Unova Classic (Battle Spot)

[EmpoleonProd]

So they already announced the next tournament, that was fast. It's called the Unova Classic and boy it's gonna be with triple battles, people! I've never done triple battles in my life so now I have to learn an entirely new meta and make a team for it.

Region: International
Registration Period: August 18th 2016 - August 25th 2016
Battle Period: August 26th 2016 - August 28th 2016
Battle Type: Triple Battles (six Pokemon)
Battle Limits: 15 per day
Pokémon Restrictions: National Pokédex #001-#649
Item Restrictions: Mega Stones and Soul Dew not allowed.
Banned Pokémon: Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, and Genesect.
Entry Gift:
N's Darmanitan
Lv. 35
Ability: Zen Mode
Moves: Thrash, Belly Drum, Flare Blitz, Hammer Arm

More info here: Pokémon Global Link News-ポケモングローバルリンク インフォメーション

Anyone here have some useful experience in triple battles? I've never done triples except to get the Maison trophy thing, I heard a lot of doubles mons translate well over into triples but what other changes are there to the meta?

 

[Wispy Willow]

...I have no experience with competitive Triples before so I am afraid I can't help you there.

Though I am rather excited for this, since the majority of my VGC teams tend to be made up of Unova 'mons... Oh, and Trick Room FTW!

 

[sharkshocker]

All of my triples experience is from grinding at Restaraunt Le Wow so I'm not much help either :/ Some of the differences I've noticed are:
- you can shift positions within your team (from left/right to middle)
- positioning matters, in terms of who you can attack
- Flying-type moves can hit anyone on the map

Actually, the Bulbapedia entry on Triple Battles might give better info than I can I'll try to finish all my battles on this one so I can get a peek on how people play triples.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

Yeah I've been looking around on that page a lot. I think I've got a solid prototype team built up. Whether I have time to test it or not will be another thing, so I might just make it and roll with it, thankfully I'm pretty good at that... Making a team work well without testing it that is, I did that in the Johto Classic with a lot of success but that was in singles which is as simple as it gets, triple battling is a whole other beast.

 

[Soki]

Aw again also allowing the other regions, and not just Unova

Triples are fun though! With the last triple competition, I used a Sun team and it worked amazingly. I ended up being in the top 10 of my country Though then I used a M-Charizard Y for Drought and with Mega stones not allowed I'll either need to make some adjustments or I'll just make a different team this time. Maybe I'll do the same as with the Sinnoh one, and go with an all Unova team

I remember Talonflame being a huge pain back then, so I'm glad it isn't allowed this time heh. Though other Pokémon with Tailwind are still a thing to look out for, and again expecting a lot of rain teams.

It is a lot like Double Battles really, except that you now also have to think about the positioning of your team. Like Sharkshocker said; flying-type moves can hit everything, so it's best to put those on the sides, while in the middle it's best to have a mon with moves that hit all opponents (Heat Wave, Rock Slide, etc) so you hit all three foes at once. I didn't use the switching much, as it takes a turn, but sometimes it was useful to put a mon on the other side if the team if the adjacent opponent was a real danger to them. The opponent can just as easily switch his Pokémon to fix that though, so I just didn't bother with it much.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

I've decided I'm not going to bother breeding specific Pokemon for this tournament, I've been using existing Pokemon or modifying their movesets and so far it's been working, my testing has been mostly a success. I'm confident in this tournament, especially considering not too many people really have triples perfected, I feel like the tournament will have a pretty even playing field.