Battle Stadium Singles blog — Champion League (Special Edition)
Rules: https://battle.pokemon-home.com/regulation/000000119/en
Smogon thread: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/champion-league.3707533/
Well, color me surprised! Finding myself unable to get excited about the recent "I Choose 'Chu!" online competition, where the only legal pokemon were Pichu, Pikachu and Raichu (Kanto OR Alola), I did not expect to see another singles-format weekender on the docket in such rapid succession given how close we are to making the generation 8 games defunct, as far as official ranked play is concerned, anyway.
The twist for this tournament was the restriction of the pool of allowed pokemon to pokemon used by ingame trainers across every main line game designated as champions of their respective regions — with the exception of anything culled by the Dexit, naturally.
The result is a metagame with many of the most disgusting Max Airstream sweepers across the various rulesets (Series) of this generation present and accounted for (Dragonite, Togekiss, Gyarados, Salamence, Cinderace), and with many of their defensive checks and hard walls completely absent; Gyarados, here I come!
As a final curiosity going into this, and in keeping with the tradition of these tournaments occasionally having bungled rollouts for their rulesets, the flub this time around took the form of an unintentional omission of Gardevoir from the pool of allowed pokemon, which was rectified only after over a week of play with the ruleset.
Mind you, it's not that Gardevoir is really able to pull off anything more spectacular than Focus Sash Thunder Wave/Will-o-Wisp into Memento crippling for Togekiss or a Dragon Dancer, perhaps aside from some kind of underwhelming Choice Scarf sets off that abysmal 80 Base Speed, but strange nevertheless.
Crippler Tyranitar mirror.
That's one way to break a Focus Sash.
Just get it over with and remove Thunder Wave as a TM altogether already.
I stand by my statement above.
Muscling through Marvel Scale Milotic with fully-invested Dark Pulse.
Another mechanic that's still somehow in the game.
Removing Lapras screens.
Removing Lapras.
And Togekiss.
Huh, not something you see every day.
1) Team overview
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/90f78537df61575e
Tyranitar
This is a dedicated crippler set for the main mode of Moxie Gyarados as the snowballing Max Airstream sweeper. The best case scenario is an opposing six where the Tyranitar lead never gets punished and gets to set up a Gyarados immediately, but Tyranitar can also be utilized in the back to reverse opposing offensive momentum if there is no threat to its Focus Sash.
The crippler kit of Speed control and Stealth Rock is also perhaps most notably available to Garchomp in this format, but Garchomp has an extremely dodgy opening match-up against Dragapult, not to mention opposing Garchomp (Scale Shot), and gets walled by Skarmory. So, Tyranitar it is!
With that out of the way, I will admit that fully investing in Tyranitar's Dark Pulse may also seem a bit bizarre, but it lets Tyranitar threaten Skarmory offensively (74.2% chance to 2HKO against SpDef-uninvested variants), with the ultimate goal of putting it into Gyarados range.
In the same vein, because opponents have to play around Dynamax Tyranitar — crippler Tyranitar being far less telegraphed than offensive sets — getting burned is also par for the course here, so being able to put out good damage against physically defensive Milotic/Gastrodon (Scald) also makes them more vulnerable to being broken through by Gyarados.
Other major targets for Dark Pulse include Metagross, Aegislash, Dragapult, and Cloyster.
Running Rock Tomb in addition to Thunder Wave may appear redundant, but the idea with this is to have a move that provides Speed control and breaks a Focus Sash against Garchomp and Lucario, both of whom are immune to Sandstorm chip.
Gyarados
In my view, Moxie mons (Gyarados/Salamence) off a tight momentum-insertion flowchart are exceedingly difficult to stop in this format, unless you bring dedicated answers, that is.
Of these answers, the most viable overall are defensive cushion Dynamaxers like bulky Gyarados (Intimidate) or Dragonite (Heavy-Duty Boots or Kee Berry) because they also utterly destroy any kind of Cinderace mode, and Max Lightning Metagross, which is notable for living through both +1 Max Geyser and a hypothetical +1 Max Quake.
Outside this, more passive pokemon like Skarmory, Milotic, and Gastrodon are also decent defensive checks on paper, but can't switch in safely on Dynamax moves, and can get muscled through due to Taunt. To complicate matters further, Gastrodon also has to play around a possible Power Whip.
At this point, it should also perhaps be noted that the best answer to being snowballed on is — as always — to have your own Gyarados or Salamence pop off before the opponent's one does!
Regarding whether to go Salamence over Gyarados, Gyarados does have less Attack and Speed than Salamence, but is less susceptible to being oneshotted in Dynamax duels against prominent offensive pokemon (vs. Togekiss, Garchomp, Dragonite, Dragapult), or being revenge killed by Choice Scarf Dragapult (around 30% usage on a top-3 mon based on stats from multiple preliminary friendly competitions utilizing this ruleset). Marvel Scale Milotic (Max Guard opener to proc Flame Orb into Max Hailstom) is also far less of a cushion to Gyarados as it is to Salamence.
Regarding the moveset, then, Taunt as the Max Guard move of choice here lets Gyarados potentially play around Endure + Custap Berry play (Magneton/Rhyperior), although Substitute would, of course, be far suprerior for that purpose.
Going for Stone Edge over Earthquake or Power Whip as the third coverage move is justified by having more raw damage output against prominent opposing Max Airstream users and G-Max Lapras, against which Stealth Rock + +1 Max Rockfall threatens the 1HKO unless they are completely invested into physical defense.
This comes at the expense at a worse match-up against Milotic and Gastrodon, the latter of which is especially notable for its ability to wall the entire team, barring Lapras, if it opts for something like Kee Berry + Stockpile, and against which Taunt is of limited help because of Gyarados' poor offensive coverage against it outside Dynamax.
Togekiss
This was originally a defensive Dragonite slot, but I switched to defensive Togekiss in order to threaten a Max Airstream sweep from the special side, and because I deemed defensive Dragonite's ability to shut down Dynamax Cinderace, its main claim to fame here, to be simply unnecessary.
If this has the secondary effect of relieving some of the defensive pressure on Gyarados by having a would-be check like Skarmory being benched altogether, all the better.
In any case, with sets like this, the idea is very much to try to exhaust opposing Dynamax turns through Max Guards and/or Kee Berry + Mystical Fire (opposing Lapras, Togekiss).
The resulting endgame envisioned here, then, consists of Thunder Wave combined with somewhat reliable recovery in Morning Sun and a boost in the relevant defensve stat (Kee Berry or Mystical Fire SpAtt-drop) with which to eventually Serene Grace Air Slash into the desirable outcome.
The Speed creep is for outspeeding a paralyzed +252 Speed Dragapult, the natively fastest thing in the format.
Garchomp
To be clear, in a vacuum, Dragapult is clearly superior to Garchomp as a Choice Scarf user because of Infiltrator, Dragon Darts, and U-turn.
But Garchomp's main target here is Max Lightning Metagross, which can live any +1 252 Att Life Orb Gyarados Dynamax hit after Stealth Rock damage — without even having to go beyond the obvious 252 HP investment into defensive bulk.
And despite being overshadowed by Dragapult, Garchomp's natively superior Speed tier still lets it potentially Choice Scarf revenge kill some of the prominent Max Airstream threats — namely Salamence, Gyarados, Togekiss, and Dragonite. Garchomp is also a marginal improvement over Dragapult in the Cinderace (Sucker Punch) match-up.
Fire Blast is solely for Skarmory should Garchomp find itself in Dynamax for whatever reason.
Lapras
Lapras is free against some of the more passive would-be checks for Gyarados, particularly Milotic and Gastrodon, and is an attempt at covering them, finding another target in Skarmory against slower match-ups. To this end, the Speed EVs are geared toward outspeeding Skarmory and Metagross, as well as opposing Lapras.
This team does not really have anything that would benefit from planning to expend Dynamax on setting screens from the start, so G-Maxing Lapras is best left as a play to cushion a crucial Dynamax hit, mainly from the special side (vs. Togekiss, Lapras) because of Assault Vest bulk, or for trying to actually clean up attempts at defensive cores with its good-but-underpowered offensive coverage.
Aegislash
Defensive Aegislash is intended to hard counter especially telegraphed Screens modes (Carbink, Inteleon, Aurorus/Vanilluxe) with Brick Break, while simultaneously helping Tyranitar preserve its Focus Sash against some of its more terrible match-ups, especially against Rillaboom and Lucario, which are fairly free switches for Aegislash — even getting U-turned on by Rillaboom into massive momentum loss still protects Focus Sash Tyranitar for a potential Gyarados reverse-sweep.
The Speed creep is for opposing Lapras and Metagross, notably letting a boosted Aegislash click Max Phantasm against Metagross.
Defensively, this set is admittedly unoptimized, with its main benchmark being living 252 Att Max Phantasm from Dragapult, +252 Att ones having only a single roll (6.3%) to 1HKO from full HP.
2) Tournament
Per custom, I will only cover my losses below — losses being far more educational, not to mention hilarious at times, than any parade of screenshots depicting a Gyarados autopiloting its way into the victory screen.
Day 1
Win - Loss: 9 - 6
Loss 1: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Aegislash vs. Cloyster-Lapras-Dragapult
Cloyster lead Icicle Speared instead of Shell Smashing, which broke Tyranitar's Focus Sash. Weakness Policy Lapras traded over 50% of its health and got paralyzed in order to KO Tyranitar.
After this I could have simply Max Airstreamed to KO, but didn't should they Dynamax or switch in Tyranitar. So I Max Rockfalled, which should KO most Dynamax Lapras even at that range, does meaningful damage to a Tyranitar switch, and with Aegislash in the back for Dragapult.
What happened instead was that the opponent tried to throw the game by switching in their Modest Choice Specs Dragapult (!), which lived the Max Rockfall, and high-rolled the Thunderbolt 1HKO (83 - 98.2% damage; Dynamax Gyarados is at 92% health after one tick of Life Orb + sand).
To add insult to injury, I then Swords Danced on Dragapult, but missed a +2 Aegislash Brick Break range on paralyzed 45% health Lapras to decide the game (50.7 - 60.2% vs purely 252 HP variants).
Game 5 and I'm already choking like this, oh dear! GG.
Loss 1.
Loss 2: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Aegislash vs. Tyranitar-Garchomp-Metagross
The opening was two crippler Tyranitar. Fully defensive Rocky Helmet Max Lightning Metagross eventually lived the boosted Gyarados hit on the deciding turn after some defensive switching by both players to gain momentum.
This felt like a game where both players knew what they were doing, at least in terms of format theory, and I was simply outplayed. GG.
Loss 2.
Loss 3: Tyranitar-Lapras-Gyarados vs. Cinderace-Dragapult-?
Effectively 3-0'd by a Focus Sash Iron Head Cinderace lead, flinching both Tyranitar and Lapras to death, putting me too far behind to ever recover. GG.
Loss 3. This doesn't count as a missed Thunder Wave. But it does highlight what happens when you don't get to land it on a key target.
Loss 4: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Aegislash vs. Tyranitar-Metagross-Rillaboom
Got revenge killed by another Max Lightning from a physically defensive Metagross, which lived Stealth Rock and +1 Max Geyser in the rain, something mere 252 HP variants do not do consistently (75% to 1HKO). +4 Aegislash lost the final mon 1v1 against Rillaboom. GG.
Loss 4.
Loss 5: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Lapras vs. Aurorus-Dragapult-Jolteon
The most humiliating loss in awhile — lost to a team with multiple Eeveelutions and ended up with Lapras and Gyarados against Weakness Policy Dragapult and Flame Orb Jolteon (not Quick Feet because it switched in on Thunder Wave with the Volt Absorb prompt) after the leads traded into each other.
I think I was trying to play around screens + Vaporeon pass by bringing Lapras instead of Garchomp. Hold on a moment...that only makes this more embarrassing, doesn't it? Hmm. GG.
Loss 5.
Loss 6: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Garchomp vs. Milotic-Salamence-?
Milotic Hypnosis hit Tyranitar, after which the opponent went Salamence. I switched to my Choice Scarf Garchomp assuming a Dragon Dance or a Max Airstream, but got hit by Max Wyrmwind as its opening move. The game ended the following turn after Tyranitar failed to get the short sleep (1/3 chance) to get off a Thunder Wave necessary to reverse the offensive momentum. GG.
Loss 6.
Rating after the first day of play. Spooky as heck, and it's not even October yet!
Day one summary:
1) The worst day one result for me in all of generation 8. And the worst part is, only one of those losses (loss 3) was out of my hands — the rest of the games lost were given away by a bad team preview game and false assumptions on my part (especially losses 1 and 5). With this kind of play, I would be happy to even break 1650 MMR.
2) Have not regretted cutting Earthquake or Power Whip for Stone Edge on Gyarados because of the amount of Max Airstream opposition and Lapras. For Earthquake, I suppose Adamant Gyarados would have worked in order to get good damage ranges on revenging 252 HP Metagross, but doing that makes Gyarados slower than Togekiss and slower than Dragapult's 213 at +1.
3) Togekiss brought into zero games. Zero. I think an argument could be made for playing Cinderace over Togekiss or Aegislash/Garchomp, but it's too early to tell. I certainly would not have brought Cinderace in the dedicated Dynamax slot in any of my games so far.
4) Thunder Waves missed: 1. Managed to recover after missing on turn one G-Max Cinderace, although I should have had no business doing so.
Day 2
Win / Loss: 10 -5
Loss 7: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Garchomp vs. Jolteon-Skarmory-Lapras
1666 MMR opponent. Turn one Jolteon Volt Switch into Skarmory, turn two Body Press to KO Tyranitar while being put to 50% by Dark Pulse. Gyarados Taunts the Roost. I Max Airstream to put Skarmory into Max Geyser range. It just needs to not be Water Absorb Lapras in the back...and it's Water Absorb Lapras with Max Guard.
Still had a crit Garchomp Stone Edge out against the bruised Skarmory, but no such luck this time around.
This felt like I managed to bungle what is a good match-up, if not an outright autowin. GG.
Loss 7.
This fine fellow was above 1600 before I ever got there.
And another one!
Burned and Memento'd by Ninetales, Tyranitar manages to miss Thunder Wave on Togekiss' Nasty Plot turn. Fortunately, they weren't Lum Berry and had to Max Starfall KO to avoid having to dodge another one, so Gyarados was able to simply Max Rockfall for the 1HKO thanks to its higher native Speed tier.
It took a disappointing 21 games to break 1600.
Loss 8: Tyranitar-Togekiss-Gyarados vs. Dragapult-Gyarados-Tyranitar
The endgame was Gyarados against 1% paralyzed Intimidate Gyarados, Focus Sash broken opposing paralyzed Tyranitar, and Dragapult.
I felt like I had to open Max Geyser on Gyarados in order to avoid a sequence of Tyranitar switching in on Max Airstream, then Gyarados switching back in to die to Stealth Rock, followed by Max Guard Dragapult, which would undo my entire Dynamax.
My chosen line of play would make Gyarados natively slower than Dragapult, but the initial Moxie boost would at least offset a Max Wyrmwind drop on the Max Airstream turn, and a faster Gyarados would then play for a Max Guard + Bounce out.
The Gyarados stayed in to take the Max Geyser, however, and the opposing Life Orb Max Lightning Dragapult coolly collected the ladder points it was due. GG.
The only photographic evidence of loss 8 I had was a clip of Gyarados being hit by the aforementioned Max Lightning. And even that I managed to delete. My bad.
Loss 9: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Togekiss vs. Metagross-Lapras-?
Couldn't get Stealth Rock up for Weakness Policy Lapras because Metagross opened Brick Break into Bullet Punch. As a result, Lapras lived the +1 Max Rockfall. I wonder if going Togekiss on the clearly telegaphed Bullet Punch was the right move? GG.
Loss 9.
Loss 10: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Togekiss vs. Lapras-Rillaboom-Aegislash
This was a throw on my part: after Rillaboom U-turned into Lapras as it proced Togekiss' Kee Berry, I aggressively traded with Togekiss to get Gyarados momentum: I simply did not believe it was Aegislash in the back after seeing Rillaboom and Lapras, which meant losing to Grassy Glide after Gyarados' Dynamax turns were exhausted. GG.
Loss 10.
Loss 11: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Togekiss vs. Skarmory-Tyranitar-Cinderace
Opponent suicide led Skarmory to get Stealth Rock up without even getting to break Tyranitar's Focus Sash due to Dark Pulse 2HKO. Should be a free win after something like that, right?
Well, out comes max Speed Weakness Policy Dragon Dance Tyranitar that didn't get a paralysis proc for four turns, meaning it got to set up two Max Steelspikes on Tyranitar so as to live a Max Geyser from around 80% health outside Dynamax, 1HKOing Gyarados with Rock Blast.
The endgame was Togekiss vs. Cinderace in rain. At this point, I was already resigned to the fact that there was most likely an Iron Head coming my way — any other move and Togekiss lives a hit, gets the Kee Berry proc while clicking Thunder Wave, having a fair shot at the game from there.
But it was Gunk Shot. Gunk Shot? For the record, Iron Head does everything Gunk Shot does in this, but better: 100% accuracy, still hits Togekiss super-effectively, Max Steelspike is better than Max Ooze, and flinch is better than poison unless you are in front of a Roosting Dragonite.
A very silly loss after getting the absolute best opener imaginable. GG.
Loss 11.
Rating peak on day two, before those three consecutive losses detailed above to close out the day.
Rating after 30 games, with only 15 more to go. I freely admit to letting out an audible gasp of exasperation upon seeing this result.
Day two summary:
1) Despite everything, I'm still in a somewhat playable position, although things really have to line up for 1700. A more realistic scenario considering the mistakes I'm making is a finish in the 1650+ range, I think.
2) It's not all bad, though: Togekiss got some play! However, I have to admit that there were a few games I forced it when I really didn't have to, loss 9 being perhaps the most glaring example.
3) Notable in its absence continues to be dedicated screens play. I can't speak for Aegislash, but for Gyarados' sake, I'm alright with this.
4) Thunder Wave whiffed twice, once on Lapras by Togekiss in loss 10, which may have had an impact on the immediate following turns given the Mystical Fire + Morning Sun attrition initially intended.
Day 3
Win / Loss: 8 - 4
Loss 12: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Garchomp vs. Dragapult-Togekiss-?
Screens Dragapult Cursed out into Substitute Nasty Plot Togekiss that flinched Tyranitar on the turn it was going to die to Curse and Rock Tomb down Togekiss' Substitute. Too far behind after this to recover. GG.
Loss 12.
Loss 13: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Garchomp vs. Aggron-Cinderace-Lapras
The opponent misplayed their Aggron opener by clicking Endure after two Dark Pulses when they were already in Custap Berry range, which meant Tyranitar won the lead with its Focus Sash intact.
After this, out came Life Orb Cinderace, which I paralyzed and most unfortunately crit into range of killing itself with Sucker Punch and Life Orb recoil. So instead of trying to snowball on it with Max Airstream assuming it would kill itself before I got the snowball rolling, I decided they didn't have Lapras in the back and went Garchomp for a possible Dragapult or Togekiss in the back, both of which Gyarados can beat in a Dyanamx duel.
There was no Sucker Punch. And it was Lapras with Max Lightning in the back. In other words, despite the best possible opener, everything went wrong again.
In the final analysis, the right play was to just keep clicking Thunder Wave against Steel Cinderace (Iron Head) even if that meant Max Airstream wouldn't 1HKO. I am filing this under T for throw. GG.
Loss 13. Had to go for double Max Guard to try to get through Lapras' Dynamax turns here. No dice.
Jolly Gyarados vs. Adamant Gyarados.
*Tyranitar smirks*.
1700s opponent with Light Ball Garchomp.
Rating peak for the whole tournament.
Loss 14: Tyranitar-Gyarados-Garchomp vs. Dragapult-Milotic-Metagross
The opponent left Dragapult in against Tyranitar, clicking Dragon Darts, even though they had Milotic in the back so that Thunder Wave connected.
Tyranitar then traded into Metagross which got switched in on turn two, and, upon Metagross' fainting, Garchomp died to Milotic after an instant Scald burn.
Taunt let Gyarados muscle through Milotic, but because it was Protect, it barely managed to exhaust an extra turn of Dynamax, after which +1 Bounce didn't do enough to a paralyzed Dynamax Dragapult in the final mon 1v1. GG.
Loss 14. Moxie-boosted Bounce does not quite have the range against defensively uninvested Dynamax Dragapult (71.1 - 84.1%), and would have needed a paralysis proc.
Loss 15: Tyranitar-Aegislash-Gyarados vs. Aggron-Garchomp-Dragapult
This was a low ranked opponent. Tyranitar lost the lead because it was Body Press (and Head Smash) Aggron. Out of Max Airstream range, Aegislash got to +6 against it, after which Garchomp came out, opening with Max Quake, which I didn't play around by going Gyarados because Garchomp has odds to live +6 Shadow Sneak even if Aegislash was fully invested into attack, not to mention this was likely to have been Focus Sash Garchomp anyway.
The opposing Garchomp was somehow natively slower than Gyarados (!). In the end, I was handed the loss after Gyarados missed Bounce against Life Orb Dragapult after a Dynamax duel. I was back down into the low 1600s after that one.
Loss 15. Looks like I only managed to screenshot the game-ending moment. Sorry about the lack of added context of the opposing six on screen.
That last loss was such a punch to the gut I convinced myself to call it upon getting back above 1650. And did so with only four games to spare — 1700 being out of reach even with straight wins.
Result
Win / Loss: 26 - 15
Final result.
3) In Conclusion
An honest assessment can't leave out the several game-ending bad reads or straight up misplays detailed above, but other than that, I think the team performed adequately. I can't really complain about the format either, especially given the slop we've been gulping down in ranked singles proper since Series 12 in Februrary of this year.
In terms of team-building, I do wish I would have actually played some games in the friendly competitions I entered in order to gain access to and share usage stats from. I didn't really miss having a more robust, clearly defined secondary mode either.
I assume there will be one last big online competition before generation 9 hits, so I'll probably cover that, too. Thanks for reading. And thank you, Gyarados, primus inter pares!
- Tox
SW-0021-9848-8999
