Battle Stadium Singles blog — Dolphin Man 2 (Season 4; Series 2 [Regulation B])
To conclude Series 2 (Regulation B) in the midst of a move into a new apartment with something at least resembling a respectable result, 1850+ Elo, I had to let go of any notion of trying to make Iron Thorns work after some truly rough games, and do something that's both good and easy to pilot. Hence, the return of Palafin.
Now, as it happens, Palafin saw a decent resurgence in this series because of how it takes care of business against the most prominent offensive pokemon of the Paradox variety — Flutter Mane and Iron Moth, with Iron Bundle being a slightly tougher nut to crack.
Moreover, some of Palafin's most potent sets today are set-up variants, which take advantage of passive pokemon such as Dondozo via Toxic Spikes or even Grass Knot!
Called it at 1850 Elo this month; my first result below 1900 this gen.
"160 Base Attack? So it's like Slaking, but actually good?".
They stood together, arms akimbo.
Easy pickings.
Iron Bundle is only 2HKO'd by Tera-Water Jet Punch a third of the time against defensively uninvested variants, but Freeze Dry fails to 1HKO back without Choice Specs.
As a rule, the only Palafin game worse than a Dondozo game is a Toxapex game. But sometimes Palafin is just too good to pass up on.
Patch 1.2.0 from late-February 2023 removed two fun and necessary bugs — item duping and the Tera-Type rental team switching method — but introduced new bugs, like repteated Cud Chew-procing. Here used with Wish + Substitute Starf Berry as a kind of ersatz Glalie.
Non-Assault Vest Baxcalibur survives Choice Specs Moonblast by opting for a resisting Tera-Type (Fire, Steel).
Garganacl's one and only out against Covert Cloak Gholdengo.
That's more like it.
When is generation 10 coming out again?
To get the full Fissure experience, however, it needs to land having been selected by Sleep Talk, as here.
Fire Spin + Encore emerged as one of Dragonite's defensive sets towards the end of Season 1.
From Extreme Speed to Earthquake to Dragon Breath to Thunder Wave, standard defensive Fire Spin + Encore Dragonite's fourth moveslot is a flex slot, but the conservative choice of Draco Meteor offers some decent burst damage.
Not Assault Vest then, huh?
Umm, about that burst...
Although I hold Iron Hands to be strictly speaking worse than Magnezone in the Assault Vest role — mainly because it straight up can't switch in on Flutter Mane's Moonblast — Iron Hands is at least better against Iron Moth than Magnezone.
Baxcalibur resists Palafin's STAB and has a good 1v1 against both Flutter Mane and Dragonite; benching Umbreon against Baxcalibur teams is just asking for trouble.
Fully SpDef-invested Magnezone will usually survive two switches into Choice Specs Flutter Mane and still be able to get a move off.
Against a variant of the rank one team from Season 3.
Henceforth, Series shall be referred to as Regulations.
1) Team overview
Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/5cbb60fadbfdecc5
Rental: THBV75 (Defunct as of 01-April; onset of Regulation C)
Palafin
Palafin @ Choice Band
Ability: Zero to Hero
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flip Turn
- Wave Crash
- Jet Punch
- Ice Punch
Why Palafin, and why now? Simply put, Jet Punch destroys obnoxious Espathra-based strategies and the new spate of special attacking Paradox glass cannons — Iron Moth, Flutter Mane, and, to a lesser extent, Iron Bundle — while remaining tricky as ever to switch into for virtually everything except Toxapex or Dondozo, Choice Band Tera-Water Jet Punch simply 2HKOing even most resisting targets.
The downside of the catastrophic turn one momentum drain pre-transformation Palafin necessitates is alleviated here with Dragonite, Umbreon, and Magnezone as defensive switches.
My initial conception of this team had Corviknight-Iron Hands as defensive pivots, but it quickly became clear that something like that would require an even more passive Flutter Mane switch-in than Magnezone, a notion I was unwilling to consider.
Finally, because 252 Speed Palafin only hits a real Speed stat of 152, it merely Speed ties with 252 Speed Adamant Baxcalibur (70%+ Adamant usage), which makes hard switching into Umbreon on turn one safer than Flip Turn if it looks like Focus Sash or Loaded Dice instead of Assault Vest Baxcalibur (45%+ usage).
And although you would normally want to lead special attackers into Glimmora, Palafin does at least outspeed +252 Speed Glimmora (151) by one, making Flip Turn consistent there.
Umbreon
Umbreon @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Yawn
- Wish
- Protect
- Foul Play
Umbreon is the defensive check to Baxcalibur, also being effective against offensive variants of Dragonite.
A decent comparison in terms of role is to that to Dondozo, which likewise carries Yawn, but is far more vulnerable to Toxic Spikes attrition (also Meowscarada + Dragon Tail Dragonite), a recent high-ladder fad, due to poor recovery options.
Regarding the defensive Tera-Type of Fairy over Poison here, a shared weakness to Ground (Baxcalibur, Tera-Ground Iron Hands) with Magnezone I contend prohibits the use of Tera-Poison, which would also resist Flutter Mane's Moonblast.
Flutter Mane
Flutter Mane @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protosynthesis
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 116 HP / 28 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 108 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Moonblast
- Perish Song
- Shadow Ball
Although not nearly as exciting as Booster Energy, Flutter Mane's Choice Specs sets saw a great deal of variety during the last season, seeking to the find the balance between damage output and survivability against various chosen attacks.
This is my approach here, too. The defensive benchmarks target Gholdengo and Flutter Mane's 252 SpAtt Shadow Ball, and Mimikyu's +252 Att Life Orb Shadow Sneak.
The bulk above is achieved by lowering the benchmark for Speed to only beat Iron Valiant's 184 instead of going for Roaring Moon (188), Meowscarada (192), or, indeed, the Flutter Mane mirror (205).
Retaining full offensive investment and opting for Tera-Fairy provides the offensive burst needed to break through targets like Dondozo, Garganacl, and Annihilape. This damage is feels particularly poignant in games where Palafin is too risky to bring, Flutter Mane likely providing the lion's share of damage output.
Perish Song in the fourth moveslot is something you only really see on Booster Energy, Focus Sash, or very rarely on Choice Scarf Flutter Mane — targeting multi-stage set-up such as Espathrapass, Drifblimpass, or Glalie-mode.
Magnezone
Magnezone @ Assault Vest
Ability: Analytic
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Volt Switch
- Flash Cannon
- Thunderbolt
- Tera Blast
Fully SpDef-invested Magnezone emerged as the standard set following the first month of Series 2 (Regulation B). This set targets Flutter Mane, and to a lesser extent, Iron Bundle, offering at least 2-3 reliable defensive switches into former — the goal in most situations being to regain momentum via Volt Switch.
Tera-Fairy over Tera-Water here is intended to add a Fighting-resisting defensive typing needed on Magnezone-Umbreon. Of course, the way Magnezone is intended to be used, the only times I ever found myself having to Terastallize was against Iron Hands.
The moveset could be spiced up by opting for Mirror Coat over Tera Blast. Calm could likewise be changed to Sassy, but then you start to risk underspeeding Kingambit, Azumarill, and Hippowdon.
Dragonite
Dragonite @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 244 HP / 164 Def / 100 Spe
Bold Nature
- Fire Spin
- Encore
- Roost
- Draco Meteor
Defensive Rocky Helmet Dragonite seeks to recover momentum for the Palafin opener against Meowscarada and Iron Valiant, ideally breaking their respective Focus Sashes with Rocky Helmet damage.
Dragonite is also the preferred check to Scizor, which is a significant threat to Flutter Mane, Magnezone, and Umbreon.
And as formidable as a switch as Magnezone is into Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle, it can't switch in on Iron Moth, lending Dragonite yet another defensive niche there.
The Speed tier chosen, a native stat of 113, outspeeds +252 Kingambit's 112 by one. This lets Dragonite switch in and be guaranteed to move first.
Gholdengo
Gholdengo @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 116 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpA / 20 SpD / 156 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Make It Rain
- Shadow Ball
- Psyshock
- Nasty Plot
Palafin's worst match-up is against hard stall, where it can't prevent lead Toxapex from getting off its Toxic Spikes and scouting Palafin's Choice Band locked move with Baneful Bunker. This Nasty Plot Gholdengo with Psyshock seeks to answer dedicated defensive play, while also providing additional outs against Garganacl (Tera-Water or Iron Defense) and Breloom (Spore).
Outside this role, the EVs seek to put the bare minimum into Speed and bulk — enough to outspeed Adamant Breloom and live Choice Scarf Shadow Ball from opposing Gholdengo or non-Choice Specs Flutter Mane — to make Gholdengo bringable to a wider variety of games without compromising its wall-breaking prowess.
Covert Cloak's chief justification is that it prevents the secondary effect of Salt Cure. But with the Breloom Speed benchmark from above, it also lets Gholdengo avoid the Speed drop from Bulldoze.
The defensive Tera-Type of Flying exists solely for Gholdengo to avoid Earthquake (Clodsire) and Fissure (Garganacl, Dondozo).
2) In conclusion
With the onset of Regulation set C come April, we get access to the Ruinous Quartet. I am tempted to finally take the plunge with trying to see how I can do with monotype. In this case, of course, with mono-Dark. Folks like LOOC, mazzoforte, and Rigel have made it work just fine in SV already, so who knows! My April will, however, begin with experiments with Slither Wing and Iron Moth pivot stuff.
In other news, given that Japan's qualifiers for Worlds will likely take up a further three weekender slots in some form, there is a real possibility that we might not get our first online competition in the singles format until May, or even June. Oh, and where is our HOME-intergation? Is "early 2023" some kind of corporate speak for "before June"?
- Tox
SW-0021-9848-8999
