This is Dragonite. I started this column back in April about how to succeed in competitive battling. I have decided to collect all my columns into one page, separated into a few parts. Please not that I will not start using competitive lingo right off the bat, I will use terms that the average pokemon player would know, and so you will have a hard time understanding this if you have never touched a pokemon game.
Table of Contents
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Section 1
1a: The Differences Between Casual and Competitive Battling
1b: The Roles in a Team
Section 2
2a: Introduction to Building a Team
2b- Pokemon Tiers
2c- Making my Team
2d- Training Your Team- EVs and IVs
Section 3
3a- Basic Battle Strategies
3b- Prediction
3c- Advanced Tricks and Tactics
3b- Prediction
3c- Advanced Tricks and Tactics
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SECTION 1: INTRO
PART 1a: The Differences Between Casual and Competitive Battling
I think it is important to begin with the differences between casual and competitive battling. This way, readers used to casual battling may more easily switch. There are three main differences.
The first, is that levels don't matter. All of your pokemon are expected to be level 100. Fortunately, flat battles (or battles were pokemon are lowered to 50) are played, so you don't have to worry as much. This affects the style of play. No longer, can you rely on your level 100 Infernape to 1-hit everything in sight. You must have a well made team that is able to compete with another team of six, maxed out pokemon, which leads me to the next difference.
Teams that have a chance of winning are well rounded, and have a strategy. You can NOT win be throwing a team of your favorite pokemon together and using all movesets from smogon.com (which I will get to later). That's not to say that you can't use your favorite pokemon. Most can fit into a team, but it is important that the teammates help reinforce each other, or work together for a cause (like supporting an attacker). Teams will generally have many different types of pokemon, who resist their teammate's weaknesses, and enough variety of moves between them that they can land a super effective move on almost every pokemon in the game.
Finally, switching is much more common compedetively than casually. This is in part, because there is no perfect sweeper than can knock out everything, but also because your team is rounded enough to switch in to take hits. Also it is an important factor that THERE ARE NO REVIVES. You pokemon faint, they're out for the battle, so keeping them alive by switching is very important. For example, the opponent has an Infernape out and you have out a Venesaur. Venesaur is very bulky, and might survive the flamethrower you know is comming. In game, you might stay in and try to earthquake because none of your other pokemon are able to fight. Competitively, you would switch out to your Swampert, who resist fire, and threatens Infernape with Earthquake, because you planned your team ahead for this or a similar situation.
That just about concludes the differences between competitive and casual battling. Next time I will be talking about how to create a team and the different categories of pokemon. See you then!
PART 1b: The Roles in a Team
There are 4 types of roles in a team: Sweeper, Tank, Wall, and Support:
Sweeper
Offense: 10/10
Defense: 1/10
Support: 3/10
The sweeper is the core of most teams. It is quick, hard-hitting, and has a diverse set of attacks. Sweepers are built to outspeed the opponent and hit hard enough to knock-out in 1 or 2 attacks. In a sweeper vs. sweeper dogfight, speed it all that matters, so speed maxing is essential. Defense doesn't matter because the opponent will be gone before it has a chance to attack (hopefully). There are Physical, Special, and Mixed sweepers, as well as late game sweepers who rely more on an enormous attack stat than a variety of moves and clean up after their threats are eliminated. Examples of sweepers are: Infernape (Mixed), Gengar (Special), Lucario (Late-Game), and Weavile (Physical). Sweepers are usually shut down by walls.
Wall
Offense: 2/10
Defense: 10/10
Support: 7/10
Walls are the opposite of sweepers. They act as sponges against attacks. They take hits, support the team, and then heal back to full health. Walls are the reason why there is all the switching I talked about in Volume 1. People like to switch to their walls because it's safe. There are Physical, Special, and Mixed walls. Examples: Blissey (Special), Skarmory (Physiacal), and Cresselia (Mixed). Tanks are usually able to outstall Walls because of their higher attack.
Tank
Offense: 7/10
Defense: 8/10
Support: 5/10
Tanks are like a mix between a sweeper and a wall. Their focus is dealing damage, but they are bulky and can take attacks and heal up if they are lucky enough to be blessed with a healing move. Many tanks are part water, which has given tanks that are water type, "bulky waters". Examples of tanks are Swampert (Bulky Water), Dusknoir, Suicune (Bulky Water), and Umbreon. Though it might seem like tanks have no weakness, they can be outspeed by sweepers who can outspeed them knock them out in one or two hits, while they lack the firepower for a 1 hit KO.
Support
Offense: 4/10
Defense: 6/10
Support: 10/10
Support Pokemon come in all shapes and sizes, but the majority can be broken into two groups. There are status-inducers, who use moves like thunder wave and sleep powder, and stat-raisers, who use moves like light screen or swords dance + baton pass. The further explain baton pass, it is a move that copies your stat changes to a Pokemon on your team that you switch to. If you've used swords dance before it, the Pokemon you switch to will have double attack. Examples are Ninjask (Baton Passer), Butterfree (Status-Inducer), and Smeargle (They can learn any move in the game, so the options are endless). Support Pokemon are countered by tanks and sweepers, so switch in on a wall, set up, and get out of there.
SECTION 2: CONSTRUCTING A TEAM
PART 2a: Intro
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.
PART 2b: Pokemon Tiers
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.
PART 2c: Making my Team
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 =/
PART 2d: Training Your Team-EVs and IVs
So! You have your team made. You tested it on Shoddy Battle, and it holds up well enough. Now it's time to make the team a reality. Also, keep in mind that though I am ignoring nature and ability in this episode because I assume you already know what they are and how to use them, it does not mean they are not important!
There are two values that you will need to familiarize yourself with. The former, IVs (individual values) are hidden values in the game that are assigned to a Pokemon randomly the first time you meet it. Each stat is assigned an IV from 0 to 31, equivalent to a boost of 0 to 31 in said stat at level 100. There are ways of manipulating IVs. A bred Pokemon will have 2 IVs the same as one of it's parents, 1 IV from the other, and 3 random IVs. In HG/SS, giving the parents a power item to hold (e.g. power weight, power bracer, power belt, etc.) will ensure that the parent will pass down the IV in the stat represented by the power item (it says which stat in the description). The most efficient was of checking IVs is to have a lvl. 100 wifi battle with a friend and use an IV Calculator (http://www.serebii.net/games/iv-calcdp.shtml) to determine the pokemon's IVs. This all in mind, it is very difficult to get good IVs and unless your are either an expert IV breeder or have a lot of time on your hands I suggest you only re-breed if the IVs are completely terrible.
Now to the meat of the post. There is another hidden value in the game. EVs (effort values). EVs are very manipulatable, and very game changing. A pokemon can have 510 total EVs, and 255 total in a stat. For every four EVs in a stat, that pokemon will have an extra point in that stat at level 100. Because of this, getting over 252 in a stat is completely useless and you will see many sweeper EV spreads look something like 252 Attack, 252 speed, 6 attack. Every time a pokemon gains Exp, said pokemon will also gain one or more EVs. The EV(s) it gains is reliant on which pokemon it gained experience from. Each pokemon has an EV give assigned to it, and will give that value of EVs upon defeat. The value is never more than 3 EVs total. This sounds like very little, but there are was to boost the EV gain. If your pokemon is holding the macho brace, it will gain double the normal EVs. If your pokemon is holding a power item, it will gain an extra 4 EVs in whatever stat the power item is associated with. If your pokemon is, or was at one point infected with pokerus, it will again gain double the xp. If you add this all up, if your Dragonite gained xp from a Riachu (3 speed EVs) while holding the power anklet (+4 speed EVs) and was infected with pokerus (*2 EVs) it would gain a whopping 14 EVs in speed for that one KO. Here is a list of what EVs each pokemon gives:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_effort_value_yield)
Also, before you go off EV training I believe I should tell you that ounce you give your pokemon EVs, IT IS QUITE HARD TO GET THEM REMOVED. This means, unfortunately, that you must not let your pokemon get a single bit of experience unrecorded if you plan on giving your pokemon a specific EV spread. If you want your pokemon to have max speed EVs and max special attack EVs, you have to make sure that you don't win a single battle against a pokemon that gives any other type of EV with the pokemon you are training.
So I'm sure your wondering now how to go about EV training the fastest way. Fortunetly, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have very fast, efficient ways of EV training. Pokemon Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver; not so much. Using the vs. recorder in Diamond and Pearl, fight these trainers (in Platinum most of them have changed teams)
HP - Route 209, Cowgirl Shelly (5 Bidoof, 1 EV each)
Speed - Route 205, Fisherman Andrew (6 Magikarp, 1 EV each)
Defense - Route 221, Collector Ivan (3 Hippopotas, 1 EV each)
Attack - Route 214, P.I. Carlos* (3 Seaking, 2 EVs each)
Special Attack - Route 214, Collector Douglas (3 Roselia, 2 EVs each)
Special Defence - You're out of luck.**
* P.I. Carlos will begin with three Goldeen, and upgrade to Seaking as you repeatedly rematch him. I suggest you do so the make things easy (It's annoying when you have the number of times you need to fight him planned out and then he switches his team on you)
** Surf in route 223. 70% of the wild pokemon raise Special Defence. In HGSS, in route 41, 100% of the wild pokemon will give you Special Defence.
PART 3a: Basic Battle Strategies
Finally we are here. You have your team. Now it is time to use it in battle!
At the beginning of every battle both trainers end out their lead pokemon. It is important to analyze your and the opponent's pokemon and decide what decision to make. Let me give an example. You send out a Swampert with Surf, Earthquake, Ice Beam, and Stealth rock. Your opponent sends out a Weavile. If your not sure how a certain match-up fairs, don't worry. You will most likely do poorly during your first few battles, but this is normal. You will learn about what is to be expected as you play. For the record, most Weaviles have nothing that can hurt a Swampert very much. It is safe to set up stealth rock, or attack with Surf. There is one problem with Earthquake. Many lead Weaviles have a focus sash (never gets one hit) and Counter (deals double damage back if hit by a physical attack). If you use Earthquake, there is a chance that the Weavile with survive with a focus sash and OHKO (1 hit ko) with Counter. It's simply safer to attack with Surf than Earthquake.
You decide to set up Stealth Rock, and your opponent switches in to a Gengar to avoid the risk. You first thought might be "Pah. Gengar can't hurt Swampert. I'm going to one hit him with Surf!" There is a problem with this. Assuming your opponent knows what he's doing. He probably switched in to Gengar because his version of Gengar is good against Swamperts. Gengar can learn Energy Ball which is 4* effective on Swampert and will easily OHKO. Of course, he might be using reverse psychology, but we'll get into that in the next volume.
You switch to Dragonite, because he resists leaf type and will not be one hit by anything in Gengar's normal arsenal. Now it's your turn to plow away. Hit him with a Dragon Claw. You don't have much to lose. There are better (yet more risky!) solutions, but again, we will cover that later. The opponent switches to Bronzing to abosrb the Dragon Claw. Gengar could have stayed in and sacrificed itself to make a dent in Dragonite but remember that this is very different than in-game battling. it is important to preserve your pokemon as much as possible, because you have no potions to fall back on. Anyway, the Bronzing switches in, but you are one step ahead. You had Fire Blast on your Dragonite for just this sort of situation. Fire (no pun intended) away a Fire Blast and take the lead.
I don't want to get too much into prediction this volume, but let me remind you to remember your pokemon's role in battle. Lets say that the Dragonite from the previous example had Dragon Dance. instead of attacking with Dragon Claw, he could have used Dragon Dance to raise his attack and speed by 1 each. I know this might seem odd, because you could 1-hit that Gengar but think again! What are the chances that he is going to stay in? Do you think he would take the risk? Evan if he did stay in. Dragonite can survive a Shadow Ball from Gengar. After a Dragon Dance you will be most likely faster than Gengar, and more prepared to OHKO most of the opponent's team. I bit more useful than Dragon Clawing if I do say so myself.
PART 3b: Prediction
If team building is the filling of pokemon, than prediction is the whipped cream and cherry on top. You can rely on a good team and do sub-par, but you will NEVER be as good as those using an equally good team and outpredicting you. Prediction, at it's core, is actually very simple. Instead of doing what would make since in the situation, you guess what your opponent is thinking and make a choice based on what you think they will do.
Let's say that you switch into your Dragonite (with Dragon Dance, Outrage, Earthquake, and Fire Blast) to absorb a Return thrown at you by a Togakiss. Now your first instinct might be to attack with Outrage, but hold up! You've already seen that your opponent has a Bronzong. Chances are that the opponent will switch to that Bronzong to take the Outrage on. Use Fire Blast instead and the Bronzing will be toast.
So you finished off the Bronzong. There is something you should keep in mind. Your opponent switched to Bronzing most likely because Bronzing was his BEST COUNTER for Dragonite. Now this doesn't mean that this was his only counter, but if you have seen a bit of your opponent's team and only have one or two pokemon unaccounted for, it might be a safe bet to use Outrage, even with the 2-3 turn forced use of the move. What are the chances that he has two reliable Dragonite counters? Not horribly low, but not very high either. It's important to weigh the risk.
Example #2: Scizor vs. Heatran. Scizor switches to Slobro to tank the Flamethrower. Heatran switches Tangrowth to tank the Surf. Slowbro switches to Scizor to tank the Power Whip. Tangrowth switches to Heatran to tank the X-Scissor. Szicor swi- WAIT. If you're the Heatran player than don't just use Flamethrower. What happened last time? If you predict his switch to Slobro and use Earth Power instead then you'll have the upper edge. Then again he might stay in this time. If your the Scizor play, think about this. You switched to Slobro. Your opponent might assume you will do this again and use Earth Power or even Explosion instead. It might be a good idea to instead use Superpower if you have it. Then again the Heatran might be holding a Choice Scarf and be forced to use Flamethrower, or just chose to try and take down Scizor.
There is no way to perfectly predict someone. There will always be luck involved. One of the most important things to keep in mind is the risk reward ratio. Lets say you were the Heatran from the last example. If you use Fire Blast, you don't have much to lose. If he switches, just switch yourself (of course he might predict THAT and use Ice Beam on the incoming Tangrowth.) If he doesn't switch, you've netted a KO. One of the biggest mistakes newer players make is overprediction.
I hate to end on such a negative note. This is where battling get's fun anyways. I hope this will keep you covered until next week, when we will be beginning to close off the series with some advanced tricks and tactics.
Coming Soon: Part 3c: Advanced Tricks and Tactics
