Tales from Battle Stadium Singles blog — Extreme Speed! Single Battles!! (Special Edition)
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"How about another weekender singles tournament?"
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"Sure."
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"It's 1v1 though. Without a team preview screen. And 10 second turn timers."
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"..."
Rules/Announcement: https://battle.pokemon-home.com/regulation/000000103/en
Thread: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/extreme-speed-single-battles.3661123/
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/793030827229c1ef
Losing the -6 Speed, 0IV, -Speed tie means I win? Got it.
Why didn't more people bring this? Or Trick Scarf Sableye attrition?
1) Team overview:
Lapras
Curse underspeeding Perish Song beats virtually everything that isn't carrying Taunt or can't 2HKO it through Sitrus Berry. The intention here was to coast with Lapras until hitting people rated high enough to bring checks, then switch to Crawdaunt or Corviknight.
Crawdaunt
A Prankster-immune Taunt Sash attacker with Adaptability boosted Knock Off and priority. Speed creeping past base 60/61.
Corviknight
Fast Taunt for beating every relevant non-Mental Herb Yawn/Perish Song user and 0 Spd Mimikyu with Maranga + Roost + Bulk Up to checkmate offensive stuff.
Ferrothorn
A lazy and terrible Knock Off 4-attacks Ferrothorn with 2 Spd IV to outspeed the mirror. Intended to beat Mimikyu, Yawn + Protect Sylveon, and underspeed Perish Song users.
Haxorus
A Mimikyu check that, at worst, also coin flips for the Haxorus mirror. Has access to a Guillotine out for when hard walled or on a timer against Perish Song Lapras/Brionne/Primarina. Dual Chop plays around Sash and Counter/Metal Burst.
Aegislash
A consistent, un-1HKOable 1v1 option with priority. I never intended to actually run this, only really bringing it along in case everything above went horribly, horribly wrong. My original intention for the 6th slot was either Togekiss or Substitute/Hex/Wisp/Dragon Darts Dragapult, but since I was too lazy to do any preparation for this tournament, whether practice games or going through replays, I ended up with the smogonsword.
2) Tournament:
Since there isn't really that much to this format, I took the liberty of detailing all of my games below. En...joy?
Day 1
Win / Loss: 14 - 1
Match breakdown:
Lapras VS Arcanine (Reversal set) - WIN
Lapras VS Greedent (Counter set) - WIN
Lapras VS Indeedee-F (1 mon team, Metronome) - WIN
Lapras VS Toxapex (Format-competitive team) - WIN
Lapras VS Corsola (BSS stall team) - WIN
Lapras VS Appletun (Ingame team) - LOSS (Apple Acid 2HKO)
Lapras VS Weavile (Fake Out set, no Throat Chop, BSS team?) - WIN
Lapras VS Haxorus (Non-Choiced, never clicked Guillotine) - WIN
Lapras VS Umbreon (BSS team) - WIN
Lapras VS Dragapult (Non-Choiced) - WIN
Lapras VS Cloyster (1620 rating) - WIN
Lapras VS Whimsicott (Didn't have Taunt?) - WIN
Lapras VS Avalugg (Survived the Body Presses with 10 HP) - WIN
Lapras VS Crawdaunt (2 mon team with Togekiss, survived +2 Knock Off with 25 HP) - WIN
Lapras VS Excadrill (1 mon team, dodged both Horn Drills) - WIN
A different opponent for each game just means that it's day 1, and people are more or less just clicking the buttons necessary to collect their 50BP at the end. Looking at the list, both Crawdaunt and Corviknight would have fared okay too I suppose. Sitrus Berry saved Lapras from multiple high-rolls in that +2 Cloyster game, whereas something like Iron Ball, superior in an eventual Lapras mirror, would have put the outcome of that, and the Avalugg game (40% to 2HKO), into question.
Standing after my first day's games.
Day 2
Win / Loss: 10 - 2
Match breakdown:
Lapras VS Lapras (1642 rating, exact mirror) - WIN
Lapras VS Sylveon (1 mon team) - LOSS (Throat Spray Hyper Voice into Hyper Beam)
Lapras VS Butterfree (Quiver Danced on Dive turn expecting Protect after Perish Song) - WIN
Lapras VS Bisharp (1 mon team, saved from Low Kick 2HKO by Sitrus Berry) - WIN
Lapras VS Snorlax (BSS rain team, dodged 2 Fissures) - WIN
Broke rating 1700 (1710).
Lapras VS Mudsdale (1711 rating, 2 mon team with Dragapult) - WIN
Lapras VS Toxapex (BSS team) - WIN
Lapras VS Corviknight (BSS team, Rocky Helmet, clicked Taunt...on turn 2) - WIN
Lapras VS Brionne (Format-competitive team) - WIN
Lapras VS Milotic (Flame Orb Mirror Coat set) - WIN
Lapras VS Dracovish (BSS team, clicked Outrage) - WIN
Lapras VS Corviknight (1700 rating, turn 1 Taunt) - LOSS (-20 pts.)
Couldn't find a game for the next 35 minutes, so decided to retire for the day.
Rating after day 2. High before that last game was 1788.
Day 3
Win / Loss: 14 - 4
Match breakdown:
Lapras VS Brionne (Format-competitive team) - WIN
Lapras VS Aegislash (Format-competitive team, fast special attacker) - WIN
Lapras VS Toxapex (BSS team?) - WIN
Broke rating 1800 (1805) with 15 games to go.
Lapras VS Bisharp (6 mon team with triple eeveelution) – WIN
Lapras VS Lapras (1 mon team, opposing Lapras was not 0IV -Spd) - WIN
Lapras VS Milotic (BSS team? Hypnosis Mirror Coat set) – WIN
Lapras VS Corviknight (1 mon team, rating 1750, turn 1 Taunt) – LOSS (-19 pts.)
The previous queue took over 10 minutes, and, after the game, I began to wonder whether now would be the time to switch to Corviknight/Crawdaunt expecting Lapras checks from here on out. Nah.
Lapras VS Primarina (special attacker, Calm Mind on T2 Dive after Moonblast couldn't even proc Sitrus Berry T1, expected Protect T2?) - WIN
Lapras VS Lapras (Format-competitive team, Perish Song instead of Curse T1) – WIN
Lapras VS Incineroar (Format-competitive team, first Sableye in the back all weekend, turn 1 Throat Chop) – LOSS (+1/+2 Dive didn't 1HKO after two rounds of Flare Blitz recoil, procing Weakness Policy [!]. One more Curse would have needed opponent to low roll, but could have won it) (-28 pts. ayyyy)
Lapras VS Mandibuzz (scary team with several potential Belly Drum/Taunt users, Toxic Protect set instead of Taunt) – WIN
Lapras VS Inteleon (1 mon team, 1533 rating) – WIN
At this point, with six games left, 1850 was still 30 points away thanks to that loss a few games ago costing three wins worth of progress.
Lapras VS Rotom-Mow (Format-competitive team) – LOSS (Turn 1 Thunderbolt 1HKO) (-20pts.)
Lapras VS Darmanitan-G (3 mon team, Sylveon/Dracovish/Darmanitan, Yawn Focus Punch set) – WIN (lucky 1 turn Sleep)
Lapras VS Togedemaru (low 1500s rating, 1 mon team) – LOSS (Perish Song goes through T1 Nuzzle's Paralysis + sub-10% damage, then, as my Dive animation starts going off, not suspiciously at all, on turn 2, "Connection to Server Interrupted", despite no network problem on my end all weekend)
Pretty spooky. Dumpstered all the way down into the 1780s after that one. Hey, game, really now, I get that I had some outrageous luck with that one turn sleep in the game prior, but that was uncalled for, don't you think? : D
Lapras VS Cloyster (Format-competitive team, Rock Blasted on T1, Shell Smashed on my T2 Dive due to Sitrus putting Lapras out of 2HKO reach and/or expecting Protect) - WIN
Lapras VS Cloyster (BSS team, White Herb) – WIN (Sitrus Berry again)
Lapras VS Lapras (Forfeited on turn 2 upon seeing Curse) - WIN
Game #45, final opponent (1665 rating)
Final Result
Win / Loss: 38 - 7
Rating: 1819 (Peak: 1831)
Rank: 16
Ave atque vale, Lapras.
Overall peak with 12 games to go. Oh what could have been. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
...and this is where I ended up after all 45 games played. Note the disparity between my standing at noon GMT+2/CET+1 on Sunday with my actual final rank upon the event's conclusion some 12 hours later.
3) Post-mortem:
As far as formats best described as juggler jamborees, mime mardi gras', and clown fiestas go, nothing much to say here other than Lapras being such a massive threat should not have been a surprise to players — even if team preview had been enabled, most people still brought teams seemingly unequipped to deal with it. Indeed, even at higher ratings, things that autowin against Perish Song and still do okay against a majority of the format (Trick Scarf Sabeleye, Taunt users) were conspicuously absent from my games, meaning the two things I actually took the time to put some thought into, Crawdaunt and Corviknight, never got to do their thing.
- Tox
SW-0021-9848-8999
