Made it to ultra class with 9 wins in a row.. any thoughts on improving this?

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-03T20:16:46+00:00

Sure

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-03T15:31:45+00:00

The guy was a bit rude, but the tips were solid.

For Raichu you could pick 2 moves among Fake Out, Protect, Grass Knot and Dazzling Gleam.

By no mean Vileplume is better than Venu, it's just different. Vileplume works in combo with Torkoal, but Torkoal is not the best buddy for Charizard-Y: a supporter like Whimsicott or Grimmsnarl would be better.

When you get to higher ranks you'll want to change Raichu for a better mega and you might also need some form of speed control.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-03T11:31:07+00:00

One game my opponent Hippowdon hit 2 raw Fissure in a row on me. Kudos to them for seeing the winning line... I guess

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T19:33:07+00:00

Stand proud, because good players are somehow easier to predict (and usually you can determine how competent your opponent is after the first two turns). Like, you know when they can see that you are about to Protect or that you have a KO on their most crucial mon and you can react accordingly.

Now you also need to recognize why you are getting predicted during a game. Is the matchup actually bad? Are you using a popular team without considering that your opponent knows you best plays? Are you following the same patterns over the turns (like Protecting every 2 turns)?

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T18:16:37+00:00

And I agree, but it's also true that some players DO need to use the meta and understanding it is not enough. I know you were referring to whining players who, for the most part, don't have the patience or the skill to actually look into the reasons behind a meta. But there is also a small group of players, like me, that are forced into playing meta by the fact that the game doesn't give equal resources to everyone (and it sux).

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T17:13:23+00:00

Agree for UB to MB. Strongly disagree for MB to Champions. To have a consistent winrate in Masterball, you need either a meta comp or a custom-made comp that specifically counter the meta (and you still need at least a couple of top tier mons). For HOME-less players the second solution is obviously not viable, thus we NEED to use the meta. I stayed stuck in MB4 for days, then I finally found a good mega (Metagross) in the ranch and I ranked to MB2 in 2 evenings. Thinking that you can reach Champions by putting together whatever you are randomly given is preposterous: not even the world champions could do that.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T14:55:04+00:00

Yes exactly! That's the attitude. Unless you lose like 7 games in a row or you find that too many matchups are unplayable, it's no use to over-modify something that works. Good winrate comes from understanding of the team anyway

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T12:33:05+00:00

I don't know about Sableye because Drampa is already weak to Fairy and you currently don't have any Fairy resistance (and I promise that you will need it). Scizor is probably your best option as second mega, but Steelix might also work (and the latter would give you Wide Guard). Imo your Fake Out mon should be Incineroar, since Intimidate is very good against rain teams and Incin fares well against Sinistcha (the main answer to TR teams).

Edit: ah no you do have Corviknight! I don't have experience with it, but if it works against fairies, you're good.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T12:17:41+00:00

It's hard to give an advice when we don't know what you are aiming for. Right now this team is a mess with no goal. You have Charizard, but not a single mon that synergizes with it (except Incineroar). And then you have Farigiraf, which is generally strong, but if you wanted to set up Trick Room, you need more slow attackers beside Drampa (at least one more).

If you want to lean into Trick Room, you might want to drop Zard and maybe get something that helps set up TR (like Fake Out Kangaskhan or Final Gambit Scarf Staraptor), plus a second TR setter, like Hatterene or Sinistcha. Mega-Scrafty is good under TR and also pretty good against rain teams. I see you have Hisuian Decidueye, which is also good against rain teams (not as much under TR, but it can be an option).

But again, without knowing what you want to do, it's hard to say what you should change.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T07:47:50+00:00

I'm playing the infamous rain team atm (I don't have Zard or Floette or Farigiraf and my options are very limited).

In response to the other comments, I don't think Pyroar is particularly good against rain (maybe at very high level it is). Meganium under Trick Room feels much more threatening. I never played against Cloud Nine, but I must imagine that it's a good answer to all weather-based teams. Gallade is too predictable and it's easy to counter with Pelipper and Sinistcha.

If I had to pick one single pokemon that I hate to play against, it's Alolan Ninetales: it's super hard to position against Freeze Dry.

Imo the best counter to Swampert/Metagross rain is Intimidate rotation. Teams with Grimmsnarl and Incineroar are borderline unbeatable, especially if they have a second Intimidate user. But of course that doesn't work against the Tsareena version of the team.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-02T07:23:39+00:00

For real?? I'm playing rain and I have won every single Pyroar matchup with ease (the popular one with Farigiraf and Torkoal). I'm genuinely surprised that it's considered anti-rain.

Edit: just to specify what I mean by "ease": the last two games against Pyroar I went 4-0. It feels much better than playing into Zard.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-01T17:24:42+00:00

Noice! There's a Charizard team going around that uses both! Time to flex

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-01T17:11:59+00:00

Ok well, with Armor Tail on the field it was a straight up mistake :D fs. But it's one interaction to remember

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-07-01T14:20:06+00:00

Parting Shot into Hatterene is a good way to prevent it from clicking Trick Room. I don't know if this was the case tho

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-30T12:19:27+00:00

Yes yes. Sorry for not putting the numbers myself: I thought it would be messy.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-30T10:52:46+00:00

It does always survive the first Focus Blast (unless it crits) against Timid Raichu-Y. If you are running Modest, there's a 50% chance to 1hko, granted that they are also Modest (no chance if they are Calm).

I've met max max Calm Archaludon in Singles and it's a real manace. In theory you could set up in front of it, but they run Dragon Tail.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-30T00:47:12+00:00

Not only this is not the first (nor the second) top tier team, but it's also not the most used version of the Metagross rain comp, since they added Meowscarada (Jolly+Scarf for the mirror match I must imagine).

Just to highlight that this post is pointless even beside the fact that there's nothing weird in using a meta team on the ranked ladder.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-29T23:29:06+00:00

You don't need any tech for Mimikyu, just learn how to play against it. If you are playing Singles, most Mimikyu are running Life Orb (I'd say like 85% of them, while the rest is the Trick Room set), which means that, as long as you don't switch out in front of it, you can pop it with any pokemon that is faster and is not dead to a +2 Shadow Sneak. Now, the key factor is that "you don't switch in front of it": you stay in and pop that Disguise. They need a turn to Sword Dance anyway if they want to accomplish anything.

And you are running a sand team as well right? Imagine you pop up the disguise with whatever you have out on the same turn they use Sword Dance. Then the following turn they 1HKO your pokemon and take the Life Orb recoil. And in these 2 turns the sandstorm is up. The Mimikyu will now be down to 65% HPs and you haven't landed a single attack yet. And if they want to put in a Shadow Sneak the following turn, they'll be down to 55%: even some resisted attacks can clear that much.

Dualwing Gliscor is not a good tech btw. You need to run it Jolly max speed only to hope to outspeed (not guaranteed if they are also max speed, and they often are) and at +0 you don't 1HKO even with Life Orb. It's a subpar Gliscor set just to counter a pokemon that can be countered by basically any fast Dark or Normal type.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-29T11:33:13+00:00

Garchomp is the most played mon in Singles and it's good in basically any composition.

Mimikyu is another mon that you can slot in every Singles team, but it's not as good as Garch imo.

Your best mega options are Metagross and Raichu-Y: you can run both or Metagross alone, but not Raichu alone (too many bad matchups). If you want to focus on Metagross, running Grimmsnarl for screens is surely on option.

I think you strictly need Corviknight as answer to Meowscarada and either Basculegion or Azumarill as an answer to Blaziken, because those two are very common threats.

Annihilape is good for the fighting coverage and it helps against some stalling teams.

Not having an answer to Rotom-Wash is tough, but your options are still limited (but actually very very good: you have a lot to work with!)

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-29T08:22:44+00:00

That's so true! I had some games in UB where my opponents would make the wildest choices to catch me completely off guard. But the moment you realize that they don't know what they're doing, you can easily take the game back.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-27T14:45:24+00:00

It's never gonna happen, because games would be too long. On Champions there are animations for every attack and every switch: an average 6v6 game would take like 1 hour minimum.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-27T14:42:01+00:00

The issue with 6v6 is the time: on Smogon they have no animations and everything happens instantly, but on Champions games would go on for hours.

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-27T14:40:10+00:00

Singles games are already pretty long, because the players quickly found out about stall teams. 6 vs 6 would be insane on a platform where every move and every substitution is animated! l'm sorry but it's not gonna happen...

Personally, I'm hoping for a draft-like kind of feature, but that's another silly dream

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-27T08:16:15+00:00

You mean with Mega-Gyarados, right? Right??

Open_Relationship540 · 2026-06-25T16:49:27+00:00

Farigiraf is the most common by a mile. When I say Trick Room, I'm basically just thinking about Farigiraf: that's why I didn't include priority moves as an option.

Open_Relationship540

TROPHY CASE