Battle Stadium Singles blog #24 — Zekrom momentum (Season 26; Series 11)

As previously stated, I took the liberty of taking the last two months off from anything resembling mindful laddering for the first time in three years of doing these write-ups. That should tell you everything you need to know about what I think about the Series 11 ruleset.

   Nevertheless, January 2022 was likely to be the last time this ruleset would grace the ladder, so it was time to stiffen the sinews and summon up the blood in order to charge into the fight, and come up with a respectable finish.

   In the end, I really only managed to sit through a few dozen games, but thought it worth reporting in after nevertheless managing to get decent enough results (i.e. finishing above 1800 Elo with a 70% win-rate) with some slightly more unorthodox stuff: Zekrom and Zen Mode Darmanitan-G taking center stage on another momentum offense team, with Quick Claw Ditto adding a piquant finish.

Zekrom's cathartic, life-affirming jazz dance & ballet performance brought to you at Zapdos' expense—what a life!

From Togekiss to Dragapult to Yveltal, the turn 1 Dynamax Weakness Policy Max Airstream user is a Gen8 BSS classic.

Let's be charitable and assume it's some kind of fairly bulky Adamant set, what with shiny Zacian being distributed as Adamant, after all.

Nope, still dead: 252 Atk Life Orb Teravolt Zekrom Max Lightning (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Zacian-Crowned in Electric Terrain: 200-238 (100.5 - 119.5%).

Still not switching to Fusion Bolt, mind you.

A most pleasureable denouement.

Good to know there's at least one attack that has 100% accuracy.

Point of Personal Privilege: I sincerely hope whoever let Zapdos retain access to Roost while cutting it from the likes of Salamence, Volcarona, Scizor, and Charizard steps on, say, a LEGO brick—in a suitably painful manner.

An even larger large black dragon? Outrageous!

Play around the Ditto by not Dragon Dancing on a sleeping target, but it's Focus Sash Ditto, so it just Dragon Dances on Zekrom's last turn of Dynamax.

+1 Dual Wingbeat through a possible Focus Sash Counter.

An attempted throw by me in the team select screen salvaged by opponent's choice of Adamant Zacian.

(Urshifu-Darmanitan-Zekrom vs. Rotom-W-Zacian-Landorus).

Slapped down by the elusive Imprison Zacian.

I think there's supposed to be a sleeping Quagsire under there somewhere.

+1 252 Atk Life Orb Teravolt Zekrom Max Wyrmwind (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 208-246 (102.9 - 121.7%).

When prominent content creators highlight something like Zen Mode Darmanitan, it's bound to show up on the ladder.

1) Team overview

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/8ad6bbae3a73dda5

Rental: defunct as of 01-Feb-22.

Simply put, the idea here is to empower a Zekrom sweep through the use of Speed control, or Darmanitan's Focus Sash Yawn, on a mostly offensive line-up.

   This, then, is what is the Japanese nomenclature often refers to as a "face-to-face construction", one of the three major team archetypes—alongside dedicated set-up (e.g. Screens modes) and the defensive cycle (i.e. hard stall)—and for which I tend to  use, perhaps too interchangeably, the terms momentum offense or hyper offense.

   The team's sole defensive backbone, Zapdos, provides a slow pivot that threatens paralysis (Zacian) and breaks Focus Sash (Urshifu). On top of this, it is something just big and fat enough, with reliable recovery, to trade Dynamax into opposing offensive momentum, or simply sit in front of things exhausting turns—particularly applicable to something like Grimmsnarl screens.

Zekrom

I think it is fair to say that not since the reign of Dracozolt in Series 6 has a physical Electric-type warranted the centerpiece position on a BSS team. But with both Dynamax and restricted pokemon existing simultaneously, Zekrom has its neat little niche as a Zapdos-abuser.

   So truly free is Zekrom against Zapdos, Max Airstream mode is not strictly speaking even necessary if getting to click Dragon Dance against Zapdos is a win-condition to play for in a given game, letting games often play out not too dissimiarly to something normally expected from Zacian-teams, where you Dynamax something other than a restricted pokemon.

   Teravolt as a Mold Breaker clone is another major selling point here. Being able to avoid being revenged by Mimikyu and straight up brute-forcing through Quagsire is, simply put, just the right kind of bananas for an ape like myself.

  As for the downsides, first off, Ditto-teams (#5 total usage) tend to be by far and away the thing Zekrom wants to avoid most. Although the Choice Scarf Outrage from Ditto only does 55.4-65.7% against Zekrom's Dynamax bulk, making Zekrom still bringable into Ditto games, you are limited in not being able to click Dragon Dance at any point without expecting to get promptly revenge swept by it, not to mention being susceptible to a Dynamax Ditto Max Wyrmwind coin flip. And then there's the occasional Focus Sash Ditto (9% item usage).

   Aside from Ditto, playing around Focus Sash Counter (Urshifu/Cinderace) is also a hassle without Stealth Rock to fall back on. However, besides Rocky Helmet damage, it should also perhaps be mentioned that Urshifu's Counter does at least have some counterplay in Dual Wingbeat (albeit needing +1 Att to 1HKO).

   Finally, sharing the same Speed tier as Kyogre may also seem rather unfortunate at first, but losing the Speed tie against Ice Beam only really hurts if Zekrom is caught outside Dynamax.

Darmanitan-Galar (Zen Mode)

Focus Sash Yawn Darmanitan is a way of both reversing opposing offensive momentum, as well as empowering a Zekrom or Landorus set-up.

   In Zen Mode, Darmanitan hits a real Speed stat of 205, which, while well short of outspeeding either +252 Spd Zacian (220) or Calyrex (222), not to mention Dragapult (213), is still enough to beat virtually everything else unboosted, including Adamant variants of Zacian (200).

   I will admit Belly Drum as the fourth move is not exactly optimal with tools like Rock Tomb, U-Turn, Fire Punch/Flare Blitz, even Endure, available, but it gives Darmanitan a move to click into something like an obvious Tapu Fini or Rotom-H/W switching in, and, especially, against Baneful Bunker (Toxapex) and Protect (Ferrothorn, Celesteela) trying to scout what an assumed Gorilla Tactics Darmanitan locks itself into.

Landorus-Therian

Offensive Lum Berry Landorus is an alternative Dynamax sweeper, the idea being to attempt to make the team more resilient against being revenged by Ditto, with an eye on taking advantage of the slightly less pesky (but pesky nevertheless) Hippowdon and Swampert as set-up bait through Lum Berry Swords Dance.

   Rock Tomb serves a similar, mostly post-Dynamax, Speed control function to Zapdos' Thunder Wave. Of course, unlike with defensive Zapdos, bringing offensively invested Landorus is a fairly big commitment to Dynamaxing Landorus, unless Intimidate and the Ground-type are somehow enough to warrant a slot no matter what.

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike

Because Necrozma Dusk-Mane and Calyrex-Shadow exist in a restricted metagame—combined with the fact that Rapid Strike is just an overall worse Choice Band wall-breaker against defensive cycles than its Single Strike counterpart—means that Urshifu-Single-Strike is what more or less has to be assumed in the team select screen (#4 vs #22 overall usage).

   It remains true, of course, that both Urshifu forms share a common check in defensive Zapdos, but that's what we are here to abuse in the first place.

   In any case, to get the most bang for the buck for brining the lesser bear, Urshifu-RS is best employed in the lead role here, ideally before opposing Dynamax bulk causes its offensive impact to fall off. The goal here, therefore, being to either fast pivot out on turn 1, or go down making a big enough dent into the opposing trio for Zekrom and its partner to find their way into the victory screen.

   Lacking any kind of proper defensive switch into Kyogre, Jolly Urshifu as the lead is notable as being among the better options here for that match-up, being perfectly fine with clicking either rain-boosted Surging Strikes or Close Combat, even against a line-up like Kyogre-Ferrothorn-Zapdos.

   What's more, Kyogre tends to be less likely to be paired with Ditto than other restricted pokemon because it competes for Choice Scarf, which makes playing for the Zekrom win-condition that much easier after suiciding in Urshifu.

Ditto

Whenever you're not using Quagsire and Chansey on a team, you likely won't have a safe switch to either Zacian or Kyogre, heavily relying instead on outplaying the opponent in the team select screen. And, true enough, this is the case here, as well.

   Quick Claw is not exactly consistent compared to Choice Scarf and Focus Sash, but when you don't bring a defensive cycle, Ditto is among the better outs when the early-game goes wrong—despite the gamble.

Zapdos

The defensive pivot set is considered more or less standard, able to check Zacian, threatening a crippling Static proc against it even when in KO-range, breaking Urshifu's Focus Sash with Rocky Helmet chip, and trading Dynamax with the likes of Dragonite, Cinderace, and Landorus when the situation calls for it—in other words, simply too good not to use as the sole defensive switch on a momentum offense team.

   Speed-uninvested Zapdos' real Speed stat of 120 is also notable for being perhaps the most relevant target for mid-range Speed creep over several rulesets now, defensive Landorus' real Speed stat of 111 perhaps providing the lower end of that whole contested range.

   Instead of investing into Speed in order to hit +1 Max Airstream benchmarks or creep past the creepers, the maximum possible defensive investment is preferable in order to have the best possible chance of checking Zacian and Urshifu-SS.

   Indeed, if anything, defensive Zapdos sets can easily go Relaxed in order to have the slower Roost and Volt Switch in the inevitable Zapods mirrors for sweeper insertion.

   As far as the set itself is concerned, there really is not anything special going on, either. Thunder Wave is just yet another form of Zekrom/sweeper set-up, and for when Zapdos emerges from Dynamax, having found itself having to pop it in order to cushion opposing offensive momentum.

2) Usage notes

2.1 Usual team compositions

Urshifu-Zekrom-

Darmanitan-Zekrom-

2.2 VS team select screen

Say what you will about the competitive integrity of a format with both Dynamax and restricted pokemon, but in contrast to last series' ruleset, the return of Dynamax into the mix for Series 11 does make, as I see it, restricted-based categorizations slightly less useful than before. With this in mind, I've tried to compensate again by briefly going into how each such archetype tends to play out.

Zacian momentum/hyper offense

- Zacian-teams typically come in two major styles.

- First: "win three 1v1s" hyper offense with Mimikyu, Focus Sash user, and dedicated Dynamax user (often lead).

- Second: bulky offense, pivoting Zacian in through defensive Zapdos/Landorus/Swampert/Hippowdon, wearing things down, letting either Zacian or the Dynamax user (e.g. Zapdos, Dragonite) eventually break through their respective checks.

- Other, lesser, options: Lapras-Zacian screens mode, Zacian with Gothitelle to target-kill a check like Quagsire or Toxapex.

Darmanitan-Zekrom-Zapdos

Urshifu-Zekrom-Zapdos

Landorus-Zekrom-

Landorus is a free lead against Swampert and Hippowdon, and tends to force Zacian out, as well. Zapdos is a good defensive check against more offensive variants, such as Zapdos-Focus Sash user-Zacian.

Kyogre momentum

- Choice Scarf Kyogre does its best work when out of Dynamax, so it is not too dissimilar from Zacian. Thus, if the read is Choice Scarf, the next step in the mental checklist should probably be identifying their likely Dynamax options, and how dedicated those, in turn, are (e.g. four-attacks Life Orb Zapdos).

- Usually paired with Ferrothorn and Zapdos or Landorus-T, other pivots to get Kyogre into attack position include Rillaboom, Scizor, and Urshifu.

- It is almost impossible not to have to assume Choice Scarf on the part of Kyogre (55% usage), but because it is, at times, paired with things like Ditto and Darmanitan, spending a few seconds extra to try to work out what items everything is running can make the difference.

Urshifu-Zekrom-Ditto/Darmanitan

Suiciding in Urshifu should net Zekrom a decent shot at breaking the opposing trio's back. Ferrothorn can be a bit prickly for unboosted Zekrom to deal with, but, fortunately, around a third of them are SpDef-invested in order to check Kyogre. This is especially likely the case when the opposing six seemingly lacks any other answer to Kyogre.

Necrozma Dusk-Mane offense/momentum

- Tapu Fini and Landorus are Dusk-Mane's two most iconic partners.

- Being forced into carrying a hard counter to Calyrex-S, Dusk-Mane teams more or less require Porygon2, or a SpDef-invested Dark-type like Tyranitar.

- The return of Dynamax lets Weakness Policy sets really shine, making Dusk-Mane archetypes perhaps the easiest teams to pilot.

- Dusk-Mane's other prominent set options include Stored Power and physically defensive Dragon Dance, taking advantage of an already excellent Zacian match-up.

Landorus-Zapdos-

Urshifu-Zapdos-Landorus/Zekrom

Zekrom-Landorus-

Landorus and Zapdos should be fairly decent on paper.

   Darmanitan can't really lead against Swampert (Yawn + Flip Turn) or Tapu Fini (Misty Terrain), and opposing Landorus' Intimidate and Dusk-Mane's Morning Sun/Moonlight compound the problem of trying to sweep with Zekrom.

   Nevertheless, opposing Zapdos being a thing, Zekrom is a worthwhile investment.

Calyrex-Shadow offense/momentum

- Tapu Fini and Landorus are Dusk-Mane's two most iconic partners.

- Being forced into carrying a hard counter to Calyrex-S, Dusk-Mane teams more or less require Porygon2, or a SpDef-invested Dark-type like Tyranitar.

- The return of Dynamax lets Weakness Policy sets really shine, making Dusk-Mane archetypes perhaps the easiest teams to pilot.

- Dusk-Mane's other prominent set options include Stored Power and physically defensive Dragon Dance, taking advantage of an already excellent Zacian match-up.

Urshifu-Zekrom/Landorus-Darmanitan/Ditto

Urshifu-Darmanitan-Zekrom/Ditto

Calyrex-S teams tend to be relatively Max Airstreamable, with most of its common partners—Tyranitar, Cinderace, and Landorus—being fairly free for an Urshifu-RS opener.

Hard Stall

- Usual restricted pokemon: Eternatus, Ho-Oh, Yveltal (Taunt and/or physical attacker likely).

- Defensive cycle: Quagsire, Toxapex, Chansey/Blissey, Tyranitar, Skarmory/Pressure Corviknight, Tapu Bulu/Ferrothorn (Ho-Oh variants), Ditto.

Darmanitan-Zekrom-Zapdos/Urshifu

Zapdos-Zekrom-

Absent opposing Ditto, this match-up tends to revolve around getting to Dragon Dance against something passive in order to smash through Quagsire. Eternatus stall demands counter-leading via Darmanitan to dislodge it so Zekrom gets into sweeping position. 

Screens mode

- Xerneas is a common sweeper on Screens mode (Grimmsnarl, Regieleki, Klefki etc.).

- Screens are also occasionally seen with Necrozma Dusk-Mane and Calyrex-I.

- Dedicated set-up teams employing Blaziken pass may also opt for screens over a cripple/suicide lead.

Urshifu-Zapdos-

Landorus-Zekrom-Ditto

Zapdos excels at sitting in front of Grimmsnarl, whereas Landorus is completely free against Regieleki. Screens Tapu Koko, however, carries Taunt, shutting down the counter-lead by Dragon Dance Zekrom and Swords Dance Landorus.

   Zapdos' Thunder Wave on Xerneas' Geomancy turn helps set up a Ditto endgame, but Screens Xerneas with Substitute (Draining Kiss variants) will just end the game on the spot.

   Indeed, Draining Kiss Xerneas behind screens is one of the worst match-ups, because you can't even expect to put it to sleep due to Max Starfall unless you get to click Yawn on the turn it clicks Geomancy, and then immediately Max Guard with Darmanitan right after.

   All in all, this is one of those unfortunate match-ups, where, failing to get early Zekrom or Landorus momentum, you have to rely on Quick Claw Ditto.

Dedicated set-up

- Often an extension of Screens mode.

- Suicide/cripple lead into Baton Passer with a Power Trip/Stored Power user or an otherwise outclassed restricted threat as recipient.

- Baton Passers: Blaziken, Scolipede.

- Polteageist and Latias are two Baton Passers that also represent a potent offensive threat in their own right.

Urshifu-Zapdos/Landorus-

Getting Surging Strikes to connect on a Baton Passer should be farily unrecoverable, with Zapdos and Landorus being good at exhausting opposing Dynamax turns if the set-up involves mainly offensive boosting (Blaziken).

3) In conclusion

And there you have it. It took a total of 42 games to break 1800 with this exceptionally ramshackled bunch this time around, and that was enough to close out Series 11 for me:

Rating as of 27-Jan-22.

   As Gen8 has now been effectively put into maintenance mode, given the fact that the next seven months will be played under Series 12 rules, I do think it is not a controversial position at all to conclude what a massive missed opportunity it has been that the developers did not throw players a bone with another few months of a non-Dynamax ruleset, or, better yet, a banlist ruleset, reminiscent of Series 6.

   Be that as it may, and at the risk of coming off as hopelessly maudlin about the current state of affairs regarding ranked singles on console, I will simply conclude with the following statement, in verse:

"Bring on the restricteds in twos,

Ditto, and other threats, too,

I'll jank through all these fools."

- Tox

SW-0021-9848-8999