Pokémon Black and White

Edit history:

Sephiran: 2011-04-02 06:24:09 pm

Sephiran: 2011-04-02 06:19:57 pm

2011-04-02 06:14:48 pm

The AI in the Battle Tower/ Subway really is screwed though, so it's not completely false.

If you want to get a good streak, just start with a Pokemon with Choice Scarf, Trick, Flash, Thunder Wave etc. (since the AI almost never switches) and have two other sweepers - preferably with self healing moves and one steel type since they resist everything and their mother. Scizor is a good one.

UchihaSasuke

Edit history:

UchihaSasuke: 2011-04-03 09:28:25 pm

2011-04-03 09:27:41 pm

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

this is why i have no regrets in using stuff like soul dew Lati@s, legendary trios and pseudo legendary dragons in the battle tower. the AI is an unfair bastard, so, better to hit them with the best you've got even if it is umbalanced too. it is legal under the game's ruling anyway since they don't use smogon tiers.

Sephiran

Edit history:

Sephiran: 2011-04-04 08:21:21 am

Sephiran: 2011-04-04 08:21:02 am

2011-04-04 08:20:47 am

Smogon's tiers are crap now. Banning Blaziken, Lax Incense, Brightpowder and Drizzle + Swift Swim? Honestly?

arkarian

2011-04-04 05:49:25 pm

red chamber dream

banning stuff that breaks the metagame? unthinkable!!!!

UchihaSasuke

Edit history:

UchihaSasuke: 2011-04-05 06:18:27 pm

2011-04-05 03:55:23 am

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

well, the start of each gen brings the craziness. give it a few years for better tiers and rulesets.

Sephiran

Edit history:

Sephiran: 2011-04-05 09:33:23 am

Sephiran: 2011-04-05 09:33:20 am

2011-04-05 09:31:30 am

I hope you're kidding. Do you honestly think that Lax Incense breaks the metagame?

Prime Hunter

2011-04-05 10:32:47 am

I forget, what happened that makes Blaziken so dangerous now? It's Dream World ability, right? Doesn't it constantly increase its speed each turn or something like that, like Yanmega does? And remind me what Lax Incense does too.

The other two I understand and can see why they might be banned, but then again while I try to follow these changes from time to time aside from the tournament we're setting up here I don't fight competitively that much so I haven't had experience dealing with these things in battle.

Sephiran

Edit history:

Sephiran: 2011-04-05 01:32:46 pm

Sephiran: 2011-04-05 12:30:01 pm

Sephiran: 2011-04-05 12:24:58 pm

2011-04-05 11:20:36 am

Lax Incense increases evasion by 5%.

Yes, and Blaziken's Hi Jump Kick got boosted to 180 power (with STAB). Blaziken has several ok counters, like Hippowdon, Swampert and Salamence. It's fragile and it can only set up on Ferrothorn and stuff. Between Swords Dance and Protect, it can't have a large choice of attacks anyway.. but even then I can understand. But not even considering Stealth Rock as a suspect and banning Lax Incense and Brightpowder?

UchihaSasuke

2011-04-05 06:17:41 pm

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

they've been very paranoid about evasion since it is a very cheap hax.
but yeah, some shit like stealth rock also twist the metagame and there's no prob with that.
most of it is gamefreak's fault for not putting the effort to balance the game themselves.

arkarian

2011-04-05 06:22:38 pm

red chamber dream

yeah i dunno, maybe banning lax incense is a little much, especially because by using it you give up another, potentially more useful item on that pokemon. but it is in line with banning moves that do nothing but raise evasion, so i'm ok with it. who would actually use lax incense anyway?

tbh i think the gen v metagame would be much better off if all weather and maybe stealth rock too were banned. i know there's several people on smogon who agree, but i doubt that's going to hapen. owell.

Prime Hunter

2011-04-05 06:59:39 pm

Yeah, I was thinking something similar with that. 5 or 10% evasion instead of some of the other items doesn't sound like a good idea anyway if you have other things available to use. Only reason I'd see to use those would be if you have nothing better at the time.

It's sad, but the other day when I was looking for info on Gen 5 EV training spots, I had a few other topics up somewhere and saw people trying to defend Stealth Rock by suggesting it either balances against the heavy hitters or else further kills Pokemon who are already "terrible" so it doesn't matter anyway since nobody uses them to begin with. Along the lines of "No where near as game breaking as certain Pokemon can be!" or something stupid like that.

As I've said before, I'm no expert on the metagame or competitive battling, but it still sounds like a weird exception after some of the other things that have been banned in the past.

ryu

2011-04-05 07:25:52 pm

lax incense and bright powder are probably banned because they give 100% accuracy moves a chance to miss, and thus could screw certain tactics.

tomatobob

2011-04-05 07:27:31 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from ryu:

lax incense and bright powder are probably banned because they give 100% accuracy moves a chance to miss, and thus could screw certain tactics.

That is a dumb reason for babies.

ryu

2011-04-05 07:31:44 pm

Quote from tomatobob:

Quote from ryu:

lax incense and bright powder are probably banned because they give 100% accuracy moves a chance to miss, and thus could screw certain tactics.

That is a dumb reason for babies.

it's the nintendo competetive scene, you know?

tomatobob

2011-04-05 07:33:13 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Good point.

Sephiran

Edit history:

Sephiran: 2011-04-06 03:10:53 am

Sephiran: 2011-04-06 03:10:16 am

2011-04-06 03:06:06 am

I've been paranoid about evasion for years but even then there are much more broken items to use than Brightpowder and Lax Incense. You can heal more with Leftovers in 10 turns than a hit dodged with Brightpowder (it's more likely you'll dodge a neutral hit than a super effective one in the first place). I think it's just really weird that they're not spending time on really important suspects like Stealth Rock, but wasting time on suspects like Reuniclus and Lax Incense? They really are like whiny little children.

Critical hits and such could screw certain tactics, too. Luck is an inherent part of the game.

I think all weather being banned might be good for the metagame too. Game Freak really fucked up the metagame this time though, so it's not all Smogon's fault.

arkarian

2011-04-06 06:41:36 am

red chamber dream

what pokemon survives for 10 turns?

Sephiran

Edit history:

Sephiran: 2011-04-06 06:49:51 am

2011-04-06 06:49:21 am

Garchomp with Substitute in the sand (as long as he's played well), the only pokemon nowadays that uses Brightpowder. He's better off with Leftovers or Salac Berry.

Tanks like Hippowdon, Blissey, Ferrothorn (being in the rain helps), Reuniclus..

arkarian

2011-04-06 06:51:10 am

red chamber dream

i've never seen any of those pokemon last for 10 turns. 10 turns is a long time lol. but maybe i just haven't watched the right battles.

Sephiran

2011-04-06 06:55:12 am

Of course they can. If they couldn't survive for that long, then people would give tanks Brightpowder instead of Leftovers. But no one does that.

No one really posts stall battles on Youtube because they're boring, so that's expected. Unless you mean on Pokemon Online.