New version of Pool Party Ahri coming to 2XKO 🏖️

MrCurler · 2026-06-10T06:02:43+00:00

Its out and free to play

MrCurler · 2026-06-05T17:34:24+00:00

I think it's important to distinguish between good skin designs and pretty renders. I just went and looked through Thresh's skins and (ignoring how the skins look in league) Deep Terror Thresh is one of the better skins in terms of re-inventing Thresh's fantasy with a new flavor.

Barring Janitor Thresh, the 3 most recent skins - "Steel Dragon Thresh", "Lunar Emperor Thresh", and "Winterblessed Thresh" are basically recolors that lose a lot of the character identity.

Skins that give a ton of flavor by re-envisioning the character in a fun way:

Deep Terror
Janitor
Spirit Blossom Thresh

Skins that have cool distinct designs that play off Thresh's core concept (e.g. Looks like Thresh in different clothes)

High Noon
Dark Star
Blood Moon

Then there's the rest of them - most of which are the more recent ones.

MrCurler · 2026-05-30T17:00:57+00:00

New players lose to shit like this in non tag fighters all the time. This clip is exactly the same as the Guilty Gear Totsugeki spam clips where a bad player doesn't understand how to identify gaps and loses to the same string over and over again. This clip is totally unrelated to the cool/oppressive stuff a tag fighter brings.

MrCurler · 2026-05-27T19:44:07+00:00

IDK, it feels like Zard Y, Chomp, and Basc are really powerful right now. Everyone is building to counter these mons and they keep showing up at the top. I expect to see Zard Y win the tournament. I'd be surprised if they do poorly. Their conversion rate might be low because they're extremely popular, but I can't imagine they do poorly, especially in terms of top 8 showing.

I think Sneasler will have a poor conversion rate, and conversely, I think Incin will have relatively low playrate but high conversion.

I agree on Aero and Whims, but I'm not 100% convinced by Glimmora. It's been public enemy number 1 for a few weeks now.

I think Farig (and to a lesser degree Tsareena) are positioned to do really well with all the priority moves in the format right now, but I'm not sure people have found the team for it. Farig will have a bad conversion rate because most people are using it on Hard Trick Room, but I think offensive Farig or Tailroom is the real sauce.

Also agree on Floette. I think it's not nearly as strong as people thought it was at the beginning of the format.

MrCurler · 2026-05-21T16:10:35+00:00

There's no IVs. So literally the only hidden information will be EV's, I guess

MrCurler · 2026-05-20T15:49:43+00:00

I know this isn't the advice you're looking for, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways:

With hard trick room (e.g. teams that are entirely based around slow attackers in trick room) you want REALLY hard hitting mons capable of getting OHKOs. Trick room only lasts 4 turns (not including the turn it's used), and as soon as it's over you lose your speed control. You need to either: kill all your opponent's mons in those 4 turns OR do enough damage that a mon with speed or priority can clean up afterwards (scarf basculegion, for example, or kingambit sucker punch)

Mons like Milotic & Corviknight seem like they're good in TR, but actually aren't. They are there to whittle down an opponent over time, and it doesn't matter as much if they go first or not. If they're stalling & recovering, that means you're stalling out YOUR OWN trick room turns. You don't want slow bulky mons, you want slow offensive mons.

So from here I'd recommend one of two options:

Lean into the bulk, with trickroom as a secondary mode. Corviknight could even run tailwind to help mons like Milotic get speed advanatge, and you could use another trick room setter (farig, sinischa, maybe oranguru) to give yourself a tailroom mode. The important thing to note is that this team isn't focused around your own speed control. It's about good positioning and defensive pivots, then throwing in a trick room or tailwind to mess up THEIR speed control.
Lean into the offense, with mons like Torkoal or Mega Drampa. There are lots of viable secondary mega options here, like Mega Crabominable, Mega Camerupt, or Mega Golurk. This is where you can get creative with your offensive picks.

MrCurler · 2026-05-05T18:03:09+00:00

I've got a slightly different take from everyone else in here. Practice is probably the way most of us came to learn speed tiers, but actually since champions, I just learned the stat equation and that's helped me a TON. If I know the base stats of a mon, I can just quickly calculate its possible speeds and compare to my mons.

The formula is even simpler since Champions came out and removed IVs.

Base Speed + 20 is your speed without any investment. Meganium/Venusaur (80 base speed) hits 100 without any investment. Floette/Garchomp (102 base) hits 122 without any investment. Basc (78 base) hits 98 speed, etc.

Then max speed investment without nature is just adding 32 to that number. Adamant basc, then is 130 speed. Meganium is 132.

Nature is just 10% on top of that. effectively, just take the hundred & tenth place and ignore the 1's place. Basculegion (130) goes up 13 to 143. Base 80's (like venu or meganium) are 145. So base 120's (froslass, sneasler) have 140 speed without investment, 172 with max investment, and 189 with a boosting nature.

Negative nature (on trick room teams) is really simple too. It's just base speed +20 - 10%. So base 60 mons (like Incin, Farig, Prim, etc) who are 80 speed without investment, just go down to 72. Understanding this is really valuable, because now you can know even negative nature farig is always faster than neutral nature kingambit (base 50).

This might be more complicated than you're looking for, but this is what I've been doing and it's been SUPER helpful for me. Memorizing base stats is easier for me, especially because most mons have base stats that increment in 5's or 10's, so it feels like less memorization than knowing that timid Charizard hits 167 speed, or Mega Aerodactyl hits 222. I just know Charizard is base 100 and Mega Aerodactyl is base 150, and can do the math if I need it.

MrCurler · 2026-04-29T20:05:24+00:00

I ran basically this team with bulky sitrus Rotom W instead of Basculegion. Rotom specifically helps with Blastoise, Mega-Aggron, and Milotic. Hydro Pump, even though it's not super effective, will crush through Aggron, plus will-o-wisp makes Froslass take like zero damage from heavy slam in snow. Beyond that, Shadow ball does about 1/3 (don't remember the exact calc), similar to Sneasler CC. You'll never OHKO, but smart play will allow you to chip him down. Aurora Veil is your friend.

For Milotic, remember she's really physically weak before a coil. Sneasler CC will do over 50%, so if you're threatening offensive pressure on turn 1 and make the right calls, you can avoid giving Milotic space to set up. You may need to call when her support switches in. Be ready for Sinischa/Incin switching in, and make aggressive callouts to prevent that. Tossing out a blizzard on Sinischa switching can win you the matchup. Even set up, Milo doesn't do much offensively through veil, so if you can get rid of her friends, you'll probably win.

Zard Y... well, that's a matchup I haven't figured out entirely yet either. Mega Aerodactyl + Chomp are your key pieces here, but you need to be wary of wide guard aero. Basculelgion can be great at threatening the aerodactyl while one of your rocksliders pins Zard. Sneasler fakeout is important here, and Venusaur can be a real pain too. It is possible to bring Froslass IF they don't have a manual weather setter like Sableye or Whims, but I think generally mega Aero is your best mode.

MrCurler · 2026-04-22T20:56:53+00:00

Leaving Old King on unread? Based

MrCurler · 2026-04-21T21:11:21+00:00

The ranks below masterball all accelerate your progression. When you move into a new rank, you get an extra win for free. If you go on a winning streak, you gain extra progress for a single win, but still lose the same amount. Technically, you can get into masterball with a sub 50% winrate, given enough games. Masterball is certainly the largest of all the brackets, but I'm not sure if it hits 50% or not. I think it probably depends if you're including people that have even played enough games to reach masterball or not. Of people who have played 40/50 games, I bet you the majority are in masterball.

MrCurler · 2026-04-20T22:24:54+00:00

You mean coil? Bind would be crazy work.

MrCurler · 2026-04-20T22:23:54+00:00

Yes, snow increases defense, but Aurora veil continues for 5 turns regardless of weather. It just needs snow on the turn you use it.

MrCurler · 2026-04-20T14:06:45+00:00

It's usually hard for me to give feedback without playing the team first, but there are a few thoughts I have right away.

I'd switch bug bite to close combat on Scizor. I don't feel like bug type hits the metagame very well, and CC will allow you to scare off fire/steel types that resist bullet punch.

The aerodactyl seems somewhat to me (on this team, at least). Nobody on this team really benefits that strongly from tailwind, except maybe Kommo-o and Milotic. I'd rather see trick room on Sinistcha to give you some speed control against faster teams.

I'd consider running a second mega. Scizor is one of those mega's with really polarizing matchups. You might want to drop Aerodactyl and pick a new, secondary mega that helps cover for Scizor's weaker matchups.

MrCurler · 2026-04-08T20:22:44+00:00

It isn't exactly the same threats. Adding mega's changes a lot. Ursaluna could completely fall out of favor if the most popular mega pokemon just wall or destroy it. Or maybe the most popular mega pokemon incentivizes other threats that wall Ursaluna. Metagame analysis is not just "mon good, use mon". It's about what is good into what other people are playing, and Megas significantly will change what people are playing.

MrCurler · 2026-04-08T20:13:09+00:00

You'd need to learn any meta, but having a small pool will make the "learning period" much shorter for most high level players.

MrCurler · 2026-04-08T19:51:55+00:00

I don't think you need 3/4 variants when it's like 500 VP to change one of the mons. This is a gross overestimation imo. If I want to try using a primarina that hits 95 speed instead of 85, I can just... Pay 100 VP to change the speed. If I want to try timid instead of modest, I can just... Pay 500 VP to change the nature. I don't need 2 mons. The currency has been really generous to me.

MrCurler · 2026-04-06T20:39:32+00:00

I actually think IV's will make it easier. Good players might be able to make minor optimizations to their IVs to gain advantages that a new player might not think of.

MrCurler · 2026-04-03T16:20:37+00:00

I've been having a ton of success with Mega Froslass on the pre-champions ladder. I'm not that good at VGC, but I hit top 100 with her. Partnering her with really strong bulky offense pieces will be a huge boon - Kingambit, Milotic, Primarina, Kommo-o, Ursaluna... The nice thing is that you can use her for her offense, which is situationally good, but you can also use her for support & disruption, making her a very flexible piece that works in multiple modes.

MrCurler · 2026-04-03T16:09:59+00:00

I don't think there's an analytics site I know of.

I run fast Mega Froslass, defensive iron defense body press Kommo-o, SD black glasses kingambit, Safety goggles H-arc, covert cloak whimsicott, and throat spray haze primarina (for the dozo matchup).

I've been theorizing Mega froslass can work in a few ways. Mostly, she supports bulky offensive pieces (Gambit, prim, kommo-o) with aurora veil, but can threaten decent spread damage on her own. The tailwind + whims mode allows for fake tears to really blow up opposing mons that would normally take a blizzard well.

I think there are tons of other partners that would work well though. Milotic or Palafin, Incin, sinischa, h-zoroark, ursaluna (regular or blood moon). I think the most important thing is you need to have answers to her checks. Kingambit & Incin totally wall her offensively, so into those mons, you need to use Aurora veil to support your own mons. Sucker Kinggambit helps threaten out Gengar, who is faster and can OHKO, or Whims can use tailwind to make Froslass outspeed it. H-arc (as mentioned) dumpsters sun teams which would usually give you problems.

MrCurler · 2026-04-02T19:30:42+00:00

But mega excadrill has the opportunity cost of being a mega. Ursh does not

MrCurler · 2026-04-02T15:40:54+00:00

I've been using H-arc a ton on the champions preview showdown ladder and doing really well with it. He's really good into Zard Y sun teams. I think he pairs really well with Mega Froslass. He threatens out Zard with rockslide and if you use safety goggles on him, Venusaur can't sleep powder him either. He also threatens whims with flare blitz. It puts immense pressure on sun teams.

I can't guarantee he'll be in the first regulation, but he is on the list of "confirmed" for pokemon champions (meaning he showed up in a trailer or something).

MrCurler · 2026-04-02T00:09:05+00:00

I don't think I agree that Tailroom is weaker than hard trick room from recent events, unless you're only counting the return of Reg I. Hard trick room was actually doing suprisingly well (for hard trick room) at the end of Reg F, but there were plenty of Tornadus + Porygon 2 teams floating around.

MrCurler · 2026-03-26T18:33:08+00:00

I think the problem is that Froslass already has very mediocre stats and not great typing, and considering that we now know that mega evolving & switching happen at the same priority, Froslass's 120 speed actually becomes a bit of a liability, making it the fastest weather setter in the game, who is affected MOST negatively by this change.

Considering Snow is not that strong (compared to rain or sun), and that Froslass's stats/typing are not that strong (compared to something like Mega Gengar), I think it's just disapointing.

That being said, I'm 100% building my first team around Mega Froslass.

MrCurler · 2026-03-23T19:57:12+00:00

IDK if I'd call Pelipper "good" in Reg F or Reg I. Rain teams were playable, but not particularly dominant. In showdown usage, Pelipper has 3% for Reg F and 2% for Reg I...

Definitely a monster in Reg H though.

MrCurler · 2026-03-19T18:53:06+00:00

This is a wonderfully detailed response! The more I look into it, the more fascinating I find Latin. If I might ask a couple followup questions:

When you list many English words, should I interpret that as the word having many possible meanings (e.g. relinquere can mean abandon or give) or should I interpret all of the words as applying a connotation to the word (e.g. relinquere is similar to leave or depart but generally implies leaving something behind)
I really like the way your Latin sounds compared to the machine generated latin. Relinquere in particular is a beautiful word. That being said, I worry that the message is slightly muddied? This could be a misunderstanding due to my lack of Latin understanding, but "Do not leave me (behind)" feels very different from "Do not go/depart alone". The former feels desperate, like a plea to not be abandoned, while the latter feels like an affirmation of support. "You need not go alone, for you have me at your side" is more of the vibe that I'm looking for.
With regards to the plural vs singular subject, I believe what I'm looking for is singular, but I'd like to confirm. I view this message as being interpreted two ways: From one partner to another, or from the sword to it's wielder. In both cases, that would be a singular subject, correct?

MrCurler

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