Four Great Ways to Set Yourself Up for OU Ladder Success

Introduction

You are probably reading this article because you need to rethink your life. I am here to help—as far as laddering is concerned. I see a lot of competent players repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot by making preventable mistakes. Hence, I am here to address the four areas where most people fall short, so you will become aware of your shortcomings and turn them into strengths.

You will be able to absolutely murder the ladder by following my advice (or significantly improve if you are a newer player). By the way, my follow-up article will be insights on how to pick up girls, so rest assured, I have all facets of your existence covered. Anyway, back to laddering!

1. Stop Auto-Losing to Stall

I am already assuming you understand teambuilding to the extent that you know how about cores and viability. If not, please look over the Viability Rankings and Good Cores threads. The thing is, having an objectively solid team is not enough. Pokémon is a metagame, and you need to adjust for what is popular. If stall is popular, you need to make sure your team has a Pokémon capable of breaking stall.

Mega Gardevoir and Mega Heracross are excellent stallbreakers, especially with Healing Wish support. Magma Storm + Taunt Heatran is another great Pokémon to take on stall. I am naming just a few examples. You do not need to use these Pokémon, but you must fit one (or more) anti-stall Pokémon onto your team if stall is at all prevalent (which it almost always is).

Also, you may want to adjust your team at different points on the ladder. For example, if you are seeing a lot of Manaphy at the middle of ladder, run a Manaphy check. Once you break into the high ladder, feel free to use a team that is more susceptible to Manaphy but addresses the common threats at that segment of the ladder. By the way, the key to winning at the low ladder is being able to pass fourth grade. If you are not winning there, your team is probably not the problem. That being said, for great OU teams, check out the Sample Teams thread.

2. You Are Your Own Worst Enemy

Plenty of people play like Mozart (or Fetty Wap) when they are winning. It is simple; you are making sound decisions and reaping the rewards, so you become more confident and less anxious. That is a recipe for success (which is way better than any recipe with quinoa, so can people please stop pretending to like that garbage).

Plenty of these same players turn into 2007 Britney Spears the second they get haxed. Luck is part of the game! Hax happens, and you cannot control it, but you can control how you play. If you get haxed and it is bothering you, take a break from laddering. Go watch some My Little Pony or whatever and relax your mind. Recognizing when you go on tilt is utterly important. In the past, I have tilted from the neighborhood of 2000 to 1700 in less than half an hour. (I have also lost hundreds of dollars in a matter of minutes playing poker on tilt.) Basically, tilt is bad, and the only thing going for you is that you cannot lose money on the ladder.

3. Manage Your Grind Better

Some people like to play 10 hours straight. Others like to spread out their approach. I recommend striking a balance between these two approaches. Unless you are some sort of Jedi, you are going to lose focus and mental acuity after playing for more than a few hours straight. Your brain will become tired, and you will not play as well. So I recommend laddering for one to three hours a day then stopping. You will be at peak mental performance and still play enough games to meaningfully progress your rating.

4. Stop Taking Unneeded Risks

You need to stop with those hero predicts. Sometimes they work, and you look like a genius, but often you just look like a fool. The ladder is a long-term hustle, so focus on playing sustainably. People tend to play in a straightforward manner on the ladder, so you can do well by making fundamentally sound decisions while exploiting any errors that they make.

At the same time, do not be overly obvious—mix up your play and try to read your opponent, but make sure you can afford to be wrong on any given elective prediction. For example, a competent opponent may realize that you keep sending Latios in against their Keldeo, so they might double switch to Tyranitar. In this situation, you may be better off going into Tangrowth. If you are wrong, Tangrowth can take a hit from Keldeo. If you are right, you save Latios. Hero predicts should be reserved for matches where you are at a significant team disadvantage, losing decisively, or up against a much stronger player (so Eevee General should constantly be making hero predicts).

Conclusion

Laddering does not have to be hard. You just need to get your act together. These tips should illuminate areas of improvement, but you should also remember that practice is key. You will continue to improve by accumulating experience. Ultimately, anyone can be a top ladder player. It is merely a matter of efficiency and dedication.

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