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For a Drifblim Tailwind lead, what is more useful in the 4th slot: Disable or Clear Smog? Edit: or Destiny Bond?

Clear Smog seems more useful to me for stopping Belly Drum Snorlax or Eeveeboost or Z-Conversion. But I'm sure there are cases of Disable being better that I'm not thinking of. Like Disabling a flare blitz after your partner protected the first one.
Then destiny bond can be used when you're on low health and you know they're going to target you :/
 
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For a Drifblim Tailwind lead, what is more useful in the 4th slot: Disable or Clear Smog? Edit: or Destiny Bond?

Clear Smog seems more useful to me for stopping Belly Drum Snorlax or Eeveeboost or Z-Conversion. But I'm sure there are cases of Disable being better that I'm not thinking of. Like Disabling a flare blitz after your partner protected the first one.
Then destiny bond can be used when you're on low health and you know they're going to target you :/
First of all I'm assuming your first 3 moves are Will-o-wisp, tailwind and shadow ball.

In my opinion, Disable is way too situational, and most of the time Protect + Tailwind then double target the threat is better than protect + disable.

Destiny bond is great because in a best of 3 it creates mind games, therefore you can take advantage thanks to that. Even then I think Destiny bond isn't that great because I don't think good players will KO Drifblim so that you get a free switch into Nihilego/Buzzwole/Koko/Garchomp under tailwind.

Clear Smog sounds interesting, but considering that your Tapu Lele can easily carry Taunt (if it isn't Specs), I'd say that Clear Smog is not needed.

What I recommend in the fourth slot is Sunny Day. Drifblim + Lele has a tough time vs Rain teams. Depending on the Speed EVs in your Drifblim, Golduck could outspeed and OHKO your Drifblim with Rain boosted Hydro Vortex. Also Aurora veil Ninetales is tough vs Drifblim Lele (and tailwind in general) considering you want to sweep your opponent's team as fast as possible by hitting as hard as you can.

That's why I'd recommend using Sunny Day. Having a decent match-up vs Rain and Ninetales thanks to using a single move is really good in my opinion. But as always, ot comes down to personal preference/team composition. Hope that helped.
 
First of all I'm assuming your first 3 moves are Will-o-wisp, tailwind and shadow ball.

In my opinion, Disable is way too situational, and most of the time Protect + Tailwind then double target the threat is better than protect + disable.

Destiny bond is great because in a best of 3 it creates mind games, therefore you can take advantage thanks to that. Even then I think Destiny bond isn't that great because I don't think good players will KO Drifblim so that you get a free switch into Nihilego/Buzzwole/Koko/Garchomp under tailwind.

Clear Smog sounds interesting, but considering that your Tapu Lele can easily carry Taunt (if it isn't Specs), I'd say that Clear Smog is not needed.

What I recommend in the fourth slot is Sunny Day. Drifblim + Lele has a tough time vs Rain teams. Depending on the Speed EVs in your Drifblim, Golduck could outspeed and OHKO your Drifblim with Rain boosted Hydro Vortex. Also Aurora veil Ninetales is tough vs Drifblim Lele (and tailwind in general) considering you want to sweep your opponent's team as fast as possible by hitting as hard as you can.

That's why I'd recommend using Sunny Day. Having a decent match-up vs Rain and Ninetales thanks to using a single move is really good in my opinion. But as always, ot comes down to personal preference/team composition. Hope that helped.
That's really helpful, thanks. I appreciate the help.

Yes the first 3 moves are Shadow Ball, Tailwind and Will-O-Wisp.

I like the thinking behind Sunny Day. I'm going to give it a try.

As for Taunt on Lele, yes I wish I could, but my set is currently Psychic/Dazzling Gleam/Thunderbolt/Protect (with Life Orb) and I don't think I can replace anything. Thunderbolt I need for Flying types and Celesteela.

To make up for it I've put Taunt on my Tapu Fini, which I can lead with if needed because it outspeeds stuff like Oranguru, Porygon 2 and Snorlax.
 
That's really helpful, thanks. I appreciate the help.

Yes the first 3 moves are Shadow Ball, Tailwind and Will-O-Wisp.

I like the thinking behind Sunny Day. I'm going to give it a try.

As for Taunt on Lele, yes I wish I could, but my set is currently Psychic/Dazzling Gleam/Thunderbolt/Protect (with Life Orb) and I don't think I can replace anything. Thunderbolt I need for Flying types and Celesteela.

To make up for it I've put Taunt on my Tapu Fini, which I can lead with if needed because it outspeeds stuff like Oranguru, Porygon 2 and Snorlax.
Consider Rain Dance in that case, it will cripple Arcanine and be of more use considering you said you are running Tapu Fini
 
How drastic would megas shake up the meta right now? Seeing as tapus and ultras are in almost every team with an arcanine. I was wondering what other people thought would happen if megas were allowed again with only the alolan pokemon allowed.
( hopefully next season?)
 
How drastic would megas shake up the meta right now? Seeing as tapus and ultras are in almost every team with an arcanine. I was wondering what other people thought would happen if megas were allowed again with only the alolan pokemon allowed.
( hopefully next season?)
Pretty drastically. Mega Kangaskhan would be a big threat despite its nerfs because it still has very reliable damage and good utility in Fake Out. Mega Charizard Y would provide another strong Fire type that the format is lacking which would threaten Celesteela somewhat though it would struggle against Gigalith and Tapu Lele/Koko. Mega Metagross (I'm not sure if its mega stone was available without an event) would be really strong with Tapu Lele boosting its Psychic attacks or Tapu Bulu protecting it from Ground type moves. It's incredibly hard to get a clear picture of what the meta game would look like with the megas so we can only imagine. They might come back next season but at the same time they may not - if Ultra Sun/Moon doesn't give us access to all the mega stones there's a strong chance they won't allow them again otherwise I think there's a good chance of it happening.

What is the most useful nature for Celesteela besides Relaxed?
Sassy, Impish, Careful, etc. It's a pretty versatile Pokemon that can viably use a lot of different natures. Generally you'll see the sets running Flamethrower and Heavy Slam take a Speed reducing nature so they'll probably go Sassy or Relaxed especially since there isn't tons for it to out speed other than possibly speed creeping other Celesteela. Celesteela can still pick up the OHKO on Kartana with Flamethrower even with no investment and a -SpA nature so the first three natures I listed are probably the most common and useful in most scenarios.

0- SpA Celesteela Flamethrower vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Kartana: 204-244 (151.1 - 180.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
 
Pretty drastically. Mega Kangaskhan would be a big threat despite its nerfs because it still has very reliable damage and good utility in Fake Out. Mega Charizard Y would provide another strong Fire type that the format is lacking which would threaten Celesteela somewhat though it would struggle against Gigalith and Tapu Lele/Koko. Mega Metagross (I'm not sure if its mega stone was available without an event) would be really strong with Tapu Lele boosting its Psychic attacks or Tapu Bulu protecting it from Ground type moves. It's incredibly hard to get a clear picture of what the meta game would look like with the megas so we can only imagine. They might come back next season but at the same time they may not - if Ultra Sun/Moon doesn't give us access to all the mega stones there's a strong chance they won't allow them again otherwise I think there's a good chance of it happening.
MegaZardY wouldn't be allowed, since it is AlolaDex Only. All the Mega Stones available in-game without downloading them are to Pokemon that are in the Alolan Dex, so Metagross does have its Mega.
 
Is there anything that has happened to explain the increase of Buzzwole and Smeargle usage?
I can't explain Buzzwole, but Smeargle was used by Marcus Stadter(sp?) at US internats and we're all notorious copycats is my explanation.
 

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Is there anything that has happened to explain the increase of Buzzwole and Smeargle usage?
Buzzwole does well against garchomp and all of the snorlax. It's pretty anti-meta, but it's not a fan of koko (or fini or lele) and arcanine being on almost every team
 

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I was reading Palossand moveset. Does someoe know what are those 20 SpA EV for? Are they for OHKO some specific threat after Weakness Policy boost?
 
In the post-Worlds meta, what are some good Pokémon to complete a team with the GACT core?

EDIT: Need some techs that are capable of handling Mandibuzz.
 
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Hey gang, probably really stupid question, and you might've heard it all before, but does smogon have a vgc discord, like they do for other formats?
Can anyone be kind enough to give me the link if there is such a thing?
Thanks a million
-0verloud
 

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Hey gang, probably really stupid question, and you might've heard it all before, but does smogon have a vgc discord, like they do for other formats?
Can anyone be kind enough to give me the link if there is such a thing?
Thanks a million
-0verloud
yep
 
So I was thinking of trying my hand at VGC 2018, and i was wondering if anyone who actually has experience with VGC had some predictions on how VGC 2018 would differ from 2017?
 
So I was thinking of trying my hand at VGC 2018, and i was wondering if anyone who actually has experience with VGC had some predictions on how VGC 2018 would differ from 2017?
It'll probably be similar to BS doubles - it normally is. The big things we don't know are:

1. Whether or not mega-stones will continue to be banned

2. Which Legendaries will be available in the new games - if they don't let you catch Landorus, for example, that makes a huge difference

3. What moves will be tutor moves and which normal tutor moves will new Pokemon get

4. Will there be new Alolan forms and how good the new UBs are.

All of that added up can make a big difference.
 
thanks gonna check them out!!

is cleric/heal support necessary in vgc?? how common is status??
Sleep and burn are common to some extent. Sleep is usually from smeargle or lilligant, while a lot of water types run scald and Arcanine or some ghost types run will o wisp.

However, because tapu koko (just sleep) and fini stop statuses you really don't need a cleric. It's a waste of a moveslot most of the time.

Heal support also isn't too common although you do see heal pulse on the slowbro and clefairy lines. Usually Pokémon have berries to heal themselves or just work with healing moves.
 

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