Hello there, everyone! Today I (Light, if you don't know me) am here to discuss a strategy that is so incredibly rare that many people have probably gone their entire Pokemon careers without even so much as hearing of it, much less seeing someone use it. The technique that I am here to discuss with all of you is something which I dub “SpeedShuffling.”
Put (very) simply, SpeedShuffling relies on one key concept: The moves Whirlwind and Roar are two moves that essentially “force” the opponent to switch Pokemon. What this means is that if they had normal priority they would very easily dominate slow teams, as switching would end the opponent's turn. You with me so far? Now then, the negative priority of both of these moves is simply ignored and treated as +0 when the move is selected by Sleep Talk. If you realize what this means then I can post the whole solution of the puzzle: By using Roar/Whirlwind in tandem with Sleep Talk on a fast Pokemon then it is very possible for the enemy to simply NOT be able to do anything for a turn. Well, not nothing, actually. They will be taking your (well placed) entry hazard damage. This can be potentially devastating to any enemy team, as even with Stealth Rock alone some Pokemon take 25% on switch in and if you add in Spikes or Toxic Spikes you really will have your bases covered, as they say.
My goal with this topic is as follows: Share this battle style option with the community, discuss the optimal ways to use this specific strategy and last, but not least, introduce to you folks an example set or two that I've been thinking about recently. So please, tell me what you think about the strategy and (if you want!) the set which I will post. The set is here merely for the sake of discussion, though if you find it viable you may use it as well!
“Lyn”
Latias @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
240 HP / 76 Def / 18 Sp. Def / 176 Speed
Roar
Rest
Sleep Talk
Reflect / Dragon Pulse / Mist Ball
There's the example set. Look scary? It should be. The premise is so amazingly simple and yet it is so fearsome. Latias has natural resistances to SO MANY diverse types in Pokemon. Shall we list them off? Fire, Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Electric, Psychic. It resists 7 out of the 17 in the game (with an immunity to one of those) making it a very easy switch in on MANY Pokemon. So you're in, now what? Depending on what you switched into they might choose to flee. You then think ahead and use Roar. Boom, you scouted their Pokemon, it took entry damage and they're back at a Pokemon that does NOT want to fight Latias. But what if it has to use an attack? You hit them back with your own attack. Upon taking a powerful hit they're clearly going to flee. So what do you do? Naturally, you roar again. Boom, more entry hazard damage and Lyn (this set's name!) is as healthy as ever. But if you do happen to take a status or lose a lot of HP (you have 80/90/130 defenses, so you're not exactly frail) you simply Rest. The enemy, realizing that he needs to act fast, goes to his prize Pokemon, the one meant to get rid of you. Unfortunately for him, it probably will NOT work out as well as he hopes. You Sleep Talk on the switch, if you Roar that's fantastic but if you Mist Ball or Rest, you get another chance since you outspeed all Poke up to Jolly 100 Base +1 (if you attack them that's still not bad!)! And these chances are all in your favor! And if the going gets tough? Well then you flee to your other Pokemon to handle their counter. You have 5 teammates, use them!
That's really it. But don't stop at Latias, there are SO many Pokemon that you can pull this off with! Raikou, Jolteon, Entei, Ninetales, Zapdos, Tauros, Miltank! All they need to function well is proper EV usage, good entry hazard placement and YOUR brainpower.
So that's SpeedShuffling. I trust that you all will try it out if you have not already and please try to discuss this tactic and your success with it in this topic!
Light's out!
Footnote 1: Erodent brought up a very good point about Assist Shuffling being used in a quite similar fashion to Speed Shuffling. This doesn't work on ShoddyBattle but it works on WiFi and will hopefully work in Shoddy Battle 2. Cheack it out here : http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2126845&postcount=8
Put (very) simply, SpeedShuffling relies on one key concept: The moves Whirlwind and Roar are two moves that essentially “force” the opponent to switch Pokemon. What this means is that if they had normal priority they would very easily dominate slow teams, as switching would end the opponent's turn. You with me so far? Now then, the negative priority of both of these moves is simply ignored and treated as +0 when the move is selected by Sleep Talk. If you realize what this means then I can post the whole solution of the puzzle: By using Roar/Whirlwind in tandem with Sleep Talk on a fast Pokemon then it is very possible for the enemy to simply NOT be able to do anything for a turn. Well, not nothing, actually. They will be taking your (well placed) entry hazard damage. This can be potentially devastating to any enemy team, as even with Stealth Rock alone some Pokemon take 25% on switch in and if you add in Spikes or Toxic Spikes you really will have your bases covered, as they say.
My goal with this topic is as follows: Share this battle style option with the community, discuss the optimal ways to use this specific strategy and last, but not least, introduce to you folks an example set or two that I've been thinking about recently. So please, tell me what you think about the strategy and (if you want!) the set which I will post. The set is here merely for the sake of discussion, though if you find it viable you may use it as well!
“Lyn”
Latias @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
Timid Nature
240 HP / 76 Def / 18 Sp. Def / 176 Speed
Roar
Rest
Sleep Talk
Reflect / Dragon Pulse / Mist Ball
There's the example set. Look scary? It should be. The premise is so amazingly simple and yet it is so fearsome. Latias has natural resistances to SO MANY diverse types in Pokemon. Shall we list them off? Fire, Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Electric, Psychic. It resists 7 out of the 17 in the game (with an immunity to one of those) making it a very easy switch in on MANY Pokemon. So you're in, now what? Depending on what you switched into they might choose to flee. You then think ahead and use Roar. Boom, you scouted their Pokemon, it took entry damage and they're back at a Pokemon that does NOT want to fight Latias. But what if it has to use an attack? You hit them back with your own attack. Upon taking a powerful hit they're clearly going to flee. So what do you do? Naturally, you roar again. Boom, more entry hazard damage and Lyn (this set's name!) is as healthy as ever. But if you do happen to take a status or lose a lot of HP (you have 80/90/130 defenses, so you're not exactly frail) you simply Rest. The enemy, realizing that he needs to act fast, goes to his prize Pokemon, the one meant to get rid of you. Unfortunately for him, it probably will NOT work out as well as he hopes. You Sleep Talk on the switch, if you Roar that's fantastic but if you Mist Ball or Rest, you get another chance since you outspeed all Poke up to Jolly 100 Base +1 (if you attack them that's still not bad!)! And these chances are all in your favor! And if the going gets tough? Well then you flee to your other Pokemon to handle their counter. You have 5 teammates, use them!
That's really it. But don't stop at Latias, there are SO many Pokemon that you can pull this off with! Raikou, Jolteon, Entei, Ninetales, Zapdos, Tauros, Miltank! All they need to function well is proper EV usage, good entry hazard placement and YOUR brainpower.
So that's SpeedShuffling. I trust that you all will try it out if you have not already and please try to discuss this tactic and your success with it in this topic!
Light's out!
Footnote 1: Erodent brought up a very good point about Assist Shuffling being used in a quite similar fashion to Speed Shuffling. This doesn't work on ShoddyBattle but it works on WiFi and will hopefully work in Shoddy Battle 2. Cheack it out here : http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2126845&postcount=8