Hey man just wanted to swing back and share my appreciation for this video! I used this team in the Catch Cup last season and pushed from 2300s to Expert. This season I ran Altaria in the lead (instead of S.DNair) in the Catch Cup and just pushed from 2500 to my first ever Legend in just 13 sets. I couldn't have hit legend without the effort put into this video and the last one on this team. Thanks for the great vids! Still watch all of them.
Important breakthrough! After the meta adapted to counter this team (fairy and steel leads, Trevenant as the preferred grass type, Bastiodon in the back, etc.), I started messing around with different variants of this team (Annhilape or Wigglytuff instead of Shadow Dragonair, Gligar or Mantine instead of Skarmory, and Charjabug or Whiscash instead of Lanturn). I finally realized that Dunsparce is able to counter the meta shift in its entirety, since it performs very similar functions to Lanturn while also winning against it, forcing shields out of Bastiodon, and destroying both shadow claw users and Lickitung. I only managed to play one full set with it, but ended up going 5-0, all against teams that I would've otherwise lost or at least had a really difficult time winning against with Lanturn. Dunsparce only really works atm due to people assuming Lanturn in the back, meaning that they'll stay in with Azumarill and Skarmory while saving their Trevenant in the back, if you play against opponents who don't know the original team and how to counter it, then don't use Dunsparce, as it actually leads to you losing the Skarmory, Gligar, Poliwrath and Azumarill matchups that you otherwise win with Lanturn. Furthermore, Dunsparce adds a tremendous weakness to counter users that lanturn doesn't have. Now, counter users aren't supposed to be getting used atm due to Annihilape destroying all of them and the entire meta being focused on countering Annihilape, but it is important to note that, if you see a lot of counter users, Charjabug is a much better adjustment. Best of luck to everyone still using this team, I hope making this knowledge public will help make the team more viable into the current meta. (Petition to get pinned if the information shared is considered useful enough)
Another insanely useful upload with my currently favourite team from this channel. Thanks to the extreme detail provided in this video, even the making of a flowchart is possible now. I'm extremely hyped for go battle week to come and now have high hopes of reaching Expert/Legend if my current skill allows for it. Best of luck to everyone else as well, hope to see you on the ladder!
@@josephjuan9797 Some of them are definitely workable, both Registeel and Lanturn backlines can be won as long as the last member loses in the two-shield vs Lanturn by playing in the way showcased in the video. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the charjabug counterswap, however.
Final thoughts on using this team throughout go battle week: The team worked like a charm for the first couple of days, consistently facing against winnable leads and rps backlines, easily racking up 200+ elo daily even with imperfect play, peaking near 2875 elo. However, after the third day, the meta saw a major shift, leading to a tremendous increase of Azumarill and Skarmory leads, which had a horrendous effect on the performance of this team. Furthermore, the usage spike of Trevenant in the back, a grass type that doesn't mind Skarmory when shields are up, made the matches where going shields down to play for switch resulted in losses. The team eventually dropped to a point where it seemed like it could only consistently win against itself and Bastiodon teams, leading me to completely doubt the efficiency of Skarmory and specially Shadow Dragonair. I eventually dropped Shadow Dragonair for Annihilape, as they share their tremendous weakness to fairies and great capacity for winning switch advantage, which saw immediate success, only struggling against the odd Gligar, Trevenant and Sableye leads, while allowing play against Skarmory and Registeel leads. I recovered some of the elo that was lost from using the original version of this team in the fourth day, managing to stay afloat in Expert elo, however, it is clear to me that I'll need to adapt harder to the meta if I want to reach Legend again. I'm glad to see that at least this team managed to break into the mainstream, having an usage rate of about 1/5th (counting its variants), surpassing that of even the toxic kind Bastiodon. I heavily appreciate the help in getting from Ace to Expert and will be looking forward to the next meta breaking team Kpine puts out! (Also sorry for the overly long comment lol)
using this team currently, and its still nuts and toxic. I am currently 2200, and i have streak is about 9:1. New subscriber, and will def look forward to new videos.
Thanks a lot for sharing this team and all the ideas with us. I climbed immediately from 27xx into the 2900 elo range. Took me two further days to finally cross the line and reached legend rank today. Since I didn't reach legend in last season, I am very happy to make it as fast as never before. Still more than 5 weeks to go. Thanks so much.
@@TheRealKaylee_loljkI don't understand why you'd switch Lanturn for Annihilape, since they fundamentally serve different roles and opens up a lot of new core breakers (every fairy mon), could you please explain your reasoning behind that decision?
Used this team for 5 of my sets today and climbed 300. Had a couple tough first sets but ended with 4-1 and 5-0 today. Hope to keep climbing this week. Last rotation it worked well too for awhile but then started getting hard countered most games, but thats the way it goes sometimes.
I'm still using this team and having a lot of success. One match was basto lead. Would have usually immediately swapped , but stayed in and stood my ground and took it down using a shield. They threw out wiggly and it took down my dair. I wanted to immediately swap into skarm but thought about this video. I put lanturn out and was almost to a charged move when they swapped out their shadow victory bell I then swapped into my skarm and then they left. I was amazed
These vids are the best kind of GBL content you can find on YT and I thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks!! Def using this team (again, used it last GL rotation after your vid dropped)
@kpine, just want to give you a shout out for your team got me to Veteran for the first time. Counting moves was helpful and sticking to the strategy. Gave me consistent winning sets. Appreciate it
@@Jesus-ei5fs I don't have a discord yet but is definitely something I've been considering. I do offer private coaching as well where you can find the link to my page in the description of my videos :)
Been waiting patiently for the ban list to shift so I can play this team again. This has been working well even with my shadow dragon only having body slam. When the rocket takeover drops the weights are off and I’m pushing to legend
Not sure if A-slash lead has been addressed yet. If I see A-slash on the lead, 90% of the time there’s an Azu in the back, in which case the Dragonair basically has no use. So I just sac the lead trying to get 2 Aqua Tails off, then bring in Skarmory to take care of the A-slash. More often than not in my matches the opponent hard swaps Azu which gives my Lanturn a chance to massively overfarm, and with both shields already gone from lead, nothing is stopping the Brave Birds from Skarmory later.
@@KPineI see it now around the 21 minute mark 🤦♂️ so far every A-slash lead except 1 for me has had an Azu in the back, after a couple times seeing that I’ve just been sacrificing Dragonair and hoping for the best. Had I seen the team you saw I may have been cooked with my strategy! Also want to say I am *really* enjoying your content style. I think my team reading in general has improved a lot just thanks to subscribing to your channel.
Both could work! Charja would give you some coverage against an opposing skarm but then an opposing skeledirge in the back would be bad while whiscash would help with fire types but make skarm leads tough
Shadow dragonair is so ridiculous… I was sleeping on it despite the popularity, then realized it can very comfortably flip the matchup against BASTIODON of all pokemon…
16:52 I may be misremembering here, but I believe a *very* high-rank Charjabug will be able to survive that Body Slam (or Aqua Tail since same damage) on very low HP and be able to fire off their 2nd X-Scissor to force either a shield or switch. I have the rank 1 and I’m sure I’ve been able to survive it, and today I had one survive me on the other end. Edit: it’s actually not just the Charjabug; it’s the rank of the *Dragonair* that causes it to lose if the bus is high rank. If the Dragonair is extremely high rank, then its lower attack means the *charge move* won’t hit the Charjabug hard enough and it’ll hold on and fire the 2nd X-Scissor.
In the zero shield scenario, a high ranked s-dnair will still knock out even the rank 1 charjabug as long as the s-dnair throws on good timing (after 3/7/11/15 dragon breaths so you can maximize fast move damage) without the charjabug reaching the second x-scissor. The only situations where the charjabug will survive to get off the second x-scissor would be if BOTH the charjabug and the s-dnair are rank 1s and if the charjabug happens to get the "new mechanic" or DRE (Damage Registration Error) which barely happens. Given those two situations, while it is possible for the charjabug to survive to get off both x-scissors, it is EXTREMELY unlikely as long the the s-dnair throws the body slam on proper timing.
Unfortunately the extra dragon breath damage from it being a shadow is very important with its matchups. The good news is that a rocket event is coming up very soon where you can tm away frustration :)
Both skarmory and lanturn beat annihilape in the zeros so you would have to do some team reading based on your opponents lead (what pokemon they would need in the back to cover their lead's weaknesses) in order to decide which one to come in vs the annihilape and which one to save for the back.
A move timing video is definitely something I'll consider. As for annihilape, it's actually not that bad of a matchup. If it's on the lead, shadow dnair beats it in the 1s and 2s. If it's in the back, lanturn beats it in the 0s and 2s straight surf while skarm beats it in the 0s
If they stay in with the skeledirge then you stay in with the s-dnair and throw an aqua tail after 14 dragon breaths. If your opponent commits shield then you will as well. If they safe swap out into something the s-dnair can get switch advantage from, then you’ll stay in, get that switch advantage and align the skeledirge against your lanturn. If they swap into something that s-dnair can’t get switch advantage from, you’ll then chip with a move and counter swap into one of the two back mons that can keep alignment.
I don't play many in this season and I found this channel, this is the team I used and functions really well. love this COMPLETE TEAM BREAKDOWN VID. great work!! : )
I’m trying S Dnair, but I’m having a lot trouble counting the opponent’s moves with dragon breath obscuring my vision to the opponent’s monster (especially the smaller Pokémons in evo cup). Do you have any tips for counting? I’m thinking about looking at own Pokémon’s hp bar instead to see how many times it gets chunked, maybe that’s one alternative. Thanks for the help!
When counting moves, I prefer to count my own moves instead of my opponents. For example, If I'm using a one turn move such as dragon breath and my opponent is using a two turn move such as counter, then if I throw three dragon breaths and then a charged move (for good timing), they are at 2 counters, 7 dragon breaths and then the charged move, they are at 4 counter, etc. If my opponent is using a three turn move such as bubble, then if I throw two dragon breaths and then the charged move, they will be at 1 bubble, 5 dragon breaths and then the charged move, they will be at two bubbles, etc. So long explanation short, I count my own moves to dictate where my opponent is at in terms of counts :)
I ran this team, but with Annihilape instead of Lanturn just for fun to tr out the new release I actually hit my season high. Yeah, this looks mean, I may try that.
Amazing breakdown..Surely gonna try this team… Recently got a 3/11/13 rank 73 shadow dnair, hopefully that would be enough..What do u do against Gligar leads?
That’s a really good shadow dnair and gligar leads are one I forgot to include 😅. I'll throw one aqua tail to grab a shield and then commit to the dragon breath down. It’s very important to throw that aqua tail on good timing in order to prevent them from sneaking a wing attack as that could change the whole outcome of the matchup. When going for the dragon breath down, if you read that you can't dragon breath down in time then I'll throw a second aqua tail on the cmp tie to their third aerial ace in order to at least force their second shield. You'll be able to dragon breath down most gligars but really high ranked ones you'll have to throw the second aqua tail.
@@KPine thanks for the explanation. Appreciate it. I believe Altaria leads should be played same way as Skarm as Dnair don’t win against Alta in the 2-1s?
@@changedwintbh, I haven’t faced too many altaria leads but altaria does beat dnair in all even shield scenarios due to its bulk. So because of that, I’d recommend throwing a body slam right away and then safe swapping into your skarm
@@DocMagoo70I have another response to a comment explaining how to play out gfisk leads if you want a more in depth breakdown but s-dnair wins the 2s against gfisk then you just align the lanturn onto pelipper
At 15:30 why does your opponent use both shields on the Gligar? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to let the Gligar go and save both shields for Azu? They could’ve then tried to take out the Lanturn while building up to a Play Rough for the Dragonair
Lanturn has such a dominating matchup against azu that they needed to keep the gligar alive to deal with lanturn. If they let the gligar go, lanturn would be able to do enough damage to the azu through sparks and its pacing to charge moves that the body slam I had stored on the s-dnair would have been lethal from there
Climbed to 2490 then came to 2380 ,no favorable leads ,opposite dragonair just wins coz my bad ivs ,and basti teams becoming smart ,taking 1 shield and switching to cress/trev and winning the switch yikes! But I ain't giving up .
Really curious about the best way to handle a mirror team match. Do you throw and hope they shield their Dnair, swamp in Lanturn and take a body slam and get ahead on energy for their Lanturn?
Unfortunately it’s hard to tell if it’s the mirror team or not and in an opposing dragonair lead I still recommend playing it out how I describe in the video, shielding once and farming down, as switch advantage is more advantageous than not against those back lines. So once you get switch, if it does end up being the mirror team, you get an aqua tails worth of chip on the skarm if that comes in, but if lanturn comes in, you get a body slam worths of chip. After that, if you shield a thunderbolt on your own lanturn, the spark damage and spamming off surfs (after building up to the thunderbolt to try and draw shields) puts it in a very manageable range to take the game.
If it's a swampert lead, that's a very good matchup for the dragonair and you can actually no shield a move if it's only a hydro cannon and still take switch, but if they build up to a potential eq at all, then you need to respect it with a shield. For swampert in the back, I actually recommend changing lanturn to water gun to help with the mud bois, especially post spark nerf.
@@KPine that’s been a really useful tip! Thank you, but now I’m running into trouble with Azumaril, would you say I should move back to spark to deal with this or no?
@@RobbJohnn Water gun lanturn generally has more play onto the current meta than spark does. With that said, I’d typically recommend sticking with water gun. If you feel like you are seeing a significant amount of azus to justify spark then I could see the change to it, but otherwise, I’d stick with water gun
VS Ice Punch: Make sure you throw your aqua tail on good timing since the pacing to ice punch and aqua tail are the same (after 13 dragon breaths, or if they throw first, 1 and then the aqua tail). By throwing on good timing, this will allow you to reach your second aqua tail on the cmp tie to their second ice punch. You win the cmp tie against annihilape and if they let it go, the aqual tail knocks them out. If they double shield, then so do you and farm them down to get switch advantage. You will shield their first move regardless if they first or you. VS Night Slash: They will outpace in this matchup meaning you will give up your first shield and then throw your aqua tail. If they let it go you can farm down before they reach another move, if they shield it, you'll then have to give up your second shield to their second night slash. At this point you'll commit to the dragon breath farm down where you'll be down a shield but have switch advantage.
Jelli: Stay in with the s-dnair as you win the 2s. If they build up to a shadow ball you'll respect it with a shield but if they only build up to a surf then you can let it go. Gligar: I have an in depth response to another comment you can check out. Altaria: Throw a body slam and then swap into your lanturn since they'll generally have a good response to skarmory. Cress: If they're running future sight you win the 2s. If they're running moonblast it becomes iv dependent on their part as to whether or not you win the 2s. If they bait at any point they'll win the 2s or if they have a high ranked cress and go straight moonblast they'll win the 2s as well. If that's the case, you'll still play out the 2s and catch the third move on skarm
During rocket takeover events you'll be able to use a regular charged tm to get rid of frustration. You unfortunately cannot tm away frustration unless it's during one of these rocket events so keep an eye out for when the next one comes around!
Dewgong: Immediately safe swap into the skarm and throw a sky attack after 8 steel wings (for good timing) if they overfarm. Medicham: Since you lose the two shield scenario, throw a body slam after 13 dragon breaths. It's very important to throw on good timing here because the pacing to body slam on dnair and ice punch on medi is the same. By throwing on good timing, this will allow you to get to the second body slam on the cmp tie to their second ice punch. If they shield both of your body slams, you'll let their second ice punch go through and take the shield advantage. If they let either of your body slams go through, you will double shield, farm down, and take switch.
is charjabug in the back an insta lose? often i have to go down shields to win lead but then they have a charja up shields in the back and im just at a lose on what to do
IVs on your pokemon always matter as that could be the difference of winning or losing some matchups. However, for a pokemon like skarmory, the IVs matter a lot less than normal just beacuse of the role skarmory fills with its bulk, typing, and coverage
I’m running sims on pv poke and it looks like a high defense S-Dragonair is the way to go to ensure switch advantage? Have you ever encountered any issues with your IV spread? Of course I spent the whole season farming Cliff for dratini and can’t find a decent high def one 😢
@@geezlouuuize sorry yes I meant to add in the mirror matchup! Was just looking for confirmation, thanks! The search for a high def s dnair continues then 😅
@@ethanogle6420 While that iv spread is good enough for this team and it's various matchups, the only negative matchup would be in the mirror with another s-dragonair where the less hp yours has does significantly impact the matchup and your 1 shield and farm down ability. With that said, I would most likely play for the cmp tie on the body slam instead (since you have a higher attack). If you win cmp, which you should most of the time, you either get switch advantage or shield advantage, both of which are fine when it comes to the back lines of opposing s-dnair leads. If they give up a shield to take switch, let their move go and come in with the lanturn to get a spark down. If they end up winning the cmp tie, let it go and then again go for the spark down.
I actually use lanturn as the safe swap since almost all charm leads have a hard answer to skarm. The lanturn ss hopefully baits the skarm answer out :)
Also I have a shadow Dragonair that is 625 cp. I am debating if I make a dragonite for great league or keep it as a Dragonair and use it. I am grinding the candy and battling team rocket to get them. Any suggestions which is better to do?
There are a bunch of different resources you can use where you can input the pokémon's iv spread and see where it ranks (how good it is compared to the same pokémon with a different iv spread). Based on this, if it comes out to be a really good dragonite and a bad dragonair I'd evolve it into a dragonite and continue looking for a good dragonair. However, if it comes out to be a high ranked dragonair, I'd keep it as that as dragonair tends to have a little more play overall than dragonite does
I prefer s-dnair over s-dnite just because of other s-dnair leads and the little bit of extra bulk it has that gives it the ability to tank a charge move if needed
if i had to wild guess my win to loss ratio i'd say somewhere between 0.9 to 1.4 after watching this i wonder how i don't get more losses lol do you think the app matches you with trainers that have pokemon with the same amount of moves unlocked as yours?
There isn't a "typical" safe swap with this team since it's built on the s-dnair getting switch advantage as your backline has vastly different polarizing matchups. With that said, it depends on what you see on the lead. Azu/Skarm lead you'll safe swap into your own skarm since lanturn has the much better matchup here. Charm lead you'll safe swap into lanturn since skarm has the much better matchup, etc.
The exception to winning the 2s is if the Abomasnow is non-Shadow and is running Icy Wind. After the debuff, they farm you down before you can farm them down. Bright side is, you do either get both shields or switch, and usually the Abomasnow was their best answer to Lanturn.
Stay in with the s-dnair and play out the two shield scenario since you win the 2s. If they don't build up to an eq and just go straight for the rock slide, then you can no shield that move, but if they do build up to the eq, then you'll commit a shield.
They'll be in raids during the rocket takeover so be sure to pick one up then. Otherwise they're a rare spawn so if you see one go ahead a grab it even if its out of the way.
Since the pacing to body slam and ice punch are the same. It’s very important you throw on good timing in that matchup (after 13 dragon breaths if they don’t throw and if they do, 1 db and then the move). Once it comes time to throw the second move, you’ll have to throw the aqua tail on the cmp tie so you can force them to be the first one to give up the second shield. If they give up two shields, so do you and force switch since s-dnair wins the 2s against annihilape
This is me but in the mid-2500s and the culprit is Whiscash in the back behind something I have to go down a shield to get switch from. Whiscash absolutely crushed Lanturn and also easily beats Skarmory when up a shield or energy, and it can overfarm to smash the other into oblivion. If Whiscash is on the lead I can usually flip switch and align to win, but when it’s in the back it’s an uphill battle, and that’s even if Scald doesn’t debuff your attack. Whimsicott lead is an instant loss but I have not seen many of them
I'll generally stay in and play out the two shield scenario with the s-dnair. The registeel does win the 2s but you get it low enough where you can then bring in the skarm to get a farm down which is usually very good against the back line of a registeel lead. If your opponent baits with zap cannon and gets the attack debuff then you might have to come in with the lanturn instead and fire off a surf in order to prevent them from getting to another move. If i'm feeling risky I'll no shield their move whereas if they do go for the zap cannon, you'll now be able to get switch advantage, but if they go for the focus blast, as long as you have a higher ranked s-dnair you should survive it well enough to get two aqua tails off. You'd then come in with the lanturn to finish it off.
Hey man just wanted to swing back and share my appreciation for this video! I used this team in the Catch Cup last season and pushed from 2300s to Expert. This season I ran Altaria in the lead (instead of S.DNair) in the Catch Cup and just pushed from 2500 to my first ever Legend in just 13 sets. I couldn't have hit legend without the effort put into this video and the last one on this team. Thanks for the great vids! Still watch all of them.
That's amazing! Congrats on your first legend and the fantastic climb!
Important breakthrough!
After the meta adapted to counter this team (fairy and steel leads, Trevenant as the preferred grass type, Bastiodon in the back, etc.), I started messing around with different variants of this team (Annhilape or Wigglytuff instead of Shadow Dragonair, Gligar or Mantine instead of Skarmory, and Charjabug or Whiscash instead of Lanturn).
I finally realized that Dunsparce is able to counter the meta shift in its entirety, since it performs very similar functions to Lanturn while also winning against it, forcing shields out of Bastiodon, and destroying both shadow claw users and Lickitung.
I only managed to play one full set with it, but ended up going 5-0, all against teams that I would've otherwise lost or at least had a really difficult time winning against with Lanturn.
Dunsparce only really works atm due to people assuming Lanturn in the back, meaning that they'll stay in with Azumarill and Skarmory while saving their Trevenant in the back, if you play against opponents who don't know the original team and how to counter it, then don't use Dunsparce, as it actually leads to you losing the Skarmory, Gligar, Poliwrath and Azumarill matchups that you otherwise win with Lanturn.
Furthermore, Dunsparce adds a tremendous weakness to counter users that lanturn doesn't have.
Now, counter users aren't supposed to be getting used atm due to Annihilape destroying all of them and the entire meta being focused on countering Annihilape, but it is important to note that, if you see a lot of counter users, Charjabug is a much better adjustment.
Best of luck to everyone still using this team, I hope making this knowledge public will help make the team more viable into the current meta.
(Petition to get pinned if the information shared is considered useful enough)
I’ve always played charjabug over lanturn, mostly because charjabug is more handsome
Also just wanted to thank you, went from 2751 to 3023 in 15 sets with the team :)
Congrats on legend!
Another insanely useful upload with my currently favourite team from this channel.
Thanks to the extreme detail provided in this video, even the making of a flowchart is possible now. I'm extremely hyped for go battle week to come and now have high hopes of reaching Expert/Legend if my current skill allows for it.
Best of luck to everyone else as well, hope to see you on the ladder!
Glad you enjoyed and you got this 💪
@@megalomaniacv3706 please let me know if you manage to work your way around the Azu leads!
@@josephjuan9797 Some of them are definitely workable, both Registeel and Lanturn backlines can be won as long as the last member loses in the two-shield vs Lanturn by playing in the way showcased in the video.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the charjabug counterswap, however.
Final thoughts on using this team throughout go battle week:
The team worked like a charm for the first couple of days, consistently facing against winnable leads and rps backlines, easily racking up 200+ elo daily even with imperfect play, peaking near 2875 elo.
However, after the third day, the meta saw a major shift, leading to a tremendous increase of Azumarill and Skarmory leads, which had a horrendous effect on the performance of this team.
Furthermore, the usage spike of Trevenant in the back, a grass type that doesn't mind Skarmory when shields are up, made the matches where going shields down to play for switch resulted in losses.
The team eventually dropped to a point where it seemed like it could only consistently win against itself and Bastiodon teams, leading me to completely doubt the efficiency of Skarmory and specially Shadow Dragonair.
I eventually dropped Shadow Dragonair for Annihilape, as they share their tremendous weakness to fairies and great capacity for winning switch advantage, which saw immediate success, only struggling against the odd Gligar, Trevenant and Sableye leads, while allowing play against Skarmory and Registeel leads.
I recovered some of the elo that was lost from using the original version of this team in the fourth day, managing to stay afloat in Expert elo, however, it is clear to me that I'll need to adapt harder to the meta if I want to reach Legend again.
I'm glad to see that at least this team managed to break into the mainstream, having an usage rate of about 1/5th (counting its variants), surpassing that of even the toxic kind Bastiodon.
I heavily appreciate the help in getting from Ace to Expert and will be looking forward to the next meta breaking team Kpine puts out!
(Also sorry for the overly long comment lol)
@@megalomaniacv3706 Appreciate you taking the time for these in depth comments and legend is right around the corner, you're almost there!
Just wanted to really thank you for this video, I was able to climb from 2300s to expert yesterday from following this guide!
So glad the team worked out well for you and congrats on expert!
using this team currently, and its still nuts and toxic. I am currently 2200, and i have streak is about 9:1. New subscriber, and will def look forward to new videos.
Glad the team is working for you and happy to have you in!
Thanks a lot for sharing this team and all the ideas with us. I climbed immediately from 27xx into the 2900 elo range. Took me two further days to finally cross the line and reached legend rank today. Since I didn't reach legend in last season, I am very happy to make it as fast as never before. Still more than 5 weeks to go. Thanks so much.
Congrats on legend, that's an amazing achievement!
Team was working well for two sets then the algorithm kicked in
What algorithm?
Tell me about it bro how many times have you seen a SHADOW ARCTICUNO LEAD
I replace lanturn with annihilape and still ranked.
@@ballislife6172 0
@@TheRealKaylee_loljkI don't understand why you'd switch Lanturn for Annihilape, since they fundamentally serve different roles and opens up a lot of new core breakers (every fairy mon), could you please explain your reasoning behind that decision?
best explained analysis of a team I've heard in a really long time. Great video. You earned a subscribe
Thank you and welcome in!
Used this team for 5 of my sets today and climbed 300. Had a couple tough first sets but ended with 4-1 and 5-0 today. Hope to keep climbing this week. Last rotation it worked well too for awhile but then started getting hard countered most games, but thats the way it goes sometimes.
Best of luck with the climb!
I'm still using this team and having a lot of success.
One match was basto lead. Would have usually immediately swapped , but stayed in and stood my ground and took it down using a shield.
They threw out wiggly and it took down my dair. I wanted to immediately swap into skarm but thought about this video.
I put lanturn out and was almost to a charged move when they swapped out their shadow victory bell
I then swapped into my skarm and then they left. I was amazed
Glad the team is working well for you! :)
These vids are the best kind of GBL content you can find on YT and I thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks!!
Def using this team (again, used it last GL rotation after your vid dropped)
Thank you for the support! 🙏
Really smart way of playing out the lanturn mirror, going straight surf (but building up to TB). Very interesting
It's very situational but that ended up being the better choice for that instance :)
@kpine, just want to give you a shout out for your team got me to Veteran for the first time. Counting moves was helpful and sticking to the strategy. Gave me consistent winning sets. Appreciate it
Glad you enjoyed the team and video and congrats on veteran!
@@KPine do you have a discord channel? And you do private coaching correct?
@@Jesus-ei5fs I don't have a discord yet but is definitely something I've been considering. I do offer private coaching as well where you can find the link to my page in the description of my videos :)
Always enjoy your content, looking forward to watching this later today!
🙌
I just went 83-16-1 over the last two days with this team. Thank you!
That's an amazing run, great job!
Been waiting patiently for the ban list to shift so I can play this team again. This has been working well even with my shadow dragon only having body slam. When the rocket takeover drops the weights are off and I’m pushing to legend
Best of luck with the legend push!
Not sure if A-slash lead has been addressed yet. If I see A-slash on the lead, 90% of the time there’s an Azu in the back, in which case the Dragonair basically has no use. So I just sac the lead trying to get 2 Aqua Tails off, then bring in Skarmory to take care of the A-slash. More often than not in my matches the opponent hard swaps Azu which gives my Lanturn a chance to massively overfarm, and with both shields already gone from lead, nothing is stopping the Brave Birds from Skarmory later.
I have an example of how I play out A-Slash leads in the video :)
@@KPineI see it now around the 21 minute mark 🤦♂️ so far every A-slash lead except 1 for me has had an Azu in the back, after a couple times seeing that I’ve just been sacrificing Dragonair and hoping for the best. Had I seen the team you saw I may have been cooked with my strategy!
Also want to say I am *really* enjoying your content style. I think my team reading in general has improved a lot just thanks to subscribing to your channel.
@@Yhowshuwa Glad to hear you've been enjoying my content and improving along with it! :)
I loved this video!
I have 2/3 of the team built, not enough candies for lantern. How do you feel about replacing it with charjabug, or whiscash?
Both could work! Charja would give you some coverage against an opposing skarm but then an opposing skeledirge in the back would be bad while whiscash would help with fire types but make skarm leads tough
Shadow dragonair is so ridiculous… I was sleeping on it despite the popularity, then realized it can very comfortably flip the matchup against BASTIODON of all pokemon…
It’s definitely a massive threat to take note of!
very very good teaching video. thanks for sharing this.
Glad you enjoy!
Awesome team KPine, reached the leaderboards, sitting at 3206 ELO currently!!!!
Congrats on making the leaderboards!
16:52 I may be misremembering here, but I believe a *very* high-rank Charjabug will be able to survive that Body Slam (or Aqua Tail since same damage) on very low HP and be able to fire off their 2nd X-Scissor to force either a shield or switch. I have the rank 1 and I’m sure I’ve been able to survive it, and today I had one survive me on the other end.
Edit: it’s actually not just the Charjabug; it’s the rank of the *Dragonair* that causes it to lose if the bus is high rank. If the Dragonair is extremely high rank, then its lower attack means the *charge move* won’t hit the Charjabug hard enough and it’ll hold on and fire the 2nd X-Scissor.
In the zero shield scenario, a high ranked s-dnair will still knock out even the rank 1 charjabug as long as the s-dnair throws on good timing (after 3/7/11/15 dragon breaths so you can maximize fast move damage) without the charjabug reaching the second x-scissor. The only situations where the charjabug will survive to get off the second x-scissor would be if BOTH the charjabug and the s-dnair are rank 1s and if the charjabug happens to get the "new mechanic" or DRE (Damage Registration Error) which barely happens. Given those two situations, while it is possible for the charjabug to survive to get off both x-scissors, it is EXTREMELY unlikely as long the the s-dnair throws the body slam on proper timing.
@@KPine new mechanic 🤦♂️ that’s why. For me it feels like it happens all the time.
Thanks for the videos they are awesome!!!
Thanks for the support!
Got some fairy leads in the first set, but after that it was smooth sailing! Awesome team.
Glad you like it!
Ive never been a big fan of toxic team's but i might try this one - i need a good climbing team
Really skilled , first time on your page, great breakdown🎉 would it work alright with non shadow drag dragonair? Need to get rid of frustration 😴
Unfortunately the extra dragon breath damage from it being a shadow is very important with its matchups. The good news is that a rocket event is coming up very soon where you can tm away frustration :)
@@KPine Yeah i figured haha ! But thx I’ll give it a try next season💪
This team helped me hit legend for the first time
Congrats on legend, that's awesome!
Thank you so much for this amazing video! What are your thoughts on replacing lanturn with a whiscash?
I'd recommend charjabug over whiscash just so opposing skarms, azus, and jellis aren't as big of a problem but it should work too
Thanks for the fast reply 💪🏽
Ayn advice on how you deal with Annihilape swap in after you win switch or at all? Also, great video man!
Both skarmory and lanturn beat annihilape in the zeros so you would have to do some team reading based on your opponents lead (what pokemon they would need in the back to cover their lead's weaknesses) in order to decide which one to come in vs the annihilape and which one to save for the back.
Would a shadow Skarm also work on this team? Or is the non shadow better? Awesome team btw 🔥 and appreciate the breakdown of the match ups
I tend to believe non-shadow skarm is better in basically all situations since it's really able to rely on it's bulk
Make a video about timing of throwing moves ,also will you post some shorts battling annihilape ,it defeats both lanturn and skarm.
A move timing video is definitely something I'll consider. As for annihilape, it's actually not that bad of a matchup. If it's on the lead, shadow dnair beats it in the 1s and 2s. If it's in the back, lanturn beats it in the 0s and 2s straight surf while skarm beats it in the 0s
Thanks for the reply mate !@@KPine
I have been using this team since steel wing got buff.
This is amazing! How do you play a Skeledirge lead?
If they stay in with the skeledirge then you stay in with the s-dnair and throw an aqua tail after 14 dragon breaths. If your opponent commits shield then you will as well. If they safe swap out into something the s-dnair can get switch advantage from, then you’ll stay in, get that switch advantage and align the skeledirge against your lanturn. If they swap into something that s-dnair can’t get switch advantage from, you’ll then chip with a move and counter swap into one of the two back mons that can keep alignment.
@@KPine thank you! Best PVP UA-camr!
Chillest battle league player
Swapped lanturn with whiscash. I’m terrible at PvP being new to it but hitting new personal highs
Congrats! Hope the climbing continues!
I don't play many in this season and I found this channel, this is the team I used and functions really well. love this COMPLETE TEAM BREAKDOWN VID. great work!! : )
Thank you!
I’m trying S Dnair, but I’m having a lot trouble counting the opponent’s moves with dragon breath obscuring my vision to the opponent’s monster (especially the smaller Pokémons in evo cup). Do you have any tips for counting? I’m thinking about looking at own Pokémon’s hp bar instead to see how many times it gets chunked, maybe that’s one alternative. Thanks for the help!
When counting moves, I prefer to count my own moves instead of my opponents. For example, If I'm using a one turn move such as dragon breath and my opponent is using a two turn move such as counter, then if I throw three dragon breaths and then a charged move (for good timing), they are at 2 counters, 7 dragon breaths and then the charged move, they are at 4 counter, etc. If my opponent is using a three turn move such as bubble, then if I throw two dragon breaths and then the charged move, they will be at 1 bubble, 5 dragon breaths and then the charged move, they will be at two bubbles, etc. So long explanation short, I count my own moves to dictate where my opponent is at in terms of counts :)
I ran this team, but with Annihilape instead of Lanturn just for fun to tr out the new release I actually hit my season high. Yeah, this looks mean, I may try that.
Congrats on the season high!
@@KPine Ty yeah, it was 2380 and I'm usually around 2200, so nothing too crazy.
love these videos man if i encounter I awkward lead ill make sure to ask
Great video man.
Appreciate it!
Amazing breakdown..Surely gonna try this team… Recently got a 3/11/13 rank 73 shadow dnair, hopefully that would be enough..What do u do against Gligar leads?
That’s a really good shadow dnair and gligar leads are one I forgot to include 😅. I'll throw one aqua tail to grab a shield and then commit to the dragon breath down. It’s very important to throw that aqua tail on good timing in order to prevent them from sneaking a wing attack as that could change the whole outcome of the matchup. When going for the dragon breath down, if you read that you can't dragon breath down in time then I'll throw a second aqua tail on the cmp tie to their third aerial ace in order to at least force their second shield. You'll be able to dragon breath down most gligars but really high ranked ones you'll have to throw the second aqua tail.
@@KPine thanks for the explanation. Appreciate it. I believe Altaria leads should be played same way as Skarm as Dnair don’t win against Alta in the 2-1s?
@@changedwintbh, I haven’t faced too many altaria leads but altaria does beat dnair in all even shield scenarios due to its bulk. So because of that, I’d recommend throwing a body slam right away and then safe swapping into your skarm
@kpine noticing a team of pelipper on lead with gfisk in back. Suggestions in playing it out?
@@DocMagoo70I have another response to a comment explaining how to play out gfisk leads if you want a more in depth breakdown but s-dnair wins the 2s against gfisk then you just align the lanturn onto pelipper
At 15:30 why does your opponent use both shields on the Gligar? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to let the Gligar go and save both shields for Azu? They could’ve then tried to take out the Lanturn while building up to a Play Rough for the Dragonair
Lanturn has such a dominating matchup against azu that they needed to keep the gligar alive to deal with lanturn. If they let the gligar go, lanturn would be able to do enough damage to the azu through sparks and its pacing to charge moves that the body slam I had stored on the s-dnair would have been lethal from there
find it difficult facing carbink lead and fighter+trev in the back
You safe swap into the skarm and try to force switch advantage so you can put the lanturn onto the carbink
Climbed to 2490 then came to 2380 ,no favorable leads ,opposite dragonair just wins coz my bad ivs ,and basti teams becoming smart ,taking 1 shield and switching to cress/trev and winning the switch yikes! But I ain't giving up .
You got this!
Really curious about the best way to handle a mirror team match. Do you throw and hope they shield their Dnair, swamp in Lanturn and take a body slam and get ahead on energy for their Lanturn?
Unfortunately it’s hard to tell if it’s the mirror team or not and in an opposing dragonair lead I still recommend playing it out how I describe in the video, shielding once and farming down, as switch advantage is more advantageous than not against those back lines. So once you get switch, if it does end up being the mirror team, you get an aqua tails worth of chip on the skarm if that comes in, but if lanturn comes in, you get a body slam worths of chip. After that, if you shield a thunderbolt on your own lanturn, the spark damage and spamming off surfs (after building up to the thunderbolt to try and draw shields) puts it in a very manageable range to take the game.
Do you have a video where you explain how to throw on good timing? I struggle with that
Not currently but is definitely something I may consider in the future!
I know that this is very good but the fact that you beat azu-regi-gligar with it shows how good you are not the team!
I love this team, but I struggle against swampert. What’s the best placement to get around that?
If it's a swampert lead, that's a very good matchup for the dragonair and you can actually no shield a move if it's only a hydro cannon and still take switch, but if they build up to a potential eq at all, then you need to respect it with a shield. For swampert in the back, I actually recommend changing lanturn to water gun to help with the mud bois, especially post spark nerf.
@@KPine that’s been a really useful tip! Thank you, but now I’m running into trouble with Azumaril, would you say I should move back to spark to deal with this or no?
@@RobbJohnn Water gun lanturn generally has more play onto the current meta than spark does. With that said, I’d typically recommend sticking with water gun. If you feel like you are seeing a significant amount of azus to justify spark then I could see the change to it, but otherwise, I’d stick with water gun
Great vid
this video is so helpful
Bro, whadya do against charmer lead?or dewgong lead?r u gonna safeswap into lant/skar?
Safe swap in to the lanturn against a charmer lead and skarmory against a dewgong lead
@@KPine sweet!! Thanx a lot buddy! Ur content always super helpful, keep up the good work!!👍👍👍
How would you handle annihilape lead using this team? For both ice punch and night slash versions?
VS Ice Punch: Make sure you throw your aqua tail on good timing since the pacing to ice punch and aqua tail are the same (after 13 dragon breaths, or if they throw first, 1 and then the aqua tail). By throwing on good timing, this will allow you to reach your second aqua tail on the cmp tie to their second ice punch. You win the cmp tie against annihilape and if they let it go, the aqual tail knocks them out. If they double shield, then so do you and farm them down to get switch advantage. You will shield their first move regardless if they first or you.
VS Night Slash: They will outpace in this matchup meaning you will give up your first shield and then throw your aqua tail. If they let it go you can farm down before they reach another move, if they shield it, you'll then have to give up your second shield to their second night slash. At this point you'll commit to the dragon breath farm down where you'll be down a shield but have switch advantage.
How do you play the Jelli, Gligar, Altaria or Cress lead?
Jelli: Stay in with the s-dnair as you win the 2s. If they build up to a shadow ball you'll respect it with a shield but if they only build up to a surf then you can let it go. Gligar: I have an in depth response to another comment you can check out. Altaria: Throw a body slam and then swap into your lanturn since they'll generally have a good response to skarmory. Cress: If they're running future sight you win the 2s. If they're running moonblast it becomes iv dependent on their part as to whether or not you win the 2s. If they bait at any point they'll win the 2s or if they have a high ranked cress and go straight moonblast they'll win the 2s as well. If that's the case, you'll still play out the 2s and catch the third move on skarm
How does your shadow not have frustration? I have an elite charged and can’t change jt
During rocket takeover events you'll be able to use a regular charged tm to get rid of frustration. You unfortunately cannot tm away frustration unless it's during one of these rocket events so keep an eye out for when the next one comes around!
Anyone got any suggestions on how to deal with the mirror match?
Check my response under @GordonMandt-lf1ek's comment :)
I’m noticing more dewgong and medicham in the 2500s. How do we deal with them? Thanks in advance!
Dewgong: Immediately safe swap into the skarm and throw a sky attack after 8 steel wings (for good timing) if they overfarm. Medicham: Since you lose the two shield scenario, throw a body slam after 13 dragon breaths. It's very important to throw on good timing here because the pacing to body slam on dnair and ice punch on medi is the same. By throwing on good timing, this will allow you to get to the second body slam on the cmp tie to their second ice punch. If they shield both of your body slams, you'll let their second ice punch go through and take the shield advantage. If they let either of your body slams go through, you will double shield, farm down, and take switch.
I am trying this team but with a regular dragon it’s. What do you do with stunkfisk lead. How does you get to the skarmory?
Unfortuantely the gfisk lead is one where you need shadow dragonair as the shadow variant wins the 2 shield scenario while the non-shadow doesn't
is charjabug in the back an insta lose? often i have to go down shields to win lead but then they have a charja up shields in the back and im just at a lose on what to do
charjabug in the back is definitely tough and depends on what their third mon is as well, but it's generally an uphill battle regardless
Does the iv on a skarmory matter only one I don’t have with pvp iv also what to do on dewgong lead?
IVs on your pokemon always matter as that could be the difference of winning or losing some matchups. However, for a pokemon like skarmory, the IVs matter a lot less than normal just beacuse of the role skarmory fills with its bulk, typing, and coverage
I’m running sims on pv
poke and it looks like a high defense S-Dragonair is the way to go to ensure switch advantage? Have you ever encountered any issues with your IV spread? Of course I spent the whole season farming Cliff for dratini and can’t find a decent high def one 😢
i have a bad pvp iv one and am using this team. a high defense s dnair definitely helps, especially with mirror matchups
Mine is a high ranked (high def/hp and low atk) s-dnair. It helps a lot in specific matchups to really get its true potential
@@geezlouuuize sorry yes I meant to add in the mirror matchup! Was just looking for confirmation, thanks! The search for a high def s dnair continues then 😅
@@KPine I got a 7/14/12 dratini will that be decent enough for this team?
@@ethanogle6420 While that iv spread is good enough for this team and it's various matchups, the only negative matchup would be in the mirror with another s-dragonair where the less hp yours has does significantly impact the matchup and your 1 shield and farm down ability. With that said, I would most likely play for the cmp tie on the body slam instead (since you have a higher attack). If you win cmp, which you should most of the time, you either get switch advantage or shield advantage, both of which are fine when it comes to the back lines of opposing s-dnair leads. If they give up a shield to take switch, let their move go and come in with the lanturn to get a spark down. If they end up winning the cmp tie, let it go and then again go for the spark down.
Awwe yessss 🔥🔥🔥
Who can I use to replace skarmory? I don’t have a good IV one unfortunately
You need a bulky pokemon that can tank hits and has a similar coverage to that of skarm
Hi! How do you play against any charm lead? I assume skarmory as SS and pray 😂
I actually use lanturn as the safe swap since almost all charm leads have a hard answer to skarm. The lanturn ss hopefully baits the skarm answer out :)
Also I have a shadow Dragonair that is 625 cp. I am debating if I make a dragonite for great league or keep it as a Dragonair and use it. I am grinding the candy and battling team rocket to get them. Any suggestions which is better to do?
There are a bunch of different resources you can use where you can input the pokémon's iv spread and see where it ranks (how good it is compared to the same pokémon with a different iv spread). Based on this, if it comes out to be a really good dragonite and a bad dragonair I'd evolve it into a dragonite and continue looking for a good dragonair. However, if it comes out to be a high ranked dragonair, I'd keep it as that as dragonair tends to have a little more play overall than dragonite does
It’s a shiny shadow Dragonair with 14. 14. 7 iv spread. It’s actually 640cp
@@fitat4224I’d unfortunately keep searching for one with a better iv spread (low atk and high def/hp)
Dawg, thanks for the upload
Isn’t this team more flexible with sdnite as it got better matchups against cash steels
I prefer s-dnair over s-dnite just because of other s-dnair leads and the little bit of extra bulk it has that gives it the ability to tank a charge move if needed
if i had to wild guess my win to loss ratio i'd say somewhere between 0.9 to 1.4 after watching this i wonder how i don't get more losses lol do you think the app matches you with trainers that have pokemon with the same amount of moves unlocked as yours?
The app matches you with trainers who are around a similar elo level as you are
@@KPine sounds like basic math i actually didnt know, thx.
What are the ivs on the shadow dragonair?
My s-dnair is a high stat product one
Hey there. Who’s typically the safe swap?
There isn't a "typical" safe swap with this team since it's built on the s-dnair getting switch advantage as your backline has vastly different polarizing matchups. With that said, it depends on what you see on the lead. Azu/Skarm lead you'll safe swap into your own skarm since lanturn has the much better matchup here. Charm lead you'll safe swap into lanturn since skarm has the much better matchup, etc.
@@KPine thanks for the reply,bro.
Much appreciate it. One day I’ll get to Expert/Legend 😅
annihilape is a problem
How do you handle Abomasnow leads, please?
You win the 2s against both non-shadow and shadow abomasnow and can force switch that way
The exception to winning the 2s is if the Abomasnow is non-Shadow and is running Icy Wind. After the debuff, they farm you down before you can farm them down.
Bright side is, you do either get both shields or switch, and usually the Abomasnow was their best answer to Lanturn.
any replacement for the dragonair if i don’t have 1?
You could try arctibax but if you don’t have one then I’d go shadow dnite
@@KPine does normal dragonair work
@@jamai5429 While you could have some success with the normal, the extra dragon breath damage from the shadow is crucial in a lot of the matchups
What do you do when there is a charmer in the lead?
Swap into lanturn and hope to bait out the counter to skarmory
How do you deal with G-fisk?
Stay in with the s-dnair and play out the two shield scenario since you win the 2s. If they don't build up to an eq and just go straight for the rock slide, then you can no shield that move, but if they do build up to the eq, then you'll commit a shield.
I just wish I had a Skarmory 😅
The good news is that skarmory’s matchups are so pulverizing that you don’t necessarily need a high ranked one to do well
They'll be in raids during the rocket takeover so be sure to pick one up then. Otherwise they're a rare spawn so if you see one go ahead a grab it even if its out of the way.
any tips for annialape lead?
Since the pacing to body slam and ice punch are the same. It’s very important you throw on good timing in that matchup (after 13 dragon breaths if they don’t throw and if they do, 1 db and then the move). Once it comes time to throw the second move, you’ll have to throw the aqua tail on the cmp tie so you can force them to be the first one to give up the second shield. If they give up two shields, so do you and force switch since s-dnair wins the 2s against annihilape
Appreciate you man! halfway through veteran hope to hit expert for the first time@@KPine
@@bentony4646best of luck with the expert push 💪
what is ur lanturn iv?
It's a very high ranked one
I never know, total noob... in neutral scenarios are we throwing BS or AT?
Body slam :)
sadly i found this "guide" too late - im hardstuck at 2300 facing alot of steel types and charmers
Hopefully the meta shifts a little bit for you!
This is me but in the mid-2500s and the culprit is Whiscash in the back behind something I have to go down a shield to get switch from. Whiscash absolutely crushed Lanturn and also easily beats Skarmory when up a shield or energy, and it can overfarm to smash the other into oblivion.
If Whiscash is on the lead I can usually flip switch and align to win, but when it’s in the back it’s an uphill battle, and that’s even if Scald doesn’t debuff your attack.
Whimsicott lead is an instant loss but I have not seen many of them
@@Yhowshuwa Whiscash in the back and down a shield is a very tough one to deal with
PvP is almost unplayable with algorithm. Always playing against some bum using azu
How do you deal with Registeel lead?
I'll generally stay in and play out the two shield scenario with the s-dnair. The registeel does win the 2s but you get it low enough where you can then bring in the skarm to get a farm down which is usually very good against the back line of a registeel lead. If your opponent baits with zap cannon and gets the attack debuff then you might have to come in with the lanturn instead and fire off a surf in order to prevent them from getting to another move. If i'm feeling risky I'll no shield their move whereas if they do go for the zap cannon, you'll now be able to get switch advantage, but if they go for the focus blast, as long as you have a higher ranked s-dnair you should survive it well enough to get two aqua tails off. You'd then come in with the lanturn to finish it off.
@@KPine Thank you! I'll give this a try!