Battle Stadium Singles blog #9 — Pelipper-Drednaw rain mode (S6)

The last season before the first set of DLC drops is upon us. As it has become painfully clear by now, generation 8 BSS is sadly no longer so much about identifying and playing around good cores on the opposing side like the venerable Hippowdon-Salamence-Aegislash/Tapu Koko so much as it is about stacking as many high-performing individual pokemon together in "goodstuffs" momentum compositions with very little regard to anything like the reception loops of old either, and once ingame, figuring out what will punch through after a few turns of butting heads thanks to the astoundingly ill-conceived Dynamax-mechanic.

   What I decided to feature this time around is one of the more notable exceptions to what I have just asserted above: It's the rain modular core of Pelipper-Drednaw — with a customary helping of "huh, what?" sprinkled on top to hopefully make things more interesting.

Having to respond to the 252 SpAtt Togekiss 6.3% Max Airstream 1HKO on Pelipper on turn 1 (loss).

252+ Atk Cloyster Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 204 HP / 4 Def Pelipper: 130-160 (80.7 - 99.3%).

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/5969335e8b19fe89

1) Team overview:

Pelipper

This set is adapted from lemipkmn, retaining its favorable +252 SpAtt Aegislash Shadow Ball + Shadow Sneak defensive match up with enough Spd investment piled on to hit a real stat of 148 at +1 (beating both +252 Togekiss and +252 Gyarados), giving Pelipper slightly better prospects in its mostly secondary Max Airstream mode when required to pull it out.

   U-turn is obviously Pelipper's most important move, but with this much Spd creep and no Focus Sash, special attention needs to be paid in the team select screen as to whether Pelipper's pivot is slow enough or its bulk good enough to get full value out of the mighty rain bird: keeping Pelipper alive after its initial contact with the opponent is also one of the hallmarks of good play.

   Endure is also something that helps in the Max Airstream role, but is really nifty for exhausting an extra opposing Dynamax turn thanks to Pelipper's decent native physical bulk and its myriad resistances (Max Steelspike, Max Knuckle) switching into various unboosted physical Max moves while still at high HP.

Drednaw

Nothing much to say here other than I found some extra stat points to dump into the HP stat after deciding on Jolly and settling on a rain-boosted real Spd stat of 270, which is fast enough to beat everything relevant Drednaw already beats, except for the similarly 74 Base Speed-statted +252 Spd Drednaw mirror or +252 Seismitoad — the Seismitoad that haven't disappeared outright thanks to Lapras, Ferrothorn, Rotom-W, and Snorlax tend to run Modest if they're special-based; either way, special attacker Seismitoad flat out can't expect to break through Ferrothorn, with physical ones also potentially running into Dynamax turn number problems against conservative play from rain mode + Ferrothorn.

Ferrothorn

The rule of thumb for the rain modular core of Pelipper-Drednaw is to bring Ferrothorn...as one of your six at the very least. Not only do you reap the defensive benefits of rain while complementing Pelipper defensively, contesting the almost inevitable Ferrothorn mirror match up thanks to Iron Defense + Body Press, you also dramatically improve the rain core's Lapras match up in doing so.

   An offensive Grass-type move also similarly often finds its way onto rain mode Ferrothorn's kit because of the necessity of being able to meaningfully threaten Rotom-W.

   Missing the Protect recovery cycle (Leech Seed + Leftovers) on Ferrothorn is of course always painful due to Protect's ability to exhaust opposing Dynamax turns and scout, so if a more standard Ferrothorn set is preferred to grind out opponents with Leech Seed, bringing more dedicated answers to opposing Ferrothorn and Rotom-W is very much recommended. Similarly, Leftovers should probably be swapped out for Sitrus Berry for more consistency while clicking Iron Defense against the Max Knuckles of the world. Occa Berry is also commonly found on rain teams, but would need massive offensive investment and a funky moveset (Knock Off/Explosion) to do anything significant back to an actual Fire-type, with virtually all non-STAB-based unboosted Fire-moves already being survivable under rain as is.

Diggersby

Focus Sash 1-for-1 trading Diggersby with Foul Play to revenge kill when not leading, or to click to get the kill even against Specs Dragapult in the lead. When burned in the lead match up by a HP-invested (physical) Dragapult, Foul Play still tends to put it into Mimikyu Shadow Sneak range.

   I ran Adamant over Jolly, which can potentially hurt in the mirror, but — unlike Sash Lucario, which is better against Rotom-W, but is far more telegraphed and runs into problems against Aegislash and Dragapult leads — being slower than 80/81 base Speed, 1 HP Diggersby can't threaten Gyarados or Togekiss with a Rock Tomb regardless of nature anyway. And aside the mirror, the only key Speed benchmark Jolly Diggersby hits is +252 Cloyster, against which Diggersby wouldn't even really want to lead in the first place.

   Mold Breaker Excadrill is another Sash-user option that also has the distinction of hard counter-leading Rotom-W when bringing rain, and has Horn Drill with which to threaten Snorlax, and can opt to run Stealth Rock (much like Ferrothorn) while not being too shabby as a Sash-intact backliner, either.

Dragapult

This set is adapted from karasu-poke, with the notable change of being even more nudged into the dedicated Dynamax role thanks to changing over from Will-o-Wisp to Fly. Especially delicious against 252 SpAtt Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor, which needs the 6.3% high-roll to 1HKO from full in Dynamax form, and able to live +252 Att Choice Scarf Darmanitan Icicle Crash, the lead role can be very tempting, but should be resisted if Dragapult is likely to be immediately revenged by priority (Mimikyu, Aegislash, Cinderace), because a 1-for-1 trade having expended your Dynamax is just generally not enough for this team.

   Indeed, the more natural fit is to try to either bait out the opposing Dynamax, revenge it with Weakness Policy + Max Airstream, and/or leverage Infiltrator against something like Gmax-Lapras, for example. In any case, sets like this do best against offensive styles, whereas Pelipper, Ferrothorn, and even Swords Dance Drednaw are typically better acclimated to somewhat more balanced/defensive or outright attrition-based match ups.

Mimikyu

Bulky Kee Berry Mimikyu checks 252 Att Life Orb Gyarados, and severely bruises or finishes off most sets of both Ferrothorn and Snorlax. And it does all this without having to Dynamax. Whether through just plain old-fashioned trading 1-for-1 or cleaning up as a backliner, variants of this set are so powerful that justifying not having it as one of your six currently is a tall order indeed.

   The one on this team is directly lifted from mate-channel, although the benchmark set for this variant common on high-ladder currently seems to be the following, at least as far as I can tell from my several games with double-digit players on the last two days of season 6: https://mega-salamance.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/04/05/040058

   Play Rough, while also useful in secondary Dynamax form for getting around Yawn while boosting in front of Snorlax, is necessary to actually do the Gyarados checking, but cutting it for Phantom Force for more greed is not the worst idea ever when your team has Sash Diggersby and Ferrothorn, both of which already potentially check it — funny enough, being slower in the Kee Berry Mimikyu mirror, a distinct possibility these days, would also see this set through that particular encounter.

2) Usage notes:

In this section I usually try to write a few paragraphs about some of the bigger hurdles a particular team I cover will face, or perhaps even offer some useful gameplay suggestions or play patterns I might have picked up along the way. This time around, before getting to that, I'm going to go ahead and pull back the curtain on four (!) of the more zany sets I initially tried to get away with here alongside the main rain mode, but eventually gave up on to make the non-rain mode at least somewhat consistent.

   First, among the fresher Focus Sash users I took out for a spin this time around, the standout was Zen Mode Darmanitan. Unlike other more recent BSS fads such as Max Airstream mode Braviary (Lum Berry/Bulk Up), I believe this set has some potential to perhaps stick around in the long run:

Darmanitan-Galar @ Focus Sash

Ability: Zen Mode

Level: 50

EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

Jolly Nature

- Icicle Crash

- Fire Punch

- Rock Tomb

- Yawn

   Not only are you playing against the well-ingrained image of Choice Scarf Darmanitan, but with Sash broken in Zen Mode, you are sitting at a real Spd stat of 205, faster than everything except Dragapult, with a tight offensive combination and access to Rock Tomb Spd control or Yawn. As far as offensive Sash sets that are good at trading while setting up for a possible win condition in the back go, you can't really ask for much more than that.

   As for further optimizations, I suppose some Att can be cut for very little drawback to absolutely ensure survival even against the exceedingly rare physical Life Orb 252 Att Dragon Darts Dragapult in the lead match up that somehow reads that this is not Scarf Darmanitan.

*That* was a fantastic turn 1.

Next up, a rather curious twist on the dedicated cripple lead, Clefable:

Clefable @ Babiri Berry

Ability: Unaware

Level: 50

EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe

Bold Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Thunder Wave

- Stealth Rock

- Flamethrower / Moonblast

- Icy Wind

    This set was intended to exist mostly in complementary distribution with Darmanitan, especially for when the latter doesn't quite do it in its primary lead role — i.e. against opposing Sash lead options with priority like Diggersby, Aegislash, or even the occasional Snorlax-targeting Lucario.

   The item choice is a bit situational, yes, with Sitrus Berry, FIWAM/pinch berry, or even Lum Berry surely being generally more viable across most games. But Babiri Berry stands out in that it lets Clefable consistently speed control & Sash break (Icy Wind) and Stealth Rock in the lead match up even against the otherwise raw deal of hitting, and consequently getting hit by, Sash Excadrill/Aegislash and Sash 252 Durant's Iron Head, or, indeed, even the latter's Life Orb Max Steelspike.

   Because Babiri makes this set effectively un-1HKOable from full, Unaware is chosen for its ability to potentially cripple even a boosted opposing sweeper with momentum if brought in the back; for the lead-trading Cloyster (or, alternatively, for breaking its Sash in case it's in the back); and, because the goals of this set are what they are, having the opponent click a status move does very little.

   As for Rotom-F below... the worst part about Rotom-F currently is, well, the fact that it takes the slot of the universally best Rotom form, Rotom-W, but on a rain team, you don't really suffer from the lost opportunity cost of expending the Rotom-W slot on something that will end up benched most of the time anyway. The set I had in mind looked something like this:

Rotom-Fan @ Leftovers

Ability: Levitate

Level: 50

EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 188 SpA / 4 SpD / 60 Spe

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Substitute

- Nasty Plot

- Air Slash

- Discharge

   What it does is checkmate stuff like Toxapex and Ferrothorn, neither of which — through Scald and Gyro Ball, respectively — can break its Substitute without offensive investments. It can also do the Max Airstream thing and benefits from Yawn insertion from Darmanitan, much like the vastly superior Nasty Plot Togekiss, thanks to the combination of Substitute and Nasty Plot.

   And finally: physical Silvally. Adapted from a set foisted upon the ladder by arguably the most accomplished Korean BSS player still around, SnowParty. A variant of the double-boosting Diggersby (Swords Dance + Bounce), it comes with the upside of having less of a reliance on being a dedicated Dynamax user:

Silvally @ Lum Berry

Ability: RKS System

Level: 50

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

Adamant Nature

- Swords Dance

- Explosion

- Fire Fang

- Aerial Ace

   This is a much more fun-oriented set that, although, again, works best as a Dynamax user benefiting from Yawn insertion much like the Rotom above, can also potentially target-kill something on the slow and bulky side with +2 or even +4 Explosion. Obviously the problem here is that relatively situational stuff like this is hard to slot in when overall better options exist, and consistency is demaned, as outlined above.

Season's start.

   Now as for the team as it actually exists, the rain mode more often than not finds itself navigating through tricky switch turns to get into sweeping/wall-beaking position, which can be a detriment to the feel of piloting it in the long run despite consisting of a seemingly rigid, modular core like this. Indeed, after the first 6-7 games, I found myself just going Dragapult with Mimikyu in the back more and more, which is reflected in the bring-rates below. After all, who wants to have to outplay opponents when forcing Sash user-Dynamax-Mimikyu has the power level it does right now.

   The Rotom-W match up looks particularly iffy here, especially if running up against fully defensive, Ferrothorn-crippling Will-o-Wisp variants (e.g. Bold 252 HP / 116 Def / 76 SpDef) with pinch/FIWAM or Sitrus Berry. The burn status in general is bad for this team when coming from something that is such an existential threat to the team's only special attacking out, Pelipper. Mercifully, though, the far more common 252 HP / 84 Def Modest Nasty Plot Sitrus Berry variants are slightly easier for both Ferrothorn, Drednaw, or Dragapult to answer, but still need plenty of playing around even when benching rain mode.

2.1 — Usual team compositions

Diggersby-Dragapult-Mimikyu

Pelipper-Ferrothorn/Mimikyu-Drednaw

2.2 — Most brought, by rate/member (descending)

When setting out to main mode rain mode only to have it be the least picked thing across the 29 games total I played this season with this is obviously not ideal.

1. Mimikyu

2. Diggersby

3. Dragapult

4. Pelipper

5. Ferrothorn

6. Drednaw

2.3 — VS Team Select Screen (in order of frequency)

Note: some minor updates below again.

Balanced or Momentum Offense (goodstuffs compositions)

- Excadrill, Aegislash, Mimikyu, Darmanitan-Toxapex/Rotom/Ferrothorn, Dragapult, Togekiss/Gyarados, Rotom-W, Yawn Hippowdon/Snorlax.

- At first glance, almost everything bar 1-2 defensive anchors is potentially an offensive threat, likely with a solid defensive backbone in something like Hippowdon, Ferrothron or Snorlax. With multiple threats like this, something might also have an unexpected support set like Sash/Stealth Rock + Rock Tomb Excadrill or Yawn or even Trick Togekiss in order to get an edge over everyone else slapping together teams of the most impactful pokemon in the format like this.

Diggersby-Dragapult-Mimikyu

Pelipper-Drednaw-Ferrothorn/Mimikyu/Diggersby

Rotom-W is the main obstacle to rain mode: Ferrothorn beats the most common variants in the 1v1, but Volt Switch makes things interesting to say the least.

Screens or Tailwind Offense

- Sash lead into Gmax-Lapras + Kee Berry Mimikyu (Swords Dance + Drain Punch).

- Grimmsnarl or other Light Clay Dual Screens as leads or as follow-ups to (Dynamax) damage leads à la Trick Room offense builds.

- Alternatively, dedicated suicide/cripple leads like Tailwind/Memento/Switcheroo Whimsicott (Sash, Eject Button, Flame Orb) or Will-o-Wisp/Thunder Wave/Curse Dragapult/Mimikyu with set-up win conditions in Togekiss or Haxorus, for example.

Diggersby-Dragapult-Mimikyu

Dragapult-Ferrothorn/Diggersby-Mimikyu

Pelipper-Drednaw-Ferrothorn

Mimikyu in the back is sogood against set ups like this. Dragapult is the preferred Dynamax-user against Lapras because of Infiltrator, but rain mode can opt to stall out its Gmax turns with Ferrothorn.

Trick Room mode

- Trick Room Curse Mimikyu typically paired with Rhyperior, Snorlax, Dracovish, or even something like Primarina/Lapras.

- Likely partners include Sash/Dynamax leading a sweeper like Cloyster, Durant, Diggersby, Dragapult, Cinderace, Aegislash etc. to trade 1-for-1 at a minimum so that Trick Room Mimikyu and its partner can clean up.

- The other, conventional mode may consist of Ferrothorn, Dracozolt, and even Gyarados and/or Togekiss play.

Diggersby-Dragapult-Mimikyu

Dragapult-Mimikyu-Diggersby

Diggersby-Mimikyu/Pelipper-Drednaw

Diggersby is mandatory because it not only wins most lead duels, but is also immune to slow Trick Room setter Mimikyu's Shadow Sneak, and works well in the back with its Sash intact. Rain mode may warrant bringing if the conventional mode the opponent may bring is a good fit, but needs Drednaw's Dynamax intact in the back so it can Max Guard/trade with the opponent's possible Trick Room win condition. Reverse Speed control also means that Drednaw can get away with setting its own rain, leaving Pelipper benched.

Dedicated Defense (stall mode)

- Avalugg, Corviknight, Toxapex, Unaware Clefable/Quagsire, Gastrodon

- Offensive option: Ditto, Darmanitan pivot, Mimikyu/Dragapult

Pelipper-Drednaw-Diggersby

Drednaw's Swords Dance is the main out, with Specs Pelipper's Hurricane being a respectable threat to the usual physically defensive options on stall. Ferrothorn is normally a major nuisance to stall, but because this team does not carry Leech Seed, it has very little utility outside the extremely long shot Iron Defense + Body Press play (which can't break Toxapex, Avalugg, or Corviknight), but its effect on the opponent in the team select screen may be a useful tool to orient oneself with.

3) In Conclusion:

The next post should cover my first dive into the post-DLC meta, which should be interesting because it looks like we will have almost two weeks of testing with the Isle of Armor roster unlocked but unavailable in ranked.

- Tox

SW-0021-9848-8999