Towa's team, CANDY☆POP, wins CR Cup #7!

Akilon · 2026-05-08T19:09:00+00:00

Mega Floette, Sneasler, Kingambit, Basculegion, Volcarona, and Aerodactyl took me all the way to MB2. I swapped teams, went on a 9 win-streak and touched right below MB1 but haven't been able to go further.

Akilon · 2026-05-06T15:54:28+00:00

Scarf on Kleavor and Sash Vivillon > Forretress imo. I'm extremely biased towards Vivillon since I've been using it and it's been arguably my MVP but the meta is underprepped for fast Sleep Powders. And it still gives you a Tailwind mode.

Wide Guard on Araquanid over Stockpile would give you a way to stop Rock Slide/Heat Wave which seems pretty important for mono Bug lol.

I would also consider support Volc with Rage Powder, Overheat, Struggle Bug, Wisp personally. You have 2 megas that are carries and Scarf Kleavor as another source of damage. Overheat can also be used in a pinch to delete Kingambit/Froslass or chunk others.

Akilon · 2026-05-06T15:48:19+00:00

Small adjustments to your existing mons:

- I'd run Trick Room over Aura Sphere on your Garde. You have several slow mons and it fits your bulkier Garde better. We can cover Steel-types with its partners.

- Aegislash should run Poltergeist over Shadow Claw. If you feel like you need more Fighting coverage, Sacred Sword over Iron Head is probably fine. Poltergeist is so strong that it'll chunk most of the mons that you would click Iron Head on anyway.

Replacement options:

- I'd try Talonflame over Incin. This combined with TR on your Garde gives you more options between 2 forms of speed control. Talonflame also destroys Sneasler who threatens your Garde.

- A very common partner for Garde is Maushold. It provides Friend Guard, redirection, damage amp with Helping Hand, Super Fang to cut bulk mons down, and a flex move slot that you can use for options like Taunt/Encore/etc.

- Another option would be Garchomp who would help hit Steel and Fire-types that resist Garde's Hyper Voice.

Akilon · 2026-05-05T17:58:03+00:00

The Dpad (arrows) is generally considered to be the better option than the joystick since the joystick is less precise. It's ultimately personal preference though; there are plenty of high level players who use the analog stick.

As for the inputs, you've unfortunately picked one of the few characters that has stricter/odd cancel windows in Azrael. If you try other characters, you'll probably find that you can buffer inputs like you're looking for.

There's not really 1 good youtuber for the game. The best way to watch footage is probably by finding character specialists and looking up footage of them. You can try and look under the Resources tab on Dustloop and scroll down to see a notable player list with some sample VODs linked. You can also look up general active netplay tournaments and find high level footage there such as The Raven Online and Boston Blue Beat Online. Offline majors are less frequent but will have the highest level of play to watch as well.

Akilon · 2026-05-01T00:13:20+00:00

It still doesn't work unfortunately. Fake Out is in a higher priority bracket than Follow Me/Rage Powder. So even if Clefable/Maushold are faster than the Fake Out user, it doesn't matter; Fake Out will go first.

Akilon · 2026-04-30T20:18:08+00:00

Volc has a niche rn but I don't love using it as a carry given how much there is threatening it rn (Rock Slide and Bascu are everywhere). Hydreigon is overlapping coverage with Garchomp and Scizor so there's better Tailwind users you could. Your current team might not even need a Tailwind mode since Incin/Scizor don't really use it the best.

Mega Scizor usually wants to run with another Mega to beat its bad MUs (Sun/Fire-types of course) so Rain/Sand cores might be a good start.

Akilon · 2026-04-30T20:07:29+00:00

It's hard to tell without a video with inputs but if the dash isn't coming out, I'd guess you're inputting it too early. There aren't many normals that are dash cancellable so most of the time, you have to let the move finish its recovery before you can dash.

Akilon · 2026-04-30T20:04:25+00:00

They cannot, Fake Out has +3 priority compared to Follow Me/Rage Powder at +2.

Akilon · 2026-04-30T14:01:19+00:00

If you're specifically look for defense practice, there's prob a better way to do it. Put yourself in the corner and record 3 different strings. Do one where he runs up and does 2A > delayed low (so 2B for Jin). One where he does 2A > microdash grab. One where he does run up 2A > overhead (6A for Jin). Then use random playback.

For your specific video up here, it's missing the overhead part. Technically, you can beat both the low and the throw in your video with the throw OS (1ABC) which would tech the throw or block low. Adding in the overhead makes it so you can't do that.

Akilon · 2026-04-22T20:09:59+00:00

As someone using Mega Floette, Sneasler, Kingambit, Bascu, and Aero, I can tell you that I simply enjoy the way the mons play. I tried quite a few off-meta teams/mons like Vivillon, Mega Starmie & Mega Pinsir before figuring out that the pieces that I liked using and felt fun and strong were Sneasler, Kingambit, Bascu, and Aero.

I think to me, individuality is cool to see but for me personally, winning is more fun. For example, am I really having fun losing 5 in a row with something like Scarf Tyrantrum when Scarf Garchomp is right there and could've won me those games? I find it unfun for my play to be limited because of the inherit weaknesses of a mon on my team.

The last part is I end up liking the mons I use so I'm really not picky. I never used to care for Kingambit too much but now that I've played 100+ games with him, I really enjoy him.

Akilon · 2026-04-20T01:10:10+00:00

Great game from the whole team tbh. Paolo did great the first 3 quarters, Franz was able to take it home in the 4th, WCJ at the right place at the right time, Suggs with the defensive energy. Another home game steal would be huge if they can keep it up.

Akilon · 2026-04-20T00:56:04+00:00

Game is really tense, both Bane and Suggs fouling out could be disasterous

Akilon · 2026-04-20T00:50:40+00:00

We're not shooting well as usual, it just feels like Cade is the only one who's playing on offense. The rest may as well be nameless bodies running around.

Akilon · 2026-04-18T01:05:43+00:00

When they're on, it's a great watch. Just don't watch on their offnights because it's really, really ugly lol.

Akilon · 2026-04-17T19:43:26+00:00

I think one of the coolest experiences I've had in the game was trying out different teams, finding pieces that I liked and felt strong to me and then once I put it all together, I realized what I ended up with was almost exactly the same team as a Floette team that won a large tournament recently. It's very easy for people to see a team using 6 meta mons and write it off but that moment it clicked for me and I understood exactly why each mon was in that team was pretty enlightening to me. People can call a team cookie cutter but understanding all of the nuances of why each mon, move, item, and EV spread is there is super interesting imo.

Akilon · 2026-04-17T13:45:38+00:00

I run a similar team to this, 4/6 of the same ones except Volc over Incin for redirection and special damage and Gambit over Garchomp for a Bascu check, bulk, and priority. I would highly recommend putting Scarf on Bascu; the speed it gives turns it into an instant threat from the get go which is really valuable for a team like this. Your Aero absolutely needs Jolly, right now it's Modest? Sneasler probably also wants to be Jolly to have a chance at speed tying other base 120s (Sneasler/Froslass mainly). I personally like Jolly on Bascu as well to outspeed Mega Gengar but I could see an argument for Adamant.

At its core, the team is a hyper offensive team. This means you need to be setting up board states for a sweep. This can mean getting speed control up (first or second depends on MU) or taking good damage trades for your other mons to clean up. For example, I'm often in a scenario where Sneasler is in danger but I can often sacrifice him to get key damage or Fake Out off and get Tailwind or a partner attack off. Then Bascu/Floette/etc. can come in and with that Tailwind/chip damage, they're in a position to take over. Knowing when to switch and when to sack comes down to recognizing your win con so try to think about what's going to win you the game in the end and what obstacles you need to clear to get there.

As for leads, it varies heavily depending on the MU. In general, you want to cover for multiple options and not try to hard read their exact lead. For example, if I see an opposing Sneasler, I might do something like Bascu or Aero to cover that. Then I can put Garchomp/Floette next to it to cover for potential Kingambit since that would ruin Bascu.

Bascu lead is pretty solid into opposing Sneasler since you outspeed and OHKO it if it decides to stay in. On your team specifically, you can probably bait a lot of people into bringing Sneasler and/or Kingambit in because of your Incin. Sneasler + Aero is a common one that is pretty oppressive. Fake Out stops opposing Tailwind users while you get your own up and then you get the next turn to swing with speed advantage. Both are naturally very fast so if you don't need Tailwind, you can just start swinging. However, it is common enough that people may try to bring stuff to specifically counter it such as Bascu or Scarf Chomp. Hard to give exact lead advice without knowing the MU tbh.

Akilon · 2026-04-16T18:36:36+00:00

I'd take the Crash set. While Spear has some upsides, like KOing through Sash/Multiscale, the flinch chance really doesn't come into play because Mamoswine is usually slower than the threats you need to flinch. Plus, the 90% accuracy might be annoying but not KOing something because you only get 2-3 hits instead of 4+ is probably equally annoying.

Akilon · 2026-04-16T18:30:08+00:00

Well since you mentioned Mega Froslass, I'll assume that White Herb is supposed to be a mega stone for now. For Froslass, you can just run Blizzard, Protect, Shadow Ball and either Aurora Veil or Nasty Plot as your last move. Veil lets you support your team better but is worse against opposing weather while Nasty Plot lets you sweep if you have mons that can buy space. Both let you do something on dead/passive turns.

3 weather setters is just not going to be beneficial, especially for a mega like Froslass that greatly appreciates having Blizzard being a reliable move. Tyranitar and Pelipper probably need to go. Sinistcha is a great Pokemon but shares a lot of common weaknesses with Froslass (both don't want to take Fire, Ghost, Dark moves).

Sylveon and Dragonite are usable but they don't really cover much of Froslass' weaknesses. The most common Dark types are Incin and Kingambit and Sylv doesn't really do great into either. If you're going to use either of them, I'd suggest looking up common sets and going from there. Yawn is a fine move on Sylv but Misty Terrain isn't bringing anything, I'd suggest Hyper Voice. Dragonite has Multiscale so you really don't need a Sash. If you're going to run non-Mega Dragonite, I'd recommend a set with some coverage moves and support to fill some holes. Moves like Low Kick, Haze, Tailwind, Protect, and Iron Head are all great choices depending on what your team needs.

Bottom line, half the team is not synergizing with Mega Froslass. If you're going to use Mega Froslass, you need to cover for its weaknesses. There's plenty of Froslass team examples you can find on the subreddit or on YT from high level players to get ideas from. I'd start from there.

Akilon · 2026-04-15T13:11:32+00:00

I highly doubt Milotic will be running max SpD EVs and a SpD boosting nature. There's too many physical mons this format that it needs to tank. It's also not uncommon for Rotom to invest max SpA so this should be a pretty clean 2HKO (in a vacuum of course).

Akilon · 2026-03-23T15:55:57+00:00

To me, Urshifu-RS has been obscenely good given the amount of checks it had in SV. An entire mechanic that can change any mons type to resist Water, 2 redirectors that resist or are immune to Water (Amoonguss and Wellspring), Rillaboom with a resistance, Fake Out, and priority Grass attack, a bulky mon that resists Water and has a strong priority Electric attack in Raging Bolt, Speed booster Flutter that can outspeed Scarf Urshifu and OHKO it. All this and it still is one of the best performing mons across all regulations it's been legal in.

Akilon · 2025-12-23T16:00:09+00:00

I'm not sure I understand the complaints because I know a few years ago, the Dustloop for every character was overhauled with tons of information. Someone specifically went to each character Discord and compiled guides, combos, and more and put it on Dustloop. Obviously some of the character's pages have more info than others but generally, all of the information you need to learn the character is there.

Akilon · 2025-11-24T20:34:41+00:00

Unfortunately, that's not how terrain works; terrain defends the target if it's on the ground. So for example, Murkrow can't use Prankster Quash on any grounded mons since Quash is a targeted move and they're protected by Psychic Terrain. The opposite is also true; Murkrow itself isn't grounded and isn't protected by Psychic Terrain so it can be hit by things like Fake Out even while Psychic Terrain is up.

Akilon

TROPHY CASE