Online Competition Battle of Alola [POST YOUR RESULTS!]

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Played some battles this afternoon with my unplanned team of things I had on cart courtesy of LegoFigure11 and I've done ok. I've actually only faced what I think are competitive teams so far (including one guy who only brought 5 Pokemon but nearly beat me) and I've gone 5-1 or so. I've had a lot of trouble finding a battle though so I had to give up until tomorrow where I hope everyone gets online and tries to find a battle last-minute. I don't have high expectations for my team, but I think I'm at least prepared for Lunala shenanigans which has given me the edge in every battle except one so far.

The main reason I'm posting here though is because I wanted to say that INCINEROAR IS A BEAST! The combo of it + Magearna has been pretty damn powerful and all I've heard from others running a similar combo is the same thing. Incineroar has a cool movepool and it pretty much beats all the special pokemon on its own (as long as you have Trick Room active) so as an anti-meta option I love it. I've also been using Ninetales + Tapu Koko which has been great in 1-2 games, hopefully tomorrow I can find more games and get a better feel for it. I'm yet to see a Zygarde so I kinda want to and see how a fare against those, I heard they're pretty great but I feel I have enough to deal with them.

Anyway, this is a pretty fun meta. I know I've only played a handful of games but I've enjoyed them all so far so I'm hoping to smash out a lot of them tomorrow when I have free time.
Is it just me or are you guys struggling to find battles too?
Yep
Edit: Do they still do that thing on the global link website where they generate an image of your team members used in a competition? Can't remember how to find it.
Go to your profile, then click 'online competitions,' then click on 'online competition entry history' then 'battle box' and it will be there. I would post my own but I'm on mobile at the moment. I'll get a screenshot when I'm on a PC!
 
AU3G-WWWW-WWW3-463R

The story of how a burnhaxed Mandibuzz stalled 30+ turns against Skarmory, Blissey and Tapu Koko. And the whole thing comes down to a Tapu Koko speed tie coin flip on turn 45 — just the way pokemon was meant to be played. I think this game was around 1740 rated.
 
I did not expect to do as well as I have. other than two disconnects, I won almost all of my ten battles. The most frustrating one was against a sheer cold Lapras that ohko'ed my team.

I would like to say that Mandibuzz was my VIP in every battle that I used him. he stops Links with ease, as well as Greninja. he can whittle Greninjas health down while roosting away the minor damage that Greninja can do. It was amazing.

Also Magearna beats anything that doesn't use Earthquake. He's surprisingly tanky. I survived a Dragon danced Dragonite with 3hp left when I was already chipped down a little. Sadly I used Ice Beam instead of fleur cannon. I think i lost that match.

Pelliper is also amazing. he was a crucial lead for my Xurkitree. When I was able to pull it off, Xurkitree can Thunder his way to victory.

Overall I'm really impressed with my team. Most of my losses were due to my own newbtastic mistakes rather than an issue with the team I built. Oh yeah, this was my very first battle spot experience too.
 
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2nd day was definitely different than first. Stronger people, as expected, but also damn lucky ones lol

I ended with an awful 21-9. No dcs this time, and that's cool.

Matthew - Canada - he has to say thank you to poison touch, because he did a big choke at the end protecting on Lunala with Muk, in the turn in which I roosted. If it wasn't for the poison I could had won this
Celesteela / Garchomp / Muk-A / Ninetales-A / Milotic / Mimikyu

be ta - JAP - Nature Madness miss on Aegislash costed me the game
Aegislash / Pheromosa / Salamence / Tapu Lele / Cloyster / Mimikyu

indeigo - JAP - almost choked this, forgetting Tangled Hair or whatever is the Dug ability, which dropped me Celes speed and getting freezed by Blizzard Ninetales; luckily I immediately thawed out and win.
Ninetales-A / Dugtrio-A / Mimikyu / Pelipper / Solgaleo / Salazzle

minama - JAP
Pheromosa / Aegislash / Hydreigon / Marowak-A / Tapu Koko / Gyarados

oshinoshinobu - JAP - the strongest one I faced
Magnezone / Lunala / Pheromosa / Greninja / Nihilego / Dragonite

taiyou - JAP - this dude haxed my ribombee with tbolt crit of xurkitree :(
Ribombee / Xurkitree / Incineroar / Solgaleo / Hydreigon / Ninetales-A

hii - JAP
Solgaleo / Musdale / Mimikyu / Tsareena / Lycanrock-Day / Incineroar

Davis - USA
Marowak-A / Mimikyu / Solgaleo / Kartana / Honchkrow / Greninja

C e n t e r - JAP - this guy showed how bad is burn up arcanine; easily encored and used as setup field
Arcanine / Necrozma / Tapu Bulu / Muk-A / Garchomp / Ninetales-A

Caiynan - US
Pheromosa / Jolteon / Incineroar / Greninja / Lunala

Akemi - US - choked this one using water shuriken instead of hydro pump vs nihilego, I was too afraid of missing. Tbolt Koko couldnt finish this, rip.
Pheromosa / Lunala / Nihilego / Garchomp / Mandibuzz / Kartana

idrthename - JAP - brickbreak Muk new frontier of cool
Muk-A / Scizor / Lunala / Skarmory / Blissey / Alomomola

Painat - Italy
Garchomp / Milotic / Solgaleo / Raichu-A / Kartana / Arcanine

Asura - US
Silvally / Mimikyu / Zygarde / Greninja / Xurkitree / Tapu Koko

Mickael - US
Lunala / Arcanine / Aegislash / Tapu Koko / Garchomp / Azumarill
 
Not finished the second day yet. Right now i'm at 17 win 5 lose.
My team is not so cool but it can win.. Sometimes.

I've seen few times a special Celesteela set. Lol
 
Discovered today just how disgustingly durable unaware Pyukumuku is. Opponent used a set of Toxic, Soak, Reflect and Recover. I have no taunters on my team.
 
Terminus this is not a place for you to post your self loathing. please stop.

I haven't played anymore battles yet, but it's still interesting that I never saw any zygarde. anyone using him or fight against a team that has him?
 
It's just really annoying to know how your team's flawed, but due to the lock you can't do anything about it.

Like, my team can handle Lunala and Zygarde very well. I'm barely even fighting any Lunalas or Zygardes, though, and instead my team's vulnerability to Ground and being unable to easily deal with Steel types are being exploited practically every other match.

My game plan ends up boiling down to "hope Mandibuzz can stall out everything" or "hope Cloyster can sneak in a Shell Smash". Mandibuzz stalling doesn't even work if they have something like Nihilego or Koko that takes negligible damage from Foul Play and can still outspeed and 2HKO after a Snarl.

I do have my share of wins, but most of them were against poor teams, so I don't feel like it's much of an achievement.
 
Started today with just four Pokémon. After 7-2 I got disconnected 2 times at the beginning of the battle. This internet connection is as annoying as it gets.

Edit: 3rd time. Quitting until tommorow. :(
 
Ended the day at 23-7 with a cookie cutter team of Muk / Mimikyu / Garchomp / Pheromosa / Celesteela / Lunala, being new to competitive and teambuilding and short on time. Starters usually had Muk-Garchomp-Lunala, with Celesteela rotating in as needed. Haven't used Mimikyu at all, and Pheromosa barely sees any play since the team's main quartet is usually enough to get the job done outside of some additional x4 SE coverage (also lost a game because I decided to make her my anchor instead of Garchomp, and lo and behold the enemy's final pick was Marowak). I wasn't able to figure out what I could do to improve or swap out of the team during testing in Showdown before the actual competition started, so they just kind of sat there as open threats on the selection screen.

It's been a pretty fun learning experience, since I'm thinking through my options more carefully than I did in testing, and it's really satisfying to mindgame and outpredict an opponent - but I didn't feel bad about losing to those who outplayed me on the switches either.

Some harsh lessons included: not letting Gyarados DD more than once, don't underestimate Shell Smash + Acrobatics Minior shenanigans - I also accidentally pressed Brick Break instead of Shadow Sneak when it was low HP; Brick Break the Aurora Veil because Gunk Shot isn't a sure kill on Ninetales - and then Muk gets frozen off the Blizzard or even dies to Sheer Cold so enemy Cloyster links my team to death, and don't Focus Blast the Rhyperior if I know they can switch their own Lunala in and my bat's Shadow Shield is already broken.

I think I only faced one run-through team, and the rest were more or less competitive: mostly Lunala / Solgaleo / Ninetales / Tapus / my picks which were common enough for starters, but no Zygarde or Magearna until the latter popped up in the last match on an ITA player's team. I had 22 JP opponents (6 of whom my losses belong to) since I played at an ungodly hour, and a couple of them used their Hydreigons, and one had the Rhyperior whom I lost to. Curiously, the one player with an Aegislash decided against using it, so I don't know how I'd have fared against that.

Also thought I was gonna get scrubbed in that last match vs TR-Mimikyu lead with Incineroar & Magearna, but then Mimikyu and Shadow Ball-spamming Magearna just went and died to my Celesteela, and Incineroar decided to spam Lariat while I sat there leeching his health before I finally swapped to Garchomp and killed him with the Rough Skin proc and one last leech. What a way to go
 
Discovered today just how disgustingly durable unaware Pyukumuku is. Opponent used a set of Toxic, Soak, Reflect and Recover. I have no taunters on my team.
Ahahah, i remember someone posted here on smogon that set. Don't remember well who was him. But looks like that set is pretty good ahaha.

Sh!t, trick rooms sure are a thing i just lost 2 battle cause them. I miss only 4 battle. I hope i'll win them.

I have to be better in team building and for the 3 choices at the start of the battle. After an year where i did nothing sure i'm really bad.

Does battling101 have even a BSS tutoring? Lol
Or i must go for vgc tutoring hoping it helps me on BSS too? xD
 
Man, I'm on a roll right now, 18-2, around 1750ish. I dunno whether to quit now while I'm ahead (just beat a Japanese player in the low 1800s).
 
The good point is that i beat a guy that was at 1732. But today i finished 10-5. Screw me.
So now I'm 21 win 9 lose. 1600 and something more. I don't even know if I can play tomorrow.

Sh!t, Solgaleo sucks.
Stupid lion, go over the math and do more damages. it is not possible that every time my opponent goes for greninja I have to lose. I mean, I know he was strong but no so much.
I did bad my calcs for sure, I thought that sunsteel strike was a 2hko on greninja but looks like it's not.

Screw me again. I caught a modest lunala which is 29/31/31/31/30/31, why I decided to lose my time with the stupid lion?
 
I personally haven't had much of an issue finding matches. Timed out maybe three times over the course of the competition.

This was asked quite a ways back, but my Incineroar build is taken straight from the thread here on Smogon - 252 HP/Defense, Impish, Darkest Lariat / Leech Life / Will-o-Wisp / U-turn. I very much regret not bringing a fire STAB because I have continually encountered situations where all my options are NFE, but he takes hits and Darkest Lariat does a lot of work. I've used Wisp a couple of times, but it's usually a parting shot in the middle of a 2HKO against something with earthquake or desperation due to Dark/Bug weaknesses.

I haven't played anymore battles yet, but it's still interesting that I never saw any zygarde. anyone using him or fight against a team that has him?
I saw him two or three times on my first day. He got one shot by Freeze Dry from Ninetales. I dunno if they were poorly built or I got lucky or what.

I'm much closer to a 50/50 win rate after the second day and part of the third.

The most surprising things I've encountered are a Tauros with Facade (one of the times I used Will-o-Wisp actually worked against me!) and a Pyukumuku who did nothing but spam Curse and Recover against my Solgaleo. I kept expecting a baton pass, but as it hit +6 I got a Psy Headbutt crit.

Overall I'm having a blast - despite my inexperience I can usually pinpoint where things went south and don't feel like I'm getting completely rolled over, and there are only a few folks whom I've rolled over as well. The water's nice down here around 1550, is what I'm saying.
 
So far I'm 10/6 and I feel my team is bad. Minior is my worst member and I've made some bad decisions but it's my first Battle Spot competition so the experience is good for me. I'll try more battles later but right now my internet is shaky and I don't want any more dc's cost me or my opponent the match.
 
Screw me again. I caught a modest lunala which is 29/31/31/31/30/31, why I decided to lose my time with the stupid lion?
Haha, my Lunala has quite bad IVs (1 Init and low HP also) because I thought I would be able to use my bottle caps before any competition. :D
It's still my MVP though. Switching out to Muk-A for others Lunalas worked quite good so far, so I don't even mind.

Currently at 9 wins, 2 losses and 4 losses due to disconnects.

Edit:
I really wonder why they can't make the connections more stable. Found two games in the last hour. One time my opponent disconnected right after the selection and after that it was me again. Now I can't find a new game.
 
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G8PG-WWWW-WWW3-5ZPQ

My opponent didn't exactly have the best team in the world, but with those type advantages I was very uneasy. The more this competition goes on, the more I realise how open I've left myself to so many weaknesses. Are Talonflames used without Flare Blitz now? I kept expecting to get nailed with one.

Either way it was silly of me to bring two bug types into an opponent that had a Talonflame on their team, but at least it worked out in the end.

Still have 9 matches to go, but feel like doing something else with my Sunday. If I finish up now, it'll be 21 wins and 15 losses, which I'm satisfied with.
 
I realized now i lost every battle where the opponent had greninja. The only 2 I was close to win, the opponent get a crit and damn u stupid frog, I hope you'll burn in the hottest flames of the hell.

I'm doing really bad today. My team is not so great, but on showdown it worked cool, but obviously people on cart can't get everything easy like on showdown. The teams are really different, I don't see Zygarde yet.
global link should make a test tier before the tour start.
Even if the servers are not so good right now, I don't know what would happen with more tiers lol.

Anyway is there a way to see how many battle I lost? Cause I have a short mind lol
 

Run

Poster of the Month
Battle for Alola report!

Just finished my battles. I did okay. 33-12 Final with a point ranking of 1750-something (im not sure where to check since i cant go for more battles). My highest ranking was 1796. My best win was vs an 1870. I used Pyukumuku and Shiinotic which threw some people off. Tho Shiinotic kind of dropped out once i stopped getting matches against opponents in the 1500's. This is my full team:


Tapu Koko
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Wild Charge
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Nature's Madness


Pheromosa
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- High Jump Kick
- Lunge
- Poison Jab
- Ice Beam


Pyukumuku
Ability: Innards Out
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Def / 188 SpD
Impish Nature
- Toxic
- Soak
- Recover
- Baton Pass


Shiinotic
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Spore
- Moonblast
- Strength Sap
- Light Screen


Mudsdale
Ability: Stamina
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- High Horsepower
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Heavy Slam


Lunala
Ability: Shadow Shield
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Moongeist Beam
- Psychic
- Thunder Wave
- Roost

There are a few things I'd do different. First of all, for some reason I thought the tournament was only Alola-dex so I wasn't calc-prepped for Aegislash/Togekiss and some others... but I handled them ok. I realized very quickly i should have put Acrobatics on Tapu Koko instead of Brave Bird since there are no items. However, it didn't come into play very often. In singles I should probably be using Earthquake over High Horsepower too, I only saw 1-2 Tapu Bulu and I wouldn't be using Earthquake there anyway (also High Horsepower miss lost my last match of the tournament). Lastly... I REALLY should have done the grind to get my Special-mons to 100 so I could bottle cap, it *might* have changed 1-2 outcomes.

Some battle notes:
  • Shiinotic can shut down a LOT of stuff. If you don't OHKO Shiinotic, you probably aren't KOing it. That being said, once I hit higher ranks there were too many super-effective threats around (such as Ninetales and/or Aegislash on every other team) to use consistently.
  • A lot of teams just couldn't get past Pyukumuku soak/toxic/recover, but I noticed at higher ranks a bunch of Lunala had thunderbolt which ruined my day a couple times. Also using a few PP ups on Recover would have been REALLY helpful in a few circumstances.
  • More losses were due to gimmick sets and hax than anything else, on the flipside, Shiinotic and Pyukumuku (while not entirely unknown) i think caught a ton of people off-guard.
  • Pyukumuku also wins a few matchups you wouldn't necessarily expect... such as Magearna, Aegislash, Solgaleo, and non Thunderbolt Lunala. There wasn't much without SE hits that was breaking through. You're best bet at beating Pyukumuku is Toxic.
  • Mudsdale can take some special hits! He survived a few ice beams and KOed in return a few times. I found myself relying on him more often than I thought I might.
  • Aurora Veil isn't that hard to stall out without Light Clay. Tapu Koko and Pheromosa were both supposed to be OHKO-ing standard Ninetales but I actually ran into some full HP with some Def invested ones that took the hit anyway. In the end Pyukumuku ended up being my best response, tho Freeze-Dry freeze got me a couple times, and even a couple Sheer Colds (from Soaked Ninetales no-less!)
  • Lunala was really solid in MOST circumstances, but a couple mis-timed crits lost me a few matches. Thunderwave/Roost combo is Solid and allowed me control over when to attack or switch out Lunala to preserve Shadow Shield. Tho I struggled vs other Lunala. I outsped exactly 1 other Lunala who I oneshot tho. Lunala became a sacrifice-mon on a few occasions actually.
  • Hax are hax. I probably had 3-4 hax wins and 6-7 hax losses. This isn't including things like a crit 8 turns into stall... thats expected... I mean like clutch 10% procs on single uses. It's frustrating, but you have to move on. I would have preferred more hax wins to compensate for the hax loses tho.

Notable Battles (Codes):
  • Shiinotic shuts down EVERYTHING: 29ZG-WWWW-WWW3-2NGA (vs special threats), EVXG-WWWW-WWW3-2NH2 (vs physical threats)
  • 2x freeze, 1x paralyze+insta-paralyze HAX loss: FRAG-WWWW-WWW3-63JC
  • Fun match vs good Eeveelution team + Trick Room Solgaleo (maybe hacked? slower than Pyukumuku tho it was paralyzed): YS8W-WWWW-WWW3-647W
  • Pyukumuku taking 3 Spd Drops vs +1(tho eventually -6) Magearna: F8MW-WWWW-WWW3-5QFQ
  • No-hax win vs 1870-ranked opponent: 3FFW-WWWW-WWW3-5PNX

Final Thoughts:

I had a great time with the tournament. I am a little disappointed with my final score, and feel like it could/should have been higher, but all-in-all it was a great learning experience and I'm looking forward to the next battle spot tournament.

I'd love to chat if I happened to run into anyone here. So let me know if you recognize my team.

Feel free to chime in with questions/comments. Also, share your battle experiences! We're probably past the point of giving away things to people we might actually encounter.
 
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Theorymon

Have a wonderful day, wahoo!
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So I probably ended around 1750-1760ish, somewhat of a bummer since my peak was 1807, but oh well, I guess that's what I get for my point greed!

My team was Lunala / Muk-A / Ninetales-A / Celesteela / Garchomp / Tapu Koko. Well, I shouldn't really say my team: Jibaku built it for me since I was too busy with finals to playtest!

I'll post some more details after I go out to dinner tonight, but regardless of the whole 40 point haxy losses, I still had a lot of fun, and saw some trends I didn't expect!
 
Hmm...you actually did better than me! I'm at the ~1430 range myself, actually. Still, I believe that the main problem was that they gave so little time to prepare that we couldn't think of a good team soon enough. Had I gotten an extra week, the results would be quite different.
 
Hmm...you actually did better than me! I'm at the ~1430 range myself, actually. Still, I believe that the main problem was that they gave so little time to prepare that we couldn't think of a good team soon enough. Had I gotten an extra week, the results would be quite different.
I do have a bunch of battle-ready Tapus, UBs, and a Garchomp, incidentally. I just blanked and forgot to add any of them to my team before locking it in.

I know, I need to just relax and take a deep breath. No sense making a nuisance of myself.
 
Yeah, I didn't have the best showing here. Somehow I managed to make the fatal error of underestimating the number of Garchomps that would be present, as well as having a very earthquake weak team. I started off 4-13, tanking deep into the 1300s, I was able to salvage a few games at the end of day 2 bringing myself back up to 13-17 and hovering around ~1500. I still have a whole lot to learn about competitive battling. But here was my team I made for the tournament:

Tapu Bulu
-Nature's Madness
-Wood Hammer
-Mega Horn
-Horn Leech

Muk-Alola
-Curse
-Poison Jab
-Crunch
-Stone Edge

Talonflame
-Acrobatics
-Roost
-Bulk Up
-Taunt

Toxapex
-Toxic Spikes
-Recover
-Scald
-Haze

Marowak-Alola
-Shadow Bone
-Flare Blitz
-Bonemerang
-Will-O-Wisp

Magearna
-Fleur Cannon
-Flash Cannon
-Aura Sphere
-Volt Switch


As you can see, huge ground weakness. It hurt, bad. My initial plan was leading with Toxapex, laying double toxic spikes, and then going from there. That proved to be futile, as about everyone that had a Garchomp, led with him. So I switched to the backup plan, Tapu Bulu to take the pain off the ground weakness, then switching into Muk or Magearna to start putting pressure on the opponent. And surprisingly that worked out better than I thought. Grassy Terrain weakened EQ a lot more than I thought it would. I got a lot of my wins off of Garchomp users EQ'ing my Magearna while Grassy Terrain was out, and then I Fleur Cannon it and start sweeping.

Overall, I had a lot of fun this tournament. I learned a lot, and had a lot of good times just preparing my team through breeding and SOS battling.
 

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