3 This page lists teams used by editors of this wiki to play ranked PVP
4 matches on _Pokémon GO_{as=cite}.
5 In PoGO, the ranked ladder resets with the game-wide 90-day seasons,
6 at which point balance changes are introduced.
8 It is overwhelmingly likely that [][@:Aescling] will be the only ever
9 contributor to this page.
13 {as=section lang=en-X-catspeak}
14 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
18 at some point during timeless travels i began to build to build
19 (reasonably) viable mons fur pvp and made a concerted effurt to climb
21 at time of writing, {% 2022-02-18 %}
22 with less than two weeks remaining in the season,
23 i am at 2200+ ELO, solidly in the ace ranking.
24 (fur comparison, the highest ranking of legend requires 3000 ELO; my
25 current ranking is hardly a great accomplishment.)
27 #### _DYTSMBaL?_{as=cite}
34 * Death Charm (Alolan Ninetails) \
35 11/15/11 (rank 731/4096) \
36 Charm, Weather Ball, Psyshock
38 5/14/14 (rank 472/4096) \
39 Powder Snow, Avalanche, Shadow Ball
40 * [Shadow][HNISILU]{title="external Twitter link"} (Umbreon) \
41 0/15/14 (rank 2/4096) \
42 Snarl, Foul Play, Last Resort
45 the furst team i built fur pvp with (reasonably) viable mons, whose use
46 began during one of the limited cups.
47 the team has something of an anti-synergy; charm alolan ninetails generally
48 sacrifices shields to take switch advantage with its very heavy fast move
49 purressure, but froslass is so glassy you either need to lead or save
50 shields to sweep with it in the back.
51 umbreon is used as a basic and simple safe swap, as always.
53 #### _GLemix_{as=cite}
60 * Mini Beast (Ninetails) \
61 11/15/11 (rank 731/4096) \
62 Charm, Weather Ball, Psyshock
64 5/14/14 (rank 472/4096) \
65 Powder Snow, Avalanche, Shadow Ball
66 * Divebomb (Decidueye) \
67 0/14/13 (rank 767/4096) \
68 Leafage, Frenzy Plant, Brave Bird
71 a team built fur the Great League remix cup, which ran just after the
72 rowlet commewnity day.
73 decidueye is not a purrticularly excellent mon but obtaining shield
74 advantage allows it threaten to sweep in the back with brave birds.
75 of course, this is not a fantastic synergy with froslass, leaving the
76 team lacking in a safe swap and double weak to dark and ghost.
77 one small benefit this team had thanks to rowlet learning spirit
78 shackle on evolution during commewnity day was that many players in
79 low ELO (i was well below ace rank at the time) were completely
80 caught off guard by brave bird, even thuogh
81 [PvPoke][PvPoke] recommends the moveset.
83 #### _Meta-ish_{as=cite}
90 * Sparkblub (Lanturn) \
91 5/15/12 (rank 68/4096) \
92 Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt
94 0/15/14 (rank 2/4096) \
95 Snarl, Foul Play, Last Resort
96 * Mini Beast (Ninetails) \
97 11/15/11 (rank 731/4096) \
98 Charm, Weather Ball, Psyshock
101 despite a very obvious double weakness to the :U+201C:mudboys:U+201D:
102 (that is, water/ground dual types) that had become very common in the
103 open great league, i managed to climb to ace rank with this team.
104 lanturn frankly hard carried this team; a bulky lead that counters a
105 water-heavy meta (except fur mud) and the ever-strong safe swap in
106 umbreon (even given the heavy purresence of counter users) gives the
107 team more than enough bulk to work around purroblematic matchups to
110 i frankly somewhat doubt the fact that lanturn is ranked so highly in
111 the open great league on PvPoke, as ground types are so common
113 that said, its obvious strength cannot be denied; it is almost like
114 simply using actually good mons makes it much easier to climb the
117 #### _Meta-ish MBCed_{as=cite}
124 * Sparkblub (Lanturn) \
125 5/15/12 (rank 68/4096) \
126 Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt
128 0/15/14 (rank 2/4096) \
129 Snarl, Foul Play, Last Resort
130 * Snampy (Froslass) \
131 5/14/14 (rank 472/4096) \
132 Powder Snow, Avalanche, Shadow Ball
135 replacing ninetails my beloved with froslass helps this team
136 substantially, giving it some (if not always excellent) play against
137 dragon and ground, while dropping the double weakness to mud.
138 the big challenge of running this team is that lanturn and umbreon
139 do not consistently purressure shields enough to suppurt a glass
140 cannon in the back, having led to many games where froslass proves
141 too frail to clutch a win at the end of an even game, even with type
143 notably, this team seems to be buffed by the current catch cup meta,
144 which has removed most steel types and greatly increased the
145 purresence of dragons (thanks to the recent lunar new year event).
147 a funny gimmicky interaction that i have had multiple times on this
148 team, and one that instantly wins the lead when it happens, is made
149 pawsible when the opponent leads annihilape (which is popular at the
150 moment at my pussition in ladder).
151 most players seem committed to throwing shadow ball on alignment (which
152 happens to line up with exactly when lanturn charges up thunderbolt);
153 annihilape users generally do not respect surf (which is reasonable)
154 and therefore eat the damage, and then allow their shadow balls to be
155 caught on umbreon, instantly losing the lead and often forcing a
157 because it is not terribly useful to pair a counter to dark with a
158 counter user (that already beats umbreon, but only slighly), the
159 result is usually advantageous.
160 this is hardly an excellent play, but it is very funny that i have
161 pulled it as many times as i have, to the extent that i now actively
162 look out fur the oppurrtunity.
164 ##### _Meta-ish MBCed_{as=cite}: closing thoughts
166 on the friday just befur the sinnoh tour weekend, just over a week
167 befur the close of the season, yr cat just barely crossed the
168 2500 elo threshold of veteran rank.
169 i have stopped making a concerted effurt towards laddering (even as
170 stardust rewards are still boosted fur the remaining week of the
171 season, which is a shame to miss out on), and i would like to
172 purresent some closing extra thoughts on the team and my skills as
175 i find it interesting that i managed to ladder so far---at least 700
176 elo---with a lanturn/umbreon core; both mons are absol-utely strong
177 in the great league but it is not exactly an obvious pairing, since
178 umbreon does nothing to deal with lanturn:U+2019:s ground weakness.
179 (again, grass is currently uncommon enough to mostly ignore.)
180 it is not lost on me that my push to veteran did involve covering
181 ground, even if not with the most obvious choice of skarmory, who
182 i do not have (with great league stats, at least)
184 i think of the significant changes i made that allowed me to reach
185 veteran was a reevaluation of how to play froslass.
186 while it *is* true that froslass heavily benefits from shield (or
187 energy) advantage, sometimes it is still the best play to bring it
188 out even in two shield scenarios (though this must be done
189 decisively; froslass gets destroyed by minor energy disadvantages.)
190 i found myself :U+201C:safe switching:U+201D: against mud boys very
191 often; against whiscash (who is often left in) this play will
192 actually usually force the oppenent to give up their shields
193 (especially as i lead a good mon hard countered by ground.)
194 (umbreon is a losing switch into whiscash if a scald burn ever
195 happens, and that usually does happen)
197 a consistent weakness i have recognized in my play while laddering
198 to veteran is my poor sense of alignment: i often recognize
199 situations where i have a hard counter to one or more mons in the
200 opposing team, but have many times failed to force the team to
201 have to deal with the disadvantage by giving up switch.
202 similarly, i have forced myself into bad matchups in many situations
203 by switching aggressively to purrevent energy disanvantages, which
204 i really should have learned better than to do a long time ago.
207 i am not sure what the next season will look like fur me, what with
208 any pawtential balance changes and a general lack of extra mons to
210 i do have an rank 9 lickitung i intend to build eventually, as well
211 as a rank 40 (non-shadow) dragonair, as well as a reasonably good
212 chargabug and (eventually) azumarill; and, of course, the cresselia
213 from the road to sinnoh raid challenge (who i would like to trade
215 but it is not immediately clear to me that i have mons that would
216 solve my current purroblems when it comes to overall teambuilding.
217 i also do not have much stardust left to build mons with either, not
219 time will tell what the future hath in store, i suppose!
221 #### _Meta-ish Dair_{as=cite}
229 4/14/15 (rank 40/4096) \
230 Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt
231 * Sparkblub (Lanturn) \
232 5/15/12 (rank 68/4096) \
233 Spark, Surf, Thunderbolt
234 * Snampy (Froslass) \
235 5/14/14 (rank 472/4096) \
236 Powder Snow, Avalanche, Shadow Ball
239 fur the final week of gbl i decided not to worry about laddering, and
240 in fact almost decided not to play any gbl at all.
241 then i remembered that stardust rewards fur the last week of gbl were
242 inflated, so i decided to try out dragonair and see how it worked,
243 especially given that it would be somewhat buffed in world of
244 wonders, just enough that early PvPoke simulations were giving
245 dragonair a just barely pawsitive weighted battle record
247 it may be clear from the teamsheet already, but this team _struggled_.
248 i dropped to 2200 elo trying to make the team work.
250 at furst i used dragonair on the lead with my lanturn/umbreon core that
251 i used to climb ladder, but after getting punished enough fur the
252 double-weakness to fairy i switched out umbreon fur frosslass.
253 this left the team without anything of a real safe swap, and made it
254 difficult to play around lost leads.
255 it definitely did not help that both dragonair and froslass are quite
258 more than anything else, i fuond from playing this team that
259 familiarity with the mons on your team is very impurrtant to this
261 i think it even bigger deal that i did not know how to play dragonair
262 well that made this team, than that the team has obvious weaknesses
263 (hell, my most tryhard laddering team has obvious weaknesses).
265 if i were to try a team like this again, i might simply accept the
266 double weakness to fairy and run the umbreon/lanturn core until i
267 have better mons to suppurt dragonair with
269 #### timeless travels: some unfocused closing thoughts
271 it is really too bad that i have struggled to even find a skarmory this
272 season, not to mention one with good IVs!
274 the rough end to my season, as well as the chaos inevitable from a
275 ladder reset, has shaken my confidence in the game more than a little
277 this is somewhat unfair, i suppose, given that even the best purrformance
278 i have managed out of a team still has some very obvious weaknesses,
279 but it is still unnerving to face the fact that i still have a long
280 way to go in this game, and not just in getting the mon fur good team
283 something that has also become clear to me is that i simply do not have
284 it in me to consistently play all my sets (the fact that my team
285 needs a lot of work sure does not help!);
286 i have simply come to expect this.
287 frankly, i am surpurrised that i have played all my sets so far in the
288 season at time of writing{% 2024-03-02 %}; but this streak will
289 surely end soon enough.
291 as a side note; it has been fun that M and J have seemed to pick up gbl
292 since the end of the season with evidently some expectation to play
293 at all in the current one.
294 i do wonder how much my teams would struggle against theirs!
296 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
301 https://twitter.com/LuxxArt/status/1731524063787438207
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