Through the eyes of a madman

17 in a nutshell

This is pretty much going to be a notebook of how I see the format and how I feel it is played along with how to 'succeed' in it. Now I'm hardly experienced in this format, fluking day 2 with a crappy Mudsdale team and freezing everyone gave very little insight for me so I've had to sit on PS and figure it out there instead (PS lol I know) Whilst I'm not 16 levels of confident yet, I feel I've improved slowly since London and hope to continue. This is literally just a notebook of opinions, nothing is fact or false, take it and interpret it how you wish :]

So if anyone's ever spoken to me this year about the format I'll probably of told you it's rubbish and that 16 is better. In truth that's just because this metagame isn't established yet and is changing literally every day so it's hard to keep up whereas 16 had a 'big 6' fairly early making it easier to build.

I also tend to avoid serious talk and prefer using shitmons. But its serious time now (with some shitmons thrown in of course) 

London day 1-2 differences.

Now I say a lot that day 1 and 2 were completely different metagames. This was the case at worlds and London so I expect it to be the case in every instance of day 2.

Day 1 of London had some defensive teams but I played mostly more offensively based teams, this was fine as I also had an offensive team with Porygon 2 as a literally backbone. This made it through day 1. When day 2 rolled on, EVERYTHING I played was soooo defensive and fat. I had to accept I didn't have the firepower to break through and resorted to Toxic stalling. To a degree this worked but the team was incredibly out of place and didn't last long. P2 as a backbone was effectively snapped in 4 pieces never to be seen again.

Post London this started a trend of defensive teams dominating all over the ladder and many (myself almost included) deciding that offense was doomed and to join the bulk train and Toxic everything out. For myself this lasted about 30 seconds because defensive play honestly bores me and I live for ludicrous calcs and massive damage. And what do you know, at the time of writing (early January) offense is back on the rise and we have some sort of balance between the forces. And then there's balance as an archetype on its own which is a bit lost right now. 

Notice the terms 'Defensive, Offense, Balance' These are all typically singles terminology and I'm using them because I honestly think this format has the same feel as OU in gen 6. It's probably flowchartable (hello vgc16) in how certain team styles struggle against others. I guess I should define the archetypes before I actually say anything :v

Defensive: 

These teams focus on being unbelievably fat and have switch ins to most common attacks, they slowly wittle you down with weaker attacks or status. They typically have one 'nuke' Pokemon like Tapu Lele to bust through threats to the team.

They commonly feature:

Celesteela,Gastrodon,Arcanine,Milotic,Marowak,Garchomp,Any Tapu.

From experience against these teams. Strong yet underappreciated  Pokemon, like Nihilego and a supporting partner can blow through these teams with relative ease. They can win through strong play of course but its more of a struggle. Underappreciated Pokemon being able to beat certain archetypes handily shows hope for the format for more obscure Pokemon to come out and take the spotlight, similar to Vikavolt coming out at the moment. These teams also tend to fall to pieces when a key member is KO'd. So aim to KO early if you want to win quickly. Pro tip: Aim for the Fire type.

An example would be something simple yet hard to accomplish like koing Marowak so your Koko can freely fire off Thunderbolts. Naturally your opponent isn't going to let that happen and it opens up doors of possibilitys. If you should lose your Koko then Marowak isn't going to be as important to KO and your focus should shift to something else, IE Celesteela/Milotic. Marowak will still be a threat, but its no longer hindering your team as much as it was earlier on.

Balance/Offense:

I'm pairing these together since its hard to distinguish between them. Balance isn't just Offense with a Toxic Gastrodon and a Celesteela thrown on. It's hard to explain but you'll know one when you see them. I guess it could be described as a team that doesn't focus on either Offense or Defense massively but has features from both. These teams are naturally harder to just beat but often tend to be weak to stronger teams that blow the backbone away. Rain and Kartana/Scarf Lele can beat down on most teams in this category so watch out! (I like these teams too much to let them be beat by rain)

A good way to approach these is to beat them at their own game. Be more offensive than the defensive ones and outlive the more offensive ones. Since they lack the same overall offense and defense of other archetypes it can be hard for them to keep up.

They commonly feature Pokemon from both Hyper offense and Defensive styles such as:

Kartana,Gastrodon,Garchomp,Tapu's, Arcanine, (literally any Pokemon)

Hyper Offense:

A team with an average defense stat of 70 and an average attack of 130+ these hit harder than you'd like. They don't seem to care about switch ins and will often sac a mon to get a free switch into another hard hitter. Endgames are important for them, often trying to win with Lele or Kartana when a team is weakened. Fortunately these teams are easy to pin down if you can make a member a sitting duck and make it incredibly hard to switch out. A very similar mentality to 16 is applied when I face these. Timing KO's as to not get swept up by the monster's hiding in the back.Harder Trick room teams also fall under this archetype relying entirely on strong mons outspeeding and finishing the game as quickly as possible. Status effects, especially burn can really hinder these teams. Also, an early KO on a huge threat can leave the whole team unable to answer certain Pokemon. IE: Koing Kartana T1 and having Gastrodon. 

Commonly featured Pokemon: 

Kartana/All Tapu's, Aerodactyl,Tapu Koko,Slow Trick room reliant Pokemon such as Drampa and Torkoal.

All in all, I'm probably full of crap and just rambled nonsense, but I think the key to success in this format is identifying just what archetype your opponent has/is likely to have and adapting game to game. Obvious sounding I know but if you actually think about it, it makes a bit of sense? 

It's hard to adjust from 16 where you archetypes were based on uber pairings like Xdon,Xray,Ydon etc. You actually have to work out whats going on on preview again and I like this. It makes things harder certainly but this is a good thing.

Similar to 16 however, I think its important to find what you're good with and stick with it all year unless something drastic happens in the metagame to prevent you. Personally, I'll be sticking to Balance with a bias towards Offense because I enjoy my silly calcs and don't like games going on too long. More likely to get myself haxed and not my opponent that way!

I dont think there's a right or wrong way to approach archetypes in this format, Literally choose whatever you feel suits you best and roll with it. 

-Matt

Obligatory shitmon you really shouldnt use!