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Old 02-22-2016, 01:05 AM   #1
Talon87
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The Kanto Classic


The Kanto Classic is the latest WiFi tournament officially supported by Game Freak for players of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. Celebrating 20 years of Pokémon, the Kanto Classic is a Gen 1-themed tournament in which players may only use the first 149 NationalDex Pokémon to formulate a team. The rest of the rules can be found here or by reading below:

Spoiler: show
Celebrating 20 years of Pokémon battles, the Kanto Classic Online Competition features rules that mirror competitive play from the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue games. Create a team using only the first 149 Pokémon in the National Pokédex. In true classic Pokémon spirit, all battles will be Single Battles, and all six of the Pokémon in your party will be used in each battle. Plus, items will not be allowed! You will be able to bring in Pokémon from earlier games via Poké Transporter, and all Pokémon over Lv. 50 will be set to Lv. 50 for the duration of the battle. Good luck battling in the Kanto Classic!

Sign-Up Period
Thursday, February 25, 2016, at 00:00 UTC through Thursday, March 3, 2016, at 23:59 UTC
• You must sign up during this period in order to be able to participate in the competition.
• You may sign up for the competition once per game registered to your PGL account.

Competition Period
Friday, March 4, 2016, at 00:00 UTC, through Sunday, March 6, 2016, at 23:59 UTC

Participant Limit
50,000 (limit subject to change; first come, first served)

Participation Gift
Qualified participants in the Kanto Classic Online Competition will receive a special Dragonite inspired by Elite Four Trainer Lance’s Dragonite from Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. To qualify, players must earn a place in the rankings by completing at least three battles.

Dragonite
Lv. 62
OT: Lance
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Agility, Barrier, Slam, Hyper Beam

Age Divisions
Junior/Senior Division: Born 2001 or later
Masters Division: Born 2000 or earlier
• Junior Division players are limited to playing between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., based on the eastern-most time zone in each player’s country.

Ranking Results Announcement
March 2016 (announcement time subject to change)

Compatible Games
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire

Competition Rules
• This competition uses Single Battle format.
• Players may use Pokémon with National Pokédex number 1 through 151, with the exception of the following: Mewtwo and Mew.
• Pokémon brought over from Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, Pokémon Black 2, or Pokémon White 2 via Poké Transporter may participate in this competition.
• Register six of your Lv. 1–100 Pokémon to your Battle Box.
• All Pokémon above Lv. 50 in this competition will automatically become Lv. 50 for the duration of each match.
• All six of the Pokémon you register to your Battle Box will be used during each match.
• Held items are not allowed.
• A 60-minute time limit for each match will automatically be enforced in-game, beginning at the start of each battle. If the outcome has not been determined when the time limit expires, the game will automatically apply tiebreakers to determine a winner.
• At the beginning of each battle, players have 60 seconds to select six Pokémon with which to battle.
• At the beginning of each turn, players have 60 seconds to select a move or change the Pokémon in battle. If a player has not made his or her selections at the end of this period, the game will automatically make selections for the player.
• Players may battle up to 10 games per day of the competition. Any unplayed games will carry over to the following day. A new day begins at 00:00 UTC.
• For additional details, please come back to check the competition’s regulations page when registration opens.

Participation Requirements
• A Pokémon Trainer Club membership
• A wireless Internet connection
• A Pokémon Omega Ruby or Pokémon Alpha Sapphire game with a Game Sync ID registered in the Pokémon Global Link (PGL)
• The birth date you have registered in your Pokémon Trainer Club account will determine the age division in which you play. If it’s discovered during the competition that your birth-date information is incorrect, you may be disqualified from the competition and future competitions.

The highlights for those looking to register:
  • sign ups begin on February 25
  • the tournament begins on March 4 and lasts through March 6
  • 6v6 Singles format
  • imports are allowed; does not have to have the Kalos pentagon
  • the prize is given to all players who complete at least three battles, win or lose
  • the prize is Lance's Dragonite from Gen 1
  • ORAS only; no XY, unfortunately
Other details can be found on the site or in the spoiler box above.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This looks like it could be a fun tournament. While items and Gen 2+ creatures are prohibited, it doesn't sound like there's anything Game Freak can do to restrict players' access to abilities, natures, EVs, and of course moves. Even types sound like they'll be Gen 6 fair game, which means that Clefable won't be playing like its usual Gen 1 self.

I don't have the team members necessary to run a classic RBY tourney team (Zapdos, Tauros, Rhydon, the usual), but I don't expect a strictly classic team to fare too well in this Gen 6 environment either. Clefable (who I'm also missing) seems like it'll be huge, and things like the Special split (into SpAtk and SpDef), the physical/special split, and other type changes (like Magneton becoming Electric/Steel) all seem like they're going to work together to create a surprising new list of MVPs.

I really wish I'd known about this tournament sooner, as it sounds like it will be really, really fun for all anyone who remembers Gen 1 fondly.
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Old 02-22-2016, 01:15 AM   #2
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This isn't going to play anything like the classics sadly. So many mechanics differences that just make it impossible. However, that being said, Psychic is once again poised to be pretty dominating because of the lack of Steel and Dark-types. That in and of itself might make Pinsir and Scyther potential dark horses because of their access to Bug STAB, along with Gengar (although it fares poorly against Alakazam). There is obviously the new issue of hazards: there is a plethora of Pokemon who are able to set-up Stealth Rock and not that many to remove them, so I expect that Starmie and Zapdos will be popular because of their niches in that role. Cloyster could be a threat because of its Shell Smash set, but that all depends on whether or not the lack of items really hurt it.

I wish I could test everything going through my head about this. ;-;
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Old 02-22-2016, 01:36 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Emi View Post
This isn't going to play anything like the classics sadly.

[...] I wish I could test everything going through my head about this. ;-;
Yeah, but see, that's the thing! I don't think it's sad! I think it's actually really, really fun-sounding. Sure, it'd have been a nice throwback to all us Gen 1 players if they had given us a Gen 1 tournament with Gen 1 stats and Gen 1 moves and Gen 1 lack of abilities and natures, so on and so forth, but like ... we already know what that meta is like. Both in the sense of the historic, 1999 meta and in the sense of the modern, 2016 Smogon-says meta. The Gen 1 code's been more or less "cracked," and we could expect a Gen 1 tournament to largely be something in which casuals are curbstomped in Round 1, players like myself in Rounds 2 or 3, and rising to the top of the ladder are only the veteran Gen 1 meta Smogon players. But with the Kanto Classic, all bets are off. It's an untamed wilderness of exploration and discovery, a wild, wild west of crazy duels and surprising outcomes.

I'm thinking I may not enter this tournament because a) I don't have the time to breed the creatures for a necessary team and b) the prize isn't alluring enough for me, but that doesn't mean that I don't wish I had the time to enter with a properly-bred team. If I could have a paid leave of absence from work for the next four weeks, lol, I'd absolutely love to go and finally catch my Pokémon Y Zapdos, then go breed my Champion League Charizard, then perhaps breed the rest of my Champion League team (substituting Zapdos in for Pikachu and obligatorily going with Lapras every time over Espeon because Gen 1 only) and have loads of fun. But as it stands, the only creatures I have on hand who are battle-ready are Jynx, Starmie, and Doubles Charizard Y. That last one basically doesn't count, and the first two, while good, aren't enough for me to enter a 6v6 Singles tourney. I'm short four Pokémon.

I dunno. We'll see. I'm actually quite excited to follow this meta as best I can. I'm eager to find out who's gone from rags to riches and who's gone from riches to rags in this Gen 1-meets-Gen 6 meta.
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Old 02-22-2016, 01:41 AM   #4
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Already trying to come up with a good team for this. Or at least one I'll enjoy using. By which I mean I've basically already decided to use Weezing, at the very least. Either way, I am definitely entering this.

I'm considering Clefable- immunity to Dragonite's Outrage/Dragon Claw would be welcome, seeing as only it, Wigglytuff, and Magneton would resist/be immune to Dragon here. That said, Generation I introduced more Poison-types than any other generation, and Fairy moves aren't going to be especially useful when you consider there's relatively few Fighting-types, the only Dragon-type takes more damage from Ice moves anyway, and there's no Dark-types whatsoever.

But yeah, at this moment, my team's still yet to be decided, aside from Weezing.
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Old 02-22-2016, 01:54 AM   #5
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Clefable's appeal is less so the Fairy typing (though there is that!) and is moreso the other changes it enjoys from the years following Gen 1:
  • Calm Mind from Gen 3
  • Magic Guard from Gen 4
    • going with this, other creatures' gift of entry hazards from Gens 2 and 4
    • as well as other creatures' gifts of new ways to inflict status from Gens 2 thru 6
  • the physical/special split, and what that means for Clefable's opponents' means of attack
  • EVs from Gen 3, by which I mean the limitation to only max out two stats instead of maxing out all six as in previous generations
  • Trick Room from Gen 4 (to be used by a teammate, not necessarily by Clefable itself)
  • Softboiled from a Gen 3 event, or else Wish from Gen 3
If you basically run the dominant Smogon OU Clefable set:
Code:
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 84 SpD
Calm Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Thunder Wave / Flamethrower
you already have a Gen 6 OU terror, never mind a Gen 1 one. Gen 6 has plenty of avenues for dealing with Clefable, but with the format-imposed limitation of only using Gen 1 answers to check Clefable, suddenly the Clefable user finds himself that much better poised to sweep with the moon fairy.

This is all speculation on my part. And that's half the fun I'm having right now. This is a really, really intriguing format IMO. It has all the nostalgic appeal of a classic Gen 1 format merged with the excitement that only a brand-new, little-explored format can bring.
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Old 02-22-2016, 02:03 AM   #6
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Clefable is going to be helped in that most Poison types are very likely going to be scared away by the Psychic type, probably more so than Fighting-types, since Fighting-types usually have a trick or two up their sleeves to deal with the Psychic menace while Poison typically doesn't. Muk might be interesting though, given its very good special bulk, access to Shadow Sneak, and physically geared stats.

Hitmonlee I think is going to be good. Reckless High Jump Kick, reasonable special bulk thanks to the special split (as a note, its doesn't help it against Alakazam, but it does help it against other Psychic-types) and Sucker Punch. Most Psychic-types aren't likely to just jerk around once then come in on Hitmonlee, and that means it has a powerful option for removing them.

Quote:
252+ Atk Hitmonlee Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Alakazam: 336-396 (133.8 - 157.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
That said, it still loses to stuff like Slowbro. But definitely an interesting choice.
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Old 02-22-2016, 03:06 AM   #7
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It has been brought to my attention that a KantoDex tournament permits auto-sun (Ninetales) but doesn't have access to auto-rain or auto-sand. Seems one-sided!

Also: searching Tumblr for Kanto Classic out of curiosity, I find many people thinking like me and bringing Clefable. #yeah
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Old 02-22-2016, 05:46 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Missingno. Master View Post
I'm considering Clefable- immunity to Dragonite's Outrage/Dragon Claw would be welcome, seeing as only it, Wigglytuff, and Magneton would resist/be immune to Dragon here.
Mr. Mime?
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Old 02-22-2016, 11:07 AM   #9
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Mr. Mime?
Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting it became part Fairy.
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Old 02-25-2016, 12:10 AM   #10
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Hey, just an FYI, sign-ups for the Kanto Classic are now open. Naturally, I signed up, wouldn't miss this for the world.
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Old 02-25-2016, 12:45 AM   #11
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Does anyone know if PS is doing anything with this? I sort of doubt it, but it would be fun to see.
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Old 02-25-2016, 10:18 AM   #12
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Does anyone know if PS is doing anything with this? I sort of doubt it, but it would be fun to see.
They are. In fact, I think they also had a Festive Feud format in December. They might be doing the official games' tournaments every time they come out, not only to allow people to playtest in a tournament-appropriate sandbox but also to let people like yourself play in the format when they might not otherwise have any alternatives available to them.

The current ladder king is someone named bbww with an Elo of 1688 and a GXE of 85.2%. 500th place is only 1269 (Elo score), so if you want to ladder in this format it would probably be pretty easy. A score of 1400 would today take you to 99th place.

No one online right now has an Elo above 1150 though. I'm watching the highest-ranked players fight right now, and I'm seeing crap like Disable on a Ninetales (-.-) and accusations that the one guy had "perfect luck" for waking up exactly two turns after he used Rest. It's ... I think you will run out of opponents very quickly if you try to play right now. ^^; But in brighter news, you could easily rise to 1150!
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Old 02-25-2016, 10:27 AM   #13
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OH that is extremely cool and I'm so looking forward to this.
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Old 02-26-2016, 09:52 PM   #14
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Barrier Dragonite is useless but yay exclusive moves
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Old 03-02-2016, 10:36 AM   #15
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I just signed up. I wanted to allow ample time for more excited players and children to sign up before I did since this isn't a tournament I expect to place super well in nor is it one I especially care about the prize for, but I am excited for the format in general and I did want to participate. So I've been spending the past week, with what little free time I have available, trying to breed a number of planned breeding projects ahead in line so that I could have a team ready for this tournament.

So far I have only two of my six planned team members prepared. Even that's not quite accurate: the first team member is still unevolved (but EV trained) while the second team member I'm still trying to hatch the ideal 5V or 6V. So yeah, you may question how I'm going to be ready in time for this tournament. Well, I do also have Jynx and Starmie from earlier breeding projects. So push to come to shove, if I'm to use a hastily-thrown-together team then I guess I'm really more like 4/6 of the way complete instead of 2/6. And I'm hoping that tonight, tomorrow, and Friday I can finish anywhere from four (ideally) to two (whatever) of my remaining guys and thus have a full team of six ready to go.
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Old 03-04-2016, 04:24 PM   #16
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The first day of the tournament is winding down and ... I'm in the process of leveling up Dudes 1 thru 4 right now. orz I have Dude 5 in the Daycare, breeding, and I think I can get Dude 6 fairly quickly. So I should be ready to go by later tonight ... but unfortunately, I'll probably miss the 7pm local border between Day Friday and Day Saturday of the tournament. Fortunately, battles work like minutes on most cell phone plans: unused ones roll over. So it's not like I can't still get my battles in. I'll just ... have to battle a crapton on Saturday (twenty battles) if I want to get my final ten in on Sunday without running out of opponents to play.

It's been pretty rewarding building this team since just about everyone on it is somebody I have wanted to breed for and EV train for a very long time. I look forward to showing you the guys the team once it's finalized.

MM, have you gotten any of your Day 1 battles in yet? How's it been going?
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Old 03-04-2016, 04:42 PM   #17
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MM, have you gotten any of your Day 1 battles in yet? How's it been going?
So far, so good... ish. I've lost a good amount of my Day 1 battles (I'll check the exact number later on), though some of them were extremely close. One of them I only lost because Lapras's Hydro Pump missed at a crucial moment. Of the ones I won, a few of them were won fair and square, but two of them were won because I happened upon some people who were clearly not in this to win. One of them had a team full of level 1s and forfeited on the first turn, clearly just in it to do the bare minimum necessary for the Dragonite. The second guy let me defeat his entire team, all Shiny, all level 1 except his Jigglypuff and Chefairy- those were level 30. The second guy was either in it just for the Dragonite or to show off his Shinies. Maybe both.
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Old 03-06-2016, 01:51 AM   #18
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The Team: It took me a little over one week to complete this team. And even now, the team still isn't finished! There were a few hiccups here or there, which I'll get to in a second, and so what you see below is only 99% of what I had wanted it to be. But I'm pretty happy with the finished product ...


Surprise! It's Red's team from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver! Or to those of you who might remember from 2011, it's the team I used in the Champion League tournament!

This team has a lot of sentimental value for me. First and foremost, the GSC Red connection. That's one we all share. But then there's the fact that I also used this team in the Champion League tournament and it took me pretty darn far. While it's tempting to laugh at a team that's "lol starters" or "lol anime", Red's team is actually pretty good. The breakdown:

Spoiler: show

Venusaur I use as a Special Attack brute, running a Modest nature with Sludge Bomb and SolarBeam (2011) / Giga Drain (Kanto Classic). I would describe his primary job as being to set up Sunny Day for Charizard so that Charizard's Flare Blitz attacks deal more damage than even the best physical walls can withstand. But Venusaur is also useful as a disruptor (Sleep Powder) and a beat stick in his own right.


Blastoise is the physical wall of the team. Red's team lacks classic physical wall options like Skarmory or Steelix, so it falls to Blastoise to be Bold, be EVed defensively, and to use Scald to further hamper physical attackers. Blastoise is one of the team's two pivots (the other being Snorlax), a pretty decent go-to guy when I need to get an important attacker out of harm's way but don't want to sacrifice some other fragile attacker I need for later. Blastoise won't be OHKOing much on his own, but his job is to support the team so that others can do the OHKOing.


Charizard is the star sweeper of the team. I ran physical 'Zard before it was cool [/hipster], and nothing's changed in the years since I first demonstrated to UPN why this set is so potent. Charizard's base Attack stat, while not great, is usable. You use Dragon Dance to turn it into something that's more than usable. You couple it with Flare Blitz, which holds all the power of Fire Blast and all the accuracy of Flamethrower. And you join it with powerful Earthquakes and Dragon Claw to deal with the odd dragon.


Good old Curselax. My old friend. Curselax may not be OU material anymore, but that doesn't mean he stopped being good. He's a terror in more limited formats (like the Champion League or like the Kanto Classic), owing to his amazing natural special bulk and his equally-amazing artificial physical bulk gained from pumping up Curses. Curse up, Rest up, wake up, and win. That's Curselax for you.

... Unfortunately, my Snorlax doesn't know Curse for this tournament. ^^; orz I forgot that Curse quit being a TM after Generation II. I honestly thought it was still a TM, and had been every single generation since its introduction. Whoops. I ran out of time, and I had already EV trained this guy, so I went ahead and made a poor man's switch of Curse for Crunch. So my Kanto Classic Snorlax is running Body Slam, Rest, Earthquake, and Crunch instead of Body Slam, Rest, Earthquake, and Curse.


Physical Lapras is a quirk of needing more than two physical attackers on the team. It's not Lapras's best set in my opinion but it works decently. Not as well as physical Charizard, I'm afraid. The theory behind this one is you run Ice Shard to priority kill dragons, you run Waterfall to brute force your way past most walls, and you run Body Slam to hit things that resist both Water and Ice but are neutral to Normal. In practice it's not the best set in the world. But it's interesting.

/

So I wanted to run Pikachu, staying true to the Champion League tournament as well as to the theme team idea of a Red-themed team in general. But the problem is, the Kanto Classic doesn't allow hold items -- and thus doesn't allow Light Ball. And let's face it: a Pikachu without a Light Ball is basically a waste of a team slot. ^^;; Even in the original tournament, I had to improvise heavily to make Pikachu work. Light Ball @ Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, Flail, and Volt Tackle.

Well I said forget that, for this tournament let's run a proper Raichu. You know the one: Thunderbolt, HP:Ice, Nasty Plot, and {pick one: Substitute, Grass Knot, Focus Blast}. But just like with Curselax, I ran out of time here. It's a bitch to breed for HPs, and I really wanted the fruits of my labor to have a Def IV of 30 and nothing less. So I said "Fuck it " to having an HP:Ice Raichu, even though that's totally what you've got to have, and I opted to go for Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, Focus Blast, and Nasty Plot. Man Raichu's movepool sucks. orz But it's a lot of fun having a Raichu. So at least that's nice. ^^;

As you can see, the team deviates from my original in a few ways:
  • Snorlax doesn't have Curse because I forgot Curse has to be bred on and I ran out of time
  • I have Raichu here instead of Pikachu because I need the power and speed that only Raichu brings
  • Espeon is missing, but that's because the Kanto Classic forbids any Pokémon outside of the original 151. Also: you can't register more than six Pokémon.
But for the most part, this is the same exact team I used four years and four months ago. I've been wanting to re-build them in video game form for years. I'm so glad to finally have them.

Results So Far: I've played three games so far, and I can honestly say ...

... I don't think this team is cut out for the Kanto Classic. ^^;;

I've lost all three games I've played. First game was 4-1 my lead and I lost it 0-1. Second game was 4-2 my lead and I lost it 0-2. Third game I was behind 3-6 and managed through sheer will to bring it to 1-1 but I lost in the end, 0-1. All three games, there were insurmountable hurdles for the team. I'll discuss it in more detail below.

Match 1: My first opponent was a Japanese player ranked 1570-something who ran his own Kanto starter trio, a Dragonite, a Lapras, and an Articuno. Thanks to a lot of hax, and I mean a lot of hax, I managed to pull away with a fairly strong lead, and before long the score of creatures remaining was 4-1, my advantage. All my opponent had left was Dragonite. And then Dragonite Dragon Danced. And then four turns later that was game. None of my Pokémon are bulky enough to withstand the ferocious power of a DDed Outrage, and because Lapras's Ice Shard loses the priority war against Dragonite's ExtremeSpeed I am not able to use Lapras to take Dragonite down either once Lapras is below 50% HP. (DD ExtremeSpeed just deals that much damage. To a Lapras with 252 Def EVs. ) I couldn't be mad with this one: I would never have won were it not for all the hax early on. I dusted myself off and moved on to my next battle.

Match 2: This guy ran Clefable, Gengar, Raichu, Snorlax, and two others. While I got the score to 4-2, he very quickly proved with his second to last Pokémon, Snorlax, why Curselax is such a beast in a KantoDex meta. Man is Curselax good! I wish I could be using Curselax right now! But I can't be. So meh. Ż3Ż I was able to get Snorlax down to 1/3 HP remaining with my best anti-Snorlax answer ... and then he Rested, of course, and that was pretty much game. I got a miracle crit hit that allowed me to bring him down from 85% HP to only 25% HP ... but then next turn I didn't get a second crit, I only dealt like 7% HP damage, and of course he Rested up again. Once the Beast gets going, it's unstoppable.

Match 3: Third opponent was named Lost and was from Colorado. (Our Lost? ) He had a Machamp lead, and unfortunately for me it outsped Lapras despite not being Choice Scarfed. (Coulda sworn Machamp was a lot slower. Oh well.) Machamp managed to take down three of my six guys before I forced him to retreat -- still not dead! orz -- and staged a turn-around. To I think both parties' surprise, I managed to take a game that had been 3-6 all the way to 1-1. But unfortunately for me, my last Pokémon was too weakened and ... you guessed it ... Dragonite. His last Pokémon was Dragonite. I'm super tired so I forget the exact nature of the final turn or turns, but I just remember that he managed to do me in with another ExtremeSpeed.

Closing Remarks: So I spent a week, literally 21 recorded in-game hours, building this team that holds a lot of sentimental value ... that has so far netted me 0 wins and 3 losses. ^^;;;; I'll have to see if I just had bad luck with my match-ups or what, but I sorely doubt it. I know that the teams I'm seeing right now are by no means the teams seen at the top of the ladder. I think the lack of items is just too painful for this team.

Dragonite is super good. He was popular in real Gen 1, but in revisited Gen 1 he's a hundred times better. Dragon Dance, Outrage, ExtremeSpeed, Multiscale ... these are all gifts he never had in ye olden days. I had considered raising a Dragonite for this tournament but decided against it since it would have broken the theme. I'm happy to stick with the theme sentimental value-wise, but winning battles-wise I sure do wish I had a Dragonite right now instead of either Lapras or NotCurselax.

Clefable can be played around with smart switches or by leading in the stat boost wars. In an exchange that went 1a-Thunderbolt @ +2, 1b-Calm Mind, 2a-Thunderbolt @ +2, 2b-Moonblast, 3a-Thunderbolt @ +2 for the KO, I managed to KO my opponent's Clefable with Raichu just through sheer raw force. But I could've switched into Moonblast easily with Charizard and just attacked physically. Or done the same with Snorlax, really, were it a Curselax set. -_-; #saltlakecity

Surprising lack of Psychics so far. Guess it's just because I'm so low on the ladder. orz
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Old 03-06-2016, 11:30 PM   #19
Talon87
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Ironically, I got such little sleep last night due to wanting to squeeze in some Kanto Classic battles that after I returned home from work today I promptly passed out after only a small handful more battles. My final score ended up being a pretty pathetic 2 wins, 6 losses, and 0 ties. orz ^^;; Of the six losses, I had one 0-4, one 0-2, and four 0-1s. Three of the 0-1s were games where I had a commanding lead and then the eventual winner pulled a Hail Mary out of his ass. (Dragonite in two cases, Aerodactyl in a third.)

While I can't say I had a ton of fun with the Kanto Classic itself, I had a lot of fun planning for it, building beloved creatures for old time's sake + future use, and imagining what sorts of things I might find in this meta. I regret that I wasn't able to experience the meta more, particularly at higher levels of play, but I'm glad to finally have my Mega Charizard X candidate if nothing else. I'm one step away from obtaining trusty ol' Curselax, and I'm one step closer to having an ideal Raichu with HP:Ice. All in all, I had a good productive Pokémon-filled week.

If I had to award an MVP to the best enemy Pokémon, it'd go to Machamp. He handles five out of the six Pokémon on my team incredibly well, only hindered by Venusaur, and in every game I faced with a Machamp in it he was able to KO no fewer than two of my Pokémon before fainting himself, a solid exchange for any player. That doesn't mean Machamp was best of format! Just that he was the biggest thorn in my particular team's side. Dragonite is an easy runner-up for this award, and is a likelier contender for the overall format's MVP award. DD Multiscale Outrage is so fucking broken in a KantoDex, NoHoldItems format.

Hope you guys had fun. Looking forward already to the next tournament. Hopefully it'll be as fun to participate in as the Festive Feud and as exciting to plan for as the Kanto Classic.
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