Competitive Battling Discussion Of The Week 12

PG24

PG24

<Pride> I'm my wildest fantasy
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amazing

Is there ever a Pokemon, or playstyle (like rain, trick room, stall, etc), that you find troublesome for your teams, or just a nuisance in general? Do you find yourself having to play around this Pokemon, or playstyle, with extreme care, or having to remake or change your team because this Pokemon, or playstyle, is such a problem?

I <3 Excadrill
 
Well, through a good team-building process, you should have no big threats from specific Pokemon. There may be a Pokemon that you can't handle perfectly, but every team has that ONE pokemon that causes it trouble. If you make your team well, you shouldn't have weaknesses to Pokemon like Scizor, Tyranitar, or Thundurus (just some heavily used examples).

It is hard to deal with Rain and Sadstorm at times. There aren't any clear-cut counters. Things like Gastrodon help counter Rain Teams, and Gliscor does well against Sandstorm (although you have to beware of Landorus running HP Ice). Those Pokemon, however, might not be good for the synergy on your team. To handle those big threats, you might have to add Pokemon that don't work exactly well with the rest of your Pokemon, but are needed to handle the metagame's big threats.

Honestly, I don't find it a HUGE problem to take out 1-2 Pokes in exchange for help against the powerhouses in the current metagame. It will most likely help in the end to put in a counter for things like Rain, Sandstorm, or Pokemon your team is generally weak to. There is no specific Pokemon I have trouble against, although Thundurus is annoying at times. Excadrill is not a huge problem, although I find myself many times adding a Gliscor in fear of being trampled by it. Rain is annoying, whether you have Gastrodon on your team or not. That's all I've really got to say on the subject...
 
I consistently have trouble with Specs Politoed, Rain Dish Tentacruel, and any sort of Gliscor. The latter two are odd (and the former a bit) because I usually find my self running Washtom on a team. Also Trick Room screws me constantly, even though I can usually tell if my opponent is running TR, that speed thing really does mess with you.
 
I'd say the biggest troubles would be Rotom Wash, Scrafty, and Gengar, for me anyway. They aren't that tough, but can be tricky to play around.

Rotom is tricky because its generally bulky, making it hard to kill without hitting it for super effective damage, but its only weakness is grass. Add that to the fact that it can Will o' Wisp physical attackers and trick defensive Pokemon means the only really good counter for it is a special attacking grass type, which there aren't too many of. Thankfully, its only recovery move is pain split. With recover, it would be really annoying. Without, it's not that tough.

Scrafty can really sweep unprepared teams. His STABs let him get nearly unresisted coverage, Drain Punch makes him a pain to beat in a stall war, and the fact he has only 2 weaknesses (one of which nobody ever uses) makes him tricky to take out. After a few Bulk Ups he can take hits from even fighting types while recovering most of the damage back with Drain Punch, and after 2 dragon dances he outspeeds pretty much everything. His overall bulk is annoying, too.

The last is Gengar. I don't know why this thing isn't used more, but I'm glad it isn't. In a metagame revolving around speed, this thing's impressive base 110 speed is truly great, although it barely fails to speed tie thunderus, which can be a problem. Still, there are pretty much no surefire counters to Gengar. His overall impressive attacking movepool lets him hit a lot of stuff super-effectively, pain split and substitute allow him to beat general special walls like Blissey and Chansey, and Psychic and Disable make him difficult to beat with bulky fighing like Conkeldurr and Machamp using Payback. With his immunity to fighting and ground he can easily switch in on attacks. The only thing that hinders him is 4-moveslot syndrome. Without Pain Split, it has trouble dealing with Blissey or Chansey. Without Disable or Psychic it has trouble with Machamp and Conkledurr. Without Focus Blast it has trouble with steels. However, I think its crazy that several spots on your team must be devoted to countering Gengar since you can't tell what moves it might have.
 
Oh my god I hate Tentacruel and Pride's team in general
D:

Rain stall makes my teams hurt so bad, I've started running Swords Dance Haxorus just to try and mess with them lol.
 
Pokemon with high versatility often give me trouble. For example, my team could be prepared for the a physical WishRachi, but could be decimated by a Calm Mind Thunder/Water Pulse abusing one. If I don't scout correctly, I often lose games. But I think this is just a basic necessity of good Teambuilding.
 
I've come to hate Deoxys-S. It has all around decent stats except for it's amazing Speed and HP,and a huge movepool.
 
Since I've been playing around with sun teams, Tyranitar is trouble. If I see one, I usually lead with Arcanine if I have it, who can OHKO with Close Combat.

Also, Lilligant can OHKO with Leaf Storm, and Venu can OHKO after a Growth.
So thee are options. But he is still lame.
 
Probably my least favorite mon to play against is Volcarona. (Which is strange, considering I use rain.) Yeah, Stealth Rock definitely helps when you play against it, but any half-decent team builder is going to include a Rapid Spinner somewhere, and any half-decent player is going to send out Volcarona after any hazards are cleared anyway. Quiver Dance makes me want to go insane...it boosts just the right stats to threaten me to no end, and has basically free switch-ins to set up Quiver Dance in both Scizor and Ferrothorn. In fact, when an opponent tries to set up on Ferrothorn, I will usually stay in to Thunder Wave it, which means it will eventually go down. However, with both the SpA and SpD boost, he still doesn't have a hard time taking another mon with it. If its in Sun, it just becomes that much harder to beat, now that my main methods of disposing of it are neutered.

As mentioned by Hyperbeem, I also really despise Tentacruel. Unlike other special walls like Blissey and Jirachi, Tentacruel resists Hydro Pump, meaning even Spec Politoed has a hard time getting rid of it. Granted, there are still some Electric mons on my team that can usually get rid of it late game, but in the early and middle parts of the game, he can often put a stop to any momentum I attempt to build up. Toxic Spikes isn't too much of a threat against my team, but Rapid Spin further hinders my momentum, making it much harder to win the game.

There are a few others mons that are a minor annoyance, but these two are the ones that really bother me.
 
How strange, I also have trouble with Tentacruel on my latest team. Maybe he's found himself in an odd position in the usage tiers where most of his counters aren't commonly seen any more.

Conkeldurr is something I have to play carefully around and Dragon Dancers with Outrage are always tricky, but apart from that I can't really think of any threats who really stand out to me, not even the mighty Thundurus and Excadrill.
 
SubDisable Gengar, SubProtect Gliscor and any kind of Scrafty are Pokemon I always have trouble with. The first two easily stall my team, and they don't let me do anything while Scrafty just sweeps through it after a Dragon Dance. Scrafty's also incredibly hard to kill as well, because of its awesome bulk and Shed Skin. Argh, so annoying!

Rotom-Wash annoyed me until I decided to put Virizion on all of my teams.
 
Ohmygosh. SubProtect on Gliscor is so annoying, even if you have like an Ice Beam Starmie or Gastrodon. Its such a troll. Scrafty is lame too, but it's not as common.

Ferrothorn can sometimes be a pain in the rain.
 
Hey everybody, if you want to beat Pride, just use Breloom.

I find Scrafty annoying as all heck. I don'tk now why, but it's combination of moves just generally annoys my teams, and there isn't really a universal counter to it except for maybe Conkeldurr. The combination of Gliscor and Gastrodon has much of the same effect.
 
Another thing I find to be irritating is Poison Heal Gliscor.Swords Dance on the first turn to troll away the rest of the battle with Facade.Almost as bad as Breloom,only without Spore.
 
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