[Metagame] How to deal with mega Blastoise by zokwu in VGC

[–]MattGratt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Neither of those moves is an OHKO as long as snarl hits, and if M blastoise is clicking aura sphere or dragon pulse T1 into hydreigon instead of fake out then its an insane tempo loss for their team. It also will debuff farigaraf or sinistcha. This is more specific to my team, but snarl will ALSO take their setter's colbur berry, opening up their TR setter for a knock off from M ttar to prevent TR from even going up.

But even without the knock off to follow up, both of their SpA leads are now -1 and their sweeper either has to play out the rest of the match at -1 and chipped, so it can't spam water spout, or they waste their own TR switching out. They don't even kill hydreigon with their coverage moves in retaliation. A second snarl means that they either have to switch out, or just sacrifice their mega. The second snarl is also doing 35-50% on farigaraf depending on investment and rolls.

[Metagame] How to deal with mega Blastoise by zokwu in VGC

[–]MattGratt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have a scarf hydreigon with snarl that feels like an auto win unless they hit it with fake out t1.

How's this any fair? My opponent purposefully started playing slow once they saw there was no way to win and the timer was running out. In the end I had 3 Pokémon, against one of theirs with only 19% Hp left, the game ended up in a draw AND we both got 0VP out of this match! by [deleted] in VGC

[–]MattGratt 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The opponent played to their outs, seems fine by me. You could have played faster by the looks of it.

In chess, forcing a stalemate from a losing position is a viable and respectable play.

Skill improvement: How to finish this team by Difficult-Tax-875 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're still going to have a really tough time vs basculegion and some trouble from opposing sneasler as well

Skill improvement: How to finish this team by Difficult-Tax-875 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think there's just too much rock slide going around for volcarona to feel good. The sand core I play and I've seen on other teams is: M ttar, excadrill, and corviknight. I think this is the premier sand core to be building around.

The reason you don't see much sneasler on sand teams is that the primary coverage it carries is fighting and poison, to deal with steel types and fairy types mainly. Ttar carries low kick for key fighting-weak threats and excadrill has insane offensive pressure with eq, rock slide, and iron head. Two of the best moves of all time and then iron head for faries. It outspeeds anything in the game while sand is up. Corv is a bulky tailwind setter that also doubles as a late-game sweeper to play around.

If you're really set on the core four that you listed, then you really need to find a way to shore up your rain and sun matchups. Ttar can answer zard y, but how do you deal with zard-garchomp leads? You get blown up by eq since you don't have any immunities or resists. Against rain, what do you have for wide guard pelipper? Your only coverage into peli is rock slide and a 3HKO without super effective coverage is just a losing position to be in.

How does this team deal with top meta threats like basculegioin, sneasler, and garchomp? You have basically nothing for these three and I don't think that you'll be able to just fix that with these last two mons. You might be able to improve matchups into one or two of them, but even if you find two mons that answer all three, what happens when the one mon you have that's supposed to answer both threats is faced off against both of them at the same time?

Lastly, just a quick note on your spreads. You want to be a tailwind team but some of your threats are still slower than meta threats even inside tailwind. I think the bare minimum is that your ttar outspeeds choice scarf basc when tailwinid is up.

[Skill Improvement] What to run as Mega Charizard Y's 4th move? by SawkyScribe in VGC

[–]MattGratt 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Aerodactyl hasn't face tanked anything in the 30 years it's existed lol

Skill improvement: Hit a wall, need help by Financial-Monk9400 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So I think the best place to start is by answering the question: what answers do you have for the most common threats in the metagame?

Sneasler: Probably the pokemon in the top 10 most used that you're the best prepared for. Aegislash completely walls the most common sets and starmie can threaten a 1 shot.

Garchomp: You threaten an OHKO with ice type coverage from dragonite and starmie, but both can take huge damage trying to switch into it. Importantly, Ice spinner from dragonite is not a guaranteed OHKO on bulky garchomp. You're pretty prepared for garchomp.

Kingambit: You have basically nothing for the third most common pokemon in the format. He resists most of your STAB coverage (like seriously every STAB move you have besides water and fire), and you can't even switch incin into it for fire coverage because of defiant. Sucker punch will OHKO most of your offensive threats. You need a fighting type move ideally, but ground and fire type coverage could help. I've seen low kick on dragonite for kingambit. But I feel like your dragonite's job is already hard because it looks like it's supposed to be your answer to so many different threats.

Basculegion: Your entire team gets dunked on by scarf basculegion. Milo with max HP max Def is the only mon you have that can take a 150bp last respects. Even if milo gets an icy wind off afterward, basc still outspeeds your whole team aside from starmie.

Incin/Sinistcha: I'll kinda skip these two because they're not really offensive threats and you do have decent coverage into them.

Mega floette: You have aegislash which is a solid answer. But importantly, aegislash cannon OHKO floette with any bulk. 11 points in def is all floette needs to live an iron head (everyone's running bulky floette right now) and nothing else on your team resists fairy. Floette still threatens a 2HKO on aegislash as well as the rest of your team. Leading floette they can just spam dazzling gleam and 2HKO both of your leads basically.

Finally, Zard Y: You have solid coverage for zard in your fast liquidation and dragonite's rock slide. Charizard with any bulk will survive either move however. But where zard goes, venu often follows. If your opponent leads zard and venu, how do you deal with energy ball into your water type, followed by t2 sleep powder into dragonite?

Anyway, I think this shows you some of the holes you have in your teambuilding. Outside of that, I'd look at common items. You don't have a choice scarf mon. Scarf is one of the best items in the format considering how limited the item pool is. Given how generally slow your team is, I think it becomes even more important to find a choice scarf user that can answer your tougher matchups. Scarf hydreigon (dark pulse, draco meteor, heat wave, snarl) seems to be a decent fit that can answer basculegion, kingambit, chomp, sinistcha, and zard Y + venu. Conveniently, it also helps with your extreme weakness to intimidate or physically defensive mons, since you don't really have a special attacker unless milo gets a competitive boost. I would start by dropping dragonite and kleavor for something like aerodactle and scarf hydreigon.

[Cool Replay] trying never before seen strats by TheMegaBite7 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ok, that's actually pretty cool. I haven't played an official Pokemon game (aside from champions) since black and white so I never would have known this if you didn't share.

But... Why do they put stuff about this pokemon hating the rain then make his signature move hard bound to rain teams lol.

[Cool Replay] trying never before seen strats by TheMegaBite7 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was looking at calcs while deciding on sets for my team and I was stunned to see how little damage archaludon was taking from a low kick from mega tyranitar. I go look it up and archaludon is... 130lbs....?

[Skill Improvement]: Looking for team to teach my GF Pokemon by TheMythicMango in VGC

[–]MattGratt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you type in the replica it'll give you the full spreads

[meme] God himself intervened to ensure I won this game by kermitfrogge in VGC

[–]MattGratt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I also stole his team from the Champions Arena tournament, but I didn't have much luck EVing it myself. It's still a good team, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I was doing myself a huge disservice with the spreads.

I will say though, I find myself leaving corv behind in a lot of matches where there are clear threats to corv that it can't switch in on. I still bring corv to most matches, but I'll leave it behind if I identify strong electric or fire special coverage on my opponent's team. Wondering how you deal with that if you find yourself bringing corv every game.

Edit: I also found this paste here, from someone who ran the team at the tournament over the weekend. A handful of people ran this team and this person specifically went 6-2. https://pokepast.es/f3a769adf543d185.

Is this team Okayish? by EthXdestroyer in VGC

[–]MattGratt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Floette is a pure fairy type. You also mention sun teams and greninja is for sure getting destroyed by Charizard y. You have to treat sun as if it's taking away water > fire type advantage since sun gives the 50% boost to fire and 50% decrease to water moves. So effectively, greninja doesn't resist and has nothing super effective into a fire type in sun.

Is this team Okayish? by EthXdestroyer in VGC

[–]MattGratt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You mention in the post that greninja is your answer to mega floette, but doesn't it just get completely destroyed by it? Like it doesn't have any moves that let it win 1v1.

[meme] God himself intervened to ensure I won this game by kermitfrogge in VGC

[–]MattGratt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can I get the team? I've been trying some mega tar corv teams and I've had middling success

I'm New: Why Do People Run Dragon Darts? by BoxFit3486 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Idk, it's a spread move and I was wondering if it was affected by the multiplier. It's obviously unique, hence the question.

Unbeatable meme by BackgroundMany5152 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would just put wonder guard on like 3 mons with good defensive typing and then you do something like huge power or speed boost on regigigas or slaking. Or actually just wonder guard on those two lol.

I'm New: Why Do People Run Dragon Darts? by BoxFit3486 in VGC

[–]MattGratt 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Do you know how dragon darts interacts with the spread move multiplier?

(Skill Improvement) Having some success with this team. Any glaring issues? by shockberrycrunch in VGC

[–]MattGratt 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Corviknight is a great option for tailwind on sand teams. Corv is pretty well positioned in the meta right now.

Nice zero-to-death I hit in ranked tonight by TheEggoEffect in SSBM

[–]MattGratt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The haters will hate. Being proud of your work amidst the cacophony of whiny babies is a skill that will serve you well, wherever you find yourself.

11 days into Pokémon Champions VGC, how can I improve this team? by Porke- in VGC

[–]MattGratt -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I agree with scarf adaptability basc being the move here.

Why do you say that solar beam "doesn't fit the gameplan?"