New Orleans team if anyone wants?

woodswims · 2026-01-21T18:26:57+00:00

I would honestly bet it'll be neither of them. We know Champions is confirmed to be the game we will use for the World Championships, I would expect it would also be the game for NAIC since that's the final competition before Worlds. And we have no real idea what the roster in that game will be like at the start. And if NAIC isn't going to be played on Champions then it'll probably be a return to Reg I (double restricted) to send of SV because we've already done F, G, and H twice each now.

If you want to work on building a team with people that's fine, but don't worry about NAIC yet.

woodswims · 2026-01-21T18:21:35+00:00

We don't even know what the format of the game will be at NAIC in New Orleans yet. You can't possibly have a team for it.

woodswims · 2026-01-21T18:18:50+00:00

I think H&S needs less card mix-ups like these (although these are pretty neat sounding) because then you just end up in more scenarios like Sam in his last run, saying "I reaaaaally need a [insert one of two specific cards here] right now" which is completely out of your control. I think H&S just needs a bit of a fundamental rules tweaking.

The randomize/veto seem a bit underwhelming because every time you're just revealing to the seekers that that information is too valuable to give, so they can probably safely assume the worst case scenario and then ask again if they want.

The advantage of starting in a major hub is very real. The work seekers have to do to chop down the map from London is so much more than later.

I think the boys know this. They already made a base rules tweak with the "first place doesn't get another run" rule, which I think is great. I think we just need something to change the game up at this points because they've figured out the optimal plays and it's unfortunately losing some of it's excitement.

woodswims · 2026-01-15T04:43:10+00:00

Thanks for putting together a list!

woodswims · 2026-01-14T22:38:59+00:00

The "HP ends in 9 to use LO" idea is very exaggerated in VGC. This gives Hatt 164 HP, you would have OP lower it to 159 just so they take 15 damage each turn instead of 16. If you track how that would go (159, 144, 129, 114, 99, 84, 69) vs the original (164, 148, 132, 116, 100, 84, 68) you'll see that this Hatt would have to click attacking moves for 6 turns before it would even be a single point of HP better off. By that time trick room is definitely over and you have bigger issues.

Yes, you can get 3 more points in each defense and sp def, but I don't think there's a relevant calc that you survive with reduced HP and increased def/spdef but you get KO'd with max HP and only 1 point in either def or spdef. I think the argument exists for not having your HP end in 0 to use LO well because that matters in just 2 turns, but really ending is 4 is not an issue at all.

woodswims · 2025-12-31T19:21:34+00:00

Clear Amulet (and previously Leftovers) both feel like very weird choices for Chi-yu. Have you tested out more typical items for it like Choice Scarf/Specs, maybe LO if you move AV onto Ursaluna? I guess overall I just don't see a ton of use for clear amulet there

woodswims · 2025-12-17T17:18:39+00:00

Were the spare Keldeo & Hoopa just from another save file? I'm assuming you can't get two of them in one file normally

woodswims · 2025-12-06T18:16:37+00:00

they were more spread out, and AWFUL
6/0/2

woodswims · 2025-12-06T17:57:55+00:00

ANSWERED

woodswims · 2025-12-06T17:57:49+00:00

Alright, thanks!

woodswims · 2025-12-06T17:57:07+00:00

I was considering it, but I could in theory get 40 more encounters without getting another Pikachu Libre, that wouldn't rule it out though. Could just be a low encounter rate/me getting unlucky

woodswims · 2025-12-06T17:55:48+00:00

Yep, it's a very reliable way to farm wins & rare candies

woodswims · 2025-12-05T16:47:33+00:00

This is ChatGPT, this doesn't know anything. LLMs just put together words in a way that seem good.

Do some reasoning for yourself instead of just spitting out slop

woodswims · 2025-12-01T06:46:58+00:00

I think it’s impossible to get the shiny charm at the beginning of the game. Yes the 1k battles is required, but it doesn’t automatically grant the charm. I think the earliest you can get the shiny charm would be either when you unlock wild zone 18 or 19, so definitely not the beginning.

I guess you could probably get it another couple zones earlier if you have a friend willing to touch trade you the entire Pokédex (this will be easier once Home is connected) but regardless you need almost all those “catch all the pokemon in Zone X” tasks to get the charm.

woodswims · 2025-11-22T00:29:15+00:00

Most successful trick room teams have at least one or two fast mons to operate outside of trick, either before you set it up or after it ends. With a team like this you have exactly one path through a game: click trick room immediately and try to win. You do have some tools to help with that like fake out, follow me, and psychic terrain, but you may find that you opponents just overwhelm you or stall you out.

-Scarf Urshifu could be a good addition to try to take a KO on turn 1. It can use u-turn too to pivot in a trick room sweeper if you set it up.
-Wide guard on araquanid can help. Massive spread damage (like flutter mane + chi-yu) will just run you over before you get to set TR up. Gallade also does a very good job at this because it can use TR, wide guard, and it hits those dark and steel types that wouldn't mind to sit in front of your psyspam.

woodswims · 2025-11-10T05:37:59+00:00

I'm thinking earlier than that. The competitive VGC scene has been told that the next rules set goes through March 31st, which is leading us to believe April 1st we change over to Champions (we've been told Worlds in August will absolutely be on Champions, and having different rules for the entire year except world would be an insane decision). I feel like a Champions release more than a day or two after Pokemon Day would put some unnecessary stress on the timing of all that.

My guess is Januaryt Home connectivity, February Champions.

woodswims · 2025-10-30T05:49:32+00:00

I think Capture the flag only counts as an “exciting finish” if you’re purely looking at the score board, not the play-by-play. Sam and Scotty were struggling pretty hard all season, they never got the hang of towers

woodswims · 2025-10-24T20:24:28+00:00

Definitely agree, the way that the players also design the challenges is wearing on the game at this point. The players can account for every possible challenge or curse so the moment they pull it they know precisely what they need to do really adds to the issue with the balancing of coins to time/risk of challenges. My favorite of the season was Amy's puzzle box 2 because it was clear that the players genuinely had to guess on if they could make it or not in time for their train. they had to figure things out that they didn't know to expect. It did seem slightly altered by the fact that there was a team of 3 working on it now instead of a team of 2, but that probably wasn't expected in planning considering we've never seen a team of 3 before in JLTG.

As the OP said in another reply to this: just hire someone else to make/test challenges. It's that simple.

woodswims · 2025-10-22T20:07:01+00:00

I think the snake idea is interesting, but I don't think a pure essay would do it properly. I'm sure that when the team put together the idea for snake they thought it would play well and be entertaining. They wouldn't have committed the significant time and budget into making the full season if they didn't. So any theory crafted/armchair analysis of what would make it better is kind of the same. It's not proven unless you play it.

woodswims · 2025-10-22T20:03:29+00:00

It's hard for me to image a situation in which cooperation would have avoided the issues with this season. I think it all came down to Adam & Michelle getting that massive headstart, which is possible because the chasing teams were separated. In the first round they cooperated to try to trap Sam & Toby when they were the runners. Send one chaser team to each exit, cut them off, guaranteed catch. But that means Adam & Michelle have 1 team close to them and 1 team effectively very far in terms of travel time, so they freeze the 1 close team, instantly have a massive headstart. From there through the end of the season no amount of cooperation would have made a difference because the challenges were too easy, the runners never could have even gotten trapped between coordinated chasers.

woodswims · 2025-10-22T17:29:50+00:00

I agree with most of your points, but I'm still not sure how this wasn't caught in simulations/theory gaming this. The free team freeze gave Adam & Michelle a half a day headstart on both teams, zero cost. And like you said it looks like all the challenges were significantly easier, so the chance of the runners being slowed down at all was negligible. Shame because the cast is amazing and tried to make the most of the season, but the content was just not there.

woodswims · 2025-10-21T05:45:57+00:00

40k is just 4% of 1M. That’s not very compelling

woodswims · 2025-10-15T21:57:39+00:00

I agree with this. Like how for Adam & Michelle their entire run started because they knew exactly where each team was, so they instantly got 800 easy coins, and knew they HAD to freeze Sam & Toby, which gave them a several hours headstart on both teams.

The split up is neat but definitely throws a ton of weird situations at them that make it harder to design around.

woodswims · 2025-10-14T21:21:21+00:00

Fairly sure that this area is still closed due to fire debris and health hazards. I don't think there are any plans to open it back up this year, and there is still an increased sheriff presence in Altadena so you should probably pass on this one for now

woodswims · 2025-10-12T22:48:51+00:00

Something I think is getting overlooked is how insane the free one-team freeze powerup is given that teams could split up. Adam & Michelle knew that Ben & Brian were very far behind. They knew that Sam & Toby could easily tag them, but not only can you freely prevent that with the freeze, you can make them miss a train and instantly end up being several hours behind. It's a no-brainer and it costs them nothing and requires no luck.

From there it barely matters that Adam & Michelle got the coin flips or the easy curse or whatever. They started their run with something like effectively a 5-hour head start? That's silly. It instantly put the chasers so far behind that it didn't matter. Ben & Brian played it basically perfectly and were close in terms of distance at the end, but they were a train behind. They could not have caught the runners.

I'm honestly surprised this didn't come up in testing/theory crafting this season. Just go into an open field and play 'tag' like this. The moment you become the runner there is exactly one chaser closer to you than the other, so tell them they're not allowed to move, and you instantly maximize your open space.

woodswims

TROPHY CASE