Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon

[mikey]

I'm slowly gathering legendaries by throwing away mewtwos lol

I swear garchomp makes me wanna kill myself

[SlowPokemon]

^Agreed. I hate Garchomp.

[mikey]

I'm going to look back at all my battles- I saved videos for everyone, and I bet only a handful didn't have garchomp in their 6

[SlowPokemon]

I did my mandatory three battles and didn't run into Garchomp once. But there are major hacks this tournament. It's kinda stressing me out how many Pokémon are shiny and perfect IV.

My favorite of the three battles was when I swept an entire Trainer with my Togedemaru. I wish I could have heard him swearing on the other end.

[mikey]

I also saw a lot of hail teams.  Aurora veil is busted in half...

[SlowPokemon]

I also saw a lot of hail teams.  Aurora veil is busted in half...

I did see one of those

[BlackDragonSlayer]

I'm not sure if this game is ridiculously long, ridiculously slow, or if I'm just spending too much time grinding/doing Festival Plaza stuff that it just seems really drawn out, but I don't feel like I'm making much progress, strangely enough. I'm about to head to Po Town.

[mikey]

The straight story took me under 20 hours.  It's probably you grinding/not using exp share

[Echo]

I'm surprised Garchomp was as common as it was, because I think it's pretty bad for the Battle Competition considering how common Cloyster, the Ultra Beasts (Celesteela and Pheromosa in particular giving it trouble), and the Tapus are (it's not even a good answer for Tapu Koko).

That being said, Cloyster was the real cancer of the competition. Like 90% of my battles were Cloyster leads.

But there are major hacks this tournament. It's kinda stressing me out how many Pokémon are shiny and perfect IV.

I dunno why you think those are necessarily hacks. Shiny Pokemon are easier to get than ever thanks to the Shiny Charm and 'call for help' battles, and between breeding for IVs and Hyper Training it should be expected that most people who care enough will have perfect stats.

[mikey]

if I saw a cloyster I used lycanroc who can ko with rock slide+accelerock.
At least cloyster is predictable and can't run a billion sets like garchomp can.  Celesteela, gyara, and alolan marowak was a specific 3 that I saw a lot and I hated myself for not trying to predict the switch, but I was afraid of dragon dances.  Tapus are cancer and should be banned online because their base stats seem normal until you realize they get 2x stab thanks to their abilities.  I regret not sticking a scarf on my gengar because he would've been amazing.
Instead I used junky pokemon like my arcanine that I used in the main game ugh...  Overall it looks like my record was 24-21 which I guess is fine, but if there's another tournament I ain't gonna be friendly.

oh also mimiku.  Sooo many focus sash mimiku.

[SlowPokemon]

Mimikyu* but yeah by the looks of things this competitive scene is way more annoying than fun

[mikey]

yeah I mean obviously there are gonna be the cheesy strats like mimik...yu...  that dominate lower ladders but I'd assume at some point the tapus' raw power will be supplanted by synergistic teams in top ladders.  Then lower ladders will probably emulate the higher ladders but either way battle spot will continue to be obnoxious.  I'll stick to my 6v6es

[Echo]

On a side note about online play, I'm really glad they got the Parting Shot thing fixed, because now I can show off how good Silvally can really be.

yeah I mean obviously there are gonna be the cheesy strats like mimik...yu...  that dominate lower ladders but I'd assume at some point the tapus' raw power will be supplanted by synergistic teams in top ladders.  Then lower ladders will probably emulate the higher ladders but either way battle spot will continue to be obnoxious.  I'll stick to my 6v6es

Battle Spot-style Singles is usually summed up as "nuke something with Z-move, have a Sash or Scarf sweeper as backup."

6v6 Singles is better, but if you're playing Showdown, then Smogon's bans are not that great (or rather, the unbans, so there's a bunch of stuff that's too strong that right now). In particular banning Aegislash was dumb for Smogon because not only is it not as devastating as a bunch of the Pokemon that they unbanned this generation, Aegislash would've helped tone down a lot of the stuff that's dominant. Both Smogon and actual cartridge play will suffer from the same OP stuff like Tapus, Landorus, Greninja, Pheromosa, etc., though.

GameFreak seems to have realized that they let things go too far out of hand for Singles after Gen 3, so they balance the game around Double Battles.

[mikey]

nah I think gen 4 had a healthy competitive environment (well minus garchomp), it was hidden abilities and mega stones and z crystals and terrains and weather changes that screwed it over
did you guys know z splash raises attack 3 stages
I think azumarill can learn splash

[FireArrow]

Azumarill also learns belly drum (z or otherwise.)

I don't mid garchomp too much, Mega Metagross is dumb af tho.