Eric vs Sebastian editonPokémon Champions is a free to play online battle simulator available on Switch and mobile. It features ranked, casual and private battles for both singles and doubles, and will be used for VGC tournaments in 2026.>News- Eric Rios [ES] has won the 2027 Frankfurt Regional Championship- Kiran Singh [AU] has won the 2027 Brisbane Regional Championship- Recife Regionals October 3rd-4th- Louisville Regionals October 10th-11th>Resources and useful linksCommunity Tournaments usage data: https://pikalytics.com/Ladder usage data: https://pokechamdb.com/enDamage Calculatorhttps://nerd-of-now.github.io/NCP-VGC-Damage-Calculator/New Player Guide(NEW PEOPLE READ THIS):https://rentry.org/pcg-guide (now taking suggestions and feedback)Quick FAQ>Do I need my own Pokémon to play?No, the game features a recruitment system, but transferring from Home is recommended to save time and resources.>What makes the game so much more accessible than before?All aspects of a Pokémon are customizable with VP, a currency earned simply by playing the game. IVs are also removed.Ask in the thread if you want any specific Pokémon, and someone will respond.>Is there single player content?No.>Do I need a Nintendo Online subscription?No.>What's the starter pack?US$6.99 one time purchase for 50 training tickets (fully train for free), 30 Teammate Tickets (recruit Pokemon without using VP), 50 extra box space and the LGPE trainer music. Only available on Switch for now.>Is anything locked behind a paywall?So far everything gameplay relevant is also purchasable with VP. Only E-Floette require ZA transfer.>/pcg/ OP pastebin (use this if making new thread): https://pastebin.com/d2FJZdPhold >>59629575
>>59637366>vr and recife this weekned>louisville next weekendbusy weeks for VGCbusy
Who is the fastest scarf mon in the current meta?
>>59637377Scarf Dragapult technically but that’s useless lol
>8W streak with sun team zardy, tork and fari core>finally out of UB3 hell
>>59637377Chomp, but Scarf is not *that* common. Meanwhile, Male Indeedee is Scarf most of the time
>>59637377fastest thing with >25% scarf use rate is meowscaradawhich btw idk what are even trying to outspeed with that, it's base 123 for god's sake
>>59637562Fish
anyone have a shiny cinderace i can play around with in BSS?
>>59637562>which btw idk what are even trying to outspeed with thateverything
>psyspam immune>outslows almost anything in trick room>will live through basically anything that isn't a fairy move>foul play nukes basculegion and many other physical attackers>moveset? have screens, will-o-wisp, weather control, fuck it use gravity to ground your mega delphox and land 100% accurate hypnosis, heat waves and rock slides if you so wantif nobody got me, I know sableye got mecan I get an AMEN?
>>59637724no
>>59637724sucks as anything but a screen setter with psychic terrain everywhere
>>59637692i can hunt you one
>>59637366how come LO chomps ALWAYS fucking crit or get the <10% chance roll to kill with earthquake? I wish I could take that chink's life with my own hands
>>59637810Because he gave his life
i've been haxed 3 matches in a row, im fucking speechless. curse whoever invented this rage machine and his progeny for at least 200 years
>bo1 bot just topped the showdown ladder (mikumiku37) >a bo3 bot also just topped the bo3 ladder (nessie123) Um pokemonbros?
>>59637942Don't worry brother, chess engines do the same shit and rate at higher effectiveness than even the highest human players. People don't realize this game is just chess with cute characters once everyone is on top tiers and not trying to make stupid shit like Gogoat or something work
>>59637780Yes pleaseee i will give you a shiny pikipek too if you'd like
>>59637810>>59637815>>59637837The amount of salt this game gives me makes me think the only time to play this game somewhat sane is start of season up to MB3/4, Monthly Online BSS challenges and VGC Comps.
>>59637780>>59637954Re-upping this with a new listing, and i can send you the shiny pikipek later
I thought you guys said Garchomp Z was a shitmon, why is everyone using it in competitive?
>>59637966Just ate, starting to hunt now maybe hour or two
>>59637977What is the best game / place to hunt shinies in?
>>59637982SV or ZA
>>59637976It destroys Mence and has a normally positive matchup into Raichu Y.
>>59637977Ayttt bet. Thanks anon
>>59637984Thank you
>>59637988
>>59637976People always underestimate a fast cleaner for some reason. I still don't think it's amazing on its own, it's just the speed-tier flip between base and mega turns a lot of match-ups onto their heads.
What’s the better trick roomer, indeedee or farigiraf?Trying to plan a mega mawile team, if it helps.
>>59637976>>59637366Have you already filled out your Zhomp apology form?
>>59638031fagrig if you're not using terrain
>>59638022Thanksss anon i got em. Send me a GTS and i can send over the shiny pikipek
>>59638124Thanks but no need, enjoy.
>>59638125
im going to louisville. im stuck between kiran singhs sun rain, and a variant of big 6 im using. i hit 80 GXE with a 25-6 win record on bo3 ladder, which is pretty good, but the big 6 variant has autoloss into HTR, and has a hard time into psyspam in general.kiran sun rain seems more consistent across the board, sleep powder stuff aside. my freinds are also running a vairant of it for louisville as well. im watching kirans ladder session on youtube to see if i want to commit to it or not
>>59638170I like Kiran's team a lot, seems like a natural evolution that makes the Raichu matchup feasible through Chomp Z. I also like Timid ChompZ better since the mirror is going to be real now. Good luck at the tournament.
>>59638178thanks. its nice that i have time to think.
>>59638170that's going to be a big fucking regional lol
>>59638217its supposed to be the biggest in history. every regional gets this title. baltimore was the biggest until frankfurt, and frankfurt will be bested by louisville, which will probably be bested by las vegas
>>59638223All depends on venue size.What do you think happens when it becomes unwieldy to play 10+ rounds of swiss in a day and 4 more the next day?
>>59638227That will never happen for VGC, at least for now. Next kicker for another round is 2k people
>>59638170That sun team looks disgusting to deal with. Big 6 is not good as it was imo but zardy chomp is still surprisingly strong
>>59637942I didn't see this coming at all, I thought VGC had more depth than singles and couldn't be cracked that easily
I feel like Farig's moveset could be better, I know what it's calcd to survive, but feel it's not being used optimally.What should I do?
I'm gonna do it! I'm going to build a team around my emperor penguin, Empoleon! And it's gonna be great!
>>59638504Farig is fine, maybe get tbolt for pelli on. The real question is wtf is ape doing? Get a slow attacker like gambit instead, your team seems too fast for TR
>>59638551The Farig is largely anti priority, TR would be a ditch effort if the opponent actually gets TW up.Scarf Ape threatens a lot and is faster than most sets. Intimidate is everywhere and it's immune to fake out as a lead. Try it sometime.
clicked expanding force into wide guard 4 times award
>>59637976being a 2HKO merchant goes better when you have good typing, some bulk and access to STAB draco meteor
>>59638551Not him, but I hate seeing the Ape. it's either bulky as hell and it's hard to deal with it, or it deals a lot of damage and you can't Intimidate it. Plus the dark types hate seeing it. Maybe I should be running it huh...
>mfw Triple Axel Miloticwhat would cause someone to respond like this
Looking at the VR, looks like B*sculegion is creeping its way back in and now some are running soak...
Brought my shiny team but I don't want to embarrass myself so I'm sticking with my rentedmons
i keep losing battles around the 1800s because opponents keep just ignoring stuff that could kill them and attacking anyway instead of protecting or switching out how do you predict the behavior of someone with no survival instinct
>>59638793you shouldn't do hard reads if you're that confident with your position
holy hell frail scarf mons are borderline unplayable without psy terrain/giraffeits just infinite fake out cycling as far as the eye can see
>>59638839<3 me like u used 2
>>59638851at least that thing can usually survive the partner attacking it if its target protects
>>59638839oh i forgot to mention it can't be anything weak to poison or fighting either because fucking sneedler just lol outspeeds you anyway
>opponent sent out garchomp!oh, this is probably mega>garchomp used rock slide!oh okay, it's probably scarf chomp>garchomp used earth power!
>>59637942Pokemon is just game theory like many other games. So it can be "solved" by finding the Nash equilibrium. It's no different than chess engines spitting out the best move or poker solvers doing the same thing. What will happen is that human players will get better by being able to study games in a computer program that tells you the optimal move. As for bots playing on ladders, it's likely just proof of concept stuff, once sites/games start banning bots they generally disappear. At the end of the day chess/Pokemon/poker/MTG or any game is played between humans and until robots can mimic humans in real life events without being detected, these kinds of things only serve as tools to make humans better at the game, or to cheat by putting vibrators up their ass of course.
Does anyone know if I forfeit, then immediately close the game out of frustration, my opponent still sees me forfeit right? I don't want waste anyone's time
idk man the catch with this bot seems to be that it runs tons of teams with a lot of different techs you can't possibly all cover so it's like a different guy every time
>>59638909she's versatile!
I've been getting a lot of wins I don't deserve because of forfeits. Remember, your opponent might be stupid (like me) so fight to the end.
>>59638915new champ
Didn't even click expanding force
>>59638946nah it's 2-2 right now
>>59638946I miss showderp like you wouldn't believe.
>>59638946specs weedle
6-2, what the fuck was this shitnow you can new champ
zomp WON
new video from the autist goat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEc9So7IwEY
>>59639406Looks to me like ZardChompZ is a good combo.
>>59639433Actually, that Chomp was scarfed. Zard went undefeated.
>get 4 perfect reads on some guy with a Spanish sounding name who was wearing brazil colors>he forfeits>my pokemon must have taken zero damage I felt like a fuckin Conquistador conquering the Aztec, Pablo Gomez must have thought I was some sort of god
Just played a series of games against mikumiku.. It's actually impossible to beat. It has no fear, so it makes plays that no human would ever make. It's both unreadable and it makes no mistakes.
I won't be impressed unless they make a bot that wins with suboptimal Pokémon
>>59637942Did the bot teambuild or use a premade team?
>>59638900>sneaslerunburden hawlucha is the best hard counter against it and I'm tired of pretending it's not.
Give back Knock OffRight FUCKING NOW
>Only ~10% First Impression usage on Mega-GolisopodWhy? Big priority damage.
I always thought clangerous soul was such a lame move. They obviously created it because Z-moves weren't coming back for a few generations and it couldn't have clangerous soul blaze. But they never made anything like this for all the other Pokémon they took the gimmick away from between generations.
>>59639818fake out spam and/or psychic terrain, and protect make it really easy to prevent/avoid
>tailwind user doesn't run max speed>modest Espeon gets outsped by timid Delphox>turn his psychic terrain against him and winNow what is the lesson here, always run max speed or never forfeit too soon?
>>59639643uses 6+ prebuilt teams
>>59639896we got bridge after dynamax was axed
what's the deal with adamant over jolly scarf ape on teams with no rilla or sucker punch users?it's one point slower than jolly 32spe scarf basc, how do they kill it?
I can't quite figure out an answer for my team to counter Zarchomp+Sylveon together.Golisopod and Volcarona are my usual answers to fairies, but neither of them can stick around on the field with Zomp firing flamethrowers and power gems respectively. Dragonite can tussle with it but not with Sylveon on the field.
>>59640120in my case:basc is much less common, my opponent doesn't know ape's not sashed or scarfed jolly, it has to lock into last respects which farig doesn't care about, if I brought the sun mode then sash venu can sleep it.Adamant Annihilape outspeeds quite a lot of the bigger threats that I'm more concerned with like Raichu or Mence. If they activate defiant then it just deletes Raichu with close combat.
>>59640149pod tanks zomp flamethrower in rain ez
>>59640149gunk sneasler + mega d nite but Sylveon can quick attack into draco from chomp. sylveon zomp is a broken duo. try snarl fast arch or snarl incin
>>59638548I thought about using it as a sidegrade for Milotic since it resists Salamence and is neutral to Rilla, but then Garchomp Z rose. Also Empoleon doesn't get scald.
This Juan Salerno guy in T4 of that Brazilian Regional has quite a history of top cutting and sometimes winning events.He's running that ZardPex team from MB and is currently undefeated.
>>59640253arch takes so much from draco that I'm not sure it can survive for more than a turn there
>>59640261>Empoleon doesn't get scaldThat's surprising. So far, my team's looking like Empoleon, Rillaboom and Garchomp. I want to incorporate weather so I'm deciding between snow and sand. Snow seems to have better synergy.
>>59640356Sun for your fwg core.
>Blatantly posture the entire game so your golden chud is the best mon>6 whole MONTHS of ZardslopThe absolute state of this dogshit franchise
>>59640361Dont worry, KWABzard still got his neck snapped in the grand finals vs sneedslerCHAD and dragonite
>Every faggot on the planet playing trick room
>>59640382Youre currently stuck in the ultra ball - low master ball mmr full of dipshits looking for easy outs. I am so sorry for your loss. Suffer through them and make it to the promised land of actual pokemon
>>59640376Zard KOd Dnite. Basc and Sneed are just the best.
Finals up next.The other guy has already lost to Salerno once this tournament.
>>59640358Is there anyone on my team that would benefit from sun? My plan for my sand team is to have one of them have rain dance to trick the opponent
Of course Salerno wins undefeated again
>20 years since D&P>Garchomp still everywhere in VGC>now you also have to figure out which one it is (or what item)
>>59640415I swear zardy chomp is extremely dangerous in today's meta, nobody is prepared for it
>>59640502>27 years since gen 2>tyranitar still around
>>59640600Yeah but at least that fat fuck gets beat up regularly and is pretty hard to pilot. Garchomp is an automatic curveball and is good at whatever he ends up doing
>>59639406So Sneasler is getting nerfed for sure right? Because I can't see this thing being bad against any type of pokemon or in any setup
>>59640610Believe in the Empoleon sweep!
>Derbeste is supposed to be playing the live showcase vs Jaxcalibur>they're delaying it because he's also in Victory Road semifinals vs emanuele briganti (after winning his last two in a row)
>>59640610it's getting gengar'd in weewoo trust (losing unburden)
>they double protect on my monki fake out>aqua step my own monki to get a speed boostPlays that make you feel smart
>scarf Floettethe shit people pull in the last stretch of a season
>>59640603Chomp was in no man's land after 2023, it's the pinnacle of low power formats.Base Chomp fell off a little with Rilla added, but I think it will turn up again as things settle.
>>59640630Aaaand MDB just won a third VR in a row
have you guys done your daily apology to garchomp z
>>59639899Ah thanks. I also just discovered prankster encore messes you up.
For some reason I can't send my Politoed to champions? Is something wrong with it? I don't have any problem with sending any other pokemon, just this one specifically.
>>59640779no because I never assumed he would be bad in the first place
>>59640356In my experience using it, Empoleon doesn't get to pop off without TR since it's way too slow and not bulky enough to not fall over to a double up after competitive activatesAnd a lack of spread moves + having to depend on hydro pump for water STAB make it not that good with redirection eitherback in M-B I did catch a ton of chomps off guard with a Shuca berry ice beam set though, and it does get vacuum wave
>opponent brings TWO wide guard userscan you fuck off
>>59640954I have feint on a sneedler
>read arch grimm lead with pod and scarf ape>turn 1 iron head grimm cc arch, arch protects>turn 2 hard read parting shot into pelipper from grimm with protect pod, close combat into arch, which is now locked into electro shot>next turn parting into pod>a 2nd close combat and a pod attack STILL isn't enough to kill this thing turn 3 because of sinistcha switch in which now also rage powders my apeAAAAAAHHHHHH
>>59640952It’s Empoleon or nothing. Them’s the rules.
>encore and bulk up setwho the FUCK even runs this except specifically to spite me
>>59641003I have corrosion encore sub protect. Is that better?
>tfw your favorite Pokemon is meta, somehow.
>>59641092always has been except for her brief hiatus in M-A/Bbest setup move in the game bar xerneas, great stats, and access to redirection will do thatnow that everyone doesn't feel obligated to run CHARIZAAARD on every team there's room for a different "i must protect this from stray pebbles at all costs" slot to play with instead
>steelix dies from 100% even with sturdyNow I gotta try and figure out what the fuck negated sturdy. Man I wish we had replays.
>>59641121mold breaker
>>59641127No mold breakers were on the field, it was an hit by an Armarouge using armor cannon. I didn't get fake outed, its partner didn't use a spread move (indeedee support)Nothing I'm looking at should have broke that sturdy
the most sensible archaludon nerf imo would just be making electro shot only boost if it hits rather than boosting before checking for hitwould also have the bonus of making the animation not take 30 seconds every time
>>59641136did you get skill swapped at any point beforehand?also possibly retarded question but did you actually make sure your steelix has sturdy
Solarbeam should work like Electroshot.It's such an inferior move as it stands now, 2 turns outside of sun and a massive nerf in any weather other than sun. Doesn't offer boosts and electric is a better offensive type.
>>59641142agree but only if they take it away from charizard
>set up trick room>they resignaight
>>59641136did you mega
Tinkaton is pretty funny to use, can fake out Farigiraf, Encore Gholdengo and even Helping Hand my own Ghold
Does anyone play singles in this? After 10 games I've faced maybe 1 real player, everyone else has been a bot or forfeited immediately. Admittedly I'm just trying singles out so I'm down in the low tiers, but it's weird.
>>59641216Poke Ball is full of boats, low GB too I'm pretty sure. Once you hit UB it's nothing but actual humans.
>>59641221>UB it's nothing but actual humanshumans with highly specific trauma tech that they look like bots sometimes*
>>59641142Or make meteor beam work like that in sandstorm. The problem with solar beam and meteor beam is their distribution.
>>59641216Those instant forfeits are clearly VP farmers.
>Garchomp is wa-ACK>Garchomp Z su-ACK
Crap i got 1 day left to get to mb4 in bss. Give me a sure win team and lead STAT
>>59641302sash espathra and whatever
>>59641307I get paired with fuckers with roar/dragon tail
okay i kneel zarchomp is goodwhat do i put on my team to make it go away quickly
>>59641320Your own chomp.
>>59641320floette
Never use Trace Gardevoir, never
>>59641320Literally anything with decent special defense.
>>59641365making indeedee slower than garde would have prevented this
>See perish rain tedam. Instantly know they are going to lead Gengar Rilla and just click perish turn 1>Take Pod+Farig, click drill run ohko gengar as perish goes up.Get fucked you piece of shit, if you're going to play perish don't play flowchart perish.
>>59637366Solo zardy mega won a regional unbeaten.
>>59641402carried by Chomp and Sylveon
>>59641402>>59641294is this now the 3-rd regional that Chomp won in the last week or two??or 2-nd?
>>59641402What makes Toxapex so good? I'm thinking of pairing it with Gliscor.
>>59641406Not as hard as Ttar carried Salamence in Baltimore.Mence couldn't even find top 8 at Frankfurt, lost to Zard at Brisbane.Looking at the VR tournament, Zard outplaced the poor Salamander there too twice. I give mence players a lot of shit because they were so confident in their boy prior to its inclusion. The real winners of MC are Raichu, Floette, and GarchompZ.
>>59641409toxic+infestation heavily punishes anything for staying on the field more than 2 turns since it gets trapped and can't reset its toxic counter, while the pex itself is extremely difficult to kill without SE STABplus wide guard support as a bonus
>>59641409Gliscor doesn't really pair with anything, but Toxapex is massive disruption, prevents switches, doesn't die, slowly chips down with toxic and infestation. Plus wide guard support and baneful bunker to poison mons.
What's the counterplay to getting double slept by dire claw
>>59641418ragequit and go to next match
where's the pcg cup
I run imprison farigraf and snarl incincause every other match I play is fucking hard trick room.
>>59641411Still won Baltimore tho. Mence was the only way Joe beat golisopod btw
>>59641509got em
using bax is hard as shit in this economy but oh boy seeing dudes get destroyed by unboosted glaive rush is a hootalso ice shard for zomps
>>59641507Snarl Incin is so goated and forms the same role as Volcarona almost except Volcarona is not afraid of the Sneedler. But, Volcarona has no Fake Out pressure. It's a hard call for me.
>>59641594>except Volcarona is not afraid of the Sneedler.I wish, fuckin all of them run rock slide now
I'm really starting to hate this gorilla, covert cloak WHEN.
>>59641594personally i prefer rage powder disruption since unlike fake out you can just click it again if the first turn doesn't go rightof course it does nothing against spread moves but rock slide and water spout are kinda the only two volc actually cares aboutvolc also walls fairies harder than incin if that's relevant
Fake out needs to be brought down to +1 priority.The fact that there are so few counterplays is cringe.
>>59640919what's the error you see?
>>59641622For me it's the fact that even if you predict a Fake Out with Quick Guard you can still be faked out if the opponent's Pokemon is faster, and it's the same exact way with Upper Hand. So they consciously removed all Fake Out counterplay unless your Pokemon is straight up better than theirs already, at which point you would just Fake Out yourself instead, turning both of the priority move "counters" into specific edge case scenarios that you might use once every 10 games, if that
>>59641092i LOVE doubling teaming this thing when i know for certain it's going to click rage powder. feels good man.
>>59641603your Machamp with wide guard?i don't see anyone running Garg anymore either.
>>59641635>volc used protect!
>>59641639I want to use Machamp but that useless fuck gets absolutely prolapsed by all the top Pokemon unless I'm wrong and something has changed this meta. I'd like to be wrong
>>59641626It shows a message that says "one or more pokemon have been selected that can't visit champions".And I can't see what wrong with my Politoed. As far as I remember I b breed it myself back in Y version. I've been able to send other pokemon from that game with no problem.
>>59641641oh just kill me nyowbut no it depends on your partner. if you lead with Chomp and Volcarona than I'm going to inflame your Chomps anus with a draco. simple as.
streets are saying charizard is back
>>59640987>+2 32+ Atk Tough Claws Golisopod-Mega Drill Run vs. 32 HP / 32 Def Archaludon: 192-226 (97.4 - 114.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKOYou DO run the chadpod set, right?
>wins the first M-C regional its legal in>Drops off in usage in Brisbane/Frankfurt>Leaves
>>59641648here's the strat. you ready?click wide guard. Dynamic punch and quick claw for teh win.
>>59641681i like drill run on paper, but what do you drop for it?
>>59641685it has the same crippling weakness to one type that charizard does, but without the huge fuck you damage or the part where it enables all kind of degenerate partners like venusaur who can protect it from natural predators
>>59641685I stopped using this garbage when it failed to kill a Sneasler with Hyper Voice
>>59641698Based ultra baller ultra ballin
>>59641737Probably +1 from psychic seed right?
>try something new>lose 4 sets in a row, dont pull good matchups>go back to whims zard chomp>winfine ill play zard again. raichu balance just shuts down a lot of creativity i feel
>>59641823people are retarded. they build their teams to beat everything i want to build expect for charizard, which is why i just won the last two regionals. i thought we were supposed to be c teaming charizard?
>>59641722I personally like to run swords dance, drill run, leech life and sucker punch.I feel like iron head isn't needed because ground attacks give you plenty of weaknesses to hit. While fairy resists bug and dark, it doesn't resist ground and there's no fairy/flying mon other than mega clefable so you're usually pretty safe without iron head assuming that you get off the swords dance.
>>59641840I forgot to add, sucker punch is incredible to pick up quick kills outside of TR. I have a surprising amount of matches where I don't even use TR and 'pod just kills things by trading positively with the leech life or outright kills them with a +2 sucker punch. (ie: non-tank charizards, and last respects fish).You WILL struggle against niggers like staraptor tho. But I have a farigiraf that usually does short work of them.
>>59641840i could never get the swords dance set to feel right, but it's possible i just suckthe handful of matchups pod loses, it loses HARD and you need to either switch out or protect while partner cleans upbut the matchups it wins i feel it wins pretty easily without swords dancingso it feels like there's rarely an opportunity where swords is the right play
>>59641845I sometimes open with 'pod and swords dance while the second mon fakes out (or switch in farig to prevent a fake out), if the enemy has any amount of fire coverage, I hold the mega until the next turn where I pull out either pelipper to get rain up, or trick room and sucker punch something for a quick kill. Sometimes people swap or protect on t1 which is a massive advantage for me, it all really depends on the mons on the field. If you feel uneasy without protect, then switching swords dance for it is also great.
>volc struggle bug>arch protect>opp sneasler cc into arch>opp floette calm mind>volc rage powder>arch snarl>opp sneasler cc into volc>floette calm mindliterally did this stalemate for like 6 turns straight lol
>>59641622There is counterplay to it, the Covert Cloak; they just removed it.>>59641631I do think Upper Hand and Quick Guard should be +4 just so they can guaranteed be Fake Out or Triage counters.
>>59641840The problem with Swords Dance on Golisopod (or any Trick Room Pokemon) is that your time in TR is already limited. Having to take a turn to set up TR, and then also set up SD just feels like you run out of time.
japanese player in high mb3 with a focus energy draco meteor archaludon ok I guess bro
>150bp respects fish kills fully healthy +32HP arch without a critare you fucking serious
>>59641911Why not dragon cheer if going for crit memes
>>59641900Yeah, I get that, but at least from my side, I've been setting up on the same turn, or before trick room gets set. And as I said before, there are many matches where you aren't even setting it up, just raw dogging it and biting the heads off the enemy team mons with positive trades and using sucker punch.Even if you set up swords dance IN trick room, the 4 or 3 turns you got are enough to rip the enemy team apart and get yourself the upper hand.
ENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING MEGA SWAMPERTS I DONT WANNA USE THE MONKEY
>>59637942So which player has the secret VGC bot that they trained and use for tournament prep or to cheat?There is outright financial incentive and based on the Jaxcalibur report I don't think these are actually that expensive to train at this point.
>>59638913how does online poker exist if it's solved? Can't I just become rich by doing that then? The main issue with bots is that Monthly challenges and everything awarding championships points is jeopardised by the possibility of someone botting. At some point you will need to use a bot to compete against other bots. Wouldn't that make global and grand challenges an AI warfare? CPs are extremely valuable to VGC pros as they buy you an in to Worlds and sometimes pay you a stipend
>>59641925ya should've used sturdy bwo.
why are japanfags suddenly obsessed with using female fish?
>>59641992According to the bot devs optimal play in VGC is deterministic/unique (no mind games) ~31% of turns.This is sufficient for chess-style bot-detection to work.
mb2 is not gonna happen this season man, 1800-1850 is a rock solid brick wall
>>59642007>According to the bot devs optimal play in VGC is deterministic/unique (no mind games) ~31% of turns.>This is sufficient for chess-style bot-detection to work.Which bot? Singles or doubles? Also, the bot is strong but not overwhelmingly strong yet. We might find out that the objectively/deterministically correct play is actually 15% of the turns if not less. Moreover, isn't it the "obvious" play at that point, that doesn't require AI to figure it out? It's not like "bot moves" in chess that make no sense for a regular human. Lastly, how the fuck do you screen every game of a global challenge? The cheap asses at TPCI won't devise nor pay for a system like that. It's cheaper to delete those events altogether
holy fuck just mega your charizard already you fucking autist
>>59641986It would be a lot harder to make a bot that helps you cheat in online challenges as the states would desync. You might high roll and do 54% in the bot game and the bot says "attack again" but roll 49% in game and then it's not so obvious (assuming it's being used like a chess bot where you're mirroring your opponent's moves and seeing what the bot, playing your in game team, would/should do).
>>59642082true but with mobile emulation on laptop you can probably have tools for that
>>59641992online poker sites have bot detection and if you're play is too much like optimal play it will flag their real time assistance system and get you banned as its impossible for humans to play perfectly. Also the biggest money is made by exploiting peoples mistakes, something a game theory solution is not very good at because it always assumes you are playing optimally. Here is the best poker player in the world somewhat explaining it. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WK0CMpxnbl0At the end of the day in VGC you have to play irl eventually and if players are cheating online they will eventually get caught and banned. Same reason you don't really see GM's cheating to win online chess tournaments
It's self explanatory why but it's a little annoying how mega achievement progress usually takes twice as long as your non megas.
>>59642005i've been getting these jap rain teams with nearly full water feat. swamp and girlegion wonder what the deal is
salamence players aren't calling for the funny ice punch ape anymore it's overthey just protect and wood hammer it every time
>>59642169so far as I can tell they're all focus sash swift swim and always carry ice beami think it's supposed to be like a faster milotic? probably anti dragon tech
>hh garde expanding force can kill a bulky volcarona from fulldude fuck off
the bane of my existence as a pod player is people just slapping charizard into various team comps>oh a charizard? i better not lead pod, that's suicide!>opponent sent out indeedee and meowstic! it's just a 50/50 every time
>>59642057Bo3 Reg M-C Doubles:https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/nessie123-an-ots-vgc-bot-that-topped-the-reg-m-c-bo3-ladder.3789213/post-11153026Singles is much less deterministic in this sense and might be doomed.>Moreover, isn't it the "obvious" play at that point, that doesn't require AI to figure it out? It's not like "bot moves" in chess that make no sense for a regular human.People may occasionally figure out the optimal move, but it can be very unlikely that they consistently choose the optimal move.>Lastly, how the fuck do you screen every game of a global challenge?I would screen every player that won CP and randomly sample the rest. That would be fairly cheap. Mostly it's a question of if they give enough of a shit to spend the engineering time.
I don't mind zard coming backI don't like FISH coming back
>>59642259>People may occasionally figure out the optimal move, but it can be very unlikely that they consistently choose the optimal move.Idk about that, we might find out that too players almost always do that. >I would screen every player that won CP and randomly sample the rest. That would be fairly cheap. Mostly it's a question of if they give enough of a shit to spend the engineering time.that really doesn't prevent cheating, it's half assed. they can't even spot every illegal mon yet
floette/mence fags ALWAYS bring fucking floette when I think it'll be mence
>>59642327something in your team is probably making it an obvious bad mence matchup
>>59642332i play dnite/podyou'd think they would be afraid of the giant fairy murdering bug but they never are
>>59642347flower vs pod is a lot more manageable than mence vs nite
>>59642327They probably just always bring the Floette anyway.
I used to finish in the triple digit range in SV all the time, now I can’t make master ball tier, but I’m still day 2ing regionals and doing well on bo3 ladder and I finished top 300 in the GC. What gives? Why is in game ladder specifically so hard? Global Challenges should be harder in theory but I had an easier time with that
>>59642449I meant champion tier lol. I’m not that bad
>>59642449>>59642455The champions / MB1 cut off has been so high this season because one, the game gets newer players, two, it’s the 1st season of a new regulation, so people are playing more. A lot of people stopped playing towards the end of MB, unless you were doing worlds prep. They should have the season reset every month, otherwise yea it’s pretty much impossible for someone who started laddering weeks later, or something who isn’t putting in at least an hour of battles to stay in champion tier. Tbh I stopped playing cart ladder. Bo1 CTS is a bullshit format, I’d rather use my time getting bo3 OTS practice. I will only play GCs to get points out of them
When sub-legendaries are in, do you think we'll get all of them or just a selection from a few gens?The rate of addition to this game has been atrocious.
>>59642585I hope sv's dogshit is not included
With the advent of AI showdown bots is it only a matter of time before someone makes something similar for Champions? Could the IRL events become even more prestigious as a result?
>>59642618The treasures and paradoxes were cool.
>>59642657treasures are game breaking, not a fan
>>59642659They really weren't.Raging Bolt was though.
>>59642659Yeah all those rocks ting lus in vgc
game needs smeargle
>>59642665Only because of t*ra, meanwhile chien pao enabled all kind of boring shit
>>59642697Bolt would be busted regardless. Its best friends were rilla and incin.
>>59642712gets raped by any dragon move now that it cannot tera
>>59642714modest zomp pulse doesnt even kill it
>>59642737is there anything zchomp can even ohko with pulse? just run draco
>>59642746mence
>>59642714It's going to set up calm minds while its buddies pin you down.Raging Bolt is the ultimate damage-per-turn check, it heals 25% per turn and just sits on the field. +32 ChompZ Draco on a bulky +1 SpDef Raging Bolt isn't a 1hko and is doing less than Bolt can heal up once it gets +2SpDef.
>>59642759>it heals 25% per turnhow
>>59642832Lefties + Grassy terrain then protect the next turn
Today I’ve lost to the following>muddy water acc drop into miss>golisopod getting a triple protect when j had flamethrower zomp Pod rain players are the luckiest mfers alive. I built my team to beat them and I still lose cause of hax
>>59642880I added sunny day on sneasler as a fuck you to rain teams.
>>59642848I want to see how many turns you need to survive Mega Floette lmao
>>59642907Are we doing the light of ruin meme or moonblast like a sane person?
Moonblast would be a 1hko if Bolt doesn't get a calm mind up. If it does then +32 Moonblast is doing similar damage to +32 ChompZ's Draco, not KOing.If you go for light of ruin then you're risking MAD because Bolt can Thunderclap for 50% or more damage on Floette at +1.
>>59642585I assume a small selection. Lati@s and Heatran seem obvious. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the Kanto birds because muh Kanto and the Tapus because they skipped Gen 9 so they're ripe to come back.
>>59642908>>59642913calm mind of your own. but yeah sounds like a huge pain in the ass I was used to fighting it in singles
It's WEIRD when I see people running Emolga. Emolga is certainly cute, but I don't see why you'd use it over anything else. I guess it's Zapdos with half the base stats.
Season so dead we're theory crafting paradoxmons in
>>59642884were you the sunny day sneasler player with nasty plot delphox?I hate you
>>59642585I never understood this complaint. How is it atrocious? They added 25 last update and it shook up the meta pretty significantly. If you're realistic and don't expect every not fully evolved Pokémon to be here there's 600~ fully evolved Pokémon with 200~ currently in at a rate of 100~ per year. They'll catch up in 4 years. And it'll probably take a year to add in Gen 10's probably 100~ fully evolved inclusions. 5 years for a live service game with something to look forward to every 3 months is a reasonable drip feed.
>>59643420why are the fucking elemental monkeys in tho
>>59643422Every gacha needs a 1* pool.
>>59643422haha funny monke
>>59643422Grass and Fire type monos needed Fake Out users.
who the FUCK got Double Edge off Glalie?? It would've been almost viable if it had another strong option besides fucking exploding
is there any scarf mon than can simultaneously reach >223 Spe and actually OHKO zomp hydreigon draco, i guess?
>>59643493Meowscarada, though you actually need all three hits unlike against Scarf Chomp
>>59643493noivern draco meteor
>>59643420They added 6 actually significant mons.If you don't understand the complaint then don't post.
>>59643517yeah I can't play non lens meowscarada that shit stresses me out loldraco and overheat are already bad enough
>>59643521You don't understand live service games. This isn't Showdown. Showdown isn't allowed to make money and despite having everything it's still dying. You're going to be bored and complain even if you got instant gratification of a full roster. You can just say you want your favorite back and don't actually care about the full roster.
>opponent tailwinds>thats it, there's very little counterplayReally should have negative priority.
>>59643546gfys
>>59643676this is why balance is the goat speed control is like whatever
>>59643676they just should have never given tailwind to prankster users (or prankster to tailwind users)
chesnaught would be pretty good right now if floette wasn't a thing
>>59643762How is chesnaught in pretty good with salamence existing?
Just run one ice type and the game will never have you face Salamence again. And having it there scares any you do see away.
>>59643763fairly decent support tech with wide guard, not too bad matchup vs incin, basically immune to ychu and ghold, stab body press for bulkin>dies to sneaslerdont we all
>>59643771also gets coaching, roar, helping hand, super fang so pretty good options
>>59643721theres a reason why prankter tw mons have horrible stats, expect for fucking tonadus
i think the best alternative mega for the pod rain team might be either gengar or raichu, but can't quite decide whichychu takes care of the bad starraptor and charizard matchups, but sneasler is annoying for itgengar allows for a perish mode and helps get rid of gholdengo and fairies when pod isn't there to do so, and walls sneasler, but isn't as good against charizard
>>59643787double G should be better for the zompchu matchup
arch users!i suggest suicide!
>IMMEDIATE first game after adding raichu and hydreigon to team is mamoswine most subtle EOMM
are we sure screens really do only reduce by 1/3 in doubles?because it sure does feel like half sometimes
>>59637976Pure Dragon type is actually decent, doesn't suffer from a 4x weakness. The only downside is not having a second stab typing once you mega evolve.
So close to being able to finishing all this old game bank shutdown shit and being able to go full autism grinding in this
I was 1 win till MB4 of BSS but then i started a tremendous loss streak and now im back to UB2 hell. What the hell...
oh cool my scarf hydra will outspeed and kill this garch->other partner megas, its scarf chompi'm going to say slurs
the amount of damage a completely unboosted gardevoir e force does is fucking obscene and disgusting
>>59644144*with terrain up of course
>>59644144this and how irritatingly well psychic and fairy spam complement each otherpoison types explode to e force and darks explode to voice, so it's pretty much steel or nothing (and then she mystical fires you lol)
As annoying as psychic terrain is psychic kind of needs it. Even though conceptually it makes no sense psychic terrain is by far the most fleshed out. Other Pokémon benefit from the effect. You can build teams around it. The same can't be said for the rest of the terrains. Grassy terrain's main use is removing psychic terrain. The healing is only a bonus. Electric and misty terrain are trash.
nobody expects the prankster misty terrain
>>59644240yeah the problem is all the other terrains only prevent very specific things the opponent can do (sleep, using earthquake) which are way too niche to necessitate an entire member slot, vs. preventing ALL priority moves which is a huge and broad category of useful moves, so it's useful in almost every matchupi think misty terrain actually has potential, although it would be stronger if it prevented all statuses (a sort of field-wide good as gold) and not just non-volatile oneselectric terrain is the weirdest one design wise since its effect is just worse misty terrain, but electric type. at least it has a really good abuse move though in rising voltage, and boosting electric coverage can actually be useful for team members other than the terrain setter
>>59644283I mentioned grassy terrain second because sometimes non grass types are built around leftovers + terrain healing and set up like Kommo-o or Milotic. The others don't have a use. A hard maybe you could use misty terrain for team swagger memes because it prevents confusion. Maybe if it was more misty terrain heals status rather than prevents it like safeguard. Then you would be able to use rest like hydration rain where it's instant full restore wake up. The dragon damage reduction thing is just an overkill overcorrection now. Dragon spam isn't really a thing anymore and dragon stab is mainly used to kill other dragons. Electric terrain you can see is the most forced. The only thing they could think of was future paradox but that's totally useless because paradox Pokémon are treated as special encounters and not distributed willy nilly. Only in a meme regulation or casual/private matches would they let you use Mega Raichu X with Iron Bundle.I suggested before they should rework magnetism to work with electric terrain. So plus minus Pokémon would be boosted and moves that only work on Pokémon with plus minus like gear up and magnetic flux work on all allies in electric terrain. You would be able to build magnet teams with Toxtricity and Klingklang.That or I was thinking about how in Sword and Shield, overworld thunderstorms were rain + electric terrain which I thought was genius. It explains the sleep prevention because thunder is loud. Thunder gets boosted while never missing. Conceptually it just makes electric terrain make sense. If they do some combined super weather it could work. Then you would just build thunderstorm teams with rain and electric types. Just have super low distribution and put the move that sets thunderstorms only on electric shitmon. Nobody uses thunder anyways. It's not convenient unlike blizzard and Pelipper hurricane. In the first place if electric type got something it should have just been a weather.
>watching a rilla/incin player complain about how much grimm/arch slows down the pace of the game and makes matches take forever
>>59644432That might explain why you're not seeing it.
how do i beat the japs and euros spamming cm floette support volc with incin zomp rilla.
>>59644500pod rain.
>>59644505difficult if they play smartincin is just a pain for pod generally and even if you get rid of him volcarona can delete him with overheatyou basically have to play a 3v4 until you can get the floette alone
>>59644500quiver dancing volc with anti zomp tech
just had a mence live an ice beam who the fuck gives mence special bulk MAX special bulk even
>>59644632everyone's gunning to outspeed mence might as well embrace the fat
Haven't played VGC since ScaVi, looking to get into champions. What's the general meta thoughts looking like right now? All those Megas powercreeping the game to hell?
>>59644710speed tiers are FUCKEDnew megas are huge asspainsbalance still bestsneedler still cancer
>>59644728Fuck me I hated Sneasler then and I'm sure I won't like him now. I was scared the balance of the game was going to become super beststicks (in this case Megas) with ultra beast-looking minmaxxed supports and Incineroar. Friend told me Incin at least lost Parting Shot, but I hear Ass Vest isn't even in the game rn. Good, just because I also didn:'t like Archuraladon.
>>59644734Incin lost Knock Off and U-Turn, he's still got Parting Shot.
>>59644734Archa also lost Body Press.
>>59644742Sorry, I misquoted. Losing Knock Off? OK, I like this. Not like Knock Off in a mega meta is impactful enough, it still is impactful on the lesser Pokemon but Megas needed a punishment like SwSh's anti-Dynamax moves IMO. I mean it's not amazing game design but neither are Megas
>>59644728They are eving for zomp dragon pulse. I’m 30 spef 13 HP on my mence. The best placing mence in VR ran that. Mence is adapting
>>59644802Meant for>>59644632
I cant get past UB in BSS this meta is so fucked
man people on showdown all use the same fucking shit all the fun matchups are in champs
Tell me about Mega Raichu Y. Any fun shenanigans to get involved with using No Guard beyond his typical moveset?
>>59644923it's a mega, it's designed to be a 1-2 trick ponyit doesn't really have much of an inaccurate movepool, sweet kiss if you're a gambling degenerate
>>59644923Not really, unless you want to use a skill swap pokemon alongside it. Mr. Rime gets skill swap and sheer cold.
>>59644952As much as I love the vibe of such gimmicks, Mr. Rime has a lot going against himself, doubt I'd survive long enough to do anything (though guaranteed Zap Cannon para t1 following into a Twave t2 if not a Volt Switch swapout might actually work...)I will need to research this more. >>59644936Unga bunga, typical.
>>59644921Louisville is this weekend. People are using bo3 ladder to prep
Finishing MB3, top 27k this season. It's okay given I didn't grind, though if I didn't lose my daily match I could have probably been top 20k (don't care enough to keep grinding more and losing my placement).
>>59645031Tell me about your experiences grinding. I feel like I've been a good player before, but I didn't put in the grind enough to be a great player. Everyone looks at the mountain and gets intimidated to start climbing, right? But I want to hear realistically what to expect going through the trials.
>>59645038It's Bo1 so prepare for a lot of bullshit. You're going up against a lot gimmick teams alongside standard meta teams, so don't get discouraged on losses. The best advice I've gotten is if you're on a win streak, immediately queue and keep riding that. If you lose a match, reflect for at least a minute or two on why you lost and how you could have played differently - directly going into the next match after a loss risks you snowballing into a loss streak. Loss streaks are inevitable though, so personal rule of thumb is to quit for the day or a few hours at least if I lose 2 or 3 games in a row. While this may be contradictory, last piece of advice is don't be scared of losing or going down in rank. It's inevitable in this format, and I step away if the losses are becoming consistent, but fear of losing will ultimately just prevent you from playing. In truth Champions Bo1 is not nearly a reflection of your skill as much as a Bo3 performance would be (especially with closed teamsheet)
>>59645057Oh, and earlier the better. Elo keeps going up as the season progresses, so the best time to "grind" is the 1st-2nd week. Personal rule of mine is to get the fuck out of Ultra Ball on Week 1 at least because it's genuine hell past that point
>the counter to zomp is sc(arf)omp
>>59645088Bro your fairy type?
>>59645110they just bring raichu instead
>>59645067>>59645057Thank you. I remember the hell of getting stuck in Ultra Ball in last gen's formats. Was rugged. Good players somehow wind up in the strangest spots on the road to Master.
What's your favorite site for dumping team drafts into for labbing? Is Pikalytics' team builder still buggy?
>>59645256Showdown.
>>59645088zomp is such a retarded abbreviation, on the level of yard. funny to see how it's always americans that adopt these sayings
>>59645395whats the good and smart abbreviation
>>59645110le sneedler face
>>59645424i dont know if its good or smart but chompz is definitely not retarded
Champions is maybe the hardest game I've ever played and I'm not joking. It is so much harder than Smogon's singles tiers it's not even funny wtf.
>lead fake out + setup/speed control mon>fake out your threat, setter sets up>pivot in new fake out mon, protect setup mon>fake out again, attack with setup guy>rinse and repeat ad infinitum this is the "balance" archetype correct? anyway i'm beyond fatigued of itif you want to directly counter it there are so few specific options to do so (farig/tsareen, indeedee, or ghost types) that once you do so there's barely any room to actually build the team you want
>>59645514balance is fat utility fucks the fake out bros just happen to fit into it
Lost to double protect but I can't even be mad I basically forced him into it
>>59645514Sounds like youre letting him play what's right in front of him over and over. If you know the fakeout is coming make a hard swap to something that beats the setup mon turn one. Then it's like he wasted a turn and you got the counter in for free
>make a bad call to swap politoed into mega starmie rather than farig, fearing a double up/damage the giraffe cant take>instead get hard read with a protect blocking my leech life from m-pod, starmie proceeds to murder me (pod was low hp and died to pelipper)the worst losses are the ones you know you could have had the win condition if you didnt make a bad call
sneasler is by far the most annoying of the fake out trioat least rilla and incin are predictable and can't use their more powerful moves without sacrificing the ability to move firstsneasler doesn't even need priority to always be the fastest thing on the field, hits harder than both (minus wood hammer) and its coverage options are disgusting
>rock slide absol zpeople are really getting tired of volcarona now lol it didn't even kill kwab
is the solution to metas just rocks
>>59645560Literally Dire Claw being removed makes it less cancerous. Fuck Dire Claw.
I feel like I'm bored with playing this meta. The available playstyles are>spread move spam>setup + support>perish songand the issue is that if you try to steer away from them and get something creative going you will 100% lose badly
underrated aspect of mega pod is basically having automatic built in rage powder against all fire type moves
>>59645652what else are you gonna do, toxic stall or some shitpretty sure the chip damage team still works
>>59645663Oh? Do go on, nta but I am interested in a slow burn team
>>59645668I mean this one just tweak it for M-C terrain wars and such
I do wish snow still did damage like hail, it's not like snow users are OP or anything
>>59645732getting rid of that was actually a buff, before you basically couldn't run focus sash users in hail because it would just breaksand gets away with it by having 3 types that aren't affected by it instead of just one
>>59645732Snow is easier to slap onto teams as your anti all weather solution without having to build your entire team around it
>>59645737yeah sand > hail any day that is the problem
lol i have no idea what fedecampo is saying but he's definitely seething at that perish team
>start climbing today>can't get past UB1, lose every MB promo battleWell, it was fun trying out the new megas at least. Indeedee-F has been an absolute pain in the ass.
New>>59645805>>59645805
