RD2L Pokémon League Season 3, Glitchtastic’s Team Review
First and Foremost the performance:
Regular Season Top Cut (Sixth), Play Offs Top 8
What is my Pokémon history?
This was my first season in the league, and my first foray into Pokémon showdown singles as a format. My first game was Diamond in gen 4, but I picked the series back up around the time of Alpha Sapphire, having missed the entirety of gen 5 and release of gen 6. I did not start playing around with competitive matches until the very end of gen 7, and I have been making baby steps since picking up Shield in March of this year.
I will say the 4v4 doubles from 6 and 3v3 singles from 6 does not translate to terribly well into the 6v6 singles gen 8 ou format, but a drafted league does mean we all get to use more Pokémon in total, provided the tiers we use are properly balanced (Kappa). In this format, conditions like hazards are very valuable, as is the ability to pivot. With this in mind, I am looking forward to the draft for Season 4, now including the first dlc expansion and hopefully more competitively viable Pokémon. For now I must describe the members of my Season 3 team.
Ninetales-Kanto, Tier One (thanks .@admins)
— “Don’t Rain Dance, Blumenkranz (shiny), La sorcière du feu”
A classical Pokémon from the very first generation, picking this fire fox up first defined what I wanted to do for this season. Very few Pokémon are able to initiate a condition on the field just by switching in, and so very few can counter such a condition without waiting out said condition or using a precious turn to reduce the advantage given. I speak of course of Drought, which activates Sunny Day for 5 turns, 8 with a heat rock held item. In the Sun, fire moves are boosted while water moves are hindered. Sun also enables a select number of abilities which appear on other team members.
At 100 base speed, Ninetales is above average in speed tiers. Coupled with an invested Spa stat gives me the distinct advantage of firing off (pun intended) a STAB, weather boosted fire type move or a one turn Solar Beam with enough power to be a viable wall breaker. The item I ran most in was a Wide Lens to improve accuracy on Fire Blast, Will-o-Wisp, and Hypnosis, reducing the miss risk to using more powerful moves, with more success than I probably deserved. Ninetales has less than ideal Hp and defensive stats, so more often than not it would get taken out by Earthquake or Stone Edge.
Over the course of the season, I grew more adept at using this weather control, which defined the core of my team for better or for worse. The real question is whether or not it deserved its Tier 1 placing to begin with. My answer is probably not. Compared to the other Drought user, Torkoal, Ninetales does not provide as much utility nor as much bulk. Compared to the weather setter that does deserve Tier 1, Tyranitar, Sun is not as immediately useful as Sand, nor does Ninetales have comparable stats to a Pseudo-Legendary. It is my strong recommendation that Ninetales be moved down to Tier 2 or 3
Value? 6/10
Performance? 8/10
Style? 10/10 very pretty foxy
Arcanine, Tier Two (I swear I’m not a gen 1 fangay)
— “[threat] Slayer, El caballero rojo”
Another Pokémon from generation 1 and counterpart to the previous, Arcanine was a very good follow up to Ninetales, as it benefits from having Sun on the field, as well as brings a good bulk, attack stat, and comparable speed to make up for the weaknesses of the fox. This very good boy was also value for the Intimidate ability, improving its capacity to trade hits or switch in on physically threatening Pokémon. 95 base speed is nothing to laugh at and 90 Hp, 80 Def and Spdef makes this dog a passable switch-in tank.
I began to lean into this towards the end of the season, switching investment from Atk, Spe to Hp, Def with a Rocky Helmet to tank and punish physical threats. Arcanine gets a high power Flare Blitz, as well as a special curve ball Flamethrower since its offensive stats allow for mixed sets without issue. Arcanine is also one of the few Pokémon to learn Extreme Speed for priority that exceeds other priorities, a very valuable trait in itself, as well as very impressive coverage, including Close Combat, Iron Head, and Play Rough.
Arcanine suffers from the same general weaknesses as Ninetales, namely STAB ground or rock moves, but benefits greatly from weather boosted fire moves to also break down walls, and in a few fortunate match-ups heal from a stronger Morning Sun coupled with a Substitute set. This is my benchmark for a valuable team member from Tier 2, an above average Pokémon with strengths in many areas which carried me to my final placing, no doubt about that.
Value? 10/10
Performance? 9/10
Style? 8/10 a very good boi
Shiftry, Tier Three (that rhymes!)
— “Not Impressed,Boos-Tea,The Green, or Black, Knight”
I drafted Shiftry since other, better Pokémon were already taken. This grass dark tree thing from generation 3 has the good fortune to be graced by Chlorophyll, the ability to double the Speed stat in Sunny Day, very convenient for a team that can initiate said Sun without much effort. As a speedy dark type, I benefit from faster STAB moves like Knock Off, a very strong move in itself, as well as the speed advantage in Sucker Punch priority trades.
To be frank, there is not much else going for this thing. Its stats are just a tier below Arcanine, same Hp even, but the typing makes this tree susceptible to an infestation by bug types, or U-turners. Despite being faster than most, without STAB and a type advantage, Shiftry struggles to sweep opponents aside, and almost never has the chance to get boosts from sun powered Growth (+2 Atk and Spa). More often than not I slapped a Focus Sash on and hoped to get at least two hits in. To make up for this weakness, I brought on many occasions a mixed spread, investing just enough speed to beat the opponent with the sun condition, and using coverage moves like Heat Wave, Air Slash, X-Scissor, Rock Slide, and Extrasensory mainly.
I needed a Pokémon that benefits from sun that wasn’t fire type, and Venusaur (Wenusaur) was already taken. The dark type value edges out over the other chlorophyll users (sorry Leafeon). Dark Type also nullifies psychic which is a good thing, but grass has many weaknesses which is a very bad thing. I might have lucked out in this manner by picking up a sneaky dark type, though there are certainly better options for both grass and dark.
Value? 5/10
Performance? 6/10
Style? 3/10 what even is this thing
Golurk, Tier Four (a diamond in the rough) ((this one is long))
— “Null Guardian, You’re Grounded, Ice Bane, A Sith lawd?, Man o’ War”
This ceramic golem was perhaps the most unexpected carry for my team, I say this because I had previously very little experience with generation 5 Pokémon. To this point in the draft, my team had a defined core but no support, so I thought to get something that could go toe to toe with rock or ground types, as well as a ghost type to cause some shenanigans. Golurk satisfies both conditions, and I like its design, very flavorful.
Of great significance is the fact that Golurk gets Stealth Rocks, and its Ghost typing prevent the opponent from using Rapid Spin to clear them. This makes it a brilliant lead with enough bulk to tank nearly any opening and enough power to threaten counter killing. Almost every single part of this Pokémon allows for some variation, so Golurk became my wild card in more than a handful of match-ups. With bulk stats comparable to Arcanine, only 1 Hp less, it can tank nearly anything with the right investment, which makes it a brilliant candidate for one of my favorite items, Weakness Policy.(See set for A Sith Lawd?)
Golurk’s abilities are Iron Fist, Klutz, and No Guard. Iron Fist coupled with the elemental punches gives Golurk wide coverage, notably boosting the power and therefore the healing from Drain Punch. More often though, I used No Guard to guarantee landing a high power Stone Edge, with base 124 Atk many so called birds were stoned.
More Gimmicky and therefore more fun though, is to use No Guard to guarantee a hit on Focus Blast (Focus Miss). By negating the downside entirely, I benefit from a high power fighting type move without being fighting type, as well as using a Spa move against opponents likely to be Defense invested against said No Guarder.
Using a Spa move on a Pokémon with base 55 Spa seems stupid, but how stupid is it that I can high probability roll an OHKO on Duraludon, or guarantee OHKO a Cloyster with Weakness Policy thunderbolt. The benefit of Weakness policy is also that I may not even need to invest in Spa, just that I don’t have a nature that subtracts from it. All I have to do is tempt the opponent into using a super effective move against Golurk, and how else will they take down this giant golem.
For my final point, I would like to highlight my final set in the final match in lower bracket playoffs round 4, against the team piloted by one Glump (eat Sh1t). I had previously contended with this team so I knew I had to answer the threat of Noivern, a hyper fast, flying dragon with enough power behind STAB Draco Meteor to threaten everyone else on my team. I also had to have Golurk answer the Weezing-Kanto which I had previously defeated since its ability was Neutralizing Gas instead of Levitate (See set for Anti-Neutralize).
Given that the opponent knows earthquake can 2HKO Weezing, it was likely that Levitate would come out after all, an ability that mimics the Flying type in providing immunity to Ground. It occurred to me that I could hit these two birds with the same stone, or blast them both out of the sky with the same set: Klutz Trick Iron Ball. Trick Iron Ball is self-explanatory to slow down Noivern, but the beauty is its total coverage for the flying smog cloud. If it is Levitate, I can Trick the Iron Ball to remove its ground immunity, and proceed with Earthquake. Since I had Klutz, I would not take damage from Black Sludge, which damages the holder if not poison type. If instead it brought Neutralizing Gas, my klutz would be disabled, so I would be slowed down by the Iron Ball but that did not matter, not if I could get a good hit in anyway. I invested speed to get an edge over the Weezing, which has 5 base speed advantage over Golurk, more than the previous encounter in case Glump remembered (he didn’t).
The set ended up half working, opening against Noivern and going for the Trick. He U-turned to bring in Weezing which I immediately crippled and subsequently sank game 1. I went out with a bang certainly. What fires an iron ball? A cannon. What has a lot of cannons? A Man o’ War.
Check out Black Sails, by STARZ on HULU for more. Spoilers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXxazufM0x8&t
Value? 10/10 how is this Tier 4?
Performance? 10/10
Style? 10/10 “It’s nothing personal Jack. It’s just good business.”
Don’t draft this, I will kill you.
Silvally-Water, Tier Five (this one got booted)
— “Token T-Wave”
Everyone has one, though mine was less value than others. Water Type was one that I was lacking, and picking up a water type, which is diminished in sun, is anti-synergy on the team that wants sun up as much as possible. Silvally has base 95 in every stat, which makes it good at everything, bad at everything, though mostly good as everyone can attest. STAB base power 120 Multi-Attack is strong, unless its water type in sun, then it hits like a bubble. I ended up using Silvally-Water to just thunder wave and parting shot to pivot, occasionally throwing on some coverage Special moves like Thunderbolt or Ice Beam. Just before playoffs, I dropped this dead weight for another Tier Fiver, but given that Silvally never had a starting position on the roster, my team overall was not greatly affected one way or the other.
Value? -1/10 water in sun lol
Performance? 2/10
Style? 4/10 “When everyone’s super, no one will be”
Espeon, tier Two, Phase Two (my favorite Pokémon ever)
— “Trixie Business, Casual, Cleric, Witcher”
She’s Quick. She’s Fabulous. She puts in the work. Espeon is my favorite Pokémon of all time because of how much value is packing into this small pink cat (what shiny?). Base speed 110 puts it a cut above almost every opponent, they certainly have no chance against a Choice Scarf max investment total 525 speed. The other option is to lean the other way, make use of base 130 Spa with Choice Specs for 591 total Spa Psychic STAB which is only bad against other Psychic types, Dark, and Steel. I named her Trixie since I always bring Trick to cripple an opponent into choice locking themselves.
Espeon is not lacking in coverage, with access to Shadow Ball and Dazzling Gleam as options against those that resist the Psychic. It also has utility moves like Wish and Heal Bell for cleric duty, though the low bulk makes this less than optimal. Espeon may be a viable screen setter with Light Clay, though the true power lies elsewhere.
Espeon has the good fortune to be both mega cute and also be one of six total legal Pokémon with Magic Bounce, a rare and highly coveted ability able to completely nullify and bounce back non-attacking moves. This includes status moves, Will-o-Wisp or Thunder Wave, status drops like Fake Tears, and especially hazards, Stealth Rocks or the Spikes. To always have the threat of the Bounce in the pocket wards off opposing teams using these moves to inhibit my team, which makes my life that much easier.
Value? 10/10 no bias
Performance? 10/10 definitely no bias
Style? 10/10 ❤Always has a place on my Champion team ❤ (no bias)
Don’t draft this one either.
Dusknoir, Tier 5 (Worse Dusclops, 100 Atk for what?)
— “The Messiah, Messiah Rerun, Messiah Act 3"
A generation 4 evolution of the generation 3 Dusclops, the extra Atk stats add almost nothing. This is because Dusclops and Dusknoir both build sets that do not outright attack the opponent, they use moves to affect the field and disable inhibit their function. Moves like Trick Room, Destiny Bond, and Night Shade do not care about the Atk or Spa stat, so the 100 base Atk on Dusknoir is pretty much useless. In fact all Dusknoir does is enable Eviolite on Dusclops, whose final defensive stats with said item are in fact higher than Dusknoir.
So what does Dusknoir do? I used it to tank hits and pull cheesy moves. A Ghost type with base 135 Def and Spdef is not completely useless, and the low base Hp at 45 actually works in its favor for extracting value from Pain Split. This is made viable by its access to Trick Room, which flips the speed of opponents such that the slower Pokémon moves first, good for Dusknoir with base Speed also 45. By tanking hits while setting up Trick Room, Dusknoir may be brought low enough that it would faint to the next attack, and so use Destiny Bond to take the opponent with them. Since the Bond lasts two turns, the switch made by the opponent provides a fresh Pokémon to sap the life of with the aforementioned Pain Split.
Of Significance, I received assistance from one Caliber (the flake), who had previously drafted Dusclops one round earlier, in the match up against a certain cream puff, which Caliber had drafted in the previous season. Trick Room with Focus Sash sets up the correct conditions to completely shut out the Belly Drum Play Rough, and since the only other attack it can viable use was Drain Punch, it had no options but to switch out, losing its costly Attack boost and giving me a free switch in to share pain with. This set given to me from on high to target a specific opponent has given birth to the subsequent sets, Messiah rerun and Act 3, truly the savior of my team in my darkest hour, sometimes.
Value? 6/10
Performance? 6/10
Style? 7/10 at the very least, it looks cool, and I like Ghost Types
Hitmonchan, Tier Four (probably the weakest Hitmon-)
— “Young Dragon, Star Palladium, Star Platinum”
Why did I pick up the Chan? I wanted something that could use Rapid Spin, to clear hazards, especially Stealth Rocks which greatly threaten my fire type core, 25% damage on switch in. I also learned this season that if a Pokémon switches in on Rocks and dies to them, it is as if they never stepped onto the field, meaning if Ninetales is below 25% Hp and dies to rocks the Drought ability will not take effect. Picking up Hitmonchan, the more defensive Hitmon- allows for a safe switch in on many threats to my other Pokémon, Rock Types as well as Dark Types.
Hitmonchan is also blessed with access to two (2) priority moves in Mach Punch and Bullet Punch, both of which are boosted by its ability Iron Fist. Iron Fist works pretty much the same way it did on Golurk, boosting the wide coverage elemental Punches, as well as now STAB Drain Punch. Investing in defensive stats, even slapping on an Assault Vest, allows for Hitmonchan to tank multiple Draco Meteors, as well as improve its durability by trading with the Drain. Another viable strategy is to bring Leftovers for healing, and a boost move, most often Bulk Up, to boost both Atk and Def in the same turn when safe, against opponents that are too slow and that cannot muscle past its bulk.
This pick was the last for the initial draft, and I mostly expected to only use it for the Rapid Spin. I don’t believe Fighting type to be very good since it has many weaknesses, but with a stat distribution like on Hitmonchan, there are not many threats that are not immediately obvious which can be played around. Fighting type does in fact prove to be quite valuable against certain match ups, and really shone during my run through the first three rounds of the lower bracket. A good type match-up meant it gained a starting spot on the roster despite not making many appearances in the regular season, so the variability was greatly appreciated.
Also, for whatever reason, the Chan does not get Knock Off, yet Hitmonlee does so…
Value? 7/10 how did this not get picked up until eighth round KEKW
Performance? 8/10
Style? 5/10 “I don’t want trouble”
Duosion, tier 5 NFE (worse Reuniclus)
— “Messiah Requiem”
Not much to say here, as this pudding cup made a grand total of one appearance in the first round upper bracket match. I swapped this in for the previously denounced Silvally-Water, and I had hope to use it mainly to target the very versatile Necrozma. As it turns out since that light prism has so many viable sets, targeting exactly one proved to be a lesson in futility.
What does Duosion get exactly? Pretty much the same moves as the better Reuniclus. With access to multiple defensive boost moves and Stored Power, there should not much trouble in finding one viable set tuned for the opponent. As a not fully evolved Pokémon, Duosion can viable, pretty much only hold Eviolite to boost its mediocre defensive stats. In the end this reliability on an item that would get destroyed by a Super Effective Knock Off greatly reduced the viability of bringing this particular Pokémon, which never had a guaranteed spot on the roster in the first place. Psych Up is pretty hilarious though.
Value? 3/10 not anti-synergy at least
Performance? 2/10 oops
Style? 4/10 o<>o
This concludes the roster section.
What follows are my thoughts on the league as a whole, from the point of view of a Pokémon scrub that had to learn to use Showdown and adjacent Resources.
I hear the format for matches in the regular season was different than in previous Leagues. I for one quite like the two match format since the allowance of adjustments in between that makes matches more interesting. Given that it follows the format used in RD2L DotA matches, it is not hard to see why. One match may be decided by a lucky (KEKW) Crit that may or may not matter, but two matches improves the sample size to more accurately determine proper placement going into Playoffs.
There were of course significant issues related to the placement of certain Pokémon within their Tiers, hopefully that is adjusted in the following Season and hopefully more people will be involved in preparing the Draft for everyone, to promote fairness and competitive integrity (Tier 5 Orbeetle?) Ban Zeraora of course.
Forfeits only giving +3 Differential is a joke as this becomes an option of saving Differential in tougher match ups. Also one match forfeit might be an even bigger joke as +1.5 leaves me particularly with the dichotomy of potentially being within one point of placement. This also mattered with regards to my final placement in the regular season over Lonewolf so this needs to be addressed.
My final point is about the willingness to play by players in the league, as each match requires the commitment of two to provide high quality entertainment. This is a voluntary league, but that does not mean there should not be consequences for knowingly waste someone else’s time, that which you yourself have no right to do. I don’t care if the format or your roster has issues, we are all dealing with the same medium, and others can make the effort so can you. So should you.
If you are not going to play this game, don’t sign up, as your actions or lack thereof ruin the game for the opponent and everyone else.
I hope serial flakery receives more than a verbal slap on the wrist next time, I certainly will not be accepting matches against players of dubious integrity.
P.S. Shout out to Runaway for the following content. Thanks for sand bagging Dracovish.
