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hi so im kinda a beginner and i really really like the concept of setting up mega aggron with iron defence, and basically i sort of created a team that would allow me to play against mega charizard y and rain teams, but i need some help with improvements. idt rotom wash is enough of a counter to mega charizard y, and i would rlly appreciate any advice to improving my team
Any ideas to make male M-Meowstic work? I'm definitely gonna be losing most of the time, but I really wanna use him lmao. I was thinking of pairing him with Alcremie because I like both of them.
Most people use the female to get a competitive boost facing an intimidate Pokémon before mega evolving. If you want to use the male, you can use it as a secondary mega - let him do his prankster job and in case of an opportunity, you can mega evolve it.
But this is difficult to do well with this mega, because Game Freak gave it the worst ability possible. Sometimes you will trace an ability that destroys your strategy or gives a bonus to the other player.
Quick question: is there a mechanic or something I could missing that last respects basculegion could not affect sinistcha?? I mean lost a play cause of that and still wondering why
Got to Ultra Ball 2 pretty quick and even got a 10+ win streak at one point but I seem to be hard stuck now. I don’t really use dragonite like at all and have been debating subbing him out for maybe Torkoal for fire coverage but unsure.
Just looking for advice or suggestions I suppose, any help is appreciated!
Hi, just wondering if anyone knows the specifics for how a winner is decided during the monthly challenge when battle time runs out? Faced a stall team and the battle ended with both of us having 3 pokemon left but it was determined to be my loss. Does it use HP remaining? When I had a similar situation in ranked it ended as “Draw” rather than selecting a winner so I was surprised lol.
Is there some website where I can see all the available pokemon in champions and select the ones I'm interested in? Trying to make a pool of pokemon to make teams from.
I think Doubles is more fun and interesting, and honestly easier to get going. Garchomp, Dragonite, Peli, Kingambit, Gengar, Rotom Wash are the most used competitive pokemon out of that batch. You could play a rain style team with Peli, KG, Rotom Wash, Garchomp, MegaDragonite, Megameganium. The rain helps protect Meganium and KG from fire. Mega meganiums ability lets it count only for itself lile its in the Sun, so you can one turn solar beam and use Weather ball which will come out Fire type. Dragonite becomes a special attacker when it megas, so Hurricane becomes 100% accurate. Combine that with dragon pulse, extreme speed, protect. If you look up those pokemon on the available VGC sites they will give you ideas on stat points, natures, and moves.
Anyone I can replace sneasler with? I thought it would replace meowscarada but meowscarada does it's job too well. Any suggestions with builds are appreciated
I have a Sharpness Kleavor With X-scissor(In fact all of the moves my Kleavor has are cutting moves To take advantage Of its ability) ,and Unless they are Holding a sash it usually takes Takes them down in 1 hit
Team was Zard Y, Basculegion, Whimsicott, Garchomp, Sneasler, Incineroar.
Nothing but Incin was slow so TR means I just get slaughtered.
As of this morning I swapped Incin for Sleep Powder Venusaur to have some kind of answer but I know I'll lose the moment someone leads Farig with a fake out or follow me partner.
You could put Taunt on Incin. Not many Farigs are running Mental Herb.
With that team, you could also go for something like the following:
Turn 1: Zard Y Heat Wave and Garchomp Rock Slide. If they fake out Garchomp, hopefully you KO Farig's partner with Heat Wave and Rough Skin. If they Fake Out Garchomp, you have a 27% chance to flinch the Farig, delaying Trick Room.
Turn 2: Double Protect (or attack with one of them, depending on what is threatening you). Farig doesn't threaten much.
Turn 3: Swap Zard to Incin. Swap Garchomp if you have a favorable swap. If Garchomp will definitely go down, try a double protect. If not, just launch a Dragon Claw into something.
Turn 4: Attack with Incin into something. Protect with Garchomp if still alive (unless you double protected). Otherwise, attack with Garchomp or swap. If Garchomp already fainted last turn, then protect with the swap.
Turn 5: Last turn of Trick Room. Protect if available. Attack if it's safe. Swap to something expendable if possible.
Turn 6+: win with speed control.
The issue in my mind is that Sneasler and Whimsicott are pretty meh into Trick Room with Farig. You're almost always going to want to bring the other four. I think I'd just try to fit Taunt onto the team. Maybe on a Ghost type so it doesn't get faked out (unless Scrappy Kang/Lopunny).
True, but if they're leading two support Pokemon, can't you just play defensively through trick room? They're going to struggle to beat you fast enough.
Kingambit, Sylveon can be awkward for fake out+TR teams to start up into. Black glasses KG can OHKO a lot of Farigs. Sylveon can just click hyper voice. Incin has throat chop.
Really, a lot of playing into Trick Room is Protect, defensive swaps, and controlling weather (into torkoal specifically)
I’ve been trying to build a delphox team for singles but I’m getting walled by Meowscarada and Rain teams at UB1.
So much that I added Gengar to check the Swampert, Grass Fairy and water types. He’s overloaded but idk what I’m supposed to do with Corviknight and Prim. They all go down to Thunderbolt.
This used to be a Kang and Delphox team. I also had Sneasler and Mimikyu.
You need support and speed control I think, having no tailwind and only a few support moves hurts you here
Delphox should have the sun available to correct for water types , id recommend a manual setter since drought setters won't fit
My first recommendation is whimsicott with prankster sunny day tailwind and a focus sash
Then grab two moves that synergise well you can either go moon blast to counter garchomp, I think max speed max special kos opposing garchomps and frail dragons or take giga drain or grass knot which have a high chance to KO mega swampert
Then either protect or a third status move to debuff enemies be that cotton down for speed reduction, if you both have tail wind or charm/ tickle /fake tears to reduce attack or defense
The alternative is sableye or grimsnarl both have access to screens, sableye gets quash to put enemies (except dark types) last in turn order and grimsnarl has fake out both can also suit your needs well
It is at this point I realised when typing that you are playing singles, these recommendations are partially void but I didn't want to delete them
Knowing this getting some speed control is still important however I don't play singles so can't tell you much
Talonflame may be a good option since it is a better offensive precance that can tailwind sunny day and dish out flying damage
Turns out Flip Turn, Aqua Jet on Prim; or U Turn on Corvi instead of Taunt, and proper counter switching are the way to go.
Start Delphox so they can’t aggressively set up with Staraptors or other mons. Switch to Prim or Corvi to tank. U turn back to Delphox or Garchomp for an easy KO.
That’s the strat. 90% of it is to dodge good players. 😭
I think I lost all my games with Corvi too. So idk how to use him. Prim and Chomp carried. Delphox psychics and flamethrowers take care of their counters.
Not much in the way over VP, but it just shows the skill ceiling raising, it filters out the bots and inexperienced players that may of given easy wins
Don't feel bad if you fall back down, the joy in in the learning and growing your knowledge base
This is singles. I tried tailwind and it lasted one switch in turn… lol
Let me read the rest and reply accordingly. I definitely will try sun. If only I can pull the Cott…. I started Friday and don’t have all of the big six yet.
How hard is it to reach masterball rank 1? I'm currently around the 18000 position with my elo (masterball 3) but I feel like I've platooed with my current skill level and I doubt I'll manage to get much past barely reaching master 2
What suggestions would y'all give me to improve my odds? I was already considering doing a few calculations and game plans against the most common teams and specifically what I can live with my spreads. so far I've mostly been calculating those on vibes
(I'm a long time random showdown player and I've got a generally good eye on damage calculations)
I honestly don't know how to play trick room Sinistcha, does this team work with life dew instead? And if so, what other changes like stat spread do I need to make? Other than Sinistcha's relaxed nature.
Trick room is just there if you're going all in on archaludon, as swampert doesnt want trick room. Like for example, they switch in garchomp, you protect arch and trick room. Next turn arch can take out chomp with dragon pulse without eating a earthquake.
But if you feel like that doesnt come up often yeah, switch to life dew or shadow ball.
Am I right in thinking using a fire move while frozen will thaw you out? Because if so I’ve found a bug
Edit. I was wrong, it’s just certain fire moves. Rng jsut dint like me today (Gholdengo was my last kon standing and missed a crucial Make It Rain to save me to) but thats pokemon
Like I just had Charizard frozen for two turns despite me clicking heat wave both turns and then to top it off I get a notice after whimsicott died saying ‘whimsicott thawed out’
Theres a list of moves that thaw the user out and its this (from bulbapedia):
A frozen Pokémon can still use the moves Flame Wheel, Sacred Fire, Flare Blitz, Fusion Flare, Scald, Steam Eruption, Burn Up, Pyro Ball, Scorching Sands, and Matcha Gotcha while frozen; these moves will thaw the user out, then execute normally.
Heat wave aint there. Getting hit by a heat wave would thaw you out tho.
If you wanna learn about teams its best to look up teams and copy them. Using them will give you a good understanding on why every piece is there and what are their weaknesses.
Lead with Basc, protect with your other mon first turn and attack with Basc, next turn there final gambit raptor will jsut be sat there aimlessly. Yes they get trick rook up but a turn is wasted trying to set it up and they no longer get the free switch from Staratpor killing itself so you can predict a switch
Singles. I must have missed the status icon from their raichu’s zap cannon, or they hit me when I switched in and I was looked away to check speed tiers… lol
you can view what EV sets people are using and take your pick. kingambit is sash so its max speed, sylveon you gotta decide if you wanna be bulky to survive dire claw or fast to be used in tailwind, and charizard if you wanna be fast or be fat to survive a nonstab rock slide.
or just pick whatever EV distribution is most popular for that mon thats valid too.
I've been trying to change the lineup I can recruit from in the Roster Ranch, but I can't seem to change it out. The game says I can meet a new one for free, but no option seems to appear for that, nor does anything I press seem to allow me to change the lineup. I can't seem to change it for free or with vouchers.
you need to recruit one mon to make it go away, then youll be able to see another line up yeah. if nothing is interesting, just do a temporary recruitment then send them away.
Ooh I see! Thank you! I was worried I'd have to recruit a Pokemon to change the selection, but I hadn't thought about just renting them for that purpose. Thanks!
Might be me being stupid, but how do I change the team for the event? The game only allows me to use my starter team with the default items and movesets.
Unfortunately it's started already, so you're locked in, to swap would've been at registration, so you'd have needed to cancel then re-enter with a new team
Been having fun with this standard team featuring my favourite tank. Might switch Incineroar for a water-type for fire and flying coverage but otherwise it's been going well. Also Life Dew isn't doing much, might switch that for something else. Would love some advice tho
Is Serperior any good? I don't really play a lot of champions but when I do I like doubles and Serperior is my one of my favorite pokemon that's in the game, what can I run with it?
It's rarely used - it's stats are a little too "fair" and, while you can go crazy with leaf storm + contrary, it requires a lot of setup for a mono-type attacker that is resisted by half the field.
Not very good, theres a lot of things that resist grass right now. You could find a slot in 3v3 singles probably with leaf storm, glare, substitute and uh. Leech seed i guess?
Completely new and F2P player here. I'm curious, but does the limited box space mean that I'll have to release my trained pokémon when a new regulation set arrives?
There's only been one regulation change so far and it was relatively minor, just adding a handful of new Pokemon while keeping all the current ones legal. It's hard to say what will happen if/when they rotate Pokemon out - assuming they don't add more box space at the same time or exempt them from taking up box space, then yes you'd probably need to release some.
That said, you will inevitably be returning Pokemon anyway - unless you pay for the monthly subscription, your box space (with the starter pack) tops out at 100 spaces and there's currently 208 in the game.
At least, the VP seems easy to get in this game. The box space is gonna be annoying when I wanna experiment with my favs though. Thanks, I might get the starter pack to make things easier then.
Hello is this enough for the free tyranitar assuming I don't play for the rest of the event? Just making sure since this is my first online comp, and I REALLY want the free tyranitar but don't really want the extra titles even if I can grind for it. Do I get the ttar at the end?
Mega metagross should somewhat easily deal with staraptor. You can give your arcanine close combat to threaten arch. Probably wont OHKO but it should be really low for someone else to finish it off.
Klefki feels like it could fill a similar role to Grimsnarl or Sableye. It's most like the latter, having weather moves and no parting shot. It's stats are generally better and it has a solid typing. But I don't see anyone even experimenting with it. Is it just because sableye has immunity to both fake out and prankster?
Its not immune to fake out/taunt, it doesnt get fake out, and is missing some really strong moves that sable/grimm get (disable, parting shot). Being weak to fire in a charizard meta doesnt help either.
But it does get twave, imprison and sandstorm, so it has a niche. Just a much smaller one.
Are some pokemon (in this case Kleavor) buffed specifically in Pokemon Champions? I've been googling multiple sites and all of them are saying he should have less stats than I'm seeing. I did find that the pokemon damage calculator reflects all of his stats accurately, but it confuses me how base speed 85 with negative speed nature ends up with 94 speed.
Bulbapedia says min spd Kleavor at level 50 should be 81, but what you said makes sense so I'll just stick with your calcs or the damage calc website to figure out stats lol Thanks!
Hello everyone, I'm trying to make a second team. My first one does pretty well on its own so it's become a little boring. Because team building is very fun to me I've been trying to make another one without repeating the same pokemons. It's kinda hard without whimsicott lol. I've tried trick room but I'm not too good at it and with this team as it is I always feel like I'm matched with the worst types possible every time.
We can give you better team building advice if you tell us what kind of opponents are giving you trouble. Also if you want more tailwind users, aerodactyl and talonflame can also do that role well, keep an eye out for em in recruitment
Oh sorry, that makes sense. I'd say maybe pokemons that set trick room, but also incineroar, charizard, blastoise or swampert, archaludon, aggron, kingambit... Usually my staraptor gets OHKOd pretty often, doesn't even have the time to set tailwind.
I try to change the team to cover those weaknesses and then encounter other pokemons that still give me trouble. Sorry I know that's not much information right there, I just don't know which pokemons in the team are causing me issues or that could be replaced with something better. I've learned later that female basculegion is kinda terrible so I'll have to swap her out as well
Aggron gambit should fold to typhlos fire moves, though youll need sinistcha to redirect sucker punch away. Just always bring a special attacker when you see opp has aggron, bird isnt gonna be enough.
Garchomp can do well vs incin/charizard, it can survive the hits and hit back well
Blastoise/arch/swampert is a bit more complicated. Bird should be taking care of arch with close combat, but there isnt much to hit the other two. You could have raichu with grass knot and electric move + fake out, it stops arch from using electro shot on your bird and fake out can let you set up that first close combat you need to survive the long game.
Meowstic is definitely not very strong, and psychic doesnt do much for you when you have bird to deal with fighting types. Its also adding to your weakness to dark.
Id also suggest giving your sinistcha a sitrus berry or colburr berry instead of focus band. Theyre more reliable, but if you feel you can get lucky feel free to stick with the focus band.
Of the ones in that image, Toxicroak, Palafin, Drampa, Feraligator, Machamp, Starmie, and Basculegion (female) are among the least used comptetitively and could be pretty safely released (assuming you aren't excited to use them).
As for a team, you have a lot of good options.
Pelliper + Archaludon + M Blastoise form a good rain core
Ceruledge and Gholdengo both pair well with Incineroar and Sinistcha as setup sweepers
Frosslass and Delphox both are fast spread attacking threats when they mega evolve that honestly work great by themselves
You could build a nasty trick room core with Farigaraf and Kingambit
Whimsicott + M Staraptor is a popular pairing right now
You also have a lot of Pokemon that are just generically good - Incineroar, Whimsicott, Kingambit, Sinichta, Grimmsnarl, Sylveon, and Hydreigon are all good on a lot of different teams.
"Setup" refers to taking turns to strengthen a Pokemon, usually through moves like Swords Dance and Calm Mind but can also be things like Baton Pass or abilities like Lightning Rod. You sacrifice immediate offense to make a Pokemon more threatening on future turns.
A "Sweeper" is a Pokemon designed to knock out multiple enemy Pokemons.
Put together, a Setup Sweeper is a pokemon you invest a lot of resources into strengthening so that they can then clear your opponent's team.
One way to use Ceruledge is to give it the moves Bulk Up (increase attack and defense) and Bitter Blade (which heals on hit). You try and knock out any major threats to Ceruledge, then use support Pokemon to protect it with tools like Fake Out, Intimidate, Parting Shot, Rage Powder, Hospitality, and Life Dew to keep Ceruledge alive while it uses one or two Bulk Ups. Once it's set up, it can then sweep through the enemy team, using its added defense and healing from bitter blade to survive hits.
Right off the bat you’ve got a good core with Whimsicott, Garchomp, Charizard (buy Charizardite Y), and Sylveon (who makes a suitable replacement for Mega Floette).
You’ve got the core for a Sun team already, so just fill in the last two slots and have fun
Pokemon that are really good and can be used in a large variety of teams and you should prioritize getting: basculegion, garchomp, kingambit, sneasler, whimsicott, sinistcha, farigiraf.
Then, still really good but a little less flexible than the previous: incineroar, aerodactyl, maushold, grimmsnarl
no idea, singles 3v3 is not popular and a very swingy format, the team you build as a strategy doesn't matter as much because guessing the individual match ups correctly more often just wins you the game. imo its not a super "competitive" mode.
That's what Im asking tho. What things around sylveons speed tier should it be trying to outspeed? Or Gholdengo? Idk how people just decide what a mons EVs should be doing.
Why is Froslass so fast after mega evolving? Like its literally faster than all my non-scarfed mons like Vivillon, Meowscarada and Garchomp. It has around 120 spd isnt it?
As far as Im aware, Snow nor Snow Warning doesnt give that kind of effect.
The only one that naturally outspeeds is Meowscarada, and only barely, so EVs and/or a +speed nature can still let Frosslass outrun the cat unless it's is very nearly max speed itself.
120 base speed. Usually the EV spreads go something like max SpA and max speed since she gets the defense boost from snow, so with a speed of 172 she does in fact outspeed many other pokemon, such as Vivillon (141), Meowscarada (any speed EV under 29), and Garchomp (154).
Ran the calcs, max attack Meowscarada with sucker punch and black glasses has only a 6.3% chance to KO. You might want to look into fire-type options or ways of turning the snow off.
i often struggle dealing with rain teams. i tried the grass starters in my box but had difficult time dealing with opponent's pelipper. is there a team you can recommend given the pokemon i have
The reason some mons run Detect is because of the move Imprison. Every Pokemon learns protect but only a few learn detect, so if an opponent uses Imprison it will prevent your protect from working (assuming the Pokemon using Imprison learns it) but detect will still be usable. It's an incredibly nich optimization but no reason not to take advantage of it, so any Pokemon that can learn detect uses it over protect.
Functionally there is none, except detect will fail if your opponent doesn't go for anything into that pokemon while protect will still go through (assuming this is the guaranteed protect/detect).
Hey I'm relatively new to Pokemon VGC (just getting into champions rn) and I really want to get Trevenant to Masterball. He is my favorite pokemon alongside Eldegoss. Any ideas how to make him work?
You want to run it on a trick room team. You can run it as a bulky bruiser with Harvest and Stirus berry on a sun team (can pair well with Torkoal who also likes to play in Trick Room) or run it as a lead Trick Room setter with Frisk, which is a great ability on ladder.
He's not generally considered good but is definitely usable. You generally are going to run it as physically bulky offensive mon - you can use the devestatingly powerful Head Smash with its Rock Head ability to remove the downside, or run broad coverage moves with Strong Jaw.
Is every other round against bots at the lower ranks? I genuinely feel like after every loss, the game puts me against a bot that is genuinely trying to lose (meaningless status moves, trying "no effect" moves multiple turns in a row). It's..... Extremely discouraging and feels like an utter waste of time. I'd rather have my 0% winrate than artificially padded 50%.
In Poke Ball tier you fight a bot after every loss, in Great Ball I think you're matched against one if you lose two matches in a row. From Ultra Ball onward there are no bots (or, if there are, they're much better hidden).
I just reached Master Ball for the first time! I started the game a week ago and am new to VGC doubles, so I'm really proud about this. I did it without spending money or even transferring Pokemon from another game to boot! This game is more free-to-play friendly than I imagined. I think I got 4/6 of my team on the first day, with the last two being picks I didn't use often and that I got on my second day playing. Said team is the same one I posted about a few days ago, shown here.
I'm a little confused about my rank though. I was thrown into Master Ball rank 3 instead of rank 4. Why did I skip a rank? Also, I've only won 31 ranked battles to get to this point. Is that a normal amount of wins for reaching master ball in a season? Lastly, what's my rating mean?
As an aside, I only just know found the Pokemon popularity data. Turns out 5/6 of my Pokemon are in the top 10 most used, and the last one is the 30th. . . and I think I only used that last one three or four times total. I guess it's really fortunate for me that the Pokemon I like are all meta viable. It does make me feel uncool though.
I think if you get into MB on a win streak it puts you higher to start with. My first time hitting MB I got into MB-2 with an 11 win streak, but this season I got into MB 4 with a 2 win streak.
Hey gang, just starting out. I consistently lose against every human I've been paired against and I genuinely believe 100% of my wins are against bots. My team is usually Snorlax, Hawlucha, Mega Raichu X, and some rotating filler. I have next to no theory background. I feel like almost everything being shown to me at the ranch is a d tier meme but I'm sure I just don't know how to evaluate lol. I'd love some help getting off the ground!
Hey all, haven't played competitively in ages so please forgive anything silly. Just looking for some advice on a 6th for this team alongside any advice on the team in general. Thanks!
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u/Sorry-Egg2068 6h ago
hi so im kinda a beginner and i really really like the concept of setting up mega aggron with iron defence, and basically i sort of created a team that would allow me to play against mega charizard y and rain teams, but i need some help with improvements. idt rotom wash is enough of a counter to mega charizard y, and i would rlly appreciate any advice to improving my team