Offensive Combinations - Charizard + Venusaur and Garchomp + Salamence [Kalos-Double]

Hey everybody! A lot of people who start with VGC have played singles before that. While both types of battle do have a lot in common, there is obviously also great differences, most outstandingly the fact, that you may have more than one Pokémon on the battle field at the same time. This leads to a lot of possibilities to have Pokémon support each other. 

Moves like Wide Guard, Helping Hand or Trick Room are mostly used to tap out the full potential of another Pokémon.

It is generally a good advice to have a team in which the Pokémon can benefit from each other and complement the others in a way were they function as a real team, rather than only independent Pokémon.

However, from time to time, there is two or sometimes even three or more Pokémon, that help each other in a very elaborate way. These groups are often referred to as “cores”. This analysis touches two cores, offensively as well as defensively, and gives basic ideas about how to build a proper team in which the members truly appreciate the presence of the others as well as how to counter two of the most dangerous combinations out there!

The Fox is gone, but not the Sun! - Mega Charizard Y + Venusaur 

The first core I want to take a look at is Mega Charizard-Y plus Venusaur. This core is a basic start whenever you want to put a lot of pressure to the opponent and overwhelm them with the pure power of Charizard-Y. While its stats and ability are pretty good, its typing, which has been its major flaw in the past years, ensures that Charizard is very likely to be OHKO’d by any Rock Slide or Stone edge and takes a lot of damage of the very common Electric and Water moves. The mega evolution raises the SpDef, but the Defence and HP stats are pretty low compared to other common Pokémon.

When the power of Charizard-Y was discovered, the first thing to do was to run 252 EVs on Special Attack and Speed, along with a Timid nature. It often came together with Venusaur, which of course benefits from Drought, as it receives a speed boost. Even though Charizard has access to Solar Beam on its own, the addition of STAB Giga Drain from Venusaur means, that Water-types will think twice before switching into Charizard, or being picked to begin with. 

However, this combination had one very big flaw, which is the weakness to Talonflame plus Garchomp. Galewings STAB Brave Bird shuts down Venusaur pretty hard, while Garchomp can OHKO Charizard with a single Rock Slide! It seemed like Charizard could only be a niche Pokémon at most. However, the SoCal Regional proved the critics wrong, as BadIntent and kingofkongs both managed to advance to the finals with their respective Charizard + Venusaur team! 

So, judging from the results, it is probably a good thing to give this core another look! 

Venusaur @ Coba Berry

Trait: Chlorophyll

EVs: 228 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 20 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Giga Drain/Grass Pledge/Leaf Storm

- Protect

- Sludge Bomb

- Sleep Powder /Hidden Power Ice

20 Speed EVs ensure to outspeed even Timid max speed Mega Manectric by one point. Max SAtk is recommended, as Venusaur wants to function as a bulky sweeper that can provide support with Sleep Powder, but also be able to hit Pokémon like Rotom-W, Ludicolo, Abomasnow, Gardevoir, Azumarill, Tyranitar, Politoed, Rhyperior and many more that its STABs are super effective on, for decent damage. HP Ice could be chosen over Sleep Powder to deal with Lum Berry Garchomp as well as Salamence.

252+ Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 228 HP / 4 Def Venusaur: 192-228 (104.3 - 123.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

However, even non-boosted adamant Talonflame’s Brave Bird easily One-Hit-KO’s Venusaur, so Coba Berry is used in order to reduce the effectiveness of this threat. 

Adamant Life-Orb Brave Bird only does 67.9 - 80.4% to Coba Venusaur and even adamant Choice Band fails to KO as it does 78.5 - 91.8 %! Sludge Bomb does 62.3 to 74% in return, so after all the recoil Talonflame gets when attacking it with Brave Bird, Venusaur can KO it. While Coba Berry is a very situational Item, I would still recommend trying it out as other items such as Sitrus Berry, Life Orb or Lum Berry are usually better off on other Pokémon. The alternative is to use Black Sludge or Leftovers to regain health, but being able to beat Talonflame is superior in my opinion. 

Charizard (F) @ Charizardite Y

Trait: Solar Power

EVs: 92 HP / 4 Def / 212 SAtk / 44 SDef / 156 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Heat Wave/Flamethrower

- Protect

- Solar Beam

- Overheat/Fire Pledge/Roost/Air Slash

As I said earlier, 4/252/252 Timid was the way to run Charizard in the past, but things have changed!

252+ Atk Choice Band Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 150-177 (90.9 - 107.2%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO 

252 Atk Garchomp Rock Slide vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 156-184 (94.5 - 111.5%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO 

4 Atk Salamence Rock Slide vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 136-160 (82.4 - 96.9%)
4- Atk Life Orb Salamence Rock Slide vs. 92 HP / 4 Def Mega Charizard Y: 156-187 (94.5 - 113.3%) -- 75% chance to OHKO 

252 SpA Life Orb Salamence Draco Meteor vs. 92 HP / 44 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 109-130 (66 - 78.7%) 

116+ SpA Rotom-W Thunderbolt vs. 92 HP / 44 SpD Mega Charizard Y: 114-134 (69 - 81.2%)

It can be seen, that investing some EVs into bulk means that Charizard is not OHKO’d as easily, while a modest nature means that it will still hit even harder than the Timid set.

212+ SpA Mega Charizard Y Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 100 SpD Rotom-W: 146-174 (92.9 - 110.8%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

With the given EV spread, Charizard hits harder and is more bulky, only at the cost of speed. 156 EVs allow to outpace all Modest Rotom-Applications as well as stuff like Smeargle or Kingdra outside of rain.

How to complement the core

Pokémon that can provide even more support to this and take out the counters of Charizard-Y and Venusaur are Mienshao, Scrafty, Garchomp, Gyarados, Mamoswine, Rotom-W.

Mienshao and Scrafty can provide Fake Out support, as well as Wide Guard and Quick Guard respectively. This allows them to protect the team from either Rock Slide or moves like Galewings Brave Bird. Scrafty and Gyarados come with Intimidate, that turns most Rock Slides into 2HKOs. Mamoswine and Rotom-W are generally good tools to stop Garchomp from wrecking the combo. Both, Mamoswine and Garchomp enjoy using Earthquake when Charizard is on the field, in order to prevent damage to the ally. They are also pretty good answers to Chandelure and Tyranitar, two Pokémon that give ChariVenu a lot of trouble.

Dragon Buddies - Garchomp + Salamence

The next combination I want to touch is the very popular DoubleDragon Garchomp plus Salamence that has had a lot of success recently.

While it might seem redundant to have two dragon-types that both share weaknesses to Ice, Dragon and Fairy, Garchomp Salamence is a very good example for an offensive combination. While neither of them is super fast, both are sitting at a comfortable 100 and 102 base speed respectively. Despite the addition of the fairy type, dragon is still a primary attacking choice and allows these two Pokémon that might seem to be very similar at first, to perform that well together. 

The last time when these two made quite a splash was when Jumpei Yamamoto used them side by side in 2012 to claim second place at the Japanese National Championship.

The obvious parts in which Garchomp and Salamence complement one another is the fact that Salamence is a flying type and Garchomp may therefore use Earthquake freely. But there is a lot more than that! Despite its sky-high attack stat, most Salamence go either special or mixed these days. One of the main Pokémon that gives pure special Salamence trouble is Tyranitar with its super high special defence in sand. Garchomp, of course, loves to take on Tyranitar. Similarly, Rotom-W is able to shut down most Garchomp pretty handily, as Sitrus Berry ensures it is not 2HKOd, while Will-O-Wisp cripples Garchomp. Salamence on the other hand, doesn’t mind to be burned and loves to fire off Draco Meteor on Rotom to get it down to less than 50% after Sitrus Berry kicked in. While Rotom-W might not be the best example, as it can also damage Salamence and is never OHKOd, it shows that Garchomp and Salamence are especially strong when they combine their attacks, since Rotom-W falls to Draco Meteor after it was hit with a Dragon Claw first. With Garchomp covering the physical, Salamence taking on the special spectrum and phenomenal coverage, they have very little bad matchups. Even the steel fairy Mega Mawile does not beat them at all, because of Earthquake and Fire Blast/Flamethrower. Since Dragon is super effective on Dragon vice versa and the fact that there is only very little ice types and even fewer that can take Fire Blast or Draco Meteor, the only really hard counter to the Dragon duo is fairy-types like Gardevoir or Azumarill, that can easily take on the non-STAB attacks. It is therefore recommended to add a steel-type to this combo, such as Mega Mawile, Scizor or Aegislash. 

Salamence @ Life Orb

Ability: Intimidate

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature

- Flamethrower

- Draco Meteor

- Stone Edge / Rock Slide / Hydro Pump

- Protect

Salamence (M) @ Choice Scarf

Trait: Intimidate

EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Draco Meteor

- Dragon Pulse

- Fire Blast/Flamethrower

- Hydro Pump/Rock Slide

Salamence can go either with Life Orb or Choice Scarf. It is rarely seen with Choice Specs, too, so keep that in mind when playing against it! 

Garchomp @ Rocky Helmet/Lum Berry/Focus Sash

Ability: Rough Skin

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd

Jolly Nature

- Earthquake

- Dragon Claw

- Rock Slide/Substitute/Stone Edge

- Protect

As you can see, the sets are very simple at the moment and it is not that difficult to use either of them, too. Yet, it is so difficult to shut these down without limiting your resources! In the Japanese metagame, Gardevoir has kind of established as a very good counter to them. I also used Scarf Gardevoir in the past and I can confirm that it helps a ton! However, I think that the dominating Gardevoir set will be a bulky Sitrus Berry version that is capable of taking several hits. I recommend to try that out! 

Again, the beauty of this duo is not that they cover each other’s weaknesses, instead, they even add up! The good thing about Salamence + Garchomp is that they have superior type coverage offensive-wise and can beat a lot of threats by double targeting them. Another option this duo is capable off, is to double Rock Slide, which has a pretty nice chance of flinching either of the opponnet’s Pokémon. Therefore, you should try to outspeed them!

On top of that, Garchomp and Salamence can easily fit in any type of team, may it be a sun based team or a sand team, a team with Tailwind or just a very general goodstuff team. 

As these two are dominating the metagame right now, it is very important to keep them in mind during the team building process. I’d like to show you some Pokémon I have used in the past, that are able to beat or at least put a lot of pressure on the Dragons!

How to become a Dragonslayer

Manectric (M) @ Manectite

Trait: Lightningrod

EVs: 60 HP / 244 SAtk / 204 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

-Volt Switch / Thunderbolt

-Overheat / Flamethrower / Snarl

-Protect

-Hidden Power Ice

Mega Manectric outspeeds non-scarfed variants and is able to one-shot non-bulky Garchomp and Salamence with Hidden Power Ice. It also has Intimidate as ability, which helps a ton in dealing with Garchomp. 204 Speed EVs allow to outspeed Choice Scarfed Chandelure, Gardevoir and Mamoswine. Overheat one-shots non-bulky Mega Mawile, while Volt Switch resets the special attack drop and Intimidate. Snarl is another option to cripple special sweepers and could be used to deal with Salamence more easily. 

Gardevoir @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Telepathy / Trace

EVs: 52 HP / 28 Def / 196 SAtk / 4 SDef / 228 Spd

Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

- Dazzling Gleam

- Moonblast

- Psychic

- Thunderbolt / Shadow Ball

Choice Scarf Gardevoir is a pretty good check to ChompMence, as it outspeeds and OHKO’s both of them with Moonblast. The speed EVs ensure to outspeed max speed timid Noivern, while the Special Attack EVs guarantee to KO Garchomp that has a little bit invested into bulk. The rest is put into HP and Def because the SDef is naturally high.

Recently, we have also seen things like Ice Punch Scrafty, Hidden Power Ice Choice Scarf Rotom-H or Ice Fang Gyarados to be viable checks to Garchomp and Salamence. However, all of them do not like to take a boosted Draco Meteor. 

Another Pokémon that has been overshadowed by Garchomp and Salamence in the past, but might be a good call at the moment, is Noivern.

Noivern @ Life Orb / Focus Sash

Ability: Infiltrator / Frisk

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Draco Meteor

- Flamethrower

- Protect

- Tailwind / Air Slash

Noivern is a pretty interesting Pokémon, that outspeeds and OHKO’s the other Dragons with Draco Meteor. It is especially interesting, because it doesn’t need a Choice Scarf to outpace the majority of the metagame and, when equipped with a Life Orb, it hits 8,4% harder than Modest Scarf Salamence, while having free move choice! I think Noivern is pretty underrated at the moment and should get more usage in the future. Infiltrator is very cool against Substitute and Screens, while Frisk allows you to gain information over the opponent’s items and might help against unorthodox Item choices, such as random Choice Scarf or Focus Sash.

Greninja @ Life Orb / Focus Sash

Ability: Protean

EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd

Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

- Hydro Pump

- Ice Beam

- Dark Pulse

- Mat Block / Protect

Greninja is one of those Pokémon that is just able to outspeed and OHKO a lot of stuff, while being very frail. Therefore, it can be useless in some games, but a deadly weapon in the right hands! Protean gave it one of the best offensive abilities, while Mat Block is a unique way to support the team. Ice Beam is of course the Dragon-killer on this set, while the other moves provide good neutral coverage. Dark Pulse comes with a handy chance to flinch. I think this Pokémon’s full potential hasn’t been exploited just yet and I am very interested in seeing whether it is able to claim a place in the most commonly used Pokémon in VGC14 or not.

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Sand Stream

EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd 

Timid Nature

- Rock Slide / Ancient Power

- Dark Pulse

- Ice Beam

- Fire Blast

The last set I would like to share with you is special Choice Scarf Tyranitar. While most Tyranitar tend to go special these days, I think Choice Scarf is a pretty nice surprise item on it, as it allows the rather slow sand-setter to reach a respectable speed stat of 186, which is enough to outpace Mega Lucario, Adamant Talonflame and Aerodactyl and of course Garchomp and Salamence, too! Rock Slide is generally used over Ancient Power due to multiple targets and the chance to flinch, but it is no fun to face a +1/+1/+1/+1/+1 Tyranitar! Ice Beam one-shots Garchomp and Salamence. I am sure this Tyranitar will catch a lot of players off-guard and it has helped me to gain some good victories in the past!

I hope this list encourages some of you to try unorthodox counters to the dominating double dragon. Of course, there is a lot more out there, as Wolfe Glick has proven at the Virginia Regional with Mr.Mime!

- Markus

A meta-meta analysis - soon

Hi guys! Some of you may or may not have heard of me, my name is Ben Gould and I came 4th in the masters division at worlds last year. I was contacted by Wolfe and asked to share my thoughts and ideas here, I of course jumped at the chance.

Essentially I hope to contribute more and more to this blog as the season continues, hopefully giving a bit of advice here and there for less experienced players and sharing the thought processes of those of us at the highest levels of play.

I am currently tied up with exams at university for the next few weeks, but I plan on doing a kind of article that will look at the meta as a whole and look into where it is heading (lets see how many predictions for popular things I can make). By this I don't just mean saying 'Garchomp and Mega-Charizard-Y are OP' and listing counters to them, but looking into the less explored strategies and ideas in this new meta-game.

A quick example of some things I have yet to see on the competitive scene and have only recently tried out myself (that seem to work well...):

Mega-abomasnow - this guy hits a regular Mawile for about 45-55% with its blizzard. I mean come on, untapped potential there surely?

Assault vest on a specially defensive tank - I slapped one of these on a Tyranitar just to see what would happen, it seems to work to great effect.

Jumpluff - With the popularity of sun and easy access to it, I'm surprised this guy isn't more used. With super high speed and an ability to ignore rage powder with an item such as safety goggles, nothing is safe. Encore can lock people into undesirable moves, safeguard is practically always going first and it is immune to spore.

The Slow-brothers, Slowking and Slowbro - So, innate speed seems to be key more now than ever, faster mons are chosen as glass-cannons (such as Talonflame). Taunt seems to have vanished and Trick Room is looking stronger than ever. These two have excellent stats and have access to two brilliant abilities, regenerator and oblivious. Oblivious now provides immunity to taunt, providing a practically unstoppable Trick Room (unless you can OHKO or imprison etc).

Finally, Scizor - I feel this guy has fallen out of favor and for all the wrong reasons. Mega-Scizor is very scary, boost that guy up with some sword dances and he can wreck any team alone practically. Stick him on a team with Politoed and Ludicolo or Kingdra and you are laughing.

I will write a better article in the near future, but here is a small glimpse at what is to come.

- Ben

A Basic Guide to Consistency

Consistency

Pokemon, it is often said, is a luck based game. Many players have a horror story consisting of the time they missed Eight Rock Slides or were Paralyzed six times in a row or a crucial Freeze ended their tournament run. However, despite the fact that Pokemon appears to be a luck based game there are many players who are able to perform consistently at the top regardless of the format. Players such as Enosh Shachar who almost always top cuts and has a strong record behind him, Aaron Zheng the two time US National Champion, the Korean sensation Sejun Park, and of course the three time World Champion Ray Rizzo himself all seem to defy the notion that luck dominates the game of Pokemon. Yet there can be no denying the fact that games are lost to Swagger or Thunder Wave or an untimely critical hit. My goal in writing this analysis is to help pass my limited understanding of this apparent paradox onto you.

Ray, Aaron, Sejun, Enosh and the other handful of top players have a key something that sets them apart from other players, and it is perhaps the most obvious key to success in Pokemon and therefore the ideal starting point. All of the aforementioned players are, without a doubt, good Pokemon Players. They don't need to rely on percentages to win matches, as with superior prediction and teams that fit their individual playstyles (not to mention the tricks they often include in their teams) these players are able to consistently win because their play is consistently above the average level. However, there is another subtle clue that sets these players apart from the proletariat. Their playstyles, although different, are similar in one aspect. These players all understand the basic concept of risk and reward. What it takes to understand risk and reward is the ability to remove oneself from a battle and step back in order to analyze the situation. It doesn't matter if you can predict a protect and double up on an opposing Pokemon if a remaining Pokemon who will be sent in can sweep your team. These players don't take unnecessary risks, and they are more consistent because of it. Understanding risk and reward is also what lends these players to being able to make high level predictions more frequently and more confidently than the players below their skill level. By placing themselves in their opponents shoes, these players are able to take advantage of situations in which the opponent has only one option in order to claim victory. This mindset also does not lend itself typically to losing a lead due to poor playing. Playing in this vein is especially dangerous as a small advantage can turn quickly into an insurmountable one as careless choices that threaten to remove a lead, no matter how small the odds of it occurring, are generally avoided. 

Another aspect to performing consistently lies in the preparation and the team you bring to each event. Half the battle is using a team that performs well and you are comfortable with, but also performs consistently. Finding a team like this can be difficult as it is unique to each individual players specific battling style, yet some general ideas can be utilized to great effect. The following is my general checklist when analyzing my teams consistency:

1. Attend to your Accuracy

When building a team, players are often forced to choose between higher power, lower accuracy moves versus lower power, higher accuracy moves. While I dont feel as a general rule all moves on a team should be One-Hundred percent, I do think that each individual Pokemon that chooses a more powerful move in exchange for accuracy should have a very good reason why. For example, on a Choice Scarf Salamence I personally do not feel their is a suitable alternative to using Draco Meteor. The Ten percent chance of a Draco Meteor missing, although game changing often, does not effectively account for the damage that Draco Meteor is able to dish out and the KO's it is able to achieve. However, despite the fact that Draco Meteor is more or less essential, certain precautions may be taken. I chose to run Dragon Pulse alongside Draco Meteor despite its redundancy in typing and weakened power simply because I wanted a STAB move with perfect accuracy to pick off middle HP foes without risking Draco Meteor missing. Another choice I chose on my Choice Scarf Salamence was to run Flamethrower instead of the more powerful Fire Blast. Despite Flamethrower's lower base power, I found that not having to account for the possibility of a miss outweighed the gain in power. Some Pokemon, however, are unable to choose between high and low accuracy moves, such as Rotom-Wash with Will-o-Wisp. In these cases, the Pokemon should be used accounting for the likelihood of a miss and never relying fully on a percentage less than One-Hundred.

2. Offensive Teams can go Off Kilter

One of the playstyles that typically I try to stay away from is heavy offensive teams, consisting of frail powerful, fast Pokemon that attempt to end games quickly. This particular playstyle is not consistent because of its inability to effectively handle Critical Hits or Confusion particularly well. Each Pokemon on a heavy offense team is more essential due to its ability to deal with particular threats to the team as a whole, and owing in general to the poor bulk of so called "glass cannons" a clever player is able to preserve their specific counters until the threat is Knocked Out.

3. Defensive Synergy

In addition to making sure that a team has enough defensive bulk to take attacks is the necessity for being able to switch out of one attack into another in order to gain a field advantage. Defensive synergy is important because it allows a good player to take advantage of an opponent through prediction, as often a not very effective Critical Hit does less damage than a Super Effective attack.

4. Gaining Momentum

Part of the ticket to success in Pokemon is not only making big flashy predictions but also gradually clawing you're way up to gain an advantage. By gradually improving your position in the game and refusing to relinquish your advantage, a small lead can easily snowball into a large one. An opponent who loses ground turn by turn will eventually, inevitably find themselves in a position where their chances of victory are very slim. This is the reason that making high risk high reward predictions is not generally a favorable option when a player already has an advantage.

5. Multiple Options

Earlier I touched on being able to take advantage of an opponent who only has one good move available to them. The converse of this is that you generally want to give yourself as many good options as possible when building a team,so as not to allow your opponent any opportunity to take advantage of an obvious move. This concept is slightly hard to grasp, yet if you keep an eye out for it while playing it should become apparent.

6. Provide a balanced team that does not require intense prediction to win

One of the hardest challenges presented by Regionals to me is the fact that I am unable to accurately guess the skill level of my opponents until the battle begins. My first opponent in the Virginia Regionals last weekend had a team that had three fire types and a bunch of standard Pokemon, so I assumed he was probably not very good, yet he was my only loss in Swiss play. Part of the reason I lost was because I was unable to effectively determine how in depth I should make my predictions, as unfortunately I had a weakness to Fire Pokemon, and because my team was unable to handle his regardless of the moves we made, I was defeated. Additionally, certain threats can be checked more in depth than others: I generally over prepare for sleep and confusion simply because I dislike the random element it adds to matches, yet because of my preparation I lose to sleep and confusion less often than I did before.

Lastly, I want to touch on a small bit of advice that has helped me throughout many tournaments. In any given situation, it is safest to always assume the worst. If you play always expecting the least desirable outcome, you are able to not get caught completely off guard and can even begin planning a reaction to a worsr possible scenario event. Whenever I spore a Pokemon I play assuming it will always get a one turn sleep, which has been extremely helpful in the situations that I have redirected an attack from a sleeping Pokemon on the off chance that it decides to wake up. This is an idea that is harder to simply pick up and go with, yet it can be extremely beneficial in providing results.

I hope you have enjoyed these few thoughts, I have more to say on the matter but I feel the information provided is an understandable basic structure. Look for more on consistency in the future!

-Wolfe

Specific Analysis Suggestions

With the vast amount of Pokemon available in VGC14 and limited time to analyze all of them, we are looking to take some suggestions as to what Pokemon and sets we cover with higher priority. If there is a Pokemon or Combo you want to see covered on this blog, leave a comment requesting it and we will be able to give it a look as soon as possible. We are also looking to post general advice regarding How to do well at Regionals, How to perform consistently and other topics which we would be happy to share. You'll need to have a Google account in order to comment, but they are easy to set up if you don't already have one.

-Wolfe

Safety first - early opinions on Safety Goggles

We've gotten some cool new items in X&Y, but one that tends to be talked about less is Safety Goggles. For anyone who is unaware, or just hasn't bothered picking up a pair from the Battle Maison, Safety Goggles are a hold item that essentially function like the Overcoat ability, protecting your pokemon from weather damage and powder moves. To be honest, Safety Goggles don't seem very useful at first. Dodging weather damage is nice, but most of the time you're better off using a different item. However, there is one key point about Safety Goggles that shouldn't be overlooked - they have wonderful Trick Room, and to a lesser extent Tailwind, utility.

The main use for Trick Room utility comes in the form of Amoonguss protection. Traditionally, Amoonguss has been a relatively good check to Trick Room. It can Spore a pokemon that is trying to set up Trick Room or spam Spore once the Trick Room is up. With Safety Goggles you can prevent Spore from effecting one of your pokemon. Which is pretty good, considering most dedicated Trick Room teams I've played in the past tended to carry at least one Lum Berry pokemon in order to deal with Amoonguss. The added bonus here is that Safety Goggles also let the pokemon holding them ignore Rage Powder, which can be crucial when if you're under the time limit of Trick Room. This is also the utility of Safety Goggles in Tailwind, where your time limit is even lower.

My personal favorite use of Safety Goggles is on pokemon that set up Trick Room. Some of my favorite combinations include:

Reuniclus! The squishy fellow occasionally is seen using the Overcoat ability, but I like to give him Safety Goggles. This way he's still immune to weather and powders, but also get Magic Guard or Regenerator.

Aromatisse. Aromatisse is pretty efficient at setting up Trick Room with Safety Goggles and Aroma Veil, preventing both Spore and Taunt.

Chandalure. While I don't think Safety Googles are a superior option for Chandalure, it's pretty cool being immune to Spore and Fake Out.

But hey, there's one other ghost that deserves a mention in this post...

SHEDINJA!!!

Aw yeah, with Safety Goggles Shedinja is prepare for weather of all kinds! No more will sand or hail be finishing it off. You can even Soak it <if you're into that gimmick> and Shedinja will be ready for a beach party. Look out everyone, Shedinja is here to play.

~Harrison

On the Subject of Luck

Today, we had a discussion on a German Pokemon board about how strongly luck affects the outcome of a game, generally. One guy said how he got haxxed on the WiFi ladder multiple times, and he basically just raged about the game and the great impact of luck.

Of course this topic has been dealt with multiple times in the past,  and people will have to deal with it lots of times in the future, but I wanted to share my basic thoughts and what I told him.

First of all, everybody has accepted that luck plays a factor in this game as early as he or she has started playing pokemon competitively, so there shouldn’t be any huge rage about this topic in the first place. However, the best players have learned to minimize the impacts of luck or to get the effects of luck in their favor, as can be easily seen by having a three-time world-champion in Ray Rizzo, something that couldn’t be achieved if Pokemon was just a luck-based game. This example has been overused though, and I really wanted to add some new content to it, so I thought about how to put it in simple words. I came up with one single goal that is of extreme importance: You need to outdamage your opponent.

This can be achieved by several ideas: Having attacks hit for super effective damage is generally a good way to ensure that your opponent’s Pokemon will take a lot from your attacks. While this seems to be trivial, it is always a good thing to keep in mind to have good coverage, as even the highest attack stat does not help when the base power of a move is very low.

Another concept is to outspeed your opponent. This helps to achieve the main goal- outdamaging them. Going first will have several advantages. For example, you cannot get flinched by Rock Slide or Waterfall, nor can a critical hit nullify your move for that turn. Even if you end up getting critted, you got your move off.

Being faster also puts pressure on the opponent if you are threatening with super effective attacks, as one wants to keep the opponent's damage to as little as possible. This will result in safety moves, like switching or protecting, that one can punish with the right prediction.

To come back to the initial topic, which was about the great number of crits the guy faced, it has to be noted that there might have been a different amount of attacking moves coming off. For example, if you switch a lot, this might also mean that your opponent will get off more attacking moves than you. However, a not very effective critical hit is generally inferior to a super effective hit.

Therefore, keep in mind that solely “outplaying” is not enough in Pokemon, as you need to “outdamage” your opponent in the first place. 10 turns in which you read what your opponent will do and switch cleverly may be inferior to one single turn in which heavy damage is dealt!

- Markus

On this subject in particular I also want to give my thoughts. Luck has always been extremely difficult to understand in Pokemon. Despite being extremely present, there is consistency among players in winning, as well as in losing. Certain players I have encountered simply build teams that always seem to lose to unprecedented amounts of “bad luck”, while other players never encounter nearly the same quantity or quality. As Markus already mentioned, I would like to elaborate on outspeeding and outdamaging opponents.

I have extensive practice playing with a team style known as “Perish Trap”, in which a Pokemon uses Perish Song while a partner with Shadow Tag is on the field, preventing the opposing team from subbing out of Perish Song until the counter hits 0. In theory, Perish Trap seems like the perfect strategy: it never has to worry about offensive pressure, it can kill any and every Pokemon or team with good playing, and it has multiple tricks up its sleeve that can catch opponents off guard. However, Perish Trap suffers from a fatal flaw. While extremely successful in theory, and mostly in practice, Perish Trap is an example of a team that is extremely weak to bad luck. Perish Trap never uses any moves offensively, and relies on clever prediction, switching, and team synergy to beat opponents. However, because a Perish Trap team rarely attacks, it is guaranteed to receive more attacks than it dishes out. It makes no sense for an opponent facing a Perish Trap team to do anything other than attack with their strongest Pokemon twice a turn, because if they do not they are guaranteed to lose. Because a Perish Trap team ensures that it will take much more hits than it deals out, it finds itself weakest to Critical Hits, crucial freezes, flinches, long sleeps, etc, all because in forming a team that has a rock solid defensive base, cracks appear in the areas that cannot be accounted for with playing.

Another experience I feel would be beneficial to the discussion is my result with the 2013 Worlds team I used last year. The team, consisting of Registeel/Magmar/Gliscor/Latios/Rotom-Wash/Hippowdon, was extremely defensive in every regard, and had a total of 12 EVs in Attack and Special Attack across the entire team. In theory, it was a team with no bad matchups. Extreme defensive stats and status accounted for every bulky offensive team’s threats, and with recovery and passive damage, it was a force to be reckoned with. However, I encountered the same issue that Perish Trap suffers from, though I was too stubborn to admit it at the time. Without any offensive presence on my team, my opponents were free to attack much more often than I would have liked because there was no serious threat of retaliation. In receiving many more attacks than I returned, my team found itself receiving more “bad luck” than my opponents, yet it was not really luck in the traditional sense as my own poor decision making in choosing to have a team that did not exert offensive pressure was not a random occurrence.

Lastly, I would like to touch upon the aspects of luck that I feel can be controlled regardless of your team. If a player always assumes that he will end up on the receiving end of bad luck, that player can adjust accordingly and generally will come out on top. For example, if your opponent has been asleep for one turn at the hands of your Amoongus and you have the choice between Rage Powdering to be safe or Sporing the partner to gain an even greater advantage (assuming that is what would happen), it is extremely tempting to simply go for the spore and assume that the sleeping Pokemon will remain at rest and not disrupt your plans. The safer move, however, is to assume your opponent will wake up, and by planning accordingly one can minimize the effects of luck further. Taking unnecessary risks is unhelpful in claiming victory, which is the reason we do not see Swagger used more often on Physical Pokemon, except in last resort options.

I have nowhere near a complete understanding of how luck and skill interact within this game, but I feel that we are beginning to at least partially understand more than we did before. As more ideas occur to me, I will of course share them.

-Wolfe