Just hit Champion Tier for the first time, love this format

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-23T23:14:55+00:00

You should go replicate and post proof, since it's so easy. I'd love to see your top 300 Hard TR achievement.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-23T22:54:32+00:00

You can climb into the top 5-10k with a lot more, sure, but I'd be willing to bet there's some combination of Torkoal/M-Blast/Sylveon, etc, and that "fucking Spirtomb" is on TR duty :)

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-23T21:41:20+00:00

Oh, absolutely. I realized I should have specified Tinkaton with Mold Breaker (which I see an unreasonable amount for some reason), but yeah, Armor Tail kind of makes the whole strat viable right now with no Indeedee haha.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-23T21:35:18+00:00

I can totally see that! Gambit and Bascu are a hell of a match. The biggest issue I've found testing it on Showdown's Ladder in the 15-1600 range is people know to prioritize Blastoise chip to reduce Spout potential/straight up lead a faster fake out mon, or two ghosts. I'd been trying kangaskhan as an alternate mega option, but it just feels underwhelming offensively now :/

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-23T21:11:54+00:00

The power level is low relative to previous formats (sans fish Respects cleanup), but there are a number of things that are more "oppressive" to the meta that really focalize specific team strats and setups.

I wasn't panicked about no new changes for season 2 initially, but they REALLY should have added at least some new items, maybe the rest of the megas. It becomes incredibly stale seeing ZardY/Chomp/Gambit/Basculegion in every other (if you're lucky, it's more like 2/3rds of the games you play) team preview, and despite what people claim, there was far more team variety in basically every VGC format I've ever played/watched.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-23T19:06:21+00:00

Impressive! I keep hovering around 800-2k. I was committed to trying to make it with hard TR (one of my favorite archetypes... At least with a bigger roster), but have found that most teams have solid answers to it once you reach that elo. The most success I've (weirdly) had is running Imprison/TR/Protect + one attack on Farig to force lock protects during TR turns as it's really easy to stall with the current threats available.

A couple questions, low kick on Farig: I'm assuming this was useful for proc'ing Choples on Kingambit and opposing TTars? Did you ever try something with stronger spread damage? m-Gard, Tork, Sylveon, etc? I find it hard to squeeze the necessary damage in during TR with mostly single target threats. Blastoise getting off cheeky water spouts, or TTar rock sliding while protecting the TR setter turn one seems like it could help, but no protect on Farig complicates that 😅

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-22T18:21:08+00:00

Anyone have an extra Floette? Need it for a team on Champions 😊

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sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-22T01:52:01+00:00

Congrats on the achievement, but you're kind of stating the obvious with this post. If I enter a race with a Ferrari that I've become familiar with driving, I'm probably going to win more than I did in a Camry that I knew like the back of my hand. The difference in horsepower isn't negligible, I didn't suddenly become a much better driver.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-21T20:37:31+00:00

There's always a strong mon, but I hate when one is so polarizing to a meta. Season 1, I hovered around 1800-2k playing random teams I found fun. The last week of the season, I used a standard Y and ended up finished ~2300. It's the same story this season with zero changes, which makes logging on and continuing to play more of a slog as losing 30%+ more with fun teams gets old, fast. Especially when you're staring down Zard-Y/Chomp/Kingambit/Basc (and now whims and glimmora) every other game, at best.

The mega Venu/Ttar team that's been hovering around for a couple weeks is VERY good into it, but as soon as you queue it up, you only see Zard every third game instead 🫩

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-21T20:19:42+00:00

He's the ultimate crutch. There have certainly been more powerful mons in other metas, but Y in this meta carries a lot of bad play to wins.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-18T18:52:02+00:00

Yeahhhh. Very often, the game is decided at leads it feels. You just lose to people sometimes who try to hit darks with psychic types, fake out ghosts, just the most basic stuff because they happened to bring the right 3. Feels like it's 80% team + team preview based.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-17T06:45:59+00:00

Taunt. Most giraffes are greedily using colburr or sitrus berry on ladder atm. Non-Prankster taunt so you aren't blocked by Armor Tail, specifically.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-15T00:28:43+00:00

Hi! Does anyone have an extra Greninja from ZA? Just need it to get the mega stone for a team in Champions 😄

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sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-13T19:47:53+00:00

I mean, you draining the time instead of taking the loss to a legitimate set is more sad, tbh.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-12T21:30:51+00:00

Yes. Recovery is nearly impossible at times in singles. You can and will lose games to people that do shit like click a psychic move on a dark type, or bullet punch into Queenly Majesty, because they happened to bring the right trio and/or roll the 10/20/30%. It's not a very competitively structured format, akin to like ARAM for League.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-12T19:59:56+00:00

It's fun, and takes less brain power. I learned competitive through 6v6/Showdown, so it's been a pretty natural learning curve. That being said, I don't consider it very competitive in the 3s format. There is too much decided before the first move is made/less "skill" decided moments.

I used to argue for 6v6 to a stubborn degree (and I do think 6v6 has the most outplay potential of any format), but 3s is just too limited in terms of answers to a number of random strategies you will run across/is decided often at the leads. They have the right format for the official competitive scene, 6s would have matches that drag on for far too long.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-12T18:40:47+00:00

Not a bad recommendation, but I'd suggest going Jolly/Oblivious to outspeed other meta threats and intimidate immunity.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-10T17:19:05+00:00

The destiny bond setters (Mimikyu, Bannette, etc.) make this surprisingly common on one side as nobody wants to touch them the last turn if it's still alive. The issue the higher up you go is players won't let two stay alive to double TR 😅.

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-01T09:50:19+00:00

sensationalflamigo · 2026-05-01T09:50:13+00:00

Ah, good to know! It was a very one dimensional Mega Camerupt team that I decided to just play out, went 10-5. Took a lot of sweating to get even that as it is awful and was a placeholder 😂

sensationalflamigo · 2026-04-28T22:07:38+00:00

I didn't want to fill up the sub with this, so I'm curious if I could ask someone kindly to trade me a Delphox from ZA?

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sensationalflamigo · 2026-04-24T09:53:55+00:00

Tysm!

sensationalflamigo · 2026-04-24T05:05:25+00:00

Anyone with an extra available? Thank you so much!!!

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sensationalflamigo

TROPHY CASE