even both):
1. Force a trade against the enemy lead Pokemon
2. Chain paralysis in order for the 2nd Pokemon (Hydreigon or Gholdengo usually, sometimes also Dragonite) to set itself up into a favorable position against the rest of the opposing team
This worked out very nicely at the beginning of the team's lifespan, and while Dragon Dance Dragonite seems like an intuitive fit on a concept like this, I was honestly tired of losing to Air Balloon Gholdengo on the spot, as well as offensive Garchomp (since the team is extremely slow in general) and opposing Dragonite that either don't Tera or Tera into the Flying-type, so a 4 attack set was employed. It was also used as a lead often after this change, and the team's strategy instead became to use the 2nd Pokemon (Pawmot or Gholdengo) to trade and/or paralyse, while Dudunsparce took a more discrete role against specific match ups. Dondozo seems a bit out of place within this whole concept, especially because even with paralysis it's still slower than most Pokemon. However, it was a very solid glue Pokemon (especially since Assault Vest allows it to bait and duel many scary Pokemon, such as Special Dragapult, Volcarona and Gholdengo) and as much as it might disgust some people, Fissure came in very handy a lot of times during the season. Similarly to offensive Dragonite, it ended up being used as a lead a decent amount of times.
Not to toot my horn too much, but I did manage to keep a decent placement on the cartridge ladder throughout most of the season (hovered around 100-300 for the most part with some top 100 appearences along the way). However, at the end of the season I wanted a top 100 finish, which caused me to play more and drop down a lot on the last day. Ultimately it's not something I regret because it allowed me to learn a lot about the Series 1 metagame and also about how people go about tackling the volatile period that is the end of the season and also teambuilding in BSS as a whole (I'll try to develop my thoughts on this later on in the post).
Unfortuntely, by that time I had pretty much entirely lost confidence in my own team (mostly due to the fact that Offensive Gholdengo became a Defensive Gholdengo switch in and games with a team based around Defensive Gholdengo felt miserable to play) and decided to try other things as an attempt to stumble upon a good metagame call, which technically worked for a short period of time. At first, I went back to the other Dudunsparce team that had served me well previously. However, I felt myself piloting it way differently than I did during my original run with it, with Dragonite coming out way less and Breloom coming out to battles way more (on that note, this Pokemon's bulky set was incredible and I'm very sad it took me so long to realize it, although if I were to build with it myself I would probably run a Tera Fairy set paired with a good Gholdengo switch in).
After that, I delved into forbidden technology and grabbed myself a team with a Pokemon that I'm pretty sure my main teams were winless against: Glalie. Despite the team I grabbed being outdated, it also served me very well considering how little experience I had with it. Even though I probably won't make many friends by banking on Moody to win games, this period allowed me to discover some stuff about Series 1 that I probably would not have gotten to experience first hand otherwise.
With that said, here are my primary realizations:
1. Toxic Spikes were INCREDIBLE in Series 1 and I wish I realized that earlier
This might sound like an elaborate troll when considering that the metagame was filled with Pokemon that didn't care for these being down, namely Dragonite and Gholdengo. However, this move single handily forced a lot of cheesy set ups to be a lot more humble in their Pokemon selections and overall gameplan, more specifically dedicated Dual Screens set ups (usually with Espathra) and teams like the Moody set up I was using. Having an answer to most cheesy teams that only requires a spare moveslot on Meowscarada is honestly crazy, and looking into that might've secured me a better placement at the end of the season.
I don't know if this will apply to Series 2 due to the fact that Iron Moth is looking like a very strong and splashable Pokemon, and its ability to absorb Toxic Spikes might make them less valuable as a whole.
2. Dragapult was the best Pokemon in the whole format by a wide margin (in Team Preview, mostly)
This is something I knew subconsiously due to my team choices throughout the whole season. However, having a Dragapult on my own team really helped driving the point across: what I'm trying to say is that seeing teams without Dragapult was basically a free pass to get away with crimes in my Pokemon selection, more concretely when it came to checking Focus Sash users and faster, frailer Pokemon. There is also the set diversity this Pokemon has and how accounting for everything it can do, both as a lead and as a back Pokemon is basically impossible (even Choice Scarf Dragapult, which was employed by some of the top rated teams has to respect Sucker Punch). Shoutouts to that one guy I faced at the very end of the last day that was using a Dragapult with both Substitute and U-turn.
The main lesson here for me here is that most BSS builds get more value out of having a concrete, somewhat linear gameplan involving 3-5 Pokemon with a Dragapult in the back to keep the opponent humble than they do out of having 6 Pokemon that come into play every now and then. This might be a really obvious thing to read for more seasoned players of formats like this, and honestly I feel a little stupid for realizing something like that so late, but it's a genuine realization of mine and it would be dishonest of me not to bring it up.
3. Offensive Tera Fairy Garchomp was obscenely good, and I also feel like an idiot for sleeping on it for so long
But I don't really feel the need to elaborate upon this since it's relatively self explanatory.
Despite the less than ideal end to my Season 2 (tanked my ranking down to around 5k in the last couple hours between some flip flopping with teams and autopiloting some games that were honestly winnable if I was in a better mindset after realizing a 2 digit finish was no longer attainable), Series 1 was still the most fun I've had with Pokemon in an extremely long time and I'm very much looking forward to what the future of Scarlet and Violet has in hand for us. I also hope that I can use this experience to better myself as a player. Post got a little longer than I was expecting, so I'd also like to thank everyone who's had the attention span to sit through it.
Hello! Thanks a lot for the positive feedback :)Hi Pearl,
I'm new to BSS and was wondering what common movesets & items offensive tera-fairy Garchomp would run?
I really enjoyed this write-up!
I definitely battled you a few times on the last day and I really liked your Dudunsparce! Dealing with paralysis was truly a nightmare and it felt like I was going up against paralysis or toxic spikes Meowscarada every other match. The huge increase of glalie/scovillain made the final day insane, but I don't think those teams will be as bad anymore due to the massive speed creep with paradoxes. I hope to see more of your creativity and strength in season 3!I promised a RMT if I managed to accomplish my goal for the end of Season 2. Unfortunately, that did not happen, so a single post will suffice once again (maybe I should start a blog for this type of stuff, as that seems to be a common trend among BSS players in general. I'll think about it)
First things first, here is the main team I built this time around:
(note: Taunt on Hydreigon was changed in favor of Focus Blast towards the end of this team's lifespan, but I never made an updated Rental Code with this change)
Build was originally inspired by a Dudunsparce team that accomplished a very respectable result at the end of Season 1 and that I used in Season 2 to reach a single digit peak earlier in the season. My own team peaked somewhere around rank 56 on cartridge and also broke past the 1800 plateau on Showdown (and since the Series 1 ladder was taken down, that means I finished as the rank 1 player there, although that's honestly only worth so much). During this time, Pawmot and Dragonite's sets were changed to include Ice-type moves, while Dudunsparce was given Glare in order for it to have a safer move to click against Tera Garchomp (and also Hydreigon, as well as other Pokemon that have to be respectful of coverage options or run Tera Types that can abuse Normal-type moves).
The premise behind my own team was to use the lead Pokemon (which would usually be either Pawmot or Dudunsparce) to do one of the following two things (or sometimes even both):
1. Force a trade against the enemy lead Pokemon
2. Chain paralysis in order for the 2nd Pokemon (Hydreigon or Gholdengo usually, sometimes also Dragonite) to set itself up into a favorable position against the rest of the opposing team
This worked out very nicely at the beginning of the team's lifespan, and while Dragon Dance Dragonite seems like an intuitive fit on a concept like this, I was honestly tired of losing to Air Balloon Gholdengo on the spot, as well as offensive Garchomp (since the team is extremely slow in general) and opposing Dragonite that either don't Tera or Tera into the Flying-type, so a 4 attack set was employed. It was also used as a lead often after this change, and the team's strategy instead became to use the 2nd Pokemon (Pawmot or Gholdengo) to trade and/or paralyse, while Dudunsparce took a more discrete role against specific match ups. Dondozo seems a bit out of place within this whole concept, especially because even with paralysis it's still slower than most Pokemon. However, it was a very solid glue Pokemon (especially since Assault Vest allows it to bait and duel many scary Pokemon, such as Special Dragapult, Volcarona and Gholdengo) and as much as it might disgust some people, Fissure came in very handy a lot of times during the season. Similarly to offensive Dragonite, it ended up being used as a lead a decent amount of times.
Not to toot my horn too much, but I did manage to keep a decent placement on the cartridge ladder throughout most of the season (hovered around 100-300 for the most part with some top 100 appearences along the way). However, at the end of the season I wanted a top 100 finish, which caused me to play more and drop down a lot on the last day. Ultimately it's not something I regret because it allowed me to learn a lot about the Series 1 metagame and also about how people go about tackling the volatile period that is the end of the season and also teambuilding in BSS as a whole (I'll try to develop my thoughts on this later on in the post).
Unfortuntely, by that time I had pretty much entirely lost confidence in my own team (mostly due to the fact that Offensive Gholdengo became a Defensive Gholdengo switch in and games with a team based around Defensive Gholdengo felt miserable to play) and decided to try other things as an attempt to stumble upon a good metagame call, which technically worked for a short period of time. At first, I went back to the other Dudunsparce team that had served me well previously. However, I felt myself piloting it way differently than I did during my original run with it, with Dragonite coming out way less and Breloom coming out to battles way more (on that note, this Pokemon's bulky set was incredible and I'm very sad it took me so long to realize it, although if I were to build with it myself I would probably run a Tera Fairy set paired with a good Gholdengo switch in).
After that, I delved into forbidden technology and grabbed myself a team with a Pokemon that I'm pretty sure my main teams were winless against: Glalie. Despite the team I grabbed being outdated, it also served me very well considering how little experience I had with it. Even though I probably won't make many friends by banking on Moody to win games, this period allowed me to discover some stuff about Series 1 that I probably would not have gotten to experience first hand otherwise.
With that said, here are my primary realizations:
1. Toxic Spikes were INCREDIBLE in Series 1 and I wish I realized that earlier
This might sound like an elaborate troll when considering that the metagame was filled with Pokemon that didn't care for these being down, namely Dragonite and Gholdengo. However, this move single handily forced a lot of cheesy set ups to be a lot more humble in their Pokemon selections and overall gameplan, more specifically dedicated Dual Screens set ups (usually with Espathra) and teams like the Moody set up I was using. Having an answer to most cheesy teams that only requires a spare moveslot on Meowscarada is honestly crazy, and looking into that might've secured me a better placement at the end of the season.
I don't know if this will apply to Series 2 due to the fact that Iron Moth is looking like a very strong and splashable Pokemon, and its ability to absorb Toxic Spikes might make them less valuable as a whole.
2. Dragapult was the best Pokemon in the whole format by a wide margin (in Team Preview, mostly)
This is something I knew subconsiously due to my team choices throughout the whole season. However, having a Dragapult on my own team really helped driving the point across: what I'm trying to say is that seeing teams without Dragapult was basically a free pass to get away with crimes in my Pokemon selection, more concretely when it came to checking Focus Sash users and faster, frailer Pokemon. There is also the set diversity this Pokemon has and how accounting for everything it can do, both as a lead and as a back Pokemon is basically impossible (even Choice Scarf Dragapult, which was employed by some of the top rated teams has to respect Sucker Punch). Shoutouts to that one guy I faced at the very end of the last day that was using a Dragapult with both Substitute and U-turn.
The main lesson here for me here is that most BSS builds get more value out of having a concrete, somewhat linear gameplan involving 3-5 Pokemon with a Dragapult in the back to keep the opponent humble than they do out of having 6 Pokemon that come into play every now and then. This might be a really obvious thing to read for more seasoned players of formats like this, and honestly I feel a little stupid for realizing something like that so late, but it's a genuine realization of mine and it would be dishonest of me not to bring it up.
3. Offensive Tera Fairy Garchomp was obscenely good, and I also feel like an idiot for sleeping on it for so long
But I don't really feel the need to elaborate upon this since it's relatively self explanatory.
Despite the less than ideal end to my Season 2 (tanked my ranking down to around 5k in the last couple hours between some flip flopping with teams and autopiloting some games that were honestly winnable if I was in a better mindset after realizing a 2 digit finish was no longer attainable), Series 1 was still the most fun I've had with Pokemon in an extremely long time and I'm very much looking forward to what the future of Scarlet and Violet has in hand for us. I also hope that I can use this experience to better myself as a player. Post got a little longer than I was expecting, so I'd also like to thank everyone who's had the attention span to sit through it.
Maybe heavy duty boots could be solid for hazards as well.Is Air Balloon worth considering on Iron Moth? It makes Iron Moth a solid check to Great Tusk and may allow it to start boosting, depending on the set. Iron Moth's typing also kind of begs for an Air Balloon (or Tera Flying, I suppose).
Lock-on is a meme move 9/10 times. Of all the mons in Scarlet and Violet, only 1 mon would even think too run it and that would be Magnezone just to mess with evasion boosting mons. But overall, it provides little utility as its too gimmicky.Minimize Drifblim