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Black Magic, PCL Season 2+Off-Season
http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/xyani/darkrai.gifBlack Magic http://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/xyani/darkrai.gif Heyo, so this is the thread for the clan Black Magic for the PokeCommunity League's 2nd season. Clan Members Nah -Battle Server Username(s): Zekrom52 -Timezone: UTC -5 -Tiers: OU, Ubers, and (to a lesser degree) UU and Doubles R.F. -Battle Server Username(s): Therf -Timezone: UTC +1 -Tiers: OU Wicked3DS -Battle Server Username(s): Wicked3DS -Timezone: UTC -5 -Tiers: OU KorpiklaaniVodka -Battle Server Username(s): KorpiklaaniVodka -Timezone: UTC +3 -Tiers: OU, Ubers, Anything Goes Golgari -Battle Server Username(s): Bidoof FTW -Timezone: UTC -5 -Tiers: OU, Monotype, UU, and more Rabinov -Battle Server Username(s): Rabinov, Rallyknob -Timezone: UTC -Tiers: OU, UU, RU, NU, PU, Ubers, LC, Monotype, 1v1 Resources to make use of: Team-Building Workshop Replay Critique Thread Damage Calculator You can also make [RMT] (team help) threads in the main BTB section. ALSO I AM HERE TO HELP YOU PLEASE NAG ME ABOUT STUFF Hopefully this'll all go well =) |
Usernames: Therf
Tiers: OU Timezone: UTC+01 Reasons: I was pretty motivated to get better at the metagame during season one, but after that it kinda died down. With season two I hope to get back into things and improve my battling ability. Some random questions: - Wheren't we supposed to be more people? - Skype? |
Username: Wicked3DS
Tier: OU Timezone: UTC -5 (EST) I'd like to learn more about competitive battling and this seems like a fun way to do it! |
Username: KorpiklaaniVodka
Tier: OU, Ubers, AG Time zone: GMT +3 I'm here to learn more about competitive battling and improve my teambuilding. |
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And Skype......that came up briefly last season. And basically my stance on that hasn't really changed: that I don't see why we need one when we have the forum and the battle server to communicate on. and I don't have a Skype account anyway |
Hey guys, hope we can have a successful season together! :)
Server Username: Bidoof FTW What tiers/formats you currently battle in: I have a team for most formats, but I prefer playing and am more knowledgeable in OU, Monotype, and UU. What timezone you live in: EST (UTC -5:00) I haven't really been battling competitively since Lando-I was banned, and I'm trying to become more active in the Battle Server again. I'm hoping that joining PCL will allow me to have a good time, meet and get to know people that I did not necessarily know before, improve at competitive battling, improve greatly at teambuilding and learn to understand each step of the teambuilding process, and maybe have a little winning on the side ;) |
Server Username: Spartacus
What tiers/formats you currently battle in: OU, Monotype, NU. But this is because my teams got deleted recently and haven't remade my UU and RU teams. But OU is my strongest I'd say, haven't really been able to judge the the others as much because I don't play them as much. What timezone you live in: GMT |
You can see it in the subforum, but they've finally started the off-season launch events. You don't have to participate in any of the events if you don't want to, but it's probably a good idea to, to get some practice and/or have some fun, as well as try to get Exp for the clan.
I also just wanna throw out there that I'd like to do a battle or two with y'all sometime. edit: There is also one event called the "PCL Hunger Games". It's not explicitly mandatory, but it kinda only works if all four clans participate in it. It's essentially a series of mini-events where one member from each clan in each event, and the key thing is that each clan member can only participate in one event. You also don't really sign-up yourself; I have to PM Chase a list of who's doing what event. The 6 events are: -standard ORAS OU tourney -a lower tiers (UU, RU, and NU) tournament -older gens OU tourney (you do one of each of Gen 3 OU, Gen 4 OU, and Gen 5 OU with your opponent) -a Little Cup tournament -a Battle Factory tournament (basically randbats but all the Pokemon for both players are from the same tier) -a team building competition So we need to decide who's doing which events. I'll say now that the lower tiers tourney is best left to Doof or Spartacus, since they seem to be the only ones here who actually play RU and NU. Then there's also the matter of the Little Cup thing. I've never played LC, but have any of you? And then the older gens tourney.....I started competitive battling back in Gen 5, so I have some experience with that meta, but so I don't know the first thing about the ADV meta or the DPPt meta. So what're we doin' about that one? |
That Hunger Games event sure looks interesting. It's basically a test on how well one knows the basics and how fast one can adapt to new things. There's a good chance that members from the other clans will struggle with some of the tasks as well, unless there's some specialist that has a lot of experience to spare.
Basically, whoever is most capable of adjusting to a new meta should be set to one, with preference to those who already have some experience in playing it. I also want to point out, that the team building part doesn't have any restriction, which means, that while you still have to make the team yourself, it's not forbidden to let other clan members review said team. |
I wouldn't mind going into any of these tournaments, it is a good opportunity for me to get some practice in general battling and get some extra experience in one/some of these tiers. Just throwing that out there if we need to decide as a clan who's doing what.
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Imo ORAS OU should be left to someone who isn't familiar with any of the other formats and who doesn't have the time to look into them. I can also see Lower Tiers and Battle Factory as only being moderately hard (and in case of LC only one meta) and the Team-Building competition with a little bit of help relatively accessible (especially since TBing is what we have to do anyway). The OG tournament seems to be quite some work, as it combines learning three different new metas (including all the different mechanics)+building a team for every one of them.
I'd leave ORAS OU to someone else, because I know I have the time. Same with Battle Factory and the Lower Tiers tour. I'm also not sure if I would make it in time for the Old Gen one, just because of all the stuff that comes with it. That pretty much leaves LC and the TB comp. I'd take any one of the two. |
Oh yeah, so I went and sent Chase the list of who's doing what for PCL Hunger Games. This is the list so everyone knows what they're doing:
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The events probably won't start until Saturday at the earliest, so.... good luck y'all |
hey black magic clan, check out my post in the botw thread! y'all are playing in it this week (can win 50 exp woo) so that post contains the relevant info. gl!
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battle factory, how appropriate
Does anyone have a specific tier they'd like for the botw? My current thoughts are UU, since anti was thinking lower tier, but I'm sure we could go lower too |
just posting a reminder for everyone to do the battles they have to do for PCL Hunger games and the other offseason events, since they all kinda have deadlines coming up in less than a week
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Ok, so I want to get some activity and interaction going in the clan here, and so I have a few ideas for things we can all do together. I will be posting one thing every other day for us to do, and I encourage you all to try to participate. If you guys really are serious about improving your battling and team building skills, I'd like to think that you'd all join in, and that this'll help a little bit (and one of PCL's primary objectives is to try and improve people's skills anyway). Keep in mind that when I post the next exercise that doesn't mean that we can't still work on the previous one(s).
1) Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a team: Lopunny @ Lopunnite Ability: Limber Happiness: 0 EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Fake Out - Frustration - High Jump Kick - Ice Punch Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet Ability: Rough Skin EVs: 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 Spe Lax Nature - Earthquake - Dragon Tail - Fire Blast - Stealth Rock Thundurus @ Life Orb Ability: Prankster EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Timid Nature - Thunder Wave - Thunderbolt - Hidden Power [Ice] - Focus Blast Gengar @ Life Orb Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Shadow Ball - Sludge Wave - Focus Blast - Pain Split Bisharp @ Life Orb Ability: Defiant EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Swords Dance - Knock Off - Iron Head - Sucker Punch Azumarill @ Assault Vest Ability: Huge Power EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe Adamant Nature - Aqua Jet - Waterfall - Play Rough - Knock Off This here is a pretty basic Mega Lopunny hyper offense team. It's a solid team, but certainly not one without flaws. What I want you all to do is figure what is good about this team and what issues it has/what is threatening to it. The idea here is that being able to spot the strengths and weaknesses in a team will allow you to understand what some desirable and undesirable traits are in a team (and so be able to incorporate that into your own team building), as well as be able to figure out what the key parts of a team (both yours and your opponent's) are that you need to be mindful of during battle. There is also going to be one other activity I'll post now, since it doesn't need its own day or post. 2) Fight Me! I mentioned before that I wanted to battle all of you sometime, and I was serious about that. I am going to do an OU battle or two with each one of you sometime. It helps me get an idea of your current skill level, and getting more battle experience is never a bad thing. Battling in the PCL doesn't just have to restricted to official major events y'know. So please set up a date and time with me for this. Otherwise if I don't hear from you in a few days I'll just nag you about it and/or just challenge you out of the blue if I see you on the server. You'd probably prefer that I don't do that to you, right? |
Well, I'll try. Might be a multipost thingy, though.
In terms of weaknesses, I'd say VoltTurn could be a problem. Sure you have Chomp, who can block Volt Switch, but then there's stuff like Mega Manectric and Raikou that can threaten it out with HP Ice. And while Bisharp can take advantage of Intimidate, it still doesn't like a Flamethrower/Overheat. Since they are also Electric types, they can't be paralyzed by Prankster T-Wave. Rotom gets quite a few opportunities to go for Will-O-Wisp, considering that your Burn-resist consists of Gengar. Speaking of Gengar: it doesn't appreciate a Knock Off from AV Torn-T. Then there's also Lando-T which kinda checks half the team. Also Thundurus doesn't have 0 Atk IVs That's pretty much all I have right now... |
3) Complete the team:
I'ma post a core, and then want you guys to work together to figure out how to best complete the team so that it could stand a chance on the ladder if it was to be used. Metagross @ Metagrossite Ability: Clear Body--->Tough Claws EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 SpD Jolly Nature - Meteor Mash - Zen Headbutt - Hammer Arm - Ice Punch Keldeo-Resolute @ Choice Specs Ability: Justified EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 Def Timid Nature - Hydro Pump - Scald - Secret Sword - Icy Wind Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers Ability: Intimidate EVs: 248 HP / 240 Def / 12 SpD / 8 Spe Impish Nature - Stealth Rock - U-turn - Earthquake - Stone Edge This is a pretty basic core. Keldeo and Mega Metagross do a fairly good job of checking what the other has a difficult time with. Keldeo shreds ground types and wins vs most physical walls (like Skarm, or Mega Sableye), while Mega Metagross eats up Mega Venusaur, Mega Altaria/Fairies, and the Latis, for example. The two of them together make for a fairly good breaker duo. Landorus acts as a way to absorb T-Waves, something the other 2 hate, while also being a Talonflame check and setting up rocks and providing a relatively safe way to bring in some 'mons via a slowish U-turn. |
The Latis usually go well with Keldeo, especially since they give you somewhat of a switchin to opposing Keldeo. They also serve as somewhat of a check to fast electric types, especially Mega Manectric which can abuse Intimidate against Mega Metagross, while also beating Keldeo and Lando-T with T-Bolt/HP Ice. They also serve as Defog support.
Healing Wish on Latias could be used to give M-Meta and Keldeo a little bit more life, as well. Then again, this core looks somewhat offensive, so maybe Latios might be a better choice. Offensive teams tend to run Scarf/HW Jirachi, anyway, at least as far as I know. |
So, we now have a new teambuilding competition where we as a clan have to build a team.
I suppose, the first thing that we need to decide is which team archetype (HO, BO, Balance, Semistall, Stall, diverse subtypes like weather, etc.) we want to build and which Pokemon to build around. My suggestions would be a Balance team with Mega Latias. |
Balance is fine by me. I'm not exactly into Mega Latias though, but if we do use it, maybe this set?:
Latias @ Latiasite Ability: Levitate EVs: 248 HP / 68 Def / 192 Spe Timid Nature - Thunder Wave - Roar - Recover - Dragon Pulse |
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I'd prefer sand HO with Mega Heracross
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In general, I wonder how much creativity we could actually go for. |
Balance works for me as well, but I'm not too into the Mega Latias idea.
Maybe we could bring in a UU mega like Absol? |
We could use Mega Absol I guess. It bugs me that it's made of glass but oh well they want some creativity and at least it has Magic Bounce.
And idk pair it with Excadrill or Starmie and throw in a Talonflame or something? |
I suppose, there won't be other suggestions. Can we get a poll or something? That way we can at least decide what mon to build around.
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M'kay, there's now a poll up with the 3 megas mentioned so far. Let's see how this goes....
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Just saying that in case of no real victor in the poll, our clan head might as well decide by a coin flip who we build around :)
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Mega Absol it is. Next thing would be deciding on which set we want to use. We basically have to choose between a physical one or a mixed attacker.
Opinions? |
A mixed set sounds nice to me.
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Absol @ Absolite
Ability: Justified EVs: 252 Atk / 32 SpA / 224 Spe Jolly / Naive Nature - Sucker Punch - Knock Off - Fire Blast / Ice Beam / Pursuit - Superpower That's pretty much the basic layout of the All-Out Attacker set. If we go mixed, Pursuit is pretty much out of question. Fire Blast is for the likes of Ferrothorn and Skarmory and Ice Beam for Lando-T and Gliscor. There's also options like Thunderbolt (for stuff like Azumarill). So, what are we going for? |
https://gist.github.com/TheRF/88cd6df2e7bf3774a0a3
Stuff. Figured I might as well throw that out. Just some unfinished garbage, tbh., but since I figured that I might not even finish that stuff anyway, since I can't really find any sort of motivation, because I'm just a depressed piece of shit, I'll just show what I threw together. There's no real explanation to all the stuff, because I don't really feel like it and like I said, it's not even finished. <_< |
I mean hey it's a start, and we kinda needed to get working on this anyway. It's not like you needed to make a finished team anyway since it's a clan thing that we're all supposed to contribute to.
I do like Toxicroak because the Water immunity is hella nice and it means we get a good Fairy check without resorting to a Steel type plus it gets Drain Punch to help it live longer in addition to water healing. It's also not a usual OU 'mon so there's that too n_n I would actually change Talonflame to a set with Taunt over Will-o-Wisp so it breaks stall better, which the team needs (could also run a different EV spread to give more offensive presence, maybe). Gonna need a spinner though because of the bird and hazard damage is no fun to have to keep taking over the course of the match. |
The main issue that I have is that it's supposed to be an offensive core that breaks down defensive mons, yet it struggels with MSab, which is pretty much the embodiment of defensive. Also, since the core isn't all that bulky, offensive pressure kinda seems more important, making Hazard Removal potentially more of a hindrance. I'd actually prefer to not having to use TFlame at all. Not because I don't like it, but rather because of Rocks and stuff.
One of the good things about Toxicroak is that it also deals with Azumarill, which is usually one of the big threats to offensive teams. |
https://gist.github.com/TheRF/88cd6df2e7bf3774a0a3
Not my proudest creation but I'm at the point where I don't give a crap. Do whatever you want with it, change it, leave it as is, create something completely different, or keep ignoring everything; see if I care. No matter what you do, I think I've done enough for this "team work project" and you'll probably be able to deal with everything else. I'm gonna take a break at least until the next season starts. Maybe I get some motivation to deal with you people again. Yadayadarantrantimoutcyalaterblabla. I'm gonna play some Smash or something... |
So made a few modifications to the version of the team RF posted:
Spoiler:
Yes there's no 6th 'mon, but that can just be filled with a Scarfer or something. Can go with Garchomp like in RF's version, or something else. Was kinda hoping that some of the rest of you could perhaps pitch ideas for the final slot..... |
pinging ppl wolf style
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Make sure to work out your times and formats with your opponent. Deadline is April 6th. Good luck everyone, and remember that there are resources to help you out and stuff |
Contacted aeternum already, we're planning our format currently!
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning your decision. It's just a clarification thing, because I always have a feeling special EV spreads are special for a reason. |
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Alright, so I had my battles with Noa and my main thoughts are:
The first battle was the best out of the three, because I managed to spot a weakness on my opponents team and I managed to make use of it. There were definitely missplays involved on both my and my opponets end. The second battle was a complete desaster. Not only did I have not a single clue what I was doing, I kept on doing stupid plays and ended up losing. It shows that I have to practice a lot. The third battle was somewhat of a mixed bag. My opponent used the same team from the second battle, so I already knew what sets he was running, which somewhat gave me an advantage. At the same time, I never used the team that I was using (which is totally my fault, I know), so I suppose that somewhat made up for it. Again, a lot of missplays from my side, but not as severe as in the second battle. It basically boils down to me needing more practice experience. |
Anyone interested into building a team around Hoopa-C? With that recent suspect around Hoopa-U I've seen a couple people on the forums starting to talk about it and how it might be a decent replacement, despite its more apparent weaknesses. I can see building a team with it as somewhat of a fun activity and it would even be useful in case they decide to ban Hoopa-U.
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It could make a decent Hoopa Unbound replacement I guess. Same bulk stat wise and Ghost STAB is about as good as Dark STAB in this gen, base 150 Sp.Attack is really good (especially with Specs/Nasty Plot), isn't 4x U-turn weak (though is 4x Dark weak) Would have to be special-only probably though since base 110 Attack is kinda eh. It's also slightly slower than the Unbound version but base 70 is still enough for slow walls and stuff.
I wouldn't really know how to go about building a Hoopa-C team though..... |
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