Simple Symphony competition

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

So the Simple Symphony competition was announced. Single battles, no megas, no box legendaries, no mythicals, and no pokémon that have more than one type (in any of their forms). Z-Crystals are allowed.

So, what do you think will be popular in this competition? And what will you use? I'm thinking about running Baton Pass Vaporeon with Goodra, and maybe also Sylveon in the same team. Not sure what else yet.

 

[Silent_Jay]

Was hoping for a shiny Tapu Bulu prize but I guess that isn't on the cards, yet. evolution

I won't have time for it this time around anyway so have to give it a miss. The Type rule seems like it could diversify alot of teams though considering the amount of duel types there are now. I reckon Eeveelution based teams will be quite popular for this one.

 

[shoz999]

Meganium
Clawitzer
Raichu
Ambipom
Dusknoir
Lycanroc

 

[Zhydra]

So the Simple Symphony competition was announced. Single battles, no megas, no box legendaries, no mythicals, and no pokémon that have more than one type (in any of their forms). Z-Crystals are allowed.

So, what do you think will be popular in this competition? And what will you use? I'm thinking about running Baton Pass Vaporeon with Goodra, and maybe also Sylveon in the same team. Not sure what else yet.

For starters, Xurkitree is having a moment to shine with z hypnosis/ tail glow. That combo is going to decimate people. Eevolutions are also going to be a thing since they are the most common mono type.

As for my team.

Dugtrio. (Non Alolan, set up and good for deleting Xurkitrees!) Espeon. (Magic bounce) Serperior. (Contrary!) Dusk Lycanroc. (Z celebrate buff when I'm not using Xurkitree.) Xurkitree for strategy I mentioned.

Finally, a Zangoose with Toxic boost, facade, knock off, close combat and detect. Easy to set up and easy to rip n tear! (One of the strongest facade users in the meta game!)

 

[shoz999]

Here's my team. So it's actually pretty interesting. My weakest team-member here is undoubtedly Ambipom. I actually forgot to switch Fake-Out with Dual Chop but that doesn't matter anyway because I forgot a much bigger weakness to my team, fighting-types. Machamp and Conkeldurr are so far a fairly common sight in this match and my team has the most trouble dealing with Dynamic Punch Machamp and Mach Punch Conkeldurr. However I'm actually doing pretty well against Contrary Serperior so far although what's the most interesting however lol is that my strongest team member is actually Meganium. I am not kidding, Meganium is pretty effective in this type of competition and is fairly annoying against Machamp players who want to stay in despite toxic. I mostly invested in Meganium's bulk and the swords dance is only an option to increase "bruising" power so other Pokemon like Lycanroc or Zoroark can finish them off.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Here's my team:

I'm a bit weak to Toxic stalling, but aside from that it's quite solid. 12 wins, 3 losses so far, getting close to 1650 rank. Amnesia Snorlax in particular is quite impossible to take down with special attacks aside from critical hits at the right moment (seriously, it can tank almost anything). Z-Electric Terrain setup for Xurkitree is something I prefer over Z-Hypnosis for its reliability, while Hypnosis often misses. Entei combines setup sweeping with bulk. Assault Vest covers special hits quite decently while it can burn with Sacred Fire, and get a speed boost with Flame Charge. Clefable is a neat wall that can stop most setup sweepers like Serperior and it has a type advantage over Haxorus.

Overall I think this is a very fun competition with a lot of variety. Aside from Serperior and Haxorus I'm not seeing all that much jumping out as being overly popular yet (which is quite different from Spooky Cup where Mimikyu, Marshadow, Gliscor, and Toxapex were all everywhere). In hindsight I probably should have brought Avalugg, I didn't anticipate how popular Haxorus would end up being and Avalugg is a very good wall to stop anything it has and just get rid of it with Avalanche. Also I'm wondering if Immunity might have been better than Gluttony on Snorlax, just to prevent it from being hindered by Toxic.

 

[shoz999]

So far I got 19 losses and 11 wins with a rating around 1400. The fighting-types are a pretty serious blow to my team and are fairly common from what I've seen. Really should've remembered to get a Fairy or Ghost-type lol.

So there are four threats I kind of expected. Cresselia due to being one of the few Pokemon in this competition with immunity to ground-types (all flying-types have double-typings). Serperior due to it's contrary which isn't hard to take down from my experience. Haxorus which is easy to get the drop on if you somehow lower it's speed, in this case thunder-wave, and finally Xurkitree who can either be the most easiest or hardest Pokemon to beat depending on it's beast-boost and what Pokemon you have remaining. I'm actually doing pretty well countering almost all other Pokemon-types... EXCEPT lol... fighting-types which are responsible for the majority of my 19 losses.

So far I'm pretty surprised that I have not seen a lot of Cresselia users which is what Zoroark's Z-move is for. The Cresselia's that I have seen are surprisingly not that hard to deal with even without Zoroark's one-shot z-move. My Raichu is a pretty strong counter to Xurkitree who is fairly common and thanks to focus-sash, I have two chances to paralyze Haxorus and finish it off with Ambipom or Clawitzer. Funny thing about Snorlax. The most common Snorlax variant I've been seeing is lol Snorlax with his exclusive Z-move, Pulverizing Pancake. My Clawitzer can take down a Snorlax with Aura Sphere in two-shots easily but I was pretty surprised when Snorlax's Z-move got the jump on my Clawitzer several times. Another thing that I have also noticed a lot is that there are a lot of Snorlax's carrying the ability Immunity based on my attempts to toxic some Snorlax's with Meganium. So far most of my losses are due to Dynamic Punch Machamp and Mach Punch/Drain Punch Guts Conkeldurr. Other than that, I'm actually not having that much trouble dealing with other Pokemon.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Yeah, you've got three pokémon in your team weak to fighting. That's quite a lot. And aside from Meganium you have no significant bulk in your team. And Meganium lacks recovery more powerful than Leftovers. I haven't had any trouble with fighting types. Both Clefable and Vaporeon can set up on them quite easily.

In hindsight Immunity would have been a solid option on Snorlax. Toxic stall seems to be relatively common, I've seen several different pokémon run it. Raikou with Toxic + Substitute + Protect, Tornadus-Incarnate with that same moveset, Toxic stalling Cofagrigus with Pain Split, Toxic + Wish + Protect Sylveon, and some others like Registeel. I've also seen Toxic Spikes Accelgor.

I've also been thwarted by Echoed Voice Sylveon. I didn't have a quick answer to it, I had Clefable in and didn't anticipate Echoed Voice. And once Echoed Voice starts gaining a lot of base power combined with that Pixilate ability it starts to destroy everything.

 

[shoz999]

Yeah, you've got three pokémon in your team weak to fighting. That's quite a lot. And aside from Meganium you have no significant bulk in your team. And Meganium lacks recovery more powerful than Leftovers. I haven't had any trouble with fighting types. Both Clefable and Vaporeon can set up on them quite easily.

In hindsight Immunity would have been a solid option on Snorlax. Toxic stall seems to be relatively common, I've seen several different pokémon run it. Raikou with Toxic + Substitute + Protect, Tornadus-Incarnate with that same moveset, Toxic stalling Cofagrigus with Pain Split, Toxic + Wish + Protect Sylveon, and some others like Registeel. I've also seen Toxic Spikes Accelgor.

I've also been thwarted by Echoed Voice Sylveon. I didn't have a quick answer to it, I had Clefable in and didn't anticipate Echoed Voice. And once Echoed Voice starts gaining a lot of base power combined with that Pixilate ability it starts to destroy everything.

Actually for bulk, I have at least three Pokemon that have enough so-called "bulk" for safe-lead ins. Raichu has Focus Sash which gives me at least two chances to thunder wave someone which is actually quite effective as halving certain Pokemon's speeds, like Haxorus. Then I have Meganium who is a pretty effective and surprisingly scary tank in this competition. Finally I got Clawitzer who serves as a special-tank thanks to Assault Vest and has a really high chance of revenge-killing a lot of electric and grass-types like Xurkitree. Funny thing, I met another guy who had a Clawitzer and I think he knew how bulky Clawitzer was so he just went straight ahead with the Z-move with Xurkitree. Clawitzer however isn't that bulky against physical attackers like Machamp.

So yeah. Overall my biggest mistake was not including an effective counter against fighting-types. Funny thing is my team-building rule for this was one team member per generation. I was originally hoping that the glitch where cross-evolved Pokemon from the Gen 2 VC games are deemed illegal by the online multiplayer would be fixed just like GameFreak did for the Gen 1 VC games but it hasn't been fixed, meaning my original hopes for Mismagius on-board were pretty much gone. So I decided to put Ambipom in. Funny thing is I couldn't remember why I even had Ambipom until I used Raichu's thunder-wave the first time and then it just occured to me. Flinching+Paralyzing power lol but that doesn't matter anyway since I've forgotten about fighting-types.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

The rankings are online on the PGL website now. I ended up at 406 out of 5996 participants with a score of 1612 points. 25 wins, 16 losses. Toxic stall was just a tad too big of a weakness to my team to score much higher, and a tad too common.

 

[shoz999]

My rank is No. 5670. Got a score of 1406 with 17 wins and 28 losses lol. Should've definitely chosen a Sylveon over Ambipom.