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Sunday 29 October 2017

WAYLeaders X Freezing Beauty -- A Decent Post-Worlds Team


(Artist: Foxeaf)

Alola friends. While I just barely missed the 1/3 invite in September, I now got the 1/2 invite in October from a weekend at local events that turned out really nice for me. Actually, I'm gonna write a bit of a half-invite report soonish which will have various tournament stories, so stay tuned for that...if you're interested, anyway. Today, I'm just gonna focus on this "new" team that I made. I didn't play a single test match with it, I just brought it to the two tournaments, knowing already it would work for me as long as I'm not running into those classic unpreparable matchups, you know. Out of 65 possible total CP, I took home 55 -- lost to 3 people across the weekend, where I got revenge over one of them in top cut, entirely dodged the other in top cut, and rightfully lost again to the last one because he simply was the better Trainer that day.

Finding the Team

The main point to take away is that the motivation is really just as silly as it was back in January: I wanna play Ninetales bcause it's my favorite and I'll be able to handle whatever disaster may happen in the tournaments. I honestly still believe that Ninetales isn't good...but apparently it's good enough!?!?? You know, throughout months the results had me marveling at how people like Proman or Zelda could get such awesome results with teams that I think have so glaring problems, I was absolutely unable to swipe them and get reliable results of my own. (Well, in Proman's case I do know because he was just really fucking good with his team, always a pleasure to watch. And of Worlds I just haven't seen much this year, to be completely honest.) Oh yeah, speaking of that...just a few days before the weekend, I went with Pado's team on Showdown a bit -- another great example of all the highly decorated Ninetales/Lele stuff. I do like that one a bit more still, but actually using it was hard mostly because I wasn't able to get a solid grasp on which 4 to pick when, because I basically always wanted the whole team and stuff. It's a common problem with me and generally solid teams that I'm not understanding 100% because I wasn't the one who made them. So that ruled out Pado's team too, there was just too little time to get a shot at learning it for real.

But there would be a learning curve with any Ninetales team, really, because I've failed to make Ninetales for pretty much all format except I guess the very early part of it. If I wanted to avoid the learning curve, I'd have to play my known balloon team that goes back to freaking March (man, how time passes!), but...it's a little more dated than healthy, and my local community does understand well enough how it can be beaten by now. So, then...in a night of indifferent and calm despair, I got the idea to edit that very team in a way that would bring Ninetales in. I still wanted to have my good old Lele/Arcanine/Snorlax trinity because that shit has carried me all year, you know. Mandibuzz instead of Drifblim was something I had considered for a while because it addresses those dreaded Lillikoal and Mimilax matchups much better than the stuff I actually had, but with that I'd be afraid of the otherwise free rain matchup instead...and also lose some Speed that I really like, and what have you. It wasn't an easy switch to make. About how to fix rain again though...well, why hello there, my freezing beauty Ninetales! Magnezone never disappointed, but it kinda had to go simply in order to get some of my Speed back...and the improvement of my Garchomp matchup is also nice enough -- my good friend Apple criticized my team for its (lack of) Garchomp matchup a lot, and I'd agree to the extent that there were a few Garchomp combinations out there that were a bit harder to deal with than desirable. And, to round it all up...a bunch of movesets had to be changed in order to accomodate the new mons, too. Changes compared to the last version that I released on here will be bolded as usual.

The Team

Cassandra (Ninetales-Alola) (F) @ Light Clay
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 4 Def / 124 SpA / 28 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Blizzard
- Freeze-Dry
- Aurora Veil
- Roar

Oh Ninetales, the blessings you give me just by appearing on my screen. ♥ This time with Light Clay and some calculated bulk to do a few things more, and it turned out really well. I didn't quite get to setting Aurora Veil every time I brought it because sometimes I just had to click attack buttons on stuff to advance my position, especially when Ninetales went in the back. Freeze-Dry is in here for all kinds of Water types obviously, also some Wide Guard circumvention, and it was indeed very important, never would I even have wanted Icy Wind over it. Roar I ended up never clicking and I wasn't too sure on that slot anyway...I just tacked it on there because Mandibuzz isn't quite a 100% answer to Mimilax, and if they're too prepared, well, can't hurt to troll them right in their setup. I sometimes did miss Protect though, I like Protect on all mons and this team sorely lacks Protects in general, I just noticed... EVs let it survive Golduck's Hydro Vortex, and they also came with the free side effect that it's possible to survive a Flare Blitz + Extreme Speed combo with the help of Aurora Veil, making nice little fools out of some Arcanines not backed up by partners!

Deter Tyrant (Mandibuzz) @ Psychic Seed
Ability: Overcoat
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 4 SpA / 116 SpD / 100 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Snarl
- Tailwind
- Roost

Mandibuzz was a perfect Drifblim replacement in the sense that I usually don't even bring it. Not my style to have mons that sit there doing nothing, just here for matchups and it does a lot more of nothing than Drifblim ever did. Would definitely like Taunt sometimes, but Snarl is important too -- it gives Mandibuzz a rare spammable move and sometimes it just happens that teams get completely walled. The Speed is to outspeed regular Finis (and fast Magnezones like my own as a bonus), bulk is mostly just a random mathematically optimal spread, but it does have nice side-effects against Fini, too. About possible future work, maybe an Aguav Berry could be good. Needs a lot of calcs and playtesting -- none of which I really had time for --, Psychic Seed was just the easy option, and without much thought behind it.

MotherOLight (Tapu Lele) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 236 HP / 212 Def / 36 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Moonblast
- Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is back on Pink Panzer, and it's more valuable than ever. Have to make up for the lack of an Electric type, and this time I indeed clicked it multiple times and it won me games. The rest is the same as always. And for further improvements...I've run into a few faster Finis this weekend, and I'd very much like to know those stats. I've learned that I don't care a whole lot about winning the Terrain wars, but getting outsped and flung some watery shit into your face multiple times with Choice Specs on the Fini as well is very, very threatening and I'd like to not see it ever again. Help?

Reverence (Arcanine) (F) @ Mago Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 76 Atk / 20 Def / 148 SpD / 60 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Wild Charge
- Protect

And Wild Charge is also back on everyone's dog, yet another out for Water types and great to pin weakened Finis. Sometimes I hate that I can't even run Roar anymore, let alone Will-O-Wisp, but it is what it is, and that's also part of why I threw Roar on Ninetales in the first place.

Sancta Terra (Garchomp) (M) @ Groundium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 228 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Swords Dance

- Protect

Garchomp still somewhat is the team's bitch for dealing with Muk, other Garchomps and some more, and I'm not exactly doing a great job at supporting it much. Put Swords Dance on there for the theoretical synergy with Mandibuzz, but that duo quite literally never happened during my tournaments, and Swords Dance plays on their own tend to be that high-risk-low-reward kind of setup a lot at least for me, but hey, it wasn't useless. I still like my max Speed on it, and I'm not sure if I really want a 3-attacks set without Adamant. Oh right, there's Celesteela though! Fire Fang went over Poison Jab obviously to deal with that, also help with Kartana, but if you really want to pressure Celesteela, then Swords Dance just so happens to be the thing you actually need. (So, in other words, we're looking at 2 moves for 1 mon? That is...not good, not good at all. *cough*) A thing worth considering might be more bulk to make better use of my damage reducers and Attack boosts, but I am very afraid of losing my still decent default damage, and you know very well how much I still insist on my Speed.

Never Enough (Snorlax) (M) @ Iapapa Berry
Ability: Gluttony
Level: 50
Happiness: 0
EVs: 20 HP / 236 Atk / 252 Def
Brave Nature
IVs: 3 Spe
- Frustration
- High Horsepower
- Curse
- Recycle

Only slot I completely left as is, my old friend Snorri Snorrisson. It seems I just can't play without it in any format where it's one of the top meta threats. It's so good and it solves so many matchups. And, it's also one of my favorites, not too far behind Alolan Ninetales. ♥ In fact, I think it's the very same Snorlax I'm running since January...it just delivers, hands out the pressure that I simply want with an offensive team like this.

Some Words on Team Preview and Other Stuff?

Theory and practice turned out to differ to an extent here. The original idea was that I'd just pick the old 4 in any order in every game, and replace one of them with Ninetales or Mandibuzz where it made sense. What then happened was that I even used both of them sometimes, with mixed results. Most common lead was Arcanine Lele as always, but none of them is very much possible too (Ninetales Snorlax comes to mind, I've always liked that one...but that's not spammable, need to have a good sense for when it's the right time to lead that, it's a true counter-lead.)

Ninetales is mandatory against rain, can be picked against Torkoal but is generally not safe, should never be picked against Gigalith, is nice to pick against Garchomp but bad to pick against Heavy Slam Celesteela, and for the rest just whatever. It works all right when I feel like there's one of the original 4 that I don't want in the matchup. Oh yeah, typically in the back for weather wars and wherever for non-weather wars. Mandibuzz should be brought against Lillikoal and Mimilax, and against all else it's very situational. Tailwind can be useful sometimes, but it usually isn't against bulkier teams, and as I said, I#m no fan of committing to big Garchomp plays, would rather play with the whole team in fair balance and sometimes I'm even bringing Mandibuzz and Snorlax at the same time because I want both for the matchup. And a thing that's apparently not obvious, so I should say it too...bring Arcanine against rain, it's worth! It usually beats the non-rain parts and it has Wild Charge on it, just needs to be kept safe from Golduck and that's no different than keeping it safe from, say, Garchomps. Arcanine Lele is a good lead because Hydro Vortex kills nothing if I switch in Ninetales, and then they're sitting there with weak itemless mons, and if they don't lead the combo, then I still have Arcanine Lele, which will likely be good anyway.

All in all, nothing about the team has really changed, just some mons and movesets. Same old shit as back in March, just my typical heavy attacking with strong defensive switching options. It may be 5/6 of Zelda's team at preview, for example, but it's not at all about setups, only about harrassing foes with safe and rapid damage across the board, the very classic Dreykopffian way of play. Alola!

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