Pokémon Sword & Shield - Web Counter - Dec 22 19 D
28As this is the session's last battle, I should bring up the Copperajah in the room: Smogon has banned Dynamax in their Pokémon Showdown battles, at least for single-battling OU. (So far, the other modes still allow Dynamax, such as doubles, VGCs, unranked, and UU and below.) Some of you are curious as to my thoughts on this, and as you can see, I will continue to use Dynamax. Here are the reasons why:
1. I play by VGCs and Wi-Fi Competition rules. I pick 3 Pokémon for single battles and 4 for double battles, I do not use duplicate hold items on a team, my Pokémon were EV-trained and IV-bred for Level 50 battling, I only use moves that can be legimitately obtained in Sword/Shield, and, of course, Dynamax and Gigantamax are allowed in them, so I'll use them too. More specifically, I don't use any Gigantamax Pokémon that are banned in VGCs and Wi-Fi Competitions at the time. My teams were built using these rules in mind. (I no longer use Mythical Pokémon, for instance, like Jirachi or Phione, because official rules don't allow them.)
2. I expect my opponents to use Dynamax and Gigantamax; up to this point, all of them except one has done so (and the one, he told me later, was because he forgot to do so).
3. The main argument against Dynamax on Smogon is that it's too unpredictable and rewards toward short-term improvisation instead of long-term planning. Doesn't bother me because I've always played my Pokémon battles like this, and I like when battles remain unpredictable. I pick the Pokémon to bring into the match, and I make the best of the circumstances given to me at that moment. None of the teams I have ever built is designed for a long build-up; they are designed to get the immediate threat out of the way. Admittedly, that's probably because doing this works very well under the pick-3/pick-4 system. I think this is more of a Chaos vs. Order kind of schism, where my Pokémon battling style is thoroughly on the Chaotic side.
That being said, I respect anyone who chooses to play by Smogon rules while sticking to Pokémon Showdown. If you do, it simply means you value different things when playing a Pokémon battle than I do. You don't have to respect the way I'm playing, just that you don't consider it wrong, as I base my play on the official rules.
Opponent: No.アェテ (No. Eighty) (807)
Stadium: Wyndon Stadium
Music: Hop v.2
My Pokémon: Haxorus, Galvantula, Aromatisse
Opponent's Pokémon: Galvantula, Indeedee, Crawdaunt
This was another eccentric Japanese team, which are some of my favorite teams to fight. Actually my favorite ones of all are the ones loaded with box Legendaries, because I love toppling them more so than any other ones--but, at least for the time being, all we have are Zacian, Zamazenta, and one certain spoiler Pokémon, but none of them are allowed here. Rumor has it that the Generation V Legendaries, as well as Mewtwo, will be transferable using Pokémon Home, however, so perhaps we'll see more of these teams like I used to see on Pokémon Battle Revolution (as well as Free Battles on all subsequent generations until now).
My opponent's team has a multi-Pokémon strategy, which, honestly, is a pretty risky thing in a single battle. It centers around Galvantula casting Sticky Web and Indeedee setting Psychic Terrain. Sticky Web causes a 1-stage Speed reduction to all Pokémon switched in unless cleared out (it's an entry hazard like Stealth Rock and Spikes), and Psychic Terrain causes both a 30% boost in Psychic-type damage and, more relevant to my opponent's strategy, prevents all priority moves from activating, including those boosted with Prankster. (Because of how powerful Psychic Terrain is, Indeedee is the premier Psychic-type on VGCs at the moment. Also the premier Normal-type.) The rest of the team mainly consist of Pokémon with mediocre-to-okay Speed; Galvantula and Indeedee are likely there to ensure they go first.
This all came crashing down on my opponent pretty hard when Aromatisse showed up though. Even I couldn't believe how perfect Aromatisse was for the job, effectively judo-ing my opponent's Speed-reduction strategy back at them. The Dynamax for Aromatisse was to make sure the job was finished; Crawdaunt has all sorts of weird tricks (I would know; I used a Crawdaunt in Generation IV before it got all these improvements), and I wanted to make sure I could get rid of that mudbug cleanly and decisively. Crawdaunt is actually a fairly common sight in the Japanese metagame, not unlike Glaceon, at least more so than outside of Japan.
One possibility is that this was supposed to be a double battle team, as this strategy works better in a doubles environment. If this is true, then this battle highlights the world of difference between single battle strategization and double battle strategization. It's why I always use separate teams between them (and in Generations V and VI, I even had teams solely for triple battles and solely for rotation battles).
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