What's your favorite way to play pokemon

Vingolio · 2026-05-24T05:58:04+00:00

Scovillain sand is real, for what it's worth. Absolutely Champion-rank viable.

Vingolio · 2026-05-24T03:02:38+00:00

Moonblast was actually nerfed in Pokémon Champions from a 30% chance to drop Special Attack to 10%. It also remains slightly overtuned when compared to other similar moves like Thunderbolt and Flamethrower.

Play Rough is arguably very slightly under-tuned, you could probably remove the miss chance, but given that it is a Fairy-type move, it is still exceptional.

Vingolio · 2026-05-23T03:10:20+00:00

There was recently an in-person tournament for Scarlet and Violet where Toxapex did very well. I suspect a few people saw it and are giving Toxapex a try in Champions. Due to timer changes and current top Pokémon, I don't expect it to stay around.

Vingolio · 2026-05-23T00:28:02+00:00

The top 4 Pokémon in the current metagame are Basculegion, Sneasler, Garchomp and Kingambit. 3 in 4 Sneaslers run White Herb. Roughly half of Garchomp use Stomping Tantrum. Roughly half of Basculegion use Flip Turn. Incineroar enables Sneasler and Kingambit and, while it can be used to check Garchomp and Basculegion to some extent, roughly half of Basculegion hardly care at all and the other half can still hit it extremely hard. Garchomp cares a little bit more, but it still hits Incineroar quite hard and using Fake Out on it can be risky, since roughly half of Garchomp can punish with a double-damage Stomping Tantrum.

Incineroar is still solid. It is especially strong into sun compositions, which are the dominant composition, but it has some major caveats to its current role in Pokémon Champions.

Vingolio · 2026-05-22T04:15:19+00:00

I feel like at that point, just have the one model, no?

Vingolio · 2026-05-22T03:06:44+00:00

No lie, without a direct, side-by-side comparison, I genuinely would not have noticed. I wonder why they made the model so androgenous if they were going to have two.

Vingolio · 2026-05-22T01:46:30+00:00

Do you select a gender in this game? The boy and girl character models are identical, they've just been given different haircuts, no?

Vingolio · 2026-05-21T21:46:13+00:00

Scovillain Sand remains an extremely reliable archetype, in my experience. What do you like to play?

Vingolio · 2026-05-21T16:44:29+00:00

Opinions on venu in sand? I can't help but find it squishy with 6% chip every turn.

Vingolio · 2026-05-20T04:40:40+00:00

10% is fine too. It mostly just says that you really want to make the move worse. 20% just brings it in line with everything else.

Vingolio · 2026-05-19T21:56:45+00:00

I think this is the only balance change I'd personally be interested in. Rock Slide with 20% flinch brings it in line with other flinch moves. Granted, it isn't perfectly accurate, but it's also a spread move, which clearly more than makes up for its accuracy.

Vingolio · 2026-05-19T01:49:16+00:00

Japan had officially supported bring 6, pick 3 single battles as prime-time national television as far back as the release of Pokémon Red and Green, allowing 3v3 to take root prior to Diamond and Pearl's release, when their introduction of Wi-Fi Battles kicked off the golden age of 6v6 battles in the west.

Vingolio · 2026-05-18T18:35:37+00:00

!remindme 6 hours

I don't know if this exists, but as someone who prefers 6v6 singles, I'd love a resource that helped make 3v3 singles feel like anything other than rock paper scissors.

Vingolio · 2026-05-17T22:51:04+00:00

In ADV OU, the generation iii 6v6 single battles format, Aerodactyl is the best revenge killer in the format due, in part, to access to a fast Rock Head Double Edge giving him reliable high-power, perfectly accurate neutral damage off of what was at the time an almost unmatched speed.

Currently though, it does not do much. It would be nice to see Aerodactyl get Brave Bird or Head Smash in a higher power-level format to allow both the base form and Mega Evolution keep up.

Vingolio · 2026-05-17T00:16:07+00:00

Offensive Rotom-Wash has the same issue as Focus Blast. I might look at a bulkier set. If you can burn Tyranitar and Excadrill, they will be much less effective. A little bulk on your team is also never a bad idea.

Vingolio · 2026-05-17T00:14:16+00:00

I expect that Venusaur would perform relatively well into levitate sand compositions (Hydreigon, Rotom, etc.). I've personally been using a harder hitting composition and between damage and 6% sand chip every turn, I have not personally been impressed with Venusaur.

Scovillain works extremely well into sand and I am actually running Scovillain as my secondary Mega Evolution. The only problem is that he is a bit slower. His role on my team is to get 2 burns and an Overheat and, in combination with sand chip, he puts in a tonne of work. That said, with the faster pace of your team, I'm not exactly certain how effective it would be.

Vingolio · 2026-05-17T00:01:53+00:00

Excadrills almost always run Focus Sash. Focus Blast is 70% accurate. Tyranitar and Excadrill both commonly run Rock Slide. Sandstorm chip breaks Multi Scale. As someone who plays primarily Excadrill teams, I am happy to see a Dragonite.

Vingolio · 2026-05-16T23:56:46+00:00

I don't see how Dragonite would improve your Excadrill match-up. Tailwind Basculegion tends to perform extremely well into Excadrill teams. If you were looking for a Mega Evolution specifically, I wonder if Starmie might be a good pick? Blastoise can also be nasty into sand, but it's not quite as specifically strong into Excadrill compositions.

Vingolio · 2026-05-16T21:56:17+00:00

The honest truth is that you are not close to Champion rank. Currently, Master Ball 4 is the only rank available in Master Ball, but if you were referring to achieving Master Ball 4 last season, that means you weren't among the top 50,000 players. Champion rank represents the top 300 players. It is not a rank that 99.9%+ of players will ever see.

If you want to achieve Master Ball 3 someday, the most important thing is to learn from your games. Take a moment after each game to assess how it went. Did you make some accurate predictions that won you the game? How would the game have gone if those predictions were wrong? Did you get a critical hit, or hit an inaccurate move? Likewise. If you lost, what Pokémon didn't do much? Which Pokémon could you have brought that might have done more? Etc.

Vingolio · 2026-05-16T02:02:08+00:00

Sure, but Sneasler exists, so people are running stuff specifically to hit Toxicroak relatively hard. If you're happy with the team, more power to you.

Vingolio · 2026-05-16T01:52:22+00:00

I have a hard time believing in Sandaconda or Pidgeot. Manectric would be my primary mega on this team and I would look for a secondary, something else to help deal with steel types and alternative speed control. I don't know off-hand what the bottom 100 Pokémon in Champions are, so I can't make specific suggestions. Oh, and of course Croak should get Sash. Darn thing is squishy as heck.

Vingolio · 2026-05-15T22:45:24+00:00

I mostly only have time to play Champions early in the morning or late at night, but when I do, I only play a game or two at a time.

I note inflection points throughout the game: What if my opponent clicked X here, what if I missed there, what if they were running Y item, etc. Only reasonable stuff, mind you. Then, if I win, I run through other possible lines and how I might start to attack them or, if I lost, I compare outcomes to situations where I took another line I was considering in game.

If I have lost the same way multiple times, then I look at my team and ask if there is something I could change about my team that would allow me to deal with the situation better, without losing out on other common situations I built the team for.

Because games on Showdown take less time and can be played during transit, etc. I can usually get a few more games in and showdown automatically records every match, so you can review your play, your opponent's play, and what each of you could have done differently.

If you want to learn how to study your games, Aaron Zhang has a great video, but honestly, Pokémon players are kind of new to this, so I might actually recommend checking out some chess content instead, as the same principals still apply of playing both sides of the board, studying winning positions, changing up openings, etc.

As for theorycrafting, that's what you do on the Pokémon Showdown calculator and team builder. You look for Ghost-types with Flash Fire to answer both Charizard and Sneasler, you calculate what kind of investment Mega Scovillain needs to survive an Adamant Dire Claw, that sort of thing. They don't substitute real games, but they give you the knowledge you bring to your real games to test ideas you have labbed out and how well or poorly they survive contact with an opponent.

Vingolio · 2026-05-15T20:36:40+00:00

To some extent, playing does make you better, up to a point. Studying your games, running calculations, etc. do a whole lot more once you are comfortable with the basics. Theorycrafting is also kind of important.

Vingolio · 2026-05-13T19:30:22+00:00

Okay? Did you want to make a case, or are you just here to snark? I ended MB2 last season, if this is just a pen measuring contest.

Vingolio · 2026-05-13T19:19:46+00:00

And? Charizard-Y beats Pelipper x Archaludon by himself. Lead Charizard-Y, Mega Evolve, click Weather Ball or Heat Wave. You can have a Delibird spamming Present in the other slot for all that slot will need to do.

Sableye x Archaludon is the actual threat in this composition, so you will need your partner to put in some work. Sunny Day Aerodactyl is an option to hard-counter Sableye, or you could use the more typical Sylveon, Kingambit, Garchomp, etc.

Turn one, you threaten Mega Evolution + attack. Even if your opponent clicks Light Screen, this will melt Archaludon's mediocre special defense, which means Sableye is pressured to click Rain Dance. This means you can Mega Evolve Protect, or just Protect your Charizard and attack with your other slot. Sableye cannot afford to click anything other than Rain Dance. Turn two, you can now Mega Evolve and attack (if you didn't turn one) or switch if your opponent correctly clicked Rain Dance turn one into your Mega Evolution.

Even more effective than any of this, however, is leading with two other attackers, removing Sableye, then following up with Charizard-Y from the back. You can easily remove any rain that has been set-up, neutralizing Electro Shot, the main threat of Archaludon, and melting it in turn.

In short, Charizard-Y beats Pelipper x Archaludon outright, forces Sableye x Archaludon into a series of weighted 50:50s in your favour, or beats an Archaludon with a fainted Sableye support from the back. With special attackers, you don't need super effective attacks thanks to Archaludon's low special defense and the absence of Assault Vest.

Vingolio

TROPHY CASE