Battle Stadium Singles blog #18 — Kartana Hyper Offense, again (Season 18; Series 9)

With the ill-conceived mid-pandemic Tokyo Olympic Games right around the corner, what better time to get into the spirit of things and do some shot put with Light Balls again. This team also has Maranga Berry Zapdos at the ready to do the Baton Pass hand-off in the hyper offense relay race to the victory screen. Ok, I'm done.

   After basically not playing for the past two months, firing up some hot garbage like this for around 40 of my 300 games this season was reinvigorating, and a finish of barely above 1800 Elo may even mean there's some method to the madness here.

Shiny Luxury Ball Regirock with the Tower Master ribbon in the Battle Tower arena? A veritable Gesamtkunstwerk.

"You Wouldn't _____  A Car". Womp Womp.

This was a risky Fling opener because they had Tapu Fini in the team select screen, and may well have U-turned into it if they brought it.

The big hits are the best (vs. Life Orb Max Airstream sweeper set).

If you're physically defensive Zapdos, shouldn't you have used that to cushion Kartana?

+2 252 Atk Life Orb Kartana Giga Impact vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 227-269 (115.2 - 136.5%).

3-0'd from the lead by +252 SpAtt Life Orb Ancient Power Zapdos (Thundurus-Zapdos-Urshifu vs Zapdos on a Porygon2 Swampert Blaziken team).

+1/+3 Calm Mind Raikou behind a Substitute gets both the Thunderbolt paralysis proc and the instant paralysis it needs to win.

Of course it's exactly Heavy-Duty Boots special attacker Dragonite in the back. So the correct play was to pull out +2 Att Dynamax Kartana and go into Regirock when I saw Dragonite didn't take the Stealth Rock damage, and then double back (Kartana-Regirock vs Dragonite-Quagsire)? Well, that, or not let Dynamax Tyranitar trade into boosted Thundurus in the first place, and go into Regirock there.

   Anyway, there really is no feeling like managing to clutch defeat from the hands of victory — in the absolute best match up your team can get, no less.

Rank 60 at 19:00 GMT+2 on the final day of the season equated to an Elo of around 2020. Hats off to whoever this alt account belonged to — you can always tell it's an alt by the juxtaposition of the default trainer card and an absolutely bonkers rating — for bringing dedicated Baton Pass, one of the few instances of which I hit all season.

Rental code: 0000 0000 4230 KV

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/f90ed9633dede327

1) Team overview

Regirock

The three main advantages Garchomp has over Regirock in doing this are the Volt Switch-immunity, being far more relevant as a Dynamax user, and actually outspeeding boosted paralyzed things, something Regirock just does not do even with massive Speed investment (196 Speed would hit a real Speed stat of 95, which is only enough to beat paralyzed +252 Spd Cinderace's 94, for example).

   It should perhaps also be noted that Garchomp, like Porygon2, is enjoying a substantial spike in popularity right now, going from #24 in usage (Series 14; last season of Series 7) to #10 in usage at the time of writing. This is due to the popularity of things like Assault Vest sets (10.4% to 39.4% over the same period) and the way Scale Shot can empower various sets. So I suppose that would make at least four distinct things Garchomp has over Regirock. Oh dear.

   Well, in any case, what Regirock does actually have over Garchomp is access to Sturdy + Explosion. Light Ball Garchomp is also completely at the mercy of lead Dragapult sets Max Wyrmwinding, being Life Orb Dragon Darts or a special attacker, whereas Regirock likes nothing more than hitting the best pokemon in the format not enough people are using in the lead.

    Moreover, unlike Garchomp, Regirock can also run Thunder Wave over Fling, but that would push the set, I feel, into Endure + Custap Berry territory. This is something that translates better into offensive sets, as evidenced by Magnezone (and even the occasional Custap Berry Glastrier/Rhyperior), likely leaving it with a clunky set like Stealth Rock / Thunder Wave / Endure / Explosion — severely limiting its utility as a lead, and, to a much, much lesser extent, as a Dynamax option in the back. Ultimately, that Fling comes with Focus Sash/Sturdy/Disguise breaking chip damage and paralysis is precisely what makes Stealth Rock clickable for Regirock.

   The defensive investment here guarantees living up to 252 Att Choice Band Urshifu-RS Surging Strikes — but not +252 Att ones — from full in the lead. As with the bulk investment, the main Speed benchmark is beating paralyzed +252 Spd Urshifu's real Speed stat of 81 by one; beating paralyzed +252 Spd Mimikyu is just a bonus. For what it's worth, uninvested base 60s also reside below Regirock's native Speed stat of 82 by 2.

   Before moving on, I think it's also worth spending a few paragraphs on how to deal with Dracovish since this team doesn't have any of its usual checks. The problem from the prespective of the Kartana all-in is that paralyzed Dracovish is still faster than Regirock, which means you won't have Stealth Rock up for Zapdos or their Focus Sash user, meaning you will have to open Max Knuckle in order to come out +2 Att +1 Spd at the other end, having wasted two Dynamax turns on a paralyzed Dracovish.

   The problem of the Focus Sash/Sturdy/Dragonite in the back is far more serious. So what I try to do is to either Fling on turn 1 and go for Swords Dance on Mimikyu, coming out of Dracovish Disguise down with +2 Att +1 Def with both Dynamax users still available, or just straight up Stealth Rock on turn 1 and go Max Airstream Kartana with likely either Mimikyu or Urshifu in the back.

   If the opposing team does not appear to have a Stealth Rock target, Explosion on turn 1 makes it so Kartana doesn't have to spend two Dynamax turns killing Dracovish. Of course, if Kartana is natively faster than everything else on the opposing team, Max Overgrowth does straight up 1HKO it. Other options include leading Urshifu and trading into it, and bringing Mimikyu to finish it off after Close Combat + Aqua Jet. Conversely, leading Mimikyu, normally a dubious proposition at best, is also on the table here.

   Finally, the question has to be asked as to whether all this time and effort is worth it just to use Regirock. Well, perhaps not, this is Regirock we're talking about, after all. But sometimes using trashmons for their one weird little niche is precisely what it takes to have fun, and if you can keep that 60%+ win-rate while rocking a bad regi, heck, that's just fine by me!

Zapdos

First and foremost, what this Zapdos is here for is to decisively check and Pressure stall both opposing Zapdos and Porygon2 with Eerie Impulse, which is also a major out against Calm Mind win-conditions like Clefable, Cresselia, and Reuniclus.

   Having both Thundurus and Zapdos on the team is also intended to act as a disincentive to Tapu Fini, the absolute worst thing Regirock can hit in the lead. The fact that opposing bulky Dynamax Zapdos goes from barely checking (252 HP variants) to flat out walling (252 HP & +252 Def) +1 Max Strike Kartana, multiple redundancy in that department helps, too.

   This doesn't mean Baton Pass is merely an afterthought. The set itself, from pandamu, performs as advertised above, then leverages the +1 SpDef or, indeed, some Max Airstream boosts, by Baton Passing into an actual threat. This comes at the cost of cutting Volt Switch, the secondary offensive coverage move on many of these defensive sets. But, again, being able to defensively Dynamax and not having something like a basically useless Kartana in the back afterwards is kind of the whole point here.

Kartana

In case it wasn't clear from the outset, one of the chief justifications for using Kartana to all-in despite some painfully evident shortcomings — as opposed to something like the Moxie Max Airstream sweepers Salamence and Gyarados — is that it doesn't get checked as comfortably by the universal checkmon, Mimikyu (nor Porygon2, for that matter).

   So, yes, here we are again, resorting to Max Airstream all-inning starting on turns 2-4. As usual with teams like this, there are going to be things you just can't do anything about when you just straight up go for it and fail to make make big enough dent on the opposing team, especially because we are Kartana: for instance, that Dragonite in the back being a special attacker; or, how about that Choice Scarf Cinderace they run? You just can't know beforehand, especially with "goodstuffs" pokemon like Cinderace, not to mention Zapdos, as discussed further on below.

   Another inherent annoyance (for some) is the gambling you have to occasionally do with Max Knuckle, be it playing around Mimikyu switch-ins or Intimidate (Landorus). At least the games are quick, if nothing else.

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike

Outside hyper offense or bulky offense match ups where it wants to either trade positively or stop a sweep, Urshifu also serves to check some more technical play. Apart from turn 1 Nasty Plot Thundurus, this team doesn't have any real options to counteract dedicated set-up like Baton Pass (Scolipede, Blaziken). Especially egregious in this regard is Kee Berry Unaware Clefable with its Calm Mind set, being impossible to break with a bunch of physical attackers, and against which Focus Sash intact Urshifu at least forces out the Moonlights with Surging Strikes (44.5 - 53.4%) at the risk of 2HKOing it outside Dynamax for when Eerie Impulse attrition is not on the table for whatever reason.

   Urshifu only really has two manadatory moves: Close Combat and Surging Strikes. U-turn, although tempting here, is seldom found outside its Choice Scarf sets, with things like Counter featuring prominently on Focus Sash sets especially during the reign of Dracozolt in Series 6.
    But for this team, I went with Aqua Jet and Thunder Punch in the flex slots. Aqua Jet brings priority, which is invaluable in games where a Focus Sash user is even necessary in the first place, whereas Thunder Punch stops Urshifu from being hard walled by Tapu Fini and Toxapex, and makes it significantly better in the Urshifu-RS mirror, the crucial thing being the option of punching through all of the above with some combination of Max Knuckles and Max Lightnings. Giving up Ice Punch does mean Urshifu is straight up set-up bait for Dragonite, as well as being unable to lead against a potential Dragapult, often necessitating the Mimikyu pairing.

  I also went with non-Gigantamax here in order to protect its Focus Sash with Max Geyser in certain situations (sand, hail); rain or no rain, Kartana isn't living a STAB-boosted Fire-type move. This does make Urshifu worse against counter Dynamax (Max Guard), and potentially as an alternative win-condition against hard stall. But in honesty, after 40-50 games with this team, I can't recall a single game where the GMax-DMax distinction would have mattered, because of just how rarely you click the big red button with Urshifu to even begin with. Make of that what you will.

Thundurus-T

One of the more curious facts I have come to understand while living under the yoke of a Dynamax format is that you can make up for a great deal, in terms of team-building, by just leading bulky Lum Berry, going to +2 and starting to click buttons (thanks, Landorus!), after which overcoming bulk — whether Dynamax or native — becomes less of a hassle.

   So, yes, even though Thundurus' main selling points are its incredible stall match up and its anti-Zapdos calculations combined with Volt Absorb (every team needs a way to stop Volt Switch momentum, as far as I'm concerned), it can very much be employed greedily in the lead — the payoff of forcing out a premature Dynamax from the opponent is often good enough. Risk-management is a fundamental skill in BSS, after all.

   As for the specifics of the set, refer to my previous outing. It should be noted that, apart from the Zapdos calculations, Porygon2 is also more relevant now than at any point in generation 8 BSS. Therefore, not being 1HKO'd by unboosted (Download) and uninvested Porygon2's Max Hailstorm + Hail damage is a big deal. Indeed, even uninvested Analytic ones whiff on the 1HKO from full with their Max Hailstorm.

Mimikyu

Porygon2 is good. Good for Drain Punchin', that is! Especially those SpDeffy sets, yum!

2) Usage notes

Everything in this section is based on around 40 games played at around 1700-1800 Elo towards the end of the season.

It should go without saying that because this is a hyper offense team, there is very little defensive counterplay available here beyond counter-Dynamaxing and Zapdos, depending how highly Focus Sash and Disguise are valued in any given game.

   This team also has precisely zero Cinderace switch-ins, relying, again, instead on pre-empting it with Kartana momentum, checking it with Focus Sash Urshifu, or cushioning it with Dynamax Zapdos, the general idea overall being just to win three 1v1s with the help of Urshifu (Focus Sash), Mimikyu (Disguise), and Regirock (Stealth Rock + Sturdy).

   This means that you are essentially following a very strict flowchart at all times: first, bring your main mode Regirock-Kartana when it doesn't stand to get immediately walled or checked, and Regirock can reasonably be expected to pull off the suicide lead; second, bring Zapdos mode against anything bulky, or even against Porygon2-Toxapex/Hippowdon on goodstuffs teams featuring Zapdos, Cinderace, Urshifu, and Mimikyu; and, third, bring Thundurus against hard stall.

   Again, because Kartana is dead weight against both Zapdos and Cinderace if it has to come in down momentum, bringing Kartana mode typically means pulling the trigger on Dynamax before the opponent. And even if bulky cushion Dynamax Zapdos is the response to Kartana, 252 HP sets will still be in range of Surging Strikes after Stealth Rock damage and +1 Max Strike (Regirock-Kartana-Urshifu). Alternatively, Mimikyu (Regirock-Kartana-Mimikyu) can Swords Dance on 252 HP Zapdos' Max Airstream after Kartana, and get the KO with Shadow Sneak, still being able to beat many non-Dynamax things in the final-mon-1v1 even with its Disguise down, thanks to the bulk investment combined with Drain Punch and Shadow Sneak.

   Mind you, the above only applies to Zapdos sets targeting the mirror; fully Defense-invested variants (Bold at 35.9% usage this season) are the worst case scenario for the Kartana all-in, also crippling any follow-up attempt from both Urshifu and Mimikyu.

   I suppose what all this amounts to is that spending a few seconds trying to figure out what the opposing Zapdos set is likely to be in the team select screen is very much worth it, in order to make a slightly more informed decision on whether to take a more defensive stance by playing through your own Zapdos (or, indeed, Thundurus), benching Kartana entirely, or just sticking to the plan.

Start of the season with Nihilego.

                    

A few 0-6 dives into the dumpster.

Peak on the final day.

Final rating; all of my games — aside from the initial placements for end-of-season rewards puposes on my main account (TN Tox) — this season were on my alt, TN Paska Peli.                                                                                                                                                                  

2.1 Usual team compositions

Regirock-Kartana-Mimikyu/Urshifu/Zapdos

Urshifu-Zapdos/Regirock-

Thundurus-

2.2 VS Team Select Screen

With the return to the Series 7 ruleset after the three-month "Zacian Interregnum", I have again tried to update my rough sketch of basic archetypes detailed below to reflect current trends.

   With this in mind, I have done away with entries for Trick Room and Baton Pass, neither of which I have seen in my games, or on streams, with any kind of regularity to warrant pontificating on. At least screens mode is something you occasionally still see, albeit mostly in low ladder.

Hyper Offense

- Usually comes in the form of Focus Sash user + dedicated Dynamax sweeper + Mimikyu.

- Secondary mode likely has at least one slow pivot or bulky mon like Zapdos or Porygon2.

- Focus Sash users: Urshifu, Pheromosa, Garchomp, Landorus, Cinderace, Cloyster.

- Possible Stealth Rock/suicide leads: Swampert, Hippowdon, Garchomp, Landorus, even Excadrill.

- Conventional sweepers: Cinderace, Zapdos, Nihilego, various Max Airstream users.

- Sturdy Endure + Custap Berry (e.g. Magnezone) as a second, pseudo Focus Sash user.

- Excadrill can be hard to read because it could be any one of the following: sand sweeper, Choice Scarf, or suicide lead.

- A recent fad for this archetype in early Series 9 consists of dedicated Dynamax SpAtt Porygon2 (even Solar Beam variants), with the usual Mimikyu and Focus Sash hyper offense core in the back.

Regirock-Kartana-Mimikyu/Urshifu

Urshifu-Mimikyu-Zapdos/Kartana

Urshifu-Regirock-

The ideal match up for Urshifu and Mimikyu. Both players are essentially trying to do the same thing, so Stealth Rock tends to be a good idea. In the team select screen, you more or less have two choices: first, you try to be the one going for the offensive momentum (Kartana mode); or, second, the one trying to cushion the opponent's momentum play (a harder ask for Urshifu and Regirock if the opponent is telegraphing Stealth Rock).

Bulky Offense or Balance

- Goodstuffs compositions of Porygon2, Toxapex/Hippowdon, Urshifu, Cinderace, Zapdos, and Mimikyu.

- Anti-Dynamax checks: Swampert, Toxapex/Hippowdon, Porygon2, Tyranitar/Rhyperior/Garchomp, Ferrothorn, Mimikyu.

- Mainly reactive Dynamax options, likely EV'd defensively to cushion specific hits in Dynamax duels: Porygon2, Zapdos, Landorus, Tapu Fini, Mimikyu, Dragonite.

- Likely offensive options: Nihilego/Celesteela, Cinderace, Zapdos, Dragapult.

- Wallbreaking options: Choice Band Urshifu/Rillaboom, Dracovish/Darmanitan, Dragapult (45%+ usage Dragon Dance), Landorus (58%+ usage Swords Dance).

Regirock-Kartana-Mimikyu/Urshifu

Urshifu-Thundurus/Zapdos-

Thundurus-Zapdos-

By far the most common archetype.

   These are games where you are tempted to get a free advantage by leading Thundurus into something like Zapdos or Hippowdon, but it's not worth it if there's stuff like Nihilego, Dragapult, or Landorus on the opposing side.

   Kartana can potentially wallbreak because Porygon2 is usually SpDef-invested (another reason bench Thundurus), and Hippowdon gets 1HKO'd by Max Overgrowth.

Screens Mode

- Curse Dragapult, Explosion Regieleki and Grimmsnarl as the three most common Light Clay screens setters outside Lapras screens, with Grimmsnarl being arguably the scariest because of Prankster and access to various crippling options (Scary Face, Trick Lagging Tail, Thunder Wave).

- Dragapult sets need to be inferred from the rest of the opposing line-up, usually not that difficult if it's Dragapult + sweepers, one of them likely being something slightly weird like a Shell Smasher or even Togekiss/Moltres-G.

- Tapu Koko has decisively switched into offensive sets — from around 20% to 9% usage on Light Clay [ひかりのねんど] since we last had this ruleset) — but can still be screens if the rest of the team is missing key defensive pieces, such as Porygon2.

- Common offensive pairings include set-up sweepers like Landorus, Dragon Dance and Swords Dance users.

- Baton Pass is also a possibility in a convoluted two-stage set-up, "dedicated Baton Pass".

Regirock-Urshifu-

Thundurus-Urshifu-

Thundurus Nasty Plot is free on turn 1 against Regieleki; Regirock is alright against other screens users and can spam Rock Tomb to prevent becoming set-up bait even if going up against something like Taunt Grimmsnarl/Tapu Koko.

   Kartana is usually a definite "no" going up against screens. Urshifu, on the other hand, is probably a good idea to bring because screens teams seldom have Stealth Rock and Surging Strikes obviously goes through them. This also means that Regirock can usually rely on Sturdy and be brought in the back to cripple the main screens-abuser.

   Mimikyu is also valuable because of its ability to Attack-boost and exhaust screens-and-Dynamax turns.

Hard Stall

- Toxapex, Chansey, Quagsire, Skarmory, Tyranitar, Clefable, Tapu Bulu, Porygon2, Reuniclus

- Offensive punch, if present, likely made up of either Cinderace, Celesteela, Pheromosa/Urshifu/Darmanitan, Dragonite, or Zapdos.

Thundurus-Kartana/Urshifu-

Regirock-Thundurus-Kartana/Urshifu

Most of the time, the whole match up revolves around getting Thundurus in on something against which the first Nasty Plot is free, like Toxapex or Quagsire.

   Usually this means an otherwise lackluster Regirock can lead with the idea of making sure you don't lose a wallbreaker for free to something like a turn 1 offensive Dynamax Dragapult — Thundurus doesn't much care how many Iron Defenses Skarmory is sitting on, and things like Lum Berry Dragon Dance Tyranitar can't get out of control because of Rock Tomb.
   An alternative win-condition can be found in Urshifu and Kartana through Max Knuckle and their respective coverage moves. As suggested above, when Clefable is one of the opposing six, Urshifu becomes even more appealing as a bring given how underwhelming Zapdos is here. 

3) In Conclusion

Although my favorite ruleset this generation was the Dracozolt-y Series 6, the current circumstances are still infinitely more playable for me than the past three months, as evidenced by the absurd 300-ish games I managed to find time to put in this month.

   This doesn't mean my view that generation 8 is a downgrade in virtually every conceiveable way from USUM has changed or anything, but being able to at least tolerate the prevailing conditions does make this one weirdo's embarrassing hobby a great deal more enjoyable. So more to come.

   To wrap up, I figured I'd post a few of the other teams I explored this month, as a way of saying thanks for making it this far:

https://pokepast.es/7a6df93c880f0c32

https://pokepast.es/a0ca7b159a913ee7

https://pokepast.es/7f532fde1f272b7f

Cheers, and come again.

- Tox

SW-0021-9848-8999