Battle Stadium Singles blog — Tundra Tourney (Special Edition)

Another weekender with a 3v3 singles ruleset to put myself through. Allow me to begin by meticulously detailing the entirety of my team-building process for this: When the announcement was put up, I made a Notepad list of what I thought was going to be good, put together a team whose main mode would be Mamoswine-Salamence, with Lapras-Mimikyu as secondary, and left it at that. Then, a day before the event went live, I revisited some sets.

   In short, no actual testing or metagame research was involved, so I can't say I had any particular goal in mind in terms of results doing into this, either. At least that's what I told myself; in reality, anything other than a 1700s finish would be disappointing, but not altogether surprising.

It's Kyu-te how you think you can just come in here and revenge this. (Loss 7).

Obliviously the superior ability.

That's a Metagross Earthquake in Grassy Terrain. Powerful stuff.

Speed-creeping Glastrier in the final mon 1v1.

When your only real Corviknight answer connects.

Announcement: https://battle.pokemon-home.com/regulation/000000106/en

Thread: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/tundra-tourney.3672230/

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/334325b61555374e

1) Team overview:

Salamence

Here's one for you: what stops Moxie Salamence momentum with Stealth Rock support from at least getting a 2-for-1 in this, with Mimikyu in the back as clean up in any kind of final mon 1v1? Well, here's what I came up with going into this for the purpose of surrounding the team's centerpiece with things that offer complementary counterplay:

1. Opposing momentum comes online first (Zapdos-K, Gyarados/Salamence)

2. Big fat Dynamax with Ice-moves (Glastrier/Lapras/Milotic/Metagross)

3. Opposing reverse Speed control: Trick Room / Prankster cripple (Lagging Tail Grimmsnarl, Mimikyu)

4. Screens openers (Lapras, Vanilluxe, Regieleki, Dragapult, Grimmsnarl)

6. Big fat Counter/Yawn/Intimidate Umbreon/Snorlax/Gyarados

7. Jank variants of the above (Sableye, Eiscue, Babiri Berry Sylveon/Clefable Dynamax, Choice Scarf Weavile/Dragapult, Trick Room Bronzong)

Max Steelspike breaks through offensive variants of Dynamax Mimikyu, Clefable, and Sylveon — fully-defensive sets of the latter that live a +1 Life Orb Max Steelspike in Dynamax form do so at the cost of whiffing on the 1HKO. Against Mimikyu in particular, the Def-boost picked up on the turn Disguise is broken helps Salamence live even +252 Life Orb Max Starfall. And if Mimikyu seeks to exhaust Dynamax turns with Max Guard, a +1 or +2 Att Dual Wingbeat will still break the Disguise and then some.

Ferrothorn

A real drought in viable Fire-types means it's a good time to click Leech Seed. Referring to the list of answers to Salamence mode above, Ferrothorn also does the job of making some of the fatter stuff have to think twice about showing up, especially given that Salamence's high native speed tier lets it get the Moxie boost without necessarily having to pop Dynamax in many cases. This set automatically loses any kind of Ferrothorn mirror because of the lack of Leftovers (and Body Press), so the Salamence pairing gets some more mileage there, too.

Mamoswine

Oblivious Mamoswine is a great support option for Max Airstream sweepers in this format, bringing to bare un-Tauntable Stealth Rock, speed control and priority. This set cuts Icicle Crash/Spear in order to slot in Rock Tomb.

Lapras

Fast fat Substitute Lapras is a pre-Libero anti-stall/defensive cycle measure in BSS, whose main purpose is not to Gmax — although a legitimate out with Mimikyu in tow — but rather to put up bulky Substitutes against slow, defensive match ups that threaten Salamence mode (Yawn spam, Glastrier), waste opposing Dynamax turns with its Speed creep (Lapras mirror), and throw out Horn Drills (preferred over Sheer Cold in this tournament because of its ability to hit Lapras, Glastrier, AND Corviknight) against anything it can't out-DPS (Leftovers Umbreon/Snorlax, Ferrothorn, Corviknight etc.).

Mimikyu

More or less standard Kee Berry Drain Punch set, with enough +1 Def bulk to live a Ferrothorn Gyro Ball, and a +2 252 Att Life Orb Mimikyu Shadow Sneak after Disguise is broken. Speed creep is for the Kee Berry Mimikyu mirror. Normally these sets opt for maximum Attack-investment.

Glastrier

This slot was contested by Will-o-Wisp Hex Dragapult and Nasty Plot Moltres-G. But with Leftovers being so sought after by both Lapras and Ferrothorn, and with Shadow Sneak, Ice Shard, and Icicle Spear all over the place, Dragapult was the first to drop out of contention.

   As for Moltres-G, now that would have been the bring, were I making a well-rounded team with actual answers to Corviknight, but because it has Stealth Rock issues on top of Mimikyu issues, and me deciding on banking on Salamence mode, I instead opted for beefing up my slow mode with mirror-match up Speed-creeping Weakness Policy Glastrier with a Max Guard button, and left the wall-breaking to the sharp pointy thing at the top of Lapras's head.

2) Tournament:

Because the team I came up with was rather generic, slapped together with very little thought beyond Salamence, and with the recent release of the Crown Tundra metagame still fresh on the brain, I couldn't really think of anything interesting to keep track of beyond the usually tally of wins and losses. If tracking Horn Drills doesn't count as interesting, that is.

   Anywho, losses are also described with some detail below once more because of how instructive and unintentionally entertaining they can be.

Day 1

Win / Loss: 12 - 3

Horn Drills hit: 0 / 4

Loss 1: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Salamence vs Zapdos-K-Lapras-Metagross

   Mid-1400s opponent had both Metagross and Lapras as their six, but I benched Ferrothorn and went for Salamence mode, only to low roll Max Wyrmwind against fully defensive Zapdos sitting on two turns of Leftovers recovery after a Rock Tomb, letting it Volt Switch out with a sliver of health.

   Without the Moxie boost, Salamence couldn't oneshot Gmax-Lapras after Stealth Rock damage. The opposing Lapras (!) being faster than Mimikyu's 119 and carrying Ice Shard was too much. Conclusion: Mamoswine-Ferrothorn-Mimikyu was the pick. The stench of an overthought preview screen throw is all over this.

Loss 2: Mamoswine-Salamence-Mimikyu vs Sylveon- (Dragonite, Flareon, Jolteon?)

   Turn 1 Stealth Rock to break Dragonite's Multiscale. Turn 2 Ice Shard does around 30% on Sylveon's Quick Attack turn, so I go Salamence mode, seeing it is not Def-invested, nor Leftovers. Max Steelspike absolutely low-rolls in the Dynamax mirror (68.8 - 81.6% vs 252 HP Dynamax Sylveon), however, leaving me with Mimikyu against two unknown opposing mons.

   Still winnable with both players' Dynamax out of the way, but, to add insult to injury, I experience a legitimate internet-outage on my end for the first time in however many years I have been entering these events, so instead of seeing whether Mimikyu can indeed claw its way out of a hole this deep, I will come across as just another cord-stomper to the opponent. Sorry, friend. : (

Loss 3: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Glastrier vs Umbreon-Ferrothorn-Spectrier

   Final game of day 1. Weakness Policy Spectrier in the back was too much for +4 Att Mimikyu and Glastrier. Respected Umbreon too much to go for Salamence mode, but it wasn't Yawn spam or Leftovers, and the opponent just hard led with it and clicked Foul Play until it died. Lapras-Salamence-Mimikyu would have been the play, because this is what Lapras is for, after all. Deserved loss.

Unfortunately, I didn't really see anything clever or interesting from opponents yet, but I was surprised by the lack of Snorlax, and by the fact that both Zapdos-Kanto I ran into were fully defensive variants, when I played the team preview game assuming they were the newly-discovered BSS-sweeper variants. Another thing I found curious was the lack of Milotic, but I guess it struggles too much — and has to compete — against Lapras, and really needs its Marvel Scale to be online in order to check physical Max Airstream users/+2 Mimikyu without having to trade Dynamax. No Durant or Darmanitan, either.

   As for my games, I ran into two Corviknights in the first three games, both of which went for the set up from turn 1, and both of which should have been wins for the opponents in competent hands. Ferrothorn was never targeted by a Fire-move, so Leftovers would have been preferable thus far, especially given the fact Ferrothorn was brought 9/15 games. Aside from roasting three Corviknights, Salamence felt underwhelming, but that was because of two crucial low-rolls, and who's to say what kind of effect it has had on the opposing team preview game thus far (see: undefeated Ferrothorn farming Salamence checks).

"Last chance to redeem yourself before the +2 Def Body Press gets you, Lapras".

...After failing to do so, Ferrothorn cleaned up the opponent's Metagross-Mimikyu in the back because they let Corviknight die to Salamence, likely in order to exhaust its Dynamax turns. Salamence would have, of course, been a free switch in at any point, but the idea (or lack thereof) was to try to save Salamence as long as possible, and hopefully force out the Dynamax from Corviknight.

When you only pull off your main mode in four of the first fifteen games, you know you're in for some heartbreak further on down the line.

Choice Specs Regieleki? Fair enough, but shouldn't you still invest heavily into Defense given the Shadow Sneaks and Ice Shards going around? And it's not like you need that much Speed investment to beat those Base 100s (or Garchomp) that are sitting at +1 Spd. I should have lost this one, but didn't.

(188+ Atk Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Regieleki: 48-57 [30.9 – 36.7%]).

Standing after first day's games.

Day 2

Win / Loss: 8 - 4

Horn Drills hit: 0 / 3

The first game of the day went all the way to the timer tie-break with a half health Mamoswine and full health Ferrothorn against a full health Leech Seeded Umbreon and Articuno-K at 70%-ish with Stealth Rock up. My win must have been a matter of a few health points, which I had to farm back up on Mamoswine by switching it into Leech Seeded Umbreon thrice while avoiding Foul Play.

Loss 4: Mamoswine-Ferrothorn-Mimikyu vs. Mamoswine-Moltres-G-Avalugg

   Having lost both of my Mamoswine lead mirrors now, +1 Mimikyu needed to dodge a crit Fiery Wrath, but couldn't.

Loss 5: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Salamence vs. Mamoswine-Moltres-K-Regieleki

   Second loss in a row, putting me at 1600 after 19 games. Got crit by opposing Mamoswine in the lead mirror, putting me at 0/3 in that match up. Opponent tried to throw by not Max Airstreaming down Mimikyu so Salamence would outspeed it, but Regieleki was able to Thunderbolt down Dynamax Salamence through Stealth Rock and a round of Life Orb damage. Punished for Naive nature, I suppose.

Loss 6: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Ferrothorn vs. Glastrier-Audino-

   Deep 1500s opponent hard switches Audino (252 HP with likely mixed Def-investment based on Max Knuckle damage) into a Mimikyu Max Knuckle and barely lives the follow up, close to absolutely low-rolled, Max Starfall to set Trick Room and Healing Wish Glastrier. Still recoverable, until Dynamax-exhausted +1 Att Glastrier Smart Strike (!) crits through +4 Att +1 Def Mimikyu, that is.

Loss 7: Mamoswine-Salamence-Mimikyu vs Relicanth-Mimikyu-Durant

   Played around the Sturdy Custap Relicanth to get Max Airstream momentum on Mimikyu. Unfortunately, it was the Kee Berry set, which meant it lived the second Max Steelspike with Dynamax bulk. As a result, I needed my +4 Att Mimikyu to hit either Glastrier or Zapdos as the opponent's third. It was Durant. Back to 1610 from 1650s after these last two losses.

Click Stealth Rock on turn 1 Earthquake, but win anyway because you also win the turn 2 speed tie and crit your Earthquake. (Loss 5).

This opponent had Ferrothorn, Corviknight, and Milotic on the team, so I tried to counterlead one of them with Lapras. What happened instead was that the opponent's lead of choice was Weakness Policy Tyranitar, whose Dynamax turns Lapras Substituted through, after which Corviknight and Milotic fell over.

As +5 Shadow Sneak is not enough to 1HKO from full, Ferrothorn's Occa Berry has to save the day, with help from the opponent's Metagross in the back not having Hammer Arm to actually beat a 50% Ferrothorn. What's funny is that if Dragaopult just used Max Phantasm instead of Max Flare (Special attacker Dragapult with Max Guard), the Def-drop would have been curtains for me.

The final mon 1v1 after an eventful game in which Max Steelspike Air Balloon Metagross with Body Press came within 16 HP to take it (1644 opponent; highest of the day).

Didn't even need the Ice Shard from the burned Mamoswine in the back.

(+1 252 Atk Life Orb Salamence Outrage vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Dynamax Zapdos: 231-274 (70 - 83%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock).

Standing after day two's games.

Only 8-4 after 12 games means I was not making any progress ranking wise, so I banked the remaining three games for the final day of competition. And I think if anything, I should have stopped a few games earlier than that.

   The games on the second day of play were of much higher quality than I expected, and I think I saw 5-6 straight games of Mamoswine on the opposing side in there. And yeah, if Glastrier felt like dead weight in the first 15 games — only being brought twice — it saw precisely one game (against dedicated Trick Room) on day two. Nevertheless, Ferrothorn got to farm a ton of Metagross on its account (I hope, and choose to assume).

   Regarding that set of three more missed Horn Drills above, I hit a defensive cycle team and got into a position where Lapras was given three turns to connect on Body Press Ferrothorn. Failing that, I should have lost right then and there, but Ferrothorn let Mimikyu get to +4 because of a Leech Seed opener, and Dynamax to kill it, which meant my Ferrothorn beat Mimikyu and Milotic in the back.

Day 3

Win / Loss: 10 - 8

Horn Drills hit: 1 / 6

At this point in the last one of these, I was 20-4 and above 1700, instead of being 20-7 and in the mid 1600s, so the team still had a ways to go. In the past few tournaments, though, my day threes have been rather underwhelming to say the least, so I told myself I'd call it quits if if I was still sitting at a decent rating relatively late in the day, no matter how many games I might have left.

Loss 8: Lapras-Salamence-Ferrothorn vs Corviknight-Mamoswine-Moltres-K

   I play for it being Metagross or Dragapult in the back, and let +1 Salamence get Max Hailstormed by Mamoswine. It ends up being 40% health Lapras and Ferrothorn against fat Mystical Fire Leftovers Moltres in the back, however. Have to go for the Horn Drill out, but don't get it.

Loss 9: Lapras-Mimikyu-Mamoswine vs. Mamoswine-Mimikyu-

   Mid-1500s opponent is Life Orb Mamoswine and Max Knuckles on turn 1 Lapras. Still recoverable, until +2 boosted Icicle Spear hits 5 times on Dynamax Mimikyu, meaning I don't get to Max Phantasm Def-drop break the opposing Mimikyu's Disguise to at least attempt to do something with Mamoswine.

Loss 10: Lapras-Mimikyu-Salamence vs Tyranitar-Ferrothorn-Avalugg

   1722 ranked player. With Leftovers Stealth Rock Rock Blast Tyanitar (2 hits to even get through Substitute) and Occa Berry (?) Ferrothorn well and truly bruised, the goal was to let Mimikyu die to Avalugg in a way that breaks its Sturdy for Salamence.

   +6 Mimikyu couldn't get a crit on 14 Drain Punches against +6 Def Avalugg. Avalugg Dynamaxes when Mimikyu is at 60% so that it barely dies to two Max Hailstorms, meaning Salamence has to high roll Max Flare to reverse sweep. No such luck, however. Losing what I consider to be my best match up is extermely disheartening, and I could really have used those points.

Loss 11: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Ferrothorn vs Reuniclus-

   Straight up 3-0'd by Acid Armor Reuniclus from the lead. Opponent Rocky Helmet Recovered +6 Att Mimikyu to death instead of Stored Powering though, so there was a crit out for several turns. But if you're using Reuniclus, and you checkmate the opponent so easily, you deserve to flaunt it a bit, so good on you.

Loss 12: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Glastrier vs Mamoswine-Zapdos-K-Metagross

   Third loss in a row. +2 Glastrier and Mimikyu against full Dynamax turns Metagross in the endgame. I High Horsepower instead of Close Combating, and get surprised by Max Mindstorm from the now-Weakness Policy proced Metagross at 20%, which ends up preventing Mimikyu from closing it out with +2 Shadow Sneak against a fast, HP + Speed-invested (?) +2 Def Metagross. (+2 188+ Atk Mimikyu Shadow Sneak vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 48-56 [25.6 - 29.9%]).

Down to 1622 from 1669 with 9 games to go.

Loss 13: Lapras-Mimikyu-Salamence vs. Tyranitar-Snorlax-Corviknight

   1699 opponent, the second highest I hit. Needed to hit two consecutive Fire Blasts to win, after getting 2 KOs by opening with Max Airstream against a +2 Def Corviknight on an anticipated Snorlax switch, which materialized in due course. +6 Drain Punch had 6 turns to crit through +6 Def Corviknight after Salamence whiffed on its second Fire Blast. I don't think I'm exaggerating too much when I say I kind of deserved to win that game.

Loss 14: Lapras-Mimikyu-Mamoswine vs. Zapdos-K-Mimikyu-Snorlax

   Got Lapras in on Snorlax after Zapdos bailed out of respect for Weakness Policy Gmax. Brought Mamoswine in the back to contest Zapdos, but just couldn't put enough damage on it with Mimikyu for Mamoswine to 2HKO what was left of Dynamax Zapdos. I Horn Drilled into a Mimikyu switch (not counted towards the Horn Drill tally, mind you) when I didn't have to, as Fissure Snorlax's Heavy Slam didn't even 3HKO Lapras' Substitute, so the play would have been just to resign to PP stalling it, and got crit Phantom Forced when I could have clicked Substitute against the first move from a Disguise-broken Mimikyu.

Loss 15: Mamoswine-Mimikyu-Glastrier vs. Spectrier-Zapdos-K-Mimikyu

   Semi-Trick Room Glastrier with Zapdos as alternative mode. Game was decided on a turn where +2 Att Mimikyu on its final Dynamax turn was against -1 Def Life Orb Zapdos at 50%. Zapdos dies to Shadow Sneak if I Max Guard and it doesn't Roost. Mimikyu is in range of Hurricane, but not of Thunderbolt (unless it was Modest Zapdos). I click an attack move and not Max Guard, and get Hurricaned.

   I know it was Roost, too, because that's what it clicked against Glastrier for some reason, giving me the game on a 4 or 5 hit Spear. No such luck, however. Opponent's Spectrier was a neat defensive Leftovers Will-o-Wisp Hex set with Hyper Beam.

Looking forward to seeing Skill Link Mamoswine in gen 9. (Loss 9).

The would-be reverse-sweep foiled; Avalugg after Sitrus Berry recovery. The one game out of all 45 where Max Guard would have won. (Loss 10).

Can't hit two consecutive Fire Blasts to take it. (Loss 13).

The One Drill (out of 13). Why can't you hit when it matters, against Corviknight, Snorlax, Ferrothorn, fat anti-Salamence waters-types etc.?

This player's Life Orb Glastrier outsped mine both turns out of Trick Room. And it was on a Mimikyu semi-Trick Room team.

Game #45, low 1600s opponent (Loss 15).

Final rating. 30-15.

3) In Conclusion:

Another finish that ended up being lower than what I ended day 2 with. The last one of these tournaments I played I at least finished above 1700, and in the one before that, I made global rank 16, so I don't know what the conclusion here is, exactly. At least my result was better than in this generation's inaugural tournament, which I botched so badly I haven't touched CurseLax since. At least this time, my throws happened primarily in the team preview screen, and not ingame.

   The main takeaway I have of this format is that it was good, but it could have been so much better — I mean, how do you manage to not allow the newly-minted Slowking-G in this? What is this, the Clown Tundra? Be that as it may, I have a feeling that any break from Tapu Fini, Celesteela, Landorus, and Cinderace will be a welcome one going forward.

   To conclude, here's a brief glance at how each individual team member did, and what could have been improved upon based on my experiences across the full 45 games allotted.

   Salamence went from Max Airstream win-condition to the only thing besides Horn Drill capable of touching Corviknight. Indeed, in its intended role, it low-rolled multiple times which cost several games. On the positive side, Max Guard was only the difference between victory and defeat in one game, and the Moxie-prediction game went well, if not slightly above expectations (see: Loss 10). I didn't think I would end up saying this, but Salamence could have easily gotten away with running Naughty over Naive.

   Ferrothorn could have done with a serving of Leftovers, because with only Leech Seed and Max Overgrowth for recovery, it was susceptible to getting defeated even in some otherwise autowins, like the many, many times it had to Leech Seed attrition through Earthquake Metagross. Moreover, Occa Berry only came into play once in the three times it was proced.

   With Leftovers on Ferrothorn, Lapras would likely have been better suited to run Sitrus Berry, if not going hard the offensive Assault Vest route. I don't think I was every high enough on the ladder to hit good defensive cycles, and the one opponent who brought it, Salamence fell just short of reverse-sweeping. As for Horn Drill, well, 1/13 kind of speaks for itself.

   Mimikyu was splendid as always, serving as the blanket-check a format with the abomination known as Dynamax needs.

   Glastrier was hard to bring, and saw the least play out of everything on the team. Swords Dance did give me the confidence to bring it, and whenever I did, it at least got a 1-for-1. Well, except against that lead (Focus Sash?) Close Combat Conkeldurr, which oneshotted it, but then, in turn, was farmed by Salamence.

   And, finally, for Mamoswine, while it's true that it did lose all five of its lead Mamoswine mirrors to badly timed luck in the speed ties, it did help the team to get into position to make a run on the final day by being so consistent against more casual players; I'm the one who failed it, not the other way around.

The next few entries should be a return to regularly scheduled, monthly, BSS-programming.

- Tox

SW-0021-9848-8999