DoubleJ

Sorry something went wrong with formatting above, but in summary, you're right there is no truly safe switch in on Scizor aside from Slowking. If Slowking is banned then Scizor absolutely has to go. In the meantime, players have the ability to prevent Scizor from ever being a major factor simply by recognizing what is and isn't set-up bait, and how you can prevent yourself from becoming set-up bait. Spikes prevents consistent switch ins. Using Flamethrower/Hidden Power Fire on some pokes previously thought of as set-up bait would catch Scizor off-guard or even discourage a scouting player from running it at all. My all-time favorite though is Roar Steelix. Throw down some spikes and Roar away. Only Superpower can touch you and even then, maybe you could predict that and hit him with STAB EQ while he's at -1 Defense. Just my thoughts. Hearing from other members of the community about potentially banning Scizor though may sway my opinion. There are definitely 0 solid counters outside of Slowking and it is becoming somewhat centralizing.

Nik seems to be the only competitive player that is willing to be vocal about banning Scizor. Is there anyone else with an argument to ban it as well? We seem to be doing circles with this one. [spoiler] "Run a fire move or two" "No, I shouldn't have to" "You probs should" "Like I said, no" "Ok" [/spoiler] Nik is correct in saying that there aren't really any counters to Scizor aside from Slowking. Slowking can beat Scizor without running Flamethrower, so I'm not sure where that came from exactly, but it does provide a OHKO should a Scizor decide to get gutsy and stay in predicting a pivot switch. The only unfortunate part about this is that Scizor may decide to drop STAB Steel Wing for Double-Edge or Return to put a beating on Slowking without Flamethrower. If this is the case though, Ghosts can switch in every time (SD, DE, Super, Morning Sun). Because hey, I guess we should be using them despite all the Pursuit trappers in the game. 0 SpA Slowking Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0+ SpD Scizor: 156-188 (88.1 - 106.2%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO I'm not sure what types of Scizor's are commonly used today. Nik discussed a physically bulky Scizor that can live a Fire Punch from some unbanded pokes that seemed pretty legit. Unfortunately Scizor would fail to OHKO those pokemon without +2 Superpower. 252 Atk Scizor Superpower vs. 212 HP / 0 Def Kangaskhan: 166-196 (80.1 - 94.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 252 Atk Scizor Superpower vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Miltank: 132-156 (65.3 - 77.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery Zangoose though is toast. 252 Atk Scizor Superpower vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Zangoose: 204-240 (137.8 - 162.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO So with this in mind, we have to look outside of the box with our competitive pokes. The only difficult part about this though is breeding, since a lot of those "outside of the box" pokemon would be carrying Hidden Power Fire. I'm thinking of pokemon like Bold 252/252+ Exeggutor with HP Fire. 0 SpA Exeggutor Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 0+ SpD Scizor: 140-168 (79 - 94.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Or even simply running Flamethrower on Clefable, which I've mentioned before. This also has the added benefit of hitting Steelix, a pokemon with no recovery that swaps in to prevent toxic spam. 0 SpA Clefable Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0+ SpD Scizor: 136-164 (76.8 - 92.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO 0 SpA Clefable Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Steelix: 60-72 (32.9 - 39.5%) -- 16% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

Going to be one fun month. Let's see where the tier goes with this.

Never will I ever play a teammate on shitty airport WiFi again.

He has an Invite and a Reserve.

JSTUD and KingBowser earned themselves some invites to the Sping Championship. The rest of us are slacking. Time to get our top tier players in this thing. I want to see a Shiny Metagross in team by the end of Summer.

So... like less than 24 hours meow.

LAL gonna roll out a starting line-up of... Rajon Rondo Kobe Bryant Jimmy Butler Julius Randle Jahlil Okafor Leggo.

ouch.

IGN JSTUD

IGN KingBowser

IGN DoubleJ

IGN DoubleJ

Vegetaaaaaaaaaaaa

Manager sign ups tomorrow awww yea.

Oh ew.

Likely, although there is a plethora of players at that tier of wins. I'm sure you do but I can confirm with my spreadsheet if you're adamant about this.

=( It's saturday now.

Everything but that leafy green thing on the left

Whatever gets you off mate. I think I touched on limiting threads in Comp Alley last month and designing a method of regulating them. This just furthers the nonsense, but nevertheless Discussion threads do help newer players and interested players with ideas for team building, whether you like the uguu'ness of the actual discussion or not.

The benefits are just pouring into the community. Let it rain.

I WOKE UP IN A NEW BUGATTI! [spoiler] Art please, Old Valyria and Sunspear... Dragons and The Red Viper... Targaryans and Martells... [/spoiler]

needs more hype and hall of fame, welcome to the party though pinksy

Ok, so earlier I posted a thread asking to discuss Critical Hits in our metagame. The community was fairly anti, arguing that randomness in a game is beneficial to play. With this discussion though a topic kind of came to light that might help reduce the impact of RNG when we play. The following video sheds light on the benefits of RNG and how you can potentially lessen its impact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ZI9kMsvRQ credits LeTyrone. So with this in my mind, I am writing to suggest that a monthly official be established featuring a Round Robin format. The number of contestants should be determined by the mod's ability to ref such an event and sign-ups should be done accordingly. The winner is simply the individual with the highest win total and if there were any ties, then those ties would be decided by either duels or by another method. Would be amazing to watch and see the statistics afterward. For instance, KingBowser (4-0), Frags (3-1), jayfeatskydd (2-2), Orangemaniac (1-3), Gunthug (0-5). Would make for some serious trash talk. EDIT: Credit Coolio for catching that subtle touch

And this is why we have discussion threads like this. Without discussion better options for working around a problem that some people experience may never arise. I for one would be very excited about future Round Robin tournaments with say 8-16 competitors. The competition would be insane and the results would be great. So please, use discussion as it's meant to and don't bash an opinion simply because you don't agree with it. Too many of us have become hostile, spitting vitriol with any post we make just to point a finger and say "ha". Take a moment and try to work out a solution that benefits everyone. Be right back, posting in Event Suggestions.