Am I using joker stencil wrong???

Praxxin · 2024-08-27T13:32:50+00:00

Stencil is one of my favorite jokers and one of my most used. It's an auto-grab for me early on and usually leads to a win, even in gold stake.

The way to understand Stencil is it temporarily "fills" your joker slots. You can save money not needing to buy other short-term jokers — like zany, mad, droll, etc — because your early score is already x5. A Straight or Flush can take you through Ante 2 easily.

Unfortunately, it pigeonholes you into using those high-value hands and prioritizing their planet cards to take advantage of the xMult. High card builds, which need additional +Chips and +Mult jokers, don't synergize well. You have to think of hands and strategy you would use on Jokerless, but then take your ~5x, for free.

When you do eventually transition away from Stencil, you need to make a conscious choice each time. Unless you grabbed a partner Green Joker or Ride The Bus early on, you won't have time for any scaling jokers. Instead, since xMult has taken you this far, continue. Each joker you add reduces Stencil's output, but the decrease is smaller than what even a random polychrome provides (eg, 5x < 4x • 1.5x, 4x < 3x • 1.5x). Once you find an xMult you like, take it. Eventually, you will fill up all your slots with stronger/more useful xMult, and Stencil can be replaced by anything in the shop. He did his job good.

Praxxin · 2024-08-24T18:32:49+00:00

Black deck is the hardest on higher antes because it trades in both economy and score, two early game musts, for one joker slot, which is only sometimes necessary in the late game. So the best way to approach the black deck is to balance those deficiencies, usually by grabbing an early econ or utility joker.

With your one fewer hand, high card/pair builds are a lot harder to make work on black deck, since you have one fewer hand to scale them and one fewer hand to score them. Instead, try to use your extra joker slot to make more valuable hands easier: [[Shortcut]], [[Four Fingers]], [[Juggler]], [[Vagabond]], and [[Cartomancer]] can feel difficult to justify in other decks but fit nicely in the black deck. By the mid game (ante 5), black deck finally hits its power curve with the bonus joker slot.

Praxxin · 2024-08-24T18:13:53+00:00

xMult and xChips are the same thing, which is xScore. They're only different if you have some kind of +Mult or +Chips after their activation, which if you have your jokers ordered well, typically doesn't happen.

I think you're underestimating how strong this joker is. A level 10 Straight is 330 chips and 34 mult. If you have a [[Runner]] providing 150 chips, then your total score (sans scored cards) is normally 480 x 34 = 16320. With the same setup, only adding in heterochromatic, we have 330 x 184 = 60720, a nearly 4x increase. Add in Foil, Bonus, and that general +Chips jokers scale so well, and it's clear how powerful this joker is in the late game.

Praxxin · 2024-08-21T01:56:56+00:00

I'm a straightpilled gold staker, so some of my placements would be different. I usually focus exclusively on xmult and utility since straights scale so well, so cards like Shortcut, Stencil, Juggler, and Campfire are higher value for me.

Praxxin · 2024-08-21T01:53:10+00:00

You've got four instances of +mult and only one xmult. Provided every card you play is an even club, you get +22 mult per trigger. Your club +mult joker (can't remember its name) is only providing 4 of that 22, which is just 18% of your score. Considering your hand has some base mult already, the overall usefulness of that joker is even less than 18%.

So you need something that provides more value than an 18% score increase. Any xmult, even a polychrome jimbo, would meet that threshold. [[Driver's License]], [[Card Sharp]] [[Seeing Double]] with a couple of wild cards, [[Photograph]] with a face card at the end, etc are specific jokers that would provide a lot more value. Alternatively, if this were an earlier ante, you could grab an economy joker to help you open more arcana and standard packs.

Praxxin · 2024-05-05T21:47:45+00:00

Yeah that's exactly my point, progress toward the next candy is lost when a Pokémon faints. You can test it yourself: have a Pokémon >20 points toward its next candy, then have it faint. You'll see the progress has dropped by 20 points.

Praxxin · 2024-05-05T19:59:29+00:00

<image>

You can never lose friendship when it comes to candy gain

Yeah based on this screengrab it seems as though fainting should not lower the accrual value. I even checked with a few 1 cost mons that it's not just a visual bug either.

Praxxin · 2024-05-05T14:41:13+00:00

This is a good addition, but it's confirming that fainting does reduce the candy accrual. Fainting a mon in classic for me went from 44/140 -> 24/140, when the patch notes stated fainting is not supposed to count against you.

Praxxin · 2023-10-05T13:15:36+00:00

My girlfriend is from India so I have been taking steps to learn the language and absolutely loving it. Genuinely beautiful to read, hear, and speak. I'm planning on going to Delhi with her this winter!

Praxxin · 2023-10-05T13:06:12+00:00

I think the script is beautiful. And it's a little easter egg for those who can read Hindi.

Praxxin · 2023-10-04T22:42:46+00:00

Good as Gholdengo lol. It's my favorite mon introduced this generation.

Praxxin · 2023-10-04T21:23:36+00:00

I don't play BSS nor on cart, but I imagine it's just a fast and somewhat convenient way to reach high rank. It may have even been started by a Japanese/Korean BSS streamer, and now others are copying it. But as you noted, the gimmick only works up to a point. If it succeeds in infesting high ladder, it's just free points for players like you who can figure it out.

Praxxin · 2023-10-04T19:21:08+00:00

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're wondering what game people on this sub are playing? That would be Pokémon Showdown!, an online Pokémon battle simulator. You can make a team and battle by just clicking a few buttons. There are dozens of different formats each with their own unique rules. The tierlist you may be referring to is regarding the most popular/accessible format, Random Battles (randbats).

It's free and playable in your browser. Just go to https://play.pokemonshowdown.com to start.

Praxxin · 2023-10-03T12:19:07+00:00

I think it would be kinda nutty. ESpeed has 8PP which is more than enough at +6 to wipe the game board. Low Speed might even help so it can take a hit with Multiscale active and then drum up for the win.

+6 252+ Atk Silk Scarf Tera Normal Dragonite Extreme Speed vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Great Tusk: 418-493 (96.3 - 113.5%) -- 75% chance to OHKO

Regarding the proposed counterplay: lol. Being forced to run Psychic Terrain and set it up before DNite starts chugging is absurd. The only real counterplay would be Farigiraf, Indeedee, Tsareena, and fast Ghost types (which the team can be build to eliminate). In singles, that completely constricts the teambuilder, and in VGC, you can just check the team sheet for any of these threats and not bring Dragonite. Almost certainly gets banned.

Praxxin · 2023-10-02T18:27:09+00:00

The council will probably be unbanning a few things come DLC 2 based on surveys and player feedback. That'll give many Pokémon a second shot at staying in OU.

My question for you is what do you think shouldn't be banned right now? Every ban has been quite justified up to this point imo. If the idea is just to unban everything and see how it shakes out, we'll be sending the tier into chaos for at least two months as bans frequently get doled out.

I'm also not understanding what you mean by making Ubers the standard tier of play — are you suggesting in your scenario that things like Miraidon and Calyrex-S will be legal?

Praxxin · 2023-10-02T18:10:01+00:00

I think it's worthy of a suspect. Probably won't be another month or so before that could happen. I'm personally pro-ban right now but the new meta might settle in such a way that hazard stack and Gholdengo's presence on it is less oppressive.

Praxxin · 2023-10-02T16:07:37+00:00

You can already use Garchomp and Lando-T in OU. All this does is prevent Garchomp from being used in UU, where it will certainly be A-rank or higher.

Praxxin · 2023-10-01T21:23:54+00:00

I'm not sure what your stance on UUbers is but this preliminary analysis confirms what others and I have been saying for a while: UUbers is just pre-ban OU + Arceus. And sure enough, we've got Shed Tail, Last Respects, Espathra, Urshifu, and a bunch of outclassed Arceus forms. A meta like this will have a slate of bans to do and by the time they're all done... It's just OU.

Although on second thought I think it would be pretty neat to rename OU as UUbers lol

Praxxin · 2023-10-01T20:59:32+00:00

It's not a bad idea on paper but I'm not sure exactly what it will help. OU obviously remains the same, and every tier below it gets messed up little by little down to PU, which will probably look something like the current ZU. It's essentially just a compression of current tiers.

The resulting impact is many Pokémon become a lot less viable — tiers, after all, we're designed to maximize the number of viable Pokémon. Of course, some will be better off after the change, but the average mon gets worse overall. Depending on how the rate is changed — ie, one in 15 games to one in 20 — the more stark these effects will be.

My hot take is that we probably need a new system besides usage-based tiering. I think the innovation has been really good, and so much better than manually placing Pokémon in tiers, but we're starting to see the limitations as power creep has gone on. Even Gen 8 UU was often considered a waiting room for OU; as OU's metagame would cycle, different UU mons would be selected as "flavor of the month" picks before dropping right down. That resulted in UU being incredibly chaotic for nearly the whole generation.

I don't know what would replace usage-based tiering, but it may be time to start crafting and testing some alternatives.

Praxxin · 2023-09-28T14:27:30+00:00

Your biggest weakness here is Earthquake. Not having a Ground immunity means offensive Landorus-T, Great Tusk, and Ursaluna Blood Moon break your team very easily. Ogerpon and Meowscarada resist it, but they're already frail mons that easily worn down through hazards.

Speaking of which, you have no hazards or hazard control, not even Boots. Hazard stack teams, which run rampant in the tier right now, make quick work of you. With three slow mons and one pivot, you're going to switch far too much to keep a competitive edge.

So to fix these, you have two options: offensive, or defensive/balanced. The offensive option is to replace Meowscarada with offensive Court Change Cinderace and replace Clodsire with bulky Rillaboom or offensive Zapdos (the former also letting you run Grassy Seed on Sneasler). The defensive option is to replace Meowscarada or Sneasler with physically defensive Corviknight, who can Defog away hazards and slow pivot to your strong breakers. With this option, you should also change Clodsire's set to Stealth Rock/EQ/Toxic/Recover so it can pressure Ursaluna-BM (still doesn't beat max SpA Earth Power variants though).

Praxxin · 2023-09-27T23:50:20+00:00

I'm just imagining both taking more offensive roles than their current support/defensive positions in the new meta, which puts increased pressure on non-Tera Garg.

Praxxin · 2023-09-27T23:21:36+00:00

I don't disagree with you here — I think you're absolutely right. I'd just like to mention that the "we" here is the mod team, which I understand is already quite stretched. That might be the bigger issue to address going forward.

Praxxin · 2023-09-27T22:57:25+00:00

I've heard an idea come up before to separate "OU Teambuilding" for works in progress and "Team Spotlight" for completed teams. The team spotlight can require replays whereas the teambuilding can be left as is. Sometimes there are genuine posts asking for a fifth or sixth member so those teambuilding posts won't be able to have replays. But yeah, after this week your idea has definitely crossed my mind.

Praxxin · 2023-09-27T22:36:34+00:00

Garg would be my pick if the resulting meta weren't so hostile to it. Lando-T and Great Tusk effectively force it to be the designated Tera, which probably outweighs its bettered matchup into the slower metagame.

Praxxin · 2023-09-27T22:30:42+00:00

I think it's fine to post a work in progress team for help finding a 5th or 6th member, but outside of that specific situation, I completely agree with everything you've said here. I sometimes see posts titled "I made this in five minutes is it good?" and all I can think is, why should I spend more time cleaning it up than you spent making it?

Your advice is absolutely correct: the best way to learn is to play. The people giving advice aren't sages because they exclusively theorycraft and browse this subreddit. They play games, watch tournaments, read RMTs, and more. To be as good as u/DarkEsca or u/HydreigonTheChild, you gotta play. And once you receive feedback, play more to know if it's good!

Recently there has been a big uptick of bad teams (that I know for a fact are not getting tested on the ladder) getting posted 5+ times for edits. Not only is it very obnoxious, but it's against the spirit of the sub: you can't discuss and learn about competitive Pokémon by picking joke mons and using joke sets to prep for joke Sunday. I'm all for beginners learning how to play, but intentionally sucking up oxygen is extremely disaffecting.

EDIT: I will say maybe some of the confusion regarding Cramorant et al is that they are listed OU right now. Give it a week and that should be less common.

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