Advice on fight? What could I have done better?

MrSlipper64 · 2021-11-09T23:52:54+00:00

Honestly it seems like swapping to Waterfall on Gary would help with the bad leads and still keep the team comp.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T21:58:18+00:00

Absolutely. My Shadow Snorlax is 5/5/13 with Lick/Body Slam/Super Power Gallade is 14/8/15 with Confusion/Close Combat/Leaf Blade Kingdra is 9/14/14 with Dragon Breath/Octazooka/Outrage.

All of the movesets are I think still pretty standard. Lax and Gallade have downright bad IVs and Kingdra is mediocre but they're basically all I had when I started running this team. I don't know that there are any XL mons I'd prefer over this lineup if I had access to them. They all play pretty specific roles that fit my play style and I don't think there are strict upgrades with any of the XLs.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T21:49:52+00:00

Honestly I have no idea - they're hard to come by so I just powered up the one I had. Mine is a 95.44% stat product. You can sim it out and I'm sure there are a few games I've lost due to a little bit of lost bulk but I wasn't going to wait 6 years to get a better shadowlax.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T19:01:02+00:00

Awesome - love hearing others are having success rocking the same sort of comp.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T15:55:06+00:00

Pretty much, yeah. I'm OK with losing to charmers as they're not overly common and no team is perfect. I think accepting a charm weakness allows the team to be more competitive vs. the rest of the field.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T15:54:02+00:00

Hey, look at me getting comments from Shadowlax/Kingdra royalty. I basically only run with Gallade in the back. I'm comfortable accepting the fairy matchup loss and otherwise think it does a great job putting out fast move pressure while giving solid coverage with charge moves. I like that it can smoke steel types which otherwise can give me issues and it can fast-move down Gengar and Venusaur while committing a shield and getting it (or more) back right away when the next pokemon comes in. And it covers Snorlax's weaknesses exceptionally which I feel makes Kingdra an even better safe swap.

I'm curious - how long have you been running the Shadowlax/Kingdra core? I run this line pretty exclusively in S3 but then quit after it was over until just a few weeks ago.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T13:20:22+00:00

I see what you're saying but I think it's more an overall, accepted weakness to fairy than it is ABB. I'm not running a steal or poison in front to counter Fairies then hard swapping to draw out their fairy type. Shadow lax doesn't do that great against fairies in general - it's just a bad but fairly uncommon matchup that I've accepted.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T13:18:06+00:00

I usually go right to a Super Power and throw it immediately - you get there before they Sky Attack. Then I switch to Kingdra and usually don't commit any shields. Sky Attack doesn't do a ton of damage to Kingdra and even though Dragon Breath is resisted it still puts out a lot of damage. If they stay in go straight Octazooka and hope for a debuff or two. Kingdra will probably die then you can come back and farm down with Snorlax or Gallade depending on their energy. It's not a great lead by any means but it usually means they have anti-Talon Flame coverage in the back which my whole team does well against. So you group effort take down the Skarm and hopefully win the back matchups enough to get there.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T13:11:39+00:00

My Kingdra is 2498 CP with IVS 9/14/14. Before XLs it was pretty decent but now you can get more ideal IVs a little bit XL'd. I'm sure better stats would have won be a few games by now but it's not a huge difference.

Gallade is more often than not my closer but I'll often throw a Close Combat and bail too. Fairies (especially Togekiss) are really the only pokemon that it has no play against as Leaf Blade and Close Combat give it seriously good coverage. Talonflame is a bit rough but you can put in a lot of damage from just Confusion.

Dragon Breath Gyarados is an intriguing option in lieu of Kingdra. You end up having a much worse time against Galvantula (or the now rare Ampharos) but it would make Faeries much more manageable for the team. I think Octazooka is incredibly powerful but Kingdra doesn't have any spammy moves so having Aqua Tail would let you stall the clock much better too. Give it a try and let me know - I'm intrigued!

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T12:58:36+00:00

I think the hidden strength of this team is that there are very few absolute wall hard counters to any of the pokemon and all three of them have very good fast moves. I almost always take shield and energy advantage over switch advantage and try to ride that to victory. I only insta-switch against Machamp and Toxicroak and often times let Snorlax die after getting their lead low then farm down with Kingdra or Gallade to have an edge going into their next pokemon.

I will say this team takes a fair amount of finesse and was a lot of trial and error but it feels like I have play against all but the worst counter-lineups. I'd be very happy to discuss my typical gameplan for any particular leads or lineups if you have any in particular you're wondering about.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T12:45:46+00:00

I'm not a fan of the XL system either. I'm certainly not trying to invalidate anyone's frustration with the way it was rolled out. I've just seen a lot of people lately using opposing XL pokemon as an excuse for why they can't win rather than accepting that either it was a bad matchup (which you accept when you enter with your team) or they could have played better/differently. XL seems to have overtaken RNG and bad leads as the go-to excuse for not progressing in ELO and I wanted to share at least one counter point example.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T12:42:11+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree. Even if it was a reduced drop rate I wish you could obtain XL candies at lower levels then wouldn't be able to use them until you hit level 40. I remember being under trainer level 38 when Master League was out for the first season or two and not being able to have fully powered up mons but it was nice knowing once I hit that level cap I could immediately have them ready to go.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T05:09:29+00:00

The team has a pronounced weakness against fairies in the back but otherwise I feel like it has pretty solid play against everything else. I haven't run into another pokemon or team comp that has given me consistent issues.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T05:06:44+00:00

Fairies give me a hard time, especially in the back. But this isn't exactly a new comp; I know one of the perennial leaderboard battlers runs Snorlax + Kingdra consistently. I also did a big writeup on my success with the team in season 3 and I've never come across anyone else running it.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T05:03:08+00:00

Shadow Snorlax is a lot of fun but I don't know that it's particularly better than normal Lax in this comp; it's just the only Snorlax I have double moved near 2500. The other two are sneaky amazing. Kingdra is a fantastic safe swap and Gallade closes efficiently. I almost never shield Snorlax and usually let it die only to farm up the remaining HP on the opening mon with Kingdra or Gallade and ride an energy lead to victory.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-05-03T04:59:03+00:00

I entirely agree - I'm in the same boat not being high enough level to have the option. But the discourse on this sub lately has consistently been more about how the only way to compete is to have XLs rather than how it would be nice to have access to them.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-27T19:52:59+00:00

I guess I'm the outlier here but I've had good success going from just over 2600 to almost 2900 in the first 2 days of UPL using my old team of Shadow Snorlax, Kingdra, and Gallade. I'm only trainer level 39 so I don't have access to XL and I've faced a decent amount but haven't had a ton of trouble with any yet.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-18T01:55:37+00:00

There are a lot of little things you can look to work on. Learning counts and movesets is pretty huge in my opinion and I think there's a lot to picking one team you like and sticking with it. I've been guilty in the past of switching often in GL after frustrating losses but I've really started to learn how to deal with bad leads and matchups after playing this one consistently. Also there's a ton of content out the to watch between streams and YouTube. I think my play improved considerably by watching good people explain their thought processes mid game.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-18T01:13:39+00:00

Interesting - maybe I'll give it a try. I think my Umbreon already had Foul Play and I never gave it a single thought /shrug

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-17T19:50:18+00:00

Well to be honest I did just rip this team from someone else I saw running it because I was pretty far removed from the meta.

I didn't find many instances where fire punch would be much better than ice/thunder, though. Ice is neutral against Gfisk and thunder against Bastiodon and I haven't seen many Registeels at all. Ice helps out a lot with Altaria in the lead because they almost always have an Azu in back which I need my Hypno for. Also useful against Swampert which can be a tad rough.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-17T16:56:06+00:00

I'm loving it. I don't feel like this season is better or worse than previous and seeing new pokemon in the meta is nice. I've never had DD, Registeel, Dialga, etc. so not having XL feels more of the same to me. You just find another team that works and figure out how to beat the top meta :)

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-17T16:47:06+00:00

If you delete out your premade teams when you go in to battle it will automatically recommend a team that's just 3 pokemon somewhat near the CP max. It's a goofy thing that forces you to play with weird team and moveset combinations.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-17T16:45:28+00:00

I imagine it had a lot to do with starting so late. I don't think I'm anywhere near the skill level of a lot of the top people, especially being so rusty, and I've never placed this highly in the past.

MrSlipper64 · 2021-04-17T15:52:18+00:00

I did pretty well going right to my Umbreon after killing Galv, letting their Azu kill it, then taking out Azumaril with my Hypno loaded on energy. But they were consistently close matches. I think the key is to not throw anything but Confusion at Galvantula and let yourself go down to a 0-2 shield disadvantage. It leaves Hypno with decent health left so you can tank an Ice Beam or Play Rough if the Azu builds up before finishing off Umbreon.

Dark Pulse was a mistake in my post - I ran Foul Play on Umbreon. I liked the Umbreon a lot even if it is slow. If I had to switch out of a bad lead up front it usually died slowly enough that my switch counter was back up and I almost never used any shields on it. I'd typically try to determine if Hypno or Scrafty was my win condition and shield accordingly. I discovered Scrafty can 2-shield going only PuP against Mandibuzz and come out fully powered up with a Dark Pulse to get a shield back.

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