6v6 Tuesday: Pokemon Killing Power, Part 1

Today, I decided I'd talk about users of moves that hit multiple Pokemon. I went over them briefly last time, but this time, I'll be going into detail of the potentially good users of them. In a doubles/multi Pokemon battle, any move that hits 2 or more Pokemon has its base power reduced to 75%. This means that Earthquake drops to a BP of 75, although STAB will still increase it to 112.5, over its original BP. That means I'd try not to run multi-hitting moves that aren't Explosion and such without STAB, as the base power drop is too much. Earthquake, however, still remains respectable, but not as powerful as on its STAB users. Starting off with users of EQ:



You should also be familiar with this guy, as well. It should come as no real surprise that Garchomp, probably Scarfed or given a Yache and hoping you get one SD off so you can destroy their soul, would be the best user of Earthquake. There are only two Pokemon with higher Attack and STAB EQ, and those are Groudon and Rhyperior. Groudon would still remain Uber in this format, and Rhyperior is mostly worse than Garchomp in every way on this team. With Sandstorm support, Rhyperior is possible due to his great physical walling ability, but Surf and Water Spout will most likely spell his doom. Not Garchomp's, though.



Assuming Garchomp gets banned, Rhyperior is an acceptable option for EQ IF you have Tyranitar. With Surf being multi-hitting, Rhyperior's low speed and Special Defence make it a liability, likely to get destroyed by a Vaporeon or Milotic's Surf. However, the Sandstorm boost could let it survive long enough to get one CB Earthquake in, and at its attack, plus Band boost, one hit is all you'll need. Lightningrod is also a useful ability, allowing you to protect pokemon weak to Electric, such as Gyarados, from faster electric users like Jolteon. Lightningrod gives Rhyperior his own niche ability from Garchomp, but with Sand Veil letting Garchomp dance around enemy attackers, it probably benefits less from Sandstorm. If you feel like running a Gyarados, though, Rhyperior is an acceptable Bander.



The last of the EQ users I'd consider for Theorymon is Mamoswine. He benefits from a different weather to the previous two, and Snow Veil combined with Abomasnow could let him survive long enough. In addition, the major weakness of Abomasnow, Fire, only gets three multi-hitting moves, and none of the three are learnt by many Pokemon, with only Heatran really using them. Thus, Mamoswine is a fine choice, and his typing lets him take on Dragons, like the above Garchomp, with the powerful Ice Shard, letting him get around his relatively slow speed.



My favourite user of Water Spout (excluding Kyogre, of course), as it can survive enough to still have a reasonably powerful Water Spout, unlike Wailord (due to his low defences) and Octillery (due to both low health and defences). His Special Attack is pretty much the same as Wailord's, though lower than Octillery's. Water Spout is unreliable in 6v6, though, as all the users of it (again, bar Kyogre) are fairly slow, and you can't afford to lose much health before using Water Spout. Torrent helps this, though, as if Blastoise it at 33% health, Water Spout has the same power it would at 50%. However, Surf, the other multi-hitting water move, hits your teammates as well, so if you're running, say, Tyranitar, Surf can be dangerous to use. However, on the other hand, Surf hits Vaporeon and Quagsire as a nice psuedo-Wish.



If you're looking for Surf as a healing move, Starmie is probably your best non-uber bet. At a pretty amazing base speed of 115, the only Pokemon in current OU that outrun you are Ninjask (unviable in this format due to Baton Pass not working), Aerodactyl (possibly viable, due to EQ immunity, which is useful, and high speed, though fragile), Jolteon (most likely too fragile, will get hit awfully hard by EQ users) and Weavile (entirely possible due to nice Ice moves and speed). Reasonable Special Attack also means Starmie hits your enemy fairly hard, too. Just be wary of enemy Vaporeons or Quagsires.



However, if you plan on running a Rain Dance team, there's no one faster than Floatzel. Although the auto-rainer, Kyogre, will always be Uber, auto-weather isn't as powerful in this format due to the inability to switch the user back in. For instance, even if TTar starts Sandstorm off on turn 1, as soon as someone uses Rain Dance, he can't set it back up. Although Floatzel is fragile, he will outrun everything that isn't Scarf Deoxys-S. Although Surf is less than decent on him due to his sub-optimal SAttack, Waterfall doesn't hit multiple pokemon, making Surf a possible consideration.



Now we come back to Mamoswine. Blizzard hits all the enemy Pokemon, giving him two moves hitting everything, both STAB, both 100% accuracy (assuming you're running Abomasnow). Admittadly, its off his sub-optimal 70 Special Attack, but Blizzard's ability to hit everything and add versatility to Mamoswine makes up for it, I think. Mamoswine really does deserve two entries on this list, just because of how potentially powerful Mamoswine is. Blizzard, Earthquake, Ice Shard, Superpower, Rock Slide (hits all enemies, and has 100% accuracy, unlike Stone Edge), plus Snow Cloak and immunity to Electricity makes for an amazing Pokemon. I may even give it a third entry in the list sometime later.



Froslass is also a good abuser of Hail. Blizzard, again, but off a slightly better Special Attack and much better speed. I'd run Brightpowder to make up for Frosslass' worse defences, and with that, Frosslass makes great support. TWave and Confusion to slow the enemy's sweeepers and lets you hit before them. Whether or not Substitute is useful in this format, I don't know though.



Typhlosion's Eruption becomes alot more useful now that it hits multiple Pokemon, and he has the highest Special Attack and speed combination of all the Pokemon that learn it. He also learns Blaze, and like Blastoise's Torrent, it buffs Eruption when Typhlosion becomes too low of health to use it properly. Typhlosion also learns Lava Plume, a parallel to Surf in this case, as it lets Typhlosion still hit alot of Pokemon late game.



Heatran learns both Heat Wave and Lava Plume, of which Lava Plume is more reliable but more dangerous to your own team, especially if it burns your one of physical sweepers. Lava Plume could be used by one of your other Pokemon to trigger Flash Fire, but as all of the Pokemon that learn Lava Plume are grounded Fire Pokemon, its not the most reliable of strategies. Heatran's absurd Special Attack lets him use either of them for massive damage, though, so its really up to you.



The mighty Rotom-A is best represented by Fridge, since it gets Blizzard as well, but any will do. Discharge hits all Pokemon, and it is rather dangerous as it can potentially paralyze your own Pokemon, but if supported by some ground Pokemon, the chance of paralyzing your own drops enough to make it worthwhile. Rotom-C and Rotom-H are probably the best for coverage still, but Rotom-F is brilliantly powerful if supported by Abomasnow.

And that's it for part 1. Look forward to Part 2 next Tuesday.

Shoddy 2

When Shoddy 2 comes out, it'll allow doubles games. However, it doesn't just allow that. It will have a toggle feature, allowing from 1v1 to 6v6. I predict that the most played metagames will be 1v1 (obviously), 2v2 (since the games allow it) and the mighty 6v6, with all 6 pokemon out at once. Thus, as me and Trav have already begun discussing this metagame, I believe a few rules should be made about it, and we're beginning the refining of it.

First of all, rules. I doubt Evasion Clause should really be on in 6v6, since its easy enough to just focus on a Double Teamer and take it down. Also, due to the fact there's no switching, entry hazards mean nothing, and the word 'lead' means nothing as well. Lastly, Perish Song Clause would also have to be invented, to prevent all 6v6 games going a mere 3 turns into draw. Thus, I present, what we believe will be the lords and masters of 6v6.

First of all, Earthquake becomes insane because of its ability to hit all Pokemon at once, which, in turn, forces levitaters and fliers to move up, causing Rotom, Gengar, Latias and Gyarados to move up in usage. It does become useless if your team doesn't have anything immune to it, though. Explosion, as well, hits all enemy pokemon, causing it to be default on all Pokemon that could get it, really, causing Gengar, Rotom and Dusknoir to be more powerful. While phazing is impossible, Haze now stops all stat changers, and its also easy enough to focus one stat changer. In turn, however, its easy to focus a Hazer, so statupping remains possible, but risky and dangerous, and more likely something to leave later on so your hapless statupper doesn't get targetted. Lastly, the two Screens and Safeguard affect all your pokemon, so if you can set them up quickly, it'll let the game last longer and stop nasty burns.

Certain abilities become even better, as well. Intimidate, in particular, hits all enemies, causing a Gyara-Salamence combo to really hinder enemy physical sweeping. Bad Dreams hits all sleeping pokemon, as well, which gives Darkrai alot of power in potential Uber 6v6s. Trace randomly takes an enemy ability out of all 6, making it risky, but potentially powerful, and as alot of powerful abilities are possible, Porygon2 used to get an extra Intimidate is possible. Lightningrod and Storm Drain actually become useful, potentially to cover for fragile water/fire pokemon and give pokemon like Rhyperior a few more uses. Pressure is also on enough high stat pokemon to have 6 Pressures and just PP drain the enemy so much they Struggle.

In Uber 6v6, Kyogre remains in his position of god tier, due to Water Spout hitting all enemy pokemon for huge damage if it can survive the first turn. Wailord can do the same thing, and with its higher health, it'll stay at a high enough base power. In addition, if you see a Wailord, you're probably not going to focus it over something else like, say, a Salamence, really? Eruption on Typhlosion and Entei also lets them see more use, as does the lack of Stealth Rocks to take off 1/4 of their health every time they switch in. Alas, Charizard and Moltres, despite not being afraid of SR anymore, only have Heat Wave as their potential 'hit everything' move.

Potential strategies include having a team of Scarfers, for one. Being able to outrun the enemy team and see their types at first makes for good Scarf decisions, so you aren't left with hitting on a 4x Resistance. In addition, Scarfed Rotoms and Gengars are immune to EQ and Explosion, and thus having those on a Scarf team make it more possible for it to deal large amounts of damage in a short few turns.

Good 6v6 Scarfers:

Counters to 6v6 Scarfers:

And anything else with good priority moves and/or nice defences.

Garchomp stands out, as shown by the power of Chain Chomp, as he can be a great mixed attacker, hitting hard with his mighty STAB EQ, even more powerful in this metagame. Slaking can do the same, as Truant doesn't really affect it much when you're in such a quick game. If he can OHKO a Pokemon first turn, he's done his job fine. In addition, Skill Swap can put Levitate or something else on him, taking the Truant to someone that doesn't really care and letting him hit for his full effect. Gengar and Rotom can Trick nicely if the opponent has a setup, and still hit with brilliant coverage on three moves. Rotom gets Heat Wave as well, if necessary. Latias and Porygon-Z gets the coverage they have, but alas not the Trick. Porygon-Z especially hits hard with Tri-Attack. Flygon gets the same EQ as Garchomp, but lacks the ability to go mixed. However, he makes up for it with faster speed, allowing it to hit the faster fire/electric types before they can go, as well as Levitate, dodging your own EQs and the enemies to boot. Lastly, Aerodactyl, Salamence and Weavile all get nice speed and nice attack to boot, though Salamence gets mixed and both it and Aerodactyl dodge the mighty EQ. Weavile, though, gets STAB Ice, which is useful, but Salamence does get the powerful Intimidate.

For counters, obviously priority works. Sucker Punch, Bullet Punch and Shadow Sneak were the first ones that came to mind, mostly due to their powerful users, as shown above. Scizor obviously hits harder than Metagross with Bullet Punch, but 4x Weaknesses probably aren't useful in this format. Honchkrow's massive Sucker Punch damage also hits very hard, at its great +2 Priority, letting it hurt the other priority users on the list. Dusknoir's nice defences and Will-o-Wisp do great, as well, and Spiritomb's lack of weaknesses let it prevent itself getting OHKOd and hit back with its own Sucker Punch.

The problem with a few standard OU Scarfers like, say, Heatran, will be worried by the likes of Flygon using massive Earthquakes. Really, the ability to OHKO Heatran without even having to target him should scare him away. Same thing with Electivire. However, I believe Jolteon should be fast enough to focus a hit in on any EQ users before they can kill him, although Flygon is still a worry.

Tune in next 6v6 Tuesday for the next potential strategy, and more on the interesting hypothetical metagame. (Its also great for thought experiments!)