by Doc – Owner, Founder, Cracks Up Every Time He Sees That Image of Clefable In The Usage Sheet
The second grassroots Legends Z-A 1v1 Discord tournament has occurred today – we still don’t have a proper name for this server or series – and man, is there a lot of data to look through! This tournament had 18 competitors compared to the previous tournament’s 8, and the usage and team sheet look like a quality extension of the theorycrafting that has occurred so far. We’ll undergo an analysis of several of the pieces of data of this tournament in the following days, compare the difference between the overall usage stats for Pokémon versus the top eight competitor usage stats, and eventually start asking people what specific movesets they used that carried them to victory. I can tell you already, there’s one or two really interesting ones that are making their debut, so stay tuned.
Today, we’re going to look at the overall usage sheet. Foreshadowing – this does not look like the top eight usage sheet, weirdly enough. I know, I’m a tease.
In our top seven spot, we see the expected three Pokémon that you would find. We see Metagross, Gyarados, Garchomp… And Chandelure? Chandelure being a Ghost and Fire type makes perfect sense, as on paper that counters Metagross. One would imagine that his ability to hit Metagross super effectively on both ends would be an ideal counter right? Nope! Chandelure actually is operating as 1/2 of a brand new stall meta, where one Pokémon stalls with Toxic, Infestation or a similar time-based killer, and Chandelure is part of the cleanup crew who also happens to be immune to moves that prevent switching out. I can’t say that everyone ran him the same way, but that seems to be the most prominent consensus on how to run Chandelure. And if something goes south, forcing Chandelure to Mega Evolve… well, he’s got a nuclear 175 Sp. Atk stat to scare off anything that forces him out. (We’ll get more into this in later posts.)
The other three Pokémon in this tier are no surprise, as it seems most trainers agreed that these three are the primary cores, or at least one or two of the three should be brought.
Speaking of counterplay, take a look at Clefable and Skarmory! I did the piece on Clefable last week and it seems that trend has continued, much to no one’s surprise. I did make an error in the piece though, which is that I did not point out Garchomp can run both Electric-type and Poison-type physical attacks – though it seems that was not enough to discourage Clefable from being brought in heavy numbers. This kid’s bulk is enough to keep her viable even when Garchomp isn’t as clean of a win as I thought.
Skarmory is to be expected, as he has been slowly creeping up in usage in the Discord server itself, and in my subjective experiences I’ve noticed him a lot more in Japanese tier lists for free-for-all as well. Some Skarmory run Brave Bird for the raw power, but when I was interviewing a Skarmory user (Oliwier) to write this piece he informed me his Skarmory ran Rocky Helmet, with maximum EV investment in HP and Defense, and:
- Spikes
- Drill Peck
- Steel Wing
- Protect
for its moves. In other words, it’s playing on Skarmory’s best feature – his defense. Drill Peck covers Fire and Electric types that emerge to counter him, with the only exception that comes to mind being Talonflame and Charizard who would be immune, Spikes buy some free damage, and Steel Wing is the mandatory Steel-type attack. It’s a smart set, I can see why he runs it.
The last usage rankings we’ll cover today is Gardevoir, Umbreon, and Glaceon. Gardevoir surprises me – I’m still asking around to see what sets those Gardevoir ran – though I’d imagine it’s probably a generic Moonblast and Calm Mind set. Gardevoir was a popular Pokémon early on for the simple fact that everyone had one thanks to the pre-order bonus that is still running (despite the game having been out for two weeks), so many people used Gardevoir in their playthrough. I guess I’m mostly surprised that it’s still popular! I don’t know that I expect Gardevoir to be meta in 2 months’ time, as I think there is still a factor in the meta of people not having access to all of the Bottle Caps and Pokémon that they need, so they’re running what they happen to already have on hand. Still, she’s a fine Fairy and Psychic type user when you happen to need one, and she can throw strays from a distance with (the move) Psychic.
Umbreon is emerging as one option for stall, as Umbreon has access to Moonlight, Toxic, screens and a few other options. It’s not inconceivable that much like in Smogon competitive, you’d be able to throw out Umbreon, click Toxic, heal yourself as needed, set up screens and outlast them to basically take their Pokémon out of play. Most people are theorycrafting Umbreon as a traditional stall, but I think it could operate more like the RBY OU meta where freezing an opponent basically kills them because they can’t react, and here you’ve poisoned them with no other options but to switch or die that they might as well be considered KO’d until the round resets. I say it wouldn’t operate like a traditional stall because somebody’s going to have unpoisonable Pokemon that will interrupt your stalling the moment they come out, so it’s really more of a temporary lockdown of the Pokemon you just poisoned. It’s not quite a stall, but it’s not quite a KO either, you’re just using Umbreon to take that Pokemon out of play. Just a thought.
Glaceon isn’t a surprise here. Glaceon is still a nice counter to what she was a nice counter before, but a new wrinkle has emerged: most Glaceon sets are running Assault Vest. Assault Vest is a logical extension of Glaceon, as aside from the Fighting type most of what’s going to instakill Glaceon will likely come as a special attack, not a physical one. Heavy Slam is the big exception to this, and it happens to be the favorite physical Steel-type attack on Metagross… So it seems Glaceon cannot catch a break there. Poor kid.
That’s all the analysis we’ll do today! I’d highly encourage you to join the Discord server and get involved in the next tournament, as they typically happen on Saturday afternoons.
Amiibo Doctor 