Adder 10/10: what?? Alliance Challenger 9.8/10: "what if we made a version of the chieftain that wasn't as good?" Alliance Chieftain 23.7/10: "What if a pelican was made out of guns and I dunno... liked to spin, like a lot??? Alliance Crusader 9.8/10: "what if we made a version of the chieftain but wasn't as good BUT with a fighter?" Anaconda 100/10: Interviewer: "so what are you good at exactly. exploration, trade or combat?" Anaconda: "yes" Asp Explorer 53/10: The fule rats make it look really cool. Asp Scout ??/10: Confused wiki searches Beluga Liner 10/10: Developer 2"What if we made something that couldn't fit through the mail slot lol?" Cobra Mk. III 31/10: Developer 1"I dunno dude, I just think it's be cool if we made a swiss army knife into a spaceship" Cobra Mk. IV 10/10: Glares enviously at people that have one Diamondback Explorer 82/10: Developer 1: "Do not push that button! Pick combat OR exploration, it's ridiculous why would you need both?!?!" Developer 2:pushes publish "woops lol" Developer 1: "I hate you" Diamondback Scout -10/10: Developer 2:"THIS ISN'T HOW YOU BALANCE THE EXPLORER!!! what did you do???" Developer 1: pushes publish Dolphin 15/10: Cute but will fight you. Eagle Mk. II 10/10: Excited canyon runner noises Federal Assault Ship 10/10: Developer2: what if a rock was really angry ?" Federal Corvette 666/10: "Spaceship literally too angry to die," Federal Dropship 10/10: Developer 2: "I dunno, I just really like rocks" Federal Gunship 10/10: Developer 2"what if the rock was only slightly angry ?" Developer 1"please stop..." Fer-de-Lance 10/10: Developer 2: "what If we made the 80s into a PvP ship??" Hauler 10/10: Cute trading noises Imperial Clipper 10/10: Lives in the shadow of its more successful and handsome brother, trying it's best to live its own life. Imperial Courier 10/10: Rolls it's windows up and lowers the raido when going through federation space because it's a bad neighbourhood Imperial Cutter 10/10: Just try not to think how many slaves died making it, you'll probably need all the sheilds once they rebel. Imperial Eagle 10/10: Developer 1: "you can't copy my homewo.." Developer 2: "thanks bro, I love you" Keelback 10/10: redacts statement in fear of angering keelback cult following community Krait MkII 32/10: Developers: "I just think it would be neat if a single ship could wipe out an entire neutral alien race" Krait Phantom 32/10: Comes with a free Rubik's cube, that's all we need to know. Mamba 10/10: The hipster PVP ship. Was into PvP before it was cool but you wouldn't get it. Orca 10/10: Developer 2: "what if we made a luxury battering ram" Python 32/10: Older, wiser and knows more about the game than me. Sidewinder 10000000/10: If you destroy or sell one you are a monster. Type-10 Defender 10/10: Developer 1: "WHAT DID YOU DO??? I said to upload this as a STATION not a ship" Developer 2: "shit..." Type-6 Transporter 6/10: A space van Type-7 Transporter 7/10: Euro space-truck simulator Type-9 Heavy 9/10: I DEMAND TO SEE THE TYPE 8 WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO US???? Viper MkIII 16/10: "what If we made the zoomies into a spaceship?" Viper MkIV 10/10: "What if we made a combat ship that was secretly good at trade and exploration?" Vulture 30/10: Fun combat noises
Most of you are probably far to young to even know what "Love Boat" is, but the theme just fit SO well, I opted to go with that rather than the much more popular Haddaway's "What Is Love?" (though you'll see a little shout out to that later too 😉). Anyway, sit back and let me assault your (mental) ears for a moment.... Love, exciting and new Come aboard! Hanke's expecting you! Love, and GBL's sweet rewards. Let dust flow, it comes back to you! The Love Cup, soon you'll be making another run, The Love Cup promises something for everyone! The "Nifty Or Thrifty" article series takes a comprehensive look at the meta for PvP Cup formats: Love Cup, in this case. As is typical for the NoT series, I'll cover not only the top meta picks, but also some mons where you can save some dust with cheaper second move unlock costs. Because for those on a stardust budget--and/or folks trying to save up some dust for the future--it can be daunting trying to figure out where to spend or not spend it. We all want to field competitive teams, but where can we get the best bang for our buck and where should we perhaps channel our inner scrooge? Love Cup is an unusual format... there are only 105 Pokémon eligible in total, and of those, only about 60 (and honestly, far less than that) have any PvP relevance at all. Heck, most Cup formats have 150-200 eligible Pokémon, easily... even Kanto Cup has more than 105! So while there IS some diversity and variety to be had, there is also a higher than normal chance of the same Pokémon showing up over... and over... and over.... In fact, there is one core group that Love Cup discussions I've seen are honing in on, and I want to highlight the Pokémon that make up that core--and why they're discussed so often together--before I dive into anything else. Similarly to how Flying Cup was all about Aerodactyl, Skarmory, and Zapdos and then what could beat them, so will be my breakdown in this article. So let's get to it!
BABY DON'T HURT ME...NO MORE
These Pokémon are at the very top of this meta. Their importance cannot be understated, to the degree that I feel compelled to cover them before I get into the standard run from 10,000 to 100,000 dust 'mons. You may not plan to use them, but you better have a plan to fend them off. Because otherwise... baby, they WILL hurt you. LOTS more. THE CHARMERS WIGGLYTUFF Charm | Ice Beam & Play Rough CLEFABLE Charm | Meteor Mash & Psychic Amazingly, even though you automatically think of "pink" when pondering Charmers, Wigglytuff and Clefable are the only two Charmers (and only fully evolved Fairies) that are actually eligible. And while they may look cute and friendly on the outside, deep down they are stone cold killers. With well over a 60% win rate against the entirety of Love Cup AND the core meta, WIGGLYTUFF appears to remain the better Charmer once again. That Normal subtyping DOES make it a little bit squishier against Fighting damage, but it still easily dispatches of the Fighters that actually sneak into the format. And while there is barely any Ghost damage around, the fact that Wiggly double resists Ghost DOES allow it to beat bothLickis with their Lick fast move, whereas Clefable (with no resistance to Ghost) typically loses. (With caveat... see below.) CLEFABLE does replicate nearly all of Wiggly's performance, albeit sometimes with a bit less left in the tank and sometimes needing to play matchups a certain way to get the win. To make the comparison between the two as simple as possible, I did some extensive side by side analysis on Wiggly vs Clefable in 1v1 shielding, and here are my findings:
Wigglytuff alone is able to defeat XL Lickitung and Camerupt... Clefable has no realistic path to victory, at least assuming it does not come in with a shield or energy lead. Wiggly is also able to beat non-XL Lickitung, Lickilicky, and Milotic consistently, whereas Clefable wins against those are reliant on sticking to JUST Charm and are also a bit IV dependant.
Clefable is uniquely capable of Charming down Porygon2 and Shadow Magmortar, again as long as it sticks with JUST Charm and does not try to throw any charge moves. Wigglytuff cannot win these battles without some type of advantage coming in.
As you have probably gathered, a Clefable player sometimes has to rely on commiting to the Charm farm down (and sometimes a little luck!) to win certain battles. These include the Lickiboys, Milotic, Porygon2, and S-Magmortar, as noted already, plus Solrock, Ledian, and Corsola. Wigglytuff wins all of those besides P2 and S-Mortar whether it throws a charge move or not, so it is technically better at pressuring shields despite Clefable having the cheapest charge move of the pair (Meteor Mash, at 50 energy).
Clefable DOES do better versus the Fighters (Medicham, Scrafty, Blaziken) due to fully resisting Fighting damage, but Wigglytuff still beats them all very, very comfortably.
Now all that said, it may be mostly academic as I believe a number of players are planning to run BOTH Charmers in the same line of three, alongside protection against Fires and Steels and Poisons that plague Wiggly and Clefable. Protection like the next thing on our list.... ALOLMOMOLA Waterfall | Psychic & Hydro Pump/Blizzard Alomomola is a nearly perfect pairing with the Charmers for one big reason: it makes a fantastic bodyguard, washing away the Fires and Steels that threaten the Fairies, beating the Charmers themselves on opposing teams, as well as fighting the Poisonous Bugs at least to a standstill (and usually emerging victorious there too, at least with a decent Attack IV). If a Charmer cannot beat it, then with very few exceptions, Alomonola probably can, or at the very least leave it nearly dead and well within Charm range. I mean, if you really wanted to, you could stop with those three and likely call it a day. That trio essentially is the "B.B.M.L." of Love Cup. Running them all three together--or heck, just ONE of the Charmers plus Aloe--nets the highest possible score against the Love Cup meta in terms of Safely, Consistency, and most importantly, Coverage. The ONLY score that clocks in below an A is "Bulk", and honestly, I think even that is a B+ at worst. (I mean, what is it looking for there... Chansey? 🤣 You don't get much bulkier than that trio.) But good as they are, those three are of course not the ONLY options... not by a longshot. There are plenty of other solid Pokémon to cover, and I'll be keying in on those that can beat down these Queens of Love Cup. And so, let's get into a more standard Nifty Or Thrifty review of the rest, starting with the cheapest and working out way on up from there.
10,000 Dust/25 Candy
SCOLIPEDE Poison Jab | X-Scissor & Megahorn/Sludge Bomb This might seem an odd place to start in with the 10,000k 'mons, but there's a method to my madness. Because Scolipede is one of only two Pokémon in the format with Poison Jab, and that move alone--combined with Scolipede's natural resistance to Charm thanks to being a Poison type--is able to completely farm down the Charmers. What's more, Scolipede is capable of finishing off Alomomola (depending on IVs, as linked to up above) as well as Vileplume. In fact, Scolipede and Vileplume are two of only FOUR Pokémon in the entire format capable of taking out both Charmers and Alomonola. I could probably rest my case there, but there's more, as Scolipede can also beat Medicham and Scrafty (neither appreciate Bug damage), Cherrim, Milotic, and even Lickitung... and that's of the XL variety too. Note that Scolipede wants both Bug charge moves more than Sludge Bomb; Bomb is better for one shotting Fairies, but Megahorn is necessary to beat Medicham and Lickitung, and those are kiiiiiiiiiiind of a big deal, so Horn gets the nod from me. Venipede is out there spawning in boosted numbers right now, so what are you waiting for?! Go get a good one while you still can. ARIADOS Poison Sting | Cross Poison & Megahorn Scolipede lite. I don't know that I heartily recommend Ariados, but it CAN beat everything Scolipede can... well, except for Medicham, Lickitung, and Milotic. Ariados does beat out Electrode, which it can brag about to Scol that does not, but that's not exactly fair compensation. If you like Ariados and have always wanted to run it, this DOES look like your best shot by far... after all, it IS in elite company with Scolipede, Vileplume, and one other (secret, for now) Pokémon as the only 'mons that can slay Wigglytuff, Clefable, and Alomomola. But it's quite bait dependant and... yeah. Like I said, not strongly recommended, but you can do a lot worse. CHARIZARD Fire Spin/Dragon Breathᴸ/Wing Attackᴸ | Dragon Claw & Blast Burnᴸ/Overheat With all the many moves Charizard has these days, AND being able to be a Shadow as well, I could fill half an article just going through them all. But I will try to keep this light and not get bogged down. So to sum it all up, let's assume you have Dragon Claw and Blast Burn as a starting point. With that in mind:
Fire Spin typically beats Grasses (Vileplume, Cherrim), Fairies (Wiggly, Clefable), Lickitung, and Wing Attack Zard. Shadow FS is a hair worse, gaining Electrode but now losing to WA Zard and XL Lickitung.
Wing Attack has been generating some buzz for the fact that it adds Slowbro to the win column, but it cannot beat XL Licki and loses to Fire Spin and Dragon Breath Zard. Shadow WA now DOES beat Fire Spin Zard, but loses that special win over Slowbro.
Dragon Breath has been less discussed than the other fast moves, as people understandably assume it is less viable than other moves due to the prominent presence of the Dragon-resistant Charmers. However, DB Zard DOES still beat the Charmers, with the same HP left over that FS Zard does... it just has to land the Blast Burn, obviously, but that is also the case with Fire Spin and Wing Attack: no BB, no win. Dragon Breath Zard also beats FS and WA Zard, Slowbro like WA is able to do, and Licktung like FS is able to do. The one blemish is that DB does NOT defeat Medicham, not even the non-XL version. However, Shadow DB Zardcan beat Medi, but is overall worse, losing to XL Licki and WA Zard. No bueno.
Also no bueno: we are now into the portion of the article where we're discussing things that can handle the Charmers OR Alomomola, but not both. Zard and most Fires handle the Charmers (and other things, like Vileplume and Bugs and Steels that harass the Charmers) just fine, but have not a prayer against Alomomola's Waterfalls. TALONFLAME Fire Spin | Brave Bird & Flame Charge Arguably a better Charizard in this particular meta, and will require far less second-guessing on which moves to run with! While Talon cannot overcome Medicham as Zard (usually) can, it CAN beat Scrafty and Seaking, neither of which Zard can replicate, and beats down Slowbro and XL Lickitung far more effectively and consistently than Charizard can (25+ more HP remaining on average), and ALSO beats Fire Spin Zard in the head to head. Charizard has more quirks and is a bit more unpredicatable, but if you just want consistency (and have Medicham coverage elsewhere), you may like the feel of Talonflame a lot more in Love Cup. (And do note that Talonflame CAN overcome non-XL Medi, so there's that too.) BLAZIKEN Counter | Blaze Kick & Blast Burnᴸ/Brave Bird/Stone Edgeᴸ The first of very few Fighters on our list, which is a pro and con. The good: easy wins against things like Lickitung and Crustle and Magcargo that are weak to Counter, AND things like Vileplume and Cherrim that are weak to Fire damage. (Blaze Kick is usually enough for those.) The bad: Charmers are a write-off, AND Alomomola (and most other Waters too) in this case. If you DO decide to run Blaze, I recommend Blast Burn most, as that at least is fast enough and powerful enough to beat Seaking. Blaze does good things, but even I will admit that losing to all of the "big three" is pretty discouraging. Just being honest here! MAGCARGO EmbeRock Throw | Stone Edge & Overheat Magcargo is meta? Could it be true? Anyone that has followed my articles for a while (especially those focused on The Silph Arena) probably knows that I am a YUGE fan of Mr. (or Mrs.!) Cargo. It is truly unique with its typing and moves. The issue is that, while it has a lot of resistances (Fairy, Bug, Normal, Flying, Ice, Poison, and 2x to Fire), it has some very exploitable weaknesses as well (Fighting, Rock, and double weaknesses to Water and Ground). It's also a Fire that takes neutral damage from Grass and Steel, which become problematic whenever there are several of those around. Quite frankly, usually there are other Fire types that are just plain better. But in Love Cup, Mags is right up there with them. It beats the Charmers and the Grasses just as you'd want your Fire type to do, as well as Bugs Scolipede, Trashadam, Sczior and such. But it ALSO beats Charizard (as long as it doesn't have Dragon Breath) and Talonflame and most other Fires, manages to claw past Lickitung, and incredibly, even takes out Slowbro! You do have the option of running Rock Throw instead of Ember (as in the sims above), but while you do beat Crustle that way and become a VERY hard anti-Fire counter, you now lose the Grasses and Lickitung and Slowbro and... it's just too much. Just stick with Ember, and for once, roll Magcargo out there with confidence! 💪🐌 CRUSTLE Fury Cutter | X-Scissor & Rock Slide Speaking of odd Rock types, little Crustie is a nice option overall too, though I'll point out right up front that it doesn't beat the Charmers or Alomomayomama. What it does do it clean up most of the riffraff, from Charizard to Slowbro to Electrode to the Grasses to Seaking to Trashadam to Scolipede to any Lickitung that isn't driven all the way up to the very upper 40s. It's disappointing not being able to take out the very biggest names, but many can't and have to settle for that riffraff, and Crustle does it as well as (and much cheaper than!) most. WORMADAM (TRASH) Confusion | Bug Buzz & Iron Head Convenient that the only Wormadam allowed in this format is the best by far. "Trashadam" is a very curious little guy. There are many Steely Bugs in PvP now, but Trashy still remains truly unique with Confusion powering out more standard Steel and Bug moves. Between these moves and its typing, Trashadam is a particularly good Fairy counter that also beats Vileplume (and HARD, too), Slowbro, Electrode, Scizor, and even Blaziken, and puts up an intense battle against Lickitung and Alomomola too. With excellent PvP IVs it adds Crustle and even PuP Medicham to its list of wins too! (If Cham is running Ice Punch/Psychic, as I recommend below, then Trashy already wins that anyway.) It doesn't win EVERYTHING you might want it to, but that's one heck of a résumé. I strongly recommend looking into building one if you can... though note that, despite the second move costing only 10k dust, Trashy has to be at (or nearly at) Level 40 to work, so it's still not exactly "thrifty". DELPHOX Fire Spin | Flame Charge & Psychic No, it's not an impressive win total, but note WHAT Phoxy beats: both Charmers, Medicham, Vileplume, and Cherrim (and unlisted Trashadam and Scizor). Yes, Aloyomama will steal its lunch money and stuff it in a locker, but if you need a quick, cheap build to deal with Charmers and/or Medi and/or Grasses, Fenneken is still spawning quite frequently right now, so Delphox may be a good emergency fill in for you. CHERRIM (SUNNY) Bullet Seed | Weather Ball (Fire) & Solar Beam Now this isan impressive win total, and includes a rare Alomomola sighting in the win column, and VERY solidly so. Now I know what you're thinking looking at that: "but JRE, it only wins because it baited a shield with Fire Weather Ball!" Well yes, but also no: Cherrim has ample time to forgo baiting and just go doubleSolar Beam and still escape comfortably. Solar Beam may normally seem to take longer to charge than quarantine has been dragging on, but with Bullet Seed driving it, Cherrim has one ready to go after only 7 Seeds and about 10 seconds, which is faster than Aloe can charge up its first charge move. And thus, Cherrim easily dispatches Alomomola and Milotic and Slowbro, as well as melting down Vileplume, Steely Bugs, Electrode and Lickitung with Fire Balls. As a 3+ season lead for my own Great League GBL team, I can tell you from experience that Cherrim puts a LOT more pressure on the Charmers than the sims show, too. If Aloe is a particular issue for your team and you can't (or just don't want to) build, say, a Vileplume, Cherrim has some really good play in this meta. Oh, you COULD run it with Razor Leaf instead if you want a really hard Water counter, picking up Seaking along the way, but you now lose to Scizor, Vileplume and others with the drastic decrease in the number of Fire Balls you can spew out there. Not worth it, IMO. If you want a Razor Leafer, just scroll down about four lines....
50,000 Dust/50 Candy
VILEPLUME Razor Leaf | Sludge Bomb & Moonblast The only Razor Leafer you actually WANT to run with Razor Leaf in Love Cup, and unlike Cherrim, Vileplume comes with some very handy resistances thanks to a Poison sub-typing, enabling it to be the third (of four) Pokémon on the list of things that can beat both Charmers and Alomomola. And it can do that comfortably without ever having to throw a charge move! In fact, if you compare Plume using charge moves to Plume sticking to just Razor Leaf, you'll notice a jump in performance in the RL-only results. Why? Because as is often the case for other Razor Leafers (and Charmers to, in point of fact), the best way to play them is usually to kill something off with just fast moves and save up energy to throw a charge move (or maybe multiple charge moves) at the next thing to follow before dying. As odd as it may seem, sometimes throwing a charge move (that is blocked) can actually lead to a loss where just straight fast move spamming would mean a win. Take Crustle, for just one example: throwing a charge move means a tie, whereas just saving that energy and sticking with Razor Leaf means a win instead (albeit by a razor thin margin). Anyway, not to get TOO down in the weeds, in addition to the Waters and Charmers, Plume can also slice through Electrode and Scrafty. Shadow Plume is a small step backwards, with the drop in bulk leading to losses to Scrafty and Crustle no matter what strategy you utilize. Plume is dangerous in this format, and stands truly alone as your one real Razor Leaf option. SEAKING Poison Jabᴸ | Icy Windᴸ & Drill Runᴸ So I keep teasing a fourth Pokémon that can take out the Charmers and Al Yomama. Well here it is. Thanks to Poison Jab, Seaking wears down the Charmers, softens them up with Icy Wind, and then finishes them off with a Drill Run to the face. (Or you can go for the throat and just double Drill Run instead... either way works.) In addition to Cherrim, I have ALSO run my own triple Legacy Seaking out there a LOT in GBL, and so it's not surprising to see that the best way to beat Alomomola is to hit it first with an Icy Wind (reducing all subsequent damage dealt by Aloe) and THEN start launching Drill Runs, just as I've done for a couple GBL seasons to Azumarill (though Azu, being a Fairy, is even more farmable thanks to Jab). Anyway, with those three handled, note that Seaking has some overlap with Vileplume, beating Slowbro and Milotic in addition to the big three, but then branches off from there to handle Fires (Charizard, Magcargo, Blaziken, etc.) and, ironically, Cherrim, who cannot quite reach two charge moves (the second being Solar Beam) before Seaking launches its own second Icy Wind to close it out. Vileplume has certainly been discussed in forums I have seen in excited tones, but not so much Seaking, which is a serious oversight. Yes, it requires a couple Elite TMs to build, but I promise you that it is a BLAST to play, and there's never been a better time to get started. PARASECT Fury Cutter | X-Scissor & Solar Beam Parasect is yet another 'mon with a promising and unique typing (Bug/Grass) and decent moves that has never seemed to put it all together. But maybe, juuuuuuuuuust maybe, its moment has finally come? As a Bug--and one that double resists Grass, at that--it handles Vileplume and Cherrim, and that Bug damage also tears up half-Dark Scrafty and half-Psychic Slowbro. But as a Grass, it also resists Water damage and can hit at Waters with big fat Solar Beam, enabling it to also take out Milotic and Big Momma Olga. (The nicknames for Alomomola are just coming easier and easier the more I write. 😂) And before you point out that, yes, the sim results up there bait with X-Scissor before landing the killing Beam, keep this in mind: it can beat Milly AND Aloyomama (and Vileplume, for good measure) with JUST Solar Beam, no baiting required. Boom! Oh, and it also takes out (with X-Scissor) Electrode and Lickitung for good measure, just to further sweeten the deal. I love how this Cup brings some neglected but cool Pokémon into the PvP limelight, and Parasect could be a great representation of that. SLOWBRO (and friends) Confusion | Ice Beam & Psychic A popular discussion topic, simply because it beats Alomomola and Medicham. It doesn't do a whole lot beyond that--just a couple Fires, Milotic, and Scolipede are about it--but this meta is such that taking out those two big targets is enough to be considered "core meta". Of note: SLOWKING and even SLOWPOKE do the same basic things, with King also beating Bro head to head and Poke beating Fire Spin AND Wing Attack Zard (whereas WA can overcome the other Slows). EX Slowpoke looks VERY interesting with added wins against Slowbro, Crustle, and the Charmers too, if you're feeling frisky and somehow rolling in XL Slow candy. And there are actually several other 'mons that fill a similar role. CRAWDAUNT (with Snarl) actually beats the same things as the Slows, though substituting (Smack Down) Crustle in place of Medicham... being half-Dark, Daunt has no chance against Medi's Fighting damage and loses especially hard to the Charmers. Exeggutor is not the right color for Love Cup, but EXEGGCUTE is. Like Slowpoke, it has to be maxed, but it has similar potential, handling the Aloe and Milly, Medicham (most of the time, at least... Ice Punch can be a problem though), and then Electrode, Vileplume, and Cherrim, mostly on the strength of resisting most of their moves thanks to being part Grass. And pushed up to XL levels (if you're crazy enough to try!), it can even beat Clefable, which is quite a nice pickup. Similar in some ways but quite different in others, SOLROCK gives up the Waters but hates harder on Fires, manages to beat Medicham, Scolipede, and Seaking, and somehow can also outlast Clefable in the right spot (but as with Exeggcute, Wigglytuff remains evasive). And there are still others like GOREBYSS, but they're even worse and not much more than curiosities. ELECTRODE Volt Switch | Foul Play & Thunderbolt On the surface, Electrode has a set of wins that looks shockingly close to the Slows, despite being drastically different Pokémon. As with Crawdaunt, it replaces Medicham with a Crustle win (the better Fury Cutter variety this time), but otherwise the same names are all there: Charizard, Magcargo, Milotic, Alomomola, Ice Punch Medicham, and hey, also the head to head with Slowbro. But unlisted there are also wins against Scolipede and Scizor and even Trashadam that the Slows and Daunt and the others above can't beat. Electrode, by my estimation, does their job, but better, and I'm surprising even myself by saying that I'd recommend it over any of them. The one hangup is that it has no answer to the Grasses, but that seems an acceptable price for all the good it can do. I will admit: I underestimated Electrode in Great League in GBL the first couple times I faced it, and I learned not to be so dismissive after those first couple encounters. It's not the greatest Electric out there or anything, but it certainly does its job well enough, and there is practically no Electric competition in this meta. The closest is bargain basement Lanturn wannabe ROTOM (Wash), and it's just... not as good. Again, never thought I'd say it, but just stick with Electrode and you'll be fine. KINGLER Mud Shotᴸ | X-Scissor & Crabhammer I almost listed this among the smattering of stuff the followed the Slows, but Kingler is a bit different. It doesn't really beat the other Waters, for one thing, aside from Slowbro. But it does still beat down the Fires, and also the Bugs... Crustle, Scolipede, Trashadam, Scizor, all of 'em. And as a bonus, throw in Electrode and Cherrim as well, things that Waters really shouldn't be beating, but here we are. Kingler doesn't get many of the big ticket names in the meta, but it does do enough zany things that you're likely to see somebody flexing their Legacy one during the week. Knowledge is power... be prepared. PORYGON2 Lock-On | Tri-Attack & Zap Cannon Alright, Porygon fans. This is your first (and likely) last chance to use one of them and have it be actually borderline relevant. Yes, it requires baiting and landing the Zap Cannon killing blow, but P2 can take out the big Waters (including Mama Olga... I'm not even TRYING to get that name right anymore 😅), and Crustle, and Lickitung, and Magcargo, and can force a tie with Wigglytuff. This is still, in my opinion, more gimmick than serious play, but if you were to ever try, THIS is probably the time. LICKITUNG Lick | Body Slamᴸ & Power Whip Okay, look, I'm not here to debate the merits of the XL candy system or how likely/fair it is that some players will have grinded enough XL candy by now to push Lickitung to new heights. I'm just here to report the facts, and the fact is, XL Lickitung is very good. But even regular old Level 40 Licki is good too, still beating Waters (Aloe Vera included) thanks to Power Whip, plus Electrode, Vileplume, and even Clefable just by sheer bulk and a lot of Body Slams. The only things XL Lickitung brings in are anti-meta type stuff like Scolipede, Trashadam, and FC Crustle. Not that those wins aren't good to have, but my point is this: you can run a non-XL Licki and still fulfill its primary roles without missing a beat. Do pay attention to any above 1411 CP (as that represents a maxed, perfect IV Level 40 one) so you'll know whether it's an XL one you're facing and respond accordingly. Good luck! For those wondering, yes, LICKILICKY is a viable enough (and much cheaper) replacement, but without Power Whip, it struggles versus Waters (losing to Alomomola, which is a particularly painful step backwards) and is just a bit worse/less bulky overall. Honestly, if you can't build a good Lickitung, I might look elsewhere to fill that slot on my team than to Lickilicky... but that's me! It's YOUR team, so do what makes you happy. DARMANITAN Incinerate | Rock Slide & Overheat SIMISEAR Fire Spin | Crunch & Flamethrower Just a couple of alternative Fire types you may or may not have laying around already. Both effectively handle the Bugs (aside from Crustle) and the Grasses, and manage to overcome Wigglytuff and Clefable. SIMISEAR beats WA Charizard and Slowbro thanks in large part to Crunch, while DARMANITAN instead XL Lickitung, Ember Magcargo, and (barely) XL Medicham and is probably a better choice overall. But they're both generally behind other Fire types already discussed above. MEDICHAM Counter | Psychic & Ice Punch/Power-Up Punch So a lot of nuances here, but I'll try and keep it simple. You want Counter and Psychic (the move) for sure, but beyond that it gets a little sticky. My recommendation is Ice Punch, as it's needed to get wins against Cherrim and Vileplume, whereas Power-Up Punch instead narrowly wins the mirror match... see why I lean Ice Punch? That all said, PuP MAY be better with XL Medicham, as it still manages to beat Vileplume without Ice Punch, still wins the mirror, and adds on Trashadam as well. Ice Punch is still needed to overcome Cherrim, however. You may not have to worry about XL Medi too much, though... the only notable wins you get at Level 50 that Medicham cannot achieve at Level 40 are Vileplume (for PuP) and Milotic (for Ice Punch). Aloe, Mags, Crustie, Licki, Electrode, Scrafty, Scizor, etc.... they all go down with regular or XL Medi. Might not have to break the bank to play Medicham in this format. SCRAFTY Counter | Power-Up Punch & Foul Play Here things are quite a bit easier: the moveset is pretty well set (don't run Acid Spray, please), no real XL concerns. The one potential concern is that sims don't always handle Power-Up Punch well, as it usually ALWAYS burns a shield on it, so while Scrafty looks godly in the overall win/loss column, losing really to only Charmers and Medicham. (Though if you expand a little beyond the "core meta", there are a few Bugs and Fires that give it issues.) But it's hard to tell how much that can be fully trusted, as you're not ALWAYS going to get the bait. I think there is certainly enough there to give Scrafty a hearty thumbs up--it may be even a bit better than Medicham--but live testing will probably be required to find out HOW good it can be.
75,000 Dust/75 Candy
I'm going to run through these quickly and highlight just a handful that really stand out, and then throw a few more "spicy" ones all at the end. You can construct a team pretty cheaply in this Cup, so something this expensive has got to be REALLY good to get an in depth look. Something like.... ALOMOMOLA Waterfall | Psychic & Hydro Pump/Blizzard Yep, what else would I lead this section with? I think I've talked about Alomomyolo enough already, but let's just take a look at what all it can actually do. Beats the Fires, beats the Charmers, beats its closest competitor Milotic, beats Crustle (and Scizor... and Trashy). But Aloe is not without flaws... it does still generally lose to the Fighters, Waters with non-Water moves (read as: Seaking and Slowbro), Lickitung, Electrode, and of course the Grasses. Alomomola is not dominant by any means, but as discussed way back at the beginning, it fills in the gaps left by the Charmers almost perfectly. Alo/Charm is surely going to be THE core to beat. MILOTIC Waterfall | Surf & Blizzard/Hyper Beam Alomomola, but not as good. Still beats the Fires and Crustle/Trashy/Scizor and Clefable, which is good, but cannot reliably overcome Wigglytuff and cannot hang with Momolala, which is very, very bad. If you just don't HAVE an Alomomola to run, this might be the best place to turn, but it's going to struggle to maintain exactly the same role. MAGMAR & MAGMORTAR Karate Chop | Fire Punch & Return (Magmar)/Thunderboltᴸ (Magmortar) Yet again, more Fire options. Do note they both seem to actually run a little better with Karate Chop than their Fire fast moves... it's necessary to beat Magcargo, Magmar needs it to Lickitung, and Magmortar needs it to beat Fire Spin Zard and Seaking. (Conversely, Magmar with Ember instead defeats Electrode and Scolipede, and Magmortar with Fire Spin only brings in Scolipede.) And those are really the big differences between them: the potential wins against Lickitung and Electrode are unique to Magmar, and the potential wins versus Charizand and Seaking (both thanks to Thunderbolt) are unique to Magmortar. They both handle the Grasses just fine, the Bugs (aside from Crustle), and of course the Charmers. (It gets a little tighter with Karate Chop rather than Fire fast moves, but not much.) SCIZOR Bullet Punch | Iron Head & X-ScissoNight Slash For when you absolutely need Charmers dead, call in the exterminator. There isn't much that can outslug the Charmers in a battle of JUST fast moves, but Scizor can. That alone gives it value, but then it also goes out and beats several other relevant things like Vileplume, Slowbro, Crustle, Scolipede, Lickitung, and Seaking. It's not cheap, but Scizor is an above average Fairy killer that plays as a pretty good generalist too. Others that look interesting (but not QUITE interesting enough) include HEATMOR, FLAAFFY, and BISHARP, but there are other things listed above that generally handle their roles better. And that's it! Thanks for sticking with me to the end! Hopefully this helps you balance the cost of where to save yourself some hard-earned dust (and candy!) and still have a good time in Love Cup. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll try to get back to you! Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope this helps you master Love Cup, and in the most affordable (and enjoyable) way possible. Best of luck, stay safe, and catch you next time!
Catalogue for Previous Weeks - F.A.Q Song of the Week This article is far too long to fit within the thread word limit, so it's going to be continued in a child comment which I'll link when it gets there. Furthermore, I've elected to name a few pokemons who technically have niches but too fringe to expand more on. Some of them can be found in previous weeks if appropriate. RBY Rhydon and Golem are the most prominent Ground types in the tier, the former with significant more usage stats in the modern metagame. Their shared Rock Ground typing hardwalls Zapdos and, to a much less prominent degree, Jolteon and Moltres. They’re also both countered by Exeggutor, as well as weak to the very popular Blizzard slamming them on their pitiful special bulk. Rhydon is the significantly more popular of the two. It boasts better bulk, though not to a significant degree. More crucially, it has a 130 base Atk that allows its Earthquake to 2HKO Chansey, 3HKO Slowbro (sometimes), and 3HKO Snorlax. As it threatens these slower bulky mons, it can use many opportunities to set up a Substitute. Rhydon is the only viable user of the move this generation, seeing as it doesn’t block status in gen 1, but Rhydon was already immune to Thunder Wave. It needs to watch out for Sleep Powder & Stun Spore from Exeggutor, however. STAB Rock Slide helps it chase out the fliers which it walls, and the last move slot is reserved for Body Slam, whose only real use is to threaten Paralysis on Starmie or Exeggutor’s switching in. Rhydon can be an incredibly dangerous threat given some Paralysis support, and being immune to Thunder Wave itself is a great characteristic to have. Golem’s advantages over Rhydon are: speed (which outspeeds nothing more than opposing Rhydons) and Explosion. Its Earthquake misses on very important benchmarks, and therefore it leverages its Explosion, the 2nd strongest move in the game behind Snorlax’s Self-Destruct, to wallbreak for its teammates. While Rhydon can be a late-game sweeper, Golem instead darts in and out of battle to scout for the perfect Explosion timing. OHKO-ing an opposing Tauros can be game-breaking, but it has to be very careful of Gengar or opposing Rock Grounds absorbing it. Not mentioned: Sandslash GSC The ground typing becomes even more prominent in this generation. As Blizzard has been largely phased out, along with the legendary Electrics being on every single team spamming Thunder, every notable Ground types can act as a switch to them. Nidoking is an excellent offensive threat in the GSC metagame. Aside from STAB EQ, it also learns the famed Ice Beam Thunder(bolt) coverage that allows it to punish many EQ switchins like Zapdos, Skarmory, or Cloyster. While its power without super effective coverage isn’t amazing, only boasting 92/85/85 offensive stats, the move that truly pushes it into great territory is Lovely Kiss. GSC Sleep isn’t as terrible as RBY Sleep, but it’s nevertheless a huge momentum swing. Nidoking therefore can take advantage of this to fire off strong attacks to eventually break through its usual checks given the right opportunity, something no other mixed sweepers can do. If desired, it can also run Thief to steal enemy checks’ Leftovers at the cost of a moveslot. Steelix is the new evolution of the worthless Onyx, with excellent physical bulk and an auspicious Steel Ground typing. This makes it not weak against the common Hidden Power Ice which the legendary Electrics run, and acts as a near surefire counter to them unless they carry the rarer HP Water. Its base Atk is a pitiful 85, however, and therefore it relies more on Explosion like RBY’s Golem to break walls, but also carry Roar to act as a phaser against things like Mono-lax, Raikou, or Perish Trap Misdreavus. This shuffling also allows its team to rack up more Spikes damage. The last move is often Curse, which allows it to create some offensive pressure with a boost or two, and then abuse Roar even further. Golem returns with renewed vigor. Having learnt Rapid Spin in a Spike-ridden metagame, Golem found itself as one of the better role compression mons that acts as an Electric check, Rapid Spinner, phaser, and Snorlax check all in one. It still never enters a battle without Explosion, and its poor special bulk means that it must scout enemy Hidden Power lest it becomes a free kill. Nevertheless, Rapid Spin is such an important utility that it sees consistent usage on many teams, so much so that the rare Hidden Power Water from Zapdos or Raikou are mostly aimed to remove it. Unlike other Spinners, Golem matches up poorly against the spiking Cloyster and Forretress, and requires offensive support elsewhere to make sure the hazards stay off. Marowak boasts the strongest Earthquake in the game. While somewhat gimmicky, its Swords Dance set can give it the maximum 999, and with Spikes support can OHKO nearly the entire metagame at +2. However, this requires serious backup, as Marowak is otherwise painfully slow, frail, and cannot hold Leftovers. Furthermore, help against Skarmory is highly appreciated, as even with 999 Atk, a Rock Slide only 3HKOs the metal bird, who is immune to Spikes and can proceed to phaze Wak out. The 4th moveslot is usually either HP Bug to slam Exeggutor on the switch, or Rest to give it a second chance at sweeping. To get Marowak to work, some support with Agility Baton Pass from Jolteon, or Screens from Blissey is recommended, especially since the latter can Heal Bell off the sleep from Rest. Rhydon has taken quite a fall in viability since the last generation. With weaknesses to many special attacks, Machamp, and Earthquakes, Rhydon finds itself hard-pressed to accomplish much. Unlike Golem, it provides no utility for the team aside from Roar, and the Snorlax-checking Steelix isn’t weak to Grass, ice, nor 4x weak to Water. Rhydon runs a Curse set to take advantage of its strong 130 Atk and natural physical bulk, as being slower in this generation means your Roar will go first. It cannot get past Skarmory, but can still provide some strong hits to break walls with. Quagsire’s sole niche is a near fool-proof counter for the legendary Electrics, being immune to their Thunders and not weak to either HP Ice or Water. Its typing makes it a decent mixed wall, as not a lot of pokemons run Grass moves this generation, and can use the free turns its ok bulk generates to set up Belly Drum. EQ and HP Rock makes an ok attacking combo, and Rest can be used for longevity. If unable to set up, however, it’s defensively outclassed by the likes of Miltank or Raikou, and offensively outclassed by Marowak or Snorlax. One must build their team capable of taking advantage of this offensive defensive combination to justify using Quagsire. Not mentioned: Piloswine, Sandslash, Donphan, Gligar, Nidoqueen ADV Zapdos continues to be a prominent threat, and the rise of Tyranitar, Aerodactyl, and general Rock Slide coverage gives Grounds even more viability. Lastly, an immunity to Sand in a tier where Tyranitar is king effectively boosts the longevity of all Ground pokemons, allowing them to actually gain health in Sand with Leftovers. Swampert is the face of bulky waters in gen 3. It’s one of the most sturdy DD Tyranitar counters there are, resisting Rock unlike its Water-type brethren, and can also act as a catch-all check to many more prominent physical sweepers in the tier like Metagross, Aerodactyl, and DD Salamence. It’s so prominent that it basically forced many, many pokemon to run HP Grass just to have a chance to get past it. As a pokemon itself, however, Swampert can be as defensive or as offensive as one likes, possessing decent mixed offensive stats to complement its STAB EQ and Hydro Pump / Surf, while carrying Ice Beam for many Flying types, especially Salamence, and Grasses, like Celebi. It also has access to the great Focus Punch, which allows it to threaten Snorlax and Blissey while OHKO-ing max HP Tyranitar, something its Hydro Pump cannot do. Toxic, Roar, Protect, Refresh are all excellent moves for a more defensive variant. No matter what set it’s running, Swampert’s role in ADV OU cannot be understated, and is therefore one of the most common offensive / defensive threats of the metagame. Dugtrio has gained Arena Trap this generation, and becomes one of the best revenge killers of the metagame. While it’s not very strong, the introduction of Choice Band gives it the power to achieve crucial KOs, and its amazing base 120 Spe means it can outrun basically any threat it encounters. The list of its victims is vast: Tyranitar, Metagross, Jirachi, Blissey, Celebi, opposing Dugtrio, Breloom, and many, many more. It’s undoubtedly a metagame defining threat, as something like Jolteon is considered superior to the legendary Raikou by many simply due to its Dugtrio-beating speed and access to Baton Pass to escape trapping. It’s also a very important team member of special offence, an almost required piece that exists solely to reliably remove Blissey, sometimes by the otherwise unseen Beat Up. Claydol is the Rapid Spinning Ground type of ADV. Its unique Ground Psychic typing along with Levitate means it resists all of Ground, Fighting, Electric, and Rock, and is immune to Spikes and Dugtrio’s Arena Trap. All of this means that Claydol finds many opportunities to switch in and get off a spin against many common attacks like Rock Slide, EQ, Thunderbolt etc. It also possesses a STAB Psychic to threaten out the most common spinblocker of the tier: Gengar. Finally, Explosion gives it utility as a wallbreaker, especially if running Adamant to threaten out most of the Explosion-resistant pokemon with Earthquake. However, its support requires teammates’ help against Skarmory, as it can’t meaningfully threaten the metal bird, who often forces the issue with Drill Peck. Flygon is last. Its Ground Dragon typing and Levitate means it’s also resistant to QuakeSlide and Spikes, while also not being weak to HP Bug from DD TTar or HP Grass aimed at a teammate’s Swampert. While its 100/80/100 offensive stats won’t be winning awards, STAB EQ and a myriad of offensive options almost guarantees it’ll find a target to hit, and its defensive profile is excellent for finding chances to enter the field. It can even run a more defensive Protect Toxic set that abuses its defensive capabilities to spread status and break down many teams late-game. Not mentioned: Gligar, Steelix, Donphan, Marowak, Camerupt, Rhydon DPP Stealth Rocks (SR) was introduced in this generation and became the most influential move in the metagame. Coincidentally, Ground types get them. Swampert returns once again as the premier bulky water. With Tyranitar as popular as ever with physical Pursuit, Superpower, and STAB Stone Edge, Swampert’s defensive capabilities are called into need once again. That said, the physical special split also gave it access to physical water STAB in Waterfall and special Ground STAB in Earth Power, along with extra Ice Punch and Superpower coverage for the physical side. The most popular sets feature SR in some way, to guarantee Pert value as either a lead or a role player, either with max Atk for more damage, or mixed defence to be more of a tank. In this capacity, physical coverage is far more popular. If even more offence is desired, a bulky Choice Band set that runs Stone Edge for Zapdos and Gyarados can do a bit of wallbreaking, or even Modest special set with Hydro Pump spamming. However, these more offensive options remain unpopular compared to the utility set. Gliscor features an excellent Ground Flying typing that gives it only 2 weaknesses, a SR neutrality but a Spikes immunity, and resistant to the new Close Combat and Superpower. 75/125/75 defences make for an excellent physical defensive profile, and 95/95 offensive stats are surprisingly decent for a mon with such great bulk. Its Stallbreaker set is its most popular, running Taunt to shut down recovery attempts on walls while also preventing offensive mons from setting up on it, and Roost for reliable recovery. If some offensive power is needed, it can run a Swords Dance set to abuse its natural bulk to gain multiple boosts due to its incredible staying power. Its attacks usually consisted of the mandatory STAB EQ, Ice Fang for Flyings, Dragons, and the occasional grasses, and perhaps Thunder Fang for bulky waters or Wing Attack for Breloom. Taunt and SR also make Gliscor a decent lead, as it can U-Turn out to keep momentum. Flygon appreciated the generational shift very much. It gained an excellent physical dragon STAB in Outrage, and U-Turn allows it to run a very effective Choice Scarf set to utilise its good speed and great neutral coverage in just Outrage and Earthquake. Its last slot on a Scarf set can therefore be very flexible, either Thunder Punch for Gyarados, Dragon Claw for more stable STAB, or Toxic to cripple a wall. The new Life Orb also synergises well with its mixed move pool, allowing it to drop powerful Draco Meteor while still running Earthquake and Fire Blast to crush the Steels that resist its Dragon STAB. Roost can be used on this set to offset Life Orb recoil and give Flygon more general longevity, but if Expert Belt is run instead, U-Turn is always an excellent option. Nidoqueen, despite its NU placement, is an excellent OU Stall machine. Its claim to fame is the new Toxic Spikes, and on stall teams the Poison Ground typing provide resistant to Fighting and Rock, which couples with 90/87/85 mixed bulk to check the likes of Breloom, Lucario, and Tyranitar, especially since EQ as a coverage move is rarely ran, and Poison Point can punish a lot of the U-Turn spammers in the tier. A lack of recovery does hurt, and thus Nidoqueen prefers Protect to get as much recovery out of Black Sludge as possible. While Nidoqueen’s offences aren’t anything special, its vast movepool means that its moveset can be specifically tailored to cover the threats which the rest of its team does not. Hippowdon is the alternate Sand setter of the tier. While most prefer Tyranitar’s offensive prowess, Hippo itself is a near sure-fire Tyranitar counter, boasting a titanic physical bulk of 108/118 that can sit on most of the physical threats of the metagame. It complements this by excellent recovery in Slack Off, and SR which allows Hippo to always get pressure out of the switch. Roar synergises with this even more, racking up damage on the pesky flying types or Levitate-rs that otherwise walls it. If a more direct option is preferred, Ice Fang can slam the Gliscor and Dragons. Still, since it relies on pure bulk more than resistances to wall physical threats, it’s usually very specially frail, and has a weakness against some physical threats in Gyarados and Breloom. Mamoswine boasts a meaty 130 Atk stat, and a unique STAB combination of Ground and Ice. Its Ice Shard is an excellent priority move which knocks the life out of dangerous threats like Latias, Flygon, and Gliscor, its STAB EQ crushes most neutral targets, and for everything else, there’s Stone Edge. Life Orb is the most popular item, allowing it to switch moves and especially abuse Ice Shard to finish off faster threats should the opportunity arise. While Superpower is a fine 4th move to slam Steels not weak to EQ like Bronzong or Skarmory, and OHKO Blissey without a second thought, Stealth Rocks can be used here to exert some pressure as the opponent switches out. Choice Band is an alternative, but locking into any of those four moves can be exploited heavily. Focus Sash makes Mamo a decent SR lead as well. Despite all this, its typing gives it a lot of common weaknesses, and 80 speed isn’t nearly as good as it used to be. Quagsire lived under Swampert’s shadow in gen 3, but access to reliable recovery in Recover as well as Encore to counter setup sweepers gave it a niche this generation. As Swampert’s more often than not opt for offence this generation, Quagsire is a fine defensive Water Ground type that walls Starmie (with Water Absorb), Metagross, or Tyranitar. Its moveset is very predictable, however, as after the prerequisite Earthquake, the last move is either Toxic for more residual damage or Ice Punch for Flygon or Dragonite. Quagsire is extremely predictable, and must be used with consideration. Gastrodon is yet another Water Ground type. While it isn’t immune to Water, and therefore doesn’t counter Starmie or Gyarados, it has Sticky Hold which makes it immune to Trick from a lot of choice-d pokemons. Its sole unique role is therefore as a Curse sweeper that’s immune to Trick, who sports good mixed bulk and Recover for longevity. Waterfall + Earthquake a.l.a Swampert is good enough coverage, but it’ll struggle to beat the likes of Gyarados or Latias with such limited coverage. Rhyperior is a fierce wallbreaker, as 140 base Atk is nothing to scoff at, and its attacking options ranging from STAB EQ + Stone Edge to coverage in Aqua Tail, Megahorn, or Fire Punch are all excellent options. However, it’s really, really slow, and therefore easily forced out with its double 4x weaknesses and poor special bulk, even with Solid Rock or Sandstorm SpD boost to soften them. Choice Band is by far the most powerful option, boasting the ability to 2HKOs everything in the metagame with the right coverage. However, it doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to fire off this power due to its speed and poor matchup against the bulky waters of DPP like Swampert or Milotic. Donphan gained SR and Ice Shard this generation. It’s now a fairly respectable Rapid Spinner in the metagame with excellent physical bulk and priority. For the most part, it’s a fine support pokemon that aims to set up SR, takes a few physical hits, and threatens revenge kills against Dragons with Ice Shard. It’s a very one dimensional pokemon in this aspect, but its effectiveness as a Rapid Spinner is appreciated. Not mentioned: Dugtrio (R.I.P), Steelix, Nidoking, Camerupt, Gastrodon BW Landorus-Therian is a name one should not fail to keep in mind. It has Gliscor’s auspicious typing, combined with an excellent ability in Intimidate, fearsome 145/105/91 mixed offensive stats, and a respectable 89/90/80 bulk if kept in mind its typing and ability. Lando-T is is one of the best pokemon of gen 5 OU, and is one of the best glues for any good non-rain team. Its Choice Scarf set is an excellent scout and revenge-killer, with a strong U-Turn to punish the like of Latios. Lando-T is in fact so common that it also runs HP Ice for the mirror matchup, despite it not hitting too many other relevant targets. Earthquake is its STAB move of choice, but any other move can be slotted in and out depending on sets. Stone Edge is a natural pairing on the Scarf set, but Superpower is a fine option to drop Skarmory, Ferrothorn, or Air Balloon Heatran. If an offensive pivot is desired, just drop the Scarf and speed for a bulky spread and either Leftovers or Rocky Helmet, and you have one of the best physical checks of the metagame against the dangerous Terrakion. Lastly, access to either Swords Dance, Rock Polish, or even both on the same set can turn Lando-T into a fearsome sweeper at the drop of a hat. Excadrill is another gen 5 addition, and after a tumultuous history of ban and unban, it settles into the metagame as the best non-rain Rapid Spinner, a.l.a old Donphan. However, it instead boasts Steelix’s typing and a 135 base Atk, making sure that Jellicient cannot simply switch into its Spin with impunity in fear of eating a STAB Earthquake. Its most common set is an offensive spread but with Leftovers and Protect for longevity, befitting of a Rapid Spinner. Unlike most other Grounds, it prefers STAB Iron Head to Rock coverage, as the former hit Latios harder, and can help it beat Breloom. As a Spinner, it can either lean into an offensive spread with STABs, or a more defensive SpD spread that prioritises its laundry list of resistances, especially to Dragon, for better longevity. Though Sand Rush is banned, a Scarf set works perfectly fine to revenge kill, or get up a desperate fast Rapid Spin before falling. Sand Force comes in nicely here, as Exca runs all 3 types of moves that get the boost in its STABs + Rock Slide. Garchomp dropped to OU this generation, but perhaps that was the chance it needed to flex its power on the metagame. While it’s never seen without its trusty Earthquake, the sheer breadth of sets this pokemon can and does run boggles the mind. The most popular is a very straightforward Choice Scarf set to elevate a great 102 base Spe, and would be great even with just 2 moves in Outrage and Earthquake. It can afford to run Dual Chop for Sash Zam or Multiscale Dragonite, or just straight up Dragon Claw as a more reliable 3rd move. The last move on a scarf set is usually a fire coverage, either Fire Fang or Fire Blast, to roast the likes of Skarmory, Bronzong, or Ferrothorn. As a sweeper, Garchomp leverages its forced switches well with a Substitute Swords Dance set that uses Salac Berry to boost its Spe past most opposing Scarf revenge killers, as its sheer STAB combination is so good on its own. If desired, one can run just an offensive Stealth Rocks set like other Ground types, but Garchomp’s Rough Skin means it has extra synergy with Rocky Helmet that really punishes U-Turn while being simultaneously immune to Volt Switch. Gliscor gains the excellent Poison Heal this generation, giving it amazing passive recovery and immunity to statuses. For the most part, it uses its typing and access to reliable recovery to spread Toxic with Substitute, while having STAB Earthquake to slam the Steels and Poisons immune to the status. Being always poisoned means that it now has access to Facade as a really strong neutral move to complement its EQ, and thus the Swords Dance Roost set yet see a healthy amount of usage. While Gliscor can’t get past Skarmory at all, its general positioning against the rest of the physical metagame means it will probably always have value in a team, especially if running Taunt. As with all Ground types this generation, it can run a support Stealth Rocks set as well that spread statuses in the meantime. Mamoswine is once again an excellent offensive threat. Having learnt Icicle Crash as a strong STAB Ice attack this generation, its general offensive coverage with just its STABs is very notable. As DragMag becomes a legitimate offensive force in the metagame, Mamoswine can be found with or against them, leverage Ice Shard to shut down the Salamence, Dragonite, or Garchomps one can find on those teams. Superpower is a great general coverage move to slam Ferrothorn and Kyurem-B with, and Stealth Rocks is always an option that goes well with priority and a Focus Sash. Gastrodon gained a water immunity this generation, and has propelled into stardom as an anti-rain wall. Its distinction comes from being a Keldeo check that isn’t weak to Pursuit, unlike Jellicient and Latios, and instead spreads status of its own with Toxic and the ridiculous Scald. It also stops Thundurus-T cold, something many other Keldeo checks cannot claim. Physically defensive is the most common spread to fulfil this niche, and with proper support from the rest of its teammates to cover its vulnerability to Toxic and Grass types, Gastrodon is a stalwart defensive answer to many of the metagame’s biggest threats. Seismitoad is Gastrodon but with Stealth Rocks, in essence. It does everything else Gastrodon does a little worse due to its poorer bulk and no access to Recover, but the role compression can be highly desirable on more offensive teams who prioritise the momentum that hazards give, rather than a long-term wall like Gastro is. Hippowdon once again plays second fiddle to Tyranitar as a physically defensive Sand setter. Reliable recovery means it can act as a check to many strong physical threats and prevent their setting up with Whirlwind, while setting up Stealth Rocks of its own. Its poor special bulk and weakness to Rain spam means that it might not always put it as much work as it wants to against opposing Rain, but if you want your Sand setter to also be a physical wall, Hippo’s the one for the job. Not mentioned: Dugtrio (R.I.P), Golurk, Nidoking, Nidoqueen Continued here in a comment
This game has a lot of problems.... Lets Discuss them!
Introduction I have a lot of problems with this game. Here's a list of them and how i'd fix them. Let's a go. Locations & level design One of the biggest problems this game has with it's locations, is that they treat their regions as tile sets rather than actual cohesive areas. Let me show you what I mean. Destiny 2's Earth map This is an image from Destiny 2 that shows the layout of it's earth map. Notice how the map has named locations and a clear layout of where exactly every area is. Now, Any mission that takes place on Earth in Destiny 2 takes place somewhere on this map. This gives the player a sense of direction and allows them to use their own knowledge of the map to get around quickly. Because everything on earth takes place on this one map, It allows the developers to hand craft it to a beautiful degree and fill it with easter eggs and secrets that players can find. Now, Let's compare this to Avengers. Utah Badlands Every mission in a region takes place in it's own map seperate from every other mission in that region. This means that nearly every mission has its own unique map and layout (some use the same). Now you may be saying to yourself "Isn't that a good thing? nearly every mission has its own unique map!?". Except it's not a good thing, it's not a good thing at all. Instead of Taking Destiny 2's approach and creating one well crafted region with recognizable landmarks, they instead made individual small maps by hand that all look the same and have no unique identity. This ends up making the locations feel like they were created by procedural generation. They didn't make Utah Badlands a unique region by giving it deep caverns, high rising cliff sides and unique areas with secrets. No, they made it a "unique" region by putting rocks everywhere and making it brown. Pacific northwest is "unique" because it has trees and everything is green. Eastern seaboard is a just a generic city that only feels "unique" because of how it takes place in a populated area. The thing that irks me the most is that they're well able to craft unique and cool looking locations in this game. Golden Acres in the Utah Badlands The decomissoned helicarrier also in Utah Badlands They create these cool landmarks and locations that are only ever used once in story mode. Instead of booting up missions with friends and going, "Oh cool, we have to go to golden acres for this mission!", instead we're going "Oh cool, this mission takes us to an aim lab! Just like that last mission...at least we get to look at rocks on the way there?". Super duper amazing photoshop edits all done by me This is a shitty mockup done by me to show just a rough example of what I would want from a region in Marvel's Avengers. The cool thing about having an all connected map means they could allow players to do something similar to Destiny called "Patrols". I'll get to this point in a different section. Another quick obvious flaw with the locations is that they are not exactly "Marvel locations". Here's a quick list of locations that could be cool to visit.
Wakanda
Tokyo (if a ronin storyline ever happens)
Asgard
Sokovia
Sanctum Sanctorum (that leads into nightmarish / dreamlike areas)
A Kree Ship
Avengers tower (more so as a hub, but a mission where you take it back or get attacked like in "Age of Ultron" could be fun)
Loot & Gear So gear kinda sucks in this game. It's a png with stats (that are usually bad) and they usually have uninspiring perks. It is not appealing to grind for loot in this game. However, there is a fundamental flaw with gear and stats in this game that I think in the long run make the combat even more repetitive than it already is. List of Stats:
Might - Melee damage
Precision - Ranged damage
Proficiency- Crit chance / Perk chance
Valor - Heroic effectiveness / crit damage
Resolve - Max health / health recovery
Resilience - Armor
Intensity - stun + status meter damage/ Status resistance.
Now, I don't mind the game having in depth stats and breaking them up into small groups. However, the two main ones I have a problem with are "Might'' & "Precision". Now, it makes sense why these two are both separate stats. It makes the ideas of builds sound more viable and entices the players to play the characters however they want. The problem with this is the fact that in most viable builds, players can really only choose one of the damage stats, which leads to the other being useless. This ends up limiting the usefulness of a character's combat kit. https://preview.redd.it/vfq8qzsbhxg61.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6dacb510c767e8b6b5a78448d1622b955e5876fc Let's take Iron man for example. I have invested a lot into precision, leaving might left behind in it's dust. This means I can only really use iron man's ranged weapons if I actually want to do damage, which isn't terrible as I wanted to make Iron man a ranged character anyway. However, I'm better off never using his melee combat, which means I can say goodbye to some of my skills. bye bye to those melee skills! At Least I still have my repulsors, Lasers and Rockets. Awesome!....But this is not entirely the case. If I really want to make a good character build, I'm gonna have to mess with my gear perks and the battery effect. What is the battery effect? It's pretty much the idea of applying one status effect to any enemy (Cosmic, particle, Plasma) then attacking with the opposite (Gamma, shock, cryo). These status effects are found on gear in the ranged slot and melee slot. example of status effect on gear for Captain America Now unlike a game like Destiny 2, which also has different status types on its gear, The perks that give you status type damage only apply to certain combat moves, not all of them. In the picture above, it shows how my light combo finisher AND heavy power attacks deal cryo damage. This forces me as a player to spam these specific moves out over and over again to get my characters full damage potential. The funny thing about the gear I chose to show off as an example is that it's an "Exotic" piece of gear, the highest rarity of gear in the game. What's unique about some of the exoitc gear pieces is how some give you status type damage on two of your moves. Exotic gear is incredibly hard to find, nevermind a piece that has good stats and two status type damages as a perk. This means more often than not, your gear will only provide you with 1 way to provide status type damage, meaning players will often be spamming only 1 type of melee move and only 1 type of ranged move. Let's bring this all back to my Iron man build. Let's say I get particle status type damage on my rockets. This means my rockets are the only really viable ranged move I have. Uh oh. This will force me into a repetitive combat loop where I will pretty much ignore all my moves except rockets. Bye bye to pretty much everything This will end up making arguably the best thing about Marvel's Avengers, it's combat, into a repetitive slog in the endgame. In some ways, the combat is actually more fun before you reach base power cap of 130 because you can use anything you want without worrying. So much love went into these characters skill sets yet all these restrictions put on them with gear just ruins it all. I don't have thousands of hours invested into looter shooters like other people have, but I think I have some ideas to make it all more appealing.
First of all, turn might and precision stats into gear slot specific stats. What I mean by this, is that my melee and ranged gear slots should act more like weapons from Destiny or Borderlands. My melee attacks shouldn't rely on stats accumulated from all my gear pieces like Chest, utility, ranged or my artifacts. They should instead just rely on the gear piece in my melee slot. Same with ranged gear pieces.
Secondly, if a ranged or melee gear piece does status type damage, it should be applied to all my attacks and not specific ones. For example, If I'm iron man and I get a ranged gear piece that does Cryo status type damage, I should be able to do cryo damage with my Rockets, Repulsors and Lasers.
Ok, I want to quickly cover gear and their perks and why they suck. I feel as though the most exciting part of looter shooters is seeing what their new loot pick up does. Of course they're excited to see what kind of stats it has, but more often than not, they're excited to see what differentiates it from everything else. This usually occurs in the perks of gear. However, this is not the case for gear in Avengers. Perks only start to get sort of interesting once you reach Exotic rarity gear. However, I say only "sort" of interesting, because the perks on the exotic gear are usually on the same level of perks you'd find on lower level gear in other looter games, such as Destiny 2. Making exciting gear in this game is probably harder than most looter games, due to it being a 3rd person action game rather than a shooter and it also has to deal with a lot of different characters. Personally, If I was Crystal dynamics, I would take the perks exclusive to exotic gear, and put it on legendary and epic gear. They should then re-work all exotic gear to be muuuuuch more exicitng. Here's a few dumb examples of perks
When Iron Man gets in Hulkbuster, his normal suit of armour is taken off of him and acts as an helpful ai for the team
Thor's ranged attack no longer throws mjolnir, but instead shoots lightning, causing bonus shock damage.
Everytime Kate teleports, she leaves behind a decoy that acts like her support skill decoy but is 50% weaker. Can only have 5 max decoys at one time.
etc. etc. You guys get my point. Before I move on from loot and gear, I'd like to make a short list of fixes for battling the rng of loot
Re-rolls on gear
certain Exotic's have a chance of dropping anywhere, specific exotics and higher chances of getting them exclusive to certain missions.
I'm not a big fan of artifacts and exotic artifacts, but if they have to stay, at least make them usable by all characters
Traversal Ok, I'mma make this one quick. Traversal is not great. I appreciate how they tried to give all the characters different ways of movement, but none of them feel exactly good. I feel as though if we ever get large connected maps and "patrol" mission types, movement being improved is a necessity. I don't know how to fix traversal, but I'll just give some examples
Certain ground characters like Cap, Black Panther and Bucky gotta run at this speed. They have to.
Hulk absolutely needs a charge jump like hulk Ultimate destruction
Flying characters need their speed increased
If we do get more open maps, Characters like black widow could possibly get vehicles?
When Spider-Man is introduced, the more open maps means he has a higher possibility of having a pretty good web slinging system. With the maps we have now though, and the way black widow swings off of poles with no momentum, it might not look too good.
Unrelated, but when/if falcon is released, we better be able to recreate that flying sequence through the canyon from "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" trailer.
I feel as though having fast paced, good traversal is needed for the power fantasy of being a superhero. Let's hope they can come up with something good. Mission types / variety I feel as though the biggest complaint about Marvel's Avengers right now is lack of content. going through floors and floors of Aim labs and fighting 4 villains (If you include aim Mech's as villians) is very repetitive. I can only hope Crystal Dynamics know what they're doing to combat the repetitiveness. Here's a few fun notes I had.
Raid like content is needed. Increase the max player count and give players mechanics unique to that mission
Patrols from Destiny. I've mentioned these already, but it's pretty much free roam around a region with no specific mission. Allows you to explore, find secrets, take on bounties and just mess around. I feel as though if we get Bigger maps and an overhauled traversal system, this mode would be a fan favourite.
Horde - survival mode
Payload push mode
Seasonal events with unique spins on existing content with unique rewards, for example at halloween, horde mode could be based on marvel zombies, with a zombie cosmetic as a reward.
One thing I wanted to mention is solo player content. At the moment, it makes sense Crystal dynamics should focus on multiplayer content as that is lacking badly. However, I would like to see a return of single player only story missions. When new characters like Dr. Strange is introduced, I'd love to see a single player only story mode where you play as Dr. Strange on your own trying to go up against a threat before you meet the avengers. If Crystal dynamics ever do focus on single player, story missions, here a few examples I think would be fun
Cap and Falcon infiltrating a hydra base
Thor returns to asgard alone where he faces Loki
Hawkeye / Ronin goes to tokyo to take on the yakuza
Monetization This is a point that is moot to argue about, but I'll do it anyway. I hate Microtransactions. I hate how there is a cosmetic store where outfits are being sold at $14 a piece. I feel as though in a game with superheroes as iconic as these, and with such iconic outfits, it feels terrible to have to pay for the outfits instead of earning them. If I was able to change this, I would do this: Get rid of premium currency. Every 3 months, a battle pass is released for $20 with 150 tiers. All the rest of the new cosmetics are distributed through the cosmetic vendor, Patterns, seasonal events and certain mission rewards. Giving us a large battle pass is also another incentive to log on daily and gives the player a sense of progression. Hell, If Crystal Dynamics gave us 2 years of good support, I wouldn't mind paying for big expansions from year 3 onwards. Conclusion: ok...this was a pretty long post. Now, throughout this whole post, all I did was complain. Complaining, complaining & more complaining, But I only wrote out this whole post because of how much I love this ip and how much faith I have in this game and Crystal Dynamics. I don't expect them to make all these changes, or even any of them, but I expect them to do better. Which I think they will. I've been around this game since early 2017 when they showed the teaser trailer. I snooped around the orignal Reddit for this game when it was still known as the "Avengers project". I was here for every rumour, prediction, wishlist and "leak". I remeber when this one guy called "scirius" leaked how this game would be an ultimate alliance reboot and had something dumb like 70 playable characters and a hells kitchen expanison. ahhhh good times. I was here for the e3 2019 reveal backlash. I was here for the lack of information for months (good to see that never changed lol) and I was here for the launch. What i'm trying to say is, I'll be here till the end. Whether that end is a year from now or 10 years from now, I'll be here. Cause I can do this all day. tl;dr: Fix Hulk’s hair pls
Nifty Or Thrifty: Love Cup (PvP Meta/Budget Analysis)
Most of you are probably far too young to even know what "Love Boat" is, but the theme just fit SO well, I opted to go with that rather than the much more popular Haddaway's "What Is Love?" (though you'll see a little shout out to that later too 😉). Anyway, sit back and let me assault your (mental) ears for a moment.... Love, exciting and new Come aboard! Hanke's expecting you! Love, and GBL's sweet rewards. Let dust flow, it comes back to you! The Love Cup, soon you'll be making another run, The Love Cup promises something for everyone! The "Nifty Or Thrifty" article series takes a comprehensive look at the meta for PvP Cup formats: Love Cup, in this case. As is typical for the NoT series, I'll cover not only the top meta picks, but also some mons where you can save some dust with cheaper second move unlock costs. Because for those on a stardust budget--and/or folks trying to save up some dust for the future--it can be daunting trying to figure out where to spend or not spend it. We all want to field competitive teams, but where can we get the best bang for our buck and where should we perhaps channel our inner scrooge? Love Cup is an unusual format... there are only 105 Pokémon eligible in total, and of those, only about 60 (and honestly, far less than that) have any PvP relevance at all. Heck, most Cup formats have 150-200 eligible Pokémon, easily... even Kanto Cup has more than 105! So while there IS some diversity and variety to be had, there is also a higher than normal chance of the same Pokémon showing up over... and over... and over.... In fact, there is one core group that Love Cup discussions I've seen are honing in on, and I want to highlight the Pokémon that make up that core--and why they're discussed so often together--before I dive into anything else. Similarly to how Flying Cup was all about Aerodactyl, Skarmory, and Zapdos and then what could beat them, so will be my breakdown in this article. So let's get to it!
BABY DON'T HURT ME...NO MORE
These Pokémon are at the very top of this meta. Their importance cannot be understated, to the degree that I feel compelled to cover them before I get into the standard run from 10,000 to 100,000 dust 'mons. You may not plan to use them, but you better have a plan to fend them off. Because otherwise... baby, they WILL hurt you. LOTS more. THE CHARMERS WIGGLYTUFF Charm | Ice Beam & Play Rough CLEFABLE Charm | Meteor Mash & Psychic Amazingly, even though you automatically think of "pink" when pondering Charmers, Wigglytuff and Clefable are the only two Charmers (and only fully evolved Fairies) that are actually eligible. And while they may look cute and friendly on the outside, deep down they are stone cold killers. With well over a 60% win rate against the entirety of Love Cup AND the core meta, WIGGLYTUFF appears to remain the better Charmer once again. That Normal subtyping DOES make it a little bit squishier against Fighting damage, but it still easily dispatches all of the Fighters that actually sneak into the format. And while there is barely any Ghost damage around, the fact that Wiggly double resists Ghost DOES allow it to beat bothLickis with their Lick fast move, whereas Clefable (with no resistance to Ghost) typically loses. (With caveat... see below.) CLEFABLE does replicate nearly all of Wiggly's performance, albeit sometimes with a bit less left in the tank and sometimes needing to play matchups a certain way to get the win. To make the comparison between the two as simple as possible, I did some extensive side by side analysis on Wiggly vs Clefable in 1v1 shielding, and here are my findings:
Wigglytuff alone is able to defeat XL Lickitung and Camerupt... Clefable has no realistic path to victory, at least assuming it does not come in with a shield or energy lead. Wiggly is also able to beat non-XL Lickitung, Lickilicky, and Milotic consistently, whereas Clefable wins against those are reliant on sticking to JUST Charm and are also a bit IV dependant.
Clefable is uniquely capable of Charming down Porygon2 and Shadow Magmortar, again as long as it sticks with JUST Charm and does not try to throw any charge moves. Wigglytuff cannot win these battles without some type of advantage coming in.
As you have probably gathered, a Clefable player sometimes has to rely on commiting to the Charm farm down (and sometimes a little luck!) to win certain battles. These include the Lickiboys, Milotic, Porygon2, and S-Magmortar, as noted already, plus Solrock, Ledian, and Corsola. Wigglytuff wins all of those besides P2 and S-Mortar whether it throws a charge move or not, so it is technically better at pressuring shields despite Clefable having the cheapest charge move of the pair (Meteor Mash, at 50 energy).
Clefable DOES do better versus the Fighters (Medicham, Scrafty, Blaziken) due to fully resisting Fighting damage, but Wigglytuff still beats them all very, very comfortably.
Now all that said, it may be mostly academic as I believe a number of players are planning to run BOTH Charmers in the same line of three, alongside protection against Fires and Steels and Poisons that plague Wiggly and Clefable. Protection like the next thing on our list.... ALOLMOMOLA Waterfall | Psychic & Hydro Pump/Blizzard Alomomola is a nearly perfect pairing with the Charmers for one big reason: it makes a fantastic bodyguard, washing away the Fires and Steels that threaten the Fairies, beating the Charmers themselves on opposing teams, as well as fighting the Poisonous Bugs at least to a standstill (and usually emerging victorious there too, at least with a decent Attack IV). If a Charmer cannot beat it, then with very few exceptions, Alomonola probably can, or at the very least leave it nearly dead and well within Charm range. I mean, if you really wanted to, you could stop with those three and likely call it a day. That trio essentially is the "B.B.M.L." of Love Cup. Running them all three together--or heck, just ONE of the Charmers plus Aloe--nets the highest possible score against the Love Cup meta in terms of Safely, Consistency, and most importantly, Coverage. The ONLY score that clocks in below an A is "Bulk", and honestly, I think even that is a B+ at worst. (I mean, what is it looking for there... Chansey? 🤣 You don't get much bulkier than that trio.) But good as they are, those three are of course not the ONLY options... not by a longshot. There are plenty of other solid Pokémon to cover, and I'll be keying in on those that can beat down these Queens of Love Cup. And so, let's get into a more standard Nifty Or Thrifty review of the rest, starting with the cheapest and working out way on up from there.
10,000 Dust/25 Candy
SCOLIPEDE Poison Jab | X-Scissor & Megahorn/Sludge Bomb This might seem an odd place to start in with the 10,000k 'mons, but there's a method to my madness. Because Scolipede is one of only two Pokémon in the format with Poison Jab, and that move alone--combined with Scolipede's natural resistance to Charm thanks to being a Poison type--is able to completely farm down the Charmers. What's more, Scolipede is capable of finishing off Alomomola (depending on IVs, as linked to up above) as well as Vileplume. In fact, Scolipede and Vileplume are two of only FOUR Pokémon in the entire format capable of taking out both Charmers and Alomonola. I could probably rest my case there, but there's more, as Scolipede can also beat Medicham and Scrafty (neither appreciate Bug damage), Cherrim, Milotic, and even Lickitung... and that's of the XL variety too. Note that Scolipede wants both Bug charge moves more than Sludge Bomb; Bomb is better for one shotting Fairies, but Megahorn is necessary to beat Medicham and Lickitung, and those are kiiiiiiiiiiind of a big deal, so Horn gets the nod from me. Venipede is out there spawning in boosted numbers right now, so what are you waiting for?! Go get a good one while you still can. ARIADOS Poison Sting | Cross Poison & Megahorn Scolipede lite. I don't know that I heartily recommend Ariados, but it CAN beat everything Scolipede can... well, except for Medicham, Lickitung, and Milotic. Ariados does beat out Electrode, which it can brag about to Scol that does not, but that's not exactly fair compensation. If you like Ariados and have always wanted to run it, this DOES look like your best shot by far... after all, it IS in elite company with Scolipede, Vileplume, and one other (secret, for now) Pokémon as the only 'mons that can slay Wigglytuff, Clefable, and Alomomola. But it's quite bait dependant and... yeah. Like I said, not strongly recommended, but you can do a lot worse. CHARIZARD Fire Spin/Dragon Breathᴸ/Wing Attackᴸ | Dragon Claw & Blast Burnᴸ/Overheat With all the many moves Charizard has these days, AND being able to be a Shadow as well, I could fill half an article just going through them all. But I will try to keep this light and not get bogged down. So to sum it all up, let's assume you have Dragon Claw and Blast Burn as a starting point. With that in mind:
Fire Spin typically beats Grasses (Vileplume, Cherrim), Fairies (Wiggly, Clefable), Lickitung, and Wing Attack Zard. Shadow FS is a hair worse, gaining Electrode but now losing to WA Zard and XL Lickitung.
Wing Attack has been generating some buzz for the fact that it adds Slowbro to the win column, but it cannot beat XL Licki and loses to Fire Spin and Dragon Breath Zard. Shadow WA now DOES beat Fire Spin Zard, but loses that special win over Slowbro.
Dragon Breath has been less discussed than the other fast moves, as people understandably assume it is less viable than other moves due to the prominent presence of the Dragon-resistant Charmers. However, DB Zard DOES still beat the Charmers, with the same HP left over that FS Zard does... it just has to land the Blast Burn, obviously, but that is also the case with Fire Spin and Wing Attack: no BB, no win. Dragon Breath Zard also beats FS and WA Zard, Slowbro like WA is able to do, and Licktung like FS is able to do. The one blemish is that DB does NOT defeat Medicham, not even the non-XL version. However, Shadow DB Zardcan beat Medi, but is overall worse, losing to XL Licki and WA Zard. No bueno.
Also no bueno: we are now into the portion of the article where we're discussing things that can handle the Charmers OR Alomomola, but not both. Zard and most Fires handle the Charmers (and other things, like Vileplume and Bugs and Steels that harass the Charmers) just fine, but have not a prayer against Alomomola's Waterfalls. TALONFLAME Fire Spin | Brave Bird & Flame Charge Arguably a better Charizard in this particular meta, and will require far less second-guessing on which moves to run with! While Talon cannot overcome Medicham as Zard (usually) can, it CAN beat Scrafty and Seaking, neither of which Zard can replicate, and beats down Slowbro and XL Lickitung far more effectively and consistently than Charizard can (25+ more HP remaining on average), and ALSO beats Fire Spin Zard in the head to head. Charizard has more quirks and is a bit more unpredicatable, but if you just want consistency (and have Medicham coverage elsewhere), you may like the feel of Talonflame a lot more in Love Cup. (And do note that Talonflame CAN overcome non-XL Medi, so there's that too.) BLAZIKEN Counter | Blaze Kick & Blast Burnᴸ/Brave Bird/Stone Edgeᴸ The first of very few Fighters on our list, which is a pro and con. The good: easy wins against things like Lickitung and Crustle and Magcargo that are weak to Counter, AND things like Vileplume and Cherrim that are weak to Fire damage. (Blaze Kick is usually enough for those.) The bad: Charmers are a write-off, AND Alomomola (and most other Waters too) in this case. If you DO decide to run Blaze, I recommend Blast Burn most, as that at least is fast enough and powerful enough to beat Seaking. Blaze does good things, but even I will admit that losing to all of the "big three" is pretty discouraging. Just being honest here! MAGCARGO EmbeRock Throw | Stone Edge & Overheat Magcargo is meta? Could it be true? Anyone that has followed my articles for a while (especially those focused on The Silph Arena) probably knows that I am a YUGE fan of Mr. (or Mrs.!) Cargo. It is truly unique with its typing and moves. The issue is that, while it has a lot of resistances (Fairy, Bug, Normal, Flying, Ice, Poison, and 2x to Fire), it has some very exploitable weaknesses as well (Fighting, Rock, and double weaknesses to Water and Ground). It's also a Fire that takes neutral damage from Grass and Steel, which become problematic whenever there are several of those around. Quite frankly, usually there are other Fire types that are just plain better. But in Love Cup, Mags is right up there with them. It beats the Charmers and the Grasses just as you'd want your Fire type to do, as well as Bugs Scolipede, Trashadam, Sczior and such. But it ALSO beats Charizard (as long as it doesn't have Dragon Breath) and Talonflame and most other Fires, manages to claw past Lickitung, and incredibly, even takes out Slowbro! You do have the option of running Rock Throw instead of Ember (as in the sims above), but while you do beat Crustle that way and become a VERY hard anti-Fire counter, you now lose the Grasses and Lickitung and Slowbro and... it's just too much. Just stick with Ember, and for once, roll Magcargo out there with confidence! 💪🐌 CRUSTLE Fury Cutter | X-Scissor & Rock Slide Speaking of odd Rock types, little Crustie is a nice option overall too, though I'll point out right up front that it doesn't beat the Charmers or Alomomayomama. What it does do it clean up most of the riffraff, from Charizard to Slowbro to Electrode to the Grasses to Seaking to Trashadam to Scolipede to any Lickitung that isn't driven all the way up to the very upper 40s. It's disappointing not being able to take out the very biggest names, but many can't and have to settle for that riffraff, and Crustle does it as well as (and much cheaper than!) most. WORMADAM (TRASH) Confusion | Bug Buzz & Iron Head Convenient that the only Wormadam allowed in this format is the best by far. "Trashadam" is a very curious little guy. There are many Steely Bugs in PvP now, but Trashy still remains truly unique with Confusion powering out more standard Steel and Bug moves. Between these moves and its typing, Trashadam is a particularly good Fairy counter that also beats Vileplume (and HARD, too), Slowbro, Electrode, Scizor, and even Blaziken, and puts up an intense battle against Lickitung and Alomomola too. With excellent PvP IVs it adds Crustle and even PuP Medicham to its list of wins too! (If Cham is running Ice Punch/Psychic, as I recommend below, then Trashy already wins that anyway.) It doesn't win EVERYTHING you might want it to, but that's one heck of a résumé. I strongly recommend looking into building one if you can... though note that, despite the second move costing only 10k dust, Trashy has to be at (or nearly at) Level 40 to work, so it's still not exactly "thrifty". DELPHOX Fire Spin | Flame Charge & Psychic No, it's not an impressive win total, but note WHAT Phoxy beats: both Charmers, Medicham, Vileplume, and Cherrim (and unlisted Trashadam and Scizor). Yes, Aloyomama will steal its lunch money and stuff it in a locker, but if you need a quick, cheap build to deal with Charmers and/or Medi and/or Grasses, Fenneken is still spawning quite frequently right now, so Delphox may be a good emergency fill in for you. CHERRIM (SUNNY) Bullet Seed | Weather Ball (Fire) & Solar Beam Now this isan impressive win total, and includes a rare Alomomola sighting in the win column, and VERY solidly so. Now I know what you're thinking looking at that: "but JRE, it only wins because it baited a shield with Fire Weather Ball!" Well yes, but also no: Cherrim has ample time to forgo baiting and just go doubleSolar Beam and still escape comfortably. Solar Beam may normally seem to take longer to charge than quarantine has been dragging on, but with Bullet Seed driving it, Cherrim has one ready to go after only 7 Seeds and about 10 seconds, which is faster than Aloe can charge up its first charge move. And thus, Cherrim easily dispatches Alomomola and Milotic and Slowbro, as well as melting down Vileplume, Steely Bugs, Electrode and Lickitung with Fire Balls. As a 3+ season lead for my own Great League GBL team, I can tell you from experience that Cherrim puts a LOT more pressure on the Charmers than the sims show, too. If Aloe is a particular issue for your team and you can't (or just don't want to) build, say, a Vileplume, Cherrim has some really good play in this meta. Oh, you COULD run it with Razor Leaf instead if you want a really hard Water counter, picking up Seaking along the way, but you now lose to Scizor, Vileplume and others with the drastic decrease in the number of Fire Balls you can spew out there. Not worth it, IMO. If you want a Razor Leafer, just scroll down about four lines....
50,000 Dust/50 Candy
VILEPLUME Razor Leaf | Sludge Bomb & Moonblast The only Razor Leafer you actually WANT to run with Razor Leaf in Love Cup, and unlike Cherrim, Vileplume comes with some very handy resistances thanks to a Poison sub-typing, enabling it to be the third (of four) Pokémon on the list of things that can beat both Charmers and Alomomola. And it can do that comfortably without ever having to throw a charge move! In fact, if you compare Plume using charge moves to Plume sticking to just Razor Leaf, you'll notice a jump in performance in the RL-only results. Why? Because as is often the case for other Razor Leafers (and Charmers to, in point of fact), the best way to play them is usually to kill something off with just fast moves and save up energy to throw a charge move (or maybe multiple charge moves) at the next thing to follow before dying. As odd as it may seem, sometimes throwing a charge move (that is blocked) can actually lead to a loss where just straight fast move spamming would mean a win. Take Crustle, for just one example: throwing a charge move means a tie, whereas just saving that energy and sticking with Razor Leaf means a win instead (albeit by a razor thin margin). Anyway, not to get TOO down in the weeds, in addition to the Waters and Charmers, Plume can also slice through Electrode and Scrafty. Shadow Plume is a small step backwards, with the drop in bulk leading to losses to Scrafty and Crustle no matter what strategy you utilize. Plume is dangerous in this format, and stands truly alone as your one real Razor Leaf option. SEAKING Poison Jabᴸ | Icy Windᴸ & Drill Runᴸ So I keep teasing a fourth Pokémon that can take out the Charmers and Al Yomama. Well here it is. Thanks to Poison Jab, Seaking wears down the Charmers, softens them up with Icy Wind, and then finishes them off with a Drill Run to the face. (Or you can go for the throat and just double Drill Run instead... either way works.) In addition to Cherrim, I have ALSO run my own triple Legacy Seaking out there a LOT in GBL, and so it's not surprising to see that the best way to beat Alomomola is to hit it first with an Icy Wind (reducing all subsequent damage dealt by Aloe) and THEN start launching Drill Runs, just as I've done for a couple GBL seasons to Azumarill (though Azu, being a Fairy, is even more farmable thanks to Jab). Anyway, with those three handled, note that Seaking has some overlap with Vileplume, beating Slowbro and Milotic in addition to the big three, but then branches off from there to handle Fires (Charizard, Magcargo, Blaziken, etc.) and, ironically, Cherrim, who cannot quite reach two charge moves (the second being Solar Beam) before Seaking launches its own second Icy Wind to close it out. Vileplume has certainly been discussed in forums I have seen in excited tones, but not so much Seaking, which is a serious oversight. Yes, it requires a couple Elite TMs to build, but I promise you that it is a BLAST to play, and there's never been a better time to get started. PARASECT Fury Cutter | X-Scissor & Solar Beam Parasect is yet another 'mon with a promising and unique typing (Bug/Grass) and decent moves that has never seemed to put it all together. But maybe, juuuuuuuuuust maybe, its moment has finally come? As a Bug--and one that double resists Grass, at that--it handles Vileplume and Cherrim, and that Bug damage also tears up half-Dark Scrafty and half-Psychic Slowbro. But as a Grass, it also resists Water damage and can hit at Waters with big fat Solar Beam, enabling it to also take out Milotic and Big Momma Olga. (The nicknames for Alomomola are just coming easier and easier the more I write. 😂) And before you point out that, yes, the sim results up there bait with X-Scissor before landing the killing Beam, keep this in mind: it can beat Milly AND Aloyomama (and Vileplume, for good measure) with JUST Solar Beam, no baiting required. Boom! Oh, and it also takes out (with X-Scissor) Electrode and Lickitung for good measure, just to further sweeten the deal. I love how this Cup brings some neglected but cool Pokémon into the PvP limelight, and Parasect could be a great representation of that. SLOWBRO (and friends) Confusion | Ice Beam & Psychic A popular discussion topic, simply because it beats Alomomola and Medicham. It doesn't do a whole lot beyond that--just a couple Fires, Milotic, and Scolipede are about it--but this meta is such that taking out those two big targets is enough to be considered "core meta". Of note: SLOWKING and even SLOWPOKE do the same basic things, with King also beating Bro head to head and Poke beating Fire Spin AND Wing Attack Zard (whereas WA can overcome the other Slows). EX Slowpoke looks VERY interesting with added wins against Slowbro, Crustle, and the Charmers too, if you're feeling frisky and somehow rolling in XL Slow candy. And there are actually several other 'mons that fill a similar role. CRAWDAUNT (with Snarl) actually beats the same things as the Slows, though substituting (Smack Down) Crustle in place of Medicham... being half-Dark, Daunt has no chance against Medi's Fighting damage and loses especially hard to the Charmers. Exeggutor is not the right color for Love Cup, but EXEGGCUTE is. Like Slowpoke, it has to be maxed, but it has similar potential, handling the Aloe and Milly, Medicham (most of the time, at least... Ice Punch can be a problem though), and then Electrode, Vileplume, and Cherrim, mostly on the strength of resisting most of their moves thanks to being part Grass. And pushed up to XL levels (if you're crazy enough to try!), it can even beat Clefable, which is quite a nice pickup. Similar in some ways but quite different in others, SOLROCK gives up the Waters but hates harder on Fires, manages to beat Medicham, Scolipede, and Seaking, and somehow can also outlast Clefable in the right spot (but as with Exeggcute, Wigglytuff remains evasive). And there are still others like GOREBYSS, but they're even worse and not much more than curiosities. ELECTRODE Volt Switch | Foul Play & Thunderbolt On the surface, Electrode has a set of wins that looks shockingly close to the Slows, despite being drastically different Pokémon. As with Crawdaunt, it replaces Medicham with a Crustle win (the better Fury Cutter variety this time), but otherwise the same names are all there: Charizard, Magcargo, Milotic, Alomomola, Ice Punch Medicham, and hey, also the head to head with Slowbro. But unlisted there are also wins against Scolipede and Scizor and even Trashadam that the Slows and Daunt and the others above can't beat. Electrode, by my estimation, does their job, but better, and I'm surprising even myself by saying that I'd recommend it over any of them. The one hangup is that it has no answer to the Grasses, but that seems an acceptable price for all the good it can do. I will admit: I underestimated Electrode in Great League in GBL the first couple times I faced it, and I learned not to be so dismissive after those first couple encounters. It's not the greatest Electric out there or anything, but it certainly does its job well enough, and there is practically no Electric competition in this meta. The closest is bargain basement Lanturn wannabe ROTOM (Wash), and it's just... not as good. Again, never thought I'd say it, but just stick with Electrode and you'll be fine. KINGLER Mud Shotᴸ | X-Scissor & Crabhammer I almost listed this among the smattering of stuff the followed the Slows, but Kingler is a bit different. It doesn't really beat the other Waters, for one thing, aside from Slowbro. But it does still beat down the Fires, and also the Bugs... Crustle, Scolipede, Trashadam, Scizor, all of 'em. And as a bonus, throw in Electrode and Cherrim as well, things that Waters really shouldn't be beating, but here we are. Kingler doesn't get many of the big ticket names in the meta, but it does do enough zany things that you're likely to see somebody flexing their Legacy one during the week. Knowledge is power... be prepared. PORYGON2 Lock-On | Tri-Attack & Zap Cannon Alright, Porygon fans. This is your first (and likely) last chance to use one of them and have it be actually borderline relevant. Yes, it requires baiting and landing the Zap Cannon killing blow, but P2 can take out the big Waters (including Mama Olga... I'm not even TRYING to get that name right anymore 😅), and Crustle, and Lickitung, and Magcargo, and can force a tie with Wigglytuff. This is still, in my opinion, more gimmick than serious play, but if you were to ever try, THIS is probably the time. LICKITUNG Lick | Body Slamᴸ & Power Whip Okay, look, I'm not here to debate the merits of the XL candy system or how likely/fair it is that some players will have grinded enough XL candy by now to push Lickitung to new heights. I'm just here to report the facts, and the fact is, XL Lickitung is very good. But even regular old Level 40 Licki is good too, still beating Waters (Aloe Vera included) thanks to Power Whip, plus Electrode, Vileplume, and even Clefable just by sheer bulk and a lot of Body Slams. The only things XL Lickitung brings in are anti-meta type stuff like Scolipede, Trashadam, and FC Crustle. Not that those wins aren't good to have, but my point is this: you can run a non-XL Licki and still fulfill its primary roles without missing a beat. Do pay attention to any above 1411 CP (as that represents a maxed, perfect IV Level 40 one) so you'll know whether it's an XL one you're facing and respond accordingly. Good luck! For those wondering, yes, LICKILICKY is a viable enough (and much cheaper) replacement, but without Power Whip, it struggles versus Waters (losing to Alomomola, which is a particularly painful step backwards) and is just a bit worse/less bulky overall. Honestly, if you can't build a good Lickitung, I might look elsewhere to fill that slot on my team than to Lickilicky... but that's me! It's YOUR team, so do what makes you happy. DARMANITAN Incinerate | Rock Slide & Overheat SIMISEAR Fire Spin | Crunch & Flamethrower Just a couple of alternative Fire types you may or may not have laying around already. Both effectively handle the Bugs (aside from Crustle) and the Grasses, and manage to overcome Wigglytuff and Clefable. SIMISEAR beats WA Charizard and Slowbro thanks in large part to Crunch, while DARMANITAN instead takes out XL Lickitung, Ember Magcargo, and (barely) XL Medicham and is probably a better choice overall. But they're both generally behind other Fire types already discussed above. MEDICHAM Counter | Psychic & Ice Punch/Power-Up Punch So a lot of nuances here, but I'll try and keep it simple. You want Counter and Psychic (the move) for sure, but beyond that it gets a little sticky. My recommendation is Ice Punch, as it's needed to get wins against Cherrim and Vileplume, whereas Power-Up Punch instead narrowly wins the mirror match... see why I lean Ice Punch? That all said, PuP MAY be better with XL Medicham, as it still manages to beat Vileplume without Ice Punch, still wins the mirror, and adds on Trashadam as well. Ice Punch is still needed to overcome Cherrim, however. You may not have to worry about XL Medi too much, though... the only notable wins you get at Level 50 that Medicham cannot achieve at Level 40 are Vileplume (for PuP) and Milotic (for Ice Punch). Aloe, Mags, Crustie, Licki, Electrode, Scrafty, Scizor, etc.... they all go down with regular or XL Medi. Might not have to break the bank to play Medicham in this format. SCRAFTY Counter | Power-Up Punch & Foul Play Here things are quite a bit easier: the moveset is pretty well set (don't run Acid Spray, please), no real XL concerns. The one potential concern is that sims don't always handle Power-Up Punch well, as it usually ALWAYS burns a shield on it, so while Scrafty looks godly in the overall win/loss column, losing really to only Charmers and Medicham. (Though if you expand a little beyond the "core meta", there are a few Bugs and Fires that give it issues.) But it's hard to tell how much that can be fully trusted, as you're not ALWAYS going to get the bait. I think there is certainly enough there to give Scrafty a hearty thumbs up--it may be even a bit better than Medicham--but live testing will probably be required to find out HOW good it can be.
75,000 Dust/75 Candy
I'm going to run through these quickly and highlight just a handful that really stand out, and then throw a few more "spicy" ones all at the end. You can construct a team pretty cheaply in this Cup, so something this expensive has got to be REALLY good to get an in depth look. Something like.... ALOMOMOLA Waterfall | Psychic & Hydro Pump/Blizzard Yep, what else would I lead this section with? I think I've talked about Alomomyolo enough already, but let's just take a look at what all it can actually do. Beats the Fires, beats the Charmers, beats its closest competitor Milotic, beats Crustle (and Scizor... and Trashy). But Aloe is not without flaws... it does still generally lose to the Fighters, Waters with non-Water moves (read as: Seaking and Slowbro), Lickitung, Electrode, and of course the Grasses. Alomomola is not dominant by any means, but as discussed way back at the beginning, it fills in the gaps left by the Charmers almost perfectly. Alo/Charm is surely going to be THE core to beat. MILOTIC Waterfall | Surf & Blizzard/Hyper Beam Alomomola, but not as good. Still beats the Fires and Crustle/Trashy/Scizor and Clefable, which is good, but cannot reliably overcome Wigglytuff and cannot hang with Momolala, which is very, very bad. If you just don't HAVE an Alomomola to run, this might be the best place to turn, but it's going to struggle to maintain exactly the same role. MAGMAR & MAGMORTAR Karate Chop | Fire Punch & Return (Magmar)/Thunderboltᴸ (Magmortar) Yet again, more Fire options. Do note they both seem to actually run a little better with Karate Chop than their Fire fast moves... it's necessary to beat Magcargo, Magmar needs it to Lickitung, and Magmortar needs it to beat Fire Spin Zard and Seaking. (Conversely, Magmar with Ember instead defeats Electrode and Scolipede, and Magmortar with Fire Spin only brings in Scolipede.) And those are really the big differences between them: the potential wins against Lickitung and Electrode are unique to Magmar, and the potential wins versus Charizand and Seaking (both thanks to Thunderbolt) are unique to Magmortar. They both handle the Grasses just fine, the Bugs (aside from Crustle), and of course the Charmers. (It gets a little tighter with Karate Chop rather than Fire fast moves, but not much.) SCIZOR Bullet Punch | Iron Head & X-ScissoNight Slash For when you absolutely need Charmers dead, call in the exterminator. There isn't much that can outslug the Charmers in a battle of JUST fast moves, but Scizor can. That alone gives it value, but then it also goes out and beats several other relevant things like Vileplume, Slowbro, Crustle, Scolipede, Lickitung, and Seaking. It's not cheap, but Scizor is an above average Fairy killer that plays as a pretty good generalist too. Others that look interesting (but not QUITE interesting enough) include HEATMOR, FLAAFFY, and BISHARP, but there are other things listed above that generally handle their roles better. And that's it! Thanks for sticking with me to the end! Hopefully this helps you balance the cost of where to save yourself some hard-earned dust (and candy!) and still have a good time in Love Cup. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll try to get back to you! Thank you for reading! I sincerely hope this helps you master Love Cup, and in the most affordable (and enjoyable) way possible. Best of luck, stay safe, and catch you next time!
How to Create Pay-Per-View Worthy Adventures or "How to Stop Worrying and Start DMing Like Vince McMahon"
Before I became a DM I spent a fair amount of time working for a professional wrestling company. I won't say which one, but let's just say it once got sued by a federation of animal lovers and to this day features worldly wrestlers everywhere. When I was first starting out as a DM, I read as much as I could (including tons of posts on this very subreddit). I built complex encounters and antagonists I thought were compelling, but when it came to running my sessions with them they often felt a little anticlimactic. That's because I was investing all my time in the payoff, and none in the build. And that's when I remembered everything I learned while I was working with in-ring talent on their characters their definitely real life selves: The build is everything. Now that I use pro-wrestling secrets* to develop my NPCs and encounters, I'm the best DM there is (ever was, or ever will be). At least to my party. Below are a few lessons I learned from my time just outside gorilla, as well as a few examples of how they translate to your work as a DM. For clarity these terms will come up alot, so here are simple definitions: "heels" = "bad guys" "babyfaces/faces" = "good guys" aka "your party/their allies." "Heat" = "an emotional reaction." In general, you want the audience to be emotionally invested. Heat is the name for that investment, whether they love or hate someone. *these aren't really secrets—they are the basic building blocks of compelling storytelling, and oftentimes can be boiled down to a single maxim: give the people what they want...just make them pay (and/or wait) for it. Everyone Who's Anyone Has At Least One Nickname The Undertaker is also: The Phenom, The Deadman, Big Evil, The Lord of Darkness, The Demon of Death Valley and 'Taker if you're nasty. And that's just one guy (and like, only half his nicknames...). Any of your NPCs that you're planning to throw at your party as possible heels should have a cool moniker or two to help establish their renown within the world you're creating. Perhaps more importantly, each member of your party should be given the chance to earn one. You will be surprised how awesome your rogue feels when one of their NPC allies starts referring to them as "The Graveyard Whistler" following their steely performance during a crypt-based encounter. As your players conquer various encounters, nicknames are a cool way to weave their exploits into the narrative on a regular basis. In my experience, you'll find players actually start incorporating their given monikers into the way they play their characters. A nickname is the first step toward turning your heroes into superheroes—don't miss out on the opportunity. Everyone Sells for Your Superheroes (So When They Don't, It Means Something) I put this close to the top because I think it informs everything about the way most pro-wrestling is booked. There are a few guys/gals on the roster that are unbeatable. Let's call them Superheroes (when they're a physically intimidating heel, they are usually referred to as "monsters"). Andre the Giant. Hulk Hogan. The Rock. Undertaker. Goldberg. John Cena. These wrestlers rarely, if ever, lose. If they do lose, it's typically under special circumstances (their opponent cheated, they were injured, they were supremely outnumbered, their opponent covered them in cement, or someone poked them with a very powerful finger). If a Superhero loses "clean," meaning none of that previously mentioned interference, it is often part of the coronation of a new Superhero. Everyone on the roster sells for a Superhero. A Superhero's punches hit harder. Their bodyslams bounce you off the mat. Their penetrating stare sends you scrambling back up the ramp and into the locker room. Superheroes beat local competitors in 10 seconds, or destroy previously celebrated opponents in what are called "squash" matches—a total annihilation meant to reinforce that the Superhero is unbeatable. Your party are fledgling Superheroes, and will reach proper Superhero status as they progress in level. So when they use a weapon or cast a spell or talk their way out of trouble, have your lower level NPCs sell for them. Basic bandits should flee in fear when your paladin drops that first smite. Skeletons shudder and rattle the moment a cleric shows their holy symbol—they know all it'll take to render them to dust is the whispered name of the cleric's god. A rogue's knife doesn't miss...the opponent got lucky dodging to the left at the precise moment...a twist of fate the target knows they're unlikely to repeat. When Andre the Giant was bodyslammed and pinned by Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III , it was the culmination of one of the longest, most successful builds in pro-wrestling history. And it cemented Hogan as an unbeatable force, because he had dethroned the boss. The monster. The 8th wonder of the world. Andre sold for Hogan, and elevated him as the heir apparent. By having your lower level NPCs (and even some in the mid-tier) oversell for your party, it'll mean more to your party when they come across a monster or miscreant that takes the full weight of a great weapon master's heavy swing, shrugs it off and hands them a receipt: a full bore punch to the throat. Now your party is facing a formidable foe—they've never been in this situation before. And when they finally succeed in defeating this new opponent, they'll feel that much more unstoppable (which is, of course, when you throw an even bigger monster at them). When in Doubt, Give 'em a Gimmick Some cynics might view this as lazy storytelling (and they might be right!) but even some of the best written characters in history have a "gimmick"—i.e.: a shtick...a clearly articulated angle...that thing that sets them apart from other, similar characters. Walter White wasn't just a drug kingpin—he was a brilliant chemistry teacher who used his brain to rise through the criminal underworld. Tony Soprano wasn't just a mob boss—he was a mob boss dealing with panic attacks/depression, whose family issues were as complicated/stressful as his "family" issues. Dr. Gregory House is just Sherlock Holmes in a hospital. Gimmicks are pretty much character premises, but in pro-wrestling, they have a way of informing entire identities. Sure, Jake "the Snake" Roberts is a mentally intimidating dude—but that notion gets cranked to 11 when he shows up in the ring with a cobra in a sack. The Undertaker, a walking avatar of death itself, who buries his opponents (including his brother!) alive, evokes far more dread and intrigue than "Mark Calaway" ever could. Some gimmicks are simple ("He's a warrior, but he's like...the Ultimate Warrior.") and others are complex (Randy Orton, the Apex Predator, is also known as the Viper because his most devastating strike can come out of nowhere). But all WWE gimmicks have one thing in common: They exist. Pretty much every Superstar has one. If you're building an NPC you want your party to love (or hate), make sure they have a thing that sets them apart from the rest of the crowd. Give them a nickname only those who speak Thieves' Cant understand means they are "Untouchable." Give them a blade that can end a life with a thought which they constantly brag about never having to use. Give them a profession that also doubles as a menacing, occasionally ridiculous hint at their underlying savagery (see: Mark Henry, aka The World's Strongest Man," or Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, or Irvin R. Shyster, aka "IRS."). A gimmick is a way to crank an otherwise unmemorable NPC to 11 (everything in pro-wrestling is cranked to 11. Like, 11 is the baseline), and helps your party know who they are up against—and in many cases, how they can shut them down [see Good Gimmicks = Great Weaknesses]. "Parts Unknown" = Instant Backstory Don't have a good idea for a gimmick for an NPC or magic item? Take another cue from Vince McMahon's playbook and simply describe them as being from "Parts Unknown." Demolition, Papa Shango, Ultimate Warrior and a dozen other WWE Superstars were billed as hailing not from Omaha or Albuquerque or Cleveland, but from "Parts Unknown." Where is that? NO ONE KNOWS. That's what makes it scary/cool/intriguing. It's instant mystique. Now, this might read as lazy to you cynics out there, but high level works of fantasy use the same trick: see: 2001's monolith. The Next Generation's Borg. Even the Joker, one of the most considered villains of the modern era was, until pretty recently, backstoryless. Sometimes a mystery is more terrifying than anything you could come up with on your own. If the most powerful NPCs in your world can't explain the origin of a recently summoned entity or artifact, well, that sounds like something your heroes should approach with caution (or reckless abandon...their choice). Every Good Villain Deserves a Valet If you've got a heel you know your party is going to love/hate, double down and give them a valet. A valet can take many forms. Sometimes they act as a hype man/woman, other times they serve as arm candy, a prop to showcase just how much better the heel's life is than your own or sometimes they are a heavy...a wall of meat to keep the heel from taking any sort of beating (there is no faster way to build heat than for a heel who deserves to be punched in the face than to have them step behind a wall of harder-to-punch flesh). Valets often serve to offset the strengths/weaknesses of the character to whom they are assigned. Again, this is classic storytelling. Falstaff and Hal. Laurel and Hardy. Pinky and the Brain. Pro-wrestling just does it overtly and often (usually to protect a storyline or, in some cases, hide the wrestler's weaknesses). Monsters like Brock Lesnar aren't much on the mic? No problem: enter Paul Heyman. Give your charming rogue a droll sorceress who can snap her fingers and summon a demon. Give your posh prince access to the hired goon who single-handedly dominated your party in the area's underground fight club. Give your dragon-lich an incredibly weak but utterly hilarious underling who can add some levity to otherwise intense "my evil plan is falling into place" monologues. When your heel has a great valet, your party gets the bonus of kicking the ass of two characters they hate. Alternatively, they have a character they can use as leverage against the heel (perhaps, like Heyman, they work for the highest bidder, and would be willing to turn on their client for a better offer). Repackage Your Failures into Successes Look: You're going to screw up. You're going to create a character you think is an easy sell: let's call him Rocky Maivia. Rocky Maivia is the future! He's gonna be amazing! He will create heat simply by showing up. And then, when the pyro goes off...well, it's a dud. Well guess what! You're Vince F'ing McMahon! You create and destroy characters with a thought! You don't have to stick with Rocky Maivia! You are not a failure! You are simply biding your time, letting the crowd think you've made a mistake. But as anyone who has met him will tell you he's told them, Vince McMahon doesn't make mistakes. Rocky Maivia? No. That's the Rock. He's always been the Rock. And now, he always will be. Demented Dentist Isaac Yankem? No...that's KANE, the Big Red Monster. Hunter Hearst Helmsly, the Connecticut Blueblood? Uhmm...no. That's Triple H. The Game. The Cerebral Assassin. The World's Most Hydrated Man. "Stunning" Steve Austin? No, make that Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rattlesnake, he of the Gimme a Hell Yeah. The "Bottom Line" as the artist formerly known as Stunning Steve might say, is this: you're going to invest a lot of time in a character and your party is going to wipe them out. You're going to create a fully developed backstory for a villain you think is dark and compelling only to watch your players laugh in your face and make a joke about the accent you gave them. You will toil over your notes for a delicious monologue and then watch your players choose to violently attack rather than listen to what your villain has to say. So many times. And you might think you have failed...but you are not a failure. You're Vince McMahon. You walk like this. You are a god. If an NPC you thought had potential as a foil gets annihilated due to your party being OP, great. Did your party know he also made a deal with several different infernal authorities and is now a revenant that sleeplessly seeks their utter demise? Did your party know that nefarious noble with the funny accent was actually a weakened rakshasa who underestimated them but won't make the same mistake twice? That NPC your party chose to sneak by rather than encounter face to face? Oh shit, did you know that NPC has access to a helm of scrying and plans to see them later in more ways than one? When something isn't working for you or your campaign, feel free to trash it. Keep the parts you like, or find creative ways to bring your personal favorites back in a fresh way. If your party can't remember the name of an NPC you care about...guess what (what!): to quote the Rock...it doesn't matter what their name is. You can rebuild them. You can rebrand them. You can return to glory. Mediocre Heel + Good Heel + Random Heel = Great Stable Similar to repackaging, and often a part of one, building a stable is a great way to take B-level talent and turn them into an A-list draw (see: The Shield. The New Day. The Nexus...sidenote: Stables often start with a definite article). The truth is, your party is a stable—a group of individuals united out of convenience and (typically) a singular purpose (they might even have a name. It might even start with 'the'). But they all have individual goals. If your party can form a stable, why can't your NPCs? Perhaps all the NPCs your players have dispatched over the past few months have decided they don't like the new heroes in town kicking them around, and they've formed a Justice League of their own. Or perhaps the seemingly disconnected events of the past year (and the NPCs associated with them) have all been part of a larger plan that's only just now coming into view. You can get more mileage out of your lesser heels as well as more satisfaction out of encounters by having your party face off against familiar enemies who are now more powerful because they've allied with other known entities. "You mean the cult from three sessions ago that we barely defeated has somehow allied themselves with the New Kobold Order, from our very first session, to bring more gold to the dragon we nearly killed last month? Well...that sounds...bad." No. It sounds great. Kick Them While They're Down (So You Can Lift Them Up) You'll see this a lot when a babyface is angling for a title. It's not enough for a guy like John Cena to beat his opponent. After all, John Cena is a Superhero who could beat anyone. That's why you have John Cena get injured during a meaningless tag team match the week before the championship fight. Now he has a bad shoulder. Oh no! And the heel doesn't care that Cena has a bad shoulder. In fact, the heel just keeps working that shoulder over and over and over until Cena may as well be fighting the guy one handed. But that's just it. When someone says "I could beat you with one arm tied behind my back," well, that's a claim that means more when you back it up. The crowd will root for Cena to defeat his foe in a weakened state (at least, the 10 and unders will). Find a way to weaken your party so that the obstacle they're facing isn't just an enemy. Curses. Exhaustion. Difficult Terrain. Anti-magic fields. Make them run a gauntlet (in WWE a gauntlet match is basically one guy vs. a series of tough opponents as part of one fight) by forcing them to experience more encounters in a day than Kobold Fight Club might deem reasonable or fair. You think Vince McMahon cares about what's fair? (spoiler: he does not). He cares about what sells. And desperation sells. If your party feels overmatched, outgunned, outnumbered, and out of spell slots, it'll be all the more impressive when they come out on top. And if they don't...you do not have to kill them to "maintain realism." There are fates worth than death. You can just have one of your heels take everything they care about. Kick them while they are down. Rob them of their pride, their freedom, their dignity...their precious gold and preciouser magical items. The struggle to get it all back will mean that much more. Good Gimmicks = Great Weaknesses The best gimmicks often come with something another wrestler could theoretically exploit for leverage. Macho Man Randy Savage didn't just love Slim Jims. He had a valet named Miss Elizabeth. They got married! It was amazing! While the Macho Man's gimmick wasn't necessarily "guy in love," (his gimmick was "guy on cocaine") but his devotion to Miss Elizabeth was definitely a big part of his character. That's a gimmick. And therefore a weakness. So what did Jake "the Snake" Roberts give the happy couple as a wedding gift? That's right: a cobra. (Note: It was not on their registry.) Speaking of Jake "the Snake"—he had a number of snakes over the course of his tenure as a pro wrestler. The snake that was first introduced as part of this gimmick was named Damien. A guy who carries a snake in a bag into the ring with him is a great gimmick. But again, creates a great weakness. That's why Earthquake (a guy whose gimmick was that he was so obese he could shake the very earth just by sitting down) squashed Damien by sitting on him in the middle of a match. Twice! Earthquake later fed the remains of Damien to Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes. THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF PRO WRESTLING. If your party is facing a great heel with a great gimmick, that character's weaknesses may be self evident. In Undertaker's case, for a while there his power allegedly came from something called "the Urn." Whomever controlled the Urn controlled the Deadman. The parallels to D&D tropes should be pretty clear there. "Monster X is unstoppable...but it's possible if we get our hands on Artifact 3, we can bring the monster under our control." Giving your NPCs a weakness or two for your party to exploit is not taking it easy on them. In fact, it allows you to refocus your encounters on problem solving rather than just on combat. This is a great fix for DMs in the mid-to-late tier of the game when your party is effectively impervious to any threats. They aren't just fighting a villain—they are fighting a villain by solving a puzzle. Stick it to the Smarts In pro-wrestling parlance, there are "Marks" and there are "Smarts" (there are also "Smart Marks" or "Smarks"). Marks are people who believe everything they see related to pro wrestling is real/unscripted. Smarts are the opposite, and understand that pro wrestling is a business/form of entertainment with a specific audience (Smarks are Marks who believe wrestling is fake but love it in spite of (and sometimes because of) this fact). Vince McMahon is not in the business of giving a shit what the Smarts think or think they know about what's happening backstage. The only time he cares is when so many Smarts think something is true that he can use their belief to his advantage (see: the evolution of Vince McMahon, friendly ring announcer to Mr. McMahon, arguably the greatest heel in pro wrestling history). In D&D, metagamers are Smarts. The players who have read the Monster Manual (and the various supplementary titles) cover to cover and know every detail about every creature you could possibly throw their way, who are the first to say "they can't do that" when your NPC uses Dimension Door to move 500 feet instead of the published 400, who say things like "How can that creature deal 48 damage if we are Level 4? That's beyond our challenge rating!"—those are Smarts. Smarts think D&D has rules—rules they can memorize and use against you at the table. You are absolutely welcome to agree with them, but that's not DMing like Vince McMahon. If you want to DM like Vince, the only rule of D&D is you're the DM and whatever you say happened is what happened. Period. If you say it exists, it exists. Your players might ask "Why? How? Who?"—and you can flash the grin that accompanies ultimate power and say "Because I said so." That's admittedly extreme, but so is the Smart's position ("This book I read before the session said X, Y or Z...so you're wrong" or worse "That's not how I do it in my game"). If you're feeling equitable, and want to split the difference (something Vince would never do, except for when he agreed to the Daniel Bryan push, but, I digress) meet in the middle and use what a Smart thinks they know against them. As an example: Smarts know a creature only has 3 Legendary Resistances, and will strategize around this fact, holding onto a killer 7th-level spell for after that moment when the dragon uses its LR a third time. Well guess what, sucker—this ancient being has EIGHT Legendary Resistances, one for each of the centuries its been alive. Reveal this intel and watch them get sick to their stomachs. This isn't being petty (though it certainly can be)—it's good storytelling. You have to keep people guessing. And if your players think they know everything about how your world works because they read an outside source, and you know this, you can flip their expectations back on them. Example: Expectation: The Monster Manual says hags only hang out in covens of three. Reality: This coven formed a stable (see above) with two other hag covens, they call themselves The Triumvirate, and you just killed 3 of their sisters. The other six are on their way back to the nest. Whoopsie! Who's smart now? The Art of the Swerve Similar to using what your players know against them as a way of subverting/exceeding expectations, a swerve is a pro-wrestling term that basically means "doing something other than what the audience is planning to see," and typically involves storyline. As the Monday Night Wars drew to a close, Vince McMahon sent his son Shane to sign the paperwork and purchase WCW as part of a cross brand takeover. Shane signs the paperwork (expected) but uses his OWN NAME (swerve!), effectively becoming the owner of a rival company overnight, and kicking off the "INVASION" storyline and like, 2 years of WWE content. When CM Punk was dealing with contract negotiations, it was a forgone conclusion he would lose his championship bout with John Cena, as there was simply no way Vince would let someone like Punk win a championship, let alone against John Cena, to say nothing of the fact that Punk had cut a promo in the weeks prior that dunked on the entire concept of being a company guy. And yet—swerve—he walked out of Chicago and (at least in storyline) the company as WWE Champion. Swerves happen in fantasy/sci-fi as well. Two notable examples both feature in spoiler-filled Game of Thrones recaps, and involve things that can/can't happen to supposed main characters' heads and what should/should not take place at colorful weddings. Those moments took the characters by surprise because they subverted the rules of the world (in so much as they proved rules only apply to those who believe in them) and they took the audience by surprise because they used our expectations against us. ("Sean Bean can't die! He never dies in anything!") You can swerve your players by thinking through what their expectations for an encounter will be, then do the opposite. Or something to the left or right of what might have been promised. Or do something that isn't even in the same universe of what you'd originally presented. Example: "Let's go visit the king and convince him to help the people of this fair city, who have been ignored by their leader for too long!"Expectation: There will be an encounter in the castle overlooking the citySwerve: There is no castle—it's a major illusion. You can start with the swerve, then come up with the reasoning for it. You don't need to swerve just for the sake of shaking things up (although that's exactly what Vince would do), but you should recognize the swerve as a tool in your arsenal, and one that will help take your stories to another level simply by forcing you to think of the unexpected thing. Always Build to the (Next) Pay Per View This rule is more complicated now that WWE Network has sort of killed the idea of the PPV, but here's the gist: Each month there's a major event. That's where you want numerous storylines to coalesce— for the babyfaces to triumph and the heels to get their comeuppance. This is a hard and fast rule: If the world wants nothing more than to see somebody punch Ric Flair in the mouth, do not—under any circumstances—let someone punch Ric Flair in the mouth unless they've paid for it. This is why championships rarely change hands on episodes of Raw or SmackDown—you want to build anticipation for a title change, rather than just allow it to happen without any buildup. That's how you make money off a PPV. The more the heel needs to get punched, the more the heel should find ways to weasel out of it. For a defending champion, examples include: -faking an injury to delay a match-no showing-refusing to fight unless ridiculous conditions are agreed to-getting themselves intentionally disqualified so the title won't change hands-getting themselves intentionally disqualified a different way so the title won't change hands-no showing again-faking another injury This can take many forms in D&D. If the party wants to kill the evil princess, have them fight their way through a cavalcade of creatures and sneak through the sewers only to discover that (gasp!) the princess is in another castle. That castle is guarded by an anti-magic field and a bunch of buff tortles. So the party waits to try and catch the princess when she's at the Summer Tournament. But then the princess's courier shows up and explains the Summer Tournament has been cancelled. So the party convinces the realm's council to host a Fall Tournament. The party is pleased...they lie in wait. But the courier arrives at the Tournament in her place, with a note that says "ha, ha, ha. My castle is live-scrying the Tournament so I don't need to be there in person. Toodles." This will frustrate your party. The courier says "Milady has invited you to dinner at her castle." The party is skeptical, but they attend. The princess poisons their food...but the party was expecting poison so they're fine...but they don't know the princess is a simulacrum of the real deal, and when they slay her she turns to melted snow, and her dying words are "I'm sorry, but the princess is...in...another......castle-arrrrrggh." By keeping your party's favorite foe just out of reach for a few sessions/encounters, you delay the gratification and help ensure that when they actually do get to land that killing blow, they've fought/sweat/died to earn it. Blow Off to Something Bigger When your party thinks they are at the end of their face off with a foe, don't be afraid to turn a Survivor Series showdown into a Wrestlemania-worthy main event. This is what I mean by "Build to the (Next) Pay Per View." You don't just want to delay the payoff/gratification as part of your build—you want to spin a partial pay off into something biggebettemore exciting. In pro wrestling, this can take several forms, but the most common is "If you beat me at event X, you'll win a title shot at event Y," or the heel is forced into a contract signing to defend the title and it's a no DQ match so they can't weasel out of the defense this time, or the babyface finally (finally!) wins the title...but the moment the belt is in their hands after an utterly exhausting match, a new contender comes out of nowhere and challenges them to a title match, and the new champ loses before they can get to their feet. This starts a new program between your hero and a new challenger. Generally, the last match in a program between two wrestlers is called a "blow off"—it's the match that ends one story for a wrestler so they can start a program with another one. Due to D&D's de facto episodic structure, you can create a blowoff in your campaign simply by introducing a new shiny object for your party to chase once they've finally accomplished a longterm goal. The best blow-offs don't bookend a story—they start a new chapter, utilizing elements/moments/sleights/intel from the previous pages. Once your party conquers the princess, they find out her courier is the one who's been pulling the strings all along, and he's kept the party busy long enough for his plans to finally come to fruition. Or the dragon hoard features evidence of a conspiracy involving the disappearance of your party's favorite NPC...and it points directly at your party's paladin's dad! Or the kindly treasure hunter who fearlessly led the party to the heart of the dungeon makes off with the loot while they're battling the creatures that guard it. Finding ways to blow off into something bigger for your party will drive your narrative forward while keeping it rooted in the present moment. Your party's passions will be influenced as much by what you're telling them as what you're keeping from them. They'll be so motivated to chase the things that are important to them that they won't even notice how neatly it all connects behind the screen. Know When to Humble Yourself Yes, you're Vince McMahon—the walking, talking, mugging millionaire megalomaniac who runs D&D sessions with the confidence of a guy who has all the power. But even Vince knows when it's time to be sprayed with beer, or smacked in the face with a bedpan, or even have his head shaved by a future president. If you rule your table like Vince would, you're going to frustrate your players. This is totally fine, provided you know when to allow them to release that tension on your creation. You aren't trying to beat them—you're trying to entertain them. Sometimes that means letting them have the W, especially when they've earned it. There are dozens more examples but I feel I've gone on longer than Shawn Michaels v. Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII. So instead, I'll leave it here and leave the floor open for those of you who know more about DMing and D&D than I do pro wrestling to add your thoughts on the above. And if you end up using any of the strategies above in your future sessions, give me a hell yeah.
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