Competitive Discussion Of The Week

PDC

The PDC Show comes to an abrupt end...
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As i'm sure we all know competitive battling has just entered the 5th generation. A new generation comes new players. With new players comes new chances to join in on the fun that is competitive battling. This thread is help interest people to join competitive battling and in general get the already competitive people to comment a bit more about the metagame, their prefrences, gimmicks, styles, etc.

bacon did this before and I would like to do this again. It should give us new opprutunities to post are thoughts about the metagame in it's current state and other subjects of competitive battling. This thread each week will have a subject about the metagame or a subject of prefrence. An example is What team style to you play and why? This question gives us a bit background on why you play this style and why you like it so much.

This gives us some new ideas and maybe even some new things we can try out on. I will try to put this thread up every week and it should be up every week if I get to it (which I will). I want good discussion in this thread. If you don't then your not really contributing to the thread. Expand why you ue that play style or why you use this gimmick of what you think about the current metagame. The 5th Generation metagame to be exact.

Now without further ado, heres the weekly subject for this week.

What in your opinion is currently the most succesful play style in the 5th generation?
 
Stall is my personal favorite and I think it's becoming the most successful play style in the 5th gen. Stall has received many new tools such as Nattorei, Burungeru, Poison Heal Gliscor, etc. It's also very reliable unlike other styles such as HO. Switching is a big part of the game, and with stall forcing switches the opponent is always taking damage from hazards so you have some sort of leverage on them, and can control most of the battle.
 
Ho ho, great idea PDC. I'm sure this will stir the battlers of PokeBeach to let their voices be heard!
Anyways, as for your question, Offensive teams (with entry hazards, mind you) seem to be skyrocketing right now. A plethora of offensive moves were introduced in Gen 5., and we got a ton of new Pokemon Shandera, Rohpooshin, Sazando, Doruuzu, and the unbanning of some old offensive powerhouses, namely Garchomp and Latias.
That's my opinion, anyways.
 
I completly agree with Steadfast. As I stated in other threads stall has gotton many boosts and thse things allow it to be able to handle hyper offence. Even better Hyper Offence is weak to quite a few things thanks to the typical weak defence. Offence now has even more to be weak too due to the many offencive threats. They're technically hurting themselves.
 
I think spikes is being used more often. I have also noticed an upshot in weather tactics with the introduction of sand throw, droughtails, drizzletoed, and dust proof forretress (I would mention furiijio too, but I seem to be the only one that uses it). Also, expect way more stallers (and with it, more stall breakers).
 
As of now with nothing much banned yet, I believe Drizzletoed teams are the best now. Soon stall will probably eclipse these teams after bans but the sheer power of many pokemon that quickly get a second STAB and double speed is too much. +6 Tail Glow Manaphy wipes out the metagame after two turns of set up while resting and waking up in the same turn. Rain dance can also stall with Toxic Leech Seed Ludicolo and the likes. Rain Dance is overall capable of many subset styles of play but it is the overwhelming power.
 
It really it tough to say which team type is better, offense or defense. It's one of those things that have been disputed, for, well, a long time. It really just depends on your play style. And as for Rain, they're good, but they definitely have their weaknesses. Other weather teams are useful in general. I'm experimenting with a new sandstorm team, and it is phenomenal. So far.
 
Agreed with Steadfast. Stall is ever popular due to many good Stall Pokemon released during the 5th gen. Also, many good Stall Pokemon got better stall abilities.

Example :- Gliscor was already hard to kill. Now it got Poison Heal. Tragedy no? Ice and Water seems the only bet against it now.

Also, Burugenru has also made a nice addition to the stall mania with good Sp.Def / HP and access to WoW to manage it's somewhat low defense. Sableye is also now a potent threat to Doryuuzu and other physical attackers with priority WoW and Recover. Nattorei with Leech Seed is also used.

However ... my favorite stall Pokemon is Erufuun. Such an annoyance :p.
 
Glad you brought this back, PDC! I would agree that Stall is very prevalent in this generation (which is funny, because early predictions thought that Stall would completely die out with monsters like Roopushin and Shandera). Nattorei, Burungeru, Erufuun, Evo Stone, Poison Heal-Scor, and Dragon Tail have all added quite a bit to Stall's arsenal. However, I wouldn't quite say it's the most successful. I can't quite say what is, as I'm not too familiar with 5th Gen, but hyper offense is still very good in this generation, especially with weather. The aforementioned Roopushin, Manaphy (is this banned nowadays? I haven't played in so long...), Hihidaruma, Sazandora, and of course the almighty Doryuuzu are great assets to offensive teams, and can just tear things up.
 
I don't really get why you're all going crazy over stall. Sure stall gets the boost from team-look, but then again, offensive teams can now make outlandish predictions, too. The benefit really is about the same for all types of teams, so I think applying that way of thinking really isn't the best way to go about this.

In terms of what style is the best currently, I'd have to say a mix of stall and offense. Full-out stall just flat out doesn't work on the ladder. Weather and offensive teams just plow right through the defensive walls. However, when you simply add a good defensive core, entry hazards (rarely any spinners right now), and an offensive sweeper, your team can hold its own against most teams. For instance, Eo ran a stall team with Terakian (or however you spell it). Therefore, if he was stalling against a bulky opponent, he could just Swords Dance; if he was stalling against an offensive opponent, he could Rock Polish. It really is the ultimate end-game sweeper when you spent the entire match wearing down the opponent.
 
I agree with Steadfast on this. There are some great stallers here in Unova. The list:
Serperior (Longshot, but speedy)
Gigalith (Physical only)
Excadrill (Sandstorm-in-a-box helps)
Conkeldurr (Solid physical stats, ala Machamp)
Cofagrigus (Big one, but very slow)
Carracosta (Again, physical only)
Ferrothorn (Great stats along with attack)
Klinklang (Great stats for a Steel type. Speaking of which, even just Klang could fit here!)
Chandelure (Boasts good Sp.Atk, too)
Durant (Physical only)
Volcarona (Special only, but hates Rock Slide, SEdge)
More than you think.

Just my thoughts, ~AoH
 
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