National Dex [NatDex AG] Liepard climbs the NDAG Meowntain (Peaked #1)

DaWoblefet

DaWoblefet

Demonstrably so
is a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Community Leaderis a Top Programmeris a Community Contributoris a Top Researcheris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnus
PS Admin
Hi! My name is DaWoblefet. I'm a Pokemon Showdown technical administrator, battle mechanics researcher, and avid VGC player. Recently, I've been laddering with a team built around calling the move Revival Blessing repeatedly via Assist Liepard, more commonly known in the community as "Revive Cats". Using only this strategy, I reached rank 1 on the [Gen 9] National Dex AG ladder.

1674858955164.png

Background
Back in Generation 6, when Anything Goes was introduced, the thought of using absolutely anything legal in-game made me giddy. If you were challenging your friend in-game, this is what you would use. What kind of strategies would dominate when there was no Species or Item Clause, no restrictions on Mythical Pokemon, and no Smogon play restrictions? The concept just fundamentally seemed so cool, and much more appealing to me than typical Ubers play. Of course, this opens the door for sinister strategies too! At the time, Swagger had received a ban from standard OU play, and Swagger Thunder Wave Thundurus was reasonably popular in VGC play, so I thought: why not try 5 SwagPlay Liepard and a Mega Rayquaza? Now, don't get me wrong: the team was pretty bad and had fundamental issues, but it was just so fun to see how far such a ridiculous strategy could go.

To my delight, I saw another Prankster Liepard strategy was becoming very popular - Assist calling Revival Blessing, circumventing its 1 PP restriction to allow multiple revives in a single game! I was already very amused that Revival Blessing could be called by other moves at all, so it seemed a natural fit as a succession to the Cats of old.

At the same time, I really do not like the concept of National Dex formats at a conceptual level. Instead of using the game as an objective source for mechanics, a group of players basically invents the behavior needed to account for mechanics interactions that couldn't possibly happen in any Pokemon game. That's not to say the National Dex team makes bad decisions or that I wouldn't prefer it if all Pokemon were available in modern generations; I'm just saying I hate how subjective it all is. Examples like Dynamaxed Pursuit vs Eject Pack + Intimidate or how much base power Z-Population Bomb should have just aren't questions that can be answered with any satisfaction. However, there are some cases where we do have objective ways of determining behavior. For example, Bitter Blade, despite healing the user, doesn't actually have the heal flag in its move data, so it's neither boosted by Triage nor (presumably) blocked by Heal Block. Assist is in a similar camp, where Revival Blessing is listed as a callable move, same as Flamethrower or Glaive Rush. It's quite frustrating to see complaints about how it's not "intended" to be this way, when the "intended" thing is to not have Assist be usable at all. So part of my motivation to ladder was also what happens when you push the boundaries of National Dex, and perhaps to ask, in effect, "is this really what you wanted?".

Teambuilding Process
My first strategy was trying to figure out if I could generate infinite loops with Revival Blessing and Lunar Dance, using Lunar Dance to restore Revival Blessing's PP and Revival Blessing to bring back the Lunar Dance Pokemon. However, I could never find a consistent setup. Assist can call both moves, so it comes down to RNG with what move you roll. Just running 5 Liepards with one Smeargle wasn't going to work either; if your strat could beat 1 Liepard, it could beat 5. I enlisted the help of Pigeons, who immediately recommended Ditto, but it still wasn't enough to deal with common metagame threats, like double Extreme Speed users. Together, we thought up using Trick with Choice Scarf on Indeedee-M and Smeargle. By Choice locking an Extreme Speed user, you could see if was going to go for Extreme Speed (and set up Psychic Terrain with Indeedee) or lock into a non-priority move and Revival Blessing through all their PP. In practice, though, this wasn't very consistent either. Strategies that don't work if the opponent just switches are, unsurprisingly, not very reliable.

:liepard: / :liepard: / :liepard: / :smeargle: / :indeedee: / :ditto:

In testing the team, though, a stroke of fortune occurred! I was paired up against Elo Bandit, who kindly pointed me to their excellent video on Revive Cats. I cannot stress enough how good this video is as a resource on the strategy. It comprehensively evaluates the strategy, its options, and its counterplay, while being clear and easy to follow for all skill levels. Thanks to Elo Bandit's content, I was able to make substantial improvements to my team and used it for the remaining stretch of the ladder.

The Team
:liepard: / :liepard: / :liepard: / :smeargle: / :giratina: / :ditto:
Importable

:sv/liepard:
Cat Numbah 1 (Liepard) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 168 HP / 132 Def / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Assist
- Thief
- Copycat
- Endure

Cat Numbah 2 (Liepard) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 168 HP / 132 Def / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Assist
- Thief
- Copycat
- Endure

Our first two cats hold Rocky Helmet, a way to generate chip damage from repeated attacks to make progress, and an important tool against Extreme Speed users. Assist can only ever call Revival Blessing, but it's not the only way to use the move. On turns where the opponent must switch and doesn't have any other priority options, Copycat can be used to follow up with a second Revival Blessing, copying the previously used Revival Blessing from Assist and saving PP. Copycat also importantly matches the hazards set up by the opponent. Taking 25% off of a Rayquaza or Chien-Pao is a big deal, and since the team has the ability to phaze with Giratina, it's possible to get more value out of hazards than the opponent. Endure combos well with Rocky Helmet, potentially racking up additional damage against Extreme Speed users especially, but also importantly gives Liepard more moves to work with when stalling out moves with a lot of PP, like Kyurem-Black's Icicle Spear. Thief is Liepard's strongest STAB move, providing nonzero chip damage that prevents players from simply doing nothing to try to reverse PP stall the cats, and also has utility in stealing potentially critical items from opponents after Knock Off, like Heavy-Duty Boots. Tera Ghost buys you a turn in a pinch vs Extreme Speed or Infernape's Mach Punch, ideally providing enough time to revive two partners and mount a comeback.

Liepard is EVed to outspeed Adamant Mega Rayquaza (as well as boosting nature base 100s). Running full Defense is an option too, but I like the extra Speed for the additional options it provides. For example, if I know Rayquaza is Adamant nature from prior damage on say, Giratina, I may be able to catch a Rayquaza attempting to Earthquake to avoid Rocky Helmet damage or Giratina's Pressure with a Thief for extra chip (especially if they've already dropped Defense from Dragon Ascent previously). You might think that never comes up, but it does surprisingly often. As another example, outspeeding Yveltal means I can do guaranteed Assist -> Copycat plays without worrying about a Sucker Punch interrupt, e.g. to Copycat Roost and survive a follow-up Oblivion Wing or to Assist -> Copycat to get 2 free revives. There's a bunch of bad sets on the NatDex AG ladder too that are just nice to be faster than. With the Speed in place, the remaining EVs were done to survive Jolly CB Marshadow's Shadow Sneak after rocks 15/16 of the time while minimizing hazard damage.

The most important thing max Defense does is survive some weaker Extreme Speed at 50%, like unboosted Mega Rayquaza or non-Ekiller Arceus, but hazards immediately remove any reliability of that calc working out, and Swords Dance or Dragon Dance also make those defensive calcs irrelevant. An alternate spread of 196 HP / 244 Def with an Impish Nature survives Adamant Mega Rayquaza's Extreme Speed at half health 100% of the time, but only reaches 265 Speed. Cutting back to just Jolly Mega Ray's Extreme Speed only requires switching Liepard to Jolly yourself, reaching 290 Speed. I think these are reasonable spreads too, but I really do prefer being able to get the jump on Adamant Rayquaza. Feel free to experiment!

:sv/liepard:
Cat Numbah 3 (Liepard) @ Bright Powder
Ability: Prankster
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 168 HP / 132 Def / 208 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Assist
- Thief
- Copycat
- Protect

Instead of triple Rocky Helmet, I opted for my third Liepard to hold Bright Powder. There are often situations where you are down several Pokemon and must cycle between two Liepard with Assist with nothing better to do than PP stall the opponent's moves. Statistically, your opponent is going to miss a move occasionally versus Bright Powder, and with so many opportunities, the extra turn Bright Powder provides can be key in reviving non-critical members of the team that will be useful to have later. Protect was chosen over Endure because there's no additional value from actually getting hit, and lets you avoid say, secondary effects like a Flamethrower burn.

:sv/smeargle:
Painted Cat (Smeargle) @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Moody
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Revival Blessing
- Transform
- Endure
- Baneful Bunker

Smeargle is the Revival Blessing Pokemon of choice, with superior support options to Pawmot or Rabsca. Like the cats, it holds Rocky Helmet with Endure for additional chip damage, in addition to the hard callout of Baneful Bunker to try to poison the target. Transform gives Smeargle a deadly punish if the opponent tries to set up on a defensive action, as well as being able to Transform into Pokemon like Dusk Mane Necrozma or defensive walls to waste their time with recovery options, set status conditions, or set hazards. Ghost Tera is still here for Extreme Speed immunity in niche situations, and Moody occasionally boosts one of your defensive stats and lets you live a hit that you shouldn't. Max Defense is used in case people think Smeargle is Scarf and try to Extreme Speed it, as well as live +1 Jolly Mega Rayquaza's Earthquake if Ray's trying to avoid Rocky Helmet damage.

:sv/giratina:
Demon Cat (Giratina) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Shadow Force
- Dragon Tail
- Roar
- Protect

I've talked a bunch about Extreme Speed so far, and that's because it's easily the most common check to Revive Cats, since +2 priority Extreme Speed moves before the +1 priority Prankster Assist. Giratina provides a very important check to the two most common Extreme Speed users: Mega Rayquaza and Ekiller Arceus. Pressure removes 2 Extreme Speed PP, which is significant because the Liepard core alone requires all 6 remaining PP. The threat of switching into Giratina may force a non-Extreme Speed plays, giving Liepard the opportunity to get off revives anyway. Having both Dragon Tail and Roar ensures that you can't just set up and smack Giratina either. Throwing a Dragon Ascent into Giratina means Dragon Tail deals massive damage back and forces Rayquaza low enough to be threatened by rocks or a few Rocky Helmet hits. Draco Meteor on mixed Rayquaza only KOs Giratina with Life Orb, which is the easiest to stall with Revive Cats. As for Arceus, if it runs Shadow Claw, it risks 50/50s with Smeargle being able to come in, Baneful Bunker, Transform, or switch back and reduce Extreme Speed PP by 2 more. With just Earthquake, Giratina is able to come in multiple times and phaze Arceus out. Phazing moves in general have value into teams with limited offense that attempt to hazard stack, turning their hazards against them with a fat Uber. Shadow Force and Protect are both primarily used to get extra Leftovers recovery and let Pressure do its thing. Tera Steel lets Giratina survive an emergency Draco Meteor or Dragon Ascent in a pinch, as well as remove the weaknesses to Chien-Pao for a Dragon Tail.

:sv/ditto:
Can Become Cat (Ditto) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Imposter
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Transform

Ditto provides familiar and important roles that any player familiar with competitive Pokemon will recognize. As a revenge killer, it prevents the opponent from simply setting up to sweep without a second thought, and into fatter matchups, the infinite PP from switching in and out repeatedly gives the team the longevity it needs. Tera Ghost once again provides immunity to Extreme Speed, which is one of Scarf Ditto's main weaknesses.

Using the Team
I will once again recommend Elo Bandit's excellent video on Revive Cats. Here's my general gameplan. At Team Preview, you want to identify some important Pokemon:
  • Pokemon with priority faster than Liepard (ESpeed users, and Chien-Pao chiefly; also Mega Lucario, Infernape, Marshadow, Deoxys)
  • Hazard users (Primal Groudon, Dusk Mane Necrozma, Arceus, etc.)
Against priority users, be sure to keep Giratina healthy (and Ditto, to an extent) to revenge them out. Try to identify how many Arceus have Extreme Speed early - it's not uncommon to see teams with multiple different Arceus forms. Against hazard users, always try to have Liepard on the field with an active Copycat available. For example, against a support Arceus with rocks, you don't want to go for Thief into it; if Arceus is faster, Stealth Rock will get set up first, then Thief will get used, preventing you using Copycat to force the hazard on the opponent's side.

Your Terastallization is a very important resource, but likely will be expended in one situation, then be lost (reviving a Pokemon won't bring its Terastallization back). Don't use it until you feel like you have to do so.

Opponents can get often get hasty and make mistakes, such as setting up a big Uber for Ditto to copy. If they're more cautious, the general plan is to use Assist and the stalling moves to drain the opponent's of their significant PP and slowly chip away with Liepard's Thief and whatever Ditto can get ahold of.

Counterplay

One of the most potent elements of counterplay to Revive Cats is patience, which your average ladder user tends to forgo. There have been plenty of games where opponents simply forfeit turn 1 or after their Extreme Speed user fainted, even if they have win conditions that would just take longer to execute. I am confident that if people were willing to try, I would have had many more losses on my ladder journey. In my judgment, if you're playing National Dex AG, you have to just bite the bullet and know that when you search up a game, you might have to commit time to a 300-turn Revive Cats match.

While dedicated counters like Triage Comfey with Substitute, Defog, Calm Mind, and Draining Kiss, Recycle Leppa Berry sets for infinite PP, or sets intentionally running high PP, low BP moves to cycle through more Liepards are options, it's difficult to justify adding such niche sets which do nothing into other teams. Here's my recommended counterplay for the average team:
  • Set up hazards. The key is to set these hazards up without allowing the opponent to Copycat / Transform to reverse set the hazards. Revive Cats can't stay in forever, since they don't have a way to regenerate PP. With hazards up, they can't switch forever either, and will eventually run out of Assists. Attacking repeatedly at this point will eventually allow you to win if you are willing to be patient.
    • Examples of ways to do this: set up Rocks with Rayquaza, then use Extreme Speed to avoid Copycat. Pokemon with entry hazards and Protect can avoid Copycat. Set up Toxic Spikes with Toxapex, then switch in and out to remove them from your side of the field.
    • If you have Pokemon that doesn't mind hazards, then a hazard trade is OK (e.g. double Regenerator, or Regenerator + boots with recovery). It varies, but hazard trades in general tend to be in the opponent's favor, not Revive Cats.
    • Toxic Spikes is especially deadly. It forces constant Revival Blessings, unless Transform can copy something good with recovery.
    • Whirlwind / Roar spam can also be devastating, assuming you aren't bothered by a faster Roar from Ditto / are faster than Giratina. If the Revive Cats player isn't careful, all their Liepards could be put into hazard KO range, locking them out of the game completely.
    • Be cautious not to allow a double switch opportunity to Ditto to copy a Defog user.
  • Don't go all-in until most (if not all) of the team is running at 50% HP. Going Rayquaza early when Giratina is at 100% just to try to pick off a Liepard or two is never worth it. Again, be patient; if you don't have guaranteed knockouts, don't hesitate to switch and try again later. Forcing the last Liepard out can make things that much easier in the endgame.
You can also supplement a primary gameplan (hazards + offense) with a backup plan to tie the opponent (e.g. double Regenerator switching forever).

Other tips:
  • Don't Knock Off items unless you're OK with yours getting stolen via Thief or with Ditto being able to operate without a Choice Scarf.
  • Ditto can copy Smeargle to Revive one ally, which can be devastating. Copying Liepard is ok too - you can't do anything useful with Assist, but you can use Copycat to take their Revival Blessing and revive some of your allies (note: this is unreliable, as the Liepard could use Endure/Protect to prevent the Copycat from being successful).
Potential improvements
  • Endure on Smeargle is fairly expendable. A phazing move on Smeargle may add more value to punish Pokemon setting up on Smeargle on Baneful Bunker turns.
  • Unaware Counter from Clefable or Clodsire may be able to KO important threats like Chien-Pao and check Comfey without sacrificing too much into standard Ekiller, but relies on the opponent letting you actually take the KO (and that you can actually tank the hit) rather than just switch out.
  • Of the moves that Assist can call, only Beak Blast, Belch, Chatter, Circle Throw, Covet, Dragon Tail, Feint, Focus Punch, Nature Power, and Thief can be used to deal damage immediately without charging. Of those, only Betch, Chatter, Covet, Feint, Nature Power, and Thief can be used to move with non-negative priority and deal damage.
    • Specs Tapu Koko / Tapu Lele with Nature Power seem to be the best candidates, since they can actually make progress vs most Regenerator cores. Psychic Terrain itself is a very shaky Extreme Speed check though, as every time Psychic Terrain ends, you have to spend a turn reviving the Lele, costing one Liepard in the process. I'm also not all that confident a typical double Regen team can't handle a Specs Tapu.
  • Figuring out a way to break the tie in a Revive Cats mirror, without compromising standard matchups, is a big deal. There's currently nothing better to do in the mirror than double switch. Thankfully every player I've played on ladder has recognized this and agrees to tie at 100.
    • You could run Glimmora and hope the opponent screws up attacking into you to trigger Toxic Spikes, but there's currently never a reason to do anything in the mirror than double switch.
    • You could chuck Metronome on Smeargle and hope you roll hazards (lol). I'm not sure there is a move that actually can make progress, so it'd have to be an item or Ability. Supreme Overlord would be goated if it didn't cap at 1.5x.
    • Seriously, this is the worst part of this team.
Sample Replays
 
Fantastic post, love the speed on Liepards for Adamant Mega Ray and Transform on Smeargle to mindgame prio users. I would only add that Metronome can't call hazards, so the mirror is truly unbreakable. I've tried everything from Klutz Switcheroo Lopunnys to CB Feint Pheromosa to Sand Stream Focus Punch Tyranitar, but nothing wins in <1000 turns. The only way to beat the mirror is to add a strong priority move and sacrifice the 100% Revival Blessing call, which doesn't seem worth it.

Can't wait to try out your version of the team on ladder!
 
While the metagame has essentially become defunct from what i gather to be some stupid tiering decisions, i find this strategy to be peak pokemon "bullshittery" and its a shame players no longer have a sandbox (the ladder) to effectively push this and other strategies to its limits.

Nonetheless, while theoretical, im interested in how Pyukumuku could potentially slot in as a means of forcing progress. With innards out and a rocky helmet, Pyukumuku would be able to trade with the majority of extreme speed users, while dealing heavy damage or removing specialized stops to the strategy such as comfey. While most likely not as effective as other options, I think its something worth consideration as a means of direct progress/means of mitigating some unfavorable match ups.

Kudos to the peak (though im pretty sure its meaningless at this point lol), this was a fantastic read.
 
I don't really think this team is that powerful since there is very countered by Ingrain+ Baton Pass as stated by lets go shuckle. The counter play is simple since its really reliant on Giratina to beat the priority bros. With ingrain baton pass it makes it hard to Giratina to beat since it is soo needs to phase it out to beat since its other moves deal so little damage after tera normal; with ingrain passed it makes it easy to beat the rest of the team with priority. An extension of this is Ingrain Sub+ Pass which is also effective but the thing is the priority guy can easily set it up. An example is Xtreme. killer as its speed counters everything except GinaTina; the gina Tina can't hurt it so it ends up doing nothing and it makes it an easy sweep as long as you play around the ditto with substitute
 
ihbst said:
I don't really think this team is that powerful since there is very countered by Ingrain+ Baton Pass as stated by lets go shuckle. The counter play is simple since its really reliant on Giratina to beat the priority bros. With ingrain baton pass it makes it hard to Giratina to beat since it is soo needs to phase it out to beat since its other moves deal so little damage after tera normal; with ingrain passed it makes it easy to beat the rest of the team with priority. An extension of this is Ingrain Sub+ Pass which is also effective but the thing is the priority guy can easily set it up. An example is Xtreme. killer as its speed counters everything except GinaTina; the gina Tina can't hurt it so it ends up doing nothing and it makes it an easy sweep as long as you play around the ditto with substitute
Click to expand...
Here's the thing: You're using Ingrain + Baton Pass (and presumably, a Substitute mon that can actually beat this), in the tier of Mega Rayquaza, Tera Calyrex-Shadow, Dragonium Z Miraidon and Encore Mega Gengar without Dynamax.
It's never absolutely impossible to beat a strategy, but with Revivecats, if you want to truly beat it, you'll just have to take the L and make your matchup way worse against normal teams - that's the main part that broke this strategy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top