Probably aiming to stick with what's built into the games right now, going out to Smogon or something seems beyond me, especially with the extra rules. I'd love to just see a site of like, here's the current meta teams. I'm surprised that doesn't seem to exist without watching a lot of videos. I don't really know the roles and stuff to start making decisions about what I want, I like to start from an example and work from there.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
...does Smogon still ban things like evasion moves and Pokemon they just don't know how to deal with? I mean, there was a time back in the day when they just community banned Mega Rayquaza because they felt it was too powerful and they were tired of seeing it every match...
They might be a great place to get the basics down, but it might be worth looking elsewhere for movesets and the like.
Yes, Smogon still bans those things because unrestricted competitive Pokemon is an exercise in madness.
It's mind boggling to me that anyone would insinuate banning mega rayquaza is a bad/elitist thing, that thing was ridiculous lmao
Evasion is terrible to deal with. There are only very limited moves/Pokemon that can get rid of an annoying evasion user. Allowing for evasion in competitive means every single team would have to be built to account for it, and it would severely limit what Pokemon you could potentially use since you'd always have to bring something to deal with evasion. It's just frankly too powerful and has limited options for counterplay.
I think every evasion buffing move should instead be changed to an accuracy debuff. Accuracy debuffs are MUCH easier to deal with and are still incredibly powerful, being able to force a switch or even close out a game you've got your opponent to his last 'Mon.
Probably aiming to stick with what's built into the games right now, going out to Smogon or something seems beyond me, especially with the extra rules. I'd love to just see a site of like, here's the current meta teams. I'm surprised that doesn't seem to exist without watching a lot of videos. I don't really know the roles and stuff to start making decisions about what I want, I like to start from an example and work from there.
Built into the games would be doubles with rotating rules called VGC. They change what is and isn't allowed every month. Typically at the start of a new game's life cycle it'll be restricted to the regional dex and exclude the more powerful legendaries (mewtwo, calyrex, etc). Eventually allowing non-regional stuff, then (we're here now) one powerful legendary per team.
Pikalytics can be useful to see what people tend to be doing, and there are top teams published on the main pokemon website from the season or live competition.
With VGC allowing 1 restricted member right now, most teams start by picking a restricted mon and building support/covering it's weaknesses. E.g. Bringing along something to scare off electric + grass types with a team focused on kyogre. Or dual screens on the same team so kyogre just will not die.
As I'm re-learning pokemon, I'm wondering if there's any dailies I should be doing. I know in Let's Go the Cerulean Cave hidden items respawned every day and that was a good stop for stuff. Anything like that I should be doing regularly in Sword/Shield? I started breeding up a Dragapult last night and it's oddly relaxing driving back and forth on that bridge and hatching eggs.
Decided I should probably make an incineroar since those seem real popular on the good teams. Oh, but I need a hidden ability litten. Those were limited giveaways and there's no way to catch one now. Shit.
But the GTS exists! Lots of people with a HA Litten for trade. Sometimes the requested pokemon has a pokeball next to it's name, not sure what that means. I don't recognize enough newer pokemon names to know if a lot of these are important or not, so I start googling. Oh, Comfey, that one seems easy enough. A person wants a level 1-10 comfey for an HA Litten. Comfey is catchable in the DLC, so I go catch a comfey, breed a new one, transfer it to pokemon home, then use my phone to do the GTS to do the trade.
There's a whole lot of app switching and device switching general shenanigans for this!
Okay so here's where I'm at. I'm working on a Litten, I've got a good Dreepy. Looks like changing natures isn't that hard but my Dreepy is Timid which is theoretically good already.
EV training seems either expensive or time consuming, which is fine, but I feel like maybe I should be tossing a pokemon into the jobs to go get EVs while I'm breeding another one. I'd really like to see like, a meta team with someone breaking it down and explaining why the choices were made for someone who is a noob and I'm not really seeing that. I see team lists which is nice if I look on pikalytics but those seem out of date.
https://victoryroadvgc.com/2021/03/07/vr-circuit-wq4-results/ stuff like this is nice but doesn't really explain why these choices got made. Although I see a distinct lack of dragapult so maybe I should be flexible there. But Incineroar seems like a solid time investment. And every team has all the same natures, which can't be right?
Do I just need to go scour youtube for someone to explain teams to me? I'd prefer like, articles, but I'm not really finding that I guess.
It gives a good overview of the Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, movesets, EV spreads, abilities, natures, and most importantly WHY you want to use those specific moves/EV spreads/abilities/natures. It also gives alternative movesets, additional options, who pairs well with the chosen Pokemon, team building ideas, and how to counter an enemy that's using that Pokemon.
It gives a good overview of the Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, movesets, EV spreads, abilities, natures, and most importantly WHY you want to use those specific moves/EV spreads/abilities/natures. It also gives alternative movesets, additional options, who pairs well with the chosen Pokemon, team building ideas, and how to counter an enemy that's using that Pokemon.
It gives a good overview of the Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, movesets, EV spreads, abilities, natures, and most importantly WHY you want to use those specific moves/EV spreads/abilities/natures. It also gives alternative movesets, additional options, who pairs well with the chosen Pokemon, team building ideas, and how to counter an enemy that's using that Pokemon.
YEAH that's what I want, awesome! Thank you!
No worries! You can browse through the other Generation VIII PoTW entries for more ideas as well
I can only speak to when I did semi-competitive stuff years back, but as far as EVs go:
Speed EVs and Natures tend to go hand in hand. Take a really strong and fast offensive Pokemon like, say, Gengar. You want it to hit hard and hit fast, because it's fragile and probably can't take more than 1-2 hits before it gets KO'd. So you want to max out your Speed IV first, since those are "free." Then you tend to look at the metagame and see what high-risk threats to Gengar you are likely to see. Well, Gengar himself is a counter, since Ghost beats Ghost. In the mirror match, the person with the faster Gengar WILL win. It doesn't matter if you're 1 point of Speed below or 50, you'll go second every time. So the logical choice is to max Speed at every opportunity: +Speed Nature, max Speed EVs. Then, since Gengar is fragile anyway, you might as well make him hit as hard as possible, since EVs are more beneficial to higher base stats. Thus, Timid Gengar, max Speed and SpAtk EVs.
Sweepers (fast, strong Pokemon like Gengar) tend to be built that way. If they're not maxing Speed, they're usually putting in enough Speed to ensure they can outspeed a specific counter. Likewise, tanky Pokemon often tend to be EV'd such that they are best able to survive specific hits, maybe to survive a max-Speed Gengar's Shadow Ball and still be above half health to Recover off the damage, or whatever.
Until you really start to grok the metagame, I would go with pretty straightforward EV distributions: Speed and Attack/SpAtk for sweepers, HP and Defense/SpDef for tanks. You won't have the same efficacy of someone who has specifically tailored their EVs but it'll get you 80% of the way there.
I took a break from competitive breeding and stuff to finish out my pokedex. Should complete it this evening but man a lot of pokemon evolutions got weird. Level up at night while happy and holding this doodad! Hold a berry and spin in a circle!
I wish you could leave the champion match midway through. You get a ton of XP for fighting people but usually I get the levels I need after one opponent, I don't need two more. Oh well shouldn't be an issue after these last two pokemon.
BTW, if I understand correctly the Spikemuth Cup rules download lets you play online in matches that don't allow Dynamax or Gigantamax, which is what I'll probably be doing from now on so long as I can find opponents.
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
Probably aiming to stick with what's built into the games right now, going out to Smogon or something seems beyond me, especially with the extra rules. I'd love to just see a site of like, here's the current meta teams. I'm surprised that doesn't seem to exist without watching a lot of videos. I don't really know the roles and stuff to start making decisions about what I want, I like to start from an example and work from there.
Even if you're not into VGC, the Dictionary and the Links and Resources on stunfisk can link you some other sites, such as Trainer Tower, VGC Stats and Victory Road
Some of them post tournament breakdowns and show pre-built teams
My only problem with using Smogon as a guide for building movesets is they went super lazy on Gen 8 and half the movesets are assuming you're bringing in the pokemon from previous generations so it suggests moves that you can't get on some pokemon if they're galar native.
Okay, got my shiny charm. Gotta figure out which tower to take Kubfu to in the Isle of Armor since I know that's one of the useful ones? Levelling my gigantamax meowth for money farming, so I can grab vitamins to EV train pokemon. Have a perfect litten with intimidate waiting to get trained up but I haven't looked at moves yet. Also have a dreepy to train but I see that on less teams. Might start breeding for a lapras next? Got a Zacian from my wife's game since I'm on Shield. Not sure what else to go try and train up after that but that'll be a few days of playing with my schedule before I'm ready for that I'd guess.
Also I preordered Pokemon Snap, here's hoping it's good!
Team planning and breeding and such is honestly one of my favorite things to do in Pokemon, even more-so than battling. I think this is especially true because I tend to do monotype or other weird themed teams or unconventional set-ups. I remember using an Unaware Clefable with Psych-up and just letting things like Volcarona set up on it and then just stealing the buffs and watching my opponent get very confused.
Team planning and breeding and such is honestly one of my favorite things to do in Pokemon, even more-so than battling. I think this is especially true because I tend to do monotype or other weird themed teams or unconventional set-ups. I remember using an Unaware Clefable with Psych-up and just letting things like Volcarona set up on it and then just stealing the buffs and watching my opponent get very confused.
I once beat a guy with an Unaware Quagsire and he thought I was cheating, haha.
Okay, got my shiny charm. Gotta figure out which tower to take Kubfu to in the Isle of Armor since I know that's one of the useful ones? Levelling my gigantamax meowth for money farming, so I can grab vitamins to EV train pokemon. Have a perfect litten with intimidate waiting to get trained up but I haven't looked at moves yet. Also have a dreepy to train but I see that on less teams. Might start breeding for a lapras next? Got a Zacian from my wife's game since I'm on Shield. Not sure what else to go try and train up after that but that'll be a few days of playing with my schedule before I'm ready for that I'd guess.
Also I preordered Pokemon Snap, here's hoping it's good!
Either Urushifu is great its really more of a coinflip
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
So how the hell are you supposed to get 3 million watts for the Isle of Armor because that seems obscene
Also levelling up a pokemon to 100 takes a while. I've just been cruising around doing raids and feeding all the XP candies to that meowth and it's slow going.
So how the hell are you supposed to get 3 million watts for the Isle of Armor because that seems obscene
Also levelling up a pokemon to 100 takes a while. I've just been cruising around doing raids and feeding all the XP candies to that meowth and it's slow going.
Juat go ask the watt guy once a day hit up the dens also its largely unimportant so dont worry to much
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
So how the hell are you supposed to get 3 million watts for the Isle of Armor because that seems obscene
Also levelling up a pokemon to 100 takes a while. I've just been cruising around doing raids and feeding all the XP candies to that meowth and it's slow going.
Juat go ask the watt guy once a day hit up the dens also its largely unimportant so dont worry to much
I've just started on the Crown Tundra DLC and, uh, why are their so many fossil Pokemon wandering around? Have they not actually been extinct this whole time, did somebody set-up a Jurassic Park situation there, etc?
EDIT: Actually bothered to look up the Pokedex entries for Sword and Shield.
Because some Omanyte manage to escape after being restored or are released into the wild by people, this species is becoming a problem.
While some say this species has gone extinct, Kabuto sightings are apparently fairly common in some places.
So apparently a little of column A, a little of column B.
I've just started on the Crown Tundra DLC and, uh, why are their so many fossil Pokemon wandering around? Have they not actually been extinct this whole time, did somebody set-up a Jurassic Park situation there, etc?
A Jurassic Park-styled Safari Zone was one of my big wants (for Pokemon in general). I remember thinking that the one area in Sun/Moon was setting it up, but then Ultra Sun/Moon didn't end up having it.
So I had mixed feelings about their presence in Crown Tundra.
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I feel like this video confirms they got rid of pester balls and I am sad T_T How will I be a dick to all the pokemon now? :P (it kinda looked like those weird lumina ball things might be a substitute of sorts)
Not sure how I feel about research level. You level up and that somehow magically adds new pokemon to the level? It's kind of a weird mechanic. But it also looked like the game encourages multiple different photos of the same pokemon which is actually really cool. It's less about which of the 20 unique Pikachu poses give the most points and more about capturing a lot of them I think? I was watching without sound so I dunno if they were narrating how that worked.
Not sure if anyone plays the card game or not but I decided to grab some packs of the newest set to start building some cards for me to play with my son when he gets a little older.
Randomly got one of the most expensive cards in the set (the full art Rapid Strike Urshifu VMax) that’s selling for like $150. Guess that’s funding purchasing cards for him later lol.
The latest set is a great start since it adds a new mechanic to the game.
If you’re looking for more fun there’s a mode we do at my local league called mutant deck. (Mutant draft for the drafting variant) Basically open up four booster packs and build a 40 card deck with what you get with the rule that basic Pokémon can evolve into any stage 1 of the same type and stage 1 can evolve into any stage 2 of the same type. (Be weary with using V or VMax as they tend to be one sided in this mode)
well my son is only 5, so I'll probably stick pretty standard for now. I saw a "Let's Play Pikachu/Eevee" 2 deck set for $20 that looked like a good way to learn (also i downloaded the digital version of the game to use the code cards in the packs, so I have a hang on the basics of the game again now. Havent played since I was in HS back around when the 1st set released.
If you’re looking for something more recent there’s a Venusaur V vs Blastoise V beginner decks that came out last month. And in May they’ll release Gardevoir V vs Victini V beginner decks.
Though trying to find them might be tough due to the card game craze going on at the moment.
If you’re looking for something more recent there’s a Venusaur V vs Blastoise V beginner decks that came out last month. And in May they’ll release Gardevoir V vs Victini V beginner decks.
Though trying to find them might be tough due to the card game craze going on at the moment.
Yeah, it's just... crazy trying to get Pokemon cards without having to go hit up some silly goose charging multiple times retail for packs and boxes just because they're willing to camp out at big-box stores overnight (fuck Logan Paul spending $250k on a single fucking booster box, that silliest of silly geese).
Yeah the store I run is inside a Walmart and right near the card section, so I just happened to notice there were some packs for once and grabbed a few. Everything is absurdly picked over
My 6 year old son is really enjoying Let's Go Pikachu (just got his fourth badge).... And I was wondering if anyone would be available to help him get an Alakazam?
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
My 6 year old son is really enjoying Let's Go Pikachu (just got his fourth badge).... And I was wondering if anyone would be available to help him get an Alakazam?
I probably could Lemme check when I get home tonight, I bet I have a Kadabra I can just give him (which should evolve during the trade). It's been a long time since I played but I know I dumped a ton of Pokemon Go pokemans on it before I stopped playing. Wouldn't be surprised if Kadabra was one. (if not I might be able to grind up an Abra real quick :P)
Thanks! I think he'd rather have the one he sends you back. He's been leveling the guy the entire time. I have someone who will message me after work today too so if he isn't able to I'll be sure to message you.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
Posts
Yes, Smogon still bans those things because unrestricted competitive Pokemon is an exercise in madness.
It's mind boggling to me that anyone would insinuate banning mega rayquaza is a bad/elitist thing, that thing was ridiculous lmao
I think every evasion buffing move should instead be changed to an accuracy debuff. Accuracy debuffs are MUCH easier to deal with and are still incredibly powerful, being able to force a switch or even close out a game you've got your opponent to his last 'Mon.
Built into the games would be doubles with rotating rules called VGC. They change what is and isn't allowed every month. Typically at the start of a new game's life cycle it'll be restricted to the regional dex and exclude the more powerful legendaries (mewtwo, calyrex, etc). Eventually allowing non-regional stuff, then (we're here now) one powerful legendary per team.
Pikalytics can be useful to see what people tend to be doing, and there are top teams published on the main pokemon website from the season or live competition.
With VGC allowing 1 restricted member right now, most teams start by picking a restricted mon and building support/covering it's weaknesses. E.g. Bringing along something to scare off electric + grass types with a team focused on kyogre. Or dual screens on the same team so kyogre just will not die.
https://www.serebii.net/swordshield/dailyevent.shtml
But the GTS exists! Lots of people with a HA Litten for trade. Sometimes the requested pokemon has a pokeball next to it's name, not sure what that means. I don't recognize enough newer pokemon names to know if a lot of these are important or not, so I start googling. Oh, Comfey, that one seems easy enough. A person wants a level 1-10 comfey for an HA Litten. Comfey is catchable in the DLC, so I go catch a comfey, breed a new one, transfer it to pokemon home, then use my phone to do the GTS to do the trade.
There's a whole lot of app switching and device switching general shenanigans for this!
EV training seems either expensive or time consuming, which is fine, but I feel like maybe I should be tossing a pokemon into the jobs to go get EVs while I'm breeding another one. I'd really like to see like, a meta team with someone breaking it down and explaining why the choices were made for someone who is a noob and I'm not really seeing that. I see team lists which is nice if I look on pikalytics but those seem out of date.
https://victoryroadvgc.com/2021/03/07/vr-circuit-wq4-results/ stuff like this is nice but doesn't really explain why these choices got made. Although I see a distinct lack of dragapult so maybe I should be flexible there. But Incineroar seems like a solid time investment. And every team has all the same natures, which can't be right?
Do I just need to go scour youtube for someone to explain teams to me? I'd prefer like, articles, but I'm not really finding that I guess.
Incineroar: https://www.serebii.net/potw-swsh/727.shtml
Dragapult: https://www.serebii.net/potw-swsh/887.shtml
It gives a good overview of the Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, movesets, EV spreads, abilities, natures, and most importantly WHY you want to use those specific moves/EV spreads/abilities/natures. It also gives alternative movesets, additional options, who pairs well with the chosen Pokemon, team building ideas, and how to counter an enemy that's using that Pokemon.
YEAH that's what I want, awesome! Thank you!
No worries! You can browse through the other Generation VIII PoTW entries for more ideas as well
Speed EVs and Natures tend to go hand in hand. Take a really strong and fast offensive Pokemon like, say, Gengar. You want it to hit hard and hit fast, because it's fragile and probably can't take more than 1-2 hits before it gets KO'd. So you want to max out your Speed IV first, since those are "free." Then you tend to look at the metagame and see what high-risk threats to Gengar you are likely to see. Well, Gengar himself is a counter, since Ghost beats Ghost. In the mirror match, the person with the faster Gengar WILL win. It doesn't matter if you're 1 point of Speed below or 50, you'll go second every time. So the logical choice is to max Speed at every opportunity: +Speed Nature, max Speed EVs. Then, since Gengar is fragile anyway, you might as well make him hit as hard as possible, since EVs are more beneficial to higher base stats. Thus, Timid Gengar, max Speed and SpAtk EVs.
Sweepers (fast, strong Pokemon like Gengar) tend to be built that way. If they're not maxing Speed, they're usually putting in enough Speed to ensure they can outspeed a specific counter. Likewise, tanky Pokemon often tend to be EV'd such that they are best able to survive specific hits, maybe to survive a max-Speed Gengar's Shadow Ball and still be above half health to Recover off the damage, or whatever.
Until you really start to grok the metagame, I would go with pretty straightforward EV distributions: Speed and Attack/SpAtk for sweepers, HP and Defense/SpDef for tanks. You won't have the same efficacy of someone who has specifically tailored their EVs but it'll get you 80% of the way there.
My Milotic and Heliolisk have been pivotal in giving me some early wins. I'm kicking myself for not putting Focus Sash on my Noivern, though...
I wish you could leave the champion match midway through. You get a ton of XP for fighting people but usually I get the levels I need after one opponent, I don't need two more. Oh well shouldn't be an issue after these last two pokemon.
@SniperGuy
Have you seen https://www.pikalytics.com/ ?
It shows the meta very well
The stunfisk subreddit is also pretty good
https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/about/
Even if you're not into VGC, the Dictionary and the Links and Resources on stunfisk can link you some other sites, such as Trainer Tower, VGC Stats and Victory Road
Some of them post tournament breakdowns and show pre-built teams
Also I preordered Pokemon Snap, here's hoping it's good!
I once beat a guy with an Unaware Quagsire and he thought I was cheating, haha.
Either Urushifu is great its really more of a coinflip
Also levelling up a pokemon to 100 takes a while. I've just been cruising around doing raids and feeding all the XP candies to that meowth and it's slow going.
Juat go ask the watt guy once a day hit up the dens also its largely unimportant so dont worry to much
The watt guy?
EDIT: Actually bothered to look up the Pokedex entries for Sword and Shield.
So apparently a little of column A, a little of column B.
A Jurassic Park-styled Safari Zone was one of my big wants (for Pokemon in general). I remember thinking that the one area in Sun/Moon was setting it up, but then Ultra Sun/Moon didn't end up having it.
So I had mixed feelings about their presence in Crown Tundra.
Not sure how I feel about research level. You level up and that somehow magically adds new pokemon to the level? It's kind of a weird mechanic. But it also looked like the game encourages multiple different photos of the same pokemon which is actually really cool. It's less about which of the 20 unique Pikachu poses give the most points and more about capturing a lot of them
Randomly got one of the most expensive cards in the set (the full art Rapid Strike Urshifu VMax) that’s selling for like $150. Guess that’s funding purchasing cards for him later lol.
If you’re looking for more fun there’s a mode we do at my local league called mutant deck. (Mutant draft for the drafting variant) Basically open up four booster packs and build a 40 card deck with what you get with the rule that basic Pokémon can evolve into any stage 1 of the same type and stage 1 can evolve into any stage 2 of the same type. (Be weary with using V or VMax as they tend to be one sided in this mode)
Makes for some interesting games.
Though trying to find them might be tough due to the card game craze going on at the moment.
Yeah, it's just... crazy trying to get Pokemon cards without having to go hit up some silly goose charging multiple times retail for packs and boxes just because they're willing to camp out at big-box stores overnight (fuck Logan Paul spending $250k on a single fucking booster box, that silliest of silly geese).
I can has cheezburger, yes?
I probably could