Pokémon champions

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

Sure, there’s pokemon threads, but they’re all inactive and I want to make a vgc specific thread. So sue me.

For anyone new to this, hello! VGC (Video Game Competitive) is the competitive scene for pokemon. Pokémon champions is free in the switch (and mobile, but I don’t know if that’s out yet), so if you’re interested, it’s fun and you can satiate my hunger for vgc talk.

For people who aren’t new, hello! And where have you been hiding from me? This is a place where (I hope) we can talk about our current teams, battle each other, and kinda just talk vgc.

@Aeoryi since I know you’re into this as well.

[Aeoryi she/her]

Some misc thoughts:

• Parting Shot Prankster Grimmsnarl into Pelliper/Politoed switch beats a lot of weather combinations (mostly mega zard, mega frosslass and Mega Ttar) while also getting the attack and sp.atk drops (but doesn't work on Ttar due to dark typing). If I really wanted to be interesting I could say that this could be used next to a bulky trick room setter to make for a brutal turn 1 (especially versus the good ol' charizard teams) - you get up rain AND speed control, Zard heatwave is now halved in damage, and aerodactyl is likely to have just hit tailwind. In addition, grimmsnarl learns fake out (which it never uses for some reason???) which could make for an even safer play given that protect turn 1 -> mega evolve and click heatwave turn 2 has become increasingly popular. 
• Mega Staraptor is a good pick rn because it starts to build up a lot of bulk with even neutral close combats, and has access to tailwind + intimidate. Unfortunately leading with it does land it susceptible to intimindate itself though. Flying typing is also really good at hitting neutral against the majority of targets, but brave bird feels really bad to click especially given that close combat doesn't have recoil and boosts stats after mega'ing
• Trick Room stocks seem to be constantly rising. Everyone seems to be in a speed race with tailwind and scarfs and no one seems to be teching for something like hard trick room, semiroom or tailroom. Unfortunately there really isn't a good number of mons who can set TR reliably, aside from maybe Farigarif. There are a LOT of bulky psychic types in the game right now though, such as Hattrene (who has access to mystical fire), Farigarif (who has a high HP stat and doesn't get nuked by Shadow Ball), and armorouge (who comes with flash fire!) but ultimately the lack of a synergy with a lot of megas kinda hurts it
• Rock types are popping off. Lycanroc placed well at a tournament recently. That's the point at where we're at. Lycanroc. But in all honesty, due to how strong the matchup into both Zard and Frosslass is, rock type attackers are really valuable. 
• Aerodactyl is the fastest non-prankster tailwind user at the moment. Including megas, mega aerodactyl is the fastest tailwind user at the moment. Whimsicott is the fastest yes-prankster tailwind user at the moment. However, on a theoretical Zard team, taking advantage of chlorophyll might also make for great speed control. The one that comes to mind is Jumpluff but unfortunately that isn't in the game right now.
• Mega Raichu X and Y basically do the same thing, but essentially both are not even that bad. Given that raichu has access to fake out, which is incredibly valuable, and either Zap Cannon (Y) or Volt tackle + Electric Terrain (X), it can output incredible damage. The only issue is that raichu is a little bit frail. Just a little. I think that in the future, Raichu X having terrain control will be valuable (especially if we get paradox pokemon back) but terrain isn't really present in champions yet
• So few pokemon are viable especially with megas running the show that it feels like there is little competition. 

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

12 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Parting Shot Prankster Grimmsnarl into Pelliper/Politoed switch beats a lot of weather combinations (mostly mega zard, mega frosslass and Mega Ttar) while also getting the attack and sp.atk drops (but doesn't work on Ttar due to dark typing). If I really wanted to be interesting I could say that this could be used next to a bulky trick room setter to make for a brutal turn 1 (especially versus the good ol' charizard teams) - you get up rain AND speed control, Zard heatwave is now halved in damage, and aerodactyl is likely to have just hit tailwind. In addition, grimmsnarl learns fake out (which it never uses for some reason???) which could make for an even safer play given that protect turn 1 -> mega evolve and click heatwave turn 2 has become increasingly popular. 

Interesting Gimmsnarl idea. I personally don’t like hard trickroom, but rain does match well into a lot of common stuff. Maybe I should try a trick room team again since my last one was Calyrex-ice in the last game, but I felt super dependent on trick room to not get out sped and killed.

 

14 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Rock types are popping off. Lycanroc placed well at a tournament recently. That's the point at where we're at. Lycanroc. But in all honesty, due to how strong the matchup into both Zard and Frosslass is, rock type attackers are really valuable. 

My friend actually ran lycanroc dusk a few weeks before that tournament for fun. I targeted that thing so hard, I was terrified by it.

 

15 minutes ago, Aeoryi said:

Jumpluff

I love that this thing is useful in the right team.

 

Ive been running a Raichu Y team, without speed control if you don’t count zap cannon. The team is fast enough so I don’t mind it. But maybe I should, I’m not good enough to tell the next step in the team building process.

[Aeoryi she/her]

29 minutes ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

Interesting Gimmsnarl idea. I personally don’t like hard trickroom, but rain does match well into a lot of common stuff. Maybe I should try a trick room team again since my last one was Calyrex-ice in the last game, but I felt super dependent on trick room to not get out sped and killed.

I don't like hard trick room as well especially since you REALLY rely on your bulk outmatching their damage, but it allows you to get some serious threats onboard

Now that I think about it, Mega Slowbro could potentially work as a TR setter with like, Scald and maybe Chilly Reception or something.

Issue with rain is that there's not a lot going for it because there isn't any good hard hitting mons that can utilize it well.

31 minutes ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

My friend actually ran lycanroc dusk a few weeks before that tournament for fun. I targeted that thing so hard, I was terrified by it.

I mean I tried out Lycanroc for a bit before finally dropping it because it felt too similar to other more powerful eq/rock slide coverage pokemon, like garchomp.

31 minutes ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

I love that this thing is useful in the right team.

it struggles a lot with dealing damage though. basically forced to run a supportive moveset.

32 minutes ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

ve been running a Raichu Y team, without speed control if you don’t count zap cannon. The team is fast enough so I don’t mind it. But maybe I should, I’m not good enough to tell the next step in the team building process.

Issue with the raichu's as a whole is that they get kinda cooked by Garchomp, who OHKOs them and they can only do like, 50% in return. Of course, the weakness of Garchomp is ice types, but the only really strong ice type at the moment is Mega Frosslass. Unfortunate.

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

1 hour ago, Aeoryi said:

Issue with the raichu's as a whole is that they get kinda cooked by Garchomp, who OHKOs them and they can only do like, 50% in return. Of course, the weakness of Garchomp is ice types, but the only really strong ice type at the moment is Mega Frosslass. Unfortunate.

Raichu gets some terrible coverage. Your choices are grass knot, dgleam, and fake out. I’m running grass knot because of mega swampert, but it’s only for that really since it’s the only ground type that is weak to grass. I’m looking at you garchomp.

[Frustration]

Yay poke....

VGC?

Ew.

Smogon for life.

[Aeoryi she/her]

1 hour ago, Frustration said:

Yay poke....

VGC?

Ew.

Smogon for life.

Smogon doesn't have good doubles formats

[Frustration]

8 hours ago, Aeoryi said:

Smogon doesn't have good doubles formats

6v6 singles is way better.

Plus it's a lot more beginner friendly.

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

13 hours ago, Frustration said:

Yay poke....

VGC?

Ew.

Smogon for life.

the bait and switch is crazy.

You should give it a try sometime. Here, battles can’t go on for hundreds of turns.

[Frustration]

18 minutes ago, Ascended Grubberfly said:

the bait and switch is crazy.

You should give it a try sometime. Here, battles can’t go on for hundreds of turns.

That's not at all what it's like.

Unless you have two die hard stall teams going up against each other most battles don't even get to 50 rounds.

And if you don't want that to happen to you, just don't play stall. If you play Hyper offense most games won't get to 20 rounds.

Edited 9 hours ago by Frustration

[Ascended Grubberfly He/Him]

57 minutes ago, Frustration said:

That's not at all what it's like.

Unless you have two die hard stall teams going up against each other most battles don't even get to 50 rounds.

And if you don't want that to happen to you, just don't play stall. If you play Hyper offense most games won't get to 20 rounds.

Yeah, I was kinda poking fun at singles. I just don’t like stall, but to each his own.

[Aeoryi she/her]

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

6v6 singles is way better.

Plus it's a lot more beginner friendly.

I want to play doubles, unfortunately, and smogon doesn't offer that to me. Don't get me wrong, I loved to play DOU, but eventually you stop seeing new people there