Tox’s BSS blog

Beclowning myself in ranked singles since 2018.

Battle Stadium Singles blog — Trick Magic 2023 (Special Edition)

Announcement: https://sv-news.pokemon.co.jp/en/page/146.html

 

It took a few weeks shy of a full year since release, but we finally got an official online competition in the singles format in generation 9—and the situation hasn't really been much better for the folks playing doubles, either.

   I can only assume this has something to do with the unfinished state in which the game launched; let's remember that you couldn't even properly organize friendly competitions at launch.

   And before this event had even concluded, we got the announcement that this year's Dragon King Cup, essentially a qualifier for a Japanese in-life tournament, would again be played in the single battle format over the first weekend of December (01-Dec to 03-Dec).

   Returning to the subject at hand, you could tell it wasn't just me that was hungry for official online competitions. In addition to the customary one or two bigger practice tournaments organized by game8, the week running up to the tournament saw daily friendlies organized by cobalt_poke, with player numbers ranging from 400-900 participants (based on the five tournaments I entered). And lastly, and most importantly (!), it brought yours truly back from indefinite hiatus to sit through some crits again.

   The ruleset for this, gen9's inaugural singles competition, was exactly what you would expect given the season again: a playful Halloween romp with a roster of Ghost-types, excluding the available mythical and restricted pokemon (Arceus-Ghost, Calyrex-Shadow, Hoopa, and Giratina).

   Because I hadn't been active for almost half a year going into the event, I set myself the modest goal of finishing around global rank 500, with preparation consisting of entering a few of the above friendlies to try out team ideas, and to have access to usage stats in a metagame that saw far more development than these weekenders typically do.

 

 

Hey, it could be worse—the game-deciding Speed-tie could take place on turn one instead of turn two.

 

I think this camera shot wasn't in the game before the Teal Mask DLC was released, or am I imagining things?

 

In gen7 it was Mega-Gyarados (and Excadrill), in gen8 the Mold Breaker clones of Zekrom and Reshiram during restricted rulesets.

 

Red Card Mimikyu was the most interesting Mimikyu set this time around—besides Fling, of course.

 

...speaking of which.

 

Got me.

 

Can't beat the mirror against a top-3 usage mon, so the next best thing is to try to ensure you at least live a hit—so you get to cripple it.

 

The Thunder Wave whiff.

 

Not the turn one opener you want to see as Flutter-Mane...

 

Conversely, a Dragapult playing around the Zoroark as non-Booster Energy Flutter-Mane.

 

Only 7PP of Make It Rain left to get a crit or a well-timed paralysis proc.

 

Muscling through Maranga Berry bulk. I presume Tera-Water was to cushion Basculegion.

 

Anti-Basculegion-i-kyu.

 

The defensive Basculegion answer meets the offensive one.

 

Flutter Mane could have Taunt, but other than that, has to rely on a crit to get through +1 SpDef Unaware.

 

The Play Rough whiff.

 

Poltergeist over Shadow Claw in a format full of consumable items—on a mon whose major selling point is Knock Off.

 

Nothing like a 0-5 practice session the day before the tournament!

 

1) Team overview

 

Pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/5a813aaeda8226a3

 

Zoroark-Hisui

Zoroark-Hisui @ Focus Sash  
Ability: Illusion  
Level: 50  
Tera Type: Dark  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Knock Off  
- Shadow Claw  
- Taunt  
- Shadow Sneak

Zoroark has never been great in my time playing ranked singles formats on console, but when the format is limited enough like this, and it is the only natively Ghost-immune thing in the format, it is mandatory on every team as far as I am concerned.

   Further, in my view, the fully offensive physical Focus Sash is simply the best set because of its excellent match-up against Mimikyu (especially the Red Card set). This being the case also explains why Focus Sash Gengar is hard to use, and why Toxic Spikes as a strategy (Gholdengo/Skeledirge endgame) has to rely on bulky Gengar sets with Kasib Berry or Choice Scarf (Trick).

   Now, as good as Zoroark is at getting a 1-for-1 trade against offensive pokemon, it does not have the muscle to get through defensive pokemon like Skeledirge, Spiritomb, and Sableye, so it is best benched or brought in the back in such games, especially when Spiritomb or Sableye are likely brings form the opposing side.

   Dragapult is another existential threat to lead Zoroark deserving of special mention: Dragon Darts, while hard to click against correct Illusion positioning, 1HKOs standard Zoroark sets through Focus Sash, and it's not worth defensively EVing Zoroark against it because of sheer set variance of offensive investment on Dragapult (i.e. Adamant vs Jolly, Life Orb vs. Choice Band).

   Yet another major downside with Zoroark is becoming set-up bait for bulky Tera-Normal Booster Energy Flutter-Mane, which means Zoroark is still best employed as lead, exactly where it can be counterled.

 

Flutter-Mane

Flutter Mane @ Rocky Helmet 
Ability: Protosynthesis  
Level: 50  
Shiny: Yes  
Tera Type: Normal  
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Def / 188 Spe  
Bold Nature  
- Moonblast  
- Shadow Ball  
- Taunt  
- Thunder Wave

First, a point of personal privilege: as obnoxious as Extreme Speed Dragonite is, the paradox and ruin mons are what finally killed the main ranked format for me this gen, the Speed-creep of Booster Energy Flutter-Mane being the chief offender in that regard—essentially removing a major team archetype, the dedicated set-up sweep, from the game.

   As for this limited ruleset, in my view, you have two main ways to play Flutter-Mane here: purely offensive with Choice Specs or Booster Energy to avoid being outsped by +252 Spe Choice Scarf Basculegion, or some kind of defensive crippler, cushion, or set-up (Charm + Calm Mind + Draining Kiss) set.

  My goal with going for the defensive option was as follows: have a crippler that can, first, 1v1 opposing lead Zoroark to avoid the obnoxious Zoroark mirror; and, second, that beats most offensive lead Dragapult.

   Flutter-Mane accomplishes the above without telegraphing that the opposing Dragapult is indeed sitting in front of Flutter-Mane (70%+ Booster Energy usage proc vs. Illusion intact) instead of Zoroark.

   As established above, Zoroark is also an atrocious lead against opposing Sableye and Spiritomb, so having lead redundancy in this way, too, I deemed necessary—I didn't feel like automatically trying to counterlead them with Gholdengo, outside very specific team compositions where Gholdengo would not be relied on as a win-condition (Gholdengo-Zoroark/Flutter-Mane-).

   The justification for Rocky Helmet over Kasib Berry or Jaboca Berry is the extreme physical bulk, which should translate to two Rocky Helmet procs in many cases, even without factoring in Terastallization.

   Finally, this set also aims to get its Thunder Wave off against opposing 252 SpAtt Flutter Mane Shadow Ball (6.3% to 1HKO from full).

 

Gholdengo

Gholdengo @ Kee Berry  
Ability: Good as Gold  
Level: 50  
Tera Type: Water  
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 228 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe  
Modest Nature  
IVs: 0 Atk  
- Nasty Plot  
- Make It Rain  
- Shadow Ball  
- Recover

Kee Berry Gholdengo uses Sableye and Spiritomb, two of Zoroark's worst match-ups, alongside Dragapult, as set-up bait. And as the endgame win-condition Tera-Water + Kee Berry Recover has a favorable match-up against Basculegion.

   Further, resisting Roaring Torch gives Gholdengo a few turns to try to break through opposing Skeledirge, although it should be noted that getting through Maranga Berry sets requires Thunder Wave / Taunt support, or landing a Knock Off to give a neutral Make It Rain odds to 2HKO, depending on Skeledirge's SpDef-investment.

   My initial set ran more Speed investment, way up to a real Speed stat of 120, but I cut it down to 107 after getting into a few final mon 1v1s against Ceruledge and Basculegion in practice.

   This investment still creeps past fully bulky win-con Ceruledge (Bulk Up + three attacks Adamant Tera-Normal) and minimally invested opposing Gholdengo, and that's enough as I see it. A native Speed stat of 107 is also enough to outspeed paralyzed +252 Speed Dragapult.

 

Skeledirge

Skeledirge @ Maranga Berry  
Ability: Unaware  
Level: 50  
Tera Type: Normal  
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe  
Bold Nature  
- Torch Song  
- Slack Off  
- Earth Power  
- Yawn

I originally ran Ceruledge in this slot, very much inspired by what I can only assume was the single most influential team going into this: fortune_36's 15-0 run team in the friendly on 26-October-2023.

   However, after some testing of my own, I found its match-up against opposing Tera-Water Adaptability Basculegion to be too poor for my liking. Even after a Bulk Up-boost, Tera-Normal Ceruledge would just get brute forced through by Wave Crash, and switching to Tera-Grass would make Ceruledge a worse win-condition against the rest of the format.

   Moreover, Ceruledge's match-up against opposing Skeledirge tended to be quite painful to sit through, especially if Skeledirge was Leftovers instead of Maranga Berry—with Bitter Blade recovery (16 PP) going up against Slack Off recovery (8PP). Put another way, I was never bringing Ceruledge over Gholdengo in the endgame win-con role.

   Alright, what about Skeledirge as a win-condition, then? Well, the thinking was that even when not simply snowballing into the victory screen with Torch Song, Unaware with Slack Off and a neutral Tera-type should be able to grind through most threats with Thunder Wave and Taunt support, Mimikyu's Curse also something to play towards; and the prominent exceptions to win-con Skeledirge being Choice Specs users (Flutter-Mane, Gholdengo), and defensive Toxic Spikes play (Gengar teams)—Gholdengo's bailiwick.

   Finally, all this being said, I had only a few games of actual Skeledirge experience under my belt going into this, so the plan was to milk Skeledirge's team preview pressure, with the intention of benching it most games.

  

Mimikyu

Mimikyu @ Life Orb  
Ability: Disguise  
Level: 50  
Shiny: Yes  
Tera Type: Normal  
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Curse  
- Play Rough  
- Swords Dance  
- Shadow Sneak

Mimikyu returns to visit ruin upon yet another singles format!

   First things first, the sweetest set for Mimikyu in this time around has to be the Red Card set: you get to run a bulky offensive set with an option for Trick Room Basculegion mode—tailored to a Mimikyu mirror beyond simply going for the +252 Spe Speed-tie—so that when you inevitably get hit by a faster attack, +252 Att Shadow Claw is going to devastate everything except Zoroark being auto-swapped in.

   Nothing that fancy for me, however, I'm afraid. No, I went for the more conservative fully offensive set because of its sheer consistency.

   By this point in Mimikyu history, I don't think Curse is worth raising an eyebrow over—you have an option against things you can't directly break, setting up an endgame for Gholdengo or Skeledirge.

   Indeed, if anything, Swords Dance is the odd man out on this set. And with the benefit of hindsight, my testing should have told me in no uncertain terms that Pain Split, Destiny Bond, Taunt, or Thunder Wave would all have been more suitable for the format and for what I was trying to do as my endgame (Basculegion sweep or Kee/Maranga Berry attrition via Gholdengo/Skeledirge).

 

Basculegion-Male

Basculegion @ Choice Scarf  
Ability: Mold Breaker  
Level: 50  
Shiny: Yes  
Tera Type: Water  
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Aqua Jet  
- Last Respects  
- Wave Crash  
- Flip Turn

Based on usage stats from friendly competitions prior to the main event, the ratio of Adaptability to Mold Breaker on Basculegion was above 2:1, with Choice Scarf being the go-to item (around 30% usage).

   Having chosen Choice Scarf and Mold Breaker, what remains is to decide between Adamant and Jolly. Although Jolly 252 indeed hits the magical real Speed stat of 214, beating both +252 Dragapult (213) and Flutter-Mane (205), not to mention Speed-tying in the mirror, I concluded Adamant to be superior.

   This is because Basculegion needs the Attack to actually consistently 1HKO Mimikyu through its Disguise with Wave Crash without having to pop Tear-Water (assuming defensively uninvested Mimikyu). And as for Flutter-Mane, I simply assumed they would be over 70% Booster Energy usage anyway, like they were based on data from friendlies.

 

2) Tournament

Below, you will find brief synopses about my losses (screenshots included), as well as my win-rate in separate sections for all three days of 15 game blocks of play in this competition.

  In addition, I will try to include a tally of how often Skeledirge was brought because of the misgivings I voiced before and because of my own curioisity on how I would to piloting it.

 

Day 1

Win / Loss: 11 - 4

Skeledirge brought (win-loss): 3 - 2

 

Loss 1: Flutter-Mane-Zoroark-Skeledirge vs. Mimikyu-Basculegion-Flutter-Mane 

Skeledirge got crit by Surf Basculegion-F through +1 SpDef. At least it wasn't Hydro Pump!

 

Loss 1.

 

Loss 2: Flutter-Mane-Zoroark-Skeledirge vs. Froslass-Mimikyu-Skeledirge

Moonblast got Curse Body disabled on turn 1, so I went for Thunder Wave against the Mimikyu follow-up on a possible Zoroark, and missed, putting me behind.

   After this, I misplayed the endgame by not clicking Slack Off against opposing Skeledirge after Mimikyu set up Trick Room for it, which meant it was a clearly an offensive set, so my Skeledirge got barely 2HKO'd by Torch Song after taking two layers of Froslass Spikes upon insertion, Unaware ignoring the Maranga Berry boost as I foolishly opened Yawn.

 

Loss 2.

 

Loss 3: Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Dusknoir-Sableye-Basculegion

Lost my win-condition on turn 1 by having Gholdengo swapped in on Poltergeist by Red Card Dusknoir.

   With Gholdengo in the back, I honestly could have just done lead Zoroark here, the opposing Dragapult making me back out. But I don't think I can count this as a throw or choke because of Red Card RNG, although a turn 1 free win instead of a free loss would have been nice, heh.

 

Loss 3. Managing to lose to a non-Zoroark team was the lowlight of day one.

 

Loss 4: Zoroark-Flutter-Mane-Skeledirge vs. Gholdengo-Mimikyu-Basculegion

Skeledirge got Red Carded in on Play Rough, and crit by the subsequent Shadow Claw, putting me behind.

   This made the Tera-Water Wave Crash crit unrecoverable due to having one less PP of Slack Off than I should have against Wave Crash recoil attrition. I actually managed to go below the starting 1500 Elo at 4-4 after this loss.

 

Loss 4.

 

Rating after the first 15 games.

 

Looking back at the first day of play, I guess I can take some solace in the fact that every the loss thus far waw against a player with a Japanese ID, weekdays before noon GMT being the best time to queue against competent players, it being late afternoon in Japan, with EU still busy with school/work and NA asleep. Moreover, only one loss (loss 2) was due to an obvious misplay on my part, although you could make an argument for loss 3, as well.

   Finally, I guess I should mention the highlight game of the day, which went as follows:

1) Turn 1 Choice Band Tera-Steel Dragapult kills Flutter-Mane, then crits +1 Def Gholdengo on the turn I go for the Shadow Ball KO, putting it at 50%.

2) Tera-Water Gholdengo gets through the follow-up Chandelure, but gets crit again, this time by final mon Trailblaze Mimikyu.

3) This sets up a Mimikyu mirror endgame where I am slower, but the opposing Life Orb Shadow Sneak low-rolls (I assume) to leave my Mimikyu at 6 HP, after which my slower Shadow Sneak gets the guaranteed KO because of the chip caused by three opposing ticks of Life Orb damage. It's a double KO for all the marbles—something I haven't done in a tournament since Extreme Speed! Single Battles!! way back in 2020.

 

Day 2

Win / Loss: 11-3

Skeledirge brought (win-loss): 2-0

 

Loss 5: Zoroark-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Spectrier-Zoroark-Mimikyu

My first 1700+ Elo opponent; I was still in the 1630s-ish. I got put too far behind by turn 1 Dark Pulse flinch, which meant Mimikyu's Play Rough couldn't finish off Spectrier, so they had it in the back with 5% health to outspeed Gholdengo if it got through Zoroark and Mimikyu.

 

Loss 5.

 

Loss 6: Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Spiritomb-Gengar-

I made a play that is the very definition of throwing the game by Nasty Plotting in front of Spiritomb (Assault Vest?) as Gholdengo without popping Tera-Water, resulting in a Poltergeist 1HKO.

   Flutter-Mane then proceeded to miss two consecutive Thunder Waves after surviving Steel Tera Blast. After this, it should have been a Spiritomb 3-0, and the only reason Mimikyu even got through Spiritomb with +2 is because they clicked Sucker Punch on +2 Shadow Sneak.

   The final indignity was getting Cursed Body disabled on Shadow Sneak against Focus Sash Gengar. Another loss to a team without Zoroark, and a humiliation worth remembering.

   I dropped below 1600 Elo after this game with 19 games played already. 

 

Loss 6.

 

Loss 7:  Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Annihilape-Chandelure-Flutter-Mane

Flutter-Mane and Mimikyu traded into Fling Stealth Rock Annihilape and Minimize Chandelure, resulting in a clean final mon 1v1 with both players still having access to Tera after Chandelure died to Curse.

   I needed it to be anything except Flutter-Mane, and it was Flutter-Mane. It was still winnable if Flutter-Mane went for Moonblast and it landed into a non-Tera Gholdengo. 

   But I Tera'd immediately and got 2HKO'd by Moonblast. I just couldn't get myself to make the right play looking at that Zorua as part of the opposing six, because I'm a baddy bad. Donkey space issue?

 

Loss 7.

 

With so many haru imposters out there, I want to say this was not the genuine item. But, then again, they were fairly high up there ratings wise, and were using a big sleeper mon, the real dark horse, dedicated Tera-Spectrier (you better believe those puns were intended).

 

Rating 1700 took me a massive 29 games to hit, after which I retired for the day.

 

To sum up day two's games, I noticed myself benching Zoroark more and more whenever it looked like the opposing endgame might be Booster Energy Tera-Normal Flutter-Mane, or when the Zoroark lead felt too easily counterleadable (Dragapult, Spiritomb, Sableye)—opting instead almost entirely for compositions like Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Skeledirge/Gholdengo.

   And so, with 15+1 games to go, the next goal was rating 1750. And if getting there proved to be too Sisyphean a task, I resolved to call it quits there rather than risk another day three collapse, like so, so many times before.

 

Day 3

Win / Loss: 7 - 3

Skeledirge brought (win-loss): 0 - 0

 

Starting standing going into day three.

 

One game from 1750 with a respectable 13 games to go...and that's when boulder started rolling back downhill.

 

Loss 8: Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Flutter-Mane-Skeledirge-Gengar

This game was the highlight of the entire weekend for me. Unfortunately, this also means that it is too difficult to give a clear and precise summary without resorting to multiple paragraphs, which is beyond the scope of what I am prepared to do here.

   The endgame came down to Gholdengo dodging Focus Sash Gengar's Destiny Bond with Recover, after it switched in on Shadow Ball, removing Mimikyu's Curse from Curse Tera-Electric Skeledirge, but Shadow Ball got disabled in the process. I couldn't get Curse back on the opposing Skeledirge, which was down to 3 or 4 Slack Offs from before, so Gholdengo couldn't muscle through it in time due to Skeledirge's Maranga Berry.

   I have left the opponent's Trainer Name in below because I am curious to see how far they got, and their team and plays were so good I hope they don't mind. I also wonder what the Zoroark set was. GG.

 

Loss 8.

 

Loss 9: Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Basculegion

The Flutter-Manes and Life Orb Mimikyus traded into each other exactly, with the opponent using their Tera (Fairy) on turn 1 Flutter-Mane.

   This meant I got to +1 Def Gholdengo with Tera remaining against Basculegion without Tera in the final mon 1v1. It was Protect Focus Sash Basculegion so Last Resepcts 2HKO'd. Dropped down to 1716 after this loss.

 

Loss 9.

 

Dropped down to 1716 after back-to-back losses (8 & 9).

 

Loss 10: Flutter-Mane-Mimikyu-Gholdengo vs. Basculegion-Zoroark-Mimikyu

A 1758 rated opponent. Turn one Assault Vest Tera-Water Basculegion into special attacker Zoroark was too much for Tera-Water Gholdengo after it got crit down to 50% health by Basculegion Flip Turning out after getting the Kee Berry proc switching in on Aqua Jet from Flutter-Mane, which lived turn one Liquidation.

   Spiritomb and Zoroark with Skeledirge and Flutter-Mane got me to bench my own Zoroark in the lead yet again.

 

Loss 10.

 

I wasn't the only one with a spooky portrait.

 

My final rating with about 12 hours of play left; I resigned with six more games left to play.

 

Result

Total Win / Loss: 29-10

Skeledirge tally: 7 games, 5 wins, 2 losses

 

Final standing, in-game view.

 

Final standing, HOME view.

 

Finally, a series of comparisons of key usage stats from the last friendly on 02-Nov with 993 participants (left), and the actual tournament itself (right) with 26,262 participants:

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) In Conclusion

For what this format was, I found it fun enough. Zoroark keeping people honest on turn one in an otherwise offensive format was thematic and felt just right, and seeing the newly-released Kee, Maranga, and Jaboca Berry get their due is just great.

   And despite a double-digits finish being doable here for me, having reached my goal of 1750 after some difficulty, and after not playing for a prolonged period, I can't say I have regrets for not pushing through with all my remaining six games on day three, either.

   I'll be back for Dragon King Cup in December if they do a version not region-locked to Japan again this year, and I'm also holding out hope for next year's rulesets in regular ranked.

- Tox

SW-0021-9848-8999