Hey everyone. Just wanted to make a post thanking everyone who participated in What If Week. Outside of a few hiccups, it was a big success with a good showing in every tournament! I want to specifically thank
dogecreamgaming (Links),
mc56556,
SBPC, and
Waves for helping me host all these tournaments. I also want to thank
Kris for helping me make these tournaments possible by providing working tournament commands. I want to give one more round of thanks to the RoA staff for supporting this idea and allowing it to happen in the first place.
It was enjoyable to see how these metas would have played out if these what-if scenarios were a reality. Many people had come up with interesting teams involving each of these scenarios but here are my thoughts of each day.
Heal Bell RBY
Heal Bell as a move here seems really strong on paper since allows you to be more comfortable with taking on a sleep powder or freeze. It is usable by a decent amount of OU viable Pokemon such as Chansey, Jolteon, Lapras, Articuno, and more. In practice however, Chansey did not really like this move. She struggles to find room in her sets for it and if she freezes the move is useless. So Articuno and Lapras became the best users of the move since they both can afford to give up a move slot for it and could not be frozen. This would give these "filler" Pokemon a much more relevant role in RBY OU and could open the door to more Pokemon running rest sets with heal bell support. Unfortunately, we did not get to see this in action for as much as I'd like. You probably noticed that when I said that there were hiccups, I was referring to the command issues allowing things like Terrakoin and Mega Medicham wrecking everything. There was also the server restart causing the late tour to be canceled. But for what was seen, it definitely has potential.
Congrats to
Abyssal Ruins for winning this tour!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen1ou-1146484727
Choice Band/Calm Mind GSC
Choice Band GSC was supposed to be the scenario of choice for this day but unfortunately, the item was bugged in a way where it would lock the Pokemon into a move but would not provide an attack boost. This led to a lot of very sad Machamps. So to remedy this, I went with the next best choice the community voted for which was Calm Mind and this one was actually more interesting! There was a ton of variety of what you could do with the move due to the large number of Pokemon that learns it. In this scenario, Alakazam, Stantler, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Pikachu, Raichu. Clefable, Ninetales, Golduck, Slowbro, Slowking, Hypno, Blissey, Mr. Mime, Jynx, Noctowl, Xatu, Sudowoodo, Espeon, Murkrow, Girafarig, Dunsparce, Sneasel, Corsola all learn calm mind here. Of the bunch, Blissey, Suicune, and Raikou stood out as the big winners. What was surprising to me was that this meta turns out to be pretty balanced. There are a good number of phasers already in the tier such as Zapdos and other Suicune that could keep them at bay. Also, the stat boost limit only allows their stats to go so high so nothing could get too crazy as far as stats go. And finally, everything is naturally bulky so they are likely to take a hit and respond. For example, +6 Suicune cannot 2hko Blissey with surf. This day had to be one of my favorites to watch.
Congrats to
Djokra,
Dinosaur_Ryusaki, and
Lynch mi A2 for their wins here!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1146861126-gwwcvfvcuels3evbl5vmwd039pbirbwpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1147050562
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1147211607
Choice Scarf ADV
I thought that this one had a ton of potential when I started the tournament. There are many Pokemon that would make great use of a Choice Scarf here. Modest Starmie, Metagross, and Tyranitar just to name a few would love the addition of this item with the only loser being Dugtrio being unable to reliably trap many Pokemon anymore. While it was not used a ton in the tournament when it was used to great effect against unexpecting teams. Very interested to see how such a meta would develop if it was done again.
Congrats to
pokology, blub234, and
Lynch mi A2 for winning here!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1147448669
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1147678935
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1147837074
Full Weather DPP
Now this one was a ton of fun to run. When starting this tournament, I expected that this would just be BW with less Pokemon and Team Preview. While this is true, (somebody literally played with a bw1 sun team and did well with it!) teams seem to be more balanced as far as power levels go. Every weather had a chance to shine at some point of the tournament and I could not help but record multiple battles and run an additional bonus tournament back to back. It was that enjoyable! Swift Swim + Drizzle was banned of course due to it ridiculous power but Chlorophyll + Drought was allowed. This also had to be one of my favorite days of the week.
Congrats to
DnB,
kland,
MrKattzy, and
Scimjara for winning!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148069311
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148077781
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148083679
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148319514
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148461471
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148451594
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1148457549
Goodra BW
Now if I had to pick one scenario that had a disappointing showing, it would be this one. Everyone was expecting Goodra to be a monster to deal with. Hydration + Rest on a special tank of a Pokemon sounds like a beast on paper. But in practice, its weaker defense stat made it easy pickings for the common DragMag team. It also took a little too much against certain Specs attackers since Latios can still Ohko with Draco Meteor. Sap Sipper would have been a great ability on it pre-sleep ban but at this point, it would not be that great. It is nice for catching Ferrothorn as it uses Leech Seed though to get a boost to Dragon Tail. It is not a weak Pokemon. It's just not what everyone hoped for it to be.
Congrats to
Scimjara,
Lillia2.0, and
Aballam for their wins here!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-1148692769
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-1148916864-8tyr9amhwksbce9aqrr0w5vc455dagopw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5ou-1149070064
DPP EVO GSC
This was another extremely fun tournament to play. There was a good amount of power-creep due to all the evolutions gaining boosts across the board. Some Pokemon such as Rhydon and Misdreavus were already viable in OU so imagine how the meta would if you throw in their evolutions! We had some powerhouses here. Mamoswine was really strong and just fast enough to still outspeed Snorlax after using Curse while having a strong enough sp atk to run Ice Beam. Rhyperior is just a strictly better version of Rhydon that could now use Fire Blast effectively if it chooses to do so. Electivire and Magmortar can give Machamp a run for its money as mix mons with Cross Chop and Meditate. Mismagius is able to shrug off pursuit much better than Misdreavus ever could. Glaceon is a literal nuke with access to the strongest Ice Beam in the game. And that is only naming a few! Snorlax is still probably the best Pokemon in the format but it no longer the undisputed king once was here. A ton of fun to be had here.
Congrats to
Louna,
kael, and
Earthworm for their wins!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1149283905
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1149277086
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1149486647-0vxmkjpmvutrqpmb24kw8awmdtehmwfpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1149653135
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1149650412
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2ou-1149646683
Abomasnow ADV
Feel like I'm starting to repeat myself when I am saying that this one is yet again another fantastic tournament to play. I am already a big fan of Hail so seeing it perform in a format not plagued by Stealth Rocks or super-powerful attacks is very nice to see. Abomasnow would actually be amazing in a pre-split format due to it only having one special weakness to fire and some relevant special resistances to water, grass, and electric. Combined with the fact that hail hurts nearly every pokemon that threatens Abomasnow (not to mention it completely neuters any rain team) would make him a mainstay in the format if he existed even if hail provides no accuracy boost to Blizzard. This allows it to be an extremely good user of leech seed since it does not fear the electric + ice movesets carried by many Pokemon. Hail teams held their own against the sand teams that normally dominate the format. Definitely something I'd like to play again.
Congrats to
mc56556,
Justamente, and
Lynch mi A2 on their wins this tour!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1149840156
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1150082261
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1149834889
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1150061931
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1150077699
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1150197722
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1150195231
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3ou-1150189458
Hydreigon DPP
Same verse, same as the first. This was also a very cool meta to have a chance of playing. Unlike its dragon cousin Goodra, Hydreigon was a Pokemon that was expected to do quite well here and it did not disappoint. It is a terror to face if you are running a slower team with its excellent coverage options, Roost and Taunt. However, since many of the players knew this was the case, Hydreigon had to face down faster teams which gave it some trouble. It still held its own in this tournament and I would love to see it again in action in the future!
Congrats to
DNNP,
kael, and
Trade for their wins here!
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150426634
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150422287
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150664734-b6f6clkk6l9eqwawdagofswb4yv43e5pw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150662770
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150802219
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150800091
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen4ou-1150798264
Once again, thank you to everyone who participated in this event. The other hosts and I had a blast running these tours for everyone. Since this was a success, the possibility of running this again in the future is there so stay tuned! In the meantime, What if will return to posting new topics starting on Monday. If you have any ideas for future topics, feel free to PM me! I may use them here if it is interesting enough.