Tales from Battle Spot Singles blog — ULTRA FINAL 2019 (Special Edition)

The final weekender competition of generation 7 gave players another take at Ultra No Holds Barred, only this time with a completely unlimited roster of pokemon to choose from. The goal of this post will hopefully give a decent picture of the process and decisions that went into my team on the first of my two participating accounts.

   The pair of pokemon I chose to build around—and write about—is not just any old Anything Goes power couple either, but something truly sublime. In short: given that I Shuckle + Bibareled into the global top 70 last time around, I figured it would be interesting to see how far I could get with even more threats waving their excessively large base stats in my face.

   I have divided this entry into three sections: first, a few notes about preparation and a quick run-through of the team itself; second, a brief summary of how the games unfolded (read: how everything went wrong) across the weekend; and, third, some nonsensical utterances about the whole experience, intended as some sort of conclusion, I suppose.

Announcement: https://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/information/2326ba01-ac70-4125-ab67-1b64e2028254

Thread & Format info: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ultra-final-last-pgl-competition-get-another-shiny-koko.3654575/

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/49dc9c63a19c6415

1) Goals, preparation & team overview:

After bombing out of Simple Symphony with poor play and too modular a team, I wanted to opt for a reasonable secondary mode for Bibarel (Thunder Wave Arceus) as a contingency plan for things like Yveltal (Taunt + Foul Play) and Kyogre (100% Acc Thunder in rain), which the beaver could not reasonably be expected to overcome.

   First things first, though: I played a grand total of 0 actual games on showdown in preparation for this. What I did do, however, was look over some replays, but other than that, I based more or less everything on the supposition that the optimal team composition competent players would choose to bring would look something like the following: 1-2 Arceus, Rayquaza, Dusk-Mane, Groudon, with possibly a dedicated lead in there to drop hazards for opposing Sashes and Rayquaza/Yveltal.

   As far as results go, I figured 1730-50 would be a realistic goal on this team. While this is precisely where I ended up stagnating on day 3, I do have to confess that I did initially consider the low 1800s to be where the very top of the rankings would settle, so with that in mind, my play did disappoint.

Bibarel:

Any tournament without species or item clauses in place is going to see people trying to check boosting strategies with Focus Sash Spectral Thief Marshadow, which lends itself well to Normal-types like Baton Pass into Arceus and, as previously seen, even into Bewear. Similarly, Bibarel too is unaffected by Spectral Thief but requires Sticky Web support to hit a passable speed tier to get its Moody set up going in the first place. A convenient excuse to use it over the generally superior Glalie.

   Taunt is necessary against teams that actually bring Haze/Defog or pseudo-hazers like Roar Arceus and Groudon. As its sole offensive move, Crunch is selected since its STAB options preclude actually being able to do damage against both Marshadow and Primal Groudon.

Shuckle:

Going into this, I figured Stealth Rock was going to see value due to the bulky-offense nature of things, with Sash-breaking an always useful utility to have.

Rayquaza:

Originally intended to recover momentum and to sweep chipped or bruised opposing squads, which I ended up using as a lead to gamble against things trying to counter-lead Shuckle (Dusk-Mane) for want of Yveltal from my side.

Groudon:

SpDef-invested Groudon was chosen as the Stealth Rock setter for the non-Bibarel mode in order to check Kyogre, avoiding the Ice Beam 3HKO, as well as +2 Xerneas momentum through Roar. Overheat + Stealth Rock was employed to get the kill on Yveltal on the switch.

Dusk-Mane:

Ultra Necrozma is ultra busted offensively, only really checked by Marshadow, which has to sacrifice something in order to come in if Sash is not intact and obviously can't outspeed it if webs are out, and Yveltal via Foul Play or Sucker Punch. My Swords Dance + three attacks set included Stone Edge to click against Yveltal for this reason, the plan being to open up a sweep with this through Arceus support.

Arceus-Fairy:

When you mangle your team with relatively questionable choices like Bibarel, you need a defensive backbone that can both support and carry games by itself — Arceus-Fairy brings just that.

2) Tournament

DAY 1

Result: 12 - 4

Bibrael brought: 11/15 games (11/15 total)

*Loss 1 to 6x Greninja after Judgment stopped hitting at +2 Evasion (dedicated support Toxic Spikes lead into Substitute + Double Team).

*Loss 2 to Arceus-Ghost with Extremespeed due to not getting Def or Evasion boosts after getting crit Light That Burns The Sky'd through Protect by a paralyzed Dusk-Mane while at +6 Attack and Speed. So, Biba-betrayed?

*Loss 3 to Kyogre team due to paralyzed opposing Marshadow freezing Arceus before ever getting fully paralyzed itself, and Arceus subsequently not thawing for 4 turns to click Thunder Wave on Kyogre.

*Loss 4 to a lead Rayquaza after throwing because I assumed he was not bad (turns out we both were).

DAY 2

Result: 8 - 1

Bibrael brought: 3/9 games (13/25 total)

*Loss 5 to +2 Life Orb Extremespeed crit from Arceus-Normal.

Decided to save the rest of my games for Sunday.

DAY3

Result: 12 - 8

Bibrael brought: 3/20 games (15/45 total)

*Loss 6 to a Precipice Blade miss that needed to break Lunala's Shadow Shield (the only Blades miss of the entire event, though).

*Loss 7 to Groudon Fire Punch burn against +3/+3 Arceus: Arceus was taking under 50% from Precipice Blades and Fire Punch with only Yveltal left in the back for the opponent.

*Loss 8 to an assumed low roll Dragon Ascent against a 70% Kyogre.

At this point, Rayquaza-Arceus-Groudon had lost three games in a row against lower-ranked opponents, two of which were against Yveltal teams, sending me deep into the 1600s dumpster.

*Loss 9 to a paralyzed Necrozma-Dusk Mane clicking an untelegraphed Trick Room and not getting paralysed for five turns.

*Loss 10 to a Thunder Wave miss on Kyogre while setting up a Bibarel out, resulting in it dying after its first Protect turn immediately gave a Spd drop. The game was already lost on the spot to the Thunder Wave miss, but still painful to experience.

*Loss 11 to knowingly bringing Bibarel against Trick Room and not clicking Taunt against Lunala.

*Loss 12 to lead Necrozma-Dusk Mane due to clicking V-Create instead of Draco Meteor on turn 1 on the form change call.

*Loss 13 to Sucker Punch / Oblivion Wing Yveltal mindgames because paralyzed Specs Lunala got off 6/7 attacks to wear down Arceus trying to set up on it earlier.

FINAL RESULT: 1734 pts. (W:32 / L:13)

3) Post-mortem

To reiterate, my initial goal was 1730, but after reaching 1700 on day 2, I amended that to 1800, which I would go on to fall well short of as a result of my collapse on day 3. While my alternate account did finish exactly at global rank 100 (1757 pts.), that team was just a rush-job with a bunch of powerful pokemon slapped together, and played on autopilot, making my results with Bibarel all the more disappointing. So how did I manage to bungle everything this time around?

   One of the most unfortunate consequences of bringing a team whose main two win-conditions — Bibarel and Dusk-Mane — struggle against defensive Yveltal was dropping so many games needlessly against players who brought it, especially alongside Groudon, where my only Yveltal check, Arceus, had no moves to click against a Groudon switch, and doubling out accomplished nothing without Stealth Rock on the field.

   This ended up being especially costly in points against players 100+ points below me, in fact a majority of the losses, who would just collect the win if my forced gambles went at all sideways. And while, yes, my Dusk-Mane carried Stone Edge for the occasinal non-Sucker Punch Taunt Yveltal, I was not prepared for this, more or less assuming instead that the VGC crowd's penchant for Xerneas would keep most of the Yveltals I ultimately ended up facing at bay. As a result, the first 14 games of day 3 ended up resulting in a net loss of -11 points instead of the mid-high 1700s I was expecting.

   A possible lesson to learn from all this is the fact that bringing janky options into a weekender competition, which are apparently going to keep happening in generation 8 despite the long-awaited and much celebrated demise of the PGL, one should definitely stick to farming lower rated players during the first two days of competition, instead of saving up games for a final day's push, when actual competitors who won't fall for memes as easily are searching.

   As for the rest of the team overall, a bring rate of 15/45 games on Bibarel isn't exactly ideal for a purported win condition, but when it did get brought, it did put in some work, dropping five games, a few of which were straight up down to bad RNG, as shown above. No small feat for a beaver in the ring with a bunch of legendaries and mythicals.

   Rayquaza's reach, especially after Stealth Rock damage, and choice of set did much to pick up the slack left by a Bibarel-sized hole on an ubers team. Having a fast Draco Meteor was decisive in the mirror and as a revenge option against opposing Dusk-Mane, while Surfing through Stealth Rock setter Groudon and the odd Rock Polish variant was routine, especially once Stealth Rock was down, preventing opposing Yveltal from coming in without risking the Dragon Ascent 2HKO.

   Shuckle would, I think, have been better served running Toxic over Stealth Rock for all the Taunt Yveltal leads I had the misfortune of hitting. Even so, Stealth Rock + Sticky Web did enable more than a few Dusk-Mane sweeps from my side. Also worth noting is the fact that, against the Yveltal-Dusk-Mane, leading even a Toxic Shuckle would always be gamble given the fact that I had no Yveltal to Roost off a Sunsteel Strike counter-lead by Dusk-Mane.

   Groudon found itself getting brought virtually every game where Stealth Rock was necessary, but shuckle was out of the question. It also performed well as a bulky Roar user against opposing Rayquaza that Dragon Danced in front of it, in addition to shooing off Xerneas' set-up attempts. Overheat did alright, but could not get full value against the Yveltals that plagued the games where opponents actually had well planned out teams, unless Stealth Rock was out, in which case it destroyed physically defensive variants. Still, having a fast Groudon would have paid off massively on day 3 in that matchup.

   But the absolute MVP of the team was Arceus — the glue that held everything together.

   And that about does it for me for generation 7. Late November's blog entry will likely cover my first impressions of the singles meta of generation 8 with an overview of popular team-building trends if at all possible that early.

- Tox