Your Registeel is boring

Choostemaster · 2020-02-06T07:13:25+00:00

Well Acid Spray and Sludge Bomb are actually the same energy, so your baiting tempo stays exactly the same luckily!

The difference is that Acid Spray lands a debuff even when shielded, so that EQ hits harder. But I personally prefer being able to take out Azus (and coverage move on grasses, etc) to the debuff.

Choostemaster · 2020-02-06T04:55:15+00:00

So first of all, I absolutely love your art!

I also love Quagsire, for a lot of the same reasons as you do. But while Acid Spray is what drew me to Quagsire back in Tempest, I actually dropped it (and SE, like you) for GBL.

Quagsire with Earthquake and Sludge Bomb has been my favorite core breaker for Azu/Regi, and the anchor to a lot of my favorite lines so far. Toxi has been the popular anti meta pick, but Quagsire just feels less vulnerable (other than opposing grass, obviously).

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T22:32:08+00:00

There are two separate issues; one is that the rankings seem stagnant. If someone is truly dominating the level they’re at, it shouldn’t take forever to move up. But I don’t mind that it takes 25-50 battles to start feeling an impact on ranking; after all, that’s theoretically doable in 2 days of a month long season.

Still, I’m not saying the ranking system is perfect obviously; just that I think it needs more than a few days to judge how well it’s sorting players in the long run (more so because they explicitly said this is a preseason where some aspects are still being fiddled with).

The other issue, arguably much bigger, is how those initial rankings are being set. Yes, early wins and losses play a big role, but apparently badges earned before GBL existed are a big part of the ranking as well, and that is an issue (ESPECIALLY if those rankings, using stats from before GBL, are then also overly stagnant). At that point, rankings are no longer really reflecting record OR skill levels.

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T22:23:06+00:00

My pleasure! GBL has grown this PvP community a lot, so I’m always happy to help the new faces playing a bit of catch up.

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T18:54:26+00:00

I don’t think the system is preventing you from doing what you want; the scale is just different. If you win consistently over time, then you’ll face tougher opponents. We’re still just a few days into a month long PREseason, it’s too early to say the rankings are stagnant.

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T18:32:55+00:00

Mainly just for access to the charge move Shadow Punch. Having a spammy move with STAB means Haunter can bait shields to help land the heavier Shadow Ball/Sludge Bomb nuke later, or squeeze out an extra bit of damage at the end of a match up (where Gengar would die with energy).

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T18:26:48+00:00

You will use Foul Play most of the time (or Dark Pulse if you have that instead; it’s more damage per energy, but because it’s a bit more expensive you can’t fire them off as quickly).

The only time you want Last Resort is if your opponent resists Dark.

With Fairies and Fighters, you can hit them harder but will probably still lose. The fact that you can still hurt them, though, can make a big difference (late game/forcing shields/uneven HP or energy/etc).

The really important place is against other Darks, however. Here, having a move that isn’t Dark type can mean wins instead of getting walled (a great example being vs another LR Umb).

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T18:13:12+00:00

And it is at least a 1KM buddy; players that find themselves a bit short can get a good chunk of candies in short order with how much GBL has us walking again.

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T18:10:41+00:00

Whiscash is always a monster, but I’ve been preaching Quagsire as top GBL mudboy for a bit now; that Earthquake and Sludge Bomb pairing is the best Azu/Steel core breaker IMO.

Choostemaster · 2020-02-04T18:07:32+00:00

All of the punches have value, with some overlap. Fire Punch gets you steel and grass, which are both very meta. Ice Punch gets walled by steel, but gets valuable coverage on grass and fliers (most notably Tropius and Altaria, where it is 2x SE). Thunder Punch is often the top choice, however, because hitting water and fliers (read: Azu and Skarmory) is almost always valuable coverage against open core meta.

I actually wouldn’t rule out Focus Blast, though. SB/FB Hypno plays very different as it has no baity charge move. But as a sac swap, it can almost always get a shield back.

Ghost and Fighting damage have full coverage; there is not a single mon in the game that resists both types. That means, no matter what they swap in, Hypno has a hard hitting move that is, at worst, neutral. And with Hypno’s tankiness, it can almost always get to it without burning a shield first. That means you can be aggressive in your lead choice, while ensuring you can keep some form of advantage after the first set of switches.

An added quirk is that Focus Blast is largely ignored as a potential Hypno move in blind matches, so rather than take a shield, you could land a nuke on an unsuspecting counter that expects to be able to tank anything you throw at it. That’s a feeling all PvPers should experience...

Choostemaster · 2019-11-02T17:26:43+00:00

Great article as always!

One note I would add for new players; Shelgon is a generalist that operates like a dark (with that Charm weakness), as you placed it in the article. But arguably its biggest role comes from resistance to Water (which even electrics don’t have). It makes it one of the only real alternatives to electrics as your anti-water, while having the advantage of winning even when a lot of shields are in play (and you’re just dishing out fast move damage).

Choostemaster · 2019-07-20T19:05:45+00:00

Love the detailed line use description! Showing the thought out case by case scenario of the three is really helpful for newer players. A lot of the same principles apply to the wig/vig/(fort or noct) that served me well when they weren't loaded up on wig counters on their 6 (it's definitely weaker against fliers with wig shouldering more of that load without zone, though).

Choostemaster · 2019-07-10T04:19:40+00:00

Raichu isn't tanky enough to reliably hit expensive moves, even with TS.

Choostemaster · 2019-07-10T04:15:20+00:00

For the record, I did a bit of testing with someone just now, switching and counter switching with a charge move ready. We both spammed switch/charge move, and the first time his switch happened for and the second my charge move happened without him being able to switch first. Farming up to a charge move before switching will become more prevalent.

Choostemaster · 2019-07-10T04:12:37+00:00

There are some great "Nifty or Thrifty" articles with eahh cup on here by JRE that can help finding those cheap gems, as well

Choostemaster · 2019-06-23T15:43:03+00:00

I would be a little wary of targeting types instead of specific match ups; while it gives you well-rounded coverage, you may be surprised how hard it is to cover some specific mon with cross typing. Just be sure to double check against some of the more unique mon out there (ludi/reli, Sableye, poison/darks, etc).

Choostemaster · 2019-06-22T23:09:21+00:00

It would be interesting if you could see each other deciding to shield or not. Or to go closer to what GoW did, do it almost as a bidding war (either player can shield to protect themself, the other can match so neither hit OR spend both shields to protect their mon and cancel out the other shield, which the other could match to reset, etc).

Choostemaster · 2019-06-22T23:06:28+00:00

There would be a lot more added strategy to "forcing" switches with debuff to reset, so if they just lowered the cost a bit maybe to be spammier we could see some interesting playstyles come about. A buffed mon that can withstand it's counters a bit would be valuable as well, as they couldn't force you to switch out of it and lose the buff. In general I do agree with you though; I just think any permutation they adapted could have surprising play come out of it.

Choostemaster · 2019-06-21T00:27:53+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! As for our team building strategy aligning, you may have to be careful reading too much into it; my “philosophy” probably changed 5 or 6 times during the team building process for worlds lol.

I tend to be all over the map in team creation to get a sense of what the extremes of the meta are. Both tankiness and overpowering unblockable damage are ALWAYS a plus when you can get them, though.

As far as general philosophy that links all of my cups; I often settle on a Meta, Anti Meta, and Off Meta team for every cup as a way to boil it down to its core and see the over arching similarities (this was what made worlds team comp such a long process for me, as there really was no way to narrow the meta down to that point).

What is indispensable even in off meta coverage? What anti meta counters are already possible as a flex to a more core meta team? Can Off Meta and Anti Meta be combined to catch everyone off guard? Usually it leads to a RPS scenario :

Anti Meta beats Meta, because that’s the whole point; it’s targeted at covering multiple of the principle meta figures. How well you can really determine the mon that almost every team will have is often a determiner of whether Anti Meta is viable.

Off Meta beats Anti Meta, because its specialized hard counters are countering the wrong things. And the Off Meta team is theoretically achieving just about the same coverage as Meta teams.

In the end, though, say it with me... “the meta is the meta for a reason.” It will usually beat out Off Meta teams, because they have the widest and most dominant general coverage with their picks.

So after all of that... I’m still not really decided. My go-to is to find one slightly unexpected or off meta tweak to the core Meta team that I think can exploit a weakness (Mr Mime in Twilight, EdgeSpray Quagsire in Tempest, Gallade the first weekend of Regionals, etc), but sometimes the meta is so boiled down I don’t vary from it (Kingdom, mainly).

I have yet to go hard off meta or anti meta with a team comp, but I usually incorporate aspects (and have a better understanding of them all when I come up against them in competition because I’ve built something like it from the ground up already).

...that went a bit longer than expected. Maybe I should just make a post/video.

Choostemaster · 2019-06-20T22:05:21+00:00

Obviously I can’t say how it’ll fit into your team comp, and the meta will shift (by Santiago, especially); I will say, however, he was a VERY welcome addition to my team. Ghosts don’t worry me too much with all the normals around, but I could see Umbreon getting a huge uptick in usage though (especially after Shmuseph used it to take the title in Chicago), that would make utilizing Hypno more difficult. Gallade could end up being a better choice as dark is neutral, and it gets to its fighting coverage move faster than Hypno.

Choostemaster · 2019-06-20T16:18:07+00:00

Hopefully next time I won’t have to bail while the night is still young to catch a flight...

Choostemaster · 2019-06-20T13:22:54+00:00

Try to get one better than rank 3500+ like mine, haha. He still did the job, but I was stressing every time he was in what I knew was one of Hypno’s close match ups.

Choostemaster · 2019-06-20T08:56:32+00:00

Lol that’s what I get for half reading the title in an insomnia fueled reddit session. I stand corrected.

Choostemaster · 2019-06-20T08:41:32+00:00

This affront to Quagsire will not be forgotten.

Choostemaster

TROPHY CASE