Thursday, May 13, 2010

Competitive Battling Volume 3: Building a Team


Building a team is the most creative part of Competitive Battling. A team is as unique as the trainer who built it. That said, there are still some pointers that will help you create a better one.
Before I begin, I would like to advertise a website that will be your best friend for finding strategies and movesets: http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/ Every fully-evolved (and a few non-fully-evolved) pokemon in the game is here, complete with at least one moveset each. I would also like to note that later on, I will be naming many different moves and items and you may get confused. You can use Smogon to look up what these moves and items do and understand better.

Firstly, I'd like to give a rundown of tiers. Tiers are groups that describe the overall usefulness of a pokemon. There are five levels of tiers. A pokemon in a higher tier will be banned from a battle that only allows lower tier pokemon. It should be noted that in, for example, and OU battle, all pokemon from OU, BL, UU, and NU are legal.


Ubers - This group has the best of the best. Every single pokemon, no matter how cheap or overpowered, are allowed in uber battles. As a result, most Uber teams look similar. Pokemon like Rayquaza, Dialga, and Wobbuffet are Uber.

OU (Overused) - This group includes pokemon that are good, but not over the top. Many pokemon are commonly seen in OU, but teams are not as linear in Ubers. OU is the standard metagame, or the most played tier. Examples of OUs are Infernape, Metagross, and Dragonite.

BL (Borderline) - BL pokemon are too good to be in UU, but not accepted well in the OU environment. They may have too many threats, too many counters, or be too luck-relient or gimmicky but anyhow, they've been denied the right to be OU. Some examples are Honchkrow, Crobat, and Gallade.

UU (Underused) - The UU is an interesting tier. Because most pokemon with strong stats are banned, gimmicky strategies and creative thinking takes over. UU pokemon are the pokemon deemed usable, but just barely. Some can even work in OU or Ubers, but it is very situational. Examples of UU pokemon are Absol, Blastoise, and Clefable.

NU (Neverused) - NU works as a "oh yeah, and then there's everyone else" catagory. These are the pokemon that Gamefreak decided didn't deserve to have half decent stats or a reasonable movepool. They include not only all nearly every non-fully-evolved pokemon, but most of the fully evolved ones too. The tier is accurately named, because nobody every plays NU games. NU pokemon are used in select UU battles when applicable. Examples: Delcatty, Huntail, Muk, Weedle.


After you've selected a tier you want to play in, it is time to make a team. Every team needs a star, and it is helpful if you pick your star first, and create your team around it.

Lets say I want my star pokemon to (fittingly) be a Dragonite. This Dragonite is a mixed attacker with the moves Draco Meteor, Focus Punch, Flamethrower, and Substitute. The strategy is to switch in to something that can't hurt Dragonite, set up a substitute. And appropriately attack whatever the opponent switched to from the safety of the substitute. First, determine what the counters are to this set.

Weavile with focus sash with survive, and 2 hit dragonite with Ice Attacks. This is true for just about anyone with a focus sash and ice attacks. A bulky Metagross or Bronzing should be able to survive the first flamethrower, and break the substitute. Vaporeon walls all my attacks pretty well too.

So I need a wall who resists ice, can finish focus sash users, and take down opposing walls. I chose Scizor. He is bulky enough to take hits from most sweepers that have ice moves, he has bullet punch and pursuit to put pressure on focus sash users, and he has Swords Dance to set up on walls and pose a threat. In addition, I can use Scizor to lure out walls for Dragonite to switch in to.

Next, I want a lead. The lead should be able to somehow support Dragonite. Pokemon with focus sash beat my Dragonite, so my lead with set up stealth rock so focus sashes are made useless. Aerodactyl is solid, so I will use him. With stealth rock up, I will need a ghost type to block Rapid Spin users that can erase my stealth rock. Dusknoir is known for his good anti-spinner abilities, so I will have him.

I have two more slots on my team. One of them, I will use as a wall, for I have none, and the other will be an emergency sweepers in case Dragonite faints. My wall will be Blissy. Why? My team is currently more physically defensive, and I want to have a way of walling special attacks. Blissey is also an amazing wall that is very close to being invincible against all special attacks (though physical attacks hurt quite a bit).

My back up sweeper will be Gengar. He can learn thunderbolt to hurt the water types that I would otherwise not be super effective against and has an all around nice movepool to toy with and keep the opponent guessing.

So, finally I have my team.

Aerodactyl
Dragonite
Scizor
Dusknoir
Blissey
Gengar

Now I just have to spend hours training them =/

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