Battle Stadium Singles blog #11 — "Blast Bun" (S9)

After having a rotten go of it with Kingdra, the would-be subject of this entry, I landed on mixed Blast Burn Cinderace hyper offense as this month's triple-digits reaching team showcase. I realize almost everything below is going to be obsolete by the time I post this, thanks to the Series 6 ruleset in all likelihood bridging the gap from ranked battle season 10 all the way up until Crown Tundra hits. Still, I took the time to grind with this so might as well report on some of my findings again.

"Blast Burn is a damage-dealing Fire-type move introduced in Generation III."

252+ SpA Life Orb Libero Cinderace-Gmax Electro Ball (60 BP) vs. 244 HP / 0 SpD Gyarados: 192-234 (95.5 - 116.4%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Libero Cinderace-Gmax Max Lightning (130 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Toxapex: 151-179 (96.1 - 114%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

When the plan comes together: breaking through Kee Berry Hippowdon as part of the defensive core of Hippowdon-Porygon2.

Miss the Bounce but hit two consecutive Hydro Pumps? Okay, game.

You hate to see it.

Rental code: 0000 0000 JBBW VL

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/80f2d49676b63504

1) Team overview:

Lycanroc-Dusk

Lycanroc is about as telegraphed a Focus Sash user — and likely lead given it's on a team with hyper offense sweepers — as there can be. As such, pulling off the hyper offense snowball plan from turn 2-3 onward is not really on the table when it stands to be counterled by things like Rillaboom, Hippowdon, and Urshifu-Single-Strike, the latter of which won't even let Lycanroc move twice. For this reason, this team comes with contingency lead options when getting counterled is a reasonable expectation.

   In terms of movesets, Lycanroc can, of course, opt to run Counter or Endeavor to function as a more conventional revenge killer in the back, Taunt to prevent becoming set up bait, or Swords Dance to actually become an offensive threat in its own right, but the speed control from Rock Tomb (sub-5% usage) is what lets Cinderace and Gyarados to come in and Max Airstream unmolested here.

Scizor

Scizor's major defensive niche in the format is being one of the hardest possible Rillaboom counters available, simultaneously carrying a powerful offensive combination of Choice Banded Bullet Punch (Togekiss, Mimikyu) and a relatively slow U-turn pivot. The EV-spread here is geared to live anything short of +252 Att Choice Band hits from either Urshifu form — Choice Band being a sub-20% usage choice on both — to threaten the 1HKO through Dual Wingbeat with the ultimate goal of counterleading Focus Sash and Choice Scarf Urshifu-Rapid-Strike, in particular.

   Opposing Cinderace tends to make the Scizor bring a rather difficult call to make, but when it is paired with something that it most often a dedicated Dynamax user, such as Togekiss or Dracozolt, the barrier to entry for Scizor is lowered significantly. This is because non-Dynamax Cinderace sets like the Focus Sash Counter/Sucker Punch or Choice Scarf sets can at least be played around to some extent, not to mention being more vulnerable to Stealth Rock and Accelerock.

   Late-season 8 Dragapult innovations (Clear Body Dragon Dance Dive Lum Berry set) also forego Fire-coverage in order to wall-break Hippowdon-Porygon2 and cripple Morning Sun Togekiss, which Scizor can potentially benefit from if such a read is made. Teams that seek to offensively Dynamax early, relying on Mimikyu in the back, are also good Scizor match ups.

   Brick Break may look weird and bad compared to Superpower, but I found that in my games, at least, it was the least clicked move by far after Bullet Punch, Dual Wingbeat, and U-turn — even in the few games Scizor found itself in Dynamax form. Thus, the choice to cut Superpower over something that at least has a niche, albeit an admittedly small one (Grimmsnarl & Lapras screens).

Cinderace

At the root of every algorithmic decision tree based on a hyper offense game plan is the snowball sweeper, of which Life Orb Cinderace is the most heinous example in the format currently. Where things hopefully get interesting, though, is in the choice of set herein — a greedy mixed sweeper set by https://twitter.com/fortune_36 that can break through most of Cinderace's more prominent defensive checks, the fat Intimidate users Gyarados, Arcanine, Luxray, and Incineroar, and even blow apart Toxapex, not to mention Kee Berry Hippowdon as part of the Porygon2-Hippowdon defensive core after it switches in on the Max Airstream opener. Another major upside is being less susceptible to opposing Focus Sash Counter plays in offensive match ups than Gyarados when Lycanroc can't, for whatever reason, be relied on to spend a turn clicking Stealth Rock, or is benched altogether.

   Such wall-breaking prowess comes at a cost: without the usual full investments in Speed, only being at a Jolly Gyarados (146) beating real stat of 147 natively, Cinderace is outsped by offensive Mimikyu, and likely Focus Sash users Excadrill, Lucario, or Urshifu — as well as, of course, opposing Cinderace — meaning insertion via momentum (Rock Tomb/Drum Beating Speed control or straight up match up advantage) really is the only way to get the ball rolling with this set. Interestingly, though, being guaranteed to move second in any kind of hypothetical Cinderace mirror grants this set the ability to punish a Max Airstream opener with Max Lightning.

   Unlike, for example, Bounce + three special attacks sets fully invested in Speed, this Cinderace also does the job of breaking through defensive Porygon2 virtually irrespective of set (many are opting for SpDef-invested Substitute especially when paired with Thunder Wave + Will-o-Wisp Dragapult, or with one of the Cinderace checks listed above). Unlike those sets, however, Electro Ball damage calculation mechanics mean that the lack of Speed investment here translates to whiffing on the 1HKO on Toxapex without popping Max Lightning. Moreover, not carrying Max Strike (Hyper Beam) is bad news when trying to break through Dracozolt, or prevent reactive Dracozolt Dynamax, one of the most consistent offensive answers to Cinderace, from taking care of Cinderace and sitting on a Speed boost after dispatching it. Quagsire, too, is a particularly difficult hurdle to overcome without Hyper Beam in an otherwise decent stall-match up for Cinderace. Likewise, Dragapult is also utterly unbreakable for Cinderace outside Gmax (Max Airstream), and is therefore a major factor in the team preview game — well worth spending a few seconds trying to surmise its likely set based on the available information.

Gyarados

Moxie Gyarados has rebounded somewhat after the catastrophic initial drop it suffered because of the introduction of Libero Gmax Cinderace and its subsequent checks referred to above, which also tend to do a number on Gyarados.

   As regards Gyarados' overall place in the meta, it is definitely the beneficiary of having the option of running viable defensive sets now, which opponents have to factor in, but for offensive sets, the lack of Lapras and Rotom-W, in no small part due to Rillaboom, is a boon, and the rise of Dracozolt — and to a lesser extent Magnezone — has pushed 3-attacks Gyarados to elect Earthquake over Power Whip...for now, at least.

   As for going Wacan over Lum Berry again, well, I've found that lure Cinderace sets, like the one on this team, have enough of a representation higher up on the ladder that you will just get straight up bopped by them when trying to come in to try to reverse sweep on it. Porygon2 is also made more manageable by Wacan Berry, letting Gyarados, at the very least, trade Dynamax when Max Lightning Porygon2 is the anti-snowball response of choice, with Magnezone (Non-Analytic) and Luxray Max Lightning also being survivable in Dynamax form, although obviously being much less of a concern overall, similarly to something marginal like down-momentum insertion into Urshifu. The single massive upside Lum Berry has over Wacan Berry is, naturally, in Hippowdon/Dragapult-statusproofing, which lets Gyarados insert itself much more flexibly (and justify running Dragon Dance) — a legitimate case for both berries therefore still very much exists, though you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at the usage stats, which put Lum Berry at 31%, and Wacan Berry at mere 3.8% as of season 9.

Dragapult

This is the laziest possible Choice Scarf special attacker set imaginable. In the past, I have opted for Modest when going this route because of its then-noticeably better offensive benchmarks outside Dynamax (e.g guaranteed 1HKO on Darmanitan in the lead match up) — which also had the distinction of providing the freedom of squeezing out some defensive investment in order to have a reasonable chance of living 252 SpAtt Togekiss Dazzling Gleam from full, for example, due to having a larger selection of boosted Speed tiers to choose to hit (and miss) — but this time around, maxing out Speed just to improve the otherwise somewhat questionable and Rock Tomb/Drum Beating-reliant Dragapult match up — especially against the Hex set — this team can have when down on momentum I found was worth it. Any kind of opposing Dragapult win condition is hard for Cinderace to overcome, so beating most Dragon Dance / Max Airstream Dragapult sets that cut Spd for bulk is also a major point in the +252 Spd Choice Scarf set's favor.

   I suppose what stands out most about the set itself is the inclusion of Hydro Pump over something like Shadow Ball: this is chiefly to have a move with which to meaningfully threaten Hippowdon (63.2 – 75.3% vs SpDef-uninvested sets), the idea very much being to bench Dragapult whenever Ghost-coverage would actually do something (Mimikyu), or when its revenge-killing prowess doesn't get a chance to shine (Togekiss), both of which, incidentally, have a particular dislike for seeing Scizor on the opposing team.

   Briefly on the topic of Dynamax: Dragapult is the tertiary Dynamax user on this team, which should come as no surprise given its Speed tier and ability to clean up after the three (!) powerful priority users on this team. Barring Rillaboom, Dragapult is also the most consistent thing this team has to offensively snowballing through Quagsire-stall.

Rillaboom

First, some notes about the options I experimented with in this slot. I only arrived at Rillaboom after going the route of playing the "win three 1v1s" game with Sturdy Magnezone; trying to more heavily lean on Scizor with Incineroar pivoting — A☆Known's set does the job of hard switching into standard physical Cinderace, forcing it to expend its entire Gmax duration if it didn't open Max Knuckle. Any hit from +252 Att Life Orb Dracozolt is also survivable from full barring prior Electric Terrain from Max Lightning or an Att boost from Max Knuckle, while being able to check Dragapult when going Darkest Lariat over the original author's Taunt, and doing all this without giving Porygon2 its SpAtt boost via Download — and, finally, even bringing fat Substitute + Calm Mind Primarina, whose main defensive benchmark is living a non-Choice Band Grassy Glide from full, while still retaining enough Spd creep to beat defensive base 60s, most notably Porygon2, and also dramatically improving the team's Dragapult match up and being free against any kind of Grimmsnarl play, a problem for non-Lum Berry hyper offense sweepers to get around even outside the Trick Lagging Tail sets (Thunder Wave).

   Ultimately, though, the choice was Rillaboom. This is no small part due to the lead match up against a Lycanroc-counterleding Hippowdon being excellent, and, let's be honest, Grassy Glide is simply too degenerate not to use, and the closest thing we've had to Gen 6 Gale Wings Talonflame in years. Rillaboom also dramatically improves the Rotom-W match up because the 3-attacks Gyarados on this team does not carry Power Whip, with Knock Off being absolutely disgusting against Porygon2 and Kee Berry Mimikyu play.

   Despite this, though, I'm still not completely sold on Rillaboom on this team yet, nor opting for Assault Vest Rillaboom instead of bringing an actual defensive backbone/gluemon like Porygon2, Hippowdon, or even Ferrothorn. Moreover, before settling on the current, fatter build, I started out with a +252 Spd set that markedly improved some of its truly awful lead match ups, most notably the Drum Beating-able Togekiss and Dragapult. In the same vein, I also opted to run High Horsepower over U-turn for Dracozolt, which this team had problems with in previous iterations, with other common options like Superpower feeling simply too unimpactful without Choice Band on a team with enough anti-Ferrothorn redundancy already, and with the heavily contested Dynamax slots usually more or less ruling out any kind of Max Knuckle set up. So for anyone seeking to improve upon what I have done here, then, this slot is the one I would recommend starting with.

2) Usage notes:

This team does not have a consistent defensive answer to Dracozolt, meaning leading Lycanroc or Dragapult is most likely mandatory to avoid getting blown out from turn 1 whenever it's one of the opponent's six.

   In general, recovering lost momentum is a problem for this team — and for hyper offense in overall; you are after all the player who is supposed to be playing for momentum in the first place — whose only real remedies here are a Sash-intact Lycanroc in the back, which puts real pressure on nailing the lead game, or revenge killing with Dragapult, which only really works against something that is heavily bruised, against a 4x weakness like Gyarados, or against a STAB (Draco Meteor) weakness like Dracozolt/Dragapult/Haxorus, thanks to opposing Dynamax bulk — and even in these cases, follow-up damage from one of the priorty users is usually required. Gyarados being able to exhaust a Dynamax turn with Max Guard, with enough native bulk to turn the tables on many unboosted Dynamax sweepers, is also something one can occasionally play for, especially when slow playing it against Trick Room mode or Kingdra-rain, for example.

   When opening with Dragapult, it tends to appreciate Rillaboom and Scizor as partners because they are usually more expendable than Dragapult itself, their damage is based on priority so getting crippled on a switch-in is not as big an issue, and because of their ability to slow pivot a snowbally threat in safely, or refresh Dragapult. Alternatively, Lycanroc in the back helps recover momentum if Dragapult stands to become set up bait after being locked into bad move, and expending Dynamax is not on the table.

Week three trips.

And this is where I left things on the final day of the season. Notice the atrocious win-rate across almost 300 games.

Nope.

2.1 — Usual team compositions

Rillaboom-Lycanroc-Cinderace/Gyarados/Dragapult

Lycanroc-Cinderace/Gyarados-

Dragapult-Scizor/Rillaboom-

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

1. Lycanroc

2. Cinderace

3. Gyarados

4. Rillaboom

5. Dragapult

6. Scizor

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

I've taken the liberty of cleaning up this section a bit again, trying to keep apace with recent developments in the meta.

Balanced or Momentum Offense (goodstuffs compositions)

- Cinderace, Rillaboom, Togekiss/Gyarados, Excadrill, Mimikyu, Dragapult/Dracozolt, Rotom-W/F, Hippowdon, Porygon2, Urshifu.

- Big-brain Cinderace checks in the defensively-invested Intimidate users Luxray, Gyarados, and Arcanine sometimes present.

- At first glance, almost everything bar 1-2 defensive anchors is potentially an offensive threat in its own right.

- With multiple threats like this, something might also have an unexpected support set like Sash/Stealth Rock + Rock Tomb Excadrill, Thunder Wave (even ChestoRest) Intimidate Gyarados, or Will-o-Wisp + Thunder Wave Dragapult in order to get an edge over everyone else slapping together teams of the most impactful pokemon in the format like this.

Lycanroc-Cinderace/Gyarados-

Rillaboom/Scizor-Lycanroc-Cinderace/Gyarados

When two mostly offensive teams knock heads, the first player to get the snowball rolling tends to win, provided any kind of Sash Counter or Sturdy (Magnezone) play in the back is undone by the Lycanroc lead. Gyarados is especially good because Moxie makes stalling out its Dynamax turns in order to try to counter-sweep it with Dynamax through sacrificing more than one pokemon into it dangerous.

   Cinderace is the preferred option when having to deal with Porygon2, but does significantly worse than Gyarados if it has to come in down momentum, and makes the lategame complicated because, in all likelihood, it has to Libero-mindgame with Bounce (exhaust two Dynamax turns) or Electro Ball (exhaust two Dynamax turns by resisting the opposing Max Airstream) against the opponent's Dynamax sweeper of choice when its own turns of this generation's awful gimmick-mechanic have run out.

Dedicated Defense or Bulky Offense

- Porygon2, Hippowdon, Ferrothorn; defend on both physical and special sides, parry

- Offensive options: typically either Cinderace, Togekiss, or Dragapult.

Rillaboom-Lycanroc-Cinderace

Lycanroc-Cinderace/Gyarados-

This is what Cinderace's set seeks to target above all, and getting Cinderace momentum while trying to avoid being surprised by Dragapult (Hex set or Clear Body Dragon Dance) is how these games usually play out. Porygon2 and Togekiss are bad match ups for Dragapult, but bringing Lycanroc and Cinderace should put enough pressure on the former to make it at least somewhat manageable.

   Odds are that Porygon2, normally capable of walling unboosted Gyarados, is running a specially defensive set when paired with Hippowdon — likely limited to Tri Attack and Ice Beam for offensive options on the standard anti-Porygon2 Porygon2 Substitute sets, no less — so that the Gyarados pick shouldn't be rejected out of hand.

Hard Stall

- Avalugg, Corviknight/Skarmory, Toxapex, Unaware Clefable/Quagsire, Gastrodon, Chansey/Blissey

- Offensive options: Ditto, Dragapult.

Cinderace-Dragapult-

Dragapult-Cinderace/Gyarados-

Against stall, being greedy is usually good. This means straight up leading Cinderace, which can suicide in if it means Dynamax Dragapult can break the opponent's back somewhere down the line, for example. Ditto's revenge-sweep is scary, and you can be sure they will be inclined to bring it thanks to Gyarados. Worse still, Lycanroc, the most consistent thing this team has to fighting back against a rampaging Ditto, is truly awful against everything else on stall.

Screens or Tailwind Offense

- Light Clay Gmax-Lapras + Kee Berry Mimikyu (Swords Dance + Drain Punch) in the back.

- 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.

- Scolipede-pass with Weakness Policy and Max Quake/Steelspike into Porygon2.

Scizor/Rillaboom-Lycanroc-Gyarados/Cinderace

Dragapult-Scizor/Lycanroc-Gyarados/Cinderace

Again, Scizor is decent on paper against Grimmsnarl/Whimsicott play, but can't click Brick Break against the less-telegraphed Screens Dragapult. Grimmsnarl/Whimsicott's Prankster status or Trick Lagging Tail is crippling for both Cinderace and Gyarados, which means playing reactively is usually smart, nudging the Dynamax choice in Gyarados's direction. Dragapult is obviously noteworthy against Screens due to Infiltrator, and being able to outspeed +1 Haxorus.

Trick Room mode

- Trick Room Curse Mimikyu typically paired with Rhyperior, Dracovish, Azumarill, or even something like Torkoal, Primarina, Lapras, or Marowak.

- Porygon2 is also a potential Trick Room setter when paired with one or more of the slow offensive threats above.

- Likely partners include Sash/Dynamax leading a sweeper 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, Cinderace/Dracozolt/Dragapult, and even Gyarados and/or Togekiss play.

Scizor/Rillaboom-Gyarados-Lycanroc

Lycanroc-Gyarados-Scizor/Rillaboom

Gyarados's Max Guard tends to be decisive when timed right, something helped by Lycanroc's ability to already exhaust two Trick Room turns with Focus Sash. Reactive Dynamax play is preferred, but can be hard to pull off if the opponent pressures heavily right from the start. Dynamax Rillaboom is worthy of consideration if the Trick Room sweepers in the back are something like Dracovish or Rhyperior.

3) In Conclusion:

After almost 2k games total of ranked singles this generation so far, the unprecedented step of adapting a banlist — albeit a clumsily implemented one — mid-generation for its flagship competitive formats is a welcome change by the developers in my book. With any luck, the next two months will be a fruitful period of experimentation, which means the next few entries, before the final BSS metagame of this generation is unveiled with the Crown Tundra, might contain some welcome silliness. Starting out with things like Raboot and Mudsdale.

- Tox

SW-0021-9848-8999