Author: crawdaunt

Original Pranksters: Liepard, Tornadus, and friends in VGC 2016

Hey there Hat Lovers,

Today I’ll be talking a bit about some of the new kids on the block. VGC 2016 has a very different dynamic from previous formats in how important it is to control weather, and how important it is to prevent setup sweeps. This article will go over these Pokemon in detail and talk about a few gems that may be hiding in the rough (or are just bad… I dunno). Not all of these Pokemon actually have the Prankster ability, but they’re Pranksters in spirit. I’ll also talk a bit about how Pokemon like Thundurus can adapt to the new heavy-hitting format.

While I never played seriously until about 2014-on, I’ve been paying attention to the game since 2011, and so I’ve seen Pranksters succeed in every format since their introduction. Hopefully that experience will be good for something (like an article)! I’ll also include their usage stats from the Generation Showdown on 3ds.pokemon-gl.com.

Currently hyped Pokemon

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VGC 2016 Worlds Information Announced

Hey there Hat Lovers,

Pokemon.com just put up the 2016 Worlds information! I wrote about the new Play! Pokemon format and what we might expect a Worlds CP bar to be set at back when the new Championship Points structure was announced. Well, we now know that bar, and holy moly is it low. Way lower than I expected, even granting the possibility that they’d lower it significantly. The 2016 World Championships CP bar for the Masters division is 350 CP. Given how accessible CP are now, with the introduction of Midseason Showdowns, and an increase in the CP payout, it’s incredible that they’ve lowered the bar this much. I’ll be talking about the US and Canada for the rest of the article, but the details for other regions can be found in that Pokemon.com link.

What does this mean for the players? (more…)

VGC 2016: A look at what’s in the format

This article is literally just a collection of images from Bulbapedia to better visualize Pokemon that have been added to the format. If you’re like me, you’re not at all used to using Legendaries, and you have little idea of what some of their competitive niches are (especially for Doubles). So hopefully this wall of sprites can help you team-build by reminding you what is in the format, and what you’ll have to watch out for. The idea for this post comes from our VGC cube draft deck.

For some great insight into these new legendaries check out this Pokemon.com post announcing the new ruleset, and going over some of the strengths and weaknesses of these legendaries.

This post will be a work in progress and I’ll update this randomly whenever I’m team-building and trying to prepare for changes in the format. I’ll be adding relevant Mega evolutions and top Pokemon as they’re brought up in conversation. With these legendaries roaming about, I’d imagine some viable Pokemon will be hoisted into the limelight as great checks/counters to the centralizing power of the new legendary-based teams.

New legendaries

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New Championship Points Structure – The Very Best

Hey there Hat Lovers,

TPCi has announced the new Championship Points structure for the Video Game Championships circuit this year! There was a big discussion amongst the players on nuggetbridge.com, and TPCi listened and took their suggestions to heart. Here are some thoughts on all of the changes coming from someone who played the TCG, where the equivalent of Premier Challenges (Cities), Midseason Showdowns (States), Regionals and Nationals were part of the yearly circuit.

  • What does the circuit look like?
  • How important will these different tiers of tournaments be?
  • What issues did we have last year, and have they been fixed?

The major changes to expect this season are less pressure to fill your Premier Challenge best finish limit (BFL) , and less pressure to attend/place at 3 Regional Championships. Why do I say this? Well…

p.s. I apoligize for the rambliness of this post. To aid with digestion, I’ve made bullet point lists at the start of each section to offer a “tl;dr” version of the article for those that just want to skim.

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