Couldn’t we just… ban last respects instead? It’s busted of a move, and without it, basc is still very strong, but doesn’t let its partner spam a 200BP move. Heck, even the dog
suffers greatly without its signature move.
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PiC Partners in Crime
- Thread starter HiZo
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suffers greatly without its signature move.
With all that in mind, Last Respects is now banned from Partners in Crime.
Wait... what? Aren't the Basculegions problematic? Yeah, but not really for any of the reasons above. In fact, all of the above are positive reasons to keep them in the current meta. What is exceptionally negative is having a button that threatens to instantly end the game being passed to exceptionally strong partners such as Tera Ghost Chien-Pao and Dragapult. Last Respects can be somewhat centralising to a few team's game plans and the way Basculegion can be used throughout the game, but let it get to the late game with the rest of the team down and a strong enough ally and the game can just very well be over despite no realistic bad plays from the opponent. While there was discussion about banning Basculegion with a majority of the council agreeing they could go, keeping these otherwise positive assets in the tier while banning the broken move is clearly a better move.
Tagging Kris for implementation
Hey all!
We have new Viability Rankings! Check them out here, and do the usual discussion by letting us know what you make of the current meta.
We have new Viability Rankings! Check them out here, and do the usual discussion by letting us know what you make of the current meta.
With a unanimous vote, Cresselia is banned from PiC! With 7/8 teams in tpp using Cresselia and most of them winning, it is safe to say that Cress’s ability as a Calm Mind Sweeper is incredibly potent. Thanks to allies like Heatran, Ampharos, and Goodra-Hisui, it can bolster its defensive prowess with Iron Defense, Cotton Guard, or Maganetic Flux. Furthermore, Lunar Blessing allows it to reverse progress by healing its user and ally for 25% HP AND cure it and its ally’s status. Despite the small BST nerf, the new tricks this Pokemon receives has started to warp the metagame around its ability to take hits, akin to Annihilape, causing it to be banned.
Kris pls implement asap
While this isn’t an uncommon sentiment, we usually find that sleep isn’t a particularly unhealthy or unfair mechanic. This is because most of the counterplay for sleep found in Doubles OU carries over and work just as well here or better. You just have to prepare better against Spore next time.
First and foremost, I need to apologise to K3ppr. My actions were totally irresponsible and a simple apology is not enough for what transpired. To try and reconcile and atone for my actions, and to ensure they may never happen again, King's Rock and Bright Powder are now banned from Partners in Crime.
Despite them being legal elsewhere, it's not natural for Rapid Spin to flinch or for Pokemon to evade moves they shouldn't. Given our past of banning things that give unfair edges or unplayability with no required skill, it's clear at this point they should go.
We are not currently banning Quick Claw as we find its effect to be far less egregious than both of King's Rock and Bright Powder. Additionally, the abilities Snow Cloak, Sand Veil, and Stench are remaining unbanned as we feel there is significant enough downside to using these (Snow Cloak and Stench are attached to otherwise not so good Pokemon, and Sand Veil requires actually running sand.)
Despite them being legal elsewhere, it's not natural for Rapid Spin to flinch or for Pokemon to evade moves they shouldn't. Given our past of banning things that give unfair edges or unplayability with no required skill, it's clear at this point they should go.
We are not currently banning Quick Claw as we find its effect to be far less egregious than both of King's Rock and Bright Powder. Additionally, the abilities Snow Cloak, Sand Veil, and Stench are remaining unbanned as we feel there is significant enough downside to using these (Snow Cloak and Stench are attached to otherwise not so good Pokemon, and Sand Veil requires actually running sand.)
please link the apology video of you crying with ruined makeup, disheveled clothes, a sigh at the beginning and holding a cute animal, or else ur apology isnt valid bestie <3 <3 <3
don't even dare pick up that ukulele
DLC is soon and things will change. The PiC council has banned...nothing!
Schedule-wise, there will most likely not be any bans announced until Sunday, and any bans announced are going to be part of a batch update, that will be needed as to prevent or catch any catastrophe that could happen in this format.
(Trust me on this. The mechanics in here are held together by duct tape and staples, with many many many failsafes attached because the code for this format is possessed by a demon hellbent on my demise.)
If you are playing Partners in Crime in the current week for Tours Plaza Premiere or for Kickoff 2.0, it is highly recommended you play on Smogtours in the Pre-DLC format unless you are willing to take the risk and potential battle crashes along with it.
Schedule-wise, there will most likely not be any bans announced until Sunday, and any bans announced are going to be part of a batch update, that will be needed as to prevent or catch any catastrophe that could happen in this format.
(Trust me on this. The mechanics in here are held together by duct tape and staples, with many many many failsafes attached because the code for this format is possessed by a demon hellbent on my demise.)
If you are playing Partners in Crime in the current week for Tours Plaza Premiere or for Kickoff 2.0, it is highly recommended you play on Smogtours in the Pre-DLC format unless you are willing to take the risk and potential battle crashes along with it.
You'll have to forgive my unfamiliarity with this meta, but given it got Enamorus-I banned and is all around pretty scary...
Anyone tried Lurantis?
Anyone tried Lurantis?
People have tried lurantis(mostly just yuki from what I’ve seen lol) and it’s been alright, main thing is that lurantis is a much worse overall mon than enam and it doesn’t have too many useful moves aside from leaf storm and defog. Contrary still cracked so lurantis can still be decent but running lurantis is a bit of a detriment, haven’t used it too much tho so this is mostly a lot of theory
Alrighty, DLC is finally here! Luckily there wasn’t much that needed fixing and now it’s time to dig through the tier, but before anything else we have to deal with this first.
Darkrai is banned
So to clarify, this Pokemon is not broken. The biggest issue is Dark Void. While it is Darkrai exclusive, it does not detract that Dark Void is a spread sleep move that bypasses typical Spore counterplay. Yes, it has 50% accuracy, but it doesn’t matter if you manage to pair Darkrai with No Guard, Supersweet Syrup, Compound Eyes, or some other stupid way to patch it without angering Gravity Sleep Clause. All in all, the move just promotes uncompetitive teams relying on Dark Void’s ability to sleep and taking advantage of the opponent’s inability to do anything, something we don’t particularly want. The cherry on top, aside from its stats, is Bad Dreams taking 25% per asleep Pokemon on the field (assuming Darkrai has an ally). Smudge has a great post here if you want more info about how Dark Void ruins the doubles metagames.
tagging Kris to implement ty
Darkrai is banned So to clarify, this Pokemon is not broken. The biggest issue is Dark Void. While it is Darkrai exclusive, it does not detract that Dark Void is a spread sleep move that bypasses typical Spore counterplay. Yes, it has 50% accuracy, but it doesn’t matter if you manage to pair Darkrai with No Guard, Supersweet Syrup, Compound Eyes, or some other stupid way to patch it without angering Gravity Sleep Clause. All in all, the move just promotes uncompetitive teams relying on Dark Void’s ability to sleep and taking advantage of the opponent’s inability to do anything, something we don’t particularly want. The cherry on top, aside from its stats, is Bad Dreams taking 25% per asleep Pokemon on the field (assuming Darkrai has an ally). Smudge has a great post here if you want more info about how Dark Void ruins the doubles metagames.
tagging Kris to implement ty
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Not a bug, Soundproof no longer makes you immune to your own sound moves
Gonna add: in vanilla, this is so you can benefit from moves like clangorous soul, heal bell and howl when using them with a Soundproof mon.
I've been using these to to get a Technician-boosted Grassy Glide, was looking for some feedback.
Rillaboom @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- High Horsepower
Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
Rillaboom @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Grassy Glide
- Fake Out
- Knock Off
- High Horsepower
Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Bug
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Close Combat
- Tailwind
Scizor might be going about it the wrong way, as Maushold might be better as a technician mon for this style of core. Tidy Up acts as a pseudo tailwind (with Rilla/Maus getting U-turn naturally anyways), Follow Me makes it easier for either mon to set up, Population Bomb hits a lot of things Rillaboom cannot break through reliably, and since Rilla gives fake out it also gives Maushold a cool move to click. Scizor and Rillaboon share too many weaknesses that make the team worthwhile as Sun continues to be one of the most dominant playstyles.
I hadn't been able to see that before, thanks to a long queue time, but the team also has a flash fire shadow sneak Ceruledge, for a switch against sun/fire. I haven't actually run into any sun teams, so I don't know how effective it is. The team also has two fire resists in Manaphy and Kommo-o.
I'm not sure whether or not it would still struggle against Ogerpon-H, or another mold breaker mon
Between TPP, kickoff, and now OMWC, there were some standout unhealthy elements sent to us in Teal Mask that was showcased. Now it is incredibly clear that action must be taken.
Serene Grance is now banned from Partners in Crime 
Shaymin-Sky is a Tailwind setter that is also equipped with Air Slash and Seed Flare. While the former can cause disruption by making the opponent not move, the latter more or less drastically reduces the target's bulk by halving their special defense. Jirachi is best seen in sand as a way to force Rock Slide, a now 60% chance to flinch both opponents, to more or less halt any way of progress. It also has Trick Room, so if you either are faster or have Trick Room, then Jirachi can simply pivot its speed control into a more advantageous position. So, why the ability and not those two Pokemon? Uncompetitiveness. Serene Grace with moves like Muddy Water, Fiery Wrath, Lava Plume, Rock Slide more or less take the game out of the opponent's hands, and while the rest of the Serene Grace Pokemon are questionable at best in terms of viability, we cannot allow Serene Grace into the metagame under any circumstance. Serene Grance is now banned from Partners in Crime
Tagging Kris to implement ty
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TPP is over and I went 9-0 so teamdump/recap time woooo
(click on sprites for teams)
Pre-DLC:
Week 1 vs Yuki: (replay)
Leading up to week 1 cress was looking pretty busted, and then I pulled #1 cress user yuki for my week 1 mu. This team was basically made to counterteam opposing cress setup fat, grimmsnarl donates imprison to basically win any mon mirrors. The rest of it was p standard cress setup fat stuff except for maybe the tran and ting set, ironpress tran was because I wanted iron press and better volcanion counterplay, ting-lu was more offensive so it can actually threaten things like ghold and cress. I ended up rolling basically the exact mu I wanted and it was just game over on preview.
Week 2 vs Smudge: (replay)
Cress got banned so I looked for things that looked cool with no more cress, chomp seemed cool since levitate would no longer be everywhere, tera flying pao allowed chomp to spam eq and it did pao things with sword of ruin. Haze was there to annoy bulky teams and not autolose to tatsudozo. Torn was speed control and another eq immune, also has sunny day because rain mu was not fun, gambit dealt with intim and could be another eq immune. Ceru was there for the sun mu and bitter blade could be a cool move to pass, tsareena helped to not lose to priospam. In hindsight the chomp item was bad sitrus probably would've been better. Also probably important to mention that I was getting wrecked by instruct's sun during testing and this was the only team I built that beat it. (It's a pretty favorable mu) The mu I ended up rolling was at first a bit scary but no swift swim made things a bit easier to deal with, chomp pao just kinda stayed on the field forever and chunked everything.
Week 3 vs BlackKnight_Gawain: (replay)
I was busy this week and my opponent was new to the meta so I reused the core with a few adjustments. Tusk was here to have a more advantageous priospam mu because I was sure I would play vs sun or priospam, I edited the tsar moveset to have more favorable mu vs sun. I ended up playing vs sun, I got scarf tusk and pao in under tw and proceeded to click eq and ice spinner for most the game. I almost choked in the endgame but I still won by getting a 50/50 right.
Week 4 vs Xrn: (replay)
I was originally going to bring quick claw spam
with a similar core but decided against it, the team ended up evolving into a kingambit semiroom featuring mesprit. This team was heavily based on a pre-cress ban kingambit balance team that yuki showed me, kingambit iron hands chien pao is a pretty scary offensive balance core that discourages intim and has the bulk to take a few hits too, volcanion helps with sun and rain mus, haze really annoys bulky setup teams. Mesprit was picking up some popularity (ty yuki for introducing it to me) as a levitate mon with a similar role as cress, being a bulky setup mon that also provides a TR mode for gambit and hands, mystical power is a pretty cool move to pass to stuff like volcanion, and draining kiss helps with longevity and dark types. Diancie was slotted in as the sixth to have a rocker and a better mu vs priospam, it also discourages intim even further and it appreciates water absorb from volcanion. The game ended up going pretty smoothly, mesprit and kingambit both were able to boost up a lot in the early game and then kingambit under TR went ham.
Week 5 vs shadowmaster6789: (replay)
I built around gastrodon this week since I thought it looked pretty cool into the meta (ty again yuki for introducing it to me). The lack of grass type moves in pre-dlc meta was really nice for gastro, it provides some very useful support with yawn, recovery, and a helpful water immunity in storm drain. Ice beam and earth power hit a lot of the meta, like iron hands, dragonite, gholdengo, kingambit, landorus, etc. The team ended up being a pretty fat bulky setup team, with a distinct lack of protect, in hindsight I definitely should've fit protect on more mons. Ghold was pretty standard, just too good and appreciates the support/moves that gastrodon provides. Volcarona was put here for quiver dance and rage powder, it also appreciates storm drain and the coverage from gastrodon. Ironpress iron hands was put here because I wanted more options vs physical teams so passing/using ironpress was very helpful for that, other than that it's a standard set. Ting-lu does ting-lu things, although I once again went for a more offensive set to have some immediate power, spikes was there to punish yawn switches. Mesprit slots in as the sixth to provide a much needed ground immunity, and adds another option for bulky setup. The game ended up being a bit of a rough one, TR was a bit of tricky mu since I had only 1 protect which made it hard to play from out of position. Of course, I proceeded to lead very badly so I got almost all of my mons heavily chipped trying to reposition. I did my best to play from behind and ended up getting a few crucial turns correct to get the win, with the help of a misplay in the endgame from my opponent.
Post DLC:
Week 6 vs hayedenn: (replay)
DLC came out and I was looking for broken stuff, I settled on making a serene grace sand team now that we had better serene grace options. Sand was what got serene grace banned last gen so I figured it would still be broken (turns out I was right eventually). I went with jirachi instead of shaymin-sky because jirachi is a better physical mon and has a nice typing to deal with things like iron hands and snow teams. I went with TR on jirachi to help against hyper offense, and zen headbutt+ice punch was used for coverage to hit important targets like iron hands, lando-t, and amoonguss. Tyranitar lycanroc forms the sand core with rock slide spam, tyranitar's new access to knock allows the team to get rid of annoying covert cloaks, twave adds more speed control and another form of hax. Tsar does the prio blocking things and provides another knock user. Lando-t beats iron hands and is another rock slide user, and of course, intim is always good for threats like ogerpon, pao, and rillaboom. I settled on hearthflame in the last slot, mold breaker deals with pesky inner focus, and redirection+setup support is very helpful for this team. I ended up having to run two clear amulets on the team due to the lack of an intim deterrent on an all physical team. I ended up rolling a pretty scary mu because wide guard pelipper is hard to kill and is a big nuisance, but I ended up getting a few crucial kills and some good flinches to get the win.
Week 7 vs zoe: (replay)
I was expecting some kind of hyper offense from zoe so I settled on a balance team where I basically stole all the ideas from yuki (this is the last time I swear). I stole the pao hands lando-t teal mask core from yuki, teal mask is cool for defiant and redirection support, also passing knock off. I then slotted in volcanion and scarf glimmora in the last two slots, scarf glimmora I stole from yuki, it checks a lot of the big physical threats like ogerpon, dragonite, chien pao, etc., volcanion synergizes nicely with it, providing other coverage and water absorb in addition to shoring up the sun mu. Also I have no idea why I ran adamant pao I prob would not recommend lol. I ended up rolling a scary mu that I was not really expecting to face, other than sash chien pao and glimmora I didn't really have the tools to withstand or take down kommo-o, so of course, I immediately throw away my glimmora turn 1, I end up pivoting around and am able to put on some pressure with a defiant boosted teal mask, but all my kommo-o checks are gone which made it very scary. Kommo-o ends up getting a free turn to setup but I get lucky and win two fake out 50/50s with iron hands to pull off the win.
Semis vs Xrn: (replay)
I was expecting serene grace snow to be the team so I built with that in mind, it's a pretty generic special offense team, cloak ghold+bundle handles snow pretty well and then torn+lando adds to the hyper offense core. I slotted encore on bundle since I had room for it with all the protects on the team. Heatran is the obligatory sun check, and then goltres adds some more bulk to the team and helps deal with psyspam and opposing ghold. Goltres also appreciates being passed bleakwind storm and sheer force, plus berserk is pretty nice on a mono special attacker team. In the game I end up facing not serene grace snow and I again throw turn 1 by not terastallizing my landorus which probably would've been game right there. Instead my torn dies so I lose my main speed control and source of flying stab. I try to put pressure on to stop kommo-o from setting up since I have very limited ways of dealing with if it does but kommo-o ends up getting the turn to setup and I can't really withstand the onslaught since I terastallized my gholdengo. I end up getting really lucky with a double burn from lava plume and a double protect and pull off the win. I ran some calcs and I think the odds were still in my favor even if I don't get the double protect since lando has very favorable odds to live boomburst and sandsear+2 lava plumes should in theory be enough to take out kommo-o, allowing lando to sweep the endgame, it does get much less safe tho due to accuracy and rolls so the double protect was for sure a big help.
Finals vs Chris Numbers: (replay)
This was the team I wanted to bring for semis but it had a very iffy bundle snow mu that I wasn't very confident in. The main idea is to setup veil with alolatales and then setup sweepers go brrr. Bulky hearthflame does insane damage after an SD while living many attacks and healing with horn leech, also provides redirection support if needed. Roaring moon is the main sweeper, it's very bulky behind veil and does insane damage after a couple boosts, roost is nice to provide longevity for the whole team, okidogi is the intim deterrent on the team, it also provides another sweeper and passes gunk shot to help moon deal with fairies. The rest of the sets are pretty standard, lando is sitrus here so that it can potentially use acrobatics after a berry proc. In the game the mu on preview is interesting, a setup-focused team based around falinks. In a recurring theme, I make a bad play again t1, losing my veil setter without setting up veil, in hindsight I definitely should've swapped into my bulky hearthflame I just got too scared of it taking damage fsr, I also could've setup veil with pao since veil is super pivotal. Anyways, I play from behind for a while trying to find an opportunity to setup with moon but I just can't. The boosted landorus was very hard for me to deal with as pao had lost sash and alolatales was dead, I end up trading out both mons to setup an endgame with 1hp pao and dogi vs ghold dnite and hearthflame. It's pretty much a losing position since chien pao dies to espeed and then okidogi gets stone walled by ghold, sucker punch from okidogi does not do enough to ko ghold. I end up betting on my opponent misplaying/guessing my set incorrectly and I luckily get it right, netting me the win and an undefeated record.
Unfortunately, we did end up losing in finals, but I had a great time playing in TPP, shoutouts to all my teammates on the articunos for being cool people and great teammates, the team environment was very fun and y'all were very supportive, shoutouts to my managers TDR and Latias for believing in me and drafting me, very glad I got the opportunity to be on such a goated team :>
More shoutouts:
Instruct
Ty for being my main testing partner throughout the tour, goat builder, you helped me build, refine, and get comfortable with almost all of the teams I used in the tour, it was really fun to bounce ideas off of each other in testing and I'm glad you finally had a good showing in a teamtour.
yuki
I took a lot of ideas from our dms lol, another goat builder, ty for giving me so many ideas and being an alternative testing partner, unfortunate that your record didn't end up reflecting how cool your teams are.
Clas Frixel other people I tested with, ty for tests even if it was just a few games here and there
I'm very happy with how far this meta has come, I would've never imagined I'd get the opportunity to play PiC in a team tour, let alone have a permaladder, s/o to the rest of the pic council (zoe jasprose YoBuddy) for helping us get to where we are now and obligatory second shoutout to Instruct for reviving the meta and fixing all the bugs :>
(click on sprites for teams)
Pre-DLC:
Week 1 vs Yuki: (replay)
Leading up to week 1 cress was looking pretty busted, and then I pulled #1 cress user yuki for my week 1 mu. This team was basically made to counterteam opposing cress setup fat, grimmsnarl donates imprison to basically win any mon mirrors. The rest of it was p standard cress setup fat stuff except for maybe the tran and ting set, ironpress tran was because I wanted iron press and better volcanion counterplay, ting-lu was more offensive so it can actually threaten things like ghold and cress. I ended up rolling basically the exact mu I wanted and it was just game over on preview.
Week 2 vs Smudge: (replay)
Cress got banned so I looked for things that looked cool with no more cress, chomp seemed cool since levitate would no longer be everywhere, tera flying pao allowed chomp to spam eq and it did pao things with sword of ruin. Haze was there to annoy bulky teams and not autolose to tatsudozo. Torn was speed control and another eq immune, also has sunny day because rain mu was not fun, gambit dealt with intim and could be another eq immune. Ceru was there for the sun mu and bitter blade could be a cool move to pass, tsareena helped to not lose to priospam. In hindsight the chomp item was bad sitrus probably would've been better. Also probably important to mention that I was getting wrecked by instruct's sun during testing and this was the only team I built that beat it. (It's a pretty favorable mu) The mu I ended up rolling was at first a bit scary but no swift swim made things a bit easier to deal with, chomp pao just kinda stayed on the field forever and chunked everything.
Week 3 vs BlackKnight_Gawain: (replay)
I was busy this week and my opponent was new to the meta so I reused the core with a few adjustments. Tusk was here to have a more advantageous priospam mu because I was sure I would play vs sun or priospam, I edited the tsar moveset to have more favorable mu vs sun. I ended up playing vs sun, I got scarf tusk and pao in under tw and proceeded to click eq and ice spinner for most the game. I almost choked in the endgame but I still won by getting a 50/50 right.
Week 4 vs Xrn: (replay)
I was originally going to bring quick claw spam
with a similar core but decided against it, the team ended up evolving into a kingambit semiroom featuring mesprit. This team was heavily based on a pre-cress ban kingambit balance team that yuki showed me, kingambit iron hands chien pao is a pretty scary offensive balance core that discourages intim and has the bulk to take a few hits too, volcanion helps with sun and rain mus, haze really annoys bulky setup teams. Mesprit was picking up some popularity (ty yuki for introducing it to me) as a levitate mon with a similar role as cress, being a bulky setup mon that also provides a TR mode for gambit and hands, mystical power is a pretty cool move to pass to stuff like volcanion, and draining kiss helps with longevity and dark types. Diancie was slotted in as the sixth to have a rocker and a better mu vs priospam, it also discourages intim even further and it appreciates water absorb from volcanion. The game ended up going pretty smoothly, mesprit and kingambit both were able to boost up a lot in the early game and then kingambit under TR went ham.Week 5 vs shadowmaster6789: (replay)
I built around gastrodon this week since I thought it looked pretty cool into the meta (ty again yuki for introducing it to me). The lack of grass type moves in pre-dlc meta was really nice for gastro, it provides some very useful support with yawn, recovery, and a helpful water immunity in storm drain. Ice beam and earth power hit a lot of the meta, like iron hands, dragonite, gholdengo, kingambit, landorus, etc. The team ended up being a pretty fat bulky setup team, with a distinct lack of protect, in hindsight I definitely should've fit protect on more mons. Ghold was pretty standard, just too good and appreciates the support/moves that gastrodon provides. Volcarona was put here for quiver dance and rage powder, it also appreciates storm drain and the coverage from gastrodon. Ironpress iron hands was put here because I wanted more options vs physical teams so passing/using ironpress was very helpful for that, other than that it's a standard set. Ting-lu does ting-lu things, although I once again went for a more offensive set to have some immediate power, spikes was there to punish yawn switches. Mesprit slots in as the sixth to provide a much needed ground immunity, and adds another option for bulky setup. The game ended up being a bit of a rough one, TR was a bit of tricky mu since I had only 1 protect which made it hard to play from out of position. Of course, I proceeded to lead very badly so I got almost all of my mons heavily chipped trying to reposition. I did my best to play from behind and ended up getting a few crucial turns correct to get the win, with the help of a misplay in the endgame from my opponent.
Post DLC:
Week 6 vs hayedenn: (replay)
DLC came out and I was looking for broken stuff, I settled on making a serene grace sand team now that we had better serene grace options. Sand was what got serene grace banned last gen so I figured it would still be broken (turns out I was right eventually). I went with jirachi instead of shaymin-sky because jirachi is a better physical mon and has a nice typing to deal with things like iron hands and snow teams. I went with TR on jirachi to help against hyper offense, and zen headbutt+ice punch was used for coverage to hit important targets like iron hands, lando-t, and amoonguss. Tyranitar lycanroc forms the sand core with rock slide spam, tyranitar's new access to knock allows the team to get rid of annoying covert cloaks, twave adds more speed control and another form of hax. Tsar does the prio blocking things and provides another knock user. Lando-t beats iron hands and is another rock slide user, and of course, intim is always good for threats like ogerpon, pao, and rillaboom. I settled on hearthflame in the last slot, mold breaker deals with pesky inner focus, and redirection+setup support is very helpful for this team. I ended up having to run two clear amulets on the team due to the lack of an intim deterrent on an all physical team. I ended up rolling a pretty scary mu because wide guard pelipper is hard to kill and is a big nuisance, but I ended up getting a few crucial kills and some good flinches to get the win.
Week 7 vs zoe: (replay)
I was expecting some kind of hyper offense from zoe so I settled on a balance team where I basically stole all the ideas from yuki (this is the last time I swear). I stole the pao hands lando-t teal mask core from yuki, teal mask is cool for defiant and redirection support, also passing knock off. I then slotted in volcanion and scarf glimmora in the last two slots, scarf glimmora I stole from yuki, it checks a lot of the big physical threats like ogerpon, dragonite, chien pao, etc., volcanion synergizes nicely with it, providing other coverage and water absorb in addition to shoring up the sun mu. Also I have no idea why I ran adamant pao I prob would not recommend lol. I ended up rolling a scary mu that I was not really expecting to face, other than sash chien pao and glimmora I didn't really have the tools to withstand or take down kommo-o, so of course, I immediately throw away my glimmora turn 1, I end up pivoting around and am able to put on some pressure with a defiant boosted teal mask, but all my kommo-o checks are gone which made it very scary. Kommo-o ends up getting a free turn to setup but I get lucky and win two fake out 50/50s with iron hands to pull off the win.
Semis vs Xrn: (replay)
I was expecting serene grace snow to be the team so I built with that in mind, it's a pretty generic special offense team, cloak ghold+bundle handles snow pretty well and then torn+lando adds to the hyper offense core. I slotted encore on bundle since I had room for it with all the protects on the team. Heatran is the obligatory sun check, and then goltres adds some more bulk to the team and helps deal with psyspam and opposing ghold. Goltres also appreciates being passed bleakwind storm and sheer force, plus berserk is pretty nice on a mono special attacker team. In the game I end up facing not serene grace snow and I again throw turn 1 by not terastallizing my landorus which probably would've been game right there. Instead my torn dies so I lose my main speed control and source of flying stab. I try to put pressure on to stop kommo-o from setting up since I have very limited ways of dealing with if it does but kommo-o ends up getting the turn to setup and I can't really withstand the onslaught since I terastallized my gholdengo. I end up getting really lucky with a double burn from lava plume and a double protect and pull off the win. I ran some calcs and I think the odds were still in my favor even if I don't get the double protect since lando has very favorable odds to live boomburst and sandsear+2 lava plumes should in theory be enough to take out kommo-o, allowing lando to sweep the endgame, it does get much less safe tho due to accuracy and rolls so the double protect was for sure a big help.
Finals vs Chris Numbers: (replay)
This was the team I wanted to bring for semis but it had a very iffy bundle snow mu that I wasn't very confident in. The main idea is to setup veil with alolatales and then setup sweepers go brrr. Bulky hearthflame does insane damage after an SD while living many attacks and healing with horn leech, also provides redirection support if needed. Roaring moon is the main sweeper, it's very bulky behind veil and does insane damage after a couple boosts, roost is nice to provide longevity for the whole team, okidogi is the intim deterrent on the team, it also provides another sweeper and passes gunk shot to help moon deal with fairies. The rest of the sets are pretty standard, lando is sitrus here so that it can potentially use acrobatics after a berry proc. In the game the mu on preview is interesting, a setup-focused team based around falinks. In a recurring theme, I make a bad play again t1, losing my veil setter without setting up veil, in hindsight I definitely should've swapped into my bulky hearthflame I just got too scared of it taking damage fsr, I also could've setup veil with pao since veil is super pivotal. Anyways, I play from behind for a while trying to find an opportunity to setup with moon but I just can't. The boosted landorus was very hard for me to deal with as pao had lost sash and alolatales was dead, I end up trading out both mons to setup an endgame with 1hp pao and dogi vs ghold dnite and hearthflame. It's pretty much a losing position since chien pao dies to espeed and then okidogi gets stone walled by ghold, sucker punch from okidogi does not do enough to ko ghold. I end up betting on my opponent misplaying/guessing my set incorrectly and I luckily get it right, netting me the win and an undefeated record.
Unfortunately, we did end up losing in finals, but I had a great time playing in TPP, shoutouts to all my teammates on the articunos for being cool people and great teammates, the team environment was very fun and y'all were very supportive, shoutouts to my managers TDR and Latias for believing in me and drafting me, very glad I got the opportunity to be on such a goated team :>
(sorry if I missed anyone) a fairy oaklies Fc Mossy Sandwich Tanish 7u9i2 Ina fable Rasche Fantos13 SpaceSpeakers skimmythegod
More shoutouts:
Instruct
Ty for being my main testing partner throughout the tour, goat builder, you helped me build, refine, and get comfortable with almost all of the teams I used in the tour, it was really fun to bounce ideas off of each other in testing and I'm glad you finally had a good showing in a teamtour.
yuki
I took a lot of ideas from our dms lol, another goat builder, ty for giving me so many ideas and being an alternative testing partner, unfortunate that your record didn't end up reflecting how cool your teams are.
Clas Frixel other people I tested with, ty for tests even if it was just a few games here and there
I'm very happy with how far this meta has come, I would've never imagined I'd get the opportunity to play PiC in a team tour, let alone have a permaladder, s/o to the rest of the pic council (zoe jasprose YoBuddy) for helping us get to where we are now and obligatory second shoutout to Instruct for reviving the meta and fixing all the bugs :>
Hello, OMWC is over at this point, and we're in the process of updating our resources (our new VR is out woo!). However, there was a certain move used in a few of these matches that had a mysterious, inconsistent effect: Encore.
Encore was weird, depending on the timing, it could fail outright, or just ruin you by locking you into a nonexistent move. However, we recently did some testing and learned Encore always ends prematurely if you somehow lost the move you got encore-locked into, similarly to how choice items work in PiC. Therefore, Encore will be fixed to be more in line with these mechanics, which sort of takes away its viability because its easier to escape from it.
Anyways, to make it worth your time, here's all of my teams ive built so far: https://pokepast.es/5cd35da1336ebeb0
Encore was weird, depending on the timing, it could fail outright, or just ruin you by locking you into a nonexistent move. However, we recently did some testing and learned Encore always ends prematurely if you somehow lost the move you got encore-locked into, similarly to how choice items work in PiC. Therefore, Encore will be fixed to be more in line with these mechanics, which sort of takes away its viability because its easier to escape from it.
Anyways, to make it worth your time, here's all of my teams ive built so far: https://pokepast.es/5cd35da1336ebeb0
Dunno where to post this but.... weird interaction/potentially bug here?
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9partnersincrimerandombattle-1998950595
On turn 6, Altaria & Clefable were on the field, and Altaria was sharing Cloud Nine with Celfable.
Turn 7, Altaria dies and I swap in Ninetales.
Then log reads
Go! Ninetales!
[Ninetales's Drought]
The sunlight turned harsh!
However, when looking at it, the drought effect didn't activate, Clefable is still showing Cloud Nine ability, and the turn counter still shows Drought being strike-throughed.
On Turn 8, the battle light reads the Sunlight is Strong, but is still showing Drought effect struck through on turn counter. Its not until the end of the battle when Clefable dies that the turn counter returns to normal and the drought animation returns.
I'm assuming, based on the log, that sunlight *was* active, but everything else is indicating it wasn't. So, just thought I'd mention it.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9partnersincrimerandombattle-1998950595
On turn 6, Altaria & Clefable were on the field, and Altaria was sharing Cloud Nine with Celfable.
Turn 7, Altaria dies and I swap in Ninetales.
Then log reads
Go! Ninetales!
[Ninetales's Drought]
The sunlight turned harsh!
However, when looking at it, the drought effect didn't activate, Clefable is still showing Cloud Nine ability, and the turn counter still shows Drought being strike-throughed.
On Turn 8, the battle light reads the Sunlight is Strong, but is still showing Drought effect struck through on turn counter. Its not until the end of the battle when Clefable dies that the turn counter returns to normal and the drought animation returns.
I'm assuming, based on the log, that sunlight *was* active, but everything else is indicating it wasn't. So, just thought I'd mention it.
So this is just down to the UI not being particularly good at handling things with multiple abilities, so it'll just display what it had last. It's very likely active the whole time, with the UI displaying stuff weirdly - this can be seen with the Ruin abilities remaining on Pokemon, and the tooltip showing a lowered stat despite it not being changed.