Battle Stadium Singles blog — Jump! Magikarp! (Special Edition)
"Protect your Magikarp"? "You mean from Perish Song by Bouncing into a semi-invulnerable state to avoid it?".
Announcement & Rules: https://battle.pokemon-home.com/regulation/000000117/en
Thread: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/jump-magikarp.3704588/
Now THIS is how you do a throwaway format for a weekender tournament!
Yeah, it's technically doubles, but being forced into Magikarp every game gives it enough of an amusing twist to make it palatable for me. It also means that this is effectively just a 1v1 format with the added complication of the inclusion of the ill-conceived Dynamax-mechanic, and with Sturdy/Focus Sash play, par for the course in conventional 1v1 formats, being far, far worse.
And, unlike the Extreme Speed! Single Battle!! tournament, the previous 1v1 competition, and the closest thing resembling this one thus far, this one has a proper team preview screen to choke in! Oh joy!
The comedic grace of a sad clown. Incidentally, panipani, who got three separate single-digit finishes in friendly practice competitions utilizing this ruleset, played some games with a mode employing Dynamax Magikarp with Endure Petaya Berry Kingdra (Swift Swim).
Dragapult should be an autowin match-up for Max Steelspike Porygon2 even without the Bounce proc.
Choice Scarf Hydro Pump. Mimikyu is phenomenal at winning 1v1s, but not if it has to play without Disguise.
Weakness Policy is likely the best Cinderace set: Friendly 0 IV -SpAtt Choice Scarf Hydro Pump into +2 Dynamax move with Speed control in Max Airstream and Max Strike, and damage mitigation in Max Steelspike.
But you didn't EV your Magikarp to avoid giving the opposing Porygon2 a SpAtt-boost! So you have to tank three Scarf Pumps, two of which are the super-effective ones on turn one, and +1 Max Strike?
(+1 252+ SpA Porygon2 Max Strike (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Dynamax Cinderace-Gmax: 228-268 [73.5 - 86.4%]).
Cradily dominates the Gastrodon & anti-Gastrodon pocket metagame.
If you thought there's not much to this ruleset, you would be right. But that doesn't stop the game from strapping you down for a spin on the good old RNG-carousel. No, sir.
1) Team overview
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/dbbd5763e3008ff2
Magikarp
Choice Scarf has to be among the better sets in my book: not only do you break a Focus Sash (Counter/Mirror Coat), Disguise (Mimikyu), but you also avoid Perish Song, do meaningful damage to Cinderace, and give yourself a chance to cheat out wins in otherwise bad match-ups with Bounce-paralysis.
The EV-optimization is entirely geared towards opposing Porygon2, not letting it get the Download-boost to +1 SpAtt against Porygon2, Dracozolt, or Gastrodon.
Coalossal
Weakness Policy Coalossal is an obvious thing to combine Choice Scarf Hydro Pump with, and it is indeed one of the few things that can outspeed and oneshot Cinderace, arguably the top threat in the format.
Coalossal has so many utter autolosses in this format, however, that it used here just as bait — intended to force opponents to think about bringing an answer, and, more importantly, to not play around Weakness Policy on bulky Dracozolt.
That being said, because Coalossal consistently outspeeds and oneshots Cinderace, I opted for max Speed Absorb Bulb which would still be bringable into obvious free-win games, with, again, very much the intention of benching it every game. So, not entirely an afterthough when it comes to the set, but about as close as it gets.
Gastrodon
Gastrodon is the pokemon everyone competent enough to know that Coalossal is bad hold up as a contender for the #1 pokemon in the format. And it is certainly good: Storm Drain empowers offensive sets, and it has enough leeway with stat distribution to opt for defensive sets, with Focus Sash Counter/Mirror Coat still fairly usable despite the threat of opposing Magikarp chip.
But does it reach the power level of Porygon2 or Cinderace? That's debatable. Gastrodon's nice defensive stats and access to Recover certainly let it force an endgame against many things, especially with a Kee Berry set, much in the same way as Porygon2 does.
What is not debatable, however, is the fact that a large part of the metagame is explicitly geared toward hard-countering it, with Ferrothorn, Cradily, Rillaboom, and Primarina (Energy Ball) all featuring prominently in the top 15 of usage in the four friendly competitions with this ruleset I entered to put in some practice, but even more so to have access to usage stats.
Gastrodon also faces an extremely uphill battle against Freeze Dry Lapras, another very viable threat due its possible selection of sets (Weakness Policy, Perish Song).
Armed with this knowledge, I set out to employ Gastrodon as yet another misdirection. This being said, opting for 252 Speed and Rindo Berry, this set can still come out on top in the mirror (faster Storm Drain), as well as tanking a single Max Overgrowth, allowing Gastrodon to prevail, admittely very situationally so, against Ferrothorn, Cradily, and Primarina with a +1 Attack into a +2 Attack.
Porygon2
Porygon2 wins with a combination of Max Strike, Max Guard, and Recover. For the set, I went full on Special Attack in order to leverage Download, with a smidgen of Speed creep for the Porygon2 mirror.
Iron Tail is the flex slot, intended to mitigate damage while playing around opposing Weakness Policy against Dragapult and Metagross (Shadow Ball), letting Porygon2 also seal the deal against Gyarados and Mimikyu. The increased priority of Ally Switch would also have been interesting to try out as another way of getting into the post-Dynamax endgame.
I have made the claim that this is effectively a 1v1 format, so using the usage stats from the 194-entrant friendly competition played on 17-Jul-2022, for example, let's look at what Porygon2 1v1s to give an idea of just how bonkers it is in this, and why I consider it the main mon of the team:
In case it's not obvious: #1 is Magikarp.
#2 Cinderace: This assumes Adamant Cinderace with either Weakness Policy or Life Orb. This is the match-up where the Download-boost makes all the difference.
Failing to get it, Max Strike only does around 50-60% damage, which means having to rely on Bounce + paralysis procs with Max Guard, or trying to land a crit with either the initial super-effective Scarf Pump or Max Strike.
Certainly any Cinderace player worth their salt will be EVing their Magikarp for Download, right?
#3 Gastrodon: They will likely need to be SpDef-invested -Def Magikarp again to avoid giving Porygon2 its desired Download-boost.
Nevertheless, depending on precise bulk-investments, +1 Max Strike can struggle to 2HKO, factoring in Max Quake's +1 SpDef: fast Gastrodon without bulk will move before Porygon2 in the first damage exchange, making up for their lack of bulk in that way.
Overall, I've found the most realisitc scenario to be to try to Max Strike bruise Gastrodon into Hyper Beam range for the post-Dynamax endgame.
Bounce proc is an out in the post-Dynamax endgame against the bulkiest of bulky Gastrodon, but if it gets that far, it should heavily favor the Gastrodon because of Storm Drain and Earth Power.
All in all, a playable match-up.
#4 Dracozolt: The assumption is here is that most Dracozolt should be Max Lightning/Wyrmwind/Quake/Airstream. Max Strike should make this an autowin, barring +252 Att 252 Speed Life Orb Max Knuckle (Low Kick) variants, which still barely outspeed Porygon2 after a Max Strike, and have the 2HKO locked up after going up to +1 Att on turn one.
#5 Dragapult: Max Steelspike should make this an autowin. Even if they Max Phantasm Magikarp to Def-drop Porygon2, that's a Dynamax turn they spent not attacking Porygon2 where Porygon2 clicked either Max Steelspike or Recover.
#6 Porygon2: The Speed creep here should let Porygon2 have the advantage in the Max Strike war, but in most cases, this should go into the post-Dynamax engame with Recover and fishing for a status proc (Bounce, Ice Beam, even Tri Attack from defensive variants). Again, a playable match-up.
#7 Cradily: Cradily is both natively slower than Porygon2, and weak to both Max Hailstorm and Max Steelspike depending on the Download boost.
#8 Rillaboom: After establishing Speed control with a Max Strike opener, Porygon2 can either try to go for the KO directly if they're not Assault Vest, or try to get out of range with Max Steelspike.
#9 Lapras: Perish Song Lapras should be an autoloss, even +1 Porygon2 failing to KO it through 252 HP bulk with Max Strike. With Sheer Cold becoming a factor against other sets, it's advantage: Lapras.
Having to rely on Dracozolt and Ferrothorn in the team preview screen to shoo away Lapras is the best Porygon2 can do here.
#10 Primarina: Without a SpAtt-boost in the cards, Assault Vest Primarina is not really possible to break through, and may necessiate a Max Hailstorm to get rid of the rain for the post-Dynamax Hydro Cannons.
Mercifully, testing showed that Primarina isn't as set on a particular hold item, things like Kee Berry, Absorb Bulb, and even Wacan Berry seeing more use than Assault Vest.
Because both pokemon reside in the Base Speed 60 bracket, the Speed creep can also end up being relevant here.
Dracozolt
Dracozolt wins by a combination of bulk and damage mitigation through Max Wyrmwind and Max Quake, with Weakness Policy to try to surprise opponents sold on Coalossal as the Weakness Policy user.
This approach is best against slower opponents in the Gastrodon & anti-Gastrodon pocket metagame — everything except Dragapult, Dracozolt, and Cinderace on the above list — but Dracozolt can also pull out a more situational win against Cinderace (avoids Max Strike 2HKO against Life Orb variants), and even Dragapult (+252 Att Life Orb Max Wyrmwind [Outrage] technically only 1HKOs 30% of the time) with Max Wyrmwind.
Second in intended usage only to Porygon2, Dracozolt is supposed to complement it in games where Porygon2 might struggle — against Lapras and blobs like Snorlax (though the standard Custap Berry G-Max Snorlax is still playable for Porygon2).
This also becomes evident in applying the usage list from above: Dracozolt's worst autoloss is among Porygon2's most favorable match-ups: opposing Dracozolt.
For the specific investments, I went for bulky Weakness Policy with enough SpDef to avoid opposing Porygon2 Download — Porygon2 should be a horrendous match-up for Dracozolt anyway, but this way Dracozolt as least has a chance to Bounce or Weakness Policy proc its way into the victory screen there.
Ferrothorn
This is another mostly unoptimized set, mainly intended for Lapras, being natively far too slow for the Perish Song tie-break win condition to be in non-Lagging Tail Lapras' favor, and so SpDeffy as to able to get away with Leech Seed attrition. SpDef-invested Ferrothorn is also notable for doing a number on Gastrodon and the things orbiting it, as well as opposing Porygon2.
Techincally speaking, because this metagame is almost entirely about the initial Dynamax onslaught, putting some Speed creep for a Ferrothorn mirror would be better than the 0 IV -Speed, Gyro Ball only ever being used for Max Steelspike.
2) Tournament
Below, as is the custom around these parts, losses will be reported on with accompanying screenshot and dirge. And so the reader see if they would have made the correct call in team select, naturally.
Porygon2 and Dracozolt are the intended stars of the show, so their usage will be tracked, as well.
Day 1
Win - Loss: 13 - 2
Porygon2: 7 - 1
Dracozolt: 5 - 1
(Coalossal: 1 - 0)
Loss 1: Dracozolt vs. Rillaboom
Grassy Seed Rillaboom did over 50% with Max Quake, but proced Weakness Policy and got -1 Attack by Max Wyrmwind for a turn two Dracozolt win, with a bonus friendly Bounce coming in to possibly cripple Rillaboom before anything else is even resolved. Rillaboom's Max Quake Crit on turn two, though.
Loss 1.
Loss 2: Porygon2 vs. Cinderace
Opposing Magikarp Bounce proced paralysis into immediate full paralysis against Porygon2 on its second Max Strike turn to KO Cinderace (Jolly White Herb set with a Max Guard move [Ally Switch?]) on turn three after avoiding the 2HKO from Knuckle into +1 Knuckle.
Second rather unfortunate loss in a row meant my rating got dumpstered to 1526 after 6 games.
Loss 2....
...and how it is supposed to look like instead.
Mmm-hmm.
Not you too, Dracozolt!
Even a free Coalossal game stops feeling free when you're in game and realize you actually have to land the Scarf Pump to avoid being left feeling like a complete muppet.
It took 12 games to break 1600.
Rating after day one's games, around 09:00 GMT.
Day one thoughts and conclusions:
Without the few unfortunate incidents described above, this could have been a 15-0 day. But it's too early to say whether the team really works, because wading into the swamp of Cinderace as Porygon2 is going to be more difficult when higher-rated players and their Download-optimized Magikarp show up.
This, in turn, will likely mean more coin tosses in the team select screen because I will, no doubt, overthink myself into bringing Dracozolt or even Coalossal in hopes of catching it in the face of other, dodgy-as-heck, match-ups.
Day 2
Win - Loss: 8 - 7
Porygon2: 5 - 6
Dracozolt: 3 - 1
Loss 3: Porygon2 vs. Porygon2
1684 pts. opponent. Hey! I'm Speed-creeped for this. Favorable match-up on paper against a slower Porygon2 with Thunder + Blizzard as coverage moves alongside Hyper Beam and Recover in the double-paralyzed Porygon2 endgame foiled by opposing Porygon2 hitting all their Blizzards, hitting three straight Hydro Pumps, and getting full paralysis on a Recover turn they finally went for Hyper Beam.
Loss 3. Barely missed on snapping a team picture, but it was generic Cinderace/Porygon2/Dragapult/Gastrodon goodstuffs, best I can recall.
Loss 4: Porygon2 vs. Gastrodon
1500s opponent. Porygon2 got off a faster +1 Max Strike against a Gastrodon that went for Yawn on turn one. And Porygon2 got max sleep turns.
In all fairness, Bounce did proc paralysis on the opposing Gastrodon, but there was no full-paralysis turn.
Loss 4.
Loss 5: Porygon2 vs Porygon Z
After opposing non-Download Porygon Z went for Max Guard on turn one, Porygon2 never got off a move because of opposing Choice Scarf Bounce paralysis into immediate full paralysis.
That's 0-3 on Porygon2 games to start off the day, rating down to 1604 from 1652.
Loss 5.
1660 pts. opponent. The most wild team thus far!
Loss 6: Porygon2 vs. Azumarill
I was too afraid of opposing Dracozolt and Dragapult to bring Dracozolt, so I got the Perish Song Azumarill EV'd for Download.
It came down to whether a bruised Azumarill would Max Guard on turn two or if it had an attack with which to target and oneshot my Bouncing Magikarp.
It had a physical Max Starfall move (Play Rough), and went for it as I targeted the opposing Focus Sash Magikarp with Porygon2. Outplayed. GG.
Loss 6.
Snap picked Dracozolt, and should have paid the price with Porygon2. I guess this means the Coalossal Weakness Policy gambit worked?
Don't mind if I do!
Loss 7: Porygon2 vs. Dragapult
Died to Life Orb Special Attacker Dragapult. Dragapult was Download-proof so Max Hailstorm was out of range — I didn't realize it was special attacker until after I saw the Wyrmwind damage on turn two, after which I had already clicked the second Max Steelspike, of course. So, Dragapult closed it out with the Draco Meteor after Dynamax.
Loss 7.
Loss 8: Porygon2 vs. Tyranitar
Died to fast Weakness Policy Superpower Max Guard Tyranitar whose Magikarp Scarf Pumped it on turn one as Porygon2 Max Guarded.
Because Porygon2 was slower in the ability toasts, I couldn't get rid of Sandstorm for the post-Dynamax endgame, and went for Max Strike instead of Max Steelspike or Max Hailstorm on turn two.
Nice build and nice team select screen game. Completely and utterly outplayed. GG.
Loss 8.
Loss 9: Dracozolt vs. Dragapult
1500s opponent. Got caught by the +252 Att Life Orb Dragapult that hit the 30% to 1HKO — unless it was a special attacker, which always oneshots, of course. GG.
Loss 9. Got scared out of Porygon2 by Ferrothorn and Tyranitar.
Rating peak.
Rating after day two.
Day two thoughts and conclusions:
Dropping a few games to RNG (losses 3-5) is one thing, but getting repeatedly outplayed in the team preview is what really prevented me from making any progress, forcing a day three start below where I started on day two. Something to think about when selecting Porygon2 going forward?
In any case, having the crit+Bounce RNG go so heavily against me, I resolved to call it if I managed to get above 1700 again, lest the ruleset started to wear out its welcome.
Day 3
Win - Loss: 9 - 6
Porygon2: 5 - 5
Dracozolt: 4 - 1
Loss 10: Porygon2 vs. Tyranitar
1680+ opponent. Almost pulled the trigger on Dracozolt at the risk of running into Dragapult, but ended up as Porygon2 vs. Tyranitar against an obvious Weakness Policy set.
This time they didn't have Superpower, but they were faster. Max Strike + Max Steelspike + Max Guard wasn't enough to get out of range of opposing Choice Scarf Magikarp Hydro Pump to get off a Recover against a paralyzed Tyranitar. GG.
Loss 10. This has to have been the most avoidable of the Tyranitar losses, with only Dragapult threatening Dracozolt. But that was also the case in loss 9.
Loss 11: Porygon2 vs. Primarina
Had Primarina on the ropes, but Bounce missed on opposing -2 Speed 1 HP Hydro Pump Magikarp (Swift Swim + rain), letting it get a move off before Recover on Primarina's recharge turn.
Loss 11.
Still in it, baby!
Loss 12: Porygon2 vs. Tyranitar
Let myself get Tyranitar'd by faster Weakness Policy Max Knuckle again. GG.
Regrettably, I seem to have entirely forgot to take a screenshot of the circumstances of loss 12. But I do seem to recall it was a combination of Dragapult and Dracozolt which prevented me from bringing Dracozolt myself.
Loss 13: Dracozolt vs. Snorlax
1735 opponent. Counter Snorlax: decided not to play around it, got punished. Very cool team, too! GG.
Loss 13.
Still...barely...in it.
Loss 14: Porygon2 vs. Ferrothorn
1500s player. SpDeffy Ferrothorn is a 0% match-up for Porygon2. GG.
Loss 14.
After that loss, 1700 was no longer in reach.
Loss 15: Porygon2 vs. Porygon Z
1740 opponent. Porygon2 got destroyed by paralysis again.
In all honesty, though, this is a bad match-up because Porygon Z will still be faster one Speed tier lower than Porygon2 anyway (Max Darkness turn). So it doesn't hurt as much when the RNG simply underlines the point that you were just never going to win this game. GG.
Loss 15. Even with Dracozolt, Porygon Z should have had it here, I think.
Result
Win - Loss: 30 - 15
Porygon2: 17 - 12
Dracozolt: 12 - 3
(Coalossal: 1 - 0)
Final rating after all 45 games.
Final placement. #239 / 26059
3) In Conclusion
Slightly disappointing result for someone who is stylistic in their play in a way that very much favors reliance on getting the team select screen game right. Some of those Tyranitar losses should have been avoidable with better decision-making, at the very least! Playing too conservatively with Porygon2 will do that to you.
All in all, though, the match-making was excellent on the final day, with many opponents in the 1650-1700 range, which is surprising for what I imagined would not be the most populated of ladders.
More of these kinds of tournaments while SWSH still has some wind in its sails, please. Series 13, if there is one, also better be bananas after what the past few months of ranked singles have been like. Do it.
- Tox
SW-0021-9848-8999
