Special Battle Spot Special Season 4: 1v1! (6v6 team preview)


The Special Battle rules for Season 4 have been revealed. Season 4 will run from May 16th 2017 to July 18th 2017 and runs on Sun & Moon. This ruleset requires you to bring up to 6 Pokémon to the selection screen, but you only bring 1 Pokémon to the battle. Mega Stones, Focus Sash, Z-Crystals and Eviolite are banned:
Battle type: Single Battle
Pokémon Restrictions: National Pokédex.
Banned Pokémon: Mewtwo, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Diancie, Hoopa, Volcanion, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Magearna, Ash-Greninja
Item Restrictions: Mega Stones, Focus Sash, Z-Crystals and Eviolite are banned
The other standard rules apply, including all set to Level 50 if above that, and you choose 1 Pokémon out of your 6, and you cannot have two Pokémon holding the same hold item. Battles have a 5 minute duration, with turns having a 15 second timer!


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So its gonna be a 1VS1 Metagame! Tapu Lele,Mimikyu and Tapu Koko are looking great for this! Also Choice Scarf Porygon-Z with Hyper Beam looks like a nuke that can win a lot of games!

__________________________________

Here is a link to the thread from a past Online Competition who used similar rules: http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...competition-now-playable-on-showdown.3568427/
 
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Awesome, I hoped they would do a 1v1 meta again! This is basically Flash Clash + Alola pokemon - Chansey.

Mimikyu looks like the ultimate pokemon for team preview mindgames... a Curse/Substitute set can basically defeat anything slower than 96 base speed, while a life orb set is guaranteed to get off strong hits. Maybe it'll scare away glass cannons like Greninja and Porygon-Z. I had huge success with mold breaker Haxorus last time, so this is just another reason to use it again I guess.

Some annoying pokemon like Whimsicott, sableye, Talonflame, Smeargle, Klefki etc have been nerfed by the new mechanics and the presence of terrain, so maybe we'll see less of those. Celesteela, on the other hand, looks quite good.

Has Custap Berry been released?
 
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DUde i love the 1v1 meta! Can't wait to use my Z-Reflect Lele and my Charge Z-Thunder Koko
 
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Ditto. Ditto everywhere.

Hum. I remember back in ORAS an online competition or a special season occured featuring 1vs1. It could be a good start for theorycrafting.
 
Ditto. Ditto everywhere.

Hum. I remember back in ORAS an online competition or a special season occured featuring 1vs1. It could be a good start for theorycrafting.
That being the Flash Clash Kong Harald alluded to above.
http://www.smogon.com/forums/thread...competition-now-playable-on-showdown.3568427/

What bums me out the most is the lack of access to Custap for cool Sturdymons like Metal Burst Aggron. Sawk was fun as it could run either Sturdy Counter or Mold Breaker, but I suppose Excadrill and Haxorus are the superior Mold Breakers/Mimikyu killers since they actually oneshot it (albeit having to rely on Iron Tail in the case of Haxorus).

Going to be fun dusting off the Perish Song Azumarill, nevertheless.
 
After some theorymonning i came up with this Porygon-Z set:

Porygon-Z @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Thunderbolt
- Tri Attack


You basically lead with Porygon-Z if Hyper Beam hits neutral you fire off an Adaptability boosted Hyper Beam that is 2HKO'ing almost every Pokémon!


OFFENSIVE DAMAGE CALCULATIONS!

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 202-238 (109.7 - 129.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 158-186 (108.2 - 127.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 222-262 (152 - 179.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 156-184 (101.9 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO


 

cant say

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ok so I'm pretty sure there will be lots of FWG cores, this is what I'll be using for sure:

Ferrothorn @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Bullet Seed
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

greg ninja (Greninja) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protean
EVs: HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Cannon
- Water Shuriken
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse


Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 44 Atk / 236 SpA / 228 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- High Jump Kick / Superpower / Low Kick
- Overheat
- Hidden Power Ice
loses to sap sipper perish Azu though but teching for that is not hard. I like the look of a sturdy balloon (in lieu of custap) magnezone as a fourth, and yache chomp as fifth, and might run my own azu because it is good. I'm mostly just scared of Mimikyu and sturdy users but don't really like any of the mold breakers in a 1v1 format

edit: the smogon 1v1 viabiiity rankings are pretty good for this, even though their meta is very different with megas and z moves allowed. you can still get an idea for some stuff

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/1v1-resources.3592842/#post-7188257
 
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Theorymon

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Oh man, fun to see the return of 1v1. It's a quick, pick up and play metagame that's sometimes really frustrating, but you can recover quickly with the fast pace at least!

So lemme try to recall some stuff from the ORAS version and extrapolate.

With Focus Sash banned, most teams have at least ONCE "Pseudo Sasher"

I don't think this will change much, but I think most people are going to go for Mimikyu rather than the usual Focus Sash stuff. I agree that a Substitute + Curse set sounds rather deadly for slow Pokemon. You could even run Trick Room to make Perish Song backfire on Azumarill! I imagine Curse Mimikyu should be using a Figgy Berry to restore a bit of health too, for extra Substitutes. Alternately, Life Orb sounds like a good way to deal with faster offensive Pokemon.

With Custap Berry remaining unreleased, Sturdy Pokemon are going to take a hit in viability for sure. I think this probably screws up Magnezone a lot (though I imagine it's still usable), but I think Donphan and Sawk got some good ways around this. Donphan still uses Counter / Endeavor just fine thanks to Ice Shard. In fact, Donphan in general stands out as probably the best user of Sturdy now, since with an Expert Belt, Earthquake + Ice Shard actually KOs Haxorus! Soft Sand is probably a good choice too, since it lets Donphan OHKO Greninja (Water Shuriken needs 4-5 hits to OHKO Donphan)

Sawk probably isn't as good as it used to be, especially with Mimikyu roaming around, but I think its niche is that it has reasonable Speed compared to most users of Sturdy, so it can use what some sturdy teams used in ORAS, and use Salac Berry in place of Custap.

Mold Breakers are an important reaction to Pseudo Sashers

I don't think much has changed here: Haxorus and Excadrill are the Pokemon of choice. I think with Donphan likely to be better than Magnezone this time around, I'd prefer Haxorus since it outspeeds Mimikyu without a Choice Scarf and at the very least, has a chance to beat Donphan with a specialized EV spread. However, Excadrill does outspeed Blaziken with a Scarf. This does mean a 50% chance to lose because of double Protect, but that's better than just dying (unless we use that bulky Haxorus set I've been hypothesizing)

Anyways, Haxorus was damn good in ORAS, and I imagine it's even better than usual here. With a Choice Band, Shadow Claw is a guaranteed OHKO on Mimikyu (Really lets not use Iron Tail lol). This was a niche option last gen but might make much more now with the potential rise of Donphan. Since Expert Belt Donphan normally KOs with Earthquake + Ice Shard, I think you could easily run max HP on Choice Band Haxorus. Even with 4 Atk, CB Jolly Haxorus OHKOs Mimikyu and Blaziken, and 2HKOs Donphan with Outrage. However, I do wonder if a better EV spread is out there, since Life Orb Adamant Blaziken still has a 43% chance to OHKO with High Jump Kick. Maybe some more bias to Defensive investment can work, but maybe there are some interesting Special Attacks to survive that I haven't thought of?

The Azumarill factor

For those of you who are unfamiliar: Azumarill is a particularly nasty Pokemon in 1v1. It can use Perish Song and its Slow Speed to come out on top against a lot of defensive Pokemon, and it can use offensive sets to defeat a lot of frailer Pokemon. Predicting which Azumarill you're facing can be a really dangerous game, so I tend to like having reliable answers to it.

Other random stuff I'm thinking about

Electric Seed Tapu Koko: Haven't thought about this enough yet, but I've seen and used these in regular Battle Spot Singles to screw up Ground-type Pokemon. Maybe something similar could be effective here, since Focus Sash is banned?

Celesteela and Toxapex: These seem like the most interesting defensive options added for this metagame. They'd work pretty similarly to how they usually do in Battle Spot Singles. However, Celesteela could totally run some wacko offensive sets too, so I imagine Celesteela's unpredictability is especially dangerous here!

Silvally: Silvally itself probably isn't good, but in a metagame where surprises are extremely deadly, not being able to tell what typing a Pokemon has in team preview could be pretty deadly...
 
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DragonWhale

It's not a misplay, it's RNG manipulation
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252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 148 HP / 20 Def Occa Berry Kartana: 254-302 (166 - 197.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
 
252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 148 HP / 20 Def Occa Berry Kartana: 254-302 (166 - 197.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Weird...wonder what I evd for then...
Edit: I would like to give my thanks to the guy who put "flare blitz" and "blue flare" next to each other on the calc
 
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Theorymon

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ok so I'm pretty sure there will be lots of FWG cores, this is what I'll be using for sure:

Ferrothorn @ Choice Band
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature
- Gyro Ball
- Bullet Seed
- Power Whip
- Knock Off

greg ninja (Greninja) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Protean
EVs: HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Cannon
- Water Shuriken
- Ice Beam
- Dark Pulse


Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 44 Atk / 236 SpA / 228 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- High Jump Kick / Superpower / Low Kick
- Overheat
- Hidden Power Ice
loses to sap sipper perish Azu though but teching for that is not hard. I like the look of a sturdy balloon (in lieu of custap) magnezone as a fourth, and yache chomp as fifth, and might run my own azu because it is good. I'm mostly just scared of Mimikyu and sturdy users but don't really like any of the mold breakers in a 1v1 format

edit: the smogon 1v1 viabiiity rankings are pretty good for this, even though their meta is very different with megas and z moves allowed. you can still get an idea for some stuff

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/1v1-resources.3592842/#post-7188257
I mentioned this on discord but just so I don't forget: I think you might want to consider running a Poison-type attack on Greninja, probably over Dark Pulse.

I was thinking about HP Poison. As crazy as that sounds, it does actually 2HKO Azumarill without the scary miss chance, so as long as you aren't facing a Life Orb variant that uses Waterfall, you can still win that match up. And of course, Sap Sipper variants are screwed! Tapu Lele is a bust however, since HP Poison only 2HKOs it. However, as I forgot before I edited this post, Hydro Cannon almost always OHKOs Tapu Lele, so I think Hydro Cannon makes Gunk Shot a moot point actually!

Regardless, I think having a Water-type that smashes Azumarill is realllly hard to give up, and I can't think of anything in particular Dark Pulse nails besides Cresselia (granted, Cresselia is a good thing to smack so that might be a better fit for your team).
 
This has been on my mind a bit lately: Golisopod. It doesn't have to worry about it's ability, its got powerful priority, and poison jab for things like azu. Any thoughts?
 
After some theorymonning i came up with this Porygon-Z set:

Porygon-Z @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Thunderbolt
- Tri Attack


You basically lead with Porygon-Z if Hyper Beam hits neutral you fire off an Adaptability boosted Hyper Beam that is 2HKO'ing almost every Pokémon!


OFFENSIVE DAMAGE CALCULATIONS!

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 202-238 (109.7 - 129.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 158-186 (108.2 - 127.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 222-262 (152 - 179.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 156-184 (101.9 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
I played 1v1 some time ago and also used scarf PZ and you don't really need that much coverage. Trick is suuuper helpful especially now that there are no items that can't be tricked. The third move can be darkpulse and the fouth depends on the team. With trick you can easily beat these lvl 1 Pokemon.

And as mentioned above: Curse/protect/Sneak/Substitute Mimikyu with Iapapapapapa-Berry will be super good.

Furthermore: Perish song. It got quickbanned for some reasons so JUST USE IT! XD I think you could beat (almost) every faster Pokemon with it! So... Mimikyu + Perish Song mon can beat almost every Pokémon.
 
After some theorymonning i came up with this Porygon-Z set:

Porygon-Z @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Adaptability
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hyper Beam
- Dark Pulse
- Thunderbolt
- Tri Attack


You basically lead with Porygon-Z if Hyper Beam hits neutral you fire off an Adaptability boosted Hyper Beam that is 2HKO'ing almost every Pokémon!


OFFENSIVE DAMAGE CALCULATIONS!

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 202-238 (109.7 - 129.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 158-186 (108.2 - 127.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 222-262 (152 - 179.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 156-184 (101.9 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Since there's no need to switch or worry about your opponent switching, try using Uproar over Tri Attack. Not only is it more powerful, it also lets you hit through substitute and prevents sleeping moves.


I'm theorycrafting too. Any thoughts about Gluttony FigyLax ?
Seems pretty interesting, especially thanks to its higher special defense. Not so sure how it would do against physical nukes, like Giga Impact. You could probably do like a Curse Lax with Recycle to also screw over opposing Perish Song.
 
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cant say

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got the team together that I talked about in my last post. got to 1600 in my first laddering attempt, mostly just spammed ferro/azu though so no real thoughts on the other mons yet (nor the meta). any suggestions? banded haxorus /excadrill seems ok over chomp but I think I have most sturdy mons / mimikyu covered anyway.

edit: hp fire > power whip on ferro was (jokingly?) suggested on discord and I actually kinda like that for the mirror + kartana etc
 
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DEG

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As a 1v1 player and me never touching actual in-game and not knowing if such moveset is legal on Pokemon (since as I remember I suggested Sucker Punch Golem last year which wasn't legal so), I'll just drop some sets and what I think is worth it to run. So talks about Mimikyu and Perish Song have already taken place, both in regular 1v1 with Z-moves and Megas allowed are/were threatening so without them they get better (or more broken, however you want to see this), though I'll pull up the sets even if they were mentioned.


Mimikyu @ Figy Berry
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Curse
- Shadow Sneak / Trick Room
- Substitute
- Protect

Threat level: ★★★★★
Mimikyu, as mentioned, is good with its pseudo Focus Sash in Disguise which allows it to survive any first hit effective or not, allowing it to set up a Curse which will slowly wither away the foe. It has an okay typing with a good speed stat in 96 which in Full Speed can outspeed and stall out the opponent with multiple Substitute and Protect. It's guaranteed a win against anything with no effective priority or slower, people should pack a lot of checks for this monster. If you're also trying to beat Azumarill you can use Trick Room so you can outslow it and win since the first user that faints loses the battle. As noticed Mimikyu and its curse set is just a 5 stars threat.


Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry /idk what berry u use in-game
Ability: Sap Sipper
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def or 252 Spd / 8 Spd or 8 Def
Brave/Careful Nature
Ivs: 0 Spe
- Perish Song
- Dive/Encore
- Protect
- Substitute
Threat level: ★★★★★
Azumarill splashes back with its Perish Song, anyone who has played 1v1 or Flash Clash knows that this bunny is a monster and is able to just win most of the games if the opponent uses the wrong Pokemon or isn't prepared to face it. It just has a great typing combined with Sap Sipper negating its Grass-type weakness, plus its bulk allows it to survive hits and since Z-Moves and Mega Stones are banned there's even less threats for it. Perish Song should always be used first turn and you should stall out the Pokemon as much as you can with Protect then Dive or Substitute, all you need is 3 turns to win or lose.


Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- King's Shield
- Shadow Ball
- Shadow Sneak
- Flash Cannon
Threat level: ★★★★★
With an exceptional typing in Steel/Ghost and its the abundance of Ghost-, Fairy- and Steel-type Pokemon in the tier, Aegislash is just one of the top picks for the metagame. It is able to beat Mimikyu and probably Azumarill while keeping in check other Pokemon such as Tapu Lele. It also can beat Dragon-types such as Haxorus that might be used to beat Mimikyu or Normal-types like Porygon-Z which will see more uses as it is a great Pokemon. Furthermore, King's Shield is a great protect move allowing it to beat some physical Pokemon.


Blaziken @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 Spa / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Protect
- Flare Blitz / Overheat
- High Jump Kick
- Stone Edge / Sword Dance / Substitute
Threat level: ★★★★
With the lack of Fire-type Pokemon and the abundance of both Steel- and Fairy-type Pokemon and the lack of offensive Fire-type Pokemon allowed as the both Mega Zard twins aren't allowed and Volcanion, Blaziken is just a great Pokemon to use. It can keep in check lof of threats and can run different sets such as full physical, full special or mixed to beat what it wants. It can outspeed scarf Pokemon such as Porygon-Z and beat them. Overheat can be used to even the matchup better against Aegislash.


Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Ability: Psychic Surge
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 44 SpA / 112 SpD (Just use regular EVs since those are 1v1 EVs for Megas and etc..)
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Energy Ball
Threat level: ★★★★
If you ever have a problem against stall Pokemon Tapu Lele is the way to go. With Specs or Scarf it an fire off scary Psychic-type moves with boosted power thanks to Psychic Surge while negating priority moves. Tapu Lele also has great coverage moves in Energy Ball and Focus Blast and is a worth Pokemon to run beside others in a bulky offensive inclined metagame.

Here are some sets that might help you getting started, I will post more when I have the chance but right now my PC is lagging. Other Pokemon that I'll cover later are Porygon-Z, Tapu Koko, Kartana, Buzzwole and I'll post some fun typing core FWG, or Fairy/Fighting/Dark, Dragon/Fairy/Steel so expect more posts from me. But for now I'll add that there's a 1v1 room on PS! if you want more sets or any question, you can join and ask here, and the 1v1 discord. (permission from can'tsay to post). Also 1v1 resources have cool sets for Pokemon and the Viability Ranks might help.
 
This has been on my mind a bit lately: Golisopod. It doesn't have to worry about it's ability, its got powerful priority, and poison jab for things like azu. Any thoughts?
This just now crossed my mind as well. While Bug isn't the best offensively, it's still hard not to ignore FI.
 
I found an interesting mechanics change earlier today, when a Suicune defeated my Perish Song Lapras. How? By using Dig turn one, avoiding Perish Song. This would not work in previous generations, but is now an interesting way of defeating Perish Song!

Speaking of Suicune, what is Sheer Cold's accuracy when used by it? According to the game "It's less likely to hit the target if it's used by Pokémon other than Ice types".
 
So I got to about 1700 basically just using a lot of the 'meta' threats, just a lazy teambuild really. Like literally 5/6 of my team is in the top 6 in usage lol. It ended up doing way better than I thought it would. Might be due to just good luck but I felt like the sets were just really strong. So if you're looking to climb the ladder just using the best mons seems to be decent.

Though I think the real strategy for doing well in this is going as anti-meta as possible. The handful of games I lost were mostly to stuff i had no idea what to do vs. Stuff like goodra and volcarona. These players seemed to know exactly how to beat the common stuff going around, I think that's what makes them successful. So if you can find stuff to beat the top ~15 mons with stuff thats not too common you'll probably be able to do really well in this.
 

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